Chapter Text
Lena sat with her head against the limo window watching the vast green trees and valleys go by while listening to Don’t Speak by No Doubt. She was going over the things in her life that got her to this point and the unfairness of it all. She just wished that she was back at home underneath the covers. She was suddenly brought out of her thoughts by a soft tap of her knee.
She pressed pause on her CD player and looked up to see three adults staring up at her with concern: Her father and mother, Lionel Luthor and Elizabeth Walsh, were sitting across from her with Lionel’s wife, Lillian Luthor, sitting to her right. Lena had always found their relationship a little peculiar. Lionel and Lillian entered a polyamorous relationship with Elizabeth about a year before she was born and they had been together ever since. It was not the norm, but she liked it because she had an extra person to love and call Mom. However, now she can’t stand any of them because she feels betrayed by them all.
Lena narrowed her eyes and snapped, “What?”
Lionel rubbed his temple and said, “You don’t have to answer with that tone.”
“You’re kicking me out of the house and abandoning me in the middle of nowhere. How do you expect me to sound?” seethed Lena.
Her mother winced but tried to keep a passive look on her face.
“That is not what is happening here. Nevermore is a wonderful school. They have wonderful teachers, the students are friendly, and you will learn more ways to control your magic,” Elizabeth tried to reason.
“I control my magic just fine. I’m even better at magic than you!” scoffed Lena.
Elizabeth grimaced at that last statement and tried to return to a more passive face.
“That may be true sweetie, but the way you’ve been using your magic is… less than desirable.”
Lena scowled while looking back out the window. “I have been practicing magic wonderfully,” she muttered.
Lena felt Lillian grabbed her hand softly. She looked over to Lillian staring at her with a soft smile on her face.
“You have a gift with magic. While I found the last stunt hilarious….”
Lionel frowned and asked, “Really, Lillian?”
Lillian looked up startled and asked, “What? I’m not going to lie to the girl. It was funny.” She turned back to Lena with a soft smile and said, “As I was saying, it was a funny stunt and I get why you did it, but violence shouldn’t be your go-to when someone has slighted you or someone else in this household.”
“But Morgan Edge was being a jackass,” muttered Lena.
Elizabeth sighed and said, “Language, sweetie.”
Lena rolled her eyes and said, “Morgan Edge is a butt face. Happy now?”
Lionel rubbed the back of his neck and asked, “You don’t think what you did was the least bit overkill?”
Lena thought back to what happened a week ago. After school, she walked to L-Corp to listen to a presentation that Lex and Edge were putting together about a new energy-saving initiative.
However, Lex never showed up to the meeting, just Edge. He went on to pitch his own idea of replacing steel with nth metal since a new supply of it was found in South America and it is stronger than any metal on Earth. Because of the large supply of it found, it would save energy costs.
While Edge was explaining the numbers, Lena found it odd that Lex was still missing and used her magic to try to locate him. She found him locked in a broom closet with a pit bull. Lex had managed to get to the top shelf where the dog couldn’t reach him.
She used magic to poof the dog away, but the damage was done. Lex was a babbling mess with scratch marks everywhere, and a urine stain on his pants. She instantly poofed him to a hospital so that he could be treated and given a sedative to calm down. While the doctors were working on Lex, she poofed back to L-Corp and burst back into the boardroom where Edge was finishing up his presentation. She remembers the confrontation with Edge vividly.
She approached him like a cat about to pounce on its prey. She tapped his shoulder while looking at him passively.
“Is there a reason why you locked my brother in the broom closet with a pit bull?” Lena demanded.
Edge chuckled. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
Lena looked down at her hands nonchalantly and said, “I found him in the closet not too long ago. The pit bull had run him up to the top shelf. The closet is only able to be locked with a key from the outside, so Lex couldn’t have done it himself. When I asked him what happened, all he could say was ‘Edge’ over and over again.”
Edge smirked and said, “‘Edge’ could refer to so many things. Besides, it’s kind of pathetic that Lex couldn’t stand up for himself against a dog. The most basic of people can do that.”
Lena raised an eyebrow and asked, “Oh really?”
Edge laughed obnoxiously which caused Lena’s skin to crawl. “Everybody knows that your brother doesn’t really have thick skin when it comes to business, or anything else for that matter. He comes from a Wasp-y upbringing, but he is anything but. L-Corp needs strong and dominant leaders who can take the reigns. Not those that cry in the corner.”
Lena narrowed her eyes and frowned. Her eyes turned black and started walking toward Edge, which caused him to gulp. When Edge looked around, his face fell when he noticed that everyone in the room was frozen in place and silent.
Edged looked back at Lena and stuttered, “It’s…nothing…personal….kid….”
Lena stopped within inches of him and smirked. “I find it funny that you think that you’re a Wasp considering you’re really just a worker bee gathering things in attempts to make your mommy richer and hoping that she loves you more for it. Too bad that she’ll still ignore you no matter what you do.”
Edge took a step back hesitantly and said more confidently, “You don’t know what you’re talking about.”
Lena smiled while brushing her hand against his arm which caused him to gasp. He was so nervous that he didn’t notice a purple glow going from her hand to his arm.
“Maybe you should be reminded of what bees do when a Wasp tries to enter solo in their hive.”
Lena cackled as she turned around and left. The room became lively again after she left. Everybody left the room except for Edge, who sat in the room in stunned silence.
Lena has thought back to that day with a smile on her face often.
Lena looked back at Lionel smiling and said, “I don’t think that it was overkill at all.”
“You had bees burst through the wall at his home and attack him,” Elizabeth said with a deadpan stare.
Lena looked down while pulling at her dress and said, “They just bit him. It is not like any of them used their poison stingers to kill him. If I wanted that, I would’ve done something that didn’t leave a body.”
Lillian raised an eyebrow and said, “You realize that it’s comments like that which have us concerned?”
Lena huffed and turned to look back out the window.
Lionel sighed and said, “You realize that doing this puts scrutiny on us?”
Lena scoffed and said, “I don’t see how! The police dismiss Edge’s claims that I had something to do with the bees by having experts come in to look at the wall with the bees and it showed that they’ve been living in his wall for years. Edge even had his own private experts come out and they told him the same thing.”
“I’m still not sure how you were able to do that,” muttered Lionel.
Lena smirked and said, “It was simple. I had used the magic to transfer a beehive into the wall and then accelerated time within the wall so that the bees and hive would look like they had been there for several years.”
“I would have admired your craftiness if this wasn’t serious,” said Lillian.
Elizabeth started messaging her forehead and said, “We’re getting off track here. Edge is still adamant about Lena being involved, despite everything, and has been talking about it constantly with the board of directors. Currently, most don’t believe him because of the lack of proof and the testimony from experts, but the issue is that you have done things like this before that the board has taken notice of.”
“So you’re dumping me in the middle of nowhere because you fear what I may do could destroy your chances with the Board?” seethed Lena.
Lillian gently turned Lena towards her so that they were staring each other eye to eye.
“That is not what we are saying at all. We’ve noticed that you’ve been vengeful with your magic for a while now. Part of it is our fault because we didn’t realize the kids were bullying you because of your magical powers and we should have done more to address that and probably pulled you from school then. However, when you met Sam several years ago, your behavior changed and you were excelling in school and there weren’t any constant complaints from the school. However, when she vanished last year, the vengeful behavior started coming back out. We don’t want to see this consume you which is why we chose Nevermore because it would have kids your age that have similar powers as yours. We’re hoping that being in that environment can teach you that you don’t have to lash out all the time.”
Lena looked down and shuddered. She had hated being around other students because they saw her do magic one time, making a field of flowers bloom earlier than normal in late March, and they’ve hated her ever since. They would throw rocks at her and call her cruel names. She would lash out by using her magic by teleporting them into the forest nearby or causing them to fall or run into something.
However, all that stopped when she met Sam. Lena was surprised that Sam wanted to hang out with her since she was three years older than Lena. Sam found Lena’s powers cool and would beat up anyone who would make fun of her. They hung out all the time at her house until, one day, Sam was just gone. When Lena went over to her house, everything had been moved out. She tried using magic to find her, but she couldn’t. The location spell that she uses can only find things that are within a fifty-mile radius of her. She has been working harder to expand it so that she could try to find her again but hasn’t gained any success so far. With Sam gone, the bullies re-focused their efforts on her with full force.
A tear started to roll down her cheek. Lillian instantly pulled Lena in for a hug. Lena leaned into the hug and started crying harder.
Lillian kissed the top of her forehead and said softly, “That’s it. Let it all out. Everything is going to be okay. This will end up being a positive experience for you. Plus, it’s not like you will never see us again. We’ll still be making visits to you up here.”
Elizabeth rubbed Lena’s knee and said, “I know it seems daunting, but Nevermore will have a good impact on you. I made so many friendships there that I have to this day.”
Lena turned her face towards Elizabeth with tears streaming down her face and asked, “If it was such a great school, why didn’t you enroll me there last year for my freshman year?”
Lionel looked down frowning and said, “That was my fault. Elizabeth and Lillian thought that you should have enrolled last year, but I was against it. Lex had been interested in the company around your age and I wanted to be able to gradually show you the ropes while in high school. However, I realize that was selfish of me. Magic is a part of who you are and we should have been helping you to develop it in positive ways.”
Lena looked back at him shocked. Her father was never one to admit he was wrong. He always went down swinging even if he was way off.
Lena chuckled and said, “You must really think you fucked up if you’re admitting that.”
Elizabeth sighed and said, “Language, sweetie, language.”
Lena sighed and said, “Sorry.”
Lillian hugged her tighter and said, “None of us here have handled things correctly. We just want to wipe the slate clean and start over. We all know that it will be hard, but we believe that it will be worth it in the end. Can you trust us on this and at least give the school a chance? If you are here for a couple of weeks and don’t like it, we can discuss other options at that point.”
Lena looked up to Lillian hesitantly and asked, “Really?”
Lillian nodded and said, “Really. We want to do what’s best for you.”
Lena looked at the adults in the limo waiting nervously for her answer. Lena nodded her head, sighed, and said, “Fine. This can’t be worse than Bridgewood Academy.”
Elizabeth clasped her hands together. “Perfect! I promise you won’t be sorry.”
Lena rolled her eyes and pressed play on her CD player. She tried to look disinterested while looking out the window. However, as she saw the sign pass by saying Nevermore: 4 miles ahead, she began to wonder if maybe her parents were right about being around peers with powers doing some good for her.
She shook her head and thought to herself, “Watch it just be bullies with powers.”
She replayed Don’t Speak to try to mentally prepare herself for what awaited her at Nevermore.