Chapter 2: The First Draft

	It was the knock that startled her back into this world.  It 
was amazingly odd that she’d lost herself so much in her task that 
she had forgotten where she was.  That did not happen as much anymore, 
which saddened the brunette when she thought about it.  She wasn’t 
sure if the lack of engagement was the quality of what she was usually 
seeing or the fact she was becoming jaded.

	“I see you’re reading it,” Jayne said as she sat down across 
from her boss.

	Kitty paused long enough to set her tablet notebook aside 
before answering Jayne.  The tablet notebooks were very retro, but 
Kitty insisted on them for her job.  When you needed to write, draw, 
and read, the tablet was still the best method out there.  “Yes.  
The story sucked me in.  The premise is amazing!”

	“That struck me at first, too.  It almost even fit what you 
were saying a while ago about the patterns of Batman’s activities.”

	“So, I’m not the only Batfreak it seems,” Kitty smiled.  “But 
why was it red-filed?  I didn’t read anything problematic at all.  In 
fact, most of the spelling and grammar were even correct.  That almost 
never happens in a first submit anymore.”

	“I didn’t red-file it for the story, I red-filed it for other 
reasons,” Jayne shared.

	As Kitty raised an eyebrow waiting for Jayne to pull together 
her explanation for red-filing a promising story, she thought a little 
about the system they had created to deal with all of their submissions.  
The publishing house had four clearance databases, to make life easier 
for the recruiters, editors, secretaries and (unfortunately) lawyers.  
Things that were put in the white database, or “white filed”, were 
automatic accepts to La Gotham Noir.  Things that were “black filed” 
were automatic rejects.  “Yellow filed” submissions just needed some 
editing work and tweaking.  “Red filed”, on the other hand, were 
stories with great promise and great problems.

	“I red-filed the story,” Jayne said after a few minutes of 
silence, “because one of the characters, Travis Matthews –“

	“Who is a wonderful character,” Kitty interrupted.  “This 
writer actually managed to make the ‘bad boy’ a non-cliché.”

	“Well, she had help in that,” Jayne said “Travis is based 
on a real person.”

	“Slaggit,” Kitty grumbled.  Characters based on real people 
were always a legal headache she didn’t need.  “Please tell me that 
he’s at least famous?  Then we could say he’s fair game.”

	“No.  Not famous.  Just a typical high school student, like 
our author,” although the blonde recruiter didn’t sound disturbed, 
the frustration was clearly apparent in her eyes.

	“A high school student?  It just gets worse.  Please tell 
me that he’s at least sixteen! I do NOT want to have to deal with 
parents again.”

	“I have been able to find out that he is at least sixteen.  
But, given that he’s not famous, you know we need his consent before 
we move forward.”

	“Slaggit,” Kitty muttered again.  Taking a deep breath, she 
rose, “Well, let’s get started then.  We need to contact him and get 
the waiver signed.  It’ll be the two of us.”

	“Do we also need Tom from legal?” Jayne asked and she moved 
to stand to follow her employer.

	“No.  We go in without legal.  Contact the author, however. 
I think he or she should come with us.”

	Jayne stopped, surprised by her boss’ answer.  “Go in without 
our lawyer?  Is that the smartest move?”

	“Jayne,” Kitty sighed as she turned, “every time we go in with 
Tom, people refuse to sign.  I want this story.  And, if I need to 
intimidate the real life Travis to get it – well, what our legal 
department doesn’t know makes their defense easier.”

	“Intimidation?  But Katherine, that’s not legal!”

	“Oh, did I say intimidate?  I meant persuade.  Persuasion is 
not a bad thing.  There are ways to reach people without the legal 
jargon.  I’m just thinking outside the specs on this one.”  Kitty 
pulled her glasses down slightly to look over the rims at her best 
recruiter.  “Jayne, this isn’t some quaint small town like St. Michals 
or Smallville were.  I want that story; I don’t want a libel suit; 
so, I’m going to make it work.”  After uttering her pronouncement, 
Kitty turned and walked out of the door.

	For a few seconds, Jayne stood in the room, frozen in shock.  
So many of the recruiters that said that Katherine Matthews – their 
“fearless” leader – was lethal.  They often called her a shark, a 
bitch, and a schemer – at least in terms of her job, even if she was 
nothing but fair to those employed at LGN.  Jayne hadn’t believed 
them before.  Kitty wasn’t a pushover, but she wasn’t like Mason 
Stein.  At least, she hadn’t seemed like Mason before today.  There 
was a steel streak of something in Kitty that Jayne hadn’t seen 
before.  Mason had that streak. So did Ian Peek and both Derek and 
Paxton Powers.  Some of the stories about Bruce Wayne pointed to it 
as well.  With the exception of Wayne, Kitty wouldn’t appreciate 
being compared to that group of people.  But all of those people 
were Gotham natives.

	Maybe this city really did destroy people after awhile.

*****
	As he opened his locker, he took a few seconds to try to 
force himself awake.  Most of his fellow students would say Monday 
was the worse day of the week.  He tended to think it was Wednesday.  
No weekend to mitigate the drama of the “after school job” and a ton 
of high school drama in the day to add to the underbelly drama at 
night.

	Was he getting too old for this?  At his age?

	“Morning, Terry,” the familiar voice of his best friend said 
off to his right.  “Boy, do you looked slagged!”

	“Hello, Max.  Nice to see you, too.”

	“Don’t get snippy with me!  I at least tried to help you 
study for the government quiz.”

	“Wait – that government quiz is today?”

	“Terry, you really are hopeless.  You know that?”

	How Terry would have answered Max remained a mystery, as Dana 
joined them at that point.  “Good morning, Ter.  Hi, Max,” the teen 
smiled at her friend and greeted her boyfriend with a kiss.  “Boy, 
you look slagged!”

	“Is it that obvious?” Terry asked as he ran a hand through 
his hair.

	“Well, not as obvious as the whole Sara-Sam fallout, but 
pretty close.”

	“The Sara-Sam thing is still in the fallout stages?” Max 
interrupted.  “They should have made up by now.”

	“The Sara-Sam thing?” Terry asked, his confusion showing on 
his face.

	At his question, Max and Dana both turned to stare at him.  
“Sometimes, Terry, I wonder if you even go to this school.”

	Max shook her head and tried to catch Terry up to speed.  
“Sara and Sam go to school here.  They’ve been best friends for 
eons – but they have huge fights once a week.  Anyway, the last 
fight started after homecoming –“

	“Speaking of,” Dana interrupted as looked at Terry.  The 
Asian girl made a fist and hit her boyfriend’s shoulder.  “You were 
supposed to be there.”

	“Ow!” Terry objected.   “And, as I tried to explain later, 
Mr. Wayne needed me that day.  Dana, he’s old and he needs help, 
hence the assistant?”  Terry valiantly tried to ignore Max’s 
coughing fit over his portrayal of Bruce Wayne as frail and in 
need of assistance.  This was probably one of the drawbacks of 
having Max meet the Old Man.

	“Mr. Wayne always needs you!  What about when I need you?”

	“Are we going to have this fight now?  Or are we going to 
talk about the whole Sara-Sam thing?  Because, if you’re going to 
do the fight, I need my popcorn.”  As two faces turned toward her, 
complete with dirty looks, Max just shrugged.  “What?  The two of 
you do fight enough.  The rest of us have to do things to make it 
entertaining!”

	“You mentioned that Sara and Sam started fighting three 
weeks ago?” Terry asked as he turned back to Max.

	“Yep.  Sam supposedly stormed off.  I guess they haven’t 
talked since.”

	“And here’s Sara now.  Now that’s really looking slagged,” 
Dana pointed out as she turned to look down the hallway.

	Sure enough, another student was walking toward the classes 
further down the wing.  There were other people around her, but she 
didn’t seem to be paying any attention to them. There were dark 
circles under her eyes and she seemed really out of it.

	“Whoa,” Terry said.

	“I know.  Whatever happened, Sara took it hard,” Dana 
observed.

	Before Terry could ask any other questions, there seemed 
to be a commotion at the other end of the hall.  The three teens 
turned to look at what caused it.  What they saw coming up the hall 
was a rare sight.  Three different women, each with clear purpose, 
walked down the hall.  One of them was clearly a student and a little 
nervous; she kept pushing her glasses back onto her face.  The 
student’s companions were clearly adults.  One of them wore a light 
gray suit with a medium length skirt and low heels.  The other was 
in a power red pantsuit with higher heels.  A vintage powersuit at 
that, given that it had lapels.  She was very clearly the one in 
charge.

	Even more interesting than that, the triumvirate seemed to 
be heading directly toward Dana, Terry, and Max.  

	“Who are those women?” Dana asked

	“Are they with Wayne/Powers?” Max asked Terry.

	“No.  Definitely not,” Terry answered as his eyes narrowed.

	“And why is Sam with them?” Dana asked.

	Before the teens could to much more musing, the three women 
stopped in front of him.  “That’s him,” the student shared.  “That’s 
Terry McGinnis.”

	“Thank you, Samantha,” the female in the red powersuit 
replied.  “Mr. McGinnis,” she turned her attention to Terry as she 
smiled.  “My name is Katherine Matthews.  This is my associate Jayne 
Hightower-Reeves.  On behalf of Samantha, here, could we have a few 
minutes of your time?”

	“We’re coming too,” Max was quick to chime in.

	Ms. Matthews blinked only slightly before relenting, “Of 
course.  Do you have any suggestions of where we can go to talk a 
moment?”

	“I have the perfect place, follow me,” Max said, taking the 
lead and dragging a reluctant and suspicious Terry with her.  As Dana 
brought up the rear of the group, she noticed that Sam stayed in 
conversation with Ms. Hightower-Reeves and didn’t once look up once, 
not even to acknowledge Sara…who had followed the group with her eyes.

- to be continued –