Chapter 26
Martha and Jonathon were in the kitchen the next morning. Jonathon was on the phone while Martha cooked pancakes and sausages for breakfast.
"You're kidding?" Jonathon said to the phone. "Oh. Thank you."
"What's wrong?" Martha asked him as he hung up the phone.
"That was the credit card company," Jonathon replied. "They were calling to confirm some charges made to our credit cards last night."
Neither Jonathon or Martha had any idea what that was about. Then they both heard some loud noise coming from the barn. The both headed out their to investigate.
Up in her loft in the barn, Lana was listening to loud music from MTV pumped through a very expensive looking home theatre. She was flopped out on a leather couch. A leather jacket sat on her old desk.
"Lana, where did you get all this?" her mother demanded above the noise of the music.
"Discount Eddies in Metropolis," Lana replied. "Open all night."
"You mean to tell, you're telling," Jonathon tried to say but he could get his point across over the music.
Lana grabbed the remote and muted it.
"You mean to tell me that you bought all this junk?" Jonathon asked angrily.
"Yeah," Lana replied flatly. "I figured it was time I had all the cool stuff everyone else has."
"Lana Kent you stole from us," Jonathon said.
"No," Lana said. "I used your credit cards. What's the big deal? we don't have to pay for it right away."
"I'll tell you the big deal," Jonathon said furiously. "The big deal is that you're gonna take all this garbage back right now c'mon."
"Yeah right," Lana tested.
"Yeah, right." Jonathon affirmed. "And then after you've done that you and I are gonna sit down and have a nice long conversation about this new attitude that you've developed recently."
Lana grabbed the leather jacket from off the floor and put it on.
"Well dad you can talk all you want," she said. "I'm out of here."
There was nothing that Martha or Jonathon Kent could do to stop their daughter. She jumped out of the loft and landed on the ground beside Jonathon's motorcycle. She immediately hopped on and pulled out a pair of sunglasses from in her jacket's pocket. After putting them on she started the motorcycle up and drove off, ignoring the shouts from her parents to do otherwise.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
When Lana pulled up to school riding a motorcycle nobody could believe it, least of all Chloe, Pete and Clark.
"Okay what planet is the girl from and what did she do with Lana?" Chloe asked.
They went to meet their friend as she parked the motorcycle.
"So much for the shy and retiring Lana Kent," Clark commented.
"Just going for a ride to school," Lana said. "Say the word and I'll take you on a road trip."
The look on Pete's face was a combination of shock and something similar to glee, until he realized that she was talking to Clark.
The school bell ring and Chloe and Clark went off to class.
"You know I always knew you were a hot chick," Pete said. "But this just takes it to a whole new level. What's wrong with this picture?"
"People change Pete," Lana replied.
A red truck pulled up into the parking lot. It was Jonathon Kent.
"Lana, I'd like a word with you please," Jonathon said.
"I can't right now," Lana said.
Jonathon got out of the truck barely able to contain his rage.
"Get in the truck Lana," Jonathon ordered between gritted teeth.
"Give me one good reason why I should?" Lana asked as she walked past him.
Jonathon grabbed her by the arm and spun her around, "Because I am your father and I just told you to get in the truck." Jonathon said angrily.
"You're not my father," Lana said to him. "You never were."
She shoved him roughly and he flew back and banged into the truck. Lana walked off to class not even bothering to look back.
"You alright sir?" Pete asked rushing to Jonathon's aid.
Jonathon was physically going to be alright but inside he felt that his pride was rather damaged.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Pete went to meet Chloe in the Torch office after school
"Pete," Chloe said elatedly as he came through the door. "You are not gonna believe what I found out. Our el cheapo class rings are in fact, fake."
Pete really wasn't at all worried about that topic at the moment. "Chloe, there's something really wrong with Clark."
"More than usual?" Chloe asked.
"Last night at the talon, the motorcycle, other stuff." Pete replied picking up a weird rock thing that was on Chloe's desk.
"What kind of other stuff?" Chloe inquired.
"The kind of stuff that has Mister and Mrs. Kent calling my house," Pete answered. "They're really worried like they think he's on drugs or something."
"Clark would have to be on drugs to be on drugs," Chloe said stating the blatantly obvious. "Uh, be careful with that."
She grabbed the rock thing away from Pete and put it back down on her desk.
"Well what is it anyway?" Pete asked.
"My exposé," Chloe replied. "See the school rings, they're a rip off. The jewellery company was substituting worthless meteor rocks for rubies to save money."
"Uh Chloe, the rings are red, meteor rocks are green." Pete said.
"Not the lode they found near Hob's Pond," Chloe replied pick up the rock thing once again. "Note the red vein."
Pete immediately had an idea as to what was affecting Lana. He sat the rock formation down on Chloe desk and ran out of the office leaving Chloe rather stunned and confused.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Pete had gone to the Kent's house and explained Chloe's discovery of the red meteor rock.
"Chloe's going to force a recall because of this stuff," Pete said.
"You think that's what's causing Lana's behaviour?" Jonathon asked.
"Well that's when it all started; right after she slipped on the ring." Pete replied.
"Well if the green rocks affect Lana physically maybe the red meteor rocks affect her emotionally." Martha said.
"It would sure explain her personality change," Jonathon agreed.
"The longer she's exposed to the green meteor rocks the worse she gets, if the same is true for the red one… god help us all." Martha said ominously.
"We've gotta find him and we've gotta get that ring back," Jonathon said.
"Well how are you going to do that?" Martha asked.
"I've got an idea," Pete piped up.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Please Read Over:
Yay, Pete has come to the rescue. Too bad he's such a boring character. Well I hoped you liked biker Lana because she'll be gone by the next chapter. And after that, that is where it really gets interesting, because that's when I throw in my own tangents.
Just another one of the usual reminders that if you want to talk to me about the story or Smallville in general. Go on IRC to the otherside servers, irc. (Port 7000) or irc. (Port 7000), channel #smallville. Hope to see some people there. If you're looking for an IRC client I would recommend X-Chat although there are many other options out there. Really, please go there to discuss any questions answers will be a lot more direct. That and it gets kind of boring talking to the same two people all the time, I need fresh opinions. Look forward to seeing some of you there.