The Project •On Hold•

👊🏻 Chapter Seventeen 👊🏻

Conner pushed his food around his plate as his dad droned on and on about boring work stuff. You'd think that if your reporter dad who doubled as an undercover agent would be interesting. He'd even been dubbed Superman because of all the people he'd saved. But, no. Somehow, he still managed to be incredibly boring.

As Conner took a bite of his food, Jon seemed to decide that'd he'd had enough. "I don't wanna hear about the cat that got saved from a tree! That's like the most stereotypical rescue ever, Dad!"

"Would you rather the cat be stuck in the tree?"

"Well, it climbed up there. It got itself into that situation. It should have to figure out what to do itself!"

Conner thought Jon had a point, but their dad continued.

"But it can't get down. It's too high up, it would get hurt."

"That's its fault."

Clark looked exasperated.

Lois chuckled. "Jon, cats are stupid. And it was scared. Animals, like people, do dumb things. Remember the time YOU got stuck in the tree?"

"Yeah. But, umm... well... that's different!"

"How?"

"I don't know! It just is."

'God, can't you just pick up the memo?' Conner thought. 'Obviously, they're trying to teach you to help out in any situation.' He was annoyed, to say the least. 'Brothers.'

"What are you rolling your eyes about?" Clark asked.

"Nothing."

"How's that project going, Conner?" Lois asked quickly.

"Good. We still have to go to Artemis', Richard's, and Megan's, but then we just have to work on the paper and we'll be done."

"Well, this paper helped you make friends, at least. How's it going with Megan? You ask her out yet?"

"Lois!" He exclaimed. Realizing that no one was paying attention, he said, "No."

"You should get on that. Artemis and Wally got together after what? Two weeks?"

"Yeah."

"Then you need to speed it up, mister."

Conner rolled his eyes, taking another bite of his pasta.

"I mean it, Con." The oven timer went off. "I've got to get the cookies. You keep eating."

As soon as she walked into the kitchen, Jon started singing something under his breath. Conner had amazing hearing though, and could understand him.

"Conner and Megan sitting in a tree. K-I-S-S-I-N-G. First come love, then comes marriage, and then comes Co-"

"Shut up, Jon!" Conner yelled.

"Conner!" Clark snapped.

"He asked for it!"

"Conner."

Conner groaned, standing up. He dumped his plate in the sink. At least he'd eaten all of his food.

"Conner? What's wrong?" Lois asked.

"Nothing," Conner grumbled. He marched off to his room. "I'm done."

A few hours later, Conner went to scour the fridge for leftovers, he found a plate wrapped in plastic wrap. There was a sticky note on it that said 'Conner'. He smiled, taking out the plate and carrying it to his room.

Dad was always trying to convince him that he needed therapy or something for his anger issues, but that was a gross overreaction. He was a teenager. Of course he was angry all the time. True, no one else seemed to be as angry as him, but he figured that wasn't actually the case. Everyone else was just better at hiding their anger than he was.

Artemis got so mad once that she broke the lock on a locker with one of her crutches. Luckily, it had been empty, but she still did it. No one was saying that she needed to go to therapy. She was fine, just being a teenager.

Just like Connor was. But did Dad understand that? Of course not. Apparently, he was an angel as a teenager, and never got into any trouble. Connor really needed to run that by Grandma Kent. There was no way.

Anyway, Lois seemed to get it. That was what actually mattered, Connor supposed. As long as he had one person in his corner, he would be alright.