Jason knew that she’d probably forgotten he’d existed. Trying to open the door, he knew that she would now. But he had to keep trying to get out. For Bruce, for Dick, for the team…and for her, too. Just in case it did make a difference.
“Class, this is Jason Todd.” The teacher—Jason didn’t bother remembering her name—forced a strained little smile, obviously trying to cover for his attempt at ignoring them all. “Jason, why don’t you sit in the open desk in back?”
Jason rolled his eyes. “Really? I thought I was supposed to share a desk with someone else when there’s an empty desk right there.” The class broke into snickers, and Jason smirked at the exasperated teacher before going to his desk. He leaned back, glancing around to get an idea of everything.
Next to him, a girl with dark brown hair and golden-brown eyes frowned at him. “You should be more respectful toward the teacher,” she said to him.
With an impish smile and a shrug, Jason replied, “Respect isn’t priority one on the streets.” He looked at her open notebook, which already had her name written neatly on the top of the paper, and added her name, “Mona Ryder.”
She glared at him out of the corner of her eye and shushed him, and Jason instantly decided that she was too serious. He’d make her smile if it killed him.
“Charity case” was a constant insult that Jason had gotten used to. That didn’t stop him from clenching his hands into fists and trying to not punch them in the face. If he did, then Bruce, Alfred, and Dick would all lecture him for hours about controlling his temper, and he was too impatient to deal with that. So he ignored it when people muttered it under their breath, acting like it didn’t matter in the least as he took his seat. They were doing some stupid group work thing in class. Although he didn’t mind quite as much, since it was with the person sitting next to you, and he’d gotten used to Mona, even if he hadn’t made her smile yet.
Mona, on the other hand, still didn’t like him in the least; she had no reason to push her chair back, get to her feet, storm over to the guy who’d said it, and kick him in the shin as hard as possible, all with a straight face. The guy dropped, eyes bulged at her, but she turned, walked back to her desk, and sat down. “Don’t insult my partner,” she said in a falsely-cheerful tone. “Ever.”
Almost the entire class broke down laughing. They snapped back to work when the teacher came back into the room, but smirks and grins were still crossing people’s faces and glimmering in their eyes. Jason, for his part, stared at Mona, shocked. Wow, he thought, stunned. Just…wow.
But, he noticed, she hadn’t smiled.
It was in spring, near the end of the school year, that it worked.
About a month ago, Jason had started writing notes. Stupid little things, really, just random things he picked up from Dick, the Internet, Dick, the team, Dick, TV, Dick, songs, Dick, the news, and oh yeah, did he remember to include something from Dick? Most of the ridiculous ones came from the ex-Boy Wonder. After writing them, Jason would stick three or four in Mona’s desk before she arrived, watching carefully to see her reaction. So far, there had been no luck.
Today’s was from the Internet. He couldn’t remember where, but someplace online, somebody had come up with “I like your shoelaces” and “Thanks, I stole them from the President” being a code for knowing other people on the website. Figuring ‘why not’, he’d written it and shoved it into her desk right before she got there. The worst that could happen was that she would roll her eyes like every other day.
This time, though, Mona covered her mouth, but her shoulders were shaking, and her eyes were shining. She wasn’t just smiling. She was laughing! “Finally!”
Mona looked at him with her head tilted a little, still smiling. “So it was you leaving those.”
Jason stiffened a little, realizing he’d said that aloud. But he played it cool. “So? You need to smile more,” he said, glancing sidelong at her as he slid his textbook and notebook under his chair.
Putting her hands under her chin and her elbows on her desk, Mona asked, “Why?” There was a sparkle in her eyes that the young bird recognized. Babs had it sometimes when she and Dick were talking about nothing (read: flirting while Bruce wasn’t looking).
Jason really hoped he wasn’t blushing. “Because,” he said, looking at her. “If you don’t have any fun, then you might as well be a boring person anyway.” He was careful not to say the next part; he didn’t need anyone to think he was following Dickie-bird’s example of being a flirt. You look prettier when you do. She didn’t need to know that he thought that, though.
“Here,” Mona said on the second-to-last day of school. Jason glanced over to see her sitting on her desk, writing something on a piece of paper. They had become friends over the past couple of weeks since Jason’s task had finally succeeded. They didn’t hang out outside of school—Dick would never let Jason hear the end of it—but a nervous feeling hit Jason in the gut when Mona handed him the paper with a phone number written on it.
“What’s this for?” Like he hadn’t seen a million girls do this to Dick and Bruce.
“I know you’re Bruce Wayne’s adopted son and all,” Mona said, “and you never have paid attention in class a day in your life, but try not to forget everything, okay?”
Jason raised his eyebrows and grinned at her, hiding that his heart had just stopped for a second. “What, you think my memory’s that bad? Or is this you trying not to ask for a date?”
WHERE THE HECK DID THAT COME FROM?!?
Mona shoved his arm and slid into her seat, ignoring how stunned Jason was. “Shut up, Todd. You need some training from your brother on how to figure out when a girl likes you.”
She what? She likes me? Jason quickly pulled up the hood of his red jacket, trying to hide that his face was burning. Seriously?
Then the rest of her sentence hit.
Bruce didn’t put up with Dick and Babs. How in the world was Jason supposed to get away with ever having a girlfriend? Or an actual life, for that matter.
Leaning back on his chair, he tried to think of a way to put this without getting to flustered or admitting to anything. “Look, Mona…that’s great and all…and I—it’s just—um, I don’t think—I mean—I’m pretty sure Dick has ruined any patience Bruce has with that kind of thing. From us, I mean; he still gets to have his playboy attitude, but…I really don’t think it’ll work, not as long as he can say something about it…”
Surprisingly, Mona seemed like she’d been expecting that. “It doesn’t have to be dates,” she said. “Just hanging out. ‘Cause if you forget about me, Jay—”
“Never,” Jason promised instantly. “I swear it.” Mona smiled and gave his hair a small tousle.
“Good. Promise me you won’t lose that paper, either.”
Tucking it safely inside his pocket, Jason nodded with a solemn expression. “I’ll keep it even after I memorize it,” he said sincerely. “And I’ll call. I promise.”
Watching the bomb timer hit four seconds, Jason had to acknowledge it. He was going to die here. Two thoughts flashed through his mind as it hit three, then two. One was a simple apology, for running off, for getting himself killed, for everything he did wrong. And the other was a phone number.
It was broad daylight, but Jason didn’t care. He stood outside Gotham Academy, watching the students stream out after the bell rang. All of them were chatting with their friends, laughing, and enjoying their freedom from the boring hours locked inside a classroom of people they didn’t really like in the first place. The pettiness of it all almost made him laugh. They thought they were so grown-up, but they had no idea. Even before, they’d always been kids compared to him, but now…now they were barely toddlers.
Still…he wanted to see. He didn’t care about the vast majority, but there were a few that he wanted to find among the sea of faces.
It was easy to pick out his replacement. To Tim Drake, it didn’t make a difference that no one suspected their real identities; he wore the reflective sunglasses anyways. He was alone among all of the people, books tucked under his arm to bring home like a good little geek. Jason knew the feeling of being avoided, but it wasn’t out of empathy that his hands clenched into fists.
But it didn’t take the replacement long to vanish into the crowd without mingling at all, and Jason was left searching for the one person he actually wanted to see.
Bruce had taught him to take in everything with one glance—a skill that never seemed difficult until you had to learn it from the Bat. But like everything else, Jason had learned and done his best to master it. Right now, it was helpful; it meant he didn’t have to spend thirty minutes looking at the same thirty people to find out if she was in the group or not.
Finally, somewhere in the last stragglers leaving the building and just as he was starting to wonder if this was a good idea after all, he found her.
Mona was with a group of her friends, talking to them about some movie that they were going to watch after school that day. The others were all laughing, but as always, she was too serious, straight-faced, and mostly nodding along. Jason could see the smile in her eyes, though, and he had to grin. She had gotten better.
Had she been alone, Jason might’ve gone and talked to her. But he didn’t need to deal with other people right now. Too much had changed for that. He watched for a few seconds longer before putting on his red helmet and turning away. Maybe some other time.
After all, I did promise I’d call.
A/N: This was a lot of fun to write. :) I might have to come back to this verse later~ I hope you like it, Hero and everybody else reading!
