The School
My escort was a doctor, a psychologist. He wore a beige suit with a red tie, and a moustache like a caterpillar and he drove fast, but carefully.
"I'm telling you," I said, spite in my voice. "I. Don't. Need. This."
The doctor, Dr Midan he said his name was, sighed and replied robotically,
"It's for your own good. My colleagues all agree it's what's best for..."
"So your sending me to Arkham?" I replied, my voice getting louder. "That's what you think's best for me? The school's for freaks, dangerous kids. I'm not dangerous!"
"You're insane!" he shouted back at me. It wasn't an accusation, it was fact. "You'd fit in there fine, too. How'd you get like that?"
I looked down at my body. From either birth, or some terrible accident when I was young, I had acquired white skin and green hair. For the brief time that I went to school, I was laughed at. I suppose I was a freak.
My skin was pure white, not just... bleached. It was like someone had dunked me into a vat of paint twice. There was no pink on me anywhere.
My hair wasn't as bad. It was nice hair, clean hair. It was a dark shade of green, and I grew it fairly long. I had thought it would just be the hair on my head, but, after my 14th birthday, green hairs had started growing from my armpits. It was... kinda gross, to be honest.
"I don't know," I replied through gritted teeth. "I've been like this as long as I can remember."
I can see why he thought I'd fit in. A lot of the Arkham kids were misunderstood emos who like to paint weird stuff on their faces. I remember one kid, Harvey Dent, who broke out and...
A sharp turn broke my trail of thought. We were on the bridge, now. A long, modern bridge that led directly to Arkham Island. The huge, Gothic building of Arkham Asylum contrasted weirdly with the separated Arkham School.
They call it school, but it's more like a juvenile hall. It was a big modern place, with wire fences surrounding it, 20 feet high and topped with barbed wire.
If the kids weren't let out for good behaviour by their sixteenth birthday, they'd move to Arkham Asylum, where they'd spend the rest of their lives.
I wasn't planning on that.
The massive steel gates opened at the end of the bridge, and we were greeted by intense security. Dr Midan rolled down his window and passed a note to a security guard. He nodded and waved us through to a car park. We parked, got out and stood for a moment in the freezing air.
Only one other car was parked there.
Batman's.
I glanced back and saw Batman talking seriously to a guard. He was young, wearing a suit black as midnight, with a white bat logo plastered over it. He scowled at me under his mask as I was dragged to the entrance, also heavily guarded. Dr Midan pushed open the double doors and shoved me through.
The doctor's face appeared and said,
"Everything will be explained to you," he said, smiling, finally getting rid of me. "Have fun!" He added, meanly.
A blonde girl around my age greeted me with little or no enthusiasm. She was wearing a short sleeved red shirt, the Arkham uniform. Underneath this was a long sleeved shirt with mismatched sleeves. Red on the left, black on the right.
"Hi my name is Harley and welcome to Arkham School," she read a piece of card, with heavy boredom, chewing gum. Her voice was weird, high-pitched with a hint of sarcasm. "Your room is through that corridor and up the stairs," she pointed vaguely to the left. "And you'll find all your uniform and stuff there. The classrooms are in the Right Wing, the shops in the Left and your lessons will start tomorrow."
She threw away the card, spat out her gum and finally looked at me.
"Nice hair, freak."
She walked away and I raised an eyebrow.
I giggled slightly and turned to the corridor she pointed at. A boy I vaguely recognised, but I couldn't work out why, leaned on the wall, half hidden by shadow.
"New kid, eh?" he said and emerged.
I gasped. Down the left half of his face was blue face paint, dripping down to his neck. The was black mixed with it as well, to make hideous, faint stripes. His left eye also had black surrounding it, running down with sweat. His hair on the left side was spiky and dyed white. His right hair colour was brown.
His uniform was ripped almost to shreds on the left side. I realised why I recognised him.
"H-Harvey Dent," I stuttered.
"That's Two- Face to you!" He shouted in my face. "Let me give you the low-down of Arkham's rules."
I saw clenched fists and I knew my life was over.
