Batgirl Begins

Chapter Eight

At school the next day, I met Julia in the hallway near my locker. She and I sat down against the lockers to talk. We were laughing when I noticed a certain set of people walk around the corner. It was Cameron and a girl. She must be the girl who told him she liked him. I recognized her. She went to my middle school last year, but I never talked to her. Her name was Joslin. She had short dark hair with dark freckles on her face to match. She was stunning.

"That's Cam's girlfriend," I whispered to Julia, trying not to be obvious. She frowned at me, but I shook my head as if to say I was fine. I looked back up to see him coming closer and I caught his eye. He said something to Joslin before walking over to where we were sitting.

"Hey Lily!" He called out, waving and smiling.

"Hey Cam." I smiled back as Julia and I stood up.

"I have to go ask a teacher for help with something," Julia butted in. She slinked away, but not before winking at me.

"Is that your new girlfriend?" I asked with a fake smile, nodding to Joslin talking with a friend. She was glancing at us everyone once in awhile.

"Yep that's Joslin," he responded. I tried to use the skills Batman taught me to read facial expressions, but he was either very good at hiding his emotions, or had none. "Do you want to walk to bio together?"

"Sure," I said, a tad awkward. I suddenly felt different around him. As if now that he had a girlfriend, I couldn't talk to him or treat him the same. I didn't know my boundaries anymore.

He turned to tell Joslin he was going to class as I picked up my backpack. Her facial expressions were much easier to read than Cam's. She looked upset at him, and when she looked at me, jealously swarmed in her eyes.

Chill girl, I rolled my eyes. We're just walking to class.

Cam turned back to me and smiled. "Shall we?" Behind him, Joslin glared daggers at me, but I pretended to ignore them. 

"So..." I attempted at small talk. "Did you understand the homework?"

"No," he responded. "We still have to make that study group."

I let out a small laugh. "That dream died when no one wanted to join because of 'busy schedules'.

He shrugged as we entered the classroom. "I guess it'll be just us," he whispered just loud enough for me to hear. My heart skipped a beat.

 We sat down at our table across from each other and continued talking until the bell rang. Mr. Larta walked in and began his lecture for the day.

At the end of the period, Cam and I had our usual walk to next period, as our classes were right next to each other. I said a quick goodbye and scrambled into the classroom, not wanting to stand anymore awkwardness.

After school, I zeta tubbed to the training facility. I walked into the main room to find Batman looking at an enlarged version of his floating watch screen. The extent of his technology never ceased to impress me. As I came closer, I noticed the profile he was looking at.

"The Joker," I whispered, hatred in my voice.

"I'm looking at his recent attacks to find a pattern," Batman said. I was less focused on the map, but more on the small biography to the side. He had more dirt on him than the actual dirt on the ground. I haven't seen or talked about him since the day of McKenna's death, but suddenly I felt all my anger against him rise up inside of me.

"I want to kill him," I boldly said.

Without looking away from his screen, Batman simply responded, "We don't kill."

"He killed my best friend, and countless others," I retorted. "He deserves it."

"We don't kill."

"I need to get revenge."

"You need closure and justice."

"He deserves to die."

Batman finally turned to face me. "If you kill the Joker, you are no better a person than he is."

I paused, thinking about that. He was right, but I couldn't stop the violent thoughts from seeping into my mind. I would never forget the smile he gave me when Taylor started crying. Sometimes I would wake up from nightmares, his face the last thing I see. I shivered at the thought.

I changed into my new uniform and went to the weight room to blow off some steam. But I couldn't stop thinking about the Joker and my revenge. I wanted to take what he took from McKenna.

Midway through a set of squats, I saw from the corner of my eye that Batman had entered. I tried to ignore him, but he was the master at mind games. He stood still and stared at me until I finally spun around to face him.

"What do you want!" I was suddenly very annoyed.

"I want to take you to the Batcave."