Chapter Six

DISCLAIMER: I'm running out of ideas for saying that I own nothing...

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I ended up telling Selena about the letter, mainly because she had found it and demanded a full explanation on where I had gotten it from.

"So you want to go to a school that just left you a letter in the middle of a deserted alley?" Selena was not happy. In fact, I had never seen her this upset before.

"Yes, I do. It's a full scholarship! I don't want to not go to school for the rest of my life!" I argued.

"Most kids would be saying the opposite of that."

"Yeah, well, I'm not 'most kids'! I haven't ever been to a decent school in my life! This is all I'm asking for!"

"It's a Wayne Foundation Scholarship. Maybe he knows..."

"Who knows?"

"Nobody."

"Why can't you ever let me in? Why can't you ever trust me in anything?"

"There are some things that you are better off in not knowing!"

"Like what? You being in a relationship with Batman? Because I already know that!"

"It's not that!!" Selena yelled at me. She had never yelled before, that I had heard. And here I was, yelling at her when all she had done for me was feed me, provide shelter for me. I felt like such a...well...bad person, to put it lightly.

"Look, I'm sorr-" I began.

"Get out." Selena was not looking at me when she said it.

"W-what?"

"Get out!" My eyes grew wide, then they narrowed.

"Fine!" I stormed off, heading to the window and climbing up the fire escape. Soon, I was on the roof. Most of me assumed that she needed to clear her head, that she would let me in again. But there was a part of me that said that this was permanent. After all, she had gotten what she wanted, right? She wouldn't need me anymore. It was night, around 11 pm. Well, if she did kick me out, then I would still go to the Academy, regardless if I was homeless or not. It would just be a lot harder. I sat on the edge of the roof and buried my face in my hands. Tears were beginning to form in my eyes, and I wasn't sure why. I couldn't remember the last time I had cried. Growing up in the worst orphanage in Gotham makes you learn how to be tough, hard as stone.

I could make out the moon overhead, although it was blurry due to my eyes being filled with tears. But soon, the moon became covered up with dark clouds, and it began to rain shortly after. It wasn't heavy, like most rain in Gotham, but just a light drizzle. Even with the rain, it was easy for me to see a young boy by a car, taking off the tires of it. I also saw two huge guys coming towards him. I had never been the type to do something like this out of good will, but I figured he would need help in taking those men out. Wiping my eyes with the back of my hand, I got up and slowly crept down the fire escape, making no noise thanks to Selena. When I got to the ground, the boy had noticed the thugs, and they had noticed the boy. I stayed hidden in the shadows, only intending to jump in if it turned ugly.

"Hey, brat! Wha'da you think you're doing to our car?" the bigger of the two, that I swear looked like he was related to a pig, asked. The boy paid no attention to him and just kept working on getting the last tire off. The second guy, lizardy-looking, pulled out a gun, and that's when my fist collided with his nose. I could feel it break, and he dropped the gun, clutching his nose while blood oozed out of it. I sneered at Pig Boy before roundhouse kicking him in the head. He fell over, unconscious, onto Lizard Guy. I then kicked Lizard in the face, knocking him out as well. Remembering why I beat up the two men, I turned around to see that the boy was on his feet, a broken bottle in one hand and a wrench in another.

"I could've taken them out," he said.

"Yeah," I stated sarcastically. "A broken bottle would've protected you from a revolver." He scowled at me before speaking again.

"Who are you?" I noticed that he was thin, thinner than I was, and had black hair with green eyes. I couldn't really tell for sure how old he was, but he looked about 10 or 11. Remembering how empty my stomach was before I started living with Selena, I felt around in my pockets and pulled 20 bucks out.

"My name's Vanessa. You hungry?" I asked, holding out the cash. "I know a really good diner a couple blocks over." I wasn't sure why I was doing this; something about him reminded me of myself, but I couldn't quite place what that something was. He looked skeptical, and I couldn't blame him; I was just like that when Selena offered for me to stay with her. I sighed, then stated, "Do I look like I'm selling drugs or something? Come on. Let's get out of the rain." He looked me up and down before setting down the broken bottle and wrench and following me as I walked out of the alley.

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"What'll it be?" the waitress asked us. We were at Stacy's Diner, sitting in a red booth in the corner. It was pouring outside now, and the diner was mostly deserted since it was about ten at night.

"We'll have three cheeseburgers with two fries and two vanilla milkshakes," I ordered, and she looked up from her notebook at the boy sitting across from me. He wasn't exactly the cleanest child in the world, and skepticism was all over the waitress' face.

"Do you have the money to pay for this?" she asked us. I pulled out the 20, and she smiled at us, showing off dimples. "Sorry sweetie. You can never be too cautious in Gotham." The word 'sweetie' made my eye twitch. I looked at her name tag before she headed off to the kitchen: Amy. I realized that I didn't know the boy's name in the opposite booth.

"You know my name, now what's yours?" I asked. His green eyes were full of doubt, but he answered anyways.

"Jason. Jason Todd," he replied. "Why are you doing this for me?"

"Well, I don't really know. You looked hungry, I guess. Where're your parents?"

"Mom's dead, dad's missing. Yours?"

"Haven't seen mine in 11 years." There was an awkward silence after I said that, so I was beyond relieved when our food showed up. So he had no parents, like me. Maybe that was what made me bring him here. We ate in silence, the only sound was of the few people in the diner talking and of the rain pattering the windows.

"Um, Vanessa?" Jason said.

"Yeah?"

"...Thanks. For this."

"No problem." For an eleven year-old, he was pretty grown up. I guess I was too, in a way. Maybe all the people, young and old, who were homeless were the same way. Jason ended up eating all three cheeseburgers, with his fries and milkshake. I wondered how long it had been since he had had a full stomach. Surely, it was a long time, because he was still hungry when we had finished all of the food. The waitress, Amy, came over soon after.

"Desserts?" she asked us. I glanced over at Jason, who looked like Amy had just turned into an angel or something, his eyes big and round.

"We'll have two slices of your double chocolate cake," I stated. Amy wrote it down and went back to the kitchen. Jason was looking out of the window next to us.

"So, I guess you lived on the streets before you got adopted?" Jason asked.

"Adopted? Who says I got adopted?"

"Well, I just figured, since you had that money."

"Okay. I did live on the streets for a few months, but before that I lived in Ms. Erikson's House for Orphaned Girls. Complete and utter nightmare. So I escaped, and about six months afterwards, somebody invited me to stay with them. Been living there ever since." Why was I telling this kid, who I had just met a couple hours ago, my whole backstory? I shut up after that, until Jason asked another question.

"Have you ever seen Batman?" Those five words made me almost lose the food I had just consumed.

"What do you mean?" I tried to act casual; of course I had seen Batman! He had tried to stop Catwoman and I from stealing a 25 million dollar diamond!

"I mean, like, seen him. Fighting baddies or something."

"No." My voice sounded bitter when I said it, and Jason dropped the subject immediately. I knew that he meant thugs or something, but I pictured myself, not burly, slow men. I was a baddie now. Right?

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That was a long chapter. Longer than I had planned it to be, mainly because of Jason Todd being in it. If any of you don't know who he is, he was the second Robin that got killed by the Joker, brought back to life, etc. Look him up. :)

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~~The Bat has left the room~~