(Summary: AU starting in the first season. Lana is not a cheerleader; she is an outcast and a loner that no one wants to talk to and everyone makes fun of her. Only one person, Clark, sees her for what she is: exotically beautiful and pure hearted and innocent. Clark is a football player and Chloe is a reporter and a cheerleader. Whitney is Chloe's boyfriend. Pete is just….Pete….but Pete knows Clark's secret)

1

Clark Kent had finally convinced his stubborn, dogmatic dad to allow him to be on the football team. There were conditions, of course, but Clark had agreed because he wanted to fit in. He wanted to feel normal; though he knew normal was one thing he would never be. He wanted to feel human and real even though he wasn't human. At first, his mom hadn't agreed. She had thought it was too dangerous. And really, it was. It almost wasn't worth it.

But then he remembered what middle school had been like: always standing on the sidelines, hiding in the shadows and lurking on the outside. He had always felt invisible. And then of course were the jokes, and the cruel laughter. He had felt taunted and haunted. He didn't want to be a looser anymore. Clark Kent had made up his mind. Even if it was crazy.

And it was crazy. It wouldn't work. But Clark knew that if he played normal, if he bumped into someone, or if someone bumped into him, all of that person's bones would shatter. And Clark wasn't going to let that happen. He didn't want to be responsible for someone else's pain. So he decided to play in his weakened state, with a very small amount of kryptonite in his pocket. It hadn't been his father's idea; it had been his; but it was the only way his father would sign the form and let him play football. The pain was unbearable but Clark didn't really care. He wasn't playing football for the fun of the game. That's one thing it sure wouldn't be: fun. But he didn't want to be the looser he was last year.

Clark wished he could actually play the game for the thrill of the game and have fun and actually play good, but that obviously wasn't going to happen. He tried out for the team in his normal state, though, so he made the team easy.

Clark, Chloe, Whitney, and Pete sat in the cafeteria during the lunch, talking. Chloe was raving about her latest crazy journalism idea. She had many of them. Often they were spastic and crazy and weird but more often than not they proved to be true. Go figure. Whitney changed the subject. Pete, Clark, did you two get your forms signed? Both boys nodded. Pete looked at Clark. "How'd you get your Dad to agree? Didn't he say…" Clark stared Pete straight in the eyes, and then whispered bleakly, "There's one way…….." At first, Pete didn't understand. "What, you forged it?!!?!" "Of course not!" Clark said, almost laughing. "Then what…" Pete started, "Oh………"

"No," Pete said, "You can't do that. It's too dangerous." "It's the only way, Pete. Do you really think I want to?" Clark replied. "There has to be another way…." Pete started.

"WHAT in the world are you guys taking about. Could someone fill me in because I fell off the train a long time ago," Chloe said.

Clark and Pete looked at each other. Chloe didn't know yet. "Do you want to tell her?" Pete asked Clark. "Tell me what?" Chloe demanded spastically but light-heartedly. "That…." Clark started, "Pete and I are trying out for the football team." "Oh," Chloe said, dully, having hoping to find out something more exciting and maybe even weird. Chloe was practically married to the concept of weird. Except, of course, for the fact that she had a boyfriend….Whitney, the captain of the football team.

(Later in the afternoon, at Pete's house) "Were you serious?" Pete asked Clark. "Yes," Clark said. "But I don't see how it would even work, " Pete said, "You can't even stand up when you're around the meteors….how would you play football?"

"I don't know. But my dad doesn't want the other players to get hurt. He won't let me play any other way. Believe me, I don't want to, but it's the only way…"

"But how will you make the team" Pete asked. "I'll go to the try outs in my normal state, silly," Clark said, "Easy."

Meanwhile, Lana was sitting in her house on her bed, dreading another school-year of being alone and taunted. Her raven-hair fell down to her waist. Why couldn't anyone see her?

Of course, she had a secret. Lana Lang wasn't human. She came to Earth in a meteor shower even before the first one that hit Smallville. Then she had been adopted, and the second meteor shower killed her adoptive parents. She hadn't remembered at first, but slowly the memories came back to her, and then the powers started coming…..super-strength, invulnerability, super-speed…and there were more to come. Lana could feel it in her unbreakable bones.

Of course, there was one thing that could make her weak. Kryptonite. Her Aunt Nell (not biologically her Aunt, of course) had made a necklace out of the meteor that killed Lana's adoptive parents. That was before she knew that the stuff was poisonous to Lana. But sometimes, when Lana wanted to feel human and vulnerable and felt depressed about her adoptive parents being dead and not knowing who her real parents were and feeling alone, she wore the necklace. Not often, but sometimes. The stone made every muscle in her body ache, but it was also beautiful. Everything in life was about change. Sometimes its painful; sometimes its beautiful; but most of the times its both. Lana didn't want to despise something just because it was painful. What kind of person would she be if she could never feel? Her soul was already filled with apathy; she simply didn't want apathy to consume her soul completely.

Somehow Lana always managed to take the necklace off before it was too late. She knew that what she did was dangerous but she was careful. Sometimes she would go to her parents' gravestone and then take the necklace out of the lead box and put it on and talk to her adoptive parents. They couldn't really actually respond to her, but she knew that they could hear her, from their sanctuary in heaven.

Lana reached over to her dresser and looked at the lead box. Not today. Today, she wasn't up for it.