Clark needed a good meal from the school each day. He ate very little as the family couldn't really afford the food of a growing teenage boy, especially one with an alien sized appetite. He got two burgers and milks along with an apple for the afternoon. He kept that in his jacket pocket for later cravings. He knew that talking with Lana would be more important than fueling his body for the busy afternoon, so he was prepared to go hungry for a while.
He sat besides Lana and asked about what happened earlier. Lana pointed out that this was their first conversation since school started yesterday, that he was prying into her personal business. Now Clark knew he couldn't eat. He had lost his appetite. She shouldn't have to explain to anyone what that day was like for her. The thought of doing this assignment was sheer terror. Clark suggested skirting around the drama and just talking about the ballerina costume and the traffic downtown. He even offered to write a two page fluff about shopping and broken roads that she could read as her own.
Lana looked up with a small sense of relief. She would plan to write that paper and just leave the emotion out of it. Despite the note that the teacher read, nothing in her paper would be dishonest. She would just leave out the personal side. That would be fitting to what Mr. K said. She still needs to go through the motions and present something to the class. She needs to do research, and an interview. So she would interview the staff at the costume store. She could put a paper together. She left as Chloe came over telling Clark that she will be fine and that he should eat something. Apparently his stomach was growling.
Chloe recommended that he finish the burgers pretty quick as he's going to want to hear this on a full stomach. He took a few bites and invited her to get started. Chloe mentioned that she heard about Mr. K. from Lana and a few others. She discovered that he was replacing another teacher that died of mysterious causes last year. Mrs. Carter. Was found dead in her home with her brain compressed and yet her skull remained in tack. It was like someone grabbed her brain and squeezed it like a handful of play dough. She was grading final exams at the time and they were provided to the school administration posthumously.
Clark got the sense that this fatality, one he didn't know anything about last year, was meteor ability related. Someone that could squeeze his brain without penetrating his exterior shell would be a formidable threat. Clark asked if there were any other mysterious deaths since then and Chloe mentioned that she would have to charm the information out of the coroner late that evening. Realizing that this mystery could not be solved today, Clark finished his lunch and got ready for the afternoon classes.
That night he started his paper and got through the first few pages of the first draft. His parents said nothing, as the subject had not come up. He did his homework, chores, and got himself off to school the next day without even saying so much as a hello.
