Part One

Lana Lang

Chapter 1

Smallville – August 2010

There is a point in human development that most children begin a transformation from child to adult. That point began around 11 years-old for Clark Kent and by 13 years-old, he had lost most of his childish features and had begun transforming into the man that he would someday become. Martha and Jonathan Kent saw it clearly. The cute cherubic features Clark had when they found him had begun to melt away and the strong jawline, the well-defined brow, and the proud cheek bones that helped frame his bright blue eyes were replacing his chubby cheeks. As with other children, it was more than just his visage. It was the way Clark had begun to stand, walk, speak, and carry himself. The typical atypical child the Kents raised was experiencing a metamorphosis, that child was being replaced by a typical teenager who was beginning to realize the gravity of his atypical existence.

Life was slow in Smallville and slower yet outside of the small town. The passage of time that was identical to everywhere else in the world felt slower on the Kent homestead. Days, bad or good, were always full and seemed to pass at three-quarter speed, giving Clark near nonstop exposure to his parents. Always well-intentioned, they made time to carefully mold their atypical child through gentle lectures about strong values and morals; about character-building qualities such as responsibility, self-discipline, humility, and sacrifice; about how society appreciates courtesy and good manners, how respect for others earns respect for oneself, and the intrinsic value of life, freedom, honesty, justice, and good citizenship. But most notably, they immersed him in their greatest fear, and that left an indelible mark on him.

Jonathan and Martha Kent were 'salt of the Earth' people who lived the values they preached. Their greatest fear was that Clark would be discovered and taken away before they could have the full experience of raising a child. And once their child began exhibiting special abilities, it made them even more paranoid of their son's special heritage being exposed. They knew young Clark was the greatest liability to his own future and their dream of raising a child to adulthood.

So, in the snail's paced existence of life on the Kent farm, Clark was steadily reminded of the dangers that others posed to him. Ingrained in him through non-stop reinforcement was that he was different. And while he was never taught that his differences were a bad thing, it became part of his psyche and that he must conceal them or face an incredible risk. The Kents took every opportunity to warn him that his special abilities made him a target of those who would seek to exploit him. From the earliest age, Clark knew that revealing his powers would soon end with him being taken away and that would be the end of his chance to live a normal life or possibly even seeing his home again. The thought of that petrified him so he did what he was told, he hid his special abilities when he was around others.

Keeping them hidden was a challenge, particularly once he started school. Clark wanted to have friends and be like every other child growing up, but he was not like every other child and hiding that from other children and their parents would be impossible. At this point in his life, Clark knew he was different but did not know why he was different. Jonathan and Martha had decided it was best that Clark not be told of his true heritage until he was old enough to comprehend the magnitude of that secret.

So, the Kents kept Clark busy with chores as a way of keeping him isolated from other children his age. He was rarely seen in town and always in the presence of his parents. There was only one child who lived near the Kents, and they let Clark play with him but always under the careful watch of Martha or Jonathan. That child was Pete Ross, their next-door neighbor.

He played with Pete during the nice days after school and on weekends and had been doing so since he was about four years old. During the summer, the two were practically connected to one another at the hip and it could be hard for Clark to remain attentive to hiding his abilities all the time. There were moments over the years when he would do something a bit extraordinary, and Pete would look at him quizzically or say something. However, Clark's powers were not well-developed yet and either Martha or Jonathan was always there to explain or redirect when Pete mentioned something. And being a young kid himself, Pete accepted the explanation and dismissed or forgot the curious happenings.

But once he started elementary school, Clark was invited to classmates' parties or play dates arranged by other parents. Invitations by phone or mail began arriving and Martha found reasons Clark could not attend and declined the invitations. Those declinations occurred so often in the first couple years of elementary school that by the time he was beginning to develop truly noticeable powers, the phone quit ringing and invitations had quit arriving in the Kent mailbox.

Sequestering Clark Kent as a child in that way achieved two results: it kept his emerging extraordinary powers and special existence hidden from public knowledge, and it resulted in Clark Kent being characterized by others as a mysterious boy who was considered strange or weird and labeled a loner by those who were aware of his existence. In a little rural farming community like Smallville, people who were strange, weird, or loners were different and cast a sinister shadow over the safety of others. Over time, suspicions became opinions and opinions became facts.

By the time Clark reached thirteen, he finally fully comprehended what his parents had been telling him all those years when on his birthday, Jonathan showed him the ship that brought Clark to Smallville, and his parents explained how he ended up as their son.

Suddenly, it all made sense to Clark why they so desperately reinforced the need to keep his abilities hidden. He understood that if he was to ever lead a normal life, he had to conceal his abilities from others. The more Clark examined his past, the more he understood their restrictions, and it brought him a new appreciation for the lengths that his parents had gone to and sacrifices that they had made to protect him from exposure. And he knew in all certainty that the moment he revealed his special abilities to the outside world was the moment that he would lose his ability to ever lead a normal life again.

Clark wanted to be like other kids at school and he longed to have friends beyond just Pete Ross. That was how he defined a normal life but by the time school had ended and was advancing to 7th grade, he had been branded as different and deserving of others' wariness. He did not know how to change those perceptions that had been created through years of necessary secrecy and obfuscation. Heading into his teen years, those perceptions caused others to shun him or rebuff his efforts at making friends.

His parents empathized with Clark's dilemma. It broke their hearts to see their beautiful son so desperate for friends and a normal life. But they rationalized their decision to cloister Clark as the greater good for their son. They knew if he could just reach adolescence without exposing his unique abilities, he would then be old enough to understand and accept why he must control himself and keep his extraordinary existence under cover. The time would come, they knew, when Clark could safely engage with others and if lucky, have relationships and develop friendships like other young adults do. They realized that that time was almost upon them.

Shortly after Clark's thirteenth birthday, the Kents had a new neighbor: Henry Lang and his family. Henry had purchased the farm from its previous owner, Hiram Wells, who had left Smallville years before, intending to return, but who ultimately died in a car accident. His heirs were not interested in farming and eventually sold it to the Langs. Henry Lang had owned a much smaller farm about 175 miles east of Smallville and had always wanted more acreage. The farm next to the Kents offered just that and after a short negotiation period and the sale of his own farm, the Langs moved to their new home in Smallville. The family consisted of Henry, his wife, Nell, and their daughter, Lana.

To ensure a crop, the new fields had to be planted early in the growing season, Henry and Nell moved into their home two months before the end of the school year and Lana remained with her aunt until she finished out her current year. In the intervening months between moving to the farm and Lana joining them, the Langs had met their polite neighbors next door and built a congenial relationship with them. While readying for Lana's move to their new farm, Nell Lang went to the school to enroll Lana in next year's classes.

While attending the Smallville Junior High registration and orientation meeting, she met other mothers from the area and exchanged polite conversation. When the topic of where the Lang family lived rolled around and Nell said they lived next to the Kent farm, there were unmistakable expressions, the exchange of glances, and even eyerolls that begged an explanation.

"What?" she asked. "Is there something wrong with that area?" The gossipy women were silent momentarily. "Tell me if you know something I should know," Nell pleaded.

"Have you met the Kents?" one of the mothers asked.

"Yes, of course I have," she replied. "What about them?"

"What was your impression of them?"

"I think they're a really lovely family. They're very friendly and have been very welcoming," Nell advised.

There was an awkward moment of silence and another mother smirked. "How about their son? Have you met him?"

"Clark?" she asked rhetorically. "Yes. He seems very polite and well-mannered." She glanced around at the other mothers. "Why? What about him?" Nell demanded.

"He's a weirdo," the other mother remarked, "one of those loner types, anti-social…like the kids who shot up Columbine," she stated boldly. "You'll seldom see him without his parents close by, watching him." The woman looked around at the other mothers for consensus and a few nodded in agreement. "They've never allowed him to play with our kids, they don't let him go to parties or take him out to community events in town very often." She hesitated and then added, "The fact is that they don't trust him for some reason. I don't want my kids around him and if I were living next door to him, I wouldn't let my kids near him if I could help it," she declared, adding, "just food for thought."

Nell made a face. "C'mon. You can't be serious. He just seemed gentle and polite. So, maybe he's a little shy but that's all. You make the Kents sound like cultists and Clark like some psychopath. They aren't anything like that," she retorted. "They're really sweet people, all of them." She paused and then added, "And from the few times I've spoken to him, Clark seemed normal to me," hesitated and conceded, "but he is quiet, and I can see how that can be confused for being anti-social."

With that, the flood gates opened, and Nell learned from the other mothers at Smallville elementary school about the odd, reclusive, and anti-social behavior reported about the Kent boy. One mother said that his aloofness was due to the Kents being overprotective but other mothers were not as charitable with their opinions. Some stories seemed rather unbelievable and more like rumors that had grown over the years to Nell.

In the end, though, given all she had heard, Nell Lang decided that keeping Clark Kent at arm's length from their family may be in everyone's best interest until they had more chances to evaluate him themselves. She talked to her sister and asked if Lana could continue staying with her while they got the farm sorted out. Her sister assured her that Lana staying there would be no problem for as long as Nell wanted her to stay there.

Over dinner, Nell shared with Henry her encounter at the school with the other mothers, and her phone call with her sister. "Maybe we should have Lana stay the summer with Muriel," she said. Henry agreed with Nell's assessment. They also planned that once Lana finally joined them, they would instruct her to be polite and neighborly but caution her to avoid establishing any relationship more deeply than just neighborly with the "different" boy that lived next door.

"Definitely," Henry added, "and we have to make sure we tell her that she avoids situations where she might end up alone or isolated with him." Nell scowled a bit at that thought and Henry quickly added, "You know, Honey, until we can get to know him better. That's all."

It was just before the end of summer when Jonathan asked Clark to take a torque wrench over to Henry Lang. Henry had to replace a water pump gasket on his tractor, he explained, and he needed the tool to repair it, but had misplaced his own during the move. He told Clark that Henry had called him and asked if he could borrow Jonathan's.

Clark took the tool and headed next door to the Lang farm, their house a half-mile from the Kents' home.

Nell answered the door and discovered Clark standing there with a tool in his hand. "Good afternoon, Mrs. Lang," he said pleasantly. "I have a torque wrench that Mr. Lang had asked to borrow from my father."

She invited Clark inside and called out to Henry. Clark stood silently, just inside the door to the old farmhouse that looked very much like the one in which his family lived. After hearing no reply, "Wait here," Nell told him. "He must be in the barn. I'll get Mr. Lang and he'll be right along." She scurried off through the kitchen and out the back door calling his name and leaving Clark standing uncomfortably just inside the doorway.

Footsteps far too soft to be Henry Lang's padded down the stairs and paused on the last step. She saw the boy from next door for the first time and her first thought was, Oh my God, he's so cute. At that moment, Clark met Lana Lang. "Hi," she said, and smiled. "You must be Clark."

Clark was stunned into silence. She was the most beautiful girl he had ever seen. She was petite and lithe. Her oval face was flawless porcelain, replete with features so perfectly proportioned that it made her appear angelic. Her dark hair was pulled back into a high ponytail revealing large brown eyes, rimmed by long lashes, and framed by gently swooped and sculpted eyebrows above and soft cheek bones that were naturally tinted pink below. The girl had a beautifully feminine nose, narrow and perfectly positioned above a pair of pale red lips that were set in a smile at him. For him.

Holy smokes, he thought, and the air seemed suddenly cloying.

She was wearing a white tight-fitting tank top that was light enough to keep the summer heat at bay, but heavy enough to not be sheer. It emphasized a graceful neck and a pair of soft shoulders. Some tight-fitting denim short shorts rolled at the bottom topped an incredible pair of legs; smooth, taut, flawless. She was not tall, but was very trim, fit, and with a body composition that gave her the appearance of a prima ballerina, Clark thought, making her seem taller than she was.

Clark did not reply. He stood there speechless, wide-eyed, and nearly slack-jawed. "You are Clark Kent, from next door, right?" she asked again, breaking him out of his stupor.

The beginnings of a smile appeared on Clark's face. "Yes…I am. I'm Clark," he repeated shyly, still enthralled by her beauty. Her melodic voice caused something to stir in him, something low, foreign, and a warmth grew deep in the pit of his stomach and below. He instantly felt clammy, his chest tight. He wanted to say more but he could not find words because his mind was occupied with her natural beauty. She looked like a princess from a fairy tale, he thought. All she lacked was the pomp and circumstance and, of course, a flowing gown.

His nervousness prolonged the smile she had for him. She stepped off the bottom step, walked the short distance to where Clark stood with her hand extended. "I'm Lana," she offered. "It's nice to finally meet you."

This close, she was taken by something remarkable about his very presence. She could not describe it but felt it and she too, now, was searching for words while locked on his wide, gentle eyes.

Clark took her hand and gently shook it, and she recovered her composure. "I'm glad we had the chance to meet before school starts."

Her hand was soft, her smile was genuine as she looked at him with warm inviting eyes. Clark could smell her fresh-scrubbed skin and fragrant shampoo. He released her hand and swallowed hard. "So, are you starting Smallville Junior, too?" he asked haltingly, his chest still growing tighter.

"Yes," Lana said, and then she added, "my mom said we'll both be freshmen this year so I'm sure we'll be in the some of the same classes."

He liked that thought and smiled. "Yeah, I'll bet you're right." He paused and a thought crossed his mind. "Where have you been?" he asked awkwardly.

Lana understood the strangely worded question. "Oh, I just got here a few days ago from my aunt's house. My parents thought I should spend the summer there while they got the farm up and running." He nodded and it sounded like a reasonable reason he had not met her before now. "But it's nice to be able to know someone before starting a new sch…"

Lana's sentence was suddenly interrupted by her father clomping up the front porch steps in heavy field boots and opening the screen door in front of which Clark stood.

Clark tore his gaze from the young girl who had literally left him speechless and pivoted toward Mr. Lang. Henry reached out and took the wrench from Clark. "Tell your dad 'Thanks' for me, Clark." Clark stammered out an odd sound that Henry assumed was affirmation. "Okay, well then, run along now, Clark. We have work to do."

Clark moved past him and stepped through the doorway. He paused and turned back to glimpse Lana, whose eyes were still fixed on him. "Nice meeting you, too," he said before bounding down the steps.

Henry turned, hoisted the wrench, and waved it like a medieval foot soldier going into battle. "I'll bring this back over when I'm done with it," he yelled to the young man who was now approaching the dirt drive that led to the road. He paused and turned back to his daughter who had moved back to the last step at the bottom of the stairs. She was watching Clark, a faint smile on her face. "Have you finished reading through all that orientation material, yet?" Henry asked, implying that it was time for Lana to turn her attention to something else.

Lana nodded but turned and padded back upstairs anyway with her heart pounding her chest and the image of Clark fixed in her mind. He did not seem weird or threatening at all. In fact, he seemed just the opposite: sweet and shy, maybe even a little awkward, but far from the dangerously aloof boy next door that her parents told her could not be trusted and should be avoided as much as possible without being un-neighborly. And he is so gorgeous to look at, she thought.

He was tall and he had broad shoulders for a guy his age. It was obvious that he had done a lot of manual work at his family's farm, evidenced by the chiseled arms extending from the t-shirt he was wearing. He had strong-looking hands that had gently cupped one of hers. But the feature that she found most riveting was his eyes. They were bright and piercing but conveyed a shy goodness and vulnerability that she found extremely attractive. His adult features and square jaw made him look older than thirteen, the age her mother had said.

At that moment, Lana doubted the warnings. How can someone that gorgeous and that gentle be dangerous? she asked herself. Stupid small towns filled with stupid small-minded people, she scoffed.

She entered her bedroom and plopped onto her bed. The brief encounter was burned into her memory the way any life-altering occurrence would be. She lay on her back, facing the ceiling with her eyes shut tight revisiting the encounter over and again. When Lana was finished permanently etching every possible nuance of their first meeting into her memory, she opened her eyes and had a thought. She was resolved to learn more, and in that moment, Lana decided that she would find a way of getting to know the real Clark Kent without causing her problems with Henry or Nell Lang. She had to know more about him, but she also had to be strategic, careful, and deliberate in doing so.

She had never felt this way about a boy before and she wondered what the reason for those feelings were. Yes, she thought, he was handsome, and he seemed very sweet. But there is a whole lot more there, she surmised. Is this because he is supposed to be mysterious, unsettling, or maybe even a little dangerous? Am I being lured into something more than a neighborly friendship because of the rumors and excitement of building a dangerous relationship with him?

Lana thought about the last question for a while. She searched her feelings but the more she dwelled on Clark, the more her breathing seemed unable to keep pace with her heartbeat. If her initial instincts about Clark Kent proved correct and they could be more than just neighbors, Lana began to consider that he would want to know her better, too. A lot better. And the thought of opening herself up to the guy next door sent an electric shiver through her.

As Clark walked back to his home, he heard nothing, felt nothing except that gnawing heat building deep inside him and a strange pounding in his tight chest. He never sweat but he still felt clammy and self-conscious at what came over him. Aside from her exceptional beauty, Lana had said very little to evoke the nervousness he had displayed. Replaying the whole visit in his head left him feeling embarrassed and angry at himself. He was certain that Lana now thought he was strange and would probably steer clear of him the way other kids had done over the years. He hated that thought.

Clark began to think about his differences and the way others probably viewed him, perhaps the cause of his circle of friends that numbered one. Clark tried to tamp down his anger by rationalizing his current lack of friends as a small cost for keeping his differences concealed. He reminded himself that a day would come when he no longer had to hide his special powers and could live more open, like everyone else.

Within days, Clark would be entering junior high school and the new environment would offer a chance to reinvent himself. He would be careful, and he would not reveal anything unusual about himself, but he would no longer worry about accidentally revealing his powers. At the age of thirteen and a half, Clark believed he had conquered that worry and now could focus on being more open to making new friends.

Almost home now, Clark's thoughts returned to his first glimpse of Lana Lang. She was so pretty, so pure. And you are not human. You're different and not in a good way, he thought. And now, he imagined, that's how Lana sees you too. You must find a way to make her see you in a different light. Do it, but be careful and patient, his mind told him. Because if you can do that and she can earn your trust, you can show her your differences and that will make all the difference.

Her visage appeared in his mind and suddenly that odd, warm feeling deep inside him resurfaced. His face felt hot, his chest tight, anxious.

He had never felt that way before and wondered if the way he was feeling was what getting sick felt like.