Chapter 2

"Meet us back here at 3." Jonathan said. "Clark look after your sister."

"Course dad." Clark said. His tone spoke his underlying meaning. He hardly needed to be told to look after Dawn. That was his job every time they went into town and went off without their parents. Dawn of course had already leaped out of the back of the truck, and was impatiently bouncing in place.

"C'mon Clark!" she said. "We gotta get there in time to get pop-corn!"

Clark grinned, hefting his little sister up for a piggy back. "Then we'd better not rely on your short legs." He said.

"Hey!" she retorted, smacking him in the back of the head.

"No fighting you two." Martha chided.

Dawn just giggled as Clark headed for the Talon. "How old is the Talon?" Dawn asked.

"I'm not sure." Her brother answered. "But dad says he used to come to the movies here."

"So, really old then."

Clark laughed. "I'm telling Dad you said that."

"No way! You do and I tell mom you snuck a cookie last night."

"Hey! You were supposed to be asleep."

"So were you." They had reached a draw so they stopped arguing. "Now put me down." Dawn said. "I'm way too old to be getting piggy back rides to the movies."

Clark smirked and set her down. He knew the real reason she wanted him to put her down. She didn't want Pete to see her like that. He'd released her just in time it seemed. They rounded the corner and found Pete and Chloe already arrived, waiting for them.

"Hey Dawnie!" Chloe chirped, snapping a picture of the girl.

"No fair!" she protested. "I wasn't ready!"

"Those are the best kinds of pictures." Chloe said. "Candid shots."

Pete just rolled his eyes. "Girl just can't stop with the reporter talk. 'Sup Clark, we were beginning to think you weren't coming."

Clark shrugged. "Dawn wanted to make an entrance."

"Oh whatever Mr. Walk Don't Run."

Chloe and Pete laughed at the two's exchange. They never could stop ribbing each other, and yet neither seemed to ruffle the other's feathers too badly. As only children, they felt a bit of envy for the connection between the two.

"C'mon Dawn," Pete said. "I'll buy you a coke for putting up with the big lug."

"Large?"

"No way." Her older brother insisted. "Remember last time? You had to go to the bathroom in the middle of the movie."

Dawn sulked, but couldn't argue the point. "Fine. Small. But I get to hold the popcorn."

"Just don't eat it all before the rest of us get some. Again." Clark said.

Dawn kicked him in the shin.

Dawn skipped out of the movie theater, giggling. "What kind of twisted mortal are you?" she quoted. "Vampires are so cool."

Clark and the others followed. "Great." Pete said. "Now your sister's gonna turn into one of those goth kids."

Chloe smirked. "And here I always pictured her getting a Mohawk and being a punk."

"Ew." Dawn said. "What's goth?"

Clark shot Pete a look. "Thanks Pete now I have to try to explain that."

"Just do what my parents do whenever I asked them a problem question." Pete said. "Tell her you'll tell her when she's older."

"Standing right here." The subject of their conversation said huffily.

Lana walked up behind them. "Are they ignoring you again Dawn?" she asked.

Clark immediately spun, losing his balance a bit but steadying himself. Dawn sighed, and Lana suddenly looked uncomfortable. Then Whitney came out of the store they were just in, and Dawn rolled her eyes. She didn't pay any attention to what they said. She'd heard it all before. Clark would pretend he didn't have a crush on her, Whitney would be a jerk because he played football and was a year older than everyone else, and Chloe and Pete would watch.

She didn't want to. Instead, she wandered over in front of the ice-cream shop next door and peered in, trying to decide what flavor she wanted. She was determined to try all of Baskin Robin's 31 flavors.

"Whatcha doin'?" Dawn turned with a gasp. A scruffy older man was standing behind her, unshaven, his tie loose and his hair wild. "What are you doing here? You can't loiter. There's no loitering." He advanced on her, eyes boring into his. She backed away. "That's why I'm a cat. Quiet. See, cat's in the cupboard," He made scratching motions with his hands. "But they find you there anyway, and it hurts." Dawn's back hit the wall, no where else to go. Her eyes widened as he loomed over her and he started to cry. "Please, make it stop." Suddenly he stopped and seized her shoulder. "Shut up, shut up, they'll hear you!"

"Clar-" she tried to call, but he put a finger on her lips, shocking her into silence.

"I know you. Curds and whey. I know what you are. You...don't...belong...here."

Dawn shook her head, on the verge of tears herself. Strangely enough, it was Whitney who came to her rescue. He was a step before Clark, grabbing the man and shoving him away.

"Hey," Whitney growled, "Back off man."

Clark swept Dawn up in his arms, and she clung to him, fighting back tears. She was ten years old! She was too old to cry!

"Clark," Jonathan said, "How could you leave your sister alone like that? She could have been hurt!"

Sheepishly, Clark looked down. "I only turned my back for a minute, I didn't think she'd wander off."

The man who'd accosted Dawn was being loaded into an ambulance, still babbling, while the sheriff took Whitney's statement.

"I'm fine Mom." Dawn sniffed, as Martha hugged her. "It wasn't Clark's fault, I didn't tell him where I was going."

Jonathan's stern face softened at both Dawn's words, and the devastated look on his son's face. "I know you didn't mean for this to happen son. You've always been very responsible when it comes to Dawn."

"Figures that the one time Clark does turn his back and Dawn wanders off that's when the weirdos come out." Pete commented.

"That's not just any weirdo." Chloe said, her eyes narrowed with suspicion. "That's Mr. Wheeler."

"Who?" almost everyone asked.

"Mr. Wheeler," Chloe repeated, "The High School Janitor. I didn't recognize him at first without the jumpsuit."

Whitney looked more carefully at the man's face before the ambulance closed it's doors. "Hey yeah! How do you know Mr. Wheeler?"

Chloe shrugged. "I'm taking some advanced classes in the High School, I've met him a few times."

"That's weird." The football player said, his expression starting to mirror Chloe's. "I never figured him for a nut job. He seemed pretty together for an old dude."

"Uh oh." Pete muttered to Clark. "She's got that Nancy Drew look on her face."

To Be Continued…