Chapter Two

"Hey man!" Pete Ross said when Clark Kent met him by the usual snack spot, a bench under a tree just outside the school building.The bench was perfect; Pete, Clark and Chloe could enjoy their snacks and still get back to their lockers with plenty of time. Chloe mentioned that it made sense that they were off to the sidelines from the rest of their classmates a few yards away in the Quad; they'd talk of the weirdness that saturated Smallville, and the three didn't want to be labeled like geeks or nerds. Clark smiled to his friend and did a quick tilt up of his head. Pete scooted over for his taller bigger friend.

"Whatcha got?" Clark Kent asked his best friend Pete Ross, pointing at Pete's brown paper sack. Clark already took out his snack.

Clark waited until Pete looked in the sack to use the heat vision he possessed to warm up the ham and cheese filled biscuit his mom made him for snack-time. Pete pulled out a Thermos and opened it.

"Protein shake," Pete said with a frown. "Football season. Starting Fullback."

Clark nodded and wished he was on the team. Whitney Fordman was the star of the team, an awesome quarterback, and who razzed Clark incessantly for not being on the team. Whitney razzed him so hard because he had seen Clark play all the sports so well in P.E. class. If Whitney was a captain for a P.E. team, he always selected Clark first to be on his team. Whitney knew he was being a pain to Clark. But he knew Clark was gifted sports-wise, although not gifted as he.

Clark knew he could be on the foootball team, any sports team, be the star at any position, but his father wouldn't let him accidently reveal that he had superhuman strength and speed, or any other powers and abilities he possessed. Plus, his father didn't want anyone getting hurt being in contact with Clark; Clark could be an immovable object and an unstoppable force. Clark just smiled at Pete, who wearing a SHS team Jacket, as Pete fought down a swallow of the drink. He really wanted to be a jock and wear a jacket, too. But the smell of the delicious snack brought him back. Clark showed his ham and cheese biscuit to Pete and Pete made a fake grab at it.

"Don't tempt me, bro!" Pete grimaced as Clark bit into the muffin with a flourish. "I'll trade my chalky drink for that biscuit any day of the week."

"I bet." Clark said after swallowing. Suddenly he turned his head. He tilted his neck and heard the familiar thump thump of Chloe's boots coming down the hallway inside the building. She was about ...30 seconds away, he calculated, and her stride was fast. Clark knew Chloe; she NEVER physically exerted herself. Something was up.

"Hurricane Chloe in approximently 10 seconds," Clark said nonchalently.

"You two make me laugh," Pete said with a chuckle. "You know when she's arriving, and she can't figure out how you depart."

Clark swallowed the next bite wrong and coughed. He sipped his orange juice and washed down the blockage. 10 seconds later, Chloe swung open the door with both hands and smiled at her boys. She was so amped that she actually ran over to them. She stood between them and waved her hands frantically so they could part; she wanted to sit between them. Clark and Pete scooted over.

"Why the raise in heart rate, Chloe?" Pete chided.

"Hey...I exercise," Chloe said as she sat down on the bench. She snuggled closer to Clark. "I just exercise My brain more, thats all. Besides...I do yoga."

"Yoga?" Pete said and made a grimace as he fought down another drink.

"Yes, yoga. It's enlightening," Chloe said and turned to Clark. "I'm now surprisingly flexible."

Clark looked at Chloe, and saw the challenge and the invite in her eyes. He was up for her challenge and accepted her invitation. Chloe was shocked that he didn't look away this time. He didn't blush like normal. Instead, he gazed back into her eyes. For the first time ever, Clark made Chloe blush. Clark smiled and breathed in the softsoap, shampoo, conditioner she used, the light scent of her perfume, the overwhelmingly sweet scent of her skin. Chloe grinned back, feeling warm in his vision. They looked at each other for a few more beats until Pete got sick of their unspoken, unacted-upon lust for each other. "So, Chloe... why did you run?"

"Oh," Chloe said and pulled away from Clark's gaze. She amped up again, but Clark wasn't the reason this time. She ripped out the folded poster from her ever-present knapsack. She unfolded the poster and grinned. "This!"

Clark and Pete leaned back and looked at each other as Chloe stared at the circus poster. Chloe usually had a cool "meteor freak" lead; "meteor freaks" was Chloe's term for people that were somehow affected by the meteors that had struck Smallville 12 years before. The people, usually teens, had gained powers that they used for evil purposes. Chloe, Clark and Pete not only investigated them, but tracked them down and defeated them. Or rather, Chloe and Pete were learning, Clark stopped the "freaks" by himself.

"You weren't this excited about the carnival last year," Clark said. Pete laughed.

"I'm excited about Beppo, smartie!" Chloe elbowed Clark in the ribs. Clark faked a wince.

"What's the big deal?" Pete said, looking closer. If something excited Chloe, it had to be weird, interesting or both. Clark understood that about Chloe, too, and looked at the poster, searching for the weirdness.

"Just look at him," Chloe marveled. "Isn't he just...awesome?"

Clark and Pete looked at the chimp. They didn't pay attention to the posters much since there was rarely anything new added to the posters. They leaned back on the bench, looked, and nodded at each other: Beppo was weirdly awesome.

"Maybe Beppo is a mutant?" Pete asked and burped. Chloe held her nose and Clark buried his nose in Chloe's arm and breathed her in even more. It was intoxicating to Clark; Chloe looked at him and laughed as she thought he was just shielding himself.

"Gross, Pete," Chloe said. "And really? Mutant? That's comic book stuff."

"Maybe Beppo is the start of a new species?" Clark said, slowly puilling himself from Chloe's arm. She always smelled really good.

"Good idea!" Chloe smiled. That idea was tops on her list. Heck she thought, Clark is always on the top of her lists. "Hey...what if Beppo was a humanzee?"

"Humanzee?" Pete said, bravely taking another drink. 'I better get bigger, stronger, faster from this crap,' he thought.

"You know," Chloe said as she giggled at the face Pete made swallowing. "A human/chimpanzee hybrid."

"Yuck...Now who's gross?" Pete said, and Clark nodded.

"A reporter has to have an open mind," Chloe reminded her two friends. She looked at Clark and smiled. "My mind is very open to possiblities and options."

"Umm." Clark blushed to Chloe's heart's joy; she loved making him blush. "Humanzee...Now I remember! I saw something on the Discovery channel about a chimp like this," Clark revealed. "I think his name was Oliver."

"Really?" Chloe looked over. Clark always seemed to surprise her. But she had been to his house, to his loft in the barn, and seen his wide array of books on varied subjects. He looked like a cute farm boy, but she had a feeling he was so much more. "Tell!"

"Well...I don't remember everything," Clark said to Chloe and she was crestfallen. "But, I know we could find more info in the Torch."