Chapter 04 - I'm Gonna Be Alright

Zoey yawns as she makes her way down the stairs that morning. She had worked late at the Talon the night before and was thankful that Nell and Lana had given her a ride home. She stops seeing the table covered in food. "Good morning," a voice greets and she turns to see a boy a couple of years younger than herself. He had bright hazel eyes and dark brown hair.

"Zoey, this is Ryan," Martha introduces. "He's staying with us until a family member can be found."

Zoey nods and sits down at the table. "Hi."

"Hey, what's the occasion," Jonathan greets, entering the kitchen and sitting down at the table.

"I wanted to make myself useful," Ryan replies. "Thanks for letting me stay here."

"Hey, you can stay as long as you want. Maybe some of you will rub off on Clark and Zoey."

Zoey rolls her eyes. She knew that would never happen. Between the Talon, being newly selected as the FBLA president, and student body treasurer, she barely had time to breathe, let alone make a table full of food. 'This is what private chefs are for,' Zoey thinks.

"What does everybody want? Let me guess," Ryan says, staring at Martha. "Pancakes with powdered sugar, not syrup."

Martha brightly smiles. "How did you know that?"

"I saw you eyeing them when you came in." Ryan turns to Jonathan. "Scrambled eggs, bacon, coffee with milk, and a little bit of honey."

"Well, that is some trick there, kiddo," Jonathan replies, taking the plate.

Ryan turns his attention to Zoey. "Blueberry pancakes with a sprinkling of powdered sugar and light on the syrup."

Zoey raises an eyebrow. "Um, thanks," she says, taking the plate. The last time she had this exact breakfast was when she was a kid and her mom had made them. There was something off that she couldn't quite put her finger on.

"Hey, Mom," Clark greets, entering the kitchen. He eyes the table full of food. "Going all out for the new kid, huh?"

"Actually, Clark, Ryan took care of all this himself."

Clark nudges Zoey. "You're making us look bad."

"What do you want for breakfast," Ryan asks, staring at Clark. He frowns. "Don't you want anything, Clark?"

"I'm just gonna have some pancakes," Clark replies, stabbing his fork into some pancakes in the center of the table. Clark shoots him a smile as Ryan just stares at him.

Martha frowns. "Ryan, you okay?"

Ryan nods but keeps his gaze on Clark. "Ryan, are you sure you don't remember anything about last night," Jonathan questions. "You see because I-I still can't figure out why you were out on Route 90 at ten o'clock at night."

Ryan tenses. "I said I don't remember."

Zoey grabs a piece of bacon off a plate. 'Kid is totally hiding something. Even I can see it.'

"I'm not hiding anything," Ryan defends, then stands up and walks away from the table. Zoey raises an eyebrow.

"No one said you were, buddy," Clark calls after him.

Zoey stands up and grabs another piece of bacon. "I have to meet Lana. I'll see everyone later."

"Zoey, you've barely touched your breakfast," Martha points out.

"Not really hungry," Zoey says, then quickly makes her way out of the house. She didn't know what was going on with Ryan, but she didn't trust him. No one knew the exact breakfast her mom would make her. Not even the Kents.

Zoey smiles as she hands the customer their to-go order. The Talon was packed like it always was on a Saturday afternoon. She sees Ryan sitting on one of the stools at the counter. Clark was showing Ryan around town, though he was currently talking with Lana. She sees Lex walk into the Talon and goes to start his usual order. "Warrior Angel," Lex reads, moving to stand next to Ryan. Ryan glances at him, then turns back to his comic book. "I'm a fan myself. You must be Ryan. I'm—"

"Lex Luthor," Ryan interrupts. "Clark told me all about you."

"You know, I have one of—"

"Original first edition panels framed in your house."

Lex chuckles, amused. "How did you know that?"

"You're rich. That's what rich people do, collect stuff."

Zoey grabs Lex's to-go order and places it on the counter in front of him. "Here you go, Lex," she tells him. "Your usual."

Lex shoots her a smile, then glances once more at Ryan with a perplexed look. "I see you've met Ryan," Clark says, joining them.

"Apparently, we're both big Warrior Angel fans," Lex replies.

"I didn't know you liked comic books," Clark tells his friend.

"A strange visitor from another planet who protects the weak? When I was young he was my idol, not to mention the fact he's bald. I have the whole collection." Zoey shakes her head and walks away, leaving them to their conversation. The last thing she wanted was to spend more time around Ryan.

Zoey looks up when there's a knock on her bedroom door. She spies Clark standing in the doorway and motions for him to enter. "Have you been avoiding Ryan because he can read minds," Clark asks.

"I sensed that something was weird, but I didn't know that he read minds," Zoey answers. "But now that I know, yeah, I'll probably avoid him, even more, when he visits."

Ryan, after being taken by his stepdad and the stepdad's girlfriend, was able to finally go home with his aunt. While Zoey had been a little sad to see Ryan leave the farm, she was relieved at the same time. Clark frowns. "What'd you sense that was weird?"

Zoey glances down the hallway, before looking at Clark. "He knew the exact breakfast that my mom would always make me. The only other people that know of the exact breakfast my mom made me are Uncle Max and Austin." She lets out a breath. "Look, Clark, I think Ryan is a sweet kid with an amazing ability. If he wants to, he can use it to save a lot of people someday. I just don't like people being inside of my head."

Clark nods and walks away. He couldn't help replaying what Ryan had told him earlier that afternoon. About how Lex had a darkness within him and how Zoey had a darkness inside of her. He knew both of them pretty well or at least thought he did. He didn't think they would do anything to hurt him. Especially Zoey.

Zoey smiles as she hands out cupcakes. It was her second year running for a position in the student council. She had successfully run a campaign for treasurer the previous year and had managed to raise more money than any other school treasurer. She was determined to win her race as class vice president. "Zoey!" She looks up and finds Chloe and Pete. "Who do you think will win class president?"

"I look forward to working with whoever wins," Zoey answers, with a smile. She hands them each a cupcake. "Have a cupcake. Aunt Martha and I made them."

Pete eagerly grabs his. "Give us a real answer."

"Between the three of us, we know that Paul is the most qualified. However, you have to count popularity in these elections. And Felice is the most popular," Zoey tells them.

"What about Sasha," Chloe questions.

"I've worked with Sasha before on some of the fundraisers. She needs more work on being a leader."

"Hey, why aren't you running for president," Pete asks.

Zoey shakes her head. "I am sticking with my plan. Treasurer to the vice president than to the president. I'd rather have the work that shows I've earned being president."

Zoey stares in disbelief at the banner hanging in the hallway. "Fucking hell," she mutters. There was no way that Clark would run for class president. She had made school politics her thing. She had spent too much time and effort in student government. Then she pauses. The news of Paul being attacked by a swarm of bees had been making it way through the hallways. There was also the news of Felice throwing a pre-election party. Sasha was being her normal uptight self. She had been the one to first tell Zoey that Clark was running, something Zoey didn't believe until she saw the banner.

Given that Zoey was the only person actually running for class vice president, she knew that she was a shoo-in for the position. She turns and walks down the hallway, searching for Clark. She spots him standing in the hallway. "Clark," Zoey greets, walking up to him.

"Pete nominated—"

"I think you should run," Zoey interrupts, smiling at him. She grabs his arm and leads him down the hallway towards their history class. "Look, we both know that there are certain things that Uncle Jonathan thinks that you shouldn't do. Like football. But this is actually something that you can do and you won't get that look from him. Not only that, people like you. You're more relatable than Felice and Sasha. So, I think you should run. Plus, student government looks really good on college applications."

Clark stares at her. "You really think I should run?"

"Clark, if I didn't think you should run I would've told you that. I mean it. You should run."

Zoey looks up from where she was sitting in the mostly empty Talon when she hears Lex enter. She hadn't missed when Clark and Pete entered, taking a break from Clark's campaign. Business had been slow the past couple of weeks. Zoey had been working with Lana to come up with ideas to drum up more business, but nothing they had come up with so far had worked. "Glad to see business is booming," Lex greets.

"It's hard when even your regular customers blow you off," Lana replies.

"I haven't been blowing you off, Lana. I've had my eye on the situation."

"Waiting for me to fail."

"Most new ventures fail. You have to prepare yourself for that possibility."

"I thought you didn't like to lose," Clark reminds.

"I don't, but it's not my fight. As an investor, you have to know when to cut your losses."

Lana looks between Clark and Lex. "So, what do you suggest we do?"

"The Beanery has declared war. If you wanna hold on to his place, you need to get creative. Be willing to get your hands dirty. Don't worry, I'm not suggesting anything illegal. To quote The Godfather 'it's time to go to the mattresses.'"

Zoey rolls her eyes and walks over to them. "That movie needs to no longer constantly run on AMC," she tells them, grabbing a glass of water. "Don't worry, Lana, this place won't fail. I'm a Carmichael."

"You sound very sure of that," Lana says, walking with Zoey back over to her table leaving Clark and Lex to talk.

Zoey glances around the Talon, then pulls Lana into a corner. "My grandfather, back in the fifties, had to deal with some competition for the new restaurant he had invested in. This other place had managed to convenience long time customers to not visit the hotel's new restaurant. So, my grandfather had a chat with the local health inspector."

Zoey looks up from where she was throwing trash into the garbage can outside of the house. News about the bee attack on Felice and the later bee attack in the Talon had quickly spread throughout the town. Given that she was highly allergic to bees, Zoey had taken to carrying her EpiPen on her, except when she was at home. Hearing the light buzzing sound and looking to see a giant swarm of bees, causes her to take off running. She feels a gust of air along with a tiny sting. Within the blink of an eye, Zoey finds herself on the ground of the storm cellar with Clark standing in front of her. "Zoey," Clark worriedly exclaims. "Are you okay?"

Zoey shakes her head. She could feel her airway tightening up. She gasps for air. "Zoey! Clark," Martha yells, throwing open the storm cellar doors and running down the stairs. "Zoey! Clark, she needs her EpiPen!"

Clark vanishes with a gust of air. He knew exactly where the emergency EpiPen was kept in the house. Martha grabs Zoey's hands and kneels in front of her. Clark quickly reappears with the EpiPen in hand. He yanks off the cap and stabs Zoey in the thigh. They wait as the medicine runs through Zoey. She gasps for air.

"Is she gonna be okay," Clark asks.

"It takes a minute for it to kick in," Martha reminds, pulling her goddaughter against her chest. "I've never seen bees attack like that. They flew off as soon as you guys came down here. Where do you think they went?"

"Back to their queen," Clark theorizes, then takes off.

Zoey takes a deep breath. Martha gently pulls her up. "Let's get you to the hospital, sweetheart."

Zoey shifts in the uncomfortable hospital bed. She had been admitted for observation to ensure that there were no other side effects of being stung by the bees. There's a knock on the door and she looks to see Max. "Uncle Max," she brightly says, as he walks into the hospital room. "What are you doing here?"

"You know that I'd never miss an election night," Max tells her. "Sucks you stung by a few bees. How are you doing? And where are Jonathan and Martha?"

Zoey waves a hand. "I'm fine. And they're at home. I told them I was fine and didn't need them to stay for my observation night."

Max pulls up the chair and sets down. He clears his throat. "There's actually another reason I'm here. The guy who killed your parents…He's being released from prison."

"Oh."

A silence settles over them, each lost in their own thoughts. Zoey quickly wipes away a tear. Max climbs onto her bed and pulls her against his chest.

I used to say I couldn't do it

But I did it

After telling everyone that I wasn't with it

I can feel it

And I know inside I'm gonna be alright

I said I couldn't do it

But I did it

After telling everybody that I wasn't with it

Though it brings tears to my eyes

I can feel it

And that voice insides says I'm gonna be alright