Le Joker

002

Slamming her locker shut, Nani rolled up the sleeves of her flannel and headed to her first hour gym class. The students are expected to change once they got into class.
    
As soon as she entered the gym- one of the nicest places left in Gotham -a deep voice called out to her from the bleachers. "Nani! Nani! Get up here!" She smiled and jogged between her peers up to the seventh row beside her best friend, Bryce Logan, who'd just stopped waving his arms wildly.
    
"What are you wearing? Nani, I'm going to ask you this one time and one time only. Where is the hooker outfit me and my brother got for you?" He questioned seeing her flannel and skinny jeans. Nani shook her head at her friend, "Well you aren't exactly wearing the outfit I got you either." Bryce cut her off, "Nani! You're gonna be eighteen in five days! If we're gonna get you a boyfriend by then, you're gonna have to start wearing the clothes we buy you."
    
Bryce and his brother were always shopping for Nani. Always something appealing to the eye, never anything appropriate. Nani laughed at her idiot friend, "Bryce. I walk here, just like you. But, I carry a five year old on my back and usually have two kids latched to my hands, kids that look up to me, by the way. I'm not wearing a leather bra and two strips of fabric held together by safety pins." Before Bryce could object, Nani held her hand up, "Or stilettos! I take a twenty minute walk through dirt and debris! I don't even know where you find clothes like that in Gotham! And we're trying to find you a girlfriend. Why don't you wear the outfit."
    
Her friend was preparing to respond- rudely, of course -but thankfully, the gym teacher, Mr. Mann, blew his whistle. "Alright, no need to change today. We're gonna go outside and play some good old fashioned football. Shirts against skins." Many of the girls began to complain, but being in the senior class, there was one reason behind everything. "Oh shut your yaps ladies!" Mann ordered. "You aren't gonna have time to complain when Jerome Valeska has captured you and tried to force himself upon you. You'll have time to do nothing but run as fast as you can, and try to not get tackled! Now, Bryce, you're skins captain, Josh, you're shirts. Get down here so the two of you can choose your teams!" Mann yelled again, blowing his whistle.
    
Bryce smirked and pulled his shirt off before heading towards the floor with a still fully clothed Josh. "Logan, you're choosing first. Don't hesitate to pick a girl either or so help me I-" Before he could finish, Bryce was waving Nani down to the skins team. Rolling her eyes, Nani shed her flannel and tank top, stomping down beside Bryce.
    
"Logan always gets the cute ones. I guess I'll go with... Tabitha." Josh said, smirking at Nani. She looked down, hoping to hide her smile from Josh, but mostly Bryce, who even though he wanted Nani in a relationship, if she wasn't with him, Josh definitely wasn't an option. "He might be Jerome Valeska for all you know. When we get out there, if you hesitate to tackle him, I won't." And... Bryce had seen.
    
The class headed outside, the skins feeling good they didn't have to wear shirts in the sweltering heat. The game started and Nani made sure when she got the ball, she wasn't touched, and whenever someone else had it, she would picture what her father and Bryce told her to in her training, 'Jerome Valeska'.
    
Unbeknownst to her, a certain figment of Gotham's imagination was watching from the shadows, smiling at the girl as she tackled a boy considerably larger than her. Definitely a good fit.