Can A Bird Trust A Cat? (A Young Justice FanFic)

Chapter Three

DISCLAIMER: Guess what? I own nothing.

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As July ended and August approached, I learned new fighting moves, new places to practice my agility, and new names. Now I knew Catwoman's first name (Selena) and my alias for being her sidekick (Catgirl). I was also gaining her trust, slowly but surely. The first time I looked in the mirror was quite a shock for me. I knew that living on the streets for six months would change my appearance, but I didn't know that it would change it that much. My hair was longer than when I last saw it, and full of knots, leaves, and other various things that you would find sitting in alleyways in Gotham. Cracks ran across my lips from dehydration, and my face was so smeared with mud, car grease, and blood that I wouldn't know that was me if I wasn't standing in front of a mirror. I had known that my clothes were almost in shreds already, but they didn't help my appearance. It took about three hours to get everything out of my hair and trim it so there wasn't any locks longer than others, leaving the length of it a little past my shoulders, when before it reached the midsection of my back. My face finally got clean after thirty minutes, revealing a couple small scars dotting my face and dark circles under my eyes. Selena had let me borrow some of her clothes, which were slightly bigger than mine, but worked.

"August 17th," Selena said one day.

"Excuse me?" I replied. We were eating canned chicken noodle soup; not fancy, but better than nothing.

"August 17th," she stated again. "There's a new diamond arriving at May's Jewelry & Co. on the 15th. We're stealing it on the 17th."

"Why the 17th?"

"It would be stupid to steal it when it first arrived. Even the day after would be suicide."

"But there's hundreds of diamonds in Gotham. What's so special about this one?"

"It's called 'The Cat's Eye'."

"Of course it's called that. Do you WANT the Dynamic Duo to intercept us?"

"Yep," Selena stated, causing me to choke on a piece of chicken. I coughed for a full minute before I could speak again.

"Are you crazy?" I exclaimed. "Why would you want them to come after us?"

"Because we have an advantage over them."

"And what would that be?"

"You." Selena then got up to bring her bowl to the kitchen.

"Me?" I asked, but she didn't reply.

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I couldn't sleep that night, and, for once, it wasn't because of the cats using me as a pillow. Fighting brainless thugs was one thing, but fighting Batman and Robin was another. Frankly, I was scared. Not of fighting them, but losing. If I lost, I would be sent to a juvenile delinquent center. That was worse than the orphanage, but not by much. Knowing that I wouldn't drift off anytime soon, I got off the couch (my bed) and opened a window. I climbed out and down the fire escape, wanting to take a walk to clear my head. Soon, I was walking down the sidewalk, past homeless people sleeping and people walking home from work late. For once, I didn't feel like I had to hide from the cops. Maybe it was my clean face, or my untorn clothes, or even my brushed hair. But the nervousness was still there. So when a cop car rolled past, my old fears got the best of me, and I ducked into an alley. My heart was pounding, and I closed my eyes for a moment.

When I opened them again, I noticed an envelope laying on the ground, face down. It wasn't your ordinary envelope; it was a nice, cream colored one, and expensive by the looks of it. It didn't look like it belonged in a deserted alleyway, so I picked it up and turned it over. I immediately dropped it, and it felt like the wind had been knocked out of my lungs. I picked it up again and double-checked the recipient's name. There, in plain ink, was written 'Vanessa Edwards'. There was no address underneath my name. That wasn't the only thing that caught my attention, though. The return address said that this was from Gotham Academy, one of the nicest schools in all of Gotham. This was where all the rich kids went. What could they want from me? Better yet, who put this here? I quickly looked up and scanned the edge of the rooftops. Nothing. Nothing that I could see, anyway. Whoever put or dropped this here would be long gone by now. All of a sudden, I heard voices approaching. They didn't sound like the kind that handed out letters from prestigious schools. Not wanting to stick around, I turned and ran back to Selena's apartment, clutching my envelope in shaking hands.

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I ripped open the cream-colored envelope on the fire escape. Something told me that Selena wouldn't approve of this letter, or whatever it was. I pulled out a sheet of paper, unfolded it, and found it to be a letter, reading:

Dear Miss Vanessa Edwards,

I am delighted to inform you that you have been awarded a full Wayne Foundation Scholarship to the Gotham Academy. This will include TUITION and all EXPENSES.

Each year the Wayne Foundation selects a single student, who they choose with great care, taking into consideration both the candidate's academic achievements as well as the individual's character and extracurricular strengths. But, according to the person in charge of the Foundation, we have selected two students this year, each worthy of this exemplary Scholarship.

Naturally, the final decision to attend remains yours, but we hope that you will choose to join us at Gotham Academy.

Sincerely,

Philip Wilcox

Dean of Admissions and Financial Aid

This was crazy. How did I get on the list for this? And how did I get a Wayne Foundation scholarship out of two people in all of Gotham? I knew that I made the right decision to not show Selena. She was always telling me to stay away from Bruce Wayne and his ward, Richard Grayson, if I ever saw them. They were nothing but trouble, she stated, and she never said anything more on the subject. I wasn't a big fan of them, either. If they had so much money, and Bruce owned the biggest company in Gotham, why were the streets so bad? Why were thugs and crooks creeping around all the time, never thrown in jail?

The letter wasn't the only thing in the envelope. More sheets of fancy paper told me my schedule, the school's main guidelines, and where to pick up my uniform. According to one of the letters, it stated that the school taught grades 7-12. Great. So now everyone would know that I was new there, since I would be going into 9th. If I decided to go. The last school I had been to was a shabby junior high near the orphanage. I was pretty smart there, and was in almost every Honors class there was. But I hated it. The teachers didn't care about anything but coffee and the final bell. I didn't want to have no education growing up, so why not take this opportunity?

But I knew the reason why: Selena. She would flip if she knew that I was going here. I knew what I had to do: go to Gotham Academy every day without Selena finding out. Oh, the joys of being an orphan.

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Sorry for the long wait!! I got busy with school and such. Vote, comment, follow, all that good stuff.

I'm also open to ideas...

~~The Bat has left the room~~