X-Ray – Eighth Chapter
Gym Class
Clark watched Lana and Rory leave the gym to make room for the guys. Actually he was only watching Lana, who looked up at him and smiled.

"Keep your eyes in your head, man," he was interrupted by a grinning Pete. Clark rolled his eyes at him, then squeezed his eyes shut in pain and grabbed his head in his hands.

"Kent, are we boring you?" the gym teacher asked sarcastically.

Clark lifted his head up and said painfully, "I'm sorry. My – my head hurts."

"That's because you need to get some blood pumping!" the teacher shouted energetically. "Come on. You and Ross are next." He yelled up to the boys on the rope, "Come on down, boys!"

Clark shook his head, trying to make the pain go away. He blinked a couple of times, then started climbing the rope while Pete climbed the other.

"Come on, put a little muscle into it!" the teacher yelled up at them. "If Ross beats you it's ten laps," he threatened, then continued, "Come on, Clark, let's go. Move it, move it!"

"Looks like someone's doing laps," panted Pete grinning victoriously as he pulled ahead of Clark. Clark looked over at Pete and gasped as he saw that Pete wasn't exactly Pete anymore. All Clark could see was his muscles and tendons! Pete saw the look on Clark's face and said anxiously, "Clark, man, what's wrong? Clark! What's wrong?" Clark lost his grip on the rope and fell to the ground. "Clark!"

Inside the girl's changing rooms, Rory snapped her head up as she heard a strange male voice, one she recognized but couldn't quite identify saying, "What the hell is wrong with him? One second he was fine, the next he fell off!" She looked around and realized that nobody else had reacted. Oh god, what now? She listened harder, unconsciously reaching out with her mind. She touched on several unfamiliar ones, finally reaching one she recognized as Clark's and one she recognized as the voice from before.

Clark? she asked. What's wrong?

Nothing. Go away. I'm fine.

You don't sound fine.

I'll tell you at home; Mom and Dad are gonna wanna know too.

Okay. Love you.

Clark's mind-voice, a lot like his normal voice but pure Clark, softened as he replied, I love you too. Now go away.

Clark cut the connection and looked up at the gym wall, needing something solid to stare at while he recovered. He blinked a couple of times when he realized that the wall wasn't there. Instead he could see straight into the girls locker room! He stared, aghast, past the wall that he knew was there and was just about to turn away when he saw Lana, wearing only a towel, walking over to her things. She turned so that, by some coincidence, her back was to him and let the towel go.Clark began to smile inanely.



Kent Farm that afternoon

"So when you have these flashes, you can see through anything?" Martha asked Clark, who nodded. "People? Objects?"

"Sometimes I can see through things, other times it's just an x-ray," replied Clark.

"And there's no warning? It just happens?" interjected Jonathan.

"Well, I get a headache, and then it hits me. The first time, I thought I was just hallucinating, but then it happened again," Clark told them.

"There has to be a way to control this Clark," Rory told him.

Clark stared at her like she was nuts. "I can see through things. How do you control that?"

"You have to practice, Clark," said Martha. "Your eyes have muscles, just like your legs."

"Oh, great," he muttered sarcastically. Lifting his head back up, he asked, "Have you had any of these flashes Rors?"

Rory shook her head. "Nothing. Although..."

"What is it?" Jonathan asked her.

She shook her head a little. "It's just, in gym today, around the time Clark had his flash, I thought – I thought I heard somebody say something, kinda like the same way Clark and I talk, only I couldn't reply to what they were saying, if that makes any sense."

"So... mind-reading?" asked Martha.

"I don't know," said Rory. "Why are our powers so different? I mean, we're twins. Surely our powers should be exactly the same! But instead, I have all these powers that Clark doesn't, and he's probably going to get more that I don't!"

"Calm down, Rors," soothed Clark. "We're gonna get through this. We'll work it out, I promise."

Two days later

Whitney, Lana, Rory and Jared came out of class together talking and laughing. Whitney and Jared had talked over their argument and become friends again, much to Rory's frustration.

"Lana!" came the voice of Tina Greer from a little way away.

Whitney sighed and muttered quietly to Lana, "I swear that girl's got you lojacked."

Tina ran up to them smiling hugely. "How do you like the sweater?" she asked eagerly.

"It's great," Lana said, a little confused. "I've got one just like it."

"I know. I bought it at the same store. I've been going on this shopping spree. Hey, look. I even found this emerald necklace in the antique store!" Tina prattled excitedly. Rory rolled her eyes. Tina was a nice enough person, but she was just a little bit obsessed with Lana. She considered herself Lana's only best friend, even though everybody knew Lana and Rory might as well have been sisters.

"Why am I not surprised?" Whitney asked quietly with an air of one who has resigned themself to what is happening. Raising his voice he said to Jared, "Hey we better go, Coach wants to run some drills with us during free period."

"Right," Jared responded before pressing his lips lightly to Rory's and saying, "Bye."

"Bye," replied Rory smiling slightly. Whitney and Jared left, leaving Lana, Rory and Tina alone.

Tina glared at Whitney's retreating back, then turned her attention back to Lana. "Hey, are you okay? I stopped by your house earlier and Nell said you weren't in the best mood so..."

"I'm fine. Don't worry about it," said Lana, trying not to snap at her.

"Good, 'cause I need a favour," Tina said to her. "My mom is moving to Metropolis full-time but see, she doesn't want to pull me out of school. So I was thinking I can move in with you and Nell."

Rory stared at her. God, I knew she was obsessed, but that... that's just creepy.

Taken aback, Lana said to Tina uncertainly, "For how long?"

"I don't know. A couple months," beamed Tina happily. "I mean, my mom would pay you guys. Trust me, money is not a problem. Just name your price. I could even get a horse. Uh, we could go riding together. I mean, wouldn't that be cool?" she asked excitedly.

"Yeah, uh..." Lana cleared her throat and continued hesitantly, "Just give me some time to think about it. Are you sure your mom's okay with this?"

Suddenly Rory heard a wisp of something, which solidified into a voice. How could Lana ask something like that? I'm her best friend. Of course my mom's okay... would be okay with it.

Rory inhaled sharply. "You okay?" asked Lana.

"Yeah, I'm fine," Rory said.

"Well, anyway," Tina said, annoyed that Rory had taken Lana's attention, if only for a second. "Of course my mom's okay with it. She knows that we're best friends. It was her idea," Tina justified. Rory heard again, And it would have been her idea, if she had of been around to come up with it. Rory was utterly shocked. What the hell does that mean, if she had of been around to come up with it?

Lana bit her bottom lip gently. "Well, uh, just let me run it by Nell first. She's kind of particular," Lana offered, hoping Tina would accept that.

She didn't. "Nell loves me," Tina said angrily, staring straight into Lana's eyes. "Look, I don't understand. I thought that you'd be happy. I mean, people even say that we look alike. We could be sisters," she raised her voice, upset.

"I'm just not sure it's such a great idea," Lana explained.

"Listen, guys, maybe you could talk about this another time," Rory interjected.

"Stay out of this, bitch," Tina spat at her.

"Don't talk to her like that!" Lana said loudly and angrily.

"You should have said yes, Lana!" Tina yelled at her. Tears filled her eyes as she continued, angrily but a little sadly, "It would have been perfect."

She turned and stomped away. Lana looked at Rory who looked at her and shrugged, pretending she had no idea what was going on. I need to practice this whole mind-reading thing. On Jared, maybe? I could try it on Lana... she probably wouldn't notice, and they don't have to know. I'll pretend I'm just sleeping or something.

Clark wandered over to Tina's locker which was now shut, after she had torn off the emerald necklace and thrown it inside. He glanced around, then looked at the locker and attempted to focus his eyes. It's not working! He took a deep breath and reminded himself to be patient. A thought suddenly occurred to him and he tried to focus his eyes again, this time like a telescope. All of a sudden, the locker door seemed to disappear and he could see inside. Yes!

He saw a backpack inside and focused his eyes some more so as to see inside the backpack. Suddenly the outside of the backpack 'disappeared' and he could see several bundles of money. The money from the robbery!

Clark's horror at discovering Tina had robbed the bank quickly disappeared into elation at having finally mastered his x-ray vision.

"Clark!" He turned to see Tina glaring at him. "What's your glitch, huh? Why do you keep staring at me?"

"Uh, I don't know," he mumbled. "Sorry." Clark turned and walked away, fast.

A/N Well that's all I'm gonna do of X-Ray. Rory still hasn't mastered her 'mind-reading' power. I hope it's not too long!

Read and REVIEW! It feels really great when you go into your emails and there's all these ones telling you about reviews! From now on, I solemnly swear that I will answer all reviews. Even if the person reviewing has reviewed before.

Xx.maddy-sparx.xX