"There is nothing like 50 minutes of Mr. Austin's English class that works up an appetite," Clark said as they were released from a very, very boring English class.
"There's nothing like having a 6-page student biography due Monday to help me lose mine," Pete griped.
"What, the biography part, or the fact that our fellow student subjects were randomly assigned?" Chloe smiled.
Clark looked at Pete. "Pete's convinced that the drawing was fixed."
"There are a dozen ladies in our class, each worthy of lengthy interrogation," Pete said. "I get stuck with Stan Gibson."
"The manager of the student store? Well, I hear he's very—"
"Efficient?" Chloe finished.
"Very funny," Pete said shortly. "I'm about to learn more about the art of selling 'Go Crow' pendants than any human should have to endure." He looked over at Chloe. "You haven't stopped smiling since we left. Who's your victim?"
"The illustrious Mr. Kent himself!"
Pete started laughing and Clark's eyes widened. "Me?"
"I take it back," Pete laughed. "Chloe's the one with the challenge."
"Excuse me," Clark said offended.
"No offense, Clark, but digging up six pages of interesting on you is going to require some serious excavation."
"I do stuff."
"Yes, and I'm sure that once I deploy my journalistic skills on you, I'll be able to unearth a skeleton or two," Chloe smiled.
"You know, uh, Chloe. This is a class project, not a corruption scandal."
"Relax, Clark, it's not like you have anything to hide, right?"
"Come on, Clark," Pete said. "Cough it up. Who'd you get?"
"Actually, I got Em," Clark answered.
"Really?" Emmeline asked surprised. She sighed. "I hate this assignment."
"What? Why?"
"If you haven't noticed, I'm a little closed off. I don't want someone prying into my life, and I don't want to ask someone else questions. That's why I took the position at the Torch that requires no talking whatsoever."
"Well, don't worry," Chloe assured. "I'm sure Clark will play nice. Who did you get?"
"I got Lana."
"Why did you all get people you know?" Pete asked. "Like I said, definitely rigged."
Emmeline smiled a little bit. "Believe me, I don't want to do this anymore than you do."
"Em, I've been helping Lana over at the Talon, getting ready for the grand opening," Clark said. "But we could do the interview sometime tonight or tomorrow."
"Guess I have no choice."
"It won't be as bad as you think."
Chloe laughed. "The surrogate boyfriend does the heavy lifting while Whitney works at his dad's store."
"On that note."
Clark began to walk away, but Chloe pulled him back. "Wait. When are you gonna sit down and do my interview?"
"Right. Uh, I'll be around."
Clark walked off and Chloe turned to look at her friends. "Did he just blow me off?"
"Looks like he hates interviews more than I do," Emmeline remarked.
"One step forward, two steps back," Pete commented. "Come on."
That evening, as Emmeline was in her room finishing up homework, her mom knocked on the door. "Hey, Emmeline?"
"Yeah?" she answered without turning around.
"Clark's here."
She finally turned towards the door and saw Clark standing there with several sheets of paper and a pencil. "Ready to do my interview," he smiled.
Emmeline's mother smiled. "I'll bring up some snacks for you two."
"Thanks, Mom!" She looked over at Clark. "Have a seat."
He sat down on her other chair and faced her. "Alright, before I ask my questions, I want you to just talk to me. Tell me what I need to know about Emmeline Brooks."
"Well…the first thing you should know about me is that…I'm adopted. I've never met my real parents."
Clark froze and it took a lot longer than she would've liked for him to form words. "You're adopted?" he finally asked.
She nodded in reply.
"Why didn't you tell anyone? Especially Chloe? I would've thought she would be the first person you'd tell that to."
"Well…it's not that I'm embarrassed by the fact that my parents aren't my real parents. I love them both more than anything and they love me. I guess I'm just more embarrassed by the fact that…my real parents didn't want me. It makes me think that something's wrong with me, and if people found out, they wouldn't want to be friends with me."
"Em, take from someone who knows, people won't care that you're adopted, they'll care about you and who you are as a person. Well, true friends anyway."
"I couldn't have asked for better people to adopt me. Sometimes, I even forget that they didn't give birth to me."
"I feel that way about my mom and dad too."
"Do you ever wish that your biological parents kept you? Or that you never had to be adopted?"
"Yes. And no. I do wish I knew my biological parents, but at the same time, I love my parents now and I wouldn't give them up for anything."
"That's how I feel too."
"Em, if you ever need to talk about this, there's no one who will understand better than me."
"Thanks, Clark. I'll keep that in mind. Now, shall we get to your actual questions?"
"No problem."
After Clark finished a quite thorough interview with her, he politely said good-bye to Emmeline and her parents and left to head to the Talon to continue helping Lana with the grand opening.
"He's a nice young man," her mother smiled at her as she took away the bowls the two teenagers had used for snacks. "And quite handsome too."
"Mom," Emmeline groaned. "Yes, he is, but he's more interested in Lana than anyone else."
"I thought Lana was dating Whitney."
"She is."
"That's going to come back to bite him if he lets this carry on too far."
"Mom, please. Don't interfere with this."
"Alright, alright, I'll keep out of it."
Emmeline learned early the next morning that a human hand had been shipped to the Talon in a box.
Things just kept getting weirder and more disturbing in Smallville.
At school, she managed to fall into step beside Pete and Chloe, who was grilling Pete about Clark.
"You know Lex Luthor must be mixed up in this somehow," she caught Pete saying.
"Mixed up in what?" Emmeline asked.
"The whole severed hand thing at the Talon."
"Easy," Chloe smiled. "Now, I know you've got issues with the Luthors, but—"
"More than issues. You know what the Luthors did to my family."
"Okay, one piece of investigative information at a time. Now about Clark…"
"Chloe, what do you want from me? In a world full of designer water, Clark Kent is straight from the tap."
"I know, but you've known him the longest. I mean, all I need is just, like, a little anecdote. Just a small piece of information from Clark's deep, dark past."
"Well, there was something back in the first grade."
"Thank you! That's more than I've uncovered in, like, the past two days. Now please, let's continue."
"There was this bully three grades ahead of us. This dude was determined to pound dents into every kid in the school. One day, I guess it was my turn. He was just about to take my head off when Clark jumped between us."
They arrived at the Torch office and Chloe opened the door as the three of them walked in to find Clark printing something out.
"So Clark ran interference," Chloe said. "Now, as kind as that sounds, Pete, I really don't think it falls under the 'something amazing' test."
"What test?" Clark asked.
"I'm not finished," Pete continued. "Clark didn't just push Braindead away. He put him through a door, as in splinters and broken hinges. How he did it, I still have no idea. The guy was at least twice our size."
"Clark, any comments?" Chloe asked.
"Uh, well, we were, you know, six years old," Clark answered nervously. "Twice our size was three feet tall."
"If you need any more ancient history, ask the source," Pete told Chloe. "I've got an appointment at the student store."
"Have fun," Chloe joked. She turned back to Clark as Pete left the office. "And so the mystery that isn't Clark Kent deepens."
"Mystery?" Clark said.
"Yeah. Since you continue to play obstructionist, I've had to find information through other means." She picked up a blue file from her desk. "For instance, I found that your adoption was done through Metropolis United Charities. But this is the strange part. They were only in business for six months and from what I can tell, yours is the only adoption they handled."
"I can't believe you did this, Chloe," Clark said to her hardly.
Her brow furrowed. "You didn't know? I just assumed that your parents would have told you. I mean, weren't you interested?"
"Why would I be? My biological parents are either dead or didn't want me. The point is, you're prying into my private life."
"I was just trying to be thorough," Chloe said quietly.
"This is a class project. I spent an hour yesterday with Em. That's it. That's all I needed. I'm not some mystery for you to solve."
"Clark, I…"
Clark angrily grabbed his things and bolted out of the Torch office.
"Okay, what was that all about?" Chloe asked Emmeline.
"To be honest, Chloe, I know how he feels."
"What are you talking about?"
She took a deep breath and finally said, "I'm adopted too."
"What?" Chloe exclaimed. "Why didn't you tell me?"
"Look, it's not something I like sharing with people. The first time I told anyone in years was Clark because he needed it for the interview. I guess I was just afraid that…I'd lose you as a friend if you found out my parents didn't want me."
"Em, I've been friends with Clark for years and he's adopted. What would make you think I wouldn't want to be your friend anymore?"
Emmeline smiled shyly. "I guess that's the insecure part of me talking."
"The only thing that would make me not be your friend anymore is if you murdered someone. And even then, a meteor freak could be behind it, so I'd need all the facts first."
"Thanks, Chloe. I'm sorry I didn't trust you more. Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to find Lana. I have to figure out when I can ask her my questions."
"Sure thing."
Emmeline left the Torch office and found Lana putting books away in her locker. "Lana!" she called quietly.
"Hey, Emmeline!" Lana said with a warm smile. "You're the one writing a paper on me, right?"
"Yeah."
"Great! Well, I'm usually at the Talon getting it ready for the opening, so do you think you could come by later this evening and ask your questions then?"
"Yeah, that should be fine."
"Okay, well, I'll see you then!"
That night, Emmeline grabbed her backpack and headed over to the Talon for her interview with Lana. She walked inside and looked around. Lana had certainly really fixed up the place.
"Hey, Emmeline!" Lana called. "Just give me a second. I'll be right with you."
Emmeline sat down on one of the seats and unpacked her supplies. Finally, Lana came over to her and sat down across from her.
"Okay, I'm ready," she smiled.
Emmeline started nervously fumbling with her papers and pencils. "Um…" she stuttered. "Uh…well…"
"Emmeline," Lana said warmly, lightly touching her hand. "It's okay. I promise I won't bite."
Emmeline smiled a little and forced herself to relax. Then she took a look at her questions and prepared to jot down Lana's answers. "Okay, so what kind of things do you do when not in school?"
"I enjoy going out horseback riding, and I like to read all kinds of things, but lately I've spent most of my time fixing up the Talon."
"What made you want to keep this place going?"
"My parents met here. I guess it's just a piece of them to hold on to."
"I wish I had that." When Lana gave her a confused look, she added, "I'm adopted. And I don't really know anything about my real parents."
"I'm sorry."
"No, don't apologize. It's okay, I like my adoptive parents. I just wish I knew something about them at all. At this point, I wouldn't even care if they were bad people, I just want to know what they were like." She cleared her throat nervously. "Sorry, we're here to talk about you."
"No," Lana said with a smile. "I like this. Normally, I can't get three words out of you. I'm glad you're talking to me."
Emmeline smiled again. Maybe Lana wasn't as bad as she thought.
The next day, Emmeline was doing some editing in the Torch office when Chloe and Clark walked in, evidently having patched up things from their earlier fight.
"What's up?" she asked.
"As if things weren't strange enough, we have a dead man walking around Smallville," Chloe answered.
"Of course we do…"
Chloe went on her computer while Clark dialed a number on the phone.
"Still no word from Lex," Clark said as he hung up the phone. "No one's spoken to him since this morning."
"Okay, well, I pulled our alleged dead guy's license plate," Chloe explained. "It's registered to John Smith. Very original. He has an address in Metropolis and he does not work for the C.E.P."
"How'd you do that?"
"I hacked into the DMV database. See? Sometimes persistence is a good thing."
"Call Metropolis P.D. Have them go to the address."
"What's going on?"
"I think Lex is in serious trouble."
Clark quickly ran out of the Torch office.
"And there goes Clark Kent to once again save the day," Emmeline laughed.
"My hero," Chloe smiled as she pretended to swoon.
That night, Chloe and Emmeline got dressed for the grand opening of the Talon. Emmeline was in a casual blue dress with her hair pinned to the side.
Unfortunately, Chloe had to wrap some things up at the Torch so Emmeline was forced to go solo.
Once at the Talon, she nervously walked in, hoping to find someone she knew. Finally, she saw Pete and Clark and walked over to them.
"Hi, guys," she said quietly. They both froze at the sight of her. "Is it too much? I…I didn't exactly know how to dress for something like this."
"No," Pete told her. "You look…amazing."
"Thanks. I don't usually go to these kinds of things."
"There's a first time for everything. Glad you finally decided to take a chance."
