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The Rival: Perry White
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“That’s what Clark told me.” Lois rolled her eyes and turned toward the door, already heading out, already not believing a word he said.

Perry had seen that exact expression from her more times than he could count. She was a great one for skepticism, his star reporter, and as that pertained to his paper, it was a great thing. But sometimes--okay, a lot of the time--it wasn’t quite as welcome. She had a real nose for news, and Perry was prouder of her than he could say, but she reminded him of himself and he knew better than anyone his own flaws.

Dedication to the job, determination to root out every lie and uncover every secret, and an absolute unwillingness to lose any battle.

In other words, she was pigheaded and completely untrusting.

She’d rolled her eyes when he told her she had to start out as an intern before becoming a staff writer. She’d scoffed when he told her not to expect a Kerth nomination every year. She’d shrugged aside all the concerns and questions he’d had for her after Claude’s hasty transferal. And she’d hemmed and hawed like nothing he could believe when he’d assigned Clark to be her partner.

But this…this was slightly different, and obstinate as she could be, Perry couldn’t help but smile and shake his head as soon as she was out of the office.

Lois wasn’t the only stubborn reporter Perry had in his newsroom, and this time, even though he’d never bet against Lois before, he thought he’d put money on Clark Kent instead. There was something about that young man, something that had gotten under Lois’s skin in record time, something that made Lois’s skepticism now seem just a bit forced, almost as if it was made purely out of habit rather than real disbelief.

It was a dangerous game Clark was playing, and Perry was pretty sure he was going to be made to regret forcing the kid to keep his plan a secret from Lois, but for now…well, for now, it was downright amusing to watch the battle of wills.

And what the hey, a desk jockey had to get his amusement somewhere, now didn’t he?

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