Roselyn frowned when she looked at herself in the mirror. She wore the typical school girl uniform which consisted of a black skirt which reached her knees, tights, and a blue button down shirt. She wore dark boots since it was still cold out, being the middle of February. She wore her hair down with one small braid on the left side which was tied at the bottom with a blue ribbon. She wasn't too happy that she had to start going to school; she had never been to a real school before and she didn't really want to start. This would just be one more place where she wouldn't belong. Of course she'd be attending a private school as Poison Ivy didn't like the Gotham City public school system. She said she wanted Roselyn to get the best education and if that meant going to private school, she'd be going to one of those.

Roselyn left her bedroom which had become more personalized. She had picked out the color of her walls which were a light green and her comforter was a nice, bright yellow with white floral patterns on it. White shelves were installed and she began to get things to display on them. She got really into those Disney movies so she had some figurines with very large heads displayed. Her new dresser was white and she had two matching nightstands, one on each side of her bed. She had a couple of books in a small bookshelf. She had a docking station for her new iPhone Ivy purchased for her since she wanted Roselyn to have some way to contact her when she wasn't home.

"Well, don't you look nice," Ivy said and tried not to laugh when Roselyn gave her a painful look.

"I don't get why I have to go to school," she grumbled.

"Because you need an education," Ivy replied. "And it'll give you a chance to make some friends and give me a chance to go to work."

"I don't need any friends," Roselyn pointed out. "And you don't need to go to work. You're Poison Ivy!"

"I need a job to make our whole story believable," Ivy retorted.

"Or I could just not go to school."

"That would make things too easy," Ivy said and grabbed Roselyn's coat. "Now let's go through this again. Who am I?"

"Paula Irving, a single mother of one who's a botanist at Wayne Enterprises," Roselyn said for what seemed like the millionth time. "And I am Roselyn Irving, just adopted by you. Do you think this will really work? I mean, these are horrible disguises."

"Batman only comes out at night, and at night we will be here. As terrible and fortunate as it is, nobody is looking for you."

"But people are looking for you, aren't they?"

"You'd be surprised how long it'll take when I'm not doing anything they think is wrong," Ivy countered. "You're going to school."

"I know," she said and grabbed her blue floral backpack and put it on. They walked out the door and began the walk to the bus stop. Ivy had to get rid of the car a couple of weeks ago since it could be traced. She could buy a new one, but she felt it was more environmentally friendly to use public transportation. They took the bus and got off about three blocks away from the middle school. Roselyn found herself holding Ivy's hand tightly when the school was in sight.

Students from ages eleven through fourteen were running up the steps to get inside. Some kids were arriving in limos which intimidated Rosie a little bit since that meant people with a lot of money attended this school. She wished she could have attended a public school where the kids didn't have fancy transportation so she might fit in a little better.

Everything was a blur to Roselyn when she entered the school and stayed close to Ivy as they walked to the main office. The principal, who had to be at least six feet tall, greeted her with his deep voice. She timidly smiled at him as he handed her a schedule to follow.

She wanted to cry when Ivy left her and told her she'd do great. She wanted to run after her and go back to the greenhouse and watch one of those movies again. She wanted to call Harley on the phone and talk to her about random things that came to her mind. Instead, Roselyn had to follow the principal to her locker which was just outside her homeroom. She tried to open it, but failed, and he had to do it for her. She put her things inside except for a pencil case, two binders, and a notebook.

The principal explained the schedule to her, saying she had eight classes in total. However, they had a block schedule where she'd attend four classes one day and the other four the next. Today was a B day, so she had to follow the second schedule on the paper. She entered her homeroom and found the whole thing intimidating. Kids were sitting at desks, but they were talking amongst one another. Roselyn wasn't exactly thrilled at this since she knew it would be the same as the orphanage. She found a seat at the back of the room so she wouldn't be noticed.

Roselyn watched some kids talking about her and pointing at her, calling her the new girl. She was thankful the homeroom teacher didn't make her introduce herself because that would have been mortifying. After homeroom, Roselyn went to English followed by math class. She found the sixth grade work to be incredibly hard and she simply didn't feel capable of doing the work or catching up to her classmates.

It didn't help when she was forced to introduce herself in both of her academic classes. It didn't help that some of the kids thought it would be fun to throw paper balls at the new girl. It didn't help when she couldn't open her locker and get another binder when the time came. So, she did the only thing she knew how to do: get out of the situation by any means necessary. And therefore, Roselyn walked right out of the middle school and left her school things in front of her locker.

She just wanted to go home. Even if Ivy wasn't there, she'd ask a plant or something to pick the lock. Sure she wasn't that great at manipulating plants, but they always seemed to react in her favor when she was upset or panicking. Unfortunately, Roselyn wasn't very great at navigating Gotham City. She wished she paid more attention on her way to school. She couldn't just take a bus or taxi since she had no money in her pockets; everything was in her locker which she couldn't open.

Roselyn wandered Gotham and wasn't surprised when people ignored her presence. She was glad nobody seemed to care she wasn't in school which was beneficial to her. She was incredibly lost and she couldn't find a single landmark to pinpoint her location. "Roselyn?" She heard her name and began to panic. Perhaps skipping school was a stupid idea since someone might find out about who she was staying with and then she'd go back to Arkham along with Ivy who would eventually be caught because of her. Instead of running, she looked behind her and was somewhat relieved when she saw a familiar face catching up to her.

"Hi," she said sheepishly.

"So you can speak," Barbara Gordon pointed out.

"I always could, but I chose not to. I'm sorry I didn't talk to you the first time we met," she gave her a small smile.

"That's okay. I heard you were adopted though shortly after those awful people took you and escaped from the asylum. It sounds like you've come a long way. But why would your parents allow you to wander Gotham alone? Are they treating you right?" Barbara asked, concerned. Roselyn was thankful she wasn't getting a harsh lecture since she'd be getting one from Ivy and she could be incredibly annoying when she lectured.

"Yeah, I have a mom now," Roselyn stated proudly. "But she doesn't know I'm here. Please don't blame her. It was my first day of middle school and I got really scared and left," she admitted. Roselyn could tell Barbara was analyzing her to see if she was lying. She was the commissioner's daughter after all, and she was probably pretty good at detecting any lying. However, Roselyn didn't lie when she said she had a mother and she definitely didn't lie about ditching school. Poison Ivy made sure she had actually adopted Roselyn which had been pretty easy to do in her disguise. Apparently, the orphanage was ecstatic to sign her over to anyone who was willing to take her.

"What school?" Barbara asked her.

"I don't remember. But it's the private middle school."

"Is it a religious school?"

"No, it's not," Roselyn replied. She knew this since Ivy explained to her that she'd never send her to a religious school. The girl didn't really care since she had never been religious and lacked any beliefs. She assumed Ivy decided against it since she had this whole belief she was the reincarnation of Mother Nature which Roselyn still didn't understand. It was rarely brought up in the house, but if it was, she'd just go along with it. The eleven year old didn't believe it; after all, Pamela Isley had been a victim of being experimented on just like Roselyn had been. The young girl deduced she hadn't been as psychologically affected as Pamela had; after all, she didn't have any delusions or create a new persona.

"Okay, I just called the school," Barbara said and broke Roselyn from her thoughts. "I told them I'd bring you back and they're okay with that. They called your guardian."

"You can call her my mom. I call her mommy now anyway," Roselyn explained. The truth was, she didn't call her mommy but maybe she'd start doing that at least in public since she couldn't call her Pammie. She wouldn't ever get used to calling her Paula Irving.

"She's going to be waiting there at the school for you," Barbara warned her.

"I'm gonna be in trouble, huh?" Roselyn sniffed as the tears came to her eyes. She just realized she was probably a disappointment to Ivy and that was not what she wanted to be.

"Probably," Barbara replied truthfully. Roselyn walked beside her chair as they made their way through the city. She held Barbara's hand, the one not controlling her electronic chair, since she didn't want to get lost. "But, I think she'll understand. She seems like she really cares about you."

"Yeah, she does," Roselyn agreed. "And I messed up today. I hope…I hope she still loves me," she looked down at her feet, upset at her revelation.

"She will still love you," Barbara said in a soothing voice. "She could be upset with what you did, but she will still love you. Parents get that kids mess up sometimes," she explained. "And you're supposed to make mistakes when you grow up. But you learn from them."

"It's just that…school's really hard. I never went to a school like this before. I was never in an orphanage long enough so whenever I moved, everything I was learning was different."

"That does sound tough," Barbara agreed. "But just by talking to you, I can tell you're a smart girl. You might just need a little extra help."

"Maybe."

"If things are too hard, it's okay to ask your teachers for help, Roselyn. I know it seems scary, but I promise you it isn't. It sounds like you're surrounded by great people now. You've come a long way since when I first saw you a couple months ago," she encouraged. "But don't run away from your problems. Ask for help."

"But what if no one helps me?" Roselyn asked.

"Then you keep asking people until they listen."

Wow I'm so happy about all of the notifications about people favoriting and following this story. I can't believe how many people are enjoying something I didn't think would be too successful. Thank you all so much!

Thank you to my reviewers as well. I love reading your thoughts and predictions. All of your questions you left will be answered in upcoming chapters. This story is coming out a lot longer than I thought. I began drafting chapter 17 already!