Man in the Mirror || irwin (DOING SOME MAJOR EDITING!)

[ 47 ] 2013

The next morning she had to return to school. But the entire neighborhood was aware of the kidnappings and Harley used that as an excuse to stay home.

Billy insisted on going to school despite having permission to stay home. As it turned out, Cindy had gotten mad at him for skipping the evening at the country club in order to be with his family. And Billy didn't have a ride to school that morning, but he decided to walk one day if he would get her back than walk the rest of the year to school without Cindy.

Harley wondered what he saw in her.

She was dumber than dirt.

But she made him happy and Harley came to the conclusion that it was all that mattered. Who knows, she thought to herself, Billy is really smart and she isn't the smartest. Maybe she can learn something from him.

Her older brother had just left the house when the doorbell rang. Her parents were resting in bed and she went to go get it. She had to walk down to the front door all the way from her bedroom and groaned loudly, her words coming out loud for the person on the other side to hear, "I swear to God, Billy, if you forgot your keys-"

She grabbed the door handle and pulled it open to see a tall young man standing there with a friendly smile on his face. He had grown out brown hair, chocolate brown eyes, lightly tanned skin and didn't look older than twenty.

Confused, she asked, "May I help you?" 

The girl with fading out blue hair suddenly remembered she was in her pajamas and felt embarassed. The young man was dressed in sweats and a t-shirt, but he still looked more presentable than her. Wracking his mind for the information he had learned about before arriving to Sydney, he nodded, "Are you Harley Quinn?" His voice had a thick accent and she knew he wasn't a native English speaker.

"How do you know my name?" She narrowed her eyes at him suspiciously.

Gesturing down the street with his thumb, he offered, "I just moved in today, three houses down from here." Sticking his hand out for her to shake, he grinned, "My name is Paúl Medina."

And Harley thought the pronounciation of his name was strange. 

The way he said it made it come off as Pah-ool.

"Don't you mean Paul?" She corrected him.

"I think I know what my name is." He said with a hint of annoyance mixed into his foreign accent.

As it all dawned on her, she suddenly remembered who he really was. When Michael was sent off to England again, Arthur said either a guy named Paul or a girl named Dempsey would take his place. She pointed her index finger at him accusingly. "Arthur sent you, didn't he?" She growled. "Tell him I don't need a babysitter."

Her hand went to shut the door, but he stuck his foot in between the doorframe. Pushing the door back easily and gripping her upper arm in a tight hold, he said to her, "I don't know an Arthur, but my boss sent me here to do a job, and I'm going to do it right and you're going to cooperate."

"Fine." She hissed. "Just get away from me. I don't want to see you here."

Letting go of her arm, he shook his head. He gestured into the house and told her, "I need you to take me to your school. The boss got me a job there as an Art History and Pre-Calculus teaching assistant so I can keep an eye on you during school hours." She rolled her eyes in annoyance. Both Art History and Pre Calculus were classes on her schedule.

"Okay." She huffed angrily. "I'm going to change into my uniform. But how do I know you're really who you say you are?"

He slide a hand into the pocket of his sweat pants and got a black leather wallet out.