Usually, Emmeline loved the outdoors. Except when she was out there for class which was exactly what was happening that day. She and her classmates were all looking for different kinds of rocks for their science class.
"Okay, people, you've got 15 minutes!" their teacher announced. "A storm's on its way and I want to be on the road before it hits."
Chloe and Emmeline spread out and started looking for their remaining rocks. Chloe didn't seem to be having the best time, but Emmeline would sometimes spend hours in the woods and had become quite the climber.
"Why are you so good at everything?" Chloe complained.
"When you're as shy as I am, you find a lot of ways to kill time."
"Apparently, I need to pick up that technique."
"It's not that great. I think you're a much better person the way you are. Besides, you couldn't pretend to be shy if you wanted to."
"Fair point."
The two girls climbed down and joined Lana, Pete, and Clark at the bottom.
"When is this whole geological scavenger hunt over?" Chloe complained.
"Not having much luck?" Pete asked.
"Someone's doing a little more ranting than digging," Lana laughed.
"I'm sorry, but I find geology even more pointless than algebra. I mean, I could just order these rocks online and have them delivered vacuum-sealed."
"But that wouldn't be nearly as fun," Emmeline joked.
Clark, Pete, and Emmeline started walking to the bus when they overheard a conversation between their teacher and his son, Eric.
"Get with the program, Eric!" his dad yelled.
"Dad—"
"It's Mr. Summers at school. You have ten minutes to complete this assignment. You better find every rock."
Mr. Summers walked away as the three awkwardly stood there.
"I'm glad he's not my dad," Pete remarked.
Emmeline nodded her head in agreement. They all continued onto the bus while the rest of the class tried to find their remaining samples.
Once everyone was back on the bus, Mr. Summers called out, "Has anyone seen Eric? Apparently he's got himself lost."
"I'll find him," Clark said as he stood up and got off the bus.
When neither of the boys came back, Pete and Emmeline went looking for them when Mr. Summers had his back turned.
They found the two guys near the top of the dam. Eric was unconscious and Clark looked injured.
"Clark!" Emmeline called as she ran to him. "Are you both alright?"
"I think so," he answered. "Help him."
Pete got Eric conscious again and the four of them went back to the bus. Mr. Summers didn't look happy, but he didn't say anything.
When Emmeline walked into the Torch office the next day, Chloe immediately hounded her. "Do you know if Clark is okay?"
"No, why?"
"I haven't seen him all day. Was he hurt yesterday when you found him?"
"I mean, he looked fine as far as I could tell."
"I'm just worried about him. From what Pete was saying, he didn't seem fine during gym class."
"We could always go over to the farm later."
"No, I don't want to seem like that girl who's stalking him. Hopefully, I'll see him tomorrow."
Unfortunately, the next day, Clark was still a no-show. Chloe called him up and she looked confused when she got off the phone. "Apparently, Clark is still doing his chores and that's why he blew us off."
"Clark has never blown you guys off for chores before, right?" Emmeline asked.
"He's been acting weird lately," Pete said.
Chloe smirked. "Well, okay, Clark's always acting weird. Why don't you give me a gauge?"
"He was so tired in math class today, he face-planted on his desk."
Emmeline giggled a little. "It was kinda funny though."
Chloe laughed. "I have two words for him. Power bar."
They had only walked a few more feet before some really sketchy guy grabbed Chloe's bag. The three of them tried to hit him and take the bag back but to no avail.
"Give me my laptop!" Chloe screamed.
Emmeline watched as Eric stepped in front of the guy. The man took out a knife and attempted to stab him, but the knife came in contact with Eric's hand and shattered. Then Eric grabbed the man and flung him with one arm into a truck and he landed on the other side of the street.
"Did you see that?" Chloe exclaimed.
"Yeah," Pete answered. "Unbelievable."
The three of them went up to him where a circle of people surrounded him expressing their congratulations, and he handed Chloe her bag. "Thank you," Chloe said. "That was amazing."
"Any time," Eric smiled.
Emmeline looked at him suspiciously. There was something weird going on here. Clark gets tired and worn out incredibly fast all of a sudden and now Eric has some kind of power boost? Something happened at that dam that Clark wasn't telling anyone.
News of Eric's victory spread faster than wildfire and appeared in the morning paper all thanks to Chloe.
"Clark, you should have seen it," Pete said excitedly as the four of them walked through the hallway. "Eric threw the guy like 30 feet."
"Not only did he recover my laptop, but I got my first byline in the Smallville Ledger," Chloe said happily.
"That's great, Chloe," Clark said, the tone of his voice betraying his words.
"Come on, Clark! How can you be so blasé about this?"
"The guy stopped a purse snatcher. It's not that big a deal."
"Em, will you please tell him that it was amazing?"
"Uh…"
Before she could say anything, Eric ran up to the group. "Chloe! Hey, thanks for getting that story in the paper."
"Thanks for saving my computer. It's my life." She thought about what she just said, then added, "Okay, how pathetic did that just sound?"
Eric smiled. "So, uh, who came up with 'Super Boy'?"
"I did."
"Really? I like that."
"Thanks."
Chloe turned back around, all smiles. If she was seriously considering going out with that guy, Emmeline had a few words to say about that one.
"I thought it was kind of lame," Clark admitted when Eric walked away.
"I don't remember asking you," Chloe answered, still smiling.
"Clark's just jealous," Pete said.
"I hope all this attention doesn't go to his head. He needs to be careful," Clark told them.
Chloe laughed a little. "Well, you know what, Clark? The second you start throwing people 30 feet, I'll write nice things about you too."
Chloe kept going as Lana and Whitney came up to them.
"Hey, guys," Lana smiled.
"Hey," Pete and Emmeline greeted.
When Clark didn't say anything, Lana laughed, "Clark, are you okay?"
"I'm great!"
Whitney looked at the guys. "Ross, I'm getting a pick-up game together in the gym. You and Kent versus me and Brent. What do you say?"
"Clark doesn't really play," Pete told him.
"No, I play," Clark said quickly.
"Great," Whitney smiled. "Bring it on."
Clark and Pete started heading to the gym. "Since when do you play?" Pete asked.
"Since now. Em, you going to come watch?"
Emmeline was about to say no, but then she pictured getting to watch Clark play sports in all his glory. "Sure," she smiled. "Why not?"
It was really a dream come true. He looked so hot out there on the court as he and Pete tried to get as many baskets as they could. He smiled over at Emmeline a few times and it made her want to jump up and down in excitement. They ended up losing and it was comical to see Clark seem so happy about it.
Sometime later, a loud commotion outside forced the four of them outside along with half the student body.
Some guy was hiding under a car and Eric went over to the car and lifted it up with ease. "What's the problem, Brent? Why are you hiding from nothing?"
Brent ran in several directions, but Eric sped in front of him each time. Then he picked him up and threw him where he crashed onto a table. His girlfriend ran over to him in a panic.
Clark ran in front of Eric. "Eric! You can't do this."
"Watch me," Eric said icily.
"No, I'm serious! You could kill someone. You don't want that on your conscience, believe me. You've just got to calm down."
"You're not my father, Clark. Now shut up and get out of my way!"
Eric picked up Clark and threw him on top of a parked vehicle. Emmeline ran over to him as fast as her legs would carry her. "Clark!" she screamed. A trickle of blood was coming down his forehead and he was unconscious. Several people began dialing 911 to get some help for him. Paramedics arrived within minutes and took Clark away to the hospital.
That night, after Clark got back home, Emmeline stopped by. She knocked on the screen door and Martha looked up.
"Come on in, Emmeline!" she called. "Clark is just on the couch taking it easy."
Emmeline went into the living room and saw Clark with bandaged up ribs. He didn't have a shirt on, but she tried to ignore that. It proved to be quite difficult.
"Oh, hey, Em," he smiled.
She smiled back and bit her lip. "How are you feeling?"
"Nothing's broken so that's good news."
"It's weird, I've never seen you get hurt before."
"I guess there's a first time for everything."
Emmeline smiled and then looked over at him. "Did something happen to you that day at the dam? That's when everything started getting…strange."
"Nothing worth telling."
She wanted so direly to press it, but she was sure that was the last thing he wanted from her, so she forced herself to drop it. "Feel better."
"Hey, Em," he called. He motioned for her to sit down on the couch and she did so. "You've been a really good friend these past few weeks. We've all noticed a change in you. When we first met you, we couldn't get you to make eye-contact with anyone or raise your voice above a whisper. And now here you are, calling for me and coming over to my house on your own free will."
Emmeline smiled shyly. "It's been a nice change. My parents think so too. They're ready to adopt you all."
"Already adopted, but thanks. It's good to see you opening up."
"It only took conquering my biggest fear by joining the Torch which forced me to talk to people, and have a few run-ins with some meteor freaks."
"All in a day's work in good old Smallville!"
"Thanks for being such a good friend, Clark. Guys like you are hard to come around."
When Emmeline saw Clark walking around in school, he looked way better than when she had seen him injured on his sofa. He was definitely back to his usual self while Eric was in the hospital. She was still confused with what exactly happened with him, but it would be rude of her to pester him about it. If he hadn't told her before, he didn't want to tell her at all and she would just have to be okay with that.
"Welcome back," she smiled at him.
"What do you mean?"
"You've just been acting weird these last couple of days. It's good to see the old you."
"It's good to see the new you."
"And getting better every day."
