"Yes, the Academy has a dress code. Mason, why does this surprise you?" You spoke through the phone, resting your cell on your shoulder while you tried to button up the white blouse. Apart of the uniform. There were no creases in it, perfectly fit for you and wrinkle free. The buttons had a bit of a cream color to them, adding more depth to the uniform other than just a blank, white, boring button up.

"I'm not surprised, but it kinda weirds me out to think you'd actually go to a school with a dress code." Your friend responded, though he lived in Portland? He definitely had a Washington accent. You only rolled your eyes at his response, lightly smiling while you continued to work with the buttons on your blouse until you got to the very top. Leaving it unbuttoned so yu could grab the light blue tie off of your desk. Walking back to your brand new bed, plopping yourself down and putting Mason on speaker.

"Why is it so hard to believe? My mom signed me up for tons of different scholarship openings. The only one that opened up for me was in Gotham. It's a Wayne foundation thing, apparently. I didn't even know what that was until we actually got to Gotham." You replied, trying your hardest to knot the tie around without making a noose on accident.

"Wayne what? Melissa and Andrew and Maria already got suspended, and you've only been gone for a day. Just thought you should know." Mason said, shrugging off the mention of the Billionaire he knew nothing about. It's a bit of a rarity to not know who Bruce Wayne is, you only really ever heard the name 'Wayne' in newspaper clippings or online every now and then. Being so far away from Gotham meant that a lot of that stuff isn't very important.

"What the hell did they do?!" You exclaimed, voice raised and knitted together perfectly plucked eyebrows. Portland is about four hours behind Gotham, so while you're getting ready for school? They're about four hours into the six hour block. Lucky them, only two more hours of school left while you're still getting ready to begin your first day in high school. Summer break has been nothing but a disappointment. Aside from being pushed down a hill in a shopping cart at full speed, that bit was fun.
"Food fight, it escalated into Maria grabbing the fire hydrant and spraying down Alex with it. They had to call an ambulance, because apparently you aren't suppose to breathe that stuff in. It can like, freeze your lungs or something. Ya' think she's gonna get super powers from it?" He replied nonchalantly. You swear, your left eye is probably twitching.  The comfy bed beneath you has suddenly felt more stiff, how do you stand these people? Better yet, how are they not dead already without you gone?

"Unlikely. Is Alex going to be okay? I'm not friends with her and all but if anything happens to her, I'm sure Maria's gonna get into  lot of trouble." You replied to him, finally getting the tie around the white collar perfectly fine. Pretty, and neat. You smirked after winning against the blue death rope of society standards, called a school uniform necktie.

"Maria's on her last warning, only reason that she isn't expelled is because she didn't know that it would put Alex in the ER.  Andrew only got in trouble because he tried to take the extinguisher from her, but ended up throwing it through a window on accident. Melissa mouthed off to the security guard, so yeah." He sounded bored, tired even. And Mason is the one who usually causes trouble.

One of his more well known things he's done in school was take a lunch tray and grease it up with cafeteria butter before sitting on it and taking it down the stairs. Something tells you Gotham Academy isn't going to have all the crazy antics that your school in Portland did. Makes you feel relived, at the same time a little disappointed.

You picked up the black pleated skirt that went with the uniform. It was laying on your bed, to your left. Laying on top of the grey covers of your soft blanket. Still warm from your body heat. You wished you were able to go back to sleep, really.

"And you're the one on your best behavior?" You asked, a laugh easily heard in your voice. Though it sounded wry, and somewhat pathetic. None the less, you still focused on getting dressed than actually responding to Mason. Pulling the black skirt up your bare legs, stretching them out one at a time before standing up. You let nimble fingers work with the clasp in front, sticking your tongue out while you worked with the cold metal.

"I mean I guess? I'm just tired, but I think with you gone, somebody's going to have to step up and keep everyone in line. Can't say I'll do it as good as you do." He replied, voice going slightly deeper near the end. Like he was trying to keep quiet, not let anybody know he was on the phone. At this? You sighed. Of course he's skipping class right now, hiding in the boy's locker room and sitting in the corner somewhere on his phone. He does this often.

"You say that, yet you're skipping class."
"Hey, I got a B in physics right now. Plus we're just watching a movie that I've already seen. You skipped P.E all the time because you just didn't want to do the pacer, so you've got no room to talk." He cut you off, an actual genuine laugh could be heard in his voice. You smiled at that, knowing he's going through some stuff at home right now.

You reached over and grabbed one of the over the knee socks, they went up high enough that your skirt would cover the tops of them, and your skirt wasn't short. It went just above your knee, maybe half an inch above. This wasn't a Halloween costume school uniform, thankfully. This wasn't some schoolgirl fantasy uniform, thankfully.  That being said, the uniform wasn't awkward or ugly either. You wouldn't call it your every day attire outside of school, but it's something you could easily deal with.

"You're forgetting that I'm a national champion in six states holding the gold medal for fencing tournaments, as well as Germany's national-"
"-Yeah, I get it. You still don't have room to tell me I can't skip my physics class. I don't have a Nobel prize for anything physics related so I don't have the same excuse as you. Tone the arrogance down, firecracker." God, that nickname. You hated it, but at the same time it made you feel a little less homesick to hear it.

"Pardon my language, but fuck the pacer." You said in a deadpan, blank face behind the flat tone. You could hear Mason snort from the other end of the line, a short laugh following after.

You bent over, pulling each sock up your leg one foot at a time. Closing your eyes with a faint annoyed expression on your face, sliding your hands up past your knees until you stopped at the higher end of your thigh. Snapping the fabric in place and doing the same with the other black sock.

"The Fitness Gram Pacer Test is a multi stage capacity test that progressively gets more difficult as it continues. The twenty meter pacer test will begin in thirty seconds. Line up at the start, the running speed starts slow. But gets faster each minute after you-"

"Oh my god, go to hell." You laughed, standing up from the bed and walking on the olive colored carpet floor. Finding your brown and black oxfords with about an inch heel on them. They weren't hard to walk in, it was only an inch. They were kinda comfy actually. They also looked nice, but kinda awkward at the same time.

You stared at yourself in the full body mirror. White button up blouse, check. Blue necktie, check. Black pleated skirt, check. Thigh high black socks, check. Oxford shoes, check. The final need for the uniform, a black blazer that hung on your doorknob. You'd grab that and put it on right before leaving. So in the mean time, you walked over to the vanity desk in your room and took a seat in the light green chair, and sat in front of the smaller mirror with stickers on the edges of the mirror. Something you did when you were little that you regret now.

"Dude, you need to prank everyone at your new school. Nothing low key, but indirect. Switching out the audio at the national anthem during an assembly with the fitness test audio. That'd be freaking gold." He said and here you thought he was going to keep everyone in line, not get the one person with the best behavior to cross the line, if not just play jump rope with it.

You looked at the red and raw skin around your eyes, lack of sleep. Red eyes from crying the night before. Yes, it's a given you missed your friends. There's nothing wrong with crying a little bit, you're just as human as the next person. You're not completely devoid of emotions. You're actually controlled by them, really. The school dress code only had rules against heavy make up, so a little concealer under your eyes to hide the redness should be fine. A bit of mascara to make your light eyelashes darker should also be okay.

"I'll think about it." You lied, indulging and humoring him anyways.

"Oh, shouldn't you be careful though? Don't wanna have the big and scary Batman catch you in the act." He joked, at this your face dulled down a bit, eyes going directly to the floor as your hands went to your lap. Mason took your silence as a note to not talk to you about vigilantes.

You let your hands trail back up to your desk, reaching for a ring. The only thing you have from your father aside from the dull and clunky pocket watch that doesn't even work. Yet for some reason, you still keep it with you, everywhere you go. Knowing you'd get called out for wearing a ring, as it's one of the many dress code violations. You stuck it on  leather chord and tied it around your neck, tucking it under your blouse.

"I gotta go." You mumbled, standing up and going to the phone, ending the call with Mason quickly. Hearing him say something, but it was cut off when you pushed the big red button that signaled an end call. Shoving the phone into your messenger bag, you walked over to the door and grabbed your blazer off of the knob before opening the door. Announcing to your mother that you're ready to go, that you're ready to start your first day at school.

****

"U-Um excuse me?" Nobody was listening to you.
"I don't know where my first class is..." Nobody was looking at you.
"Hello?" Nobody seemed to even hear you.
"I'm new here, can you show me where the main gym is?" Everyone was rushing past you, sometimes bumping into you.
"I don't know where to go-" Whenever someone did look at you, they only shrugged their shoulders.
"M-Miss!" Not even the teachers.
"Ugh." Giving up.

Eventually you gave up on speaking in general, everybody was trying to get to their first class. So what do you do? You take a seat on one of the benches outside in the courtyard, sitting next a large hedge with red roses hidden in some of the green bush. Pulling one off and plucking at he petals, tearing some of the petals in half slowly as a way to make time pass. You just felt defeated, really. And the way your fingers felt against the velvet like red rose petals calmed you down a little bit, making you feel a little less overwhelmed and worked up.

By now, you had a lap full of petals and thorns. Your messenger bag on the ground by your side, the suns rays hat were slightly hidden behind a couple grey clouds still let shine through and in your general direction.

Your ears perked slightly upon the noise of footsteps approaching you, so upon natural instinct? You turned your head around and peeked from the corner of your eye of a figure coming in your general direction, presumably the main office.

Mistake? The two of you locked eye contact when he came close enough, allowing you to see  faint shade of emerald like green hidden behind dark eyelashes that you were actually jealous of this boy having. Not jealous as in an angry way, more so like a wow kinda way. The closer he got on the concrete path, the easier his facial features were to see.

A sharp jawline, piercing green eyes, olive skin, dark black hair that was styled with gel. IT looked messy, but the kind of messy somebody does on purpose. Like neat messy? Neat messy. Eyelash boy with neat messy hair. Haha, eyelash boy.

His uniform looked perfect, not a single violation to the dress code and yet he still made it look good. Despite the fact that the dress code and uniform were there to suppress things, and make every student similar, you could still see something on him that most of the other students didn't have especially. Slight defined muscles. It was mostly whenever he moved his arms that you saw how the fabric moved, really.

You turned back around, sighing and going to pick up your bag so it would look like you were doing something instead of skipping class. About ready to take out a textbook, you heard a not so subtle cough from behind you, catching your attention and making you turn back around again.

"Can I help you?" You asked politely, smiling softly and tilting your head a little bit. Maybe being nice would make him leave you alone, because you could really just skim your textbooks right here and say you got lost on the first day.

"Can you tell me where the library is." Jeez, it didn't sound like a question. It sort of sounded like a demand that hinted at a question. And Mason calls you arrogant. None the less, you still replied, placing your index finger on your chin while the teenager came to step closer to the bench, coming from the other side.

"I actually don't know. I'm new here, so I didn't get the tour. You're asking the wrong person, sorry to tell you." You replied shrugging your shoulders and going back to your bag, though when he took a eat next to you? You raised an eyebrow and looked over at him via side glance.

"Tt, you're new here, and you're just sitting there, when the office is right over there?" He asked, letting his eyes trail down to the mess of rose petals and thorns in your lap. A slight grimace on his seemingly perfect features.

"You're the one who asked me were the library was, doesn't everybody who isn't new know where that is? You don't know me, I could have been trying to calm down because of the anxiety of coming to a new school." You defended yourself, crossing your arms after wiping off all the petals and thorns from your lap.

After about five more minutes of speaking, until you walked off to the main office and he went to find the library. He wasn't the most polite, but he did apologize for being harsh at first. IT didn't really sound like an apology, though. "It was unnecessary for me to make accusations of you", is probably about as close to "I'm sorry", as this guy's ever said.

None the less, you still wondered who he was.