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Absolutely ridiculous is what it was. The idea that she had to trek down here for an entire semester just so she could get the clinicals done for the “bio” section of her biotechnology degree. None of this would matter when she expanded upon this work in her PhD thesis next year, on track to be faster than her brother she thought smugly before buckling the straps on her messenger bag and walking to her advisor’s office.
She knocked twice in that firm, sharp way that sets a professional tone. “Come in.”
“Professor Carneal.” She greeted him as she took her seat opposite his desk. “Thank you for meeting with me.”
“Of course, you are my star pupil after all.” He folded his hands together and waited for her to continue. She liked this about him, the fact that he got right to the point. Other professors tried to be a little too warm, and little too ‘you can come to me with anything’ for her comfort.
“It’s clinicals. I don’t see why I need to do them on campus when National General is right down the road and has state of the art materials.”
“So do we. National City University is the number one university for research in biotechnology. You know this it’s why you’re here.”
“Yes, but I don’t see how that extends to running tests on the athletic department.”
He unfolds his hands and leans forward, “you think you’re above it and I don’t blame you, you probably are. You find monitoring metabolism, muscle growth, ATP, and all the other physical tests beneath you when you like to be out in the real world making real change right?”
Lena shifts in her seat, “I want to help people yes.”
“And you will. I’m sure of it. But first you must pay your dues, start at the beginning. The purpose of these trials is so that you can study bodies in peak physical form before going out and doing all the amazing things your mind will no doubt discover.”
That was it then, she’d be spending the next few months helping already impossibly fit people get even more fit…and doing it all from a smelly trainers room deep in the athletic center somewhere. “I understand.”
“Excellent.” Professor Carneal went back to answering his emails and said, “7am sharp Monday morning. A trainer will meet you in the lobby.”
Lena took this as her dismissal and rose to leave, taking her bag and what was left of her pride with her.
It wasn’t that she hated sports so much as she hated athletes. The Luthor household fostered what was probably an unhealthy level of competition and Lena had always found competition to be thrilling. The field of sports medicine even intrigued her to browse that section of the medical journals often enough to be considered a mild hobby. She fenced in high school and was actually quite good at it. No, sports were never the issue, she thought as she sat alone in the dining hall glaring at the baseball team roughhousing at the other end and causing an outright ruckus. Athletes were. Cocky, overrated, thick-skulled athletes. She found them loud, and uninteresting and she could not understand why on earth her talents had to be put to use helping them when there were a million other people in need of actual care. Her stewing was cut short by the sound of a plastic tray hitting the table and she looked up to see her friend Sam sitting next to her.
“They throw something at you or what? You look like you wanna kill them.”
“They’re annoying.” Lena replies while stabbing her undercooked broccoli.
“Yeah,” between bites of pasta, “but they’re always annoying. And today you seem extra peeved by it.”
“I have to do my clinicals on a group of athletes. Something about increasing athletic performance and recovery.”
Sam nods, “ah. I see. And you’re grumpy about it because?”
Lena sighs and sets down her fork, “because I don’t want to spend my precious time helping them make their biceps bigger!”
Sam rolls her eyes, “oh come on it won’t be that bad. I can think of a lot worse ways to spend your time.”
“I can’t.” But Lena’s smile is breaking through.
“Oh no! I’m Lena Luthor and before going to take over the cutting edge tech company my family owns I have to use my big, beautiful brain to make hunks even hunkier!” Sam puts on an exaggerated Lena voice and fans herself dramatically, “what did I do to deserve this torture??”
Lena’s laughing and shushing her friend, “shhhh ok ok I get it! I will try not to be so…”
“Uppity? Bitchy? Elitist?”
She sticks her tongue out at Sam and agrees, “I will at least try not to be those things all at the same time.”
——————————————————————-
Monday morning arrives faster than she’d like and she finds herself in the large entrance for the athletic center waiting for her escort to arrive. She’d been told very little about who her study group would be, just that they were apt participants for her trials and she had full access to them pending approval of both the biology department and athletic department heads. She’d already gotten full approval of her preliminary write ups and it’s not like she was planning on giving them steroids or anything. Idly over the weekend she’d wondered who’d be assigned to her. She hoped for the track team as they seemed the least annoying and had the largest variation in body types but she was trying not to be picky. Really anything would be fine except for - “Miss Luthor?”
She looked up to see a stern looking older man with dark skin and a close cut haircut. “Yes, good morning.” She extended her hand in greeting.
He took it for one firm shake then dropped it, “Nice to meet you. Sorry to have kept you waiting, our usual trainer is out sick today so I will fill in and take you to the room you’ll use and introduce you to the athletes. I’m J’onn J’onzz the athletic director here at NCU.”
“John, great to put a face to the name. I believe I’ve seen you in a few email threads regarding this arrangement.”
“Indeed.” He turns to walk down a hallway and deeper into the facility. “I’ve decided to give you some of our most promising prospects for a championship this year. I’ve read some of your work and I think you might be able to give them the edge they need to take it all the way. This gym is where they train, practice, and host home games. I assume your work won’t require you to travel with them for away games but we’ll cross that bridge should we reach it.” They’ve been walking for what feels like an eternity and are still descending into the building. Polished cement and stainless steel are only broken up by plexiglass windows looking down onto various state of the art facilities. “Here you’ll find our main health room, you’ll meet with the trainers here and discuss nutrition plans, existing conditions and injuries, as well as access to whatever you need. Ice baths, saunas, all the tape you could ever dream of…” Lena just nods, she knew the resources allocated to sports at a D1 school like this but she had never truly seen what that meant until now. Looking around as J’onn continued the tour she feels a little silly for suggesting she’d needed to do her trials at the hospital, when it came to tech NCU spared no expense. He stopped short at the end of the hall finally and turned around, “well, I think that just about concludes the tour. Rick will be back tomorrow and he can answer any questions you have, also you have you meeting with the trainers later today so all that leaves for me is to make the introduction.” He knocks firmly on the metal door in front of them and Lena can’t quite see the writing on it because of his large frame. “We’re ready for you!” A female voice calls out in response. He opens the door and beckons Lena in, “Miss Luthor I’d like to introduce you to the NCU Novas Women’s Basketball Team.”
Are you serious? Basketball? Out of all sports she’d found basketball players to be the most annoying. Especially at NCU, a school famous for its basketball program. She plastered on her business face and shoved her annoyance down, afterall this is just work and she was great at work.
Almost twenty sweaty women sat around on benches in the locker room and turned toward her giving their full attention. They looked exhausted and red faced like they’d just stepped in from a grueling workout. A short blonde woman in her early fifties stepped forward to shake Lena’s hand, “Cat Grant. Head coach. Treat my girls well, do not distract them, make them better. Follow my rules and we’ll make some champions.”
Lena tried her best to make the intensity but this woman was a little terrifying. She nodded and returned the handshake. “Lena Luthor. Nice to meet you, I look forward to working together this season.”
Cat Grant just nodded and stepped back, “ideally we will rarely see each other and these…” she gestured toward the huffing women, “lazy asses will get back in shape quicker than ever.”
Lena just smiled and turned to face her new subjects. “Hello everyone, as previously stated my name is Lena Luthor and I’m here to conduct clinical trials on each of you as part of my thesis work in biotechnology and biochemistry. I hope our relationship can be beneficial for us both and look forward to working with you.”
“As if we have a choice.” She hears a voice grumble from somewhere in the back followed by a loud smack and a “shut up do you wanna make us run lines again?”
Lena clears her throat. “Right. Well, you’ll be given schedules from your trainers and I suppose I’ll see you during our next appointment.” Turning to Coach Grant she nods her head in goodbye and follows Director J’nzz back out to the main area. He’s a very busy man so their goodbye is short and suddenly she’s standing in the lobby with 20 minutes to spare before her next meeting wondering how the hell she’s going to get through this. Boys she could handle. Yes, they were annoying but she’d become pretty adept over the last 22 years at either flirting or intimidating them into submission. Girls? Lena was not good with girls. Well…ok Lena was not good at making friends with girls. She had basically only two friends and one of them was a boy. So really one female friend. Her own mother didn’t even like her. She groaned internally, they don’t even want me here. They were already grumbling and we hadn't even started. Just wait until the meal plans begin. And the supplements that may have weird side effects. And all the other tests she’d be running them through like freakishly tall guinea pigs. Just relax. This is supposed to teach me how to conduct clinical trials. Treat them like your patients. They aren’t your friends. She took a deep inhale and long exhale, before walking back down to the trainers room for her next meeting.
The training room meeting proved to be much easier for her. They had a small team of around five people who already had full files on each of the players and talked her through any special conditions of allergies they may have. They all seemed far more eager to have her there than she would’ve thought and the warm reception calmed her nerves somewhat. “So, heard you met the team already?” A short woman with stout legs named Becca asked from the corner and they are packing up to go.
“Yes.” Lena nods. “In the locker room.”
“And I’m sure they were perfect angels for you right?” She chuckles.
“They seemed tired but perfectly amicable to the arrangement.”
“Nobody got mouthy?”
Lena’s face remained impassive, “no. I was only there a short moment.”
“Relax Luthor, we know Sawyer said something stupid and they all had to run lines right after you left. The line for the ice baths was pretty long.” This pulls more laughs from the group.
“Oh? I hope it wasn’t because of me honestly it didn’t even bother me.” She hated the idea they’d been punished because of her, that would surely be another barrier to any future hopes of a friendly arrangement.
“You’re good, happens all the time. Cat runs a tight ship and Sawyer loves to gripe. Tomorrow it’ll be something else I’m sure.”
“I’ll take your word for it.”
Becca shrugs and gives her a smile as she hands over the printed schedule of when she can use the room, along with a promise to email her the copy of the schedule for the players and all their information. “Let me know if you have any questions. I’m sure we’ll be seeing each other a lot this season.”
Lena smiles and thanks everyone before leaving to prepare for tomorrow’s sessions. She’d be starting by separating into two groups to run baseline tests of aerobic capacity, oxygen levels, and dozen other things to see where the players were starting. Then she could refine the tests and get into the finer details. She hadn’t been expecting women for some reason, but the opportunities it presented excited her greatly. She was already dreaming up hypotheses to test that were specific to the female body. Maybe this wouldn’t be so bad after all.
Tuesday came and ten boisterous college girls came flooding into her office. She’d arranged everything neatly and laid out their information packets to be perfectly organized for them. This prep work went out the window immediately as they stormed in and started dragging chairs around, throwing balled up pieces of tape at each other, and she even saw at least two players sit on their packets by accident. “Excuse me.” No one heard her. “Um, hello my name is Lena Lu-“ “SHUT UP EVERYBODY” a loud yell brought the whole room into silence. Lena’s eyes widened looking for it’s source, the red head sitting on a chair holding her packet and staring everyone down. “Right. Um thank you…”
“Alex.” She nodded her head. “Danvers. Alex Danvers.”
“Dude, did you seriously just James Bond her?” An incredulous voice from the back called out.
“Oh my god Nia no I did not I just like, introduced myself. You know, because it’s polite? Unlike you animals.”
“Pfft. Whatever you totally did. Anyways,” a tall brunette bounced her way up to Lena and waved excitedly. “Hi! I’m Nia and it’s so nice to meet you! I hear you’re gonna make us like super soldiers or something.”
Lena doesn’t know what to say so she sticks to her prepared statement. “Well not exactly. Like I said I’m Lena Luthor, I’m a student here from the biotech department and I’m here running clinical trials on you all to help research new medical advancements. Although, I will say I feel pretty confident that if things go well you will feel increased physical strength and possibly even reaction times.”
“Do we get steroids?” The same voice that grumbled during their first meeting asks.
“No that would be illegal.”
“Damn.” She actually sounds disappointed.
“Maggie shut the hell up she’s obviously not gonna give us steroids.”
“Awww” Maggie sounds very insincere, “but I promised your mom I’d do something about how huge my balls are. She says they’re too big for her to keep- OOF” Maggie is thrown out of her chair by another player and things quickly devolve into a laughing screaming wrestling match that Alex has to get up and break apart. She looks up to Lena apologically and says, “we’d better just get started.”
Once things get moving the players seem to settle down, each focusing on giving these tests the best they can and before long they’re dispersing and the next group is coming in. The second group is quieter, maybe it’s their natural disposition or maybe it’s the death glares Alex gives them as they enter. Either way Lena is glad of it and they hook themselves up to the machines and get to work. Lena is so engrossed in her data she barely looks up until she calls out that they done enough for the day and she’ll be seeing them later. They politely shuffle out and just like that her first day is done! Not so bad she thinks to herself as she moves the final results to their file. Of course she’ll have to tackle the individual sessions next but one thing at a time. “That’s it then? You don’t need anything else?”
Lena doesn’t look up from her work to address the voice. “Yep, all good thank you.”
A few seconds pass and she hears the door click shut behind that final straggler.
Sam collapses onto her couch and shouts for Jack to bring her in a slice of pizza when he comes back before narrowing her sights on Lena who’s seated opposite of her in a soft chair. “So…it’s been days and I’ve heard no mention of the hunks.”
“Hm?” Lena looks up, “what hunks?”
“What? The hunks that you were brooding over having to work with! Dish girl tell me more!”
“Oh…it’s the women’s basketball team.” Lena rolls her eyes.
Sam sits up, “oh score they are like primo hotties. Tell me are you starting with hot saunas or…?”
Lena throws a pillow at her, “first of all I am a professional! No more talk of hunks or hotties! These are my patients and even if they were attractive their personalities would get in the way.”
Jack enters with pizza for the three of them, “they’re your test subjects not patients and were they really that bad?”
She thinks back to the rowdy training room. “Yes. Well, mostly. Some of them were fine but I think that’s because Alex seems to have scared them into behaving.”
Sam sits up straighter. “You met Alex Danvers? Captain of the Novas who won us a Natty her freshman year? Red hair. Hot. Alex?”
Lena looks skeptically at her friend who she’d never heard describe another woman that way before, “yes? If she’s on the basketball team then yeah. I met all of them.”
“What?!” Jack and Sam yell synonymously.
Lena looks at them like they’re crazy, “did you not hear what I said? I’m working with the women’s basketball team.”
Jack sets down his pizza, “ok ok yeah but we assumed you’d be working with like the benchwarmers and practice squad. Not starters!”
“Lena this is a huge deal do you understand that?” Sam’s eyes are huge.
Lena just shrugs, “see this is exactly why I didn’t wanna work with athletes everybody treats them like they’re gods but guess what? They aren’t. They’re smelly and rude and they behave like toddlers.”
“Alex Danvers was rude and behaved like a toddler?”
Lena purses her lips. “Well no. She was actually very helpful. But she was smelly.”
Sam throws the pillow back at her, “no shit! She’d probably just finished a crazy workout. Do you seriously get to work on the starters?”
“Yeah I have access to all of them as baselines and then the top few will be given one on one sessions with me every week. The trials are designed to-“
“We know, we’ve heard it you’re a super genius who’s gonna create crazy super athletes. What we didn’t know was that they’d let you test this stuff on the big players. This is amazing!”
“I didn't realize you liked basketball so much Sam.”
Sam smiles, “I like going to the games and I like the community spirit.”
Jack does an exaggerated whisper to Lena, “she likes watching Alex Danvers…she’s got a massive girl crush.”
“Ew Jack don’t say ‘girl crush’” Lena laughs.
Sam throws him a glare and repeats, “yeah I do not have a girl crush I have a mature woman crush on a respected athlete.”
Jack throws his arm around Sam and leans back, “whatever, all we’re saying Lena is you’d better do a good job. The stakes are high, we actually have a great chance at winning this year and these are some special players.”
Lena scoffs, “I was always gonna do a good job! I could’ve been given the chess club and I’d do a good job.”
“But you didn’t!” Sam excited squeals, “we are sooooo getting invited to one of their parties this year.”
Lena grab the remote to hit play on their show and mumbles, “Don’t count on it. They don’t like me”