"Rosie, could you hop up on the table for a second?" Ivy asked her nicely. She nodded and did as she was told, holding her arm out as she did multiple times per week since she started calling the greenhouse her home. Ivy hadn't been happy with her when she ran away from school, but the two had a long talk and she forgave her. Roselyn would just have to try again this day. The school decided to assign her an eighth grade mentor to meet with after school hours in order to help her get accommodated to the new change in her life.
Roselyn wasn't entirely sure why her blood needed to be continuously analyzed, but she guessed she was low in something and Ivy had to monitor it. "Thanks for taking care of me," Rosie smiled.
"No need to thank me, flower," Ivy replied and kissed her forehead. "Come on, let's see if day number two is more successful." She pulled Roselyn's sleeve down and put the vial aside before grabbing her coat. The two began the journey to the middle school. Roselyn waved goodbye when the principal led her to her homeroom and Ivy left to go to her job at Wayne Enterprises.
The second day of school went much better than the first. Taking Barbara's advice, Roselyn asked for help during independent work and things began to make much more sense to her. She was proud of herself from further coming out of her shell. Perhaps this was the whole self-esteem speech Poison Ivy gave her from time to time was all about. It was the first time Roselyn began to feel okay with herself as a person. It was a great feeling and she hoped she could continue to feel more than what she had been feeling beforehand.
The girl didn't make any friends during the school day. In fact, some kids continued to bully her with their snide remarks and some boys threw paper airplanes at her when the teacher wasn't looking. It bothered her and made her feel a little bit worse, but she was pretty good at hiding her feelings. She felt herself slightly reverting back to the silent girl she had once been at the orphanage.
At the end of the day, a guidance counselor collected her after her last class and brought her into the guidance office to meet her new eighth grade mentor. Her mentor had been chosen due to his ability to get along with most people in the school. Other students respected him and tended to look up to him. "Hi," he said to her when she sat down opposite him. "I'm Tim Drake Wayne."
"Roselyn Irving," she stated and shook his offered hand. His grip was stronger and firmer than she expected.
"I heard you were adopted," he said, trying to make conversation. The girl simply sat there and bit her lower lip. She was very nervous to be talking to a thirteen or maybe fourteen year old boy. She wondered why he was chosen as her mentor and not a girl her own age. "Because I'm adopted, too," he smiled. "Not a lot of people at this school are adopted. Actually, you're the first person I met here that is. I remember it being hard to make friends when I started here. But it's not that bad."
"More people seem to be mean to me than people who are nice to me," Roselyn admitted.
"It's hard being the new kid," Tim replied. "But I'll be nice to you."
"You're not just saying that? Because kids at the orphanage liked to trick me when I was there. And I don't want to be tricked again."
"Definitely not," Tim said honestly.
"Okay," she said after a brief silence. "What do we do here?"
"I'm not really sure," Tim chuckled. "I just agreed to it without really asking. I guess we just talk or something." And they did begin talking once Tim broke the ice with a funny story about how his late father accidentally set the oven on fire when he tried to cook when his late mother had been sick and unable to cook dinner. Roselyn was able to tell some funny stories she had witnessed when she was in orphanages or foster homes. The conversation was lighthearted and Roselyn found herself actually conversing with someone close to her age and enjoying it. Before they knew it, the hour was up and the guidance counselor interrupted them to go tell them to wait for their parents.
It was cold outside, but not frigid, so they decided to stand outside and wait for their respective parents. Roselyn saw Ivy walking towards the school while a limo pulled up for Tim. The girl's jaw dropped when Tim blushed and murmured that it was his ride. She could only nod slightly as he said goodbye and climbed into the limo when the driver actually got out and opened the door for him. And then it hit her- Bruce Wayne had adopted Tim.
"How was school today?" Ivy asked her and Roselyn immediately forgot about how rich Tim must be when she turned around and gave Pamela a hug.
"It was great!" Roselyn beamed. "The mentor they set me up with is really nice. His name's Tim."
"I'm glad you had a great day, flower," Ivy smiled genuinely. Ivy decided to hail a cab this time so they didn't have to deal with the busses. They rode in the cab relatively quietly until they arrived back at home. Roselyn ran into the house while Ivy paid the driver and grabbed her backpack. The girl hung her coat up and went to watch TV. She stared at the cartoon and laughed at it when the characters got up to their usual antics. "How's the homework situation?"
"I did most of it in study hall," Roselyn said without taking her eyes off of the TV. It wasn't her fault Harley told her about this particular show. Ivy had said it wasn't appropriate for her to watch since it was filled with adult humor, but she gave up the battle when Roselyn would just stream it on her phone anyway.
"What's left?" Ivy asked her.
"Just math from yesterday," she replied.
"I want it done before dinner," Ivy ordered.
"I'll do it after this episode," she promised. The show was only a half hour, so she turned the television off and grabbed her math binder out of her backpack. She stared at the math and didn't understand any of it. She knew how to add, subtract, multiply, and divide numbers. But why did these math problems have to be written in words? The teacher had called them word problems which didn't make any sense to her. She had to be able to pull out the useful information and apply it. "It's stupid," she decided. "I don't think I'll do it."
"Rosie, you need to do your homework," Ivy said to her as she began to prepare dinner. "You can't just give up when something gets difficult."
"Why not? It seems easier," Roselyn replied confidently. She generally took her own advice in life because when things got too challenging; it was easier to withdraw and ignore the situation. Why couldn't she do that with her homework?
"When things get tough you can't just give up," Ivy explained. "You have to try your best to overcome the challenge. In this case, your challenge is math problems."
"They're word problems," Roselyn rolled her eyes. "Why can't they just lay out the numbers? I can do that!"
"Because that's not how life works," Ivy said without hesitating.
"Pammie, can you help me?" Roselyn asked her. She remembered how Barbara told her the other day that it was okay to ask for help. She really needed it because this sixth grade math was so frustrating! It wasn't like she'd ever have to use this in real life anyway.
"In a minute. Let me just get this in the oven," Ivy replied. Roselyn waited until Ivy finally took a seat beside her. "Read it to me."
"Hannah and George had cookies with the ratio six to one. George stole half of Hannah's cookies. What was the ratio of cookies Hannah had compared to George after he stole her cookies?" Roselyn read.
"I want you to draw a picture of how many cookies they each started out with," Ivy said.
"But it doesn't say how many there are. It just says the ratio." Ivy had to start from scratch and explain ratios to Roselyn. The girl propped her head up with her right arm leaning on the table as she listened to the explanation. She was bored and she didn't understand. But then something suddenly clicked when Ivy took out the skittles to represent cookies. "Wait!" she interrupted Ivy midsentence. "So for every six cookies Hannah has," she sorted out six skittles, "George only has one."
"That's right!" Ivy encouraged. Roselyn smiled and sat up straighter. She drew a picture on her paper to show her work for the first step. "And then George was mean and stole half of Hannah's cookies," she said and took away three skittles and gave them to George. "So that means for every three cookies, George has four. So the new ratio is three to four!" she declared as she scribbled down her answer. She used the skittles again for the next problem and talked her way through. She was feeling very proud of herself as she continued to work. There was a knock at the door and she noticed Ivy stiffen. This made her a little bit nervous, but Ivy told her to continue her homework as she answered the door.
Roselyn relaxed when she heard Harley who wailed "Oh, Red!" She couldn't see anything, but she heard sobbing coming from around the corner. She got up from her chair to see what was wrong, but she was told by Ivy who came into the kitchen to tell her to take her homework and go into her room. Confused but obedient, Roselyn grabbed her skittles and homework to go complete her assignment in her room. She shut her door, but she wasn't interested in doing her homework. Instead, she wanted to know why Harley came in so upset and why Ivy wouldn't let her be in the main part of the house.
Roselyn pressed up against her door and frowned when she couldn't hear anything but Harley's muffled sobs. She decided to close her eyes and focus on using her abilities. She made a strong mental connection with one of the plants in the hallway that could sense everything. Therefore, Roselyn could hear what was going on. She focused hard to get a clear sound.
"What do ya mean, Red?" Harley sniffed.
"I don't want Roselyn around any kind of abuse," Ivy said sternly.
"She's not, though," Harley hiccupped.
"I don't want her to think domestic abuse is normal. The last thing I need is her growing up thinking this is normal," Ivy retorted.
"It's okay, Red. He loves me, really."
"That's exactly what I'm talking about. Harley, she likes you a lot and probably looks up to you. I don't want her to look up to this and think it's okay. Because it isn't. You don't want to see a man hitting her in the future, do you?"
"Red, we both know she won't be here in the future. You're gonna get caught."
"Not as long as I don't do anything to get caught," Ivy replied sharply.
"And how long's that gonna last?" Harley asked gently.
"Stop," Ivy's tone was venomous and Roselyn had never heard her speak like that before. She kept her concentration on the plant even though her head was starting to hurt due to the distance and length of time she kept this mental connection. She knew from experience the headache would go away once she broke the connection, so it was only a temporary inconvenience.
"You keep tellin' me I'm livin' a lie, but when I say it to ya, you can't take it!" Harley replied bitterly.
"Unlike you, I know the reality. But I'm just trying hard to ignore it so I don't lose it in front of that girl," she seethed.
"Aw, Red," Harley's tone softened. She wasn't really one to pick a fight with her friends. Roselyn had tears in her eyes when she realized someone might come and take her away from her home. But as long as Ivy didn't do any kind of thing related to eco-terrorism, she must be okay, right? Then again, had she truly given it up just for her? She didn't think she was that special for Ivy to give up her cause. However, Pamela hadn't done anything lately and Roselyn didn't think she would any time soon, or at least she hoped. And then there was the whole conversation beforehand which upset her. She didn't like that Joker hit Harley. That wasn't right and she knew it; Ivy wouldn't have to eve explain that to her.
Due to her emotions, Roselyn lost the connection with the plant. She crawled into her bed and grabbed the stuffed animal she took from Harley's collection that was still left in a box in her closet. She hadn't told Harley she took this teddy bear, but she assumed it was okay. It had been a comfort for her in the large queen sized bed. She held it close to her chest as she drew her knees up. It had been a full fifteen minutes before Ivy came in the room to get her. "Hey flower, it's time for dinner," she said gently. It was as if she knew Roselyn heard everything that had happened. The girl looked up at the woman and noticed her eyes were red. She never thought Poison Ivy could cry.
Rosie got up out of bed and hugged Ivy, but still clutched her teddy bear in her left arm. "No matter what happens, you're still going to be my mommy, right?" she bravely asked. Pamela Isley held Roselyn even tighter and didn't want to let her go.
Thanks again to everyone who is enjoying this story! I am so happy to see those reviews, favorites, and followers.