Part 2
The next few days had been uneventful except for the fact that Chloe spoke nonstop about her cousin. It had been surprising to Clark how fondly Chloe spoke of Lois Lane. He only ever remembers her talking about her cousin briefly during the years they have known each other, but now that she was physically in Smallville, she has nothing but endless stories to tell about her.
That kind of admission made him feel intimated, jealous and intrigued all at the same time.
"So, Chloe, what are you up to this weekend?" Clark already knew what the answer to that was. Since Lois' arrival, he felt like he was competing for Chloe's attention against a rival he could never defeat, and his numerous superhuman abilities did nothing to change that fact.
"I'm going to this bar with Lois," she answered.
Clark sighed. He had been right yet again. "Isn't that a little illegal?" he asked boyishly. Leave it to him to ruin the excitement.
"She's eighteen, Clark and besides, we're not going there to act as rebellious teenagers, Lois and I have a thing for karaoke," she reluctantly admitted when she reached the end of the sentence.
He was surprised. "You sing karaoke?"
She shook her head. "Hardly," she smiled. "It's something we do since like… forever, and it always fun, especially when we screw up badly"
"Sounds embarrassing," he smiled back thoughtfully, the image of Lois and Chloe singing to a rendition of various pop songs crossing his mind.
"You should come," Chloe recommended.
Clark raised his hand in protest. "No, that's all right, I think I'll pass." He doesn't want to admit it, even to himself, but being around Lois made him a bit insecure, as if he was working himself to death to impress her.
"Oh, come on Clark, you've barely hung out with us," Chloe complained. "Is it Lois? I know she can be a little forward." Clark eyed her with raised eyebrows. "Okay, a lot forward, but that's just a part of her charm."
He was very much aware of that, and truth be told, there was many reasons he was avoiding that cousin of hers.
Chloe continued. "Before my dad and I moved here, I spent the summer with Lois and her dad in Norfolk, and I had this craving for sweets. We were in this store, and there was this bowl of candies. I reached out a grabbed a handful; then the clerk saw me and started getting mad. Oh man, you should've seen him, he was angry and I was like, twelve, and then Lois just swooped in and explained to my dad that she was just about to pay for them. The clerk was so embarrassed that he let me have them for free. She is by far the coolest person I know," she finished the story with childlike awe.
Clark was a bit offended at the acknowledgment, but then again, he often found himself listening in rapt attention as Chloe recalled many of their adventures.
"You really think a lot of her, don't you?" Clark asked, and again, it was a question he already knew the answer to but he couldn't help but ask.
Chloe beamed at the question.
"Even though we live in different countries, and you know, different continents, I can always count on her," she revealed earnestly.
Clark fell silently and Chloe immediately noticed the change.
"You're not jealous are you?"
"What?" he says, his face displaying otherwise. "Of course not… she's your cousin, it makes sense that she ranks higher than the rest of us"
"Oh, so you are jealous," she says amusingly.
"No!" he denied, but it was a denial Chloe could see through. "She's not my type"
Her demeanor changed. "I didn't realize you were interested," she replied, getting a suspicious glance from Clark.
He shifted uncomfortably. "Isn't that what you meant?" He groaned inwardly when he realized that he jumped to conclusions.
Chloe shook her head. "No, I thought it was because I was spending more time with her than you and anybody else," she says matter-of-factly.
Clark couldn't tell whether Chloe was upset because her face remained somewhat indifferent. He had no idea how to get himself out of this one.
"I kind of feel like a third wheel around you two," he finally admitted.
"Yeah, I'm sorry about that," she says truthfully, not denying his statement. "I rarely see her nowadays and when I do, I sort of loose track of time"
"It's okay," he tells her honestly. "I understand"
"Well, in other news," she transitioned to a different topic when she noted the sensitivity around the topic of her cousin. "What's going on with you?"
He looks at her confused. "What do you mean?"
She laughs. "You know, your life, parents… Lana…" she added reluctantly.
Clark stopped and thought about what she asked and to be honest, since Lois' appearance in Smallville; he had rarely thought about Lana and that in itself was surprising. He looked at Chloe and shrugged.
"What, are you telling me you haven't thought about Lana Lang this entire time?" she says in disbelief.
He sighed. "Is it hard to believe that I can revolve my life not around her?"
"Yes, as a matter of fact, I do"
Unbeknownst to her, he'd always felt like he revolved his life around Lana, but he was beginning to realize that it wasn't the case, and with that knowledge firmly in his grasp, a large weight was finally relinquished off his shoulders.
The following day, in the early morning, Clark prepared the news layout at The Torch for Chloe to check on before their first class began for the day.
Adjusting one article after another, he soon realized that editing wasn't his forte.
"We have to stop meeting like this," a voice he found himself familiarizing with says from behind.
He couldn't prevent the smirk that formed in his lips when she spoke as his back remained to her.
"It would be nice if you had called first," he retorted turning around to face her, her face always displaying a mix of amusement and mystery. "What brings Lois Lane to this humble abode?"
She smiles before approaching him. "It's good to know there's a personality beneath all that plaid you wear, Smallville" she teased.
Clark gives out a small laugh at the nickname she so conveniently named him since the very moment they met. As he watched her move in, the air of confidence around her was astonishing. Although he could see the family traits between her and Chloe, it was Lois's unique dynamism that clearly showed the difference.
Despite only knowing her for a week, he has yet to peg her.
"What can I do for you?" he asked, his voice showing a bit of playfulness.
"Hmm… I could think of a few things"
Clark was wide-eyed, was she flirting with him. No… was he flirting with her first? Apparently, his lapse was clear for her to see.
"Down boy," she teased. "I'm just messing with you"
He breathed out a sigh of relief and immediately changed the subject. "Chloe's not here"
"Damn!" she crossed her arms and leaned against the 'Wall of Weird.' Clark chuckled but then noticed her gaze look at the various clippings that acted as wallpaper on the wall.
"You know, for years she always told me about these things but I never really knew what all the fuss was about until she finally showed it to me," she says, and this time her voice was low yet mindful.
Clark stuck his hands in his pockets and slowly made his way closer to the wall she stood near at.
"Not a lot of people take it seriously"
"I can see why," she observed, her gaze locking on a headline that screams tabloid fodder.
"You can't know until you experience it yourself," Clark found himself defending Chloe's work, and in a way, himself.
Lois's face remained the same, but then she looked at him thoughtfully. "I wasn't judging"
"I'm sorry, I wasn't implying…"
"Apology accepted," she replied.
Clark smiled. "I'm surprised, most people find this sort of thing bizarre, but you seem to take it well"
She eyed him masterly. "I'm not most people," she replied and then, "If anything, my dad always taught me never to judge a book by its cover," she added thoughtfully. "And you? What do you think about all these things?"
"Staggering," he replied, surprised with himself for answering her without hesitance.
"Interesting adjective there"
Clark smiled again; he seems to do that a lot around her, even if he was avoiding hanging out with her and Chloe.
"I don't know how else to explain it, ever since the meteor shower, the town has had more than one brush with the unexplained"
"I'm sure your life has become a lot more interesting because of it," she presumed.
"You have no idea," he mumbled under his breath, remembering his border with the meteor infected people over the last three years.
"What?" Lois turned to him, not quite hearing what he said. "Did you say something?"
Clark leaped a bit at the slip.
"Sorry, I was just thinking out loud," he replied and was grateful she didn't purge any further.
"You know, this is actually the longest conversation you and I have had since I came here," she observed.
"Yeah?" he replied shyly.
She simply smiled. "Chloe talks nonstop about you, but between you and me, I think she has a crush on you," she lead on, but then smirked. "But if you ever tell her I told you I will deny it wholeheartedly and with heavy conviction"
"Well then, I'll make sure it doesn't fall to the wrong hands." He found himself returning her banter head on. Chloe's feelings for him aren't anything he didn't know, and considering how close the cousin's were, he wasn't at all surprised Lois knew. But what surprised him more was how much they were flirting dangerously close to one another.
She didn't seem to notice, and Clark was perturbed by the fact that he did.
"Chloe speaks highly of you as well," he tells her and that was the truth. The closeness notwithstanding, he finds himself enjoying her company. "Why haven't you visited her before?"
Lois looked away and approached the windows slowly, gazing at Smallville High's filling parking lot.
"The General travels a lot, so I spend most of my time readjusting to every new locale we find ourselves in"
"The General?" he says in wonderment.
"My dad"
"Oh. Why do you call him that?"
"Because he is"
He realized she didn't want to talk about it, and so he respected her wishes. "So what do you think of Smallville?"
"Small," she answered.
Clark smiled widely at that. He consciously made an effort to stop doing that, but he found that it was really hard.
A moment passed when Lois speaks out again. "Well, I'm going to peruse the halls of this fine educational establishment to see if I can manage to brainwash my dear cousin on taking a road trip with me to the shiny tall buildings known as Metropolis," she says sarcastically, yet seriously at the same time as she exited The Torch.
Clark found himself temporarily speechless long after she left the room. He turned and saw Lois enter the parking lot greeting her cousin warmly with a hug.
He was definitely confused around her. Since his life intersected of that with Lex Luthor three years earlier, he has grown so used to people wanting something out of each other one way or another, but Lois was different. She came to Smallville with only the intention of spending time with her cousin.
That was quite an attractive trait, and the fact that she has a very fiery personality and easy on the eyes didn't help one bit.
To be continued…