The Adventures of Nightgirl

12: Classes

The tour of GA went fast, and Ashley enjoyed most of it. She saw a swimming pool with high diving boards, a climbing wall, and a gymnastics room. These were much more modern than the training grounds in Ra's Al Ghul's lair had been. She made a plan to visit them soon. The classrooms where nicely built, clean, and the equipment all looked new. Barbra had explained to her that the teachers here were all well trained, and would be able to help her if she was falling behind. 

Ashley did not think that this would be the case. 

She and Barbra were just finishing lunch, when a plump woman with a short bob of hair approached them and addressed Barbra.

"Hiya sweetie, is this our new student?" 

Barba nodded and said 

"Yes Mrs. Fanche, this is Ashley, are you here to take her to testing?" 

The woman nodded, and turned to look Ashley over, and Ashley did the same. She was shorter, with a thick bob of blonde hair, intelligant blue eyes, and a full mouth. She looked like the woman Alfred watched cook on the TV.

"Nice to meet yah sweetie, I'm Mrs. Fanche, the school librarian. Hows ya ferst day been?"  

Ashley decided she liked this woman, despite her odd way of speaking. The warrior scribes who had protected the books in the ancient mountain caves they had been loaned to as young warriors were some of the most respected people Ashley had ever met. 

"Nice to meet you Mrs. Fanche, its an honor to meet a scribe like yourself."  

Barbra looked at her sharply, but the woman just laughed heartilly and slapped her on the back saying,

"A funny one, I like that. Oh, your hard, is there any meat on those bones at all?" 

Ashley grinned, knowing the hard muscles of her shoulders and back had been won by hours of training.

"I workout with my brother some." She replied, smiling.

"Oh, well poor girl. Lets go take these tests." Mrs. Fanche took off, the heels of her shoes clicking as she did. 

With a wave to Barbra, Ashley followed the woman, unsure what 'testing' she would be put through here. 

To Ashley's great displeasure, she was taken to a room to do standardized tests. They were mostly easy for her, other than the United States history and English sections. She finished the math portion in less than 20 minuets, surprising the woman proctoring her exam. 

"Are ya shu ya done sweetie?" The woman drawled, her thick accent distorting some of the words.

"Yes. I never want to do that again." Ashley groaned, looking at the ceiling to stretch her stiff neck. 

"Well, let me look at ya scores." 

Ashley nodded and stepped back, turning to look at all the books. While the woman worked on the computer, she walked a ways away into the deeper section of the library, running her fingers down the spines of novels as she went.

She loved books, she loved to learn and to read. Ra's had made sure she had the best teachers when he found this out, saying 

"Any ward of mine will be taught."

Memories like these always seemed to sneak up on her, reminding her of the days she lived with Ra's. He had treated her as good as one of his own children, and punished her twice as hard. 

The scars on her back seemed to twinge in response to this. 

"I love it when you think of me dear one." 

Ashley dropped down into a crouch, her nerves humming. 

"Don't bother, I am in your mind, you cant fight me here, your sister tells me that you refuse to come home." 

"I will never come back. I am no longer you toy, and I refuse to enter the Lazarus pit and be with you for eternity." 

Ra's voice became cold.

"Foolish child. Once they find out you are dark, once they see you for who you are, you will return to me."

His voice slipped away as though he was walking out of her mind. 

She crouched still, her fingers white as they grabbed empty air beside her waist. 

They would not find out her secret. She refused to let any one know who she truly was. 

"Sweetie, you're a genius!" 

Mrs. Fanche's enthusiastic yell brought her attention back to the plump librarian. 

As it happened, her math score was so high that she had to retake the test in order to confirm that she was not cheating. When everyone in administration was sure that she was truly smart, and not cheating, she was handed a course option list. 

Ashley was given the option to take sophomore english or sophomore writing,  she chose english. Nothing had been taught to her about correct dictation. Her science options were human anatomy or microbiology taught by a local college. She chose microbiology, the human anatomy was very familiar to her, as she had learned it when her weapons master had first taught her hand to hand combat. 

She chose boxing and ballet as her two gym credits. Fanche had told her that ballet was a great workout, which is why she chose it. 

Then, the plump librarian had told her that the school currently did not offer a math level high enough for her test scores. Ashley was confused. She had been taught all kinds of math growing up, Ra's had even gotten her a private tutor to boost her knowledge. 

"Uh, well what are my options?" Ashley inquired cautiously, her fingers rolling the edge of the paper she held nervously.

"Well, ya should be takin mathematical physics of some kind, but we don't offer things like that here. So, you can take advanced calculus if you'd like, or you can TA for one of the other classes. The fact that your old boarding school didn't send us your records makes this hard." 

Ashley chose to be a teachers assistant, it sounded like fun. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

When Dick pulled up to pick her up later that afternoon, he grinned at her through the passenger window.

"How was it?" 

Ashley grinned as she slid into the car and handed over her class list to him. As he read, the color began to drain to his face .

"Where did you learn all this?" he demanded, looking up at her. 

"I uh, I had teachers in the mountain. I was good at it, so they put me to work." 

He shook his head at her, and muttered something under his breathe that she could not understand. Ashley was about to loose her temper, when he began laughing. 

"Whats so funny?" she demanded then, her cheeks getting hot.

"Ballet? Ashley, you has no idea what that is do you?" 

She glared at him, and said angrily 

"I was told that its a good workout, so I signed up for it. Whats the big deal?" 

Dick was becoming breathless as he laughed and laughed. Finally, Ashley threatened to walk home if he didn't stop and drive. Finally, wiping his streaming eyes, Dick looked at her sideways with a chuckle. In a bad British accent, he said.

"As you wish, Ballerina Ashley."