Chapter 11: Fight (The Dirty Youth)
I had managed to miss the bus home that day, so I was walking the three miles home from school. I glared at my feet. "Stupid locker. Stupid books. Everything sucks."
"Oh, Rosie!" someone called from behind me.
I turned around, muttering, "For fuck's sake Jack, stop calling me that." I looked up at the person who had spoken and realized it wasn't Jack at all. It was his little fangirl, Harley. "What do you want?"
She grinned, rocking back and forth on her tiptoes. "Oh, y'know. Just to hang out. I thought I'd been a bit, um..." she tapped her bottom lip, looking around vacantly.
"Bitchy?" I suggested.
"Now, now, there's no need for that kinda language. I was going to say 'harsh.' But anyway, you deserve better than that. And I thought we could get to know each other." She smiled brightly, clasping her hands behind her back. "Whaddya say?"
I frowned. I didn't believe her new friendly demeanor for a second, but I decided to humor her. Maybe then she'd leave me alone. "Yeah, sure I guess."
She beamed, tilting her head to the side slightly, her pigtails swinging. "Great! I'm glad we could clear that up, it was just eating away at me."
"Uh-huh." I sighed and kept walking, hoping I could ditch her. But I had to give it to her, she was persistent. She did her best to keep up with me, but always fell a little bit behind.
"I really do like your hair. Red hair is just so gorgeous. I was thinking of dying my tips red. Or maybe black. I guess I could do half and half, but that'd take a really long time. What do you think? Ooh, I could get a pixie cut! But I really like having long hair. Do you like your hair?"
"Uh...Yeah."
"Then this'll be so much funnier," she said, giggling.
"What are you-" I asked, turning to face her. But by that time it was already too late. Harley had taken a pair of scissors and cut a huge chunk out of my hair. I gasped, watching the long red strands flutter to the ground.
"Oops," she sneered. "I was only gonna take off an inch, but I thought 'What the hell!'"
Before I even knew what was happening, I had swung my arm back and punched her in the face. I heard a faint crunch, which I was pretty sure was her nose. She stumbled backwards, a look of pure shock upon her face.
"What is wrong with you?" I screamed at her, trowing my backpack down on the sidewalk.
Shock turned to pure rage. "What's wrong with me? I'm not the one who just punched me in the face! You broke my nose you little cunt!" Blood was streaming from her nose and onto her shirt. She dug into her pocket and pulled out a book of matches. "Let's see how you look bald!"
She struck the match, the orange flame flickering in front of her blue eyes. Just then a hand closed around one of her blonde pigtails, pulling her head to the side. Jonathan was standing behind her with Jervis cowering nearby. The expression on his face was inexplicable but I could tell that he wasn't happy. (A/N: Yeah, no shit.)
"Give me the matches and I won't rip this thing out of your head," he said darkly, menace coating his words. I gaped at him, startled by his sudden change in character.
"Get off of me!" she shrieked, dropping the lit match onto the pavement. "I-I'll tell Jack, a-and he'll kick your ass!"
"It's sad that you still believe that," he practically growled. "Jervis, get the matches."
He scurried forward and pried them from Harley's death grip, along with the pair of scissors. She howled and flailed, trying to escape Jonathan's grasp.
"You can't do this to meeeeee!" she wailed, stomping her feet.
"Actually, I'm pretty sure I can," he spat at her. He let her go, pushing her forward. She crumpled in a heap on the ground, sobbing.
"Th-thanks," I murmured shakily. "I owe you one."
"It was nothing," he said, clearing his throat. He seemed to be back to his usual self. "Are you alright?"
"I'm not the one with the broken nose."
He looked up. "You broke her nose?"
"...Yeah."
Jervis giggled at that. "Frabjous, Rose, simply frabjous!"
"Um... thank you?" I asked, glancing at Jonathan.
"Like Frabjous Day, from Alice In Wonderland. He sometimes substitutes it for 'fabulous.'" He rolled his eyes. "It's his current obsession."
"It is not an obsession!" Jervis snapped, glaring at Jonathan. "I just have a healthy affinity for the works of Lewis Carroll."
"If you say so."
I smiled a bit. "Well, I have to get home. I'm really late, my mom's probably home by now."
"So are we." He waved at me, starting off down the road. "See you tomorrow I suppose."
"Yeah, see ya."
I heard a knock at the door and I ran to answer it.
"Good God, what happened to your hair?" Selina exclaimed, looking at the choppy mess on my head. I had washed out the dye so it was it's usual mousy brown color.
"Harley happened," I muttered. I explained what had happened quickly and watched Selina's eyes widen.
"Well good for you for breaking her nose," she said when I'd finished.
"Thanks. But can you fix it?" I asked hopefully.
She waved a hand at me. "Of course I can fix it. C'mon, I'll help you dye it again later if you want." We hurried to my bathroom, passing my mother on the way.
"Rose, what in God's name did you do to your hair?" she asked.
"Long story. This is Selina. Can she sleep over? Kay, thanks, bye!" I called, ducking into the bathroom before she could ask anything else.
"Okay... let's see what I can do... do you want it evened out? Or I could make it longer on one side in a way that's actually cute. It'll be kinda punk if you dye it right."
"Longer on one side then." I looked at myself in the mirror as she began to snip away at my hair. The brown strands formed a bit of a ring at my feet. I must have spaced out for a moment because soon Selina was telling me that I was done, and that I could look now.
"Well? How do you like it? I can still even it up if you hate it, but it'll be kinda short."
"Wow... this is great," I marveled, turning my head so I could see each side. The left side of my hair was cropped and a little spiky, whereas the right side came down to my jawline, falling over my eye slightly. "Where'd you learn how to do this?"
"I dunno, some magazine I think. You really like it?" she said, looking at me nervously.
"Yeah, of course I do." I smiled at her in the mirror. "Now let's dye it."
She beamed back at me. "Okay. What did you have in mind?"
"Well..."
Okay, I'm much happier with this chapter. I'm back in the game bitchezzzz. But yeah. I was thinking I hadn't really done Jonathan justice in the other chapters, so I threw him in kinda last minute. But I kinda wanted to play with my idea of how Scarecrow would be when he was a teenager. I'm like 99% sure it wasn't too subtle... or subtle at all... subtle isn't really my specialty... But yeah, I hope you guys liked it. Thanks to anyone who reviewed, favorited, followed, etc. Byeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee.