The Clown Princess of Crime ♠️ the joker's daughter fanfic

the academy

I was awoken later that morning by a series of loud knocks.

"Holdonaminuteh," I slurred, rolling over and subsequently fell out of bed.

I staggered to my feet, and tiredly approached my bedroom door. Opening it, I found my dad there, energised and looking like the polar opposite of me.

As he saw me, his grin grew. "Christ, I thought something had happened, what with you sleeping in until 12! Late night was it?" he probed, and I wasn't entirely sure if he knew what happened last night. Why would he know anyway, I was sure I'd dreamt it, just like how I saw my mom.

I paused. "Erm, I don't know. Last night was all one big nightmare, I just needed a lot of sleep." I replied, yawning.

He cocked an eyebrow upwards. "Well one of the henchmen was killed last night, and I've just spent all morning trying to work out who did it. Because I didn't, and I can't have henchmen killing each other off, or I'll have no crew left." he chuckled.

I shifted uncomfortably. "That's... horrible. Ho-how did he die?" I asked, changing my stature to seem less awkward and tired.

"Why don't you tell me?" he replied, deepening his voice and lowering his head to mine.

My heart skipped a bit and I felt my throat go dry. "W-What? Why- erm- would I k-know?" I stammered, pushing my long, white hair back.

He smirked. "Did you know you had blood on your face?"

I flushed red, and ran into the bathroom to look in the mirror. My pale white reflection stared back at me; the crimson of the blood was strikingly contrasting with the rest of my features. Blood was also dried on my hands and I quickly scrubbed it off, watching the red liquid wash off of them, getting more dilute by the second.

The Joker moved to the door of the bathroom just as I started to rub the blood off of my face, which instead just smeared it up my cheek. My breath sped up a little, but I simply tipped my head into the sink and under the water running out of the tap.

"You seem quite... bothered." he remarked, just as I stood upright and dried my clean hands and face. They were still bloody in my mind.

I creased my brow and turned to face him. "I'm really sorry about it all, I- something came over me and I thought I was going mad-" I started, holding one arm at the elbow with my other, meekly. I was sure he would be annoyed - it was his crew and it was probably hard to find them whilst still pretending he was dead. Sure he killed one the other day, but he was allowed to, no one was going to question him. I was new and had no real right. I didn't convey respect from others. I was just a teenager.

He suddenly pulled me closer and held me by the shoulders. Placing a kiss on my forehead quickly, he gave me a large grin. "Killing people already, without and encouragement from me, oh I'm so proud of you, toots!" he exclaimed, and I was taken aback, my eyes wide.

"I thought you'd be mad at me?" I breathed, my voice weak from worry, but a smile starting to form at the corners of my lips.

He waved a hand. "Mad? Pfft, I could never be mad at seeing my little girl commit murder! What did he say to provoke you? Come on, tell your old pops everything about it."

I sat against the sink. "He called me a crazy bitch," I explained, sighing. "He was probably right, I was arguing with my dead mom, and pouring coffee on myself." I looked down at my irritated arm, where there was a clean line between clean pale skin, and blistered red wound. "That's how I got this."

He raised an eyebrow yet again. "You saw Harley? Alive?"

I nodded. "But it was like she'd actually crawled out of the grave and was sitting opposite me. She wasn't made up and pretty in red and white like I remember her." I paused and scrunched up my features whilst I thought. "I was really tired and I poured the coffee over myself to check if I was dreaming."

"So you weren't dreaming her, which means you've inherited your dear dad's schizophrenia! This is possibly the best day of my life! Respectively of course." His eyes lit up and I gave him an unsure look.

"Can you even 'inherit' schizophrenia?"

"I don't know, ask your dead mother, she had the degree in psychology." He burst out laughing, and mentally and actually physically patted himself on the back.

Crossing my arms, and cringing at my burn, I scowled at him. "Hey, don't joke about her so willy nilly like that."

He lowered his laughter to an odd giggle, and waved around his hands in defeat. "Alright, alright, looks like you haven't inherited my brilliant sense of humour."

I exhaled a little annoyedly, though it wasn't intentional. "Please can I be left alone to do what teenage girls do?"

"Just a minute, all of this praise leads somewhere you know. Well, I may be demented, but I'm not one to shit on the education system here in the US of A." He clasped his hands together. "I know you were homeschooled when you lived with Harley, and I was worried that you would be so soft that you'd need homeschooling here in Gotham, which would be very much of a hassle, me being a known dead man, and all-"

I opened the bathroom cabinets and acquired a sort of wound cream. Biting my cheek to stop myself from hissing, I began to slather it generously on my arm. The Joker handed me a roll of bandages, and I wrapped up my arm.

I sighed once I had finished. "Sorry, please continue."

"Well I was going to give you an option to go to a proper school, where you can meet new people, so you're not stuck in here all the time. That Isley girl goes, so you won't be alone. It's called Gotham Academy."

I bit my lip. Gotham Academy was well known on the East Coast, even in Maryland. Don't be fooled, just because it was called an academy didn't mean it was any good, in fact the school was previously Gotham High, but changed its name after trouble with the law, and also so it could claim more compensation from the government. It was also to try and trick people into thinking it was the fancy Gotham City Academy, that was destroyed several years ago and relocated to an offshore site to the west of Gotham. It even had a uniform, just to keep up the facade of being some posh private school, though it was very much a public high school, who let anyone in.

There weren't a lot of schools in Gotham, many of them being so frequently attacked by supervillains and children being kidnapped that they were either closed, or weren't repaired after being blown up. The one reason Gotham Academy still stood was because the students managed to scare off the criminals. That and they were probably home to a few of them.

He continued. "I was only gonna let you choose after you'd proved you could take care of yourself, but I think you've already done that." He let out a throaty giggle.

I looked down at my feet. I really didn't know anyone my age apart from Violet, and he was right that I'd get sick of seeing this hideout, but... I knew I'd get bullied. My skin condition always used to get me bullied at elementary school, and it wouldn't help that I'd lash out at the people that said the mean things. I remember having almost no friends, and I just worried I'd end up like that again - the freak eating their lunch in an empty classroom, not understanding why everyone thought I had a contagious disease, or that I was weird.

But I'd always be weird, whether I was at school at not. And maybe people at a Gotham school would be a hell of a lot weirder.

"Sure." I finally answered. "When do I start?"

He thought for a minute. "Well it's November now, and there's a semester break until the end of this week. So if you're ready, then Monday."

I bit my lip. "I hope it won't be too bad, me starting late and all. Everyone might have already settled in..." I shook my head. "I'll go, I'm sure of it."

He beamed at me. "Well then that's it! I'll get everything sorted, so you pumpkin, don't have to worry about a thing." He ruffled my hair. "Oh and Ivy called. When I removed all the slander and slurs against me, she said that you can come over any time and she'll take care of you."

I smiled. Maybe I could pay the Isleys a visit, and ask Violet about the school before Monday.

"Okay, you're dismissed." I joked, laughing, and he smiled.

"Don't start getting cocky now." He warned, shaking his head to himself.

I shooed him playfully, and he left, cackling to himself as he shut the door behind him.