DCxDP Fanfic Idea: Tax Brackets
Samantha Manson didn't have the best relationship with her parents. Not that she hated them or that they mistreated her, but they were constantly butting heads. They had an idea of what they wanted their daughter to be like, and Sam always fell short.
She won't surrender who she was just to make them happy, but sometimes, when she watched the way Danny's parents supported him, or when Tucker's mother gave her son complete attention when he spoke of his interest, she was tempted.
How would it feel to have her parents be proud of her? To smile when she showed off an outfit or listen to her passions? How could Danny and Tucker not see how lucky they were?
Sam loved her parents, but she also hated being around them. It was hard to put into words- the way she would die for them and avoid them at all costs. The air was always thick with tension around them, as they watched her every word, just so they could get through one conversation without someone snapping, and yet still they found some way to "fix" her.
Her room was her only safe space in the whole house. It was the one place her parents didn't bother to touch or change, even if they went into it to try to convince her to change her ways. Her mother made a habit of waking her with a dress that she had seen one of her friend's daughters wear, and thought This one will be the one to show Sammy-kins the light or some other nonsense.
Sam always made adjustments to the dresses, painting them black, cutting off the frills, and sometimes just accessorizing correctly, but she never threw them out. Perhaps it was sentimental of her; maybe she wanted to keep the gifts her mother had given her, or maybe she just liked watching her mother's face when she "fixed" the dress in the same way the older woman had wanted to fix her.
It was hard to say.
Even harder to defend when Danny and Tucker were at her house, looking through her closet, and finding all the dresses. Her friends started to spend more time at her place whenever she knew her parents wouldn't be home.
Of course, she asked for permission, but she made sure to time it with events they couldn't afford to miss. Her family was wealthy, but they were very much new money, and they needed connections, although establishing them with the other rich families was challenging, given their generations of experience managing their funds. Despite being comfortable in life due to her grandfather's invention, it was apparent that the family's wealth wouldn't last long.
Sam's parents depended on their rental properties. Neither bothered to work a nine-to-five job; instead, they merely bought houses and storefronts throughout Amity Park and rented them out to their new neighbors.
There was a reason Sam was able to hide her wealth.
When her parents moved to Amity Park, it was because they wanted to find a place that was affordable enough to buy multiple properties, yet still populated enough that it wouldn't be difficult to find renters. The family still received royalties from the deli toothpick cellophane-twirling device, but that would one day become obsolete, especially with the rapid advancements in technology.
It was their financial advisors who saw the end of their wealth in the future if they didn't act fast.
Her parents settled with a fixed budget, moving to Amity Park and ensuring the family's wealth grew if they lived as upper-middle-class, compared to the way they were both brought up, i.e., the ultra-rich.
Sam was only in the second grade, so she didn't really feel the shift from the two classes, but her parents certainly did. They couldn't do too much to the outside of their home, but they made up for it by making the inside so lavish. While inside the Manson home, they could pretend they were spending millions and millions as they once had, instead of staring worryingly at the number in their bank account.
Personally, Sam thought they were fine. It's not like they were anywhere near in danger of being homeless or even stressed about money, but her parents didn't see it that way. Sam and Grandma Ida weren't raised like them, where they had enough to be comfortable, not worry about being poor, but never at the bottom of the ultra-rich barrel.
Her mother and father had fallen from that tax bracket, and it killed them inside. The rentals in Amity Park would save them, that's what her father claimed; Sam only had to endure a few years of this lifestyle before they could reestablish a healthy cash flow and return to the ultra-rich.
Sam always rolled her eyes, thinking it was all too dramatic. Her life wasn't hard. In fact, it was one of the best in the entire zip code. She never had to worry about bills like Danny, never had to count coins for things like Tucker, never had to watch everything fall apart like Valerie, and she certainly never had to work a day in her life.
Then, the summer right before senior year arrived, and her parents burst into her room, carrying a new outfit they wanted her to wear. This time, she couldn't make adjustments. The reason?
It was a school uniform.
Sam's parents had finally saved enough money to escape Amity Park, the middle of nowhere. They had secured an investment with a few minor companies that were generating much-needed cash, and they had expanded their rental properties to three other states.
They were finally in the upper tax bracket that they had both been in during their childhood.
Jeremy's eyes were sparkling as he watched Sam pinch the cloth between her fingers as if it were something foul. "I was able to get you into Gotham Academy for your senior year. Only the wealthiest of children attend there. It's a dream come true!"
"Your dream," Sam hissed, throwing the uniform onto her bed. "I don't want some stupid snobby rich kid school. All my friends attend Casper High, and it's my senior year! This is when high school actually gets fun."
"Sammy-kins, Casper High was only meant to be temporary. You will be going to Gotham Academy, or you can forget your trust fund," her mother warned in that same no-nonsense tone of hers. It was the one Sam heard whenever she got a cold, and her mother panicked, hiring an entire medical staff team.
Sam doesn't think she will be able to outstubborn the woman on this.
"Oh come on, Mom, don't be so dramatic-" Sam starts only to have her mother cut her off with a hiss from behind her teeth. Jeremy wisely stepped away from his wife and daughter, giving them some space but not leaving the room.
"Do you know what I wouldn't have given to be allowed an education of this level? At an institution like this?" Pamela's eyes watered slightly with bitter tears. Sam froze at the sight of them. "My Father didn't believe women had a right to study, Samantha. It was literally tied into my trust fund that if I chose any higher education, I would be out on the streets. I didn't have the chance. You have this chance."
Pamela picks up the uniform, holding it out to Sam, one feminist to another, painted in different shades but sisters in arms all the same. "You're going to Gotham Academy."
Sam swallowed, taking the uniform with a shaking hand. "Okay, Mom. For you."
She rages, and sobs, and crashes when they leave her room. So many emotions swirling around her mind, but she was unable to let them out. After a while, she can't take it and rushes out of the house, riding her motorbike to Danny's place.
She texted her best friends to ask for emotional support outside her house, and within ten minutes, both agreed to meet. She doesn't pay mind to the movers - apparently, her parents weren't going to give her a warning that they were leaving Amitly Park that very week - but she does have to stop every little bit to wipe her eyes.
When she gets close enough to Fenton Works, she stops a bit to let the neon sign glow on her for a few seconds, realizing she won't see it for a very long time. Not if her parents have any say.
They had always wanted to forget they had to resort to this little town, but to Sam, this was her home, her upbringing. Her two best friends in the whole world were here. All her trials and triumphs, all her petty rivalries and endless memories.
All of it was right here in this small city.
She would be gone by Saturday if her father were to be believed. She only had three days left.
She knocked on the Fenton front door with tears slipping down her face. Jazz, who was visiting from college, opened it with a smile, but the second she registered Sam's devastation, the older woman dragged her into a hug without comment.
Two summers ago, when Danny and she broke up, Jazz had done the same thing. She might have been Danny's sister, but she was also Sam's friend, and despite the two being avoiding each other after a nasty breakup, Sam had missed her best friend like a lost limb.
Jazz had been the one to take her to get ice cream, the one who chatted softly about people just not working out romantically, and Jazz had been the one to help Sam mend the bridge between her and Danny.
Now it was Jazz that held her and promised to make her senior year great, even if Jazz was at Gotham U instead of Gotham Academy.
"On the plus side," Jazz joked after brushing Sam's hair out of her eyes, cuddling up together on the couch. Danny and Tucker had been attracted by the noise, both now sitting on the floor near Sam's feet. "You'll likely have a Wayne in your year. Free eye candy."
"Yeah, Tim Drake-Wayne, that boy could hit it," Danny jokes, patting Sam's feet. His eyes are red from his own tears, but his smile is still the same boyish, shy grin that attracted her attention all those years ago. "Maybe you can turn him Goth?"
"If you do, you've got to send me pictures," Tucker adds, placing his head on the couch cushion. "I bet it would be hilarious. In fact, I'll see that in person. How far is Gotham anyway? We could do some road trips whenever we get a chance."
"Great idea, Tuck!" Danny beams, turning to his sister, "Can we crash at your place when we get up there?"
"Of course. Just as long as you're okay sleeping on an air mattress in my one-room apartment."
Sam's world was falling apart, but at least she had her friends as a safety net; no matter what tax bracket she was in, they would always treat her as Sam and nothing else.
