Disclaimer: I don't own "Smallville"
Chapter 12: Leech
Jealousy. A characterization in a person who envies another for a quality they have. This is sort of what our story this time is based on.You may not have noticed, but there is a little bit of jealousy going on in the Kent family. And it's coming from inside a little girl who has a very high grade in English classes: Sarah Marie Kent. Oh sure, you'd think she wasn't jealous of her brother, Clark Kent, at all. But haven't you ever wished you could run real fast, see through things, and lift heavy things? I have, but let's not get talking about me here. You see, Sarah's gonna realize real soon how dangerous it would be to have the same powers Clark had. It all started with another field trip with Junior High and High School combined. They were all gonna go on a rock hunt to learn about geology. Much to their dismay, our trio of troublemakers (AKA: Brianna, Allison, and Sarah) had their class chaperoned by Miss Wormwood, and she split them up so they wouldn't cause any "trouble". She put Allison with Clark and Pete, Brianna with Chloe and Lana, and since nobody wanted to be with him, Sarah got put with one of the teachers son, Eric Summers. He really didn't pay any much attention to the assignment, because the day was so foggy and getting ready for a rainy night, his glasses kept fogging up.
"Okay people!" shouted Mr. Summers over the mass crowd of students. "You've got 15 minutes. A storm's on its way and I want to be on the road before it hits,"
"How many more rocks do we have to find?" asked Pete as Brianna and Clark looked at their rock check list.
"Two," Clark answered. "Rose quartz and meteor rock,"
"All right, let's see who can find it first,"
Pete walked away from his two friends and went to go find one of the rocks. With a pick he started hacking away at the dirt with no luck. Brianna and Clark didn't need luck. They had resources. Brianna watched with interest as Clark used his X-Ray vision to search for one of the rocks. While she made sure no one was looking, Clark plunged his fist into the dirt, and pulled out an ordinary rock. But I've always been taught that something that's ordinary on the outside, can be beautiful on the inside. True enough, when Clark pulled the rock in half, inside were millions of awe-inspiring crystal. Brianna smiled at it's beauty as Clark held it up for Pete.
"Make that one," Brianna said.
Pete turned around, and grinned as he saw the rock.
"You're a regular rock hound Clark," he commented.
Clark smiled, but then he felt sick inside. He knew that feeling. He looked at his hand, and the veins inside started to bulge a sickly green color.
"Hi Clark," said a voice.
Clark turned around, and saw Lana Lang come up to him, with a smile on her face as usual. She was wearing her meteor necklace
"Hi Lana," Clark tried to hide the pain.
"When is the whole geological scavenger hunt over?" griped Chloe as she and Allison slid down a dirt hill.
"Yeah," Allison agreed.
"Not having much luck?" asked Brianna.
Lana winced in a playful way.
"Some people are doing a little more ranting than digging," she commented
"We're sorry," Chloe said. "But I think Allison and I agree that geology is more pointless than algebra,"
"Um..."Allison said. "I don't take Algebra yet, Chloe. But you're right. We could order these rocks online, vacuum sealed,"
While all of this was happening, Sarah was getting bored out of her mind. Eric wouldn't help her with any of the rock stuff. All he found was a meteor rock, and while she was looking for a rose quartz, he ran off with it to some girl.
"Hey Holly," he greeted the blonde haired girl. "You want a piece of meteor rock?"
"Oh," she said. "I've got it checked off already. Thanks anyway,"
Sarah rolled her eyes. Eric wasn't helping her at all, and it just wasn't fair. Besides Holly, the girl Eric was talking to, was a football players girlfriend, named Brent, who just happened to be real close by.
"Hey Brent!" Sarah cupped her hand to her mouth.
Brent, with an annoyed look on his face, looked at the farm girl. What would a sixth grader want? Well, this sixth grader had some very valuable information. Sarah innocently pointed into the direction Holly was talking to Eric. He immedietly took notice of this, and walked toward them, but not before giving the girl a five dollar bill.
"Yes!" Sarah whispered to herself as she put it in her coat pocket.
"Hey loser!" Brent snapped at Eric. "Stop hitting on my girlfriend. All right? Next time, I'm gonna knock your rocks into the next county,"
"I'd like to see you try," Erics dared.
"Oh yeah?"
Things were starting to look good. Pretending to still work, Sarah glanced at what was happening. But it was all over. Mr. Summers, Eric's dad, was walking up to them. Brent grumbled as he wrapped an arm around his girlfriend.
"Lucky your daddy's a teacher," he said as he turned away.
"Eric," Mr. Summers addressed his son like addressing a private in the army. "How many samples have you collected?...Or how many samples has your partner collected?"
Finally! Someone has noticed this slavery! Eric looked down at his feet.
"Just a couple," he answered. "...My glasses keep fogging up,"
"Get with the program, Eric!"
"Dad..."
Mr. Summers gave him a look.
"It's Mr.Summers at school," he reminded sharply. "...You and your partner have ten minutes to complete this assignment. You better find every rock,"
As Mr. Summers turned around, Eric gave his father a look behind his back, and put his headphones on, walking away. He walked past Sarah, who had just finished finding a meteor rock, the last on her list.
"Better keep this away from Clark," she said as she threw it in her bag.
10 minutes later, every freshman and sixth grade student was on the bus. Sarah was sitting with Clark, while beside them Brianna and Allison were playing a hand game. Pete and Chloe were behind them looking at the rocks they've collected. Sarah gave her bag of rocks to Eric. Since she had to do all the work, she gave him the job of watching the rocks. Mr. Summers came up into the bus and tapped the farm-girl on the shoulder.
"Have you seen Eric?" he asked her. "Apparently, he's gotten himself lost,"
Sarah knitted her eyebrows.
"I'm pretty sure he was with me when we were lining up to get on the bus," she explained. "Would you like me to go look for him?"
"Not without someone from the high school class to go with you," Mr. Summers seemed it was okay.
"I'll go with her," Clark volunteered as he and his sister got up.
Mr.Summers seemed to be all right with the two farm kids looking for his son, and let them off the bus. But once they were off, they grinned at each other. You readers know what this means. After they were out of range of view from the bus, Sarah was put on Clark's shoulders like the rest of the times, and supersped back into the wood. When they reached a clearing that had a bridge, they found Eric standing at the edge, holding a meteor rock over the dam, headphones on. Sarah jumped off of her brothers shoulders, and they both started yelling his name.
"Eric!" Sarah shouted over the howling wind, as she was picking up the bag of rocks Eric had put down.
Eric didn't seem to hear the call. Suddenly, Clark started growing sick. They had just now noticed the meteor rock in Eric's hand. Whatever he was doing with it, it didn't look good. Sarah figued since she was the one without a lethal reaction to meteor rocks, decided to go get Eric. But when she walked up to him, and tugged on his jacket a little bit, lightning struck near where they were. The rumbling caused them to fell over. Sarah was still hanging on to Eric's jacket, and before she could let go, she was already falling with Eric and the bag of rocks. Clark supersped to the edge, and caught the handle of the rock bag, while Sraah was holding onto Eric's hand, and the other end of the bag. As he tried to pull them up, lightning struck near them again, but this time contacting with Clark. As the current passed through them, a power flowed through Sarah and Eric's body. Once the power surge stopped, Clark finally pulled Sarah and Eric up to the ledge, and Sarah clung onto Clark as if she was still hanging from the edge.
Brianna and Allison were still playing hand games on the bus when it started to rain. You know, like the ones you play in elementary school when you were in the 1st grade. They were having fun, while Pete, Chloe, Lana, and Whitney watched them with amusing smiles. This is a form of childlike innocence: One that we often see in our trio's personalities. Lana was laughing as they were saying rhymes to each other in unison, but caught something at the corner of her eye. Eric was coming back, but behind them was Clark carrying his little sister, who was clinging on to him.
"Mr. Summers!" she shouted for the teachers attention.
Mr. Summers looked up from his clipboard and found his son and the Kent kids coming on the bus. Seeing the little Kent whimpering in fright, everyone in the gang started questions.
"Is she okay?" asked Brianna getting up from her seat.
"What happened?" panicked Allison.
"She's fine you guys," Clark calmed them down a bit as they went past their seat.
As Eric sat in the front having a talk about what happened to his father, Clark and Sarah sat down in the back, and the bus started again.
"You okay?" Clark asked as Sarah wiped leftover tears.
Sarah nodded.
"Tell you the truth, I feel weird," she said.
Clark knitted his eyebrows.
"Yeah," he said thinking. "Me too,"
The next morning, everything seemed perfectly fine. Sarah woke up feeling better, and thought she was well enough to go to school. It was gonna be cold outside for the whole day, not to mention a little humid due to the previous rainy night.Putting her hair up in a light ponytail, she slid down the bainster to the kitchen where her mother was pouring some orange juice. She caught her jumping off the end of the banister, and gave her a disapproving look.
"You know the rules," she said. "No sliding on the banister. That thing is as old as the house,"
"Why can't we just get a new one?" asked Sarah as she sat down at the table.
"You know why. Your father and I are still having financial problems with the farm, and until we get it under control, we're on a tight budget,"
Sarah groaned as her mother gave her some orange juice, and took a sip from it.
"But other than that," Martha smiled. "You seem to be doing a lot better than yesterday,"
"Thanks," Sarah said.
"Martha!" shouted Jonathon from outside. "You better come out here!"
"I'll be out there in a minute!...Sarah, why don't you go ahead and get ready for school?"
Sarah nodded and got everything packed in her backpack. Come to think of it lately, she has been feeling better than ever in the last few hours. She was feeling strangely strong, and confident. Shrugging, she decided maybe it was just the start of a new day. Walking outside however, she saw her parents and Clark sitting on the porch. Oddly, something unusal was happening. Clark's nose was bleeding.
"What happened?" she asked.
"It's all right, sport," Jonathon reassured her.
"Sarah," Clark started. "Do you feel any different?"
Sarah shrugged.
"Not exactly," she said.
Since there seemed to be nothing to worry about, Sarah waved bye to her parents and Clark and hurried to the bus. Sitting with Brianna and Allison they started to talk.
"You feel any better?" Allison asked.
"Yeah," Sarah smiled.
"Hey, Sarah..." Brianna said as she looked out the window.
"Yeah?"
"What's with Clark?"
Sarah furrowed her eyebrows, and looked back as the us started to move. Clark was standing on the dirt road looking back at them. The girls waited for him to superspeed out of sight, but he didn't. Something odd was going on in Smallville.
"Come on Sarah!" exclaimed Allison as they walked through the busy halls of Smallville Jr. High. "What's happening with Clark?"
"I don't know," Sarah shrugged as they reached her locker. "One minute he's breaking rocks in half, and the next his nose is bleeding,"
"Oh," Brianna shrugged. "OK,"
Sarah stopped putting her books away in her locker, looked at Allison, and back at Brianna. Her face was a look of total confusion.
"What?" she asked. "Why are you looking at me like that?"
"Brianna, you of all people should know that Clark's nose doesn't bleed much," Sarah said. "You know he's not...normal,"
Brianna then realized her stupidiy about this certain subject and slapped herself on the forehead.
"Ugh!" she exclaimed. "I keep forgetting I live in Smallville for some bizzare reason,"
"Well, where did you think you lived?" Allison joked. "Gotham?"
"Shut up,"
As they continued to argue, Sarah was just finishing getting her books ready for her first class. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Logan closing his locker nad walking past her. For the past month or so, she had been developing a crush on him, and it was growing every time she saw him. Allison was the only one who knew about this. She tried to get her to make the first move, but come on! They're in Junior High. They can wait until they're in High School...unfortunetly, no one's gonna wait about this. Junior High can get pretty nasty. Believe me, I know from experience...especially seventh grade. So back on track here, after Brianna said good-bye to her friends, Allison noticed the look on Sarah's face. It was the kind of look you get, you know, all gooey-mushy-lovey-dovey stuff. She laughed.
"Are you gonna get that look everytime he walks past you?" she asked.
"No," Sarah lied, finally coming back into the real world.
"You know," Allison and Sarah started walking to their first class. "If you like the guy so much, why don't you just ask him out?"
"No,"
"Why?"
"You know my dad. I'm not allowed to date until I'm 16,"
"...Bummer. Well from the way I see it you have two options. A: Defy your dad's rule, and ask him out,"
Sarah laughed as they sat down in the classroom they arrived in.
"What's the second option?" she asked.
"FORGET ABOUT THE GUY!" Allison exclaimed.
Later that day, the girls met up in gym class. Again, they were to be combined with the high school class. When the junior high class got there, the high school kids were warming up by the track. Some of the kids groaned. This could only mean one thing: Racing. One junior high student against a high school student was an instant recipe for humiliation. Racing with a high school student makes you look slow and dumb, no matter how hard you try. Me, I can't run fast to save my life, but let's get to the chase here. Something was about to be recorded in Smallville Junior High History.
"All right everyone," the coach said. "We're doing races today, just for the heck of it,"
The high school kids let out excited whoops, while the junior high started wimpering. Brianna, Allison, and Sarah just groaned. Hopefully, they'll get paired up with Clark, or Pete so they can go easy on them. Since Brianna's last name started with an A, she had to go first. Needless to say, she lost terribly.
"That so doesn't count!" she had said when she came back to her friends. "The guy they paired me up with was a track runner. His legs were flailing about as if they were independent from his body!"
Allison rolled her eyes as she went next. Unlike Brianna however, she only lost by a couple of seconds. She thought the guy she went against with was going easy on her, but it turns out he was just slow. Feeling a bit proud of herself, she acted like she was the Queen of Sheba, until it was Sarah's turn to go up. Luckily, she was paired up with Clark so she would be all right. Heh. Boy, that girl is gonna find out how lucky she was that day. When the coach blew his whistle, the two of them were at it neck to neck. Now this was rare for Sarah, because Clark was the fastest person in the world, and he would already be a few feet ahead of her. This was odd. A few seconds after they started, Sarah was already a couple of yards away from him. Some of the Junior High kids started to get hope, and started cheering her on. Though it was thought to be impossible, Sarah won.
After gym class with the high school students, Brianna and Allison caught up with Sarah in Science Class.
"Sarah, that was amazing!" Allison exclaimed. "I don't know what to say. You've made Junior High history!"
"It's not all that amazing," Sarah protested. "Clark was probably just being easy, since he can run faster than anyone,"
"Shh," Brianna whispered. "The Worm's coming,"
Everyone was silent as Miss Wormwood came in, closing the door behind her. Basically, it seemed like it would just another ordinary Science Class...Ha! Not today. Besides the race that took place that day, another odd thing happened. Sarah started getting a dull headache. Also trying to pay attention, she tried to get distracted from the pain, but it was growing, straight into her eyes. Closing them tight, she tried to surpress it. But when she opened them, she could see something strange. Her vision was dark, except for X-Rays of people in front of her. The back of someone's head was in clear view of her. Trying to shake it out of her head, she kept seeing X-Rays. She could see Miss Wormwood's skeleton moving around. This was insane! How could she get X-Ray vision? Still trying to shake it out, she saw the inside Miss Wormwood's desk. She never expected this though. Inside the second drawer on the left hand side, along with a bunch of grade books, papers marked with C's and D's, and Allison's collection of bubble gum packets, was a gun. Closing her eyes, she was able to get her old vision back. Staying as calm as she could, she quickly wrote a note to Brianna.
Bri,
After class, get Allison and meet me in the Jr. Torch room. Something's wrong with me.
Just like they had planned, Brianna and Allison met Sarah in the Jr. Torch room. They found her pacing around, her hands shaking. Allison had already noticed that though in class. Brianna grew concerned.
"Sarah what's wrong?" she asked coming over.
"I don't know," Sarah answered in a panicky voice.
"Are you sick?"
Brianna felt her friend's forehead.
"You don't have a fever," she said. "But...Will you stop shaking? You're scaring me,"
"I can't," Sarah exclaimed.
"Why?"
Sarah had to find a way to explain this. Stuutering, a plan was forming in her mind.
"Allison," she turned to her friend. "Do you have money left over from lunch?"
"Yeah," Allison scoffed. "But I'm not giving it to you,"
"Take it out, but don't show me how much you have. Keep it closed in your hand so I don't see it,"
Allison knitted her eyebrows togethor, shrugged, and took out her leftover money. Keeping closed in her hand, she waited for Sarah's further instructions. Instead, Sarah said nothing. She just focused on Allison's hand, and quickly she went into X-Ray vision mode.When she found the amount, she focused back into her regular vision, and looked at Allison.
"You have 4 dollars and 79 cents in there," she said.
Allison was open-mouthed. Brianna looked at her, as she watched her smart-aliky friend opened her hand. True to Sarah's word, there was the same amount of money. She shook her head.
"All right," she said slowly. "I'm gonna believe that that was a lucky guess,"
"Oh yeah?" asked Sarah. "Remember that ring that fell through the air vent on the floor last week?"
"Yeah,"
"DidBob the Janitor get it out?"
"No, and my dad's starting to ask questions. It was my mothers wedding ring,"
At first, Sarah thought "All right, maybe we should just leave it at Allison's money". But Brianna thought it was a lucky guess. Quickly making up her mind, Sarah strode over to the to the corner of the room. Last week, Brianna's ring finger started itching, so she took the ring off. Unfortunetly, it slipped out of her hand, and into the floor air vent. Not believeing what she was doing, Sarah closed her eyes, and punched a hole through the air vent. It went through like knife in butter. She didn't even expect it to go in. Brianna and Allison watched in amazement, as Sarah pulled out a dusty ring. Giving it to Brianna, she sighed.
"You guys believe me?" she asked.
"If it got my mom's ring back, yeah!" Brianna exclaimed. "...But I would've believed you anyway,"
"Sarah," Allison said, still dazed. "What happened to you?"
"To be honest," Sarah shrugged. "I have no idea,"
"No wonder you beat Clark in that race. You..." Suddenly, Allison's eyes lit up. "Maybe it was the lightning. Maybe Clark's powers were transferred into you,"
"Or maybe this is just some scary side effect that will wear off today!"
"I don't know, Sarah," Brianna said. "Allison has a point. I mean take this morning for example. Clark's nose was bleeding, he didn't make it to the bus, and you beat him in a race in gym. Maybe you really did get Clark's powers,"
"But I don't want Clark's powers! They're too..."
"Random?" Allison asked.
"Weird?" asked Brianna.
"Cool for you?"
Sarah narrowed her eyes.
"Just for that," she pointed to Allison. "I'm not gonna tell you where your packets of gum are,"
Allison gasped.
"You know what Wormwood did to them?" she asked. "Tell me now! I'm in the mood for Bubbalicious,"
"It's on the left hand side of her desk, in the second drawer," Sarah told her anyway
"Great," Allison started walking out the door.
"...Right next to the gun,"
Allison stopped dead in her tracks, and slowly turned around. Brianna gasped.
"Did you just say 'Right next to the gun'?" Allison asked.
After telling Principal Ferald, and havingBob the Janitor get into Miss Wormwood's desk (True to Sarah's word, there was a gun), the girls quickly raced home. Sarah took them both home with her new-found super speed. When she got to the farm gate, she started smiling to herself. Maybe having Clark's powers wouldn't be so bad. I mean, she'd always wanted to have at least a piece of them. Besides, she just busted a woman who didn't have a license to carry a gun (not to mention it was on school grounds). It was her turn to be the superhero now. When she got home, she found her dad and brother putting the feed into the cow pen. She stopped for a moment. Maybe she shouldn't tell her parents and Clark about her abilities. Acting as casual as she possibly could, she walked up.
"Hey guys," she greeted.
"Hey sport," Jonathon smiled. "Got home finally,"
"Clark! How you holding up?"
Clark sighed.
"Considering my chores used to take five minutes and now they take two hours," he explained. "I'm all right,"
"Speaking of which," Jonathon said. "Sarah I don't want your brother doing your chores. You go into the barn, and do them right now. Muck the stalls, feed the chickens, make sure the horses are fed and watered, and bring down 10 stacks of hay from the hayloft,"
"Got it," Sarah said
Clark and Jonathon went about their business. When they weren't looking, Sarah supersped to the barn, and did all of her chores in less than 5 minutes, beating Clark's record. When she was done, she smiled to herself. Clark's powers can be pretty useful at times.
The next day, Brianna was with Chloe and Pete on a breezy afternoon. Allison was at Whitney's helping him out with some organinzing of the whole store, and Sarah was doing some homework. On their way to the Beanery, Chloe hung up her cell phone after she talked to Clark.
"Apparently," she said. "Clark is still doing his chores, and Sarah's doing her homework and that's why they blew us off,"
Pete sighed.
"They've been acting weird lately," he commented.
"OK," Chloe said. "I don't understand Sarah, but Clark's always acting weird. Why don't you give me a gauge?"
"Sarah finished all her chores this morning before Clark, which never happens, for one thing. And Clark was so tired in math class today, he face planted on his desk,"
Chloe scoffed.
"I have two words for him," she said. "Power Bar,"
Brianna smirked at this remark. Maybe, since now that Sarah had Clark's powers, he should try to eat them. You know, to help him adjust to normal human-being life. They continued walking down the sidewalk in town, when suddenly, a man with a shaggy beard, and a mean looking face jumped in front of them and started reaching for Chloe's laptop, of which she always carried around. Immedietly, Chloe started slapping the guy trying to get his grubby hands off of her prized possesion.
"Give me my laptop!" screeched Chloe.
Brianna kicked the guy in the shins repeatedly, but with no success. The burgler was able to push them away, and before they could get up, he was already running. So fast, they couldn't be able to keep up with him. Unless you had super-speed. Speaking of which, someone super-fast, and I mean REALLY super-fast came into the picture. It wasn't Sarah, or even Clark. It was Eric. Usually, he'd have his glasses on, but he didn't. He was different.
"Give it back," Eric demanded.
"Get out of my way, kid," The burgler sneered.
Out of nowhere, the burgler pulled out a knife. Not exactly something you see in a take-and-run situation. Some people who were witnessing the scene screamed as the burgler brought the knife down on Eric. But Eric blocked it with his hand, and you know what? It hardly left a scratch on him. The blade just shattered into a million sharp pieces. The burlger was in disbelief. So was Eric, but only for a moment. Not wasting another second, Eric grabbed the guy with one arm, and threw him to the side of the street, where he hit a wall of glass that was on a passing truck, and landed in front of Brent and Holly, who were just standing by Brent's yellow mustang watching the whole thing.
"Did you see that?" asked Chloe in disbelief.
"Yeah," winced Pete as he held his wrist, but still amazed. "Unbelievable!"
As everyone, including Chloe and Pete, went to congratulate Eric on his accomplishment, Brianna just stood with an open mouth. Quickly, she dialed Allison's cell phone number. Apparently, Sarah wasn't the only one who had Clark's powers.
The next morning, Sarah was talking on the phone with Brianna and Allison as she was getting ready for school.
"I'm telling you Sarah," Brianna said. "Eric's changed. OK? He just didn't throw a guy out of the way. No. He threw the guy 30 feet into the air, blocked a knife with his hand, and practically super-sped in front of him,"
"You do realize what we're saying, Sarah," Allison reassured.
"Hang on," Sarah didn't really hear the last response. "I can't find my shoes. Can you guys hold?"
"Yeah,"
Sarah put the phone down on her dresser, and looked around her open wooden floor for her shoes. No where in sight. She smiled. Concentrating she used her new X-Ray vision and scanned the room area. In the closet...no...somwhere stuffed in her dresser...no...Ah ha! Under her bed.
"Got ya," she grinned.
Turning off her X-Ray vision mode, Sarah easily picked up the end of her bed, and was able to reach the shoes with her sock covered foot. Carefully letting it down so her parents or Clark wouldn't hear the thump from downstairs, she put the phone back on her ear, using the shoulder for support as she sat down and put on her shoes.
"Sorry," she said. "I just found my shoes. So...Eric has the same powers as me,"
"Yeah," Brianna said. "Think about it. He was with you when lightning struck you. Not to mention he was holding a meteor rock, and you were holding the bag of rocks. Besides, didn't you guys get an extra piece?"
"Yeah, he found one to give to Holly,"
"Holly?" asked Allison.
"Brent's girlfriend. You know. She's the president on the School Spirit Commitee,"
"Oh yeah!" Brianna exclaimed. "They're on the witness list from the attempted robbery,"
"We have to be careful, Sarah," Allison said. "I don't think Smallville's big enough for a superboy and a supergirl. Did you tell your parents yet?"
"Are you kidding?" Sarah asked. "They'd go insane. Besides, I'd just like to give them the relief that they don't have to hide anymore secrets from now on,"
"You sure about that?"
"Sarah Kent!" yelled Mr. Kent from downstairs. "Hurry up! You'll be late,"
"I'm sure," Sarah said before hanging up.
When Sarah walked downstairs with smile on her face, she found her parents and Clark sitting at the table eating breakfast, and looking at the latest issue of the Smallville Ledger.
"Morning," Sarah said as she got some orange juice out.
"Morning," Martha smiled.
"Hey sport," Jonathon started as he was reading the paper. "You wanna know something funny?"
"What?" asked Sarah as she poured her drink.
"Last night, Clark was working on the new fence, and stopped, halfway done. This morning...heh...when I went to get the morning milk, I could've sworn that fence was finished,"
Sarah stopped dead in her tracks when she was on her way to get a granola bar. Last night, Clark was fixing the fence, and without his powers, he wasn't able to finish it. So early that morning, Sarah got up, and completed the task for her brother, so he wouldn't fall asleep in his lunch again.
"Really?" asked Sarah unwrapping her granola bar. "Maybe Clark got his powers back,"
"I didn't," Clark said kind of sad.
"Sorry,"
Sarah shifted her eyes a little bit. They were on to her, and she knew it.
"Well," she said looking at the clock. "Look at the time. School starts in another hour, but I guess I should be going. Heheh. You know what they say. Early bird gets the worm,"
But before Sarah could bolt out, her mother stood up from the table.
"Hang on a moment," she said. "How 'bout I drive you?"
"That's okay mom," Sarah said quickly.
"Not it's not okay. Just wait a second. My keys are on the table in the entry,"
Sarah nodded in understanding. There was no need to panic. Her mother was just gonna drive her to school. That's all. Suddenly, they heard a small sound from the other room.
"Oh no," they heard Martha groan
"What is it?" asked Jonathon.
"My keys are gone,"
Sarah let out a sigh of relief in her mind.
"Thanks anyway mom," Sarah called as she opened the back door. "But I think I'll take my chances with the road,"
"Now hold on there, sport," Jonathon put the newspaper down, and got up. "Why don't you help your mother look for the keys?"
Sarah looked at her dad nervously, and then faked a laughed.
"Ha!" she said. "Come on dad, where would we find mom's keys?"
"I don't know," Clark said as he folded his arms and as Martha came in. "Why don'y you use your x-ray vision?"
Sarah swore she saw the life flash before her eyes, because they knew. How could they know? She kept this a secret for the last few days, and she was very careful. Jonathon pointed a seat by the kitchen table, telling her to sit down. Mentally, she sighed. She knew this was gonna be short talk that would feel so long, she could just fall asleep in that chair within ten seconds. She sat down with Jonathon facing her.
"Have you had Clark's abilities all this time?" he asked sternly.
"Yeah," Sarah winced.
"Why didn't you tell us?"
"I don't know...I guess I didn't want you guys to freak out...How did you found out?"
"I heard you talking on the phone in your room," Clark said.
"How?"
Clark smiled.
"You should've closed your door when Allison and Brianna called you," he said.
Sarah groaned. How could she have been so stupid?
"Sarah," Martha started. "Does anybody else know about this?"
"No," Sarah answered. "Can I still go to school?"
Martha and Jonathon looked at each other and nodded.
"You can go to school," Jonathon said. "But you come straight home after that. We can discuss this a bit more. Understand?"
"Yes sir," Sarah meekly said.
Sarah slowly got up, slung her backpack over her shoulder, and started to walk out the door into the foggy morning. But then she stopped.
"By the way, mom," Sarah said. "Your keys are in the living room. Not in the entry hall,"
"So they just found out, like that?" asked Brianna as she snapped her fingers.
Sarah sighed. They were in the Jr. Torch room later that day doing some last minute touches on some articles that needed finishing up. It had been a long day, and everyone (with the exclusion of Sarah, cause that meant she would have to face another talk with her parents about her new abilities) was wanting to go home.
"So who found out?" asked Allison as she sipped some hot coco.
"Clark," Sarah mildly said. "He overheard us talking on the phone"
"Huh," Brianna scoffed, but hypnotized by the computer screen. "That sucks,"
"Tell me about it,"
Allison just shrugged. She had to admit, Mr. and Mrs. Kent had a point. Having superpowers was a big resposibility. She now understood why Clark becomes so stressed sometimes when he's in one of those moods. But then something popped into her mind. She rememered something.
"Guess who was asking about you," she said in a sing-song voice.
"Me?" Brianna's hopes brightened up.
Allison narrowed her eyes.
"No," she said. "Not you. Miss Superchick over there,"
"Who?" asked Sarah, simply not caring.
"Logan,"
Now she cared! Sarah snapped her head towards Allison.
"What'd he say?" she asked.
"Oh nothing," Allison said innocently, as she typed away. "Other than that he thinks you are one of the coolest people in the world, that your eyes are beautiful, that the farm-girl thing is cute,"
"What farm-girl thing?"
"What do you mean 'What farm-girl thing'? Oh! Don't tell me you haven't noticed that you wear plaid blouses once a week,"
"So he actually likes me?"
"Could be so,"
Sarah smiled to herself, as Brianna gaped at her best friends. A guy actually liked her. I mean, he said nice things about her too! She grinned. Maybe this wasn't such a bad day after all. Brianna had begged to differ.
"You should be careful Sarah," she explained. "Now that you have super-powers, you're gonna have to lay low if you and Logan are gonna start dating or something,"
"What do you mean?" asked Sarah.
"What do you mean, what do I mean? I mean, this is exactly one of the problems that Clark has. You know he likes Lana, but he couldn't get close to her. And I've got the tope three reasons why: 1- She's got Whitney. 2- That meteor rock necklace. And 3- He was worried he'd get too close to her,"
Allison rolled her eyes as Sarah and Brianna started talking about this certain subject as she finished the layout for the paper. Excusing herself from the Jr Torch Office, she went down the hall to the Tech Room. The only person who volunteered to work there was an 8th grader, named Joey. Joey was a, shall we say, a bit of a nerd. Everybody thought he was weird, but the Brianna, Allison, and Sarah thought he was nice. There he was working on the printer, with headphones stuck inside his head, blaring loud music.
"Joey," Allison said as she put the layout down on the counter. "Joey..."
Joey didn't hear Allison. So, in spite of annoyance and wanting to be heard, she took a headphone out of his ear and yelled in it.
"Earth calling Joey!" she shouted.
Joey jumped, and took off the headphones, glaring at the sixth grader.
"What is the big idea?" he asked.
"The paper," Allison mildly said. "It's done. Can I use the scanner?"
Joey sighed as he got out his set of keys, and turned on the scanner.
"There you go," he said. "So...what's this weeks meteor story?"
"It's not a meteor story this week," Allison explained as she pressed the start button. "Just the story on Wormwood's arrest. Oh! And a story on the basketball teams winning streak this season,"
"Oh, whoop-dee-doo for basketball," Joey said sarcastically.
Allison laughed. True, she really didn't like sports that much. Neither did Brianna and Sarah, but they were okay reporting it. They could just stay at the games for a little while till the end, and then get the article done. As the paper started printing itself, ready to be delivered tomorrow, Allison looked out the window. Across the street was the high school, and everyone was either getting ready to go home or just talking. Then she spotted Eric. Suddenly, a scary feeling started to grow inside. Something is not right, to quote Miss Clevel from the famous children story "Madeline". There he was picking a fight with Brent. Then she remembered. Eric had the same powers as Sarah now. Quickly, she raced back to the Jr. Torch room, quickly getting straight to the point.
"Something's going on at the high school!" she exclaimed. "Sarah you gotta do something,"
Immedietly, Sarah and Brianna dropped what they were doing, and ran (normal speed, since Sarah wanted Brianna and Allison to keep up) outside, across the street, and onto the high school parking lot. Some of the junior high kids were there witnessing the fight too. Everyone was amazed at Eric's strength, and trun their thoughts about him from cool to frightening. Sarah wanted to do something, but she didn't want to reveal herself. I mean, take a look at what's happening at Eric now. He's in way over his head about this whole super-powers thing. Brent, who turned from big-macho-man to chicken. After many attempts to get away from Eric, he ducked under a car. If I were witnessing this scene right now and knew about Eric and Sarah, I'd scoff. Although, you have to agree, Brent is trying his best. Eric just followed Brent and picked up one oend of the truck easily.
"What's the problem Brent?" he asked as he picked up the truck. "Why are you hiding fom nothing?"
Brent, scared out of his wits, crawled away from under the truck. Eric, clearly not wanting to end this fight with his long-time rival, threw the car aside like it was nothing. Luckily, it didn't hit any people, so that was okay...I think. Brent tried to get away but found Eric in front of him, locking his escape route. He tried to go the other way, but Eric blocked him too. Without another move, Eric threw Brent aside with one arm, and he landed on the table. Clark finally got outside, and tried to stop Eric too.
"Eric!" he shouted. "You can't do this!"
"Watch me," Eric said through gritted teeth.
"No! I'm serious. You could kill someone. You don't want that on your conscience, believe me.You've just gotta calm down,"
"You're not my father Clark! Now shut up and get out of my way!"
Angrily, Eric threw aside Clark, and he landed on a parked car. Brianna, Allison, and Sarah watched the scene with horror on their faces. They could not believe Clark was just lying there on top of a crushed car, bleeding. Eric turned back to find Holly at Brent's side.
"Get away from us you freak!" she said.
Eric looked around him, to find high school and junior high students jeering, and glaring at him. No longer was he a hero in town, but a menace, and a monster to the citizens of Smallville. Not wanting to be around for the cops, Eric sped out of there. As everyone tried to make sure if Clark and Brent were all right, Sarah was shocked to the knees. It was scary to see Clark hurt like that. As her friends led her to a lunch table that was still entact, Chloe and Pete came rushing forward to the kids.
"Are you guys okay?" Chloe asked.
"Yeah," Brianna nodded softly.
"Sarah, are you all right?"
Sarah said nothing.
"I'll take that as a 'no'," Pete remarked.
"Do you guys want something to drink?" asked Chloe. "They're gonna take Clark and Brent to the hospital, and unless Sarah wants to go with him, we have to stay here. Sarah do you wanna go ride in the ambulence with Clark?"
Slowly being pulled back into reality, Sarah slowly shook her head. There was something she had to do first. Chloe sighed as she and Pete went to go get some soda for the junior high trio. Brianna jerked her head away to a side away from Sarah, telling Allison to talk with her. Allison got up, leaving her best friend to be alone by herself.
"What?" she asked.
"We have to do something," Brianna said. "Clark's in the hospital, and it was Eric's fault,"
"Your point?"
"My point is I saw the look on Sarah's face when Eric threw Clark on that car. I knew what she was thinking. She thinks its her fault that she didn't do anything,"
"...I'm guessing she didn't see everyone else's reaction to Eric now that they know that his newly found powers are a danger to him and everyone else. Sarah did the right thing. She stayed low. It's what Clark would've wanted,"
"But now I know she doesn't want the powers anymore. She wants Clark to have them back,"
Allison looked down.
"Well I'm sorry Brianna but..." she started. "Lightning doesn't strike twice in the same place,"
Brianna sighed, as she looked back at the table. Her eyes widened.
"Allison..."she said slowly. "Where'd Sarah go?"
Sarah sped in front of the Summers house. She let out an air of breath. This was going to be hard to explain about Eric's powers. Obviously, Eric's parents have got to know about his abilities...and what weakens him. While she was sitting in shock back at the high school, she started thinking. If she and Eric both had the same powers as Clark before them, maybe they had his weakness: The meteor rock. Sighing, she knocked on the door, and a few seconds later, Mr. Summers answered the door.
"May I help you?" he asked.
"Mr. Summers," Sarah started. "My name is Sarah Kent. I was part of the incident that happened on the rock scavenger hunt a few days earlier,"
"...Oh! Yes, of course,"
"I'm also a reporter for Smallville Junior High's Jr. Torch. I think I have some information regarding your son's abilities,"
Mr. Summers nodded slowly.
"Of course," he said. "You may come in,"
Sarah nodded in thanks as Mr. Summers let the young sixth grader in. He offered her a seat in the living room, where a woman, Mrs. Summers, was sitting across from the couch. Feeling a bit shy, Sarah let them room be quiet for a bit. She exhaled, and started talking.
"As you probably know," she said. "Your son, Eric and I were partners on that combined field trip with the freshman and the sixth graders. And we were both part of the incident with the lightning, and my brother Clark was the one who rescued us. I think I may know his abilities now,"
"Do you know where they came from?" asked Mrs. Summers softly.
"...No. I don't. But over the past twelve years, since Smallville's legendary meteor shower, people from all over the place had some sort of effect from the meteor rocks. It is my belief that Eric harnessed his powers from the cross of the lightning and the meteor rock he was holding...So far he has shown abnormal strength, and fast running...but I believe that I know what will weaken him. Its..."
Just then, the phone rang. Mrs. Summers sighed, and excused herself. So did Mr. Summers. Sarah sighed as she sat alone. This was going to be harder than she thought. Suddenly, she heard the familiar woosh sound, and looked up. There was Eric looking at her with confusion on his face.
"What are you doing here?" he asked.
"I..." Sarah started as Mrs. Summers came back into the room with the phone.
"Okay..." she said into the reciever. "Yes. Thank you,"
When Mrs. Summers turned off the phone, she looked up to find her son. He looked desperate.
"Eric," she said. "Where have you been?"
"Mom, I think I really messed up," he said. "I need your help,"
"Your father spoke with Principal Kwan. We know what happened,"
"No, mom, it was an accident. Mom, don't be afraid of me!"
"Stay away from her, Eric!" shouted Mr. Summers.
Everyone looked to find Mr. Summers with a golf club in his hands in a defensive way. Eric started to panic
"What are you doing dad?" he asked
"I toldyou that someday you'd have to take responsibility for you actions," Mr. Summers remarked in a shaky voice. "Well, that day has come,"
Sarah watched the whole dramatic family scene with uneasiness. More than anything she wanted to burst out of the house and leave, but she couldn't for many reasons. One of them is that sirens were heard from outside, and she looked out the window. Smallville County Police officers were screeching to a hlat in their cars in front of the house. Sarah looked back and found Eric looking at both his parents.
"What did you do?" he asked shakily.
"Eric, you need help," Mrs. Summers simply said.
"So you called the police?" Eric turned to his father. "You're my dad. You're supposed to protect me,"
While all of this was happening, Brianna and Allison were at the Kent's house sitting on the couch while Clark was looking out the window. They hadn't heard from Sarah yet, and it was quite disturbing. Considering now she has superpeed and could be anywhere. Not to mention she turned off her cell phone so nobody would call her. So there they were in silence when Mr. Kent walked in.
"I stopped by to se Eric's parents this morning," he said.
"How are they?" asked Clark
"They're scared Clark,"
Clark sighed, and looked at his father.
"Were you ever scared of me?" he asked softly.
Jonathon exhaled as he walked toward his son.
"Well, you threw a few temper tantrums when you were little We had some holes in the walls but...nah. You were a good kid Clark,"
Brianna and Allison looked at each other and smiled about the holes in the walls mention. Allison spoke up but softly.
"I don't think Eric's a bad kid," she said.
"Neither do I, Allison," said Jonathon agreeing with the young girl. "He's just a teenager who's in way over his head. That's all,"
"You know," Clark sighed. "When this first happend, I was kind of freaked out. Now I'm kind of enjoying it,"
"Clark," Brianna said. "Sarah's not enjoying it. The moment Eric threw you on that car, I could tell she wanted her old life back,"
"I know but, I played basketball for the first time without worrying if I'd hurt anyone. I can be around Lana without her necklace making me feel sick," With that Clark winced, as he sat down beside the kids. His ribs that were bruised were hurting again. "Even this is better than being around the meteor rocks anyday of the week,"
Suddenly, Martha entered the room with a panicked expression.
"Something happened at Erics house," she said. "The police came, but they couldn't control him,"
"I have to stop him," Clark slowly got up.
"Whoa whoa whoa, hang on there boy scout," Brianna got up. "You're hurt remember? If you try to face him down again, he could kill you,"
"But he has my strength. Maybe he has my weakness,"
Allison furrowed her eyebrows.
"The meteor rocks?" she asked.
"No one else knows how to stop him. You guys, this is who I am. Whether I have my powers or not,"
Martha shook her head.
"Clark, what about a meteor rock?" she asked. "It's not like we keep them laying around,"
Clark thought for a moment.
"I know where to find one," he said leaving the room.
As it grew dark, Sarah was still running fast as the speed of light, looking for Eric. The police had come to the Summers house, but he was out of control. But she heard him saying something about getting rid of it. He was talking about the powers he had. She found him at the dam where they had almost fallen off of at the field trip. There he was at the ledge.
"Eric!" she shouted. "Eric, don't jump!"
Eric just looked back at the girl and smiled. He jumped off anyway. Sarah was shocked at someone who would do that. He would survive, no doubt, but that was suicidal. Superspeeding to the fence down below she went to go see if he was all right.
"Eric!" she shouted his name again looking for him.
"Your brother should've let me go the first time, Sarah,"
Sarah turned around to find Eric. She would've sighed with relief, but couldn't.
"It would've been better than living like this," Eric finished.
"Eric why'd you jump off that dam?" Sarah asked.
"I was testing myself to see if I had any limits...apparently I don't,"
Sarah looked around for a place to escape, but couldn't. Instead she found her brother running towards the concrete stairway to go down to them.Glad that he was all right, she started talking, just to buy time for him.
"Look," she said. "You can adjust to these abilities. You've got to give yourself some time,"
Eric furrowed his eyebrows.
"And how do you know Sarah?" he jeered.
"I...I'm just saying you gotta give yourself some time,"
"Oh, so in time, my parents won't be scared of me...the girl of my dreams won't think I'm a freak...the cops won't be after me,"
"I can help!"
"I don't want your help, Sarah!"
Eric grabbed Sarah by the collar, just as Clark was catching up to them, and threw her towards a chain link fence surrounding a generator.
"Eric stop!" shouted Clark.
But Eric didn't want to listen to him either. He did the same to him. He threw Clark towards the broken fence too, and the lead box that he had flew out of his hands, and it's only content, farther. It landed beside Sarah who was just a few feet away from where Clark had fallen. When it did, a wave of sickness went through her instantly. Looking at her hand, her veins bulged a sickly green color. It was her worst fear for the past few hours. The meteor rocks had an effect on her. Clark didn't see all this happening, as she writhed on the ground in pain. He was looking for it as Eric came toward him.
"If they're gonna treat me like a criminal," he said. "Then I'll give them something to be scared about,"
"It's not the answer," Clark got up.
"Come on Clark," Eric grabbed him by the collar. "If you had the power to do whatever you want, what would you do?"
"I'd stop people like you,"
"Nothing on this earth can stop me,"
Eric threw Clark aside next to Sarah. Once he dropped to the ground, he heard soft moans. He found his sister groveling in pain...next to the meteorite necklace he had borrowed from Lana. He grabbed it from the ground, careful to make sure Eric didn't see it.
"You're wrong," he said.
Erick smirked.
"We'll see about that," he said as he pulled a thick wire from its socket. Sparks of electricity skipped about from its end. When he was about to touch Clark with it, Clark and Sarah took their places. Clark grabbed him with the meteor rock necklace tight around his fist at the same time, Sarah grabed onto Eric around the ankle. The same wave of currents that had happened to them before started again, and they screamed as a green wave enveloped him. When the force of the power was done. They all collapsed to the ground. Clark felt his powers regenerate inside him, but then he had a wave of sickness run through him too. His powers were back as he locked the necklace back into the lead box. As he sat up, he heard coughing from his sister.
"Sarah," he said softly as he draped his jacket around her.
"Clark," Sarah whispered. "It's so cold,"
Everything was back to normal.
A few hours later, the Kent family, Brianna and Allison waited in the lobby at Smallville Medical Center. They had brought Sarah in to be checked on since she was part of the scene of the crime. Eric was immedietly transported to Belle Reeve for observation, and they were all a it relieved that everyone was in their right place. A doctor came out.
"Mr. and Mrs. Kent," she said.
Mr. and Mrs. Kent stood up as the doctor came toward them.
"How is she?" Martha asked.
"We did a full checkup, and scanned her brain for any damage that the electricity might've done. She pulled through with flying colors,"
Everyone in the room sighed with relief.
"She's ready to see visitors. She just woke up ten minutes ago,"
Everyone followed the doctor into the halls, and into a room, where Sarah was reclined on the hospital bed, watching the news on the incident that had happened. When she heard the door opened, she found everyone smiling at her.
"Hey guys," she said softly.
"Sarah Kent," Brianna strode forward. "Don't you ever scare me like that again,"
Sarah smirked.
"Are you just saying that because if I died or committed, you'd lose your good reporter?" she asked.
"...That, and because you're a good friend,"
Sarah laughed.
"So," Allison said. "If I got electrocuted and died, would you miss me?"
"I don't know," Brianna folded her arms and looked at Allison. "Put your finger in a socket and we'll see how it ends,"
"Enough you two," Jonathon warned.
"Guys," Sarah started. "Can I have a moment with Clark?"
Everyone filed out of the room, as Clark stood by the hospital bed. They were both silent for a bit, until Clark spoke.
"You know," he said. "It's kind of scary seeing you like this,"
"Clark," Sarah said softly. "...I'm sorry,"
Clark furrowed his eyebrows.
"For what?" he asked.
Sarah winced a bit.
"For not telling you, mom, and dad about my--well your powers--from the start," she said. "And plus, I was kind of a bit jealous of you,"
"Jealous?" asked Clark. "Of me?"
"Well, yeah. Clark everyone wishes they had super-powers, but from the experience I've had, it's intoxicating. It was...like there were two me's,"
"Please. I can hardly stand one you,"
Sarah laughed a bit at that joke.
"I'm just glad we're both okay," Clark said.
"Yeah," Sarah agreed. "...You do realize that this doesn't stop me from fighting crime with you once in a while, don't you?"
Clark smiled.
"Yeah," he said. "I do,"
(A/N: Yea! I finished this chapter. In less than two months no less. I hope you guys liked this chapter. Review please!)