Six Months Later

I joined the football team this year. Against better judgment, I told my dad that I had to give this a chance. If there was anything else that I could do that I freely chose; it could at least be this.

That's what I did.

My life has gone bizarre since then. A bunch of crazy cheerleaders pumped their boyfriends full of pheromones, the repercussions of which benched the lead quarterback for the rest of the season, leaving me to take up the lead.

Six months later, a scout from Metropolis University offered to shadow me around campus, showing me my options for the future.

It was all pretty overwhelming. The players on the team took me in without question. The college girls showered me with gifts and promises.

It was overwhelming all right, overwhelming and surreal until…

When I was alone with… two females, I fell on the bed uncomfortably as they kiss me in a manner I didn't find at all sexy. Then, my hearing picked up a strange sound coming in the room that neither he, nor his companions, was making.

I focused on the closet in front of me and my x-ray detects an intruder. I make up a bad excuse about wanting some food and water to get them to leave.

I opened the door to find… oh my God. I close the door immediately and in a matter of seconds, the room is once again occupied by the sorority girls.

"Hi Clark, we brought some friends"

"Actually, um… you think you can get me some more, I'm really very hungry," I say, thinking something fast. Not my best work, certainly not my last.

The girls stare at him in disappointment before leaving again. Once they were gone, I turn back around and opened the door.

"Lois! What are you doing here?"

She gets out of her cramped space. "I can ask you the same question, but it seems fairly obvious… Hef." She huffed. "Besides, I go to school here, remember"

"You just break into people's places now?"

"Coop's girlfriend wasn't here so I thought I'd take a look around." She holds up the girlfriend's diary. "She's not Hemingway, but still I…"

Clark interrupts but not before thinking 'Who the hell is Coop?'

"We gotta go before they catch us"

Metropolis General

The world doesn't want to give me a break. I thought I saw the last of Lois Lane six months ago, but it seems like we always finds ourselves in peculiar situations. Like right now for example.

A couple of days ago, Lois attended a frat party. She drank. She left. Naturally, she was followed. Some player tried to hit on her and she knocked him down a peg or two. The next day, officers handcuffed her and charged her for assault and battery.

I knew then that something was up.

"I told you to wait outside"

"I don't do well with waiting," she tells me. She's annoyed again.

"I can handle this"

"Like hell you can." I groaned and she continued. "Look, all I did was kick Coop on his ass; he was perfectly healthy and mobile when I left him. Now he's paralyzed and if he dies, I'll be accused of manslaughter"

"What is she doing here?" Geoff approaches Lois and me in a defensive tone. I hurriedly put myself between them.

"She's with me." Lois throws me a look and I silently give her a look to just 'work with it.'

Geoff pulls on my arms and takes me aside.

"She's trouble, Clark. You shouldn't be around her"

Lois could tell we were talking about her and intercedes. "Ok, look, if you're gonna say something; just say it to my face 'cause I have a pet peeve about people talking behind my back." She briefly glances at me and I give her a 'give me a break' look.

Dormitories

After attending Coop's wake, I ran to find Lois. I knock on her door but found it unlocked. I opened it slightly. I didn't want to add more years to my sentence in the dog house than there already was.

"Lois?"

"In here," she says from another room.

Walking in, "Hey, I think I know what happened to Coop." He caught sight of her bathroom door open and her in a white towel. I spin around almost at light speed. "I'm sorry… I… um…"

I could feel Lois watching me squirm. Damn her.

"You were saying something," she says and I try my hardest to stop my heart from beating too fast.

"Are… are you decent?"

She laughs out loud and I roll my eyes at her. She's the only one I ever have to do that gesture to on several occasions.

"Well!" I urged.

"Turn around, Smallville. I'm decent." She calls me by the nickname, but I still wasn't sure if I was back in her good graces. "So tell me, what do you got?"

I inhale deeply. Here goes nothing; she'll think I'm crazy.

"Geoff is trading his urine from another student to pass the physicals for Football. I think he's a meteor freak. I saw him touch the person and he went limp fast"

Lois sighed and took a seat on one of her stools. "Clark." She massaged her forehead with her fingers. "As easily as your town believes these things, it's going to take a lot more than that to charge him with murder"

"Meteor freaks are unpredictable. I got to stop him myself before he hurts anyone else"

"With what, your great fashion sense?"

Exasperated, "I'm serious, Lois"

"So am I." She puts on her coat and heads to the door. "Find Geoff, neutralize him or something," she instructed.

I look at her with a bit of concern. "What about you?"

"I'm going to have a talk with Mr. Peabody and see if I could get a confession out of him"

I grabbed her hand and that strange feeling passed between us again. This time, Lois didn't jerk her hand away. "Be careful Lois." I really meant it and then I let her go.

I'm beginning to feel that it's getting harder every time I did so.

Smallville, Kansas

"I want to believe that I could go out there and play football like any other normal college kid, but the fact is, I have powers that no other athlete has"

I'm sitting in the kitchen, talking to my parents about everything that happened during my visit in Met-U. Geoff kidnapped Lois and I called Chloe for help in finding her. As soon as I found her location, I convinced Geoff to tell me where she is and I thankfully saved her in time.

I've never been more scared than I was when I saw her submerged in water.

I thought I had lost her… again.

And then…

You know that saying, 'you live and you learn?' Well, I definitely lived and learned, and I did so the hard way.

Walking off that field, seeing my dream disappear with every step I took walking out of that stadium – I realized – I will never be normal.

My powers are my greatest strength, but it's also my biggest weakness. I don't know if I have the belief that one day I'll be able to balance it all.

"Son, whatever happens. We'll make it work. You'll go to college"

I weakly smile at my dad. It took me years to finally understand why he discouraged me from playing football, I realize now that he did so I didn't feel the burnt of missing the game.

I feel my mother's arms wrap around me like a warm blanket. She always knew how to make me feel safe, but that feeling of loneliness soon lingered above my thoughts. My mom and dad won't always be there for me.

One day, I'll truly be a lone.

"Knock, knock. You should thin about putting up a door or something. I don't know, maybe it's a city thing but where I come from we like to have a little privacy."

My parents, I included looks at her in surprise. "Lois, what are you doing here?"

"I wanted to thank you"

Mom and dad left quietly to give me and Lois some time alone. I glance gratefully at them.

"Thank me?"

"Look Clark, I don't know how you did it but if it weren't for you I'd be at the bottom of the Mississippi right about now. Thanks"

"I'm just glad you're okay." And again, I really mean what I say even when she's shooting me down.

"Umm…" I stand around nervously again, it's an action I have to start working on relieving if I'm ever going to get anywhere in the world. "About what happened last year, I want you to know that I'm really sorry"

"I know," she nods in understanding and I'm left wondering if I missed something.

"Then why the cold shoulder?"

"Is that what you think I was doing?"

"It was plain as day"

"It's all part of my master plan," she teased. I smirk.

Is she flirting with me?

"What's your favorite thing in the world?" she asks me, her green eyes looking at my blue once again. And it stayed there, waiting.

"The stars," I reveal.

She smiled and I instinctively smiled back.

"What about you?" I ask her.

She looks high above her head, staring at the ceiling before she answered.

"To fly"

I watch her leave the house and get in her car. Unlike before, she did turn back and look at me. And I look at her in return. Maybe the world won't be such a lonely place after all.

To be continued…