I know these last two chapters were posted very close together, but the last one was late and this one is early. The next chapter won't be posted until a week from Friday, so there will be a long break. But I'll be offline until next Monday night or Tuesday at the earliest, so won't have a chance to post this Friday, so decided to do so early.
As always, a huge thank you to Carol for all her help BRing.
From Chapter 33
“How about your mom?” I asked her.
She didn't answer at first, just stirred her soup. “She's not reclusive,” Lois finally said quietly.
I reached over to place a hand on top of hers. “You don't need to tell me if you don't want to.”
Lois looked up, “She's an alcoholic. Recovering, I guess, but she relapses frequently.”
I tightened my grip on her hand. “I'm sorry,” I whispered, although I wasn't sure if she could hear me in the noisy dining hall.
She nodded her head, smiling slightly. “Thanks.”
And then, it was like my head left the rest of my body again. I leaned over the table and our food to press a soft kiss to her lips.
Chapter 34
The sound of a catcall accompanied my backing away. I looked to the right and saw a group of guys I didn't know looking our way, giving me a thumbs up. I could feel myself flush, and sat back down, only glancing at Lois once I was firmly in my seat again.
“Do you know those guys?” she asked me, sounding completely calm.
“No. You?” I asked, ashamed to realize that unlike Lois, I sounded as nervous as I felt.
“No,” she answered.
“So… um… I'm sorry?” I finally said after a moment of silence.
Lois said nothing for an instant and then giggled.
“What?” I asked her.
“Are you? It sounded like a question,” she pointed out.
I felt myself flush again. “I… I don't know,” I finally said honestly. “I mean, I didn't mean to kiss you. But I don't really feel sorry,” I admitted.
Lois glanced down at the table top for a second before saying softly, “Me neither.”
I wasn't sure if I was supposed to respond to that or not. It wasn't even clear that I would have been able to hear that without my special hearing. She looked up at me a second later though, red, tell-tale circles on her cheeks and it was clear I was supposed to have heard her. “So, what does that mean?” I asked quietly.
Lois shrugged. “I don't know.”
“Do you want to… date or something?” I asked her, then mentally kicked myself in the back of the head. I'm sure I could have made that sound less appealing. If I was a monkey. “Sorry,” I said. “That didn't come out right at all.”
Lois laughed. “No, it didn't.”
“I'm sorry. I'm nervous,” I told her and then inwardly cringed again. I was pretty sure you weren't supposed to say that to a girl.
“Let's get out of here,” Lois said, motioning with her head to the group of guys who were still watching us closely. “I feel like they're waiting for the instant replay.”
I chuckled when we got up, and they all groaned. “I guess you were right,” I said.
We walked outside in silence, and I noticed that we stood further apart than normal. I looked up as we stepped outside. “It's snowing,” I said quietly.
Lois laughed. “Doesn't it snow in Kansas?” she asked me.
I nodded. “But it looks different,” I said. “The little white lights on the trees make it seem… different,” I finished lamely. The trees on campus all had little white Christmas lights up, and it did give the campus a festive feel. While I guess it was unusual, it hadn't snowed at all in December, so this was the first time I had seen snow in Metropolis.
“It is pretty,” Lois said quietly as we continued to walk.
I looked over towards her to ask where she wanted to go to talk, and noticed the snowflakes falling on her. Similar to the lights on the trees, the white snow on her dark hair made a pretty picture. Without thought, I reached out to run my fingers through it. The motion startled Lois, and she stopped walking. “Clark?” she asked quietly.
I stepped toward her and lowered my head. I waited just a second to make sure she wasn't going to push me away before I leaned forward and kissed her again.
A moment later, we both backed away and giggled a little. “So, um…” Lois looked at me with a slight smile. “Are we dating now?”
“If you want,” I said softly and then realizing that I still wasn't really saying the right thing, I added, “I'd like to.”
Lois nodded, “Me, too.” Then shivering a little, she leaned down to take my hand in hers. “Let's go inside. It's cold out here.”
************************
In the end, it took all of five minutes of detective work to discover whether or not there was actually a drug problem at Westside Elementary School, the school where Mr. Dwight worked. I floated above the cloud line above the school and used my x-ray vision. The image of that little boy from the day of the frat party last semester was burned in my memory. It took just a few minutes to find him amid the hundreds of students in Westside.
I guess it was possible that he was the only child in the school doing drugs, but it seemed pretty unlikely to me. So, I floated above the school during the middle of the day on Friday after my classes were over and waited for him to come out. He was with a couple of boys his age. I had determined when I found him that he was a bit older than I had guessed – he was in the third grade, which I thought meant he was about eight or nine.
I followed the boys to a park nearby where they stood around talking. One of them had a basketball, and they took turns shooting it, but it wasn't much of a game. This wasn't that surprising though as they were a bit young to be playing with a normal height hoop, so it was rare that one of them got the ball in.
I was amazed watching them. When I was in elementary school, I went home directly after school unless I had plans with a friend – and then I went directly to their home. The kids in town went home by bus, those of us further out were picked up by our moms. Regardless, no one left Smallville Elementary without an adult of some kind. These kids just left and wandered around Metropolis much the way we walked around Smallville during my senior year of high school. I had to remember to ask Lois if this was what she did after elementary school as well.
I must have watched them for about half an hour before I started thinking of heading back to campus. It didn't look like anything was about to happen. Before I could, though, some older kids showed up and approached the young boys. The new kids were still young, but looked like they could be in high school. Using my special hearing, I listened in on the exchange and heard the older kids teasing the younger ones.
The teasing was a bit crueler in nature than I would have expected, but nothing newsworthy in and of itself. After a few more minutes of listening to them speak, I realized this wasn't what I was waiting for and went back to campus.
************************
“Hi,” I said softly, still feeling shy around Lois in this new role.
“Hi,” she smiled at me. I got the impression my nervousness amused her. At the very least, she didn't seem nearly as nervous as I did.
“You still want to go study somewhere?” I asked her and she nodded. It felt weird to develop some of the same habits with her that I had had with Maddie, but on the other hand, they made sense. We were students – why wouldn't we study together?
“Sure,” Lois grabbed a couple of books. “Do you mind if we go down the hall? Star usually studies in our room with some friends on Tuesdays.”
I shrugged and followed her down the hallway.
“So,” I asked as we sat down. “How's the investigation going?”
Lois' eyes lit up. “Really well. I went down there today and tried talking to some of the workmen. The foremen ran me off before I completely finished, but I got some good information first. It took him awhile to realize why I was there.”
I laughed. “I'm sure it did. A pretty college girl hanging around a construction site probably doesn't conjure up thoughts of reporters.”
Lois blushed. “Well, whatever,” she said.
“Whatever what?” I asked, confused.
She blushed even further. “Whether or not he thought I was pretty,” she clarified.
I shook my head. “Was he blind?” I asked and almost laughed out loud at how red she got.
“He was a foreman,” Lois pointed out. “Seems like he probably had reasonably good eye sight.”
“Did he look really, really old?” I asked with a smile.
“Really old?”
“Like he was from ancient Russia or where ever it was that being heavy was related to attractiveness,” I said.
“What?” Lois asked, looking confused.
“Somewhere,” I said, trying to recall where it was, “the more excess fat you had, the more attractive you were considered. I think it had something to do with wealth. The affluent people had more to eat, so they weighed more. As a result, that was considered attractive.”
“As opposed to now, when everyone can afford food, but wealthy people can afford cooks for low-fat food that tastes good,” Lois said with a smile.
“And personal trainers and gym memberships,” I added.
Lois giggled. “No, he didn't seem that old.”
“Then he thought you were pretty,” I said.
Lois giggled again. “You don't know what he thought, Clark.”
I shook my head. “I can almost guarantee it,” I told her. “Unless he has some really strong aversion to brunettes or something.”
“You're weird,” Lois smiled at me.
“I'm weird?” I asked, not understanding.
“You're so… I don't know,” she said. “You like… you say some of the same things Steve does, but you sound… I guess less like you're trying to get me into bed or something.”
“Steve hit on you?”
“Don't act so surprised,” Lois said. “I have breasts and I'm breathing, right?”
I laughed. “Yeah, I guess I just thought he had decided you guys were off limits.”
Lois laughed. “No, I think we decided we were off limits.”
I shrugged. I had had no idea Steve had hit on the girls. I wondered briefly if he had ever hit on Maddie – if he did, was it while we were dating? Honestly, I wasn't sure I would put it past him. In some ways, Steve was a nice guy, but when it came to girls, all bets were off.
I shook my head. Whether or not he hit on Maddie while we were dating just wasn't that important. Maddie wouldn't have said yes and even if she had, at this point it would be mostly my pride that was hurt. I still cared about Maddie, honestly I was still attracted to Maddie, but when I was with Lois… I guess I just didn't think about it much. Besides, Maddie and I were friends now. Just friends. And I was actually okay with that. More than okay – I was happy about it. It was more than I deserved after the way I had treated her and I was very aware of that.
“So,” I asked her, “what's your next step?”
“What?” Lois asked, looking confused.
“Your next step. On the investigation?” I clarified.
Lois shrugged. “I'm not sure. The information I got wouldn't be enough to be defendable – mainly, it was just a conversation I overheard between two of the workmen. They were saying that they had been given orders to work as fast as possible, the quality of their work wasn't as important as the look of quality. Basically, it sounds like they were told to make it look like they did a good job, but not necessarily to spend the time to do so.”
“Yeah, that's good,” I agreed. “But like you said, it's not exactly admissible in court.”
“But I'm not sure where I would go to get information that was,” Lois said. “Any ideas?”
I started to say no, but then had an idea. “Maybe. Could you try to get hired as an office manager for the foreman or something? Then you could look through the paperwork in his office and see if you could find invoices for the materials. If the invoices are detailed enough you might be able to show that they didn't buy enough material for what they are building.”
“That's a great idea, Clark!” Lois said, smiling at me. “Although, how could I prove that there wasn't more materials purchased that were reflected on another invoice?”
I thought in silence for a few minutes before finally admitting that I wasn't sure.
“Still,” Lois said, “trying to get a part time job working for him is a good idea. Thanks for the help, Clark.”
“No problem,” I smiled at her. “I guess we make a pretty good team.”
Lois leaned over and bumped me with her shoulder. “Don't be getting any ideas. Partnership is not an option right now.”
“What?” I asked. “You're saying you don't want to work on the Planet application story together?”
“And ruin both our chances of getting the internship when Mr. White says he can't tell which one of us is stronger. No, thank you,” Lois said good-naturedly.
“Maybe some day,” I said with a smile.
“For a project later on this semester?” Lois suggested.
“If Professor Halkuff is okay with it, you're on,” I told her.
“So, how about you?” Lois asked me. “Any new info on the elementary school? Or are the students as lily white as the vice principal claimed?”
I started to tell her that I was sure there were students there doing drugs, but then I remembered – Clark Kent had had no previous dealings with that boy. Only the Boy in Black did. I sighed. Did I want to start off this relationship with a secret already? Lois was even less likely to be forgiving about that than Maddie was. Sure, she had let Paul walk all over her, but I presumed she was over that now. I even sort of hoped so. As much as it would be convenient if she was as meek with me, the truth was I wasn't nearly as attracted to that girl.
But what was the other option? I could tell her a version of the truth – I had been out in Metropolis and run into the boys. No need to tell her I was coming back from a flight after one of our fights when I found him. What was my reason for getting involved though? And why hadn't I told her about it before – like when I first mentioned the topic of my article?
Maybe she wouldn't ask those questions? Who was I kidding? This was Lois Lane. Unless she was in her meek, walk-all-over-me mood, which she did not appear to be, she was going to ask those questions.
“Clark?” she prodded me. Oops, time to make a decision.
“Um, no,” I finally said, deciding that I should at least be as honest with her as I could be. Minimizing my lies seemed like a good idea right now. “I haven't gotten any information yet, but I did see a boy there I knew and I know he's done drugs.”
“You know an elementary school kid in Metropolis?” Lois asked, looking like she wasn't sure she believed me.
I shrugged. “Only sort of. I met him on a walk I took around town last semester.”
“And he told you he did drugs?” Lois asked, still sounding suspicious, but less so now.
“Not really. I… he was being bullied by a teenager and I tried to help. It turns out he owed the older kid money for drugs. A lot of money.”
“How old is he?” Lois asked, sounding worried about him.
“About eight or nine, I think,” I told her. “He's in the third grade.”
Lois shook her head. “Were you able to help?”
I shrugged. “Not really. I wasn't about to pay off his debt for him even if I had had that kind of money. But I managed to distract the teenager until we heard sirens near by and he ran away. On the other hand, it's probably foolish of me to think he didn't find the boy again later.”
“How much money did he owe?”
“I don't remember,” I said. “A couple thousand dollars, though. It was a lot.”
Lois shook her head. “It was nice of you to try to help him.”
“He's a kid, Lois. Of course, I would try to help him.”
Lois smiled as she leaned over to place a light kiss on my lips. It was only as she backed away that realization seemed to dawn. “So,” she asked, having no idea how much her question was getting my pulse to race, “how come you hadn't mentioned this earlier? Isn't this what made you consider this story to begin with?”
I took a deep breath as a way to stall. “Yeah,” I admitted.
“So, why the big secret,” Lois asked and I said nothing. This relationship wasn't even going to last a day, was it?
