Clouds Up - One (1/15)
Disclaimer: ‘Smallville’ and certain characters belong to Miller-Gough et al. No profit is gained from this writing--only, hopefully, enjoyment.
Going for a walk was nice. He stepped off the property sometime after 2:04 in the afternoon, and walked to the town on foot.
Lex always used to give him funny looks when he wore sneakers, but these days he gave him funny looks if he didn't wear them. He liked sneakers, though, especially the blue ones Lin had bought him.
After he'd just crossed the main street, several cars and trucks came driving down it from the direction of the school. Their school day must have been over, and he assumed the students were now done until Monday. Kids didn't go to school on Saturdays or Sundays. He remembered that much.
Reaching out, he gripped the door handle on the right side and pulled. The door came open, and he stepped around it and went inside the coffee shop. He liked the smell of coffee, and the Lady usually had a large pot of the stuff already made when he came down to the kitchen.
He looked around, and then moved up to the counter where you were supposed to order the drink you wanted made for you. There was a long list posted high up on the wall behind the girl who was working, and he read it silently. Then, leaning forward a little like Lex did, he asked, "Could you make me a large White Mocha please?"
The girl tilted her head to the side. She punched some buttons on the cash register between them, then smiled at him warmly.
"Did you want that for here or to go?" she asked in return. Then, not waiting for his answer, she went right on ahead and asked him, "If that's all for you?"
"I'm going to stay here and read the local newspaper, so. . . for here," he told her, not forgetting to smile, and her own smile became wider in response. "Just the coffee for right now," he added, answering her other question.
She chuckled a little, then moved a piece of hair behind her ear. "Um, so that's $4.00 then," she told him, glancing between the screen attached to the register and his face.
"Here you go," he replied, holding out a five dollar bill and then leaving his hand up on the counter while she got ready to give him back the change. She laid a one dollar bill across his palm, and he thought maybe her holding the underside of his hand with her other one wasn't entirely impersonal. He smiled at her again, and she tried to tuck her hair back behind her ear, even though it was still back there from when she'd done it a minute ago.
The door chime went off as several people came inside the shop. He recognized one of the boys as being the driver of the black Ford Ranger outside, and guessed this group was the one that had come down the street just a few minutes ago. They looked to be about his and Lin's age, and he moved farther down the counter.
The same girl who had taken his order took theirs also, and then all but two or three of the group went and sat down in the other room. He took the opportunity to walk over to the magazine rack and pick out the most recent edition of the Smallville Ledger. It was a small paper, not nearly as much to it as the Daily Planet or the Gotham Globe, but he liked reading about the town in which he was now living. He liked knowing what was going on.
"Mr., uh, Luthor?" someone called, and he turned around with the paper in his hand to see the girl behind the counter holding out a mug towards him. Her face was red and she was smiling, but he thought it more likely a nervous gesture than an actual smile. She kept glancing between him, the countertop, and the group of teenagers nearby.
"Thank you," he said, tucking the Ledger under his arm and coming forward to take the mug from her hand. She didn't try to touch him any more than necessary this time, and he thought it had probably just been his imagination that had made him think she'd done so earlier. He waited until she looked up at him again, then smiled and told her, "My name's Lucas Dunleavy, though, not Luthor."
She bit her lip, and turned even redder, but he thought she didn't mind the correction all that much. She smiled back at him and he raised his coffee to her before turning and walking into the other room.
The group of teenagers were all sprawled out across the sofa and nearby chairs, so he went over to one of the small tables by the windows and sat down. As he started in on the front page articles, he noticed out of the corner of his eye a few people looking at him. They looked confused, and he thought it probably had something to do with the fact that his last name wasn't Luthor and they'd just learned that.
Soon enough, though, the three teenagers who'd been waiting at the counter came over and joined the rest of the group. They passed out drinks and sat and perched and all of them talked loudly and laughed.
He got through the first page of the paper, then moved steadily through the rest. There was a section towards the back that he always liked. It had people write in to thank members of the community for this or that. His favorites were the letters thanking people for their well-wishes during an illness. Somehow that made him feel good about Smallville, that it was a place where people sent you cards and food and helped out when you were sick. It was a nice town, he thought. He liked it here.
Suddenly there was a shadow across the table, and when he looked up he met the eyes of a couple of the teenagers. The rest were still sitting down, but all of them were looking this way.
"Excuse me," the girl said, and he turned away from looking at the others to focus on her.
She was very pretty, and very small. Her voice was pretty too, and her clothes. She was, in every way he could see so far, a very attractive person.
"My name's Lana, and this is my boyfriend Whitney," she said, gesturing to the equally attractive blonde boy standing next to her. "We saw you sitting over here, and were wondering if you were a new student in town?" She smiled at him, and it was just as lovely as the rest of her. "You're welcome to join us, you know."
The boy beside her wrapped an arm around her shoulders, and he knew what was being said without it being said at all. She'd said 'boyfriend' when introducing the other boy, which meant he could look at her, but he couldn't touch her. The boyfriend was the same boy who'd been driving the black truck, who'd been waiting up at the counter. He also wore some kind of special jacket with logos and symbols on it. It wasn't a very attractive jacket, by any means, but he supposed it was important. All the other boys in the shop were wearing one too.
"Yeah," the boy said. "Come on over, man. You from the city?"
He looked down at his finished paper, and closed it. Then, with a quick smile, he pushed his chair back and stood. He braced himself on the backrest of the chair and smiled at the couple.
"I'm not actually a student here, no. I live up in the castle," he told them, and watched in confusion as their happy expressions vanished. "My father used to own it, but Lex basically gave it to me. They don't really like it," he confided, still trying to get those happy, young smiles back. "But it's nice. Big." He shrugged, remembering Lian did that when he ran out of things to say.
The boy had a funny look on his face, like Lex's when he saw the sneakers, but the girl looked intrigued. Curious. She smiled again, if a little nervously, and asked softly, "Your father, he was. . . Lionel Luthor?"
He knew he should smile at that point; everything always went better if you smiled.
He nodded, moving his lips up and trying. The boy looked vaguely sick, and the girl looked sad.
"Yeah," he said. "I'm already certified from secondary school, though, so. . . no Smallville High Crows for me."
The girl, Lana, she laughed and he found himself smiling back in return. The boy nodded at him, not overtly rude in any real way, but uncomfortable. He knew how he felt. Talking about Lionel made everyone uncomfortable.
"Well, you'll have to come to a game sometime," Lana said, giving them all a way to change the conversation. "Whitney's the point guard. He could probably tell you which team we're most likely to beat." She smiled up at her boyfriend, and Whitney grinned down at her affectionately. It was nice. They were nice.
"Granville's always easy," Whitney said, turning back to him. "That one's a home game too, so you'd see the school if you came."
"Thanks," he offered. "Probably wouldn't hurt to get out a little more." He glanced around the coffee shop, noting the teenagers over on the couches staring their way, as well as the girl behind the counter and a couple other customers. He huffed a little laugh, then said, "Let myself be seen, since everyone's so. . . curious."
Lana laughed again, bright and girlish, and even Whitney smiled a bit.
"I'm Lucas, by the way," he told them, suddenly remembering he'd never introduced himself.
"Well, Lucas," Lana said, sliding an arm behind Whitney's back. "You're still welcome to join us. No better time than the present to dive on into Smallville society." She raised her eyebrows at the last and he got that she was mocking everyone for staring.
"Sure," he said. "Although the only things I really know about are books and cars."
Whitney did a double take when he said 'cars,' but Lana just rolled her eyes as they moved and started walking back over to the others in their group. He followed behind, leaving the paper, but taking his coffee.
"You'll do just fine then," she said. "Talk about cars with the boys, then come over and you and I can actually use our brains a little. You read poetry at all?"
"Does Plath count?"
Lana smiled, laughing. She reached over and smacked him on the arm, and now it was Whitney's turn to roll his eyes.
"Better you than me, man," he told him, and Lucas sat down next to him on the sofa and smiled back.
Next