Chapter Text
Tim isn't sure when it happened exactly. Usually Gotham academy is pretty good at letting people know when someone is leaving or when someone new starts. It's a whole status thing. The kids would be offended if they weren't announced to the whole school like some kind of celebrity. Especially if they start mid-year. Even more, Tim is usually good about checking out his classmates.
Since you know, child Cobra leader and mob-boss-daughter-classmate-killed-and-then-turned-into-a-supervillain.
Tim's civilian life itself isn't exactly what most people would call civilian. But it's what he has. He watches his classmates anyway.
Which makes it even stranger when one day, he bumps into a girl he doesn't know. A girl leaving the same class as him. But he doesn't even know her name.
"I'm so sorry!. I didn't see you there!"
Her hair is long and brown. choppy like she'd tried to cut it herself instead of letting some hair stylist do it. Her clothes are fitting but Tim doesn't see any brand names. There's a feather braided into her hair like it belongs there. And Tim can't quite make out the colour of her eyes...Like they're changing.
Everything about this girl flags as an outcast. Especially in a place like Gotham Academy. But her textbooks are present in her arms. She's not just someone who walked in and made like they belong there. She even has the same face that Tim knows he has right now..
The "Ow. Math. Too early" expression.
But she's alone. And Tim doesn't know her.
He smiles anyway. "Tim" he introduces, holding out a hand.
"Piper" she greets back, shaking Tim's hand with a grip that says "Don't even try me". Tim's kind of impressed by that. Also very curious now cause he still has no clue who she is.
Neither of them give their surnames. Neither of them ask.
"Mr. Chalsey so early in the morning is the literal worst" Tim complains when the silence starts to tinge a little bit toward too long. Awkward. Both of them still standing in front of the classroom door, books in hand. Piper winces like she agrees but doesn't want to say it. She continues anyway.
"It's murder on my dyslexia. You think reading's hard? Word problems and equations are both my new enemies"
Tim swears he hears her whisper "I miss training. No reading"
Tim doesn't ask. But it pings in the back of his mind.
Yet another not-normal person in Gotham Academy.
What a surprise