12291/Everything Happy

Everything Happy
Date of Scene:	04 August 2022
Location:	Entrance Hall - Happy Harbor High School
Synopsis:	Freddy Freeman decides to approach the shark of HHHS, Damian Wayne. Jokes are had, no one got beat with a crutch.
Cast of Characters:	Freddy Freeman, Damian Wayne

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Freddy Freeman has posed:
It is summer break and that means the Happy Harbor High School campus, while far from deserted, is much more sparsely populated than during the school year. There are some kids who don't have a home to go to and live in campus year round. There are kids who train with the various sports teams. There are kids who organize charity events. And then there are nerds, like Freddy, who are helping revamp the school's A/V club over the summer.

Freddy needs a break, though, so he is walking to the main doors to get outside for some fresh air. In this hallway, his crutch echoes off of the vaulted ceilings and marble floors. Walk-thunk-walk-thunk-walk-thunk-walk-thunk, etc., etc. But never once does the smile leave his face. Freddy is just that kind of guy, always finding the humor and optimism in life. Henry Ranier and his girlfriend, Emily Ranier (yes, they had the same last name by bizarre coincidence) are sitting on one of the cushioned benches here in the Entrance Hall making out. As Freddy hobbles his way by, he points at them. "Hey you guys," he says with a broad grin. "Get a room. God!" They both break their steamy kiss long enough to laugh.

Finally Freddy pushes through the doors and out into the summer sunlight. It plays on his so-pale skin, and he closes his eyes to get used to the brightness.

Damian Wayne has posed:
     While Damian Wayne had all of the ability to go off during the summer on fabulous vacations and the like, the last three years here at Happy Harbor he never really left unless it was back to Gotham, or on a school trip.

  So, the sciencs student was outside, sketching something on a break from beakers and chemicals and the like. AP classes and all, any time he would use to get college credit was going to be taken, mainly because he wanted to spend as little time there as possible. He had somewhat of a reputation around school as quiet and not the most approachable of teenagers. Even the tabloids that loved to follow up on Gotham's First Family didn't quite know what to do with the boy, who was known for derailing an interview and made into a tour of the Wayne Estate's animals.

  So, there he was, sitting on a table, sketching in a book, every now and again looking up and noticing one of the squirrels in the trees, getting the perspective just right.

Freddy Freeman has posed:
Well here we go. A social challenge! Freddy pretty much has the opposite reputation around campus. He is gregarious and sociable, and *usually* considered likable when he doesn't get too wound up, which is something he does often, unfortunately. He, of course, knows who Damian Wayne is because Freddy doesn't live, you know, under a rock or deep in a cave in the desert. In fact, he lives in a crowded but loving foster home with several foster siblings. A far cry from Wayne Manor.

Walk-thunk-walk-thunk-walk-thunk.

It's easy to tell when Freddy is approaching because of the noise of the crutch. And it's easy to get away from him because he can't move very fast. "Hey, Damian," the kid says with a grin on his face. "Outside chillin'?"

Damian Wayne has posed:
     Damian's bright green eyes look up from the page, though he already heard the walk-thunk of Freddy's crutch. Though his mind flashed a memory of the tower, he didn't let much of that show. Though there was something that had Damian reach back out instead of his usual non-sequitir. "Yeah, fresh air and all that. Too much chemicals in the air in the lab."

  He raises up from the sketchbook long enough for Freddy to see the squirrel eating a nut he was sketching, which was of pretty good quality. "You?" It was more than he asked most around campus at least, and he wasn't throwing a smoke bomb and running away.

Freddy Freeman has posed:
Freddy wears his heart on his sleeve. You don't have to be a world-class detective to tell what he's feeling at any given moment. A weakness? Maybe. But we play our hands in life. And right now he's honestly impressed. His lips part and his eyes gleam. "My dude! This is amazing." He helps himself to a seat at the table without being invited. He tends to compartmentalize the 24-hour-a-day, non-stop pain in his leg, but sometimes you just gotta take a load off of it.

He examines the drawing, then looks playfully at Damian Wayne, son of the one of the most well-known billionaires in the world, and says, "Naaaa! You traced this, you cheater!" His glittering eyes and a lopsided grin, naturally, say that he's joking. There aren't many students at this school who would even have the guts to say hi to Damian Wayne, much less bust his balls about something. "No joke, though, this is really good."

Freddy leans back in the seat and rubs his left hip a bit. He doesn't draw much attention to what he's doing. He isn't one to try to elicit sympathy from others, he's just a bit more sore than usual today. "I'm doing great!" he says. "Just got done programming the new digital cameras we got for the school. The photography club kids are gonna shit their pants when they see them!"

Damian Wayne has posed:
     "I can assure you..." It was about that moment that Damian had realized that he was being fooled with. At least his older brothers did teach him some things. To which he stops himself and nods. "Thank you. It was something I did a lot in...homeschool." Big suprise, former 'homeschooled' kid was the one with a stunted social grasp. He glanced for a second at the hand moving to rub his hip, though he doesn't mention it. He at least knew that it wasn't the best way to make friends by addressing their issues. "Oh yeah? The ones with that new sensor? I think those are WayneTech...maybe. Better than LexCorps for sure." He knew his electronics, but never really showed himself around the A/V club or anything, but when your family company makes electronics...it kinda goes hand in hand.

Freddy Freeman has posed:
Freddy motions vaguely with one hand. "You know, seeing you sitting here out in the sun drawing squirrels," Freddy pauses, lifting one shoulder in a brief half-shrug. "It's not what I expected. You should...I dunno...lead with that or something sometimes. There are a lot of dope kids here at the Haps. You could make some good friends." He nods in the direction of the sketchbook. "And girls love the sensitive artist types." He quirks a small grin, but for some reason he looks away when he makes that comment, off into the distance.

For a few moments he sits there quietly. Having access to the Wisdom of Solomon, Freddy learned long ago that sometimes the best socialization is no socialization at all. It's the paradox of Freddy Freeman. When he's Pantheon, and looks like an adult, he often acts the fool. And when he's Freddy and looks like a kid, he is often uncharacteristically wise. After a time: "Starting senior year next year, right?"

Damian Wayne has posed:
     "Uhh, yeah. But..." He had thought everyone had seen him and his ex dancing, but that may have been before Freddy came to the school. "Not exactly...what I go for." It was 2022 afterall, and it wasn't nearly as much of a secret that needed to be kept.

  "I don't think the others really get past the Wayne thing as much as you did."

  "I didn't really make the best impression when I got here fresh either." Yeah, he was a bit...prickly back then. "Yeah, I'm a senior this year, no more high school after this year." He was a bit relieved at that, mainly because he was advanced, but Bruce insisted he finish out school with his peers. "You too?"

Freddy Freeman has posed:
"I try to take people how I find them," Freddy says with his usual bubbly, good-natured tone. His looks at Damian, then quickly away, drumming his fingers on the tabletop like he was defusing a roadside bomb in Afghanistan. Again, we don't need a master detective to see that he has more than a passing interest in Damian and that despite his bubbly demeanor, it took all his courage to come sit here. But that's Freddy, he ain't afraid of shit.

"Yeah," he says wistfully, marking yet another way in which Freddy is a polar opposite of Damian. He doesn't /want/ to leave Happy Harbor. "My last year." He shakes his head. "Man, it's been so awesome here. I mean, literally the best time I've ever had." He nods in Damian's direction. "You're prolly going to like Yale or Harvard or something, huh?"

Damian Wayne has posed:
     "Damian's eyes look over Freddy again as he comments. He was trying to figure the guy out, not exactly sure what the motive was. But he's seen a number of good people before, so he doesn't retract. "It is a nice campus, makes having to go to school less of a pain in the ass." Not exactly tossing out the time he spent here, there was obviously good memories. "Father went to Yale...I want something bigger. MIT." It wouldn't suprise any of his own family, Damian was more of the on-hands type anyway. Even if Tony Stank was an alum, MIT was the goal. "I haven't applied yet." There was a little hesitation there, as if admitting that much would give him away as not really wanting to leave this place either.

Freddy Freeman has posed:
Freddy blinks and finally is able to look Damian directly in the eyes. "You haven't applied yet?" he asks incredulously, as though Damian just revealed that he has two extra arms hidden under his shirt. "Cuttin' kinda close are...oh, well you're a Wayne," Freddy says, his smiling returning. He's not judging or mocking, merely noting. "You can probably apply the day before classes start and get in."

"Me, I applied to NYU, Metropolis University, and just for kicks I applied to Harvard. I'm want to be a lawyer, and help out foster kids like me who fall through the cracks." Another shrug. "But if I'm bein' completely honest, man, I just don't wanna leave Happy Harbor." He blurts out a nervous little laugh. "Hell, I even briefly...juuuuuuust very briefly...considered tanking a year." Yet another shrug. Kid shrugs a lot. "I just get attached to shit."

Damian Wayne has posed:
     There was a small suprised scoff. Though the thought was a little foreign to him, wanting to stay here for another year. He didn't know how it was in Freddy's past, so it of course would be hard to put himself in those shoes.

  "You'd really tank a year just to stay here?" He flipped the pencil in his hand, resting the rounded side on the paper and tapping, no rhythm, just a fidget. "If I did that, I'd get an earful, from Father, Richard, and Alfred. Older brother who really has an interest in seeing my grades. Ugh, no thanks."

  "I'll apply by the deadline, if they're gonna take me, they'll take me. And despite the stereotype, Father wouldn't grease a palm to get me in either. Not that I need it." There was a tone of...that teenager mentality, to blaze one's own trail there.

Freddy Freeman has posed:
The low-key, electric confidence that Damian gives off seems to relax Freddy a bit. His earlier fidgeting, the finger-drumming, even the painful hip repositioning seems to all calm down. "No way I would tank a year." A bright smile splays across his face. "Rich people don't have hyperbole, huh?" Man, this kid is taking All The Chances with someone who has a pretty severe reputation at the school. He's proverbially putting his head right in the lion's mouth.

"I respect that, though, that your dad wouldn't pull strings for you," Freddy says, counterbalancing the ball-busting he was just doing. "My dad...my foster dad...would probably do anything in his power to help me get into school. But he doesn't have any, so he just helps however he can."

Freddy peers around the campus. "No, I guess coming here just represented a time in my life when things just got so better so fast. I'm always gonna love the Haps. I hope somebody I'm in a position to give something back to this place." He blinks really fast and looks away...at some interesting bird or leave or something in the decidedly opposite direction form where Damian is sitting.

Damian Wayne has posed:
     "No, the rich people do. We thought you normal folk were the ones going without." He gives Freddy a little side-eye, and a chortle through his nose, obviously joking back, if not missing the mark a little, but it was his attempt at humor.

  "So, you want to..." That was where he noticed the turn from Freddy. He was hiding something, but it didn't take a genius to know he was hiding tears.

  "Hey." He tuts his tongue a bit trying to buy himself time to figure out what he was going to say and hopefully nto make this worse. "It's ok. I get it...somewhat." He offers, he himself was torn between holding on to the memories and moving forward.

Freddy Freeman has posed:
Still looking away, Freddy shakes his head. He watched Damian Wayne from afar for so long, and finally courage and opportunity intersected. But this is *not* how he wanted things to go. "It's all good," Freddy says, swiping the back of his hand in irritation across his face. "I bet college will be, you know, really cool. I mean, I never figured I'd actually love high school until I came here. So who knows what'll happen."

Now that he has recovered, Freddy turns back to look at Damian. "So you really think I'm normal folk?" he asks, holding a straight face for as long as humanly possible before bursting out in laughter that's maybe one notch too high for the situation. Here we see the sometimes-spastic side of Freddy Freeman. "That's the nicest thing anyone has ever said to me," he says between chortles and chuckles.

Damian Wayne has posed:
     Damian's brow furrowed a little at the comment...right until Freddy started laughing, which made himself start too. Soft at first, slowly, a couple 'ha-ha's before he goes into full on laughter as well. It was a strange feeling, getting enthralled in the laughter of a goofy joke.

  He reaches up to his eyes and wipes a tear from his eye, flinging it from his hand. "You know, I didn't want to say something worse as a joke...and have to take a beating with that crutch of yours. What the hell am I supposed to do?"

Freddy Freeman has posed:
Caught up in the raucous moment of sharing a VERY unexpected laugh with someone, Freddy holds his crutch up like a great sword or a lightsaber! "You do NOT want me to whoop your ass with this thing," he barely manages to get out around his laughter. His eyes glitter with complete, carefree abandon now.

Finally, he comes back down. His chest hitches once or twice with a residual laugh. "I gotta tell you, Damian Wayne, you do *not* live up to your reputation. Half of this school is afraid'a you." He unexpectedly makes eye contact with Damian and quickly looks away in adolescent embarrassment. The pendulum swings back to wise Freddy again. He looks back to Damian, this time able to maintain eye contact. His voice is soft when he asks, "Do you do that because you think people will try to take advantage of you because of your family name? That must be very lonely."

Damian Wayne has posed:
     Damian's gaze retracts around the same time Freddy's does as well, a slight blush on his cheek. Though when the Wise Fredrick Freeman makes another appearance, Damian leans in, as if to share a secret. "I do it because it made paparazzi leave me alone and stop taking pictures of me three inches in front of my face. And here...only the determined have dared approach." And so did Freddy Freeman, the young man find out Damian's game. At least the public Damian Wayne's game.

  "So. I guess I gotta kill you now." An awkward silence imposed on the situation, right before that wry smile shows again.

Freddy Freeman has posed:
Looking downward and nodding sadly. "I...I understand. We live by the choices we make." Licking his lips dramatically, Freddy draws in a breath and lifts his crutch and sets it on the table gently. "Here, use this. It's only fitting. Like the old saying goes, live by the crutch, die by the crutch." He peers at Damian and whispers softly, "Tell my mother I love her."

And yeah, that's about all of that Freddy can take. He bursts into laughter and in that moment it isn't a billionaire and a poor foster kid at the table, it's two human beings just having a good, old fashioned, down home laugh about one of them beating the other one to death with a crutch. It's surprising that nobody has written a folk song about this.

Damian Wayne has posed:
     "I would, if I could find her, Freeman." Gallows humor, popular with criminals and teenage boys alike. But it was something that indeed had the two at the same level. Two guys having a laugh, from a kid who up until two years ago never laughed.

  Damian looked to Freddy and his smile stayed. "So, why did you decide to put your life in such danger, Misster Free-man." He did at least play video games on occasion, and the G Man from Half-Life seemed a little apropos to imitate.

Freddy Freeman has posed:
Freddy quickly leans forward, his chest resting on the table as he beams at Damian. "Get the fuck out...Wayne, do you play VIDEO GAMES? Does your father know you play video games?" With amused, pursed lips, Freddy sits up straight again and tugs out a battered Android smartphone that is repaired with duct tape in at least two places. He holds it up his head. "Yes, get me Wayne Manor. Right away."

And then the goofball put his free hand over the phone receiver like he's really trying to shield what he's saying from the person on the other end of the call. He whispers to Damian, his eyes glittering merrily, "You want me to tell your dad anything?"

Damian Wayne has posed:
     "Oh he hates it, think's it's a total waste of time. But Alfred overrides him, hell, it's almost a tradition at this point for the family to gift me video games right in front of him." Damian notes, before playing along with the act somewhat. "Uhh yeah, tell him the doctor called and the new stick for his ass is ready." Well, at least there was one thing Damian could freely tell about Bruce. "He's...Grayson says he tries his best. I believe him somewhat."

Freddy Freeman has posed:
Freddy relaxes into the chair again and slips the phone back in his pocket. "It sounds like he carries around a big burden and doesn't take it easy on you." He crosses one leg over the other and looks absurdly like a therapist or something. "Who is Alfred? Your grandfather or somethin'? Sounds like he really looks out for you."

Again some nervous fidgeting as one of Freddy's hands tap-tap-taps on the metal crutch, which is lying across the table, dividing one kid from the other like some sort of barrier."

Damian Wayne has posed:
     "Ahh, yes, Doctor Sigmund Fraud, I presume?" Damian quips, though it probably would behoove the two Waynes to be in a little therapy. As he's asked about Alfred, he gives a small smile. "The closest thing we have to one...he was the family butler when my grandparents died. He stayed on cause Father didn't have any family left, so he's our Grandfather in a way. He helped raise all of us now, which is a lot of orphaned kids, three, and one biological son. Which was...I wasn't exactly planned." Putting that as softly as he could.

  "Here." He takes out his phone and taps it to Freddy's, dropping his contact info to Freddy's. His own phone was new...ish, lightly scratched and used, but not held together with duct tape. "There, my screen names are on it too. " An ammount of trust given to the fellow teen. "I should get back to the chem lab, but...you're alright Freeman."

Freddy Freeman has posed:
Freddy can't help but blush at that compliment. He just essentially completely outed himself and the way he feels about Damian. It's one of the downsides of wearing one's heart on one's sleeve: it's almost impossible to conceal things. He grabs his crutch off the table and stands up with its assistance. He holds out a fist for a bump. "You too, Wayne. You're actually a nice dude. But don't worry, I promise I won't tell anyone as long as you give me your lunch money every day." Freddy broadly smiles. "See ya around."

And off he goes. Walk-thunk-walk-thunk-walk-thunk. He can't stand or walk without that crutch. His hips hurts like a fucker. He still has to go wait for the Loop to get home. He's hungry. It's hot outside. But he doesn't notice any of that. He walk-thunks off with a honest-to-goodness smile on his face.