After hearing his name, Flynn looked to the crowd and spotted me. His eyes widened and he lowered his fists.

"Sasha?"

It's been a long time since he's called me by my actual name, I thought to myself. Flynn loved to call me by his little pet name, Blondie, which was ironic since he was blond, too.

But that wasn't important right now. What was important was the fact that he was at my school, fighting the boy who I was living with.

Damian stepped forward. "You know him?"

I ran a hand through my hair, feeling very overwhelmed all of a sudden. Starting at a school for the first time was stressful enough, but seeing Flynn here too? Plus the bell had rung a few minutes ago, so shouldn't I have been in class by now?

"What are you doing here?" I questioned, moving closer to him and away from the crowd.

The students seemed to be quite interested in this little reunion. They weren't even disappointed that the fight had ended.

Flynn smirked. "What do you think? I'm a normal kid now, living with my new rich parents and going to my new rich school. Who would've thought?"

Not me, that's for sure.

It annoyed me that Flynn got lucky and landed himself a nice home. I hoped some of the kinder and more respectful Midnight students had scored a good place, too.

Like Conner.

"What's happening here?" A deep voice yelled from across the courtyard.

All heads turned to an older looking man who was clearly a teacher.

"Get to class, all of you. Now!"

The crowd dispersed, muttering in annoyance as they made their way back inside. Flynn nudged past me and followed them.

"See you around, Blondie," he teased before heading through the doors.

I couldn't help but sigh. It was almost funny how we'd ended up in the same place again. It seemed I would never be able to get away from him. The thought annoyed me so much I kicked the perfectly-trimmed grass with my leather shoe. Bits of dirt flew up, and I glanced over at Damian.

He was glaring at me once again. I glared back at him and said, "What? Don't look at me like that. You're the one that started a fight with him."

Damian adjusted his blazer and tie. "I didn't start it. He was hurting some other kid, so I went to stop him."

I turned around and began walking to the doors, Damian joining me by my side.

"Yeah, that sounds like Flynn," I admitted. Damian gave me a serious look.

"He's one of those assassins, isn't he?"

I didn't really want to answer that, but Damian already knew. Of course he did, Bruce would have told him all about the Midnight investigation and why he was looking after me.

I replied, "Yeah. We have a... history together."

History was a bit of an understatement. Flynn hated me, or at least he loved torturing me. It all started when we were about nine years old and got into a fight over a weapon we both wanted. Midnight made us battle it out in front of the leaders, and things got pretty ugly.

In the end neither of us won it, because Flynn broke it anyway. He was pretty strong when he was angry, and nearly took my head off with the blade. We had despised each other ever since, Flynn making it his job to torture and insult me everyday.

It also didn't help that he'd been somewhat a close with my father due to his family ties. Flynn's parents were dead, but before that, they'd done business with Slade for years. Back when we lived in Russia...

Hoping to change the subject, I pulled out my timetable and glanced at where I was meant to be.

Turning to Damian I asked, "Um, do you know where room 148 is?"

-----------------------------

Wayne Manor

5:46 pm

I spent most of that afternoon completing the homework I had been assigned.

Damian and I had stayed quiet when Alfred picked us up after school and asked how our days had been. We'd let Tim do most of the talking on the car ride home, and when I was questioned about my first day by Bruce, I left out the parts about the fight and Flynn.

Now I was sitting in the living room working out algebraic equations in my notebook. I was having a little trouble figuring out the answer to a word equation.

Jason entered the room and saw me on the couch. "Hey Sasha. What's up?"

I replied, "Not much," though I was actually struggling with this question.

He asked me if I wanted a drink and I said sure, so he returned a minute later with a can of Coca Cola.

"Whatcha doing there?" Jason said, leaning on the couch and peering down at my work.

"I'm trying to solve this equation but I can't seem to understand it."

"Hit me with it," he replied confidently, so I began to read out the question.

"It says here that at the start of recess, Jimmy and Jake each brought out a new bag of x marbles to play with their friends. By the end of recess they were surprised to see they still had the same number as each other even though overall Jimmy had gained five marbles and Jake had ended up with two lots of three less then his original amount. How many marbles were originally in the bag?"

I glanced up at him, but Jason only stared at my page for a few seconds before saying, "Actually, maybe you should see Damian. He's better at this stuff."

I sighed. The last thing I wanted was to talk that idiot. He had pissed me off a lot this past week, starting a fight with me in the gym, ditching me at school and then beating up Flynn afterwards.

I gathered my books and left the living room for Damian's room. But it occurred to me that he would most likely be in the gym, because that seemed to be where he spent most of his time.

Making my way down the stairs I reached the gym doors and headed inside. I was correct, Damian was doing chin-ups in the corner of the room while Tim was hitting the punching bag.

"What do you want?" He demanded when I stood in front of him.

He was pulling himself up repeatedly and did not look like he was getting tired. I stopped myself from rolling my eyes and instead spoke calmly, "I need some help with my homework."

He groaned out loud and dropped to the floor.

"Damian, be nice," Tim warned from the other side of the room.

Damian pushed his dark hair out of his face and reached for a water bottle. After taking a sip, he turned back to me.

"Fine. What are you struggling with?"

We sat on the floor of the gym and I read out the equation. I felt a little embarrassed that I didn't know it, but decided if I was going to learn then I'd have to consult someone. Even if it was an annoying brat.

But Damian surprised me. When he was explaining the question, his tone sounded relatively nice. He didn't make any rude comments or scoff or roll his eyes.

"So James has x + 5 marbles and Jacob has 2x - 3. You write it out like x + 5 = 2x - 3. Then solve from there," he said.

I frowned at the names he had used. "Why are you calling them James and Jacob?"

He replied blankly, "I'm assuming those are their full names."

I wanted to laugh at his strange behavior, but decided it was best not to. He was being very helpful and I didn't want him to stop.

After a few minutes I understood the equation and solved it correctly. Damian double-checked it for me and told me I was right.

"It makes a lot more sense when you explain it," I said. He asked me if I needed help with anything else. I didn't, so he returned to his workout and I left to go to my room.

My interaction with Damian had been very strange. He hadn't been mean to me at all in over five minutes. It was an incredible achievement for him.

---------------------------

A few days later

I got up earlier then usual and dressed into my uniform.

I packed my bag, remembering that I had gym class today and had to bring my sport uniform. It consisted of a white polo with the school's crest embroidered in the corner, and brown shorts with a white rim and drawstring.

We were allowed to wear any sneakers we wanted, so I selected a brand new pair of Nike Airmax from my wardrobe that looked super flashy and cool.

Bruce handed me a small box later that morning, and inside was a cellphone labelled iPhone XS. Tim helped me set it up before we left for school. He was really good with technology.

Alfred cooked everyone breakfast, which was eggs and bacon and tasted amazing. Then he drove Damian, Tim and I into school.

I had discovered that Dick and Jason were older then 18 and had moved out a while ago. They tended to visit often and stayed at the Manor whenever they liked, but Dick had left to go back to Bludhaven for a while.

Jason lived in an apartment in the city and attended college, but he would come by every few days or so.

At Gotham Academy, Damian had decided to give me a proper tour of the campus. He showed me where all the bathrooms were and all the classrooms, and he showed me the fields and gymnasium.

He also took me to the library, which had so many books and comfy areas to sit and study in. It wasn't as good at Wayne Manor's library, however, but it was pretty close.

My photographic memory came in handy when remembering all the rooms. My brain pieced together every image of the school into one, big map. By the time it came to 1st period I didn't even need Damian to walk me to class anymore.

Natalie was somehow in my advanced English class, which was hard to believe since she didn't really strike me as the smart type. She sat next to me and babbled on about stuff that I didn't bother listening to. I swear that girl could talk for hours without stopping.

I did hear her mention something about her dream of being a journalist. Maybe that was why she was so good at constructive writing?

I also noticed how my teacher, Mrs Willis, called on me a few times in class, even when I didn't have my hand up.

Why? Why call on me when I don't know the answer? Who is that going to benefit? I found the whole concept rather stupid, as it would only slow down the class.

Damian stuck with me at lunch. He didn't ditch me like last time, which I was grateful for. I really didn't want to sit with Natalie and Co, listening to their boring conversations and watching their mindless phone-scrolling.

Instead we went to the library to get ahead on our assignments. We shared an advanced math class together and were already tasked with a problem-solving activity that was due next week. The library was extremely peaceful and lacked the absurd amount of noise found outside.

It felt a little weird hanging out with Damian at first, because he had always been so rude to me. But over the week he had treated me nicer then before, which was a start. Of course his temper was still an issue. The boy got angry very easily.

I had gym class after first break, which I was eager to go to. I was quite an athletic person and enjoyed physical activity. I guess Midnight had made me a sporty girl.

Boys and girls were separated in sport for some reason. I didn't understand that logic but went along with it anyway.

I changed into my gear in the girls locker room along with everyone else. Dressing in front of people wasn't a huge deal for me since I'd been doing it my whole life.

I noticed some girls giving me glares as I took my shirt off. What was their problem?

Judging by the types of looks I was getting, I guessed that they were jealous of my body or something. Yes, I was fit. Intense training at an assassin school did that to you. But they didn't have to be mean about it.

I began to feel self conscious after that and finished dressing quickly.

Coach Donovan made us play a game called dodgeball. He was the teacher of my gym class and looked about 35 years old with brown hair and a permanent smirk on his face. I didn't really like the look of him, and he acted kind of weird.

Anyway, dodgeball was fun. The idea was to divide into two teams on either side of the gymnasium, then throw balls at the opposite team in order to get people out. The last team standing won, and let me just say that it got really competitive.

These girls were more aggressive then I had first thought. Coach Donovan had to call out many fouls because people kept getting hit in the face.

Some girls cried when they got hurt, which made me roll my eyes. Getting whacked my a soft rubber ball was nothing compared to bullets. And I had felt my fair share of those.

However there was one girl, Rebecca, who I got along with pretty well during the game. Every time I pelted a ball and made someone cry (in one case it was Natalie, which i felt kinda bad about.) Rebecca would just chuckle and murmur to me, "What a baby."

She was pretty, with red hair and green eyes. Her nose was sprinkled with freckles and she looked really athletic. She was funny in a sarcastic kind of way, which I liked.

We were usually the last ones standing in every round since we were the best at the game. She had a hard throw and wasn't scared of getting hit.

I chatted with her on the sidelines whenever we got out (which was not often). She didn't ramble on about stupid things like Natalie did. I was beginning to like her as a friend.

There was also a girl on the other team, Summer, who had wavy, light-brown hair with golden highlights streaked through. She had ocean blue eyes and a tan body. Her whole appearance screamed 'beach' and her name matched that perfectly.

She seemed relatively nice during the game, never gloating when she hit me or Rebecca. She was often the last girl standing on her team. She was good at dodgeball, and I later found out that she was also very popular.

In the changing rooms Summer was surrounded by other girls that laughed at whatever she said. It seemed that everyone liked her or wanted to be like her. I could understand why, she was extremely pretty.

I met up with Damian after school and we waited for Alfred to pick us up. At home, Tim showed me an application on my phone called Instagram where people shared photos with their friends online. I set up an account for myself and requested Damian and the rest of his family. I also looked up some kids from school.

It seemed that school was going well for me. And I had almost forgotten about Flynn even being there.

Almost.

will update soon! I'm up to 200 reads, i hope we can get more! please vote and comment xxx