A/N: Complete AU.
Disclaimer: I do not own Supergirl or the characters.
Chapter One
Kara rolled around under her covers and gave a long-exaggerated yawn and stretched out her entire body. She groaned softly and begrudgingly climbed out of bed. She grabbed a hair tie from the bedside table, threw her hair up into a messy bun and headed downstairs. She was halfway downstairs when she remembered she left her phone under her pillow. She darted back up the stairs, threw the pillow off the bed and grabbed her phone. Kara shoved the phone into her pocket and made her way back downstairs to the kitchen. Sat at the kitchen table was her mother reading the paper and her father drinking his coffee. Kara grabbed the sports section from beside her mum and picked up a slice of toast. She was just about to shovel the toast into her mouth, when her mum peered over the top of the paper and glanced over to the clock.
"Kara, what are you doing here?" she asked.
"Last time I checked, I lived here" she joked.
"What your mother means is, shouldn't you have left for class?"
Kara pulled out her phone, checked the time and flipped the phone to her parent's direction.
"Class doesn't start until 10:00am, it's only 9:00am. I have plenty of time".
"Did you not check your emails? The professor moved her class an hour earlier" her mother replied.
"Please tell me you're joking. I can't be late on my first day "Kara sighed.
Kara shoved another piece of toast into her mouth, downed a glass of orange juice, pushed herself off the chair and started to head back upstairs.
"Hold it" her mother ordered.
Kara spun around and walked back towards her parents.
"I'm already late, I might as well try again tomorrow. I'm already going to be the new kid, can't be the late new kid" she huffed.
"Kara Danvers, you will march that butt upstairs, quickly get dressed and walk into that university with your head held high. We did not raise a quitter. I know this is not the path you thought your life would take, and I am sorry for that. I've told you time and time again that everything happens for a reason, now go out there and find the reason."
Kara's mother always had such good advice and life had dealt her family a pretty shit deck lately, no matter how shit life was, her parents never once complained.
Kara kissed her parents and slowly made her way upstairs, she knew her parents well enough to know the moment they thought she was out of ear shot, they would talk about her. She stopped halfway up the stairs, quietly sat down and as she expected her parents started to discuss their oldest daughter.
"Are you okay Eliza?" Jeremiah asked.
Eliza sighed "yes, I just can't help but feel responsible for Kara having to stay home and not get to travel the world."
"You didn't expect to get cancer, you didn't ask to lose your job or ask Kara to give up her traveling money to help keep us afloat. Kara decided to stay here, she chose to help look after Clark and Winn so Alex didn't have to give up her dream job and come home. She put her own dreams on hold and put this family first and I will always be so proud of her for that. We raised a good kid darling and hopefully this university will give her some direction and then once she's graduated, we can help pay for her around the world trip" he replied.
Kara had a sneaking suspicion that she was not always so quiet when she was eavesdropping and her dad knew she was there, but it was still nice to hear that he was proud of her.
Kara ran up the rest of the stairs, grabbed some clothes from the floor, sniffed them and got dressed. She checked herself out in the mirror, she was wearing a grey oversized hoody, black leggings, and bright blue high tops. She pulled out her hair tie, ran her fingers through her hair then flipped her head over and redid her messy bun.
She was really hoping to make a good impression as it was her first day, but she was already late for her first class, so she thought what the hell. She threw her backpack over her shoulder and jogged downstairs. Her dad had already left for work and her mum had a hospital appointment. Kara picked up a note, next to it was some money for lunch. The note asked her to pick her brothers up from school and get them some dinner. Kara really was not in the mood for today and she really did contemplate binning it off and climbing back into bed, but she knew her mum had called in a lit of favours to get her a last-minute spot and she didn't want to disappoint her. She placed her phone, keys and money in her pocket and rushed to her car. It was an extremely chilly morning, and she knew her car hated to start in the cold, it was almost as if the engine seized up and went on strike.
Kara patted the light blue bonnet twice. "Please start, I'm already late "she begged.
She chucked her bag on the passenger seat, placed the key in and turned it. After hearing the engine splutter once, she knew today was not her day. She turned the key once more and a second later the engine turned over and made the noise Kara loved.
She placed her foot on the accelerator and made the ten-minute journey to the University. She pulled into the car park and managed to find a space close to the entrance.
"Must be my lucky day."
She pulled out her phone, checked the room allocation for her first class and made her way into the building. She was nearly 45 minutes late, she really hoped she could sneak in the back without anyone noticing.
Her first class of the day was Criminal Justice, she was not sure why she had chosen to do Criminology and Criminal Justice. Her mum wanted her to pick a course she would enjoy, and truth be told this course was the least boring. She ran up four flights of stairs, down a long corridor making sure she was constantly checking the lecture hall numbers. Of course, her room was right at the end of the corridor. She tried to open the door but with her hands full she ended up stumbling through the door, she glanced around the room to see it was empty.
"I'm so sorry I'm late, there was a problem with my…"
"Let me stop you right there. I do not care if your dog ate your alarm clock, if you lost your shoe or any other lame excuse you plan to feed me. You are already a month behind and on your first day you are late. This isn't a good start is it Miss Danvers."
The Professor pushed out of her chair, gathered her belongings, and made her way out of the class. She stopped just shy of the door, turned around and looked Kara dead in the eye.
"I suggest if you want to succeed in my class, you do better. If you would like to find out what you missed today, my office hours are 2:00pm-4:00pm every Wednesday and Friday."
For the first time in her life, Kara was speechless. The Professor opened the door and left.
"Well, that was a great start to the day "Kara huffed.
Her next class wasn't for another hour or so, she decided she would make good use of the next hour and head to the library and check out all the books on her reading list. Kara was a free spirit and that's why when all her friends were applying for unis, having interviews, and receiving offers, she was working two jobs, saving every penny, and planning an epic round the world adventure.
Kara was really smart, and her grades proved that, but she just couldn't deal with the structure of a school environment for any longer than she needed to.
Kara threw her backpack over her shoulder, piled the 6 textbooks on her arms and started to walk to the door. She pushed the door open with her bum, spun around and five seconds later she was on the floor with the mountain of books on top of her.
"Today just isn't my day."
Kara pulled herself up into a sitting position, glanced in front of her and she noticed picking up her belongings off the floor was the same Professor whose class she missed.
The Professor dusted herself off and placed everything into her handbag.
"You should really watch where you're walking" she snapped.
Kara pushed herself up off the floor and picked the books up one by one.
"I'm so sorry, I didn't expect the books to be so big, I thought I would be able to navigate my way to my next class without damaging someone or something."
The Professor glanced at the stack of books and then back up to Kara.
"It's nice to see despite your lack of time keeping you are actually taking my reading list seriously" she quipped.
"Well truth be told this wasn't exactly my first choice but after reading up about the course it seemed really interesting, and I know I'm a little behind, so I wanted to catch up or at least try" Kara replied.
"I've heard a lot about you, and I've seen your impressive grades so I have no doubt you will catch up in no time."
"I don't mean to be rude, but you know my name and I still don't know yours."
"Well, if you turned up to my lecture on time then you would know my name, I don't appreciate tardiness Miss Danvers, however I do appreciate students who make the effort, and I can tell you are willing to put in the effort. My name is Professor Lena Luthor."
"It's nice to meet you Professor Luthor. I am extremely sorry for missing your class and for running into you. It seems today just isn't my day" Kara sighed.
"I understand everyone has bad days Miss Danvers just try not to make a habit of it, maybe keeping your personal life outside of the university walls might help. I will be giving the class a test on Friday so I suggest starting with Davies, Croall & Tyrer's Criminal Justice book chapters 1,3, and 5 as they will likely help you."
Kara just smiled and nodded; she wasn't sure what it was but there was something intriguing about Professor Luthor. Kara picked up the last of her things from the floor and made her way down the corridor, she stopped a few seconds later when she heard her name.
"Oh, and Miss Danvers try and be on time for Friday's lecture" Professor Luthor called.
The rest of Kara's day went by without a hitch, she was on time for her 4 other lectures, she got chatting to a few girls and they invited her to eat lunch with them. They weren't the usual girls she would hang out with, but she really got a long with them. Kara had seen them around town before and Nia had often served her whenever she went into the coffee shop but as for Eve and Sara, she had never spoken to them. Kara had completed her first day at university and it pretty successful for the most part. She crossed the car park, unlocked the car, popped open the boot and dropped her backpack and books inside. She slammed the boot shut, climbed into the car, and drove out of the car park. Less than five minutes later she pulled up outside her brother's school. Winn opened the passenger door, pulled the chair forward and climbed into the back of the car. He put the seat back and Clark hopped in, he closed the door and dropped his bag on the floor.
"How was school?" Kara asked.
"It was okay" Clark replied.
"What about you buddy?"
"Fine" Winn sighed.
"He got into a fight" Clark quipped.
Kara turned her head and Winn was fiddling with his bag strap and looking down at his feet.
"You got into a fight, what the hell dude. The rents are going to kill you."
"Please Kara, don't tell them. They will ground me and it's Finn's birthday party on Saturday."
"Fine, I promise to keep my mouth shut but I'm sure the school will be ringing about it."
"I've thought that through already, you answer and pretend to be Mum."
Kara had to admit for a twelve-year-old he had it all figured out. She knew she shouldn't lie and keep this from their parents, but she also knew they couldn't handle any added stress.
"Well, if you tell me why you got into a fight then I might consider covering for you" Kara replied.
"Fine, someone was talking about you and Alex. They were saying the reason Mum got sick was because she's being punished for giving birth to two gay children. They said being gay is a sin" he sighed.
"That is ridiculous, I hope you made them pay for that" she joked.
She knew she shouldn't encourage her brother to fight but what twelve-year-old would think that god punished people for having gay children, she knew it had probably come off one of their parents. Kara put the car in drive, turned on the radio and made the short drive home.