"Wow," Pete said as he, Clark, and Emmeline walked through the halls of school. "Drinking beer, mouthing off, and counter-macking with your mom? Congratulations, Clark. Your dad's regressed back to being a teenager."

"He's been under a lot of stress lately, but I'm seriously wondering if he's beginning to crack," Clark told them. "I mean, who takes a three-hour nap in the middle of the afternoon?"

"Tired people?" Emmeline guessed jokingly.

The two boys smiled at her. "I don't know, but I still like the part where he dissed Lex," Pete laughed.

"Why?" Clark asked. "What do you have against Lex?"

"Hmm, let's see. He screwed my family out of the creamed-corn factory."

"Well, Pete, that was 12 years ago. And it wasn't him, it was his father."

"Still, I've never been crazy about the guy."

"Why haven't you said something before?"

"I was hoping sooner or later you'd see he was bad news."

At that moment, Chloe ran up to the group of friends holding a clipboard in her hand. "What's your deepest desire?" she demanded. "I mean, if nothing was holding you back, what would you guys do?"

"Hello, Chloe, nice to see you too," Clark said sarcastically. "What's up?"

"Principal Kwan thinks that I need to get more in touch with the pulse of the student body. So I've decided to do a poll. Now, if the three of you would please do your statistical duty."

As Pete watched a pretty girl walk by, he answered, "I'd go over and make out with that girl right now."

"You know, every answer I've gotten so far has been either sex- or violence-related."

"Well, that's human nature, Chloe. Later." Pete walked away to go talk to the girl he had been watching.

Emmeline wondered what it was like to be noticed by a guy. One who wasn't a bug freak. Must've been nice.

"Did you know that Pete doesn't like Lex?" Clark asked Chloe.

"Yeah, he's like totally jealous of your friendship with him. He feels like you guys aren't as close as you used to be."

Lana walked up and joined them. "Hey," she smiled.

"Hi." Chloe held up her clipboard so Lana could see the question. "What about you, Lana? Got one?"

"Um…I would climb the windmill down on Chandler's Field."

"Really? That's your deepest desire?"

"Somebody told me you could see the Metropolis skyline from there. I haven't got the guts to climb up and see for myself."

"Okay," Chloe said in surprise as she wrote down Lana's answer.

"I can always make something up."

"No, it's good, it's good. I like it. It's unleashing the inner Lana."

"Okay." Lana smiled and headed up the stairs to her next class.

"Okay, Clark. You're up." The two girls looked at him as he watched Lana leave. "Clark, remember it's a PG-13 poll."

"Ever since Whitney's father's been in the hospital, there's been a no-fly zone over Lana," Clark said.

"You know, Clark, there are other girls out there that don't require crossing an emotional minefield."

"Yeah, but I can't just turn off my feelings for her."

Emmeline sighed quietly. When it came to getting the hints Chloe was dropping him, Clark could not have been more clueless.

"You know, the choice is yours. You can either sit in your loft and play with your telescope, or move on."

Clark looked kind of guilty at her remark, and Emmeline wanted to crack a smile, knowing that Chloe was talking about the two of them.

Chloe turned to her friend. "Alright, Em, what's your deepest desire?"

Emmeline smiled shyly. "I don't know."

"Come on, yes you do."

"I guess…I'd want to go on a high cliff, go to the edge, and scream at the top of my lungs."

"Really?"

"I hardly ever raise my voice above talking level. It'd be a new experience for me."

The three friends smiled at each other and headed off for class.

Later that day, Emmeline got news that Clark's father was admitted to the hospital showing the same symptoms as some guy he'd saved from a severe car crash.

Chloe couldn't resist and pulled Emmeline from her house so they could go investigate.

"Why are we out here?" Emmeline asked as they got out of her car.

"Well, Mr. Kent and Mr. Beels both have the same symptoms. So this is the only place they've been together, so I'm assuming that whatever happened to Mr. Kent was caused by something from out here."

"Am I looking for something in particular?"

"Anything that could help us figure this out." She shined her flashlight over the crash site and looked in the direction where the light was. "Wow, the debris starts from way over there and ends over in that ditch. That's some serious road rage."

She began to take some pictures while Emmeline went over to try to find something that would explain what in the world was going on. A few feet away, she shined her flashlight down on the ground and saw a flower unlike anything she had ever seen before. She knelt down a little and noticed that the flower seemed to be…moving. Suddenly, some kind of dust expelled from the flower making her cough a little.

"Find anything?" Chloe called.

"No," Emmeline answered.

"Yeah, me neither. Let's get out of here. This place is a dead end."

The two girls went back to the car as Emmeline let out a little sneeze from the dust.


Words couldn't describe the change Emmeline felt when she woke up the next morning. She felt so…bold, extreme, like she could take on the world. She had never felt like this before. And she was loving it.

She decided to don some black tights, some knee-high boots, and a short, form-fitting black skirt and deep red shirt. Then she also caked on some mascara and eyeliner with some deep eye shadow. Then she curled all of her hair into loose ringlets, letting them bounce around her neck. When she walked into school, all eyes were on her, including some from really, really cute guys. So this was what it liked to be noticed by a guy. She soaked it in and headed towards the Torch office.

Chloe must've been in class because only Clark was in the room.

"Hi, Clark," she said seductively. "Heading to class soon?"

"No, I'm not really…" He turned and his eyes widened at the sight of her. "…up to it."

Emmeline smiled and walked into the room. "You like?"

"Uh…it's a change."

She smirked at him. "I guess I'm tired of that shy little girl showing her face. It's time to go big and bold."

Clark nervously cleared his throat. "Uh, Em…are you feeling okay?"

"I've never felt better. Believe me." She ruffled his hair a bit. "What about you?"

"I'm just worried about my dad. He's not doing so hot."

"Well, I've got just the thing that will take your mind off it. Come with me."

Emmeline grabbed Clark's hand and led him to the pool. Smiling, she took off her boots and tights, while Clark nervously looked away, and hopped up onto the diving board.

"Why are we in here?" Clark asked her.

"Because no one else is."

"Yeah, but it's kind of…off-limits."

"My favorite words," she smiled.

"Em…you're really not acting like yourself."

"Exactly. I like it. And I'm getting the feeling that you do too." She did a graceful dive into the pool. When her head came out of the water, she looked at Clark with a smile. "Come on in," she said, motioning him to her with her index finger.

Clark laughed lightly. "That's not a good idea."

Emmeline rolled her eyes and swam over to the ladder. She climbed out of the water and slowly went over to him, letting him get a good look at her wet body. She gently grazed her fingers over his shoulders as she circled around him.

"You're hot, Clark. You could have any girl in this school if you wanted. So why Lana? Why won't you give anyone else a chance?"

"What are you talking about?"

"Lana's taken. You should take a look at some girls who aren't. Like me."

Emmeline took his head in her hands and forcefully kissed him. Clark's eyes widened, but she wouldn't release him from the kiss. Finally, while he was good and distracted, she pulled away and pushed him into the pool with a large splash.

She laughed at him, but when the door started opening, Emmeline booked it out of the pool room before she could get caught.

She went back to the Torch office to grab her things.

"Hey, Em!" Chloe said as she walked into the room. Then she saw her friend's new look. "Whoa, what happened to you? And why are you wet?"

"I was swimming."

"No one's allowed in the pool right now."

"That's what Clark said," Emmeline said with a coy smile as she leaned back against her desk.

"Uh…Clark was with you?"

"Mm-hmm. He's the one who got caught though. I'm sure he'll tell you all about it. Including the part where we kissed."

"You and Clark…kissed?"

"Jealous?"

"Uh, yeah a little. What's your secret?"

"I have a little something you don't. Ambition. I actually go for it with Clark."

"You know, Em, you're not really yourself right now. People don't just change like this overnight."

"I did. And get used to it because I like this change."

Emmeline grabbed her things and took off, leaving Chloe in a state of confusion. She walked down to the Talon and saw Lex's car parked out front. Raising an eyebrow at the nice car, she walked in to find him talking on the phone. With another coy smile, she walked up behind him and snatched the phone away from him before closing it.

"Emmeline," he said with controlled anger. "I was on a very important phone call. I'm trying to figure out what's going on with Mr. Kent."

"Yeah, that's nice," she said dismissively. "What else are you responsible for? I heard that you conned my friend Pete's family out of his factory."

"That was my father."

"The apple doesn't fall far from the tree."

"I don't know what's going on, but you're not impressing anyone with the attitude. You're talking to someone who set the bar for adolescent rebellion."

"Good for you. You deserve a medal."

"From what I've seen and heard, you usually don't talk very much. What's going on?"

The smile left Emmeline's face. "Why is everyone questioning why I'm acting this way today?"

A panicked look crossed Lex's face. "Emmeline, where have you been in the last 24 hours?"

"Why do you care?" she asked angrily. "You don't care about me or anyone else for that matter. You want to know why everyone's wondering why I'm acting like this? I'll tell you why. Because they want that shy little girl back who fades into the background. Well, I'm sick of that girl and now I've finally gotten rid of her."

She roughly pushed Lex to the ground, and while he was distracted, she stole his keys from atop the table. With another smile, she hopped into the driver's seat of Lex's Porsche and drove away.

She ended up driving to one of the highest cliffs with a large body of water far beneath it.

"Emmeline!" she heard.

She turned to find Clark running up to her as she approached the edge of the cliff. "Welcome back."

"Does Lex know you have his car?"

"Yes. At least, he does by now."

"Something has happened to you."

"I'm free, Clark! I've finally broken away from that shy girl."

"Em, please, I need to get you to a hospital."

"I don't think so," she said angrily. "I'm not sick. I'm happy for once, and you aren't going to take that away from me." She walked over to the very edge of the cliff and removed her shoes once more. "I'm going for a dive. You'll get to see me all wet again."

"Em, don't do this."

"Why don't you come and save me then? Isn't that all you see me as? A little girl who can't defend herself and always needs saving?"

"You know that's not true."

"Then stop worrying about me."

Suddenly, Emmeline's world turned extremely blurry as everything brightened so much, her head ached. She felt herself losing touch with reality, not knowing which way was up and which way was down. Her legs buckled and she started to fall backwards.

"Em!" Clark screamed. He sped over to her and caught her before she tumbled off the cliff.

"Clark…" she said weakly before everything turned black.


As the three friends sat together at lunch, the mood was grim since they were one person short. Clark still couldn't get out the image of Emmeline lying unresponsive in a hospital bed out of his head.

"Dr. Hamilton had a copy of this book in his barn," Chloe explained, showing them a very old book.

"The Nicodemus Diary," Clark read.

"It's a first-hand account of Smallville's first mystery. In 1871, the whole settlement went postal before they even had a post office."

"Nice to know Smallville was still whacked before the meteors got here," Pete commented.

"Yeah. In the diary, they talked about a flower. The settlers called it Nicodemus. Said it liberated repressed feelings, sent them into rages, then fever, and finally…"

They all looked at each other grimly, hoping to find some way to fix everything before Emmeline succumbed to this flower's poison as well.

"All right, well, where can we find this flower?" Clark asked.

"Well, see, that's the glitch," Chloe frowned. "After the massacre, the cavalry torched the whole settlement. They wanted to make sure that whatever caused it wasn't gonna spread. The flower's been extinct for over a hundred years."

"Well, what does Hamilton have to do with this? Isn't he a geologist?"

"With a meteor fixation."

"We tracked down this paper he wrote six years ago," Pete told Clark as he handed him to document.

"Metropolis University Press?" Clark asked.

"I think this is the last straw," Chloe said to him. "In it, he postulates that meteor rocks can be used to irradiate dormant plant cells."

"So you think Hamilton pulled a Jurassic Park and brought back the Nicodemus."

"Now he's trying to cover it up," Pete finished.

"Let's go talk to him."

"Wait, there's more," Chloe said as they stood up. "Dr. Hamilton didn't check out the Nicodemus Diary. Lex did."

"You think he's involved?"

"I told you all along he was bad news," Pete said.

"Pete, we don't know anything yet."

"Whatever," Chloe said. "Pete and I are going to go see Em at the hospital, then we'll go over to Hamilton's place."

The two of them went to Metropolis General and walked into Emmeline's room.

"Now I know how she felt when I got tossed out the window," Chloe murmured. "I'm going to grab a coffee real quick. Want one?"

"No thanks."

Chloe left the room and Pete went to Emmeline's bedside. Taking one of her hands in his, he looked at her still face.

"I always thought you were one of the most beautiful girls I've ever laid eyes on," he said quietly. "You have to pull through this for all of us."

Chloe came back into the room and Pete quickly released her hand as she sat on the other side of the bed.

Chloe stayed by Emmeline's bedside nearly all night…after Pete got infected and went after Lex. Luckily, Clark once again managed to stop him and save Lex.

Emmeline's eyes slowly opened and saw Chloe asleep next to her, clutching her hand. "Chloe?"

Chloe's eyes slowly opened and she gasped and hugged her friend. "You're alright!"

"What happened? Why am I in the hospital?"

"You don't remember anything?"

"Um…I remember searching for something on the road and going to sleep that night, but everything after that…"

"You were infected with a flower called the Nicodemus. It made you go kind of…crazy."

"Define crazy."

"Well…I do know that you kissed Clark."

"I did what?!"

"Looks like both of us have a kiss we don't remember."

"Talk about unfair. I guess that makes us even."

"It's good to have you back."


Once Emmeline was discharged from the hospital, Clark took her on a drive, saying he had a surprise for her. He ended up taking her to the same cliff she had gone to when she had lost it and nearly got herself killed, but she didn't need to know that part.

"What are we doing here?" Emmeline asked as they got out of his truck.

"Well…the last couple of days kind of put things into perspective. You nearly died, and you didn't get to fulfill your deepest desire yet."

Emmeline smiled shyly as she realized why he had brought her to the cliff. "I don't think I can do this."

"Sure you can. We'll do it together."

He extended his hand and she slowly took it. They stepped to the very edge of the cliff and looked at the water down below.

"Oh, my," she breathed. "That's very high."

"Look up to the sky," Clark smiled.

She did so and took a deep breath.

"Ready?" he asked.

"I think so."

For the first time, Emmeline screamed her heart out and they listened as their screams and yells echoed into the crisp air.