A knock and the opening of the Torch door caught Chloe's attention and caused her to turn around.
She jumped up from her computer and hugged her formerly MIA friend. "Pete! You're early."
"Yeah well, we had a half day with teacher conferences and I thought I'd check out what's going around here."
"Around Smallville High? Um, not much." She shrugged her shoulders.
"Chloe, you should know that you suck at lying." Pete smirked at her.
"Well can we at least wait till we get back to my house for me to tell you the truth?" She asked.
He looked at her apprehensively "Ok. Where's Clark?"
"Actually, he should be getting out of class, but I don't know if he's going straight home or not."
"I've got practice this afternoon, but I figured I'd stop off here first since I heard a rumor you were back." Clark appeared right behind Pete.
"Clark, my man." Pete grabbed Clark's hand and pulled him into a hug. "Are you getting taller?"
"No, it's just been a while since you had to crane your neck up to look at him." Chloe said sarcastically.
"Ah the griping of the vertically impaired, I've missed having it in stereo." Clark snarked back.
Pete made himself comfortable sitting on one of the desks, with his feet in the seat of a hard plastic chair. "So give me the scoop. What's been going on? Who's dating who? Etcetera, etcetera."
Clark just looked at Chloe, refusing to answer Pete's question.
"When we get back to my place Pete." Chloe put him off.
"The school gossip requires the privacy of your house? And why do you two keep making faces at each other?" His suspicious look returned.
"Um…" Chloe attempted to come up with an answer to his questions, only to be cut off by Lana rushing into the room with Jenny and her sister trailing behind her.
"Chloe open your e-mail."
Quickly taking the diversion Lana gave her, Chloe promptly opened her e-mail to find an anonymous message with the subject "Smallville Football Bloopers".
"You want me to click on this link?"
Lana nodded her head.
Everyone crowded around Chloe's computer, except for the two girls who came in with Lana. They seemed to pointedly not want to see it.
Upon opening the media file, the only thing Chloe could think to say was "Oh my god."
"Holy…" Pete exclaimed. "Is that what I think it is?"
"Yep." Lana seemed creepily cheerful. "It's Lenore Spencer, Kevin Baker, Melissa Jones and Chris Thompson all in a very compromising position."
"I did not want to see this." Clark mumbled from behind Chloe.
"Where did this come from? Who sent it? Oh my god!" Chloe felt almost as nauseous as Clark looked.
"My brothers pay money to see this kind of stuff all the time." Pete added.
"Lana, did you do this?" Chloe asked.
"What?"
"Did you have something to do with this?" She repeated her question.
Lana didn't look a bit guilty, "not all that much."
"What did you do?" Clark asked while Pete continued to watch the video file without blinking.
"I might have sent the e-mail." She confessed, chin defiantly held high, flashing a grin.
They all looked at her silently.
Her grin faded. "It's not like I made them all have sex with each other, filmed it or put it on the internet. I just found out about it and sent the e-mail."
Pete tore his gaze away from the computer screen. "Why?"
"There was a bit of an incident last Sunday." Chloe explained. "Look, it's not that I'm sorry for them at all Lana, but it might have been a bit much. Does anyone else know you did it?"
"Just you guys and Jenny and Mandy."
"It's not going to be traced," Jenny volunteered.
Chloe's attention shifted off of Lana and onto Jenny.
"You helped?" Chloe asked.
"I set up the anonymous e-mail for her to do it with and broke through the encryptions keeping it from being copied." She elaborated.
"I don't want to know anymore." Clark broke away and headed for the door. "I'm going to go to practice and pretend I don't know any of this."
Chloe waited until the door shut after him. "Did you send it to all of Smallville high?"
"Students and teachers."
She just gaped and closed out the media player.
"Must have been one heck of an incident." Pete commented. "What did they do to deserve this?"
"They were hostile bigoted jerks." Lana defended herself. "They wouldn't have left us alone unless we hit back at them, and people don't have to know that one of us did it. They just have to suspect it."
Chloe looked at her critically. "Next time I go overboard on something, you don't get to say a word."
"Anyway, that's not the only reason I'm here. Mandy come here." Lana reached out to the shy sophomore standing next to Jenny and steered her over to stand by Pete. "Pete Ross, this is Mandy Mason. Mandy Mason, meet Pete Ross. He's your date this weekend."
"Date?" Pete asked.
"Chloe hasn't told you yet? We're going to Metropolis tomorrow. It's a group thing, and you need a date." Lana enlightened him.
Chloe watched as the poor girl Lana had by the hand seemed to shrink back even more with the added attention and confusion.
Luckily Pete seemed to pick up on Mandy's distress and quickly smoothed out the situation. "Wow, I come back for the weekend and you've got me a date with a girl prettier than any in Wichita. Thanks Lana."
Mandy smiled brightly and blushed a very pretty shade of pink.
"Your welcome Pete. Now I hate to just take off, but I've got to run some errands this afternoon and I'm going to drop Jenny and Mandy off at their house, so I'll see you guys later tonight." Lana gave Chloe a quick kiss on the lips and rushed out of the room with the other two girls following.
Pete let his mouth hang open for a while. Chloe didn't answer his unspoken questions.
"Lana just kissed you." He stated the obvious.
"Uh huh"
"But…" Suddenly his eyes lit up like a light bulb just went off in his brain. "Gay!"
"Yes." Chloe answered and quickly added, "but it's not what you think."
"Gay. Chloe you're telling me now. Not when we get back to your house, cause I just can't wait that long."
"Ok, ok!" Chloe got up and locked the office door. "Pete, you've got to swear to me you won't tell anyone else, especially not Clark."
"Why not Clark?"
"Pete swear it or I won't tell you. You might want to tell Clark, but you can't. Now swear to me you'll keep it a secret."
Pete looked at Chloe with wide eyes. "You're human, right?"
"What?" Chloe could only imagine that came from whatever knowledge Pete had on Clark that she didn't, mentally filing away the 'not human' bit of information. "Come on Pete, promise me."
"Fine, fine." He held up his right hand. "I swear that I won't tell anyone, including Clark, what you're about to tell me."
"Good." Chloe took a long breathe and steeled herself. "Lana and I are pretending to be lesbians and dating, but we're not really together."
He raised his eyebrows. "Are you gonna tell me why? Or is it some weird vengeance thing for him stringing you both along for years?"
"No, it's not revenge." Chloe lent back against her desk, opposite to the one Pete was currently sitting on. "We're trying to set him up with someone."
"By pretending to be lesbians?" Pete looked lost.
"Yes."
"I'm sorry Chloe, but huh?"
Chloe tried to remember how Lana had first explained it to her, but now that she had to repeat it to someone else, she couldn't quite find the words to explain their reasoning. "We're trying to encourage him to come out of the closet by setting an example and doing other things."
Pete gave her a strange and weary look. "What other things?"
"Things like this group outing tomorrow."
"Wait a second. Out of the closet? You think Clark's gay?"
Chloe nodded. "Lana actually thought it first. But after a little investigating, I think his interests could run outside of the regular, conventional relationship and with someone in particular."
"Wait, I think I've got it. You and Lana think Clark's gay, so you're pretending to be lesbians while secretly setting him up with another guy." Pete burst out laughing.
"Ok, so it's a little silly, but I think it's kind of working."
Pete laid his head on his folded arms and shook with laughter.
"You're not going to tell him, are you? You promised," she reminded him.
Pete took a moment to catch his breath to reply. "And ruin this great plan of yours? Not a chance. I'm just glad you got me front row seats for when this all blows up this weekend."
"It's not going to blow up" Chloe said indignantly.
Pete just looked at her with mirth in his eyes, still trying to get himself under control.
"It's not!" She half yelled.
Clark finished his Saturday chores with the help of a little extra speed and arrived to meet Lana, Chloe and the others at the Talon precisely at noon for their daytrip. Far from his parents being cautious about a trip to Metropolis without their supervision, his mother was practically ecstatic when he let her know about it and his father just told him to have fun. Of course, he wisely hadn't mentioned Lex was their responsible chaperone.
"Clark, you ready for this?" Pete asked as he approached the clump of people in the middle of the coffee shop.
"Sure, I guess. It's just a movie, right?"
"Sure. Yeah. Right."
Clark thought Pete seemed pretty amused with something. "You know, don't you?"
"What?"
"Whatever Lana's planning. I know it's got something to do with Lex." Clark answered.
"Lex! Lex Luthor, that's who they mmrpf…"
Chloe came up to them and covered Pete's mouth in the nick of time. "Hey Clark, how you doing?"
Clark frowned. "I'd be better if you'd let Pete speak."
"Now if I did that, then Pete might end up breaking certain promises made to one of his best friends about a secret. I know you wouldn't want to be responsible for Pete's inability to keep quiet now would you." Chloe said as she gave Pete a very stern look and gradually eased her hand off of his mouth.
"You and me are going to have a little talk later." Pete promised her before looking at Clark, shaking his head and moving off to the counter to buy something.
Clark narrowed his eyes. "I'm watching you guys."
"Watch all you like Clark." Chloe smiled and then looked past Clark. "Hey Lex."
Clark half turned to find Lex standing behind him.
"Lana's marshalling the troops as we speak, so if you want to get something before we leave, you should do it now."
"Ok." Clark replied.
"If either of you guys are going to get something, could you make sure it's got a cover on it? I don't want a repeat of last year's milk chocolate incident in my car." Chloe looked pointedly at Clark.
He blushed. "I said I was sorry and cleaned it up."
"It went in my hair, Clark. My hair!"
"It could have been worse. I could have gotten sick."
Chloe looked like she was going to be sick herself. "Ok, it's official. You don't get to eat or drink anything before we go or during the drive."
"Lana didn't mention she planned on all four of us riding in your car." Lex interrupted.
"Oh, she must have forgot. My car gets the better mileage, so we usually take it."
"I have a car." He gestured to the Porche parked in front.
Chloe scrunched her nose up. "Not one you can take on a nice anonymous trip with a bunch of teenagers. All your cars stand out too much."
Lex frowned. "There are other high end cars in Metropolis."
"Yes, but they don't all have Lex written in someway on their license plates." Chloe pointed out. "Anyway, it's no big deal. I'll have you know I have one of the safest driving records in the entire county. You'll survive."
Chloe wandered off to get her own last minute things as Clark watched Lex's anxiety over what kind of car he would be riding in with amusement.
"Clark, what kind of car does Chloe drive now?"
Clark smiled. "A Toyota. A very small Toyota."
Lex whitened. "Toyota?"
"Yep. It's kind of a weird bluish green color, but the way the paint's chipped it kind of has a neat white and rust pattern to it."
The other man looked appalled. "How long has she had it?"
Clark grinned gleefully. "Only a month or so. It's used."
Clark hadn't ever ridden in the back of this car before, but the way Lana threw her purse in the front passenger seat clearly indicated that he was going to have to.
Hunching down, Clark tried his best to balance as he got into the back seat but instead wound up half falling on Lex. He finally managed to move himself off and into a sitting position.
Conscious of just where exactly his hand fell when he tried to regain his equilibrium, Clark blushed and stammered out a "Sorry".
"That's alright Clark. It's a bit small back here." Lex brushed himself off.
"Sorry about that you guys, we'll scoot the front seats up as far as they can go." Chloe apologized.
Clark could see Lana silently laughing in the front seat before she moved her seat up only a few inches.
"Better?" She asked.
"Sure." Clark lied.
Clark and Lex were both squeezed in so tightly they couldn't help but have their knees touching or their arms so close to each other that they constant bumped each other every time they moved.
Clark reddened further at the constant heat coming from his left and tried to think about kryptonite.
Chloe started up the ignition and pulled out onto the road and Lex tensed up even more next to Clark. He leaned more to the right, seeking comfort almost instinctively.
Clark's entire body tingled from the heat of Lex's.
"Are we all meeting up at the multiplex?" Chloe asked Lana.
"No." She took a sip of her coffee. "We're going to meet up at the Denny's across the street before the movie. It doesn't start till five o'clock."
"Denny's? What's that?" Lex asked.
"A restaurant." Lana giggled at his confusion.
Clark felt Lex shrug.
"I've never heard of it."
Clark nudged Lex with his shoulder and grinned as the girls laughed. "I guess tonight will be one of firsts then."
A/N: I'm seriously blushing from all this praise people. Thanks again.
Saber ShadowKitten: Thanks for the constructive review. I'm trying to integrate the fun in with the angst, so the story might swing closer to one extreme or another every once in a while. I'm not quite sure how that part's coming off yet. Clark and Lex just have so many issues this season that I didn't want to just magically get them together without having them touch on some of those issues.
treetracer: You registered just to comment. Wow. Thank you. I was planning on posting it on SSA when I get it finished and find someone to beta the final product. LLMM still feels a little rough to me, so I'd like to get it polished up first.