Thank you, Carol!
From Chapter 37
I chuckled. “Dad, you can't seriously expect this one to end up in the Planet, too.”
“Why not?” Dad asked. “It's just as good a topic.”
“Dad!”
“I'm just saying, Clark, you shouldn't discount the possibility.”
“Okay,” I said, just to humor him. Just then, Lois knocked on my door. “I have to go,” I told my parents.
“Okay. Tell us what happens,” Dad said.
“I will,” I told him as I opened the door. “Talk to you later.”
“Hey,” Lois smiled.
“Hey,” I smiled back. We stood there for a moment, smiling goofily at each other. “So, dinner?”
“Sure,” Lois smiled at me. I leaned down and kissed her before we headed out to the cafeteria.
Chapter 38
“Nice to see you again, Mr. Kent.” Officer Billings smiled at me. My meetings with him on this topic were so different than my meetings with Mr. Dwight, it was almost comical.
“Thanks,” I said, taking a seat in front of his desk.
“So, what can I do for you?” he asked me.
“I went back to the playground a couple of days ago as I needed more evidence for my story,” I explained.
Officer Billings smiled again. “That's good practice for a reporter. And working with the police is also a good idea. What did you find?”
I pulled the pictures out of my pocket, and handed them to him. “I showed these to the vice principal of Westside, but he wasn't interested.”
“What did you expect him to do?” he asked, but his tone was curious, not incredulous the way I had feared it might be.
I shrugged. “I don't know exactly. I just feel like maybe these kids need some education. Maybe if they knew…”
“A class isn't going to change deep-seated behaviors,” Officer Billings said quietly.
“So, you think these kids are lost causes?”
“No,” he said.
“So, what are you going to do?”
“Well, we've already started patrolling that area more heavily based on your earlier pictures. I'll also keep an eye out for these guys in general. If I can keep these pictures, I'd appreciate it,” Officer Billings said.
“Sure. I made copies for you,” I told him.
“But that's not enough for you?” Officer Billings asked me.
“I'd just like…” I trailed off, not sure what to say.
“You're a good kid, Clark,” Officer Billings said. “I have an idea. We can't force the school to start educating the students on the evils of doing drugs, but there are programs that go in and do a one-day seminar. I can give you a list of the ones that have some contact with the police station. If you find one that will be willing to do it at Westside, I can help you talk to the superintendent of Metropolis School District 469.”
“You would?” I asked, surprised he was willing to get that involved.
“It's hardly a bad cause,” he smiled at me.
************************
“How's it going?” Lois asked as I put my tray down next to hers at dinner.
“Good,” I told her. “I have most of my article written. I met with the officer I had met with last week again, and he's going to help me get a seminar or something started there. If I can get that going before the article is due, that would be a great way to end. I still need to call and set that up, though.”
Lois grumbled good-naturedly. “Okay, so you've pretty much not only finished the article, but made the world a better place.”
“Sorry.” I shrugged. “You will, too, once you find the evidence you need this weekend.”
“Well, that might get me a recommendation-winning story, but it won't make the world a better place,” Lois said.
“That's not true,” I pointed out. “If you can get the news out, maybe the buildings will be built to code.”
“Umm… how is a paper turned into Professor Halkuff going to do that?” Lois asked me.
“The same way my paper turned into Professor Matthews has already gotten some changes made at the med school,” I replied.
“Only because your paper ended up in the Planet.”
“And who's to say yours won't?” I challenged her.
“That's never happened before,” Lois said, her hands on hips as she got into the fight. Sometimes, I thought Lois liked to argue for sport.
“And you don't think it will ever happen again?” While generally, I didn't like to argue much, with Lois it was kind of fun.
“It's not likely to.”
“You never know until you try,” I told her. “You don't think I'm a better writer than you are, do you?” I asked with a grin.
“Of course not,” Lois replied, fire in her eyes. “But that doesn't mean…”
“I'm not,” I said softly, knowing that deep down she did fear that I was. “You're a much better writer than I am. I just got lucky.”
“That's not true, Clark. You're really good, and…”
“Maybe we're both really good,” I said, not wanting to argue about this for real.
“Maybe,” Lois said. “I guess we'll find out by who gets the internship.”
“That will only prove who has the better application.”
“Let's make a deal,” Lois said, her voice soft. “I know you're thinking that this recommendation is mine as you got the last one, but…”
“I didn't get the last one,” I reminded her. “Professor Matthews said he and Professor Halkuff decide together with the results of this assignment.”
“Yeah, but come on, Clark, you are a shoo-in right now.”
I nodded. She was right. While I thought I had the possibility of screwing it all up, I had to admit I wasn't stupid enough not to realize that I was in a pretty sweet spot at the moment.
“Okay, let's say I do. What's the deal?”
“For the application… Just don't go easy on me just "cause we're dating,” she replied, her voice earnest.
I had to fight the urge to laugh. “You didn't seriously think I would, did you? I don't imagine you have any intention of doing that for me.”
“No,” Lois said, “but I don't want to have to feel badly about that. I want our friendship or dating relationship or whatever to be completely separate.”
“Agreed,” I said. Then added, “But does this mean we agree not to let the competition effect our relationship? So, if I won, which I doubt I will, but if I do, you won't be so upset we have to break up?”
Lois smiled. “You think we'll still be dating when the results come back?”
“You clearly think we'll still be dating when the process starts,” I shot back.
“The process starts?” Lois asked me. “You haven't started yet?”
“You have?” I asked, surprised and a bit alarmed. “You haven't even finished the paper for Halkuff's class yet.”
“I know, but I can't do much on that until Friday. I've been looking for topics for the Planet internship application for weeks. You need to have a good topic, Clark,” Lois said, her tone bordering on lecturing.
“I know,” I said, hearing a slight whine to my voice. “But I have such trouble with that.”
“That's why you need to start early,” Lois pointed out.
“So, you have a topic picked out?” I asked her.
“No, but I have some ideas.”
“Like what?” I asked. “Or are they a secret?” Lois paused, clearly trying to decide whether or not she could tell me. “I won't steal any of them,” I told her, then wondered if I wanted to hear them. If she had several and I promised not to steal them, that was several ideas I was eliminating. What if I found one of them on my own later? If I didn't know that Lois was considering it, it would still be fair game. Not that it was likely that we'd think of the same thing, but maybe…
“Okay,” she agreed, somewhat reluctantly. “Are you sure you want to know?”
“Yes,” I said. Perhaps it was a stupid move, but I was really curious.
“Well, I have two ideas right now,” she admitted, “but I'm leaning more heavily toward one.”
“What are they?” I prodded her.
“Well, I could write about the Paul thing,” she started.
“So, I'm guessing you're leaning toward the other?” I asked with a laugh.
“Yeah. I also… well, Chris mentioned it to me actually…” she hedged away from mentioning the other idea for some reason.
“Chris, as in Alicia's Chris?” I asked her.
“Yeah,” Lois said. “I had lunch with them last week and Chris mentioned that some of the members of his frat are here on football scholarships…”
“And?” I asked. That wasn't much of a story.
“And they are getting help on tests to keep their grades up,” Lois said.
“What sort of help?” I asked, starting to understand where this was going.
“Like the professors giving them the answers ahead of time.”
“But that's crazy! Not only could the students be expelled, but the teachers could be fired,” I said.
“I know,” Lois said. “With the medical school stuff you uncovered last semester, it's starting to seem like Met U isn't such a great place after all.”
“Great. That's what we want to uncover. Make our college diplomas useless,” I said, and then realized how that sounded. “Not that you shouldn't use that for your application,” I hastened to add. “Just that I'm disappointed at all the corruption around here.”
“Well, if we start now, maybe it will be all cleared up by the time we graduate,” Lois smiled at me.
“It's a great topic, Lois. I can't believe you're even still looking.”
“Well, who knows what else will come up?” she said. “Like you said, I haven't finished the paper for class yet. I figured until I start investigating, there's no reason to be wed to a topic.”
“I guess,” I said, feeling a bit downcast. I couldn't believe she had such great ideas while I had no ideas at all.
“So, I take this to mean you haven't started work on the application,” Lois asked me.
“No,” I replied. “I did spend some time thinking of a topic back at the beginning of the semester, but I couldn't think of anything then, so haven't spent anytime since then.”
“Don't worry, Clark. I'm sure you'll come up with something,” Lois tried to be reassuring.
************************
“Okay,” Lois announced when she called Friday afternoon. “Are you free to come with me tomorrow?”
“Huh?” I asked, somewhat distracted. I had spent the afternoon calling the places Officer Billings gave me, and one of them had agreed to come speak at Westside if we could set it up. I was busy transcribing the information from our phone call so I would have all my notes organized when I called Officer Billings.
“Tomorrow?” Lois repeated. “My job at Suicide Slum?”
“Oh, right,” I said, remembering now. “Yeah. I can come. What time?”
“Nine?” Lois asked.
“Sounds good. I was planning to stop by the police department tomorrow. Do you want to come after you're finished?” I asked her.
“Sure,” Lois replied. “What for?”
“I found someone to give a talk at Westside.”
“That's awesome!” Lois replied, sounding truly happy for me.
“Yeah. I just hope Officer Billings can get Mr. Dwight to agree,” I said.
“Clark, you're a great guy, but I'm guessing a police officer may be more convincing than a college freshman,” Lois pointed out.
I chuckled, “Okay, good point. So, do you want to meet for dinner?”
“Yes,” she said. “An hour?”
“Sounds good. Do you need to work afterwards or do you want to go out?”
“Out?” Lois asked, a teasing note to her voice. “Like on a real date?”
“Something like that,” I smiled at her voice. “I thought maybe we could go off campus for dinner. A guy in my art history class mentioned an Indian place nearby and said there's a really nice coffee house next door that has live music on Fridays and Saturdays.”
“Sounds nice,” Lois said. “I can procrastinate working a little bit.”
“Great. See you in an hour,” I said before hanging up the phone.
************************
“Hurricane Edward is making its way towards Florida. The affluent neighborhood of South Beach is being evacuated, many residents in danger of losing their homes.” The radio being played in the stockroom of the coffee house was loud in my head. It was nearly drowning out the guitarist playing out here.
I glanced at Lois. Not hearing the radio, she was enjoying the musician. She seemed more relaxed than I'd ever seen her. Could I leave to help the people in Florida? Clearly not without Lois noticing. I guess this was my chance to prove I could do it – I could cut down on my Boy in Black activities in order to make my relationship with Lois work. I took a deep breath and blocked out the sound of the radio.
“Having fun?” I asked Lois.
“I am. She's good,” she said, gesturing at the singer on stage.
“Yeah, she is. Ever wish you could play a musical instrument?” I asked, trying to remain focused on the here and now with Lois rather than the guilty feeling in the pit of my stomach as I pictured the people in Florida hurriedly packing up as many of their belongings as they could.
“I can,” Lois replied.
“You can?”
“What? You think you know everything about me?” Lois asked, a glint in her eye.
“I guess not,” I chuckled. “It just surprised me. So what do you play?”
“Piano.”
“Are you any good?” I asked.
“Of course,” Lois replied, looking vaguely offended, but her eyes gave her away. She wasn't really upset.
“Can I hear you?”
“How? Maybe you haven't noticed that Star and I don't have a piano in our dorm room,” Lois pointed out.
“We can reserve a room in the music building one day.”
“And I can give you a private performance?” Lois asked, eyebrows raised.
“That's what I'm hoping for,” I told her, winking. She leaned over and slapped me lightly on the arm. “Seriously though, will you?”
“I guess,” she said, looking a little uncomfortable.
“You don't need to,” I told her.
“I know. Maybe. I guess, let me finish this article first.”
“It's a deal.”
************************
“This is great!” Lois exclaimed as she pulled another piece of paper out of the file cabinet.
“It's all coming together,” I smiled at her in encouragement.
“Yes. I think by the time we leave here today, I'll have enough to write my article.”
“And maybe finish the work you were hired for?” I suggested softly.
“Yeah, that too,” Lois grinned at me.
“Help!” A voice called from somewhere outside. I glanced at Lois, but she hadn't heard it. I guessed it was coming from further away than I had thought. I tried to shut off my super hearing and focus on Lois. “Help!” the voice called again.
I closed my eyes. I could do this. I had managed to not go to Florida last night; I could not help the person this morning, too.
“Someone please help,” the person was now pleading.
I glanced at Lois. She was immersed in the paperwork she was looking through.
“I have to go to the bathroom. I'll be right back,” I told her.
“Mmmm hmmm…” she replied, caught up in what she was doing. Now if only she could stay caught up as long as I was gone.
