Chapter Text
Kara sighed as she watched her arrow whizz past the target and meet the other arrows scattered on the ground. The young cupids around her cheered and she looked over toward the noise. Clark had gotten another bullseye. She forced a smile and a thumbs up as she caught his eye across the field.
“You got this,” he mouthed, returning her thumbs up. She nodded in acknowledgement, but she knew she wouldn’t pass. Clark would complete his Trials and get to go to Earth and Kara was stuck for yet another year of being twelve years old.
The bell rang and their trainer marked off each target on her clipboard as everyone headed to the locker rooms to get changed before their next period and next final exam.
“Hey, can you run through these flash cards with me?” Clark asked when he caught up to Kara. She smiled as she looked down at the words in front of her. This was her specialty.
“Do you want me to give you the word first or the definition?” she asked.
“Is the definition in English or Astral?” he asked.
“Astral, but I want you to translate it the definition,” Kara said. “I want you to practice your English.” Clark groaned but relented.
“Word first then,” he said.
“Rudimentary,” Kara read off of the first card. Clark gave the Astral definition and then looked at Kara for help.
“It means ‘basic,’” Kara said. She tucked the card into the back of the pile. Clark sighed. “You can do this,” she said.
“That’s easy for you to say!” Clark said. He yanked open the door to their school building. “You’ve been able to spend years learning your Twelfth Scholar stuff!” Kara winced. She hated how much that stung, but he was right.
“Says the little cousin who is outshining me in every aspect of Field and will be sent to the Earth plane years ahead of me,” Kara muttered in English, but Clark knew enough of the language that he understood what she was saying.
“Sorry,” Clark said.
“No,” Kara said. “It’s fine. I knew when you passed Fifth Trials that you’d get to Earth before me. I just hate the idea of you suddenly becoming older than me.” That wasn’t the only thing she hated about failing Trials, but it was the only thing she’d admit to Clark.
“I’m going to be taller than you, too,” Clark said. He grinned, and used his wings to levitated himself higher than Kara’s head. A teacher called out from down the hallway and he quickly dropped to the ground. “Sorry!” he called.
“Serves you right,” Kara said with a laugh. She threw an arm around her cousin. “Thinking you’ll ever be taller than me. Ha! Now, what does ‘tantamount’ mean?”
Kara walked out of her Earth Physics final exam at the end of the day in a much better mood than when she came in from Field. She waited outside Clark’s Math classroom and when he emerged met his beam with one of her own.
“I think I passed!” Clark said. Kara gave him a high five.
“Duh, I told you,” she said. “Math is all about making connections. It’s like Soul Strings but with numbers, and you can’t see the soulmate right away.” It had been the easiest way for her to explain formulas to him. They were the tools to find the answers, the way cupids used Soul Strings to match soulmates together during Assignments.
“That didn’t help. I got Aunt Alura to help me study,” he admitted.
“Oh,” Kara said, “you asked my mom for help?” Clark looked away from her.
“And I think I did good in American History,” he said, changing the subject. He switched to speaking English. Kara suspected it was because he knew how much she loved speaking in other languages.
“You did ‘well,’ ” Kara corrected, also in English. “And everyone is good at American History.” She felt her mood start to crumble as the two of them stood in line for their report cards. Their tests from the previous hour would be graded soon, and then they’d both know if they’d passed Twelfth Trials, though Kara already suspected the answers.
“How do you think you did?” Clark asked.
“Like you said, I’ve had years to learn Scholars,” Kara said. “I’m worried about Field though.”
“It’s not like you’re the oldest person ever to not pass Twelfth Field,” Clark said. “Dad says his friend from his graduating class had been in Twelfths for twenty years.” Kara groaned.
“Clark, not helping,” she said. She didn’t even want to imagine being in Twelfths for another ten years.
“Dad said they speak eight different languages by the end - some they spoke so good they offered to let them switch Guilds!”
“‘ Could speak,’” Kara corrected. “And they spoke so well . Seriously, this is Tenth Trials grammar. And I wouldn’t want to switch Guilds, even if a French-speaking Guild would mean I could go see Paris. I like the Krypton Guild.”
“And staying in Krypton means you might get to see me on Earth when I get taller than you,” Clark added. It wasn’t out of the realm of possibilities, though Fate tended to Assign family members to different areas so they’d be less likely to reveal the existence of cupids and the Astral plane.
“Oh, that is so not happening. You will not be taller than me,” Kara said. She felt the smile begin to return to her face. Clark had a way of doing that, of making people feel like they were right where they were supposed to be. Those were the skills of a far better cupid than Kara. He could Nudge even the most stubborn in the right direction.
“Wait,” Kara said. “Did you just Nudge me?” Clark’s eyes went wide with guilt.
“What?” he asked. “No, I would never!”
“You did, you Nudged me when I wasn’t looking! You know you’re not allowed to do that on school grounds!”
“Yes I am,” Clark said. “We do it in Archery all the time!”
“That’s different,” Kara said. “That’s when we’re learning.”
“ I’m learning,” Clark said before he clamped a hand over his mouth. He hadn’t meant the sarcasm to sound as mean as it did, but Kara’s anger got the better of her.
“I...you...it’s...ugh!” Kara sputtered before she threw up her hands and left the building. She knew she’d passed Twelfth Scholars. She knew she’d failed Twelfth Field. She knew she wouldn’t get an Assignment. She didn’t want to wait in line to find out.
Unfortunately, she wasn’t paying attention, and stalked straight into her principal, report cards scattering in every direction. Kara leapt up and flew to get the cards sent sailing in the wind, but she couldn’t get quite high enough or keep enough control, and she watched her principal soar past her as she fell back to the pavement. She picked up the cards around her feet, and was alphabetizing them by last name when her principal touched down next to her.
“Kara of El,” she said. Kara stiffened. “You know better than to leave before the end of the day. Where do you think you’re going?”
“Sorry, Aunt Astra,” Kara said. She stared at the pavement. Astra sighed held out her hand, pulling Kara to her feet. She gave Kara the remaining cards, and Kara began to sort them.
“Sorry doesn’t explain skipping out before the end of the school day,” she said. She smoothed out the wrinkles of her jacket and reached her hands up to try and tame her dark, windblown curls. Kara grimaced.
“I failed Fields again,” she said. “Clark passed.”
“And how do you know that?” Astra asked.
“I had a feeling,” Kara said. “And I was right.” She gestured with the stack of report cards to prove her point. Astra smiled.
“Kara, your feeling was right. Do you know what that means?” Kara shook her head. Astra began to walk toward the school building, and Kara followed her. “It means you’re not as bad at this as you think. Follow your instincts and you will get there eventually.”
“What if I end up like Uncle Jor-El’s friend? The one who spent twenty years in Twelfth Trials?” Kara asked. Astra held open the door for her.
“Then you’ll end up just like me,” she said in French. Kara gasped, and Astra winked. “Now get in line, little one.”
Kara watched Clark leaf through his folder one last time. Her scrappy little cousin would be going to the Earth plane today. He’d gotten his Assignment before any of the other cupids in his graduating class. He’d get sucked into Earth, Kara knew. He would forget all about his big cousin on the Astral plane. It was alright, though. Kara knew she’d be okay. At least, that’s what she told herself.
“It should be you on that platform instead of him,” a voice said from behind her. Kara turned. Her mother and Aunt Astra looked identical save the white streak in Astra’s hair that marked her as a teacher. In demeanor, Alura and Astra couldn’t be more different.
“I tried, Mother,” Kara said. Alura frowned.
“You say that every year, sweetheart,” she said. Kara sighed. “He’s going to grow up without you to protect him now.”
“I know.” It was one of Kara’s biggest fears, beyond Clark forgetting her. She had spent over a decade learning everything there was to know at the highest level of education about the Earth plane and about the English-speaking world. Clark had only had a year before he passed his Field Trials. If nothing else, Kara was smarter for her failures. Clark was a better cupid, but Kara would pass better for a human, and she wasn’t going with him to the Earth plane to keep him safe.
“He’ll make the House of El the pride of our Guild,” Alura said. Her words were biting. Clark, not Kara, would be the pride of the family. Clark, not Kara, would succeed.
“I’m already proud of him,” Kara said. She kept her voice even and polite. He handed his father his Assignment folder and gave his parents hugs goodbye.
“Of course you are,” Alura said. She walked over to her brother-in-law and gave him a smile that Kara had thought would never come back to her mother’s face. It wasn’t for her. Clark gave her a final wave as he stepped onto the platform from which he would go to America. He’d be a foster child, but Fate had arranged a family for him, and he had the parameters he needed to follow his Assignment. Kara blinked back tears as her Guild clapped for him and he shook Aunt Astra’s hand and jumped into the air, his wings glowing a brilliant blue before he faded from the plane.
Kara stood patiently in line for her report card. The cupids around her laughed and gossiped and made summer plans. No one paid much mind to the fifteenth-year Twelfth. They never did. There was one girl who was kind to Kara, a girl named Indigo, in her eighth year of Twelfth Trials. She and Kara were in the same Computer Skills class as well as the same Mandarin class. Kara was better than her at Mandarin, but Indigo loved computers. They weren’t friends, per say, but there was a mutual respect between them. Indigo had trouble seeing Soul Strings, and she’d gone home after failing to decipher even the closest soulmate connection during their Sight final that morning. Kara had thought she had done well, and she knew she had done better than Indigo. This was the first year in far too many that she was looking forward to receiving her report card, unsure of the results it held.
Luckily for Kara, the Krypton Guild and other Guilds with Anglophone designations were the first to be called. She didn’t have that long of a wait.
“House of El, Kara,” Astra said. Kara walked nervously to the podium where Astra and her stack of report cards were stationed. “Twelfth Scholar Trials, pass.” Kara knew she would pass Scholars. She always had. She took a deep breath and met Astra’s eyes, which gave away no tells of what she was about to say. “Twelfth Field Trials, pass.”
Kara couldn’t believe it. She’d passed. She’d actually passed. She heard a shout and it took her a moment to realize that it was coming from her own mouth.
“I did it,” Kara said.
“Yes you did, little one,” Astra said. “Congratulations.” Kara skirted around the podium and gave her aunt a huge hug, even though she knew that hugging the principal wasn’t the most proper course of action. Behind her, the young cupids began to clap. Kara of the House of El had finally passed Twelfth Trials. She would make her mother proud yet.
It took another three months for Kara to get her Assignment. Her mother was more impatient than she was, Kara thought. Alura asked every day if Kara had heard from her aunt. Aunt Astra said that Fate takes its time deciding on Assignments.
Kara had her nose in her Social Media textbook, making sure she remembered the differences between platforms and the average lengths of hashtags, when a knock came at her bedroom door.
“Aunt Astra!” Kara said as she looked up. She stood up off of her bed and ran over to give her aunt a hug. “Did I get an Assignment? Did you bring it?” Astra laughed before pulling a folder from her jacket.
“Yes you did,” Astra said. “Congratulations.” Kara opened the folder. The first page contained information on her new foster home.
“The Danvers family,” Kara read.
“Yes,” Astra said. “Kara of El will become Kara Danvers. Your Assignment is young, and you are to be her new sister.” Kara pulled out the next page of information. Her Assignment was a girl a few years older than her. She wasn’t smiling, but her eyes looked kind. Her hair was a dark chestnut color. No Soul Strings were visible in photographs, since the human technology couldn’t capture something so Astral, but Kara could bet that Alexandra’s was beautiful. “There’s a surprise in there,” Astra added. “Go to the last page.” Kara did as she was told.
“Clark,” Kara said as she stared at the face before her. “He looks so grown up. This says he’s in college. Central City University, majoring in Journalism. Is his Assignment his sibling too?” Astra shook her head.
“I can’t divulge Assignments. You know that. Look at the bottom of the page.” Kara looked down to where Astra was pointing. There was a phone number and an email address.
“You mean I can get in touch with him?” Kara asked.
“Yes,” Astra said. “I may have pulled some strings and gotten a special request sent in for you.” Kara squealed and hugged her aunt, murmuring thank yous as pages flew out of her folder. Astra laughed again at the mess and hugged Kara back. “Oh, you are going to make a fantastic preteen.”