Chapter 4 - Day 4
Having just finished his chores, Clark felt like he needed a good long nap. Lois had dozed off right after lunch, and he wanted to do the same thing. He was just about to walk into the house, intent on taking a hot shower before heading for the couch, when a car horn sounded from behind him.
Clark turned around to see Chloe pulling into the driveway. What was she doing here? Curious, Clark walked back down the porch to greet her. Good-bye, naptime, he mournfully thought.
"Hey, Clark!" Chloe said, getting out of her car. She had slung a knapsack over her shoulder and was walking up to him, a smile on her face.
"Hey...Are you here to take Lois somewhere or..." Clark asked, looking puzzled. He eyed Chloe's knapsack. It looked like she was sleeping over or something.
Chloe raised her eyebrows. "Uh, Clark. Hello? Today's the camp-out in your backyard?" she said, trying to jog his memory.
Something clunked into place inside Clark's head as he suddenly remembered. "Oh!...That was today?" he asked, looking surprised.
"What, Lois forgot to remind you?...Where is she by the way?" Chloe asked, crouching her eyebrows.
Clark gestured towards the house and replied, "She's upstairs, sleeping." Before he could say anything else, however, a voice rang through the front yard.
"CHLOE! You made it!"
Clark and Chloe turned around to see Lois walking down the porch steps, a big smile on her face. She had a jacket on and a purse dangled from her shoulder. Clark also noticed that she was holding her video cam, a notebook, and a pen.
"Sleeping, huh?" Chloe smirked. Clark rolled his eyes.
"Lois," he said, turning to address her, "You didn't tell me today was the camp out."
"Well, my apologies. I thought you'd remember...You being all SMART and stuff, you know," she replied, as she walked up to them.
"Do my parents know ab--"
"YEP! Your dad took out a couple of tents from the attic, your mom has the marshmallows and popcorn ready, Chloe's here...so we're all set!"
"Oh," Clark softly replied. He seemed a little embarrassed by how out of it he was.
Chloe edged a little closer to her cousin and looked at the little notebook Lois was holding. "What's this?" she asked, pointing.
"Oh!" Lois said. "THIS is all the stuff I have planned out for us today. Okay, listen to this: First, we go to the Smallville Fair--"
"The FAIR?" Clark burst from his spot.
Lois rolled her eyes. "Yeah, Smallville, they're going to be gone by the end of the week! I reallllly want to go, and today is the only day open for that. Tomorrow I'll be in town shopping, Thursday is Lex's party, and then I leave the day after that, so...ANYWAY. I think we shouldn't spend more than a couple of hours at the fair, because we still have to come back and set up the tents in the back yard. Now, here's the list of things I want to do all night..."
Clark didn't hear the rest of Lois' plans for the evening. His mind was still dwelling on the words Lois had spoken seconds before, "...then I leave the day after that..." Normally, Clark's reaction to those words would have been a complete performance of the "hallelujah" chorus, but now he wasn't so sure. Clark took a few moments to think about what he was feeling. Was he actually...SAD about Lois leaving the farm?...He paused before mentally laughing to himself and thinking, "NAAAAAAhh!"
"Clark?...Helllloooo..."
A hand suddenly began waving a few inches from Clark's face. Startled, he looked down and saw Lois and Chloe watching him expectantly. "Oh, sorry," Clark said, recovering quickly. "What were you saying, Lois?"
Lois' mouth opened a little as she shot him a look of frustration and disbelief. "You mean you didn't hear a word I SAID?" she asked, eyes round and dangerous.
Clark looked at her for a second before gulping and saying, "Er..no?"
"Clark here has ADD," Chloe explained, rolling her eyes to look at her cousin.
Lois just sniffed, turned around, and started walking towards her car. "Well, that's just too bad, isn't it?" she said, unlocking the door and opening it. "I certainly am not going to repeat my long list of plans, so Clark here will just have to find out for himself," she continued, starting the car.
Clark groaned and put hands to the sides of his head. "Chloe, please, tell me what she's planning to do," he said, looking desperate.
Chloe smiled and began walking towards Lois' car. "Don't worry, Clark, it's just a mix of games, food, and scary stories around the campfire," she said, getting into the back seat and closing the door.
Smallville Fair
Chloe shook her head a little and tried getting that irritating buzz out of her ears. Her ears had begun ringing right after Lois and Clark had stopped fighting in the car. Chloe swore that a headache was coming. That's the last time I'm riding with THEM, she thought. Of course she knew that was impossible. Lois was her cousin and Clark was her best friend. Chloe bleakly predicted that she would frequently find herself stuck in a car with them and their bickering for many more years to come. Oh joy, she thought.
Thinking back, Chloe remembered that the argument had begun the moment Clark had seated himself in the front seat beside Lois.
"Chloe," Lois had asked, "Why is HE sitting here? YOU were supposed to be in front with ME."
Before Chloe had been able to reply, an irritated Clark had asked, "Why, what's so wrong with me sitting next to you?"
"Because I'm still MAD AT YOU," Lois said, acting as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.
"Oh, that's news," Clark snorted.
"WHAT'S THAT SUPPOSED TO MEAN!"
"You're ALWAYS MAD AT ME."
What happened after that was a whole lot more yelling and arguing that lasted for about half an hour. One argument led to another, until Chloe decided that she had had enough. "GUYS, will you please just SHUUUUUUUUUUUUuuuuut UPPPPPPPPPPPpppp!" she had shouted. Clark and Lois stopped long enough to look at her. "When you are finished with your stupid quarreling," Chloe had testily suggested, "WOULD YOU MIND PULLING OUT OF THE FREAKIN' DRIVEWAY SO WE CAN GET TO THE FREAKIN' FAIR!" Not until then did Lois and Clark realize that they were still parked in front of the Kents' home.
Martha and Jonathan had been standing on the porch, watching them with weirded out looks on their faces. Martha had felt like she was watching a silent movie. Lois and Clark in the car, shouting and pointing fingers at each other, and Chloe sitting in the back with her head in her hands...
Lois finally drove onto the road, and she and Clark agreed to stop fighting. The quiet lasted for about five minutes. Lois had turned the radio on and was happily listening to some rock music, when Clark changed the radio station to a classical one.
"WHAT THE--WHAT'S THIS!" Lois had yelled.
"Mozart."
Lois switched it back to her station, saying, "You've been spending too much time around the Luthor's, Clark."
"HEY!" Clark had complained. "I don't like this sort of music!"
"TOO BAD!"
"This type of music is not GOOD FOR THE EARS--"
"What, and MOZ-ASS IS!"
THIS argument lasted for about ten minutes. They were well into town already when Chloe told them, once again, to shut up.
Finally, they arrived at the fair. By then, both Clark and Lois had calmed down enough to speak civilly towards each other. Chloe couldn't help but think that they acted like a weird married couple. Fighting one moment, and making up the next, chatting as if nothing had happened. Chloe shuddered at the thought of them getting married. If they ever ended up together (which Chloe doubted very much), they'd probably diss each other for about an hour, and then make out as a means of making up.
Chloe tried not to smile at the possibilities and tried to focus on all the rides Lois was pointing at. There were all sorts of games planted everywhere, and they didn't know where to start.
"Oooh, look at this!" Lois suddenly said, pointing at a fortune teller's booth. Dark velvet draped in a tent-like fashion around it. "'Have your fortunes told for a quarter,'" Lois read from the sign. Suddenly, she shoved her handy video cam into Chloe's hands and took Clark's hand in hers'. "Come on, let's try it!"
Clark was reluctant. "Lois...You know that fortune tellers are phonies," he protested.
"Yeah, i know they are. But it's hilarious watching them trying to read your palm and gazing mysteriously into their plastic crystal balls. Come on, it's just a quarter!" Lois tried convincing him.
Chloe laughed and gave Clark a little push on the back. "Go on, Clark. You know how she can't help poking fun at people. It's her LIFE ("Hey!" Lois said). Besides, it gives you something to do while I go buy some cotton candy," she said.
Clark sighed, and finally agreed. "Fine. But YOU'RE paying," he said, giving Lois a pointed look.
Lois rolled her eyes. "Fine, fine, you cheap-butt, just go in," she said, tugging at his arm.
Chloe shook her head as she watched the two walk into the tent, then turned around to the opposite booth which sold cotton candy. After paying for three, she munched on the sweet pink stuff and waited for Clark and Lois to emerge. She checked her watch. It had been exactly eight minutes.
They came out presently, but not in the way Chloe had imagined. She had expected Lois to be laughing her head off at the stupid fortunes the teller had to tell, and Clark to be rolling his eyes in extreme annoyance. Instead, Clark walked out backwards with a determined look on his face, his arms securely wrapped around Lois' waist. He was half dragging/half lifting her out of the tent as she shouted profanities, yelling and shaking her fists.
"Oh my goodness," Chloe said, walking towards them, a worried look on her face. "What the heck happened?"
Clark tried explaining, but Lois kept shouting and trying to break free from his hold. "LET ME AT HER, LET ME AT HER!" she yelled, trying to go back inside. But Clark held her arm in a strong grip and she couldn't get away.
"Gosh, Lois! You're overreacting! Come on, it's no big deal!" Clark said, trying to calm her down. They were starting to attract attention from the people passing by.
"No big deal?" Lois panted, looking at him. "NO BIG DEAL! THAT..THAT (here she called the fortune teller some foul word which made Clark say, "LOIS!") SAID THAT WE WERE GOING TO GET MARRIED!"
Chloe almost choked on her cotton candy as she burst into laughter. "Funny," she said, smiling and trying to breathe, "I was just thinking about the same thing earlier."
"Chloe," Clark said, giving her a you-are-so-not-helping look. "Lois, let it go, she's a FAKE. We weren't supposed to take anything she said SERIOUSLY, remember?" he said, turning his attention back to his "future wife."
"I don't care, I want my MONEY BACK!"
"It was just a quarter!" Clark said, trying to reason with her.
"Yeah, but prophesying that in about a few years' time I would be married to YOU!"
Clark sighed, took hold of Lois' shoulders, and looked hard into her eyes. "We are NOT. GOING. TO GET. MARRIED. Okay? So calm down!"
There was a slight pause in Lois' heavy breathing. Clark watched her as she looked at him. "Oh, so you think I'm not good enough for you?" she suddenly asked.
Clark was caught off guard at the change of subject. His hands dropped from her shoulders. "What? What are you--"
"Is it because I'm so behind in my college classes? Huh, is that it? You think I won't even graduate and make something of myself? You think I won't be able to be a good MOTHER AND WIFE?"
"WHAT!"
"You think I'm below you, don't you?"
"NO I DO NOT! It's YOU who thinks that I'M not good enough to be your husband! I mean the look on your face when that lady said that we were--"
"Oh, so untrue."
"Admit it, you think I wouldn't make a good lover."
"What!" Lois said, trying to calm HIM down. "Of course you would make a good lo--wait. What the eff am I saying? SHUT UP KENT!"
"You think that since I am a simple farm boy, i won't be able to provide you with the money and security that you need! How dare you think that I'm not good enough for you, believing that I think that you're not good enough for me, when it is a well known fact that though you think i'm not good enough thinking that you're not good enough, I AM!"
Lois blinked at him for a few seconds. "...huh?.." She looked at Chloe, who shrugged. "DANG IT, SMALLVILLE, NOW I'M CONFUSED!"
"Well, you started it!"
"HEEEEEEEEEY!" Chloe said, cutting in, "I thought you guys didn't want to get married in the first place!"
"WE DON'T!" "HELL NO!" came the loud replies.
"THEN WHAT THE HECK ARE YOU FIGHTING ABOUT! OMGAAAAaaawsh...!" Chloe sighed, and placed the cotton candies into Clark's and Lois' hands. "Eat some of your cotton candy, NOW," she ordered. She waited until they had bit into their food before speaking, "That fortune teller is some deranged psycho who tells everyone their 'future's' for a living, okay? She belongs in a mental correctional facility, so don't take any of her words seriously. Now can we PLEASE go on one of the rides?"
This calmed them down somewhat, and in about a few minutes time, Lois had mischievously mashed her cotton candy into Clark's face, and they were laughing again. "Awww.." Chloe said, recording them on the video cam. "How sweet. They kissed and made up!"
Lois shook her head. "I wouldn't know about the kissing part, but sure we've made up," she said, swinging an arm around Clark's shoulders. "Come on, guys, let's ride the ferris wheel!" she said, turning around and pointing.
Clark suddenly looked nervous, and shuffled his feet a little. "Um...no. I don't think so," he said.
"And why not?" Lois said, turning to look at him.
Clark looked around the fair grounds for a few minutes before answering. "...I'm afraid of heights," he admitted, blushing a little.
Lois looked surprised at first, then put hands to her hips. "Whaaaaaaaat," she slowly said. "Big guy like YOU? Afraid of HEIGHTS?" Clark nodded almost reluctantly. Lois sighed. "Oh well, that's just too bad..." she suddenly brightened. "Come on, Chloe!" she said, taking her cousin by the hand and pulling her.
Chloe laughed and quickly tossed the video cam she was holding over to Clark. "Wait for us here!" she said, as Lois pulled her towards the ferris wheel.
Clark grinned in reply and finished his cotton candy as he waited for Lois and Chloe to get into their seats.
- FERRIS WHEEL...where Lois and Chloe were...-
Chloe and Lois waved at Clark and the camera as the ferris wheel took them to the very top. Chloe shuddered a bit when they started going down. "So..." she said, trying to take her mind off of how high they were, "Were you invited to Lex's party?"
Lois nodded. "Yep. Lana dropped it off at the farm yesterday afternoon," then she started laughing.
"What?" Chloe asked, smiling.
Lois shook her head and waved a hand dismissively. "Oh, it's nothing," she said, but Chloe wouldn't stop bugging her, so she spilled. "...The invitation included me as one of the Kents'," she said.
Chloe looked confused. "What do you mean?"
Lois told her the story of the "Lane Kent" mistake and began laughing again, "It was so weird."
Chloe waited a few moments before slowly smiling at her. When Lois asked her what that smile meant, she just answered, "Nothing." Though her cousin tried coaxing her to confess, Chloe remained firm and silent. So Lois gave up, and they were quiet for a while.
"Hey..." Lois suddenly said. She turned to Chloe. "Wanna cure Clark of his fear of heights?"
Chloe crouched her eyebrows, puzzled, but quickly caught on. She nodded gladly.
After their ride was over, Lois and Chloe quickly got off and strode purposefully towards Clark, who was still recording them. "Hey, how was it?" he asked, as they neared him. He suddenly yelped as Chloe and Lois took hold of his arms, causing him to drop the camera on the ground. "What are you doing?"
"YOU," Chloe said, "are going to the ride the ferris wheel with Lois."
A look of horror appeared on Clark's face, and his eyes turned as round as saucers. "No," he said, firmly planting his feet on the ground. Lois and Chloe, who had been easily pulling him through the crowd, suddenly jerked to a stop as Clark held his ground.
"Come on...Smallville..." Lois said, grunting as she pulled on his upper arm. When that didn't work, she put one of her shoulders on his back and tried pushing him from his spot.
"Clark," Chloe said, a strained look on her face as she pulled on his hands, "COME ON!"
"I don't want to!"
"UGH, KENT!" Lois panted, stopping to rest awhile before putting her back up against Clark's and pushing with all her might, "How much do you WEIGH?"
People stared as Lois and Chloe yelled at Clark and pushed/pulled on him. Exhausted as heck, the girls stopped after a few minutes. Although Chloe had given up, Lois had done anything but. She dropped down on her knees and hugged Clark's legs, fake sobbing. She was VERY determined to get him on that ferris wheel. "CLARRRRK!" she cried. "Please ride the ferris wheel, PLEEASSSSEEE! If you don't ride with me, I'll be unhappy forever, and you don't want that, do you? COME ON CLARK, PLEASSSSEEE!"
Some people stopped to look at them. "Lois," Clark growled at her. "Get up!"
But Lois wasn't finished with him. "Who CARES IF YOU'RE AFRAID OF HEIGHTS! Come on it's just one ride! If I die tomorrow, what will you do? YOU'LL HAVE TO LIVE WITH THE GUILT OF NOT GRANTING MY LAST WISH before I DIIIED! My spirit won't be at peace!...WAAAAAAahhhh! PLEASE! RIDE! THE! FERRIS! WHEEL! WITH! MEEEEEEE..." Lois sobbed haltingly as she buried her face into Clark's jeans and made wailing sounds. No one saw the sinister grin on her face. Chloe could barely hold her laughter. Following her cousin's lead, she too got on her knees and started bowing before Clark repeatedly. "PLEASE RIDE THE FERRIS WHEEL WITH HER CLARK!..YOU'RE OUR ONLY HOPE! She'll DIE if you don't get on! We're BEGGING you!"
"...please ride the Ferris wheel...please ride the Ferris wheel..." they chanted, salaaming before his feet.
"Guys, get UP, you're embarrassing me!"
"PUH-LEASSSSSSSSSSSSSEEEEEE..." They were crying again, this time louder than before. Lois and Chloe latched themselves onto Clark's legs and started wailing as if someone had died.
"Aw, come on, give the poor girls a chance," some guy suddenly shouted from the crowd. "Yeah! It's just the Ferris wheel!" another yelled. "Who can refuse such hot chicks?" someone commented. "Which one's his girlfriend?" "I dunno. Both of 'em?" "PIMP!" "Hey dude, if that blonde is free I'd like to take her out!" "RIDE THE FERRIS WHEEL!" a few more people called out. Clark blushed pink at the crowd that was beginning to gather.
He sighed, frustrated, and looked at Lois and Chloe. They were kneeling on the ground hugging each other, shaking from laughter or tears, he didn't know. But they were sure making a lot of noise. "Okay, okay, okay, just GET UP and stop begging me! Geez!" And just as soon as he said this, Chloe and Lois immediately stopped crying and got up as if nothing were wrong. Lois took hold of his arm and dragged him towards the ride, as Chloe called out, "Have FUUUUUUUUuun!"
Clark groaned.
Ferris Wheel
Clark glared at Lois as she took the seat next to him. "I can NOT believe you guys did that," he said, shifting uncomfortably, his expression grumpy.
Lois nudged him in the elbows, still grinning. "Well it got you here, didn't it?" she said, as the ride started.
Clark just rolled his eyes. In his annoyance, he didn't realize that the ferris wheel was turning and that they had already stopped at the very top. "WOOOOOOOOO-HOOO!" he heard Lois yell. "I'M KING OF THE WORLD!" she said, waving her arms around.
"Lois!" he said. "Stop it, people are staring at us!"
"So..?"
Clark shook his head and suddenly realized that the ride had stopped. "Why aren't we moving?" he asked.
Lois grinned, "Because we're at the very top." She watched as Clark suddenly grew rigid and continued, "We stay here for about a minute and then we go down."
"And then?"
"And then we go up again."
"Does the ride stop again at the very top?"
"Umm...no. It stops the third time around, though."
Lois watched Clark focus on the stars above, purposefully not looking down. She took pity on him, and patted his shoulder. "Come on, Clark. You can look. It's not that high," she tried assuring him, as if he were a child.
Clark quickly shook his head and closed his eyes. "No," he said, his tone resolute. After a few moments, however, he felt something warm grab his hand. He opened his eyes and looked down at the seat. Lois had placed her hand over his, and was smiling encouragingly.
"Look at me," she said, pointing to her eyes. Clark looked at her. "Now...slowly...look down. Come on, look down." When Clark didn't move, Lois took hold of his chin, turned his head sideways, and made him look down.
"HEY CLARK!" Chloe called from the bottom, camera in hand. She was recording them and waving at the same time.
"Hi..." Clark said quietly, and he tried waving at Chloe. He was still kind of nervous as he looked at her, because their seat was situated at the very top. Chloe gave him an encouraging smile and he smiled back. He was still looking down at all the people walking around, when he felt shifting beside him.
"Awwww, now that wasn't so bad, was it?" Lois voice brought Clark's eyes back to hers'. He saw her smiling from ear to ear.
Clark faintly smiled back. "No," he softly said, "It wasn't." Lois gave his hand a small squeeze and finally let go. Clark found himself wishing that she hadn't.
...after the ride...
"YEAH!" Lois yelled, as she and Clark stepped off the Ferris wheel platform. "HE SURVIVED! LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, HE SURVIVED!" She said, taking Clark's arm and waving it around victoriously. Clark looked away, obviously embarrassed, as a few people smiled and clapped at Lois' announcement.
Chloe laughed as she recorded Clark and Lois walking back towards her. "Hey, so are you cured?" she asked Clark, as soon as he was back at her side. Lois was looking around for more rides to...well...RIDE.
Clark chuckled and shrugged. "I don't know," he said, doubtfully.
"Aw come on," Lois said, punching his arm. "You had fun! Say it! Tell Chloe you had fun."
"Okay, okay. I had fun," he said, after a brief pause. He smiled when the girls started jumping around and gave him high-fives.
"YEAH! WOO-HOO!" Lois and Chloe whooped, doing a little happy dance. "Clark had fun..Clark had fun..Clark had fun..." they chanted, walking in a circle, and dancing like indians. "Take a picture, Chloe!" Lois ordered. "We've just made HISTORY!" Clark smiled as Lois put an elbow on his shoulder and Chloe took the pcture. The flash was blinding.
"PERFECT! Okay what do we ride next?" Chloe asked.
They spent the next hour and a half riding kiddy roller coasters (Clark had SO much fun, that he made Lois and Chloe ride it five more times. The girls had all they could do not to throw up), the spinning tea-cups, and much more. They even took part in some of the games in which Clark won his friends huge stuffed animals. They even went into a freakish "haunted house" where Chloe and Clark scared the heck out of Lois by grabbing at her in the dark. Chloe and Lois took turns using the video cam and camera, capturing almost every moment they spent at the fair.
After an afternoon filled with fun, they reluctantly agreed that it was time to go home. It was getting dark, and they still some camp-out stuff to do. "Thanks for the bunny, Clark!" Lois said, hugging the oversized pink bunny that Clark had won for her at the...place-where-you-take-this-hammer-and-hit-the-thing-and-some -ball-goes-up-and-rings-the-bell (sorry I don't know what it's called HAHA). "You're welcome," Clark said, after Chloe had also thanked him for the teddy bear he had won HER. He put his arms around Lois and Chloe, who were walking on either side of him, and gave them brief, little hugs. It had been fun spending time with them.
"Aww, now I feel bad," Lois thoughtfully said.
"Why's that?" Clark asked.
"YOU didn't get anything."
Clark shrugged. "It's okay. I rode the Ferris wheel, the spinning teacups, those tiny roller coasters..went through the haunted house, the hall of mirrors, played bumper cars..." He counted his fingers, "...and was told that Lois was going to be my wife by a crazy old woman. I think that's enough," he said, turning to look at them. The girls laughed at this.
"Come on, LADIES," Lois said, smiling at the way Clark scowled at her. "Who's ready for some CAMPING!"
Clark grinned as Chloe whooped. As he was coming to realize, Lois' plans weren't so bad after all.
KENT FARM
Martha smiled as she looked out the window at the "children." She had offered them some REAL dinner (fried chicken and mashed potatoes) but they had firmly refused. Or rather, LOIS had refused. Chloe and Clark were practically drooling at the dinner she had prepared. Lois, however, was expecting them to live on beef jerky, popcorn, and marshmallows. Martha told them that she would put some away if they ever got hungry.
"Have they managed to get at least ONE up yet?" Jonathan's voice startled Martha and she turned to see him looking out the window as well.
She laughed, "No. They almost had it, though, until Lois tripped over the fire wood and fell onto the tent Clark and Chloe had just put up. I think they're trying to fix it again."
Jonathan laughed beside her and eyed Lois with some pieces of the tent structure in her hands. When she turned around to address Chloe, the sticks hit Clark square in the face. Apologies and some yelling ensued. "Do you think I should go out there and tell them how it's done?" Jonathan raised an eyebrow.
"You gave them the instructions, right?"
"Yes."
"They'll figure it out."
"But, sweetheart--"
Jonathan was interrupted by Martha's arms around his neck. "Honey," she said, "Let's just let them do this on their own, okay?...Besides, as Lois put it, i want to spend some time with my 'hubby.'" And she kissed him.
Meanwhile...Outside in the Back yard...
"It's been exactly.." Chloe checked her watch, "ONE HOUR since we started this 'tent-building' stuff, and there STILL isn't a tent in sight." She was sitting on one of three folding chairs that Lois had set up around a huge pile of firewood. Behind her, Clark and Lois were arguing over the tent instructions.
"It said it should be positioned THIS way, Smallville," Lois said, stabbing her finger at the piece of paper which now had many wrinkles on it.
Clark grabbed it from her. "No it does not!" he said, tilting his head and reading it.
Lois groaned. "Yes it does! Why do you think the tent fell down? You didn't DO IT RIGHT!"
"Actually, YOU FELL--"
"IT'S THIS WAY!"
"NO IT'S NOT!"
"It's neither," Chloe spoke up from behind them. Lois and Clark stopped yakking at each other and stared at her. "You're reading it upside down?" Chloe prompted.
Lois and Clark looked at each other for a while before laughing nervously. "Oooops," they said. Chloe rolled her eyes. In their frustration for each other, neither Clark nor Lois had realized that they were reading the drawings all wrong. With Chloe's help and mediating, they were able to get the two tents up within the space of one hour.
"Great! Okay, time to build a fire," Lois said, dusting her jeans. She took some sticks from the pile of wood and handed them to Clark. "Do your thing, Smallville!"
Clark's head snapped up to look at her. He looked at Chloe, and then back at Lois. Had she--? Did she--? Did she know about his--? "What are you talking about?" Clark burst, panic in his voice. "I can't make fire out of thin air! HA HA HA...you're funny, Lois!" he began laughing nervously. "What, you think I have powers or something?" He continued 'laughing.'
Lois raised an eyebrow at him. "Nooo..." she said slowly. "I meant for you to rub them together...you know, like the boy scouts?"
The relieved expression on Clark's face was almost comical. He hit his chest and took a deep breath while the girls stared at him. Clark took the sticks from Lois' hands as he tried to steady his breathing. For a moment there, he had thought Lois had discovered about his heat vision.
"Come on, Chlo," Lois said, turning to her cousin. "Let's get the food out while Clark here makes a fire the old fashioned way," she said, grinning at his glaring face.
As she and Chloe walked towards the house and into the kitchen, Chloe whispered, "Do you REALLY expect Clark to make a fire out of just rubbing STICKS? He'll take all night!"
Lois shook her head as she grabbed the food off the counter and tossed some of the packages over to Chloe. "Relax. I just thought it'd be funny to watch him ATTEMPT to do so. I've got the matches right here," she said, taking a pack of matches out of a kitchen drawer. "Let's go help him out shall we?"
Chloe sighed as she followed a laughing Lois back outside. "You just LOVE torturing him, don't you?" she asked. They were already out in the backyard, when Lois froze in her tracks.
"What the...hell..." Lois said, staring out in front of her. The matches had dropped from her hand.
Chloe looked at her cousin. "Why, what's wrong?" That was when she followed Lois' gaze and saw Clark sitting on one of the chairs, his arms crossed, and a satisfied smile on his face. A fire was crackling in front of him.
"Oh my gosh," Lois said, snapping herself from her moment of shock. "You mean it actually WORKED?"
Clark smiled up at her. "Yep!" he replied.
Chloe laughed as she joined them. "Well what do you know. You're the first person I've ever met who actually made a fire with just sticks," she said, incredulously.
Lois handed Clark some wire hangers. "What are THESE for?" Clark asked, looking confused.
"Be and gentleman and unbend them. We're using those for the marshmallows and hot dogs," she explained, before going back inside to take out the sleeping bags. Clark watched her go inside before easily unbending the hangers into long wires. Behind him, Chloe was crawling in and out of the tents that they had just pitched.
Lois came walking back outside, carrying two sleeping bags in her arms. "Hey, Clark, where's your sleeping bag?" she asked, as Chloe came forward to help her unroll theirs' inside their tent.
"Oh, I already laid it out a few minutes ago," Clark answered, busy with opening the packages of food on the lil table they had set up beside the fire.
Lois quickly took a peek into his tent and literally bit her tongue from yelling, "Even your SLEEPING BAG'S PLAID!" Instead, she smiled at him and said, "Oh...Cool."
They spent the next hour eating and engaging in easy conversation. It was then that Chloe had asked if they could play Twister. Lois enthusiastically clapped her hands and said yes, while Clark shrugged his shoulders. So Chloe brought the game out and laid the mat on the ground, taking the spinning board and the video camera in her hands. "I'll do the spinning!" she said, an evil glint in her eye. She spun the arrow as Lois and Clark got up from their seats. She pressed the REC button.
"Okay, Lois. Left foot, blue," she said. Lois put her left foot on a blue spot on the mat.
"Clark, right foot, red." Clark did so.
Pretty soon, Clark and Lois found themselves in a pretty complicated situation (Let's just make this simple: Lois was practically on top of a blushing Clark), that they began thinking that Chloe had planned the whole thing.
"Hey, are you SURE you're spinning that arrow, Chloe?" Lois asked, irritated. Smallville's face was so close to her own, that she was starting to feel really uncomfortable.
"Yeah, I'm starting to think you're just randomly calling out colors!" Clark added, looking over at a grinning Chloe. "When does this game end?"
"When one of you falls down," Chloe replied from behind the video camera.
"Well, in that case," Lois said, then turned to look down at Clark, "Clark, fall down."
"What?"
"Fall down!"
"Why?"
"So that we can end this game!"
"Actually, I'm starting to like the way we're positioned," Clark replied, giving her a mischievous grin.
"UGH!" Lois said. She then twisted a bit and purposefully fell on him, causing Clark to hit the ground as well. Clark laughed as an irritated Lois got off him and walked over to a smiling Chloe, demanding that they all get ready for bed.
They all presently trooped back into the house to brush their teeth, wash their faces, etc., and it was already quite dark when they had finished. The only light visible was that from the fire. Lois immediately took out a large flashlight and suggested telling scary stories. The other two agreed, and before long, they were seated comfortably in Clark's tent.
"'kay, Clark, you go first!" Lois said, taking one of his pillows and hugging it. Chloe made herself comfortable in Clark's soft sleeping bag, leaned on Lois' shoulder, and looked at Clark expectantly.
Clark looked at her and grinned. "You gotta be kidding right? Me? Tell SCARY STORIES?"
Chloe seemed to think about it for a moment, then turned to look at her cousin. "He's got a point, Lo. Clark wouldn't hurt a fly, much less scare us," she said.
But Lois was so insistent that Clark give it a try, that he finally agreed to the whole thing and tried to make up a scary story just to please her. He took the flashlight Lois handed him, and began, "Uhmm...Once upon a time...There was...an alien." He didn't know where it came from, but he decided to tell them his life story instead. With all the crazy things that had happened to him, he thought it would be scary enough. Besides...the girls had no idea he was really talking about himself, right?
So probably half an hour later, Clark ended his 'scary' story. He had renamed everything and everyone in it, and now he looked at his friends to see if they were freaked out yet. Instead, he heard a sniff. He quickly shined Lois' flashlight onto the girls' faces and found them wiping their eyes and noses. "Are you guys okay?" he asked, looking worried.
"Kent, you IDIOT, that wasn't a SCARY story, that was a SAPPY story!" Lois said, blowing her nose into her shirt.
"Yeah...I mean...Poor little Kalen. Will he EVER feel at home on earth?" Chloe sighed, looking at Clark, tears in her eyes.
"Yeah, will he?" Lois chimed in.
"Uh.." Clark blinked. "Maybe.." Clark was surprised. Why were they reacting like this? He didn't know why, and suddenly felt bad for ruining the night for them. Quickly changing topics, he shoved the flashlight into Lois' hands, asking her to tell them a scary story.
Lois promptly obeyed, and was pretty good with all the sound effects and facial expressions, that Chloe clung onto Clark's arm throughout the whole thing. Chloe's own story was much shorter, and she was finished in a matter of minutes, "Once upon a time, there was this weird guy. He ate kids for supper. He chopped their limbs up and stirred them in a huge cauldron outside. No one ever found out who he was. He killed approximately 700 children. The end." And she handed the flashlight back to Lois with a yawn.
Clark and Lois stared at her. "That was...tragic," Clark said, raising an eyebrow. Lois nodded her head in agreement, a "WTH" look on her face.
Chloe shrugged. "What can I say? I like sticking to the facts. Now can we please go sleep now?" she whined, looking in her cousin's direction.
Lois yawned as well and let go of Clark's pillow, handing it back to him. "Oh, all right. I'm pretty tired too," she said, crawling out of Clark's tent after Chloe.
Clark settled into his sleeping bag and let his head rest comfortably into the pillow Lois had given back to him. It still smelled like her, but he had no choice. With his super-hearing, he listened to the girls snuggle into their own sleeping bags and say their good nights.
"Good night, Clark!"
"Night, Chloe."
"Night Lois!"
"Good niiiiight, Chloe."
"Night, Lois," Clark called.
"G'night, John boy."
Clark chuckled into his pillow before quickly falling asleep to the scent of Lois' perfume. It had been a long day.
