Costumes, Confusion, and Cover-ups
by Julie Gastler
Summary: Lois and Clark are surprised by their daughter’s ideas on Halloween costumes.
Rated: G
Author’s note: While chatting with Kim about another fic she was writing, this just popped into my head. Kim is also a big Zorro fan.
***
“Mommy, I wanna be a pole dancer,” six-year-old Kara Kent announced as she came into the kitchen.
Lois dropped the dishes into the sink instead of merely setting them there. She knew Clark had heard the same thing when she saw him spew the sip of coffee he’d surely intended to swallow. Both turned to watch Kara skip the rest of the way to her seat at the kitchen table. Lois chose to ignore the loud stomping that accompanied the skipping this time in favor of focusing on the bigger issue instead. Maybe they’d both misheard her. “What?” Lois asked as Clark cleaned himself and the table.
“A pole dancer,” she repeated, much to Lois’s dismay. Humming a happy tune and swinging her feet, Kara began poking at her breakfast of scrambled eggs and toast.
“Sweetheart,” Clark said, clearing his throat, “A pole dancer? Really?”
“Yes,” Kara answered with a nod. “I wanna be a pole dancer for Halloween.” She reached for the jam to top her toast and smiled up at her father.
Clark turned to face Lois and whispered under his breath, “At least it’s just for Halloween.”
Lois rolled her eyes and let out a sigh. “Kara, you can’t be a pole dancer for Halloween,” she said as she dried her hands off with a dish towel. “There must be something else you’d like to be.”
Kara scrunched her face and cried, “But I
need to be a pole dancer!” She let out a few sobs during which Lois exchanged a look with Clark that said
Can you believe this? “Leah is going to be a cheerleader, Izzy is going to be a color girl and I am going to be a pole dancer. We have to be a group!” she explained through invisible tears. Her volume increased as she continued, “You never let me do anything I want! You always ruin everything! It’s not fair!” The last word was drawn out and included several sobs. At the same time, she leaned back in her chair and drooped her head backward, allowing her arms to hang limply on either side of her.
Lois closed her eyes and took a deep breath. These abrupt mood changes were typical for Kara. Both of Kara’s grandmothers assured Lois that this was normal behavior. But that didn’t make it any easier to deal with. At least she hadn’t thrown herself on the floor yet.
As if on cue, Kara’s body liquified, and she melted out of her chair as she continued her tantrum all the way to the floor.
“Cool it, kiddo,” Clark said calmly yet assertively. Kara’s volume decreased, but she continued to sniff and moan while lying on the floor, and Lois was grateful that Clark was so adept at rolling with whatever punches Kara threw. “What’s a color girl?”
“It’s the girl at the football games that waves the flag,” Kara said, sniffing.
“While the band plays?” Clark asked with slightly raised eyebrows. At her nod, he smiled. “That’s the color
guard.”
“Yeah,” she said, still sniffing. “And I
need to be the pole dancer,” she added as she sat up and used her hands to emphasize the word ‘need.’
“What exactly is a pole dancer?” Lois asked, hoping the answer matched the idea she now had in her head thanks to Clark’s questioning. Kara rolled her eyes, and Lois reminded herself, again, that the issue right now was
not Kara’s attitude.
“It’s the girl that tosses the pole in the air while she dances with the color girl,” she explained, her voice still whiny as she continued to sniff. “I mean color guard.”
Relieved, Lois looked at Clark who smiled at her with his own relief. “That girl is called a baton twirler,” he said. “And she doesn’t throw a pole in the air, it’s a baton.”
“Why can’t I be a baton twirler?” she asked with a lowered chin and raised eyes.
Clark chuckled as he placed a hand on her shoulder. “You can be a baton twirler. But only if you are a good girl and pull yourself together.”
Kara’s mood instantly changed, and she jumped up to her seat and began describing exactly what she wanted her costume to look like. “I want white boots and a red sparkly dress and a golden baton. Can I wear a hat too? Wait, the girl usually has two batons. Can I have two batons? Please Daddy?”
Lois shook her head and smiled at Clark before going back to the dishes in the sink. She allowed her mind to drift to other things while she cleaned but was brought back immediately when she heard Kara’s next idea.
“—And Daddy can be Superman!” Kara finished excitedly.
Lois whirled around to see Clark frozen in place with a bite of food nearly to his open mouth. Kara looked back and forth between her parents, but as they remained silent and motionless, her smile faltered.
“Kara, Daddy can’t be Superman,” Lois said as she came to sit in the chair beside her. Kara began to scrunch her face and open her mouth, and Lois quickly came up with the first reasonable excuse she thought Kara would accept. “Jimmy is going to be Superman. They can’t be the same thing.” Lois would have to call Jimmy later to let him know of his costume choice.
“But Jimmy’s too short to be Superman,” Kara said with an air about her that was much older than her six years. “His hair is the wrong color and he doesn’t have muscles like Daddy does.”
“What if Daddy were batman?” Lois suggested. Clark’s single raised eyebrow told her what he thought of that idea.
“Ew, no,” Kara quickly answered, shaking her head. “He’s too scary.”
“What about the Flash?” Clark asked.
“You’re not fast enough to be the Flash.” Kara, again looking older than she was, shook her head and sighed.
“Isn’t there someone else you’d like Daddy to be?” Lois asked.
“Mommy, you just don’t get it. He
has to be Superman. Jimmy can be one of those other guys.” Kara said, ignoring her mother’s question and waving.
“I could be Zorro,” Clark said nonchalantly as he resumed eating his breakfast.
“Who’s Zorro?” Kara asked with veiled curiosity.
“He’s a hero from history that defended people who couldn’t defend themselves,” he explained.
“That sounds so
boring.” Kara rolled her eyes as she drew the last word out.
“But he did it without powers. Isn’t that something?”
“No, its even
more boring.” Kara leaned back in her chair and crossed her arms, glaring at her breakfast.
“He had a fast horse and used a sword,” Lois said as she stood and began cleaning the table off.
“A sword?” Kara’s eyebrows raised just a bit.
“Yeah, and he wore a mask to protect his secret identity,” Clark added. He stood as well and began to help Lois. As Lois met his eyes, he winked at her.
“What’s a secret identy?” Kara asked as she picked up her fork to continue eating her breakfast.
“A secret
identity is the person Zorro really was. When he wasn’t being Zorro, he was just a normal guy.”
Depositing her things on the counter, Lois turned to lean on it and watched the gears turning in Kara’s head as she tapped her finger on her chin. Zorro was a brilliant choice on Clark’s part. He’d even be able to wear a mask. But had they painted Zorro interestingly enough for her to change her mind?
“Okay, Daddy can be Zorro,” Kara announced. “But only if he has a sword and a mask.”
“Sure,” Lois said with a smile. “We can pick them out for him after school today.”
“And Jimmy can still be Superman,” Kara added.
“I’ll give him a call and let him know that he doesn’t have to come up with something new.” Clark smiled at Lois.
“Mommy?” Kara asked as she returned to eating her breakfast.
“Yeah?”
“Does Superman have a secret identity?”
***
THE END
***
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