Clark Kent had been searching for Zatanna all morning. He wasn't sure why he felt so drawn to this young woman that he had yet to meet, but he wanted badly to meet her. From what Chloe had told him, after pulling up her class schedule, Clark had learned that Zatanna had AP French first period. That worked well enough for Clark in lieu of the fact that his first period class was German and as such was located right next to Zatanna's class. What he failed to realize – again – was that Lana Lang was also in that very class.
But hey, moving on, right?
So Clark rushed out the door the second the bell rang and stood – casually – right outside the French class. He saw Zatanna step out of the class with Lana, both girls laughing over something witty that Zatanna had said to someone in class.
The young Kryptonian took a deep breath and started to make his way toward Zatanna when Lois – seemingly out of nowhere – stepped in front of him.
"Hold it, farm boy," Lois nearly commanded, eyebrows raised and her eyes boring into his. "Before you go another step forward, I think we need to have a talk about your little schoolboy crush here."
"What are you talking about?" Clark asked Lois, switching between watching Zatanna's retreating – and oh so perfect - figure and Lois' steely gaze.
"Your girl. Zelda. I saw something weird about her last night at the Talon." Lois explained. "Look, we can't discuss it here, but can you come with me to the Torch office? Chloe's got geometry right now, and I know that both you and I have this period free."
"Yeah, sure," Clark agreed, now giving Lois his full one-hundred-percent attention due to the fact that Lana and Zatanna had turned a corner and were now out of sight. Of course, there was always x-ray vision, but...no. That would be wrong.
Clark turned and followed the willowy brunette down the corridor and to the right, over to where the Torch office was. Lois closed the door behind them and seated herself in one of the plush chairs that Chloe had requested be put in the office for a more comfortable and pleasant writing atmosphere.
"So...what's going on?" Clark asked, taking a seat opposite Lois, his back facing Chloe's Wall of Weird.
"It's about the new chick. Zelda."
"Zatanna, actually," Clark corrected her.
Lois rolled her eyes and then continued. "Whatever. Look, I saw her do something really weird last night, and given all the weird stuff that goes on in this town, I thought I should at least let you know."
"What is it?"
"Okay, so last night, I don't know if you noticed or not, but I left early because I was feeling tired, a little annoyed, and I badly needed a piece of Nicorette which, hello, was happily sitting in the glove compartment of my car. Anyway, I went outside, and apparently Z-chick was leaving too. I watched her as she went some distance away from the Talon and pulled this matchbox car out of her purse. The next thing I know, it's growing to the size of a regular car. A Mini Cooper, in fact. She gets in, then, and drives away. She drives away in this car which, just seconds ago, was a tiny toy thing."
Clark stared at Lois for a moment, and then burst out laughing. Lois looked on at Clark in disbelief and a little bit of anger. No, not anger. Frustration.
Why didn't Clark believe her?!
"Clark, I'm serious about this!"
"Look, Lois, I appreciate the story, I really do," Clark said, calming down after a moment. His lips were still open in a large grin and his blue-green eyes sparkled with joy. "But, seriously, that's a really bad attempt at trying to dissuade me from trying to talk to her. I mean, seriously, a growing car?! Look, Lois, I can understand a lot of things that screw the people of this town up. I mean, crazy insect people, guys who can split themselves into two, guys who are allergic to sunlight, and genetically engineered girls with the mental age of six I can understand. But a growing car? Come on Lois...not even the meteorites could have given someone that sort of power."
"Clark, Zatanna isn't from Smallville, remember? I'm not even implying it's meteorite-related. All I'm saying is that her weirdness-factor is reaching wicked proportions."
"Are you sure you weren't hallucinating due to a lack of nicotine in your system?"
"Lack of nicotine doesn't cause hallucinations, farm boy. No...I'm sure of what I saw. Look...just promise me you'll be careful if you do decide to talk to her?"
"Don't worry," Clark replied, slightly touched by the concern in Lois' voice. "I can handle myself." Clark stood up and grabbed his backpack, heading for the door. "Heh. Growing cars."
Her spell was wearing off.
Zatanna cursed under her breath as she noticed all of the men of Smallville High making eyes at her. The spell was supposed to last longer than just a little over twelve hours, but it seemed to have backfired. As soon as the bell that marked the end of second period rang, the young woman hightailed it out of her class, glad that Lana wasn't in this class of hers. It'd seem weird, to be all chatty and cool with Lana but then run out of class at the last minute and totally brush her off.
The young sorceress ducked under a flying football which one of the football players had thrown to the others, and then deftly side-stepped a spitball, jumping into the girls' restroom. Once inside, Zatanna locked the door behind her and went over to the nearest counter, setting down her tote bag. She rummaged through it for a moment and soon enough pulled out a slightly large, incredibly old looking tome that was bound in mahogany colored leather. Across the front, in bronze lettering, were the words, 'The Diary of John Zatara.'
Zatanna had found the book only a few scant days after her father's sudden disappearance, when she had been going through his things at the Zatara ancestral home, Shadowcrest, which was located just outside New York City. She discovered, upon opening the book, that it wasn't really her father's diary, but rather a grimoire of sorts, filled with spells, potions, enchantments, the history of magick, and even the history of Zatara's family tree. The things that she had discovered in that book, just a little under a year ago, and stunned the young woman. She had always known that she was something special, but she didn't understand how special until she read her father's diary. Sure, she felt a little guilty about invading his privacy, but she had had to do whatever had to be done to find her father.
Zatanna had discovered, through reading the book – coupled with her father's real diary - that her mother was descended from a race of people called the Homo magi, people that could harness magickal powers and use them. She had also discovered that, through her father's side, she was a descendant of the great Leonardo Da Vinci, and as such, her power worked better if she spoke her spells – simple sentences – backwards.
She had tried some spells, first by trying to ignite a fire in a nearby hearth. That had, of course, gone wrong, and instead an expensive Italian sculpture that took a somewhat abstract form of a heart had been the first thing to go down in flames. By commanding the fire to turn to water, the flames had of course died down, but not without first bruising Zatanna's ego just a little bit. Zatanna, although she wasn't really one for clichés, shrugged off her first attempt with the old adage that practice made perfect. She wasn't too wrong on that so far.
Zatanna set the book down on the counter in front of her and said, in as commanding a voice as the quiet she meant to keep in the restroom could afford her, "Koob wohs em eht stal lleps I dekool ta." Zatanna smiled in quiet satisfaction as the pages of the tome began to ruffle and turn as the magick breeze sought out the spell which the sorceress had asked for. She noticed that the spell she had cast didn't stop when it came across the spell she was looking for, so she quickly stuffed her hand between two pages as they threatened to close, and turned to the page she was looking for. With her intervention, her search spell dissipated.
Halfway down the page, in bold brown lettering were written the words, "To seek an entity of power." The spell was one to be used when the spellcaster was searching for a person who held within them immense power, supernatural or any other sort of above normal human power. The spell was supposed to single out other people and force them to show no interest in her, while forcing those who were of power to be attracted and drawn to her for no known reason other than they just wanted to be near her. The spell had almost seemed to be the key to what she was searching for, a gift her father had left her in case he ever happened to disappear.
Praying to whichever god or goddess it was that watched over her, Zatanna cast the spell, hoping that this time it would last much longer than the last time.