Fifteen year-old Lacey Lonsen was tired. She was not used to being up this early in the morning, and she was going to have to walk to the other side of the Excelsior Prep campus to get from her dorm room to her first class. It was the first day after summer break, and she was not looking forward to resuming school.
This year she was going to take Mythology first period. It was said that Professor Froughtenham, who taught the classes, was one of the best teachers at Excelsior. That was saying something, as Excelsior was one of the best schools in the country.
She reached the red brick building with time to spare. So she sat down and pulled out the book that she was currently reading—Romeo and Juliet.
Lacey was so lost in the mishaps of the star-crossed lovers that she did not hear the bell ring. She did not hear the students file into the classroom, and she did not hear the door slam as Professor Froughtenham entered.
Her trance was finally broken when she felt a finger tap her shoulder, and a voice whisper that she might ought to put the book away. When she turned around to see the face of the person who had snapped her back to reality, she was surprised to see that it was Lex Luthor.
She'd never spoken to the boy, never had any classes with him, but she knew him well. Everyone knew him well.
Lacey whispered a gentle thanks, smiled, and turned back around. Professor Froughtenham instructed his pupils to gather their belongings because he was going to assign seats.
As the teens with last names at the beginning of the alphabet began filling up the first row, Lacey thought through the surnames in the class to figure out the pupil by whom she would be sitting. Lex would be to her left, she realized, and she was surprised to discover that she was quite happy about that.
Her name was called, and she took her seat in the third row. Lex followed suit, and she smiled inwardly. Then she quickly reprimanded herself. She couldn't…she couldn't be liking him. No, no, she just thought he was a nice guy. She was happy that she was sitting beside him because he was a nice guy.
Professor Froughtenham handed out the classroom rules sheet, which Lacey snapped into her binder, and he started the beginning of the course spiel.
"Good morning. This is Mythology and I am Professor Froughtenham. I'm not going to go over the sheet in front of you because I assume that you can all read. In this class, we're just going to scratch the surface of mythology. I'd like to teach you more, but we only have a semester. That's why I'm going to jump right in, and tell you the story of Chaos…"
Lacey fell into a state of half-consciousness as Prof. Froughtenham droned on. Oh to be asleep and still in bed, it would be the greatest treasure in the world. She looked around the room. Three kids were nearly asleep, and two were full-on out of it. Lex, however, was listening intently as the Professor told them how Cronus ate his children.
It was a very morbid story.
The class eventually ended, and Lacey headed out the door. Three more classes dragged by, and it was time for lunch. She filled her tray and looked for a table. Three friends were sitting to her right. She began walking towards them, but as her eyes traveled around the room, she noticed that Lex was sitting all alone.
She thought about sitting with him until one of her friends waved to her, and she was obligated to join that table. As her friends chattered about classes and homework, Lacey kept glancing over at Lex sitting all alone and decided that it was one of the saddest things she had ever seen.
Lex attended one more of Lacey's classes that day, Ancient History taught by Prof. Carmore. Again they were seated in alphabetical order. Prof. Carmore passed out two pages of rules and procedures, and explained every single detail. The bell rung while she was talking to them about the importance of neat assignments.
They were dismissed and, as it was her last class, Lacey headed back to her dorm. She realized that she had forgotten a notebook, so she turned around ran into Lex, literally.
"Oh sorry", he smiled apologetically.
"No, no", Lacey shook her head, "It was my fault." There was a pause. "I'm Lacey, by the way, Lacey Lonsen."
"Lex", the corners of his mouth went up, "Lex Luthor."
"Well, its nice meeting you, Lex", she grinned, "But I, um, left a notebook in class, and I've got to go get it."
"Well I won't keep you."