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[_wondergirl_]

Cassie Sandsmark paces around her living room, nervous. She’s got her latest History paper clutched in her hand, with a broad A+ written across the top, and she’s practicing her best Mommy-I-love-you smile. The last time she’d had one of those plastered on her face, she’d asked her mom to let her get her belly button pierced. That time, she’d been

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[jla_extras]

Mom is home, thank the Gods and, after a day of a quarter of her grad students turning in major papers late, the print shop at the college being in need of repairs, and the computer lab crashing (both of which prevent her from weeding out the honestly frustrated from the generally lazy), and just everyone having that kind of day all at once, Helena has had enough interesting surprises to last a week.

She immediately goes for a glass of wine and the jazz station.

"Cassandra, honey, do you mind being on dinner detail this evening? I don't care what so long as it doesn't bite back."

[_wondergirl_]

Cassie stops. Dinner.

But...but...she made tea. And cookies.

Cassie intercepts her Mom, wrenching the glass of wine from her Mom's hand.

"I can totally do dinner. Maybe something Italian? Or Mexican?" Truth is, she'll probably pick up the phone and order pseudo-Greek food from Daphne's, but Mom doesn't really need to know that at this point. "I made tea. And cookies. I thought you might, you know, like to relax after a really long day, and hey, what better way to do it than tea and cookies?" She flashes her mom a bright smile. "Timeweek said that wine isn't quite the best relaxing agent on a weekday."

[jla_extras]

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"Okay, Cassie, if you failed the History Exam I promise not to be too mad, but we are going to have to talk about getting some study time in."

[_wondergirl_]

A beat.

She sets the glass of wine down and pulls the rolled up paper out from the back pocket that she'd stuffed it in, flashing it in front of her Mom's eyes. "I really don't think this counts as failing," she says with a sunny grin.

[jla_extras]

She examines her daughter for a long time before responding. "Okay. Sold. I have some 'lose it or use it,' time at work." A beat. "So what do you know about his parents?"

[_wondergirl_]

She wants to scream with joy, but she doesn't. Not yet. There's still a detail or two that her mom doesn't know. Like the following.

"Well...they aren't actually his parents. More his guardians. Kon's, a, umm...clone. Of Superman. So, he's, like, living with these people on a farm. It's not as Little House as I'm making it sound, really. Their names are Jonathan and Martha. They're good, old school people."

[jla_extras]

"A...clone...of Superman? How does this -" She waves her hands and head. "Wair. Stop. Rephrasing. So he was created as opposed to born to someone, Kryptonian or human?"

[_wondergirl_]

There's that sheepish smile again.

"Remember when Superman sort of died a few years ago? Around that time, people started creating Kon to replace Superman. They mixed his DNA with some of one of the scientists, and...Kon was born. Except he got out early and...long story short...here he is."