Author's notes: This part ended up being a lot longer, and the dialogue a bit more cumbersome, than I thought it would be when I first started writing it.
I also just realized that it's not very realistic for classes to resume at a school the day after a shooting...oh well, I guess it's too late
Tried to throw in a bit of insight into the interests of our hypothetical child, as well as an explanation for why Superman seems to eat just as much as anyone else when he should never feel hungry.
****
BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!
Crunch.
“Aww, not again!” Jonathan complained as he extricated his hand from the mangled remains of his alarm clock.
Getting out of bed, he took a quick shower before getting dressed and going downstairs into the kitchen. On the refrigerator door, he saw a note from his parents.
‘Went to work early today to deal with the news. Breakfast omelet in the microwave. Good luck at school! Love, Mom and Dad.’
Wondering where his dad had gotten the idea to put an omelet in the microwave of all places, Jonathan poured himself a glass of orange juice from a carton in the refrigerator. Taking the omelet out of the microwave, he started warming it up with his heat vision.
As he quickly scarfed down his breakfast, he grabbed the remote control to turn on the kitchen television to see how the TV networks were covering the news.
The channel was already set to CNN. “This just in – Superman has announced that he will be holding a press conference at 8:30 AM eastern time! That’s in just under 30 minutes! As usual, CNN’s reporters will be on the scene to bring YOU all of the latest coverage! Don’t go away!”
A press conference – no surprise there, as he had figured that his dad would have to hold one sooner or later. But Jonathan would have to be in class at 8:30, so he wouldn’t be able to find out what happened until after he got out of school. He changed the channel to a local news network.
“For those of you who were with us last night and are just joining us this morning, we’ve got news that you’ve heard before, but this time it’s for real! Clark Kent is Superman!”
<Well, that’s not so bad. Let’s see what’s on LNN> he thought.
“Welcome back to continuing coverage of our hottest story right now – Superman’s love child stops school shooting! If you’re joining us late, last night we were able to confirm that the mother of the child is indeed Lois Lane, Clark Kent’s wife! We’ll continuously update you with information on Superman’s half-human love child as we get it! Remember, you heard it here on LNN, your source for unbiased news!”
Jonathan sprayed juice all over the kitchen counter. “What the-?“ he sputtered, not believing what he was hearing. Behind the LNN anchor an enlarged photo of his face was being displayed on a giant television screen. He turned off the TV, having all of a sudden lost his appetite for news. Grabbing his backpack, he went out the door to head for his school bus stop. It was going to be a long day.
****
<This was a great idea!> Jonathan congratulated himself as he ran to school. Not only would not taking the school bus get him to school faster, it would let him put off having to face his fellow students for as long as possible. He wasn’t sure if the speed limit applied to pedestrians, so he limited himself to what he guessed was just under the limit.
<Hey, if the secret’s out, might as well take the perks that come with it> he thought with a smile. Even if his reflexes weren’t fast enough for *super* speed, he could be his own automobile at least. He grinned even wider as he thought about all of the stuff he was going to buy with the fortune that he saved on gas.
He pulled into the school parking lot just as the earliest arriving school buses came in. Some of the nearby students gasped and pointed at him as they alerted their friends to how fast he was running. But before he could start contemplating what they might be saying, however, a student that he didn’t recognize approached him.
“Hey, Kent! Man, I can’t believe it! So it’s actually true what they said before about Superman doing your mom!” he said as he grinned from ear to ear.
Jonathan’s eyes widened as he shot an incredulous glare at the stranger. The unbelievable presumption-
Seeing the look on Jonathan’s face, the student assumed a nervous expression and waved his hands in the air defensively as he tried to recover. “Oh, not that there’s anything wrong with that, of course not…I mean, I suppose he’s perfectly entitled to…wait, that didn’t sound righ – hey, you know what, I think I just heard someone call my name.” he said as he beat a hasty retreat, giving a backwards look in Jonathan’s direction once he was safely out of earshot.
Jonathan gritted his teeth. <The nerve of that guy – I mean really, there are some things that a kid just *doesn’t* want to think about…> he thought, before his ruminations were interrupted by a familiar voice.
“Jonathan! Thank god you’re OK! I tried to visit you at the hospital last night, but they said that you had already been released!”
“Ben!” His previous mood suddenly forgotten, Jonathan turned around to face the owner of the voice. Benjamin Johnson had been his best friend since elementary school, and although their interests had diverged somewhat as they had gotten older, their friendship had remained as strong as ever.
“Uh, well - I can’t believe that your dad is Superman…” Ben began awkwardly.
“Yeah, about that – uh, are you, well, mad that I kept that a secret from you?” Jonathan replied.
“What? Oh, no no no, actually, I didn’t even realize until now that you might think that I would be mad at you. I mean, we’re friends and all, but this was kind of *big* secret. No, I’m not mad at all!” Ben said lightly.
Jonathan let out a breath that he didn’t even realize he had been holding. He wasn’t going to lose his best friend after all. “Well, I’m guessing that you probably have a ton of questions now, and I think that I owe you some answers.” Lowering his voice, he continued, “Your friendship means more to me now than it ever has. People that I talk to from now on…the friends that I have right now, I *know* are my *real* friends.”
Sensing Jonathan’s mood, Ben’s face became serious. He took a moment to take in what Jonathan was telling him before saying, “Jonathan – hey, don’t *you* start talking like that. I mean, yeah, some people are like that, but don’t stop believing the best about people just because of this. Just trust your own judgment – you have to believe in yourself.”
Jonathan slowly nodded at the truth in his friend’s words. “Yeah, you’re right. I shouldn’t let any of this color my impression of other people. But man, do I have a lot things to tell you about!” he said excitedly. He was surprised at how much he was now looking forward to sharing all of his secrets with his best friend. It was actually kind of…liberating.
“Oh, for sure - but it’ll have to be later! First period is about to start – we’ll talk!” Ben shouted as they split up to head to their respective classes.
****
<3rd period - P.E.>
“All right, if you finish your mile early, you can leave for lunch.” said the P.E. teacher. “Don’t start until I blow the whistle.”
Jonathan’s P.E. class was lined up outside on the track. Once every week, the class would have to run a specified number of laps around the track, a mile’s worth. In the past, Jonathan had always slowed himself down for obvious reasons – not so slow that he still wasn’t always the first person to get done, though. He couldn’t stand not trying to be the best when he did things – his father said that he had inherited his mother’s competitive streak. Well, now that everyone *knew*, he wouldn’t have to slow himself down anywhere near as much.
When the whistle blew, Jonathan dashed off, immediately breaking away from the pack.
****
<About 10 minutes later>
****
“Man, what the heck was that? You’re not even sweating - how fast were you going?”
Jonathan looked up from his lunch to see Ben, covered in sweat, sit down with his lunch next to him in their usual spot. Generally, students in the cafeteria sat with their respective social groups – a lot of the players on the football team sat together, as did the tennis team and the jazz band. Jonathan didn’t play any sports, so he and Ben sat with the computer guys. Ben was a big sports fan, much like Jonathan’s father, although he didn’t play on any of the school teams. However, Ben liked video games as much as the next guy, so he was never left out of any conversations.
“Eh, I think I was going around 70.” Jonathan replied matter-of-factly.
Before he could say anything else, Ben had continued prattling on. “Man, and here I always thought that you never played any sports because you just weren’t interested.”
Jonathan furrowed his eyebrows slightly in surprise. “Well, actually, I really am not interested in sports.”
“But why not? I mean, you’ve got more physical ability than anyone else in the world – haven’t you ever wished you could use them?” Ben asked incredulously.
Jonathan gave a short sigh. “Actually, that’s *exactly* the problem. I never really enjoyed watching sports that much – because I’d always be thinking, ‘I could do that 100 times better’. And I know that if I were to *play* a sport, my team would *always* win – and not because I had the skill or the passion to win, but because I possessed an insurmountable advantage solely due to the circumstances of my birth.”
He continued, “For instance, if I were to join the football team and win the championship, I wouldn’t have *earned* it. And by participating, I would have robbed everybody else of the opportunity to earn it as well. There would be no achievement – it would be like playing against handicapped people. I’d just feel really bad about it. I *could* limit myself to normal speed and strength, but intentionally suppressing myself like that – it just goes against my competitive nature.”
Jonathan decided to wrap up his impromptu speech. “But that’s what I like about chess and video games – that there are limitations which make everybody equal – including me. I’m free to put 100 percent of myself into those things without having to worry about having an unfair advantage. I guess I’m more like my mom that way than my dad – I like playing to win, rather than just playing.“
Ben, who had been listening attentively to Jonathan’s speech, said, “Wow. I never thought of it that way.” His expression suddenly changed from seriousness to mirth. “Hey - you know, I never really thought of Superman playing games.”
Jonathan winced. “Ben – why don’t we just refer to him as *my dad*? I mean, it’s not like you haven’t met him, or talked to him before, right?”
“Hm, yeah, I guess it is kind of weird for me to refer to your dad as ‘Superman’ when I’m talking to you. But this whole idea just takes some getting used to.” said Ben apologetically.
“Yeah, tell me about it” Jonathan smiled, remembering how surprised he had been when his father had finally told him his secret. He took another bite of his sandwich.
Ben noticed Jonathan’s eating motion, and something seemed to occur to him. “Uh, Jonathan, do you actually need to eat? I remember hearing that your dad doesn’t have to eat – I mean, you could save a lot of money by not eating or drinking anything.”
Jonathan laughed. “Ah, there’s an interesting story behind that one. I didn’t actually know that my dad was Superman until my 11th birthday, and prior to that my parents were always really, really careful to make sure that I ate regularly every single day so that I would never wonder why I never felt hungry. After I found out that I’m solar-powered, I kind of wondered something, but I was too embarrassed to ask my dad.”
Jonathan finished his story with in a conspiratorial voice, “For the next two days, I didn’t eat or drink *anything*, and sure enough, I didn’t have to use the bathroom *once* during that time period!”
Ben laughed hysterically, but quickly regained his composure. “But seriously Jonathan - if you don’t get hungry, *why* do you eat so regularly? I mean, you’d hardly ever ‘feel like eating’, right?
“Ah, there’s a good explanation for that too.” Jonathan spoke confidently, “Here, I’ll tell you what my dad’s told me.”
“Yes, we only eat because we like to. The reason we eat so regularly is that we *really* like eating. This is how my dad explained it to me: ‘you see, our bodies are less sensitive to unpleasant physical sensations like pain, heat, and cold.’” Jonathan began, before pausing for effect.“
“But, like all of our other senses, our tactile sense is ‘super’ as well. You might not have known that since super tactile sense isn’t really used in saving people. As a result, to use my dad’s words again: ‘every pleasant physical sensation we experience is magnified by many orders of magnitude.’ So, something that tastes good to you tastes, really, *really* good to me.” he finished, making a show of taking another bite of his sandwich.
As an afterthought, Jonathan added, “But yeah, now that you mention it, before, I sometimes used to wonder why no one else seemed to enjoy eating nearly as much as I did.”
“Huh. That’s interesting. I guess that makes sense.” Ben said. Then he did a double take, and instinctively asked without thinking, “Wait, did your dad really mean that *all* pleasant physical sensations are magnified?”
“Yes, that’s what I just said. Why-“ Jonathan started. Then his eyes widened slightly as he realized, and he slowed his voice down as he said, “Uh, you know Ben, there are some things that a kid just *doesn’t* want to think about…”
Realizing what he had just said and who he had just said it to, Ben wisely decided to cut off the conversation. After all, he had his friend’s emotional well being to think about. “Ah, right. Of course.” he said, chagrined.
The two sat in awkward silence for a few moments before Ben saw something and broke the silence. “Hey, looks like some of the football players are heading over here. It looks like they have something to say to you.” he said, gesturing in the direction of the people he was referring to.
Jonathan recognized the one in front as the captain of the football team. His hand was in his Letterman’s jacket, and he had a determined look on his face. On either side of him, slightly behind him, were two other guys wearing Letterman’s jackets. For some reason, their eyes were looking at the ground.
When they got to where Jonathan was sitting, the captain spoke up, sounding as determined as he looked, “ Kent? Well, a couple of the guys and I were just kind of wondering…” Then he hesitated a moment before working up his nerve again, and he took his hand out of his jacket, producing a steel bar.
“Can you bend this?” he asked, sounding slightly embarrassed now.
The two guys behind him stopped staring at the ground to look hopefully at Jonathan, both wearing expressions of eager anticipation.
****
<5th period - Calculus>
****
Jonathan’s math teacher was explaining a concept to the class on the whiteboard when the door to the room suddenly flung open, revealing a breathless Principal Lockhart.
“Is this the class that Jonathan Kent is in right now? I just saw it on the news – a fire has just broken out at one of the warehouses by Hobb’s Bay and the firefighters aren’t there yet! I ran as fast as I could in case Superman is busy with something else!” he managed to gasp.
Everyone in the classroom looked at Jonathan, who suddenly didn’t know what to do. “Uh…I know that my dad is Superman…but there’s nothing I can do.” he managed weakly, shifting in his seat uncomfortably.
At the confused whispering that started among his classmates, Jonathan continued, “I can’t fly yet. So I’d have to get there on foot, except that I can’t control my super speed yet, so I’d just be a menace to society if I tried to help. And that’s assuming that I could figure out how to get there in the first place – I can’t memorize maps yet like my dad can. Even if I did get there before the firefighters, I wouldn’t know how to put out the fire – I don’t have cold breath yet either.” he said apologetically.
The whispering intensified. Jonathan could clearly hear some people say to their neighbors, “He can’t fly?” Still feeling put on the spot, he said softly, partly to convince himself, “There’s nothing I can do.”
“Oh, I didn’t realize – um, sorry for disrupting your class, Mr. Bradley.” Principal Lockhart said before leaving.
Mr. Bradley tried to calm the class down, and was able to restore enough order so that he could continue with the lesson, but Jonathan wasn’t paying attention anymore. For the rest of the period, he couldn’t help but notice his classmates continue to sneak glances at him – and in their faces, he thought he saw…disappointment.
****
<Right before 7th period - history>
****
By the time the last class of the day was about to start, Jonathan was starting to feel a little bit better. Intellectually, he knew that he shouldn’t feel guilty about not being able to put out that fire – there really was nothing that he could do. Eventually he’d have to learn how to not blame himself for events beyond his control, and the sooner he did that, the better.
He thought that the day had gone as well as could be expected so far – certainly, it could have been a lot worse. For the most part, people hadn’t avoided looking at him, and they hadn’t started worshipping him as their new god, either.
However, he did notice quite a few people snickering who stopped when they noticed him getting near them. He wasn’t quite sure what that was all about, but he figured that whatever it was, it was bound to be better than being worshipped. Still, he had found it difficult to restrain himself all day from focusing his hearing to eavesdrop. Nevertheless, he had succeeded, and everyone’s private conversations had remained private.
Jonathan was looking forward to history – even without trying to eavesdrop, he had overheard more than a few people say what a great documentary Mr. Dinsmore had shown in class today. As he approached the classroom door, someone shouted out to him. He recognized the student - his name was Travis, and he was also in Mr. Dinsmore’s 7th period history class.
“Hey Jonathan, wait up! Uh, hey, I heard that you can’t fly and all that, but I was just wondering whether or not you could…” he stopped, suddenly unable to finish his sentence.
“What?” Jonathan said, after a couple of moments passed without Travis finishing his sentence.
“Um, well, if you could, you know…” Still unable to speak his question out loud, Travis gestured to the object he was holding in his left hand. It was a telephone book.
****
<25 minutes later>
****
Jonathan was sorely disappointed. Mr. Dinsmore wasn’t showing a great documentary – he was showing a crappy documentary, one about some of Superman’s early super feats. At first, alarm bells had sounded in Jonathan’s head. Now that everybody knew that his Superman was his father, any course material related to Superman could be potential for embarrassment.
But his fears were quickly assuaged when the video started – it had to be the most boring thing ever. The narrator’s voice was robotic as he told the viewers about various things that Superman had done shortly after arriving on Earth, without going into very much detail. Even as he praised Superman, no emotion crept into his voice. By the time the video was half over, Jonathan and Ben had stopped paying attention and were whispering to each other.
“Hey, Jonathan? I’ve got another question to ask you.” Ben whispered.
“What is it?”
“Uh, when you used heat vision on that gun yesterday – did you seriously say ‘Super Jonathan Heat Vision?’ ” Ben asked, making an obvious effort to restrain himself from laughing.
“Oh my god! Is *that* what everyone has been snickering about? I’m telling you, I had to get the guy’s attention! Man, I’m never going to live this down! I can’t think of anything more embarrassing!” Jonathan moaned.
“Haha, yeah, I feel for you. But doesn’t this video suck? Why did everyone say it was so good?” Ben wondered.
Before Jonathan could respond, the conversation was interrupted by Mr. Dinsmore pausing the video to speak to the entire class.
“When I first decided to show this video a few days ago, I had originally intended to edit this next part out, because I thought that one of our students would feel uncomfortable about it being shown. However, I decided to change my mind in light of recent revelations. You’ll know what I mean when you see it.” Mr. Dinsmore said, with his British accent.
That got everybody’s attention, especially Jonathan’s. Whereas many of the students had been half asleep up to this point, now everybody became alert and gave the television screen their full attention.
Mr. Dinsmore resumed the video, and the narrator’s voice continued droning on. “Superman’s most important super feat was when he saved the Earth from the Nightfall asteroid. This was the scene just before his first attempt to thwart the deadly asteroid.”
A scene from over 20 years ago appeared on the screen. A younger looking version of Jonathan’s dad appeared on the screen, wearing his Superman suit. He was wearing both a microphone and an oxygen tank, and was standing in front of a nervous throng of people.
The narrator continued. “He was described as ‘calm but determined.’ His final words before leaving were ‘I’ll do my best.’ But before he could take to the skies, one of his crazed admirers used the opportunity to say her last goodbye to the man of steel.”
Jonathan took a sharp intake of breath as he clenched his fists nervously. A younger version of his mother had appeared on the screen, and had engaged his father in a conversation away from the crowd. Although her hair was longer than it was now, it was still unmistakably her. Apparently, some of the others had recognized that too, for he could hear whispers of “Jonathan’s mom” being circulated around the room.
As his parents talked silently on the screen – there was no audio of the conversation - Jonathan relaxed somewhat. He realized that there wasn’t really anything too embarrassing that could happen, given the circumstances. They were on national television, with a huge crowd no doubt watching their every move, and his dad was dressed as Superman. Still, that didn’t stop him from gritting his teeth nervously when his dad placed his hand on his mom’s cheek, apparently to reassure her that he would return safely.
He started to let out the breath he had been holding when his dad took his hand away and started to leave. But then he could only stare in wide-eyed as he gaped in horror, as his mother, without any warning whatsoever, suddenly seemed to lose an internal battle with herself. She grabbed his father, turned him around to face her, and started sucking his face out. No. This wasn’t happening. It couldn’t be happening. But it was. How could they do this to him?
However, his classmates apparently did not share in Jonathan’s sense of horror. Immediately, the classroom erupted in a chorus of whoops, whistles, and hoots.
“All right, go Superman!”
“Yeah Jonathan’s mom! You go, girl!”
“Get a room!”
“Hey Jonathan, you watching this?”
“Are they like that all the time?”
His face burning redder than it ever had before, Jonathan slunk lower at his desk than he would ever have believed possible before that moment. Even though he knew that he was the only one who possessed heat vision, he could feel the burning gazes of everyone in the room on him. Why, oh why, did his parents hate him so much?
****
Jonathan had never been so glad in his life to hear the bell that signaled the end of the school day. Now he could finally go home, curl up, and die. The delighted taunts of his classmates continued to pursue him even as he went out the door.
“Hey Jonathan, after seeing that, I thought about telling your folks to get a room, but then again since you’re here, they must have already gotten the idea!”
He kept his head down so that he could see his footsteps. Maybe if he didn’t look at anyone else, they wouldn’t look at him either…
“Ben, how am I ever going to show my face in public again?” he groaned. He would have asked his friend to just kill him where he stood to spare him the humiliation, but he didn’t want Ben to break his hands.
“I don’t know, man. I’m just glad that Mr. Dinsmore doesn’t have any videos of *my* parents making out.” Ben replied.
How could he look so amused at a time like this? Wasn’t he supposed to be his friend? As soon as they got to the parking lot, Jonathan bid a hasty goodbye to his friend and started running home, where there was plenty of furniture to crawl under to hide from the world.
****
Jonathan turned on the television, dreading what he would see. The idea of crawling under the sofa didn’t particularly appeal to him that much when he thought about it a little bit more, so he decided to see what the world’s latest reactions to the Superman story were.
“…and that’s what happened at Superman’s morning press conference earlier today, for those of you that missed it earlier. So anyone who *still* feels like tangling with Superman, watch out, because he’s more powerful than ever now!”
More powerful than ever? What was that supposed to mean? What exactly had happened at that press conference? He would have to ask his parents when they got home. Jonathan changed the channel, hoping for some answers instead of more questions.
“…so I wouldn’t want to be a football player at Midwest University right now, being the butt of so many jokes. I mean, people, this was a team that had *Superman* playing for them, and they *still* couldn’t win the championship!”
Useless. He changed the channel again. The next news station had four people discussing something around a table.
“The entire geopolitical balance of power of the world is in question now – I mean, this kid is a U.S. citizen. I mean, we know that Superman himself is neutral in all human affairs, but his son represents an unknown. What if his government tries to use him to further their foreign policy agenda?”
“I don’t know about that, Bill – something tells me that they won’t stand for that. Besides, like you said – he’s a citizen, so they can’t even threaten him with deportation or anything if he doesn’t cooperate. And that’s assuming that he won’t just overthrow the government if they try to manipulate him.”
Great. They already had him as both a living weapon and as someone who could impose his will through force. He changed to a different channel, hoping it would be better. A reporter was getting the reaction from the street. She was currently holding the microphone in front of a young woman, who was speaking animatedly.
“Oh, I just think that it’s sooooo romantic!” she gushed. “Here are two people who love each other sooooo much that it doesn’t even matter to them that they’re diff-“
*Click*. Ugh, give it a rest already! He should have known better than to expect anything useful from the TV. He picked up yesterday afternoon’s edition of ‘The Daily Planet’, which was lying on the living room table. Now we’re talking!
His parents’ paper had really outdone itself this time – because of the paper’s special relationship with Superman, each and every single employee who worked at the Planet had an article in their name, even the janitors and copy boys.
Each and every person described their thoughts and reactions on learning that “Clark in the newsroom” was also Superman. Jonathan noticed that the first thing that all of the articles brought up was the complete and utter astonishment that its author felt at either seeing the transformation firsthand, or learning about it from someone else.
The people who worked closest to his dad described him using words such as “honest”, “caring”, and “compassionate.” They made it clear that they didn’t think any less of either Clark Kent or Superman now that they knew that they were the same person – in fact, if anything, it made them think even more of him. Those articles generally contained pleas to the public to not give Superman too much of a hard time. Jonathan himself was mentioned in some of the articles written by people he had met before – they generally described him as “a good kid.”
The hours passed as Jonathan devoured the articles in the paper, gaining much insight as to what the people closest to his parents thought of the whole thing. Every person had a unique perspective. Some people now wondered why Clark Kent had always seemed to be so jealous of Superman.
Mom and dad must have shared quite a few laughs back then – what with mom practically jumping Superman on national television, then pretending to be just friends with Clark Kent. Dad pretending to be jealous of Superman. Although now that he thought about it, he wondered how his father had been so sure that things would work out that he had trusted mom with his secret so early. They must have really hit it off from the start. Maybe mom had figured it out herself from the very beginning? He might have to ask his parents about that later.
The sound of his parents landing interrupted Jonathan’s train of thought. As he saw them come through the front door, the image of them eating each other’s faces 20 years ago suddenly appeared in his head against his own volition. He found that he couldn’t meet their eyes.
“So son, how was your day at school? Did anything interesting happen?” Clark asked cheerfully, completely oblivious to the strange way his son was looking at him.
“Uh, I got to bend a steel bar and rip a telephone book in two – hey, where did he get that steel bar, anyways? Did he drive out to a hardware store last night, or do you think that it was just lying around his house?” Jonathan babbled.
“Jonathan, is everything OK? That’s weird - your cheeks seem a little flushed.” Lois noticed.
“Uh, yeah mom, everything went great. But why don’t we talk about your day first?”
Clark smiled. “Well, all right, well here’s what your mother and I were doing while you were at school…”
<to be continued in Part V: “A day at work”>
