It hadn't been difficult to learn how to control her plant abilities better and enhance them. All it took was a little practice in her room about an hour after school every day. Barbara hadn't noticed, as far as Roselyn knew, when she took some of the plants from Ivy's greenhouse one Saturday. She allowed the small plants to attach to her- one on each wrist. They were some of the ones that hadn't been destroyed that had her blood coursing through them. Ivy had used Roselyn's blood to see how plants reacted to another human-plant hybrid's blood. Roselyn just happened to be the only other person she knew of and went a little bit too far. However, Roselyn forgave Ivy for this a couple of days afterwards when she found out Ivy had used her blood. Poison Ivy was the person Roselyn considered her mother even though they weren't biologically related. She never had a mother before and Ivy was the first person to treat her like a person. Before Ivy, nobody touched her, hugged her, or told her they loved her; she had never been loved until Poison Ivy came into her life when she was eleven years old.

Just thinking about Ivy, or Pammie as she called her, would still bring tears to her eyes. She hadn't seen her for two years, but the wounds were still fresh. She was constantly carrying around that awful pain in her chest. She quickly learned how to mask the pain and continued on with her life. School was a good escape since Pammie would have made her go there, anyway. It made it easy to forget just for a little while. But once she got out of school, she began to walk home to her apartment. Roselyn's home was with Barbara Gordon now, the commissioner's daughter. As much as she loved Barbara and appreciated everything she had done for her, she still longed to see Pamela Isley who was currently residing in Arkham Asylum. She wanted to show her what she was capable of now with her plant abilities.

As the plants that had attached to her grew, Rosie learned how she could keep them small and hidden, but if she needed them, she could grow them by asking with her mental connection. The only downside was this required the plants to use blood and it would make her a bit lightheaded after being used for too long. As she continued to enhance her powers, her body adapted to it and she could now keep her vines long for up to four hours at a time before she got a headache and the vines cried out they needed more blood.

Roselyn kept her vines a secret from everyone, including her best friend Tim Drake-Wayne, Batman's Robin. She had to be very careful around him because she didn't want him to find out she was toying with Poison Ivy's old experiments and attached said experiments to her own body. The vines made her connection with plants a little bit better and she marveled at this.

Plants didn't judge her for wanting and needing Poison Ivy. Plants wanted her to be reunited with someone who made her feel so special- made them feel so special. Part of her was proud Ivy hadn't broken out of Arkham. The other part of her desperately wanted her to and they'd leave Gotham together and live happily ever after in some forest or something where nobody could ever bother them again.

Roselyn sighed and flipped over her wrists to make sure her vines were concealed. They were. Giving herself a small smile as she looked in the mirror above her white dresser, the thirteen year old decided it was time to go downstairs for breakfast.

"Good morning!" Barbara said too cheery for someone who works until three in the morning most nights. She knew Barbara was exhausted as she didn't care to cover up the dark circles under her eyes. Roselyn grabbed a bowl, cereal, and some milk. She then sat down at the table and ate what everyone called the most important meal of the day. Or at least, she took a few bites. Breakfast wasn't really her thing.

"You could just sleep in, you know," Rosie told her. "I get myself ready for school, anyway."

"We've been over this," Barbara wheeled herself over to the table to sit across from her. "I like to see you in the morning. Is that such a crime?" Roselyn frowned and put her spoon down. She knew what a crime was, and that was keeping her away from Ivy. There was that stupid pain in her chest again. "Not hungry again?"

"Not really," Roselyn said, but forced herself to eat a couple of more bites. She should be grateful she had food to eat when just a few years ago the food that had been provided for her was revolting and probably not even real food. She got up from the table and grabbed the bagged lunch Barbara prepared for her and put it in her backpack. She put her backpack on before slightly leaning down to give Barbara a kiss goodbye.

"Remember, my dad is coming over for dinner tonight," Barbara warned her. Roselyn gave a disgusted look as she hated Commissioner Gordon. She blamed him for enforcing the whole she could never see Ivy again. That, and he seemed to be close to Batman who she really disliked. She remembered when James Gordon first came over for dinner after she had settled into her new home with Barbara. She had asked him if he could persuade people to let her at least visit Ivy. She wasn't asking for him to spring her from Arkham; all she wanted was to be ensured she wouldn't have to grow up without someone who meant the world to her. She remembered how he gently explained to her it couldn't be done and left it at that. She had been furious; it had been a time before she learned how to control her emotions. Emotionally and socially, she had been behind her age group. Perhaps she still was, but she had come a long way.

"Can I just go to Tim's tonight?" she pleaded. She really didn't want to have dinner with him.

"Rosie, he's family," Barbara explained to her for the hundredth time.

"Correction, he's your family. Not mine." Roselyn noticed the hurt look on Barbara's face. "You're my family. You're my mom, Barbara. But in no way is that man my grandpa."

"Just try to get along," Barbara looked up at her. "For me?"

"I'll be good," Roselyn promised. "At least it's a Friday. Just four more weeks left of middle school."

"I can't believe you'll be starting high school in the fall," Barbara smiled. "Now, go to school. You don't have a lot of it left, as you pointed out, so don't be late!"

"I'm going," Rosie laughed. "And go to bed!"

"Yes, mom," Barbara joked.

Roselyn began her walk to school. She had to admit, she did like the location of this home better than Ivy's greenhouse since she didn't need to take buses to school. She was close enough to simply walk and it didn't take an hour to get there. "Rosie!" she heard her name. She turned around and smiled when she saw it was one of her good friends she met at the beginning of eighth grade.

"Hey, Jess," she greeted. She waited for her friend to catch up to her. They had become friends quickly, but were complete opposites. Where Roselyn was quiet and more reserved, Jess was bubbly and loud. Rosie found herself being the one with common sense while Jess was more of a free spirit and did whatever she wanted and didn't care about the consequences.

"Did you do the history paper?" Jess asked her quickly.

"Yeah, I finished it a week ago," Roselyn's face fell. "You didn't procrastinate again, did you?"

"I…might have," Jess replied sheepishly. "I just have to write a conclusion before last period."

"Not as bad as last time, I guess," Roselyn laughed.

"Procrastinating is a way of life. Embrace it, Rosie."

"I prefer to get my work done as soon as possible so I don't have to waste my whole study hall writing my paper."

"What are you gonna do during study hall?" Jess asked. "Other homework?"

"Actually yes," Roselyn replied. "I usually don't have to do any homework at home."

"If only I had your work ethic," Jess said. "Then maybe I would have been put in honors classes in high school." The eighth graders had found out about a week ago which classes they would be placed in when they got to high school. Roselyn had landed herself in honors since her teachers found she would put in the work despite her rocky start when she first started middle school.

"Just work hard next year," Roselyn suggested.

"Nah, I'll keep doing what I'm doing. Haven't you heard? C's get degrees!" Roselyn assumed Jess heard that from her older sister who started college this year. She kind of wished Jess would take school more seriously. Perhaps she hadn't had the epiphany yet Roselyn had during seventh grade when she realized if she started doing well now, it would be easier for her when she got older. That, and Pammie valued education. Just that alone began to motivate her.

"Whatever you say," Rosie said as they approached the school. The two split when they entered the school, their lockers in different hallways. Roselyn opened her locker and took a deep breath. She opened up her heart shaped locket around her neck and looked at the picture of her and Pamela. Maybe she should get rid of it, like Tim suggested, since it was painful to look at. But Barbara had given it to her to help her remember and she didn't want to forget. Sometimes, looking at this picture would get her through the day. Others, it would make her upset and those were the days she cried for her in her room.

The day proceeded uneventful until English class. Her English teacher asked her to stay after class so she could speak with her. Roselyn had been nervous the whole class: what had she done wrong? Will it affect her grade? Would Barbara be disappointed in her? Finally, the hour was up and she approached her teacher.

Apparently, her letter had been chosen to be read at a charity ball held by none other than the Wayne Foundation. Their work had been submitted to a board that did not include Bruce Wayne, which she made sure of before she submitted it just because it seemed like a good opportunity. Bruce Wayne just provided the money to hold the event, Tim explained, so she didn't need to worry that hers would be chosen unfairly. She didn't think her work would have been chosen. She didn't think she'd stand a chance. She had been proven wrong.

Roselyn thanked her teacher and held the confirmation letter in her hands. She had to get it signed by Barbara so she could participate. She knew once word got out, everyone would be excited for her and she'd have to do this. She thought about hiding it from Barbara, but when she looked at her phone, she realized Barbara must have received an email as she had already congratulated her and said they'd celebrate tonight. Perfect. A celebration about her most inner thoughts about the whole Pamela Isley situation with James Gordon. That should go well. She should have listened to other people when they said thirteen was an unfortunate and awkward age. She sighed and continued her day at school, which was relatively uneventful.

The awaited sequel to Hybrid is finally here! Not expecting it to be as popular as the original, but I know the people who wanted this will love it!

Please leave a review and let me know what you think.