Chloe was the first to respond, "And what would you suggest in particular?"
Clark replied, "I'd like us to pull a couple of entertaining pranks on some unsuspecting but yet deserving individuals at school. The three of us could be like evil masterminds or something."
"Sounds like fun! I'm in." Going from worried to excited in the span of two seconds Pete, was eagerly planning something in his head already.
"Of course you would be Pete, I on the other hand like to report the news not make it." Clark saw Chloe's doubtful expression, if her trust in him turned out to be false she, he, and Pete would be the rest of the semester's news. All the jocks would get their revenge, and they could all be indefinitely suspended. Of course, it would depend on how good or bad what they did was. But at the very least they wouldn't become anymore not liked by Smallville High's population.
Pete moved over towards Chloe and hugged her while smiling sweetly, "Clark needs us. Sacrifices must be made. And hell, what are friends for?"
Score one for team Kent, now one more to go. Clark lay on his puppy dog eyes as sweetly as he could and aimed them at Chloe. 'Heck, I'm practically a professional at pleading.' Observing as her steely demeanor started to melt, Clark knew he'd won.
Chloe sighed dramatically, "The things I do for the weaker sex."
"You guys are the best. I swear you won't regret it." 'There is a God.' The first group that came to mind, who Clark would love to do a little bit of harmless terrorizing to, was the football team. They needed to come down a peg or two. They'd won almost every game this last season and the quarterback, Jack Swanson, was an egotistical dick.
"Yeah well, I'll make judgment on that later."
"I love my pessimistic girlfriend." Pete continued to hold her close before leaning over for a brief kiss.
For the first time, Clark didn't cringe after watching them have a quick peck on the lips right in front of him. Wow, it was so nice to have that burden of jealously finally lifted from his soul. 'Go team.' He had the vague notion that his friend's intimacy no longer bothered him because of his own returned romantic feelings with Lex.
"How does the football team sound?" Before either could reply, Clark continued, "And before you answer think about it during Math which we'll be late to in about seven seconds. Chloe, you should finish the test pretty fast since you already saw all of the answers. Try to think of something good."
"Good? I'm the best. And newsflash, Clark, I knew all of the answers already because I studied."
Pete instead gave Clark a thumbs up.
On their way to Math class, Pete and Chloe started teasing each other on whose idea would be funnier. They even started making bets. Pete's went as high as one billion dollars and Chloe's included an exotic naked lap dance, of course the payments wouldn't be due till the following day so neither party was highly concerned about having to deal out any future payment to the other person.
They were free to leave once the test was over and halfway to the Torch, Pete was the first to blurt out, "Okay, I have the perfect idea."
Chloe took on a challenging stance while Clark waited in anticipation.
Pete enthusiastically continued, "After lunch the Crow's are having a practice. I heard a few weeks back that a couple of them were failing Biology class and if they didn't attend every single class, unless they were dead or dying, for the rest of the semester they will be flunked."
Clark almost laughed at seeing Pete's diabolical rubbing of hands.
"Well, my dad uses this funky dark powdered stuff in our fish pond outside. It's some kinda fish disease treatment that he uses in the water that makes it a bright purple. I'm sure it's safe. If it doesn't kill the fish then I'm sure it wouldn't hurt people. Anyway, he told me that if it gets on anything once it's wet it, would totally stain it. So, I was thinking we could pour a bunch of it into the hot water tank and when the football team goes to have a shower after practice they would all get dyed purple. And then, we would get to watch them sit in class and be humiliated in front of everyone." Pete grinned so wide that all Clark could see were his sparkling white teeth.
Clark nodded. 'That sounds quite entertaining.' All he'd have to do was super-speed over to the Ross residence and grab a bag of the stuff and zip on back. With his powers, any prank would be practically effortless to accomplish. It'd be nice not to lie for a day, plus the whole prank thing would go much smoother if he could use all of his powers around both Chloe and Pete. 'Maybe it'd be a good idea to tell Chloe about my powers just this once?' In contrast, the alien part was still a definite 'no' story.
"Do you remember what the stuff's called?" Clark asked.
Pete appeared to think for a moment before answering, "Umm, something like Potassium pomegranate?"
"Yeah right, the fertility fruit? Mine's better. I heard a rumor that Jack Swanson's been wearing his girlfriend's underwear for the last week as some retarded superstitious drivel. Taking one for the team and all that. I bet he likes the feel of silk and lace." Chloe joined them in snickering at that little visual. "It'd be great to somehow pull his pants down in front of as many witnesses as possible and find out."
Sounding both horrified and impressed at the same time, Pete declared. "God, of course you'd think up something like that."
"I'll volunteer to do it."
Chloe snorted before sarcastically stating, "Sure you can Clark, so could I, but I'm positive Jack isn't going to just stand there and let you pull his pants off."
"He wouldn't even know I was there." Making sure no one else other than Chloe and Pete were watching, Clark disappeared into the nearby Torch, grabbed Chloe's laptop, and magically returned holding it out in front of him like a gift to the Gods or Goddess as the case may be.
"You… You just." Giving him a hard punch, Chloe flinched, "Ouch, my hand." Flexing her fingers, she continued, "So this is your big secret?"
Before Clark could answer, Chloe kept going, "I knew it, I knew it, I knew it. There was no way that you could have been involved in like almost every wall of weird incident since I came to Smallville, unless you were …" Chloe grinned at him cocking her head. "What? A magnet for meteor-mutants? What was your wish, Clark?"
Thrown by Chloe's grin, Clark stared at her in shock.
Speaking in a voice of reason, Pete stated, "Hey guys why don't we go somewhere a little more private?"
Shooting Pete a grateful glance, Clark almost stumbled in surprise as Chloe grabbed his elbow and dragged him toward the Torch's office. Clark could almost hear her jubilant announcement at the Torch's staff meeting: 'Man, did she have a juicy scoop. An inside story from an admitted meteor mutant.' Of course, she'd try to give him anonymity, but he was equally sure that she would pump him for the story until she got it.
Once inside, Clark answered, "I've always been super fast and strong. I guess you could say that I'm one of those meteor mutants."
"Of course, you're a mutant." Chloe whispered as she shut the office door. Shaking her head in amusement, she ran through her list of proofs: "No self-respecting guy could have lashes that long, could wear that much flannel, or could blush that hard and still be normal. For God's sake, you live on a farm and help your dad castrate the bulls in the spring, but still blush if someone says 'dick'." She teased, and laughed when he again flushed bright red.
Chloe smirked, "You're confirming a theory that I'd been working on for over the last year -when I started to notice one after another meteor mutant being stopped by someone- and the only someonenot accounted for who could have done the stopping was you, Clark. There were other things too, like your recent wicked hearing and your million-mile away looks, but that whole flannel 'thang' clinched it for me. Come on, who wears flannel that thick during the summer anyway?"
Clark shifted uneasily around the room. It was a good guilt-rant that wasn't going to be over for a while yet.
Taking a breath in, Clark was hit harder by what she said next, "But that shouldn't be a surprise, for someone who lies so badly… And, wow, are you a bad liar, so bad that between pathetic lies and even worse attempts at misdirection, I sometimes wondered why I put up with it, even with your please-don't-kick-the-puppy-dog eyes and blushes."
Although Chloe seemed to enjoy his discomfort with her teasing, Clark knew why she had probably continued to put up with it- for the same reason he knew Lex did: that maybe one day Clark would trust them enough to spill the beans, and maybe he'd fall in love with them. The second part Chloe had hopefully already given up on, now being with Pete, Lex thankfully seemed to be in for the long haul. 'Lex loved angst.'
And, by the look on her face, she must have come to the conclusion that it looked like today was that day.
"Today…was the day…"
As Clark watched, the edges of her lips turned down as though she had a bitter taste in her mouth, and she seemed to review those thoughts in her head.
Chloe turned, staring furiously into his eyes, "Why didn't you tell me?" She asked… as Pete nervously looked on.
Puzzled by her hurt expression when she'd been grinning and teasing only moments before, Clark shot Pete a glance over the top of her head. Well, as long as he was going with the truth: "I just never wanted everyone to find out and call me a freak. The thought of you and everyone treating me differently scares the hell out of me."
"I'd never do that." Her hurt smile broadened reaching her eyes as she continued, "I know I've done things that have been suspect in the past but you could have trusted me. You could have told me on a day when you knew I'd remember it."
Clark replied bitterly, "Well, you also have to realize how many times my parents have drilled into me that I can't tell anyone, ever."
"Well, are you going to tell us all of it?" Glancing out of the corner of her eye, Chloe seemed to be watching Pete, who hadn't said very much since they'd gone into the Touch. "Well, what would it hurt, we're going to forget it anyway. Right Pete?"
Pete's response was a non-committal "Yeah."
After Clark explained all the pros and cons of being special, and showed her that there was a much longer list of cons, Chloe told Clark 'not to worry about it.' Clark knew that she was still upset with him, but she seemed willing to continue with their plans of 'Crow Domination.'
After a bit more light-hearted conversation, the three of them agreed that the plan was to try out both Chloe and Pete's ideas and then see who the winner was after a fair vote was written down on paper. Clark was sure he would be the tiebreaker, but it was all in the name of fun and he was also sure there wouldn't be any sore losers. They then split up. Clark would pick up the stuff for the water gag, Chloe would go wait by the football team's bleachers, and Pete would break into the unauthorized personal only hot water heater room.
Super-sneaking into the Ross' barn, Clark started to search in the general area where Pete had told him the purple 'fertility' power was stored. Clark felt a bit guilty that he hadn't visited this property in quite some time. Pete's parents had recently gotten divorced and Clark guessed that Pete must have gone to Chloe for support whenever he was feeling miserable, since he hadn't said anything to Clark about being depressed. If it had been his parents Clark would have been horrified. After their minor falling-out over Pete's reckless street-racing, Clark had slightly distanced himself from the Ross residence, when Chloe began to become more and more romantically linked to Pete, Clark had practically given up going back there unless absolutely necessary. And, until today, an instance of necessity had not presented itself. Maybe he needed to do this for more than one reason: as much as he needed to have some fun, he needed to do something to re-connect with Pete, too. Lex may be his best friend- his sexy best friend, with the greatest blue eyes… and Clark couldn't help but wonder what Lex would look like purple. Wow, somehow that was a hot thought. But, he wasn't supposed to be thinking about Lex right now. He wasn't in Lex's shed looking for…
'There.' On a shelf over the utility sink, in a neatly-kept white container labeled 'potassium permanganate' was a large quantity of his desired material. Grabbing a black garbage bag, Clark messily dumped the stuff into it and took off back to school before the dust could settle onto the wooden floor.
Pete was nervously waiting for him in the dimly lit warm room that housed the hot water tank. "It felt like you were gonna take forever." Clark opened his mouth to explain, but realized that telling Pete that he had been daydreaming about Lex's eyes and Lex turning purple wouldn't be a particularly good step toward repairing their friendship. A partially loud thump from the steel container made Pete twitch and jump to the side, "I swear it's haunted in here. Let's get this over with as fast as possible." Pointing Clark into the direction of a rusty looking knob Pete said, "I think that handle opens the top of it."
Turning it with a bit more added pressure than he would have liked, it wouldn't be a great idea to break the darn thing off, Clark was relieved when the top finally creaked open letting a huge amount of stream out, heating the room even more.
Clark lifted the bag and asked, "How much should I put in?"
"About a cup should do."
Grabbing a stool, Clark stood on it and slowly poured about of cup of the powder into the hot water while trying not to spill too much of it onto the floor. It was a very large water tank, though, and the water hardly seemed to change color. Looking back at Pete, Clark shrugged and said, "It doesn't seem to be working…"
"Try another cup, or more. Whenever it becomes a bright purple should be good." Pete offered.
Clark slowly added a second cup without change, then climbed down and let Pete check. Three cups later all the powder had finally melted, turning the water a dark purple. Pete coughed a bit from the fumes but otherwise didn't complain as he climbed down to let Clark check.
As Clark stood for a bit longer than needed, watching the water, he suddenly felt afraid. 'What if we added too much? What could happen?' Clark didn't want to physically hurt anyone, but unfortunately he couldn't turn back time either, and what was done was done. Besides, Pete said his dad used it, and Mr. Ross was careful about not keeping anything lying around that Pete's younger siblings could be hurt by.
Clearing his mind of unpleasant thoughts, Clark was interrupted by a freaking out Pete, who was glancing around the room fretfully, "Clark, I can't stand it in here any longer, let's go!"
Jumping off the stool, they left as fast as possible, leaving no evidence behind, and hastily they joined Chloe a few minutes later outside.
While waiting for the crowd of onlookers to gather, Clark, Pete and Chloe eating their lunches a bit late, lunch hour had ended over ten minutes ago, watched the football players strut their stuff from the bleachers. Clark smiled enjoyed their normal discussions about politics, religion and movies.
Clark was just taking a large bite of a hamburger as Chloe declared, "Oh yeah, I forgot to tell you about this retarded movie I saw with Pete last night."
"Humpff." Clark inhaled a piece of pickle into the wrong passageway.
She snorted, "A Foreign Affair. We got to see it in special limited release. Personally, I think they're trying to make the audience not realise that it was about this close to being a straight-to-video." Her thumb and forefinger were held about an inch apart. "It was almost like being forced to watch The Bachelor."
Coughing out the offending piece of sour cucumber, Clark proceeded to graphically re-tell the whole bad plot and lack-luster characterizations with a bit of mockery and disdain to Chloe.
"Hey I didn't know that you'd already seen it!"
"I haven't, you just kept telling me the whole thing over and over. And now even though I want to forget that the damn movie even existed, I can't-"
"Children play nice." Pete threw a french fry at Clark's head.
Ducking the offending fast food morsel, Clark cried out, "Waaa, I want my mommy!"
No longer annoyed Chloe stomped her foot, "Ssssh little boys the cheerleaders are getting ready to spell."
Clark faced forward and watched as a dozen girls and two guys lined up on the field in front of them.
"C." One girl threw up her hands in joy with a huge smile.
"R." Another one jumped high into the air while doing the splits.
"O." A rather well endowed girl did a cart-wheel bouncing all over.
"W." A different one kicked above her head showing off her underwear.
"S." Lastly the head girl was thrown up into the air, caught by her ankles and balanced on a guy's hands.
"The cheerleaders take their work very seriously, don't they?"
Clark rolled his eyes at Chloe's sarcastic comment. "Hey, Lana was a cheerleader, and she's a very hard worker, plus the two of you are like great friends now."
"I agree, and yet I do highly emphasize the was part."
Not caring to defend Lana or cheerleaders anymore, Clark debated on how much longer they should wait. There were a little less than fifty students currently watching the field, which wasn't a mass amount of people, but as the team got closer to the end of their practice the less people there would be. He could see as more people were now leaving than arriving.
"So do you want me to pull down their… skirts as well as the guys pants? For amusement sake, of course. Since you look so enthralled by the cheerleaders, and I'm sure Pete won't mind the view. And I don't want the audience to think that we pranksters are sexist." Not intending to carry out any female revealing stunts whatsoever, Clark only wanted to get one last annoyed rise out of Chloe. She really loved the women power thing.
Chloe took the bait. "Pervert."
"You're callingme a pervert?"
"Just get on with it already. I've been waiting with bated breath for so long now that my lips are turning blue." She had finished eating her more wholesome ham on rye sandwich and was currently leaning on Pete appearing to mimic deep boredom.
"Okay, so do you what me to start after a count down or something?"
Pete spoke in an announcer-like voice, "Ladies and gentlemen, in the next few moments, you will see a spectacle of epic apportions. A feat so rarely completed by but the bravest and most talented of souls. Please everyone silence, for our hero must concentrate on his coming task." Pete raised his finger to his lips and Chloe turned to stare intently on Clark. He grinned at his nutzoid friends.
Standing up Clark tensed his muscles and began to mentally psych himself up.
Pete and Chloe both began the countdown chant next to him. "10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2… 1, blast off!"
With his friends trying to watch his invisible super-fast movements, Clark almost flew down the steps and onto the field before reaching his first most prized target, Jack Swanson, who was just bending over in the middle of a group huddle. Gripping the spandex pants around the guy's waist, Clark quickly gave one jerk and the piece of clothing plus padding was no longer attached to Mr. Swanson body in any way. 'Hot pink g-string nice.'
Moving even faster, Clark took down the offensive and defensive tackle players before throwing his large handful of clothes to the side, no more women's panties, a few were going to be feeling a bit breezy in their nether regions soon, Chloe would be sure to like that. Next came the wide receivers, center, running back, punter, and kicker Clark was proud that the kicker was also one of the superstitious only his underwear resembled something more out of a S&M porno movie all black leather and metal studs. That sight almost made Clark abruptly stop back into real time to laugh.
X-ray vision kicking in and out Clark mentally cataloged where the rest of the players where positioned on the field.
He knew that he was fast, but Clark was unable to actually halt time so as he was flinging more clothes to the side, he gave a fleeting look towards Jack Swanson who was starting to react in slow motion. The horror on the guy's face was priceless. 'Faster.' Before the newest set of bright red pants could hit the ground he was back to shredding the rest of the dignity from the offensive linebackers and safety's. A couple more nudes and one more pair of white silk lace were exposed. Running out of time, Clark finished the rest of the team to reveal a scary pair of large granny panties before speeding back to the bleachers to join his gleeful friends. He'd almost broken a sweat.
"Oh, my God! Oh, my God! Clark, you're my superhero." Chloe was intent on trying to suffocate him in a tight bear hug while still staring fascinated at the football field. "It appears the rumors are true, plus so much more than what I could have dreamed of." She wiped an actual tear from her eye.
"I did my very best." He smiled proudly.
Clark watched as the whole student body seemed to be appearing out of nowhere to shout, laugh and generally gawk in amazement at the now mostly fleeing Crows. A couple guys who still had their self-respect, due to the fact of having worn normal men's boxer-briefs today, appeared to be staring into the mob accusingly, maybe attempting the find the culprit?
"They'll never in a million years find out it was us." Clark celebrated some more.
Jack Swanson was the first guy to escape back to their respective locker-room, and the delight at seeing him that humiliated made Clark gleefully snicker with his friends.
Pete whooped it up, jumping up and down and pointing at the madly scrambling football team in front of them. "I could have done without some of those visuals. But hell, pink thong, black leather and dirty grannies totally make up for it. Those guys are sick. I'm sure glad I didn't stay a part of the team long enough to have been assimilated into becoming a transsexual."
Clark was strangely bothered by that comment, "Yeah Pete, and you're such a man's man."
"Damn straight." Pete punched his chest as his nonstop laugher became a bit annoying.
Super-hearing did have it's downsides as well. Using it to randomly listen to the players, Clark was unfortunate to overhear a few comments made about them such as, 'faggots' and 'fairies' by some faceless male students. Shutting out the rude voices, he turned to smile back at Chloe who had been saying something to him.
"-only imagine how hurt their egos must be."
Trying his hardest to ignore the little voice in his head taunting him about right and wrong, Clark re-joined his friends to finish congratulating each other.
It wasn't long before Clark was back to keenly observing what was going on with what was left of the team while exultation and an evil sort of joy was fading fast within him. It took a full ten minutes for the field to clear of the rest of the vengeful looking players, who were sent to the showers by their coach. 'Showers?'
"Pete, the guys are going be showering any minute-"
"And what? You're pissed about missing out on all the male-flesh fun?" Chloe giggled.
"No! Remember the water?" Clark was beginning to feel guilty about picking on the same people twice in one day. "We're gonna be late to Biology, if you two don't stop laughing."
"Whoa, Clark what's the freak-out about? You do remember that this was all your idea?" Pete appeared generally confused.
"Yes, and I know exactly who to blame for it too." Clark stomped off wanting to get away from his accomplices. 'Maybe I shouldn't go back to class?' The little voice in his head got louder, insisting that he go whether he liked it or not. Frustrated with the turn of events, he grudgingly complied.
Biology was Clark's prison sentence for the day. None of the football players had shown up to class and Clark worried about how badly they had been affected by everything. Chloe and Pete arrived to join him in the back row just in time to hear the announcement over the intercom that someone had vandalized the hot water tank, which had caused an assortment of eye irritations and first degree burns to not only the football team but the girl's volleyball team as well. First degree burns all over their exposed bodies. 'Fuck!' From the whisperings, he heard it hadn't even made them purple. Someone next to him said that they almost appeared to be disease ridden with dark brown splotches all over. An added threat at the end of the message by the principle stated that once it was found out whom was responsible the person or persons involved would be suspended immediately and it would be discussed on whether or not expulsion was in order.
All this was entirely his fault. People had gotten hurt because he'd wanted to have fun and at the time he'd really not cared about whether it was harmless fun or not. He was a horrible person. A horrible, horrible person who was now lying on the floor heaving his guts out and sobbing as the Biology teacher stood spinning above him. He hated being weak and looking stupid in front of his classmates. Dragging his ass off the floor, Clark asked permission to go home saying that he may have drank some of the contaminated water by mistake as he swallowed back the nauseous feeling that was trying to overwhelm him again.
"Clark, do you want us to help you get home? I can drive you." Chloe ran out of the classroom with Pete on her heels behind him.
"No, I'll be fine in a couple minutes." Clark was surprisingly shaking with fatigue. "Look, I'm sorry guys for everything."
"Don't worry about it too much. You said that it's going to be Friday tomorrow again anyway? Hell, we all make mistakes." Pete appeared a little too chipper. Or was it because Clark's foul mood was making it seem that way?
"I thought you knew about this stuff." He frowned at Pete.
"I only watched my dad do it a couple of times but I never actually helped him with it. It's not something I'd usually ask about. Besides, remember what you said: the day will just repeat and everything will be good as new. "It was mostly fun, even though no one was supposed to get hurt. That's what sucks the most, and I was the one who came up with it." Pete patted Clark on the shoulder. "It looks like Chloe beat me pretty bad there. We should have just stuck to her idea."
Clark flinched away from Pete's seemingly uncaring attitude and shook his head suddenly wishing he hadn't said anything to them. "I can't believe- No, it was me, I was being selfish."
"Stop beating yourself up. From what you said, you would have gone nuts if you hadn't had some fun today." Chloe, looking way too serious, continued, "Do you want us to meet you later? At the Talon maybe? We could-"
"No. I'm fine." The idea of being alone again was sounding like a much better plan than hanging around with Pete and Chloe, who were now mostly grating on his nerves, for the rest of the day.
Saying his goodbyes, Clark left school on a much sourer note than he'd been hoping for that morning.
Unfortunately, other than the Torch, his Fortress of Solitude at home, and Lex's mansion, the only other place he intended to hang out at was the Talon, which left him with few options of where to go next.
The Torch was well torched and not wanting to go home or visit Lex yet he vaguely thought that having a chat with Lana at the Talon was the lesser of the quasi-evils. But, as he stood outside the front doors, he couldn't make himself cross over the threshold into more eternal talks that somehow ended up being all about her or before he was made to vocally confess his undying love for Lex again. Over the last week and a half, most of Lana's appeal had been lost to him. Especially after how bitchy she was to him the last time he'd seen her, and that had mostly been because she was jealous. Lana had been jealous about him and Lex making out? That was something to add to a long list of something's that Clark couldn't believe had happened to him on this mother of all Friday's.
Catching a glimpse of Lana heading towards his direction, Clark took off down the sidewalk at an inhuman pace. 'Right on, now I've been reduced to running and hiding from her.' Then again, since the first day he'd met her he'd always been either running away, hiding from, holding out on, disappointing, and generally being a crappy friend unless her life was in absolute peril. He really should make a habit to stop doing that whenever, if ever, life went back to normal. Stopping himself from going any further, Clark look heavenwards praying for divine intervention or rain, either one would be great as something different right about now.
Day 11 TBC in Part Three…
Once again thank you for your face-blushing replies. I have given up on my zine lady, can you believe she literally never wrote me back? Whatever. I'll be posing this story at the Smallville Slash archive in the next month or so. Plus other places. Hope you all are still enjoying my story. I had a ton of fun writing it.
Love, Liz