T H E M A T C H S T I C K

C H A P T E R O N E

(disclaimer- obviously i do not own Batman, the Joker, or anything else Batman related)

They say that right before you die your life flashes before your eyes. I was amazingly surprised to find some truth in this. As I sat there on the filthy floor in the corner of some dirty abandoned apartment building, I could see parts of my life go by. Considering my 16 years of age, it wasn't a very long flash back. I could see my dad with his full head of black hair and suit that he never leaves home without. And I could see my mom with her long golden-blonde hair and one of her many dresses. I could see my nine year old little brother, Conner, with his slightly curly brown hair and unusual willingness to please his older sister. I could remember all my friends, some better friends than others, and everyone else my life revolved around.

Most of all these things, I could see my house in Gotham City. It was a big house. My dad is Michael West. He works at Wayne Tower along with my mother, Belle, so it's no wonder we could afford such a house. It was in one of the very rare wealthy areas of Gotham. Most of everywhere else was infested with crime. Even our neighborhood of rich lawyers and business men wasn't that safe. Our house stood out from the rest because it had giant glass windows. I remembered the way my eyes almost bugged out of my head when i had first seen it. I tried to talk some sense into my parents, but my mother insisted that she wanted our house filled with light and no low life criminals would get in the way of it. Because of this extra feature of our house we had to take extra security measures. We had a few security guards that made sure no harm was done. I felt like our house was the White House.

By the time my flash back had come and gone, I had started breathing very fast. The room was completely silent. I tried to hear over my own deep breathing for the footsteps that were sure to come. And so they did. I began trembling even harder than I already had as the footsteps became louder and louder.

I should probably tell you about who I am and how I got into this mess. My name is Cassandra. I'm 16 years old, which you already know. I have long black hair, green eyes, and I'm about 5 feet 7 inches tall. You've already heard about my dad, mom, and Conner. I don't have many friends, and of the little friends I have only two names stand out. Laila and Kent. Laila is my best female friend. She is probably the sweetest, most naive person I'll ever meet. She's got beautiful red hair that makes me completely jealous and a personality to match. Kent is my best male friend. If you're thinking that it's one of those romantic stories about the two best friends who fall in love you're wrong. Kent has a girlfriend and I doubt he thinks of me as anything more than a friend. He has sort of long brown hair and brown eyes and, though not nearly as naive, also has a great personality. How did I, an average looking girl with a boring personality (at least that's what I think), ever get such friends? If you can come up with an answer to that, tell me, because I'm still trying to figure out how that works.

So, like a lot of stories, this one begins on just your average day. At 6:00AM I got an unpleasant wake up call from my alarm clock, as always. It was 6:10 before I could drag myself out from under the covers. My parents were already gone, but our security guard/family friend/caretaker for me and Conner, Lizz was there. She lived there with us and took care of Conner and me while our parents worked.

I managed to get into the shower and get dressed before being too late for breakfast. Lizz and Conner were there before me of course.

"I'm not going to be able to pick you up from school today, Cass," Lizz said before stuffing a fork-full of eggs in her mouth.

"That's fine. I'll just drive myself," I sat down hastily. I had just gotten my license but Lizz was a little nervous about my driving skills, so she didn't let me drive myself to school often. She let out a sigh to my solution but didn't object.

When breakfast was finished, I grabbed the keys to my new car and rushed through the door that leads to the garage. I opened the car door and yanked it shut again as i slid into the driver's seat. I sped down the driveway and through our street in a race to get to school.

Laila and Kent were waiting next to the gate of my high school. The bell rang just as I reached them.

"Hey Cassandra," Laila's smile greeted me.

"Hey," I smiled back.

"Late again?" Kent chuckled as we began our walk to class.

"I'm not a morning person," I joked.

When we reached our class the teacher gave us an unwelcoming look.

"Ms. West, Ms. Kramer, Mr. Harrice. Nice for you to join us," he said as we entered the room. He had a habit of calling everyone by their last name. We took out seats and he began to babble on about World War II.

The rest of the school day went on pretty normal. It wasn't until after the final bell rang that things started getting weird.

(author's note- i'm not really sure if this is going to get all "rated M" or not yet, so i rated it that way just in case)