This is my first Smallville story. Enjoy
Sparkle-chapter 1
Clark Kent walked into the Talon to see Lois Lane behind the counter. She'd just finished with a customer.
"Hey, Smallville! What'll it be? Pick your poison."She piped.
"No thanks. I'll just have a hot chocolate, an almond latte and a muffin. Blueberry."He replied.
"Oooh, someone's got a sugar rush." she teased, walking to the espresso machine. She finally knew how it worked. Thanks to Lana.
Clark felt a pang of regret as he remembered Lana went to Paris. She decided to attend an art school she saw online. She left Lois in charge of the Talon. He wished he hadn't let her go. He wished he had told her that he loved her. Lex had been telling him to go for it ever since they met but Clark always never could muster up the courage to tell Lana how he felt about her. Now she was gone. "Chloe asked me to pick something up for her."He said, watching her take out two paper cups and fill them up from the machine. She opened a little white bag and wrapped a muffin with napkins. She put the muffin in the bag.
"My cuz burning the midnight oil again, huh?"she asked, "What's it this week? More meteor freaks?"
"We don't know. Something's been shorting out the electricity at the school. It's been going on for two weeks."
"A blackout doesn't exactly scream weird and bizarre."
"It does if the wires in the fuse box are suddenly fried and this is a new fuse box. It was just put in last week."
What could fry the wires as well as the whole box like that?"
Suddenly there was a crash. Clark and Lois looked in the direction of the sound. A girl with kinky-curly hair tied in a bun was apologizing profusely to a customer. She had just dropped a glass and was now mopping it up with a dishcloth.
"Who's that? I've never seen her before."Clark asked.
"I just hired her today. Excuse me."She replied, stepping from behind the counter to approach the girl. Clark sat on a stool to watch them when Lana Lang stepped into the Talon. It had been a few months since he'd last seen her. He had heard she had recently come back to Smallville.
"Hey, Lana." He said, tongue tied. He was always awkward around her. This was someone he's loved since he was five. He remembered when she lived across from the Kent Farm. He used to watch her from the telescope in his family's barn loft. He wanted to be with her more than ever. He could hear Lex's voice in his head: "Now's your chance, Clark. Go for it!" But instead he didn't.
"Hi, Clark, um, listen, do you still have some of your research on the Kawatche caves?" she asked.
"Sure. Why do you ask?"
Lana looked uneasy. "Is something wrong? You okay?"he asked her.
"Oh. Fine."she brightened up and smiled,"Can I stop by your house today to view your research?"
"Sure."
Meanwhile Lois was trying to calm down a customer who was wiping stuff off his shirt. The kinky-haired girl accidentally spilled a milkshake on him.
"I'm sorry, Lois. I didn't mean to do it. "she said.
"Forget it, Sparkle. Go to the register. There's a customer." The girl nodded and went behind the counter. She began filling Clark's order.
"I'm really sorry." Lois was telling the customer who grumbled. His date, a striking blonde, climbed out of the booth.
"That girl is a total klutz. Why doesn't she watch what she's doing?"she said. "Okay, now, I think you're out of line. It was an accident."Lois replied, getting angry.
"So you're just going to excuse her clumsiness?"the girl asked.
Sparkle stood behind the counter as she rung up Clark's purchases. She began to watch the scene between Lois and the blonde girl.
Her hand began to turn a glowing blue color. Clark and Lana noticed her gaze. They turned around to watch what she was staring at then they turned back around to glanced at her.
"Uh, did you just rung up my stuff twice? Clark asked her.
"H-Huh?"Sparkle jerked to attention as his voice got her attention. His hand stopped glowing. "Sorry. Have a good day. Come again."She brightened. "Thanks."Clark said, as he got his order. He and Lana looked at each other with puzzled looks as they walked out the door. The couple Lois had been reasoning with went outside. She walked up to the counter.
"Everything okay?"Lois asked her.
"Great. Listen, um, I'm just going to go to the ladies room."She told her. "I'll hold the fort while you're gone."Lois teased.
Sparkle walked towards the ladies room but instead of going inside she went out the back door. The man and his date were getting ready to get in their car. She gazed at the blonde woman intently. Suddenly, an orange flame shot out of her hair. The man began freaking out. The woman noticed it and began screaming.
"AAAAAAAH! My hair!"She screamed.
Sparkle had a big smile on her face and she smirked. Clark was just about to get into his truck with Lana when he saw the woman screaming and running. "Wait here."He told Lana, who looked out shocked. Clark walked to side of a building. As the woman ran by, he used his super breath to blow out the flame. The woman stopped running as her boyfriend caught up with her. He put his jacket on her head. But the smoke and fire were gone. They held each other. Clark let out a sigh of relief. He looked around and saw Sparkle behind the Talon frowning. The next day at Smallville High School, Clark was on his way to the Torch when he was joined in the hallway by his best friend, Pete Ross. "Hey, Clark. I'd make a detour if I were you. Chloe's pretty pissed. What did you do?" Pete told him. "What do you mean?"
"She called me last night asking me if I knew where you were? She said you were supposed to come by her house last night to bring her some food.
but you never showed."
Clark went into the room where the Torch was published. It was the school's newspaper. Chloe Sullivan was hard at work as usual on the computer working on this week's edition of the Torch. She didn't even look up when Clark came in followed by Pete.
"'Glad you finally decided to show up, Clark."She said, without the least bit of enthusiam. "Sorry about last night, Chloe." He said, "Something came up." "You mean someone. Lana Lang."
"Lana asked to stop by the farm. We were looking at research I collected about the Kawatche caves. We lost track of time."
"I'll bet you did. Thank God for Pete. He took me out for burgers. If I had to depend on you, i'd starve."She said, angrily staring at Clark.
"Look, I said I was sorry. What do you want me to do? "
"Be there for starters."she said.
"Hey, who's that?" Pete asked, trying to change the subject as well as pointing to something on the computer screen. It was a picture of the same girl Clark saw working at the Talon.
"Sparkle McDaniels. She just moved here from Star City. I did an interview with her for the Torch. She's got a GPA of 4.0. The highest of any student here. She also attends community college at night and works at the Talon part-time." Chloe explained.
"She's pretty cute for an Energizer Bunny."Pete said, admiringly.
"The girl is pretty animated. She has an unlimited supply of energy. I don't know how she does it. Even I like to crash sometimes."Chloe said, shaking her head. Clark began wondering something. What was Sparkle doing outside the Talon? Did she cause that girl's hair to catch on fire? Who is she?
"Guess I better get to class."Chloe said, interrupting his thoughts.
"Me, too. Here, I'll walk you to class. It's the least I can do after last night."Clark replied.
"Okay, but you're buying me lunch. The cafeteria's serving pizza today." She replied, getting up from her chair.
"Cool. I'm so there."Pete said, chuckling.
The three friends walked out into the hall. Sparkle McDaniels was walking to her locker carrying a stack of books when
she suddenly tripped and fell. Her books and notebook spilled all over the floor.
"Whoops! Gotta watch where ya going, Sparky."said a blonde girl dressed like a cheerleader. Two other cheerleaders,
one a brunette and another blonde giggled. Sparkle bent down to pick up her papers and books.
"Whoa! Who's the female with the rotten attitude?"Clark asked.
"Mandy Barrister. Captain of the cheerleading squad and official queen bee of Smallville High."Chloe replied.
"Queen Jerk is more like it."Pete said, frowning.
The three cheerleaders laughed and sauntered off. Sparkle glared at their departing forms. Her hand formed a fist
and glowed a bluish color. Her whole expression was "I'm gonna get those guys."
"Hey, you okay?"
Sparkle looked up to see Pete, Clark, and Chloe approach her. They proceeded to help pick up her stuff. Not trusting
them she stopped them.
"Oh, I'm good."She quickly told them. She didn't want them to help her. She gathered her things and walked off fast.
"What's up with her? I just wanted to help."Pete said, as he and his friends watched her go.
Back at the Talon, Sparkle sadly was wiping a table at the Talon when Lex Luthor walked in. He was a tall imposing figure. He was dressed all in black and bald.
Her face broke into a pleasant grin.
"Mr. Luthor! How are you this evening?"she asked. "Hello, Sparkle, is it?"He asked, a little puzzled. His light greenish eyes squinted. "It is. Listen, I was wondering if we could add a new item to the menu. I just baked a batch of my cranberry-orange zest muffins."
"Well, I don't know..."
"Oh, please. They're really good. Here, try one."She said, bringing him a freshly baked muffin on a plate.
Lex picked up the muffin and took a bite. "Hey, that's not bad."he exclaimed nodding and continuing to eat it. "What did I tell you. Lois said changing the menu was a bad idea."
"And it still is."
Lois was watching the whole thing as she walked up to them.
"You know I told you only Lana would have to approve of any changes to the menu." "Well, Lana isn't here, Lois. Plus, I'm part owner in case you've forgotten so I say what goes especially concerning this business." Lex told her.
Lois wanted to argue, but caught herself. Dealing with someone like Lex Luthor was something she hadn't counted on when she agreed to run the Talon in Lana's absence. She did it as a favor to her. Besides, there was no one else. Chloe was busy with the Torch. Lois couldn't stand Lex. The man rattled her chain.
Everything time they were around each other, all they did was butt heads. Lois shared the opinion that everyone in Smallville had about the Lex and his father Lionel. No one liked them. They owed everything in town: The bank, the stores, even the Talon. To the people of Smallville, they were rich, overprivileged snobs that robbed the poor. They were the enemy. Lois was frowning even more when she looked at Sparkle.
She could've sworn she saw something like a smirk on her face.
"Yes, sir."She said to Lex with a forced smile. "So can I add the muffins to the menu?"Sparkle asked Lex.
"I don't see why not."He replied, cheerily.
"Oh, thank you! You won't be sorry."she then kissed Lex on the cheek. "You're welcome."he smiled, blushing.
"I'll put them out."She said, going behind the counter to put the muffins in the glass display cases.
"I wasn't trying to go over your authority."Lois told Lex, "I was only following orders Lana gave me."
"And I wasn't trying to embarass you, Lois. But let's face it, the Talon isn't making that much money. Anything like muffins that'll bring in money will help the business out tremendously."
"Hey, I run this place fine. I've been busting my tail for months trying to make money off this business." Lois grumbled.
"And I appreciate everything you do."
Sparkle had just finished putting out the muffins and was now wiping the counter. She kept her eye on Lex and Lois. When she glanced at Lex, she just sighed. "God, he's handsome!"she thought, dreamily, "And rich! If only he'd be my Prince Charming." Her almond eyes began glowing blue. They flashed only once. Then the lights in the Talon went out.
"Oh, no! Not again!"She thought.