Chapter Text
A thick, winding line of students stretches across the parking lot of National City High School, their excited chatter carried by the wind toward a 2018 Subaru Crosstrek. Their voices ring through the car’s closed windows, muffled only slightly for the single passenger inside. It’s 4:27 pm, a mild late-June afternoon, and all NCHS seniors have been invited to the school for a “Student Lock-In” sleepover preceding their graduation ceremony tomorrow afternoon, to be chaperoned by several lucky – or unlucky, depending on how they view it – teachers, including Ms. Lena Luthor.
Lena pulls down the car visor above her and slides open the mirror, triple-checking her reflection. Her hair is pulled back in a loose, messy bun perched precariously on the top of her head. She dabs at the corner of her mouth, wiping clean a smear of lipstick that dared to explore beyond the contours of her lips. No remnants of food in her teeth, no drips of sweat on her forehead – yet, she thinks with chagrin as she looks out at the still-there sun shining brightly above – and the telltale whisper of mischief behind her eyes.
Sliding the mirror closed again, Lena sighs as she folds the visor back up toward the top of her car. Through her windshield, Lena’s eyes are drawn to movement at the school’s main entrance, a flash of blonde hair, waving limbs, and the iconic smile of someone who even from this distance is so obviously Kara Danvers. She steps outside with a clip board in one hand and a megaphone in the other, matching the students’ excitement ounce for enthusiastic ounce.
4:29 pm, Lena laughs softly as she gathers her phone and slips it into her pocket. Ms. Danvers is nothing if not punctual. Drawing in one last deep breath, Lena turns off the car and opens the door, the heat pouring in a stark contrast to the air conditioned cool of her car’s interior and a reminder of the promise of a sticky night’s sleep on the leather couch in the teacher’s lounge that awaits her. She grabs the duffel bag off of the passenger seat beside her, locks the car and stows the keys in a side panel of the duffel, making her way toward the front of the line of students where Kara has begun to lead them in a karaoke version of the school’s fight song, her own voice ringing loudest through the megaphone held closely to her mouth.
“Amazing job all around!” Kara booms through the megaphone as the song comes to an end. “What a start to your very last night as National City High School seniors!”
The students’ energy palpably increases at that. Excited shouts ring out from all around her as Lena winds her way to the front of the crowd and Kara’s side. She catches her eye and smiles that soft, shy smile she knows by now is reserved for Kara Danvers alone. Her stomach flutters as Kara’s own grin visibly widens, a feat she’d have thought impossible if she hadn’t seen it happen so many times before.
“Alright, y’all,” Kara continues, “It is officially 4:30, which means it’s business time.” Kara brings a hand up to cover her face and begins slowly waving it up and down and changing her expression from smiling to serious in time with the movement of her hand, settling on a look so comically serious that Lena has to stifles a laugh. “You’ve got to find a way to let the students know that you’re being serious,” Kara had explained to a group of first-year teachers the schoolyear prior, when the trick had first emerged. “It’s a little silly, I know, but I’ve found that the students listen far closer if I give them a visual cue that I’m getting serious for a moment.” Lena had hummed her acknowledgement at the time, returning her attention to the bowl of salad in front of her. Still, at home that evening she had tried it out herself, waving her own hands in front of her face as her reflection in the mirror stared back at her. She’d known immediately that it wasn’t for her, her face flushing in embarrassment even in the privacy of her own bathroom; her students would just have to find their cue elsewhere. Back in the present, several students around Lena begin to mirror Kara, their own hands waving in front of their faces, smiles flickering in and out.
Kara Danvers has been, for all of the time that Lena has worked at National City High School, the students’ favorite teacher. Though students come and go every year, Kara has never failed to dazzle each new group, and there’s no better word than dazzle to truly describe her effect. As the Freshman Class Advisor, she works with every new cohort of students to ensure a positive transition to high school through class-wide fundraisers and activities, community service projects, and town hall events for students, parents, and community members alike. She volunteers as the faculty advisor for the Rainbow Alliance, NCHS’ student-run club for LGBTQ+ students and allies and for the journalism club, and she coaches the varsity girls’ soccer team. All of this, mind you, in addition to carrying a full schedule of seven teaching periods of advanced English courses and elective journalism classes for students in 10th-12th grades. She’s nearly positive that Kara has superpowers; how else could she manage to do all that?
Lena has observed all of this about Kara over the course of their three years as coworkers, and the information has stuck for two very important reasons. First, Kara Danvers is simply impossible to miss in the NCHS community. She has befriended every teacher and school staff member, organizes the all-faculty holiday party every year, and shows up to support her colleagues and students at every turn, whether that means attending a track meet, a model UN seminar, or a choral concert. Also, it’s possible that Lena has harbored a small, hardly-noticeable, non-disruptive crush on Kara Danvers for the last three years – if by small, hardly-noticeable, and non-disruptive you mean large, soul-crushing, sleep-depriving, couldn’t-possibly-be-anything-but-unrequited crush, that is. Who could blame me, she thinks, most often between the hours of 1:00 and 4:00 am, lying there remembering Kara’s smile or laugh or that time she wore a bow tie and Lena walked into a door. Besides, she’s sure she’s not the only one harboring such a crush, among teachers and students alike.
“Here we go then,” Kara continues, pulling Lena from her reverie. “As you enter the building, please head straight to the lobby. Be sure to stop at the correct table to sign-in and pick up your registration information and your NCHS Lock-In t-shirt. From there, you can go ahead and drop your things off at your lockers and begin to gather in the cafeteria. At 5:00 sharp these doors and all the others will close, and you’ll officially be locked in for the night. This means no leaving, and that no one else can enter – so if it’s nearing 5:00 and you notice someone is missing, send them a text to make sure they’re on the way. If you have any questions, there are teachers quite literally everywhere who are happy to help. They are also volunteering their time,” Kara stresses, “so say thank you when you see them.”
She pauses here as several hands shoot up with questions. As Kara answers the students’ few questions, Lena glances around the crowd. She spots a few other teachers along the perimeter, chatting quietly with large coffee cups in their hands. She catches the eye of a colleague from the science department toward the rear of the line and politely returns his smile with a nod of acknowledgement. There are at least a hundred students already gathered, about a third of the total number of students who will join them for the night. Her eyes search out familiar faces and she offers a smile to each that she comes across.
Lena hopes her own impact on the students is comparable in some way to Kara’s. She knows that she’s no match for the human golden retriever beside her, but she’s worked hard to position herself as a true resource for the students over the last several years. She oversees the debate team, which she’s proud to note has doubled its female student membership in the two years since she took it on, and the mathletes. Not as glamorous as the soccer team, perhaps, but equally successful in their own right. She also teaches all of the school’s chemistry classes, two robotics electives, and two lower-level calculus classes.
Most importantly, she cares. Lena Luthor really, deeply, truly cares about her students and her colleagues and National City. It’s been three years since she moved here to join the National City High School faculty, three years since she left her home, her corrupt, unforgiving, shameful family, and everything she thought she knew about herself in Metropolis to take a chance on a new home, a new career, and a new family she’s made of her own.
Lost in her gratitude, Lena is jostled back to awareness as students begin to shuffle past her and into the school. Next to her, Kara’s arms are spinning to direct them onward like a pinwheel. Lena takes a step back and extends an arm of her own toward the front of the school to similarly guide the students, raising an eyebrow at Kara who does little more than shrug and continue with her pinwheeling.
It takes a few minutes for all of the students and faculty to enter the building, and Lena takes a moment to savor the quiet while she can. She closes her eyes, turning her face upward toward the sunlight. She imagines its warmth soaking through her skin and into her body, filling her up for the night. After a few more deep breaths, she opens her eyes and steadies herself, turning toward the school’s entrance to join her colleagues and students in their final night as a NCHS family. Never again will their family look the same, and Lena is determined to enjoy their last night together fully.
Kara is leaning against the doorframe of the entrance, her clipboard hugged to her chest, her eyes sparking.
“Waiting for me?” Lena asks, smirking at Kara as she unwraps herself from clipboard and fiddles with the clip at the top.
“Maybe,” she laughs softly, a shy smile lighting up her face. “Can’t have our favorite teacher getting locked out, after all,” she teases.
A bark of a laugh escapes Lena’s lips without her permission. “Well, then I’d better get you inside,” she whispers as she passes Kara and enters the school.
She’s been looking forward to this night for months. Sure, it’s a lot of work, a big disruption to her sleep schedule and an inconvenience to her Netflix binges, but these students have worked so hard and deserve a fun night. And, Lena thinks as hears Kara swallow behind her, if she can flirt with Kara Danvers for a few hours too, well, that’s just an added bonus.