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Summer was nearing an end. The weather was getting slightly cooler, the sun was beginning to set a little earlier, and people were starting to head back to school. This includes most of the members of the Teen Titans. Key word being most.
Damian had never been to school before. He was mainly taught everything in the bowels of the Wayne Manor from his ruthless parents, so it kind of felt weird for him to see how much of a high priority school was for his teammates. This definitely affected how the team operated during certain hours.
They couldn't meet up or do their superhero things until after the group had finished school, and the group had even less time to do team stuff since they'd have to come back home earlier. It wasn't like a majority of the group were like Damian. Almost all of them had to go to school one way or another.
Maya was getting homeschooled by her mom who was also his newly adoptive mother. Colin was taking online and in person classes by the suggestion of Oliver. Kathy was starting the new year of school with her friend Jon. Maps was going to start classes in about two weeks. Suren was the only one who wasn't busy with school, but having only two members of a group while the others plus a sidekick having school still felt odd.
All this free time kind of felt weird for Damian. He didn't really have any real hobbies at the moment, and he was either alone or hanging out with one of the two other teens that weren't in school yet. Key word being yet for his sidekick, Red Robin.
He was busy training the younger teen at the same abandoned warehouse in Gotham they always met up in. Maps was currently talking about how excited she was for sophomore year to start while making sure to stay as focused with the training as possible. Still didn't stop her from making the occasional slip up without dodging or missing a kick.
Damian was sparring with her as he made sure to point out what she did right and wrong. After a few minutes of this close combat sparring, the two heroes decided it was a good time to have a little break. It was good for stretching and to eat lunch.
As Maps was ready to grab her lunch bag from an empty box to the side, her eyes lit up as she suddenly got an idea. "Hey Shadowbird, are you going to school soon?" She curiously asked the bird masked vigilante.
Damian shook his head as he sat down next to the girl. "Don't have to go to school. Was never given a chance to." He simply said as he didn't want to tell her anything else that wasn't vague.
Hearing this, Maps began to think as she got a grilled cheese from her lunch bag. She then felt her eyes light up as she pulled out the water bottle. "I got it! What if you went to my high school?" The bird themed teen enthusiastically asked her mentor.
He didn't even get his lunch from his bag before Damian was in sheer shock at what Maps just told him. "W-what?" He muttered out in confusion as he was trying to figure out what the girl was even thinking.
"Yeah, think about it. I get to spend more time with you, you get to experience what school is like. It's perfect!" Maps eagerly explained before taking a refreshing sip of water.
"Give me a second to think about this. I'd rather not just throw myself into something without thinking." Damian said to his sidekick as he got up and began to pace around.
"Well, this might not be that bad since it could be a good opportunity to try and fit in more with "normal teenagers", and I could just get signed up with the Ducard surname. Besides, I doubt anything really bad could happen at a place where you learn."
After a few seconds of being deep in thought, Damian sat back down as he finally had a conclusion. "I've settled things. I shall accept your offer to head to your high school." He told the slightly taller teen as he began to unpack the stuff from his own lunch bag.
Map was honestly surprised by the answer as she expected more of a struggle for him to say yes. "Really? You mean it?" She asked as she was taking bites from her jelly sandwich.
Damian nodded softly as he took out an orange. "I don't see any reason why I shouldn't come with you to school." He nonchalantly said as he used his katana to carefully peel the fruit.
The cape wearing teen would've ran up to hug Damian, but Maps knew it was a bad idea since he was still holding a katana. She was still really excited at the thought of them going to school together.
"So I guess it's official. I'm heading to school in a few weeks." Damian thought to himself as he put his bladed weapon away after finishing peeling the citrus fruit.
The two spent the rest of the day training like usual, and both headed back to their homes after about an hour or so. Even after that, Damian was still thinking about the thought of going to school. All he could really do was wait, and see what would happen.
.
The weeks leading up to the school day were interesting to say the least. Elanore helped prepare by signing her adopted son up for the school as "Damian Ducard", and bought some school supplies for the teen.
Damian also got to choose his own backpack which was nice. He had told Maya about this who was happy for the other teen. While everyone else was excited for the long haired teen's first day of school, he was more so preparing for what was going to happen before then.
The school usually had an event where the students hung out at the auditorium a week before school started. The purpose was to usually get the students acquainted with the teachers and staff.
Knowing this, Damian mentally prepared himself to have to talk to strangers. He wasn't really that social of a person, but he would have to interact since it would probably be weird if he just stayed quiet during the whole thing.
When the day arrived, he was dropped off by Elanore. Damian took a deep breath as he stepped into the building. When he made it to the auditorium, he was greeted by his familiar sidekick.
"I'm so glad you came here!" Maps happily said as she greeted the other teen by offering him a handshake. She knew his boundaries, and restrained herself from a hug.
Damian shook her hand as he allowed himself to be led by the excitable girl. Though she mentioned how her friend group was too busy to come today, that still didn't mean she had no one to introduce him to.
It was just a bunch of teachers that were there in the auditorium. Though not all of them would be seen by Damian thanks to his schedule, he would have classes with a couple of them like Noah Kuttler and Simon Trent.
Once the long haired teen thought the two had seen all the teachers, Maps eagerly led him to the principal's office. "You're gonna love Principal Cobblepot! He's like a human teddy bear." The optimistic girl explained.
Damian was curious as he saw how Maps moved out of the way so he could open the door. He reached over to hold the door knob, and opened the door to the office.
As they stepped inside, they were greeted by said principal. He was a large man with glasses, black hair, and a long nose. His unique appearance was also coupled by his kind aura as a warm smile was on his face.
"You must be the new transfer student. It's a pleasure to meet you face to face." Principal Cobblepot said to Damian while also waving hello to the other student.
"He's so excited to start the school year!" Maps happily stated to the man as she gently nudged the other teen closer to the principal.
Damian nodded at the statement as he stepped forward after the little nudge. "I for one can't wait to start the year." He wasn't sure what else to say that he hadn't already told the other teachers.
Principal Cobblepot smiled at the words from the new transfer student. "Can't wait to have you begin the school year later." He cheerfully said to the stoic teen.
After a wave goodbye from the happy man, the two exited the office and made their way back to the auditorium. "You okay with all this talking and junk?" She asked the other teen as she could tell this wasn't his expertise.
Damian shrugged in indifference at the question. "Don't love it, don't hate it." He casually remarked as he texted Maya that he was ready to get picked up.
Maps sighed in relief when she heard the answer. Since she had no one else to introduce to her mentor, she simply called her own parents to pick her up.
Overall the day went well. Damian got to know a lot of the teachers, and got a good feel for what the school environment was like. When the two teens parted ways, the long haired boy deemed today a success.
Yet that was more like a sneak peek at what's to come rather than the real thing. Damian knew he was going to experience way more at high school. He wasn't really excited but more so curious. He just hoped it was going to be at least passable.
.
A week had passed. Elanore parked her car in front of the school entrance. They were currently ten minutes early. "Have a good day at school!" She said to the teen boy as she rolled down the window.
Getting out of the car, Damian held the straps of his backpack. "Thanks ma'am." He said to his new mom as he waved goodbye to her. This was it, his first day of school.
With a smile and a "Love you!", Elanore rolled the window back up before driving away from the school. The teen was on his own now.
Damian took a deep breath as he stepped into the building. As he waited for his sidekick, he noticed how much louder the school was compared to his visit days ago. It kind of gave him a headache.
It didn't take long for Maps to arrive at the building. She eagerly walked over to her mentor. "Hi Damian. Do you remember your locker number?" She curiously asked as she began to walk towards the left hall.
"722. Isn't that right next to your locker?" Damian asked as he followed closely behind her. He just hoped things would get more quiet as they got closer to their lockers.
Maps nodded softly as the two continued down the hall. When they reached their destination, the girl zipped up her backpack to place the books in the locker. She made sure to give the other teen a hand drawn map of the school. Before she could get the key for her locker, she noticed something in the distance.
It was a group of teens talking to each other. They consisted of a pale blonde boy, another boy with glasses, a goth black girl with orange highlights at the bottom of her dreads, and a white haired girl who looked over in the direction of the duo.
When Maps recognized who the group was, she squealed in excitement as she rushed towards the group. She then hugged the white hair girl tightly. "I'm so happy to see you Olive!"
While hugging back, Olive smiled sweetly as she showered the other girl with quick kisses all over her face. "So happy to be back from that road trip." She nonchalantly mentioned as she continued showering Maps with affection.
Damian cleared his throat as he still had no idea what was going on. "Care to introduce yourselves or?" He asked as he finished putting all of his stuff away in his locker.
Maps kind of felt like a big dumbass when she forgot about who was watching her. "Sorry." She said as she slowly let go from the hug. "This is my girlfriend, Olive." The girl smiled as she introduced the white haired teen.
"You must be Damian. I've heard a lot about you ever since she met ya." Olive casually greeted the male teen as she pointed at her girlfriend.
"These are my other friends. The goth one is Pomeline, the short one is Colton, and the blonde guy is named Tristan." Maps excitedly explained as her friend group greeted the transfer student. She soon made her way back to the lockers as she just remembered she needed to put her stuff away.
Damian gave them a little wave before helping out Maps with putting all her books and whatnot away. Her friends seemed cool enough. At least they weren't that loud.
"I like your sense of style." Pomelime complimented as she noticed Damian's attire being long, baggy, and pretty dark.
Damian gave a nod to the goth teen as he was happy at least one person didn't think his clothing style was weird. Besides, he liked wearing long sleeved shirts even when it's hot outside.
Maps closed her locker as she held the books for her first period. She quickly waved goodbye to her friend group as she led Damian to their first class.
The two entered the math classroom right before the bell rang. The teacher began introducing the class to the new student as Maps found a desk to sit at.
After what felt like ages of standing in front of the class, Damian awkwardly made his way to the desk next to Maps. He was just about ready for everyone to go quiet, and for the actual learning ro begin.
The math teacher, Mr. Kuttler, began to talk about the first chapter of the algebra textbook after the roll call ended. It wasn't too complex, but it was a decent challenge for the new sophomore students.
While Maps was fully invested in finishing the first few algebra questions, she was stuck on a particularly difficult problem. She curiously looked over at the other teen to see if he knew the answer.
Surprisingly, Damian had just finished all the required questions for the day. He was currently bored out of his mind as the boy just stared at the clock.
"What gives? I already know all of this stuff. Isn't the point of school to learn something new?" He thought to himself as he was flabbergasted at how easy the questions were. All he could do was doodle on some loose-leaf until class ended.
After the first period ended, the two teens went their separate ways for now. As he could hear a couple kids whispering about how weird he was behind his back, Damian just ignored them for now as he hoped the next period would be more of a challenge.
He wasn't satisfied with reality though. He was bored out of his mind with his acting class with Mr. Trent, and his technology class with Mr. Light. Didn't help matters that the latter ended up ranting about not being appreciated for his inventions for the last twenty minutes of the class.
All the while he could hear one or two of the students silently making fun of him for being "weird" and "angsty". Damian just ignored them, even when another student resorted to throwing paper balls at him. He would've been more bothered if he wasn't so bored with how easy everything was.
Fourth period finally rolled around, and all Damian could feel was relief. It was lunch time, and he finally got a break from all the boredom and disappointment to talk with Maps in the lunchroom.
Soon enough, the excitable girl spotted her mentor once he had gotten out of the lunch line, and quickly waved over to sit down with her
Damian saw this and made his way to where the table was. He sat down next to the girl as he began to silently eat his food. He was just happy the other people at the table were the friends of the sidekick.
Maps noticed how quiet the male teen was. It seemed like something bad had happened. "Is everything okay? Did classes go well?" She asked the long haired boy with worry being painted across her face.
"They're kind of boring to be honest." Damian remarked as he gave a nonchalant shrug to Maps. It's not that the classes were bad, it was just he felt like they were pointless.
"Just do the work for the later chapters in the textbooks if you're that bored. That's what Pom always does." Colton remarked as he was busy scrolling through his phone.
"It's not that. It's just that everything in the textbooks is stuff I already know. All of this just seems redundant to me." Damian explained as he began to eat the food which was honestly subpar for his standards.
Olive nodded along to what he was saying before looking over at her girlfriend. "Did he ever mention being homeschooled?" She curiously asked as he kind of gave off that vibe.
"Yeah. He doesn't wanna talk about it though?" Maps answered back as she respected her mentor's decision to keep his personal life private. She wasn't really sure why though.
Damian felt relieved that there were people that respected his private life since he would have to be dying if he was going to tell them the truth. The teen finished his food, and sat up to walk to a nearby trash bin.
A trio of students made their way near the trash can. They muttered something about "the freak" being capable of talking to people before throwing a milk carton at the tires looking boy.
Maps noticed this, and got up from her seat to stand up to her friend. Before she could say anything to the trio, she noticed her mentor putting a finger to his lips as a sign for her to stay quiet.
"I'll be fine. I don't want you getting entangled in this." Damian quietly told Maps as he threw away his empty tray. He could ignore this nuisance for as long as he needed to.
The group simply chuckled in amusement at the interaction. "Looks like goody two shoes over here wants to stand up to the edgelord." One of them said in a mocking tone.
Maps huffed in frustration as she defiantly looked at the boy who said that. "You aren't gonna scare me away so you could make fun of my friend."
Before the bullies could make another mocking remark, Damian soon stepped in front of the younger teen, and silently glared at the trio.
As the two other boys mocked the long haired teen for keeping Maps back, one of them was ballsy enough to test his composure. He got ready to punch the other boy in the chest.
Damian flinched a little as he felt his past flash before him. Without even thinking, he moved out of the way, grabbed the arm of the bully, and easily threw him onto the ground.
This quickly caught the attention of the rest of the students in the lunchroom when they heard a loud thud. They quickly began whispering about what they had just witnessed.
While the other two bullies were in shock at what they just saw, the one on the floor got up. The trio quickly ran off in fear, not wanting to deal with getting into something they knew they couldn't win.
All this happened way too quickly for Maps to react quickly. When she finally comprehended what she witnessed, she quickly led her friend back to the lunch table. "You okay?" She whispered to the long haired teen.
Damian quietly panicked as he followed the other teen to the lunch table. He didn't mean to do something so reckless, it was just a natural instinct he had.
He ignored Maps and her friends' concerned questions as only one thing was racing through the long haired teens mind.
"God, I am in so much trouble…"
.
The rest of the day was filled with a mix of boredom and awkward silence. As Damian sat in his other classes, he prepared himself for some staff member to call him into the principal's office for his little stunt he did at lunch.
Maps was with him for the final period. As she was busy drawing a biology diagram assigned to the class, she felt sympathy for how on edge her mentor was at the moment.
When there was twenty minutes left in class, Damian decided he was tired of waiting. "Excuse me Mrs. Isley, can I go to the principal's office?" He asked the teacher after raising his hand.
The orange haired woman looked over at one of her students. "Go ahead. Just make sure to grab the hall pass on the way out." Mrs. Isley explained before going back to drawing on the whiteboard.
Maps looked over at the other teen with confusion. "What are you doing?" She whispered to her mentor as she had no idea what his game plan even was.
Damian simply ignored his sidekick as he silently got up, and exited the room while making sure to take the hall pass on the way out.
Maps was practically screaming in her mind, asking what he was even doing. She couldn't just sit there, she had to do so. Thus the teen girl raised her hand. "May I use the bathroom please?"
"Of course. Make sure to remember what I said earlier." Mrs. Isley casually said to her student as she continued drawing diagrams on the whiteboard.
"Thank you." Maps quickly said as she grabbed the hall pass, and sped out of the classroom. She immediately booked it to where the principal's office was.
"What could he even be planning on doing? Does he want to get in trouble?!" Maps frantically thought to herself as she stopped in front of the office.
From what appeared to be happening from afar, Damian was talking to Principal Cobblepot. What was being said couldn't be heard before the two made their way to the main office which was out of view.
Maps silently opened the door, and snuck her way inside of the office. She stood right in between the waiting area and the main office to actually hear what was being talked about.
When he sat down, Damian felt like he was being watched. He simply ignored it as he looked back at the principal. "Look, I'm happy those bullies got a suspension, but I still feel like I should partially be blamed as well."
"Why? You were clearly acting in self defense, and those three were clearly trying to irritate you." Principal Cobblepot asked as he was filing some school paperwork.
"I still threw one of them to the ground which was frankly unnecessary of me." Damian said before getting his thoughts together. "Look, I'm going to be real with you. I just don't think this school is for me, and I don't feel comfortable in this learning environment."
Hearing her mentor admit this shocked Maps. She began to worry about if it was partly her fault or if it was because of the students. The girl continued to listen on as she hoped the answer wasn't as bad as she thought.
"Is there something specific that's bothering you that we can change? I promise we'll do whatever it takes to accommodate you." Principal Cobblepot offered as he too sounded worried that he did something wrong.
"It's not that. It's just that this place itself isn't for me. The loud crowds of students, the long class hours, and the fact I know all of what's being taught. I just don't think school in general is for me." Damian admitted as he felt like a weight had been lifted off of him.
"So that's why he's been so glum all day." Maps thought to herself as she could already tell how this was going to end. She decided to make it back to class before anyone got suspicious about where she was.
When the teen girl made it back to class, she put the hall pass back where it was. She was just thankful the teacher didn't ask any questions as she made it back to her desk.
Pomeline looked over at her friend when she saw her sit down. "What took you so long? Did something happen?" The goth questioned the other girl as she was curious about what went on.
"It's nothing Pom. The stalls were just filled up for a little while." Maps assured as she saw they only had ten minutes of class. She decided to spend the rest of the time working on the diagram due on Friday.
As five minutes passed, Damian finally entered back into the classroom. He simply waved hello to the class before sitting at his desk. "I could tell you were eavesdropping on me." He whispered to his sidekick.
Maps flinched when she heard what the other teen had told her. "Sorry. I just got worried for you." She quietly apologized to the long haired boy.
"It's okay. I don't mind it that much. I'm impressed you didn't get noticed by Cobblepot." Damian whispered back to Maps as he spent the rest of class bored.
The bell rang after what felt like forever, and everyone walked out of the class. When he arrived at his lockers, he began to put his books in his backpack.
When Maps finished putting her stuff away as well, she looked over at the other teen. "So, does this mean you're leaving right now?" She asked even though she was ninety percent sure she knew the answer.
Damian nodded as he closed his locker. "Elanore is gonna help me leave by doing all the paperwork and stuff. I actually wanna thank you for this." He remarked as the teen adjusted his backpack.
"Wait, why are you thanking me? Wasn't school miserable for you?" Maps was flabbergasted at the response from the long haired boy.
"Well it may not have been good for me, but I'm happy I experienced this. At least I know what school is like, even if it isn't for me." Damian explained as he turned around to look at his sidekick.
Maps sighed in relief as she smiled softly at the explanation. "Catch you tomorrow?" The girl asked as she got her fist ready for a fist bump.
Damian nodded as he put up a fist as well. "I'll see you tomorrow." He said as he gave the girl a fist bump before turning back around to the direction of the school exit.
Maps also made her way to the exit. As she left the school and entered her parents car, the teen began to reflect on all that happened today. She still deemed it a success despite a few bumps in the road.
At least her mentor learned something new from this. Still, she was gonna miss the idea of them going to school together. Maps would most likely deal with it, but she would still sometimes think about the what if. Hopefully the rest of the school week will be less hectic.
.
Even if Damian had only spent one day at the high school, he kind of had a lasting impact for the sophomore class for the first few weeks of school.
The three bullies who were scared off by the teen never really bothered any other students again, and the students began to tell the story about what happened in the lunchroom as some sort of urban legend.
Maps remembered hearing her mentor being called something like "the boy in all black". Nevertheless, it kind of felt neat for her friend to become a decently big talking point for her peers.
As the girl had finished her first week of classes, she looked up at the afternoon sky. She smiled as she watched the clouds. "Thanks for trying this school thing out."