Y'ALL LOOK AT DAMIAN IN THIS TRAILER IM SO EXCITED FOR THIS MOVIE HE LOOKS SO GROWN UP AND HOT

and yeah i might have have internally replaced raven with sasha in all those scenes together but u can't blame meeeee

and also i found this cute pic so this is what sasha looks like in her uniform:

I knew from the second that Damian, Tim and I stepped into school, people were talking about us.

Murmurs and chatter filled the halls as hundreds of eyes landed on the three figures walking through the front entrance. The corridors mobbed with students of all ages as my sensitive ears picked up on so many different conversations, fractions of sentences and individual words.

"...haven't been seen all week."

"They're definitely getting rid of her..."

"I saw them at the library on friday..."

"Wasn't there a break-in there...?"

"...she's probably getting put up for adoption..."

"...heard they got in an accident..."

I felt my throat constricting at those words, my face turning hot. These kids were truly nasty. It made me wonder why I even bothered showing up to school in the first place. My education was way above this, anyway. It was a fucking waste of my time.

But Tim clearly picked up on all of the mean rumors spreading by the second. He cleared his throat and began to shove his way through the crowd, tugging us along with him. "Well, that was a really fun trip to the Maldives, wasn't it?" he spoke loudly, eyeing us in a way that said play along.

"Yeah," I mumbled in reply. "Gotta love the Pacific."

But Damian just yanked himself free of Tim's grip on his collar. "Touch me again and you'll perish," he hissed, placing a pointed finger in Tim's face. I had to squeeze his arm tightly in order to get him to stop causing a scene.

"You're not helping, Damian."

He rolled his eyes at me, glaring at every student who even dared to look his way. "Whatever, this is stupid. Don't these children have anything better to do?"

No, they clearly didn't. I'd learnt by now that the rich people of Gotham loved gossip more than anything in the world. Their entire lives were centered around the private business of every socialite in town. They always needed to know everything, every rumor, every sighting. Particularly when it came to Gotham's pride-and-joy, the beloved Wayne family.

A flash of red hair barralled toward me and suddenly Rebecca was holding me, eyes wild and hands clutching both of my shoulders. "Oh my god, Sasha!"

I stumbled back from her force, nearly suffering a heart-attack right then and there. "Jesus Christ, Rebecca! Don't do that!"

She wouldn't let go of me, shaking my body hysterically. "Are you nuts? Are you insane? Oh my god, I was so worried about you!"

I pried her hands off of me and glared at her, inclining my head toward all the rich and nosey students standing around us, some barely five feet away.

"Yeah, that shark attack on the island was kinda scary but luckily no one got badly hurt," I lied through gritted teeth.

Don't you dare give me away.

Thankfully, Rebecca caught on. "Right, yeah, I'm glad you're okay..." she eyed me fiercely, telling me that she desperately needed to know exactly what had happened.

We moved to the bathroom and I checked the stalls for any students. They were all empty, so I let out a sigh and turned back toward her. "All clear."

She had her arms crossed over her chest. "Seriously, Sasha, you don't know how freaked out I was! I had this gut feeling that something bad had happened. I just knew it, like I was psychic or something."

I couldn't stop myself from running my hands through my hair, a habit I'd always had when I was stressed. "I know, I know, I'm so sorry I didn't tell you sooner. I was just all drugged up from my infection so I slept for days when I got back and I just completely forget about my phone and that you guys were worried about me and--"

"I'm sorry, you're what!?"

Oh, shit, shit, shit.

"Wait, no, I meant... I meant my..." I tried to recover what had accidentally slipped out but it was much too late. Rebecca was staring at me in bewilderment, eyes scanning my entire body.

"They hurt you? Oh my god, Sasha, they hurt you!?" She gripped shoulders roughly. "What the fuck happened? You better start explaining now, or I'm gonna start smashing shit."

I did not doubt that last part at all. Rebecca had anger issues that could rival Damian's, and that was saying a lot.

I tried to calm her down. "Look, it's all okay now. It was just... some people who were associated with my father and Midnight. Slade wanted me back with him so he sent them to get me. It's fine, though, Batman came and saved me. Everything is fine."

Rebecca's grip loosened slightly. She still looked shocked, her mind obviously processing my words.

"Slade's out of prison?" She asked.

I opened my mouth to reply, but I couldn't think of a way to put it lightly. The reality was that, yes, my father was out of prison. No, he wasn't currently after me, considering the fact that he was locked up in a different prison, thousands of kilometers across the world.

"Yes, but he won't find me now. He's... elsewhere. Some other people have him, don't worry."

That seemed to calm her down a little bit. It was enough to get her to let go of me, to lean back against the sinks and take a deep breath. "Okay, so you're saying that everything's fine now? Nothing else is going to happen to you?"

I nodded reassuringly. "Nothing else is going to happen to me."

She laughed, a hysterical kind of laugh that wasn't humorous in the slightest. "Oh, wow," she said to herself. "My best friend's psycho dad nearly got her killed. Again."

"Hey," I coaxed, reaching for her hand. "I'm fine now, Becca. A little scratched up, but otherwise fine."

She nodded, taking more deep breaths and pacing around the bathroom. "This is crazy. This is so crazy. Are you sure you're okay? How bad are the injuries?"

I didn't want to answer that, but the way she was looking at me suggested I should if I wanted to avoid being decked in the face.

"Oh, you know, just a... just a little bit of blood poisoning..."

Big mistake.

"WHAT THE FUCK, SASHA?"

I grabbed her fists before she could cause any damage to stalls around her. "Hey, hey, stop! It was a stab wound and it was left untreated but it's fine now because Batman saved me, remember? Batman saved me."

It seemed that whenever you mentioned Batman in a city like Gotham, civilians always felt immediately better.

Luckily, Rebecca was exactly the same, and she stopped struggling against my arms. I had to admit, for an ordinary girl, she was pretty strong. And that was coming from a highly trained assassin.

"Oh, Sasha!" she sighed, finally giving in and resting her forehead on my shoulder in defeat. "I'm so sorry. I'm really, truly sorry. You shouldn't have had to go through all that."

If only you knew about Damian, I couldn't help but think. His was even worse.

"It's okay, Becca. You know me. What's new, right?" I laughed half-heartedly, realizing just how pathetic that sounded.

She pulled me into a hug. "I don't know what I'd do if I were you. It feels like you never get a break."

Tell me about it.

My life is just one, big pile of violence and chaos.

Rebecca lifted her head and looked at me, green eyes filled with concern and lips pulled into a pitiful frown.

"You realize you're gonna have to tell Summer all this now, right?"

I groaned dramatically, my shoulders slumping forward and my head falling back to face the ceiling. "Oh, fuck."

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

I saw Summer for the first time in a while as soon as I left Advanced Math with Damian.

She was walking down the hall, eyes glazed over and posture significantly different. Her shoulders were more slumped and she held her books closer to her chest. Her usually perfect hair was pinned up in a half-done bun, bits and pieces falling out everywhere. Her uniform wasn't as immaculate as it usually was, either, and although she always somehow managed to look pretty, something was definitely up.

"Summer," I called, snapping her from whatever daydream she'd been in. Her eyes found mine and I immediately noticed the bags beneath them. I quickened my pace as I approached her and quickly pulled her in for a hug.

"I'm so sorry I didn't see your texts, so much shit happened with my dad. He got out of jail and tried to get a bunch of these assassins on me and kidnap me and it was a whole thing but luckily Batman came and now everything is fine..."

I stopped speaking once I realized that she wasn't hugging me back. I stepped away, worried that I'd done something wrong. "Is everything okay?"

She sent me a faint smile, trying with her all her might to make it look but real but I knew that it wasn't. "Hey, Sasha..." she greeted quietly, her eyes then lingering on Damian and her jaw clenching slightly. "Hey... Damian."

I searched her face for answers. I knew something wasn't right. "Summer, what's wrong? Are you okay?"

She just stood there, looking sad and hopeless and completely exhausted. "I'm... I'm fine. I'm glad you're okay, too, that sounds awful..."

What the hell is happening? Why is she being like this? Why is she acting so depressed?

"Summer..." I placed a hand on her arm, noting the little flinch that followed in response to this. "What's up?"

Where was the friendly and bubbly Summer that everyone loved? Where was the girl who made it her mission to be kind to everyone, her eyes always alit with enthusiasm and joy? This wasn't her.

Her lips parted like she wanted to speak, but nothing came out. I sneaked a glance at Damian beside me, wondering if he knew something that I didn't.

But he looked just as concerned as I did, brows slightly creased as he observed her, probably using those detective-like skills to analyse her entire being.

"Sasha, I..." Summer began, her voice trembling. She closed her eyes and took a breath, shaking her head and backing away. "I'm sorry, I... I can't do this."

Now she was heading back down the hall, burying her face into her books. I dropped my own stuff into Damian's hands and chased after her, ignoring his irritated glare.

"Summer, wait! Whatever it is you, you can tell me," I caught up to her and tugged at her arm, my tone pleading.

She just stared at me, eyes shiny with tears and a pained expression on her face. "Sasha... I... I'm moving."

Silence for a second. Then, "I'm leaving Gotham Academy. For... for good. I can't stay here anymore, not after everything."

My stomach dropped, but suddenly Damian was pushing past me, his face twisted into a disbelieving scowl. "What?"

She pulled her wrist free from my grasp, unable to look me in the eyes. "I wanted to tell you, but then you both disappeared and I... I'm so sorry. My parents think it's for the best. They're sending me to a boarding school upstate."

Summer swallowed at that last part, giving a weak shrug. "It's... it's nice there."

It didn't take a genius to figure out that that was a lie.

"Summer, no, you can't leave," I practically begged. "You just... you just can't!"

Damian was staring at her in shock, and I could see that he was visibly fuming. "Summer, you didn't do anything wrong. Donovan is going to prison indefinitely, Bruce Wayne will make sure of that."

But she shook her head anyway, tears beginning to stream down her cheeks. "Guys, please, don't do this to me. It's... it's too late now. Everyone knows what happened. People talk, Damian, it doesn't matter if he's locked up or not. People are saying things... I can't stand it anymore."

I didn't know what to do. All her points were valid, it made complete sense why she wanted to leave.

But Summer was my best friend. One of my only friends, and one of the only people who'd shown me kindness in my entire life. I didn't want her to go, not for something that she hadn't even done. It just seemed so stupid.

"But this is where you belong. This is where your friends, where we are," I felt my voice cracking even saying that.

Oh, god, she can't leave.

I need her.

Summer was crying now, desperately wiping at her eyes. "I'm so sorry, Sasha. But I can't stay here, I can't go another day with all these rumors."

I watched her books slide from her arms. She didn't even try to catch them, just let them fall as papers flew and her large math textbook slammed into the tile, the noise echoing throughout the empty corridor.

She bent down in an attempt to pick it up, a slip of notebook paper escaping from the jacket of the book and landing by my feet. I peered down through blurry eyes and saw words scrawled across it in black pen.

I picked it up and brought it my eye level. Summer jumped to her feet and tried to snatch it from my hands but I dodged her weak attack and read it anyway.

'That explains where all those A's came from, slut,' the note read.

I wanted to throw up right then and there.

Damian ripped the note from my hands seconds later, his face turning from fuming to murderous.

"Who wrote this?" He snarled, fingers curling into fists.

A sob escaped Summer's lips and she placed her head in her hands. "I don't... I don't know."

This was fucked up in so many ways. I felt livid, every bone in my body wanting to find the sick little rich brats who'd written this note and squeeze their throats until they suffocated to death.

"That's not the only one, is it?" I said quietly, realization dawning on me. The whole Coach incident had happened about two weeks ago, leaving exactly fourteen days for students to send whatever cruel messages they wanted to my best friend.

I clutched Summer by her shoulders. "How many notes have you gotten, Summer? How long has this been going on?"

She tried to pull away from me, her face now puffy and her eyes rimmed red. I felt so incredibly bad for her. Summer, of all people, did not deserve this kind of bullying. She was without a doubt the kindest student in the entire school.

"I'll kill them," Damian was muttering, rage seeping from every part of him. "I'll fucking kill them."

I swept the hair out of Summer's eyes and guided her chin toward me, forcing her to look me in the eyes. "Summer, whoever has done this to you will pay, you here me? They will pay."

But she yanked herself away from me with more force than I had ever seen her use before. "No, no, no," she was blubbering, tears still streaming down her face. "That's not me, Sasha, I can't... I don't want to hurt anyone. I don't want any of this. I just... I just want to go home."

She threw her last remaining notebook onto the floor with a type of anger I'd never seen before, especially not on her. "I'm sick of all this," she sniffled, still shaking her head, her eyes glued to her feet and her head in her hands.

Then, to my surprise, she let out a loud, frustrated growl, raking her fingers through her hair. "I'm sick of everything!"

A mixture of grief and hysteria poured from every part of her, her chest heaving with each ragged breath she took. It seemed like she was losing it; she was spiralling now.

"Do you even know what this has done to me? To my family?" She suddenly snapped, staring at us expectantly as if she wanted us to answer her.

"Our entire reputation is ruined because of me. My father's board of directors won't even look him in the eyes anymore. My mom's fashion label has already started decreasing in sales."

She shook her head repeatedly, a distant look in her eyes like she wasn't quite there anymore. "I can't... I can't live like this. Everywhere I go I'm reminded of what happened. All these people, all these students at this stupid fucking school are so obsessed with everything that happens in this city. That's why I can't stay here anymore, Sasha. Everyone knows who I am and what I am and what has happened to me. My life in Gotham is over."

That was when I realized that I'd never heard Summer swear before.

An earsplitting clash made me jump as she suddenly chucked her large pencil case at the surrounding lockers. It was so unexpected I felt my heart thumping with fear. What the hell was going on with her? I'd never seen anything like this.

"I hate this!" Summer shrieked, bunching her hands into fists as a sob escaped her lips and she crumpled to her knees. "I fucking hate this!"

It felt like I was glued to the spot, staring with wide eyes and a hanging jaw as Summer, the kind, positive girl with the heart of gold screamed and cried and thrashed on the floor of the school corridor.

I stepped toward her in an attempt to help, but Damian gently lifted his arm out in front of me.

"Don't," he warned, a knowing look in his eyes.

But I couldn't just leave her there to cry. I had to calm her down, I had to comfort her.

"Summer," I whispered, shoving past him and lowering myself to the floor. "It's okay, it's okay. I'm here."

And then she whipped her head toward me, an almost wild look in her eyes.

"Don't touch me!"

I was utterly shocked.

She stumbled away from me, like I was some disease she didn't want to catch. "Just... just leave me alone, Sasha," she wiped at her eyes and jumped to her feet.

"Just leave me alone."

And with that she left, ripping open the door of the nearest exit, the only noise to be heard in the silent hallway being the sound of it closing behind her.

I didn't know what to think, what to say, what to act. Confusion flooded through me as I stood there, dumbfounded, staring blankly at the mess of textbooks and papers sprawled across the hall.

"This is wrong," Damian snarled from behind me, his head shaking in disbelief. "This is so wrong."

I wanted to chase after her, wanted to hug her and tell her that everything would be alright.

But just like before when I'd entered the halls and ended up face to face with the cruel words of Gotham's rich society, Summer had felt the exact same thing for two weeks following the Coach Donovan case. She had been bullied, whispered about, dramatised. Her parents had been put to shame, and now everyone knew about what had happened to their previously innocent little daughter.

"You're right," I simply replied, the lump in my throat only growing as I tried to contain my emotions. "This is so, utterly wrong."

Maybe being rich and famous isn't all it's cranked up to be, huh?

I guess I finally understood that now.

another chapter?? no way! who would've thought?!

i hope everyone else is doing well and that u enjoyed. i just wanted to tie up some loose ends with summer and rebecca sorry it was kinda depressing!!