reason to smile ~ jonathan kent

prologue

It was a weird thing, coming back to your hometown.

You leave, believing that you would return soon to visit and nothing would change. All of your friends would remember every memory with you and would never forget what it felt to be in your presence. You and your friends would go to your favorite places and stay there all night, laughing away like you had no care in the world. You would spend all night there until you fall asleep. And when you wake up, you do it all again.

But then you get realistic.

Even if you do visit again, as much as you want it to, it won't be the same. Things change. People change. People say that they'll miss you but they are able to move on from your absence for quicker than you deserve. And it hurts. But that's life.

Smallville. It's in the name. A small town where everyone knows everyone and nothing interesting ever happens. Well, except from when there's a party. Or a house fire. Some people were lucky enough to be able to leave the small town life behind and many of them never looked back. They were lucky. A lot of people never got the chance to leave so they make the most of it.

Like Tilly.

There were only two saving graces to Smallville that made living there bearable. The Cushing Family, more so Sarah and Martha Kent. They were the heart of Smallville, especially Martha.

Martha Kent was the one person that you could speak to about anything and everything. Yeah, Sarah was Tilly's best friend but there were still things that she wasn't too comfortable talking to her about. Martha was there for everyone who wanted to talk. She sat on what was known as her bench, thinking about anything and everything until someone joined her. She was the heart and soul of Smallville. She loved everyone and everyone loved her.

Tilly was pretty sure Martha had a son as well. Clark, if she remembered right. But she's only ever met him a few times briefly when he came back to visit.

When Tilly had heard that Martha had passed through her father telling her, she was in shock. She didn't feel like she could cry for a while, like she was emotionless. She walked up to her bedroom and it all came crashing down on her. Someone who she loved, who she thought of as her grandma, had... left her. It hit her hard. It hit her even harder when her father came to her room and told her that they were moving back to Smallville.

She was feeling so many emotions at once. Everything was changing so quickly and she felt like she couldn't handle it. Not only is she being forced to move back to her hometown after years of being away and forced to face everyone she left behind, unwillingly however, but she has to go back to the place where Martha used to call home. She had to go to her funeral also. That's going to hurt.

The next few weeks were spent with Tilly clearing out the house, mostly by herself but with the help of her dad with a few bits and pieces. But not a lot. He always sat straight back down on his ass after making the tiniest bit of progress with their stuff. Tilly didn't want to make him mad, so she didn't mention anything about it. She just continued to clear out what they needed by herself. When she was finally done, she put everything in the moving van and the car that her father was taking to Smallville. At the time, they were living in Oklahoma so to travel in a car with her dad for about 4 hours would be... torture. But she'll get through it. She always does.

She sat in the passenger seat of her dad's car and turned to face the window for most of the car ride. The radio lowly played music from the 60's as they travelled, filling the air with something other than awkwardness and, on Tilly's part, uncomfortableness. This was going to be a long car ride.

Luckily, her dad decided to pull over to get some gas and there was a diner there. It was a little random for the diner to be there because it was just on the side of the supposedly deserted highway, but she decided to make the most of the diner being there. She walked in and glanced around the empty diner, with the stereotypical color scheme of an American diner. She walked to the counter and was greeted by a nice looking lady, who seemed to be in her fifties, and she ordered a burger for both her and her dad and a portion of fries before walking to the bathroom, looking into the mirror. She ran the tap and cupped the water in her hands before pouring it over her face. She felt like she needed a reality check as to whether this was really happening.

She was really moving back to Smallville. Martha Kent really was gone. She still has to live with her dad.

She looked in the mirror again and breathed a large sigh out before moving into one of the cubicles to get some tissue paper and wipe her face down. She was lucky that she decided not to wear any makeup that day otherwise it would have ruined it. It was rare for her to not wear makeup and so not wearing it today... was different. Makeup felt like a safety blanket for her. It gave her the confidence and power she needed to make it through the day and keep up this façade of confidence she needed to keep up. She barely let anyone see her without makeup. The only people ever to see her without was her father and Martha Kent. That's it. Even Sarah hadn't seen her without. At sleepovers, she would wake up early to put on makeup before Sarah would wake up and see her. Obviously when she was younger, she didn't know what makeup really was. That was until she came across her mother's old makeup. When her father came across this, he forced her to put some of it on and from then on she would put it on. It was the only way she would ever look pretty. It was the only way she would ever feel pretty. He used to tell her – and it stuck.

She walked back out of the bathroom and into the main area of the diner. She sat in a booth in the corner as she waited for their food to be made. She pulled out her phone and glanced to see if she had any notifications at all or if anyone missed her yet.

No service.

She huffed out a laugh. Figures.

She could hear a low noise of a television going and decided to glance around for it. She finally found it, hung up on one of the walls. It was showing the news and she found herself looking a little closer at what was happening. It was showing a scene of chaos, where people were running away from a powerplant with a reporter in front of the camera.

The headline beneath read:

'SUPERMAN STOPS CATASTROPHIC FAILURE AT PLANT'

The screen moves from the reporter to Superman in action, flying and saving the day, like he always did. Tilly didn't notice but a small, easily missed, smile crept onto her face at the sight. At least there was some good in the world.

But as soon as the smile was there, the smile was gone. She looked around the diner to see if anyone had noticed but no one had. Good, she thought.

The bell from the counter shook her out of her thoughts and she looked up to see the woman from before holding a takeaway bag, with a warm, bright smile. Tilly wished it was that easy for her to do the same. To make her smiles so genuine-looking. It was just too difficult sometimes.

Tilly walked up and rummaged in her back pocket for the money she put in there before she left home. She pulled the dollar bills out as the lady announced sweetly, "That's $4.99 please, sweetie" and Tilly nodded, handing her the money. She grabbed the bag of food before turning to walk out. As she's walking, she tells the woman behind her, "Keep the change! Have a nice day!" and she walked back to her dad's car, giving him his burger and putting the portion of fries on the dashboard.

Once they finished their food in their usual silence, their journey resumed to the place she once had the pleasure of calling home.

This was going to be interesting.