Chapter 10
"Hey," Lana said, walking up to Chloe's locker.
Chloe smiled. "Hey, Lana. Ready for the Bio test?"
Lana groaned as Chloe shut her locker. "I'm horrible at math."
"You'll get it. Besides, Clark spent almost three hours last night reviewing with you, and you'd break his heart if you failed," Chloe said, looking at Lana out of the corner of her eye to gauge her reaction.
Lana took Chloe's hand hesitantly. They had never talked about how open they would be at school, so they were taking baby-steps. Holding hands was as much as they had attempted so far.. "Thanks for the encouragement. I knew I could count on you."
"What can I say? I'm reliable," Chloe told her, walking into the classroom. She stopped so suddenly that Lana walked into her.
"What is it?" Lana asked, moving past Chloe. Lana gasped when she saw the chalkboard. Written on it was a single word: DYKE.
Chloe gritted her teeth, refusing to let go of Lana's hand.
"Come on," Lana said softly, pulling Chloe to their lab table.
Before they sat down Pete and Clark walked into the room. Pete was laughing, but he immediately stopped when he saw what everyone was looking at. Anger flashed in his eyes as he stalked to the board and erased the hateful word.
"Who did this?" he asked, turning to face the class. "Who?!"
"Pete, stop. It's okay," Chloe told him, sitting in her seat.
"No, it isn't," Pete replied. "I'll find out who did it."
"Pete, please sit down. It doesn't matter," Lana urged.
Clark walked up behind Chloe and Lana. "Are you okay?"
Chloe turned to him. "We're fine. Sit down!" Chloe hissed quietly.
Clark nodded and sat by Pete as the teacher walked in.
* * *
"How can that be okay?" Pete ranted, walking back and forth in the Torch office. "Who are they to judge you?!"
"Pete, calm down," Chloe told him, taking his hand to stop him from pacing. "No one said it's okay."
"You did," Pete told her.
"Pete, what are you going to do? Are you and Clark going to beat up everyone at school until you find the right person?" Lana asked, glancing at Clark.
"Why aren't you as mad as I am?" Pete asked Clark.
"I am, but I know better than to act on it when I'm that mad," Clark told him.
Pete started to move, so Chloe used her free hand to hold onto his arm to stop him.
"We knew we would have to deal with people acting like this sooner or later," Chloe told him.
"People are afraid of things that are different," Lana said, walking to Chloe's side. "As long as our friends and family support us, we'll be fine."
"But you shouldn't have to be fine," Pete said.
"Pete, I'd love to kill these guys as much as you would, but we can't. All we can do is not be one of those losers," Clark said, walking to his friends.
Pete put his arm around Chloe. "I guess you're right."
Chloe smiled and took Lana's hand as Clark put his arm around Lana.