CHAPTER THREE

Dick opened his eyes, and looked around. He was in his room in Wayne Manor. He looked at the time. "5:30! Man I slept in," Dick thought as he got out of bed. Getting out of bed, he immediately felt all the bruises he had received. Dick started to stretch, but when he rolled his shoulders, his left arm flared with pain. Looking down, Dick could tell his shoulder was dislocated. It was because of this that it took him till 6:00 to get dressed for the day. He had school at 7:20, which left him plenty of time.

Dick opened the door to his room and walked towards the kitchen when he heard talking in Bruce's room. Usually he was already in the kitchen by know, so that was a little odd. Convincing himself that it was ok if he listened in, Dick put his ear to the door. "So…" Bruce said, "how bad was it?"

"He has a dislocated shoulder," Alfred said, pausing. "And his wrist is fractured." It was then that the events of the previous day flooded back into Dick's memory. His patrol, his fight with Bane, winning the tournament, besting Batman. That one made him pause. He couldn't have actually beaten Batman could he? No. Batman must have been going easy on him, or have purposefully lost, or something.

"Has it been treated yet?" Bruce asked.

"Not yet. I was going to wait until he woke up." Alfred said.

"Well, you don't have to wait any longer, he's just outside the door," Bruce said quite loudly.

"In that case I'll be on my way," Alfred said. Having just woken up, Of course Dick`s reaction was slowed, but he still almost made it out of the hall before Alfred caught him. "Master Dick, I must insist that you come here right now," He said.

"What is it Alfred?" Dick asked.

"Come to the infirmary with me," He said. It was obviously a command. Dick followed silently.

…

At the infirmary, Alfred dealt with Dick's dislocated shoulder. Over all it was a painful experience, but Dick was used to pain. Now his wrist hurt, and he couldn't keep himself from wincing as Alfred dealt with that. "Now this will help your arm to heal faster than normal, but you still need to go easy on your arm. Try not to use it when ever possible. You won't need a cast, again thanks to this formula I made after Bruce broke his back fighting with Bane a while back. However, you will need to wear this brace for the next couple weeks at least," Alfred explained.

"Gotcha," Dick said as he tested out his arm. The brace was a fore-arm brace, and black. He wouldn't be able to move his wrist, but the rest of his arm could be used. "Thanks Alfred," he said as he headed for the kitchen again. Once there he put two pieces of bread in the toaster. Then he went to get his backpack ready. He was in 8th grade, and had his hard-ish classes that day. History was his first class, then English, then Math, then lunch, then Gym. They were in the gymnastics unit, so Dick was having lots of fun in Gym. Math, English, were, for the most part over 3 hours of boredom. Most of what they were teaching he already knew, and what he didn't wasn't at all fun. History was sometimes interesting, but this was the day with the most homework.

The school schedule was sort of weird as well. They split your 8 periods up into two days worth of school. You have 4 one day, and 4 the next. In Dick's opinion, this just led to more homework, and thusly less fun, but, hey, it gave him a day more to do all of the homework, so it was sort of worth it. You needed to be in the 1st period of the day at 7:20, even though class didn't actually start until 7:30. The first 10 minutes were for reading, talking, doing homework that was due that day, but you forgot about, etc. Each class was 1 hour and 40 minutes. Lunch was about ½ of an hour, and there was a 10 minute transition period between each class except for lunch. That way school got out at exactly 3:00.

Dick finished getting his backpack ready, and went back to finish breakfast. Not surprisingly, Alfred had changed his breakfast into something much better. After finishing his meal of whatever breakfast food he wanted, Dick started to walk to school. It wasn't that far, and he could use the fresh air.

Usually Barbara met him at school about a ½ hour earlier, but not today. He wondered briefly where she was, but put the thought aside. She was in his Math class, and in his Gym class. He could ask her then. He quickly finished his homework, and put it away.

In math, Dick took his seat next to Barbara. She leaned over and whispered "I've got a surprise for you. I'll show you during lunch," And then the teacher stood up, and droned on and on about the best way to find angles, and other stuff.

"Honestly," Dick thought. "how do teachers talk for hours each day and say the same things over and over, and not get sick of it?" Dick raised his hand 5 minutes from the end of class. " How is this relevant? I mean, when would anyone actually use this?"

"Well," the teacher said. When you get into high school, and College, you will need to know this," the teacher said.

"So, in other words, we learn this so that if we grow up to teach math we will be able to teach this to our students. Good lesson though," Dick said with a grin. The teacher grinned back. Dick seemed to constantly be amusing the teachers, and when a teacher thought they had an opportunity to embarrass one of their students, and teach them at the same time, they would usually take it. And the teacher saw such an opportunity with Dick.

"Do you understand what this is for, Mr. Grayson?"

"Maybe," Dick answered non committedly, earning a snicker from the class.

"Well, I want you to answer this question for the class," The teacher said, writing a problem down. He was just stepping back when Dick said something.

"Easy, the answer is 56.57," Dick said with a grin. It took the teacher about 30 seconds to do the problem, and when he found the answer to be correct, he stared at his student. Dick had always aced his tests, but with his non-committed answer, he had incorrectly led his teacher to believe that he wasn't paying attention, when in reality, he had probably already mastered this. After the teacher stared for a bit longer, the bell rang. The class left, some snickering, others laughing out loud.

During lunch, Dick sat next to Barbara. "So, you wanted to talk, or something?"

"Yeah, this is for you," She said pulling a bag out from under the table. Dick started to open it when Barbara quickly grabbed his hands, moving them away from the present. "Not now, after you get home silly," She said.

"Ok," Dick said. "What's this for anyways?"

"Oh, you don't know?" She asked.

"No, Babs, of course I know, but you don't usually get me gifts." Dick explained.

"Well, I thought today I would, now talk to me more after school, were getting all sorts of weird looks," Barbara said, looking around.

"Sure thing," Dick said with a smile.

Gym started out uneventful, but, when Dicks turn came around it got interesting. "Ok," the teacher had said. "I don't expect any of you to be able to do this, even at the end of this unit, but this is what you could do if you keep practicing," and she proceeded to do handsprings, flips, and then jump onto the bars. Once she was finished with her routine, she walked back to the staring group of kids. "Today we will work on the front-handspring." She said as she went into explaining the basics behind the front-handspring.

After she finished explaining it, the students all got in a line. The person at the front of the line would perform a front-handspring. If they did it adequately, they would be allowed to move on to the other side of the room, where they would be able to practice for a while. The only rule was that if you had already passed off the newest move, then you could only use moves you had already learned. When Dick's turn finally came, he executed a flawless handspring. The teacher sent him over, thinking he had probably just received minor gymnastics training before. When Dick started his routine, the other students practicing on the other side stopped and stared. He was on the gymnastics bars, doing all sorts of tricks. When the teacher finally saw him, she asked if anyone in line actually knew gymnastics. Barbara raised her hand, so the teacher put her in charge. "Make sure their form is adequate, and help them not to get hurt." The teacher walked over to Dick.

"Didn't I say to only do tricks you had already learned?" Dick realized she was talking to him, and jumped forward, grabbing the lowest of the trapezes the gymnasium had. He swung forward into a triple front flip, and landed in front of the teacher.

One of the students from the line, hearing what the teacher had said, jogged over. "Um… that's circus boy your talking to, so… he's probably already learned that.

"Did you by chance perform for the Hailey Circus company?" She asked.

"That's the one," Dick said with a grin.

Her eyes suddenly glinted with understanding. "Your Richard Grayson," She said in awe.

"Hey," Dick said quietly. "Be careful who you say that to, some of the kids already call me circus boy, I don't need any of them calling me circus freak," Dick said.

"Um…could I get your autograph?" The teacher asked.

"Sure." While Dick was writing, a voice was heard from the other side of the gym.

"Hey, circus boy's writing something. Maybe he finally decided that circus freak is a better term."

Dick sighed. "Here you go," he said handing the signed paper to his teacher. The rest of gym seemed to go by slowly, everyone teasing him, although only about two people actually knew what they were teasing him about. When school ended, Dick was grateful. Barbara found him after school.

"I'm sorry about how gym went," She said.

"It's fine," Dick said.

"How about you open that gift now?" Barbara said.

"Ok," Dick said as he pulled it out of his backpack. When he opened it, there was a stuffed elephant. In it's hands were two tickets. The tickets were for the circus. "Um…thanks," Dick said.

"Come on Dick, did you really think I would get you a gift without a purpose?" Barbara asked. "The tickets are for a special show the Hailey Circus puts on every year today. It's called "The Grayson Memoir". And the elephant has special meaning to it as well," Barbara said.

"No way," Dick said under his breath. But it was. This was the exact stuffed elephant that his parents had given him when he was first joining the circus. Then he looked at the tickets.

"There's two, so you can take someone with you," Barbara said. "That way you might actually be able to make it through to the end before you leave," She said with a sad smile. Dick knew exactly what she was talking about. His parents had died 4 years ago, that day. The show was the circus's way of honoring them.

"Hey, Babs," Dick said with a grin. "Would you go with me to the circus tonight?"

"Sure thing," Barbara said, returning his grin. "Oh, I'll have to ask my dad's permission first, but I'll give you a call. See you," she said waving as she ran off towards her house. Dick walked towards the parking lot where Alfred would probably be waiting to pick him up. On the way, he saw the Vice Principle walking out of the school with a red haired girl. She looked sort of familiar to Dick, but he couldn't place exactly where.

Upon seeing him, the Vice Principle walked over to him, she followed. "What can I do for you?" Dick asked him.

"This is our newest student, would you mind showing her around the school?" He asked.

"Sure," Dick said.

"So…what's your name," The girl asked stepping towards him.

"Dick Grayson," he said extending his hand to shake.

"You can call me Pam," She said taking his hand.