Sneaking into the boy’s locker room wasn’t like her at all. Lois didn’t even go to parties, much less wander around looking through jockstraps and dirty underwear. Still, if she was going to uncover the dirty laundry she was looking for, she didn’t have a choice.
If Lou would show her how to pick locks like he’d promised, she’d have been able to slip into the school at night, without risking being caught. As it was, her only option had been to wait until the football team was doing early morning practice and slip in and hope for the best.
Lois took a deep breath. The entire team was out in the field practicing and she’d seen the coach and assistant coach out there was well. It was now or never; the last thing she wanted to do was wait until a player got hurt practicing and came back to the locker room.
She took one last look around and she slipped inside. She was immediately overwhelmed by the intense smells of dirty socks, sweat and urine.
She’d thought the girl’s locker rooms were bad; at least there the combined smells of dozens of perfumes, lotions and deodorant covered up any possible other odors. It was so strong that it often gave Lois a headache, but it wasn’t nearly as offensive as this was.
Tightening her lips, Lois stepped inside. If she didn’t need the Daily planet internship she wouldn’t be here now. Given the smell, the only place worse would be a sewage plant.
She slipped her hands into her purse, where she found her camera, one of the few items that she had in there. Getting caught in the boy’s locker room would ruin her reputation, little as there was of it. Getting caught in the boy’s locker room with a camera would put an entirely different spin on the rumors, the kind of spin that might get her kicked out of school.
Holding her breath as long as she could, she was glad to see that the design of the boys’ bathroom was almost a mirror image of the girls’ although it had fewer stalls and instead of the standalone urinals Lois would have expected, there was a ten foot long trough. She wondered for a moment how that would work, then shuddered. Unlike the girl’s restroom, the boy’s stalls didn’t have doors.
Apparently no one was expected to stay any longer than they absolutely had to.
The coach’s office, luckily enough was in the same position, and they hadn’t locked the doors. The blinds were down, so Lois checked the door, hoping it wasn’t locked.
It wasn’t; she’d banked on coach being too lazy to carry his keys in his sweatpants and she was right. She slipped inside, knowing that she wasn’t going to be as lucky with the filing cabinets. However, she suspected that he’d be lazy enough to hide his keys just out of sight.
Five long minutes later she found them, stuffed into an old boot. She grimaced as she fished the large ring of keys out and made a mental note to wash her hands at least ten times. There was a daunting number of keys on the ring; at least thirty. Time was slipping away, and she scowled.
Another five minutes later she’d found the keys to the filing cabinets.
She flipped through the first set of files; there didn’t look to be anything out of place. The second was the same and Lois felt her heart begin to sink. She’d been so sure; she’d banked a lot on being able to prove what she thought.
The third set of files was different. She flipped through them and felt a growing sense of excitement. The school was changing athlete’s grades so that they’d be eligible to play under the new no pass-no play rules. New Troy had been the second state to adopt the rules after Texas, and the coaches weren’t happy about it.
She began clicking her camera.
Although she was already persona non grata among the other students, this was going to derail the winning Metropolis High Lions. Going to Ireland for the exchange program in the spring would be the only thing that would keep her high school future from becoming a living hell.
Of course, the Daily Planet internship would secure her real future.
**************
Lois stepped out of the coach’s office, carefully pulling the door shut behind her. She wasn’t out yet; she still had to get out of the locker room without being caught, most importantly with her camera.
She froze as she realized that she could hear the sounds of running water. At least one of the showers was running. She felt her heart racing. If there was one player there could be others.
Moving carefully, she rehearsed her excuses; she’d gotten lost wouldn’t work; the smell alone would have told her where she was if the trough urinal didn’t. If she blamed other girls for locking her in the boy’s bathroom, she’d be asked to name the conspirators.
Altogether it was best if she got away without being caught. She couldn’t think of any good reason to be here.
The sounds of water shut off and as Lois approached the door she’d come through she could hear the sounds of voices approaching. She scowled again, wishing that she’d dared to start earlier. She’d been afraid to start too early for fear that she’d be found by stragglers.
The door she’d come through had led outside; if this locker room was like the girls’ she had to head for the other door leading into the school. She risked being caught by someone in the halls, but she didn’t see that she had any other choice.
She turned a corner and slammed into what felt like a wall of flesh. The floor was slick and wet and she fell backward; before she could hit the wet floor she felt her arm being grabbed.
A muscular chest and arms, a towel wrapped around slender hips, it took Lois a moment to recognize the face. It was Mark, or Park or something…Kent. He hadn’t made much of an impression on her in class, but she couldn’t help but stare now.
He he’d caught her with one arm, and his other had a gym bag.
Lois felt frozen, unable to speak. A moment later his towel fell and she found herself completing the fall to the floor.
***************
Staring at herself in the mirror, Lois realized she was still as red as a beet. Worse, the back of her pants were wet and she’d been caught.
What had he been doing there? He wasn’t part of the football team, although given what she’d seen of his body he should have been. Now that she didn’t have bare skin staring her in the face, she could remember. It was Clark Kent.
As far as Lois could tell, he looked like any of the other shaggy haired stoner kids, but he didn’t hang around any of the stoners. He walked with a slouch and wore clothes that were oversized; Lois had never realized that he’d had any muscle definition at all, much less been built like one of the bodybuilders.
He wasn’t one of the popular kids either; he didn’t really seem to fit into any of the groups. He sat alone at lunch in the cafeteria and she’d never seen him around with any of the other kids. He obviously wasn’t one of the rich kids; he only had a few t-shirts that he wore over and over, although as far as she could tell they were always clean.
Blending into the woodwork was supposed to be Lois’s specialty, but Clark Kent was better at it than Lois had ever been. He was quiet and he didn’t make waves.
There wasn’t anything she could do about Clark Kent. If he told the coach, it wouldn’t be long before the hunt began. At least she’d managed to get the camera out. She’d hidden it so that if they went through her car and locker nobody would be able to find it.
She’d just have to lie and deny everything. Kent was the only one who had seen her and he didn’t have many friends. If he tried something, she’d show him just how vicious the Lanes could be.
************
It didn’t make sense. Lois had been waiting all morning, expecting a call over the loudspeaker or a heavy hand on her shoulder. She’d watched carefully for hidden glances, or people laughing as they looked at her.
Other than her wet pants, which had caused her friends to make a few snide comments in the morning, she hadn’t seen any sign that anyone was interested in her at all.
It was hard for her to image that Kent wouldn’t have told someone. Surely he wasn’t that much of a social pariah that he didn’t have at least one friend to tell. In high school, once you told one friend, it wasn’t long until the entire school knew.
The day dragged on interminably as Lois waited and waited for the hammer to drop. It never did.
The class she shared with Kent was the last of the day. Of course it would be; this would be the place where he would humiliate her, his chance to climb the social ladder by pushing her down.
Lois sat in her seat, tense, waiting.
He stepped into the room, and looking more carefully, she could see hints of the well-muscled form she’d seen in the locker room. He moved carefully, slouching almost as though he was trying to be unnoticed. He didn’t look at anyone and he moved to sit in his seat.
It was as though he didn’t notice her at all. He didn’t even glance in her direction. Lois waited for the inevitable, but it never came.
He didn’t even look at her once.
As the last bell of the day rang, Lois sat in her seat watching as he got up quickly and slouched his way out of the room. It didn’t make sense and it gnawed at her.
If there was anything that Lois hated it was unanswered questions, and the more she thought about Clark Kent, the more questions that she had.
