"Everything In This World"

by Viv

*~*~ Part Thirty-Four ~*~*

Chloe bounced into the Torch office, her blonde hair flying with the sheer force of her enthusiasm. "So, guess what we're doing tomorrow?"

Clark and Pete swivelled around on their somewhat worn office swivel chairs, the bored expressions on their faces oddly mirroring each other in its striking similarity. Pete sighed heavily as Clark turned back again towards the flickering monitor, brushing a handful of floppy brown curls off his forehead. "Chloe, whatever it is - we don't want to hear it."

"But -" Chloe protested as she entered the room in more sedate strides.

"Clark's got the situation wired, Chlo." Pete interrupted her abruptly. "School's out in a week, it's the hottest summer in the history of never and," he quickly turned his back on her, effectively blocking her from view, "did I happen to mention that it's like, a 100 degrees outside? All which means -" he gestured towards Clark theatrically as Clark continued.

"We won't be doing whatever you want us to do Chloe." Clark smiled sheepishly and gestured back at Pete, no doubt trying to lay the blame for the inevitable Chloe fireworks onto his erstwhile best friend.

Pete shrugged, obviously not bothered by the possibility of impending death by Chloe as she stomped around the table to stand in front of them. "My man here's right on the mark." He calmly ignored her venomous look. "Chloe be reasonable. The sun's shining, the corn's peeling and we're hearing the siren call of two hot babes just waiting for us when we get out of this place. You've probably got your own summer time Lex loving to fast forward to," Chloe blushed furiously, and not even Clark could withstand an uncharacteristic snigger at her expense. "So why don't you cut yourself and us some summer time slack, get yourself out of this stinky sweat hole and have yourself some fun?"

Chloe crossed her arms across her chest, her eyes shooting daggers at a way-too-satisfied looking Pete. "Okay, before your combined jockstraps rebound and hit both of you in your collective asses, just hear me out."

"No offence Chloe, but have you noticed that you seem to have an unhealthy fixation on jockstraps?" Clark asked innocently, the telltale twinkle in his eyes telling Chloe that he wasn't as crazily clueless as he sometimes pretended to be.

"Hey Clark, maybe we could get her some for her birthday. Satisfy her curiosity once and for all." Pete grinned, infuriatingly pleased with himself while Clark looked slightly guilty at enjoying the blush that crept steadily up the exposed skin of her neck.

But Chloe was not to be outdone. Two can play at that game - or in this case, three. "As much as I think that jockstraps are the funnest gift ever, I've already had my curiosity satisfied. Lex was surprisingly helpful in that clothing department." Off their stunned and increasingly horrified looks, she sighed theatrically. "Relax guys, I was just joking." She allowed collective sighs of relief to wash over their faces before continuing, plastering a way-too-bright smile on her face. "Lex doesn't wear jockstraps, he wears silk boxers. D'uh."

Judging by their now openly horrified, 'way too much information' looks, Chloe decided that Clark and Pete had had enough for one day. That should teach them about taking on Chloe Sullivan, the reigning snark queen of Smallville.

She smothered a laugh as she hurriedly shoved a myriad of tagged notes, experimental layouts and Smallville Ledger articles away and plonked herself on the edge of the table. "Moving on from that non-image. I've just got a tip from a source about a previously undiscovered species of fish that's been discovered near an unreported meteor site." Off their blank looks, Chloe exasperatedly continued. "Don't you see guys? What if somehow the meteor fragments affected all the fish in the area? If we could catch some of them, have them analysed, maybe we can prove that meteor fragments do affect things around here. And if we can prove that - imagine how far it'll go in proving that meteor fragments are at the bottom of some, if not all, of the inherent craziness in this town?"

Chloe looked at Pete and Clark expectantly, achingly aware that they were not exhibiting the anticipated jumping up and down in excitement reactions she had been half-hoping that they would exhibit. Instead they looked more like stunned ... fish.

"Mutant fish." Clark repeated, looking dumb-founded and amused at the same time.

"Mutant ... fish?" Pete asked, not bothering to hide the incredulity in his voice. He threw a worried glance at Clark who shrugged imperceptibly. "Mutant fish?!"

Chloe looked on as they digested the information.

After a while, Pete took a deep breath. "So?" He asked at last, as Clark ducked his head to try to hide his amusement.

Finally Clark just burst out laughing, his eyes shining with barely controlled amusement. "Chloe, you're really scraping the bottom of the news barrel now. This 'source' doesn't happen to be say, Mark Garron, President of the Science Club?"

Pete sniggered openly in the background, stopping when Chloe trained a pair of deadly hazel eyes on him. "A professional reporter never divulges her sources."

"Chloe -"

"Come on guys. This is my last hurrah before school lets out. My editorial swan song before our temporary plunge into the complete and utter insanity known to the common masses as freedom. Pretty please? For me?" She tried her best to look adoringly cute, although she suspected that she was failing miserably.

Pete looked hard-lined unconvinced while Clark seemed to be wavering. "Chloe, you've still got all next year to do ... whatever fishing you want to do."

Pete high-fived Clark while Chloe rolled her eyes. "Ha. Funny Clark." She made a face at them. "Come on, guys, for me? Best friend Chloe? We just need to find one fish."

"I ... can't." Clark said lamely.

"Why?" Chloe demanded, a little too harshly for her liking. She was frankly a little hurt that Clark and Pete were being so surprisingly uncooperative. What had happened to their three musketeers pact in eighth grade? She made a mental note to herself to try to get a refresher on that particular blood oath one of these days.

Pete continued to ignore her, saying matter-of-factly to Clark. "I'm still getting over the fact that she can say it with a straight face."

Clark pulled out a bill and waved it in front of Pete. "Five bucks says she can do it more than five times in the next ... ten minutes?"

"You're on, Clark."

"Hey, I'm right here." Chloe protested loudly. "If you guys don't want to -"

She was interrupted by Lana's entrance. "Hey guys, are you about finished?" Lana quickly took in the annoyed expression on Chloe's face, the slightly guilty tinge of Clark's expression and the deceptively ignorant look on Pete's face. "What's .... going on here?" She asked curiously.

Chloe's face brightened. She didn't exactly want to think of it as finding a sure fire way to deal with the Clark being surprisingly uncooperative situation, but she reasoned that a reporter-to-be had to do what a reporter-to-be had to do. "Lana." She exclaimed brightly, crossing over to the other girl with a pointed look towards Clark. "I have a meteor theory to prove, and these reluctant citizens of our leafy little hamlet are refusing to help me prove it. Do you by any chance, want to help me?"

Lana clutched her folder to her chest warily, although a smile flittered over her face. "What would it involve?"

"Just hiking to the middle of the national reserve and seeing if we could catch a mutant fish or two. It'll be half a day, tops. If we don't find it, we don't find it. If we do, we stand a chance of proving once and for all, that the meteor showers are the root of all freakish Smallville evils."

Lana frowned, looking amused and exasperated at the same time. "Mutant fishing on a Saturday, huh? Okay, I'm in."

Clark crossed over to stand beside Lana, quickly threading his hand through hers. "Nice try pulling the Lana card Chloe, but it just so happens I'm booked for tomorrow. Mom's making me drive her to Metropolis to pick up an antique bureau that she's had her eye on for ages. Can't get out of it." He smiled infuriatingly, acutely aware of his air tight escape from Chloe's clutches and revelling in it. "Wish I was going. I guess I'll just have to meet up with you guys afterward and see these mutant fish for myself."

Chloe resisted the urge to throw her very expensive computer at him. It was extremely pricey, plus she might miss and get Lana instead which would have put the entire expedition at risk. She settled for giving him a sickly sweet smile instead. "Well, at least Pete and Lana are coming."

"Hey I never said -"

"Come on Pete. For me?"

Pete capitulated, looking down trodden that he was agreeing once again to one of Chloe's crazy schemes. "Fine, whatever. Just remember, if one of us gets turned into a freaky meteor mutant thing, it'll be on your head. You'll have to live with it for the rest of your life."

"Okay." She said infuriatingly, blinking in wide-eyed amusement at his frustration.

Clark piped up. "Well, I guess that's settled." He exchanged a meaningful look with Lana. "Guys we have to go. Talon duties call and ... other stuff. " He reddened while Lana coughed conspicuously.

Chloe shook off the tingly sensation on her skin that told her not to dwell too much on the matter. Plus, she really didn't want to know what kind of sickly couply stuff Clark and Lana were apt to get into.

Lana straightened. "I'll see you guys tomorrow then?"

"Yeah." Chloe and Pete echoed, as Clark and Lana disappeared from view.

(c) October 2002