Lana pulled on her pajamas and flopped down on the bed. It had been a long, long day and although a nice, hot bath had helped, she was still feeling worn out. Burrowing her face into her pillow, in a muffled voice she said, “First days suck.”
Nell hadn’t been any help, either. Not that Lana had expected her aunt to be overly concerned, but a little sympathy would have been nice. Instead, when Lana expressed her frustrations of her first day as a waitress, Nell had taken the opportunity to suggest that her niece give up her job and go back to cheerleading.
“I just want you to be happy, Lana,” she mimicked. “Sure. And everyone knows the only way a girl can be happy is if she is a cheerleader.”
She sighed. Nell meant well, she just didn’t seem to grasp Lana’s need for something more in her life. She didn’t want to look back and realize being head cheerleader was the high point of her life.
It was all too much to think about after a horrible day at work. All Lana wanted to do was close her eyes and go to sleep. Unfortunately, if she did that without at least brushing out her hair, it would be a tangled mess in the morning.
Groaning, she forced herself to get up and she went over to her dresser and sat down in front of the mirror. Already her hair had become tangled and it hurt to run the brush through. “Oww,” she said, pouting.
When she finished brushing her hair, she put the brush down and stared into the mirror because that was easier than getting up and going back to bed. Her eyes eventually fell on her necklace, which she had hung beside the mirror after not being allowed to wear it to work.
Suddenly, Lana cocked her head to the side. “How did he know?” she wondered aloud.
Clark had definitely asked why she wasn’t wearing her necklace earlier on that day. She remembered specifically because she thought the no-jewellery rule was one of the stupidest things that she had ever heard. But the last time she had talked to Clark, she had mentioned that Whitney had lost her necklace.
Of course, afterwards Whitney had returned it, but she was pretty sure she had neither worn it in front of Clark, nor mentioned it to him. And she was certain that Whitney wouldn’t have confided in Clark for that.
So the question remained, how did Clark know?
“You look lost in thought,” teased Nell. Lana turned around and saw her aunt was leaning on the doorway. “What has you frowning?”
“Nothing,” Lana said, looking away.
“Nothing?” Nell questioned, coming into the room. “That frown doesn’t look like nothing.”
“It’s just been a long day,” fibbed Lana.
“Well, you don’t have to keep working there, you know. You can always quit. No one will think the worse of you if you go back to cheerleading.”
Lana was glad she wasn’t facing her aunt; the exasperation she was feeling would be impossible to miss. Why couldn’t Nell get it that Lana didn’t want to quit and go crawling back to cheerleading? “I’ll think the worst of me if I do that,” Lana said. “No, I’m not a quitter. I don’t go running just because things are tough.”
Too late, she realized those weren’t quite the words she should have used. She had quit when things had gotten rough - quit cheerleading, that is. Thankfully, Nell didn’t call her on it.
“Well, if you change your mind,” Nell said.
“I won’t,” Lana told her firmly.
Nell didn’t seem to believe her, which annoyed Lana. “Whatever you decide, Lana. Good night.”
Stone-faced, and still not looking at her aunt, Lana said, “Good night.”
Nell left, silently closing the door behind her, and Lana finally got up from her mirror and went to bed. She had just gotten under the covers when she realized she had forgotten to turn the lights out. Groaning, she got up and did so. When at last she pulled her covers up to her chin and snuggled into her bed, with the long day she had had, she had expected to fall to sleep immediately.
Instead she was wide awake. Lana blinked a few times, then buried her head under her pillow in frustration and screamed, the sound muffled in the pillow.
It was going to be a long night.
The End
Sunday, November 25, 2001
The characters, etc. do not belong to me. Superman was created by Jerry
Seigel and Joe Shuster. Smallville is probably also partially the WB's. I'm not
making any money off of this. I write purely for pleasure. Although feedback's
nice!
I do not yet have a beta for