Gotham's Spider

The Slap

It had been two weeks since Penny and the rest of her group home had been staying at Wayne manor. Things were, good. 

At school things were the best that they could be, but that's because of Flash. He likes taunting her, and pushing her into walls and lockers. Penny could care less though, she lets it happen because she wants Ned to be ok. She knows that if she didn't allow him to do this to her, he'd do it to Ned, and for Ned it would be worse.

At the manor, things are good too. 

Penny's making good friends with all the Wayne boys, and even got Alfred to call her Miss Penny, and not Miss Parker. They had struck a deal, she'd call him Alfred if he called her Penny, or at least Miss Penny. Alfred liked that deal. Bruce also started to take a liking to the girl, he got to know her better, but he did that with a few of the other kids too. The Wayne boys though, they felt like her brothers. Sure Damien was a bit angry and obsessed with weapons, Tim is a computer nerd (but so is Penny), Jason is very dark and is always talking about guns, and Dick is just a ball of crazy energy. She likes them, and has found little things she can relate with them, from her. 

So things were ok.

Well except for the fact that a few times, only times he knew he wouldn't get caught, Mr Jefferson would hit her and a few of the others. One day, Penny and Mr Jefferson left at the same time, and once they both left the manor grounds and they were out of sight, Mr Jefferson yelled at Penny, and slapped her before leaving for work. Another time he pushed her down the stairs. He wasn't caught, and Penny kinda wishes that he was. At least then he'd probably get arrested, because they wouldn't have told anyone, and the Wayne's would have found out for themselves. 

But today, something just feels off.

Penny had woken up with a bad feeling, like she knew that something bad would end up happening. Something bad would happen. So she got out of bed sluggishly, and put on an outfit that was something she had worn like five times at the Wayne's. She was so out of it that when she was carrying her bag down to the kitchen for breakfast, she bumped into Mr Jefferson without her knowledge. He was angry at her because she didn't say anything, but he couldn't do anything. At school Penny just felt worse, and she told Ned about it. He told her it was probably something that Flash would do, cause even Ned gets those feelings sometimes. Everyone does. Even though she had a bad feeling, Penny didn't feel that way all day. During history, everyone was given a permission slip, their class would be going to some museum in a few weeks. After school Penny was sent on a trip by the Bugle. She blankly took pictures, and gave them to Mr Jameson with a fake smile on her face. He could tell that it was fake, but he didn't say anything, he just handed her, her money and let her go. On the way back to the manor Penny dragger her feet, and she didn't look up, she just looked down at the ground with a slight scowl on her face. Things only got worse when Mr Jefferson scolded her for coming back late.

Penny tried to go the rest of the day in a good mood, but the feeling didn't go away. If anything it grew. 

At dinner, she finally understood why she was feeling that way. 

At dinner, everyone sat down. The whole time Mr Jefferson was staring daggers at her, but somehow no one noticed. Not even the Wayne's and they seemed more observant for an average family. At the end of dinner, Penny remembered about the form, the one for the field trip. She wanted him to give it to him when she was in front of everyone, at least this way, nothing bad would happen. So she pulled the paper from her back pocket, and walked up to him. He had been getting up to get a drink when she got to him. She gave it to him, asking him if he would sign it. He read it and as soon as he processed what it said, the anger in his eyes only seemed to grow. The paper tightened in his hand, and anger seeped onto his face as he looked down to her.