Disclaimer: I do not own any of DC's or Bob Kane's characters.
I remember when I first saw her. We had just started seventh grade. This annoying girl who had a crush on me was blathering on and on about her summer and I happened to look over her shoulder. Then, I saw my Genesis. I blinked and she was gone. Had imagined her? Even then, I could think up something that I would later believe was real. Even then, my sanity was slipping like sand through my fingers.
We never talked until we were partnered together in eleventh grade for a research paper, but she was always there in real life and in my mind. She lived over in the next neighborhood, I would see her at recess and I would pass her in halls as we got older.
Sure, I had girlfriends before Genesis, but they were like pesky obstacles I had to face before I could have her as my grand prize. I couldn't tell you how many times I fell over the hurdles in track just because I thought about her.
I never had the balls to talk to her until we were paired together for that paper. Even then, I was nervous. Part of me wanted to bite the bullet and do it, the other wanted to jump out of the third story window.
Now, I wonder if Battyman has a time machine 'cuz I wanna highjack it so I can go back there and yell at myself for being afraid of her. Probably give myself a few swift kicks in the ass too now that I think about it.
I didn't know what I was so afraid of after that first day of working with her. She laughed at my jokes and never stopped smiling. Could she like me just as much as I liked her? It seemed like it, but I didn't want to get any hopes up.
I didn't want to lose her after the assignment was finished, so I asked to the Fall Festival. She looked delighted and said yes. I spent that Saturday afternoon cleaning my junker white Ford truck so she wouldn't be totally grossed out by the small ecosystem I accidentally created in there that night.
I won her a ridiculous stuffed animal in an apple bobbing contest that night. There's no telling what was floating in that bucket of water or what I could've caught from it, but I saw her smile again and that was all that mattered.
She sat with me at the Pep Rally that next Friday. I didn't ask her either, I took that as good omen. Well, actually, she sat on my shoulders trying to knock over the cheerleaders with wads of paper or cans of pop. All the while, I was trying my damnedest not to think about where my head was compared to her body. Her annoying little friend, Rebecka seemed to be enjoying my torture.
Finally, I couldn't take it anymore. She had to get from my shoulders, at least temporarily. Before I could even realize what I was saying, I was asking her to be my girlfriend.
Where the hell did that come from!?
"You'll thank me later." A voice, I mean, a thought in my head said. Later, I would be the voice of him. The Joker.
"Hey, Gen? Will you go out with me? Y'know… be my girlfriend?"
It was so loud in there, I wondered if she could have even heard me. Ya know, even then I wondered if it was possible for someone's ear drums to explode over the noise at a Pep Rally. I bet the Bat was a football player, they always stole us trackers thunder.
"Yes!" she exclaimed throwing her arms around me.
"Kiss her you idiot!" The voice said again.
I kissed her right there for first time in the midst of the controlled chaos. After, she climbed back onto my shoulders and successfully knocked all the cheerleaders from the human pyramid, breaking at least an arm and/or leg on each cheerleader.