Title: Online

Author: clarksgirl1988 (Laura)

Disclaimer: Smallville is property of the WB and DC comics and I am making no profit from this story. All characters except for Mollie and Jen are property or the WB and DC comics and I'm not making money off of them either.

A/N: This is a fanfiction based off of a movie. If you haven't seen You've Got Mail starring Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan, I suggest you see it before reading this fic, but you will still understand it if you haven't seen the movie. Thank and enjoy! Replies are always appreciated, please try to be nice or offer constructive critism.

Lana signed on just like she did every night and was pleased with the familiar sound of an IM message popping up on the screen. She smiled as she saw the screen name. She had been expecting him for about half an hour.

SuperDude: Hey!

Tom'sAngel: Where were you? I've been waiting.

SuperDude: I'm sorry. I had to finish up some chores before I could get online.

Tom'sAngel: All right. I guess you are excused. LOL.

SuperDude: Gee thanks. Anyways, how was your day?

Tom'sAngel: It was okay I guess. I had to stay late after class today to discuss a paper I wrote. Apparently my professor wasn't pleased. I hate school right now.

SuperDude: Well, at least its senior year!

Tom'sAngel: I guess. Did you hear back about your job application yet?

SuperDude: Nope. I'm still waiting. It's driving me insane! I just don't know if I will get the job or not. Oh man, I have to go. Ttyl.

Tom'sAngel: Bye.

SuperDude has signed off.

Lana signed off and sighed. He always had to randomly leave to do something. She looked at the clock next to her bed and saw that it was 12:30. She pulled out her Math textbook and got started on her Calculus homework that was due the next morning.

When Lana went to pick up the paper the next morning outside her dorm, the headlines read 'SUPERMAN SAVES METROPOLIS SUBWAY STATION FROM DISASTER'. She rolled her eyes and tossed the paper on her desk before picking up her things and going to class.

"Superman is the hottest thing ever!" Jen exclaimed as she held the paper from the morning up in front of Lana's face on the way to class.

"Umm... Jen, You need to seek professional help. He is just a guy who wears tights and flies around trying to save everything. I mean, I'm not saying he is bad or anything, I just think he is doing all of this stuff to get publicity. No one saves the world just because they want to. He is just a sell out like everyone else." Lana explained.

"You think too much Lana. Lighten up. He saved 45 people on the subway and another 57 that were in the station, that's over 100 people! I mean, even if it is for publicity, the guy is a hero." Jen said while holding the paper closer to Lana's face, if possible.

"I get it. Get that thing out of my face!" Lana said before pushing the paper aside with a small smile tugging at the corner of her lips. Jen just smirked and shook her head before heading into her first class.

"Today we will be discussing a relatively new public figure in the media. Some of you may have heard of Superman. Today we will be examining some aspects of his popularity and look into his coverage. The media is a very important component in our society. We will be looking at some of the stories involving Superman and what exaggerations the media makes in order to entice people to pay attention to certain things." Lana sighed and rolled her eyes. After the introduction of Superman to the public, no one could talk about anything else. Most girls were already in love with him and sending him very fanatic letters. Lana cringed at the thought. She knew her friends Jen and Mollie were two of his biggest fans in the state of New York. They would always be talking to her about the latest thing that had been released about Superman. His hair color or shoe size or things like that. They were absolutely ecstatic when it came to him.

"Let us take a deeper look at the latest Superman story. As many of you know, there was a malfunction on a subway train in Metropolis, Kansas last night, and Superman stopped it from colliding with a pillar in the station. The story says that he was seen propelling himself in the opposite direction the train was going and that it appeared to slow down the train that was going over 30 miles an hour. Now, things like that may be exaggerated because of his recent rise to fame..." Lana tuned out again. She really didn't care what they were saying about Superman.

After class, Lana walked straight back to her dorm and looked distastefully at the assignment from her Media class. She had to do a report on a story about Superman and compare the claims in the story to similar feats performed in another story and write about how the media uses the same techniques to sell information to the masses.

'Just great.' She thought as she sat down at her computer to start doing research and find a story. She looked aimlessly on the net for an hour, and when she looked down at her watch she cursed under her breath. Grabbing her bag, she ran out the door to get to her next class.

"Miss Lang. Great to see you could join us. Lucky I didn't lock you out today." Her professor said nastily before continuing his lecture. Lana sat in the back and sunk down into her chair to take notes.

Two hours later she was finally released from class and didn't even go back to her dorm before heading off to her last class for the day.

After class was finally over, Lana almost crawled to her room. She always felt exhausted after class on a Monday. Once she was safely at her desk, she sat down in her little leather-rotating chair and signed on.

SuperDude: There you are! I was hoping you would be on.

Lana smiled when she saw the message pop up. She needed a distraction.

Tom'sAngel: I just got back from Lit class. How about you?

SuperDude: Oh, I was just finishing up on a paper.

Tom'sAngel: Lucky, I have to start one here soon.

SuperDude: LOL. I don't envy you. So how was class?

Tom'sAngel: Well, my Media teacher decided that today we were all going to talk about Superman. I only caught bits and pieces of it, but now we have to do a stupid project on him.

SuperDude: Well that's... terrible. What's so bad about Superman?

Tom'sAngel: Well, I just think he has ulterior motives when he saves people. I mean; no one does things like that for no reason.

SuperDude: Maybe he does. I have never seen him ask anyone for something in return when he saves them.

Tom'sAngel: You've seen him?

SuperDude: Well yeah, I mean, when he is flying around or something. He lives in Metropolis after all.

Tom'sAngel: That's right. So, have you ever talked to him?

SuperDude: Maybe.

Tom'sAngel: What do you mean maybe? I could use any information you have about him for my project. I'm doing so badly in my Media class.

SuperDude: Well, he doesn't just show everyone who he is. I might have talked to him and not even known it.

Tom'sAngel: True. So, do you know anything else?

SuperDude: What do you want to know?

Tom'sAngel: Well, can he really do all the things the newspapers say he can?

SuperDude: Yep. I'm pretty sure he can.

Tom'sAngel: Have you ever seen him do anything?

SuperDude: I got to go. I'm really sorry Lana. I'll be on later.

SuperDude has signed off.

"Why does he always do that?" Lana said to herself.

"Do what?" Her roommate Mollie asked.

"Never mind."

"You are talking about the mysterious Clark aren't you? He always sounded hot to me. You should meet him or something." Mollie said while coming in to Lana's room with a Hot Pocket in hand.

"Yeah right. He lives in Kansas. I highly doubt I will ever go there." Lana said before going back to her research for her Superman project.

"What are you up to?" Mollie asked while taking a bite of her snack.

"Just a project. How about you do it for me." Lana said while batting her eyelashes.

"What's it on."

"Superman. I thought you might want to do it because you are in love with him." Lana said while silently praying her friend would do it.

"You forget, I am not in love with him, he is in love with me; he just doesn't know it yet. So if you will excuse me, I have a Hot Pocket to eat."

'Damnit. I thought I had her.' Lana thought before typing in 'Superman' in her Yahoo search bar.

Page after page came up with information, and a few even offered blurry pictures of the hero flying above the Metropolis skyline. Lana sighed for the thousandth time and finally just sat back and decided to ignore the project all together.

"Well if you're going to pout about it." Mollie said while returning with two more Hot Pockets in hand and taking Lana's seat at the monitor and starting the project. Lana just laughed quietly before thanking her roommate and sitting back on her bed to work on her Lit homework.

After a few minutes of listening to 'interesting facts' about Superman, Lana heard a blood-curdling scream come from the girl sitting at her desk.

"Mollie! What's wrong?" Lana asked, alarmed.

"He's... he's... he's dating someone! NOOO!" Mollie exclaimed with grief. There on the screen was a picture of Superman and a fairly attractive woman atop the Daily Planet building.

"Superman was seen dropping off his girlfriend, Lois Lane atop Metropolis' most popular newspaper building earlier today after saving her from an attempted robbery. Police say she is an employee of The Daily Plant and will be questioned concerning the robbery later on." Mollie read from the article.

Lana scrolled down to the interview and pointed to it.

"Just breathe Mollie. Look what it says here, she said she had never met him before and he was just being a good citizen. You know how the media can twist things like that." Lana said, trying to comfort her distressed friend.

"That was just plain evil! I cannot believe those jerks would write such libelous things!" Mollie exclaimed.

"It's okay. Hey, I could use that for my project. It's not something he did that they exaggerated exactly, but it is inaccurate. What do you think?" Mollie just slowly stepped out of the room and raced for the freezer to grab another Hot Pocket. A few minutes later she came back into Lana's room with the microwaved Hot Pocket and answered.

"Sure, I mean, since it's not true. You could use it." She said before sitting back down.

"Do you know any other stories where that happened?" Lana asked.

"I'm sure I could find one. Don't worry about it." Mollie said reassuringly before getting back to work, half eaten Hot Pocket in hand.

"Okay." Lana said unsurely before finishing up her Lit homework.

"Hey Mo, I'm going to go use your computer. Be back in a bit."

"Sure." Was Mollie's reply as her eyes remained glued to the screen.

Lana signed on to see her friend wasn't online. She sighed and sat down on Mollie's bed and turned the TV on.

"Just minutes ago Superman stopped a bank robbery in Metropolis, bringing three of the cities most wanted criminals to justice." A news reporter's voice boomed while security camera footage played a small clip of a man in tights and a cape tying up three thugs in a bank. Lana turned off the TV and let out a frustrated groan. Everyone was so obsessed with Superman; she wondered if she was the only one that was still sane.