Thanks to Carol for BRing!
From Chapter 1
I smiled. “Yeah, Chad never seemed like too much of a city boy. He didn't even bother applying to any of the Ivy Leagues for college as he didn't want to have to live in a city. And he could have gotten in easily.”
“Where'd he go?” she asked me.
“Midwest U. It's also in a city, but it's a Midwestern city so that was bearable. Besides, Chad wants to be a doctor so he couldn't go someplace too small or he would have a hard time getting into med school.”
“So, did you ever visit Chad in Smallville, Lois?” the red-head asked with a sneer.
Lois shook her head. “Nah. I'm not all that interested in small towns. I don't blame you one bit for deciding to come here for college,” she told me. For a second I was annoyed at the slight on Smallville, but then I decided to forgive her. There was something about the twinkle in her eye that made it hard to get too annoyed at her.
Chapter 2
I stared at the blank piece of paper in front of me. I needed to write something. Anything at all would be okay. Ideally it would be something really interesting, something worthy of printing, but that wasn't mandatory. It would definitely help, though. My chances of being allowed to write for the Met Titan were much greater if my first piece was printable.
I knew my chances were slim – they had never allowed a freshman on the student paper before, but I had to try, right? The hard part was that I wasn't the only freshman trying. While most of the freshman I knew who wanted to join the paper had backed off when they heard their chances, Lois Lane had announced loudly that she was going to be the first freshman ever to be accepted.
I couldn't decide what to make of Lois. She was part brash and part sweet, part overly confident and part insecure, part brave beyond belief and part afraid of her own shadow. In short, she was a mixture of contradictions all wrapped up in one small, beautiful girl.
So, yeah, of course I was a little bit attracted to her. But then again, I wasn't the only one. Steve had told me that Josh had asked Lois out our first week here, but she had turned him down cold – said she wasn't interested in dating. Not that I wanted to date her. Despite my attraction to her, I also found her a little off-putting. Some days I felt like I could talk to her for hours, others I wanted to avoid her at all costs. So what did I care if she wasn't interested in dating?
What she was interested in, it was pretty clear, was getting on the school paper. And I would bet she had her eye on the summer internship at the Daily Planet, too. While I was sure there were other people applying for the one spot held for a freshman each year, I suspected that Lois would be my fiercest competition. I couldn't be sure – I hadn't even seen anything she had written yet, but I just didn't imagine she was that overly confident about her chances of getting on the school paper without some talent to back her up.
I was sort of looking forward to spending the summer on the farm, but I also wanted the internship so badly I could taste it. It was my key to staying in Metropolis as a journalist full-time after college. While I could do that without the internship, and Mom told me to stop worrying about it this early (I mean, I did need to finish college first, and I'd barely started), this would make it all so easy. If the editor of the Planet liked what he saw when you were an intern, you were guaranteed another internship the following summer. Of those freshmen interns that made it through senior year with internships, nearly 75% got job offers at the Planet after school.
Only a couple other kids got hired by the Planet right out of college every year, but those were for boring research jobs. If you interned there after freshman year, by the time you finished college, you'd get a staff job. A small one for sure, but a staff job at the Daily Planet right out of college was like writing your ticket to a successful journalism career.
No, there was no question that this internship would be worth spending my summer here. If I could get it.
I sighed. Applications for the internship didn't even open up until next semester, and I had promised myself I wouldn't decide what I wanted to do before then anyway. Maybe, like Chad, I'd hate living in the big city and wouldn't want to settle here or spend my summers here. For now I needed to focus on trying to get a spot on the school paper. If I could only think of something to write about.
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I snuck back into the room quietly. Steve went to sleep late – much later than me, and I was staying up much later now that I didn't need to get up to do chores around the farm. Still, this was late even for him and I was pretty sure he would be asleep. Just to be safe, though, I had already spun back into my regular clothes.
The spinning thing was really useful and I was glad I had figured it out. When Mom first suggested the costume for helping out, I hadn't been crazy about the idea. Dad hadn't either actually – he thought it would make people think I had something to hide. In the end, we had agreed on something simple – a black shirt, a t-shirt or a turtleneck depending on the weather, and black jeans. If I took off my glasses and moved the part in my hair to the other side, I looked different enough. And of course, I stayed as far away from helping out in Kansas as possible.
It had worked, and combined with my promise to keep my helping to simple things where I at least had the appearance of being normal, no one had really commented on me. I got mentions in the papers sometimes, but they were in passing and always vague references like, “One of the biggest surprise helpers was a boy in black…” While Mom, Dad, and I jokingly referred to my efforts to help as my being the Boy in Black, in reality, no one had ever put the pieces together and realized that the same boy in black was helping out at emergencies around the world.
For the first few rescues, though, I had found having to change annoying. True, I could do it at super-speed, but as that was normal for me, it still seemed annoying. But one day I had tried the spinning thing and it had worked. It was really the same as changing at super-speed, but somehow by spinning around I was able to change even faster. Now I could move between outfits in less than five seconds and I had become a pro at hiding one set of clothes beneath the other.
How well these tricks would serve me now that I was living with Steve, I had no idea. But I was about to find out. I opened the door quietly and breathed a sigh of relief when I saw Steve asleep in his bed. He may have wondered what I was doing out so late, but at least for now, he wouldn't notice anything weird about his roommate.
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“Yo, Kent.”
I stopped without turning around. Was I ready for this? So far, all of my conversations with Lois after the very first one had been vaguely antagonistic. I wasn't sure I was in the mood this morning. I'd been out doing the Boy in Black thing again last night and two nights in a row with too little sleep was starting to affect me.
With a sigh, I turned around. “Hi, Lois.”
“I can't believe you,” she said as she stopped in front of me, her hands on her hips.
“What?” I asked her. How had I annoyed her today? I had just gotten up twenty minutes ago.
“I thought all the freshmen dropped out of submitting pieces to the Met Titan,” she said.
“You didn't,” I pointed out.
“Well, besides me,” she said exasperated, as if her exclusion was a given.
“And me, I guess,” I replied, trying to match her arrogant tone.
“Why are you bothering?” she asked me. “You know they don't take freshmen.”
I shrugged. “Why are you bothering?”
“I'm Lois Lane,” she said. “I'm going to win the Pulitzer some day. My goal is to win it before I'm thirty. I'm not going to meet that goal without getting an early start.”
I smiled; I couldn't help it. I'd only known Lois for two weeks and already I could tell she was unique. How many other college freshmen had decided they were going to win the Pulitzer Prize by the time they were thirty?
“Well, I hope you succeed,” I told her with a smile before trying to turn back around. I wanted to get to the dining hall in time to grab some breakfast before my English comp class.
“Then stop trying to compete with me,” Lois said behind me.
I turned around, stunned. “What?”
“Pull your piece out of the Met Titan tryout,” she said.
I closed my eyes. This was the problem with Lois. One minute she was the most arrogant person you knew and the next she was a little girl afraid of failure. “How are you going to win the Pulitzer if you're afraid of competition?” I asked her.
“I'm not afraid of competition,” she said, her eyes flashing. “And even if I was, it wouldn't be from you.”
I fought to keep the grin off my face. She had to be kidding me. “Then why do you want me to pull my piece from the tryout?” I asked.
She closed her eyes in annoyance. Was I missing something? Was I being the confusing one?
“My chances of winning are much better if none of the other freshmen enter,” she said when she opened her eyes.
“But if you're not afraid of competition, why do you care? And if I'm barely competition, why do you care if it's me?” I asked her.
“I don't care!” she replied, nearly shouting. “I don't care if anyone else tries out and I definitely don't care if it's you!”
“Well, then, I'm glad we got that settled,” I said, still trying not to smile. “But I'm in a rush…”
“Clark!” Steve's voice cut me off.
“Hey, Steve,” I said as he jogged to reach us.
“So,” he said, eyeing Lois. “I thought you weren't interested in dating. At least that's what you told Josh.”
“I'm not,” Lois said, her eyes narrowing. “I'm here for one thing only – to get my degree in journalism and land a spot at the Daily Planet.” Yeah, just as I suspected. There was no way she wasn't trying out for the internship.
“So what are you doing with Clark here?” Steve grinned.
“What? If I'm not interested in dating, I can't talk to any guys?” Lois asked.
“It's not the talking I'm referring to,” Steve said.
“Then what is it?” I asked Steve, starting to feel annoyed myself. I mean, I have to admit, it felt good to see someone else give Lois a hard time. Still, given that it clearly had something to do with me…
“You've been out the last two nights,” Steve said with a grin.
“Well, he hasn't been with me!” Lois said, indignant.
I sighed. “I haven't been with anybody.” I turned to Steve, “I've been out a little late, but I've been sleeping in our room.”
Steve shrugged. “You seemed like the early to bed type to me. Thought it was from growing up on a farm. Before two nights ago, you always seemed to be in bed before midnight. The last two nights, your bed's been empty when I get to bed at two. So where have you been?”
“Just out,” I mumbled. “Nothing all that exciting.”
“Till after two?” Steve asked, one eyebrow raised.
“Yes,” I said.
“What have you been doing?” Lois asked me.
“Nothing,” I said, glancing at my watch. No time for breakfast now. “Look,” I said to both of them. “I'm going to be late for my comp class. I've just been out late the last two nights. I'm not doing anything interesting. Just…” I floundered, trying to think of a boring excuse for being out late. “Just studying,” I said, staring at the ground. I was a horrible liar, but hoped this was believable. “Nothing more interesting than that.
“And Lois, I'm not taking my story out of the tryouts. If you're going to win the Pulitzer before you're thirty, you better get used to some harsh competition.” I spun on my heel and started to jog towards the Humanities building.
“I told you,” I heard Lois call behind me. “You don't count as competition. Let alone harsh competition.” I couldn't help but laugh at her words.
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“Clark Kent?” came the voice on the answering machine. “This is Paul Bender from the Met Titan. Please give me a call back when you have a chance. The newsroom is at extension 4-5656.”
I stared at the phone in shock. Paul Bender was the editor of the Titan. Had my piece earned me a spot on the staff? I had to admit to being a bit surprised. Despite my confidence when I talked to Lois, I didn't really think it was that good. I hadn't been able to think of anything good to write about. It wasn't like I had had a chance to do some good investigative reporting or something. So instead, I wrote an article on the orientation process. Not exactly front page stuff.
Still, maybe this was about the quality of the writing, not the topic. That is what they claimed anyway. It was just that they also claimed that no freshmen had ever been good enough to get on the staff. Was I that good? I liked to dream I would be one day, but I doubted I was yet.
I sighed. It must be nice to be Lois Lane. I'm sure she would be jumping up and down over a message like this. She'd call Paul back immediately, not stare at the phone and wonder if she was really good enough.
Well, maybe I needed to channel my inner Lois Lane. Or something.
I picked up the phone and took a deep breath before I dialed the number for the Met Titan. “Met Titan,” said the cheery voice on the other end of the phone.
“Hi. This is Clark Kent. Is Paul Bender there?” I asked. I could feel my heart pounding, but my voice was surprisingly calm.
“Yo, Paul,” I heard the person who had answered call. “A Clark something or other for you.”
“Thanks,” I heard Paul say as he got closer to the phone. “This is Paul,” he said a minute later.
“Hi, Paul. This is Clark Kent. You left me a message earlier,” I said, wiping my sweaty hand on my jeans.
“Right, Clark. You were one of the freshmen who submitted writing pieces,” Paul said. “I read it. It was good. Really much better than we usually see from freshmen.”
I wasn't sure what to say. Did this mean I had a spot on the staff? “Thank you,” I managed to say quietly.
“Unfortunately, it's still not up to the caliber we expect for a staff reporter,” Paul continued and I felt my heart sink. “But I want to encourage you to keep trying. Maybe submit a piece again next year.”
“Thanks, Paul,” I said trying to hide my disappointment. It was silly. I had known my chances were slim. So why was I so disappointed?
“No problem, Clark. See you around,” he said before he hung up the phone.
I placed the phone back down and then sat back on my bed. I didn't get it. I hadn't really expected to land a spot and still… I had sort of hoped. I wondered if Lois got a spot. Not that I wanted to know right now. I thought I might just be disappointed if I found out.
