Capitulo dos

CHAPTER 2 Special and different Jonathan and Martha took the boy home to their farm. They named him Clark. They didn't tell him about his arrival. They didn't tell other people either. If someone asked, they said, 'He's Martha's sister's son. She died.' They didn't want Clark to be different from other children. But he was different. He was special. He was very strong. He was very fast. Nothing hurt him. When he was eight, a big milk can hit his head. It didn't hurt him.

2001, Smallville, Kansas, USA. Clark sat at his computer. Every morning he used the Internet. He wanted to find stories about special people -very strong people, very fast people. 'Clark Kent!' Martha called. 'You're going to be late for the bus!' 'OK, I'm coming,' shouted Clark. He put on his school clothes and shoes, cleaned his room and put his school

books in his bag. All in one minute! Martha came into his room with some clothes. 'You can wear these to the homecomin.g dance this weekend,' she said. 'I'm not going, Mom,' said Clark. 'I haven't got a girl to go with.' 'Did you ask anyone?' Martha asked. 'No,' he said. He ran down to the kitchen. 'What's that letter, son?' asked Jonathan. 'It's for the football team,' said Clark. 'They want some new players.' 'You can't do it,' said Jonathan. 'Oh, please, Dad,' said Clark. can run slowly. I can be careful.' 'I'm sorry, Clark,' said Jonathan, 'but the answer is no.' 'I don't want to be different,' shouted Clark. can never do normal things. People a t school think I'm a loser*: He ran out of th.e door. 'We must tell him about the spaceship,' Martha said to Jonathan. Clark walked to the bus stop. He was late again. The school bus drove off without him. 'Oh, no!' he said. 'Everything's going wrong today.' Suddenly he smiled a big smile. He turned and ran through the fields at 100 kilometres an hour.

The bus arrived at school. Clark's friends, Pete Ross and Chloe Sullivan, were on it. Chloe was new in Smallville. Her dad worked at LuthorCorp. She wrote for the school newspaper and took photos for it. She was always ready with her camera.

Are you going to the dance with anyone?' Pete asked Chloe. 'No, not yet,' said Chloe. 'Well, if Clark doesn't ask you ...' 'I'm not interested in Clark, Pete,' she said. 'Right,' said Pete. He knew that wasn't true. 'Well, we can go to the dance together if you want,' he said. 'Not boy and girl. Friend and friend.

Suddenly Clark was there. 'Hi, you two,' he said. Pete and Chloe were very surprised to see their friend. 'We saw you at your farm,' Chloe said. 'You weren't on the bus!' 'I came a different way,' said Clark. 'Are you ready for the football team, Clark?' asked Pete. 'I'm not going to do it,' said Clark. 'But, Clark,' said Pete, 'do you want to be the scarecrow?' 'The scarecrow!' Chloe said loudly. 'What's the scarecrow?'

`Shh!' said Pete. 'This happens here every year, Chloe. Before the homecoming game, the football players choose someone. A loser. They take him to the cornfield and take all his clothes. Then they write a big red S on the front of his body.' 'And they put him on a big wooden pole,' said Clark. `So he's a scarecrow.' 'How terrible!' said Chloe. Then Clark saw a beautiful girl with long, brown hair and a lovely smile. 'See you later,' he said to his friends. Clark walked across to Lana Lang. He was a metre from her. Suddenly he crashed to the ground. His books went everywhere. Why does this always happen near Lana? he thought. Is it because I like her? 'Hi, Clark, are you okay?' she asked. 'Hi, Lana,' he said. 'Yeah, I'm fine.' She gave his books to him. 'You're reading Nietzsche*, huh? Are you man or superman?' 'I don't know,' Clark said. They smiled. 'Lana!' shouted Whitney Fordman, a tall, good-looking student. He was Lana's boyfriend. Whitney was fantastic at sports. He was in all the school teams. He ran up and kissed Lana. They walked away together.

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