Violet Jones had lived in Gotham City since birth, and as anyone could tell you, she was not a troublemaker. A good student, she had time to join the soccer team. A witty student, (though lacking tact) she was well liked by most of her classmates, and led a wholly unremarkable life.
The first time Violet heard of the Batman was when she was eleven years old.
She was sitting at the table, eating dinner with her parents while her father glanced over the newspaper. "The Batman," her dad read aloud. "What do you think of him, dear?"
Her mother glanced up from her plate. "I don't know. Anyone that runs around beating up thugs in a bat costume seems to be a little crazy, don't you think?"
"Who is Batman?" Violet leaned over the table to look at the newspaper, chewing ferociously.
"He's a guy that dresses in a mask and cape to beat up criminals," her Dad told her.
"Oh. He must be good then!" Violet reasoned.
"Or crazy," her mother said.
Her father shrugged. "I'm not sure if the cops could stop him anyway."
~Everybody tells me that it's so hard to make it~
At age thirteen, Violet saw the Batman. He was standing atop the apartment building roof as she was walking home. Violet did a double take, squinting at the faint outline of a dark figure before the wind blew his cape forward. She gaped for a minute in astonishment before he turned and vanished.
"That was one for the memoirs," she told her friend, Ginger, at school the next day.
"Weren't you scared?" Ginger asked with interest. Every kid at school knew about the Batman, of course, and a few kids had stories of their own of seeing him, some were possibly rumors, others were true.
"Of course I was, for a minute," Violet said. "But he didn't see me. Besides, there was no reason to be scared. It's not like I was mugging anybody myself."
Ginger nodded. "True. Hey, have you heard about his partner, Robin?"
"No, who is that?"
"He's a kid, about our ages, wearing a suit and mask too," Ginger said excitedly. "Teresa said he's cute."
"Teresa thinks every boy is cute," Violet said, rolling her eyes. "Has she actually seen him?"
"She said she did." Ginger shrugged. "But who knows?"
Violet nodded, opening her locker and grabbing her geometry textbook. "Not exactly like it matters, I suppose," she said. "Not like we'll ever meet them or anything."
"I don't know, this is Gotham," Ginger pointed out. "This city's pretty weird."
She had no idea how right she was.