Poker Face | Bruce Wayne

sixteen

28 YEARS EARLIER

The car ride back from school was dead silent. It was one in the afternoon— not three, when school usually finished. Bruce had gotten suspended. Again. He'd fought someone. Again. Didn't receive an expulsion solely because his parents' money still funded the school. Again. And Alfred was furious. Again.

The only person in the car angrier than the butler was Meredith, who sat in the back seat with a look so cold that Bruce felt a hole being drilled into his head. A few kids— in particular, Johnny Prescott, world-class schoolyard jerk— were teasing Bruce about his parents. How did Alfred not understand why Bruce was justified in slamming Johnny's head into a bleacher?

Meredith had interjected just before things could get any worse, dragging Bruce away from a crowd of onlooking fellow sixth graders, causing her to be pulled into the office as well. As per usual, she immediately had Gregory on the phone, who scared the vice principal with only a few words, threatening to shut down the place if anything were to happen to his daughter's perfect record. Unfortunately for Meredith, the school settled on a compromise: she had to take the suspension, but it wouldn't be documented.

Obviously, Meredith was flaming. The school's star student couldn't be seen getting suspended, Bruce knew, and he was perhaps almost more scared of her than he was of Alfred. Almost. A silent car ride meant serious trouble— no seeing Devin, who, in all honesty, would probably applaud Bruce for what he did, and no TV. Also no seeing Meredith, but as of right now, that wasn't a bad thing in Bruce's mind.

"I can not believe you got me suspended," Meredith hissed, arms crossed and daggers shooting from her eyes as she glared out the front window. "You're lucky our parents are who they are, or it would've been worse. I'm not allowed back in school for a whole three days!"

Bruce snorted emotionlessly, turning his head away from Alfred. "Sounds like a win to me."

Meredith reached forward and slapped his head. He shouted, whipping around with a snarl.

"Now my dad won't let me listen in on his board of executive's call tomorrow night!" she complained. "They're discussing utility maximization— I've been reading up on that for a week to prepare."

"I feel so bad for you, Mare." He rolled his eyes.

"You should! These companies are our future. Don't you want to know what we're going to be doing when we're older?"

"Not really."

"You know we're eventually going to be the ones to finally pull off the Wayne Enterprises and Elias Incorporated merger, right? You can't merge two, billion-dollar conglomerates together without knowing what capital-labor substitution is, Bruce!"

"There's a reason my dad has Lucius Fox running things— so I don't have to."

"Fox is divided between being temporary CEO and leading innovation in WayneTech, he doesn't have time to successfully complete the merger."

"And that's why Wayne Enterprises has a board of directors."

"Who are all incompetent! You're lucky Fox stepped up, or your directors would've run the company into the ground by now."

"Whatever." Bruce didn't care about what Meredith had to say. She always alternated between the same three topics: trying to convince him to sit in on Elias Incorporated meetings with her (absolute snore), yelling at him for getting in trouble, or complaining about how her perfect grades, perfect attendance, and family connections weren't enough to get her into an Ivy League.