Disclaimer: I do not own Batman.

Jonathan walked down the hallway, clutching his heavy books to his chest. His arms were tired from carrying all of his things from class to class all day. Right then, all he wanted to do was go home, he hadn't gotten the best sleep the night before. Though he had thoroughly enjoyed the nightmare he had had. Though, the details were still a little fuzzy and he couldn't remember much from it, he knew he wanted to have it again. The only vague detail he could remember were crows, lots of them, all swarming around him. And he could hear ear piercing screams that reminded him of his classmates.

As Jonathan walked to his last class of the day, he sighed deeply, an almost growl resonating in his chest. There, standing across the hall was Sherry Squires, and her idiot of a boyfriend Bo. They were surrounded by their friends, a cliche, standard high school clique. All the guys wore their football jackets and were looked up to as gods because of the way they faked talent on the football field. The girls were walking Barbie dolls: plastic and just that, a doll. Their voices went straight through you, and their nasally laughs were even worse. Jonathan cringed as he looked at them.

The group would undoubtedly throw careless insults at him as if they were throwing careless passes around at practice or tossing an empty lip gloss tube into the garbage. Their taunting laughs echoed in his ears long after they have stopped. It was a sickening sound, one he would chose to end if he ever got the chance, which he would. That he was sure of. There would be a day when he could get his revenge. Their laughing would end and their taunting faces would cease to smile and he would reign superior over those who had wrongly looked down upon him all these years. He would get his revenge and he knew that revenge had never tasted so sweet. He would savor it like a child savors sugar, making it last on the tip of his tongue.

"Hey, Ichabod." Sherry laughed and pointed at him.

"Sherry, do you even know who Ichabod Crane is? Because if you did, you'd know that all we share is a last name. And that is irrelevant. It would be as if every person named Smith was alike." Jonathan retorted, calmly drawing out his words. In all honesty, he was surprised they even let him finish his sentence.

"Well what's it to you, loser?" Bo responded, putting a smirk on his broad face that made him look even more dense than he already did. Which surprised Jonathan because he didn't think that that was even possible.

"That statement makes no sense to the amusing conversation we are having and loser is an overused, often miscommunicated word. I suggest you educate yourselves on how to speak to others so one day you may actually have a somewhat intelligent conversation with someone someday." Jonathan said, his expression remained unchanged. He didn't want to appear as cocky, nor hurt. If he could outsmart them, then he could certainly beat them.

And with that, Jonathan walked off, continuing his journey through the long, winding halls of the school. It was a prison, with dreary concrete walls. Everything was gray and there was almost no color anywhere. In fact, the man who designed the school had previously designed almost ten prisons. It was never a necessarily happy place to be, for anyone, even Jonathan. Except when he was in his favorite class: Psychology.

Jonathan's psychology teacher was a tall man, clean shaven, and seemed almost frail. But he held himself with such confidence that everyone knew not to mess with him. No nonsense. But he still was kindhearted, open to speak to anyone willing to have a conversation with him. Mr. Lewis was an intelligent man and Jonathan usually stayed behind after class to talk with him about psychology. It was something that interested Jonathan greatly and he had dedicated a good part of his time to his studies on it. The mind was fascinating and learning ways to manipulate it were even more fascinating.

In fact, the last class of they day that day was psychology and Jonathan couldn't wait to get there. There was nothing that sparked his interest more than psychology, and more specifically, the subject of fear. Jonathan spent a lot of his time thinking about fear, learning about fear, researching, and doing anything he could to educate himself more on it. Soon enough, he'd begin to experiment with fear: people's reactions, what fear could do to affect the reactions, the fight or flight instinct. It would be very interesting to look more into. And with Mr. Lewis's help, he might be able to become an expert on it. His knowledge could lead to magnificent breakthroughs in the study of fear.

Jonathan walked straight to the usual desk he sat in, it was in the very middle of the row on the edge of the room, not in the front, not in the back, but at the same time, not the center of attention. It was a perfect spot for Jonathan. This class was mostly made up of the advanced students. He was glad. In every other class he had to deal with everyone, the know it alls, the morons. He didn't mind the know it alls but it was the morons he absolutely couldn't understand. Why would you want to be ignorant in life, just to look cool in front of your friends? He could almost hear a chorus of "You want fries with that?" every time someone spoke. Maybe that was why he'd never taken a liking to french fries.

"Good afternoon, class." Mr. Lewis said as he walked into the classroom, signaling the beginning of class.

Behind the cool mask of his face, Jonathan smiled slightly. In here, he was no monster. Here, he was simply Jonathan.

A/N: Hey there, peoples! :) I am so happy from all the positive feedback I've gotten and it's only been the prologue. Here is the first chapter, I hope you enjoy.

I'm watching the presidential debate and I find it actually pretty interesting. I don't exactly understand anything, but I think I'm siding with Romney. But I'm thirteen so it doesn't really matter xD

If anyone is interested in my inspiration for this story, look up "Monster" by Meg and Dia. It's a great song that I do not own.

Until next time! :)

-Harley

Shoutouts:

IShouldBeInAStraightJacket

ZenyZootSuit

PsychoSweetHeart

the-daydreamer17