Second Choice: 2/?
by Nan Smith
Previously:
Clark stood for a moment, frowning, and then did what he'd told himself he shouldn't do. He called it x-ray vision since it allowed him to see through just about anything, and this time he trained it on the door of the apartment and strained his enhanced hearing to hear the voices inside.
At once he heard Lois's voice. "You'd better check on Mother," she told her sister. "I'll put the stuff away."
Lucy set down her small bag of groceries and left the kitchen. Curious, Clark followed her with his hearing and special vision.
A blond woman was sprawled on the sofa in the living room, a bottle that had contained vodka, he thought, lying on its side on the floor. And with that, Lois's reticence and reluctance to let him help her became clear. Clark grimaced slightly. Lois's mother had been drinking. It seemed likely that if the girls were going to eat dinner tonight, it would be Lois who cooked.
He paused for another moment, watching Lois as she began to empty the bags. It seemed that dinner tonight was going to be ham sandwiches.
Quietly, he turned and descended the short flight of stairs to the street.
**********
and now, Part 2:
Clark bit his lip, looking around. Most of the other students had left the school grounds and the school bus was pulling away from the curb as he watched, to take the students who lived in the outlying areas, such as the scattered farms that surrounded Smallville, back to their homes. There was still no sign of Lois. It didn't look as if she was coming and yet he'd seen her in the hallway during the break between fifth and sixth period. She hadn't skipped class; he was sure of that. She never skipped class. He'd even seen her come to school once with the flu and had attempted to talk her into going home, without success. To be sure, he hadn't tried too hard. Lois could be hard headed when she chose. Scratch that, he thought with a wry smile. Lois could be as obstinate as one of Wayne Irig's pigs but he secretly admired her for it. He’d give her another ten minutes, he thought, and then he would start hunting for her. Something had been bothering her for the last couple of days but he hadn’t asked, figuring that it was her business. She’d spent most of the time avoiding him, and that *did* bother him. They’d become pretty good friends over the last year. Clark had never met another girl like her. If something was worrying her, she had to know that she could tell him anything and that he would do his best to help her if he could.
Two days after he'd discovered Mrs. Lane's secret, he'd met Lois escorting her sister to the public library. It was the last week of June and the weather was typical -- hot and humid, with no trace of rain in sight. Clark trotted up beside them. "Hi."
"Hi," Lois said.
He glanced briefly at the sign on the building, announcing the Smallville Public Library. "Looking for something to read?"
Lucy nodded, smiling admiringly at him. "Hi," she said. She fluttered her eyelashes at him. Clark wondered for a moment how old Lois's sister was, but if Lucy was the flirtatious sister, Lois seemed to be the more serious one.
"We don't know many people in town and there's nothing much to do," Lois said, “so we figured we’d get some books.”
Clark grinned. "Well, actually there’s a lot to do, but you probably haven't been here long enough to get into the town grapevine," he said. "Anyhow, we've got a pretty good library. If you want a particular book and it isn't there, just ask for it. Mabel can order it for you and it'll be here in a couple of days."
"Mabel?" Lois asked.
"Our librarian, Mabel Denning," Clark fell in beside the girls as they strolled toward the library. "She used to be the senior librarian in charge of a big library in Queens -- in New York -- but when she retired she came out here to be near her family."
"Family?" Lois asked.
"Uh huh," Clark said. "Her brother owns the biggest dairy operation in the county. Anyway, after a while she got bored with goofing off and offered to take over the library because our last librarian eloped with Principal Talbot's son -- and then he joined the Navy and they wound up in Guam, so we didn't have a librarian. Mabel's been running Smallville's library for two years."
"It's probably almost a vacation for her after working in New York," Lois said. "But how come you know all about it?"
"That's the way Smallville is," Clark said. "Everybody pretty much knows everything about everybody else. Plus, when she took over I interviewed her for the high school paper."
"You're on the school paper?" Lois asked quickly. Her expression had gone from one of mild interest to that of suppressed excitement.
"Yeah," Clark said. "I've been the editor since my junior year. Why?"
"I was on *my* school's paper," Lois said. "The 'Metropolis Falcon'. I want to get on the paper at Smallville High, too. I'll be a junior this year."
"Great," Clark said. "It probably won't be like the paper for a big city high school but we're pretty proud of it." He opened the library door for Lois and her sister. "In the meantime, there's a bunch of us that are going to have a swimming party down at the lake tomorrow. If you and Lucy would like to come, I'm sure my friends would like to meet you."
Lois shook her head. "I don't know anybody but you," she said. "Besides, if I came with you, what would your girlfriend say?"
"I don't have a girlfriend," Clark said. "At least, not a steady one."
"The blond girl you were talking to the other day -- after I left."
How had she seen that? he wondered. It sounded to him like Lois Lane noticed a lot of things that most people didn't. "That was Lana Lang. She's an old friend of mine but she's not my girlfriend," he said.
“She didn’t look very old to me,” Lois said.
“I just meant I’ve known her since kindergarten,” Clark amended. “I’ve dated her a few times but she’s not really my girlfriend. So, how about the lake, tomorrow?”
Lois shrugged. "I don't think so. Maybe another time."
"Okay," Clark had agreed, recalling what he had seen of Lois's mother that day at their apartment. She probably didn’t want to leave her mother home alone for very long if she had a drinking problem, he thought. He glanced at his watch. "I have to head home. Wayne expects me to help him fix his tractor this afternoon. I guess I'll see you around town."
Lois smiled and nodded at him, and then went on into the library after her sister.
**********
He'd met Lois with and without her younger sister several times during the next couple of weeks and always made an effort to draw her out a little. In the back of his mind he wondered a bit at his own determination to get to know her. It wasn't only that she was, quite simply, the most beautiful girl he'd ever seen, nor did it occur to him to wonder if he was the only one who thought that. Looking at Lois Lane objectively, she was very attractive, true, but certainly no more so than Lana Lang or Rachel Harris, the sheriff's daughter. He'd tried to pin down in his mind why she was so much prettier than Lana and couldn't really express it in cold, dry words, but the fact remained that every time he saw her, her sheer beauty almost took his breath away.
On the Fourth of July, he had come into town a little early. He'd run, careful as usual not to let anyone see him demonstrating one of the strange powers that had come to him one by one, since he had turned ten, and reported to the Independence Day Committee, whose job it was to manage the entertainment and fireworks show this afternoon and evening at the Smallville Fairgrounds. He'd volunteered a couple of weeks ago to help them set things up for the evening's entertainment. As he strolled into the school auditorium, where the morning meeting was taking place, he saw Lois Lane speaking to one of the committee members and taking quick notes on a pad of paper. He knew he shouldn't eavesdrop but the temptation was too much and he trained his hearing on the two. A minute later, he had to hide a smile. Lois was interviewing the man.
Since the Smallville High Breeze was out of business for the summer, he had to think that maybe she was hoping to get her article submitted to the town's weekly paper, the Smallville Press. Lois was nothing if not ambitious.
As she ended her interview, she glanced over and saw him. After a moment's hesitation, she approached him with a little smile. "Hi, Clark. What are you doing here?"
He grinned. "I'm a volunteer to do the tote and carry work while they set up things for this evening. I get paid by having a seat in the best area to see the fireworks. My -- the people I live with are coming and they get seats, too."
Lois tilted her head and looked at him oddly. "That's right. Somebody told me you were an orphan. I'm sorry."
He shrugged a little uncomfortably. "It was a long time ago."
She didn't say anything for a moment and then she spoke abruptly. "My mother and dad just got divorced. That's why Mom moved out here with Lucy and me."
"Why Smallville?" he couldn't help asking. "We're one of those towns that isn't even on most maps."
Lois looked down for a moment and then squared her shoulders. "It was a pretty ugly court fight,” she said. “Mother brought in a bunch of witnesses to prove he was cheating on her and he brought in a bunch of his own to try to prove she wasn’t a fit parent. Anyway, Mother didn't want to be around any of the people who knew her, after that. She just closed her eyes and picked the place to move by putting a finger on a map of the country."
"That's an interesting way to find a place to live." Clark said, slightly nonplused. "What about your dad, though? Isn't he supposed to have visitation rights or something?"
Lois shrugged a shoulder. "He's too busy with his work. Once I told him I didn't want to be a doctor, and that nothing he said could make me change my mind, he wasn't interested anymore. He's a surgeon -- he treats sports injuries and he's always trying to find new experimental techniques to help injured athletes. If you're only his daughter he doesn't have time for you."
"Oh," Clark said. "That really stinks."
She shrugged again. "It's all right," she said. Clark didn't comment but her scent and the speed at which her heart was beating told him that it was *not* all right. She switched the subject abruptly, raising her chin. "Anyhow, I'm going into journalism, and nothing Daddy says or does -- or doesn't do -- is going to stop me."
Clark found himself smiling at her sheer defiance. Her father might have rejected her because she refused to adopt the career he had planned for her, her mother might be an alcoholic, but Lois Lane would not allow those facts to get in her way. She was awe-inspiring. "I believe it."
"Do you have any plans after you graduate?" she asked.
"Yeah. I'm planning on going to Midwest State. They have a pretty good journalism program. Mom and Dad left me a little money in trust, and I do odd jobs around town and at the local farms to earn as much as I can. I'm going to try out for some of the scholarships available, too. I graduate next year and I want to be ready."
"I thought maybe you'd take over your parents' farm," Lois said. "Somebody told me your parents left it to you."
"They did," Clark said. "Maybe I'll rent out the land to somebody. Wayne would probably like to use the grazing land for his milk cows -- but I want to be a journalist, not a farmer." He smiled at her. "Are you interviewing me?"
He could see the flush climbing up her collarbone. "No -- I guess it sounded like it, didn't it? No, it's just -- you're really the only person around here that I know. You always stop to talk to me, and --"
"Hey, Clark!" Madeline Peterson called. "Can you put that pile of boxes in the van, for starters?"
"Sure," Clark said. He turned back to Lois. "If you're going to report on the Committee's work, you can follow us around for a while and see what we do."
"How did you know that's what I was doing?" she asked.
"I saw you interviewing Bill Ross," Clark said, nodding at the pad and pencil in her hands. "I figured there was only one reason you'd be doing that."
"Yeah," Lois said. "Good guess. I talked to the Assistant Editor of the Smallville Press and told him I'd been on my high school paper. He said if I wanted to do an article about the Fourth of July show, they'd consider publishing it if it was good enough."
"Sounds good," Clark said, hefting the first box. "I've sold a couple of articles to them, myself. They do sometimes accept freelance stuff. If they take yours, I guess you can put it in a resume folder to show your early work. Where are you planning to go to college?"
"I'm not sure," Lois admitted, trailing him out the door toward Mrs. Peterson's van. "I'd wanted to go to New Troy State but since I'm going to have to figure out how to pay for it, I might not be able to go there."
"New Troy State has a good journalism school," Clark agreed, "but it isn't the only one. Besides, there are all kinds of scholarships you can try for. I'll let you have my catalogue on the ones available if you like."
Lois opened the rear door of the van for him and he slid the crate inside. Together, they started back for another one. "I guess I can find one at the library," Lois said. "You'll need yours."
"I've already read it," Clark said, without thinking. "I won't need it any longer. I'll bring it by this evening if you like."
"Did you make a list or something?" Lois asked, looking at him oddly.
"No," he said. "I uh --" He hesitated, wondering if he should admit it. "I have an eidetic memory."
"Really? I'd like to have something like that."
"It's an advantage," Clark admitted, "but it has its drawbacks, too -- especially when there's something you'd rather forget. Anyhow, don't tell anybody about it; okay? I have enough trouble fitting in anyway." He hefted a second box and started for the van.
"I think I know what you mean," Lois said. "If you're too smart, people think you're weird."
"Something like that," Clark said. "But I *can't* let my grades slide if I'm going to get into MU, so I just try to act like everybody else."
"Why'd you tell me, then?" Lois asked. "You can't be sure I'm not going to blab it all over town."
He shrugged. "I don't know. I sort of don't think you will."
"You know, Kent, you’re much too trusting," she said. “You’re lucky that this time you guessed right.”
“Who says I was guessing?” Clark said. “Can I help it if I’m a good judge of character?”
“Don’t push your luck,” Lois said. “One of these days you might be wrong.”
“I’m very selective,” Clark told her loftily. “You have to meet very high standards.”
She elbowed him in the ribs. “Jerk.”
And that had been the real beginning of their friendship.
**********
tbc
