Past History

Monday morning seemed rather bright.

It was about 10:00 AM, and the hallways of Metropolis High were filled with students in-between classes.  As Diana walked up to her locker, she took a moment to look down the hallway to her left, taking in the rays of morning sunshine that swept in from the glass-walled front entrance to the school.  She missed the constant sunshine of her island, and made sure to soak in as much of it as she could while living in the city.
As she turned back to her locker, she noticed Bart standing to her right, practically hiding in her shadow.  He looked a little embarrassed, and more than a little uncomfortable.  He kept his eyes on the floor, as though he didn't have the will to look her in the eye.
"Bart? Are you okay?" Diana asked.
"Yeah, um, I'm okay."
He took a silent deep breath and swallowed.  "So... thanks, for yesterday.  For not telling Bruce that I... that I lied."
Diana frowned concernedly at him.  "Why did you lie to him?"
Bart winced a little at her question. "If I told you, it might be... really bad."
Diana gently put her hand under his chin and lifted his head up to look at her, giving him a genuinely caring smile.  "Hey, you can tell me anything, alright?"
Bart blushed a little, and couldn't help but smile a little bit back at her. "Thanks."
He took a step backward out of embarrassment, and slipped back into his shameful persona.  "But it's not that I don't trust you... it's just..."
Bart stopped in mid-sentence as he glanced down the hallway behind Diana, his eyes going wide with horror.
Diana instantly spun around to see what Bart was looking at, but saw nothing of out of the ordinary.  Confused, she turned back to Bart, but he was gone.
Clark and Lois walked up to her.  "Hey," Clark said, "was Bart here? I thought I heard him over here a second ago."
Diana, still looking down the hallway where Bart had once stood, took only a quick glance over to meet Clark and Lois's gaze.  "Yeah, a second ago he was here. Then he ran after he saw something over—" she turned to look back down the hallway where Bart had been looking, but froze in mid-sentence.
Two young men, about sixteen years old, walked down the hallway, side-by-side.  One was blonde, about 5'10'', and walked with the same gentle-yet-purposeful attitude that Clark did.  He seemed very physically fit, somewhat like a baseball player.
The other boy was the same height, but brown-haired and far less proper.  He was stereotypically handsome, like a 50s-era movie star.  He walked with a somewhat arrogant swagger, carrying a brown bomber jacket over his shoulder.
As Diana saw the second boy, her eyes went wide with surprise before quickly squinting in anger.  "YOU!" she yelled, stomping her booted feet as she walked towards him.
Lois and Clark, utterly confused, stood off to the side of the hall and watched the scene.

The dark-haired boy looked at Diana, and nearly jumped back in surprise.  "Diana?!... What are you doing here?"
"Me?! What are YOU doing here?!"
The boy was obviously caught off-guard.  His companion stood to the side, smirking at his friend's self-imposed misfortune.  "I... go to school here now," the brown-haired boy awkwardly responded.  Diana was relentless in her anger.  "And WHY is that?  Not enough girls in Coast City for you? You had to migrate to 'new fields?'"
Lois couldn't help but admire Diana's clever insult.
The boy hung his head a bit, and spoke gently. "Diana... I'm sorry..."
Diana wouldn't hear any of it.  "Save it," she said, her words laced with a tinge of verbal venom.  She turned and stormed away, leaving everyone else behind.
The boy sighed heavily, and leaned his head back in frustration.
The blonde boy humorously put his hand on his friend's shoulder. "Nice job there, buddy."
Lois and Clark looked at one another with puzzled expressions, then walked over to the two newcomers. Lois was the first to speak. "So what'd you do to her, exactly?"
The brown-haired one responded with more than a hint of frustrated humor. "I'm her ex-boyfriend."
Clark and Lois both tilted their heads slightly backwards in an "Ah, so that's it" expression.
"Yeah... I think she mentioned you once or twice.  So you're from Coast City?" Lois asked.
"Yeah. 'Name's Hal Jordan," he said, politely holding his hand out to her.
Lois just stared down at his hand, then raised an eyebrow as she looked back up at him.  "Um... I'm on her side here.  Sorry."
Clark rolled his eyes and moved to shake Hal's hand.  "Nice to meet you, Hal. The snarky one is named Lois. Diana works with us for the school paper."
Hal nodded slightly in understanding.  "Ahh... gotcha. This is Barry," he said, jabbing a thumb backwards toward his blond friend.  "Hey," Barry said politely.
"We just transferred here from Coast City," Hal explained.  "Had no idea she'd be here."
Lois's reporter instinct wouldn't let her stop asking questions.  "So why are you here?"
"Wayne Aerospace has a pilots' program for young students over on the outskirts of the city. I take my pilot classes over there, and my normal classes here.  I would've been here a month ago, but my transcripts... got lost along the way."
Barry chimed in.  "More accurately, another one of his ex-girlfriends broke into the school office and burned his records."
Hal rolled his eyes and turned to Barry. "They never proved that she was the one who actually started that fire!"
Lois kept her snarky attitude focused. "Well, that'll make things pretty tough for you this semester, playing catch-up and all."
Hal turned to her. "It just takes a little willpower, Lois," he said, sending her a wink.
Lois almost blushed, but caught herself in time.  "Damn! He's good at that..." she thought.
Clark looked at the clock on the wall, and remembered quickly that he had to get to class.  "Well, if you guys need anything, let me know.  I'd be happy to show you around sometime."
"Thanks," Barry said politely.  "We'd better go, Hal. We don't wanna be late again."
"Sure," Hal acknowledged.  "I'll see you guys later, I guess," he said to Lois and Clark as he walked toward his next class.


When Diana angrily opened the door to the Daily Star office—she barely remembered to be careful not to break it down—she found Bart sitting in her chair, his legs pulled up onto the seat and his arms around his knees.  He looked like he'd just looked into the face of death itself.
Diana quickly forgot her anger towards Hal as she saw Bart's distress.  "Bart! Are you okay?" she said as she ran across the room and crouched next to him, putting her hand on his shoulder.
"That... that guy..." Bart said.
Diana was surprised.  "Hal? What about him? What did he do?!"
Bart looked at her with frustrated confusion.  "What? No. Not him. The other guy."
"The blond one?" Diana asked.  "What about him?"
Bart looked her in the eyes. "He's my grandfather."