[Comprehensive British and American] Family Matters

Jason is a duck to water at Gotham Academy.

The teachers liked him at first because he was "the Wayne boy", and Wayne was one of the school's biggest sponsors. Teachers get a raise, but if you mess with this brat and let him go home and cry to the adults... maybe they won't even be able to keep the job.

But soon they found that Jason was a perfect good student. He was concentrating on class and handing in homework on time. Every homework could be seen to be completed with effort and earnestness, instead of looking up information on the Internet like most students. Copy and paste it on the job.Not only that, Jason will choose to participate in almost every bonus homework that is assigned to participate independently.It’s not that there is anything wrong with doing this, but there are generally two groups of students who will participate in extra points assignments, one group is on the verge of failing a course, and has to spend more time to earn points in order to save credits; I was wandering around, hoping to use this assignment to push my grades, turn B+ into A, and make it look better when I apply for college in the future.

Jason Todd doesn't belong to any group. He is already a straight A student just relying on class participation, quizzes and homework assigned in class.Most of these students will choose to use their after-school time to participate in clubs or competition teams instead of continuing to improve their already beautiful report cards-in the eyes of teachers, the meaning behind this effort is not much.

That's why Jason is here, in the office after school on Friday, talking to the class tutor.

"How is life at Wayne's house? Are you getting used to it?" Jason's class tutor is a Latino male in his early 40s, Mr. Martinez, who wears a pair of rustic thick-rimmed glasses, and does not look like a certain Some teachers always have a sense of superiority that "you silly kids don't understand anything" between words and deeds. Mr. Martinez is always willing to spend time talking to the students in the class, so he is quite a popular teacher at Gotham Academy.

Jason often thought he was lucky to be put in Mr. Martinez's class as soon as he transferred.The teacher always seems to know when to interrupt the students' out-of-control banter, or use humorous self-deprecation to turn a student's outspoken and cruel nickname into a dumb joke with less damage.

"Well, it's good. I mean, it's been a few months, and I'm basically used to it." Thinking of the first week of life in Wayne Mansion, just finding it among a bunch of doors that looked exactly the same It takes 5 minutes to get to the door of his own room. Even if he has just finished exercising in the bat cave and is so tired that he just wants to fall asleep, Jason can accurately find his way back to the room with his eyes closed.

"Okay, okay, that's really great." Mr. Martinez nodded again and again, and began to write something hastily.Jason guessed that it might be something like a student counseling file, "I also noticed that your academic performance has been excellent since you entered school, and you spend a lot of time studying every day?"

This question made Jason a little stunned. Why did he think this question was weird? It seemed to imply that it was wrong to study.

"Uh... okay? I guess." Jason looked at Mr. Martinez's slightly raised eyebrows, and decided to add a more specific answer, "I mean, I still have other things to do besides studying."

"Like?"

"Like, exercise? (Robin 101)" Fingers crossed, Jason sincerely hoped Mr. Martinez wouldn't ask him to elaborate on the exercise.

"Okay. It's a good thing to maintain the habit of exercising. You have to be persistent and persevere every day, you know." Mr. Martinez received Jason's nod of affirmation without hesitation, and continued to write down things on his file board, "So , sports. Anything else? Hobbies, like drawing? When I was your age, I was always doodling in the margins of my textbooks, thinking I was going to be a cartoonist when I grew up."

"I like reading. The Wayne family has its own library, and there are many books to read in it."

"Ah, of course. What types of books do you read? I guess Wayne's private library should have a rich collection?"

"Mostly fiction, sometimes Alfred recommends other genres. (Batman's Handbook of Criminal Psychology)"

"Very well, reading can help broaden your horizons. But..."

coming!Jason took a deep breath, waiting for the highlight of today's conversation.

"As your class tutor, I noticed that you don't seem to have any extracurricular activities..."

"I have! Didn't I just say that I can exercise and read—extracurricular activities!" Jason interrupted Mr. Martinez eagerly, and he began to foresee where this conversation would develop.

"I mean, join clubs, school teams, etc. You said you like sports, and the school has a lot of teams. Or you like reading, and we also have a club for literary appreciation." Mr. Martinez didn't seem to care about Jay Sen interrupted, his tone still gentle, "The point is not the extracurricular activities themselves, but that you need to interact with your classmates more, Jason. You are a good boy, you go home after school and don't wander around, you complete your homework on time, and your attendance is perfect I have to say, I have been a teacher for so many years, and I can count good students like you on my hands."

"So I didn't get into trouble? Because I didn't join the club."

"No, Jason." Mr. Martinez shook his head with a wry smile. "Trust me, you're not in any trouble. I'm just suggesting. No offense meant, I know you've done a great job adjusting to the transition in your life , not only your life with Mr. Wayne, but also this new school, and I must say that our teachers are surprised by your adaptability."

"Thank you." Jason felt his cheeks and ears burning.Even though he knew Mr. Martinez had absolutely no idea that "adjusting to life" included his (hopefully not-too-distant future) quasi-Robin nights out, it was just as good to be complimented.

"However, kids your age still need to interact more with people your age. I'm not saying you have to hang out with a group of people and form cliques, it's just that...you don't want to be regarded as "nerdy Jason" by your classmates ’ Or, ‘Bored Jason,’ right?”

"I..." Jason was about to speak, and at the other end of the teacher's office, two female students who had just finished talking with the teacher passed by his and Mr. Martinez's desk.One of them was a blonde girl with a neat high ponytail—Jason remembered that they had several classes together, but he couldn't remember her name at the moment, and no matter how hard he tried, the name column was blank , wait...it seems to start with a G?

The blond ponytail obviously saw the struggle in Jason's mind. He shrugged his shoulders exaggeratedly and rolled his eyes behind Mr. Martinez's back, and said angrily, "Forget it, Mr. Martinez. Jason would rather go back He plays with the butler in his mansion, he doesn't want anything to do with us!"

"Hey! That's not it!" Jason stared angrily at the blonde ponytail and her friend's back, trying to find something to counterattack, but he didn't know what to say until the two girls' footsteps disappeared at the end of the corridor What.He really didn't hang out with his classmates very much, and couldn't even remember their names.

"Sorry, Tessa is just a little frustrated." Mr. Martinez leaned forward and patted Jason's knee in comfort.

That's great, so her name doesn't even start with G. Jason pouted, and was about to say that he doesn't care about the little girl's emotional sensitivity. The teacher's next sentence made him want to dig a hole and bury himself .

"After all, she came to you several times this month after class, and wanted to ask you to join the poetry recitation competition, saying that your voice quality is very good. As a result, you completely ignored her. Tessa once thought whether you hated her or when she Offended you."

Jason wanted to say that he didn't know about it at all. He rushed home after school every day. In addition to the school courses, there was also Robin's training. If he wanted to break all the records left by Dick, he had to pay More effort than Dick, after all he is not an acrobat who has been training since childhood.

He has seen the records of the Batcave and the performance videos of the "Flying Grayson" family circulating on the Internet. Even if he is a layman in gymnastics, he can see how natural Dick is when he does those flips and jumps. , as the steel cable swings, the expression that is close-up by the camera is only confident and focused.

Dick has no doubts that he can perfectly perform every difficult move that is enough to blow the audience away.

Jason even felt that the flying man in bright costumes in the picture believed that he could really fly the second he let go and threw his body.

In the Batcave video, Dick finished warming up in front of heavy training equipment in a sports tights, grabbed the rings and started the five movement groups of competitive gymnastics. Jason watched Dick on the screen repeatedly flexing and stretching, supporting, swinging, Standing upside down, I just feel more and more desperate as I look at it.When Dick in the record practiced more and more unrestrained, he simply used the Batcave as a stage and began to challenge a series of tricks that Jason couldn't match. Some of them he recognized were banned by the Olympic officials, saying they were harmful to the human body. An action that does too much damage.

But the (original) robin in the video clearly doesn't think so, even grinning and bowing to the unseen audience after landing perfectly.

—I can never top Dick Grayson in my life.

Seeing Dick's smiling face frozen at the last second, Jason suddenly felt that he couldn't breathe.

"No, I must surpass Dick Grayson." Jason narrowed his eyes and looked at Dick on the screen, as if he wanted to engrave the sweaty and confident face into his eyes, "Version 2.0 always has to Better than version 1.0, isn't it."

So he had to double his training, but Bruce strictly controlled the amount of his training. Even if he said he could continue, Bruce insisted not to let him stay on the training ground for one more minute.

"I got hurt by showing off for a while, and I will only lose more progress while waiting for recovery. Is this what you want?" When the man said this in Batman's voice, Jason could only bow his head obediently. Take a shower and rest.

But he has to keep up with Dick, so he can't spend time on "extracurricular activities."When he is not exercising, he can browse the case materials in the Bat computer, learn and analyze the action patterns of Batman's well-known old enemies, or practice programming. For Jason, these are all starting from scratch and must be repeated without repetition. Only by reviewing can we ensure that there will be no troubles in the future.

(The embarrassing thing of losing the chain on the first night watch must never happen. The first mission of Robin 2.0 must be perfect!)

"I'll apologize to her, I mean, I don't hate...Tessa (I can't remember her name at all!), I think it was crowded after school and I didn't hear her." Jay Sen embarrassingly dodged the teacher's worried eyes from left to right, trying to end the conversation as soon as possible, until his eyes fell on the wall of the teacher's office, where there were pictures of various academic competition teams and their leading teachers hanging on the wall.

The photos of the previous Olympiad teams are also included. Dick Grayson is standing among his teammates holding the trophy, grinning with a stupid smile showing a mouthful of white teeth.

"Um, Mr. Martinez, may I ask a question?"

"Sure, Jason. I'm listening."

"Dick...I mean Richard Grayson, is he popular?"

A hint of helplessness flashed through Mr. Martinez's eyes hidden behind the lenses, and he rubbed the back of his neck with one hand, and remained silent for a few seconds without answering.

"I guess that's for 'YES'." Jason muttered and clenched his fists. Great, another good job for Grayson.

"Jason, you know you don't need to compete with Richard, right? Even if you are both Mr. Wayne's wards, you are two independent people. You don't need to do what he does. This is not the purpose of my conversation with you today. I just think that if your smart head communicates with other students more, it will definitely spark more amazing sparks. This does not mean that you have to do this. Some people are just suitable for being quiet. Working alone, many artists can create masterpieces in their own studios.”

"I understand." Jason still stubbornly refused to meet Mr. Martinez's eyes, "Can I leave? Ah Fu will pick me up every day, and I don't want him to wait too long."

"Yes, you can leave now. Have a nice weekend, Jason."

"You too, Mr. Martinez."

At the gate of Gotham College, after the rush hour after school, there are only two or three cars waiting besides Wayne's house.Jason lowered his head and opened the car door to get into the back seat, and smiled at Ah Fu in the driver's seat.

"Sorry to keep you waiting, Fu. Been talking to the teacher for a while. Don't worry I didn't get in trouble!"

"About this, I'm not worried at all, Master Jason." Afu started the car and slid out of the pick-up and drop-off waiting area planned by the school smoothly, and drove into the traffic flow, "I can ask, which aspect is the conversation with the teacher about? discuss?"

"It's nothing." Jason originally planned to be perfunctory, but the look in Ah Fu's eyes in the rear mirror made him change his mind, "It's really nothing, just ask me if I want to join the club or, uh, poetry recitation competition."

"I venture to guess that you declined the offer?"

"Well, sort of." Jason turned his schoolbag to his body and hugged it tightly, "Look, I still have Robin's training, crime scene analysis and a lot of things to learn, I don't have time to participate in those activities of."

In the end, as if to prove that he was not withdrawn, Jason seriously gave evidence that he had participated in class activities: "I am a class leader, and I hosted the independent visit and study in the social class before, and I also I have a very normal student life, so I don’t need to rely on the Mathematical Olympiad team to prove that I am not autistic... Oh, 艸!” He shouldn’t have slipped.

"First of all, pay attention to your words, Master Jason." Ah Fu continued to drive the car in a smooth manner without even shaking his hands, "Secondly, yes, you don't need to force yourself to participate in things you are not interested in because of Master Richard." Extracurricular activities, which instead lose the meaning of the club itself.”

"Hmm." Jason nodded casually, not intending to continue talking about this topic.Even if Ah Fu watched him through the rearview mirror more than once during the next drive, he did not intend to continue discussing the topic of Grayson.

He hadn't even met Dick Grayson in person, and he felt he was being crushed by what he left behind.But he's not going to throw in the towel, he's going to show everybody (Bruce) that Jason Todd is better.No matter what other people say: "You are different people, you don't need to compare everything", "Even if your fingers are long or short, it is meaningless than this", when he knows the identity under the mask of Batman, he steps into Wayne The moment the mansion starts, the competition has already begun.

Dick may not be in Wayne House, or even in Gotham City, but he's everywhere—the Batcave is full of traces of Dick (Robin), the cases he and Batman solved together.Hell, even the lunatics in Arkham had the "dressed like a beacon" mockingbird on their minds.

If he fails as Robin, everyone will sigh that "the pirated version is not as good as the original", only if he succeeds (beyond Dick), he can stand up and stand beside Batman as Robin (Jason Todd) , which is the only way he can break the shadow of his predecessor - better than him.

Those born on Crime Lane know best that life is a game, that survival itself is a competition, and that the ultimate reward is survival itself.

He wants to live, he will not lose.