Transference - (Jonathan Crane, Harley Quinn)

Chapter 1

"—must be drunk or somethin', man. Gotta be—"

"—whatever she's on, I want some—

"Do you think—"

Though not used to being gossiped about on so large a scale, Harley had been the subject of enough talk over the course of her academic career that she gave no outward indication that she noticed she was being gaped at and muttered about. Being an attractive young woman who was known to have something of a wild streak—the sort of wild streak that gave a girl a good-to-some-bad-to-others reputation—as well as being a fairly popular member of the University's gymnastics team, it was pretty much expected for someone to be saying something behind her back at any given time.

Harley acknowledged nothing going on around her as she walked, just continued on her way towards Professor Crane's classroom. She hummed a little tune she'd picked up from somewhere and seemed, despite every observer's shock, to be in a perfectly pleasant mood. Her footfalls were self assured to every outside observer, and inside, she was relatively calm, considering what lay ahead of her. Of course, in this case, "relatively calm" was generally considered to be anything less than screaming and rending her clothes in terror and anguish.

"Hey, Harley!" From the corner of her eye, Harley saw one of her teammates approaching, running to catch up to her. She didn't stop walking, though she did slow down a little.

"Hiya, Sarah."

"So, uh, hey…" Sarah said awkwardly, falling into step next to Harley. "Going to see Crane, huh?"

"Yup."

"You in trouble?"

"Nope."

"Well, that's comforting." Sarah released a sign of relief. "He cost us our best powerhouse last year."

At this, Harley actually bothered to look up at her companion for the first time since she'd jogged over. "Yeah?"

"Oh, yeah. It was brutal. She had a nervous breakdown. Failed her right out of her scholarship." Sarah scratched her neck absently. "So…uh…just wanted to make sure you're…you know…okay and everything."

"Don't worry," Harley said, tapping her temple with her finger, "No screws loose here!"

"Good." Sarah bobbed her head a few times in what may have qualified as an uncertain nod. "So…you going to see him about, like, an internship or something?"

"Nah." Harley waved her hand. "Extra credit."

"Oh. Rough." Sarah patted Harley's shoulder. "I'll pray for you. Break out the rosary and everything."

"Thanks."

"See you Saturday for the Phi Beta thing?"

"Absitively!"

"Excellent. Bye, Harley!" Sarah broke off and returned to the group of friends she'd left when she popped up to say hi, and Harley heard her start chattering at them immediately. Though she couldn't hear what was being said, if she had to guess, it was likely that Sarah was reassuring everybody that she wasn't off her nut or about to get failed so hard she'd be forced out of college life forever more.

As Harley got closer to the psychology department, the other students started to thin out and the whispers finally began to subside. It was pretty far away from the most central area of the University, down a small stack of stairs that continued the path where the ground became sloped at the edge of campus. The building itself stood next to a small faculty parking lot that nobody really used and there wasn't much in the way of places to hang out nearby, so eventually, almost all trace of her peers disappeared. The only mark that anyone left all the way out here was along the small concrete wall beside the stairs: spray painted graffiti of a bunch of penguins sliding down the handrail.