Leaps and Bounds 1 : Get Back Up

[phaineofcatz]

“Mr. Wayne, we are always pleased to be your choice of education for your children. However, I am not certain I agree with your decision to move Miss Stamos from public education to private, both mid semester and after she has just suffered a great emotional loss. It is unlikely she will be able to keep up with her studies while grieving, and under such pressure it may even stunt her academic career. That is even before considering her disabilities, both of which make adjusting to new environments more difficult for her.”

Bruce had been thorough with her cover, and making sure she would have to lie as little as possible. This was good, because she actually wasn’t very good at directly lying. But it also meant that her ADHD and autism were listed on her records. It’s funny how without the diagnosis you sometimes can’t get the help you need to meet expectations, but with the diagnosis there is often resistance to you exceeding them…

“While those are all excellent points, Phaine has frankly had time to grieve. Now she needs something to help her stay active and focused. If she waits longer it will only hold her back.”

“Holding her back now and letting her flourish later might not be a bad idea. Have you considered perhaps having her take a year at a less rigorous school while she recovers and trying again next fall? Or perhaps even a gap year, under her circumstances I’m sure—”

“Why does everyone keep telling me how I should grieve?” Phaine has been practicing Tay’s flat tones. Her voice still doesn’t sound quite as deep as Tay’s for some reason, but the tone helps make her seem more like a child lost in the grief of her family’s untimely deaths. Just another layer of pretend to protect the much more complicated and dangerous truth.

“Ah, I did not mean to imply I know what you are going through Miss Stamos. I simply believe that during such a tumultuous time you might be better served by a more relaxed course load.”

“I am seeing a therapist weekly about losing my family. I have been and continue to grieve. I will likely grieve for the rest of my life. But the thing about grief is that it’s boring. I need something to focus on. I have already been following along with Duke’s assignments to keep myself sane, and he’s a year ahead of me.”

She feels a little bad saying it like that around Bruce. On the surface her loss sounds pretty similar to his, but she didn’t actually have to watch her family die. In fact, her family is alive, she just may never see them again.

“Is that true Mr. Wayne?”

If what she said upset him, Bruce gives no sign of it. “Yes. As I was trying to say before, Phaine has an outstanding academic background and performs above her grade in several subjects. Though, she is behind in history, I was thinking of getting her a tutor for that.”

Principle Arseneau looked down at her paperwork on his desk again. “Yes…I do see that… If you can keep up with Duke’s classes… Alright, how about this. I will work with your teachers to get you the coursework from the first two months of the semester. If you can catch up to that coursework in the next month, alongside attending class, then you should be able to complete the last two months of coursework in the last month. We’ll keep you in purely academic courses this semester and you will have to make up physical education later.”

“Are there any major reports, science projects, or other long running projects I will need to fast track?”

The principle blinks at her a few times. “Not in any of the courses you would be taking, no.”

“Neat, sounds like a plan.”

“You…do realize this is double the coursework we normally expect of a student your age? And that this is one of the most rigorous schools in the country?”

“Yeah… What? You offered, and what else am I going to do? Sit on my hands and skip a year? Be a Wayne ward in public school for a year? Either of those options are already social suicide. I might as well take the option that means I’m too busy to make friends for a couple of months, then get to be a normal kid for the rest of high school.”

“That is…perhaps a more thought out response than I expected. Alright, you can start on Monday, I will see that your accelerated coursework is available for you then. I trust that acquiring a uniform and other materials by then will not be a problem for you, Mr. Wayne?”

“No, that should be no trouble at all. Thank you very much for your time and consideration. I know this is a rather unusual situation, but I want to do anything I can to help Phaine get her life back on track after this tragedy.”

“Yes. Yes, I think that is admirable. And Miss Stamos, I am sorry if I came across as harsh. I know you have been through a great deal and I am sorry for your loss.”

“…Thank you. You are just doing your job. It would be a waste to bring in a student who wasn’t able to keep up partway through the semester.”

“I appreciate your understanding on the matter.”

They leave his office and start walking through the halls to where Alfred is waiting with the car. School ended during their meeting with the principle, so Duke and Damian are probably already in the car waiting too.

“We’ve got a couple of days. I’ll see if I can get Duke and Damian to give you a walk-through tour after school one of them so you know where you’re going come Monday.”

“A tour would be good, but a map would probably be good enough.”

“That’s not a bad idea either. I’ll see if I can get you one of those. We also need to take you to get fitted for a uniform, The school has somewhat strict standards, but Alfred knows a tailor who is familiar with it and can get a rush order done by Monday. We’ll need to pick up your books too, the school only supplies them to scholarship students. You’d probably meet the criteria for it, but it’s a waste of school funds too—” Bruce realizes that Phaine is no longer walking along with him and looks around for her. He finds her back down the hall a little ways peeking through a door.

“What caught your eye?”

Phaine jumps a little. “Uh, sorry, just…checking out their cheers.”

“Oh? That’s right, you’re a cheerleader. Want to go take a closer look?”

“Uh, are we allowed to?”

“No one’s said we can’t yet.” He pushes open the door to the gymnasium and walks in, holding it open behind him. Jesus, what it must be like to be so rich you’re never worried someone will tell you ‘no’.

Oh. Shit. She is that now, isn’t she? Like, only kinda on technicality, but she just had her way forced into a nationally acclaimed private school halfway through the semester and she’s going to a private tailor to get a uniform rush made, all driven by a live in butler with no thought paid to expense. Her mom had to work three jobs to help pay for a local private middle school for her and her sister. She doesn’t know the first thing about being wealthy. Gawd, these rich kids are gonna eat her alive.

“Excuse me! Sir, what are you— Mr. Wayne? What are you doing here?”

“You know the cheer leading coach?” Phaine looks at Bruce, absolutely floored. Last she checked he didn’t know the first thing about cheer.

“No, but my reputation tends to proceed me.”

“Oh. Right. Not used to that…”

“I am Coach Norflee, and you must be Miss Stamos. I read about the accident, I am sorry for your loss.”

“Oh, uh…thanks. Sorry, also not used to people knowing about that yet…”

“Best to get used to it. The Waynes have been big supporters of the school for generations, and all of their children have come here. I think this is the first time I’ve heard of one showing interest in cheerleaders though.”

“Oh, sorry, I saw you through the window and was just checking out your routines. I was on the squad back home, but…”

“But you didn’t get to finish out the season.” Coach looks sympathetic.

Bruce nods his head in the direction of the practicing cheerleaders, “I don’t know what seasons are like for cheering, but are there any slots left on the team?”

“Squad, Bruce… It’s called a squad. And don’t call them slots it…has connotations. Cheer starts before the semester even starts if you’re confirmed for a spot.” She feels Tay holding back laughter in their heart and tries to keep a straight face.

“Right. Squad. Well, it doesn’t hurt to ask.”

Norflee raises an eyebrow at her. “You seem well informed for someone who only was on a squad for a month.”

“I uh, kinda got recommended before school started. By a friend who’d seen me do stunts in private. I got to do a little more than a month’s practice because of that.” This is a weird combination of stretched truths from her real life and fabrications from her cover, so hopefully no one double checks that.

“You were confirmed for the main squad before the start of school your freshman year?”

“Well, it was kind of a small school, but I did gymnastics before that and a lot is transferable.”

“Still, that’s an awfully big risk for a coach to take…”

Oh no. She can literally FEEL Bruce getting cocky in anticipation. “Why don’t you do some flips to show her?”

“Tumble, Bruce. We call we call it tumbling. I know you’re messing with me on that one, cause I’ve talked to Grayson and there is NO WAY he hasn’t drilled that into you after all these years.”

Coach looks wistfully at her. “You’ve trained with Dick Grayson? I’ve seen his work. We could never get his full attention on the gymnastics team, but he should have gone to the Olympics. That boy was born to fly.”

“Yeah he is… I mean, yes, I got to train with him a little. I think he’s kept up with his training pretty well, his stunts are still a sight to behold.”

“Alright, you’ve piqued my interest, we don’t have any spots on the main squad right now, but cheer isn’t exactly what people come to this school for, so we always need to keep an eye out for talent. Show me why you should be on the squad for the spring.”

Phaine looks down at her clothes. She’s not exactly dressed for gymnastics, but these pants shouldn’t rip so long as she doesn’t do any splits, and the shoes should have okay grip. She takes her phone out of her pocket and hands it to Bruce.

Then she turns, takes a long, slow step forward into a short series of a cartwheel, to a few back handsprings, and then whips into a layout before sticking the landing at a full stand looking back at Norflee and Bruce.

“I kinda don’t wanna do anything off axis in these shoes and pants. Anything in particular you wan—”

“WHOA! Did you see that? Who’s she?” She looks over her shoulder to a few girls having stopped practicing to stare. Did she do too much again?

“She did a no hands layout in dress pants! She didn’t even get a running start.”

Part of how she kind of got off to the wrong foot with her squad back home was Katie dragging her into practice and telling her to show off. Katie meant well, but Phaine hadn’t really had a concept for what was going on and how much was too much, so she had overdone it. A lot. The whole squad agreed they couldn’t pass up on her skill, but they never really stopped thinking of her as some freaky show off. She really tried to tone it down this time, she had a whole year of practice to get a feel for what a well trained baseline could do.

“Uh, hi!” Tay feels like there is a pile of giggles barely contained on the other side of their broken mind. Girls start running over now, giving up all pretense of practice for a spectacle.

“Alright girls, this is Phaine Stamos. She’s a new student transferring in from California and she starts at the school…” She looks to Phaine expectantly.

“Uh, Monday, but I have to do a bunch of makeup work from the transfer and uh…the accident. So I might not be able to make any practices this semester.” She hadn’t actually meant to try out for the squad right away, but then Bruce had egged her on and… Oh my GAWD he played her again! She can see it in his twinkling eyes! She maybe wasn’t even sure she was going to try out at ALL and here he got her committing to the spring season.

“That’s fine, take your time settling in, but stop in when you can. Even if we can’t find you a spot on the squad for the spring you can join practice and be one of our confirmed spots for the fall. You girls can take ten to meet Phaine, but then I expect you back on drills.” She turned back to Bruce and said quietly, probably thinking no one heard. “Alright Mr. Wayne, where do you keep finding orphaned athletes like this? Between Grayson, Cassandra, and now Phaine you could have your own Oly—”

But then she finds herself ambushed by cheerleaders.

“Where are you transferring from?”

“How’d you get so good?”

“What Accident? Do you have scars? Is that why you tried out in pants?”

“Hey, is that Bruce Wayne?”

---

She and Bruce are waiting at the door while Alfred walks up to meet them with a large umbrella. It seems a little silly to her, she’s had to walk home from school in at least this much rain before. But she is starting to learn that rich people work different. She a little bit gets why Jason is the way he is with Bruce, there is a kind of culture clash there that can’t really be resolved, even though they both love each other in their own way.

She had to hand it to Coach Norflee, she had the squad under control. Exactly ten minutes and then they were back to practice. Her coach back home really couldn’t control the whole squad without the captain backing her up. She thinks that’s a good sign. And the squad seemed to like her, at least as far as first impressions go. She spotted a couple hanging back looking a bit too cool for school, probably the queen bees or some similar cliche, but she didn’t get the vibe anyone thought of her as a freak or a show off. A good start at least, and it kinda was nice to have something a little longer term to look forward to. Bruce may have played her, but it wasn’t malicious.

As they got into the car Damian spoke up, “That took longer than expected, were there issues with the principle?”

“Nah, Phaine just fell right into a trap Bruce laid out for her and it took a few minutes to escape.”

“A…literal trap? At school?” Duke, you beautiful, gullible man.

“No, I just got Tay to join the cheer squad.” That damn sly grin Bruce is wearing reminds her of Dick. How is this entire family not actually related to each other but they have so much in common. Well, guess it is a whole entire found family, so maybe that’s not as weird as she made it sound.

“HEY! I’m not on the cheer squad. Phaine is.”

“I mean, you like, kinda are on the cheer squad. It’s not like I can go to practice without you. You probably can’t even sleep through practice, cause I’ll be moving around and stuff.”

There is a strange grinding, grumbling noise from her bracelet that she’s pretty sure is Tay being mock mad about this.

---

It sounded like her books were already on order, so their last stop was at the tailor’s. Alfred was here for the hand off, but was going to head to the manor with Bruce and the boys before coming back to pick her up.

“Aaliyah? We are a bit early for our appointment, I hope we haven’t caught you off foot.”

“Alfred! No, just a moment while I finish tying this off. The shop is already cleared, so lock the door behind you.”

It’s not what Phaine expected of a tailor’s shop. She’s seen a few over the years when she had to get fitted for suits as a boy, but this one is…vibrant. There are more traditional suits and dresses as well, but a significant portion of the shop is taken up by clothing that is full of stark colors. Reds, yellows, greens, it reminds her of some of the clothes the stoners at school wore. Well, the colors and patterns do, this is more like if the stoners actually cared about their appearance and wore fitted clothing. If she had her sketchbook she’d be taking notes, there are cuts and styles she recognizes, but she’s never seen it—

“Alright, where is this trans girl who needs my help?”

Phaine stops dead in her tracks. Alfred has already locked the door and is blocking it, and she doesn’t see any other exits. Shit, Nix always warned her to find all the exits in a new place first, how did she let that slip by. No windows, only one door and nowhere to hide that will last more than a few seconds.

“Miss Stamos. Miss Stamos! It is alright. Aaliyah is safe, she will not reveal your secret, nor will she think poorly of you for it. She is…of a similar persuasion…”

“Oh sweetheart. I didn’t mean to scare you.”

Phaine turns, wide eyed, to see a tall black woman with broad shoulders wearing a WELL fitted suit and an apologetic smile.

“I… Why? Why would you tell someone?”

“Aaliyah will be doing more than just your school uniform. The Wayne household has a degree of decorum to maintain and as such all members have their clothes tailored. Aaliyah Walker was selected as your tailor for more than her discretion. She can be, and already has been, consulted on the particulars of your dress needs. She is also a trustworthy resource for other matters.”

“I’m not sure the girl needs me as much as you lead on. She hardly needs any makeup, and she seems to have that handled. She’s dressed well, and nothing in her posture gives her away. Even these cute curls are well taken care of… You weren’t pulling my leg were you?”

“Certainly not. Phaine. You will be safe in her care, I assure you. And one more thing…” Alfred pulls out a sketchbook and hands it to Aaliyah. “Phaine has interests that are, quite frankly, approaching the limits of my ability to foster. She is too young to apprentice, but you might both consider this professional relationship to have potential beyond simple client and patron.” His eyebrows do almost as much talking as that last sentence and she takes the sketchbook from him to flip through it.

“…This is all her work?”

“She consulted me on some of it, but they are all her ideas, patterns, and drawings. And all in the last few weeks, the rest of her work was unfortunately lost in the accident.”

She thumbed through a few more pages, smile broadening as she went. “Alright Alfred you sly dog. Get out of here before I put you to work, I’ve got to get acquainted with Miss Stamos.”

Alfred nods, taking his leave, and Phaine is stuck alone with a stranger who knows she’s trans and is holding what she has now realized is one of her sketchbooks full of clothing designs.

“Well, I think we perhaps got off to a bad start.” She closes the sketchbook and starts looking Phaine over from a respectful distance. “Alfred had informed me in advance you are trans because I will be taking very intimate measurements of you, and it is unlikely for me to not notice. I was under the impression this wouldn’t be a surprise to you, or I would not have called you out like that. You have probably already picked up on it from conversation, but in case you were shell shocked, I am a trans woman too, and I will be your tailor going forward.” She holds up and shakes the sketchbook. “And perhaps, a mentor as well. I will respect your secrets and I hope you’ll do the same for mine. So let’s try this again. I am Aaliyah Gabriella Walker, and you?”

Phaine takes a breath and nods. “I am Phaine Taylor Stamos. It’s nice to meet you.”

She’s rewarded with a broad smile. “I wasn’t joking about you, by the way. You have a good relaxed posture and several feminine mannerisms. You look like an athlete, but don’t have any of the normal bulk of a testosterone puberty. You’re too young for hormones, blockers then?” Phaine twists a little on the spot. No one prepped her for this conversation, so she doesn’t know how to answer in a way that supports her cover. “Hhhmm…Well, I won’t pry, I know what it’s like. How desperate it can make you feel once you realize. I know they’re a little more open minded out there in southern California, but you acted like you didn’t think anyone would know. How long have you been passing?”

“Like, two or three years?” Phaine feels herself say it and it takes a moment to realize it’s Tay playing at her voice. That’s weird and confusing. They kind of overshot on the uptalk and still came out a little low.

“Still a little trouble with the voice sometimes. That can be rough, the right voice and clothes can carry you through a lot. Try and relax, I’m here to help and I’m not going to judge you.”

Phaine nods, trying to get her feet back under her. “Yes, Miss Walker.”

“There we are! And I am happily married, so not a ‘miss’ but Aaliyah is preferable anyway. Or Aali. Prince Aa~li, wondrous he, prince Aalibaaabwa~” She sings the last bit with a wink and Phaine can’t help a giggle.

“Now, we do actually have work to do, so if you don’t mind, could you follow me into the back to take your measurements.”

They walked into a smaller room that is mostly full tools and materials, but has an open space in the middle and a curtain to the side for changing.

“I know this is scary, but I remind you that this is a safe and judgment free space. Please strip down to your underwear and we can get the uncomfortable part over and done with.” She gestures for the curtain and Phaine complies.

Phaine’s actually a bit more prepared for this than Aali is probably expecting. She’s had to get changed and even showered around other girls for a whole semester. She managed to stave it off for a while, but she couldn’t get a private shower at school or whatever. She and Aunt Nix came up with some tricks using her powers that kept her from getting caught as long as she was quick and no one got up close to inspect her. The Regen and EX made it possible to get by with quick showers and she’d sort of just gotten in the practice of it at this point.

When she came out Aaliyah raised an eyebrow, “Mmm…that’s definitely more than blockers… And an impressive tuck. Are you sure this isn’t a prank?”

Tay didn’t even try covering their voice this time, “As far as I know, Alfred isn’t exactly big on pranks. And for the record, neither are we.”

Aali Blinks for a moment at the voice that sounds like it belongs to a boy maybe a year older than her records say she is. “Alright, you’re a regular bag of tricks, aren’t you now.” But she doesn’t bring it up again for the rest of the fitting. Aali warns her first, then starts a recorder while she takes measurements, dictating them to the device as she goes. She’s very thorough, but it doesn’t take long with her just moving her as needed. Once she finishes she turns it off and looks her up and down again. “I thought I would have to do more doctoring to give you some shape, but you’re pretty on target for your age. Lucky, I had to jump through hoops for years before I could pull off a natural looking style.”

“Uh…I might need that later? I’m not sure I’m going to like, get more shape than I already have.”

“If you look like this at thirteen I think you’ll be fine, but I’ll keep it in mind over time. The important part for now is that your uniform for Monday will be downright boring to make, I can probably knock out two full sets and get them done by tomorrow or the next day. I’ve got a few more orders before I can get you set for a full week and some spares, so when you get these first two try them on and let me know if there are any adjustments needed. By Monday I’ll easily have the rest knocked out. Alright, go ahead and get dressed while I take a few notes down.”

She hears Aali call Alfred to pick her up while she gets dressed again, and when she comes out Aali is leaning on a workbench with Phaine’s sketchbook open. “You’re quite good you know?”

“…Thanks, mom sometimes helps— uh…” She tears up a little. Shit. She thought she had it together, but suddenly it hits her that no matter how good she gets at art or clothing design, she’ll probably never get to show her mother ever again.

She feels a deep breath come into her lungs as Tay takes over and holds them together again. “Mom used to help us with them sometimes. She didn’t really make clothes from scratch, but she liked modifying them. She taught us to sew a little too. We used to design dresses and costumes for my little sister and I. Halloween was the family’s favorite holiday.” It comes out in Tay’s flat deep tones, but there is an edge of tenderness to it.

Shit, she hadn’t even thought of how hard this might be for Tay, but she can feel a longing kind of sadness from her sibling that definitely runs deeper than she’d expected. Tay lost their family too. Yeah, sure, Tay was taking a backseat in their life, but it’s different to have to move on without someone than it is to fade away while they are still there. When they’re alone she should check on Tay…

For her part, Aaliyah seems to understand. “That is a powerful kind of loss. But you know, what I see here? This is more than pain. This is passion. A skill passed down to you that you have honed with love. Oh, it’s rough, but you’re young and inexperienced. Your mother gave you something that can not be taken away, don’t let go of it because it hurts sometimes. As long as you have it she will always be with you…”

Phaine nods. She can’t do much more. Not even Tay seems to be able to get a word through their throat. They manage to walk over and lean next to the tailor, looking over her drawings and designs quietly.

“Are you going to dress up? For Halloween I mean. I understand if that’s too much, too soon, but you said it was your family’s favorite holiday?”

Phaine closes her eyes. Halloween is the Friday after this one. She doesn’t know what she has in her, but she also doesn’t want to ignore it. She loves to dress up. She loves to pretend. Phaine, the little pretender. “I don’t know. I don’t have a lot of time, but I’ll come up with something.”

“Well, if these designs are anything to go by, I think you’ll manage. When you have your nonnegotiables sorted out, get Alfred to bring you back by again with these. We can do a pass on a few and I can make them for you.”

She looks up at the woman, “Really?”

“Of course. Tailors and fashion designers have to wear their craft. It’s equal parts advertising and proof of concept. And you’ll never understand your failures and successes if you can’t see them through. In the meantime, here is my card.” She hands her a tidy looking business card with just enough stylization to tell she is in fashion.

“I’d like that… Thank you Aaliyah. I’m sorry I tried to run away when I got here.”

The older woman laughs. It’s a deep laugh, with just a little more weight to it than most women have. “Oh child, you looked like you thought I was going to hunt you for sport.” Her smile fades. “But I can understand why. You seem to already know to be careful, but I’ll say it anyway. Be careful out there. Some people treat us right, but those aren’t the people who flock to you when your secrets get out. And Gotham is not known for its Pride…”

Phaine nods. She can’t tell her that she is the first trans character she’s ever heard of in Gotham, for so many reasons, but she knows the weight behind those words. After all, Aaliyah asked to keep her secret as well. Some of the first words Bruce said to her echo in her head, “Gotham at large is not very accepting…”

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