Chapter 4

After dinner and that intense talk, Bruce and I went back to our room.

"Hey" I said to Bruce, "thank you for always being there for me. I know it was my fault for getting us kicked out of school. I just feel so much rage and don't know how to handle it." I say while looking down, my eye's now becoming misty from the tears building up.

"you're still upset by that? Listen, those kids had it coming. But we can't go around fighting every single person that comes at us like that. I will always have your back even when you are wrong but you have to pull yourself together and think more." Bruce says that last part as he comes over and pats my back. Obviously trying to cheer me up and acting a lot older than he actually is.

"anyways show me what you did earlier. It was rather interesting." Bruce says breaking the moment of silence and my deep self-reflection.

"Oh, you mean the meditation? It's something I picked up from the doc. Wanna try it?"

"Yeah!" Bruce says enthusiastically, I couldn't help but smile at my brother.

"Okay" then I go on to teach him how to fall into a deep meditation. He tries a few times but each time his mind begins to fester and the old wound on his heart seems to rip itself open and he screams. Alfred hurriedly checks on us and I tell him that everything is okay.

I look back at Bruce "it's okay, I know it's hard. We can't forget what happened. Maybe try coming back to it later" I then come over to him and hug him. I know that he still blames himself and that this wound will only continue to grow if we don't do something about it now. But I feel so powerless sometimes.

The next day, bruce and I come down for breakfast like usual. A little misty eyed cause it's so early. Alfred greets us and serves us our usual, bacon and eggs. "Enjoy master's because today we will be screening tutors."

Oh right, home schooling, this will be fun.

Later that day we set up dad's old office and get another chair so I can also sit at dad's old desk. When Alfred leaves, I hear Bruce messing with something over on my left side. I turn to look at him and ask him "Bruce what are you doing? Why are you rummaging through dad's old stuff" he turns to look at me and for a second a see a hint of madness in his eyes.

"I've been thinking, there has to be a reason as to why our parents died. Maybe someone was plotting against them, or maybe a whole group. Maybe it was planned. Zach, I have to find out."

"Bruce…" honestly, I had no idea what to say. I don't think it was planned but then again, I couldn't just rule it out.

"okay, you check the desk and I'll check around the room" Bruce nods to me and we go right to snooping around. Theirs a few shelves I can't reach but I don't really find anything around the study. Bruce hollers to me really quick to get my attention.

"hey, Zach there's a hidden compartment under this drawer but it's locked. You got any tools on you?" naturally I do, so I pull out the little folded up kit from my inner vest pocket and hand it to Bruce. I go over to stand by the door on the lookout for Alfred.

'Click'

I rush over to him when I heard the click. Excited to see what was important enough to be locked away.

Bruce pulls out something from the hidden compartment. It was an owl mask. No note with it, no message, nothing. Just a stupid mask. I don't know why dad would hide away a Halloween mask.

I look at Bruce and he seems just as confused as I was. We put the mask back and searched some more. But, before we could get any solid results we heard Alfred making small talk with the guest as he approached the door. We scrambled back to our seats and tried hard to make it look like we were nonchalant.

"Young master's I would like to present Gotham's most up and coming tutor."

In walked a slim youth sporting a green vest and green pants with a purple tie. He has short strawberry hair and sports rather large square glasses.

"Greeting's young Waynes" he said while wearing the most devilish smile. "let me properly introduce myself. I'm Edward Nashton, currently I'm here seeking employment as a potential tutor."

"My accolades are as follows, I graduated from Gotham academy at the age of 16 on an accelerated track. The paper I sent in for admission to Gotham university has become a published thesis currently being researched. Also, I'm studying at Gotham university, currently on my second year. Though I've been certified to teach mathematics, history, science, and the langue arts." He smiled yet again, seemingly self-satisfied. I don't really like him though admittedly he's pretty qualified.

I look over at Bruce who seems to be in deep thought. After a little bit he notices my look and gazes at me. he meet's the look in my eye and we share a bit of back and forth locked in a silent argument. It's one of our twin things.

Finally, after a minute or two we both looked back at mister Edward and his ugly little vest and smug smile.

We told him we would be giving him a call.

Alfred then escorted various tutors for us, none were quite as impressive as Edward or as confident. Sadly, I had to admit that Mister Edward had what we were looking for.Sadly I had to admit that.

The very next day, we called Mister Edward and informed him that he would become our tutor from then on. From what I could tell he was ecstatic and he should be, we will be paying him handsomely.

"Well young masters, you'll be officially starting home school in the coming week. Tomorrow will be the start of the weekend. Now I'll give you two a choice. You can start the combat training this weekend or the next. It's up to you two." Then Alfred walked to the side and waited for us to make our dicision.

I pulled bruce over, I'm not going to lie I felt absolutely ecstatic. I'm tired of feeling weak.

"so bruce, what do you think." I asked genuinely curious what my egghead brother would think.

"hmmm" "honestly, we should start as soon as possible"

"I agree"

"Well it's settled then, tomorrow you two shall know the meaning of hard work and a good beating." Alfred then left with an ominous smile. A strong chill ran down my spine when I saw that smile.

Bruce and I went back to our room and discussed more about the future and if this was truly the path we had wanted to follow. It went without doubt that this was exactly what we wanted. I could barely sleep I was so excited and ready for tomorrow to arrive