Chapter 2

Cleaning ladies and Juice-accident

Working at the Daily Planet had its ups and downs. This meant that whenever the boss wasn't harassing me or other unfortunate victims, and when I had something to do, it was nice.

Today, unfortunately, was not one of those days where I had anything to do. The paper wasn't very busy, nothing exceptional had happened in the world recently.

The usual articles about Superman's latest heroics were already written. There were no interesting wars to write about. People were tired of reading about politics, and no major crimes had happened for some time, so the paper didn't have much to do. The front page article was about a Zoo closing down, so you can guess how desperate things were.

Since Superman's return half a year earlier, the paper had relied a lot on his newest justice doings, but even he had been quiet lately.

The whole world had decided to be boring, apparently.

So, since the only thing people needed me for was to get new coffee every half hour or, once in a while, print out small articles, I was sitting at my tiny desk, bored. The coffee had just been handed out, so I had a whole half hour for myself.

My legs were propped up on the wooden surface of the desk and I was comfortably sitting in the office chair, reading a cheap magazine, noisily sucking on the straw from a half finished juice box.

You can imagine my mortification, when a certain someone suddenly appeared in front of my desk.

He cleared his throat and my eyes widened comically behind my glasses. I almost flipped over the table as I sat up properly, sneaking away the magazine and juice box at the same time. In my rush, I smashed the juice box into the table and the juice was squeezed out, creating a huge mess on the floor. For a moment I stared at the puddle in horror, realizing that I'd just made a total ass out of myself, in front of Clark Kent.

Then I turned to him, flicked some hair out of my eyes and smiled my polite smile.

"Can I help you, Mr. Kent?" I asked, pretending like the juice accident hadn't happened at all. He had a glint of laughter in his eyes, but his face didn't give away any of his amusement.

"I'd like to have this article printed out, please."

His voice. Heavenly.

Inwardly drooling now.

My smile increased slightly and I folded my hands in front of me, trying to appear just a bit professional. "Of course, Mister Kent. How many copies would you like?"

"Just one. I need it for editing." He held out the flash drive, which contained the article, signaling that the conversation was over.

I really wanted to keep talking to him, but I had run out of questions, so I just took accepted the flash drive he held out.

His hand brushed mine. I was dying slowly inside.

"I'll see to it right away." I didn't let my inner turmoil show as I stood.

Then he smiled at me. One of those adorable innocent smiles that only he could do. I repressed the urge to sigh dreamily.

Stop swooning, you idiot! I could practically hear my best friend's voice say in my head. She'd told me that many times. And she was right. I really should stop swooning, especially over someone who probably didn't even know my name-

"Thank you, Miss Logan."

Okay, so, back to swooning.

I moved to step around the table and towards the copy room, but I had barely taken two steps, before he spoke up again.

"Shouldn't you clean that up first?" he pointed at the pool of juice, which still laughed up at me from its position on the floor.

That's embarrassing. I had hoped he would've just ignored that. I needed to keep my 'honor' intact, so I had to come up with something witty to not seem like the idiot I apparently was.

I smirked a bit, "Nah, got plenty of time. Maybe that hawk of a cleaning lady will see it. She'd get a real kick outta that one." I tipped my head to one side and smiled sweetly. It was really lousy, but it was all I got. I was never good at coming up with comebacks on the spot.

He let out a single laugh, which sent shivers of pleasure down my spine.

"Well, someone has to make her day." He said. He tipped his head slightly at me in a goodbye.

Then he walked away again. I probably should have cleaned up that juice puddle, but I wanted to make a good impression on him, so I headed for the printing room as quick as possible. When I walked to the printing room, I realized that that was the longest conversation I had ever had with him. Ever. Which wasn't saying much, considering I'd only talked to him a few times before and they had all been along the lines of what he'd like in his coffee or if he needed an article printed.

Usually, he printed his articles himself, so I guess he was behind on this one, otherwise he wouldn't have asked me to do it for him. He was too polite for that, even though it was my job.

My thoughts stayed on him while I waited for the paper to print. Looking at the watch on my wrist, I noted that coffee-time, as I had dubbed it, was in fifteen minutes.

Just as the last paper came out of the machine, Jimmy walked in. He waved at me with his usual energy, before flashing a picture of me with his camera. He always took pictures of the weirdest things.

"Don't we look beautiful this morning!" He said and I grinned at the compliment.

"Need some pictures printed?" I questioned. He nodded enthusiastically at me. The fact that Jimmy was my only friend at the newspaper wasn't really that strange. He was a bit socially awkward, as was I, so we fit together nicely. I always enjoyed his energy and positive personality.

"I think I might've gotten some good pictures of Superman this time!"

Poor Jimmy. He always tried so hard to get a picture of Superman, but never got any. It was always a source of complaint from Mr. White, even when Jimmy was a great photographer. He could make anything look good interesting with that camera of his.

Except for the one thing Mr. White wanted him to take good pictures of, which was Superman.

"That's nice, Jimmy." I doubted he had succeeded this time, but one could always hope. On a whim, I decided to stay and see if he was right this time.

He wasn't.

After a few minutes, a bunch of pictures were assembled on the table.

All four of them featured the sky, some skyscrapers as backgrounds, and then a little red and blue dot somewhere on them. One of the pictures was blurry, on one he had only captured half of Superman, on the third he was too far away to see him properly and the fourth just showed a small blurry dot, undoubtedly Superman flying so fast the camera couldn't capture the motion properly.

I held in a snicker at the sight of Jimmy's crestfallen face and patted him on the shoulder.

"You'll get it at some point. Don't worry." He smiled almost sadly at me, before nodding, once again energetic.

"'course I will! I'll go right now!"

I almost told him that he wouldn't have any luck now, since Clark was working in the office, but managed to hold it in.

Then I remembered that I actually had an article that Clark was waiting for, so I bid Jimmy goodbye and headed back to the office.

Once there, I made quick work to give Clark the article. He was on the phone, so he just nodded at me and motioned for an empty spot on his desk.

After I put the article down, he flashed me a close lipped smile and mouthed a 'thanks' before returning to his phone conversation.

When I got back to my desk, the cleaning lady was actually there. She looked really mad and for a moment I considered hiding in the bathroom, but didn't.

Besides, she had already spotted me.

"Hey!" she roared at me and I inwardly cringed. This was going to be not-fun.

Our cleaning lady was an old woman who always reeked of coffee and cigars. She was short, even shorter than I, and plumb. Or just stoutly built. The perfect stereotype cleaning lady.

I never understood anything she said, her accent was so thick.

So needless to say, after a few minutes of her raging, I sort of started to zone her out. It was getting embarrassing though. A lot of people were starting to watch. It was always fun when someone was shouted at by the crazy lady, unless it was yourself.

She was really getting excited now. She liked to shout at people and since I was the office girl instead of a reporter, she could afford shouting at me a lot more than the reporters.

"Silly little girl! I will have Mister Perry fire you!"

Ouch. Okay, so that I understood.

On that note, she threw a bunch of paper towels at my face and marched to Perry White's office. The towels hit me on the nose and fell to the floor in a heap, adding to the mess I had already created.

The door to Mr. White's office slammed shut and I could hear the muffled shouting of the old bat, obviously intending to make her threat come true.

I bent down and picked up the towels, using them to wipe up the juice. For a moment I felt a twinge of fear. What if she actually did manage to get me fired? It's not like this was the first time we had a clash. Annoying her was one of my accidental hobbies. It wasn't like I always meant for her to get annoyed with me, it just happened.

A moment later, Mr. White kicked her out and I felt my fear disappear entirely. I was lucky that he was such a strong believer in hierarchy and wouldn't listen to a cleaner.

She was fuming when she stormed by and I couldn't stop the sugary sweet smile I sent her way.

Muttering something I couldn't understand, and don't think I'd like to understand, she was gone. That was quite the commotion. Looking around, I saw that we had attracted a nice audience. Of course, these people being reporters, they were all a bunch of snooping writers. Anything the least bit dramatic had their attention immediately.

When I had finished wiping up the juice, Jimmy suddenly bent down and helped me pick up the left-over towels.

"I don't get why you provoke her like that all the time." He complained. He was never comfortable with fighting.

Sighing, I stood up again. "I don't know, Jimmy. It just sorta happens." I shrugged innocently and threw out the paper towels.

"Weren't you heading for the streets?" I cocked my head to one side, "Pictures of Superman?" Almost automatically, my eyes went to Clark, who was typing insanely fast on his keyboard a few desks away.

I quickly looked back at Jimmy, deciding that accidentally giving him clues as to who Superman really was would be a bad idea.

"I was. But then I remembered that I have a bunch of pictures I need to edit instead." He slumped his shoulders sadly and I almost felt sad for him. It wasn't like he didn't like editing his pictures; he just liked taking them more. The man belonged on the street, taking pictures of.. well, taking pictures of the world!

"You go now, Jimmy. I'll stay and help you edit after work." Since I wasn't going to any evening classes, I had the whole night to myself. My friend, Diana, wasn't available either, so I'd just end up on my couch with a crappy chick-flick anyway. Might as well help a friend in need. Besides, I'd done this loads of times before, so I knew the procedure well enough. And Jimmy often complimented me on my editing skills, so I must have been doing something right the past times. I guess I just liked doing stuff I was good at.

"Oi! Can you go get that coffee now?"

.. Except for maybe that particular skill.

Looking at whoever had shouted, I gave them a polite, but fake, smile. It was that snobbish reporter from Britain, Brittany (Brittany from Britain? Hehehe..), who always behaved like she was the actual queen of England. Despite having lived in the US for most of her life, she still insisted on talking with this incredibly posh English accent, which I suspected was an incredibly fake posh English accent.

"I'll get to it right away." I decided to not comment on the fact that the coffee wasn't due 'til 14:30 and I had ten minutes.

"See you tonight, Jimmy." I turned to my only office-friend, who flashed a grateful smile at me.

"Thanks a lot, Georgia." He hiked the camera further up on his shoulder by the strap and left the office, only stopping to grab his coat on the way out.

"Yup, that's what I do.." I muttered, leaning against the desk, "work and help out friends. Not like I have anything else in my life." The sad smile didn't leave my face as I stepped out of the crowded room, heading for the coffee maker.

All in a day's work.

And people think Superman's job is tiring.

_._._._._._._._

If I had known just how grateful I was going to be in the future for offering Jimmy my help, I probably would've been a lot more excited once the day was over and people started leaving.

The rest of the day had been entirely uneventful and I was practically asleep in my seat behind the little wooden desk. I managed to stay awake though. The boss would lynch me if he caught me sleeping on the job.

I livened up a bit though, when people started leaving, their workday finished. As soon as they were gone, I'd order some take-away for me and Jimmy, probably take off my suicide heels and we'd have a ton of fun editing his photos. We would most likely not finish before midnight, but tomorrow was Saturday, and my day off, so it was fine.

As always, I had half an eye trained on Clark, who, so far, had made no move to go home yet.

Strange. He was usually one of the first to head home. Probably to go do Superhero stuff. Not that I could ask him that.

Only three people were left now, and he still hadn't left. He really must've been behind on that article, for him to actually stay late. He never stayed late. I guess it was a great advantage to be Superman with his inhuman speed, when it came to writing.

By now it was just Clark, Jimmy, who had returned from the streets half an hour ago, and me. I pretended not to notice Clark as I walked up to Jimmy's desk, waiting for him to finish whatever he was doing.

Clark walked up and stood next to me, opposite of Jimmy, obviously waiting for him to finish too. Why would he do that? It was stressful to me, whenever he was close. I felt like I needed to do something. Like, suck in my stomach to appear thinner, or something. For some reason, I always felt like this was some competition, like I needed to prove myself when he was near. Which was ridiculous, because besides being a nice, unprejudiced man, he was too damn perfect to compete with. It was all in my head. Probably because he made looking naturally handsome so easy. It was like he wasn't even aware of it, and if he was, he was too modest to flaunt it.

He was too perfect for his own good. It's that amazing I appeared to be the only woman drooling all over him.

Finally, finally, after an eternity of awkwardness, Jimmy turned from his computer, towards us.

"All done!" He sprang from his chair, clapping his hands together, before rubbing them together over-exaggeratedly, "So, pizza?"

I sent him a 'really?' look and flicked my head slightly at Clark, question clear in my eyes.

"Oh!" He seemed to have completely forgotten everything about Clark, for once. "Georgia, Clark offered to stay and keep us company tonight. Great, right?" Jimmy beamed with happiness. Clark pushed up his classes and smiled his 'Clark-smile', waving once.

No! Not great! I wanted to shout that, no, it wasn't great, I didn't need a whole night of sucking in my stomach or eating like a lady or staying in my heels or sitting properly on my chair. I needed a casual night with my friend, where I didn't have to worry about superhot incognito Superheroes or looking good in front of them.

"That's just fine." I forced out, simultaneously forcing a smile.

"Nice!" he pulled out his wallet and coat. "I'll go grab the usual. Be back in half an hour." He shrugged on the coat. "What would you like, Clark?"

"Erh," Clark released a gush of air and pushed his lips together, "I'll have whatever you're having." He gave Jimmy a close-lipped smile, who returned with a thumbs-up.

This was terrible. Normally, I ate a whole pizza by myself, but I couldn't do that now. Not with Clark here. The thought alone was enough to make me lose my appetite, even though I was always really hungry this time of day.

As soon as Jimmy left, I realized I was alone with him.

Not once did that occur to me; that'd I'd been alone with Clark once Jimmy had left. I was too busy freaking out over the thought of eating in front of him, for goodness sakes.

We both awkwardly stood where Jimmy had left us for a moment. Then he broke the silence.

"So, eh, that was quite a run-in you had with that lady."

Great Scott, this was a topic I'd like to avoid. Actually, talking to him altogether was a topic I'd like to avoid.

"Yeah, she didn't take kindly to my 'juice accident'"

.. Juice accident? Really?

I grimaced slightly, but he didn't seem to notice my un-coolness at all. Instead he smiled a bit and moved to sit at Jimmy's desk.

I decided to get the hell outta there and come back when Jimmy had returned with the pizzas.

I've been sick all week

Urgggghhh

Anyways, I hope you enjoyed this