"Do I have to?" Jason whined for the hundredth time just that morning. After a solid month of living at Wayne Manor, Bruce had decided it was high time Jason started school, much to the boy's disagreement.

Jason had been to school on and off when he'd lived with his mother, but it was really more of a compromise between them. She got rid of him for a few hours, and for those few hours, Jason could pretend that life didn't completely suck. But Gotham Prep would be nothing like his old run-down elementary school.

"You'll be fine Jay." Dick assured his younger brother as he stopped him from messing with his tie. "Once you make some friends, it's not so bad."

Making friends. Another new concept. There were kids he talked to at his old school and kids he ran scams and picked pockets with in his old neighborhood, but he didn't even remember their names. To be honest, Dick was the first kid Jason had ever really wanted to know.

III

Bruce held Jason's hand as he walked him to his classroom, certain that if he didn't, Jason would not go. Jason's new teacher greeted them as soon as they stepped in. "Hi there! I'm Mrs. Cobbs." She smiled. "Bruce Wayne." He told her as he extended his hand to shake.

"And this must be Jason." Mrs. Cobbs smiled. Bruce squeezed his son's hand lightly to remind him to shake. "We're gonna have lots of fun, and I bet you'll make loads of friends." The teacher smiled cheerily. There was that making friends thing again. With the introductions over, it was time for Bruce to make his exit.

"You don't have to leave me here." Jason mumbled into his dad's shoulder as he hugged him goodbye. "You could just take me home, or even better, I could go to work with you and learn about business."

Bruce smiled. Jason really was desperate to get out of school. "As much as I'd love to keep an eye on you all day, I am legally required to leave you here six hours a day, five days a week. So let's try to make the best of it, ok?" Jason nodded and gave his dad another hug. "Love you Bluejay." Bruce whispered. "Love you too Dad."


Jason. Was. Bored!

Why was he wasting his time on this stuff? He could already read and write. Why did he have to know the different parts of speech? He could do basic math. What was the point of multiplication?

He was so glad when recess came around. As he waited in line for the swings, Jason felt someone staring at the back of his head. Scratch that, three someones, and they quickly surrounded him on all sides. He recognized them. They were in his class. Aden, Ian, and Edward.

"Well if it isn't Aladdin?" Aden sneered, and his friends snickered. Jason rolled his eyes. As easy as it would be to punch this kid and move on, he had promised Bruce he'd behave. "What's that supposed to mean?" He asked through his teeth. "You know," Ian smirked. "A filthy, thieving street rat."

Jason returned his smirk. "Yeah well, Aladdin married a hot princess with a tiger, so screw off." The boys glared after him as he ran for the first open swing.

III

After a failed attempt to use the swing as a catapult to the roof, Jason steeled himself for the afternoon of boredom ahead.

"Hey Jay." A slinky voice called from behind him. Jason clenched and unclenched his fist as the boys from earlier approached him. "Hey, we were just kidding around before." Edward said in the way of a half-baked apology. "We just want to make sure you weren't some wimp."

"After all," Ian started slinging an arm around Jason's shoulder. "We wouldn't want a wimp in our gang."

"Your gang?" Jason asked a bit nervously. The gangs he'd had experience with all sold drugs or weapons and used to beat him up for being in the wrong place at the wrong time. "Yeah, you know, friends." Aden clarified, placing his arm around Jason's other shoulder.

Friends they said. Dick and Mrs. Cobbs had said that school would be better with friends. But still, these boys seemed… off. "What's the catch?" Jason demanded, shrugging them off. "Well, you would have to be initiated," Edward admitted slyly. "But with your skills, it'll be easy."

Before Jason could ask any more, the bell rang, and Mrs. Cobbs was corralling her students back to class.

III

Jason met his perspective friends in the hallway at lunch.

"Initiation is simple." Ian started. "First you need to go to room 124 and get the red folder off the table without getting caught. Meet us by room 355 when you're done."

Jason almost laughed. They wanted him to steal something? Sure it was wrong, but it would be worth it to make friends just this once.

The door the room 124 wasn't even locked. In fact, the place was empty except for an old man passed out on the couch. Jason tucked the folder into his blazer and met up with his future gang mates. Edward practically snatched the folder when Jason presented it.

"So far, so good, Aladdin." Aden smirked, flipping through the folder's contents and handing it back to him. Ian motioned for Jason to join him as he peered through the window of a classroom door. "You're going to leave this in the second desk from the window, second row." He instructed. "When you get back, you'll officially be part of the gang."

Jason tried not to look so excited as he slipped into the classroom. This was it. He was going to have friends, and this boring school would get three times better. He was practically beaming as he got to the target desk, but as he went to lift the lid, something caught his eye. A name card, written in a far too familiar blue marker. Richard G-W.

Jason froze. This was Dick's classroom. This was his brother's desk. He quickly looked through the folder. It was the answer key to a test. His so-called friends had had him steal from a teacher and wanted him to plant incriminating evidence in his own brother's desk. Jason couldn't do it. Not even for the sake of surviving the school year.

He shuffled out of the classroom and found the other boys waiting for him. Their faces all darkened when they spotted the folder still in Jay's hand. "What gives street rat?" Aden demanded. "I'm not gonna get my brother in trouble." Jason told them, nervous but firm.

"He got us in trouble last week." Edward informed him. "We're just returning the favor." "Come on Aladdin. You're gonna pick some dumb circus kid over real friends." Ian laughed.

Jason didn't even have to answer that. He turned and ran down the hallway. He heard the other boys chasing him, but he was too fast. Jason swung a hard left losing his pursuers, and doubled back to the headmaster's office.


Bruce had mixed feelings as he sat in the headmaster's office listening to his younger son confess to stealing a test. On the one hand, he was disappointed in Jason for stealing and to impress some stupid kids no less. On the other hand, Jason had done the right thing in the end, and Bruce was proud of the boy for that.

The headmaster decided that since this was Jason's first offense and he had turned himself in detention would serve as a fair punishment. Jason even managed to reduce his sentence to two recesses by telling the headmaster who had put him up to it.

Bruce shook his head as he listened to Jason tell Dick the story on the way home that afternoon. Maybe he could introduce the boy to some of the other Justice Leaguers kids.

Green Arrow had just adopted a boy around Jason's age. Roy Harper if memory severed. Maybe he'd be a good influence on Jason.