~*~
Streamers, colored lights, scattered balloons, lunch tables clothed in pink and topped with roses in slender vases, all transformed the school's gymnasium into a Homecoming Dance fantasy.
Chloe was glad that she'd given the photography duty of this event to other Torch employees. This left her free to enjoy Clark's company. She leaned on him and together they danced slowly even though the music was fast and pumped full of a heavy beat. She got a tighter hold around him. Just to be on the safe side, she wasn't going to let go of him. She wanted to be sure nothing would ruin this night for her.
Clark wasn't feeling so comfortable. Every so often, he felt something prickling at his neck. His head felt like a bowling ball on a gangly spring. It was the same feeling he'd had in the car and he wanted it to go away.
His eyes were drawn to another dancing couple again and again. They were waltzing, and the boy moved with the kind of suave confidence that oozed from people like James Bond and Lex Luthor. "Drew's here with...I think that's Heather." Clark told Chloe.
She lifted her head up and looked to the other side of the gym, and saw them waltzing gracefully. "Wow! I thought you were kidding."
Clark shook his head and watched while Heather went back into a dip over the arm of her very suave boyfriend.
"Never thought he'd have the nerve to even ask a girl to go on a date with him." Chloe said looking at the couple.
"Maybe someone made her to go out with him." Clark suggested.
Chloe gave him a confused look. "Huh?"
"Nothing. Just a joke." Clark said and smiled innocently, and locked his eyes to hers.
Chloe smiled up at him. Whatever the joke was, she didn't care. His big blue eyes were sappy and beautiful, and she knew he was about to kiss her, and she'd been waiting for this moment since school had started.
Clark's lips parted and he let his head go down toward Chloe's. The onset of the kiss was much faster than it had been at the Spring Formal. He was afraid if he didn't move quickly, there'd be an interruption and he'd feel obligated to run off and save Lana's life. When their lips touched, he let it all slow down. Clark Kent forgot where he was, and didn't hear a single note of the wailing music, and neither did Chloe. For both of them, the kiss went all the way down and made their toes tingle.
When they parted, both of them smiled stupidly. They were both moving in the gentle wave of slow dance but neither of them knew it. Clark could still taste sweet lip-gloss and feared he'd set something on fire with his heat vision. So, he focused upwards at non-flammable pipes.
~*~
Everyone settled at tables, and quieted to whispering. The class president walked onto the stage wearing a serious expression and introduced last year's Homecoming Queen, and her escort for the evening.
Music played, and a red carpet was rolled out quickly. Young photographers leapt into good places. The main doors of the gym opened, and a lovely lady in white wearing the silver crown of the Homecoming Queen entered the gym from the door furthest away from the stage. Her white gloved hands rested delicately on the arm of a young man who looked extremely shocked to be in that position as he escorted her over the red carpet. He walked slowly with her on his arm, all the way to the podium before he released her.
Lana Lang stepped up to podium, thanked the class president and then introduced herself as last year's Homecoming Queen. She made a pretty speech while ballots were passed around the room. She mentioned that the Homecoming King was unavailable because he was serving in the Marines. Lana talked about Whitney, and important events which had taken place since last year's Homecoming dance. While she talked, people drank punch and voted for the next Homecoming Queen.
Clark wasn't staring at Lana Lang for once, thank goodness. Chloe didn't care what he was looking at, so long as it wasn't Lana. A pair of ballots arrived at their table, and Chloe saw the name Patty Vandalla on the ballot. She wasn't about to pick her, even if she knew that girl would win. She checked a different name without even reading whose name it was. Cameras were flashing madly, and music played at a low volume while Lana finished her speach. Everyone clapped, and the Torch's photographers went leaping around to get pictures of Lana and her date as they descended to the dance floor.
"Clark, are you okay?" Chloe wondered.
"Fine." He told her, but his voice was far from even. He kept glancing over at Drew who was sitting at the next table behind Chloe.
"That was some kiss, Clark Kent." She said and beamed a smile at him.
She got one of his best puppy looks in return, and then a broad smile. Neither one of them noticed it when someone came along and collected their ballots.
~*~
"Bradford Tammond and Patty Vandalla are the new royal couple for this year's Homecoming Dance!" Lana Lang called out and clapped her hands wildly.
People burst out into screeching applause. A dark haired girl in a pink dress rushed up onto the stage with her large square headed boyfriend.
Camera's flashed insanely while Lana Lang retired her crown, and passed it on to the new Homecoming Queen. The moment Lana set the crown onto Patty Vandalla's head, music burst into the gym. Sparkling confetti and balloons rained down on the stage. After a quick speach, the new Homecoming Pair went to the dance floor and Lana went to the dance-floor with her date as well.
Chloe and Clark went to the dance floor with the rest of the crowd when the next song began to play. Clark felt a shivery sensation roaming up and down his spine. He felt like something was watching him, and he didn't like that feeling. The sensation made him turn around to look at Drew, who was looking directly at him and Chloe over the shoulder of his own green clad date. It was a look which made Clark feel very nervous.
~*~
The Kent farm felt like a quiet sanctuary to Clark after all the crowded noise and confusion of the Homecoming dance. He and Chloe climbed the front steps of the house. Clark rarely used the front door of his own house, as it was reserved for special occasions, and important company. He and Chloe stood facing each other, knowing what was to come, but they stumbled over silly small talk. Neither one of them understood why they felt so nervous, or why they said so many silly things. They both quit talking, and leaned in for a kiss. Love, innocence and curiosity burned between them in a sweet and gentle moment. They felt the earth spinning in its orbit, and heard the stars singing lullabies to them.
Chloe smiled brightly at Clark, who stared back at her, slightly cross-eyed and smiling idiotically. Poor Chloe feared she'd fall on her butt while she made the journey down the stairs, and then worried about hitting her head while she got in the car, then worried about crashing the car as she drove off, waving to Clark. She wondered if there was such a thing as driving under the influence of a kiss. The silly smile didn't fade off her face until long after she'd passed the border of the Kent's farm.
~*~
Clark had no idea at all how long he stood on his front porch staring at the settling dirt left behind by Chloe's car. He hadn't remembered to tell Chloe thanks for giving him another chance. He hadn't remembered to tell her he'd meet her somewhere tomorrow to help her go over the pictures of the dance. He was too preoccupied by the memory of that last kiss to even remember to feel stupid.
He turned to go into the house and walked into the door with a loud thump, he bounced off it and flopped backwards onto his butt with a louder thump.
Now he felt stupid.
~*~
A powder blue car with a dent in the fender pulled into an alley in Smallville. The driver was Patty Vandalla and she still wore her Homecoming Queen crown. Drew was in the backseat of the car with Heather, kissing her. She pulled her head back to look at him. "You're not such a dork after all."
"Thank you, Miss Heather." He said, and resumed kissing her.
A greasy man came out of the shadows, and took a wad of money and a list from Patty Vandalla. He walked away with the money, and twenty minutes later, he returned and delivered three brown bags. Patty looked through them. She selected three bottles of liquor and handed them to the greasy man as a reward. Before he could complain and say his payment wasn't good enough, she hit the gas pedal and drove away.
Drew helped himself to one of the bottles, opened it and guzzled down hard liquor. Heather was shocked to see someone like Drew drink like that. "Hey, slow down!" She gasped, and grabbed the bottle from him. She was about to say more, but Patty interrupted.
"Maybe you should save some for the people who paid for it." Patty sneered, looking at them both through the rear-view mirror.
Drew lifted his brows, ready to say something to put the brat in her place. Heather saw it coming, and cut him off. "Where we going, Patty?"
"The barn." She said sounding annoyed. "Like Duh!"
Heather scowled. Drew shrugged, and pulled her close to kiss her.
~*~
There were about thirty teenagers making out and getting drunk in the barn. Drew and Heather were off in a quiet corner by themselves. They were hidden behind bales of hay in the loft. Their bodies were pillowed by a thick layer of hay, and an empty bottle stood in a corner. Drew didn't seem to be the least bit drunk though. He was doing an excellent job of kissing Heather's lips, and neck.
His hand found the zipper on the back of her dress, and pulled it down easily. Heather made no objections to what he was doing, but he got no further. He stiffened, and gasped in pain.
"What's wrong?" Heather begged.
He choked on a cry of pain, and doubled over.
"DREW!" Heather cried anxiously.
He threw his upper body and arms upwards, mouth opened wide. His body glowed in a pastel blue haze for a second and he screamed.
Heather screamed with him. Drew fell over on top of her, and passed out.
~*~
A sickly old man opened his tired eyes, and let out a sound of utter disappointment. He was strapped to a hospital bed, wearing an I.V. and an oxygen mask. In his right hand, he clutched at an object that glowed a soft shade of blue, then faded. The object was practically buried in his old fist. All that could be seen of it was the head of a carved wooden bird which had a pair of inset blue gemstone eyes.
The old man grunted, closed his eyes. After a moment, the bird glowed again, and the old man smiled softly. A wind rushed through the room, and then the window rattled in its frame.