A huge thanks to Carol – hoping she's enjoying her kids-free vacation!

From Chapter 17

“My cousin is coming for a visit. He has some sort of conference in Metropolis to attend and he's arriving on Sunday. I'm supposed to go to dinner with him, and I was hoping you'd come with me.”

“Sure,” I said. “Is there anything I should know?”

“Not really,” Maddie shrugged. “I just… I don't get along that well with him, so I prefer to have someone I like with me.”

I smiled. “Well, I'm glad to be someone you like.”

She swatted at my arm. “Now, go,” she told me. “I'm sure you want to call your parents.”

I leaned down to give her a quick kiss on the lips before following her advice… or sort of. I went to see them instead.


Chapter 18

I felt moderately uncomfortable as I stood in the elevator of the Daily Planet building. When I'd gone home last night, I'd picked up my one and only suit. It was at least a year old and didn't fit quite right, but there was no time to get another one. Mom had taken one good look at me and declared that we needed to go shopping before my formal interview for the application process and perhaps buy a couple of suits for the internship this summer.

It was nice that she was so sure I was going to get the internship. I had to admit, in the quiet moments just before I fell asleep, I felt that way, too. It couldn't be a bad thing to have something Mr. White was considering printing in the Planet before I even applied. Even most interns didn't get to write anything that would get them printed.

When I was awake, though, I was less sure. I worried that after this, it would be even harder for me to impress Perry White. Plus, Mom didn't know my competition like I did. Lois was almost certainly not joking when she said yesterday that she was going to start looking for a topic for the application process now.

Now that I thought of it, I guess that meant I should be, too.

The elevators arrived at the newsroom floor with a ding and I stepped out of the elevator. Luckily I knew enough to know that the weird feeling in my stomach wouldn't materialize into anything. I didn't completely understand it, but I felt nauseous when I was nervous, even though I hadn't actually thrown up since I was a kid. I had to admit, though, standing at the top of the ramp leading into the newsroom, I wondered if today would be the first time.

“What are you looking for, kid?” a man asked me as he passed.

“I… I have an appointment with Perry White,” I finally managed to say despite my overly dry throat.

“He's in his office,” the man said, pointing to an office on the side of the newsroom.

“Thank you,” I said as I followed the direction he had pointed in.

I took a deep breath before I knocked and tried hard to remember the advice Mom and Dad gave me the previous night. I imagine a lot of it was typical advice to give your child before a meeting like this: Remember to say thank you. Send a thank you letter afterwards. Be polite. Remember you are there because you deserve to be. That kind of thing.

But they also gave me other advice that was probably less normal: Remember when you knock on his door to watch your strength. You don't want to break it. Same thing when you shake his hand. If things go well, concentrate on feeling heavy so you don't float. Try not to get too startled and let off a bit of heat vision. There's bound to be lots of paper around a newsroom and you don't want to start a fire.

To be fair, these were things that I had a tendency to forget when I was nervous. I had gotten a job working for the Smallville Press in high school, and I broke the editor's door on my way out. As for the fire thing, I wore glasses to prevent that, but occasionally my glasses slipped and… Well, when I got into Met U, I had found my parents in the barn and ended up lighting up a bale of hay. So, while I wished I didn't need those words of advice, the truth was that I did.

Particularly, as Dad pointed out, today. It would be a big thing to screw up and let out my secret. It would take that mistake to another level to do it in front of the editor of the world's greatest newspaper. I'd probably be on the front page before I even made it back to campus.

“Come in,” came the gruff reply from the other side of the door.

I opened the door cautiously, already wishing I knew better what was going to happen. My conversation with Mr. White had been brief yesterday and had not left me feeling prepared for meeting the man himself today.

“Mr. White?” I asked as I entered his office. “I'm Clark Kent.”

He nodded at me. “Perfect, Clark. You're right on time,” he said, smiling. While he was just over average height, he had a little bit of extra weight on his middle. He had the look of someone who was going prematurely bald, although he still had most of his brown hair. When I had first come in, something about the look on his face had made him seem very imposing despite his size, but when he smiled, he seemed different. Fatherly almost.

He extended his hand to me and remembering Dad's words from the previous night, I took his hand firmly, but tried not to use too much strength. “Take a seat, son,” he told me, and I followed his advice.

I wanted to glance around his office. There was paper everywhere and it had the look of orderly mess. But I was afraid it would be rude to look around in awe.

“As I said on the phone, Clark, that was excellent writing,” Mr. White said.

“Thank you, Mr. White,” I said, afraid I wasn't going to be able to think of anything else to say for the entire meeting.

“And the investigative piece was quite impressive for a freshman in college,” he said, but this time he fixed me with a stare that made me uncomfortable. Why was he looking at me like that?

“Thank you,” I said again, and I could hear the slight tremor to my voice.

“Are you're sure you did that investigation all on your own?” he asked me.

“Yes, sir,” I told him, straining to keep my voice steady.

“Explain what you did, son,” Mr. White said and now his voice was gentler. I wasn't sure if that meant he believed me or just wanted me to feel at ease, although given the question, I worried it was the latter.

“I told the head of the medical school that I was thinking of becoming premed and wanted to sit in on a couple of classes. He let me attend two lectures and spend a couple of hours following some of the older students around during rotations,” I told him, still trying to keep my voice steady.

“I interviewed a few students - two girls that I had heard talking on campus – they were the ones who alerted me to the story in the first place, and then another couple of students – two girls and one guy – afterwards.

“I also checked records for the doctor who the girls mentioned had been let go for not pushing the girls to the back during her rounds and I checked placement statistics for Met U students compared to other schools and particularly for Met General where I thought they were more likely to know that the female students weren't as well prepared.” I took a deep breath, not sure I had breathed at all during that speech.

“Oh,” I added at the last minute, “and I called a friend of mine who is pre-med at Midwest University to make sure it wasn't normal to systematically favor some students over another. He's also a freshman, so he didn't know, but he'd been able to sit in some classes before and had friends who had done rounds.”

Mr. White had nodded along with my monologue, and smiled at me when I finished. “Well, it sounds like a very thorough job, son. I'm very impressed. I'd like to see the statistics you collected. And I'm going to get some of my best reporters to work on getting some more data.

“Norcross and Judd have interviews scheduled for this afternoon with some of the professors and doctors who teach at the medical school as well as the dean himself. They'll be adding their findings to your article.”

I felt my eyes get big. “So, you're really going to print it?” I asked.

Mr. White smiled again, “If everything checks out, son, this will be on page two or three of the paper. My expectation, depending on how much they need to rewrite, is that Norcross and Judd's names will appear before yours, but you will be on the byline.”

I almost forgot Mom's advice and started to float, but at the last minute, I realized it and grabbed the chair to stay grounded.

“Thank you, Mr. White!” I said again, this time sounding more excited than I suspected I was supposed to.

“No need to thank me. This was excellent work. I'll introduce you to Norcross and Judd and we can go from there.”

I nodded and followed him out to the newsroom.

“One more thing, son,” Perry said as we exited his office. “While this is excellent work and it is highly unusual to have something published in the Planet at your age, I want to reiterate what I told you yesterday. This does not guarantee the internship spot. In fact, Professor Matthews shared with me another article by a classmate of yours, and that, too, was very strong work.”

I smiled. “Lois',” I half mumbled to myself, but not quietly enough.

Mr. White smiled. “Yes, Lois Lane was her name. She's going to give you a run for your money, son.”

I chuckled. “I don't doubt it,” I said in reply and Mr. White laughed in response.

“Come on. I'll introduce you to Norcross and Judd.”

************************

I could hear the sound of a girl's voice coming from my room even before I got to my floor. Did Steve have a girl in there? I could see that, but I certainly hoped not. I wasn't really in the mood to be kicked out tonight. I was still feeling a little overwhelmed from my visit to the Daily Planet. Plus, as ridiculous as it was, it was my first time taking the subway in Metropolis. If I hadn't been going to the Planet, that would have been an activity in itself.

As I got closer, I realized I could hear another girl in there as well. Did he have two girls in there? I prayed if he did they were just talking. So far, Steve had shown no proclivities towards that sort of behavior, but it wasn't exactly out of the realm of possibilities. He did seem like the sort of guy who would be open to that. I was tempted to use my vision thing to look and see, but was a little worried about what I might find if I did.

As I got closer, though, I could see there was no sock on the door. Thank goodness!

In fact, when I opened the door, I realized the girls I had heard were there for me. Maddie and Lois were sitting side by side on my bed.

“So?” Maddie asked me as I closed the door.

“How did it go?” Lois followed her when I didn't respond right away.

I smiled. I had to admit, I was continually amazed at how happy Lois seemed to be for me. None of the overt competitiveness that had been present when I first met her was displayed now. While I'm sure she was serious when she told me she was jealous, she also seemed sincerely happy for me.

“He mentioned you,” I said to her now.

“He did?” she asked, and I could see her eyes light up.

I nodded. “Apparently, Professor Matthews showed him your article. He said he thought you were going to give me a run for my money.”

“That's great, Lois,” Maddie said.

Lois flushed and looked at the floor, but I could tell I had just made her day.

“So, are you going to tell us what it was like?” Maddie pressed.

“Weird,” I said as I finally put my bag down and started untying my tie. “He seemed… stern sometimes and fatherly the next.”

“What did he say about your story?” Lois asked.

“He's assigned it to two reporters there. Norcross and Judd.”

“Norcross and Judd?” Lois interrupted. “Clark, they are the Planet's star reporters. That's amazing.”

I grinned, “I thought that might be the case, but I couldn't tell. Anyway, I left them the statistics I had found and they have some interviews they are going to do and then if it all pans out, they'll use my story as an outline but beef it up. Mr. White said their names will be before mine on the article, but he expects me to be on the byline.”

“I can't believe you're going to have a byline in the Daily Planet,” Lois said.

“I can't believe you're going to be the first freshman ever to be allowed on the Titan staff for legitimate ability and you're going to be on the front page,” I countered.

“I'd trade you in an instant,” Lois said.

“Really?” I asked, giving her a meaningful look. We hadn't talked about it, but I imagined Lois was pretty excited to be working with Paul.

She blushed. “Well, maybe not.”

“That's what I thought,” I said.

“Well, it sounds like you're both shoe-ins for the recommendations,” Maddie said.

“I hope so,” Lois said. “But we don't know about anyone else.”

“Josh said he got an A- on the assignment,” Maddie said. “So, he did pretty well, but Professor Matthews didn't say anything to him about the recommendation.”

I shrugged. It wouldn't pay to get overly confident now. We still had a long way to go.

************************

We walked across campus wordlessly. I wanted to say something, anything, to break the silence, but I wasn't sure what to say. What if I had imagined it all?

Dinner with Maddie's cousin wasn't what I expected at all. First off, I hadn't realized that he wasn't a first cousin. He was her dad's cousin, and so he was older than us. Maybe in his mid-thirties. Not that this was a big deal, I was just expecting someone our age. Although, given that he was in town for a conference, I guess I should have known better.

Also, there was something about him. I couldn't pinpoint what it was, but almost instantly, I knew I didn't like him. He seemed too… slick somehow. Again, I probably shouldn't have been surprised. Maddie had said they didn't get along. I just had thought it must be something minor. I mean, she was seeing him anyway.

The other thing that hit me almost immediately after meeting him was how much different Maddie was around him. She could have been a completely different person. She got quiet and shy and barely said two words during dinner. I'd seen her quiet before and sometimes it was just because she was stressed, but this was different. I could feel the uneasiness coming off of her in waves, and she was so tense, I could actually see that her shoulders were held higher than normal.

Despite all of this, I probably could have brushed it all off and at least not disliked Dave. I mean, he did take us to a pretty nice restaurant - although Maddie hadn't told him I was coming apparently, and he didn't seem at all pleased to be paying for a third person – not that he would let me pay for myself. Besides, later I wasn't sure it was the paying for my dinner that had bothered him.

I know it was very weird, but I actually felt like… well, like he wanted to be alone with Maddie and he felt like I was intruding.

I mean, I must have been imagining it, right?

Except that in the middle of dinner, Maddie had gone to the bathroom, and Dave even mentioned that Maddie was one of his favorite cousins and wasn't it funny that given they weren't first cousins, they could marry if they wanted to? I personally didn't see the humor in it at all, and I doubted there was any “wanting to” from Maddie's side, but I didn't want to say so.

Still, maybe it would be a bit weird to be attracted to your cousin – your much younger cousin, but again, I probably could have brushed it off. Particularly since the comment was weird, but was hardly an admission of attraction.

What I could not brush off, though, was the way he watched Maddie. I felt like his eyes almost never left her. He watched her steadily through dinner, enough that conversation was stilted since Maddie wasn't talking and it was hard for me to talk to him when I couldn't drag his eyes away from her.

He even watched her when she got up to go to the bathroom until she was out of sight. And even then, his eyes seemed to scan the restaurant, almost waiting until she was in sight again.

And then there was the way he watched her. It was almost… I couldn't describe it really, except to say that when I looked at Dave watching Maddie, I felt like… almost like he owned her or something. Or at least thought he did.

I sighed again. I was still trying to tamp down the thought that had been playing around my head half the night. I had to be wrong. It couldn't be what I thought.

But what if it was? What if that was why Maddie had been so upset recently? Although she said that was a fight with her dad. Could this have been why they were fighting? Maybe her dad didn't know?

I wanted to ask her, make sure she was okay, but how did I do that? I mean, what if I was wrong? It would be embarrassing for both of us.

I chanced a slight glance at Maddie's face as we walked into her room, but she was just as closed off as before. Her shoulders were only slightly less tight now than when her cousin was around.

Watching her, my anxiety increased. More than that, my suspicions seemed somewhat less ludicrous.

“Mad,” I said quietly.

She jumped at the sound of my voice and then gave a small laugh. “Sorry, I guess I'm on edge.”

I nodded. “Yeah, I noticed. I wondered why.”

“It's nothing, Clark. Don't worry about it,” she said, avoiding my eyes.

“Your cousin, Dave. Why don't you get along?” I asked her as I sat on the edge of her bed.

She shrugged from her vantage point in front of her desk. It bothered me a little that she was keeping herself so closed off. Why was she standing over there rather than sitting next to me like normal? “Why? Did you like him?” she asked, the casual tone to her voice sounding forced.

“Not really,” I said. She said nothing in response so I finally took a deep breath and added, “Mainly as I didn't like the way he looked at you. I felt like…” I stopped and sighed again as Maddie looked down at the floor in a way that would have caused a fire if I had done it. “Maddie, has he ever… I don't know how to ask this,” I admitted. “But I felt like… Has Dave ever done something your cousin shouldn't do?” I finally asked in a rush.

Even with her head down, I could see the tear fall to the floor from her cheek. A beat passed before she nodded her head, just slightly, and quickly, before more tears fell. I immediately got up and wrapped her in my arms as tightly as I could without hurting her.