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It had been one week since the Waynes met at the Manor for movie night. One week since Steph and Jason showed the rest of the family the video of Steph's statistic lecture about Batman. One week since Bruce forbade his children to attend the next lecture about Superman.
Naturally, when the professor called the room to order, all Wayne children were in attendance.
Stephanie and Jason had entered the lecture hall and taken seats in the back of the room away from the other students, like the week before. Bruce would be in meetings all day, so neither of them had believed that the others would follow Bruce's orders and stay away from campus today, but Stephanie had thought they would at least wear disguises. Well. She supposed they were. Kinda. But could she really call Dick's prank glasses with the nose attached a disguise? Or Tim's sunglasses and pulled down hoodie? At least Damian was wearing a blond wig, but Cass just had a mustache glued to her face. And she was wearing a light blue dress and leggins with it. Even if the students didn't immediatly recognise them as Waynes, they would certainly be remembered.
The siblings had walked in separately so they wouldn't draw as much attention, but with their ridiculous disguises and the fact that they all sat down close around Jason and Steph the other students were very obviously avoiding eye contact. Not even Melinda had had the nerve to greet Jason and Steph beyond a nervous wave from the front of the room. She had seen the suspicious people surrounding her new friends and decided she preferred sitting at the front of the room. Not that Steph or Jason wanted to sit close to her in case she overheard their comments on the Supers.
Nothing could have prepared the Waynes for what happened when Professor Davies started the class.
"Good morning," he said, "I know you are all excited to start with our discussion of Superman and if our discussion is even half as lively as the one last week about Batman I already know we're going to have a great time today!" Professor Davies moved around the front of the room while he talked. " But before we begin I would like to introduce you to one of my best students in the last decade. She thinks about applying to teach a few classes next semester and asked to sit in on my lecture this week to get a better idea of what it entails."
Dick, who was sitting behind Steph leaned forward and whispered. "No way. Can't be, right?"
Just in that moment Prof Davies opened the door and Barbara Gordon wheeled in. She was dressed in professional clothes and had her hair done up loosely. She greeted the professor smiling at the students to greet them, too. When her gaze met the rag tag group in the back her smile turned into a grin. "Good morning, I'm Barbara Gordon. Thank you for letting me impose on your discussion."
The Waynes were gaping at her. Damian lost his grip on the pencil he had been using to sketch the lecture hall and it's occupants. Tim, Dick, Steph and Jason were gaping at Barbara. Cass gave her a grinning thumbs up. Babs in turn suppressed the laugh that was threatening her professional composure.
When Jason noticed that his sister didn't seem surprised to see Babs he turned on her. "How did you know she'd be here?" he hissed.
Cass pointed towards the corners of the high ceilings looking smug. "Put in cameras last night."
The kids all face palmed or let their heads fall to the tables, to the amusement of the woman in front exchanging pleasantries with the professor. Steph didn't want to admit that she should have seen this coming and she suspected the boys didn't want to either.
Professor Davies was oblivious to the silent exchanging of looks in the room and opened up his Power Point Presentation for the lesson. "In the first chart we have the ratio of news articles from Metropolis news papers that mention Superman positively and negatively as well as the same ratio on a national and international level."
Barbara was still looking at the others with a smug expression when there was a knocking sound. At first the students and professor looked towards the door out of habit, while the knocking continued. Only Barbara focused her gaze on the window in the back corner of the room, where the sound had actually originated. Her eyes widened and her jaw fell. When Steph saw Babs' reaction she nudged Jason, also getting the others' attention. Almost as one the kids turned towards the window and their jaws fell open as well.
Superman was floating in front of the window, smiling and knocking.
Professor Davies hadn't noticed him yet, but when he turned away from the door towards Barbara he saw her expression and followed her gaze. He yelped.
Superman took that as his cue to open the window and fly towards the front of the room. "I hope you don't mind, but I heard people talking about me," he said with a friendly smile.
In the back of the room sat Bruce, disguised as an old man keeping his mind sharp by attending a college course. He smirked as he watched his children and almost children react to Superman invading the lecture they themselves had invaded.
They thought they'd been smart but Bruce had been undercover here for 3 days because he knew they'd come.
It's their own damn fault for not listening to me.