Author's Note: Inspired by all those music videos on youtube featuring Elle Fanning as Harley Quinn.
They said all teenagers scare the living shit out of me
They could care less as long as someone will bleed
So darken your clothes or strike a violent pose
Maybe they'll leave you alone but not me
- Teenagers, My Chemical Romance
When people saw that weird girl from junior year talking to an older guy, nobody really thought it weirder than anything else the girl got up to. After all, most of the girls dated older guys – the seniors dated people from college even.
Pupils walking by would see them talking in between classes, sometimes even during (because they themselves were skipping class too) over by the football field. Sometimes they did more than talk. But mostly it was just kids stuff – making each other laugh by preforming silly tricks. That older guy with the red hair knew a lot of them apparently. He would make her laugh so hard her eyes melted shut, eyelashes much darker against her white-blonde hair. People did a lot riskier things at recess than what they did – so the teachers didn't bother to interfere.
Sometimes the guy would be waiting for her outside of school after the bell rang, but never by the front steps. He'd be hiding somewhere behind a tree, ready to jump out and spook her.
Harley was an awkward person inside, in class she didn't speak a word unless it was somehow forced out of the girl. She tugged at her school uniform and sulked in the corridors. But whenever she was with him, words appeared like peppercorn, popping out of her mouth like that pink bubblegum she was so obsessed with.
Nobody knew that he'd been telling her stuff that would give most people nightmares for life. How he would leave her notes in her locker, describing filthy things that he'd like to do to her. Nobody noticed this, because Harley kept the notes hidden inside her bra, and kept even worse secrets hidden in the way she blinked, all innocent and pure.
He would give her piggyback rides to school in the morning sometimes, even though no girl in their right mind actually asked for piggyback rides at their age. She'd muss his red hair so that it flew in every direction, and he'd look after her like he wanted to take revenge by doing things to her that most teenage boys would stutter and turn red just thinking about.
When she turned seventeen he gave her a stuffed rabbit missing one eye that she brought to school with her.
People made fun of her when she brought it into class, and it got even worse when one of the seniors stole it out of her hands, dangling it above her head. She cried when they teased her, but there was more to it than that. Weird girl turned out to be more violent than anyone could have anticipated.
The next day in chem class, the same senior that had teased her got set on fire.
When the teachers took Harley aside and asked her who could have done such a thing, she'd shrugged and blinked innocently, hiding even more secrets. But it was starting to look suspicious, because she no longer cried when someone teased her about her hair, or her strange clothes.
Instead she smiled, and fluttered her lashes. Because her boyfriend had taught her so many new tricks to try.