RIIIING

"Hey Chlo."

Chloe looked up to find Clark standing in the doorway. Finding out the world you know is not actually the world you know really puts one's priorities in order.

High school suddenly seemed so . . . high school. School dances laughable. Going to the movies so mediocre. At the same time though, they became more important than anything. They were normal.

She mentally sighed. Did I really think everything was going to change?

The world could end and Clark would still love Lana. The world could end and I would still love Clark. She mentally sighed. Oh yeah, it showed me my priorities alright.

"Hey, Clark. What brings you to the Torch?"

"I was wondering if you wanted to get lunch with me in the cafeteria."

"Umm . . ." She thought abut it for a minute.

"I packed an extra sandwich," he said, trying to win her over.

"You mean an extra sandwich that I'm not going to end up eating, Mr. Piggy."

He blushed and they both smiled.

"Okay." She walked around to her desk and grabbed her bag. "Let's go."

They walked down the hall where Pete found and joined them.

"He got you with the 'extra sandwich' bribe, didn't he?"

"Line and hook."

They all laughed until Clark paused.

"Hey." Pete said. "Isn't that the new girl?"

"Yeah, her name's Max. She and her Mom moved here from Metropolis."

"I'm not even going to ask how you know that."

Chloe smirked.

"I wonder why she moved here, of all places."

"Her Mother was transferred here to work at LexCorp."

Chloe watched Pete's face darken. She wondered if he would ever be able to forgive Lex for what his father did to his family. And yes, that's as messed up as it sounds.

"We should ask her if she wants to eat lunch with us. She probably doesn't know anybody."

"Good idea."

"Chloe." Clark warned. "No interviews."

"Come on, Clark."

At his lack of budge-ness, she sighed. "Fine, no interviews. But you owe me."

He smiled and walked over to her. She kept walking up and down the same hall, glancing briefly at a small piece of paper in her hand.

She was short, her height totaling to maybe five feet. Her hair was a few inches below her shoulders, a light brown color. It was parted over to one side, showing a naturally wavy curve.

She didn't look like any of the other girls that went to Smallville High, except maybe a tiny bit like Chloe.

What she was wearing definitely didn't qualify as 'cool'. She was wearing a brown striped dress shirt, with the sleeves rolled up to her elbows. She had a black vest over it, with odd colors and designs giving it an artsy vintage look. Not the 'cool' artsy vintage, but the just-plain-old artsy vintage.

If there's even such a thing as artsy-vintage . . . He wasn't so big on the fashion.

Her jeans had a black design that travel up the front of her legs. They must have been too long, because the bottoms were rolled up. Her shoes were too big for her feet, looking a bit like 'duck' shoes. They were black and purple and most definitely not the most appealing shoes, appearance wise.

She wasn't wearing much jewelry, only five bracelets on her right hand. One red, one blue, one green, one orange, and one white; with Chinese symbols on each piece.

"Hi."

She stopped walking and looked over at him.

Hey, it's weird guy.

"Uhh, hello. . ." Although she wouldn't admit it, she was delighted someone was talking to her. She wanted friends, yet she would never make a move towards making some.

"Max, right?"

"Yeeaahhh. . ." She said slowly, giving him a blank look. Why was her talking to her again? She looked behind him to see two people talking, and then looked around the hall.

"Hi, I'm Clark. This is Chloe and Pete." He said gesturing behind him. Instead of the smile and wave Clark had wanted, Chloe and Pete were both immersed in conversation, completely ignoring him.

"Yeah, I know." She said and tried to smile like she cared, still curious as to why they were over here in the first place.

Clark wasn't sure how to respond to that, so he decided to get straight to the point.

"We were wondering if you wanted to have lunch with us."

So that's why he's over here. I get it.

"Umm. . ." She thought about it for a moment. "Sure."

He smiled. "Great."

She started to walk with him over to his friends before stopping.

"Hey, do you know where this is?"

She showed him the piece of paper with her locker number written on it.

He smiled faintly. "It's on the second floor."

She looked down at the paper again. "Oh."

She put the paper in her pocket. "Who'd a thunk it."

They were silent for a moment. "Well –

"Clark!" They both turned towards the source of the call.

A girl came rushing towards them, smiling though out of breath. "Clark! I'm so glad I found you."

Max looked up at Clark to find him smiling, and looking between them, their expressions were almost identical. She backed up a bit and stood there awkwardly, glancing around the hall, looking in vain for someone that might save her.

If there was one thing she hated, it was being somewhere she hadn't been invited. What is she doing here? wasn't something she aspired to hear from other people.

But alas, it was either: a) stand here awkwardly

or

b) stand somewhere else awkwardly.

As you can imagine, she chose the former.

"Hey Lana," he said, suddenly looking as if there was a hamster stuffed up his rectum.

She looked at him curiously, and found that the blond girl was also looking their way. Max laughed as the boy talking to the blond girl finished whatever joke he seemed to be telling only to find there was no audience. The look on his face was priceless.

"Wha --" Clark stopped what he was saying and looked down at her, and the brown haired girl did also.

"Oh, uhh" she said, trying to think of something to say to explain her random and interrupting laugh. "I just . . . uh, saw something funny." She finished lamely, not looking very pleased.

"Oh," said the girl, with a mixed expression of amusement and confusion.

Max dreaded situations like these. She always ended up looking like a weirdo, or just really stupid. This one would be no disappointment.

"This is Max." He said hoarsely, his eyes on the brown haired girl.

-- Was it just her or did he look green?

"She just moved here from. . ."

And that's how being a new kid is. Every time you meet someone new, it's the same old story. This is Smith, he just moved here from Uranus. And that's it. That's all you get, before they move on, and you end up just being the random face with the unflattering blank expression. If you're lucky, they might ask you where you used to go to school, but I wouldn't put your money on it.

"Metropolis" The blond girl finished for him, coming up to stand beside Clark. As far as Max could tell, there seemed to be some kind of rivalry between the two girls, though the blonde girl looked to be the aggressor. The brown haired girl just looked kind of sad, in a . . . gracefully mature kind of way.

Her expression reminded Max of the nod Jamie gives to Landon Carter in A Walk to Remember after he says, "In your dreams," in front of his friends. Except at the same time . . . it wasn't as sincere.

And she would die before admitting to anyone she liked A Walk to Remember.

"I'll always remember . . . it was late after noon. . ."

Oh, great! Now I'm going to have that song stuck in my head all day.