The Protagonist System

239 A Farm Boy Farms

The next morning, Johnathan had somehow convinced Martha to let him take me out on the tractor as he tilled the field for the fall planting season. We were planting turnips and rutabagas this time and the turnips would have almost three full growths and harvests by the time the rutabagas were ready after three months. The turnips were used as a quick turnover while the bumper crop of rutabagas grew.

“You're a lot smarter than you pretend you are.” Johnathan said when he finished planting the first field with turnips.

“Da.” I said and he gave me a pointed look, because I didn't call him John. “Ma happy.”

Johnathan held the pointed look for a moment and then sighed. “You have a point.”

I nodded and he climbed back onto the tractor and we plowed the next field. As we worked, Johnathan told me about his crop rotation and how he won't plant anything for the few winter months to let the soil recover, then he would plant potatoes in January and then harvest in March. Another short break for the soil to recover and he would plant corn in late April or early May.

For the summer, it was time for corn and that would grow for three to four months, then he would go back to turnips and rutabagas. It left lots of time between different crops for the soil's nutrients to not be used up quickly. With the addition of fertilizer and regular watering when necessary, if there wasn't enough rainfall, each harvest produced the largest yield possible for sale.

Johnathan also mentioned rotating in cabbage and lettuce, because they were good companions for the rutabagas and didn't compete for the same nutrients as a root vegetable. They also had similar harvest times and brought in almost as much money, thanks to the similar growing times.

“Onion.” I said and his arm stiffened around me. “Garlic.”

“How do you know that?” Johnathan asked, his voice a little sharp.

I didn't want to admit to growing several large farms back in the Walking Dead and the Last of Us universes, so I lied and mentioned what I saw on the coffee table. “Farm... er... me... nak?”

Johnathan let out a sigh and chuckled. “The farmer's almanac.”

I nodded and he didn't say anything until we finished the next field and he climbed off the tractor to change out the things he was planting.

“You can read.” Johnathan said as he looked into my eyes.

I tilted my head slightly and knew I couldn't lie about it, so I nodded.

“You just have a hard time speaking.” Johnathan added.

I nodded again, since I was only a baby and needed time to develop properly. I had gone through a lot to gain a Kryptonian body as a base for my divine body and I wasn't going to screw that up by trying to transfigure myself to allow proper physical movement or to allow speech be produced from my infant throat.

“How smart are you?” Johnathan asked.

I had to shrug at that, because I honestly didn't know. Just because I had more powers than I could count, that didn't mean I was suddenly a genius or could remember everything I ever did or learned. Despite a few inspiring thoughts, I wasn't that big of a thinker, as the massive mistake I made on the last world clearly proved.

Johnathan adjusted the planter for the next field and climbed back onto the tractor. We did up the last field and returned to the barn along a small access road. Martha stood inside the barn with a frown on her face, her foot tapping the ground, and she had a packed baby bag hung over her shoulder.

“We completely missed lunch, didn't we?” Johnathan asked.

“Wunch!” I said happily and clapped, making Martha smile.

Johnathan climbed down off the tractor and reached back to pick me up. He had barely turned around when Martha snatched me out of his arms and cuddled me and kissed my cheek several times.

“Who's my cute little farmer boy?” Martha asked me and then blew a raspberry on my neck.

I laughed a high pitch baby laugh, just like she wanted. It really tickled, too. “Me!”

“Yes, you are!” Martha carried me over to the barn door. “Say bye to Da!”

“Bye John!” I said and Martha laughed all the way over to the house.

“Smart-ass kid.” Johnathan said and then he chuckled as he started to put the equipment back where it was supposed to go. “I haven't heard Martha laugh like that in ages.”

I hugged my mom's neck and gave Johnathan a quick thumbs-up gesture when he looked over at us. He nodded just before Martha brought me inside and shut the front door of the house. I was happy that he was fully onboard with making Martha as happy as we could and he wouldn't take my name jokes personally anymore.n/ô/vel/b//jn dot c//om

*

When I was five, Martha did not want to let me go to school. She loved me too much to stay at home all day by herself without me there to keep her company. She cried more than I did when she had to let me go and passed me off to the teacher of my Kindergarten class.

“I already know my numbers and letters!” I exclaimed as the teacher brought me into the classroom.

“That's very good Clark.” The teacher said, quite condescendingly. “Now play nice with the other children until recess and then we'll see if you know your colors, too.”

I tried to not glare at her as she sat me on a plush mat with three other kids. I knew I had to try and pretend to be a normal kid, except I knew my adoptive mom was going to suffer a lot as she stayed at home without me there. I used a touch of Clairvoyant's power and focused it on Martha, only to find out she was still right there in the parking lot beside the school.

I hopped up and ran over to the window, saw it was a bit too high for me to reach, so I picked up a large desk and walked over to the wall and set it down. I climbed up onto it and looked out the window and pressed my face to it to stare at Martha.

“Clark!” Martha exclaimed and took a step towards me, only for the teacher to grab me from behind and set me back onto the plush mat.

“None of that, now.” The teacher said and looked at the desk. “How did that get there?”

I thought about saying I did it and realized I had foolishly revealed how strong I was to part of the class. Thankfully, most of them didn't realize what carrying a huge desk meant and just accepted it as something I could do. They were too young to know any different, anyway.

I did my best to not stand out after that, only for the teacher to treat me like I was an idiot. She had read the report on how smart I was and had apparently ignored it. When I checked with a touch of telepathy, she had dismissed the report because all parents claimed their child was smart.

When recess came, I ran outside and jumped into my mother's arms and hugged her. Martha had stayed there in the parking lot and hadn't gone home like she was supposed to. Not surprisingly, there were a few other mothers there as well. Missing their kids was a common theme, apparently.

When recess was over and we all had to go back inside, the teacher pulled out a large color wheel and started playing a game with the other children. When it was my turn, she spun the little spinner, which told me she had copied the selector from the game Twister, and it landed on the purple one.

“Clark, what color is this?” The teacher asked me, her voice filled with indulgence.

“Lavender.” I said and she stiffened.

“No, that's wrong. This is purple.” The teacher said.

I reached into the pile of crayons the other kids used for coloring and picked up the purple crayon. “This is purple.” I said and several of the kids nodded. I pointed at the color wheel with the crayon. “That is lavender. It's the same color as the flowers along the road outside.”

“Flowers!” A few of the girls almost shouted.

There was a small rush of kids, a few boys included, that ran across the room and climbed up onto the large desk to look outside.

“Ooo! There are!” One of the girls said, which told me they hadn't noticed them when we were all outside. I had the feeling those flowers were going to disappear the next time we were allowed outside.

The teacher gave me a pointed look for disrupting her class.

I stuck the blunt end of purple crayon into my mouth and pretended it was a cigarette to give her my best Groucho Marx impression. “The secret of life is honesty and fair dealing.”

The woman looked shocked and I held in my laugh, because I was sure she was finishing the quote in her head. If you could fake that, you've got it made.

She shook herself out of her shock and spent the next twenty minutes corralling the kids back into a semblance of order and away from the window. She even dragged the large desk away from the window, making all the kids groan sadly.

By the time lunch rolled around and I had eaten the lunch my mother packed for me, the teacher decided she needed to know how smart I was. I was given an aptitude test and I aced it, so I was given another, then another. My teacher left and brought the grade school principal back and I did another test, which I passed.

The local high school named Smallville High was soon called and they sent over a few as well. I was tempted to tank them completely and stay in grade school, then realized I had a great opportunity here, so I aced them as well.

The looks of shock on all their faces, especially on the high school's principal's face, made me proud. He had thought it was a joke and came himself, probably to make fun of both his fellow principal and my teacher for wasting his time, only they weren't.

“What are we supposed to do?” My teacher asked, her voice full of disbelief. “He's only five.”

“I don't know.” The grade school principal answered and looked at the high school principal. “Any thoughts?”

“I could make a few calls and get a college aptitude test sent over.” The man said.

I shook my head, because I didn't have a lot of college knowledge. Most of the people I had the memories of had all been practical people that only completed high school and went to work afterwards or they had still been in high school at the time. That didn't translate well into college level information, so I would have to study if I wanted to earn a college degree for anything.

This was the one time that the knowledge to build and maintain any kind of technology, using Tinker powers, wasn't going to help me with any of the normal college subjects. Even with several intelligence quirks and shard powers available, none of them work well without me having the knowledge already.

I mean, high school was relatively easy by comparison and I've been there several times, only with a few specialized classes that weren't applicable most of the time. That usually meant I had to be humble with the knowledge I did have, most of the time anyway. This time I was kind of throwing off the whole pattern to see what would happen.

“That's a firm no from the high school elementary student.” My teacher joked and the two men chuckled. “I'm not sure what we should do now.” She said, almost repeating what she said before. “He's going to be a huge disruption to any class he's put in, no matter where it is.”

Both principals nodded and sighed, then gave each other questioning looks. “Placement tests!”

I was shuffled off into a spare room and then provided with what I had to assume were grade twelve exams, since they kind of looked familiar and covered pretty much everything I knew was usually tested on in high school. I spent the rest of the afternoon taking those exams and Martha was brought in at the end of the school day as several teachers graded my exams.

“What's going on?” Martha asked as she lifted me up to sit me on her hip and hugged me.

“Your son is a genius.” My teacher said.

“I already told you that.” Martha said, as if she was tired of repeating herself. She wasn't, because she loved me and always told everyone around town how smart I was.

“He's a genius up to the high school level, anyway.” The grade school principal said. “They're grading his high school graduation exams now.”

Martha blinked her eyes at them and then looked at me. “Clark?”

“I don't know much about college stuff.” I said with a shrug. “I have to study more.”

Martha opened her mouth, closed it, opened it, and huffed. “I think I'd prefer it if you stayed a kid for a little longer than a single day at Kindergarten.”

I grinned at her. “Oops.”

The high school principal barked a laugh. “I see what Mrs. Crenshaw meant about him being a disruption wherever he went.”

Martha nodded and she talked to them about my first day at school as we waited for the results. I passed with 95% and only my teacher was shocked by how high it was.

“I'll have a certificate drawn up and sent over.” The high school principal said. “You'll have to wait for the end of the school year if you want to attend the graduation ceremony.”

“No, thanks. There's farming to be done.” I said, matter of factly.

Martha kissed my cheek and smiled. “My adorable little farmer is already planning next summer's crops?”

“I always am.” I said smugly and the adults laughed.

“Let's go home.” Martha said and held a hand out to my teacher and shook hers, then the grade school principal's, then she shook the high school principal's hand. “Thank you all for doing this.”

“It's unprecedented and will be one for the record books as the youngest high school graduate.” The high school principal said. “Perhaps he'll become the youngest college graduate, too.”

“Maybe in my spare time between finger painting and bubble baths.” I joked and only Martha laughed. “Tough crowd.”

“It's not their fault, Clark. They don't know how funny you can be.” Martha said and walked over to the door of the room with me still braced on her hip. “It was nice meeting you all.”

The three adults waved or nodded as we left. I was placed on the passenger seat of the truck and buckled in and Martha climbed into the driver's side and we were soon on our way home.

“Clark.” Martha said, almost in a whisper.

“Ma.” I said and turned to smile warmly at her.

Martha glanced at me and saw my smile before she looked back at the road. “Thank you.”

“I didn't want to leave you alone, either.” I said, knowing that was what she meant.

Martha smiled. “Johnathan's not going to be happy when he finds out.”

I couldn't stop my laugh at being reminded of that. “Let's not tell him and bet on how long it takes him to figure it out.”

Martha laughed, too. “I think I'll take that bet.”

“Two weeks.” I said and she glanced at me. “I'll plant the radishes next time.”

Martha smiled knowingly at me and looked back at the road. “I'll say a month and you have to convince Johnathan that rice is a good crop for the back 40.”

I laughed hard at hearing that. “We'd have to borrow Mister Johnson's backhoe to dredge out enough irrigation for that to work!”

“I know.” Martha said with a grin.

“You're on.” I said and held my little hand out.

Martha took a hand off the steering wheel briefly to shake mine and concentrated back on the road.

By the next morning, I knew I had been scammed. Martha acted exactly the same way she had when I had to go to school the day before, then she drove me away from the farm as if taking me to school... and went all the way through town to the mall and we stayed there until it was time for school to let out.

I hugged her neck and complimented her for being so smart. It made her blush and she looked proud. As another reward, I granted her the same first stage tune-up I did for Jensen back in Worm. I still wasn't able to access all of my powers, not even the inherent ones I should have had as a Kryptonian.

Then again, I was only five, so I probably needed to be a few years older to activate a majority of them, kind of like Superboy did. Oh! Maybe I was in a pocket universe the Time Trapper made with just Earth and Krypton in it? That would be both neat and disappointing if it was true.

At least I still had my magic and I used it in secret at night to let us have great crops every year. I sometimes managed to also affect the fields on either side of the farm, just so it wasn't only us that were having great growing seasons the last few years.

By the time the month of the bet was over and Martha hung my diploma on the living room wall, making me laugh and my dad spit and sputter, I had already convinced Johnathan to plant rice on the almost useless land of the back 40, since it would prime the land for a great wheat harvest the next summer.

I also gave him the same tune-up I gave my mom and both of them had a much easier time living the farm life, just like I was. I didn't miss going to school, thanks to the books Martha borrowed from the library for me. There wasn't anything like a correspondence course, so I would have to wait for a long time before I would be allowed to go to college.