1Title: Why Chloe Is Unable To Hate Clark Kent
Author: Lauren
Rating: G
Summary: Preseries. Chloe's move to Smallville, with a cousins twist.
Spoilers: For the season 1 episode, Obscura. Wherein Clark explained how he and Chloe met, but seeing it isn't necessary. Or all that enjoyable, unless you're a Chlark lurker.
Author's notes: I've been wanting to write another cousin's fic for a while. I didn't plan for it to be exactly like this, but there you go. Sap abound, you've been warned. Thanks to Courtney for playing beta.
Disclaimer: The characters within do not belong to me.
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"You're moving where?"
Chloe flopped back on Lois's bed, green eyes dull. "Smallville!" she said with false cheer.
"Smallville? What the hell kind of name is that?" Lois sat in her desk chair backward, ignoring the homework that was piled behind her, crying out to be done,.
"God knows," Chloe muttered against her pillow. "Is journalism interesting?" She looked at the books on Lois's desk that her cousin so desperately wanted to avoid.
Lois rolled her eyes. "Not even close. We're stuck interviewing new faculty members. The seniors get all the remotely good stories, not that there are many."
"There has to be a good story somewhere," Chloe countered. Anything to take the topic off her impending departure.
"Not possible, trust me. So when do you leave?" Lois phrased it casually, clearly so Chloe wouldn't detect the bitterness she really felt. Chloe heard it anyway.
"Two weeks." Neither of them looked at each other.
"Well, let's make them worth it." Lois pushed her homework aside and grabbed her phone to order pizza.
---
Two weeks later, Chloe was pulling into the corn capital of the world. The sign welcoming her to the town might not admit that, but Chloe determined it must be true. She glared at the rows of corn moving past her, making herself angry so she wouldn't cry.
It wasn't saying good-bye to Lois that had upset her. It was that Lois hadn't let her say good-bye.
They'd hugged, but Lois had forced the conversation to be light. Lucy had cried and hugged her and said she'd email. Lois had grinned and gone inside before she and Gabe had even left.
Chloe knew, that if things had been reversed, she'd do the same. That didn't stop it from hurting.
Later, as she was unpacking boxes in her room, the cell phone she'd been bribed with the week before rang. She knew her dad felt bad for dragging her here, halfway through the eighth grade, but being nice about it wasn't an option all the time.
"Hello?"
"How is it?" It was Lois.
"There's corn everywhere."
"Any sign of a scarecrow or cowardly lion? What about those Munchkins you hate so much?" Chloe wanted to hit her, but couldn't.
They talked for a few minutes more, light again.
"It's weird without you so close by," Lois finally said as Chloe got into bed.
"I know."
"I'm sorry about this morning, it was just too…"
"I know."
"Are you in bed?" It was like they were little girls again, secretly sneaking a call to each other after their dads had gone to sleep.
"Yeah." Chloe whispered her reply out of ritual.
"Me too." They were quiet for long moments, and Chloe had to speak before she cried.
"Night, Lo. Miss you."
"Night."
"Love you," Chloe blurted before she could stop herself.
"I love you too, Chlo." They both heard the tears in Lois's reply. Chloe hung up before they sobbed.
The next day wasn't as bad as she thought it would be. The kids at school weren't all wearing overalls and didn't drive there in covered wagons.
"Hi, I'm Lana," a pretty cheerleader type greeted her at the door. "Welcome to Smallville middle school."Chloe resisted the urge to sneer back, to make the perfect smile disappear. It was hard. Really hard.
"Hi, Lana," a boy who was clearly not a jock called shyly. He smiled in Chloe's direction as an afterthought and she didn't bother to hold back on the eye rolling. He didn't notice anyway, back to being ga-ga over the Miss Kansas wannabe.
"Clark," a teacher said in Chloe's first class. Not-a-jock boy from before looked up expectantly, "will you help get Chloe up to speed on our latest project?"
He nodded and smiled at her again, seemingly more genuine. Despite this, Chloe still decided she hated him.
"I'm Clark," he said unnecessarily as she sat next to him.
"Chloe."
"Where did you move here from?"
"Metropolis."
"Did you like it there?" A boy behind them asked. "The girls hot?" There was a pause and he quickly backpedaled. "'Cause if you're an example, I sure know the answer…"
"Pete, shut up," not-a-jock-Clark laughed, punching him in the arm.
They started the assignment and as Chloe reached for her notebook, something fell out of her bag. Clark bent, probably out of farm manners habit and picked it up for her.
"The girls are hot!" Pete whistled, looking over Clark's shoulder. Chloe contemplated hitting him, but leaned in to see the apparent picture herself.
It was of she and Lois at Lois's fifteenth birthday party. They were both covered in cake. Chloe had intended to ambush her with it, but Lois had been one step ahead of her. Her dad, in all his cheesiness, had snapped a picture. Chloe and Lois had played tag team on him later as revenge.
Chloe had that picture in her photo album at home. There was no reason for this to have been in her bag, unless Lois had…
She smiled so she wouldn't cry again. Clark handed her back the photo and seemed to know she didn't want to talk about it.
At lunch, Clark invited her to sit with him and Pete. Pete joked with her about Clark, who drooled over the cheerleader girl again.
"Lana Lang," Pete explained. "He's been in love since birth."
Chloe laughed and the conversation became stupid and fun all at once. She was pretty sure Pete was being so nice to make up for his idiotic behavior earlier, but she pretended not to care.
Clark invited her over after school and she said yes without thinking.
Going to his house, seeing his loft of lameness and kissing him happened without much thought. It's later, when he's showing her how to milk a cow, that she realizes they must be friends.
And she hates him for it, for distracting her from missing Lois. Hates him, but appreciates him all at once. Damned teenage hormones.