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"You can only become friends by talking to people and finding out whether you get along."
– Shougo Kiryuu
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<(Bruce Wayne pov)>
Wow, this guy knows how to control his strength. Even though I am currently shaking hands with one of the most powerful creatures on Earth, it almost feels like I am the stronger one here. It seems that he was doing his best to paint himself as a weak normal human being.
"Quite a grip you got there. But, do I know you?" Clark said with a small smile as he felt my hands tighten and loosen in his hold for a slight second. It seemed that he was a few years older than me. He was probably somewhere around twelve or thirteen looking like a fifteen-sixteen-year-old while I was only ten even though I too was taller for my age, having the body of a thirteen-year-old.
"Well, I don't know, depends on how up-to-date you are with current affairs. But I am sure that I know you. I know what you are hiding... You are famous. I recognized you from a newspaper I read a couple of days ago. Isn't your family farm like the biggest organic farm in the state?" I asked, knowing that it was true and I really had come across such an article while doing some research on him.
"Yeah, I guess a local newspaper did publish that a few months ago." He said as he relaxed and awkwardly chuckled after his expression had transformed into one of pure fear for a few seconds afraid that his true secret had been revealed.
"Oh, this is Selene and Vicki. They are also here for the student interaction program like me." I introduced the two girls behind me at they just slightly nodded acknowledging his presence.
I truthfully felt like some kind of mafia boss being followed by his loyal minions due to the serious expressions sported by the girls on their faces but that didn't discourage Clark from continuing to talk with us.
He even offered to give us a tour of the school and the local attractions of the city once the teachers were done with their own lecture and tour which I gladly accepted.
The interaction program was mostly boring with individual students and teachers just coming forward and boasting about the city and their school. However, after about two hours of enduring the exceptionally boring program, we were finally able to get out of it.
"That was tiresome," Vicki said as she pressed her forehead like she was in pain.
"Yeah, it absolutely was although I mostly slept through it. Are all of the programs in your school this boring?" Selene asked as she looked at Clark who instead of paying attention to her words was watching a certain girl talking to her friends in the school corridor.
"Let me guess, your MaryJane?" Bruce asked smirking.
"Huh? What? Who's Mary Jane? That is Lana Lang." Clark said with a small blush on his face.
"Stop blushing, you look like an innocent maiden in love which is weird," I said as I looked at the girl he had a crush on talking with her friends, not even realizing that Clark was continuously looking at her like a shy newly married wife.
"I am not blushing. I just... am a little hungry." He tried his best to lie while failing in it miserably. I wonder how he kept his identity secret for so long if he is really that bad at lying.
"Ok, sure. Anyways, how is the food in your cafeteria by the way?" I asked wondering if Alfred would have a heart attack later if he knew I was planning to eat in a school cafeteria.
"It's pretty good... if you have a stomach of steel that is." Clark laughed as he made a disgusted face.
"Oh, I guess we will have to search for a restaurant in the city then," I said, disappointment apparent in my voice.
"You know what, you should come to my house. That way you will be able to taste the amazing Brisket my mother cooks that I have been telling you all about." Clark offered, not caring about the fact that it had barely been a few hours that he had known us.
"Really? Will you show us your farm as well? I would like to take some pictures there for one of my school projects." I said, inwardly rejoicing that I was so close to my plan succeeding.
"Yeah, sure. Let's go there after the local museum visit. I am sure that my parents would be quite happy at seeing that I managed to make some friends." He uttered excitedly but immediately shut up after realizing that he had just embarrassed himself in front of us by revealing how he didn't have any good friends at school.
Interesting. So this version of Clark Kent is not that good at making friends. I guess I could use this later to get closer to the guy.
"Well, I wouldn't say a friend but maybe acquaintan..." Selina started to say but couldn't continue as I gave her a hard 'don't you dare say it' look.
"She is joking. We are indeed friends. And we will be glad to come to your house." I quickly said giving a stink eye to Selina for almost running my perfect plan at which she just pouted like a cute cat. Even Vicki joined in with her.
I wonder why the two were so much upset with me. I thought they would be happy coming to Smallville. After all, this is the legendary place where Superman was raised just like Gotham was a legendary place where Batma... oh I see now.
Of course, Smallville was important to me as a reincarnation from another world, but they weren't from another world like me. They were locals and to them, this was just another small town in a really big country. Also, the fact that a potential visit to Los Angeles was canceled so that we could come here also didn't help.
Anyways, after we attended the local museum which by the way was just a small building showcasing different farm tools and dolls of famous farmers along with some of the more famous tourist spots in the city, the school finally ended for the day and the three of us were finally permitted to go to our rooms while Clark was let go to his home.
But of course, as we had all agreed beforehand, instead of going to our respective rooms all three of us went along with Clark to his farm. It was a small city and thus barely a ten-minute walk. We didn't even have to sneak out as a small 'request' from me was enough to convince the teachers to let us go.
We, fortunately, didn't run into Lex Luthor again. Lex in this world didn't seem truly evil yet but was annoying as hell. Currently, he is more like Harry Osborn from Marvel rather than an extremely intelligent manipulative genius who wants to get rid of an alien immigrant from his planet. But again, he is just in his early teens, so he has plenty of time to grow into his 'role'. I would have at least tried to bring him to the light side but I could barely tolerate him for even a few seconds, much less try to show the little asshole the right way. But this is again probably my inner teenager ranting.
Also, which millionaire father lets his son go to a small school in a small city instead of sending him to the best establishments in a city like Metropolis because that's where the headquarters of their company is? They weren't billionaires, well not even close to billionaires but they had too many millions in their pockets and too much greed in their hearts to lead a slow life out in the middle of nowhere instead of a giant skyscraper in a city of metal-like some Japanese protagonists.
So, while wondering about why all billionaires are big assholes with the exception of me of course as well as talking with Clark and the girls about random childish topics like tv shows, the newest video games, and other stuff like that, we soon reached our destination.
Now, I have heard a lot of things about Superman's financial condition in my past life like they were just poor farmers or they were barely feeding themselves but after seeing the truly massive amount of cultivable land just lying there surrounding his home as well as the animal houses and the mini lake on their estate, I refused to believe that they were anything less than the elite.
Because whoever thinks that there isn't any money in farming in the US is an idiot. You could make tons of money if you are smart enough and know which crops to grow. But sadly it seems that Papa Kent wasn't that smart since all I saw growing on the farm was corn and wheat.
"Hey Clark, do you have animals on your farm?" I asked wondering if they were involved in animal husbandry as well since corn is preferred by farmers if they are involved in the dairy or meat industry.
"We used to have a few cows but not any more. Dad sold them a couple of months ago because he isn't able to do all of the work alone anymore and even Mom has been suffering from some mild back pain for a few days. I tried to help but Dad doesn't like it when I use my pow... um, I mean when I skip school." He said while almost telling me his secret.
It is so funny that a person who is so bad at lying could successfully keep up his secret superhero identity for years by just using a pair of eyeglasses.
Also, his words confirmed my doubts. His adoptive dad is a generic retard. Owning one of the biggest farmlands in the state but working in it alone without hiring any help, not growing crops that would have been far more profitable, not trying to establish an animal farm business which could make him far more money than this and even refusing his son's help when his son could plant thousands of trees as well as water them within just a couple of seconds and even manipulate the weather somehow with his super breath is more than plain stupid. Truthfully it is ridiculous and even insulting. Here I am trying to do my best to prepare for the future any way I can and this old man was trying to live life in the difficult mode.
He could have been one of the richest landowners in the state but no, he is more busy trying to be an Uncle Ben Ultra than trying to be a better father or husband.
As we went straight to the house, Clark gently knocked on the door and within just a few seconds of waiting, the door opened revealing a woman in her late thirties standing at the entry wearing a cooking apron and staring at us with surprised eyes.
Why is every female character who is a future widow and related to a superhero so hot? It's like the writers or the Presence or whoever is responsible for this wants people to have indecent thoughts about them.
"Clark, you are back. And I see you have made some new friends. Won't you introduce them to me?" She said with a smile as she looked at us with joy visible in her eyes.
She seemed to be really happy that her adopted son had found new friends despite his 'handicap' of not being a normal human.
"Oh yeah. I met them today at school. They are from Gotham here to visit our town. This is Selina Kyle, Vicki and Vale, and Bruce Wayne." He introduced all of us to his mother with excitement and pride filling his voice. He sounded like this was the first time any friend of his had come to his home with him, so he was really proud to show us off to his parents like we were an achievement for him on the long road of attaining normalness.
"Oh happy to meet with... wait, did you just say Bruce Wayne?" She gasped in the middle of her sentence immediately realizing my true identity which I wasn't even honestly trying to hide.
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(A/N: Sorry, this chapter was a little, correction, a LOT late because I had to rewrite the whole thing. My Grammarly screwed up and changed almost everything I had written into an incomprehensible mess. I myself couldn't understand the end product, so I just decided to start from scratch.
Also, I reread the last chapter I wrote and wow, it was bad. I have no idea how tired and sleepy I was to write a bad chapter like that.)
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