Absently, Lisa spun the bracelet around and around on her wrist. It had been wrong to take it from her mother’s jewelry box, but somehow she didn’t care. She felt different when she held the bracelet, more confident and assertive.
She didn’t worry that people thought she was a freak, or about what people might say about her. The gossip that she heard constantly didn’t seem to bother her much at all when she had the bracelet.
Her grades were even better.
Lisa had always been a good student, but the misery of her day to day existence had been hurting her grades. It was hard to concentrate when you were listening to the teachers in the teachers' lounge talking about the students at the same time as you heard the workers in the kitchens talking in rapid fire Cuban.
It was harder when you sometimes couldn’t see the paper you were writing on because your special vision kicked in and you ended up looking through the floor at the worms and cockroaches underneath the school.
Lisa’s life was a parade of horrors, but somehow, everything seemed better when she had the bracelet.
While she had it, she had all the confidence in the world. There was no fear, no doubt. There was only what she wanted and how she was going to get it.
She felt guilty about the cheating when she didn’t have the bracelet. Normally she would never do anything like look through the teacher’s desk at the answer sheet. Her mother had taught her the value of hard work, after all.
Teachers loved the more confident version of her. Normally the last one to raise her hand in class, she was more assertive now, and they were complimentary.
How much she’d craved attention wasn’t something she’d liked to think about. Now it was something she didn’t worry about.
“I heard that Katie did it behind the bleachers last week.” Myrna Peters was one of the biggest gossips in school. She also had an eye for who was in power and who wasn’t. There were subtle gradations in status even in the sixth grade, and for most of the week, Lisa had been on top.
The story about Katie was untrue, of course. Her boyfriend had made it up in front of his friends. Lisa had heard the whole thing. It wasn’t her concern, even if normally she’d have tried to defend the girl.
Children her age lived in a world their parents never heard about. More jaded than previous generations, they sometimes spoke a language of their own.
Status was king at Lisa’s school. The richer kids taunted the poorer. The beautiful kids made fun of the ugly. The weak were left in the dust socially.
They were like a pack of dogs just waiting for a new pack leader.
Lisa had been at the bottom of the totem pole far too long. It was time for her to be top dog.
**************
“Just what does this thing do to them exactly,” Lois asked as she slipped into the station wagon.
As Clark Kent slipped into the seat beside her, looking out of place in his Armani suit, Lois wondered where his limousine had gone.
Most likely he’d sent it away. Having an expensive car pulling up in front of a house in her neighborhood wasn’t the best way to remain inconspicuous.
That he’d have the car pull up down the block and walk the rest of the way only underscored how paranoid and suspicious he was.
It had to be a lonely, isolated life, living that way. Lois couldn’t imagine being able to trust no one, although this secret of Lisa’s was beginning to make her understand.
It wasn’t something she could share with her parents. Her father would be dispassionately interested in what made Lisa different than anyone else. Her mother…well, Lois couldn’t take the risk.
Uncle Mike would probably be able to accept her, but that would mean he’d have to carry the burden of the secret as well. She’d already asked enough of him.
“Where are we going?” Clark asked her.
“School. It’s where most twelve year olds spend their day at one o’clock in the afternoon.” Lois slipped the car into drive and pushed the gas a little harder than she needed to.
She could see Clark Kent tensing beside her, and part of her was vindictively happy. He deserved anything he got after the way he’d treated her the last time.
If she pulled around the corner a little faster than she normally did, who could blame her?
**********
Clark was beginning to wonder how long it would be before he got full custody of Lisa Lane. The way Lois was driving, she wouldn’t be alive much longer.
As Lois spun around yet another curve, Clark noticed a commotion up ahead.
He heard Lois cursing under her breath as she took in the flashing lights and smoke ahead of them.
She was out of the car in a flash, and Clark was trailing behind. The entire class was standing outside of the school, and fire trucks were lined up outside the building. A glance inside with his special vision showed Clark that the firemen had the fire under control. A couple of classrooms were going to have extensive damage, but the rest of the school was going to be just fine.
As he felt the familiar feeling of fire caressing his skin, he stepped back quickly. He couldn’t afford to lose his head when he was around either of them, and every exposure to the rock was harder to come back from.
He saw Lois walking up to one teacher in particular, and he allowed his mind to wander.
He could hear the children talking about the fire, and about the way Lisa Lane had dumped a tray of soup on the head of one of the other girls in their class. The more he listened, the grimmer he felt.
She was new to exposure to the rock, according to Lois. She’d had it buried in an attic until their recent move to their new house, and even then it had been hidden in her heavy jewelry box, which would have provided some protection.
She still had vestiges of whatever goodness Lois had installed in her, or the extent of things wouldn’t have been a couple of burned classrooms. Given that children didn’t really understand the nature of consequences, the possibility of someone being hurt or worse was high.
Seeing that no one was looking, he stepped behind a corner and flashed into his full speed. In the space of a moment he was back with a heavy lead pouch. By the time the sonic boom had hit, causing the children to look back in his direction, he was already somewhere else.
Lois puzzled him. She seemed like an intelligent woman. Yet she hadn’t realized that stones that were still glowing thirteen years after she’d gotten then might be radioactive.
Lisa was sullenly giving the bracelet to her mother. At least Lois still had that much hold on her. If it hadn’t occurred to Lisa before, it would soon that Lois no longer had the ability to force her to do anything.
He needed to meet her as Superman sooner than later.
************
Bracelet in hand, Lois stalked back to the car. They were going to have a long talk when Lisa got home about stealing. Whatever she’d done at school would also be a topic of conversation.
She noticed Clark standing well away from her car. On the hood was a dull gray pouch.
“Put it in the pouch,” he said.
Staring at him for a moment, Lois did. The pouch was heavy, like the lead aprons she’d head to wear at the dentist’s when she got x-rays.
“Fold it up several times.”
Lois did so, and she noticed that only then did Clark approach the car.
“This stuff is poisonous to them,” Lois said suspiciously. “Why are you standing so far away?”
“It can cause cancer in humans,” Clark said, reaching out to take the pouch gingerly from her. He slipped it into another, heavier pouch. “The artist developed a tumor on his spine and hasn’t been able to walk since.”
Lois felt her face pale. “You mean…”
“It requires long term exposure,” Clark said. “And the radiation’s effect on humans requires…closer contact than with Kal El’s species.”
“I stopped wearing this after…that night. It had too many memories.” Lois said.
“I’m glad,” Clark said. “It wouldn’t have been good for the fetus.”
For the first time his voice sounded genuine.
“You were standing so far away,” Lois said.
“I’ve been exposed for a long period of time, Ms. Lane, before we knew exactly what effects it had on the human body. I have to be more careful than the average person.”
She nodded and noticed that even with the bracelet wrapped in lead he handled it gingerly.
“So this could be causing all kinds of health problems in people who didn’t just chuck it after a couple of weeks as a fad,” Lois said.
Nodding, Clark said, “I understand there’s only two weeks left of school. “I’d like for the two of you to come spend a few weeks with me while my people get you up to speed on what’s expected of you.”
“Why would I ever want to stay with you?” Lois asked.
“It’s a little conspicuous, having Lisa’s father visiting in the suburbs. He comes to my house all the time, as we have to consult about Foundation business.
So no eyebrows would be raised if he slipped off from time to time to visit a wayward daughter.
“What are people going to think about me moving into your house?” Lois asked.
Clark shrugged. “They’ll think the truth, that you work for me. I haven’t exactly been creating headlines in the tabloids.”
He put a hand on her shoulder, and Lois found herself staring at his hand as he continued to speak.
“This is the right thing. It’ll give Lisa a chance to know her father away from everybody, without the newspapers and television crews.”
He was still trying to sell that angle. He was just as much of a snake as he had ever been.
As he removed his hand from her shoulder, Lois realized that it still tingled where he’d touched her.
She felt an old, forgotten feeling in the pit of her stomach, one that she’d been sublimating for years. The last time she’d felt it had meant an unending amount of trouble for her. Lois had a feeling that this time wasn’t going to be any better.
She was attracted to him.
Crap.
