Just a silly idea I had a few weeks ago.

A Decision For Life
By Anna Botsakou or Anna_B._the_Greek in_love_with_some_1@yahoo.gr
Rated G
Submitted June 2003

Disclaimer: I do not own Lois and Lucy Lane’s characters. However, the idea of the fic is absolutely mine.

A big thanks to Carole who had the courage to BR it <g>.

So, here it goes:

#####A##DECISION##FOR##LIFE#####

Her hands were gently touching the piano keys, as she was playing a beautiful Bach’s fugue. The melody was filling her ears and heart. She was calm, and smiling, thinking that she had learned it by heart, at last.

Had she?

Her fingers twisted, as she was playing the E + triplet, reaching the middle of the fugue.

Wrong finger.

Once again.

She stopped playing and banged her hand on the keys, desperately. She had been learning piano for almost six years, and yet she still couldn’t remember to put the third finger on that stupid E when she was playing the first inversion. Why should she always use the second one?

<It’s the third ! The third! The third!>

Her mind was screaming in vain. Her hand wouldn’t obey. She had been studying this fugue for more than four months, and still, when she tried to play it by heart, she couldn’t control her fingers.

The examiners wouldn’t care, though. The examinations were in a month, and she should’ve learned the fugue by then. Unless she played it right, she wouldn’t be able to move on to the next piano level.

Simple as this.

She stared at the keys, worried. Maybe she wasn’t this talented, after all. Maybe the piano wasn’t for her.
Maybe nothing was for her.

She began a travel through her memories. She tried to remember something, anything, she was good at.

She had tried basketball, soccer, swimming…
A complete failure.
She decided that sports were not for her.

She had tried painting and sculpture.
Another failure.
She decided that art wasn’t for her, either.

Now, she was trying to learn to play the piano.
And she didn’t had to try to learn to play the violin, the guitar or the flute, to understand that music wasn’t for her, either.

She sighed. She’d tried everything, and she’d managed nothing.

A voice popped in her head – her little sister’s voice.

<Why are you being so unfair to yourself, Lois? You’re always so quick to judge! Why don’t you give yourself a second chance?>

And what would she say now, if she could listen to her?

<Are you crazy, Lois? You’ve been learning to play the piano for six years, and you’re going to give up just because of an E in a fugue? You have plenty of time until the examinations to learn it! And you know what? Unless you keep trying over and over, you’ll never manage everything in your whole life!>

Lucy’s words always sounded like the right thing to do. However, she was too young to be wise enough.

Besides, she didn’t know…

Lois bent her head. No, Lucy had no idea what she had been through these sixteen years of her life. Even school was a living hell for her. She didn’t have any friends, and she didn’t know why. Everyone was making fun of her, with no reason. And the boys called her “Needle”, because she was thin. She was always alone.

In addition, she had no good grades to satisfy her ambitions somehow. She was always a B, B- student. Why? No reason. She just couldn’t understand, or remember what she was supposed to.

Where was she going? It was about time she decided what she was going to do in her life, time she created a future for herself. But what kind of future could she create, untalented and disappointed as she was?

She tried to be optimist. OK, she couldn’t be completely useless. There had to be something she was good at.

What did she like to do? Perhaps this question would give her the answers she needed.

What she liked… What she liked was what she’d missed more than anything:

Communication. Talking to someone, listening to someone, writing… Yes, she loved to write.

Not writing anything, though – she lacked fantasy. She liked to write articles, reports, interviews…

<It doesn’t matter if you like it, Lois! You don’t have many choices!> she reminded bitterly to herself.

And writing was something she was quite good at. Her compositions were always awarding her A’s, and even A+’s, a couple of times.

All of a sudden, Lois realized something very important about herself. She had never regarded writing as something she liked to do and yet, it was. She had never thought this was the reason why she kept a diary; she thought she was doing it just to kill some time. She had never thought this was the reason why she had always good grades at the compositions; she thought that this was happening because she liked the subjects she was given. She had never thought this was why she was always willing to take more essays like “Bring two pages about Benjamin Franklin’s life”, the ones all the other children hated; she thought this was happening because she was hoping to get a better grade for her essay. She had never thought this was why she wanted to be a reporter of the school newspaper, even if she couldn’t because only senior year students were allowed to; she thought she was just trying to attract the other children’s respect and attention.

A reporter…

Why not?

She kept thinking about it, and the more she was thinking about it, the more she liked the idea. She could be a reporter, indeed. She could write well, very well, and it was something she liked to do.

She absently turned her head towards the window. A brilliant future was passing before her eyes. She was Lois Lane, a great award–winning reporter. She had won the Kerth, even the Pulitzer. She was the star of a big newspaper, like the Daily Planet, for example, and everyone knew her and respected her.

Yes, she could do it.

And she would.

She would become a great reporter, no matter what anyone would say or think about it.

She knew, at last, that this was her dream. And she would follow it.

#####THE##END#####

Dedicated to one of my best friends ever, Vivian.
She knows why.


P.S. note: Carole told me Lois always had the best mark in her class. I didn’t know (or remember) it and sorry if I confused you. If you don’t like the idea that I changed the facts a little bit to fit the story better, maybe you should consider that Lois became an A+ student after the above incident <g>


What we've got here is failure to communicate...