Senior year was full of people who wanted to graduate high school with a bang.
And then there was Lois Lane who had the honor of repeating a semester, having failed her last one which meant she didn't have enough credits to get into college.
Emmeline and Chloe were currently in Lois's car heading to school. Lois had been gracious enough to give Emmeline a ride as well as her cousin. The two girls were ready to give her a tour of her new school for the next semester.
"You know, socially divisive cliques and hall passes aside, this place really isn't all that bad," Chloe tried to explain to her cousin.
"It's the varsity version of Dante's seventh ring," Lois griped as they all got out of the car.
Chloe laughed. "Come on, do you know how many people would kill to relive their senior year in high school?"
"For the life of me, I don't know why," Emmeline put in.
Lois frowned. "Make that semester. Five more credits and I am out of this cow pile."
Chloe looked at her in disbelief. "Wait a minute. Five credits in one semester? Lois, the only way you're gonna do that is if you add an extracurricular to your class list. Like, say, maybe, writing for the Torch!"
"Uh, no hard feelings here, cuz, but unlike you, the last thing I want to be is a reporter."
"Yeah, what could be worse than, you know, uncovering the truth and protecting the public?"
"And sticking your nose in other people's business?"
"Like I said. You'd be perfect!"
Emmeline smiled. These two girls were more like sisters than cousins. Though Lois made her a little uncomfortable at times with her bluntness and overconfidence, she was a nice girl. And since she was her best friend's cousin, she really wanted to get along with her.
"Come on, let's go!" Chloe said eagerly when she saw Lois wasn't following them inside.
Lois quietly groaned and walked into the building.
Chloe threw her arm around her shoulders. "It's gonna be great having you here."
The three of them walked down the halls towards Chloe's locker so she could grab what she needed for the Torch.
When they passed Clark, he was talking to some attractive blonde girl.
"Good morning, Clark," Chloe smiled. "Hey…Abby."
As they continued walking, Emmeline asked, "Who's Abby?"
"Abby Fine? Nicknamed 'Scabby Abby' by a football jock who didn't know what else to do with his life?"
Emmeline's eyes widened as she snuck another glance back at Abby. "That's Abby Fine?" She didn't know Abby personally, but she had seen her around the halls sometimes looking wishfully at passing girls.
"Yeah. Either she spent an entire summer at a silicon farm, or I am shopping at the wrong makeup counter."
"How old is she, 17?" Lois asked in disbelief. "That's like messing with the batter before the cookies are even baked."
"Don't tell me that the world isn't nicer to prettier people."
"Pretty people with confidence," Emmeline added.
Chloe opened her locker. "You know, I mean it's her body and if it makes her feel better, then it's none of our business."
Lois gave her an incredulous look.
"What?"
"I'm just stunned that Miss 'Letter to the Editor' doesn't find it one bit disgusting that a girl would get nipped and tucked to transform into some plastic pod person."
Clark furrowed his eyebrows as he walked up behind her. "I think she looks great."
Lois turned around and gave him a dry smile. "What a shocker. Look, that's the problem with high school. It's all a facade. Everyone's hiding who they really are and trying to be something they're not."
"Well, it sounds like you've got your first article," Chloe smiled. "See you in the Torch."
Chloe, Clark, and Emmeline started to head to the Torch office sending small smirks in Lois's direction.
Lois sighed and quickly followed after them. "Okay, I'll write for you, but you better get me extra credit."
As Chloe and Lois began having a conversation about what was expected of Lois when she wrote for the Torch, Emmeline and Clark began walking next to each other. The overall tension between them was gone and things were relatively back to normal.
"So I saw you looking at the sign for football tryouts," Emmeline said. "Is your dad letting you try out this year?"
"Not exactly."
"But you're going for it anyway?"
"…Maybe. What do you think? I remember you weren't too keen on the idea either."
"Well, it's your senior year and this is your last shot. You may as well take it. What's the worst that could happen?"
Clark knew that there were a lot of bad things that could happen while out on the field, but none that he was allowed to mention.
"You'll have to let me know how it goes. Hopefully, this time, you'll be on the team for more than one game, huh?"
Clark laughed lightly, recalling his unfortunate run-in with the fire-obsessed coach. "I didn't even make it to the game."
Things took a turn for the worse when Lois accidently hit one of the football jocks and Lana later ended up in the hospital, both of them showing similar symptoms. It seemed that while in Smallville, Lana could not catch a break.
Chloe and Emmeline stepped out of the elevator at the hospital and saw Clark looking through the window of Lana's room.
"Hey," Chloe said. "How's she doing?"
"She's pretty cut up," he answered. "They gave her a sedative, but she keeps saying, 'Don't let him see me' over and over again."
"It's like some kind of breakdown."
"When they brought Brett in, he was acting the same way. The only thing they could find in common is a spike in their serotonin levels."
"Serotonin?"
"It's a brain chemical—"
"That LSD and hallucinogens mimic. It's also the word that Lois misspelled three times in her slander piece on extreme makeovers."
Emmeline smiled a little, recalling how many red marks she had made on Lois's piece. There was more red than ink than usual when she proofread pieces.
"Yeah, but Lana and Brett are hardly candidates for plastic surgery," Clark continued.
"Yeah, but Abby was. Didn't Lana say she saw Brett with Abby right before he went crazy? Maybe this procedure made her more beast than beauty."
The three of them went to the Torch office to see if they could get more answers.
"Wow," Clark said as they stepped inside and saw mounds of papers all over the place. "You kind of let the inner slob out, huh?"
"Yeah, and her name is Lois," Chloe told him. "She's been pulling these articles that Abby's mom published on this new breakthrough insta-makeover technique, but, uh, Dr. Fine ran into one snag." She picked up one of the articles Lois had printed out. "It's sending the patients' serotonin levels into overdrive."
Clark took the article from her and skimmed over it. "It says here Dr. Fine was working on a suppression medication called Serythro to keep the serotonin levels in check. Maybe it worked. Maybe Abby was a trial run."
"Only Abby's seismic surgery didn't come without aftershocks. She's passing something to people that's super-boosting their serotonin."
"I guess trying to change the body so much at one time comes with a price," Emmeline remarked.
"That makes sense if she kisses Brett, but what about Lana?" Clark asked
"I don't know," Chloe answered. "All I do know is that Abby's not hallucinating, so maybe all Lana and Brett need is a dose of that Serythro medication." She picked up Lois's planner that had a pink sticky note on it that read, 'Dr. Fine, appointment Sat 10:30 AM'. "It looks like Lois is one step ahead of us."
Clark managed to save Lois from a psychotic Dr. Fine who held beauty a bit too high up on a pedestal. Then Brett and Lana got the necessary medicine to knock them out of the hallucinations. Lois's story about the whole affair made the front page of the Torch.
Chloe smiled as she caught Lois reading over her work. "Admiring the genius within, huh?"
Lois folded up the paper. "It had a typo."
"Oh, nice try. The paper hasn't had a single typo ever since Em became our proofreader. She never misses a thing. Anyway, I followed up on the Abby storyline, and it looks like Mother Makeover is gonna be playing 'mirror, mirror' on the psych ward wall from now on."
"Is Abby gonna be okay?"
"Yeah, she'll be back next week. So are you excited for your first pep rally?"
"Hmm, not exactly the Friday night I've been dreaming of."
"Oh, come on, it's your debut as Smallville's newest celeb."
"Yeah, right. One 'Plastics 'R' us' piece, and they're gonna be holding tables all over town for me."
Emmeline realized just how much the two girls talked alike. It was almost scary.
"You'd be surprised. I mean, not that I'm ceding my stance on a woman's right to choose rhinoplasty, but…" She handed Lois several sheets of paper. "…you've got fan mail. Looks like your little exposé struck a couple chords."
Lois scoffed a little in surprise. "I didn't even expect anybody to read this, let alone have a…'life-changing experience'? Please."
"Whatever. Say what you want, but I know inside, it's getting to you. Welcome to the bullpen, Miss Lane." She started to walk away down the hall. "Now, I'm off to see Clark Kent in a wet T-shirt. Care to join me?"
Lois smirked and followed after her. "Like I've never seen that before."
"You coming, Em?"
Emmeline gave her a small smile. "Uh, you two go on ahead. I've got some work I need to get done."
"Suit yourself. I'll see you later."
Emmeline sighed heavily as she watched Chloe and Lois depart down the hallway. Then she turned and headed back to the Torch office. She decided to do a little housekeeping and clean up the horrendous mess Lois left behind.
She didn't want to be at the pep rally, not even if Clark was going to be there in a wet T-shirt. She didn't like being in the large crowd…and the pep rally just reminded her how excited Pete had always been to go to them.
She really missed him.
