“That was a very stupid thing to do Max,” the woman
heard from inside the Batsuit as she made her way back home.
“What did you want me to do, just sit by and watch?”
Max retorted in a disgusted tone.
“Yes, that was exactly what
I wanted you to do. I thought that was
what we had agreed to earlier,” Mr. Wayne replied. Max rolled her eyes at the comment.
“Listen, I had the suit, I decided to help out. Everything turned out alright,
I don’t see what you’re so upset about.” The costumed woman leaped onto the next
building on her route to her home.
“I’m upset,” Mr. Wayne began, “because everything
could have turned out in a very disastrous manner. Had those criminals beaten you, not only
would you have been in danger, but so would Terry and I. That suit is connected to other people and
you risked them as well as yourself to go gallivanting on some super hero
flight of fancy.” Max felt her anger
start to rise up.
“So your fears are more important than the lives of
those people in that club tonight?” Max asked in a biting voice.
“Yes,” she heard bluntly. “All the lives that Terry will save in the
future were put into jeopardy at your reckless need for instant gratification.”
“I can’t believe you think that!” Max
almost yelled.
“I know that,” Mr. Wayne retorted. “What you did today showed a lack of respect
for everyone, including the lives of those people in that club. You didn’t even give the police a chance to
do their job.”
“Bite me,” Max responded, then shut off the receiver,
cutting Mr. Wayne’s voice off. “He’s
probably going to try the last ditch cut off switch,” the pink haired woman
said in a light chuckle to herself. “I
bet he flips his top when he realizes I took that offline too.”
After another five more minutes of travel time, Max
finally made her way back home, gliding quietly into her bedroom from the
outside window and slipped the suit off, stuffing it back into Terry’s
backpack. Terry…
“Man, is he gunna flip when
Jennifer
sat quietly on her bed for a long time in her pajamas, thinking about the night
and how upset aunt Barbra had been.
“I hope she forgives me one day,” the blonde said,
her face in a pout. “From here on out I
follow all the rules, I’ll be on the straight and narrow, nothing but school and
home for me.” Jennifer began to smile a
little as she thought about how she was going to follow directions and
eventually earn her aunt’s trust back.
Then her mind took a quick turn, like it had been doing on a regular
basis since she had been at the club. “I
wonder if Batgirl goes to school. Maybe
she just fights crime only. I’ll ask aunt Barbra for a meeting maybe, after she has calmed down a
bit. They have to know each other
right? I mean, they both fight crime so
they both have to work together at times.”
Jennifer fell back on her bed, her head hitting the soft pillow, letting
out a small sound. “Maybe I’ll ask
around school tomorrow. Someone will
know if she does public appearances.
Maybe she open’s up malls or shoe stores,” Jennifer exclaimed
excitedly. “Aunt Barbra wouldn’t mind if
I went to the mall I bet, especially if Batgirl was there.” Jennifer let her mind drift quietly as she
nodded off to sleep, dreaming dreams of adventure.
Chapter 4 – School Appearances
(“It was a school day, I knew she was there,” Biz
Markie – The Diabolical Bizmarkie)
Max hurried to Terry’s locker as soon as she set foot
onto the school grounds and as soon as she rounded the corner to the row of
lockers she was aiming for, she saw Terry standing there, waiting.
“Hey, Terry,” Max tried to say as casually as
possible to the young man.
“Don’t hey me,” Terry replied in a dry tone. Max was already bracing herself
for what was to come. “
“You gunna stop talking to me?”
Max asked in a somber tone.
“No,” Terry said.
“I can understand why he was upset but you did what you thought was
right and you stuck to your guns. Whether
“No, should I have?” Max replied as she followed next
to her friend, both heading to their next class they had together.
“I guess not.
She Gordon’s niece, I hear she got shipped up here to stay with the Commissioner
cause of all the trouble she got into at her old place.” Max chuckled lightly to herself.
“Well, where ever home was for her, if she thinks she
had trouble their, she apparently has never been to
“Yeah,” Terry replied as the two of them finally
moved into their class room. Max dropped
her head down as she moved in behind Terry, walking down the aisle way to the
back of the room, and began looking through her book bag for her curriculum
books. Suddenly Max felt a shoulder nail
into her arm, causing her book and papers she had just gotten out of her bag to
splatter all over the floor. Looking up
with a quick comment on her tongue Max felt herself freeze for a moment as she
looked the blonde girl from the club the night before in the eyes.
“Oh, I’m so sorry,” the blonde exclaimed as she
kneeled down to help pick up the strewn papers on the ground. Max stood still for a moment as the other
girl hurriedly started stuffing all the papers on the floor into one hand,
staring blankly down. Then the blonde
turned her head up to look Max in the eyes, causing the pink haired woman to
begin moving again. The blonde smiled
meekly.
“That’s uhh…. That’s ok,” Max said, finally gaining her
composer. Quickly, Max bent down and
scooped up her book and the last stray paper on the ground, then stood back up.
“I’m Jennifer,” the blonde said, extending her hand
out with Max’s papers in it. “Jennifer Gordon.”
“Hi, I’m Max,” she replied. Max took her papers back and stuffed them
into the book she had. “You already have
a seat?”
“Well no, not yet.
This is my first class,” Jennifer said smiling.
“You can sit in back with me and Terry if you want?”
Max asked, already leading the blonde to the back of the room.
“Sure, thanks,” Jennifer responded. As the class period started
Max sat at the center of the back table, Terry to her left and Jennifer to her
right. She spent most of the
class filling in Jennifer on the school and the current class that Jennifer
said she had. What the tests were like
and what teachers to really pay attention too.
As the two talked later that day during lunch, Max found out that
Jennifer didn’t do all that well in school, often choking on tests and essay’s.
“You know, if you want, when you have any tests
coming up I can help you study for them and I’m pretty good at essay’s if you want any help there too,” Max offered, then
took the last sip of her water. Jennifer
smiled brightly.
“That would be great,” she said happily. “Oh, I don’t know if you can come over to my
house to help me though. I’m kinda
grounded for a while.” Max saw a pained
look set in on the blonde’s face.
“Why’s that?” Max asked.
“I was at the club that got robbed last night,”
Jennifer began. “I was there after I
promised I was going to stay at home.
Aunt Barbra was pretty upset.”
Max felt herself move awkwardly a little bit at the mention of the
robbery, her scolding from Mr. Wayne still fresh in her mind.
“Everything turned out alright though, right?” Max
asked.
“Yeah,” Jennifer said excitedly. “Batgirl showed up and,” Jennifer began
making fist punching motions into the air as she made sound effects with her
mouth of punches and kicks. “She was
great!” Max tried to suppress her smile
as she listened to Jennifer talk for five minutes straight, recanting the
entire incident of the night at the club.
“After she got done I was all like ‘Don’t be a
stranger’. I could have killed myself I
sounded like such a dork. I don’t know
if I’ll ever see her again but if I do I bet she doesn’t even look at me.” Max watched as Jennifer’s face turned to a
kinda of pout.
“Hey, I’m sure she would talk to you if she saw you,”
Max said with a smile.
“Really?” Jennifer asked,
her mood noticeably picking up at Max’s words.
The two spent the rest of the day going to separate
classes, passing each other in the hall every once in a while, each one pulling
the other one over to ask questions about teachers an assignments and whatever
was at hand to talk about. Max was
finding herself liking Jennifer’s company more and
more throughout the day, sometimes aimlessly grinning in class as she thought
back to her previous night with her blonde fan watching her, cheering her
on. Finally the last period bell rang
and Max found herself searching through the crowd of
people, eventually finding Jennifer walking her way back to where Barbra Gordon
lived.
“Hey, you want me to walk with you back home? I can ask Gordon if I can come over to help
you study, I can be pretty convincing when it comes to school work,” Max said,
grinning. For a moment she watched as
Jennifer smiled softly back, not saying a word for a bit.
“I’d like that,” she said in a gentle voice. For a moment Max felt like she was going to
blush, then the feeling passed, leaving a sense of confusion in her she
couldn’t explain.
“So, what do you think of
“Well, it’s kinda loud,” Jennifer said, motioning to
the passing cars near by and all the construction work that seemed to be around. “And there are a lot more people than I’m
used to but I think I kinda like that.
It’s different, it feels like I’m not in the
same old place doing the same old thing.”
“
“You think maybe you could show me some of those
places?” Jennifer asked. “Where I lived
last, we never really had any type of art museum. I saw one once when I went on a field trip
but I can’t remember much of it though.”
Max smiled.
“Sure, we can go tomorrow if you want. They’re having a new exhibit of King Takmoon’s diamond.
It’s supposed to be a big-to-do from what I hear,
media and everything will be there.” Max said excitedly. She watched as Jennifer’s face began to
frown. “What?”
“I’m grounded, I forgot,” Jennifer replied.
“Well, let’s ask Gordon, she may make an exception
for a museum tour, especially if you have a chaperon,” Max said, letting out a
light laugh at the chaperon part. As Max
watched Jennifer smile back, the pink haired woman felt herself get an urge
that she wasn’t completely understanding of: she
wanted to hug Jennifer. She paused for a
moment, thinking about when the blonde had held her at the club the night
before, thought about it and wanted to tell Jennifer that she was the super
hero, that she was Batgirl. But before
anything could make any sense to Max, she felt her train of thought derailed by
the Gordon’s front door opening, Barbra Gordon stepping out.
“Hello aunt Barbra,” Jennifer
said, greeting her relative warmly. Max
shook her head, taking herself a little more out of
her lost stupor and looked up at Barbra Gordon.
“Hello Misses Gordan,” Max
said cheerfully.
“Hello,” Barbra said back, eyeing the two carefully. “Max, how are you?” the Commissioner asked.
“Oh I’m fine, I’m just walking Jennifer home,” Max
said, some part of her feeling hesitant about her phrasing.
“Aunt Bar, would it be ok if Max came over and helped
me study sometimes? I know I’m grounded
but it would be all school related stuff,” Jennifer asked quickly, trying to
get her whole point out before her aunt could say no. The two looked up at the Commissioner in
awkward silence for a bit as the older woman mulled things over in her head.
“Sure, I don’t think that would be too bad, just remember that if Max comes over, it’s for study only though. I don’t want to see you two at a club late at
night,” Gordon said in a serious tone.
Max and Jennifer nodded solemnly.
“Ok, well I have to go to work and I’m going to be late getting back,
are you going to help Jennifer with anything tonight Max?” Gordon asked.
“Well---“ Max began to say.
“If it’s ok, can she help me with some of my math?”
Jennifer blurted in. “Our math teacher
explained some formula’s I’m not really understanding for the assignment due
tomorrow.”
“Yeah, that would be ok,” Barbra said, smiling down
at the two. “I have some left over
dinner in the refrigerator if you two get hungry ok?”
“Thanks Misses Gordon,” Max said, happy to get to
hang out with her new friend. The two
bounded inside the house, Max following Jennifer around as the blonde showed
her the décor and rooms.
“This is my room,” Jennifer said opening up a door in
the hallway that lead to a small cramped room with one bed and a table and
chair in one corner. “What do you
think?”
“Wow,” Max said as she stepped in, looking at all the
clothes that were strewn about across the floor, bed, table, and chair. “This is a lot of clothing.” Max looked around the room puzzled at all the
outfits, stunned at the variety and colors.
“Yeah, I’m kinda a shopper I guess,” Jennifer said
with a light giggle. Max
smiled in spite of herself at the other girl’s laugh. She didn’t quite know why, but she was glad
that Jennifer couldn’t see her reaction at the laugh. The pink haired woman gingerly stepped around
the room, making sure not to step on any loose clothing laying
about, and peered at the magazines on Jennifer’s table. Most of them were fashion magazines and a few
on current events.
“Wow, you probably know way more about clothes than I
do,” Max said as she turned around to face Jennifer who was still at her
bedroom door. “I just have about three
outfits that I kinda jumble them all around.”
Max watched as Jennifer’s face lit up at the comment.
“Oooo! You want me to go shopping with you some
time?” Jennifer asked excitedly. “I can
find the most killer deals, it’s like a super power or
something.” Max paused as she reached
the door to leave the room and grinned.
“I’d like that,” Max replied. “Give me a chance to find something new to
wear instead of the same old stuff I always have.”
“Hey, we can go tomorrow,” Jennifer said. “We can go out shopping for a while and then
go to that museum show you were talking about with you in some of your new
clothes, how does that sound?” Max
suddenly felt herself warm up slightly at the question and paused for a moment,
unable to respond. Finally after a
moment, the pink haired woman re-gained her composure forcing her wits back to
herself again as she moved to the doorway that lead out of the room, stopping
next to her friend.
“Sure, that would be great,” Max said happily. “We can go right after school.”
“Dang!” Jennifer said
quickly. “I forgot to ask aunt Barbra.
Well…. I’m sure she’ll let me go,
I’ll just ask her later tonight when she comes back home or some time
tomorrow.”
“Ok,” Max said, unexpectedly feeling self-conscious
at standing so close to her friend in the doorway. Stepping out into the hallway, Max took a
step back, letting a little distance come between the two. “Ready to hit the books?” the pink haired
woman asked quickly, happy to have a subject she knew about become the topic of
conversation.
“Sure,” Jennifer said, and began leading Max down
into the kitchen. “By the way, I like
your hair,” the blonde said, turning her head while she walked down a flight of
stairs. Max felt her cheeks warm
slightly at the comment, her ‘thank you’ getting stuck in her throat for a
moment.
Suddenly Max watched as Jennifer’s footing lost it’s grip and the girl started to fall forward, ready to
tumble down the stairwell. Max jutted
out her hand, grabbing the blondes arm quickly, and gripped the railing with
her free hand while pulling Jennifer up to a solid standing position, next to
her.
“Thanks,” Jennifer whispered to Max who was now
standing so close to her they were touching.
Max continued to hold Jennifer’s arm gently with her hand for a moment.
“Yeah, no problem,” Max responded quietly back,
forcing her hand to let go of her new friend’s arm. For a moment, it felt to Max like her stomach
was hungry and full all at the same time, her hands felt warm too, just like
her cheeks were again. Max finally broke
the stillness, part of her not wanting too, and began moving down the stairs
again.
“The kitchen is just to the right,” Jennifer said
from behind Max, her voice still carrying a trace of softness. Max turned right as she stepped off the
stairs and headed down the short hallway into the kitchen that sat a table with
some chairs in the center of it, a lamp hanging overhead.
“I’ll get out the books,” Max said, wanting to talk
about something, anything, too help remove the awkwardness in the room she was
feeling.
“Ok, I’ll look for something for us to eat,” Jennifer
said, her voice now calm and collected. Max listened to the blonde’s shuffling in the
refrigerator as she opened up her book bag and began taking out pencils and
papers and books. “You want some milk to
drink?” Jennifer asked, her head still in the fridge.
“I’ll just take some water if that is ok,” Max
replied in a preoccupied tone as she shuffled through a series of papers for
some notes she had taken earlier that day.
“Are you lactose intolerant?” Jennifer asked, still
rummaging around.
“No, I just like drinking water is all,” Max said as
she held out the paper she was looking for triumphantly in front of herself,
smiling at it.
“You want some milk with your water?” Jennifer said,
finally turning away from the refrigerator, her arms cradling Tupperware
containers and a plastic jug of milk.
“No, that’s ok,” Max said grinning up at Jennifer who
was facing away.
“All right, but I think you’d look cute with a milk
mustache,” Jennifer said as she dumped all the containers she was holding out
onto the counter near where she was standing, then started reaching into a near
by cupboard for microwavable plates.
“Well, ok,” Max said, her face reddening
slightly. Max felt herself
mentally criticize herself for a moment.
She didn’t know quit why she was acting so silly around Jennifer but she
felt she should be acting more like an adult, especially with her role of being
a tutor.
As Max got the table set up with all the materials
she thought she was going to need to help Jennifer along with understanding her
teachers assignment, the blonde scooped bits of food from different Tupperware
containers onto plates and put them, one at a time, into the microwave, and
began cooking up their dinners. Turning
around while the food was cooking, Jennifer walked over and filled up a glass
of milk for Max and poured herself one too.
“You have your notes an
books ready?” Max asked as she took a drink from her glass. Jennifer turned to her backpack she had
brought with her and started searching through it, taking out various things
and laying them down on the table until she reached her book she was using for
her math class. Looking up from her
searching she saw Max’s upper lip dripping with milk and let out a light laugh.
“You should see yourself,” Jennifer said, her laugh
turning into a slight smirk. Max turned
her head slightly as her face flushed a little red and wiped her upper lip off. “See, I was right, you are cute with a milk-stache,” Jennifer said grinning. Max paused for a moment, unable to look the
blonde in the eye for some reason, then forced her
head up.
“Ok, let’s get to work,” Max responded with a cough,
trying to alter the giddy atmosphere to something more serious. Just as Jennifer began to sit down, the
microwave went off on the final dish causing the blonde to move over to the
machine and pull the food out.
The two decided to eat before they did any work, so
as not to spill any food on their books and papers. Max managed to get some tutoring done for
Jennifer but most of the night was spent making jokes, talking about themselves
and learning about the other. Max felt
her attention wrap around Jennifer’s stories of when she was younger, doing
this or that, causing the pink haired woman to lean in close sometimes, or
laugh others. Max and Jennifer ended up
on the couch in the living room playing a board game when Barbra Gordon finally
came home.
“Max?” Barbra asked in a wondering tone. Max looked up quickly at the Commissioner. “Isn’t it a little late to be here?”
“Oh!” Max said startled. “I lost track of time, I’m sorry Misses Gordon. I never meant to over stay my welcome.” Max quickly got up and rushed into the
kitchen to collect her things, apologizing on the way.
“It’s ok, just so long as Jennifer got some studying
done,” Gordon said, looking down at her niece who was sitting on the couch
still, trying to look innocent.
“Oh we did aunt Barbra,”
Jennifer replied. The blonde went into
the kitchen to retrieve the assignment that she and Max had worked on and
brought it out to her aunt, grinning at Max on the way who was grinning
back. “See,” Jennifer said, presenting
her work to her aunt as she re-entered the living room. Barbra smiled down at her niece.
“Ok, good job,” Gordon said. Max came walking out into the living room,
her book bag in hand and coat on. “Thanks
for helping out Max,” Gordon said.
“No problem at all Misses Gordon,” said warmly. Max turned and smiled at her friend. “I’ll see you tomorrow at school?” Max asked.
“Yeah,” Jennifer replied and beamed back at Max.
The rest of the short walk home, Max couldn’t stop
smiling or whistling, she couldn’t figure out why but she finally decided she
didn’t care, it was fun anyways.