Knock knock. Chloe is smiling at the Kent kitchen door.

"Hey Chloe. Come on in. Did you get my ideas for surveys that the Torch could do?"

"Clark, a lot of these surveys are frivolous."

"Well, yeah, that's the point. To get to know the nitty gritty of the student body. Right?" Clark looks at Chloe with a hopeful look in his eye.

"Yeah, well, I'm hoping that the new principal this year will let me do some harder hitting stuff…" Chloe is distracted. "Oooh food. Something smells nice."

"Yeah, my Mom just made applebutter. Want some?"

"What's applebutter?"

Clark is shocked, hand politely over his dropped jaw. "You don't know what applebutter is?" He gets out some toast and spreads some applebutter onto it. "Try this."

Chloe wrinkles her nose. "What is it?"

"Applebutter on toast."

"Yeah, but what is applebutter."

"It's like peanut butter except instead of peanuts, it's got apples. It's apples, cider and spices. Here." Clark brings the toast to Chloe's mouth but she's still suspicious.

"Come on," Clark begs. "It's really good. My Mom's applebutter is just as tasty as her apple pie."

At this, Chloe gives in. "All right." Chloe takes a bite and is obviously impressed. "Hey, this is pretty good. Your Mom should market this stuff. I'll bet she could really make a fortune. Okay, now about those surveys. There were actually a few ideas I liked…"

Something about that scene sparked an image into Clark — in the kitchen, just the two of them, talking about work and food… His mind drifts to the future — college, after college, living together. Maybe it'd be a good idea if one of them learned to do more than punch numbers on a microwave. Oops, wait. Chloe's talking…

"You know, this applebutter stuff is better than all the apple pies in the world."

Better than? Clark can't believe his ears. How could anything be better than apple pie? "Nothing's better than apple pie."

Chloe's smile becomes teasing. "Prove it."

"Fine I will."

"Uh, Clark. What're you doing?"

"Browsing through my Mom's recipe books. I'm gonna make an apple pie and see which one's better."

"Go ahead farm boy. Your cooking sucks compared to your Mom's and you're just gonna prove my point further."

"Okay then. To be fair, I'll also make applebutter to even out the playing field." Clark gets a wicked thought into his head. "Wanna help?"

"Oh, I don't know. I like this kitchen. I'd rather not see it blown up."

"Don't worry about that. As long as we clean up, my Mom won't blow up." Clark shines a great big smile to Chloe. "And knowing Mom, she'll probably get here before we actually do blow anything up."

And Chloe, smiling in temptation, gives it a split moment's thought. "Okay. Fine. Let's bake."