Fireworks (2012 Summer Ficathon)
Prompt: The Art of Fireworks
Rated: PG
By: VirginiaR.
***
Lois was hot, so hot she felt like she was melting. She scoffed.
And she had thought it was hot in Metropolis in the summer. That heat had nothing on the 98 percent humidity that was Florida in mid-June with one hundred percent teenage hormones on rampage.
She couldn’t believe her mother, dumping her and Lucy with Daddy for the first two weeks of summer break. Actually, she could. Almost as much as she could believe her father double-booking himself at a medical conference during the same time.
Oh, how Lois could feel the parental love overfloweth.
At least the medical conference was being held at the Walt Disney World Resort in Orlando, so their father had no other option than to buy his daughters week-long passes to the park while he was busy conferencing.
It was the best family vacation yet, one where she didn’t have to spend more than an hour a day – if that – with her family. Well, save Lucy, but her baby sister was okay, since she was in the same boat as Lois.
Lucy and Lois had latched onto a group of other teenage girls whose parents had dragged them to the conference. Unfortunately, they were all
young teenage girls like Lucy. Fourteen was the median age, Lois being on the high end of that at almost seventeen.
She just had to suffer through one more year of high school and living at home with alchy mom, and then off to Met U.’s prestigious journalism school. She should be a shoe-in, what with her internship at the Daily Planet starting when she returned to Metropolis, and next fall not only would she be Senior Class President, but as the only member of the Bulletin staff that had been writing articles for three years, she had already been appointed Editor. Not to mention being valedictorian since… well, birth.
Lucy and the five other thirteen and fourteen year olds had gone off with a mother of one of the girls’. After days of being the seventh wheel on rides she was ready for a taste of freedom and being alone. If she was going to end up on rides by herself, she’d much rather they were rides
she chose.
All this freedom finally gave Lois a chance to people watch. She had been watching the couple in line behind her for almost ten minutes now. She actually felt sorry for the guy. He was kind of cute in that homespun sort of way, dark brown hair and bespectacled. His blonde – enough said – girlfriend was piling on the sugary sweet-talk that Lois could tell was fake from a mile away; from here it was giving her a stomach ache.
Blondie was pouting at him and batting her eyelashes. “Come on, Scout. This line is
for-ev-er. We’ll be here all afternoon. Why don’t we go on another ride? Pete, Rachel, and Joe went to Pirates of the Caribbean. I bet if we hurried we could join them in line.”
Lois wished they would. All Blondie’s whining was making her head throb.
“Lana, it wouldn’t be very fair to cut ahead of all those other people who had been waiting in line,” he countered, clearly not planning on giving up his spot. Good for him! Bad for Lois.
Blondie harrumphed into another pout, crossing her arms. “You’re no fun.”
Lois rolled her eyes, and she could’ve swore the boyfriend caught her because a flash of amusement zipped across his features before disappearing. Wow! Homespun was quite handsome when he smiled.
Blondie thankfully didn’t speak again as the line moved forward. Then she splayed her hands across his broad chest. “Scout, you haven’t kissed me all day,” she nagged.
“It’s too hot,” he replied vaguely, not responding in-kind to her overly affectionate PDA.
It
was hot, but Lois hadn’t met a teenage boy yet, who would turn down a chance to press himself closer to a willing girlfriend – no matter the weather. Homespun was angry at Blondie, that was clear, but why? Lois wondered if she could figure it out before they got to the front of the line. There were so many annoying things about Blondie; narrowing it down would be difficult, but Lois was up to the challenge.
Blondie kissed Homespun’s neck and along his jaw to his mouth, and he seemed to stiffen at the action in discomfort. When he didn’t join in the kiss, Blondie gave up. She dropped the cutesy act, pouting, and overly sweet affection, and spoke to her boyfriend in what Lois assumed was her normal voice, “I’m going to get soaked, Clark.”
Well,
duh! That was the whole point of the ride.
“And?” Homespun replied, thinking along the same lines as Lois.
“This humidity has already done a number on my hair; if I get soaked I’m going to look like a drowned rat,” Blondie went on.
And? Lois wanted to say. Wasn’t the saying ‘drowned cat’, anyway? Rat fit Blondie better though. Why did Blondie come to the amusement park in that dress? Winds, water, dizziness, and long waits were to be expected and should be planned for. Blondie appeared ready more for a barn dance.
“I like the fifty foot drop. It makes me feel like I’m flying,” Homespun responded softly.
“Flying?” Blondie scoffed with a shake of her hair. “Just what you need on top of everything else.”
“
Lana!” Homespun gasped, glancing at Lois who was trying to fade into the faux mountain façade of the line.
“Come off it, Clark, you’re too uptight,” Blondie hissed back. “Nobody here cares if you’re different. It’s not like they’ll ever see you again. Relax.”
Lois waited a full minute, counting to sixty and all, before glancing back at Homespun. He didn’t look all that different to her. She had no idea what Blondie was talking about.
The line moved forward and around a curve. From this vantage spot, Lois could see that the line continued on at least the same length they had already waited before disappearing inside. She bet that they had only gone through a third of the actual line. Suddenly, that lemonade she had drunk an hour before seemed to hit her bladder. She gazed at the seemingly endless line. She would never make it. If she left the line to hunt down a restroom, she’d have to start back at the end of the line again. She groaned.
“Are you okay?” Homespun asked, and Lois realized he was addressing her.
She smiled in embarrassment.
“Of course she’s fine, Clark. Even when nobody’s in trouble you insist on offering help,” Blondie grumbled.
Lois ground her teeth together and fought the impulse to shoot out her hand and give ol’ Blondie a good karate chop. Her sensei had taught her better than that; to only use her skills in defense, not to start an offense… no matter how offensive the person was.
“Actually,” Lois countered, disliking that Blondie had spoken for her. “I was thinking how they should have restrooms along the line if they were going to make us wait so long to get on a ride.”
“We would more than happy to hold your place if you wanted to run off,” Homespun volunteered.
Lois’ bladder rejoiced. “Would you?” she asked.
“Oh, so it’s okay to hold a stranger’s place in line, but going and joining our friends wouldn’t be fair?” Blondie snapped.
Homespun ignored his girlfriend and said to Lois, “Go on. Your place will be here when you get back. I promise.” He was so nice. What in the world was he doing with a witch like Blondie?
One good deed deserved another. “You know, I think I saw a shop over near the restrooms. I bet you could get a hat or poncho so you didn’t get wet,” Lois suggested.
“No, I don’t…” Blondie started saying as if she wouldn’t want to go anywhere with Lois.
Lois couldn’t understand why. It wasn’t like she was going to dunk Blondie in the river, no matter how much she deserved it.
“Yes!” Blondie changed her mind, even to Lois’ surprise. “That’s a great idea.” She wrapped her arms around her boyfriend’s neck and kissed him. “Wait right here.”
Homespun raised a brow, and responded dryly, “With bells on.” Guess he didn’t appreciate being spoken to like a dog.
Lois wished she hadn’t made the suggestion. She wanted to spend
less time with Blondie, not more, but it wouldn’t be a good deed if she wasn’t giving Homespun a few minutes of peace. She ducked under the ropes and Blondie paused as if she didn’t know what to do. Well, she shouldn’t have worn a dress to an amusement park. It was as smart as wearing high heels on a hike.
Homespun got an annoyed expression on his face and scooped Blondie up into his arms, like she weighed nothing, only to set her down on the other side of the rope.
“Thanks, Scout,” Blondie purred.
Lois rolled her eyes. “The ropes do have latches on each end if you can’t duck under,” she said.
“I know,” the girl responded. “Clark just likes any excuse to help people.”
It didn’t look that way to Lois. She pointed out the gift shop to Blondie and called, “I’ll meet you here when I get out.”
A few minutes later, feeling much refreshed, Lois returned to the gift shop. She looked all around, but didn’t see Blondie anywhere. She guessed Blondie wanted to be with Lois as much as Lois wanted to be her.
Lois was about to give up and head back to the ride, when she heard a familiar giggle. She couldn’t believe it! Homespun had promised to save her place in line. She came around the corner to confront him, only to find Blondie’s arms around a completely different man with sandy blond hair.
“Oh, Joe,” Blondie giggled again as ‘Joe’ kissed up her neck. “I couldn’t get away fast enough.”
Lois’ jaw dropped. Blondie was cheating on Homespun! Did he suspect? He must. No wonder he was mad at her. Why didn’t he stand up to her? Or dump her sorry butt?
“I can’t believe you! Your boyfriend is so nice. How can you cheat on him?” she roared.
Blondie paled and glanced over her shoulder back towards where they had left Homespun.
“Do you know her, Lana?” Joe asked nervously.
“Just some nosy kid next to us in line, Joe,” Blondie answered, before facing Lois. “Why don’t you say that a little louder, kid? I bet they didn’t hear you in Metropolis. You wouldn’t understand.”
Lois placed her hands on her hips and glared. She knew all about cheating and the aftermath of its destruction. “Why don’t you explain it to me then?” This should be good.
Blondie lowered her voice. “Scout isn’t like other guys.”
“He’s not?” Joe asked, surprised.
Blondie’s eyes widened as if she had forgotten about him. She pressed her lips together and turned back to Joe, hissed, “Clark wants to wait until marriage.”
Lois’ jaw dropped. What a witch! How could she disclose such a secret about her boyfriend to another man?
Joe roared with laughter.
Blondie pointed at him. “If you say one word…”
“I doubt anyone would be all that surprised. He is a Kent after all, and you know how upstanding
they are,” Joe said this as if it was a bad trait. He wrapped his arms around Blondie’s waist and pulled her against his chest, running a hand up her leg and under her skirt. “Is that why you let me hit all those home runs?”
Blondie giggled and swatted away his hand.
Ugh. Lois had seen and heard enough. She started marching back towards the ride, but was having serious doubts about it. Did she want to be the one to inform Homespun that Blondie was stepping out on him?
Blondie chased after her and grabbed her arm. “Don’t tell Clark.”
Lois hadn’t been planning on it, but she didn’t want to be party to this deception if it wasn’t her decision. By telling her ‘not to tell’ Blondie had made up her mind for her. “Why didn’t you just break up with him, if you wanted to date Joe?”
“Look, I’m planning on telling him as soon as we return to Smallville tomorrow. I just didn’t want to ruin our senior class trip,” Blondie explained.
“Ruin it for who?” Lois retorted. She bet Homespun would have been much happier not to spend his whole senior trip with his unfaithful girlfriend.
“He’s such a straight arrow. Always having to do the right thing. Always insisting on helping everyone. It’s like he can’t help himself. I want a boyfriend not a boy scout. This will crush him.”
So far everything Lois had heard improved her image of Homespun, and worsened her opinion of Blondie.
“You don’t know Clark. He’s…
different,” Blondie said again as her excuse.
Lois pressed her lips together. “How?”
Blondie paled, and lowered her voice. “Let’s just say he’s not like everyone else. He’s…” She stopped herself from saying too much.
“A virgin?” Lois filled in the blank. “You should try it sometime. It’s not bad as being a cheating skank.” She marched back to the ride, planning on telling Homespun what a ‘ho’ his girlfriend was. She jumped the rope, and said, “Excuse me. Just heading back to my space,” to all the people between her and her spot.
Homespun was standing another ten feet further along than when they had left. He had his face buried in his hand.
Blondie’s words echoed in Lois’ ears.
He would be crushed. Lois couldn’t bear to be the one to cause Homespun any more pain. With a sigh, she pushed her way along the line back to her spot.
“Thanks,” she mumbled.
“Lana’s not coming back, is she?” Homespun asked softly after a minute.
“No.”
“Joe?”
Lois nodded. Well, now she knew why he was so mad at Blondie. She wished she didn’t though. “I’m sorry,” she said, reaching out to touch his arm in comfort.
“Me, too, but it wasn’t wholly unexpected,” he replied, glancing down at her hand, which was still on his arm.
Flushing, she removed it. Luckily the line moved, and the faux pas was forgotten.
Maybe not entirely forgotten as she couldn’t erase from her mind how strong and muscular and warm his arm had been. Blondie was stupid. If Lois was ever so lucky to have such a man interested in her, she would jump at the chance.
She blushed, her heart racing; she was embarrassed at where her thoughts had gone after one innocent touch. The last thing Homespun needed at this moment was to have the messenger of his break-up – a kid, no less – crushing on him.
“I’m not blind, you know, or stupid,” Homespun said, still speaking softly so the others in line couldn’t hear.
Lois didn’t have response to that. She didn’t really want to talk about Blondie anymore.
“I’ve known about it for a while,” he said, chuckling with a shake of his head. “There are no secrets in Smallville.”
“Why didn’t you tell her you knew?” She couldn’t stop herself from asking.
He shrugged. “I don’t know. Ever since I told her something about myself, I’d never told anyone else, she’s been acting odd. I kept hoping that all the clues she kept dropping was just my paranoia… I wanted to believe she wouldn’t do this to me. Maybe I am blind and stupid,” he groaned. “Do you know what she told me last month?” He shook his head. “She told me that she couldn’t go to prom with me, the guy she’s been dating all year, because her mom was making her go with Joe.”
“And you bought that?” Lois asked in disbelief.
Homespun laughed. “Well, yes… but you’ve got to know that her mom has always hated me. I’m from the wrong class.”
“There’s a class system in Smallville?” Lois asked incredulously. She had thought that Smallville was in the America, not turn of the century England.
“Apparently. So, I went with Rachel Harris instead. Boy, did that ever tick Lana off.” He chuckled. “She wanted to have her cake
and eat it too.”
“Putting aside your melodrama for a moment. What is with
that saying?” Lois asked, moving forward with the line. “Don’t most people want to eat their cake? I mean if you don’t want to eat it, why not give it to someone who does? Why hoard it? It’s
my cake, and I’m not going to eat it or share it with anyone!” Lois said with her best impression of an evil laugh.
Homespun roared with laughter at her joke, and his whole face lit up, making him twice as handsome. “Let me guess: philosophy major?”
Lois blushed.
He thinks I’m in college. She decided not to correct this mistake. “Journalism.”
“Really? Me, too. I start Midwest U. in the fall,” Homespun said, almost gushing with excitement. “How about you?”
“Met U.,” Lois said, glancing away. She figured he must be eighteen, and she was almost seventeen. She
wasn’t a kid, and he didn’t think so either.
“That’s a good school.”
“Yeah,” Lois said. She didn’t want to talk about colleges anymore. “I’m doing a summer internship at the Daily Planet.”
“Wow! That’s impressive. I’d give my eyeteeth to work at the Daily Planet,” he said. “I’m just working on the farm. Summer’s kind of our busy time.”
So, Homespun was a farm boy from a town so small they actually called it Smallville. No wonder his t-shirt clung to his chest and biceps. Lois had never really thought about all those people from small towns or from farming communities. She had just assumed they were all hicks. She realized she herself would’ve put Homespun into a class too, just as Blondie’s mom had. She looked down, ashamed to be lumped into such company.
“Do you live in Metropolis?” he asked after a few moments of silence.
“Yeah.” She didn’t want to talk of home, even though this had been probably the longest and best conversation Lois had been a part of, with anyone outside of Lucy, since she arrived in Florida.
“How can you stand it? All those people! All that noise! This place drives me nuts. I guess when my folks signed me up they didn’t think about the screaming,” he said.
“You didn’t sign up for your own senior class trip?” she asked in amazement. She’d probably be the first one, just as an excuse to get away from her mom.
He blushed and looked down at his foot drawing crescents with his sneaker. “Money’s tight. I’m going to Midwest on a football scholarship.”
“Wait. You’re going on a football scholarship to
study? Wow! You
are full of surprises,” Lois said, wishing this guy would start saying something to make him less attractive. “Gee, when Blondie said you weren’t like everybody else, she wasn’t kidding.”
He blanched. “Lana said
what about me?”
Good going there, Lane. It doesn’t matter how attracted you are to this guy, he’ll never be interested in you. “Nothing. Nothing.”
Homespun looked at her incredulously.
“Okay. Fine. She was trying to get me to understand why she’d cheat on a great guy like you, and she said you weren’t like everybody else,” Lois explained sticking her foot further into her mouth as he winced and leaned against the faux mountain wall in humiliation.
“I can’t believe she told you. I can’t believe I trusted her to keep my secret,” he mumbled.
Lois wrapped her arm around his shoulders. “Please, don’t feel bad. It’s nothing to be ashamed of,” she whispered.
He stood up straight, causing her arm to fall free. “I’m not ashamed. I’m proud of who I am,” he said, nodding. “Line’s moved.”
They moved forward.
“But then…” Lois shut her mouth. It was none of her business.
“I was just imagining what you thought of me,” he murmured. “That crazy guy from the line, who can’t even make his girlfriend happy.”
She cracked a smile. “Not
that crazy. I came back, didn’t I?”
He looked her in the eye and said with utmost seriousness, “It’s a good ride. You didn’t want to lose your spot.”
“Damn straight!” she said, and then covered her mouth. Homespun was probably pretty religious to make a vow to wait until marriage in this day and age. Midwest farmer’s son and all. “Sorry.”
He raised an eyebrow. “A journalism major who apologies for her choice of words?” he teased.
She laughed. “First Amendment.”
“All the way, baby!” he agreed.
“Don’t call me ‘baby’,” Lois insisted.
“Right. Sorry, women’s lib. You know everything about me, and I don’t even know your name,” Homespun said.
“No names,” she said, not wanting to think of him as anything more than Homespun.
“Just two strangers who cross in the night?”
That sounded awfully romantic, Lois thought, but she was only sixteen and not interested in going all the way with a guy yet. She smiled. The nice thing about Homespun was she knew he would never pressure her to. “Something like that,” Lois murmured, her voice rough. “Except that it’s the middle of the afternoon.”
“Right.”
“Blondie was right about one thing, though,” she said, and his eyes widened in anticipation of what that could be. “This line is taking for-
ev-er!”
He laughed. “I hadn’t noticed.”
Lois blushed.
“So, everybody here knows why I’m by myself. How about you?”
Lois told him her story as the line continued to meander back and forth until before they knew it, she was next.
“How many?” the attendant asked.
“Two,” Homespun answered for her.
“Four and five,” said the attendant, pointing to their seat assignments.
“Ladies first,” Homespun said, taking lane five.
They climbed into their boat and they were off. The boat went under an overhang and a sudden waterfall splashed Lois.
She squealed in surprise and could hear Homespun chuckling behind her. “That wasn’t funny,” she said, glancing back at him.
He grinned. “Yes, it was.”
Oh, so he thought it was funny when someone got wet, huh? She’d show him!
The ride went over a small dip and around the bend, through the darkness, and the singing diorama.
Lois started to sing along with “Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah”. It was a catchy tune, and like “It’s a Small World” one that stuck with her.
Homespun whispered in her ear. “You have a beautiful voice.”
His breath on her damp neck sent shivers down her spine. The way they set up seating in these boats, it almost felt like she was sitting in his lap.
“Cold?” he asked against her neck again.
Cold? Hello? Florida. Mid-June! Lois shook her head and her ponytail flapped in the darkness. She took her hand off the bar in front of her as she turned back to look at him, and smiled. As she turned forward again, her hand dropped down and came in contact with his shin. She pulled her hand away quickly, not wanting him to think she had caressed his leg on purpose. She wasn’t that kind of girl, but with Homespun she might make an exception.
The boat went around another bend and climbed started to climb.
“This is it,” she heard him murmured.
The boat reached the top of the fifty foot drop and Lois’ eyes widened. She hadn’t remembered how big of a drop it really was. Instead of screaming, she bent forward and tucked herself up into a ball as the boat seemed to hover there for a moment before it fell.
SPLASH!
Everyone was laughing about how wet they were, everyone but Lois; she was bone dry. She glanced back at Homespun and
he wasn’t wet; he was drenched. She started to laugh.
“I’m soaked!” he said, laughing. He shook the water off his arms. “How am I wet from head to toe and you’re hardly damp?”
Lois winked at him. “Trade secret.”
The boats stopped, and they disembarked.
She grabbed his glasses off his face. “Here, let me get those,” she said, drying the lenses on her dry cotton shirt.
His blue t-shirt clung to chest even more tightly than before, she noticed. He ran his fingers through his hair, slicking it back.
“Wow. I wouldn’t even recognize you without your glasses. You look so different, like another guy entirely.”
“I do?” He seemed surprised by this revelation. “Better?”
She shrugged. “Different.” Better without the glasses and without the slicked back hair, but she knew better than to try to change something about someone they couldn’t help. If he needed the glasses to see, it wasn’t her place to tell him he’d look better without them. Either she liked someone for all of who they were, or none of it; it wasn’t right to pick and choose. She’d keep the wet t-shirt look though.
As they walked on, she handed back his glasses. They saw a bunch of people stopped in front of some video monitors.
“What?” Homespun asked, glancing at the pictures. He turned and pointed at her. “You ducked!”
Lois grinned, skipping back into the sunlight. “All’s fair in love and war!”
*** End of Part 1 *** Part 2 Comments For those of you who don't know PDA stands for Public Displays of Affection.
“Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah” music by Allie Wrubel, lyrics by Ray Gilbert from the Disney movie “Song of the South” sung by James Baskett.
“It’s a Small World” music and lyrics by Robert B. Sherman and Richard M. Sherman; sung by the Disney Children’s Chorus.
For a full disclosure, please see my
TOC page .
