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"Is this leading up to another humble brag about being a Gotham Gold Glove?"
"Humble what? Look if you doubt me we can have another go at it for real this time."
"Maybe when this is all over." You laugh.
"Anyways, Crews was a bastard and he pushed me harder than anyone else had, any mistake meant a week of foot patrol with the ankle jerks. But he helped me be the cop I am now, for better or worse."
"For better." You say with certainty.
Hawthorne gives you a light smile and sighs grabbing his drink again.
"Alright enough about me, I want to hear about this Grandfather of yours."
"I called him Nonno, he was.." You pause your sentence as years of memories with him fly through your mind. You smile and settle for the simplest. "He was the best."
Hawthorne simply drinks and waits for you to continue.
"Eventually it was decided I had enough of a handle on my Shivers, from the medicine and just me learning how to tame it, to go to school. Freshman year. Of course my 'condition' meant I needed extra care, I transferred in the middle of the school year and got put in special education."
"Why? You don't seem slow to me."
You raise an eyebrow and Hawthorne holds up a hand.
"Sorry sorry, you don't seem challenged."
You laugh and give him a quick middle finger.
"Thanks, sir. Anyways I was blowing through the classes and it became kinda obvious to the school that I didn't belong there. But they were also worried about putting me with the normal kids, the whole 'meta' debate was still a headline then, eventually someone had a brilliant idea. To just keep me in Special Ed classrooms while giving me the coursework and textbooks from the more advanced classes I was capable of."
"So they just shut you in a closet and left you to figure it out for yourself?"
"They video'd the classes so I could watch the recording the next day. I was always a day behind everyone else essentially."
"Jesus." Hawthorne growls. "You were just a kid, what was the point?"
You hold up a hand.
"You're preaching to the choir, sir. But it wasn't going to change so I made it work, eventually though other students started to notice that the new kid who was 'Special' was out-performing them. Which led to the inevitable."
"Brats can be vicious. Did you fight back?"
"No, I had gotten into something like that when I was younger. Nonno took me to the park and we talked. He told me words and petty lies weren't reasons to lash out. To be the bigger man."
"Good advice, but sometimes you gotta act."
"He told me that too, in a way, he'd always say 'a man is not judged by his words but by his actions' and I still believe that."
"What happens when the words turn into action?"
"Exactly where I'm going with this. I had one class that would post test results publicly outside the classroom on a corkboard, I was only able to check it when classes were in session so I wouldn't 'disturb' anyone in the halls. Apparently though I had gotten a higher score than some loud mouth."