Broken (A Damian Wayne LS) - On Hold

Chapter Seven

Um. I stare at her. Yep that is all I do is just stare at her, because I have no idea who she is. Yeah just because she told me her name doesn't mean I know her now. Tim seem pretty comfortable with her, and Damian looks like he is about to rip her head off. This is one weird family. I look from Tim to Damian to Stephanie back to Damian back to Tim, all confused. I slide my hands onto my lap and sit there looking at my lap; I am still not too comfortable around new people. I hear someone cough in that awkward way and I look up at Alfred. He nods to the door and I slowly get up and make my way over to him. We step out into the hall so that the others cannot hear us.

"Arabella Stephanie is here to take you shopping for clothes that fit you and to take you school shopping. And yes you have to go to school, but do not worry you will be going to Gotham Academy with Damian." He informs me.

I nod my head, and then I stare a little at him then at the people in the living room. I am pretty sure that he just rolled his eyes at me.

"Ok, time to go...and yes you have to go." He says.

        I pout a little but I follow Alfred into the living room anyways. I mean shopping cannot be that bad...can it? I question myself. My mom and I used to go shopping twice a year for clothes then once for Christmas. And even then we never came into the city and I was home schooled for most of my life. That last part was one of my aunt's requests; apparently she did not want a certain secret getting out. And I don't even know what secret that is, so I think that I will be good on that part. I watch Alfred walk up to Tim and Stephanie and he tells them something. I am standing to far away to hear them talk, but I think he is telling them that it is time to go shopping. Stephanie walks up to me and smiles.

"You must be Arabella." I nod. "Yeah Tim told me that you do not talk much."

I look to the ground.

"Ready to shop till you drop." she asks excitedly breaking the silence between us.

I nod at her a little. She says goodbye to the boys, including Alfred, and leads me outside. The minute I step out I am greeted by the most amazing car. I look at Stephanie with wide eyes. She laughs a little at my reaction.

"Yes that is my car." she manages between laughs.

Still staring at the car I make my way to it. Stephanie walks around to the drivers side and unlocks the car. Once unlocked we climb in, I start to sit in the passenger seat but Stephanie looks at me funny.

"How old are you exactly?" she asks.

"13 and a half." I say quietly.

She looks a little surprised. "Oh you and Damian are close in age. He's fourteen."

        I don't say anything back, but I finish getting in and I buckle up. Seeing as I am ready to go Stephanie pulls out of the mansion drive way. She goes about sixty all the way into town. And I stare out the window the entire time. It is so beautiful out here. I must  ask Stephanie if I can buy a camera. I love to take photographs, mostly in black and white but I can do color too. I can see the city come into view as we draw closer. I have not been into the city for two years. I know that is a long time, but I never had a reason to come into it.

       

        It seems as if the stoplights hate us. Everyone that we would come upon would be red so we would have to wait five minutes for it to finally change to green. After going through oh I don't know...twenty stoplights we pulled into the mall parking lot. We dive in circles and Stephanie keeps asking me if I see a spot to park and every time I shake my head 'no'. Stephanie slams the brake really fast and I am tossed forward a little in my seat. I look to her in a confused astonished look. She points to a spot and pulls in. She turns the car off and unbuckles.

"Sorry for the earlier. I saw it and didn't want another car to get it." I just roll my eyes at her.

        I unbuckle and wait for Stephanie to grab her purse and keys. I make sure that she is ready to go and we get out of the car. Stephanie locks it and we walk to the entrance of the mall. I think that I might be dreading going in here. We walk into the mall and it is HUGE! There are so many people and shops. I turn in a complete circle to take it all in. Stephanie laughs at me. I feel like a little kid in candy store. So many clothes to try on...oh, oh, oh, don't let me forget about the electronics. I smile up at Stephanie and drag her into the first clothing store for me that I can see.

        We enter and I am surrounded with girly clothing. UGH! I am so not that much of a girly girl, but I do live with the Wayne's now so yeah. I start pulling things off of racks that are in my size and that I like. After I have about four outfits in my arms I ask the sales clerk for a dressing room. They kindly give me one. I try them all on. They all fit but I hate one of the outfits, it does not look good on me. I put on my clothes and step out of the dressing room. I walk up to Stephanie and point to the check out, she takes the clothes from me and goes to pay. This routine goes on for about thirty more stores. Finally we go into an electronic store and Stephanie stops me before I can look around.

"Bruce told me to get you a phone, and a laptop. Ok?" she asks.

I nod and then point to a camera with a quizzical look on my face.

"I don't know..." I give her my best puppy dog eyes. "Oh, alright."

        I smile at her. I walk around the store looking at all the different phones and cases first. Finally I decide on this one. I look for the box and pull it off the shelf and hand it to Stephanie. Then I go around the store again looking for a camera this time, because Stephanie already picked out a laptop for me. None of these cameras really interest me. Wait...I take that back. I like this one. I walk back over to Stephanie and drag her to the camera isle.

"Hey, slow down." She says.

I stop in front of the one that I like. She picks it up and examines it.

"Nice...expensive...but nice." She says checking the price tag. "Well it's Bruce's money so yeah." She smiles at me.

        I grab the box containing the camera that I like and we head to the checkout line. It feels like forever while we stand in line. I know that it is not but it feels like it. Our turn. We step up to the counter. The clerk rings up the items and pulls some batteries and other items from under the desk and adds them saying that they are essential to make them work. We just went with it. After leaving the store we left the mall completely. Well that is after we ate some lunch and got some school supplies, which was boring.

            We made our way back to the car and got in. Stephanie pulled out and started to head back to the mansion when I remembered something. Something important to me.

"Um...hey Stephanie?" I ask quietly.

"Mmh?" she muses.

"Can we go out to my old house? Um...I need something from there."

She turns her head a little and gives me a funny look. "But I thought that your house burnt down."

"Um...well...it did...but...please..." I stutter.

"Ok." She says and we change course.

Memories here I come.