The Supergirl
of Smallville - Chapter 21
by Team Acenaut
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DOWNLOADED FROM
http://www.superwomenmania.com/storybank
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OCTOBER ...
The 9:45 bell rang through
the empty corridors, signaling the end of the first period. Moments later, the hallways were noisy with
the bustle of students scurrying toward their second-period classes.
Lana Lang came out of the
chemistry lab, clutching a pile of textbooks to her chest. Glancing down the hallway, she saw Lex Luthor about fifty feet ahead
of her. If she hurried, maybe she could
catch up with him ...
Two seniors in varsity
jackets were leaning against the lockers opposite the boys' bathroom. They stepped forward as Lex
approached.
"Hey, Luthor," said Chet Caswell. "Where you
going?"
Lex looked up.
"Hi, Chet," he said guardedly.
Football players rarely spoke to him.
"I'm on my way to history class."
"Aw, you got plenty
of time," said "Moose" Malloy.
"What's your hurry?"
"We need to talk to
you," said Chet.
Lex shrugged.
"Sure. What
about?"
"Not here," said
Chet. He jerked his thumb toward the
door of the boys' bathroom. "In there."
And before Lex could say a word, Chet and Moose had each grabbed him
by an arm and hustled him into the bathroom.
Lana frowned. She'd heard the whole conversation with her
super-hearing, and she didn't need super-intuition to know that something was
wrong. She turned her eyes toward the
cinder-block wall, then stopped. Goodness, she
thought, blushing. I can't use my
super-vision to peek into the boys' bathroom!
But I can eavesdrop with my super-hearing ...
She stood in the hallway,
pretending to study her French textbook as she listened in on the conversation
on the other side of the wall ...
"All right,
guys," said Lex.
"What's this all about?"
"It's about Clark
"Yes," said Lex. "He won't
be able to play football."
"And if that happens,"
said Moose, "we can kiss the state championship good-bye."
"Look, I'll be happy
to tutor him," said Lex. "If he thinks I'm still mad at him for
what happened in the cafeteria last spring, tell him I'm willing to let bygones
-- "
"It's too late for
tutoring," said Chet. "He's
got that big test coming up this afternoon.
He needs to pass that, or he's off the team."
"Well, I can give him
a few pointers during lunch," said Lex. "But -- "
"Listen up,
genius," growled Moose. "This
is what's gonna happen. We've got it all fixed so that
Out in the hallway, Lana
gasped, her green eyes flashing with indignation behind the lenses of her
glasses. Lex
is the most decent, honorable guy I know, she thought. He'd never be a party to cheating. But if he refuses ...
She resumed her
eavesdropping.
Someone else was
speaking. "Guys, let me talk to Lex, okay?"
Lana recognized Pete Ross's voice.
"Listen, Lex," Pete was saying. His voice was low but urgent. "
Lex was silent.
"Just think it over,
okay?" said Pete. "The bell's gonna ring in a minute.
We all better get to class."
Lex came out of the bathroom. Head lowered, a worried frown on his face, he
turned without seeing Lana and hurried down the hallway. Lana thought about running after him, then decided against it.
She wanted to hear what the other boys were saying.
"Do you think he'll
do it?" said Chet.
"Yeah," said
Moose. "I still say we should've
given him a swirlie, just to show him we mean
business."
"Trust me,
guys," said Pete. "Lex may be a square, but he's a stand-up guy. He'll help
"He better,"
growled Moose, "if he knows what's good for him."
The bathroom door swung
open, and the three boys ambled off down the hallway.
The corridor was empty
now. Lana stared blankly at the open
textbook in her hands. What a spot Lex was in!
The door of the teachers'
room opened and out stepped a tall thin woman, her iron-grey hair pulled back
in a severe bun.
"Let's not dawdle,
Lana," she said as she walked briskly past. "You don't want to be late for
class."
"Yes, Miss Brundy." Lana
shut her book and trotted off to French class.
*
* * * * * * * * *
Joanne Kirby's voice rose
angrily above the hum of conversation in the cafeteria.
"Hey, I saw him
first!"
"So?" retorted
Cindy Evans. "I'm the one he spoke
to."
"You?" Joanne snorted. "Why would he want to speak with you?"
"Oh, I don't
know." Cindy looked down demurely
as she tugged her sweater against the ample contours of her chest. "Maybe he'd rather talk with a real
girl instead of someone who stuffs her bra with -- "
Joanne was on her feet,
eyes flashing indignantly. "Why,
you -- "
"Now,
now, ladies." Suzy Prentiss set down her tray and slid into
her seat at the cheerleaders' table.
"Let's pull in our claws, okay?
No sense getting into a squabble over some boy we hardly know."
"Easy for you to
say," Eileen Sheridan grumbled.
"You're going steady with
Suzy took a dainty bite of
her grilled-cheese sandwich. "But
what do we know about the guy? I mean,
this is his first day here."
"What's to
know?" Cindy leered. "He's a dreamboat with James Dean eyes
and a butt to die for. And -- " She lowered
her voice confidentially. "I hear
he's got a motorcycle."
"Yeah," said
Eileen. "A real
motorcycle -- not like that little scooter that
Jenny Rollins was staring
at the cafeteria entrance. "Speak
of the devil," she murmured. The
other cheerleaders turned their heads surreptitiously, watching as the new boy
stepped through the doorway with Pete Ross ...
"This is the
cafeteria," said Pete. "I
usually sit at that table over there, with the other football players."
"Nice." Jake Ryder, darkly handsome, stood in the
doorway, surveying the crowded room. He
flashed a gleaming smile as the students turned to stare at him.
Pete led the way to the
varsity table. "Guys, this is Jake
Ryder," he said. "Jake just
moved here from Metropolis. Jake, say
hello to Freddy and Ted and Chet. This
is Mike Malloy, but everyone calls him Moose.
And last but not least, this is our star quarterback, Clark
"Oh
yeah? Whaddaya
ride?" Jake sat down.
Chet guffawed. "A three-speed,
mostly." The other boys
burst into raucous laughter.
"A '57 Sportster," Jake said proudly. "It's gonna be a classic one day."
Jake winked. "Hey, what they don't know won't hurt 'em. You see, I got
kicked out of a couple of private schools back in Metropolis, so my old man
sent me out here to live with my Aunt Eunice.
He figures I can't get into any trouble out in the middle of
nowhere." He grinned. "He also thinks I sold my wheels to a
buddy of mine. Little does he know, eh?"
"So what do you think
of Smallville so far?" asked Freddy.
Jake shrugged. "It's okay, I guess. What do you guys do for kicks?" He turned, craning his neck as he looked
around the cafeteria. "Say, some of
these girls are real lookers." He
jerked his thumb toward a table by the wall.
"Who's the cute number sitting over there with the square?"
"Uh, that's Tami
Dodge," said Pete. "She's my
girl-friend -- kind of," he added lamely, as his teammates snickered. "I mean, we've gone out a few times -- "
"Yeah? So who's that
she's talking to?"
"Oh, that's Lex Luthor. He's our local genius. He's just giving her some pointers for a big
math test this afternoon."
A wolfish grin spread
slowly across Jake's face. "You
don't say." He stood up.
"Where -- where are
you going, Jake?" Pete asked nervously.
"I'm gonna show you farm boys how we do things in the big
city. Watch and learn, Johnny
Appleseed." With a touch of swagger
in his stride, he walked toward the table where Tami and Lex
were sitting ...
Tami's pretty face was
puckered in concentration as she pointed to the textbook that lay open on the
table. "What's this t over k?"
she asked.
"That tells you how
many half-lives have gone by," Lex
explained. "Suppose the half-life
is five days, and fifteen days have gone by.
How many half-lives is that?"
"Three?"
"Right. Fifteen
divided by five -- t over k. And
every time a half-life goes by, only half of the isotope's atoms remain. So if you started with eighty grams of the
isotope, how many grams would remain after one half-life?"
"Forty."
"And
after another half-life?"
"Twenty."
"And
after the third half-life?"
"Ten?"
"Right. Eighty times one-half to the power of three. Get it?"
Tami beamed. "I do!
Wow, you explain this a lot better than Mr. Fluterman." She
stood up. "Thanks, Lex. You're my
hero." Grabbing her book, she
hurried off toward the cheerleaders' table.
"Oh! Sorry!"
She'd bumped into someone. Her
jaw fell open as she looked up and found herself staring into a pair of
gorgeous brown eyes.
Jake grinned. "Believe me, a doll like you can bump
into me anytime. I'm Jake Ryder. I'm new around here."
"I know!" Tami
said breathlessly. She blushed. "I mean -- we don't see many new
students here. I'm -- I'm Tami Dodge. Pleased to meet you."
"The pleasure is all
mine," Jake declared. "Listen,
I was wondering -- gosh, I hope I'm not being too forward --
"
"No, no!" Tami stammered. "Please -- go on!"
"Well, it's just that
I don't know many people yet and you seem like a really nice person. I was wondering if you might be willing to
show me around after school -- you know, give me the grand tour of Smallville. I've got
a motorcycle, so I can provide the transportation. What do you say?"
"You mean it?"
Tami squealed. Then she lowered her eyes
demurely. "I mean -- that would be
lovely. I've got cheerleading practice
after school, but that will be over at 4:15 -- "
"4:15,
huh? It's a date." With a wink, he turned and strutted back to
the varsity table as Tami, wide-eyed and breathless with excitement, hurried
off to join the other cheerleaders.
"Guess what!"
she gushed. "Jake is taking me for
a ride on his motorcycle after practice!"
"Hmpf!"
snorted Cindy. "Some girls have all
the luck!" ...
"Hey,
Lex. I see you were giving Tami some help with
math." Lana set down her tray and
took a seat facing Lex. "You seem to be pretty popular
today."
Lex looked up. “Hi, Lana. Yeah, I
guess a lot of the juniors are nervous about the big test this afternoon. Tami just needed some last-minute pointers.”
Lana picked up her
sandwich. “I hear
“
"I just wondered
because I saw you talking with some of the other football players this
morning. In the
hallway, between classes."
"Oh, that." Lex shrugged. "Yeah, they wanted to talk about the
test."
Again, Lana's super-senses
took note of the slight flush on Lex's face, the
imperceptible flicker of his eyes. She
sighed. I can't tell Lex I know what they really wanted, she thought. But I've got to help him. I mean, what's the good of having all these
powers if I can't help my friends?
But
how?
"You look kind of
worried," she said. "Is
everything okay?"
Lex smiled.
"I'm fine. Just a little nervous about the test myself." The bell rang. Lex gulped down the
last of his milk and stood up. "Sorry, Lana. Gotta run."
Lana sat watching as he
joined the crowd of students streaming out the door and into the main
hallway. She saw that Chet and Moose and
Ted Larsen were still sitting at the varsity table on the other side of the
room. She tuned in with her
super-hearing.
"There goes Lex," muttered Chet.
"Think he's gonna do what we told
him?"
Ted ground a fist into the
palm of his hand. "If he
doesn't," he growled, "he's dead meat."
*
* * * * * * * * *
"Excuse me ... Sorry!
... Pardon me ... "
Lana hurried down the
hallway, weaving among the other students headed for their final classes. She
walked as quickly as she dared, resisting the temptation to use her
super-speed. She had to reach Mr. Fluterman's classroom before
She slowed down as she
approached the door of Room 108 and peered inside. Mr. Fluterman -- a
thin, balding man whose long nose had earned him the nickname "Flutesnoot" -- was standing at the front of the room,
waiting for the students to take their seats.
Not far from the door, Lex was sitting with
his back to Lana. The desk behind him
was vacant.
Quickly, Lana lowered her
glasses. Her eyes glowed red for a
moment as she sent a thin, intense beam of her heat vision toward the desk
behind Lex, slicing almost -- but not quite --
through the tubular steel of its left rear leg.
Pushing her glasses back up, she turned to go ...
"Oh! Excuse me!" She'd nearly bumped into
"Oh -- hi,
Lana,"
"Good -- good luck on
the test!" she blurted, feeling vaguely ashamed of herself.
Lana hurried to the end of
the corridor and turned left. A deserted
hallway stretched before her. The art
classroom was at the other end. Lana
scanned the corridor quickly with her super-vision, then put on a burst of
super-speed. Smoothing her skirt, she
stepped into the art room just as the bell was ringing ...
Sighing, he sat down at
the desk.
"Oof!" What the -- ?!
The boys guffawed and the
girls giggled as
Mr. Fluterman
glanced at him sharply. "Stop
fooling around,
Red-faced,
Mr. Fluterman
sighed. "All
right. Don't worry about
it." He pointed toward an empty
desk in the front row. "There's a
desk right here with your name on it."
"All right,
class," said Mr. Fluterman, raising his voice to
make himself heard over the sound of the bell. "Time to close your
books and put your notes away.
Take out a pencil and put on your thinking cap." He began walking up and down the aisles,
handing out the mimeographed test.
*
* * * * * * * * *
Lana lifted the brush and
dabbed gently at the watercolor on her easel.
She was putting the finishing touches on a painting of
"Very
good, Lana." Mrs. Weaver stood peering over her
shoulder. "I like the way you've
captured the reflection of the sunset on the water. You should enter this in the student art show
next month."
"Thanks, Mrs.
Weaver." Lana rinsed the brush in
the glass of water on her work table and turned back to the painting.
Lana liked art class. Painting and drawing and working with clay
gave her a chance to slow down, to do something at a normal speed. And she could use her super-vision freely to
scan for emergencies. Most of her
teachers had scolded her at one time or another for daydreaming in class, when
in reality she was looking out the window or peering through the wall to see if
there were any jobs for Supergirl.
Now, standing in front her
easel, she sent her super-vision westward, across the Great Plains and toward
the
Uh-oh. Lana squinted slightly, focusing on a scene far off
on the western plains.
A railway trestle-bridge
was collapsing. Lana watched in alarm as
timbers snapped, steel struts buckled, and the tracks, sagging under their own
weight, broke loose and plunged toward the river that
rushed along the bottom of the chasm hundreds of feet below. And just a few miles away, the California
Zephyr was speeding toward the chasm, its passengers and crew unaware that they
were racing to their doom ...
Lana's hand casually
bumped against the glass on her work table, knocking it over. Water splashed all over her skirt and dripped
off the table onto the floor.
"Oops!" Lana stooped down, wiping up the water with a
paper towel as her classmates snickered.
"Gosh, I'm such a klutz!"
She stood up, looking at her damp skirt in dismay. "I'll be right back, Mrs. Weaver!"
she cried, hurrying toward the door.
"I just want to tidy up."
"Of course,"
said Mrs. Weaver. But Lana was already
out the door.
Moments later, a muffled boom
rattled the windows of the classroom.
Hundreds of miles to the
west, a streak of blue and red came plunging from the sky like a
thunderbolt. Lana's super-brain assessed
the situation in a fraction of a second.
The train was still moving at top speed toward the chasm. The engineer wouldn't be able to see that the
bridge was out until it was too late ...
Lana narrowed her
eyes. Instantly, a beam of incandescent
heat sliced through the coupling that joined the passenger cars to the four
engines in front. Swooping down,
matching her speed to that of the train, Lana pursed her lips and blew a quick
blast of her super-breath into the brake line.
Wheels screeched and sparks flew as the cars shuddered to a halt.
There, thought Lana, squeezing the brake fitting in her
gloved hands to seal in the air pressure.
The passengers are safe. Now
all I have to do is stop a few hundred tons of runaway steel!
No longer burdened by the
weight of a dozen passenger cars, the four-engine lash-up was rattling swiftly
toward the chasm. Lana flew up alongside
the lead engine, her cape and her red hair streaming behind her. She could see the startled faces of the
engineer and the fireman staring at her through the window. She cupped one hand to her mouth, pointing
urgently ahead with the other.
"The bridge is
out!" she shouted. "Put on
your brakes!"
Nodding, the engineer
closed the throttle and applied the brakes.
There was a loud hiss of air and a deafening squeal as the brake shoes
strained against the wheels, but Lana could see that the engines' momentum would
carry them over the edge of the cliff.
She flew ahead of the lead engine, then circled
back with her arms stretched out in front of her. She laid the palms of her gloved hands
against the steel plating.
Lana knew that she was far
more powerful than a locomotive. Her
super-muscles could easily bring the four engines to an abrupt halt -- but the
iron behemoths would crumple under the impact and flip off the rails, injuring
-- or even killing -- the men inside.
This would call for a gentle touch ...
She pushed carefully. Rivets popped and steel plates buckled like
tin-foil as her arms plunged through the front of the engine. Too much ... Quickly, she flew in behind the second
engine, pressing her back and shoulders against the third. The hissing of the brakes and the shriek of
the wheels against the track filled her ears as the engines rattled closer and
closer toward the chasm. The strain was
too much for the lash-up; Lana saw that the coupling between the engines was
about to snap. Desperately she reached
out, digging her fingers into the plating of the second engine, pulling it back ...
To her relief, the lash-up
was slowing down. Would it stop in
time?
Her super-hearing picked
up shouts of alarm from the lead engine.
Its front end was tipping forward, over the edge of the cliff. In another moment, it would be falling into
the gorge!
Instantly, Lana swooped
underneath the teetering engine.
Balancing its tremendous weight effortlessly on one shoulder, she raised
it level with the track. She looked up. The engineer was leaning out the window,
staring at her, his face white with shock.
"Release the
brakes!" Lana shouted. "Put it
in reverse!"
The engineer seemed to be
paralyzed with fear.
"Don't worry,"
Lana shouted. "I've got the front
of the train. Just back up a little so I
can set it down."
The engineer vanished back
into the cab. There was a moment of
silence; then four diesels thundered back to life. Air rushed from the brake lines with a loud
hiss as the engines began to creep back from the edge of the cliff
...
Moments later, Lana set
ninety tons of steel back on the rails as if it were a toy.
Lana flew round to the
side window. The fireman was still
clinging for dear life to a strap hanging from the ceiling of the cab. The engineer released his grip on the brake
lever and sat back in his chair, trembling.
He let out a long breath as he removed his cap and mopped his forehead
with a red bandana.
"Are you all
right?" Lana asked.
"Supergirl!"
the fireman gasped. He took a deep
breath. "Just a little ... shaken
up ..."
"But we're
alive," said the engineer. "Thanks to you.
How can we ever -- ?"
Lana smiled. "All in a day's work. I'm glad I could help."
But now she had to get back
to Smallville, fast.
"You'd better radio the next station to tell them about the bridge,
and arrange a pick-up for your passengers.
I'm sorry I can't stay and help clean up this mess, but I've got to get
back to art -- er, I mean
As she rocketed skyward,
the crew leaned out of the engines, waving their caps and cheering her on her
way.
*
* * * * * * * * *
Lex's footsteps echoed through the empty corridor of the
school building. The chess club meeting
had broken up twenty minutes ago, but he'd stayed after to discuss a tricky
endgame position with Mr. Kastler. Now,
stepping outside, he was reading a mimeographed sheet of paper -- the order of
competition for the upcoming tri-county tournament. Lex saw that he
would be playing against Wally Schroeder in the first round. Wally was an aggressive player, but sometimes
careless -- Lex would have to play a careful
defensive game, staying alert for any missteps on his opponent's part.
Rounding the corner of the
building, he stuck the paper into his hip pocket as he walked up to the bicycle
rack. His battered red three-speed was
the only one remaining. He bent over the
combination lock, twirling the dial. 28
...10 ...
He heard footsteps behind
him. Three shadows slid up the wall of
the school building. Lex
turned round, full of misgiving ...
Ted Larsen stood scowling
at him, grinding his right fist into the palm of his left hand, flanked by Chet
and Moose.
"Hi, guys," said
Lex, trying to sound nonchalant. "What's up? Football practice over?"
"You wanna know what's up, Loser?" Ted snarled, as Chet and
Moose stepped forward. Too late, Lex realized that he shouldn't have remained standing with
his back to the wall. Now he was penned
in on all sides, like a king in checkmate.
"I'll tell you what's
up," Ted went on. "
"Look, I'm sorry to
hear that," said Lex. "Honest.
But you know what happened, right?
The leg of his desk snapped when he sat down. It was just bad luck."
"Oh, yeah?" said
Chet. "Well, maybe we don't believe
in luck."
"What do you
mean?"
Ted jabbed his thick
forefinger against Lex's chest. "We mean a brainy guy like you could
have rigged that desk to break."
"Yeah," Moose
chimed in. "Like maybe you got a
file from the wood shop and went into the classroom during lunch -- "
"Or maybe you did it
with acid or something from the science lab," said Chet. "The point is,
we don't believe the desk broke by accident.
We told you what would happen if
Lex's mouth was dry.
"Come on, guys," he said.
"Be reasonable. I -- "
But Chet and Moose had
grabbed his arms and pinned him against the wall. Stepping forward, Ted drove his fist into Lex's stomach ...
"Oof!" Lex doubled over,
gasping for breath. "Okay,
guys," he wheezed. "You've
made your point. I --
"
But he could see that they
weren't finished with him. Ted drew back
his fist, his eyes gleaming with vengeful fury as he stood poised for another
blow. Lex
struggled to free himself from the other boys' grip, but they held him fast to
the wall. He gulped, shut his eyes,
lowered his head ...
Suddenly the pressure on
his arms vanished. He heard startled
yelps of protest, the thud of something heavy hitting the ground. He opened his eyes and looked up ...
Silhouetted against the
afternoon sun, Supergirl was hovering about ten feet
above the ground, her cape billowing behind her. Chet and Moose hung squirming from her
outstretched arms while Ted picked himself up, brushing dirt from the seat of
his pants.
"Three
against one?" Supergirl asked indignantly. She lowered herself to the ground, alighting
with her back to Lex as she released Chet and Moose
and shoved them toward Ted. Placing her
gloved hands on her hips, she glared at the three boys.
"Since you like those
odds," she said, "maybe you'd like to try ganging up on me?"
The boys stood in sullen
silence. Supergirl
saw that they were surreptitiously eyeing her legs and her chest. She sighed.
She ought to be used to that by now -- and besides, the less her
classmates looked at her face when she was in her Supergirl
identity, the better. So far, no one
seemed to have noticed any resemblance between the mighty Supergirl
and mousy Lana Lang, but there was no sense in pushing her luck.
"What's the
matter?" she asked. "Don't tell
me three big, strong boys like you -- "
Stooping, she picked up a
softball-sized rock from the ground.
"
-- are afraid of a girl?" She held out the rock and gave it a
squeeze. With a loud crack, the
rock split apart in her hand. She
squeezed harder, grinding the pieces to a fine powder that trickled between her
fingers and drifted away in the breeze.
"Now," she said,
brushing dust off her gloves, "would one of you care to tell me what this
is all about?"
She saw out of the corner
of her eye that Lex had stepped out from behind
her. The three football players stood
scowling at the ground. Chet spoke up.
"It's none of your --
" Raising
his eyes, he found himself staring into Supergirl's
stern gaze. "I mean -- it was
nothing," he said hastily. "We
were just -- having an argument, and things got a little out of hand. That's all -- right, guys?"
"Yeah," Ted
mumbled. Moose nodded. "Uh-huh."
Supergirl tossed her head.
"Hmpf! Well, in that case, I guess you're ready to
apologize, right?"
The boys were silent.
Supergirl folded her arms and arched an eyebrow. "Right?"
Chet stepped forward. "Sorry, Lex,"
he said, studiously avoiding eye contact.
Moose was standing beside him.
"Yeah," he said. "No hard feelings, huh?"
Ted hung back for a moment,
then shuffled forward.
"Bygones, okay?" he muttered between clenched teeth. "You can go back to your science books
and your chess club and your mutt of a girl-frien -- "
It happened so fast that
even Supergirl was taken by surprise. Ted doubled up, clutching his stomach, and
staggered backward. It took the others a
moment to realize that Lex had punched him in the
gut; but by then the two of them were rolling on the ground, grunting as they
grappled with each other.
"Fight! Fight!" Chet and
Moose rushed forward to help their teammate, but Supergirl
stepped between them and pushed them back with a sweep of her arms. She noticed that several other students had
gathered round, watching in fascination.
What was Lex thinking? she thought. I'd
better put a stop to this before he gets hurt ...
But just then a voice rang
out.
"What's going on
here?"
Mr. Weatherly, the
principal, came hurrying round the corner of the building. Lex and Ted stopped
fighting; they sat on the ground, catching their breath and glaring at each
other. Ted's forehead was bleeding and a
livid bruise was darkening around Lex's right
eye.
Mr. Weatherly tugged his
vest down over his round belly and pulled a handkerchief from his breast
pocket. He gave his pince-nez spectacles
a quick polish; then, with a loud "Harrumph!" he set the spectacles
back on his nose and squinted at the two boys on the ground.
"What's going
on?" he repeated. "Who started
this?"
Lex was picking himself up off the ground, brushing dirt
from the knees of his trousers. "I
did, sir."
Mr. Weatherly's eyebrows
rose. "You did?"
"Yes." Lex took a deep
breath. "Ted said ... something,
and I lost my temper. It was my
fault."
Mr. Weatherly looked
round. "Supergirl!"
he exclaimed, noticing her for the first time.
"Do you know anything about this?
Is that true?"
Supergirl hesitated.
But Lex had already admitted that he was the
one who started the fight. "That's
right," she said. "He did
throw the first punch."
Mr. Weatherly
blinked. "Well! I must say, Lex,
I'm surprised at you. Your conduct has
always been exemplary. Nevertheless -- " He held up a
sententious finger. "Rules are
rules. Three days
after-school detention, starting tomorrow. But right now, you'd better come with
me. We'll put some ice on that
eye." He frowned at the students
who stood watching. "The rest of
you can go now. Go on -- shoo!"
Chattering excitedly, the
students dispersed as Mr. Weatherly led Lex back into
the school building. Supergirl
rose into the air, her super-hearing listening in on the three football players
as they strolled off.
"Man," said
Moose. "Ol'
Lex really laid into you, Ted."
Ted was dabbing the cut on
his forehead with a bandanna. "Yeah. I gotta hand it to him.
That took guts. Lex may be a square, but he's no sissy."
"You think he was on
the up and up?" asked Chet. "About the desk breaking by accident?"
Ted shrugged. "I say we give him the benny. Hey, he took
a bullet for us. That could've been us
doing detention. Heck, we could've
gotten kicked off the team."
"Yeah," grinned Moose. "Lex is all right."
Supergirl shook her head as she flew off toward
*
* * * * * * *
"Mind if I join
you?"
Lex looked up morosely.
He was sitting at a table by himself with his back to the
cafeteria. "Hi,
Lana." He made a
half-hearted effort to smile as he gestured toward the chair across from
his. "Be my guest."
Lana set down her tray and
slid into the chair. "Wow,"
she said, peering at Lex's face. "That's quite a shiner. How do you feel?"
Lex shrugged.
"Not as bad as I look. I
guess you heard about the fight?"
"Come on, Lex. How long have
you lived in Smallville? Everyone's heard about it."
"So I guess you know
I'll be spending the next three afternoons in detention."
"What about your
radio show?"
"I've pre-recorded a
few programs that Mr. Hertz can play."
"Golly, Lex, what possessed you to throw a punch at Ted
Larsen? If you don't
mind my asking. The guy's an
ox."
"I just ... lost my
temper, that's all. I'm sorry, Lana, but
I'd rather not talk about it, okay? It's
-- kind of embarrassing."
Lana nodded
thoughtfully. She couldn't tell Lex that she'd overheard Ted's muttered words with her
super-hearing. Poor gallant Lex, she thought.
He was standing up for me -- and now he's got a black eye and three
days' detention.
Lana leaned forward. "Listen, Lex,
I think I know what happened yesterday.
I mean, I saw Chet and Moose talking to you in the hallway yesterday
morning and then
She paused for
breath. "Well, it doesn't take
Sherlock Holmes to connect the dots. The
football players wanted you to help
"Actually," Lex said slowly, "I was going to let him."
Lana's eyebrows rose. "You were?"
"Not because I was
afraid of those guys," Lex said hastily. "But -- well,
"Yeah," said
Lana, staring down at her tray.
"Funny ... "
She could feel her face
reddening. Oh dear, she
thought. This whole mess wouldn't
have happened if I hadn't interfered ...
She stood abruptly. "I'm -- I'm really sorry about what
happened."
Lex smiled ruefully.
"Hey, it's not your fault."
"Um
-- right. Anyway, I wanted to give you this." She reached into the pocket of her baggy
cardigan and pulled out a small flat object, about four inches square, wrapped
in shiny red paper.
"I was going to give
you this for Christmas," she said, handing it to him. "But I figured it might help you pass
the time during detention."
Blinking, Lex took the present from Lana's hand and removed the
paper. Underneath the wrapping was a
pocket chess set, with a miniature board and thirty-two tiny pieces. Lex broke into a
broad grin.
"Thanks, Lana."
he said, slipping it into his shirt pocket.
"That's really nice of you."
"Now you can stay in
practice for the tournament. But I bet a
big chess player like you probably has one already."
"No
-- honest."
In fact, he did have
one, but it didn't matter. From now on,
this was the only one he'd ever use.