1.

Lana came rushing up to Clark and Chloe. Knowing Lana, she had to tell everybody what she knew. It was her gift to the world. Chloe inwardly rolled her eyes. Lana smiled brightly. "You'll never guess what I heard!"

"Pink is the new green?" Chloe said looking at Lana. Lana was sporting her 'When the hell did Chloe get here?' look on her face.

"No, Silly-Nilly!" Lana said looking at her like she was nuts. "Somebody moved into my old house!"

"I know." Chloe said smirking. Lana continued to ignore her and eagerly awaited Clark's response to this exciting news.

"Really? Wow." Clark smiled. "Maybe I'll have somebody to play basketball with, Pete's starting to get mad at me."

Lana continued to look at him like he was a god. "Why is that?"

"Clark always wins." Chloe said breaking the silence. She heard her name being called over the PA system. "If you'll excuse me, I have to see a man about a dog." She said leaving their confused looks behind her.

When Chloe walked into the Principal's office, she was greeted by the unusually unfriendly face of a tall blonde. Without being overly friendly in the Lana Lang sense, Chloe extended her hand to the tomboyish blonde. "Chloe Sullivan." She smiled.

The blonde looked up at her and returned the smile, and handshake. "Alex Mack."

The principal came into the room and smiled. "Miss Sullivan, I see you have met Alex." Chloe nodded. "It is your job to introduce her to the wonders of Smallville High. Although you weren't my first choice, being the LuthorCorp Plant Manager's daughter, I felt that you were most suited for the job." He handed her Alex's schedule.

Chloe fought the urge to roll her eyes. Somehow, he had managed to both compliment her and insult her while making himself seem like a nice person. He must be taking lessons from Lana.

"How original." Chloe said with a smirk.

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Alex was being led by a petite blonde girl down the colourful hallway. Orange and red were everywhere. Typical of a high school, there were banners proudly declaring, "go Crows", and the Cheer-leading Squad in all their glory. There were the jocks, hanging off of the Squad. The nerds behind their thick glasses, and pocket protecters. She wondered what persona this girl, Chloe, she corrected herself, was.

"This is the library, it has a hefty supply of books." Chloe said as they walked by the glass doors. 'Library Closed' The sign on the door screamed.

"What's the point of a library if it's closed?" Alex ventured.

"It was open last week, there was a disturbance in there." Chloe whispered conspiratorially. "I heard that somebody almost burnt down the library by just looking at it." Then Chloe's voice returned to its full fervour as she continued "But that's what makes Smallville, Smallville." She smiled a full 1000 watt smile.

"What do you mean?" Alex asked carefully.

"Well, Smallville isn't exactly Port Normal, in the population trend." Chloe said, then her smile broke through again. "I think that I need to introduce you to the wall." Alex looked at her in confusion. This girl was going to beat her up?

"I still don't understand. The wall?"

Chloe opened a door, that ever so proudly declared "the Torch" There was a smiling cartoon crow holding a torch. 'How creative.' The petite blonde led Alex deep into the dark room. In one blinding second, the lights were on.

Alex was greeted with a disorganized array of newspaper clippings, pictures, and artifacts. "What is all of this?" She asked turning to look at Chloe. The blonde shrugged.

"Its my hobby." She smiled.

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Alex gaped at the wall again. There were some pretty weird headlines. "'Bug Boy slays mother'" Alex read. "'Duplicate boy'. Right. So where's the guy that tells me that I have gone on a journey beyond sight and sound?" She asked only half serious.

"Laugh all you want. I've been here for almost five years, and everything keeps getting stranger." Chloe shrugged. She figured that it would have been easier to show this Alex girl the wall than try to explain to her exactly how messed up Smallville was. Plus, Alex didn't seem like the kind of girl to fall into the crowd of Lana Lang, and for that Chloe was grateful.

"Who's this?" Alex asked, pointing to the TIME magazine cover of Smallville's own.

"That? That's Lana. Smallville's very own pink princess. She's around here somewhere." Chloe figured that Lana and Clark were still where she had left them mooning after each other. "I'd tell you her back story but she'll probably tell you ten times over before the day is over."

"You'll never guess who made first string!" Pete's voice came from the doorway behind them.

"Not you." Chloe said smiling as she turned around to face him.

"Way to ruin my segue Sullivan." Pete said smiling. "No, but seriously, I got this much closer." He said holding his hands up by his eye. He was making a pinching motion.

"Pete, have you met Alex?" Pete looked behind Chloe. "I don't have any competition for first string do I?"

"Not unless they let girls on the team." Alex said turning around to meet him.

As Chloe watched Pete shamelessly check her out, she couldn't resist rolling her eyes. "Pete Ross, Alex Mack. Alex, Pete." Chloe introduced. "Alex is in your Phys Ed class though Pete." She smiled looking at Alex's schedule. "Would you like to help me take her around the school? You can flirt with her all you want to then." Her smile never waning, never changing. She had learned to do that from the best.