Second chappie is up! BTW, are any of you YJ fans? I just watched yesterdays episode this morning (I haven't got CN grrr). BUT OMG MY BART/JAIME FEELS I CANNOT. That episode was actually perfection.

Anywho, on to the story...

The sound of her alarm clock woke Rose up from her sleep and she groggily put out a hand to switch it off. Opening her eyes fully, she realised she hadn't slept in her uniform, and she was under the covers. Lily obviously checked up on her and changed her clothes.

Still half-asleep, she got into her uniform and freshened up, quickly picking up an apple and her bag on her way to the door.

She was just putting her blazer on when she saw her father standing by the door.

"Oh- morning, Dad."

"Good-morning. Come here for a second, sweetheart."

Rose raised an eyebrow and fixed her collar before walking up to Adam.

He held onto her hands and looked into her eyes.

"I want you to listen to me; I want you to listen very carefully. No matter what your mother says, no matter what she has or what is happening to her mind, you will always be Rose, my Rose, the Rose Maria Jacobs. Do you understand?"

Rose blinked back the tears that were suddenly forming in her eyes and nodded quickly. He smiled and kissed her forehead.

"That's my girl, now hurry up or you'll be late for school, listen well in lessons, always put up your hand, open the doors for teachers and always look them in the eyes."

Rose rolled her eyes, smiling and waved. "Bye, Dad."

...

Just as Rose sat down on the school bus, the bullying started.

"Hey, Jacobs! Why are you on the bus?" A boy shouted at her.

"Yeah! Is rich Daddy saving up?" Someone else added.

"Saving up!? Why, he could buy the school and still have money to pay for the fees," the first boy replied.

Everyone erupted into laughter and Rose ignored them, leaning her head onto the window and watched the average Tuesday morning in Gotham come to life. Everyone always seemed to be rushing in this town, Rose had realised after observing the roads for a good hour. Nobody stopped to talk a breath. Rose didn't understand why, she did everything slowly, and took her time.

The bus stopped outside a block of flats and waited for the students who lived there to board the bus. Rose looked to the door and waited for a short, blonde haired girl to bounce on and plonk herself next to her.

Soon enough, Jane Matthews' face appeared in front of her own and hugged her tight.

"Hello!"

"Hey, Jane."

"Guess what?"

Rose laughed. "What?"Jane always had something to say.

"My dad got back yesterday!"

Her jaw dropped and hugged her friend again.

"Jane, that's great! How long is he staying for?"

"It is. Mom basically squeezed him to death in that hug she gave him," she laughed. "For a month! He said that they might not need him for a while, so it may be even longer!"

"Well, I'm happy for you."

Jane could only grin and she talked about all the things her dad had said they were going to do all the way to school.

Jane Matthews was short. Shorter than most, but don't let that make you think she isn't capable of kicking your butt. She has a fiery temper and loves to talk, which often gets her in trouble at school. Her father is a soldier and Rose was slightly surprised that he was coming back from Afghanistan so early- he usually came back at Christmas time.

Once they finally reached the school, the students filled out and pushed past each other to the entrance.

Gotham Academy. The home of all the snobs of the city. Apart from the odd few such as Rose and Jane. Jane only got in because of how bright she is and the government is helping her family pay the fees.

Rose started walking with Jane and they spotted a long, shiny black car park outside the gates and the students automatically made way for the passenger- everyone knew who that was. Someone got out the car to open the door and none other than Damian Wayne walked out with a frown on his face, the usual frown on his face.

Rose raised an eyebrow and Jane shook her head as everyone basically apologized for even being in his presence or walking on the same ground as him.

People like Rose and Damian are automatically put into the school because of their families. Obviously, the son of the founder of the school was going to be enrolled there, and the daughter of the most intelligent scientist of the city was too.

As she walked through the halls of the school to her form, everyone stared at her, pointed at her, whispered about her to their friends. Most were surprised by how shy she was, how quiet and how she kept to herself all the time. She wasn't cocky, or proud, or loud, how they all expected her to be, but the opposite, and this confused them all.

She always ignored them, telling herself she didn't care what they thought, but in reality she did, she was good at pretending, even to herself.

After they were registered, they went off to their first class of the day, which for Rose was maths. Groaning to herself, she made sure her maths text and exercise book were in her bag and made her way to her lesson.

Rose hated maths with a passion- she was brilliant at it but loathed it completely. Half because of how annoying it was, half because of who she had to sit next to: Damian Wayne.

Sulking childishly, she opened the door to the room and sat down at her seat, Damian was already there putting out his books and pencil case. Rose did the same and fiddled with her sleeve, ignoring him entirely.

She hadn't ever really talked to him before, they only had maths and art together and there was only the odd remark he made about her work or corrections he liked to tell her. He loved proving he was right.

Rose would never admit that she was intimidated by him, she hated the way he always stared at her after he'd finished the work, and he always finished 10 minutes earlier than everybody else and wasn't bothered to ask for extension work.

The teacher finally walked in, a tall, skinny woman with a rather nasal voice and such thick glasses you could barely see her eyes.

"Right, children, I would like you to open your textbooks to page 845 and start doing the algebra questions at the top of the page- I want your work done neatly and set out properly, yes I am talking about you Mary Lucas," she said, pointing to a rather chubby girl at the back of the classroom and everyone laughed.

Soon enough everyone was busy solving simultaneous equations, which Rose found easy, and before she knew it she was almost done.

Not wanting more work to do, she checked over her answers and waited for Miss Clark to instruct the next part of the lesson.

"Question 5 is wrong."

Rose jumped at the voice by her ear and blushed furiously.

"What?" She said stupidly.

"I said your answer to question 5 was wrong, do it again," Damian said, speaking as if he was bored out of his wits.

Rose blinked twice and looked down at her answer.

I don't know what he's talking about, x = -5 and y =6. She frowned and looked at him again and found him staring at her intently.

"You copied out the question wrong, Jacobs."

Rose formed an 'O' with her mouth and blushed again, feeling like an idiot.

Quickly, she crossed it all out and did it again, still feeling the gaze of the boy next to her on her the whole time.

"Children, I will be back in just a second, I've forgotten your homework sheets upstairs, if you're done with those questions, start on the next lot, now be good and stay quiet."

Once Miss Clark was out of the room the whole class started to talk to one another, asking each other about the questions and making sure they had it correct.

Rose put her head onto her palm and sighed, letting her hair fall over her face.

"How was your summer?"

She turned her head slowly to Damian and raised both eyebrows.

"Did...Did you just ask me that?" Rose was surprised he had tried to start a conversation with her, this was definitely new.

"Yes, I did. Why, is it wrong to want to talk to someone? Even if it is you? I'm bored and everyone else here are thick-headed."

Rose rolled her eyes but made sure he couldn't see. She didn't see why there were people who wanted to be his friend- he wasn't a nice person at all.

"Well, my summer was no fun, it was just as awful as school," she shrugged.

"Did you not do anything? Go anywhere?"

"No."

"Why not? Your family do have the money."

"It isn't about the money," Rose snapped. She blinked and looked away, surprised at her tone of voice.

"Then what is it about?"

She turned to look at him and put on a puzzled expression. "Why the hell do you care?"

Even Damian seemed shocked at how stern she was; she wasn't ever stern with anyone.

"I don't."

"Just as I thought."

"But I want to know."

Rose ignored him and the class went silent as the teacher walked in again.

"Right, class, here is your homework..."

Rose zoned out and stared out the window, looking up at the blue sky and watching the birds fly high, away from everything, doing just what Rose wished for.

...

"Rose? Rose are you listening to me?"

Rose started and feigned a smile at Jane.

"Yes, 'course."

Jane raised an eyebrow.

"What did I just say then?"

"You were going to ask your dad for some money?"

The girl laughed. "Alright, you got lucky this time."

Rose smiled and picked at her food, the pair fell silent for a little while.

"Rose, are you okay?"

"What? Oh yes, I'm fine."

"No...I mean, with y'know...everything. How's it all going?"

Rose stopped picking her food and stared at Jane, not knowing what to say.

"Like I said, I'm fine."

Jane sighed. "Whatever you say, Rosey, I'm here if you need me, you know that, right?"

She nodded. "Yes, I know, thank you."

Jane smiled and they continued to eat their food. Rose breathed out- she didn't think she could hold it in any longer.

"Jane...Today, in maths, Damian...he asked how my summer was."

Jane's eyebrows shot up and her jaw dropped.

"No way."

"Yes way."

"So he actually talked to you? About something other than maths?"

"Yeah."

"Whoa."

They both looked over at the boy and saw him sitting with his only few friends, they were the wealthiest in the whole city. Nobody ever dared look at any of them in the eye for fear of being chocked with dollar notes.

"You want to come over to mine after school?" Jane asked Rose as they threw their rubbish and put their trays away.

"Sure thing."

...

"Hello, Mrs Mathews."

"Rose, my little Rose, how are you?"

Rose hugged her and smiled. Mrs Mathews was as much as a mother Rose was ever going to get.

"Now, I'm going to make brownies and milkshake, when I'm done I'll bring it over to you both, that sound alright?"

"That sounds great, thank you Mrs Mathews."

"Please, call me Martha!"

...

"How was she over the summer?"

Rose and Jane were lying on their stomachs on her bed, their homework in piles around them and stuffing their faces with homemade brownies.

Rose drank some of her milkshake and swallowed hard.

"She was worse, she's always bad during the summer, and we had to put her in hospital about once every week. We weren't able to go anywhere and Dad had to make sure she was never in the kitchen in fear of her using one of the knives on...anything. "

Jane smiled supportively at her best friend.

"I really want to be helpful here, but I think if I say it's going to get better you'll scratch me eyes out."

Rose laughed and nodded. "Yes, I probably would."

They continued to eat, now in silence, and Rose felt slightly lonely all of a sudden- no-one could really help her in feeling better, as no-one knew what she was going through, what it was like to be shunned by your own mother.

Rose swallowed down her last brownie and, raised her eyebrows at the time; it was way past 8 already. Quickly she finished off her chemistry homework and packed her stuff into her bag.

"You're going already?"

"Jane, it's past 8, you know what Gotham is like this late."

Jane rolled her eyes and nodded, laughing. She walked her to the door and hugged her.

"See you tomorrow!"

Well? Was it okay? Tell me what you think, please! :D Robin will be introduced in the next chapter...

- Zara xo