*awkward laugh* I sincerely apologize for making everyone wait so long for this new chapter. I was really preoccupied with other stuff, and sometimes when I hit an episode where there's not a whole lot for Emmeline to do, I lack the motivation and inspiration to start. But here we are, and this actually turned out way better than I thought it was going to, or at least I think so.
I'll try to update more frequently!
On the very last day of summer vacation, Chloe and Lois grabbed Emmeline and headed to Crater Lake. It appeared everyone else in Smallville had the same idea because the place was packed.
The three of them walked along the sand just in time to see Clark and Lana sharing another smooch. Emmeline was happy they seemed to be getting along so well, but she would be lying if she said that she didn't get annoyed with their constant lovey-doveyness just a couple times.
"Well, I know what you did this summer," Lois teased.
"Lois?" Clark said as he quickly stood up.
"Don't look so guilty, Smallville. About time you lovebirds flapped your wings."
"What are you doing back?"
"Yeah, we thought you were in Europe until the end of the year," Lana smiled.
"Hoping."
Emmeline smiled a little. She had certainly missed Clark and Lois's infamous banter.
"Well, are you gonna stay with Chloe?" Lana asked.
"Actually, I just ran into Mrs. Kent at the Talon, and right out of nowhere, she asked if I'd like to move back in at the farm," Lois answered.
Clark scoffed. "Yeah, right."
Lois just smiled back at him.
"Really?"
"I know, isn't that sweet?"
Clark and Lana exchanged a nervous look which made Emmeline's face redden at the implication.
"Oh, don't worry, you little snuggle bunnies can hop around all you want. I'm a heavy sleeper." She happily handed her bag to Chloe and walked off. "I'm going for a dip."
Clark looked at the other girls dryly. "Think she could sleep through me smothering her with a pillow?"
Lana laughed. "Don't you stay in the sun too long or you're gonna get fried." She headed off to another part of the park.
"How's the battle scar?" Emmeline asked, pointing to the bandage on his stomach. His…very, very toned stomach.
Clark looked up at her for a moment. "It's…healing."
Emmeline really didn't understand how exactly Clark had miraculously come back to life, especially after his disappearance from the hospital, but she had been too relieved at the moment to care. However, for the past several days, it had really been nagging at her mind. But how did one casually bring something like that up in to conversation? 'Oh, by the way, remember that time you died than came back to life? Yeah, what's that about?'
…No.
"Uh…I'll set us up a spot," she said quietly.
She took the two bags from Chloe and left the two of them alone so she could find an open place for them to lay out some towels.
Truth be told, Emmeline didn't exactly want to be here. She hated being in this kind of place. She didn't consider herself fat or anything, but she was not very comfortable exposing so much skin. Wearing her rather plain one-piece beneath her t-shirt didn't help matters.
Her attention to her usual lack of self-esteem was broken when she saw Clark run across the dock and dive into the water.
"Em, grab a towel!" Chloe ordered.
Emmeline fished through Chloe's bag and pulled out the towel she had brought. As soon as she came over, a man carrying an unconscious Lois rushed onto the sand.
"Is she all right?" Lana asked quickly.
"I'm working on it," the man answered.
He gently set Lois down on the sand with her head positioned on the towel Emmeline had brought over. He then quickly began to administer CPR. After giving her a few breaths, Lois coughed out some water and looked up at her savior.
"Hey," the man smiled kindly.
Lois smiled awkwardly in embarrassment, and Emmeline did not miss how her eyes gazed over his toned chest and stomach.
All of them carefully helped Lois stand again as she put her hand to her head.
"Maybe you ought to stick to the shallow end till you learn to swim, gorgeous," the man teased.
"Maybe you ought to try a breath mint, surfer boy," Lois tiredly shot back.
The man laughed. "Name's Arthur Curry. My friends call me AC."
Lana took Lois's arm. "Come on, we gotta get you back to the farm."
She, AC, and Emmeline helped Lois walk back towards the car so she could properly recover at the Kent farm.
While Emmeline didn't wish what had happened to Lois on anyone, at least no one had to see her in her unflattering swimsuit now.
Emmeline was not as nervous as she expected to be on her first day of college. She had prepared as much as she could and had already walked her classes so she wouldn't be late for any of them.
After her first two classes of the day, she was about to grab lunch when she ran into Clark.
"Hey!" she greeted with a bright smile.
Clark realized that it had actually been quite a while since he had seen her smile like that. He berated himself a little for not being there for her as much as he could've been after her mother had died. He had spent so much time with Lana, thankful he finally had a relationship with her, that he had put her above everything else.
Sometimes, he really wished he was a better friend to her.
"How's your first day going?" she asked.
"It's…interesting to say the least. I've got this one professor who certainly does not think highly of Lex Luthor."
"Well, that wouldn't really put him in the minority."
"Yeah, I know. I guess I just wasn't prepared for him to be so passionate about it in class."
"Well, it's only day one. He may end up being the professor who's going to change your life."
"How's your first day?"
"It's great. I already love my classes. And get this. I met with my advisor, and I came in with so many credits from classes I took in high school that if I play my cards right and maybe do a few internships, I could graduate in two years."
"That's great."
"Yeah, and it would be less stress on my dad. So it's going to take a lot of work and several full loads, but I'm going to try my best."
"If anyone can do it, you can."
"Thanks. I'm, um, gonna go get some lunch. Do you wanna join me?"
"Thanks, but I'm actually going to go meet Lana for a lunch date. Rain check?"
"Sure."
As Clark walked off, Emmeline sighed to herself. She really was happy for them. She was. She just wished she didn't keep getting left behind.
At the Talon, Clark, Lana, and Emmeline watched as AC downed his fifth glass of water in two minutes.
"You guys, you should've seen this guy, it was amazing," Lois explained, telling them about their impromptu race at Crater Lake. "I've never seen anybody swim so fast."
"Or drink so much water," Lana added.
"It keeps my skin soft," AC smiled.
"So how do you like the University of Miami?" Clark asked almost accusatorily.
Lois looked at AC in surprise. "You go to school in Miami?"
AC's brow furrowed as he looked at Clark. "Yeah. How do you know that?"
"I'm a big fan of college swimming," Clark answered.
"Really?" Lana said with disbelief. "Since when?"
"Since Arthur Curry started dominating the sport. So how'd you learn to swim so fast?"
"I don't know," AC told him. "I guess it runs in the family. My dad operates a lighthouse down South. Swims like a lead weight. So it must have been my mom with the skills, but she died when I was a baby."
"AC, I'm so sorry," Lois said.
"I'm not gonna say it doesn't suck but, you know, growing up by the water was awesome. I probably spent more time in it than out."
"And what brings you to the most landlocked spot on the map?" Clark continued with his interrogation.
"Crater Lake. Last few months, a bunch of fish have been dying off. The EPA blames it on temperature change, but I think that's totally bogus."
"Smallville's a long way to go to check on temperature changes."
"Not if you care about the world you live in. See, people think what happens in oceans and lakes doesn't affect their lives. It does. It's all connected."
"Do you really believe that, or is that a pick-up line for girls?"
"Clark," Lana admonished.
"Smallville, can I talk to you over here for a minute?" Lois said pointedly. She quickly pulled him out of earshot of the others, though from the body language, she was clearly extremely ticked off. Once their little conversation had finished, she came back over to AC. "I'm sorry about that."
"No, it's cool," he said as he stood up. "I gotta bounce."
"Do you want some company?"
"No, I have a few things I need to take care of so I'll just swing by later."
AC left the Talon. The three girls looked at Clark in disbelief and disappointment.
"You know, you're right. I was being a jerk," he told them. "I'm gonna go apologize."
Lois groaned and sat on one of the counter chairs. "I don't know how you put up with him, Lana."
"Maybe he's just showing that he cares in his own Clark way," Emmeline said. "He's looking out for you since your dad's not around for the whole third-degree routine."
"If I need someone to play Dad, I'll let him know. Until then, he can stay out of my business. You know, Emmeline, you always try to justify people's actions. Sometimes, they're just in the wrong."
Emmeline sat at the edge of the dock and let her feet dangle in the water. She liked this place a lot more when she was the only one here.
Though at the moment, she didn't really want to be alone. She felt like she had been forced to be alone for so long. She didn't know exactly what it was, but she just felt…left out. Ever since the beginning of the summer, Chloe and Clark clearly knew something she didn't or at least he was now aware that she knew his big secret. And while she always believed that they would tell her what that was when the time was right, it hurt a little to know that the secret brought them closer together and left her being the third-wheel.
Then of course there was Clark and Lana who had started dating and left her and Chloe to be wishful observers.
And now that Lois was back, that feeling just increased. She knew Lois didn't mean for that to happen, but it still had.
"You know, all this time I've been here, I don't think I've ever gotten your name."
Emmeline turned to find AC take a seat next to her. "What are you doing here?"
"That's an interesting name."
She smiled a little. "It's Emmeline."
"Well, Emmeline, it is nice to officially meet you. What are you doing out here all by yourself?"
"I believe I asked you the same thing first."
"I asked you second."
"Are you always this impossible?"
"Absolutely."
"I don't know. I just…needed to think."
"About what?"
"Stuff."
"Now who's being impossible?"
Emmeline smiled again. "How long do you plan on sticking around anyway?"
"Tired of me already?"
"That's not what I meant."
"Yeah, I know. Actually, I'm leaving today."
"Why so sudden? Smallville's not that bad, is it?"
"No. I just…have other places I need to be."
"Did you get done what you needed to here?"
"Yeah. Well, with Clark's help."
"Oh, so he warmed up to you, did he? He was being pretty icy back at the Talon. I don't think I've ever seen him like that before."
"Let's just say I got him to see things from my point of view."
Emmeline started to stand up. "I'm gonna head back now. I've got homework waiting for me."
With her feet wet from being in the water, Emmeline misstepped and slipped off the dock into the lake.
AC quickly jumped in after her. He put his arm around her waist and resurfaced with her. Then he lifted her up so she could get back on the dock easier.
"I didn't need you to jump in after me," she said hardly as she quickly stood up.
"Maybe not, but I'll never deny myself a dip in the water."
Emmeline self-consciously crossed her arms. She didn't like her wet clothes clinging to her frame for him to see. She wished she had worn more than just shorts and a tank top. This was just as bad as someone seeing her in her swimsuit.
"As if things couldn't get any worse," she muttered to herself.
AC hopped out of the water himself, curious as to why those words were laced with so much pain. "What's up?"
"Nothing."
He slowly stepped in front of her. "Really?"
"You're leaving. Why do you want to help?"
"Well, if I'm leaving, who am I gonna tell anything to?"
Emmeline sighed. "It's just lately…I feel so…disconnected from everyone. I lost my mom recently, and a part of me feels as if that's why I feel that way. It seems like I'm peering in from the outside, and I'm separated by a thick piece of glass so I can see and hear everything, but I'm not really there."
"How long have you felt this way?"
"I don't know. Maybe a few weeks."
"And have you told anyone?"
"What difference would that make? They would just end up feeling guilty for something that's my fault."
"Your fault? So just because you've lost someone important to you and you're going through the grieving process, it's your fault?"
Emmeline quieted. When he put it like that, the whole notion of it did seem kind of ridiculous.
"This feeling of being disconnected, it's part of that process. No one truly knows exactly what you're going through or how you feel. But I promise, that stage will come to an end. All stages have to end eventually." He put his hands on her arms. "You'll get through this."
Emmeline smirked a little. "If I didn't know any better, I'd think you were flirting."
AC laughed kindly. "No, not that I don't think you're a wonderful person. I'm just always on the look-out for good friends."
"Good, because if you flirted with me while kissing Lois, I would've had some words."
He lost a bit of his smile. "It was probably a little cruel of me to start something I wouldn't end up finishing. I don't know when I'm coming back, so it's not like I can ask her to wait for me."
"That's what my last boyfriend said. But do you regret it?"
"No."
"Neither does she. And if that's the case, then it was really all worth it, wasn't it?"
AC smiled again. "Yeah. It was."
Emmeline started heading down the dock back towards the sand. "I'll see around, AC. Good luck with…whatever it is you end up doing. And…thanks."
"I'll see ya, Emmeline. Best of luck to you too."
The next day on campus, Emmeline left her class and started walking to the dining hall.
"Em!" someone called.
She turned to find Clark hurrying to catch up to her. "Glad I caught you. I was thinking…how about that lunch? My treat."
Emmeline smiled. "Great."
As the two of them walked off, Emmeline felt herself step through the glass she had built up around her.
