"Melanie, time to wake up, our meeting with Mr.Wayne is in 35 minutes." My mom đã đưa ý kiến gently. I groaned and turned around, my eyes squinted due to the light shown through the satin curtain. "And why do I need to go? Besides, its not like I get any benefit from these stupid meetings." My mom sighed, "Melanie, your father and I won't be around forever, and we just want bạn to be prepared." I really hated it when she called me bởi my full name. "Why can't bạn just call me Mel?" I groaned. She laughed and walked out of my room. "You have 35 minutes." She đã đưa ý kiến again before she quietly closed the door. I changed quickly, into black skinny jeans, black converse, and a gray mickey chuột t-shirt. Dragging my feet, I slowly left the room and went down the hall. My father was leaning against a wall, engaged in a conversation on his cell phone. He looked at me and frowned, "I've have to go Phil, see bạn at the meeting." He đã đưa ý kiến with the frown still engraved into his face, his brown eyes locked onto my blue ones. We stepped into the elevator in silence. We were on the 37th level. Great, that leaves 37 awkward moments with my dad. I'm not even sure he was my dad, hoặc that my mom was my mom. I was so different from them. My dad had short, black, graying hair and my mom had straight, light brown hair. Nothing like my curly, blonde hair. hoặc my bright blue eyes compared to their green eyes. "So, about the meeting," My dad sighed, "Mr. Wayne's son has offered to 'hang out' with bạn while your mother and I are in the meeting." He managed a weak smile at me, which was a rare thing for him to actually do. I tried a smile back, "Dad-" He put his hand out in front of me, “I thought it would be a good way for bạn to make some new Những người bạn around here, so I đã đưa ý kiến yes.” He attempted another weak smile. I sighed and looked away.

The car ride was long and awkward. I just stared out the window, watching the city flit by. There was a new guard today. I turned to face him. “Where’s Warren?” I asked nonchalantly. He kept his head faced toward the front. “Who?” His voice was low and gravely.
“Warren, my normal bodyguard.”
“I don’t know.”
“Well… what’s your name?”
“Rick.”
“Ok, then.” I went back to looking out the window and sighed, now wondering about Warren.

“Oh. My. God.” The building was huge! Much larger than everything and anything I had ever seen. It must have been 50 stories high! Rick walked past me, bumping my shoulder and interrupting my thoughts. I followed into a huge lobby where a lady pointed us to an elevator and told my parents that the meeting was on the 42nd floor and that Mr.Wayne’s son was waiting for me over bởi another room. “Thanks.” I said, and walked over to where she had told me. Of course, Rick was not far behind. “Rick, it’s ok. I can go alone.” He grunted and shook his head no. I looked at him and give him my most convincing smile, “I promise to stay in the building. PPPPLLLLEEEAAASSSEEE???” Reluctantly and slowly he nodded and turned around to go sit on one of the couches in the lobby. I turned around to start walking toward the room the lady had instructed, and practicaly screamed when I saw a teen my age smiling at me. He looked vaguely familiar, also. “Hi!” He said, staring straight into my eyes. It made me feel somewhat awkward, “Um, hi.” I took a step back. He stuck his hand out, “My name is Dick, I’m looking for-“ “Melanie. Um, Mel.” I cut him off and smiled. I shook his hand.

The building was 10x larger than I expected and Dick was also nicer that I thought. We had talked and laughed, and now we were sitting in an empty office with a bunch of vending machine food. “…My parents just don’t understand me. I mean, I tell them I going out for the night and they just say, ‘Yes, yes ok darling. Be careful.’ I mean, I swear, if I was ever kidnapped, they wouldn’t notice! So, what’s your dad like?” I looked over at him. He looked into my eyes, then to the floor. “Actually, Bruce isn’t my dad. My parents, died, a while back.” He đã đưa ý kiến quietly. “Oh, I’m so sorry.” I took my feet off the bàn and looked down at the floor. “No, its ok.” He put his hand on my shoulder, “We should go now. The meeting will be over any minute.” We walked out of the room and into the elevator. It was silent for a while until Dick’s voice broke the silence, “I like your necklace.” I looked at him and held my necklace, “Thanks. My grandma got it for me, before she died and all.” The elevator pinged and the door opened. We both stepped out into a huge meeting room. My parents and another man were standing and talking quietly. When my mother noticed we were there she smiled. “Melanie! This is Mr. Wayne!” A tall man smiled at me, “Nice to meet you.” He dark voice crooned. “The pleasure is all mine.” I smiled back. My parents had always taught me to use manners around adults. Well, today wasn’t half bad, but I couldn’t wait until tonight.