Very realistic!
Lois is at a place in her life, where she has the luxury for a bit of romance (as long as it doesn't interfere with her exchange trip and internship). Sadly, Clark is not.
She couldn’t face her father after the thoughts she’d been having about the boy sitting in the seat next to her.
Yeah. There's a big difference between him bringing home a floozy of the week and Lois bringing home a boy to study (like Sam would ever buy that). It's good that Sam wasn't home.
Did Clark expect something from her? Did he expect more than she was willing to give? Although she was coming to trust him, what did she really know about him personally?
This says a lot about the exposure she'd had to other boys. They expect something in return for their kindness.
Luckily, Clark is more scared of her (of what he could accidentally do to her) than she is of him, so she has nothing to worry about from him.
The fact that she’d even fleetingly thought about dropping the story to protect Clark shocked and worried her. If anyone could protect himself it was Clark. It wasn’t like he had a reputation or friends to lose at school. He seemed to have a vibrant life outside of school, but saw school as a means to an end.
Hold on. What story was that? Her story about Clark? There was a lot such a story could do to ruin Clark's life.
I can't see why she would drop the footballer story, though.
What worried her more were the posters on her wall; Harrison Ford from Star Wars, Billie Joel, Rick Springfield. Compared to what her friends had on their walls these were conservative. The Close Encounters and E.T. posters didn’t help matters any. At least he couldn’t fault her Einstein poster, or her Life Magazine poster with Neil Armstrong on the moon.
I can only imagine what Clark thought when seeing her being a scifi fan. Star Wars, Close Encounters, E.T., Neil Armstrong on the moon. /BTW: Billy spells his name with a Y./ Sounds like what my room looked like in the 80s (minus the E.T., though).
Lois headed for her desk. She noticed that Clark left the door behind him open and she felt a little better.
Of course he did. Between Martha teaching him what was right and being a foster kid, he knows that closed doors aren't good. Plus, he's probably read enough Jane Austin to know that it isn't proper for a young man to visit a girl alone without keeping the door open.
The other side was conspicuously empty. She’d been keeping her notes on the high school football scandal there, but she’d pulled them down when she was cleaning her room. There wasn’t any point in letting Clark know anything that was going to end up hurting him.
Why would the football scandal hurt Clark? Other than the footballers giving him hell for befriending Lois over it? It won't be as if HE could be blamed for her article. I mean, Tom Church probably would anyway, but he's innocent. Oh, right, that means nothing in the high school rumor mill.
The project seemed to flash by; they’d already done the research and all that was left was putting it together. Lois tended to want to focus on the facts, while Clark wanted to focus on the human aspect of things. Together, Lois could see that what they were writing was better than what either one of them could have accomplished on their own.
Too bad it couldn't be a joint internship at the Planet. I'd love to have her somehow get Clark involved in her football investigation, especially if he was going to end up with the brunt of the backlash, with her her in Ireland.
Finally, they finished, and Lois began the laborious process of printing what they had. She’d had to open six files, as none of them could be larger than three pages, and printing was a somewhat tricky process. If the printer was off by even a little she’d have to reprint it again, and Lois sometimes thought she could type as fast as the printer printed.
ARGH!
Dot Matrix flashbacks! EEK!
“Clark,” she said, and she put her hand on his chest.
He froze, looking down at her hand. “Uh….” He looked around the room quickly, almost as though he was looking for a way out. He finally settled on her posters. “I liked E.T.”
Notably, he didn’t step away, but Lois could see that he was visibly uncomfortable. Although she wasn’t an expert, it looked like he was as torn as she was.
Nah. Probably more so. It was also most likely the first time anyone he's liked has ever touched him in a tender way. I imagine he'll be re-playing every moment of the day with Lois over in his mind should he ever get a moment to sleep.
“Maybe you can show me sometime,” Lois said. Her voice had grown husky, and she stepped toward him.
For the first time he stepped toward her. “Lois,” he began.
A moment later he stopped, his head snapping around. “Someone just pulled up around the back.”
Dad interruptus right on time. Good thing he didn't arrive five minutes later or Clark might have been distracted enough not to have heard him.
Even without Super hearing, I bet Clark would have been listening for her dad to come home. He's probably been on edge since walking into the house. The last thing he'd want is a run in with her father, who could easily have him fired from his delivery job... without provocation just because. "I found *your* courier inside *my* house with *my* daughter!"
