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Disclaimer: Smallville and all related elements, characters and indicia © Tollin-Robbins Productions and Warner Bros. Television, 2002. All Rights Reserved. All characters and situations—save those created by the authors for use solely on this website—are copyright Tollin-Robbins Productions and Warner Bros. Television. Superman created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Schuster.

Author's Note: As always, thank you to Ev, for her comments and suggestions. She thinks this would make a nice first part for a series. What do you think?

Monday At School
by Debi

Chloe eased the little red car into her usual spot on the far end of the school parking lot and cut the engine. She heard the passenger door open and close, but made no move to get out of the car.

Why is this so hard? she thought. It's just another Monday at school, right? Clark opened the driver's door and waited for her to step out.

Clark.

Clark was exactly why this was not just another Monday at school. None of the other Monday's had followed a weekend full of Clark and sex and sex with Clark!

Her decision Saturday to finally do something about her feelings for him had led to unexpectedly good results and they had spent several hours Saturday in various stages of undress. They had sex, more than once, and Clark had proven to be everything she had fantasized about and more. Beautiful beyond all logic, but so much more thoughtful and caring than guys his age were rumored to be. Not to mention he was blessed with impressive stamina. All in all, it had been the stuff of fantasies.

If their first day together was a fantasy, their second day together was right straight out of a dream. Clark had shown up at her door after his chores, freshly showered, carrying a picnic basket in one hand and a bouquet of Martha Kent's prize-winning flowers in the other. For the second time in as many days, she was rendered speechless. It had to be some kind of a record; Chloe Sullivan was never at a loss for words.

Their picnic under one of the older apple trees in the Kent orchard was sweet and romantic and proved again how thoughtful Clark Kent could be. He had filled the basket with his mother's delicious home cooking, but the large thermos held her favorite Irish Crème coffee from the Beanery. It was insanely petty to be happy he went to the Beanery, instead of Lana's Talon for the coffee, but wasn't every girl allowed a little pettiness when a gorgeous farm boy and his former crush were involved?

At the moment though, they were at school and the real test was about to begin. It was one thing to say he was over Lana when they were alone, but it was another thing to let Lana see them together and effectively close that door. A part of her felt guilty for thinking of this as a test in the first place, testing his feelings for her, but Clark's crush on Lana had gone on far too long to be easily dismissed in her mind.

"Chloe?"

Startled out of her thoughts, she looked up to find Clark still standing by the car door. Hand extended to help her out and looking rather confused by her behavior.

"Something wrong, Chlo?"

"Wrong?" No, she continued in her own mind, why should anything at all be wrong? This will either become the third best day of my life or the single worst. I'll either know I have your heart or you'll break mine into a million sharp little pieces. "Why should anything be wrong?"

"Well, if you sit there too much longer, we'll be late for school and you weren't here all weekend to work on the Torch. You should be in full withdrawal by now and running for the office," he teased, trying to lighten her mood.

"Very funny, Kent." She pouted, as she grabbed her messenger bag and finally got out of the car. Locking it behind her, she brushed past Clark and headed for the school building. Leaving a befuddled Clark Kent standing next to her car.

Clark stood there for a moment trying to decode the erratic behavior. Until he saw Whitney's truck pull into the parking lot and suddenly, it all made sense. Lana. He and Chloe had spent most of the weekend together, but they hadn't gone into town. They were either at his house or hers and only their parents knew that they were a couple now. None of their other friends knew yet and they hadn't been out in public as boyfriend and girlfriend at all. Chloe must be worried about how he was going to react when faced with both of them. A quick glance back at Whitney's truck confirmed that Lana occupied her usual place in the passenger seat. A few of his long-legged strides caught him up with Chloe and he gently put his hands on her shoulders. Forced to stop walking, Chloe took a deep breath and tried to calm her nerves. So far, this had been much harder than she thought it would be and they weren't even in the building, yet!

Clark gently turned her around and before she could say a word, kissed her. She couldn't help but sigh. It was just too wonderful to kiss Clark. He ran his tongue across her lips, silently asking for more. She was happy to oblige. She threaded her fingers through his hair as she sucked on his tongue for a moment before deepening the kiss. All of her fears and frustrations went into that kiss.

Clark wrapped his arms around her waist and pulled her against him. Lost in each other they both forgot they were still in the school parking lot until Whitney's voice broke the moment.

"Damn, Kent!" Whitney sounded surprised.

They pulled apart, both blushing furiously and turned to face an amused, and possibly relieved, Whitney and a stone faced Lana.

"Didn't ever expect this kind of behavior from you two," Whitney teased, earning him a hard swat on the arm from Lana.

Sensing the tension pouring off Chloe in waves, Clark put his arm around her shoulder protectively. He wanted to reassure her that this was where he wanted to be... with her. Lana's eyes followed the movement and she swallowed hard several times before finally speaking.

"So how was your weekend?"

Clark was first to respond. "We had a wonderful weekend. I asked Chloe to go out with me." He glanced at Lana before beaming down at Chloe with one of those blinding Kent smiles. Chloe let out the deep breath she hadn't realized she was holding. The ear to ear grin that bloomed across her face just couldn't be helped.

"Congratulations." And yes, that was definitely relief in Whitney's voice.

"Yes, congratulations," Lana added politely. "Whitney, we're going to be late. We'll see you guys later." She added as she tugged on Whitney's arm.

"Later." Whitney waved and allowed himself to be pulled away.

Once Lana and Whitney were safely out of earshot, Clark turned to Chloe and noted that she was still smiling.

"That went pretty well." He paused, waiting for Chloe to say something. Instead he jumped into his arms and wrapped herself around him in the biggest hug she could manage.

Clark chuckled at her reaction and Chloe wondered what exactly it was about Lana that caused her normally abundant self-confidence to disappear completely. Clark pulled back enough to look her in the eye.

"Feeling better?" he asked gently, but there was a hint of a smug smile playing on his lips as if he knew exactly what was going on in her mind.

Feeling more than a little foolish now, there was no way she was going to feed his ego any more than she already had. She simply unwrapped herself from him and started for the school doors again.

"Come on, Kent. We're late!" she replied over her shoulder.

Clark followed, laughing all the way to the door. Once there, he held the door for Chloe and took her hand as soon as they were both inside. Hand in hand, they headed for her locker first. Pete's locker was close to hers and he saw them coming. He was shaking his head and smiling by the time they got to him.

"It's about time, man!" he said to Clark, hand raised for a high five.

Clark returned the greeting, but felt himself blush as Pete's words sunk in. Obviously, Pete had known about Chloe's feelings, too. How many other people noticed and never said anything? And what did that say about him? Clearly "clueless" was an understatement.

The bell rang and Clark gave Chloe a quick parting kiss, earning a good-natured groan from Pete.

"Aw, man! I don't need to see that... " he whined as Clark and Chloe just laughed.

The day passed quickly and after the last bell rang, Chloe headed for the Torch office. Clark was going to meet her there. Just outside the office door, her heart stopped as Lana's voice drifted out into the hallway. Chloe briefly wondered if there would ever be a time when Lana around Clark didn't make her heart stop.

"So Clark, will you be able to help me at the Talon this weekend? We're getting another big shipment Friday and it was great having you help with the big boxes last time." Chloe swore she could actually hear Lana's eyelashes batting at Clark.

It only took a second for him to answer, but it felt like an hour. "Sorry, Lana, I can't. I'm going to surprise Chloe with a trip to Metropolis Sunday. Lex told me about some really great places to take her and we'll be gone all day."

Out in the hall, Chloe's heart soared. He actually turned Lana down!

"That sounds nice, but what about Saturday?"

"I can't. I wanted to have extra money for Sunday and Mr. Miller needed his house painted, so Dad called him last night and I've got the job. Between that and chores, I'll be busy every day after school and on Saturday in order to get done in time. Can't Whitney help you?"

Chloe knew about painting the Miller's house already. Clark had told her about that this morning on the way to school, but he hadn't told her why he was suddenly taking on extra work. Now she just had to remember to act surprised about Metropolis.

"Whitney?" Lana paused like she had never even thought of asking him for help, but recovered quickly. "Oh, he's busy with the store. Don't worry about it though. I should go. I need to be at the Talon to help Nell with the after school rush."

Chloe ducked into the nearest classroom to avoid running into Lana and waited a few moments before going to the office. Clark saw her as she came through the door and jumped up to meet her with a hug and a kiss.

"There you are! What took you so long?" He kissed her again before grabbing his backpack.

"Oh nothing. Do you have to leave already?"

"Yeah," he said with a hint of sadness, "I have to get my chores done and then head over to the Miller's. Do you have any plans for Sunday?"

"Nope." Chloe prayed her voice didn't sound as eager as she felt.

"Good." He smiled happily. "Don't make any?"

"And why not?" she teased.

"It's a surprise." He waggled his eyebrows and gave her his best mischievous grin. "I've gotta go."

She leaned in for a goodbye kiss. "Call me later?"

"Top of my speed dial," he replied, unable to contain his smile.

A few more lingering kisses before he forced himself to leave. When he was gone, she bit her lip trying to contain the girlish squeal that was threatening to break free. Pete was due any moment and he was going to tease her enough as it was. She didn't want him to hear her squealing like a twelve year old at an N'Sync concert, too.

She sat down at her desk, turned on the computer and sighed happily. She had been so worried about today, but her fears proved unfounded. It had not been just another Monday at school. It had been the best Monday at school... ever. She still felt a little guilty for doubting Clark in the first place, though and promised herself she would make it up to him this weekend. In the very best way...