Hi.

Ages ago, for a friend's amusement, I wrote a long, rambling Gundam Wing story, where Heero's adopted sister fell in love with Quatre and…eventually…had three children. It was a terrible story, so it'll never see the light of day, but I was feeling nostalgic as I wrote this, so I resurrected one of the characters and wrote her in. Unfortunately, she then dragged most of the GW characters with her, so this story reads more like 'The Adventures of Clark and the Mysterious New Girl, with occasional guest stars the casts of Smallville and Gundam Wing', than a proper Smallville story. It's my first attempt at a Smallville story, though, so hopefully I'll get better in time.

Right. That said, on with the story. Oh, and I don't own anything herein.

The Few and the Many

"Chloe! Pete! Wait up!" Clark blinked as his two friends swerved into another corridor, avoiding him totally. Striding after them, he turned the corner…

into the barn. Looking around, he slowly climbed the stairs to his 'Fortress of Solitude'. Lana wasn't there this time, but he didn't notice, his attention on his telescope. Reaching out, he slowly pressed his eye against it.

"Clark." Startled, he jerked upright, finding himself in Lex's mansion. "You didn't answer me."

"Lex." he blurted. "Uh, what's the question?" Lex smiled, amused for some reason.

"I said, have you found her yet?"

"Her who?"

"You haven't. Don't worry, you will." He turned and walked out of the room.

"Lex, wait!" Chasing after him, Clark found himself…

"…late for school! Get up!"

"I'm up, Mom!" Clark sat up, raking a hand through his hair. "Man, what a dream."

"Bad one?" she asked, lingering in the doorway.

"No, just…weird. What time is it?"

"Twenty to nine. Hurry on." He nodded, getting up and pulling on his shirt.

"I'll be down in a minute, Mom."

"Ok."

Distracted, Clark barely noticed as somebody crashed into him, rebounding and falling to the floor. Books and loose papers fell around.

"Oh…sorry." He hunkered down and began gathering the books.

"Not your fault." The girl he'd crashed into sat up, pushing her hair back. "I should have been looking where I was going."

"Are you ok?" He rose to his feet and stuck out his hand. She accepted it, getting to her feet.

"I'll live. Oh, thanks…" She flicked through the pages he'd handed her, putting them back in order. "Oh, man…" Hurriedly she began looking around the floor.

"What's wrong?" Clark asked, looking around as well. Her urgency was infectious.

"I lost my schedule, the secretary just printed it off for me…oh, here it is!" She picked up a piece of paper that must have been walked on, because it was ripped down the middle and mucky. "Oh."

"Tell you what. My friend Chloe works on the Torch…that's our school paper. Maybe she can get you a new copy."

"Really? That'd be great! Which way is it?"

"I'll show you. I'm Clark, by the way. Clark Kent."

"Clark. I'm Kyrianna."

"Unusual name."

"I have unusual parents." She rolled her eyes as though to say 'haven't we all'.

"I know what you mean. Are you English?"

"English? Why'd you say that?"

"This way…your accent, I guess."

"Close, but no cigar. I'm Irish."

"Irish? Through here."

"I think we're going around in circles." she said suspiciously. "Didn't we pass that sign already?" Clark ripped the offending sign down from the notice board.

"They have those things up all over the school." She rescued the paper from his hand and smoothed it out.

"Yeah, 'cos the chess club is normally the high point of the school calendar. Actually, I might join that."

"You play chess?"

"Eh, a bit. My uncle loved it. Used to make me play all the time. And, to answer your earlier question, I'm half Irish, half Arabic. I normally tell people I'm Irish, but my house was so multi-cultural it doesn't really matter what I am. I could get by in most cultures, I just like Irish."

"Multicultural?"

"Um-hum. My mother's Irish, my dad's Arabic, and my uncles are American, Japanese, Chinese and European. How big is this school?"

"The catchment area's pretty big, so the school has to be big. We're just here now." He gestured to a door just down the hall.

"So you know all about me now, but I don't know anything about you."

"There isn't really all that much to know. I live on a farm just outside town, with my parents. That's pretty much it. Hey, Chloe!" The blonde typing on the computer looked up briefly.

"Hey, Clark. Who's this?"

"Kyrianna. She's new, and her schedule just got trashed. Care to help?"

"Sure. Sophomore or Freshman?"

"Junior. Kyrianna Winner."

"Spell Kyrianna."

"K-Y-R-I-A-N-N-A. W-I-N-N-E-R."

"Ok, got it…schedule for Winner, Kyrianna. Here you go!" The printer spat out a sheet of paper and Chloe handed it Kyrianna.

"Thank you very much. Now would you like to translate it for me?" The schedule had a tiny block of three lines for a class, each line holding three letters.

"Chloe, can you print a key as well? See, the first line is the teacher's name. The second line is the subject, and the last line tells you where the class is."

"It does? 'Cos it just looks like a bunch of letters to me." Chloe handed her another sheet. "Oh, ok. Now it kind of makes sense. Only not really." Clark grinned.

"You'll get used to it. Your first class is only up the corridor there."

"Thanks for your help." She lifted her bag over her shoulder. "I'll make sure to look for you if I get helplessly lost. Thank you, Chloe." She paused at the table next to the door. "Can I take one of these?" Fresh copies of The Torch covered the table.

"Sure. Enjoy."

"Thanks. See you around, Clark." With that she vanished out the door.

"I think someone has a crush, Clark." Chloe teased.

"Thanks, Chlo. Just what I needed to hear."

The bell rang just then, and he headed for his class.