Light jazz fills the air as a room of socialites waltz in and out out of their social obligations. The words and topics, the same as always: nuclear weapons, fear of the communists, some gossip about one of the rich kids and, of course, the arrest of Lex Luthor by the Supers.
It's not that Lena wasn't accustomed to this events, but with the recent news about her brother circulating on every newspaper, she kept gaining even more dirty looks than she was used to, which was way more than she had the patience to bear.
"He's not." She interrupted an oh-so-boring businessman in the middle of his rant about Lex.
"Excuse me?"
"He's not a communist, you know. He's a criminal alright, but Lex doesn't have a drop of politics in his blood." She continued to a dumbfounded listener, apparently shocked that the woman in front of him had a voice. "So don't go around trying to further your witch-hunt agenda using an example that has nothing to do with our current scenario."
The man blinked once, took a sip of his whisky and responded:
"Be careful, miss Luthor, one might call you a Red with all this political talk."
"Oh, my dear" she started, an ironic smile in place "I've been called much worse by your kind. Now, if you'll excuse me." And with that, she clutched her purse a little tighter and made her way to another corner of the room, expecting to find less company so that she wouldn't have to talk while waiting for the time to be socially accepted for her to leave.
Of course, she couldn't be so lucky.
"That man doesn't know when to stop, I'm sorry you had to go through that." A voice sounded to her left, and Lena turned around slightly surprised to see who was talking. The girl was about her age, golden curls styled just like some Hollywood stars were doing, blue eyes so bright and shiny they reminded Lena of Cuban waters, and a warm half-smile that was so foreign and odd in the midst of a room of cold and fake grins that immediately made something inside her stir: suspicion. People that were allowed into the palaces of the rich and important didn't have warm smiles to offer, those were reserved for lovers and potential investors (at times, they were the same), which meant that Lena was being preyed on.
"Thank you. I have had a couple of meetings with Mr. Lord before and needless to say he is a difficult, albeit generous investor. Thankfully, he needs me more than I need him, so I don't have to worry about his rhetoric." The woman sighed before continuing: "Now, my dear, where do you have the displeasure of knowing Maxwell from?"
The girl blinked a couple of times before adjusting her glasses and grabbing a notepad out of her blazer's pocket and balancing it between her fingers.
"Occupational hazard, I guess."
Lena rose one eyebrow, definitely been preyed on. With Lex's arrest, she was now in charge of Luthor Corp, which meant that people were trying to tear her to the ground, and the media and their nasty reporters were making sure that they would scrutiny every aspect of her life in search of something to incriminate her.
"I'd imagine you managed to grab quite a few interesting quotes tonight, then the woman paused, waiting for an introduction from the reporter.
"Oh, I'm Kara." The girl rushed to pocket her notepad and extend a hand in greeting. "Kara Danvers."
Lena inched a bit closer to the girl, an ironic smile spreading through her face while she shook the hand of Kara Danvers.
"And tell me, Ms. Danvers, are you looking for the heartbroken sister or angry communist aching for revenge storyline?"
