Chapter 4
Clark
I slammed the storm cellar door shut, then turned to glance at the house, praying my dad hadn't seen me. The last thing I needed today was a lecture on being discreet. I don't know why I went down there in the first place, except that for the past couple of days I'd had a weird feeling. Like…like how you know it's going to rain even if it's sunny out at the time. How you can feel the change in pressure or the shift in the wind, yeah, it was kinda like that. Only I wasn't anticipating rain. But I tried to shake that feeling off. After all, I had more important things to worry about today, like weather I could pry Lana away from the Talon long enough to come see that band at eight. Here, let me explain.
There's this festival that the town holds every year. Officially, it's called the Fall Festival, but only Mayor Tate calls it that, everyone else just refers to it as the carnival. It's pretty much the biggest thing to happen here all year. It was, well…I guess it still is fun, although it was as good as Christmas when I was younger. It goes on for 'bout three days and they have games and rides and my parents set up a booth for our produce. They usually hire local talent to play at nights and there's this band coming up from Grandville that Pete says is pretty good. We all figured we'd go and see 'em later.
"Clark! If you don't finish those chores, you're not going anywhere tonight!" my mom called out the open kitchen window. Yeah, and I'm supposed to be the one with the weird powers, right…
Pete called around six with a
change of plans.
"Hey man. Listen, Chloe's got the car tonight, so she
doesn't need a ride. Lana's gonna close
early, so she can just walk. Do you
just want to 'catch a ride' with your folks and meet us there?" he asked. I knew what he meant.
"Yeah, that's fine. You save gas and I save time," I said sarcastically.
"Hey! Don't diss my ride. It never bothered you before."
"Your just jealous because I'm the one thing in this town faster than that hunk you call a car," I retorted.
"Now that you've wounded my very core, I'm hanging up," he told me, feigning anger, but I knew better. The only person that made more fun of Pete's car than me, was Pete himself.
"Yeah, I'll see you guys 'round seven?" I asked before he could cut me off.
"Yup. See ya later man."
"Bye." That was actually good news. I could go help my dad restock the stand and
have time to get back here and clean up without worrying about meeting up at
Pete's in time to pick up Chloe. Yeah,
that was complicated, I know. Try to
bear with me.
I was nervous the rest of the day. Jumpy, totally not me. It's a good thing my folks were gone most of the day. They'd been through enough lately. They deserved a night to relax and I wasn't going to ruin that because of some dumb feeling I had. Besides, I was on guard all day. Not a single out of the ordinary, wall of weird, classic Smallville creepy thing happened. Maybe I was just going crazy. Or maybe it was stress.
"Yeah, that's it. The stress of the weekend," I muttered sarcastically. "Or maybe I'm just paranoid from hanging around Chloe too long. Too many days after school, working on The Torch." I was late again, as usual. I was supposed to meet Pete and Chloe in the carnival parking lot in 10 minutes and I was still walking around in my work clothes, covered in dirt and hay and other materials that I couldn't (and didn't want to) identify. I dashed around the house, moving faster than any normal person could. Speed certainly did come in handy, especially in cases such as this. I was clean and waiting in the parking lot exactly 30 seconds in front of my friends. I think it was the first, and last time, I was ever early anywhere.
Pete had apparently come armed with his latest paycheck, because the first thing he did was hit the games on the boardwalk. And boy, was it ugly.
"Pete, you know you're supposed to hit the bottles, right?" Chloe asked after he failed, for a fifth time, to knock a single milk bottle off that little, wooden table.
"Like you could do any better?" he demanded, throwing her a dirty look and laying down another dollar.
"Bad idea man," I muttered, but it was already too late.
"Okay, hot shot. Move over," Chloe told him, shoving him out of the way. Cool as you please, she picked up the small white balls. "Watch a pro boys." She started throwing. "One, two, three." And that girl hit every bottle. "Here!" She thrust an over-stuffed blue teddy bear at him. "Can we go now?" She didn't wait for a reply, but just walked off. Pete and I stared as she went, completely dumbfounded.
"How…how does she do that?" he finally asked after a few minutes of silence.
"No idea…" We finally found our legs and followed after her. Pete found another game, throwing basketballs through these holes in a wall, that he couldn't win. And Chloe found some attention she didn't want.
We were milling around, leaning against this booth that sold jewelry and other trinkets that Chloe was perusing through, when this guy sidled right up next to us. Actually, just next to Chloe. He didn't notice me. I hadn't seen him around before, which was the first thing that struck me as odd. The second thing was his clothes. I mean, not that it really matters, but that was the strangest outfit I'd seen worn in public in a while. Way too much spandex, like he was jogging, and bare feet, which I had absolutely no explanation for. But cool as you pleased he walked up to her. He began rummaging through this bin of knick-knacks, shooting Chloe a look every five seconds.
"Hey," he said after Chloe failed to notice him. She only glanced up, cocking an eyebrow his direction, then went back to shopping. I guess he took that as a good sign, because this guy just kept on talking. "So, you from around here?" Pause…no reply. "Me, I'm from out of town." Pause…no reply. "Okay, look. Maybe I wasn't doing this right. I'm trying to flirt with you. Could you at least respond?" he finally said, exasperated. Chloe gave the guy a dangerous look, straightening up, hands on her hip, and cocking her head to the side as if saying 'fine, I acknowledge you, now get on with it'. I knew right then that this guy was in over his head. He however, didn't.
"Thank you. Let's start out easy. Hello, my name's Marco. What's yours?" he asked, sticking out his hand. Chloe regarded him disdainfully, looking at him like a crazy person. And with the way this guy was dressed, I can't say that I blame her.
"My name? It's, uh…Gotta. Gotta B. Going, that's me. Now if you'll excuse me…" she sputtered, pushing past him, grabbing my arm, and walking off fast. Very fast. "That was weird," she said once we were out of earshot.
"Yeah Chloe. Bad flirts in spandex, that's serious news. Tell you what, if you can find some way to connect that to the meteor shower, I'll personally fund your own private newspaper," Pete told her later, when we'd met up with him.
"Yeah, he was definitely wall of weird material," I kidded.
"Okay, you two can knock this off anytime now."
"Why, when it's so much fun?" Pete asked. Then he walked right into me. "Good Lord! I think I broke my nose. Clark, what on Earth are yo-oh." He'd discovered the reason for my sudden stop. Lana was standing on the street corner, looking around, presumably for us. I thought I was over her. I thought we'd agreed to just be friends. I thought everything was cool. I was dead wrong.
She was there, right across the street, and yet a million miles away from me; completely untouchable and unaware. It was getting late and the sun was going down right behind her, setting her dark hair ablaze with color. She looked so amazing, and all those feelings just came rushing back. But Pete's jab in the ribs shock me from my stupor and I was forced back into my own reality. Good thing too, because right then Lana noticed us and it wouldn't have done any good for her to catch me staring.
"Lana, hurry up and get over here!" Chloe called out to her. "Help me drag Pete away from this stupid game before he throws himself broke!" Lana laughed and made her way over to us. Or tired to, because as soon as Lana stepped of the curb, all hell broke loose, as a sudden flash or red and a wave of heat suddenly tore the street to shreds.
Chloe
It was unreal. The bombardment of sounds, the searing heat. I was thrown back, flung through the air. Though not as far as I'd thought because I crashed right into Clark.
TSSSSSSSSSSEEEEEEEEEEWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW! He pulled me tightly to his chest as another blast tore through the town.
"What's happening?!!" I cried, screaming above the noise. Clark didn't hear though. He was looking around wildly. For the source of the destruction? I didn't know. The sound of the blast died down and another, more terrifying sound filled the air. Screams. And suddenly I was back in that day in 1989, sitting in the front of my dad's car as the meteor's careened around me and the same terror filled voices rose in pitch from everywhere in Smallville.
