((Thanks for the advice Suekosa, I appreciate it. And don't worry about me minding what one reviewer that had been mentioned in your review said, things like that don't bother me.))
Chapter Four
Butterflied
The evening of the Homecoming dance had ended without any one in the gym knowing what kind of serious hurt they had been spared of thanks to the actions of the Kent twins, Clark and Lara. Jeremy Creek had been spared any injury as well, aside from the fact that he was confused as to why he was back in Smallville and inside a pickup truck that had driven itself through a brick wall. After Clark explained a few things to Jeremy, both he and Lara took Jeremy to the Smallville Community Medical Center to be taken care of by the doctors there. Once they knew Jeremy was in good hands, Clark and his sister headed home where Lara went straight for bed and Clark headed out to the loft for a while.
At that same time about a mile up the road from the Kent Farm, Lana Lang was being dropped off by her friends a few hours after the dance was over. Standing on the steps leading up to the front porch, Lana waved as they drove off honking the horn and calling out good-byes to her as they went. Once they had passed out of the driveway, Lana headed up the steps and crossed the porch landing to grab the front screen door by the handle and passed through the open door to have shut behind her. Unbeknownst to the Homecoming Queen, she was being watched all the while by a pair of eyes peering through the leaves and branches of a tree. Lana headed upstairs and walked through the door of her bedroom, quietly shutting the door behind her. Sighing to herself in a somewhat content fashion, Lana crossed the floor to the side of her room where a large white dresser was set against the wall with the top covered in various things ranging from photographs of friends to various little trinkets.
Taking the crystal-like tiara that had been placed upon her brunette colored head, Lana bent down and pulled out the bottom drawer of the dresser. The dresser drawer itself was filled with other various tiaras shaped in different designs with different patterns along side ribbons and trophies. Adding the silk flower corsage that Whitney had given her, Lana shut the drawer and then as she turned about, her eye caught something on the top of her bed. A gold cardboard box wrapped closed with shinny blue ribbon sat almost at the exact middle of Lana's bed. Raising a curious brow at this, Lana walked over to her bed and sat down before scooting further towards the middle where the box sat. Taking the small package up on her lap, Lana untied the ribbon and lifted off the lid only find that a numerous amount of both green and blue butterflies fluttered out. A rather shocking surprise, but rather pleasing to watch as the beautiful insects flew about her room and caused a smile to form on her lips as she watched them. Reaching a hand into the box, Lana allowed a lingering butterfly to climb upon the tip before pulling her hand out and then watched as it spread its wings and took off to join the others in their aerial dance.
The smile upon Lana's face was viewed through the LCD screen of a digital camera by the eyes sitting within the eaves of the tree they hid amongst. A smile was also spread across the face of the young man who held the camera and who had also been the one to leave the box of butterflies inside Lana's room for her to find upon her return. After viewing her a few more minutes and recording it all within the memory of the digital camera, the young man turned the camera off and then climbed down of the tree where at the base sat a backpack alongside a glass jar containing fireflies that were buzzing about with their tails alight. Shoving the camera within the main body of his backpack, the young man slung it upon his shoulder before grabbing his jar of fireflies and then walked off. Parked a bit a ways from the house Lana lived in, a green BW Bug was hidden upon a back lane running in between Hickory Lane and Avenue 8. The car belonged to the young man who was walking up to it and pulling out a set of keys to unlock the doors of his car. After tossing his backpack and jar into the backseat, the young man climbed in and started up the car to drive home.
The early morning hours of Smallville painted the farmlands and crop fields with pale fresh colors. Grand sweeping overhead views passed by until it all ended at one house, and in one bedroom. Clark Kent looked down upon the peaceful sleeping form of Lana Lang as he hovered over her by at least three feet, arms folded across his chest. A smile passed over his face as he stared at her. She was perfect in his eyes. Suddenly, Lana's eyes opened and looked up at Clark with an accusing look on her face and in her eyes. "It's all your fault Clark." She stated before her eyes closed and she returned to sleeping. Clark's brow furrowed for a moment.
"Clark!"
Clark awoke with a sudden start to find himself staring down at the pillows and bed coverings, his eyes becoming rather wide before found himself crashing down upon his bed face first. The end of his bed buckled under the sudden dropping of body weight and crashed to the ground, the head of the bed soon following right after causing Clark to hit the pillow face first again.
"Clark, we're leaving for the Farmer's Market in fifteen minutes and you haven't done your chores yet." Martha's voice called out from downstairs.
Groaning, Clark pulled his face up off his pillow and then rolled out of bed to get dressed. Yanking his shirt off and tossing it back over his shoulder to his now broken bed, Clark suddenly looked over at his bedroom door as it opened from the other side. Lara's head peeked in and her gaze first fell on the bed, a brow rising in confusion to its current state, but she shook it off and looked around since Clark wasn't in his bed. Locating her brother off to the side of the room near his dresser, she grinned at him. "What'd you do to your bed?" she asked, but only received a slightly annoyed look from Clark in return that was meant in gesture for her to get out so he could get dressed. "Anyways, mom says that we're leaving and that as soon as you get your chores done to head for the Market." Lara stated while then leaving the room and closing the door. Not even a second after that, the door opened again and Lara popped in. "Oh yeah." She stated while then stepping in all the way to then chucked a pillow at Clark's head. "That's for last night when you pushed me out of the way. Love you Clark." Lara grinned while escaping into the hall and down the stairs as Clark near gave chase with the pillow in hand.
Downstairs, Lara reappeared in the kitchen as her mom and dad were grabbing their coats off the hooks lined up on the wall by the door. Martha looked over at her daughter as she too came to grab her denim jacket and pull it on over the powder blue long sleeved shirt she was wearing already. "Did you tell your brother?" Martha asked while raising a brow. She had heard the sudden commotion upstairs and knew that the two of them had gotten into some sort of sibling thing before Lara showed up downstairs.
"Yep." Lara replied while running a hand through the back of her dark hair and grinning at her mother. The look on her mom's face had Lara take up a rather innocent look for the most part. "What? I only tossed a pillow at him." She admitted while heading out the door after her dad, who at the moment was laughing a bit while shaking his head to what he heard Lara confess.
"Lara Kent…" Martha began while following out as well while Lara came to a stop on the porch and waited for her to finish. Martha gave her a slightly stern look before laying a hand on her shoulder and then pointed the other away from her and Lara after Jonathan. "Go help your father finish loading up the truck." A faint smile was coming up on Martha's face. Lara gave her a half smile before jumping off the porch over the steps. "Lara really, use the steps that's why they're there." She called after her daughter as she hurried after Jonathan in a jog.
Lara turned her head over her shoulder and grinned. "But they just slow me down." She called back before turning her attention forward as she caught up to father's side as he was headed towards the barn.
The Farmer's Market was a buzz with all types of activity going on with various venders selling organics and other little trinkets off to the side. There was even a mini labyrinth maze carved out on the ground in the turf for people to walk from start to finish. At the booth the Kents had set up, Clark had arrived not but maybe a few minutes after the rest of his family had arrived and gotten most of the produce out of the truck while setting up the booth as well. Chloe and Pete had arrived as well to help out the Kents. While Chloe helped Martha arrange the crates of fruits and vegetables in a certain way that they looked the best, Clark set up the sign advertising KENT ORGANIC PRODUCTS. Pete helped Clark position the sign and then handed him the nail to be used in attaching the sign to the wooden pole. While Pete went to go find a hammer, Clark looked around a moment quickly and then positioned the nail where it needed to be placed before using his thumb to shove the nail through both layers of wood. Checking once more to make sure that no one had seen what he just did, Clark had to do a double take as he spotted his sister off to the side with a few kids kicking a soccer ball between them.
Clark grinned as he watched the kids try and get the ball away from his sister as she kept it close to her own feet while weaving in out of the kids that barely came up to her waist in height. As one of the boys that made up the group went to slide in and take the ball while also possibly tripping Lara up at the same time, but as he slid in to near catch her ankle Lara got her foot up under the ball to kick it up out of his reach. As the ball went up, Lara jumped at the same time to go over the boy as he slid under her. At the same time, both Lara and the ball came down on the ground, and Lara caught the ball under her control once more and then turned about after stopping the soccer ball under her foot. Those who had been watching the whole thing started clapping after Lara proved her talent. The boy who had tried to get the ball from her was already clambering up to his feet with a small grin on his face. Along with him, the other kids came to gather around Lara.
"You cheated." The boy stated while trying to hold back a smile or look of admiration for her.
Lara's face took a somewhat unamused look as she took her foot off the ball and kicked it upwards towards herself, catching the black and white patchwork sphere in her hands. "Now why would you say something like that?" she asked as the corner of her mouth twitched the slightest as a smile was being forced back to remain somewhat stern at the whole accusation.
The boy crossed his arms. "Because. You must be on the high school soccer team." He pointed out while the other kids seemed to be agreeing with this as they were nodding their heads while also verbally agreeing.
At the mention of the soccer team, Lara's face fell a bit but then she quickly recovered and gave the kids a small smile. "Well, I hate to disappoint you guys, but I'm not apart of the high school team." She replied while tossing the ball over to the boy who had tried to steal the ball earlier. "Have fun guys and don't kick the ball around the stands anymore." She warned while then reaching out a hand and ruffled the boy's hair before walking off back towards the stand her parents were selling from.
Shoving her hands into the pockets of her jeans, Lara walked at a normal pace that held a sense of dower air. Even little kids saw how great she would be at soccer and said she should be on the high school team. Sighing to herself, Lara continued on towards the booth, only to arrive when Lana was just about to leave and look at the other booths. As Lara approached the spot from behind, she was immediately spotted by Lana and waved over with a huge grin as a greeting. "Lara. I was wondering where Clark's other half had gone off to." Lana continued to grin at Lara as the tall dark haired teen came around to stand before her.
"Oh well, I was just off making sure some kids and a ball didn't cause any trouble for the venders." Lara explained while glancing over at her dad who was standing a few feet away talking with her mother, and no doubt half listening to the conversation between his daughter and Lana Lang.
Lana laughed a bit. "I see. Lara Kent off to save the Farmer's Market." She laughed lightly while speaking, which caused Lara to smile a bit. "So are you playing 'supergirl' for the day? Coming to the rescue of all the venders?" Lana asked only to have Lara give her a sheepish smile to this. "I didn't see you at the dance last night." She commented while rolling the peach in her hands that Mr. Kent had given her earlier while trying to find another piece of conversation to start up between her and Lara.
"Yeah well, I was just a bit preoccupied with a few personal things. I guess it must have just slipped my mind." Lara explained in half-truth. "I heard you were crowned Homecoming Queen though, congratulations." Lara stated while grinning at Lana.
Giving a small child-like curtsy, Lana kept back a laugh for the time being. "Why thank you Madame." Lana replied in good humor as she could tell Lara was trying to be friendly with her, and it only managed to have both girls burst into a fit of giggles. Recovering from their bought with laughter, Lana toyed with the piece of fruit in her hand still as an idea popped into her head at the moment as she caught sight of a vender's stand holding trinkets that weren't of the organic kind. "Hey Lara, do you think your parents would mind if I stole you for a moment?" Lana asked while glancing over at Mr. and Mrs. Kent who were busy tying up a bag of produce for a customer.
Lara followed her gaze, a smile still on her face as she looked back at the more petit girl. "I don't think they would, but let me check real quick before I do anything 'rash'." Lara replied before leaving Lana to see if her parents would in fact mind. Martha was the first one Lara approached since she was the nearest and wasn't involved with the conversation going on between Jonathan and the man they just sold some produce to. Lara placed a hand on her mother's arm to get her attention a moment, and as soon as Martha Kent looked over at her, Lara asked her question with a hopeful look on her face. "Hey mom, do you mind if I go hang out with Lana for a while?" she asked, and caught out of the corner of her eye a slightly annoyed Chloe Sullivan who had caught Lara's question while helping Pete sort a few boxes.
Martha looked over at Lana for a quick moment and then smiled as she returned her attention back to Lara. "I don't see why not. Just make sure that it's not an all day thing. We need both you and Clark helping here at the booth." She replied while running a hand over the top of Lara's head in a motherly affectionate manner before winking at her.
"Thanks mom." Lara grinned while giving her mother a quick hug and then headed back over to where Lana was. With only a big smile and a nod, Lara headed off with Lana towards the other booths where they were selling trinkets other various items.
Chloe watched her friend leave with the cheerleader and had a deep furrow growing on her brow that Pete took notice of and only smirked a bit while picking up a box of plums off the ground. "Don't worry Chloe, Lara isn't replacing you with Lana." Pete assured his friend before turning about to take the new box over to the table that had another box stacked upon it with spaces of missing baskets dotting it.
"That's easy for you to say Pete. You've known both Lara and Clark since the sandbox." Chloe pointed out while sighing mentally as she turned around to come stand next to Pete and help out with restocking the plum space.
Pete laughed a bit and then looked over at Chloe as she picked up a small green plastic basket out of the box. "And you've known her since what, the seventh grade?" Pete then pointed out for Chloe to realize she was just over reacting.
Again Chloe's brow furrowed a moment at what Pete had said. It wasn't that she was saying Lara Kent was the type of person to ditch one friend to make another who was a head cheerleader; in fact Lara was the total opposite of that. For Chloe it was just a little confusing as to why Lara would suddenly start hanging out with Lana or why Lana wanted to hang out with Lara. "Yeah, I know that Pete. It's just a little weird to see those two hanging out like that."
"Chloe, they only went like a few booths down to look at some garden art." Pete stated while looking back over his shoulder at the two brunettes who were just barely within the line of sight. "Besides," he looked over at Chloe and grinned. "If you're that concerned talk to Lara about it." In return to this, Chloe elbowed Pete in the ribs while giving him a playful glare.
Lara and Lana had in fact gone down several booths to look at some rather nice pieces of garden art, and were admiring the stained glass butterflies hanging off long pieces of wire so that they could twirl in the wind. Lana reached out a hand and twirled a butterfly on its wire gently and then watched as it spun about afterwards before glancing over at Lara with a somewhat guilty look on her face as she did have an ulterior motive for having asked her to come hang out a bit. It wasn't anything mean or of ill will, it was just that Lana knew she could get an honest and true answer to a few questions when speaking with Lara Kent. "Lara, I sort of had a reason to borrow you for a moment from your parents." She confessed while hoping Lara wouldn't be mad about this, and her worry showed as she played with the piece of fruit she was still holding in her hands.
Looking away from a stain glass dragonfly and over at Lana, Lara grinned a bit at her. "I kind of figured you did." She stated while looking towards the suspended bejeweled bugs hanging from the pole of the booth. "Is it safe to assume it might have something to do with two specific high school boys our own age?" Lara asked while raising a brow at the same time as she looked over at Lana out of the corner of her eye.
A small laugh of relief left Lana as she caught Lara's hidden grin. "Unfortunately, yes." She admitted while crossing her arms and turning to face Lara fully. A somewhat disappointed look was on her face for the moment, as she knew that something happened the other night and both Whitney and Clark had tried to avoid it. "Lara, did something happen last night? I mean with Clark and possibly Whitney?" she asked while stepping closer to Lara to keep their conversation private, a look of concern and deep worry was on her face.
Lara bit the inside of her bottom lip. She knew that Lana was possibly going to ask something along those lines but she didn't think she just come right down to the point and flat out ask. "Look Lana, even though Clark is my brother I don't think it's my place to get involved in something I wasn't apart of in the first place." Lara explained. In reality, Lara wasn't exactly sure in what had happened during the Homecoming dance but Clark had told her the whole story after they got home. So in fact Lara did know about what happened, how Whitney and some of the other members of the football team had ambushed Clark at school and then took him out to Riley Field.
Even though Lana hadn't received the answer she was hoping to find, she could understand why Lara wasn't telling her what she knew. Lana gave her a sympathetic smile. "It's okay Lara, I understand. I'll talk to Whitney later." She stated in assurance to the dark haired teen before her who out stood her by a good foot in height. After seeing that Lara had relaxed a bit when she assured her, Lana gave her a friendly smile. "So, aside from others, how come you weren't at the dance?" Lana asked while raising a brow and dropping her arms to her sides while looking over at the butterflies dangling before them.
"Uh, well, I…wasn't in much of a mood to attend a dance I guess." Lara stated while she started to grow a little nervous now when confronted with why she hadn't gone. The truth was, Lara didn't want to go to the dance for a couple of reasons; one being the most important fact that she hadn't been asked, and two being because something like a dance sort of scared Lara for some reason.
"Uh-hu." Lana mused while giving her an amused look out of the corner of her eye while grinning broadly as she reached out and spun a butterfly on its wire.
"Beautiful isn't it." A male voice asked, which caused both Lana and Lara to jump and then whip around to see who was talking to them. Greg 'the bug boy' Arkin, had been standing behind the two girls until they turned around and now he stood before them dressed a little differently than they were used to seeing him. He smiled a bit at them both; a brief nod was directed towards Lara. "Hey, Kent."
"Greg." Lana said in a near sigh, as she was a bit relieved to know whom it was that was taking to both her and Lara Kent. "I didn't recognize you without the glasses." She stated while gesturing to her own eyes in added statement with a wave of her hand.
Greg only gave her a brief smile before looking over at the butterflies that Lana and Lara had been looking at. "Did you know the average butterfly lives only eight hours?" he asked in a sort of trivia-like question while tapping a butterfly on its wing.
Lana ducked under the butterfly display to come up on the other side, pulling Lara with her. "Live fast, die young." Lana grinned while looking from Greg to the butterfly before her.
Lara gave the brunette beside her a somewhat curious half glance. "Yeah, they're the rock stars of the insect world." She commented while looking over at Greg with a quirky grin and held up her right hand in the rocker devil horns to emphasize on what she had said.
Greg couldn't help but give Lara a brief smile and laugh to what she said. "Between you and Clark, I'd say you were always the smart aleck." He stated while shoving his hands into the pockets of his black leather coat; a new kind of look crossed his face that seemed a bit hopeful as he looked to Lana now. "Hey, Lana, do you think you could help me out on my Lit paper?" he asked, referring to of course to an assignment that they had been assigned by their teacher at school.
"The Nathaniel West assignment giving you brain freeze?" Lana asked while grinning a bit, as she could understand just how rough the assignment might be.
"Yeah, it's kicking my ass." Greg replied while smiling a bit. As Lana nodded to the fact that she would help him out on his paper, his smile grew a bit more. "So how about my house after school?" he suggested.
"Actually I think the library would be easier." Lana stated while hoping this wouldn't upset Greg or cause him to pursue still the idea of going to his house. It wasn't as though Lana was afraid that something might end up happening, but she just wanted to be on the safer side of things when it came to helping out a fellow student of the opposite gender with something like a school assignment.
Greg seemed to be taking this into thought at the moment, and then he nodded. "It's a date." He stated, only then feel someone approach from behind while noticing the looks on both Lana and Lara's faces.
Whitney had seen his girlfriend walk off with Lara Kent, sister of course to the very same guy he and a few of his pals tied up in a cornfield as the year's Homecoming Scarecrow, and was a bit hesitant to follow after them at first. However, that changed when he saw 'the bug boy' walk up to his girlfriend and start talking with her, never mind the fact that he was also talking to Lara Kent as well. Seeing this, Whitney made a beeline towards Lana and that was when he came up beside Greg with a small smile directed at the two girls alone. "Hey Lana, your aunt is looking for you." He stated while then looking over at Lara. "And your mom is looking for you as well."
Lana's face twitched a bit with a smile before she ducked out from behind the butterflies and headed off to find her aunt with Lara following after her to head back towards the booth, but gave Greg a quick wave and short 'bye' as she left with Lana. As the two girls walked away to find their respective adults, Lara looked back over her shoulder to see that Whitney and Greg were having some sort of short conversation before Whitney left and turned to follow after the two girls. Shaking her head as she turned her head forward again, Lara could only imagine what was said between the two of them. About halfway back to the booth the Kents were selling from, Lana glanced over at Lara. "I'll see you later Lara." She said while grinning over at the darker haired girl. When Lara returned the grin, Lana laughed briefly. "Thanks for hanging out with me for a while."
"Not a problem. Anytime you want to talk again Lana, you know where I live." Lara stated and then waved to her as they parted ways and headed off to find their respective adults. As Lara headed for the booth her parents were selling out of, a slight pressure started to build up on either temple again which caused her slow her walk down a bit s she placed a hand on either side of her forehead to massage the spots with her fingertips. Images started to flash across her mind again as they before. Lara had hoped maybe it was just a coincidence and or that it was the first and last time it would happen, however, that theory changed as she now saw these new images come across as if she were recalling a memory of some kind. A truck runs off the road, butterflies and other bugs, an explosion at a farm silo. Lara's eyes had shut for a moment as they images played like an obscured movie clip, only to prove ill as she literally smacked into someone and found herself on the ground in a near sitting position. Shaking her head to clear the fog, Lara found her eyes opened and turned up to see who it was she had hit.
"I'm not sure whether it was you who walked into me or a brick wall." Lex stated while crouching down in front of Lara with a small smile on his face. "You okay?" he asked after seeing the somewhat disoriented look on Lara's face.
Lara forced out a smile and nodded her head. "Yeah, I'm fine." She replied while moving to stand herself back up. Lex stood first and then offered a hand down to her, which Lara didn't really need but she took it anyways to be polite. "Thanks, and sorry about running into you like that Lex." Lara apologized while giving him a half-hearted smile as she brushed herself off.
"Don't be, I'm not." Lex stated with a bit of a smirk on his face. "I'm actually kind of glad you ran into me Lara." He said while placing his hands within the pockets of his coat and still held that small smirk on his face.
Her brow wrinkled a bit in a puzzled way to what Lex had said. "Why would you be glad that I ran into?" Lara asked while taking a glance over towards where her parents, brother, and friends were gathered. They seemed a bit busy with restocking some of the sold out parts of the produce as well as selling at the same time.
Lex shrugged his shoulders slightly to this. "Maybe because you and your brother are the only people I've been lucky enough to find some sort of friendship in since coming to Smallville." He suggested while turning sideways a bit to look over at the booth that Lara had glanced over at while talking with him. "Looks busy." He commented and then looked over at Lara again with another small smile. "Guess I better let you head over and help out." Lex winked at her before walking into the direction she had basically come from. As he came to pass her side, he paused a moment and looked over at her, which in turn had Lara looking at him. Lara topped Lex by an inch or so, but they were almost the same height as one another. "Tell Clark I'll catch him after the market is over." He said before giving Lara a final grin and then walked away to finish looking around.