Disclaimer: Own only Felina. That it. And a few more invented people, but concerning Batman Beyond – just Felina. That it. Thank you, and good night. No, wait – don't go. Read on. Yeah, that's it! Ha ha!!

Felina

Chapter One: School

The most annoying sound in the world came back on all too soon – the alarm clock. Terry yawned and flipped onto his stomach, wanting nothing more than to just sleep all of today. Ever since he took on the role of Batman, he never got enough sleep. School plus Batman plus late nights minus several dates equals a very tired, very unhappy Terry. He groaned when the annoying sound didn't stop, and clutched the pillow to his head. A second later he sighed and forced himself up. Yawning again he ran his fingers through his hair and slapped the alarm off. He already had a feeling that today was going to be. . . interesting.

Glancing at the clock he deducted that for today, breakfast was going to be bumped to lunch. He was just happy he switched over showers from mornings to nights. That made everything a little less hectic.

No little brothers appeared that morning, which was a good thing. A very good thing. Now if he'd only move out. Terry sighed and grabbed his jacket and backpack. If only.

He met Max and Dana before school, making up stories about why he, yet again, didn't make his date with Dana. Max helped out as best she could, but the best excuses were mostly used up. He could tell Dana was trying her best to forgive him, but also that she was getting suspicious about why he always missed out and needed Max's help to come up with excuses.

"Hi," a voice said from behind him. He turned and saw the owner of the voice. . . and caught his breath.

A woman, just above Dana's height, with short white hair and a red outfit, holding a few books in her arms and a pen was standing there with a nice, friendly smile. The right sleeve and pant leg were longer than the left ones, and had big holes cut in them. Her top was cut slanted to show her stomach just enough to let people know she was keeping herself in shape. The left leg and sleeve was much shorter, barely hanging down a few inches. She had boots as well, but they were perfectly matched, red as well, and about half a foot high. Her eyes were an almost spooky green color, made all the more obvious with green eye shadow, and narrowed. She had a big gold hoop earring in her right ear, and her hair parted to the right side. A new student?

"I'm Adrian," she said, holding out her hand to Terry. He shook her hand and introduced himself. She wrote something down and then went to Dana. She offered her hand again, and Dana shook it. Then Max, and wrote something down twice more.

"What are you writing?" Max asked. Adrian gave a her a very soft smile.

"This little trick I use on my first day of school. There's a surprise at the end for everybody who says 'hi' back."

"So what did you write?" Dana asked, leaning over to inspect her paper.

Adrian laughed. "I said it was a surprise, but if you must know. . ." She shifted her books and turned the paper to Dana. Dana gasped and looked directly at Adrian, her eyes asking for an answer. "I write down the name of people who said 'hi', no matter who it is, and do a quick sketch and description so I won't forget who is who."

"Really?" Terry asked, going over to look at the paper. It turned out to be a rather thick pad, and she was halfway through it. There was a small figure of him, Dana and Max, with a letter or two on each part of their clothes and body, which seemed to be for color reference. A name was above each head, and the paper was previously drawn into nine sections for each page. "You do this for everyone you meet?"

"Yes. Well, no," Adrian corrected herself. "Just for the people who say hello to me. I have another pad for the people who ignore me." To prove her point, she pulled out another pad, half the size of the one Dana was still holding. On the very first page was Chelsea, right next to [DL: I forget his name. The mean quarterback who turned out to be a joker in a straightjacket.] and above somebody else who he'd never seen before.

"Who's that?" he asked, pointing to the guy.

Adrian leaned over and laughed. "I don't know; that's why he's in here."

"Oh," Terry said, and blushed a little as the other girls laughed.

"If you don't mind," she said, taking back both pads, "I have a lot more people to see. But I'll see you guys again." She waved as she left, and jogged to catch up with a short redhead with bad acne. She spoke to the boy and held out her hand, and he drooled in reply. That didn't seem to deter Adrian as she tried to guess his name.

"She's really nice," Dana observed. "She never let her smile down once."

"I noticed," Max said back, both of them not really seeing how Terry was trying to sum her up.

A surprise? He thought. It could be something really good, or something really bad. But she doesn't seem like the type of girl to be plotting students' murders, so. . . What could it be? The bell rang and broke into his chain of thought, and he caught Adrian skip off and ask a tall blonde girl something and hold out her schedule. "Let's go," Terry said distractedly.

Dana and Max went their separate ways, as did Terry. [DL: Correct if wrong, okay? I haven't seen Batman Beyond in a long time and don't remember who has which class together.] All through first period he thought about Adrian in the back of his mind, and wondered about what in the world the surprise could be.

**Adrian**

First class wasn't so bad for her. The chemistry teacher was a little mean with her being late, but overall, it was almost easy. This was her third time now to have taken this class, if you included her college years, so it passed all by with a sense of familiarty. She knew the components needed right off the bat, so when the teacher explained what was needed to be done, she just introduced herself to the girl next to her with brown hair in a high ponytail and glasses.

During the break she interviewed as many people as possible, getting a total of seven "hellos" and four "screw yous". If she couldn't move as quickly as she could, she wouldn't have been able to get two of those "screw yous" and one "hello" in time for her next class, Algebra 2.

That one passed easy as well. The female teacher asked her to show the class what she knew, so she did some advanced work on the board that the teacher wrote out. Ms. What? Ms. . . Ms. . . Ms Rachelle was her name!! That was it. And she nearly dropped her roll call board. She asked if Adrian should be in that class, and then what grade she was in, and then if she wanted to take a higher class and so on. Adrian caught a few snide remarks pointed her way with her sensitive hearing that weren't meant for her to hear. As soon as she sat down she drew a quick sketch of the people who sneered and glared at her, trying her best to ignore how much it hurt to be rejected so fast by these students.

After second period she took the break to – instead of meeting people and categorizing them – climb up a tall, thicker branched tree, and she fought back tears. She wasn't always this way; before, when she younger and electronics still just touching advanced, before credits, this wouldn't have bothered her at all. But after the hard years she went through and all the suffering she saw, it somehow made her softer, inside and out.

"Hey! Adrian!" a voice called from below her.

Oh shit. . . this isn't the best time to be caught in a tree. . . She swallowed and looked down, seeing the same group of three that she met before the bell. What were their names? Terence. . . no. Max? That was one. Diane? No. Danny. . . Dawn. . . Dana! That was it! And that boy was. . . was. . . "H-hi," she said, shakily, rubbing her tears away without screwing up her eye shadow. Tory, Twain. . . She jumped down, leaving her books up there, and offered a shaky smile. "Yes?"

"You've been crying," Dana said, concern in her eyes. "What happened?"

"The kids in this school can be pretty tough on the new kids," Max admitted. "Who was it this time?"

"I – uh - " Adrian stuttered a little before bowing her head, new tears starting to sting behind her eyes. "Just a- a few kids in se-second period."

"What's your second period?" Terry asked. Yes! Terry – that was his name.

"Algebra 2." Adrian lifted her head and steadied and almost real smile for them. "I'll be fine in another minute," she said, trying to give the hint that she'd be fine and they shouldn't worry.

"Of course you will – on the outside," Terry protested.

"Tell us what happened," Dana prompted.

"We're hear to listen," Max added, almost in a voice that teased. Like a person saying to a kid "Want my candy?" while waving it in front of the child, but would only give it if the kid asked for it.

Adrian swallowed again and looked down. Her ear-length hair fell from behind her right ear in a small attempt to cover up her eyes. "They don't know I heard," she began. "I did a math problem on the board, something I guess the students in the class haven't been introduced to before, and. . ."

"They're just jealous," Max put in, interpreting her meaning to the point. "If they can't do it, then they have to alienate the people who can." She raised her arms in a "what can you do?" gesture and went on. "It's in human nature."

"I suppose so," Adrian whispered, glad that people were there to prove the point that none of it was her fault.

"Hey, don't let those creeps get you down," Dana said, in what could very possibly be the world's gentlest voice. "If they can't keep up in their math homework, that's their fault. You're not a freak because they aren't up to your speed yet."

Adrian almost flinched at the word "freak", but managed a real smile as she lifted her head.

"You know, class is going to start soon – and if you can do better than Algebra 2, then how about doing my homework for me?" he said, his voice teasing just as much as it was serious.

Adrian laughed and nodded. "I'm not doing everything for you, but if you need help, just ask. Math is my strongest subject." Okay, so that wasn't true – but the lie held tight. It made sense and as long as she didn't screw up twice on the first day with her skills, she'd be fine. No explanations, no worries, no curious onlookers. . . Everything would be fine. Just fine.

All she had to do now was make it through the rest of the day relatively unmasked.