A/N: Thanks once again for the reviews; they continue to be appreciated. One reviewer wanted to know why I had Johnny cheat on his test. Well, I personally don't want to torment him anymore than he already has been, and putting him in seventh grade, or thereabouts, would do that. I did what was, to the best of my knowledge, the only way I could believably avoid that. Also, I had a request for dialogue (which I've tried to incorporate) and other characters from canon. Concerning the latter: I was sure that kid!Bruce would make his debut this chapter, but it just didn't happen. Chapter Four, for sure. As for this chapter, I've introduced plot, finally, though I'm not sure how well it's going to turn out. Regardless, thanks goes to Raidein for the idea. Enjoy!
Chapter 3: The Meeting
Johnny entered the school building apprehensively. His scores on the test had been high enough that he was now walking into the first day of sophomore year. As he followed the crowd into the auditorium to get his schedule, he supposed that he was lucky, at least, to be coming back at the beginning of the school year.
But then, as everyone dispersed to their classes, he discovered a problem inherent to his situation.
He was completely lost.
Gazing around the huge hallway, overwhelmed, he happened to spot Vice-Principal Cunningham walking in the opposite direction.
Amazed at his good fortune, he ran to catch up with Cunningham, doing so just as the latter entered the school's main office. "Mr. Cunningham!" he said. "How on Earth do you get to…um…room 221?"
Cunningham looked at him. "Well, I could just tell you," he responded, "that you go down this hallway, take a right, and go up the stairs, but I'll do you one better." He turned and looked around the office. A girl stood nearby – an office aide, if Johnny had to guess. "Katie!" Cunningham called to her, gesturing her over to them. "This is Johnny – he's new. Could you show him around?"
"Sure," she replied with a smile, extending a welcoming hand toward Johnny. "I'm Katie Rivera. I'm a senior this year, so don't worry, I know my way around pretty well."
Johnny, having shaken her hand, hadn't heard anything past her name. What was clearly the smell of alcohol assaulted his senses. It was suddenly dark, nighttime, but his eyes adjusted quickly and he looked around. That was when he realized he was in the driver's seat of a car that was weaving dangerously down the road.
Or the driver's perspective, at least, he amended as light from a street lamp glinted off the class ring on his hand; he could see it bore the graduation year of the current senior class. Meanwhile, it was becoming obvious that the alcohol he'd smelled was on his own breath, whoever he was now.
(A/N: In case it's difficult to tell, from this point on, through the end of the vision, "he" refers predominantly to the driver.)
He'd looked away from the road – not that keeping his eyes on the road was doing much good at the moment – and now he heard a panicked yell issue from the passenger seat. "Brad!"
He looked toward the source of the cry for a second; it was Katie, clad in a pretty black dress and evidently scared to death. He turned to the road again and the piercing rays of headlights got through to him. He wrenched the wheel to the right, but then realized, too late, that he'd overcorrected. Outside the windshield, a tree loomed, and he heard another terrified scream….
And Johnny snapped out of the vision, trembling.
"You okay?" Katie asked.
He nodded, putting his hands in his pockets. "Yeah."
"Alright," she said, shrugging, and led the way out of the office. "So, you were sick for Fish Camp?"
"Something like that…."
"Well," she said as they approached one set of doors, "this is the 100 Hall. It's mostly math classes. The hall over there" – she pointed to the opposite end of the hallway – "is the 300s. The science classes are in the middle. What's your first class?"
He checked his schedule. "Um, English."
"That'll be in the 200 Hall. It's right above the 100s," she informed him, making her way into the 100 Hall and taking the stairs, with Johnny following along behind her. She pointed out some of the other features of the school as they walked ("the library's right over there, and the cafeteria's across the school from the offices, just go that way as far as you can and you literally can't miss it…"). Then, Johnny spotted 221, which, according to his schedule, was his destination.
"There it is," he said to Katie. "Room two-twenty-one."
She looked over his shoulder at his schedule and nodded. "Yeah, you've got Wilson." She paused, lowering her voice conspiratorially. "Just get on his good side and you should be fine.
"Oh, and don't tell him you know me." She flashed Johnny a grin and left him outside his class.
Easing the door open slowly, he wondered what high school would be like. It seemed fine so far, but you never could tell.
A/N: Sorry about the author's note in the middle of the story; the site wouldn't let me put in asterisks to direct to a sort of footnote, which was my original intent. On that note, first-person visions are surprisingly difficult to write. Hopefully, you could figure out what was going on. (Don't worry, though – there won't be many more of those, if any.) So, how was the chappie? Review and let me know!