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“And desistance equals rate times time,” Lectured Mr. Higgins, the integrated physics and chemistry teacher at Smallville High. He had been lecturing on the same topic for the last 20 minutes.
Natalie was not even sure what sort of public-school bullshit integrated physics and chemistry, IPC for short, was. Mostly, it seemed like a way to pass off remedial middle school math and art projects as science. Metropolis Country Day would never have offered a class so rudimentary. This was also the only class she had with both Jonathan and Jordan Kent, and they seemed unphased with the remedial course work, though they had spent their entire lives in the public school system. Natalie had only first stepped into a public high school for the first time a few months ago. Had she been in Metropolis Country Day, she would have been in AP Chemistry.
Natalie and her dad had never intended to end up in Smallville. Landing here, on this planet had been tough, seeing her mom and then learning it was not her mom had been beyond hard. After a couple of days and an uncomfortable tear-filled moment with Lois, Natalie and her dad left for Metropolis.
What they did not expect, was to be ghosts. For John, he was a near literal ghost. Aunt Angela had shut the door on her town house and had started to scream when they showed up. John Henry Irons had died six years ago. His sister had been looking at the face of a dead man. The daughter he showed up with had never existed. Apparently, the thing the John Henry Irons of this earth had been married to was his job. The other version of her father had never had a family of his own.
When Natalie tired to retrace the life she had, before Superman destroyed her world, she found that she might as well be invisible. Her friends did not recognize her. She hovered outside their favorite hangout spot, just another face in the crowd, another stranger. Another family lived in their downtown condo on this world and without her dad’s fancy LuthorCorp executive title, Metropolis Country Day was out of the question. The salary offered by the DoD was a public-school sort of salary.
When Metropolis got too painful, they had set out in the RV to find a new home. They started with DC and then headed towards Atlanta, but it seemed too hard to set down roots. Their lives were too complicated, too shrouded in secrets.
They set out in the RV again, deciding to head out west. Perhaps Vegas or LA would make a better home. They had stopped in Smallville out of convenience because they had people there and it made for an easy waystation.
After being ghosts in Metropolis and nothing everywhere else, it felt nice to be around people who knew the truth. They had parked the RV in the barn in the Kent farm, and the two families had eaten dinner together and both Natalie and John realized this was the first time they were able to be unguarded around anyone outside there little two-person family.
John rented a small house just off on Main Street. For Natalie, being around Lois was slowly getting easier. In a lot of ways, it was noticing all the ways this Lois was nothing like her mom. She seemed harder, more closed off, and maybe a little sadder. This Lois had lived a harder life than Natalie’s mom. Maybe that is what being the mother to Superman’s children did to a human. Those things were subtle, perhaps they were just the lies Natalie told herself to make this easier. But there were also the more obvious things. For example, Natalie’s mom would have never, voluntarily, sent Natalie to a school like Smallville High, and yet Lois Lane’s sons were sitting across from Natalie, playing dirty word hang man instead of listening to Mr. Higgins go on about how to calculate distance. It did not really matter; Jordan and Jonathan would have no problem getting an A in this class.
“Ms. Irons…Ms. Irons, are you listening?” Mr. Higgins was looking straight at Natalie. Natalie had not realized she was daydreaming, thinking of anything more interesting than this remedial math lecture.
“Yeah, sure, what?” Natalie was done with Mr. Higgins; he did not seem to care at all about the boys scribbling on notebook paper next to her.
“If I have the distance and the rate, how do I calculate time?” Mr. Higgins asked, thinking he was asking a truly hard one.
Natalie could not help but give a massive eyeroll, “Distance over rate,” Natalie responded, though she knew there was a fair amount of attitude in her voice. “And if you want to calculate acceleration, its just the change in the rate or the velocity, though I do find it’s easier with just a little bit of basic calculus.”
“Ms. Irons, that is correct, but there is no need for that attitude. You were obviously not listening to the lecture.” Mr. Higgins called out.
Natalie looked over to where Jordan and Jonathan had looked up from their game of hangman, “Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum over here are literally playing games,” Natalie dragged her sort of half-brothers down with her. She was not really sure what it was like to have a sibling, but this seemed like the sort of thing siblings did to each other. Mostly, she was pissed that Mr. Higgins was always calling her out. She had some of the best grades in the class, the only person who was real competition was Jonathan. Neither him nor Jordan ever seemed to get into trouble, and they never even put on the pretense of paying attention.
Mr. Higgins looked over to where Jordan was trying to hide their most recent game of hangman and then looked back at Natalie, “Ms. Irons, this is not about them, this is about your lack of focus.” Mr. Higgins seemed to be digging in publicly, in front of the entire class.
“About my lack of focus, I’ve gotten 100% on all three tests this semester, how do I have a lack of focus?” Natalie spoke up, her dad would have told her to hold her tongue and to bid her time. Her mom would have challenged Mr. Higgins.
“Ms. Irons, this is not the appropriate place for this conversation.” Mr. Higgins replied.
“Are you serious, you’re the one that started this. You literally called me out and now you’re telling me that this is not an appropriate place for this conversation. This is bullshit, straight up bullshit.” Natalie was frustrated. Seriously, had this class been at all challenging or interesting Natalie would have paid attention, but no, the teacher had been droning on about the same stupid formula for most of the lecture. Natalie had zoned out like a normal teenager and now she was taking some oversized heat for doing what literally the rest of the class had been doing.
“Ms. Irons, the Principal’s office, now,” Mr. Higgins commanded.
“Fine, it’s better than this,” Natalie collected her bag and stormed out of the room, her dad was going to be angry, she did not really care. She had a decent idea what Mr. Higgins problem was, and it was likely the fact that a Black girl was making the high grade in the class. Men like him hated when Black girls stepped out of some perceived lane. Natalie wanted to blame it on Smallville or this world or Kansas, but there were Mr. Higgins everywhere, there seemed to universal truths and Mr. Higgins was one of them.
Natalie was glad when the school day finally ended, and she walked through the door of the little Smallville house. She had a robotics project she had been working on in her free time and after the entire ordeal with Mr. Higgins she felt like she needed to prove something to herself and to the world.
Her dad was sitting at the kitchen table, typing away on his laptop. “Hey Nat-bug, how was school?” He asked with his eyebrows raised in indication that he had already gotten a call.
Natalie shrugged, “It was fine,” she said, opening up the fridge to pull out the water pitcher.
“Natalie, what happened?” He dad asked, with a firmer tone this time.
Natalie let out a sigh, “Mr. Higgins again, the guy is such a pig, you know Jonathan and Jordan were paying hangman the entire class and they didn’t even get called out once.” Natalie went on a rant.
John took in a deep breath, “Look, I know things are weird right now, and I’m just going to save us both a lot of angst and agree that Mr. Higgins is wrong, but we have to keep our heads down here. We’re not in Metropolis anymore, we’re not on our world. Things are different here and it means we have to work on blending in.” John explained.
Natalie looked dejected, “Seriously dad, you just expect me to stand back and let people like Mr. Higgins get away with this crap?”
“Nat, I know it’s tough. I know it feels unfair, it is unfair. But we need to just lay low for a while, okay.” John explained.
“Yeah, okay,” Natalie was done with this conversation, “I’m going to go the garage and work on the drone,” Natalie said as she set her backpack on the kitchen island stool and poured a glass of water.
“Hey, Nat, you know you don’t need to do that anymore, you can be a normal teenager here. You could check out the Harvest festival tonight,” John softened up with the statement.
“But I like building, and I’m good at it and this is what I was planning to do tonight.” Natalie insisted.
“Okay, the Harvest Festival is actually not a suggestion.” John tried again, “I’m on duty tonight at the DoD, and you should get out of the house. I talked to Lois, and she and Clark are going to be there with the boys. I figured it could be a good opportunity to hang out with people your own age, outside of school. You’ve barley done that since we got here.”
“Who am I even going to hang out with, I don’t know anyone here and there all small-town clicks and dumb things like football and giant trucks.” Natalie argued, she really did not want to go to the Harvest Festival, and it seemed unfair her dad was making her.
“Jordan and Jonathan will be there; you guys seem to… tolerate each other.” John gave a slightly menacing smile.
“Ugh,” Natalie groaned. “Okay, what if I stay home this weekend and then went to the football game next weekend?” Natalie bargained.
“Seriously Nat, just try it for like an hour, it’s close enough that after an hour, you can just come home.” John pleaded, really hoping Natalie would give it a try.
“Fine, one hour and then I’m coming straight home to work on the drone.” Natalie agreed, though she was not particularly happy about it.
“It’ll be good Nat, a chance to try to do something normal for once.” John tired to encourage his daughter.
***
When Natalie arrived at the Harvest Festival, she already hated it. She hated the kitschy country music, she hated the cowboy hats, and the country western wear. The whole thing seemed small, just a couple of blocks of sad booths and homespun carnival games. She thought about turning around and walking the few blocks home. Sure, she would have to explain to her dad why no one in the Lane-Kent family had seen her, but that would not be all that bad…
“Hey, Natalie,” She turned around to see Jonathan calling out, Jordan was next to him. “I’m surprised you came out, I thought you were against joining…well anything.”
Natalie huffed, “My dad made me, he said I need to do something social. Hey nice buttons,” Natalie said, pointing to the large blue buttons attached to Jordan and Jonathan’s jackets that read Vote Lana Lang Cushing for Mayor.
“Yeah, Sarah’s mom is running for mayor, and we’re supporting the cause.” Jordan explained, pulling on the button. “She stuck working her campaign booth tonight.”
“Always good to see young people invested in local politics,” Natalie said, in her best Cronkite impression.
Jonathan laughed, “So, welcome to the most important social event of the year here in Smallville,” Jonathan opened his arms to the little festival.
“Ekk, this is rough….” Natalie looked over the edger of the festival where the wire for the lights and electricity was set up, “Actually, this is really rough, it’s not properly grounded and I don’t think this can probably handle the load,” Natalie explained walking over to the wiring and kneeling to inspect it.
“You kids, get away,” came a new voice barreling down the festival corridor. Natalie looked up to see Mr. Higgins running up.
“Your wiring’s a bit faulty, it’s dangerous,” Natalie explained, standing back up to face her IPC teacher.
“I assure you, it is just fine, I wired it myself, Ms. Irons. I suggest you and the Kent boys get back to the festival before I call the cops over for vandalism.” Mr. Higgins responded.
“Vandalism, we didn’t touch anything,” Jonathan defended.
“Mr. Kent, you’re a good kid, you should watch who you hang out with.” Mr. Higgins sneered, somehow more brazen now that he was outside the classroom.
“I’m sorry, what?” Jonathan asked, “What do you mean, more careful, Natalie’s like the smartest kid in our class. I do choose my company carefully and I assure you Natalie is one of the best,” Jonathan defended. “Come on,” Jonathan motioned for Jordan and Natalie to follow back towards the main part of the festival.
“I didn’t need your help,” Natalie insisted as they walked towards the core part of the festival.
Jonathan shrugged, “Mr. Higgins was being a dick, actually, he’s kind of always a dick to you.”
Natalie shrugged in return, “It happens.”
“That’s not alright though, he can’t just do that,” Jordan insisted, always the twin seeking justice.
“Look, I said it’s fine and I really don’t want to talk about it,” Natalie shut the conversation down. Neither of these boys could possibly understand the Mr. Higgins problem and she was not in the mood to explain. “So, what’s actually good here?” Natalie changed the subject.
“Chocolate covered bacon?” Jordan cracked a smile.
“That’s not a real thing, right?” Natalie looked disgusted. “Please tell me that’s not real.”
“Oh, it’s very unfortunately real, I think it’s our dad’s favorite thing here actually,” Jonathan explained.
Natalie could not help but look surprised. On her earth, Superman had been just Superman. This god that had lived on high until he turned against humanity. But learning that he liked chocolate covered bacon felt too weird. Certainly, Superman could not have such human idiosyncrasies. Though also, she had watched his children play hangman during class. It was moments like this that she realized she had not reconciled her new life at all and instead had mostly create some sort of neuro workaround to avoid all the little edges that did not line up.
“There had to be something better than Chocolate covered bacon?” Natalie tired again.
“Fried cheese,” Jordan responded.
“Ok, I can work with that…..” Natalie was interrupted.
POP
The Harvest Festival went dark, and the crowd turned the flashlights on, on their cellphones. The music stopped and the festival ground to a halt.
“I told him the whole thing was going to blow,” Natalie said in a tone that could all be called I told you so, “Come one.”
Natalie turned on her heal, back towards the edge of the festival where the shoddy electric had been set up. The boys followed her lead.
Mr. Higgins was fussing with the electrical, but he looked out of sorts, “I’m not sure what happened, it just exploded.”
“I told you it wasn’t properly grounded,” Natalie explained, “Move over, let me see if there is anything I can do.” Natalie said, pushing into the space where Mr. Higgins was standing over the electrical rig. Natalie bent down so that she was level with the large box that had been set up for the festival. She touched it “Ah, hot,” she said pulling her hand away, shaking it.
“Mr. Higgins, can you get the fire department, it doesn’t seem safe,” Jordan said, from his position behind Natalie.
“Uh, I guess?” Mr. Higgins seemed confused, being bossed around by the teenagers from his IPC class.
Once Mr. Higgins was out of range, Jordan knelt next to Natalie and let out a frozen stream of air, instantly cooling the entire electrical box.
“Thanks,” Natalie said, putting her hand back on the box noticing it was cool, “Does that come in handy often?”
Jordan shrugged, “Mostly just making a lot of ice quickly.”
“Hmmm, can you just hold the flashlight on your phone steady so I can get a good look?” She asked Jordan.
Natalie turned her attention to the box, pulling out a few of the bobby pins holding her hair in place. Bobby pins probably were not great for conductivity, but they would help in prying off small pieces of panel.
Natalie worked quickly, pulling out wires, examining frayed ends, twisting things together and finally shutting the lid and turning the entire box back on. The box hummed to life and the festival started again.
“How’d you, what’d you do?” Mr. Higgins asked, returning to where Natalie was getting up from where the box was.
“I just bypassed the faulty wiring, and properly grounded this entire thing.” Natalie brushed the dirt off her hands on her pants.
“You did what?” Mr. Higgins asked again.
“I…saved…the …Festival?” Natalie responded, slowly, putting space between each word, as Lois and Clark walked over from where they had been on the other side of Main Street.
“Are you guys all, okay?” Lois asked Natalie and the boys.
“Yeah, fine,” Jonathan spoke first, “I think Natalie just fixed the festival though.” Clark gave an impressed nod.
Natalie looked at Lois and Clark and said, “Well, if my dad asks, I was here, you saw me, and I fixed the electrical. I’m going home.” With that, she turned on her heal, and walked towards the little house just a few blocks away. She had real work to do, and it was far more interesting than twisting a couple of wire together to turn the lights back on at a country fair.
The next morning, Natalie was sitting at the kitchen counter, eating a bowl of cereal when her dad walked in, done from whatever night duty the DoD had him doing. Natalie did not totally understand why an R&D department head needed to do night duty, but then again, she also did not fully understand why her dad felt compelled to put on the suit even though the Kryptonians on this earth apparently spent their leisure time at Harvest Festivals eating chocolate covered bacon.
“Hey Nat-Bug, how was the festival?” John asked as he turned on the coffee maker.
“It was about as lame as I thought it would be,” Natalie said, taking another bite of her Lucky Charms.
“Well, I was thinking that this afternoon, we might drive out, see what we can’t get that drone to fly, what do you think?” Her dad asked.
“Yes, that’s all I’ve wanted to do all week,” Natalie was truly excited. Small towns may not be her thing, but wide swaths of open land where she could test out her builds where exactly the sorts of places she wanted to be.