A/N2: Aug 9, 2013: Another edit! Enjoy!

Old A/N: Hi again. Sorry for the long wait. I've been dealing with my university's hellish education program. All I want to do is become a teacher. But apparently you have to jump through fiery hoops to do that here. Anyways… sorry for the rant. Here's the next chapter, I hope you enjoy. Please R&R! Thanks.

Disclaimer: I do not own Smallville.

Chapter 21: Grudging Glances:

"Where is he?" Lana exclaimed, annoyed.

Chloe glanced up from her position on the front steps of their school to see Lana actually pacing back and forth. She shrugged her shoulders carelessly, further annoying the brunette.

"Didn't I warn him what would happen if he didn't show up?" Lana added, a little on the menacing side.

Chloe rolled her eyes at her friend's theatrics. Threatening to sacrifice them to the cheerleaders was low, and so far Chloe hadn't forgiven her for it. "Sit down, Lana" she told her. "He'll be here. Pete has no interest in making snowflake cutouts… He probably got held up by a teacher or something."

Sighing loudly, she joined her on the steps. "I guess you're right. We still have to wait for Clark anyways."

That's right; he was supposed to be here, too. "Where is he, by the way?" Chloe asked, only becoming suspicious when she wouldn't meet her eye.

"Um… I'm not sure," Lana replied, unconvincingly.

She pierced her with a hard stare. "Really?"

"Yeah… um… he just said he needed to take care of something um… important," Lana added nervously.

"He's at Lex's, isn't he?" she accused.

"I don't know," Lana blurted out quickly. She seemed to realize her quick denial indicated the opposite, continuing on in a more even tone. "And… if he is, what's the matter with that? They're best friends."

"There wouldn't be anything wrong with Clark visiting Lex," Chloe conceded, adding in a more harsh tone, "If he wasn't there talking about me!"

Lana, caught out, shot her a pleading look. "He's your friend; he's worried about you."

Chloe shook her head disbelievingly. "What part of 'it's none of your business' is so hard to understand? Man!" She took out her phone and started dialing.

"Chloe, what are you doing?" her friend asked quickly.

She decided to ignore her as she waited for an answer on the other end.

A second later Lex's warm voice came through, "Chloe, hi!" It made her smile instantly.

"Hey, Lex, how are you?"

"Good, good," Lex replied. "So, did you change your mind?"

"Hmm…"

"About seeing me before tomorrow?" he asked hopefully.

"Oh, I'm sorry, Lex, I was actually calling about something else," Chloe stated apologetically.

"That's all right; what is it?"

"It's about Clark, did he visit you?" she asked unsurely.

Lex chuckled. "Yeah, he did. He was warning me to be good to you."

"Man!" Chloe practically shouted. "You'd think he'd know what privacy is!"

"Don't worry about it, Chloe. I cleared everything up," Lex assured her.

"Wait, how many black eyes do you have?" she questioned seriously.

"Chloe!" Lana exclaimed in shock, obviously eavesdropping.

"Still two, I don't think I can get many more than that," Lex told her laughingly. "Don't worry, I explained to Clark and he seemed to understand."

"Really?"

"He's our friend; Clark only wants us to be happy," he replied.

"Ok," Chloe said, believing him. "Well…. I can't wait to see you tomorrow."

"Likewise," Lex said warmly. "I've already got a movie picked out, something called Shanghai Noon."

"Oh, Shanghai Noon is awesome!" she exclaimed. "I can't wait for tomorrow!"

"Well she's obviously not talking about math," a different voice cut into their conversation.

Chloe looked up to see that Pete had finally arrived and he didn't seem too happy about being there.

"Pete!" Lana shouted tersely. "Nice of you to join us."

"Pete's there?" Lex asked, rare uncertainty in his voice.

She let out an annoyed sigh. "Yeah, Lana's dragging us off somewhere, she won't tell us where or why."

"To study!" Lana quickly called out.

"Are we going anywhere anytime soon," Pete asked gruffly.

"Uh… Lex, I've got to go. I'll see you tomorrow, ok?" Chloe said quickly.

"I look forward to it," Lex said genuinely.

Chloe hung up the phone with a smile on her face. She turned around to face her friends. "Ok, let's go."

"The Talon?" Chloe wondered out loud. She looked to Lana with questioning eyes.

"This is the big deal?" Pete scoffed.

"No." Lana shook her head. "That's inside."

She strode on ahead of them without another word leaving the pair to stare at each other incredulously before they remembered they were mad at each other. Pete looked away first, making his way inside without another glance her way. Chloe grimaced, only then following the two.

Once inside, Pete was quite surprised to see the Talon transformed. The lights were dimmed low and where tables were supposed to be there were a set of movie-theater-style chairs, instead. And right in front of the chairs, covering one of the walls was a humongous white screen. An old fashioned popcorn machine, propped up in the back added the finishing touches to the changed room. Pete thought that this was what the Talon may have looked like back in its hay-day.

"Wow," Chloe said in awe.

"Yeah," Pete agreed.

"You like?" Lana asked happily.

"Uh… it's nice, Lana. But, if you wanted to watch a movie we could have went to the Smallville Cinema."

"Yeah, we could have. But… they don't play the latest stuff," Lana answered cryptically.

"I'll admit, they aren't always up to date, but they aren't that behind, either," Pete defended.

Lana walked over to one of the back tables where a projector, hooked to a laptop, was placed. She opened the laptop and read whatever was on the screen silently.

"Well, I can tell you that not even the theaters in Metropolis are this up to date," Lana explained, smirking to herself.

"What are you talking about?" Chloe demanded. A little fed up by the secrecy, she strode over to Lana and took a look at the screen. Her mouth dropped open instantly.

"No way," she uttered in awe. Lana grinned widely in response.

"What?" Pete asked, not able to contain his curiosity. He walked over to the girls and Chloe turned the laptop so he could see.

"No way," he echoed Chloe. "X-2? But, this isn't even close to coming out yet. They just released the trailer, like yesterday!"

"I know," Lana agreed, and then added nonchalantly, "But, I got it."

Chloe eyed her friend in astonishment. "How?" she choked out.

"I have… connections," Lana assured. "Now, are we going to stop talking and watch this X… man?"

"X-men," both Chloe and Pete corrected at the same time. They looked at each other and then away quickly.

"All right, I'll take that as a yes," their friend said cheerfully. "You two take the two front seats. I'll get this ready."

"Why do we have to sit in the front?" Pete protested lamely.

"Because, I said so!" Lana barked out, the earlier cheerfulness gone for a moment.

Chloe and Pete backed away slowly from the frightening Lana and did as told.

Hope you enjoyed!

Old A/N: Well that's it for now. Just to let you know, it's X-2 they're watching because this takes place around season 2-3, roughly around the time it came out.

Sorry about the shortness. Hopefully I'll update soon.

Thanks for all the great reviews: fpancha; SeasonVelvet; Kit Merlot; and onetreefan.

Keep them coming.