seven + one

SUPERMAN

"I can't do it." The red head blurted as they sat in the Nasty Burger booth. She shoved it at the boy sitting next to her. "You do it!"

"Me?! I'm just as nervous as you!" He chucked it at the African-American boy. "You open it, Tucker!"

"What?!! No!! Sam should do it!" He fumbled with the letter before practically forcing it into the goth's side, who glared. "Wha—! Why me!! I'm not even— ugh! Never mind! I'm not opening it!" She tossed it back at the first boy, who stared before walking over (despite hissed "Danny!"s) to Clark who, honestly, was just trying to work on his article and had writer's block. For the life of him, he couldn't think of how to start the article. "...Hi." Clark looked up, confused. "Um... hi..?"

He nervously offered the letter to him. "My sister's freaking out, can you please open this and tell us what it says?"

Clark, weirded out by this request, looks down at the letter's return.

Thomas & Martha Wayne University
Psychology wing

He looked over at the red head sympathetically. "College admissions?"

She nodded, biting her nails.

Her brother told him, "She admitted a think piece to Harvard and they apparently sent it to everyone, because even people she didn't apply to are rejecting her."

"Which is ridiculous!" The goth seethed. "She has more hands-on experience than anyone else they could admit! The school nearly hired her as a counselor because she's the only one anyone listens to for advice!"

Clark smiled at her again, even more sympathetic. "I have a friend who worked on the admissions board of Wayne University. They really liked crazy think pieces. The crazier it was, the more likely they were to admit you— as long as it was well written and supported the thesis, that is." He tacks on, unsure of her writing abilities. "I'm sure that as long as you expressed yourself succinctly and clearly, that it'll be fine." He reassured, taking the letter from the brother and carefully opening it. "'Jasmine Fenton, we at Thomas & Martha Wayne University are pleased to inform you—' you've been accepted!"

Her whole world seemed to stop. "What?!" She rushed over, gently snatching the paper from Clark, who grinned happily at her, glad that he could help in this small way, the three younger teens loudly congratulating her.

The boy smiled widely and mouthed a 'thanks' to Clark. He waved it off.

"OH MY GOSH!" The red head screeched.

Clark winced a little, his ears ringing.

"Jazz?! What is it?!"

"THEY WANT ME TO CONTINUE MY RESEARCH BY REQUEST OF MR. WAYNE!"

Clark paused. Bruce did this? What was he up to? Might as well ask (plus... he may or may not find this inspiring).

He tapped her shoulder. "I don't think we've properly met— hi, I'm Clark Kent from the Daily Planet. Would you mind if I interviewed you about all this? Because honestly, a think piece that got you rejected from colleges you didn't even apply to, yet caught the eye of a billionaire sounds a lot more interesting than writing about the Metropolis basketball game."

🔹

Perry stared at the piece skeptically. He looked up at Clark. "...It's about ghosts."

"Which I've confirmed that the government acknowledges to be real!" Clark points out quickly. "The Anti-Ecto Acts are real, Perry, whether or not we think it's ridiculous is regardless, and even if we think she's crazy for thinking ghosts exist, the fact she proved how people believe them to be untrue by using existing research from her parents— who, as noted, are staunch believers that all ghosts are evil— is incredible! Perry, she may sound crazy for believing in ghosts, but so does the government! There's also the fact that she was blacklisted and then a billionaire— a billionaire, Perry!— asked her to continue her research! I have an entire interview with him about her, Perry! He has to sit on the admissions board for matters like blackballing and when he read her piece he was stunned she hadn't been swept up yet! Perry, I read the piece! It was better than Lois' on the correlation between the appearances of aliens like Superman versus Zod! Even Lois agreed!"

Perry's eyebrows shot up at this. "Can we run the think piece?"

"I can ask."

"Then ask!" He barked as he stormed to the door, yanking it open. "LANE! HERE! NOW! BRING THE THINK PIECE THAT GIRL WROTE ON GHOSTS!"

🔹

"So... You gonna tell me why you accepted a girl who wrote about ghosts into your college? I read it, the piece is amazing, but ghosts aren't real." Clark said to his friend, amused, as he drank from the coffee mug Alfred had offered him, Bruce's still sitting on the monitor, steaming.

"Tell that to Hawkgirl. She and Green Lantern got shot down by one on their way back from a mission before the local hero saved her life." He stopped typing to look up at Clark, his hood down. "He was a ghost."

He raised his eyebrows. "Huh. This in Amity Park?"

He nodded. "You were there on a quiet day. According to everything I've found, there's usually ten to twenty attacks every twenty-four hours. Most are at night and caused by an entity called 'the Box Ghost'."

"'The Box Ghost'?" Clark parroted, a smile tugging at his lips.

"He seems to be more of a nuisance than anything, but he attacks roughly three quarters of the time. The rest are mainly by a ghost called 'Skulker' but there are other frequent appearances." He told his friend, his own smirk tugging at his lips as he pulled up a short video of about five seconds where a green beam hits a blue, floating warehouse worker in the back and an exasperated, white haired teen captured him quickly in a thermos.

Clark glanced over at Batman. "So what's your play?"

"What makes you think I have one?"

"Bruce, even the media knows how much you adore kids and that," He points with his cup at the replaying video, "is definitely a kid. So," He takes a sip of coffee before setting the mug down. "what's the play?"