The afternoon was both bright and peaceful. Lara carefully placed small plates of cakes down the kitchen table- one for each person in the household. She made sure that Clark's piece of strawberry cake was bigger than the rest since he was the one who loved cake the most. After a sigh of satisfaction that she had finished preparing the table, she looked up to see that Martha was still preparing their afternoon cup of tea and coffee; there was also, of course, a jug of orange juice for the 10 year old Clark.

After they had set everything up for their afternoon snack, all they had to do was wait for Jonathan and Jor-El who picked up Clark from his school.

Lara's smile sprawled across her face when she saw her son came home; but it soon slowly faded when she saw the sad and slightly angry look on his face. She walked towards him and kneeled in front of him.

"Clark? What's wrong my son?"

Clark didn't answer; instead, he pouted and ran up the stairs. Everyone watched as he disappeared from the kitchen and into his room.

"What happened?" Lara asked her husband.

Both Jor-El and Jonathan had sympathetic look on their faces when Jor-El replied, "There was trouble in his school."

"Trouble?" Martha asked.

"He got into a fight." Jonathan explained.


Clark jumped on his bed and buried his face on his pillow. He was still mad at what had happened earlier that he couldn't find it in himself to explain to his parents. So many thoughts rummaged through his head; and for a ten year old boy, it was too much for him. And so, he decided to take a fresh air.

He jumped out of his bed and ran towards his bedroom window and opened it. Slowly, he exited through the window, on the roof below and climbed down the drain pipe. And with that, he ran towards the direction of the woods.


Lara sighed as she climbed up the stairs. She understood her son very much and she wanted nothing more than to help him ease his situation. But since their situation was too dire for their whole family, all they could do was be patient; even if it meant Clark had to as well.

She stood in front of Clark's room and took a deep breath. She didn't know what to tell her son to comfort him. She knocked on his door and called him, "Kal-El?"

There was no answer.

She knocked again and called him, "Kal-El, my son?"

There was still no answer. So, she turned the doorknob and slowly opened the door. She gave out an exasperated sigh when she saw that there was nobody in the room and that the window was opened.

That child…He climbed out the window again…


Clark ran across the woods; the warm breeze of the afternoon brushed across his cheeks and the trees that towered over him looked down on him; he ignored them. He continued running until finally, he was out of breath. He had been running for a whole hour at full speed, without a stop. And for a little boy of his age to have done that, was impossible. But Clark knew that he was unlike any other boy he encountered or seen… he was an alien, after all.

He leaned on the tree next to him as he tried to catch his breath. He looked around him. The branches in the trees swayed to the sound of the wind; the birds chirped their songs and the rays of the sun peeked through the trees. It was a moment Clark had always looked forward to whenever he was troubled… a peaceful moment… peacef-

"Oow!"

Clark rubbed the top of his head when he felt a sudden hit. It was a sudden hit but it wasn't painful- it was surprising. He looked down and saw an apple rolled down on the ground. He saw that the apple was already bitten just recently.

He looked up and was taken aback at what he saw. A girl with dark raven hair stood on a tree branch; she looked down on him with furrowed eyebrows but Clark saw there was curiosity in her blue eyes. She looked about the same age as Clark and he thought that if she was about the same age as him, then she was quite tall for her height- she even might've been taller than him. The girl stood on a thick tree branch as she held onto one on top of her with her hand. Everything about her caught Clark's attention especially her clothing. Her clothing was different: it was simple white linen clothing- a one piece- where the upper part of her clothes was two sides that crossed over one another and lower part was a skirt. She also wore white sandals that matched her clothes. Clark thought it was weird at first because the types of clothing he was used to seeing were more complicated than what the girl wore. For a moment, Clark found himself taken aback by the girl's appearance until suddenly-

"Can you stop staring at me?" the girl began.

Clark blinked his eyes and took a step back. He looked down for a second then back up again to the girl. He found himself stammering, "I-I wa-wasn't staring!"

"Yes you were." The girl replied calmly.

"I wasn't!"

"Stop lying." the girl raised an eyebrow at him, "I clearly saw you staring at me."

Clark couldn't believe just how composed the girl was when arguing with him. Normally, whenever he saw an argument, the two people arguing usually had a competition on who could shout the loudest or who could throw hurtful remarks at each other. But the girl in front of him answered him with composure; and it made Clark felt defeated.

"Well then what are you doing here?" Clark asked, "Anyone will look up if they saw a girl on a tree."

"I climbed it. And I climbed it because I wanted to climb it." The girl sat down on the branch she was standing on.

"But what were you doing?"

"I was going to eat my apple but," she pointed at the apple on Clark's hand, "I dropped it."

"Does this mean I owe you one?" Clark asked.

"Owe you one?"

"Yeah," Clark nodded, "I need to give you an apple because I made you drop yours."

"I'm not blaming it on you." She said.

"Still…" Clark pouted as he stared at the apple, "it's my fault… I'm sorry…"

Suddenly, Clark heard a slight giggle from up the tree. His head shot up to the direction of the girl; he furrowed his eyebrows at the sight. She was laughing.

"What's so funny?" Clark asked.

The girl continued to giggle. Even though Clark felt uncomfortable with the unknown reason as to why she was laughing, he found her really cute.

"I said what's so funny?" Clark demanded.

The girl put her hand down from her mouth and looked down at him and said, "Because it's not your fault."

"I'm trying to be nice… why are you being like this?" Clark pouted and looked away.

"Because you're so easy to wind up." The girl laughed.

Clark pouted.

"What are you doing?" the girl asked.

"I'm climbing." Clark grunted.

One by one, Clark looked for protruding woods and holes on the trunk of the tree- something he was able to hold onto. But the trunk of the tree had such a linear shape he found it hard to climb; and so he was forced to rely on his own strength to climb the tree. This made him wonder though, "How was she able to climb this tree?"

Finally, with great effort, Clark managed to reach the branch where the girl was sitting on. Carefully, he treaded on all fours and reached the girl; he sat next to her. He sighed with relief as soon as he found himself comfortable. He looked at her; he was startled. The girl was even prettier than he thought. Her oceanic blue eyes were so soft to stare at and her facial features were a different kind of beauty than he had ever seen before- they were both gentle and strong.

Suddenly, she leaned close to his face; Clark froze.

"Hmmm…" she was inspecting his face.

"Is there something wrong?" Clark asked.

She didn't reply. Instead, she gave a slight nod to herself. It was as if she had just confirmed something by looking at his face.

"Stop it." Clark blushed, "is this the first time you've ever seen a boy?"

"Yes."

"Huh?"

"I meant up close."

"Oh…" Clark scratched his head, "wait what? How about your father?"

The girl looked down; she was in silence at first, and then she told him, "I have never seen my father before."

"Why?"

"I don't know either," she shook her head; "my mother told me she would explain everything to me once I was in the right age. But I have my mother, Philippus and Mala with me; and they're my family. My mother is both a mother and a father to me as well." She then turned and looked at Clark, "what about you? Are you with both your parents?"

Clark felt bad when he thought of replying that he had two fathers and two mothers; when the girl in front of him hadn't even met her father before. Still, he didn't want to ignore her question or lie to her.

He nodded, "I have my Dad Jorge and Pa Jonathan; and Mom Lara and Ma Martha."

"You have a big family." The girl said.

"You don't find it weird?" Clark furrowed his eyebrows.

"What is?"

"The fact that I have two fathers and mothers."

"Why would I?" she was confused, "they're your family."

Clark thought for a second; then began, "This afternoon, I had a fight with one of my classmates," he explained, "he thought it was weird that I call another couple my parents along with my real one."

"…."

"I didn't really care what they thought about that fact with my family," Clark tightened his fist, "but they started insulting my parents."

"I don't think you did anything wrong. They deserved it."

"But both my Pa and Ma told me that it's never good to fight."

"My mother and Philippus teaches me to fight," she said, "they said, someday I will have to fight for my family… I don't really know what they mean by that. So I suppose you're only doing it to protect your family."

"Maybe you're the same as me?" Clark suggested, "Maybe the bullies will try to make fun of your family as well like they did with me?"

"I don't think that's what they mean…. Besides, I've never met anyone outside my home… apart from you… what is a 'bully'?"

"Do you not go to school?!" Clark shouted in surprise.

"What's 'school'?" she asked with curiosity.

"It's where you learn things," Clark explained, "teachers look after us and teaches us new things."

"Such as?"

"To read, to write… and to count numbers. Today, we learned about the human body."

"But my mother and Philippus teaches me all of those already," she said, "I don't think I need to go 'school'."

"But you go to school as well to meet friends."

"I have a friend, her name is Mala."

"But that's different; if you go to school, you'll meet new people and you'll have lots of friends!"

"I don't understand… what's so important about having a lot of 'friends'?"

"Friends are there for you whenever you're in trouble." Clark explained, "You play with them and you talk to them. So the more friends you have, the more you can have fun with them."

"Do you have a lot of friends?"

Clark scratched his head and blushed, "I'm still trying to have one…"

The girl suddenly laughed. Clark had never felt so embarrassed than when the girl was laughing.

"It's not funny!" Clark raised his voice, "I mean… it's harder than it looks!"

The girl continued laughing.

"What about you? You don't have a lot of friends either! You don't even go to school!"

And then it hit Clark… If she didn't go to school, where exactly did she live?

"But… where exactly do you live?" Clark wondered.

She calmed down from her laugh then pointed at the east direction of the woods- deep into the forest.

"You live in the forest?" Clark raised his eyebrows.

"What's wrong with that?"

"W-Well…"

Suddenly, she shot her head up and looked towards the direction she just pointed. Clark watched as she stared at the direction; it looked like she heard something Clark didn't. It wasn't soon after; she looked at Clark and told him, "I have to go."

"Wait!" Clark stopped her, "I don't even know your name! I'm Clark by the way," he extended his hand to her, "Clark Kent. I live just by the cornfield outside of these woods." He pointed to the direction of his house.

The girl stared at his hand for a while; and with slight hesitation, she took it and shook it. Without another word, she suddenly jumped from the branch of the tree and onto the ground below. Clark's mouth opened in surprise. He watched her land on the ground with ease.

"Will you be here tomorrow?" Clark shouted to her.

The girl stood with her back on him for a couple of seconds. Soon, she turned around and looked up to him; and with a smile she told him, "My name is Diana. And yes... I'll see you tomorrow. "

Clark grinned when she finally answered him. With glee, he waved his hand to her and she did the same as she ran deep into the woods.

For some reason, his meeting with Diana made him forget his small problem, even for a little while. He felt comfortable with her despite not knowing a lot about her; she ran towards the direction Clark had never explored before and so he was lost.

Still, deep inside him, he knew that it wasn't their last meeting; that that meeting would become the first of their many meetings. At least he hoped…


Hey! It's Clark and Diana's first meeting! Woo!

Hoped you enjoyed the chapter! Reviews are very much appreciated!

:D