Jason shook his head under Bruce's slightly expectant gaze and said, "I don't know. I fell asleep when I got to that part."
Bruce choked up. He felt another breath catch in his throat as a metallic sweetness kept rising into his mouth. He took a deep breath, looked at Jason, and said, "So you sleep in class too, do you?"
"Don't you do the same?" Jason looked genuinely surprised. With an expression of surprise and confusion, he said to Bruce, "Last time I went to deliver lesson plans to Professor Schiller, I saw you sprawled over a desk in the back row, sleeping like a baby."
Bruce was speechless.
He suddenly realized there was a serious problem: he really had no standing to demand that Dick get good grades.
Dick ranked somewhat below average in his class, while Bruce was flat-out at the bottom of his.
Back in his freshman and sophomore years, Bruce could still explain it by saying he wanted to disguise himself as an idle, useless playboy. But by junior year, Wayne Enterprises had expanded considerably, business was booming, and that act was no longer convincing. Everyone knew he was a lucky business genius.
So at that time, Bruce should have been studying hard. But he had felt busy, and academic performance had not seemed especially necessary to him, so he had occasionally chosen to use class time to rest.
"I'm an adult. I can balance..." Bruce instinctively tried to explain, but under Jason's stare, he truly could not force out the rest.
What if Jason got caught sleeping in class one day, and the teacher asked why? Jason would tell the teacher that he could balance work and study, and if the teacher asked who had taught him that, things would get ugly.
"Why does