Chapter 3 Projected Trajectory is Here!
Woo!
I've barely started ch 4 tho so it might be a while before I get that published lol...
An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works
-
Exactly ten minutes later, Bruce Wayne had entered the Family Dining Room. Duke politely excused himself, despite his obvious curiosity, while Bruce led Danny and Jazz to a cozy sitting room, back past the hall where their guest room was. Armed with a folder, a spiral notebook, the binder Jazz had given Batman, and both a pen and pencil, Bruce sat in an armchair opposite a large, L-shaped couch the siblings had claimed, coffee table in the middle. Thankfully, the large window made them feel less trapped, like they could escape if they felt they needed to, and the two beanbag chairs in front of the window made the room feel more lived in, rather than an untouchable showroom in a magazine.
“I’m glad you both look better than when you arrived,” Bruce began. “But before we make more plans, I wanted to confirm that you both do want to stay here in Gotham.”
The siblings looked at each other and Danny shrugged, leaning back and letting Jazz lead the conversation.
“All things considered, that is probably the best course of action,” Jazz sat up a little straighter, easily stepping into the familiar role of caretaker. “At least for now.”
“You still have reservations, then.”
“A lot has happened very quickly,” Jazz deflected, looking away. “We haven’t really had a chance to examine all of our options.”
“I see,” Bruce nodded, picking up the folder first. “Then that’s probably the best place to start. As promised, we’ll make sure you stay together no matter where you’re placed, and I assume that decision will mostly be affected by your plans for the future, and the most important factor to narrow possibilities is whether either of you want to continue being heroes. If yes, you will be placed with a League hero who will be in charge of your training, but if not, you will be placed with a trusted, non-hero associate unless there are specific reasons not to. Everything else will fit around that choice.”
“Well, I kinda have to,” Danny interjected, then hesitated. He glanced at Jazz’s binder, then sighed, folding his arms tightly over his chest; Batman or not, Bruce would probably need to know at some point. It’s not much of a secret that he funds the Justice League, and if he was trusted with that binder, he probably had some manager-type duties, or at the very least was in charge of their case.
“It’s really personal, so don’t ask about it unless I bring it up first,” he continued, looking away uncomfortably. “But I’m sort of hard wired to protect others. I will literally go nuts if I can’t. So, wherever we end up, I’m gonna have to do hero stuff.”
Danny really didn’t wanna open that can of worms right now.
Unfortunately, Bruce’s attention had zeroed in on Danny as he said this, locked onto the mystery dangled in front of him, and Danny barely resisted the urge to shrink into the couch under the intense scrutiny. Jazz cleared her throat and Bruce’s eyes snapped to hers, getting caught in her protective glare as something seemed to click in his brain. He took a deep breath, closing his eyes and visibly pulling himself back.
“In that case, these are the League heroes who have agreed to potentially foster you two,” Bruce forced himself to ignore the temptation as he handed a stack of papers to Jazz, since Danny made no move to take it. Of course he had prepared for the possibility that they didn’t want to stay. “Not all heroes are ready for the commitment of being a full-time mentor, and fewer still are equipped to take care of fosters, no matter how independent. Each page is a hero with some general information, as well as a list of pros and cons for each choice, and a description written by the heroes themselves. The profiles are hardly comprehensive, and their civilian identities have been redacted unless it’s already public knowledge, so look through them and let me know if you have any questions.”
With that, Bruce traded the folder for Jazz’s binder and sat back to study it, occasionally writing in the notebook; trying to give them some amount of privacy while still being readily available. Jazz began scanning each paper, looking for any obvious deal-breakers, while Danny sat up to look over her shoulder.
After several minutes of careful scrutiny and silent communication, a stack of eliminated candidates was placed to one side of the coffee table while Jazz spread the remaining handful of profiles out in front of them. She cleared her throat to get Bruce’s attention.
“Ok, first important question,” Jazz said while Danny leaned back again. “Whoever we pick, will we still be able to consult with other heroes for more specific training?”
“Yes,” Bruce answered immediately, returning the binder and notebook to the table. “Regardless of their primary mentor, all League heroes have agreed to help train the next generation, including those who don’t want a full-time sidekick of their own.”
“Ok, that does make me feel better eliminating options,” Jazz nodded, looking back at the papers. “The Atom is a scientist, which will be closer to what we’re used to, and he works with the Justice Foundation so we’d be close to mom and dad, but the environment could be triggering as well as limiting Danny’s ability to fulfill his Obsession since Atom’s not out in the field much. Zatanna seems like a good choice, too, now that we know that there’s a connection between ecto and magic, but with her identity being public our parents are more likely to find out about Danny’s condition, and we want to tell them ourselves, if it’s going to happen at all. Since you’ve confirmed that we can seek specialized training without committing to live with them, I can safely eliminate them from the list,” Jazz put their profiles on the eliminated stack. “Which leaves just the three founders of the Justice League.”
She squirmed uncomfortably as she glanced over the three remaining profiles on the table.
“I feel... for lack of a better term, ‘entitled’ by picking one of them, but they are the best choices to cover both Danny’s needs and my own. Superman would probably be the best match personality wise, and it’s common knowledge that he isn’t human so he’ll understand having non-human needs, but from what I can tell he was raised among humans on Earth, most likely in rural America, so he probably isn’t equipped to handle how... quirky Danny’s biology is, so as much as it pains me, he’s also eliminated.”
She moved his paper to the eliminated stack as well and Danny hid his disappointment that he wouldn’t get to live with an alien.
“That leaves Batman, who has already expressed an interest in taking us in, and Wonder Woman, who has connections to magic as well. Both would be great options as a mentor for Danny, so what about me? I could take or leave hero work, but I very much want to go to college, specifically in some area of psychology, and as much as Washington D.C. has some good options, and working with Wonder Woman would be really cool, Gotham has some of the best psychology programs in North America and I was already considering going to Gotham U long before any of this hero stuff happened. What do you think, Danny?” Jazz turned to her brother. “And before you say ‘you trust my judgement’, I don’t want facts and figures from you, I want your opinion about how you feel.”
Danny’s mouth snapped shut, cut off before he could even start, and sat up to look at the two final papers on the coffee table. What did he feel? Part of him still wanted to take Superman out of the eliminated pile, but Jazz was right; they could easily consult with an alien so he didn’t need to live with one, too. The magic connection was good, but he already had Frostbite and could easily talk to other Justice League magic users so, again, he didn’t necessarily need to be in such close contact with them. So, ignoring ghost hero stuff, who would he want to live with? Who would take care of his daily needs best?
“... Batman does seem to be the obvious choice,” he finally admitted, looking away. “I mean, he knows a lot about ghost stuff already and didn’t seem put off by it, he’s familiar with the situation at Amity Park and with our parents, he’s had plenty of experience training sidekicks, even if none of them had powers or whatever, and we are already here...”
Danny trailed off with a shrug. He felt like a spoiled, entitled brat just expecting for the Batman to take care of him. Their parents had never said that raising them was annoying, but they didn’t really have to for the siblings to feel like they were always in the way. Picking Batman made logical sense but it still made him very uncomfortable, so he leaned against Jazz’s shoulder, still looking away. Jazz sighed and leaned in, too.
“I know it’s a trauma response of neglect,” Jazz said quietly, not really seeing the papers she was staring at. “To minimize natural needs when the bare minimum felt like a luxury. But it feels like we’re asking for too much, being too inconvenient, even though it’s literally being offered to us...”
Bruce had been silently studying the siblings as they thought out loud, mentally cataloguing what they valued and what they didn’t even think to consider.
“Have you made your decision?” Bruce asked quietly, face held in a careful neutral. He wanted them to make this decision for themselves, not just accept what was expected of them.
Danny and Jazz shared one last look before Danny nodded and Jazz’s expression hardened with resolve as she nodded back, sitting up straight and looking Bruce in the eye.
“Yes,” she said. “We’ve decided to stay.”
“Then let’s get started,” Bruce smiled, barely hiding his delight.
“First, we’ve kind of been dancing around it, so I do want to confirm,” Jazz scratched the back of her head self-consciously. “You are Batman, right?”
Bruce huffed in amusement.
“Yes, I’m Batman.”
“Ok, and a follow up question, who else knows?” she continued. “About you and about us. Who do we have to be careful around?”
“Most of the Gotham vigilantes know that I’m Batman, and as such will easily deduce your identities if they see you in the field, though I’ve restricted as much information about you two as I could so that you could choose who to trust about what on your own terms,” Bruce assured and both siblings relaxed minutely. “Besides myself, Oracle knows the most out of anyone, through her investigation into the GIW, and I can’t control who she tells, but I’ve only revealed the basics to everyone else: your names, that your parents were arrested for unethical science, and that I offered to foster and train you both, if that’s what you want. All of my children are vigilantes, though Duke and Damian are still in training, and all of them have been trained as detectives so I can’t control what they may have discovered about you on their own, either; though, with the media blackout, they probably didn’t find much more than I did before arriving in Amity. I’ve warned them all to not overwhelm you both while you settle, so they’ve agreed to stagger their introductions, and I’ve let them take care of how that will work amongst themselves. From what I’ve been told of their plans, they’ve delegated different aspects of helping you settle as part of their introductions, on the assumption that you would be staying, of course. Aside from my own children, there are plenty of other Gotham vigilantes as well; while I have asked them to give you time to adjust, it will be up to them to respect that request. Outside of Gotham, I am very careful about who I trust with my civilian identity.”
Bruce took another stapled packet of papers from the folder and handed it to Jazz.
“I have a tiered list of people you are likely to interact with and approximately how much they know about me,” he explained, because of course he had a tier list of who’s close to him. “But a general guideline would be ‘the closer they are to the core of the Justice League, the more of my secrets I trust them with’ and I trust both Superman and Wonder Woman implicitly. I’ll leave it to them how they want to introduce themselves but I’m sure they’ll want to visit soon. I haven’t told Justice League Dark more than they already knew when we first met, Danny, but I don’t know how much they’ve researched on their own since then. Alfred knows everything and was trained as a military field medic, so he usually patches us up after patrols. For anything more serious or specialized, we see Dr. Leslie Thompkins, and most of our equipment is designed and fabricated by Lucious Fox, head of Research and Development at Wayne Enterprises. We don’t keep much from either of them, though they usually don’t ask anything beyond the scope of their expertise. Although, speaking of Dr. Thompkins, we’ll need to get both of you in to see her sooner rather than later, preferably before school starts, which we also need to discuss.”
“Isn’t that, like, a week away, though?” Danny grimaced. He didn’t particularly like the idea of a doctor examining him, on top of his world up-ending, and now going to a new school? It was all happening too fast; let him catch his breath first!
“A week from next Monday, yes,” Bruce confirmed. Today was Friday. “I know it’s not a lot of time to adjust, but I don’t want either of you to miss school or enter a school year part way through, which is a good way to be singled out and ostracized in a place like Gotham Academy. The media doesn’t know that you exist yet, but you will inevitably gain media attention simply because of your connection to me; however, I want to avoid making it worse if at all possible.”
“You’re right,” Jazz admitted. “I’ve read studies about social dynamics of various age groups. If we start even a week late, cliques will have already started to form and we’d be seen as outsiders even more than we already will be, a label that would likely follow us for years in a community as connected as a single city’s elite. I only have one year of high school left, so it wouldn’t be as big of a problem for me, but Danny would have to endure at least three years of that.”
“The only reason I was ok being an outcast at Casper High was because Sam and Tucker were there, too,” Danny admitted, rubbing his face. “Not that I want to schmooze with rich kids, but it’s better than the alternative...”
“You won’t have to reveal your connection to me right away,” Bruce offered. “No one will connect Fenton to Wayne for a while, hopefully not until we can announce it ourselves. Clark Kent is an amazing reporter and my usual go-to if I need help controlling a narrative for the media. Clark is well known for his integrity and has helped each of my kids with their public debuts, except for Dick since I adopted him before I met Clark, but we don’t need to worry about that immediately. The more pressing matters are getting you two enrolled, which will require a doctor’s appointment, and the immediate need for daily necessities. I will also need to put together a training schedule for each of you- no, first I should confirm, Jazz, do you want to be a vigilante in Gotham? You will need some amount of training either way, but if not, I will focus on things like self-defense and what to do when you are inevitably kidnapped.”
“’When’?!” Jazz balked and Bruce just nodded, very serious.
“Even if you were regular citizens, being held hostage is a fairly common occurrence in Gotham. Being connected to someone as influential as Brucie Wayne, it’s only a matter of time before you’ll be targeted.”
“I guess that makes sense...” Jazz grimaced. “Well, if I’m going to be in danger anyways, it may as well be on my terms. I’ll be a hero, though I may have to pull back to part-time once I get into college.”
“That’s reasonable,” Bruce easily agreed. “In which case, I will need you both to compile a list of your current skills and abilities, as well as your proficiency with them, and Danny, that will include a list of your powers. I observed many of them myself, but I’m sure I didn’t see all of them or their extent, nor do I know how they work. I’m not used to training those with superpowers, so I’ll need to know which heroes would be the best match to consult for them, especially for any powers you’re less familiar with.”
“Ok,” Danny warned. “But that’s gonna take a while.”
Bruce blinked, then narrowed his eyes, suddenly much more Batman than Bruce Wayne.
“Explain.”
“So, I have a wide variety of ghost powers,” Danny started, sitting up. “Most of which I don’t use regularly because they’re just so specialized that they’re only really useful in very specific situations. I use like five powers regularly, and they’re all kinda related anyways, like invisibility and intangibility are almost always used together. Then I have a handful of other powers that I can pull out in a pinch; some of them I don’t even remember doing, but Sam and Tucker swear I did at least once so those should probably be included, too,” Danny rolled his eyes, gaining momentum. “But for most of them I just didn’t have time to focus on training them to the point of being useful while trying to keep up with the constant ghost attacks, the schoolwork, remembering to eat and sleep, making sure our parents didn’t go off the deep end and do something I couldn’t fix, and I didn’t even have a social life because I just didn’t have time! And on top of that, I keep on developing new powers!” Danny cried, waving his arms around. “Or at least new ways to use old powers, if nothing else is working!”
Danny sighed, rubbing his face with both hands.
“Sorry for the rant,” he shook his head. “It’s just frustrating to always feel like I’m behind the curve.”
“You prioritized dealing with the immediate problem,” Bruce nodded thoughtfully, unbothered by the erratic tirade. “While understandable considering the situation in Amity, such a strategy will only be detrimental going forward. You implied Sam and Tucker have been keeping track of your powers?”
“Yeah, Sam’s got a notebook and I think Tucker has a spreadsheet or something, tracking separately since they couldn’t come up with a system they both liked and just swap notes,” Danny nodded, trying to ignore his embarrassment at getting so worked up. “They kept track of some medical stuff too, so I can get all of that next time I call them. Which reminds me, when can I call them and how much can I tell them? I don’t wanna lie to them if I don’t have to.”
“Hm,” Bruce frowned. “I know you trust them, but I have limited influence over the situation due to the media blackout and I don’t know them well enough to fully trust them myself yet. You can tell them that Batman is training you and that you’re staying with Bruce Wayne; it isn’t a lie, per se, but I’d like to keep my identities separate for now. Most people theorize that Bruce is at least funding Batman, so it would make sense for Batman to trust Bruce to facilitate your healthcare since they already know your health is complicated and would likely be expensive.”
Danny clenched his jaw, narrowing his eyes at Bruce; he knew the implied accusation of being inconvenient was just in his head, but it still made him bristle. He ignored the discomfort and sighed, looking away, not willing to die on this hill.
“I don’t like it,” Danny grumbled. “But I can see your point. Fine, it’s a reasonable request so I won’t tell them. I can’t stop them from figuring it out on their own, though.”
“Fair enough,” Bruce nodded, accepting the compromise. “I’ll ask Oracle to help set up a secure communication channel with them-”
“Tucker is really good a tech stuff,” Danny interrupted. “It might help to have them working at it from both ends.”
“Hmm,” Bruce tapped his chin in thought. “It will be difficult to coordinate around the blackout before the connection is secured, and I was too focused on your situation to set up anything more permanent before leaving. I’ll speak with Oracle. Depending on the solution she decides to use, we may need to set up something physical in Amity Park anyways. If so, I can send Rob-” Bruce froze, then sighed. “I can send Owl Light to Amity with the plan and equipment, and you two can accompany him.”
“Really?!” Danny perked up, ignoring the slip and the hero name he didn’t recognize. “We can go visit?!”
“I don’t have enough information to give you a timetable,” Bruce said. “But yes, I see no reason to keep you from them. Until we can access that list of powers, we will focus on your human form and non-ghost abilities along with Jazz and Duke.”
“Why?” Danny asked, cocking his head. “I’m not gonna be out there as a human, right?”
“There will inevitably be situations when you can’t use your ghost form for one reason or another and I need to know that you can still handle yourself appropriately. I’ve seen too many heroes with powers be useless without them because they weren’t prepared. I don’t know what may cause the situation, but I know that it will happen, and you will be ready.”
“Ah,” Danny thought back to a few times when he was stuck as a human during a ghost attack. “Well, when you put it like that...”
“Besides, with or without superpowers, there are plenty of skills that you will need in order to survive being a hero in Gotham,” Bruce smirked slightly. “Such as detective skills and how to interact with the media and the general public, both as a hero and a civilian; not to mention a crash course on Gotham’s rogues and the differences between small town and big city dynamics. You won’t be lacking things to do without the list.”
There was a quiet chime sound and Bruce pulled out a PDA-style cell phone, checked it, nodded, and returned it to his pocket.
“That can wait until later,” Bruce continued, a spark of amusement in his otherwise stoic expression. “Steph is here to take you clothes shopping and she’s getting impatient.”
-
“This is gonna be great!”
Stephanie Brown bounced out the Manor’s front door with Jazz and Danny in tow. She had wanted to invite Duke and Damian, too, since they also didn’t really have enough clothes in her opinion, but she couldn’t find Damian and Duke had managed to wriggle out of it, so it would just be the three of them. Steph assured them that she was the least likely of Bruce’s kids to be recognized in public, not to mention she wasn’t technically adopted so people probably wouldn’t care as much even if she was recognized. This wasn’t even something the siblings had considered might be a problem until she mentioned it.
Duke was right, though, Steph had energy to spare. It was actually a little overwhelming. Thankfully, it was the kind of overwhelming that they were used to; sure, that excited chatter was usually more scientific in nature, but it was familiar enough to be soothing so Jazz and Danny were happy enough to let her lead.
Taking them to a bulk clothing retailer first, they got the basics like underpants, bras, and undershirts, both tank top and t-shirt styles; all in a variety of plain colors.
“I grew up pretty poor, too, so I know how ingrained thrifting can be as a habit,” she’d explained. “But I’m not gonna let you two shut down with the culture shock of suddenly having cash to burn. We can use this to ease you into it, and we need a good base to build on anyways, then we can splurge on fancy, special pieces! I mean, we are building this wardrobe from scratch, ya know?”
They spent barely an hour at the bulk store, most of which was figuring out what sizes and shapes best fit their body-types; something neither sibling had ever considered, but it turns out Steph was really good at. Ditching their borrowed clothes for some of the plain ones they’d just bought, they hit the mall next and she dragged them from store to store, grabbing everything they showed even a passing interest in and hiding price tags as often as she could.
She got better at finding things they’d like as she got to know them. Anything and everything with a ghost or superhero theme for both siblings. Space, star, and alien stuff for Danny. Cute animals and simple patterns for Jazz. Danny loved all of the shirts with puns that made Jazz groan. Jazz swore she didn’t like the frillier items, with lace and bows, but didn’t fight against them as hard as she could have. A few nicer items, like button-up shirts and slacks for both, and a few simple but classy dresses and skirts for Jazz. Steph noted that Danny seemed drawn to a few feminine items, too, but he panicked slightly when she brought it up so she backed off and just filed the information away for later; now wasn’t the time to push boundaries.
All told, as exhausting as it was, both Danny and Jazz were honestly enjoying themselves, allowing Steph to disarm them with her playful excitement and genuine interest.
They had to make a few trips back out to her car, but after one last stop at a beauty salon for some basic toiletries like nice shampoo, and promising to take Jazz back for some makeup when they have more time, Steph decided they should take a break around dinner, opting to forgo the Food Court in favor of the nearby Batburger.
“Every item is named after a Gotham vigilante?” Jazz asked while Danny snickered to himself about the punny names as they both looked over their menus. It wasn’t exactly fancy, but as a sit-down, diner-style restaurant, it was a step up from regular fast food while still being affordably priced.
“Yup!” Steph chirped. “Tim came up with the idea to boost our image, make us more approachable to the average citizen while still being intimidating to the bad guys. They do stay away from using the rogues for anything, though, so we don’t encourage that kind of behavior, but we sometimes get specials based on other heroes, too! Those are always fun! Bruce is footing the bill, of course, and Alfred made me promise to feed you well before he let me take you, so order as much as you’d like.”
“So, it’s ok if I order two entrees?” Danny asked, letting a bit more hope leak into his voice than he meant to.
“Sure,” Steph chuckled. “Duke mentioned how much you two ate at lunch so I have no doubt you’d finish it, and even if you don’t, we can just take it with us.”
A waiter, in a polo and slacks uniform that seemed to be styled after one of Robin’s old outfits, took their order and Jazz decided to finally broach the topic they’d all been skirting around.
“So, uh,” she tried to be casual. “How much does everyone know about, um... our situation? Bruce said he tried to keep it under wraps but with everyone being trained detectives, well...”
“Yeah, we didn’t exactly become heroes to mind our own business,” Steph chuckled quietly, glancing around. “Now’s not really the place to go over who’s who, though, just in case, but Babs hasn’t been quiet about the dirt she’s dug up on the GIW. Sick bastards.”
Jazz and Danny stiffened while Steph glared out the window. The siblings flinched when the waiter returned with their drinks and suddenly Steph was all smiles again as she lightly flirted with him. He seemed slightly uncomfortable, though, and Steph immediately backed off without drawing attention to it as he went about his job. Danny couldn’t help but think back to what Duke said about Bruce and Tim’s airhead act and how quickly that switch can be flipped. Those two might not be the only actors in the family.
“On a safer note,” Steph smiled at them. “I am so glad I got to be the first one to really get to know you two! It was a hard won position, but totally worth it. But alas, all good things must come to an end and all the good clothes stores are gonna be closed by the time we’re done eating. We got a good start on your wardrobes, at least-”
“’Start’?!” Danny balked.
“-and someone else called dibs on helping you decorate your rooms," Steph grinned at the interjection. “Tim asked if we could pick him up from WE, though, if you don’t mind one more stop. I think he wanted to get you patched into our network and stuff, so we could keep you in the loop about plans instead of kinda springing it on you like we did today.”
Food arrived and small talk was had. Jazz and Danny agreed Nasty Burger was better but recognized their clear nostalgic bias. When questioned about the name, Jazz said it was a locally owned burger joint that used to be the Tasty Burger when it opened but it was vandalized at some point and the owner was too cheap to fix it. By the time it was sold, everyone knew it as Nasty Burger and the new owner decided to lean into it, rebranding everything to match. Small town quirks at their finest.
Finally back in Steph’s car, Danny was tired of waiting.
“So, which hero are you?” he asked from the back seat as soon as the doors were closed, not bothering with subtlety.
“I’m Batgirl,” Steph chuckled as she started driving away. “And your hero name is Phantom, right?”
“Yup.”
“Gonna keep it or try to rebrand in a new city?”
“Huh,” Danny cocked his head. “I hadn’t actually thought about that. With the media blackout, it’s not like anyone outside Amity is gonna recognize Phantom, or at least no one living.”
“I can see pros and cons for both, and it’s good to keep your options open,” Steph nodded, glancing at Jazz in the passenger seat. “What about you, Jazz? I don’t remember hearing a hero name for you.”
“Oh, I don’t have one,” Jazz said. “No one on Team Phantom did besides Danny, and even then it was only really while he was transformed so our parents didn’t find out, otherwise we probably wouldn’t have bothered at all. Everything’s been happening so fast, though, I haven’t really had time to think about something like a hero name.”
“Cool, cool,” Steph nodded distractedly, then chewed her lip, hesitating. “Would you... consider being Batgirl?”
“What, but, wait-” Jazz stuttered in shock. “That’s your hero name!”
“I know, but I’m 23,” Steph shrugged. “I feel like I’ve outgrown being Batgirl and I’ve kinda wanted to change names for months now but couldn’t find a good excuse to. Passing the name to you would be perfect! And I wouldn’t have to feel like I’m abandoning it, ya know?”
Steph gave a nervous, embarrassed chuckled as Jazz stared at her with wide eyes, shock turning into awe, then contemplation as she looked out the front window. Steph sped up slightly as the light turned yellow and Jazz and Danny both kissed their hands and touched the ceiling with it in identical motions.
“What was that?!” Steph laughed, glancing at them both as they looked at her in confusion.
“What do you mean?” Jazz asked, legitimately not sure what Steph was talking about.
“The touch the ceiling thing?” Steph kept laughing but was now almost concerned. “That was like creepily in sync, guys.”
“Oh, that,” Jazz suddenly understood and looked away, embarrassed.
“Wait, do you not kiss the ceiling when you drive through a yellow light?” Danny asked, almost incredulous, but quickly noted Steph hadn’t done it with them.
“Everyone in Amity does it,” Jazz shrugged, still looking away. “I guess I never realized it was just an Amity thing.”
“Is there a reason for it? Like a superstition?”
“I... don’t think so?” Jazz cocked her head and Steph noted it was the same way Danny did. “I never really thought about why, everyone just did it, so it’s probably like a ‘knock on wood’ type of superstitious tradition.”
“That’s honestly kind of adorable,” Steph was still grinning. “I might have to steal it. Just ‘cause.”
Jazz smiled in relief, glad that Steph wasn't too weirded out, and Danny snickered as they approached a sleek and fancy skyscraper with a big, silver W on the front.