Where we left off in part 7“So, Met U has a chess club,” Clark continued. “I like chess, but have never played it competitively. Maybe I will try out for the chess club. Do they turn many people away?”
Lois had to think up what she knew about the Met U chess club. Maybe she should tell Clark that her school was not yet Met U. Part of her thought, <and it will probably never be.> Another part thought, <four years of classes with Clark would be wonderful.> After taking a calming breath she was able to refocus on the issue at hand, what she knew about the Met U chess club.
“They have multiple levels, so that anyone who wants to do chess can find a place to participate within the various levels.” She wasn’t sure, but that was the impression she’d gotten the one or two times she’d talked chess with Met U students. <It won’t matter too much what I say anyway. It’s not like he’ll remember every detail of every conversation we have this weekend.>
“Sounds like I should at least try to make time in my schedule for it,” Clark said, giving her a wink. “Let’s get back to talking about tomorrow. So, will I see you again after we part at the football stadium?”
“Not for a while. I have most of the afternoon off, and will be busy with other things. New Troy state laws require over-time pay when people go over eight hours on the job in one day, so Met U wants to keep my hours per day as low as possible,” Lois said. “Not that spending time with you feels at all like work, but that’s what my boss insists on.”
“So when will I see you again?” Clark asked.
“I’ll be at the football game, which starts at six. You have free time scheduled between four and just before six. They’re giving you food at the game, so don’t worry about dinner. Well, unless you really detest stadium food. We’ll sit together at the stadium, so you’ll get to see if I understand football or not. We can also see each other during the dance.”
“I’d like that,” Clark said with a smile.
Lois bet he would. Probably more than just see her, and she had to admit dancing with him sounded like a good idea as well.
Part 8Lois and Clark walked on in silence for a few minutes. As they came down the corridor, Lois saw her two colleagues in the distance sitting and talking to each other. She glanced over at the gate and saw that the plane from Chicago had been delayed quite a bit. Lois decided it would be best to talk to Clark alone. Her co-workers knew her last name was Lane, a detail she wanted to keep from Clark a little longer. Also, part of her was afraid that Clark would start smiling at the other women the way he was at her.
“Let’s sit over here, so we can talk alone,” Lois said.
“Sounds good. I like talking with you,” Clark said. “You’re so knowledgeable, intelligent, and beautiful. Okay, the last really doesn’t matter that much when we talk.”
<At least, he didn’t put beautiful first. I want to be known, first and foremost, as an intelligent woman, even when undercover. Unless my cover is Suzy Q, who was deliberately ditzy, but Jo isn't ditzy.>
“So what do you think you’ll do with your free time?” she asked, giving him a big smile as they sat down. “Is it all right if I sit this close, so we can hear each other in this din?” she continued as she brought herself to within inches of Clark.
“Are there restrictions on where I can go during my free time?” Clark asked. He glanced away as if he was very embarrassed to be asking this question.
“I’m supposed to say that you should stay on campus,” Lois responded. She looked down while saying it. She knew that if she looked him in the eye, the fact that she didn’t believe it would be too obvious on her face. He’d brought his head up after asking the last question, so she now had to be the one avoiding eye contact.
“You sound non-committal about it,” Clark said.
<Darn, he’s more observant than I expected.>
“Well,” Lois said, as she moved her left hand forward. She stopped short of putting it on Clark’s knee, which the Jo part of her wanted to do. “I read through various policy statements, and merely leaving campus does not bring any penalty.” She instead set her hand on the bench so that her fingertips almost touched his knee.
“So I can leave campus if I want to?” Clark asked, clearing his throat.
Lois was surprised Clark wanted to leave campus. He seemed such a straight arrow. Maybe all football players were bad people as she had determined. On the other hand, maybe he had good intentions for leaving campus.
“Why would you want to do that?” Lois asked, wondering what she would learn. “I mean, I can think of lots of places you might want to go off campus, but I’m curious where you want to go.”
“Well,” Clark began with a telltale pause, “I’m not sure yet, I’m just checking all my options.”
Lois realized Clark didn’t want to tell her more of his plans. <If he won’t tell me where he plans on going, whom would he tell? And how can I arrange to overhear that conversation?>
“So what’s your major?” Clark asked, breaking the silence that developed as Lois had been wrapped in thought.
<Oh no, I have to think fast.> Before she could respond, a familiar voice cut in.
“Jo,” said Emily Oakley, as the blonde-haired girl bounded up to them with her normal exuberance. “It’s so good to see you.” Lois had never been more relieved to be interrupted in her life. “I see you’ve found your man.”
“What?” Lois asked. <Did she just say what I thought she did?>
“You found your recruit,” Emily clarified.
From her smile, Lois knew Emily meant something else. The fact that Emily had implied that Lois might consider the romantic potential of the man she would be hosting at the end of their last conversation meant it was clear to Lois that Emily was referring back to that conversation.
To give herself time to think, Lois motioned Emily to Clark, “This is Clark Kent, the recruit I am working with, as you seem to have already figured out.” Turning now to Clark, she added, “This is Emily Oakley, one of my colleges, whom I mentioned to you earlier.”
“It was all good stuff she said of you,” Clark said, as he extended his hand to shake Emily’s.
Lois couldn’t help noticing how wonderful Clark’s smile looked, or how he’d been able to bring one to Emily’s face as well.
“What are you doing here?” Lois asked Emily, this time able to form a more useful question.
“Coach Targon was getting worried that none of you guys had arrived,” Emily explained. “So he sent us to go and find you.” Lois wondered who the other part of ‘us’ was. A quick glance around the gate area revealed no one else Lois recognized.
“Sylvia and Maria are still waiting for their charges to come in,” Lois said, with a flick of her wrist towards the other hostesses. “So we can’t leave yet.”
Emily turned and hailed a tall, muscular African-American man. “Hey, Juquan dear, why don’t you come over here? We can sit with Jo and Clark. That way you can tell Clark about Coach Targon’s plans for tomorrow’s practice.”
Emily and Juquan sat on the bench opposite Lois and Clark. They kissed as they sat down; something that didn’t surprise Lois considering the Oakleys had only been married three months. The Oakleys also held hands as the four of them talked over various events planned for the next day.
A bit later, Emily said she had to go to the restroom, and Lois decided it would be a good time to go as well. There was a line at the bathroom, so Lois told Emily she would browse the books in the bookshop across the corridor. Instead, she headed back to listen in on the conversation between Clark and Juquan. She stood around the corner from them where they wouldn’t see her. Maybe Clark and Juquan would discuss things while the women were away that would advance her investigation. Part of her couldn’t imagine this happening, based on what she knew about Juquan. On the other hand, she’d not expected to catch Joe kissing Debbie either.
“So, I have a question for you,” Clark was saying.
“What’s that?” Juquan responded.
“I was wondering if you knew how to get to the
Daily Planet Building?” Clark asked.
“Why do you want to go there?” Juquan inquired.
“Well, you see,” Clark said slowly. “One of my reasons for coming to Metropolis, at least initially, was to meet my favorite writer, the reporter Lois Lane,” Clark said.
<What?
I’m his favorite writer. Why’s that?>
“Lois Lane, never heard of her,” Juquan said, with a shrug. “But I do know where the Daily Planet Building is. It’s just three blocks west of Met U’s stadium down Hilton Street. You can’t miss it with the huge globe in front.”
“Okay, thanks for your directions,” Clark said.
“What’s your plan though?” Juquan asked. “Do you have an appointment to meet with Lane, or are you just going to walk in?”
<Good questions. He can’t meet me, though. Not after I’ve introduced myself as Jo. He’ll know immediately I’m undercover, especially if he’s read enough of my stuff for me to be his favorite writer. He’s sure to recognize me right away and ask questions I don’t want to answer. Unless… I did just wash the long, brown, drab dress that Daddy bought me. Clark would never recognize me in that potato sack after seeing me in this suit. Especially since it was designed to hide my curves.>
“Oh no, I don’t have an appointment. I figure I’ll just wander into the Daily Planet and try to meet up with her,” Clark said. “Did you know she’s still in high school?”
“Oh wait, was she the one who did the article on sororities?” Juquan said, with growing interest. “I have a friend at MUT, who says the guys there were disturbed when they heard a high schooler had infiltrated the sorority party scene there.”
“Yes, that was her,” Clark said. “Her second best article yet, after her investigation of the Police Department and their handling of underage drinking charges.”
“Emily really liked the Sorority article,” Juquan said, his voice softening as he mentioned his wife. “She thought it was a good exposure of what sororities are like. Some of her friends from freshman year snubbed her in favor of sorority connections, and she’s disliked sororities ever since. I was on my mission in Brazil at the time, but Emily told me all about it in her letters.”
Lois was glad to hear her work was being noticed.
“So, when did you start dating Emily?” Clark asked.
“Well, I first met her at a New Year’s Eve Dance when she was a senior in high school, and I was about to leave on my mission, and she offered to be my pen pal.” Juquan said. “I really appreciated her writing me since my family was not very supportive of my mission. I converted to Mormonism when I was eighteen, and my family was generally opposed to it. Emily and I didn’t start dating until I’d been back from my mission for six months, though. I figured that if I asked her out it might ruin our friendship. I was pretty sure she would say yes to a date, but I was afraid it would change our relationship and then things would go bad. The first date with her was so wonderful, I realized my thinking had been totally flawed up until then. I haven’t wanted to go on a date with anyone else since.”
“Emily mentioned she’s from Utah, how did you end up meeting her at a dance when she was in high school? Were you in Utah?” Clark said.
“No, her family moved to Metropolis when she was 15,” Juquan explained. “They moved to the Upper West Side from Salt Lake City’s East Bench. Her Dad is CFO for a Fortune 500 company. He’d been running their operations for five states out of Salt Lake City before he got moved up to headquarters in Metropolis.”
“So have your different backgrounds been problematic?” Clark asked. “I wonder, because I feel like my background is different from most of the girls here at Met U.”
“I wouldn’t say problematic, and we have much in common with our shared religion,” Juquan responded. “Still, it has required adjustment and understanding on both sides. There are very large differences to be sure. I’m from Bakerline, which is consistently ranked in the top ten of poorest and most crime-ridden places in the United States. I can count on both hands the number of kids who were in my graduating class who have been to college, and we graduated 250. It would have been more if there had not been so many who dropped out. I was raised by a single mother, well, at least after my dad was killed in a drive-by shooting when I was two. My mom’s older brother was a linguistics professor at Met U, and he helped out, but it was still tough at times. Emily grew up with both parents in a family of eight children. She started high school at one of the top rated schools in Utah, and is a graduate of Louisa May Alcott High School, one of Metropolis’s three top rated high schools. I went to Ralph Bunche High School, which when I was there had the lowest graduation rate in Metropolis. Things have improved some over the last few years, but it still has lots of problems.”
Lois saw Emily out of the corner of her eye at this point, so headed into the bookshop to avoid being caught spying. On returning to the group a few minutes later, Lois realized she felt a lot more positive towards Clark knowing he rated her as his favorite writer. Such overly positive feelings needed to be squelched, though, so she could focus on her investigation.
--
With Juquan and Emily joining the others in the van, there were now eight passengers and it was a little crowded. Clark had to admit that he didn’t mind at all when he and Jo were pushed so close together. Nor did he mind that in the interest of more space, he had taken off his suit jacket, and so now, his bare right arm was rubbing against Jo’s bare left arm. Clark tried thinking about how exciting writing to Lois would be as a counter to the sensations of touching Jo’s arm, but it wasn’t doing very much to keep his mind away from how attractive Jo was.
As the van barely inched out of the Airport, coming to a stop for the fourth time before they had even traveled a mile, he realized that Jo was right that going six miles in Metropolis would take a lot more time than it did in Smallville. Clark didn’t mind since the conversation he was having with Jo was interesting. The fact that their arms were rubbing against each other in the close quarters of the van was not a bad condition either.
“Clark,” Jo said about half an hour later. “See that building over there?”
“Yes,” Clark said, following her hand, that she had thrust in front of his body to point out the window. “What is it?”
“It’s intended to be Metropolis’s next new attraction, the Lexor,” Jo said. “On the lower floors it’s going to be a high-end shopping mall, while on the top floors it will be a hotel. Luthor claims it will be the classiest hotel in the world when it’s finished.”
Clark could tell from her tone that Jo thought many of Luthor’s claims were rubbish. He wasn’t surprised based on what she had said about Luthor earlier.
“Interesting,” said Clark. “It looks like it’s completed to me.”
“That’s because he’s not having a new building built; he’s just converting an old office building,” Jo said. “As part of his being a ‘generous benefactor’ to Met U, Luthor has promised to give every graduate of Met U a discount for a one-night stay in the Lexor after it opens. Well, at least he’s in the process of working it out. He’s still pushing for a tax write-off for the discounts, based on if every graduate took the discount. The Federal government wants to give him no write-offs, since it doesn’t really fall under charitable giving.”
“The idea has caught the fancy of some Met U students,” Juquan, who was sitting directly behind Clark, cut in with a chuckle. “Emily originally wanted to wait until it opened for us to marry, so we could stay in the honeymoon suite there. Luckily, I convinced her that waiting that long was not a good idea.”
“In my defense,” Emily said. “That was before I worked out the finances for us to get married while still in college. Also, the Lexor was originally supposed to open last May. Its completion was delayed due to going over budget.”
Clark was trying to keep his mind from thinking of how much he would like to be at the Lexor with Jo under similar circumstances. He needed to get his mind onto something else.
“Jo, you seem to dislike Luthor, is there any particular reason for that?” Clark asked.
“Well, other than the fact that he got rich in part by under paying his employees, he just seems too slick,” Lois responded. “He also has an annoying habit of trying to use his money to force others into compliance with his vision for the world.”
“I’ll remember to shop at David Ross’s drug store exclusively from now on then,” Clark said. “I wouldn’t want to support Luthor at all.” He felt that this conversation was getting a little serious though, so he decided to add in a lighter question. “Can we see the
Daily Planet Building from here?”
“Not from here,” Jo responded. “In a few blocks it will come into view off to our left. I’ll point it out to you when it does. If you look at the exact right time, you might even catch a glimpse of the globe over its entrance.”
--
At dinner, Lois and Clark again sat across from each other, each by one of the Oakleys. The food was just as good as Lois remembered it being. If she did actually go through with attending Met U, an idea that seemed better the more time she spent around Clark, maybe her first article for the Scroll could be an in-depth study of why Met U’s cafeteria had such high quality food.
As the meal progressed, Lois decided to take advantage of having Juquan there to advance her other investigation. The one that Perry had sort of assigned her as a long-term project, without clearly assigning it at all.
“Juquan,” Lois said, turning a little towards him. “I just learned that your uncle, Professor Whitecotton, died in a bridge collapse. Was it ever determined what caused the accident?”
“Yes,” Juquan responded, with seriousness in his voice. “Ned Norquist had just used a blow torch to cut the bridge’s supports. Norquist was operating under direction from Ted Ashman. Ashman died before any police officer could find him, in a way that reflects the work of the Boss. However, that was only a week before Clemmons was elected, so no work has been done on it.”
“Sounds like something a resourceful investigative reporter should dig into,” Clark said.
“You’d have to be really persistent, though,” Juquan said with a frown. “The trail has probably gotten cold over the last several years.”
--
The next morning, Clark awoke at 5:45 AM, so he figured he could go over to the gym. Juquan had pointed it out to them last night, as it was only a little ways from the dorms.
The “dorm” where he and the other potential recruits (besides Juquan) were staying was actually a three-bedroom apartment. After Jo and her fellow hostesses had said goodbye to them in the living room the previous night, the recruits had divvied themselves up two to each bedroom.
Even though Emily had cut off his question to Jo, Clark was beginning to think he knew what her major was. It seemed most of the other recruits were matched with hostesses in their intended majors. The odd thing was that each other potential recruit had had their hostess tell him her major as the first detail in the introductions they had. Why had Jo neglected to lead with this detail as the other hostesses had?
Clark put on a pair of his basketball shorts, and a loose workout shirt and headed over to the gym. It was empty this early in the morning, so he found himself thinking about Lois and Jo a lot, while he worked out. He found he was looking forward more to seeing Jo again than going to meet Lois. He hoped he would get to dance with Jo this evening, but he feared she would bring a date to the dance. He just found it hard to believe a college girl as good looking at Jo wouldn’t be dating someone.
When Clark made it back to the dorm, he noticed that the other recruits hadn’t stirred yet. None of them had meetings as early as he and Jo did with Professor Manheim. He went to his room and grabbed a towel to take into the shower, tossing his workout shirt onto his bed. As he was about to enter the bathroom, he heard a knock on the door.
End of part 8
