Lois & Clark Forums Forums Fan Fiction Lois & Clark Fanfic FDK: Written in the Stars (1/30)

Lois Lane moved the last of her files into her desk drawer and switched off her computer. She swept her gaze over the desk, sure she was forgetting something but unable to put her finger on what still needed to be done. She stood and carried her coffee cup to the communal sink, washing it quickly and then carrying it back to her desk.

Ten years ago, she had attended the conference where she would be speaking, accepting the Pacemaker on behalf of her high school newspaper and dreaming of the day it was a Pulitzer. And in two days, she would be standing on the stage as a Pulitzer winner addressing students at the Pacemaker award ceremony, many of them with that same dream in mind. It was a little surreal.

He had bought a house in downtown Smallville, just a few miles from the high school, and resurrected the Smallville Tiger Times, a weekly school newspaper that had gone defunct in the years since he and Lana had graduated. Mentoring his reporters and editors had become his passion project, and he had been astounded and elated when his team had been awarded a Pacemaker for their series of articles on rural teens balancing their education and extracurricular activities with the responsibility of helping to run family farms.

Originally he had thought he would stay home just long enough to get his dad back to operating at full capacity. But by the time he was up for taking over all his duties again, Lana was weeks from giving birth to Caleb, and the high school principal asked him to consider stepping in as her long-term sub while she was on maternity leave. He had agreed to stay on through the end of the school year, lending his dad a hand on evenings and weekends, and had been surprised to discover how much he loved teaching.

When the high school’s other English teacher, a woman who had been at the school for nearly fifty years and had taught both Clark and his parents, finally announced her retirement that Spring, he had — with the encouragement of both her and their principal — applied for an accelerated summer program to obtain his teaching credentials and taken over her position in a permanent capacity. This was his third full year of teaching, and though it wasn’t his original career plan, he genuinely loved it and found it incredibly rewarding.