September 2005

Kara was excited. High school. Finally. She was going to meet new people and experience a lot of new fun things. Well, that was what TV shows always said anyway. High school was supposed to be the highlight of a human's life. Or the worst. Some stay traumatized for life. There's apparently no in between but Kara hoped she will be part of the first category than the latter.

Kara liked her time in Smallville Junior High but her sister was there too, scaring every single person that looked at Kara the wrong way. Kara loved her sister but her over protectiveness could make difficult for the Kryptonian to make friends. Now that Alex and Clark were off in college studies in Metropolis, journalism for her cousin and biology for her sister, she was free. It would be more easy to blend in and experience a full human life now that she didn't have at her sides the two people that reminded her the most that she was different.

Kara was eager to start this first day at school but the same couldn't be said for her locker though. The damn thing wouldn't open. She could easily force the lock but Eliza warned her profusely about revealing her true nature. A tiny 14 years old blond girl, breaking a locker single-handedly in a crowed alley ? Not discreet at all.

-"Trouble with your lock ?"

Kara turned toward the voice and found herself in front of a brunette with striking green eyes.

-"Hum, yes" Kara said. "It seems to be stuck" she added, smiling awkwardly at the girl.

-"You just have to push lightly the lock up-left before turning it" the girl instructed.

Kara did as she was told, while being very careful about the amount of force she was going to put in the process. The locker opened.

-"I can't believe it !" Kara exclaimed. "I've spent the last 10 minutes trying to open it" she added, the look of complete astonishment making the girl next to her laugh.

-"It's common in old iron furniture like those lockers that the insert piece starts to..." the brunette interrupted herself with an awkward smile. "And I'm boring you with my explanation" she continued laughing nervously.

-"What ? No !" Kara replied hastily. She didn't notice that she stopped talking nor looking at the lock. She was so fascinated by the spark she noticed in the girls eyes when she started explaining about the mechanism of the locker that she apparently gave the impression that the wasn't interested. Quite the opposite actually.

-"Well, now you know the trick" the girl said, smiling to Kara.

-"Yes, thank you..." Kara started to say before she remembered that she didn't know the girl's name.

-"Oh yes, sorry ! The brunette apologized. "I'm Lena".

-"Kara".

-"I'm home !" Kara shouted. After almost one year of living in the Danvers' house, Kara still felt weird for saying that. She wondered if one day the sight of this house will replace the view of her room on Krypton when she thought of the word "home".

-"Hey honey !" came the response of Eliza somewhere upstairs. By the time she reached the kitchen, Kara was already emptying the fridge and some food closet.

-"I think I will never get used to the incredible amount of food your metabolism needs on this planet" Eliza said while making a quick mental reminder to buy more snacks next time she went to the grocery store.

-"Smorfy ?" Kara replied with her mouth full of what looked like a homemade ham sandwich. Her adoptive mother couldn't help but laugh at that.

-"How was your first day ?" Eliza asked, picking in Kara's open bag of chips. Having a kryptonian in your house was definitely not a good thing if you wanted to keep in shape apparently.

-"It was OK. Not that much different from middle school" Kara answered, opening another closet in search of a new food treasure.

-"Met some interesting people ?" Eliza continued, looking at the bag of chips and trying not to take some more.

"Not really". Kara stopped eating to think. "There was this boy who laughed so much at launch break, water came out through his nose. That was funny" she added, smiling at the memory. "Oh, and there was this girl too" Kara remembered suddenly. "She helped me with my locker" she finished.

"That's nice of her" Eliza said, finally giving in and picking another chip from the bag. "What's her name ?"

"Lena" Kara replied, taking another monstrous bite from her sandwich. Eliza stopped chewing abruptly, her brow furrowing.

-"As in Lena Luthor ?" she finally asked her daughter.

-"I don't know" Kara answered. "She didn't say. We only met briefly this morning" she added. "Why ?"

- "Oh nothing" Eliza said. "It's just funny to think that the only person you run into on your first day of school is the little sister of Clark's best friend. What a small world !" she continued, smiling. "Well, if it's indeed her" she added.

-"Really ?" Kara asked surprised. "I didn't know Lex has a sister".

-"I think it's because her parents don't really talk about her, knowing that it's Lex who will inherit of the Luthor's big company". Eliza suddenly became very serious and looked her daughter dead in the eyes. Kara knew that look too well. It meant that she did something bad. But this time she had to admit she couldn't see what it was.

-"Kara" Eliza said, articulating her name too much for it to be a simple question. No, this was going to be more like an interrogation Kara thought.

-"You didn't tell her about Clark, did you ?" And there it was, the interrogation. Kara sighed. "If she is indeed Lex's sister and finds out that you know Clark too, she will ask questions" Eliza continued very seriously, looking at her daughter harshly.

-"Of course not" Kara said, cutting Eliza off her warning rant. "Like I said, we only chatted briefly in front of my locker this morning". With the glare her adoptive mother was giving her right now, she clearly had to say something else to ease her. She sighed. "And I know that I must not talk to our connection to anyone for his safety and mine. Some scientist my get a clue about our origin, bla, bla bla" she finished exasperated. Sometimes her human mother could be a little paranoid.

-"It's serious Kara" Eliza chastised. "Not all humans are understanding like me or your sister" she added softly, touching Kara's shoulder lightly.

-"Yeah, I know" Kara replied. "Don't worry, I didn't say a word about Clark and I won't" she reassured. Then, she grabbed the rest of her sandwich and flew to her room (not literally even if she could) after a quick peck on her mother's cheek. Kara knew that this gesture put Eliza's mind at ease, that's why she did it. What troubled Kara is that she did it a lot lately. It seemed like the death of her adoptive father, a few month ago, increased Eliza's worries even if a plane crash is unlikely to be the direct consequence of her and Clark's alien origins. Or so Kara thought anyway.