Going now to the boy's old school, meeting old friends again and learning that he adapted to Germany so much, Timmy needed to learn to be American again…
A big surprise for him seemed to be that Jordan joined the football-team in Smallville. So Smallville seemed to have a positive effect on Jordan. Timmy asked himself ever and ever again, what in Smallville was so good for Jordan? Out of curiosity he searched for Smallville on Google Maps, and he was horrified…
"Da würde ich nicht mal begraben werden wollen!" Timmy yelled loudly (and in German) when he saw that town on his screen. Indeed he wouldn't even want to be buried there.
Jordan had either some hidden talents and was more like his brother than everyone thought, or Smallville was so desperately in need for new players that they accept everyone. Timmy guessed that rather latter was right.
Then came the day… The day he will see Jonathan and Jordan again. The day of the match between their new school and his school! A match the whole school was eagerly awaiting, due to Jimmy Cutter's intensive social media campaign and that many guessed, the school's worst bully will only use to humiliate Jordan Kent again.
A game Timmy missed due to a flu that hit him hardly…
"I keep my eyes open! Cutter is not very trustworthy, I admit that!" his uncle Joe told him.
Joe Patterson was married to his mother's sister for two years now and lives two blocks away. And he was deputy head-coach of the school's football-team, which was why Timmy had direct input, even if he was not a football-fan. A man who was easy to describe: He looks like Colossus from the X-Men movies. And he even had a photo with Daniel Cudmore that proves it.
Several hours later, his uncle called him back furiously…
"You were so right about Cutter! Today was his last game!" the man yelled over the phone. "No matter what the head-coach says, no matter how much money his parents bribe and no matter how much everyone will deny that anything happened. This was absolutely intolerable!"
"What happened, Uncle Joe?"
"Go online and see yourself! Cutter has humiliated the whole team! We lost just because they were all busier with bullying Kent's brother than with the game itself! The videos of it are going viral. Everyone is laughing about us now! I have enough of it! I take measures against Cutter. Would you be so kind and call the Kents for me and tell them to call me, so I can apologize? Or you give me their numbers."
"Yes, Uncle Joe! Of course!" Timmy told and ended the call.
Neither Jonathan nor Jordan picked up. He sent their numbers to his uncle. He wrote them, too. But didn't get a response either.
On Monday, when Timmy went back to school, he figured out the reason…
Obviously, Cutter didn't have enough and encountered the Kent boys in an alley behind their hotel. It ended with Jonathan Kent breaking his arm.
The yelling that came out of the principal's office was so loud, that everyone in the corridor could hear it. Cutter insisted that it was Jordan Kent who broke his brother's arm. But nobody believed him, since a lot of people knew what happened at the game and remembered how much Cutter and his friends bullied Jordan Kent in the past. That, Cutters excessive announcements in the social media before the game, and the fact that a lot of other kids were victims of Cutter's evilness, let the school no other choice than expelling him.
When Cutter got escorted out of the school by his disappointed and angry parents a lot of other students cheered… of course Timmy took a photo to send it to the Kent-brothers…
It took three days for the Kents to respond to it. With a single smile-emoji…
"I would have guessed that you will be happier! Cutter is expelled and on the way to a boarding-school at the other end of the country, the team gets reorganized… oh, and my uncle got promoted to head coach! The old coach was forced to resign, because he let it all happen! He already plans a zero-tolerance policy for bullies... Jon? Are you listening?"
Jon looked so absent on the screen. So desperate and unlucky! Barely looking into the camera…
"Huh… sorry, Timmy…" Jon told and looked into the camera again. "…I was just thinking…"
"Did you take too many painkillers? Or why are you not happy, Jon?"
"Aww… Timmy… Cutter didn't break my arm!" his friend confessed.
"What? Please don't tell me that Cutters ridiculous story was true and it was really Jordan who broke your arm? How did he do that?"
"Aww… I can't tell you…" Jon murmured while rubbing with his healthy hand over the cast.
On the screen, Timmy could see that Jon cried. With his cast he tried to dry his tears and that his face blushed again.
"Jon… is everything all right? With you… and your… ehm… your family?" Timmy asked nervously.
"Aww… This is nothing I can explain over a webcam. I'll tell you later…"
'I'll tell you later' became a common term whenever Timmy asked if Jon was okay…
The calls and chats with Jon became less. And with Jordan they stopped completely…
Like every other Superman-fan in the world, Timmy watched closely what happened in Smallville during the Morgan Edge crisis. Wondering if this was the reason they moved there! All of Timmy's messages got read but not all of them answered.
Timmy's biggest fear was that Jon or Jordan could think that the only reason he kept in touch with them, was that their mother Lois Lane was a friend of Superman. Sure, in TV he saw Lois Lane and Superman together. Even in Smallville! But he didn't want to be pushy… The day the Kryptonians attacked first Smallville and then Metropolis, Timmy's parents forced him to seek shelter in the basement until everything was over…
It was about a week after when he had a video-chat with Jonathan again. Jonathan looked like he just came from a funeral and his arm was in a cast again…
"Car-accident!" Jon murmured when Timmy asked him how it happened. "It was very chaotic with… Edge and… these subjects… long story…"
"Sorry, to hear that! Is really everything okay with you?"
"Well… I live in a town that is full of an alien-mineral that grants superpowers, football is over again and I…" Jon blushed and turned his head away to avoid eye-contact. "…aww… nothing!"
Timmy noticed that something was wrong. He could see it in Jon's face that something was bothering him.
"Is really everything okay? You look as if someone died!"
"Oh…" Jon looked down on himself and saw it. "…ehm… well… long story… Yes, I attended to a funeral! But I never met the man before! I was just there because my father insisted of it!"
"Was it a friend of your father?"
"No… ehm… his father!" Jon blushed.
"His father?! You mean your grandfather?"
Jon bit on his lip…
"Ehm… yes… you know my father was adopted! And… his biological father… he got in touch with him after… well… but, it's okay… I never met the man before."
"Jon, he was your grandfather! It's okay to be sad!"
"He was… just someone I never met!" Jon moaned. "May we change the topic, I…"
Suddenly there was a thunder audible. The door behind Jon opened and Jordan got in.
"Jon, something is approaching!" the other teenager yelled almost scared.
"I call you back!" Jon said shocked and ended the video-call.
"Jon? JON?!" Timmy yelled but the call was over.
Something was going on in Smallville…
The months passed…
The calls became less… the chats became less… with Jordan he lost track completely long ago… Timmy focused on school and lived on…
It was a rainy afternoon, while Timmy was still in school after his media-club meeting when he suddenly received a message from Jon…
'Do you have time! I need to talk to someone!'
'Sure, video-call tonight.' Timmy wrote back.
Jon looked pensive when Timmy saw him on his screen hours later. So distracted and upset…
"Timmy… I need to talk to someone. Jordan is no help, my mom is too distracted with other things and my dad is unwilling to listen!"
"Sure… you always had an open ear for everyone, too! That's the least I can do! So, what happened!"
Jon was always there when someone needed help. He kept in touch with him after his move to Germany. So of course he had an open ear for him, too.
"Aww… You know that I am trying to find my place in the football-team again. It's difficult when you have a coach that does not want to give you a chance and teammates who don't take you seriously. But now I think that one of my fellow teammates is taking something to cheat!" Jon told. Timmy was shocked to hear that.
"Cheating? You mean… with steroids?"
"Yes!"
"Do you have any prove?"
"Not really!"
"Just him or others, too?"
"I don't know yet! But I wouldn't be surprised!" Jon moaned and took a deep breath. "Ever since I came to this town… I feel like the whole world is against me! If I go to the coach or the principal and tell them, they will call me a liar and kick me out of the team immediately. If I go and tell my father he will give me a long speech about how honest and kind the people in this stinking town are that they would never cheat. My mom has a lot of own issues and Jordan… aww…"
"I would have guessed that at least Jordan will listen to you!"
"I tried to tell him! Just a few hours ago!"
"And?"
"And Jordan just wanted to talk about his great day how he… well…"
"What?" Timmy asked.
"Nothing!"
"Jon, I can see that it is not nothing! I see it in your face!"
"Aww… Jordan met HIS biological grandmother today! My father's biological mother!"
"Oh…" Timmy remembered how Jon told him about it months ago that he never met his biological grandfather either. "…you should tell your father that you want to meet her, too!"
"Aww… I don't fit into their family anyway. It's useless!" Jon wailed.
Timmy was shocked to hear that.
"Jon… I start to get worried!"
"Sorry… Don't bother it! That's a too long and too complicated story!" Jon wailed. "So what do you think I should do about that cheating guy in my team?"
"Don't do anything stupid that you might regret later!" Timmy said. "If that guy is your friend and you don't want to hurt him, I understand it! But if that stuff is dangerous, you should report him, before he hurts himself or others… Jon? Jon, are you listening?"
Jon's eyes seemed to wander to the Superman-poster on Timmy's wall again. Whatever it was, Jon seemed very upset.
"Jon?"
"Sorry… I was just thinking! Thank you for listening! I really needed that!"
"Jon don't do anything that you might reg… Jon?!" Timmy said, while Jon ended the call.
Now Timmy was worried…
The weeks passed…
On a typical Tuesday morning, when Timmy just arrived on the school's campus, suddenly Jay Nakamura approached him. Jay was an openly gay boy with pink-dyed hair who was the head of the school's newspaper. And he was totally upset…
"Hey, Tanner… you know Jonathan Kent, right?"
"Yes, why?"
"I got this by E-Mail! With the demand to publish it in the school paper!" Jay told and presented Timmy what he just printed at home.
Timmy was shocked: It was a picture of Jon. From a student-ID he guessed. Together with the urgent request to publish his name in the school paper and that he (and only he) is responsible for cancelling the football-season of Smallville by taking X-Kryptonite.
Suddenly Timmy had to think about Jon's story again…
"Oh my god… he did something stupid?"
He heard about X-Kryptonite before. After the Morgan-Edge-crisis it became infamous as the 'Superman-drug' since it was able to give powers. In lower doses it worked like a very strong enhancing steroid.
"TIMMY!" suddenly his uncle the football-coach yelled and approached them, too to present him another E-mail he got from Smallville. One that told him to tell everyone at this school, to all football-players, and even other schools in the area that Jonathan Kent is a dangerous subject that needs to be sent to prison. "The coach of Smallville has sent this to me yesterday evening… did you know about that?"
Timmy only became pale…
Together they went to his uncle's office to talk about it. Timmy told them what Jon told him a few weeks ago, but that he hadn't heard anything from him since then.
"I can't believe it… This must be a hoax!" Timmy finished. "I know, nobody is perfect. But Jon? If he really took it, then just because he was forced to!"
"Wow, he is so cute!" Jay murmured while looking at Jon's picture.
"He is straight, Jay! Not your type!" Timmy wailed before he turned back to his uncle. "Uncle Joe, you are not going to spread that, don't you?"
"Of course not! And you are not going to spread it in your paper! Jon Kent is still a minor and all of this seems for me a bit rushed!" the coach said, looking on the E-Mail from his colleague in Smallville again. "I know Jonathan Kent. He is not a bad teen. But they seem to insist on him being the pure evil. But as I said, he is still a minor. If I would spread this, or publish his photo, I would commit a crime! I could lose my job."
"They should experience Jimmy Cutter before insisting to know what pure-evil means." Timmy murmured.
"Yes…" his uncle murmured, too. "This coach behaves really stupid. Usually he should face consequences… Timmy, you have Jonathan's number, right? Contact him and ask him what happened! Because the way they rush with this… aww… for me this looks like scapegoating!"
Timmy tried it… every day! For a week! After that he tried it every second day…
When Jon finally called him back a few weeks later he apologized for the radio-silence. He was still grounded and just recently allowed to use his phone again and go online. In a very limited way. Confessing that it was true that he took it, how much he regrets it and that nobody wants to believe him that he wasn't dealing with it.
One day, Jon called him finally. So, they could talk…
"I believe you!"
"Thank you, Timmy! At least one…"
"JONATHAN…" Timmy heard the harsh and upset voice of Jonathan's father in the background.
"I have to hang off now! Thank you for listening, Timmy!" Jon said and ended the call.
Indeed, it was due to Timmy's, his uncle's, and Jay Nakamura's efforts, that the whole story wasn't spread at their school in Metropolis like the people of Smallville seemed to want it… A scapegoat! It seemed as if this town desperately wanted (or needed) a scapegoat. As if they hide something…
More weeks passed… Sporadic chats with Jon, and later with Jordan, revealed that things did not really improve.
'I want to help Jon, but I don't know how!' Jordan wrote one day.
'Listen to him!' Timmy wrote back.
'Things are going so well for me! Too sad I can't share them with Jon!'
'You can't, or do you or your parents don't want to?'
After that the chat was over and Jordan went offline…
Another week later…
It was a sunny afternoon, that Timmy spent with his friends at the mall. Everyone was in a good mood. They were sitting in the food-court together and discussing which shop to check out next when suddenly Timmy's phone rang. It was Jon…
"Hey, Jon! What's up?"
"TIMMY, I NEED YOUR HELP! Can I spend the night at your place?!" Jon cried desperately.
Timmy shuddered when he heard that Jon was crying. He was upset and on the verge of a breakdown…
"Jon, what happened?" Timmy asked shocked, lift from his chair and walked away to a quieter place to talk to Jon without others listening. And everyone was already looking at him worried.
"I am such a fool! A FUCKING FOOL!" Jon cried.
"Hey, Jon… calm down! What happened?" Timmy asked with a calm voice, trying to calm down his friend at the other end of the line.
"Gosh… I am such an idiot! How could I think that anything was true? That what he told me was true? That anything was even worth for? This move… waiting… thinking that he wanted me… Oh, I want to die in shame…"
"Jon, please let me explain…" Timmy heard Jordan's voice in the background.
"FUCK OFF, JORDAN… I DON'T WANT TO HEAR HOW PROUD HE IS ON YOU! GET OUT OF MY ROOM…" Jonathan yelled so loud that Timmy had to hold the phone away and that people around him could hear him, too and looked at him with big eyes. Timmy could hear something shattering, so he guessed Jon threw something after Jordan to force him out of his room.
"Jon?!"
"Sorry… I am just… so angry! I can't tell you how humiliated I feel! Agghh… Can I sleep at your place tonight! Just one night! I need to get away from here… get a clear head again…"
"Jon, please…" Jordan's voice was audible in the background again.
"JORDAN, I SAID LEAVE ME ALONE!"
"Jon, calm down and tell me what happened!" Timmy said.
"Hi, Timmy…" Jordan said in the background.
"JORDAN, GET OUT!"
"Jordan, get out of the room…" Timmy said now, wondering if he was on loudspeaker. "…leave your brother alone, when he demands it!"
"But I couldn't know that you were waiting here!" Jordan wailed.
"YOU KNEW EXCACTLY THAT I WAS HERE! YOU TOLD ME TO COVER FOR YOU! JUST PLEASE GET OUT OF HERE! Jon yelled before Timmy could hear Jordan bursting out in tears followed by a weird swoosh. "Aww… this idiot!"
"Jon, what happened?"
"I don't want to talk about it over the phone! Please! I… I could be with you in a few hours! If I hurry, I'll get the afternoon-bus to Metropolis. I call you back when I know when I will arrive! Bye!"
"Okay… bye!"
The call ended… and all alarms rang in Timmy's head…
"GUYS… I need to leave!" Timmy yelled to his friends and rushed away…
Jon Kent is one of the strongest people he knows. When he is on the verge of a breakdown it must have something serious happened. Something that even the strongest person is not able to endure.
Full of adrenaline, Timmy called his parents and rushed home to prepare the guestroom… But not even 15 minutes after Jon's call, while he was still in the subway, there was suddenly another message on Whats-App…
'I am not coming! Sorry, if I made any inconvenience or scared someone. I'll explain later!'
'Jon, what's going on? Are you in danger?' Timmy wrote back.
'My dad's in hospital! Leaving now would be too mean! I call you back!' Jon wrote before going offline.
Timmy became worried. Just to be prepared, he kept the guest-room ready the next days. His parents got worried, too after their son told them how Jon cried on the phone. They made some 'preparations', too.
Once again, it took days for Jon to answer to his messages…
Jon wrote that his father ditched him coldly that day, when Jon thought that they could move forward. That he was hurt and desperate that he preferred to have quality-time with Jordan instead of talking with Jon for a couple of minutes. His father left immediately after it without apologizing but had an 'accident' that brought him to hospital, which was why he thought that it was not nice to leave now. No matter how bad his father's act hurt him.
Timmy understood him, but also asked Jon to get help… Jon just agreed, but the connection got suddenly lost and Timmy's life was about to get even weirder… and way more bizarre…