The idea of running in the class election made Emmeline want to hurl. But she would always be there to vote and support those running. That's just what she and Chloe were doing for the Torch that day.

"Hey, Sasha, say something presidential," Chloe said to the girl as she walked around with her camera.

"Whoa, Chloe, slow down," Sasha answered, fixing her glasses nervously. "The election hasn't even started yet."

Sasha walked away, so Chloe and Emmeline went over to sit next to Pete.

"What do you think Sasha's chances are?" Chloe asked Pete.

"Well, she knows the most of our student government, she's worked her way up, she's on a ton of committees, but she's more of a worker than a leader."

Chloe looked over at one of the other candidates. "What about Paul?"

"Well, he's certainly the most qualified, but elections aren't about merit, they're about popularity." Pete looked over at a blonde girl with a posse behind her. "Which brings us to Felice. Head cheerleader and president of the drama club. That definitely gives her an edge, not to mention that she's also really hot."

Chloe and Emmeline rolled their eyes. Boys.

"Yeah, but her name rhymes with a French word for luggage," Chloe said.

"Okay, glad to see you're not reaching for reasons to hate her," Pete laughed.

Felice came up to the group, acting like she owned the world. Emmeline took notice that her shirt was well above her midriff and her skirt was way too short.

"I saw you taking Sasha's picture," she said to Chloe. "Why haven't you taken mine? That qualifies as bias."

Chloe smiled through her teeth at her. "For the record, Em and I plan on running photos and bios of all the candidates. Including you, Felice."

Paul walked up and joined them as well. "Hey, Chloe? What about the editorial? You can only endorse one candidate. So who's it gonna be?"

"Who cares?" Felice said before Chloe could answer. "No matter what she says, people are gonna vote for me."

"Never underestimate the need for the clinically ambitious to pad their resumes," Chloe smiled.

Paul and Emmeline laughed and Felice frowned as she got up in his face. "If you want to avoid the pain and humiliation of losing, drop out now."

She walked away leaving the others to stare after her. This was one of the biggest reasons Emmeline hated elections.


The next day, Chloe ran an early edition of the Torch detailing how Paul was in the hospital due to being attacked by a swarm of bees.

"That's got to be my all-time worst nightmare," Pete said as the four of them walked down the hall. "I get stung by one bee, I swell up like a grapefruit, but over a hundred?"

"The question is, how'd they get into Paul's bathroom?" Clark asked.

"Well, the Center for Environmental Protection is sending out a team from Metropolis to investigate," Chloe told them.

"Guess that's really gonna shake up our class election," Pete remarked.

"Not really. I mean, Paul's name is still on the ballot. He wouldn't have to take off until the fall, so he could recover by then."

"Out of sight, out of mind. My call, he gets a few sympathy votes, but that's about it."

"Nice to see the softer side of Pete," Clark said sarcastically.

"Seriously," Chloe laughed.

"Anyway," Pete continued. "There's a new candidate on the horizon who I think is gonna really make things interesting."

"Oh yeah? Who's that?"

They walked around the corner and saw a banner that read "Clark Kent for President".

"What have you done?" Clark asked Pete with a panicked tone.

"I see a big future ahead of you in politics, Clark," Pete told him excitedly. "You're straight forward, people like you."

"Unh-unh. No way. Definitely not."

"Clark, you've got the whole package. Looks, brains, and that whole 'farm boy' charm. Did I mention the perks of power?"

"You know, if it was such a great gig, why didn't you run?"

"I know my strengths. I'm more the power behind the throne, the guy behind the guy. The one who makes it all happen."

"Pete Ross, the King Maker," Chloe commented as she continued to laugh.

"Exactly. All you have to do is show up, shake a couple of hands, give an election speech. It's easy."

"And we wonder why our politicians aren't great leaders."

Pete got everyone to start clapping and chanting Clark's name. Emmeline looked at Chloe with a smile and the two of them laughed together before heading to class. Clark Kent as class president? Maybe, but probably not.

Later that day, Clark met up with the two of them again in the hallway and Clark still looked less than pleased about Pete's decision.

"I can't believe Pete did this."

Chloe laughed again. "I know. Some men are born to greatness, others are dragged into it kicking and screaming."

"Clark, what's going on? Why are you running?" a voice said. They turned to find Sasha standing there looking more than furious. "You've never shown any interest in student government."

"Don't worry, it's just a gag. Pete nominated me," he told her.

"So you're going to take your name off the ballot."

"Yeah."

"Well, good. 'Cause this election is way too important to turn into a joke. It's bad enough with Felice."

"I hear she's throwing a pre-election bash with a band and catering," Chloe said.

Sasha frowned. "She's trying to buy this election like one of her Prada bags!" She stormed off again and the three of them looked at each other with surprised faces.

"Talk about tightly wound," Chloe remarked.

Clark turned to the both of them. "Chloe, not that I'm planning to, but if I ran, do you think I'd have a shot?"

"Yeah. Right after I'm elected head cheerleader."

She walked off to class so Clark turned to Emmeline. "Em, what do you think?"

Emmeline paused. "Honestly, I'm not sure. I mean, you're one of the nicest guys in school and I think you have the potential to be a leader. But I'm not sure how everyone else will feel. I'd vote for you though."

"Do you think I should run?"

"I think that you should do what you feel is best."


The next day, posters with Clark's newest slogan, "The Man of Tomorrow", sprinkled the hallways. Chloe and Emmeline looked at each other. So much for pulling out.

"Clark Kent, 'The Man of Tomorrow'," Chloe smiled as she came over to Clark's table where he was setting up his campaign items. "Kind of presumptuous, don't you think?"

"I like it," he said.

"I thought you were bagging this whole election."

"I had a change of heart."

Lana walked up to Clark and joined them. "'The Man of Tomorrow'. Very catchy," she smiled.

"Thank you. And thank you for the encouragement," he said looking over at Chloe.

"You've got my vote."

Chloe and Emmeline looked at each other and discreetly rolled their eyes. Lana again, ruining their chances with Clark.

"I was thinking maybe I could have my election rally at the Talon, help bring people by," Clark said to Lana.

"That sounds great. You know where to find me."

"Bye, Lana," Chloe and Emmeline said.

"Bye."

Chloe looked back at Clark. "You're running because of Lana. Why am I not surprised?"

"No, I'm running because I think I can do a good job," Clark shot back.

"All right, Clark. Whatever."

"Hey, you know, Pete and Em have faith in me, and so does Lana. It's interesting that you don't."

"I just want to know what you stand for."

"I stand for truth, justice, and…other stuff."

"Okay, well, you want to be more specific? Like, tell me where you stand on the issues."

"What issues do you want to talk about?"

"Well, for starters, there's the plan to cut the arts budget," she started. Clark began to answer, but before he could, she continued with her tirade, "there's the appalling nutritional value of the cafeteria meals, the whole dress code debate, oh yeah, and not to mention that whole student privacy issues with the locker searches."

"Whoa, slow down. I just decided to run last night."

"Okay, well, I think the Man of Tomorrow needs to get a platform for today." Chloe started heading to the Torch office.

"She has a point," Emmeline said to Clark. "People are going to want to know what your opinion on all that stuff is."

"You're the one who encouraged me to run."

"I told you that you should do whatever you think is best. You wanna run, fine, but you need to pick a stance on everything too."

Emmeline left and went to go join Chloe.

"Hey, have you thought about who we should endorse in the campaign?" Chloe asked her.

"Well, I know we both want Clark to win…but I think you're right. He still needs to find out where he stands and get a better platform."

"In that case, think we should go with Paul?"

"I think he's probably the best candidate."

"Clark is going to be really angry at us."

"Clark will eventually get over it. I've seen him. He can't stay mad at anyone."

The two girls started going over the latest issue and printing everything out. Clark came in a couple hours later.

"Guys, any chance you could help us hang some posters? Pete's convinced he puts my name on enough wall space, I'm guaranteed to win."

"Besides needing to remain an impartial member of the fourth estate, I'm still working on my bee story," Chloe told him.

"C.E.P. find anything new?"

"Just that the swarms didn't migrate from any of the usual places. The bee keepers from all over the state have found their hives empty. It's like the colonies just up and left."

"That's weird. Bees are notorious followers. They wouldn't desert their hive without a good reason." Chloe and Emmeline looked at him. "My mom's addicted to Discovery Channel," he added sheepishly.

"So how goes the platform?"

"I haven't started working on it yet. I've been so busy meeting new people, I even got invited to parties this weekend."

"I can't believe it only took one day for you to be compromised by the lure of popularity."

"Remind me to pull your funding after I'm elected." The two girls laughed, but their smiles disappeared by what he said next. "Speaking of which, where's the latest edition?" He walked over and picked up a file where they were keeping the papers for the next issue.

"No, no, no, no, no!" Chloe begged as the two of them ran over to him. "Em isn't done proofing it yet. Clark, I really don't think you should be looking at it just yet. It's not even done!"

"Come on, I've been correcting your comma issues since your first laptop." He opened the file and saw the story they had written about Paul. He furiously turned to both of them. "You both endorsed Paul?"

"Clark, we had to be objective," Chloe admitted. "Paul's still in the race, and he'll be back on his feet again by fall. It's great that you're all gun-ho and slogan-y now, but the truth is the only reason you ran is because Pete suckered you into it. Paul has a clear stance on issues you have yet to articulate. It's nothing personal."

"No, I understand, Chloe." He slammed the file down and stormed out of the office.

"Well that didn't go over well," Emmeline said quietly. That had been a lot worse than she had expected. She may have gotten over a lot of her shyness, but confrontation still didn't go over well with her. Especially when it was with one of her friends.


Chloe and Emmeline met up before lunch the next day and took a deep breath. Then they walked over to where Clark and Pete were sitting.

"Hey," Chloe said, as they both noticed the boys' icy glares.

"Hey," Clark answered shortly not looking at her.

Chloe's smile left her face at her friends' cold attitude towards her. "How's it going?" she finally asked.

"Just answer 'no comment'," Pete said. "That way they can't misquote you."

Emmeline's heart sank and she felt tears coming to her eyes against her will. She had never gotten into a fight with Clark and Pete before. They always got along. But now…

Before anyone said anything else, she hugged her books close to her chest and ran off.

"Em!" Chloe called. She looked back at the two boys. "Okay, you can be mad at me, but Em hasn't done a single thing to ever make anyone even the slightest bit angry. We've all worked really hard to get her to come out of her shell, and she finally has. Don't screw that up just because you're upset we decided not to endorse you."

Clark and Pete looked at her guiltily. "Did you hear about Felice?" Clark asked in an attempt to change the subject.

"Yeah, I was just at the medical center. She was stung way worse than Paul. She's in a coma."

"Two candidates attacked in a week," Pete said. "That's a pretty freaky coincidence."

"I think we've moved past coincidence," Clark told him.

"What do you think is going on?" Chloe asked.

"I don't know, but remember last year, Sasha's accident when she was stung by a whole hive of bees?"

"You think because of that, she's somehow controlling them?"

The bell rang so they stood up to get to class. "It's a theory."

"Yeah, by several leaps and bounds, but I'll look into it. In the meantime, watch your back."


The next day, Chloe found Emmeline in the hallways looking really upset.

"Hey, Em!" she called as she went over to her. "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine," Emmeline said.

"I know Clark and Pete are mad right now, but they'll get over it. You said so yourself."

"I guess I just wasn't prepared for their words to me to hurt so much. I don't think I'm used to the whole 'having friends' thing, so…it just hit a nerve."

"Well, I have something to take your mind off that. Lana told me that she and Clark got attacked by bees last night. So, I figured you and I could go do some investigating at Sasha's."

They went over to Sasha's house and saw a little shack with a banner that said "Campaign Headquarters". Slowly going inside, they started looking around, but silenced when they saw the door open.

Luckily for them, it was only Clark.

She went up to him and put his hand on her shoulder. He quickly spun around.

"Chloe," he breathed.

"Lana told me about the Talon. Thanks for the call."

"Sorry."

"It's all right. I'm not mad."

"Look, Chloe. I don't hold it against either of you. The endorsement, I mean."

"Thanks," Chloe smiled. "I could have warned you, though."

"And Em, I want to apologize. Pete and I shouldn't have acted the way we did towards you. We're just so used to the new you that we forget that you still have a shy side. So, I'm sorry."

Emmeline smiled. "Thanks."

"I just don't like being in a fight with either of you."

"Yeah, it wasn't my favorite part either," Chloe said.

"Everything has changed in my life in the last year, with my parents, with Em, with Lana. The only thing constant has been you. I'm glad for that, Chloe."

"Me too."

At that point, despite the fact that she liked Clark, Emmeline just wanted Clark and Chloe to become a couple. The chemistry between them was overwhelming.

Suddenly, something dripped onto Clark's shoulder. He touched it and rubbed it between his fingers. "This feels like honey," he told them.

"Yeah, that's what you usually find in a hive," Chloe said. She shined her flashlight at the ceiling to reveal a gigantic hive.

"Don't tell me Sasha did all this," Clark groaned.

"No, her worker bees did."

"How is she controlling them?"

"I think she's emitting something called…the queen mandibular pheromone."

"She pick that up when she fell in the hive?"

"She was stung over a thousand times."

"That's awful," Emmeline said. "How did she survive that?"

"Well, that's just it. They were Africanized honey bees and the doctors didn't hold out much hope because she was allergic."

"How do they account for the miracle recovery?" Clark asked.

"They don't. And neither could I until I found out the accident happened in Shuster's Gorge."

"That's the deepest crater in town."

"Yeah, you do the meteorite math. The bees did something to her to make her their queen bee."

"Now all the bees in the state are taking their cue from her."

"And they're helping her make Smallville High her own personal hive."

"We better find her. If she doesn't like the way the vote goes, the school won't be a pretty sight."

"Neither will she. Bees are only loyal to a point. Once she loses control, her scent will change and the bees will know. They won't be happy."

They all left the shack and Chloe threw her arm around Emmeline. "See?" she smiled. "All better."

"Yeah, I'm glad. I couldn't take the silent treatment for much longer."


A couple weeks later, once Sasha had been stopped thanks to Clark once again, and no one had to worry about bees attacking, the election had ended and the results were in. Paul was the winner.

The victory party was held at the Talon, and Chloe and Emmeline took a lot of pictures for him.

"Please tell me that's not for the Torch," Pete groaned as Chloe took a picture of him.

"It's for Paul," she told him. "Since he couldn't attend his own victory party himself, he asked me and Em to take pictures for him."

"Chloe, you both were right to endorse him," Clark told her. "He was the more qualified candidate, and I got caught up in the whole popularity rush."

"Don't start gloating just because your guy won," Pete said.

"Well, our candidate may have won, but our friends lost. I'm really proud of you tonight, Clark."

"Why?"

"Because you're exhibiting dignity in the face of defeat. It's the quality that all great leaders possess."

Clark smiled at the both of them.

A little later, Pete came up to Emmeline while she was grabbing some food.

"Hey, Em," he said. "I'm…I'm really sorry about before. I should've been more considerate of your feelings."

"It's okay, Pete."

"Let me make it up to you. I'll take you to a movie tomorrow."

Emmeline smiled at him. "I'd like that."