The Petulant Little Sister - August 6th
Twisted Shorts August Fic-a-Day Challenge - Day 6
Title: The Petulant Little Sister
Author: hermione2be
Rating: PG/FR13/K+
Crossover: BtVS/Smallville
Disclaimer: I do not own any of BtVS/Angel or Smallville people, places, or ideas. This fiction is done simply for pleasure and I receive no profit.
Summary: Lex and Athena talk and argue and talk some more.
Notes: Athena Luthor Part 4 - Links Page
Seasons: S1Ep1 “Pilot”
Characters: Athena, Lex, Clark, Lana
Word Count: 2930
“Are we going to talk?” Lex asked from the doorway of Athena’s office.
“About what?” she asked, not looking up from her Environmental Science homework.
“You’re mad about something.”
She raised an eyebrow as her gaze rose to his. “Okay, brother who hasn’t talk to me in three years, what do I have to be mad about?”
“You don’t understand,” he started.
“I understand that you didn’t keep the promise you made when you graduated from Excelsior and started at Met U.”
“Attie-”
“No!” She stood. “You don’t get to do that.” She was annoyed with herself for letting her emotions loose, but had already tipped her hand. “You don’t get to stroll back into my life and act like you’re the same older brother who pretended to give a damn.”
“Pretended?”
“Well it couldn’t have been real,” she told him. “Because my Lexie wouldn’t have left me alone for four years and forgotten three birthdays.”
“Ath-”
“No.” She stormed past him and into the hallway. “Just go about your life, Lex, I’ll go about mine. That’s how you’ve done it for the last few years, we’re used to it.”
Quick strides took her down the hall, out of the house, and into the night. Emotions churned in her, pride and hurt warred with years of training. She picked up her pace until she was running. Crying was forced aside for the rhythm of her feet against the asphalt.
No destination in mind, not paying attention to landmarks she passed. She was in a thick wood when her senses picked up Clark and she slowed to follow them.
“Who’s there?” Lana’s voice asked.
“It’s me,” Clark said. “Clark.”
“I’m here, too,” Athena said as she came out of the tree line. “Sorry.”
“What are you two doing creeping around in the woods?” Lana asked, looking between the two of them on opposite sides of where she stood in the cemetery.
“You’d never believe me it I told you,” Clark said.
“I’m trying to outrun my anger at my brother,” Athena offered truthfully. “Didn’t mean to disturb you, Lana.”
“Wait, Clark, Athena,” she said. “I just wasn’t expecting anyone to be out here.” She looked at them. “Come here.”
They both hesitated.
“Please,” Lana said.
It took a moment before they moved to the grave marker she stood in front of.
“Can you two keep a secret?” Lana asked them as she sat, waving them down.
“I’m the Fort Knox of secrets,” Clark told them bitterly.
Athena just nodded.
“I-I came out here to talk to my parents,” Lana said softly. She exhaled in embarrassment. “It sounds weird, you know, conversing with dead people.”
“Does it help?” Athena asked. “Talking to them?”
“I think so,” Lana admitted. “Mom wants to know if Clark is upset about a girl.”
“No,” Clark replied.
“Dad wants to know if you’re upset about a guy,” she teased.
“No!” Clark barked. “No.”
Lana chuckled. “He has a twisted sense of humor.” She looked at Clark. “Seriously, Clark. Why are you out here?”
Clark looked at the two of them. “You ever feel like your life was supposed to be something different?”
Lana nodded. “Sometimes. I dream that I’m at school waiting for Nell to pick me up but mom and dad come. They aren’t dead just really late. And we go back home to Metropolis. That’s usually when I wake up…”
“I had a twin,” Athena said softly. “Julian died at a few weeks old. I imagine what life would have been like if he’d lived.” She picked at the grass. “And the last few weeks, I’ve felt like something important is missing, like a part of me doesn’t make sense. I wonder if it’s the part of me that misses my twin that I can’t even remember.”
They all sat quietly for some time, absorbed with the tragedies of their lives. Lana missing the family and life that had been stripped of her when parents were killed by the meteor shower. Athena thinking about her brother and mother and the odd ache that had existed for the last few weeks. Clark was trying to wrap his head around the fact that he fell from the sky in a spaceship with the meteors that had killed so many in 1989.
“We’re a morose bunch,” Athena finally said.
Lana chuckled. “Yeah, we are.”
“I should head back,” she told them. “Lex may have accidently found big brother mode and sent the cavalry out.”
“You shouldn’t go alone,” Clark said.
Athena grinned at him. “My Krav Maga instructor was bigger than you, Clark. I can handle myself.” She headed off back into the woods, trying to get her bearings.
88888888
Lana and Clark arrived at Lana’s front porch.
“Thanks for walking me home,” Lana said.
“Beats creeping around the woods,” Clark replied.
Lana chuckled.
Clark watched her. “Are you going to the dance?”
“Yeah, with Whitney.”
“Right,” Clark said. But he realized he was asking to be polite, he had no real interest in her plans for the dance.
“How about you?”
“Nah. Figured I’d sit it out.”
Lana frowned. “You should ask Athena.”
Clark looked up in surprise. “Athena?”
“You two fit together so well.” She grinned. “And I’m sure she’d like to go to her first school dance with a friend.” She leaned up and kissed Clark’s cheek chastely. “Goodnight, Clark.”
But the shock of Lana kissing him did not register past the sudden image of Athena in his arms. He grinned.
Neither he, nor Lana, saw Whitney watching their exchange, or his look of jealousy.
88888888
Clark looked around the hall. He had been let in without direction. He followed the sound of clashing metal. He found two white clad figures fencing. The smaller one pinned the larger. Irritated the larger threw his epee in frustration. It imbedded in the wall by Clark’s head.
Lex removed his helmet. “Clark?” He approached. “I didn’t see you.”
“I was let in, but no one gave me directions.”
“I believe my sister has had you on the allowed guest list for a time,” Lex confided.
“Is this a bad time?” Clark asked, gesturing to the black haired female in a fencing outfit.
“Oh, no, no,” Lex assured. “I think Hykia has sufficiently kicked my ass for the day.” He waved Clark to follow him out of the room.
“This place is great,” Clark said.
“If you’re in the market for something to haunt,” Lex said at the same time someone said, “If you’re a ghost.”
They turned to see Athena approaching in a fencing uniform.
“I assume my epees are where I left them?” she asked Lex, stiffly.
“I brought my own, yours are untouched.”
“Good.” Athena addressed Clark, “I was getting ready when I heard you were let in. Did you need something?”
“I’m actually here to-to see Lex,” Clark replied.
Athena’s jaw clenched. “Of course, he gifted you a truck. Don’t let me keep you.” She entered the fencing room and slammed the door before Clark could correct her assessment.
“You’ll have to excuse, Attie,” Lex said as he continued walking. “I seem to bring out the petulant little sister in her. She actually ran out last night.”
“I know,” Clark said. “We ended up at a friend’s place.”
Lex raised an eyebrow as he unzipped his fencing jacket. He led them into the large office. He threw his jacket on the chair. “I’m glad she had somewhere to go.” He went to the sidebar.
“She always told me she missed you.”
Lex paused in the motion of unscrewing the cap of water bottle. “Missing me and being angry with me are not mutually exclusive feelings.”
Clark nodded.
“How’s the new ride?” Lex asked.
“That’s why I’m here,” Clark said.
“What’s the matter? You don’t like it?”
“No, it’s not that. I can’t keep it.”
Lex put down the water and turned to look at Clark, surprised. He walked over to Clark. “You saved my life. I think it’s the least I can do.”
Clark looked away.
“Your father doesn’t like me, does he?” But he continued before Clark could say anything. “It’s okay.” He reached up and rubbed his bald head. “I’ve been bald since I was nine.” He glanced at a mirror. “I’m used to people judging me before they get to know me.”
“It’s nothing personal,” Clark said. “He’s just not crazy about your dad.”
“Figures the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree?” Lex guessed. “Understandable.”
Clark put the keys in Lex’s hand and headed for the door.
Clark paused and looked back at him. “Maybe you should focus on your sister, Lex. She needs you more than she wants to admit.”
Lex watched him go. He was right of course.
Athena…she was his sole comforting memory in childhood. Memories of his mother and brother had been soured by his mother killing his brother. Lex had taken Athena and hid to keep her safe from Mother’s madness. A madness that resulted in her locked up for psych assistance that her sickly heart could not take. Her death had been mere weeks later.
Athena had held his hand in the hospital after he had lost all his hair in the meteor shower. She had been the little sister who cried when he went away to school. She alone had loved him unconditionally. And he loved her.
So much so, that his father had used her against him. Trying to bend Lex to his will by using his love for Athena. That had been the point he had cut ties with Athena, not wanting her hurt when he could not fulfill Lionel’s standards.
And he had a sneaking suspicion that he had been ordered to Smallville as punishment for his recent behavior but also to live with Athena in an attempt to rekindle their relationship. All to allow Lionel to control Lex. Or possible control both Athena and Lex.
88888888
Clark tried to talk to her, but Athena had effectively avoided him for two days. The homecoming dance was tonight, she had decided not to go. With her name in the open, she had no interest in trying to win back friends so easily influenced by her name. She also had to avoid those who suddenly wanted to be friends because of her name.
A knock at the door made her look up from the book she had been trying to read for three hours.
“Yes?” she called.
The door opened a crack and Lex’s face appeared.
Athena closed her eyes. “What do you want, Lex?”
“Can I come in, Attie?” he asked.
She hated that her battered heart was so easily turned by his use of a childhood nickname. She screwed down her emotions and tried to think instead of feel. “Sure.”
Lex looked surprised, but entered the room and sat down across from her. He glanced around the room. “You redecorated.”
“Yes, I didn’t like the office you’re using. This one suits my needs, but it needed to be a little less…masculine.”
He watched her face as she focused on marking her place in a book and closing it. “What are you reading?”
“A book Clark lent me last week.” She replied. She leaned back and observed him. “Did you need something?”
“I needed to apologize,” Lex finally said. “I never meant to hurt you.”
Athena bit the inside of her lip to keep from yelling. Instead, she raised a single eyebrow in disbelief.
“When I got expelled from Met U, Father sent me to Yale. After a couple of months, he wanted something…and he tried to use you as leverage.”
Her heart sank. Some part of her had always wondered if her father had some part in Lex’s disappearance from her life. And with that realization most of her long-simmering anger shifted from Lex to her father.
“You are the only thing I’ve cared about since I was seven years old, Attie.” He admitted, leaning forward to look her in the eye. “I never wanted to leave you to the mercy of Father, but I didn’t want you to be hurt as part of my power struggle with him.”
“So instead,” she told him evenly. “I was punished for loving my brother.” She gestured to the room. “I sold my soul for the opportunity to come here, to make friends and have a few normal years. When I graduate, Father gets to choose my college and major. That’s what I gave up for this.”
“Why?”
“Because I’d lost my only friend and I had none my own age. I didn’t even know if I could make friends.” She rubbed her hand along the book she had been reading. “Because I was lonely, and I’d give anything to have my brother back, but I was willing to settle for a few people who saw me for me and not for my father.” She speared him with a glance. “A ploy which was working until you got all Speedy Gonzalez and ran off the bridge.”
He winced. “I’m sorry.” He sighed. “I’m sorry for all of it, Attie.”
“I am too, Lexie,” she replied softly. She leaned her head back and looked up at the ceiling. “What are we supposed to do?”
“About?”
“I don’t know,” she sighed. “Right now, for tonight. We’ll have to figure out how to outmaneuver Father soon, but for right now, what do we want to do?”
“I heard there is a dance at your school,” Lex said. “I can drop you off.”
“I don’t have a date or any desire to be put under the high school microscope.”
“So you’re just going to let them - let Father - win?”
Athena frowned. She hated it when he put it like that. She needed to take a stand and the face her demons instead of trying to wait them out. “No. I’m going to go to the dance.” She grinned at him. “Any chance I could get you to appear as escort?”
“Will it count towards brotherly redemption?” he asked.
“Yes.”
He grinned, finally relaxing. “Then I would be happy to.”
Athena smiled and stood. “Give me a few minutes. I didn’t do research for this so I have no idea what form of attire is required.” She looked him over. Black pants, a white shirt unbuttoned at the top - he looked casual and elegant. “What you’re wearing is good,” she told him.
She headed out of her office and up the stairs.
Lex waited patiently while his sister got ready. It took her less time than every girl he had ever dated. She appeared wearing a sleeveless, high-necked cocktail dress. It was dark, shimmery blue with an asymmetrical skirt that was higher in the front than the back. She wore silver jewelry and short boots with a moderate heel. Her hair was plaited along the left side of her head and laid over her right shoulder.
“What?” she asked suddenly, touching her earrings to verify they matched.
Lex stood and approached her. “I just can’t believe this is my little sister.” He took her hand and kissed her knuckles. “You’re nearly grown.” He offered her his arm. “Shall we.”
Grinning at his antics, Athena nodded. “Yes.”
88888888
Athena sat in the passenger seat and looked at the fields passing them by. Something flickered in her memory.
“This is Reilly Fields,” she said pointing to the land just ahead of them.
Lex slowed. “How do you know?”
“I spend most my time after school running these back roads, getting to know the town.” Something tickled her senses. “Stop.”
He frowned but pulled the car over. “What’s wrong?”
“You told me a story once, about the day of the meteors. You saw a teen in these fields.”
Lex blinked at her. “Yes.”
“A scarecrow…” she whispered. She frowned. The feeling she identified as Clark settling along her neck. “It’s homecoming.”
“What does that have to do with-”
“The seniors, on homecoming, they tie a freshman like a scarecrow and hang him in Reilly Fields.” She opened the door and climbed out of the car.
“Attie - what are you doing?”
“There is someone out there,” she answered. She understood then. Clark was the freshman they had scarecrowed. “Dammit,” she breathed and hopped the fence. She heard Lex following her. His flashlight bobbed around the tall corn, but she could see just fine in the dark.
She unerringly reached where Clark was strung up in nothing but his blue boxers in a small clearing. A red ‘S’ on his chest. A glowing green necklace around his neck. Lana’s necklace.
“Clark?” Lex breathed in surprise as he arrived right behind her.
“We need to get him down,” Athena said. She reached up and snagged the rope holding his arm. It frayed apart in her hand, dropping to the ground uselessly. She did the same to the ropes around his ankles, while Lex got the other arm.
Clark started to fall forward. Athena caught him, lowering him slowly to the ground. Her hand snagged the necklace, breaking the chain. She shook it off, sending it to the other side of the clearing.
“You okay?” she asked.
Clark nodded. He took a deep breath. “Much better.” He looked at her then jumped away and grabbed his clothes. He pulled on his jeans and shirt. His eyes took in Athena a moment before he turned and took off through the cornstalks.
“At least let me give you a ride!” Lex called.
But Athena knew Clark was too far away to hear them. Her sense of him disappearing nearly instantly.
Title: The Petulant Little Sister
Author: hermione2be
Rating: PG/FR13/K+
Crossover: BtVS/Smallville
Disclaimer: I do not own any of BtVS/Angel or Smallville people, places, or ideas. This fiction is done simply for pleasure and I receive no profit.
Summary: Lex and Athena talk and argue and talk some more.
Notes: Athena Luthor Part 4 - Links Page
Seasons: S1Ep1 “Pilot”
Characters: Athena, Lex, Clark, Lana
Word Count: 2930
“Are we going to talk?” Lex asked from the doorway of Athena’s office.
“About what?” she asked, not looking up from her Environmental Science homework.
“You’re mad about something.”
She raised an eyebrow as her gaze rose to his. “Okay, brother who hasn’t talk to me in three years, what do I have to be mad about?”
“You don’t understand,” he started.
“I understand that you didn’t keep the promise you made when you graduated from Excelsior and started at Met U.”
“Attie-”
“No!” She stood. “You don’t get to do that.” She was annoyed with herself for letting her emotions loose, but had already tipped her hand. “You don’t get to stroll back into my life and act like you’re the same older brother who pretended to give a damn.”
“Pretended?”
“Well it couldn’t have been real,” she told him. “Because my Lexie wouldn’t have left me alone for four years and forgotten three birthdays.”
“Ath-”
“No.” She stormed past him and into the hallway. “Just go about your life, Lex, I’ll go about mine. That’s how you’ve done it for the last few years, we’re used to it.”
Quick strides took her down the hall, out of the house, and into the night. Emotions churned in her, pride and hurt warred with years of training. She picked up her pace until she was running. Crying was forced aside for the rhythm of her feet against the asphalt.
No destination in mind, not paying attention to landmarks she passed. She was in a thick wood when her senses picked up Clark and she slowed to follow them.
“Who’s there?” Lana’s voice asked.
“It’s me,” Clark said. “Clark.”
“I’m here, too,” Athena said as she came out of the tree line. “Sorry.”
“What are you two doing creeping around in the woods?” Lana asked, looking between the two of them on opposite sides of where she stood in the cemetery.
“You’d never believe me it I told you,” Clark said.
“I’m trying to outrun my anger at my brother,” Athena offered truthfully. “Didn’t mean to disturb you, Lana.”
“Wait, Clark, Athena,” she said. “I just wasn’t expecting anyone to be out here.” She looked at them. “Come here.”
They both hesitated.
“Please,” Lana said.
It took a moment before they moved to the grave marker she stood in front of.
“Can you two keep a secret?” Lana asked them as she sat, waving them down.
“I’m the Fort Knox of secrets,” Clark told them bitterly.
Athena just nodded.
“I-I came out here to talk to my parents,” Lana said softly. She exhaled in embarrassment. “It sounds weird, you know, conversing with dead people.”
“Does it help?” Athena asked. “Talking to them?”
“I think so,” Lana admitted. “Mom wants to know if Clark is upset about a girl.”
“No,” Clark replied.
“Dad wants to know if you’re upset about a guy,” she teased.
“No!” Clark barked. “No.”
Lana chuckled. “He has a twisted sense of humor.” She looked at Clark. “Seriously, Clark. Why are you out here?”
Clark looked at the two of them. “You ever feel like your life was supposed to be something different?”
Lana nodded. “Sometimes. I dream that I’m at school waiting for Nell to pick me up but mom and dad come. They aren’t dead just really late. And we go back home to Metropolis. That’s usually when I wake up…”
“I had a twin,” Athena said softly. “Julian died at a few weeks old. I imagine what life would have been like if he’d lived.” She picked at the grass. “And the last few weeks, I’ve felt like something important is missing, like a part of me doesn’t make sense. I wonder if it’s the part of me that misses my twin that I can’t even remember.”
They all sat quietly for some time, absorbed with the tragedies of their lives. Lana missing the family and life that had been stripped of her when parents were killed by the meteor shower. Athena thinking about her brother and mother and the odd ache that had existed for the last few weeks. Clark was trying to wrap his head around the fact that he fell from the sky in a spaceship with the meteors that had killed so many in 1989.
“We’re a morose bunch,” Athena finally said.
Lana chuckled. “Yeah, we are.”
“I should head back,” she told them. “Lex may have accidently found big brother mode and sent the cavalry out.”
“You shouldn’t go alone,” Clark said.
Athena grinned at him. “My Krav Maga instructor was bigger than you, Clark. I can handle myself.” She headed off back into the woods, trying to get her bearings.
88888888
Lana and Clark arrived at Lana’s front porch.
“Thanks for walking me home,” Lana said.
“Beats creeping around the woods,” Clark replied.
Lana chuckled.
Clark watched her. “Are you going to the dance?”
“Yeah, with Whitney.”
“Right,” Clark said. But he realized he was asking to be polite, he had no real interest in her plans for the dance.
“How about you?”
“Nah. Figured I’d sit it out.”
Lana frowned. “You should ask Athena.”
Clark looked up in surprise. “Athena?”
“You two fit together so well.” She grinned. “And I’m sure she’d like to go to her first school dance with a friend.” She leaned up and kissed Clark’s cheek chastely. “Goodnight, Clark.”
But the shock of Lana kissing him did not register past the sudden image of Athena in his arms. He grinned.
Neither he, nor Lana, saw Whitney watching their exchange, or his look of jealousy.
88888888
Clark looked around the hall. He had been let in without direction. He followed the sound of clashing metal. He found two white clad figures fencing. The smaller one pinned the larger. Irritated the larger threw his epee in frustration. It imbedded in the wall by Clark’s head.
Lex removed his helmet. “Clark?” He approached. “I didn’t see you.”
“I was let in, but no one gave me directions.”
“I believe my sister has had you on the allowed guest list for a time,” Lex confided.
“Is this a bad time?” Clark asked, gesturing to the black haired female in a fencing outfit.
“Oh, no, no,” Lex assured. “I think Hykia has sufficiently kicked my ass for the day.” He waved Clark to follow him out of the room.
“This place is great,” Clark said.
“If you’re in the market for something to haunt,” Lex said at the same time someone said, “If you’re a ghost.”
They turned to see Athena approaching in a fencing uniform.
“I assume my epees are where I left them?” she asked Lex, stiffly.
“I brought my own, yours are untouched.”
“Good.” Athena addressed Clark, “I was getting ready when I heard you were let in. Did you need something?”
“I’m actually here to-to see Lex,” Clark replied.
Athena’s jaw clenched. “Of course, he gifted you a truck. Don’t let me keep you.” She entered the fencing room and slammed the door before Clark could correct her assessment.
“You’ll have to excuse, Attie,” Lex said as he continued walking. “I seem to bring out the petulant little sister in her. She actually ran out last night.”
“I know,” Clark said. “We ended up at a friend’s place.”
Lex raised an eyebrow as he unzipped his fencing jacket. He led them into the large office. He threw his jacket on the chair. “I’m glad she had somewhere to go.” He went to the sidebar.
“She always told me she missed you.”
Lex paused in the motion of unscrewing the cap of water bottle. “Missing me and being angry with me are not mutually exclusive feelings.”
Clark nodded.
“How’s the new ride?” Lex asked.
“That’s why I’m here,” Clark said.
“What’s the matter? You don’t like it?”
“No, it’s not that. I can’t keep it.”
Lex put down the water and turned to look at Clark, surprised. He walked over to Clark. “You saved my life. I think it’s the least I can do.”
Clark looked away.
“Your father doesn’t like me, does he?” But he continued before Clark could say anything. “It’s okay.” He reached up and rubbed his bald head. “I’ve been bald since I was nine.” He glanced at a mirror. “I’m used to people judging me before they get to know me.”
“It’s nothing personal,” Clark said. “He’s just not crazy about your dad.”
“Figures the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree?” Lex guessed. “Understandable.”
Clark put the keys in Lex’s hand and headed for the door.
Clark paused and looked back at him. “Maybe you should focus on your sister, Lex. She needs you more than she wants to admit.”
Lex watched him go. He was right of course.
Athena…she was his sole comforting memory in childhood. Memories of his mother and brother had been soured by his mother killing his brother. Lex had taken Athena and hid to keep her safe from Mother’s madness. A madness that resulted in her locked up for psych assistance that her sickly heart could not take. Her death had been mere weeks later.
Athena had held his hand in the hospital after he had lost all his hair in the meteor shower. She had been the little sister who cried when he went away to school. She alone had loved him unconditionally. And he loved her.
So much so, that his father had used her against him. Trying to bend Lex to his will by using his love for Athena. That had been the point he had cut ties with Athena, not wanting her hurt when he could not fulfill Lionel’s standards.
And he had a sneaking suspicion that he had been ordered to Smallville as punishment for his recent behavior but also to live with Athena in an attempt to rekindle their relationship. All to allow Lionel to control Lex. Or possible control both Athena and Lex.
88888888
Clark tried to talk to her, but Athena had effectively avoided him for two days. The homecoming dance was tonight, she had decided not to go. With her name in the open, she had no interest in trying to win back friends so easily influenced by her name. She also had to avoid those who suddenly wanted to be friends because of her name.
A knock at the door made her look up from the book she had been trying to read for three hours.
“Yes?” she called.
The door opened a crack and Lex’s face appeared.
Athena closed her eyes. “What do you want, Lex?”
“Can I come in, Attie?” he asked.
She hated that her battered heart was so easily turned by his use of a childhood nickname. She screwed down her emotions and tried to think instead of feel. “Sure.”
Lex looked surprised, but entered the room and sat down across from her. He glanced around the room. “You redecorated.”
“Yes, I didn’t like the office you’re using. This one suits my needs, but it needed to be a little less…masculine.”
He watched her face as she focused on marking her place in a book and closing it. “What are you reading?”
“A book Clark lent me last week.” She replied. She leaned back and observed him. “Did you need something?”
“I needed to apologize,” Lex finally said. “I never meant to hurt you.”
Athena bit the inside of her lip to keep from yelling. Instead, she raised a single eyebrow in disbelief.
“When I got expelled from Met U, Father sent me to Yale. After a couple of months, he wanted something…and he tried to use you as leverage.”
Her heart sank. Some part of her had always wondered if her father had some part in Lex’s disappearance from her life. And with that realization most of her long-simmering anger shifted from Lex to her father.
“You are the only thing I’ve cared about since I was seven years old, Attie.” He admitted, leaning forward to look her in the eye. “I never wanted to leave you to the mercy of Father, but I didn’t want you to be hurt as part of my power struggle with him.”
“So instead,” she told him evenly. “I was punished for loving my brother.” She gestured to the room. “I sold my soul for the opportunity to come here, to make friends and have a few normal years. When I graduate, Father gets to choose my college and major. That’s what I gave up for this.”
“Why?”
“Because I’d lost my only friend and I had none my own age. I didn’t even know if I could make friends.” She rubbed her hand along the book she had been reading. “Because I was lonely, and I’d give anything to have my brother back, but I was willing to settle for a few people who saw me for me and not for my father.” She speared him with a glance. “A ploy which was working until you got all Speedy Gonzalez and ran off the bridge.”
He winced. “I’m sorry.” He sighed. “I’m sorry for all of it, Attie.”
“I am too, Lexie,” she replied softly. She leaned her head back and looked up at the ceiling. “What are we supposed to do?”
“About?”
“I don’t know,” she sighed. “Right now, for tonight. We’ll have to figure out how to outmaneuver Father soon, but for right now, what do we want to do?”
“I heard there is a dance at your school,” Lex said. “I can drop you off.”
“I don’t have a date or any desire to be put under the high school microscope.”
“So you’re just going to let them - let Father - win?”
Athena frowned. She hated it when he put it like that. She needed to take a stand and the face her demons instead of trying to wait them out. “No. I’m going to go to the dance.” She grinned at him. “Any chance I could get you to appear as escort?”
“Will it count towards brotherly redemption?” he asked.
“Yes.”
He grinned, finally relaxing. “Then I would be happy to.”
Athena smiled and stood. “Give me a few minutes. I didn’t do research for this so I have no idea what form of attire is required.” She looked him over. Black pants, a white shirt unbuttoned at the top - he looked casual and elegant. “What you’re wearing is good,” she told him.
She headed out of her office and up the stairs.
Lex waited patiently while his sister got ready. It took her less time than every girl he had ever dated. She appeared wearing a sleeveless, high-necked cocktail dress. It was dark, shimmery blue with an asymmetrical skirt that was higher in the front than the back. She wore silver jewelry and short boots with a moderate heel. Her hair was plaited along the left side of her head and laid over her right shoulder.
“What?” she asked suddenly, touching her earrings to verify they matched.
Lex stood and approached her. “I just can’t believe this is my little sister.” He took her hand and kissed her knuckles. “You’re nearly grown.” He offered her his arm. “Shall we.”
Grinning at his antics, Athena nodded. “Yes.”
88888888
Athena sat in the passenger seat and looked at the fields passing them by. Something flickered in her memory.
“This is Reilly Fields,” she said pointing to the land just ahead of them.
Lex slowed. “How do you know?”
“I spend most my time after school running these back roads, getting to know the town.” Something tickled her senses. “Stop.”
He frowned but pulled the car over. “What’s wrong?”
“You told me a story once, about the day of the meteors. You saw a teen in these fields.”
Lex blinked at her. “Yes.”
“A scarecrow…” she whispered. She frowned. The feeling she identified as Clark settling along her neck. “It’s homecoming.”
“What does that have to do with-”
“The seniors, on homecoming, they tie a freshman like a scarecrow and hang him in Reilly Fields.” She opened the door and climbed out of the car.
“Attie - what are you doing?”
“There is someone out there,” she answered. She understood then. Clark was the freshman they had scarecrowed. “Dammit,” she breathed and hopped the fence. She heard Lex following her. His flashlight bobbed around the tall corn, but she could see just fine in the dark.
She unerringly reached where Clark was strung up in nothing but his blue boxers in a small clearing. A red ‘S’ on his chest. A glowing green necklace around his neck. Lana’s necklace.
“Clark?” Lex breathed in surprise as he arrived right behind her.
“We need to get him down,” Athena said. She reached up and snagged the rope holding his arm. It frayed apart in her hand, dropping to the ground uselessly. She did the same to the ropes around his ankles, while Lex got the other arm.
Clark started to fall forward. Athena caught him, lowering him slowly to the ground. Her hand snagged the necklace, breaking the chain. She shook it off, sending it to the other side of the clearing.
“You okay?” she asked.
Clark nodded. He took a deep breath. “Much better.” He looked at her then jumped away and grabbed his clothes. He pulled on his jeans and shirt. His eyes took in Athena a moment before he turned and took off through the cornstalks.
“At least let me give you a ride!” Lex called.
But Athena knew Clark was too far away to hear them. Her sense of him disappearing nearly instantly.