The chatter of his classmates hummed around him like a swarm of bees as he closed his locker. Jordan slung his backpack over his shoulder, ready to turn down the hall to head to his next class when his brother sidled up beside him with a sigh, fighting with the lock on his locker.
"Is it just me, or is this the longest week ever?" Jon grumbled.
"Jon, it's only Tuesday," Jordan replied with a chuckle.
Jon's face fell and he looked stricken for a moment. "Wait, really? Man, I've been thinking it was Wednesday all day!" He let out a groan as he realized. "Crap, that means I've got science lab today. I swear Mr. Thomas has it out for me…" he muttered.
Jordan gave his brother a sympathetic look. He had been getting the same feeling as of late from the old man too. He'd been teaching at Smallville High since forever, but this felt more than the attitude of a teacher ready for retirement. It felt a bit more…personal. Once, Jordan was pretty sure he overheard the man muttering to himself about the "slacker Kent boys" regarding their not so stellar attendance standings and was sure there was something else to the effect of "being just like their father". Jordan made a mental note to ask their dad about it later.
But Jordan had also been feeling like the days and minutes had been dragging on longer than usual. Maybe it was the full moon, (not that he believed in that sort of thing) or the heightened levels of excitement from his peers, but he was looking forward to the weekend as much as anyone else. Halloween was just around the corner.
"You got big plans this weekend?" Jordan asked, waggling his brows with meaning.
Jonathan rolled his eyes, but a blush crept up onto his cheeks. Jon and Tegan had been hanging out more and more lately, so Jordan had a feeling he already knew the answer to that question. Fighting a grin, Jon replied with a shrug, "Not officially yet, but I mean there's bound to be a good party or two, right? It's Halloween!"
"What about you? You and Sarah got any plans?"
Jordan nodded. "Her Mom has got that Trunk-or-Treat thing at the Fire Station," he said. Mrs. Cushing had been organizing the trick-or-treat event all month long, on top of last-minute Election Campaigning. He remembered her mentioning it being one final hurrah to earn brownie points and potential votes with the community before Election Day the following Tuesday. "I promised I'd help Sarah man their station while her Mom and Dad make the rounds."
Jon gave his brother an amused smirk. "Sounds… exciting."
Jordan rolled his eyes with a sigh at the sarcasm. He was right, it definitely wasn't how he'd hoped they'd be spending the weekend, but he was just grateful he'd be able to see Sarah. "I'm just being—"
"Supportive, yeah, yeah. I know." Jon replied with a laugh.
"Yo, Kents!" they heard called down the hall. They both turned just as Sean made his way towards them with other guys from the football team in tow. They greeted each other with high fives and smiles. Sometimes it was a relief that despite either of them not being on the football team anymore, they were still on good terms with the team.
"You guys coming to my party this weekend?"
Jordan and Jonathan shared a look with a grin. Jon's face clearly said, "See, I told ya!"
"Yeah man, we'll be there," Jonathan chimed in.
Sean looked to Jordan expectantly. Jordan shrugged, "I have to check if Sarah can go later on, but yeah sounds fun."
Sean rolled his eyes, but he still wore a good-natured smile. "Sure, man. Gotta check in with your girl." He gave Jordan a playful nudge.
"Oh, almost forgot, don't forget to wear a costume!" he said as he turned to leave.
Jonathan looked surprised and gave a little laugh, "Wait, you serious?"
Sean shrugged. "It's Denise's idea. She wanted to do a costume party." He gave the guys a knowing look. The two had just started dating. He was clearly trying to do his best to make his new girlfriend happy. "So, yeah. Don't be lame, find a costume or wear a hat or something. I don't really care."
The guys walked off and Jordan turned to his brother. "Do you have a costume?"
"No, do you?"
"Nope."
The boys made the short walk into town after school. During their final period they realized they really had nothing to pull together a costume at home—not unless they wanted to dress like a Kansas Farmer or a Metropolis Reporter.
It wasn't until they're standing in front of the store front that Jordan voiced his dubious thoughts on the place. It was one of those seasonal stores that often move into vacant stores for the Holiday season and pack up days after Halloween.
"I'm half convinced these places are run by aliens," Jordan murmured as they walk through the front door.
Jonathan laughed, "What?"
"Think about it," Jordan pointed out. "You ever notice how you never see them moving in to these places. They just appear. I'm telling you, aliens." Jonathan snorted out a laugh and shook his head as he led the way down the aisles.
"Mom says we've got 30 minutes if we want to catch a ride home with her. Let's make this quick," Jonathan said while looking back on his text messages. He turned to Jordan. "Why don't we split up. You look down that side, I'll look over here, meet in the middle with what we find. Just remember, nothing too dorky or cheesy." Jordan rolled his eyes but nodded his head.
He made his way down the aisles. Most of the costumes he saw definitely fit in the "too dorky and cheesy" category. He had to laugh at some of the costumes though –they were certainly… creative. Like the Beetlejuice costumes, or the inflatable suit that looked like a giant green alien was carrying away the person—but knew those weren't Jon's style. He picked up the Baseball Jersey he spotted, thinking it had potential, and it was certainly more in their price range than most of the other costumes.
Jordan turned the corner to check down the other aisles but stopped in his tracks at the sight before him. There on the end cap was an array of iconic blue and red. Costumes in adult and children's sizes, t-shirts, accessories, and other memorabilia that all had an all too familiar symbol printed on each item.
It isn't that he wasn't aware of his father's cultural impact, it was just that this is the first time he was seeing it so boldly on display after realizing how closely related he was to it all.
His parents hadn't discouraged liking Superman when they were kids, but now that he thought back on it, he did remember them carefully steering him and his brother away from the Superman section in the toy stores. While their parents might have kept it a secret for most of their lives, they certainly weren't comfortable flaunting it in front of them.
Jordan was still caught up in his swirling, conflicted thoughts about it all when he heard his brother approach.
"There you are. We gotta get moving." He stopped to look at what caught his brother's attention and also came to a stop. "Oh." Jordan saw an unreadable look cross his brother's face for a moment before he huffed out a breath. "Well, that's weird."
Jonathan's look of discomfort was quickly replaced with an amused smirk as he looked over the display. "Well, I'm not wearing that," Jon said pointing at the display. "Don't even think about suggesting it."
Jordan snorted out a laugh.
It was clearly a cheap generic knock off version of their father's suit. The man on the front cover, looked laughable in the cheap polyester costume, complete with padding in the arms, chest and torso to give the illusion of the impressive muscles that filled out the real suit. Quite frankly it looked ridiculous, especially after having seen the real one up close.
Jordan's eyes traveled over the red and yellow glyph on the chest of the costume and t-shirts and seeing it screen printed on every kind of merchandise and memorabilia under the sun, made something churn uncomfortably in his gut at the sight.
On some of the many trips he'd taken to the fortress with his dad, a few of those trips he'd learned a little bit about the history of Krypton—and in turn, his apparent heritage. He knew what the true meaning of that symbol was now. To the world, it meant "Superman", but to him it meant hope—it meant family.
While Jordan still didn't know what his place would be in all of this someday. He couldn't bring himself to think of it just yet, not while his powers were still emerging in sporadic bursts. This certainly gave him a glimpse at the possibilities—one he hadn't considered.
He knew that one day, if he chose to do so, he could use his powers for good, to help people.
But he never thought about this side of it, about the entire world knowing your name, knowing your face, and seeing you as a beacon of light and security. But also, about becoming a pop culture icon as much as a savior to the world.
His old anxieties seemed to rebel at that thought, the ones that used to tell him he wasn't good enough, the ones that told him to hide away from the world. And if he was being honest with himself, he wasn't sure he was ready to face that reality either.
Thankfully, a nudge from his brother knocked him out of his rapidly spiraling thoughts. Jonathan pointed to the hanger Jordan forgot he had clutched in his hand. "What'd you find?"
Jordan held up the baseball jersey with an uncertain face. Jon grinned at him. "That'll work. Looks like you saved the day, Superboy!" he said with a punch to Jordan's shoulder.
"Shut up," he shot back with a groan, tossing the shirt in his brother's face. "Let's get out of here, before Mom comes looking for us."
12 years later
"Dude. How many?"
Jordan laughed wearily at the text he saw flash across his phone screen from his brother as he stepped out of Callum's bedroom. He had just finished reading his fourth bedtime story for the night when his little boy finally knocked out, the excitement of the trick or treating, the candy, and the day of fun finally catching up to him.
"You first," he texted back in reply. Not 30 seconds later, his phone started buzzing with an incoming video call.
Jordan quickly stepped down the hall away from his son's door, so the noise didn't disturb him. He answered as he padded down the stairs towards the living room.
"Man, I went first last year. No cheating," Jonathan said by way of greeting, his Lane competitive streak making him forgo all pleasantries.
Sarah stepped into the living room, two glasses of wine in hand, shooting Jordan a questioning look when she saw the exasperated look he gave his phone. "Jon," mouthed to her from across the room with a roll of his eyes that said it all. She snorted a laugh and handed him his glass of wine.
"Hey Jon," she said, popping her head into view of the camera. "Happy Halloween!"
"Oh, hey Sarah!" Jon called back with a grin. "Will you please tell my brother that it's his turn to share? He'll totally cheat and inflate his numbers if I go first."
"Oh no, I've learned my lesson. I'm staying out of this. Last year, you guys argued about who the winner was for a week. This is between the two of you, weirdos." She gave Jordan a peck on the cheek before leaving the boys to talk.
Jon just gave Jordan an irritated look through the phone before the call suddenly cut out with a beep. Not five seconds later, there was a quiet knock at the back door. Jordan sighed and rolled his eyes at his brother's antics.
"Shh!" he whisper-yelled from the living room, not bothering to get up, knowing full well that Jon would hear him. "I finally got Cal to go down. Get in here and be quiet." He heard the door quietly click open and shut, followed by the sound of the fridge door opening and closing.
Jonathan strode in, clearly having helped himself to a beer, before having a seat across from his brother with a grin. "Please, he'd love to see his favorite Uncle pop in for a visit."
"Well, then his favorite Uncle can deal with the tantrums tomorrow because he didn't get any sleep tonight," Jordan shot back with a look. The terrible twos were starting up and well—it was safe to say that karma was getting him in a big way.
"Come on, man. Stop stalling," Jon said finally. "It's time to admit defeat," he said with a smug grin. He knew what the results would be, he just wanted to hear it.
Jordan huffed out a laugh, relenting. "Okay, fine. 23," he replied. "And you?"
"44," Jon replied, the arrogance rolling off him.
"No way!" Jordan said with disbelief. "Do you even have 44 trick or treaters in your neighborhood?
"I swear!" Jon said with a laugh. "Sorry, man. It just looks like your reign as the fan favorite is over."
"Uh, pretty sure that title still goes to Dad, but nice try," Jordan said with an affronted huff. But he relented.
There were certainly a lot more costumes of The Blur than there were of Superboy this year. But it was no surprise. Jordan had been spending a lot more time on the sidelines, at home as of late, taking care of Callum, enjoying the time with his son while he could. In turn, his brother and father had been doing some heroic overtime.
It also didn't help his case that his brother had made some pretty high profile saves lately, stopping an alien attack in Metropolis and saving the President from an attempted assassination all within a few weeks of one another. There had been quite a few glowing articles about The Blur after that—one or two from their own mother.
(Jordan had tried to tell his mom that her motherly bias bled through between the lines of one particular article. Lois vehemently denied it, but there was a certain glint in her eyes that made him think otherwise.)
They both had made quite the names for themselves in the last few years. And with that came the fame and glory from the public. And all the ways companies tried to capitalize on their new-found notoriety.
Namely: the Halloween Costumes.
Jordan got up from the couch and pulled the small trophy from the shelf. It was a little plastic jack-o-latern, painted in gold mounted to a black stand. On the stand was an engraved plaque. Inscribed on the metal plate, it said, "Best Costume". He handed it over to his brother with a dramatic sigh, purely for show, before returning to the couch and flopping down heavily. Jon laughed as he propped the little trophy on his knee.
"And don't forget, drinks are on you next time we go out," Jon pointed out.
"I know, I know," Jordan answered. He glanced back up the stairs, listening to the quiet snuffles of his son while he slept. "Not sure when that'll be, but I promise to hold up my end of the deal."
"Good," Jon said with a pleased nod.
It had started as a joke really, a silly bit of sibling rivalry.
It had began when Jordan had saved a party from disaster one Halloween night. A fire broke out at the venue, something about the electrical shorting out from being over loaded with strobe lights, fog machines, and amplifiers for the band. He had managed to help everyone get out of the building safely and put out the fire.
Jordan had returned to the crowd of party goers to check on those that were injured when he came across the host of the party. The man was in shock and confused, smoke and soot were smudged across the mans shell-shocked face after the insane events.
In the man's confusion, he hadn't noticed that Jordan was not in fact a guest of the party, but the real deal. Regardless the frazzled guy had distractedly handed him the little trophy for best costume, muttering about his commitment to the holiday, before wandering off in search of his friends, before he could return the trophy and correct him.
His family didn't let him live it down for weeks.
The following year Jonathan challenged him to a little competition.
The two had been helping out their dad out around the farm, gearing up for the annual Harvest Fest, when somehow the trio had gotten onto the topic of Halloween.
"It's still so weird," Jon had said, voicing his thoughts with an uncomfortable grimace.
And Jordan had to agree. The two had been out in the public eye officially for about three years and it was both surreal yet humbling to see children sporting miniature versions of his own suit.
"I know what you mean," Clark chimed in. "It's still strange for me, even after all these years." He shrugged and added, "But think of it as a compliment. You're doing something right if the public likes you enough to dress up as you." Clarks face softened as he looked to his sons, all grown up into mature young men. "You've both done an incredible job these last few years and you've worked so hard. It's no wonder they love you both," he said eyes shining with pride.
Jon gave his brother a look, the one that usually said, "Oh no. Dad's being sappy again. Make it stop."
"That's a lot of compliments then," Jordan said uncomfortably. "I swear there were like 20 trick or treaters on our block dressed as Superboy last year." He remembered, because Sarah gave him a pointed nudge and an amused grin nearly every time. He had idly worried that she'd bruise.
"Bet I get more 'compliments' than that this year!" Jonathan ribbed, lobbing a corn cob at Jordan's head, which he deflected easily.
Jordan scoffed, "I don't know man, I've been around a bit longer than you have. I've got a dedicated fanbase." That was a bit of a stretch given he'd only been public for about a year longer than his brother but, semantics.
"You willing to bet on that?" Jonathan retorted, with a mischievous glint in his eyes.
At that, their father left them behind to tend to the other chores, shaking his head in amusement and exasperation, while the pair set the parameters of their bet.
After that, it became a yearly tradition to tally their doppelgängers spotted on Halloween night.
So far, Jordan had been the reigning champ with 3 consecutive wins in a row, but that year, it looked like his title had finally been passed on to his brother.
He looked at the little trophy, perched on his brothers' knee with amusement, glad that he and Jon could find some joy and humor in the absolute absurdity that was their lives.
He thought back to that fateful day years ago, standing in an overpriced Halloween shop, staring at chintzy versions of his father's super suit. Back then, he hadn't been ready to face that reality yet. He was still a kid, learning about who he was, he hadn't yet decided where his place was in all of this or who he could become.
Sure, there had been some growing pains along the way, for both of them, and in very different ways. But he was proud of the person he had become, and he had a feeling Jon was too.
More so, he was proud of the family he was able to share this crazy life with.