Jill woke up, grateful that today was Saturday.
Is it bad to thank my Grandma that she died on a Wednesday?...Yeah, it is.
She shook her head and slid out from under the covers. She took a shower, unaware of the time, and not caring, either.
She chose one of her very many Catman tee-shirts, and a pair of gray, just-above-the-knee-length shorts. She wore her black converse boots, and left her hair down, swooshing it to the right side.
Man, I love Saturdays! No school, no worries! Catman marathon, here I come! She thought gleefully, snatching her phone from the charger. Only then did she notice the time.
4:30 A.M.
Jillian did a double take. Twice. "What the heck?" She furrowed her eyebrows. "Am I really up this early?" She peered out of the curtains, and her jaw hit the ground. It was pitch black outside, save for the moon, which even then was only a smudge of gray against a jet-black sky.
She blinked a few times, shook her head, then turned away from the window. Jill shrugged, picked up her laptop, and bounced quietly down the stairs. She glanced warily around herself to see if anyone else had woken up, but the house was in total silence. She bit her lip and slunk into the living room. Jillian sat on the couch, not bothering to turn on the lights, and plugged her headphones into the laptop. She sprawled out on the sofa, and logged on to her normal tabs- her favorite fan fiction website, her social media website, her rage comic website, and her favorite free online streaming website. Jill was content on the computer, waiting for 8:00 to roll around. Why don't Saturday morning cartoons run ALL morning? She wondered as she read through a surprisingly accurate rage comic.
"I need a life," She whispered to herself, shaking her head. "If my Saturdays consist of vegging out and talking to myself, while almost every other teenager goes and does...whatever it is normal teenagers do on a Saturday, there's probably something wrong here," She pursed her lips in thought.
She continued surfing the interwebs- the only surfing she enjoyed- until she realized that it was 7:45. Smiling, she lowered the lid of her laptop, removed her headphones, and turned on the TV. She flipped to Vortexx- which used to be Kids WB- and watched as Sonic began.
Planning on staying on the couch until 10, she made herself comfortable, one leg supported by the arm rest, the other hanging off the side of the couch. She was spread across the entirety of the sofa, her torso twisted in an awkward-yet very comfortable- manner. Her laptop rested on her waist and hip, and her head was resting on the other arm rest, angled so that she could see both the TV and the screen of her laptop. Not wanting to get up, but getting chilly, she decided to be resourceful and cover herself with the nearby pillows, rather than walking all the way to her room for a blanket.
Blankets are overrated, anyways. She thought, smirking at her own laziness.
Bruce came down the stairs a bit later on, at first not noticing the giant lump on the sofa. He did notice the TV was on, though, but the rest of the mansion was dark. He furrowed his brows, and tilted his head, squinting to see what was on.
Whatever it was, it had to do with superheroes. He walked closer, straining to hear the show.
"Mornin', Bruce!" A muffled voice said, not too far away from him.
He didn't flinch, he just blinked. "Morning," he responded, looking over at the couch. His lips involuntarily twitched into a smile at the sight he was greeted with. A giant pile of pillows, with a leg sticking out of the side, and a forehead sticking out of the top.
"What're you up to?" Bruce asked, genuinely curious, the amusement plain in his voice.
"Nothin', really. Just sittin' here watchin' Justice Team Unlimited, reading fanfiction and vegging out. You?" The pile of pillows shifted, and now a pair of cerulean blue eyes were visible in between the shield of cushions.
"Nothing really, just passing time, sitting here," He responded simply, grinning down at her. He lightly shoved her legs to the side, and plopped down. He bent forward slightly, folding his hands and looked up at the screen. Jillian raised an eyebrow, looked to Bruce, the TV, then back to Bruce. The man caught the look she gave him and blinked, "Oh so a 26 year old man can't watch cartoons without being judged?" He spoke in a sarcastic tone.
Jillian stared at him and her shoulders slightly shook, bursting out in a small fit of laughter. "Why do I get the feeling I'll end up saying something like that when I grow up?" She smiled and propped her head up on her hand. Finally the commercial had ended and they had arrived to the end of the show. Another cliffhanger. Bruce found the effects more believable this time, but then again, it was a cartoon. He noted that the strategy of the heroes were more logical than those of the 60's Catman.
"Erg. I hate cliffhangers," Jillian mumbled, upset that her favorite heroes hadn't completely saved the day. Bruce looked over at her. "You mean it's not coming on next?"
"Nope."
"What! Why? When'll it come on?"
"Doesn't work that way on Saturday mornings. You have to wait a week to see what happens. Saturday nights are a different story though."
"So, wait. I have to wait 'till next Saturday?"
"Yep." Jill popped her lips at the end of the word.
"Darn," Bruce sighed.
"I feel your pain, bro." She responded, and soon they were off, ranting about the events in the episode. This went on for almost ten minutes, until Bruce's phone buzzed.
Really? I hate early bird villains. I'm supposed to be nocturnal for cryin' out loud! Bruce internally complained.
Bruce stood, earning a confused look from Jillian.
Darn. Can't I have just one day off? Bruce thought. He shrugged apologetically.
"I've got to go wake up Dick, we've got a father-son bonding thing out of town today."
"Ah," She responded, with an understanding nod.
"I hope you won't mind being home alone today; Alfred has went to deal with business elsewhere..." Bruce added in, trying to stay nonchalant.
"I don't mind," Jill smiled, nodding once again. Oh yeah! She rejoiced mentally. Home alone! She kept her thoughts a secret, holding loosely onto her calm face.
Bruce nodded back to her somewhat awkwardly, and started up the stairs. A few minutes later, Jillian saw them exit, each with a hurried goodbye to her. Jill acknowledged them in turn and waited a few minutes before yet another creepy grin spread across her face.
She laughed quietly, eerily, and unplugged the headphones from her laptop. She turned up the volume as loud as it could go, and quickly scoured through her start menu for her playlist.
Aha! Found you, She thought, clicking the play button.
Music filled the mansion, echoing and growing louder. Jillian gave a wicked smile. One of her favorite songs were on. Iris. She had heard a parody to this long ago.
"And I don't want the world to see me,
'cause I don't think that they'd understand,
When everything's meant to be broken,
I just want you to be Uberman!"
She belted out, along with the music flowing from the speakers. She began swaying passionately to the sound, not really thinking about it.
The song had ended, and a more fast-paced song came on. Hurricane!
She started dancing like an idiot, not caring at all how she looked, and laughing at the irony of the words to the song.
"You'll dance to anything!
You'll dance to anything!"
She threw her head back in laughter, singing at the top of her lungs, and pausing at the more vulgar lyrics. Jill continued this with several other songs, trying out new dance moves (including the happy cat, one she made up when she got an A on a test and wrote her name "Catman") while shout-singing the words.
Her face lit up. My microphone! She realized, and ran upstairs to her suitcase. She dug through it's contents, and pulled out a green and yellow plastic microphone. She had gotten it for Christmas from one of her friends who knew she adored singing.
Jillian took the stairs two at a time, racing back to the living room, the epicenter of the music.
She dramatically swished the microphone in front of her lips, and squinted readily at the wall opposite her. She began hosting an imaginary concert, making comments and being her own biggest fan. Jill sang as loudly as humanly possible, messing up lyrics and not having a care in the world.
Then, her ultimate favorite song came on. KRYPTONITE! She thought ecstatically.
"Well I took a walk around the room to ease my troubled mind," She butchered the lyrics, just enjoying her own voice.
"I left my buddies lyin' somewhere in the sands of mine,
I watched them all float to the dark side of the pool,
I feel theres nothin' I can doooooooo, yeaaaaaah,"
She bobbed her head to the beat of the instrumental break, her eyes squeezed shut.
"I watched them all float to the dark side of the pooool,
after all I knew it had toby something to do with Mew.
I really don't mind what happens all to them,
as long as you'll be my friend to amend!"
Her favorite part was approaching. She knew these lyrics, but she changed them on purpose.
"IF I GO CRAZY THEN WILL YOU STILL CALL ME CAAAAT-MAN! IF I'M ALIVE AND WELL WILL YOU BE THERE HOLDIN' MY PAW I'LL KEEP YOU BY MY SIDE WITH MY NORMAL HUMAN MIGHT, KRYPTONITE...YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHH!"
Jillian swayed and jumped to every beat of the melody, not realizing that someone...or someones had been standing in the door.
"Whooooaaaaaahhhh oh oa-" She stopped mid-vowel, nearly falling on her face.
Bruce and Dick were silent, standing in the doorway, their faces identical. They both had their poker faces on, and looked befuddled.
Jillian blinked, her face now mirroring theirs. It was completely silent for about a minute, the laptop having paused at the end of the song.
"..."
"...how long have you been standing there?" She asked, slowly inching the plastic microphone behind her back, the poker face staying perfectly in place.
"...Long enough," Bruce said, his face still the same as well.
It was silent for a few more seconds. Jill blinked.
"...oh. Well then. I...I- uh. I need to...I need to...use the bathroom. Yeah, the bathroom," she said, walking backward slowly. She then turned around, and darted up the stairs.
Dick was the first to break his poker face as he looked at her retreating figure. His lip twitched, and he burst into a loud fit of laughter. Bruce smiled back and scratched the back of his head, "We've been smiling a lot more since she came in the house," He stated and Dick looked at him once he had calmed his laughter. "She's like that little puppy that comes running to you to cheer you up after a hard day," Dick finished off and his eyes softened.
Jillian ran into her room and closed the door quickly, her face red. She slammed into her bed and hugged her microphone close, her body frozen as the thoughts ran in her head. She was smiling but subconsciously her face burned on. She curled up and grunted out a sigh, looking to her cat-clock. Time had passed faster than she had thought...
She gazed around the room, and caught her reflection in the mirror. The heck? She furrowed her brow. I'm blushing! Her mouth dropped open. I never blush! She touched her cheek, marveling at the blood rushing to her face.
"Oh. My. GAWD." She said. "I sooooooo have to tell Tina," she blinked at her reflection, still in awe of her blush.
Jill reached for her phone only to feel it vibrating anyway. She blinked and looked to it, seeing Chris's name. She opened the text and read through.
Get on skype
She texted back an okay and began for her laptop... only to realize it was in the living room... Jill winced and tiptoed to her door, opening it and scanning the hall. She zoomed through dramatically, singing her own theme song along the way and crouched by the staircase. Quiet... she thought and glared slightly. She sat on the stairs and began dragging her bottom on them to make less noise... plus it was fun. Finally her main objective came in sight and she ran to it, grabbing onto her still new laptop, hugging it close to her chest. Slowly, Jill tiptoed towards the stairs only to hear a humming from the end of the room towards the door. Her head turned quickly to see Dick. Kryptonite? She thought, staring at his back now. He doesn't even realize I'm here... Jill crouched and tiptoed some more but jumped and nearly dropped her laptop when Dick spoke, "What's the name of that song?"
Jill paused and turned her head towards Dick again. He was smiling... not mockingly but that boyish smile you would usually see from a boy his age. She grinned, now a little more proudly, "Kryptonite," She responded. Dick grinned wider, "Thanks!"
Jillian nodded, then strolled casually back to her room, a polar opposite from what she had done previously. She set her laptop down on the side table, logged on to her skype and almost immediately received a video call from Chris. Jillian opened her laptop in a single quick movement and plopped on her bed. She clicked on the Skype icon and answered Chris's call. His image flashed white then regulated into the young adult she had seen on the plane three days ago. Jillian smiled and waved to him and he nodded back. " Heyyo!" Jillian greeted him.
"Allo!"
"So! About-" She began once more
"Comicon! 20 days, 7 hours, 6 minutes, and-" He looked to his watch, "52 seconds..."
Jillian stared at him and she tilted her head.
"Uhm. Cool?" She said, not quite sure how to respond.
"Oh! By the way, my friends are comin' with. You ever heard of the Justice Team?"
"Duh!"
"Welllll...THERE'S A REAL VERSION OF THAT, TOO!"
"OHMYGOD!"
"I know, right?! It's called "the Justice League" It's really epic!"
The conversation continued, with random outbursts of unexpected facts and statistics about superheroes, both fictional and...er, real. They freaked out together at the most trivial of things, marveling at each others knowledge of their favorite crime-fighters. After a particularly strange bout of trivia, Chris had to go with a hasty goodbye. She laughed and bade him farewell.
Jillian logged out of her skype account and shut her laptop.
RAHHRURHUHSU
She looked down in surprise...her stomach just...screamed at her. "Am I really that hungry?" She asked herself. She furrowed her eyebrows and shrugged, walking down the stairs. Jillian scanned the hall to see there still was silence in the area, the two seeming to have gone their separate ways and left this eerily quiet room behind.
Jillian sighed and went into the kitchen, which seemed a to look a lot more complex than she had thought. It was like a restaurant style cookery. Jillian scanned the room and had to take a step back to be able to take it all in. She walked further in and had to take a second glance to see what was actually food storage and what was not. She began browsing cabinets and found a promising loaf of bread.
Mmmm. Sandwich. She very nearly drooled, already imagining the taste of the sharp cheddar cheese on her tastebuds, coupled with the sweet cadences of flowing turkey and the softness of the fluffy wheat bread.
She hungrily made the sandwich, taking extra care to make sure she enjoyed it. She built up the suspense before the first bite, and slowly munched the simple yet delicious food. Jillian could have sworn that she heard a heavenly chorus sing a harmonious and pleasant chord. Oh my cheez-its. Best. Sandwich. Ever. She smiled happily, and proceeded to write a note to Bruce.
Hey Bruce,
I went exploring, hope you don't mind! I should be back soon, probably by like four. I already ate a sandwich, so don't worry about me starving or anything : )
-Catman
Jillian smiled as she signed her "name", knowing that Bruce would guess who it was, if he didn't already know.
She strolled out of the door, planning on just wandering around Gotham, to see if she found anything of interest. And interest she found.
A/N: Hello again! I hope you liked this chapter, it was SO fun to write. As always, reviews are appreciated- and feel free to PM me with suggestions and stuff, even just to say hi. : )
