Hothead – Seventh Chapter
Lana's house
"Lana, you're home early," Nell greeted her niece. "Did they cancel cheerleading practice?"

"Sort of," Lana said uneasily. "We – me and Rory – we quit."

Nell's face fell, she couldn't understand. "But you two loved being on the squad! What happened?"

"I just think there's more to life then memorizing cheers and shaking pompoms."

"You just decided this out of the blue?" Nell asked her concernedly. She frowned suddenly. "Was this Rory's idea?"

"No!" Lana couldn't believe it. Nell thought Rory was great, as she had been Lana's best friend since kindergarten. "We talked about it, I said I wanted to quit and she was like 'Really? Me too!'"

"What made you want to quit though?"

"Some guys on the football team were caught cheating – guys we know." Seeing her aunt's expression Lana quickly assured her, "Not Jared or Whitney, Aunt Nell. But when I told Whitney how much it upset me, he said it was no big deal. That nobody's perfect." She put her cheerleading uniform into a box and put the box at the bottom of her cupboard. "I thought, 'Why am I doing this, wearing a fake smile and stupid outfit for people who will do anything to win a game?'"

Nell sat down on her bed. "Well, you can't let a couple of bad apples spoil the experience. You're part of a team! You're making friends."

"Aunt Nell, I don't want to go back. I want to try different things. And I already have friends, perfectly good ones. What's wrong with that?"

"Nothing," Nell said, looking a little concerned. "It's just that you're on a good track. I want you to be happy. What are you gonna do with this newfound freedom?"

"I thought I'd get a job. Something part-time. Earn some extra money so I can travel in the summer," Lana told her."

"Is Rory going to work with you?" Nell asked. "Or are you going to be alone?"

"It depends on whether the job I want has two spots available, Aunt Nell."

Nell brightened. "Well, if you two wanted, I could use some help in the shop –"

"Thanks," Lana interrupted her smoothly, "but I want to do this on my own. And I doubt there'd be any place that's looking for two employees, so probably completely on my own."


After Coach Walt has died
Clark walked out onto the football field, the bleachers empty, the field deserted. He looked around wistfully, and for an instant pictured himself, on the field, scoring the winning goal while his father looked on proudly. Then the illusion faded away and Clark looked down.

"It's peaceful, isn't it?"

Clark turned around. He smiled when he saw Lana standing there and said, "Hey. I thought you were working."

She walked towards him, her hands entwined. "I got let go. Apparently, I'm not waitress material," she said.

Clark winced. "Sorry. How did your aunt take it?"

Lana laughed a little, "She said it was a sign that I should seriously reconsider cheerleading."

Clark laughed too. "Parents. What are you gonna do?"

"I heard about the coach. Pretty weird, huh?"

Clark nodded, pretending he had no idea what had happened. "He won his 200th game, and didn't even see it."

They started to walk across the field. Lana asked him, "So you gonna play next season?"

Clark said pensively, "I don't know if football's for me." Realizing he sounded a little too serious, he said humorously, "I mean, my dad played, my grandad played." He looked over at Lana mischievously. "I think it's time to break the vicious cycle."

Lana said laughingly, "Pretty short career. Why the change of heart?"

Clark hesitated. "I don't know. I guess... I guess I got out on the field and realized my reason for playing was gone." He looked at her beautiful face.

She stopped and turned to look at him too. Is he talking about a girl? Lana thought. Maybe... me?Nah, must just be my imagination. "I'm sorry to hear that."

"Who said life was fair?" Clark asked, speaking as though he wanted to be sad, but had to save face. Lana nodded and queried, "Are you gonna be okay?"

Clark paused, then said impulsively, "Sometimes I just wanna scream."

Lana smiled, an idea coming to her. She said mischievously, "Why don't we?"

"Are you serious?" Clark asked her, grinning.

"Why not?" Lana replied.

"On three. One... Two... Three!" said Clark, looking over at her to make sure she would go through with it. They both took a deep breath and screamed loudly, their arms spread out to the sky.

A/N That's a really short chapter... sorry! I had writer's block, and there was nothing I particularly wanted to write about in that episode, but I got through it! I have decided that from now on, I'm just going to do the important stuff in the episode. So no meteor freak storyline (unless that meteor freak comes back or I like the story or I've thought of a great way to change it).
Please review!
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