luminare91 (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
luminare91) wrote2011-02-13 01:09 pm
luminare91) wrote2011-02-13 01:09 pm
Entry tags:
Twist of Fate 3/?
Title: Twist of Fate
Summary: Oliver finds himself at Smallville High where he meets Chloe and discovers the world of Meta-humans. But will his newfound happiness be threatened by the presence of an old enemy?
Rating: PG-13 (Mostly for mild language and violence in later chapters. I don't see it going any further, but if it does, the rating will change accordingly.)
Warning: This is mostly AU. I plan to work in as much from the series as I can, but the timeline is completely mine and character ages have been changed as I see fit. Oliver's only a year older than Chloe in this. She already knows about Clark's powers. And Lois is living with Chloe.
Relationships: Chlollie, Clois (just a teen tiny bit)
Previous Chapters: Chapter 1, Chapter 2
Author's Note: Thank you so much to![[info]](https://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif?v=1)
552158 for the awesome banner. And thank you again to all the people who commented. It makes me feel all warm and fuzzy :)
Chapter 3
Chloe sat in the Talon, examining the pictures from the football game. The freshman she’d convinced to be photographer had done a decent job. Normally, she would have just gotten Lois to do it, but her cousin had gone to Metropolis to spend the weekend with her dad while he was on leave.
The last picture was a crowd shot, obviously taken after a Smallville High touchdown. Everyone was standing. Except for two people right in the middle of the image. Chloe rolled her eyes at the sight of Oliver, making out with a red-headed senior she knew to be on the gymnastics team. In the two weeks since she’d met him, Oliver had done an excellent job of proving the tabloids right. Every time she saw him, he was wrapped up in a girl. Sometimes the same one, sometimes not. She’d really wanted to give him the benefit of the doubt.
She was reaching for her coffee when a voice sounded from behind her.
“If I didn’t know better, I’d say you were stalking me.”
Startled, Chloe almost knocked over her mug and managed to spill half of it in the process. When she was sure it was steady, she turned to glare at the owner of the voice.
“Don’t you know that it’s dangerous to sneak up on someone with hot liquid in their hands?” she snapped.
Before he could answer, she turned her back on him and grabbed a napkin to mop up the coffee that had sloshed across the table before it ruined the pictures. She almost whimpered at the sight of the wasted coffee.
Oliver stared at the back of her head. That was not the reaction he’d been expecting. It wasn’t as though he’d been attempting to startle her. What the hell had he done to make her dislike him so much? Seeing what she was doing, he grabbed a couple of napkins and helped blot up the quickly cooling brown liquid. She made a move to swat his hands out of the way, but he dodged her easily enough. He gathered up a few papers that were dangerously close to the spilt coffee and set them on one of the empty chairs that surrounded the table. It was only then that he noticed how pale her skin was and the bags
under her eyes.
“Are you all right?” he asked abruptly, trying to inconspicuously get a look at her face.
Chloe gathered up the wet napkins. “Fine,” she mumbled as she stood to walk to the nearest trashcan.
Before she could move a step, Oliver was blocking her path. She glowered at him. He ignored her and took the napkins from her hands, balling them up tightly, and expertly tossing them into trash.
“You don’t look fine,” he said, gazing at her. She looked half dead, but he wasn’t about to say that out loud. No reason to make her dislike him even more than she already did.
“I’m a little tired,” she admitted, “but I’m fine.” Nothing like have to track down the maniac who stole your best friend’s spaceship and is keeping your other best friend hostage until he reveals who the ship belongs to. That’s just the makings of a good night’s sleep.
Oliver raised an eyebrow, obviously disbelieving. “You look exhausted.”
“Nothing a little coffee can’t fix,” Chloe said with as much energy as she could muster. She caught the eye of one of the baristas and gestured toward her empty cup. The girl nodded and Chloe turned back to Oliver. “Sorry I snapped,” she went on briskly. “You just startled me.”
She immediately sat back down, picked up a rough draft of her article and a red pen, and went to work. Oliver knew that she was nonverbally telling him to go away, but he wasn’t about to give up so easily. Had it been anyone else he probably would have taken the hint and walked away. But, for the past two weeks he’d been playing the part of the playboy, mostly to prove to Lex that he didn’t have as much power at Smallville High as he thought, but also to get his mind off of Chloe Sullivan. He hadn’t stopped thinking about her since that day. He had the strangest feeling that somehow she’d seen past his defenses for just a second. The thought that he might have somehow offended her bothered him more than he liked to admit.
What is it with this girl? he asked himself.
Keeping his eyes fixed on her, Oliver lowered himself into the chair beside her. Her hand tensed ever so slightly on the pen she was holding, but she didn’t look up or speak at all. Oliver smirked to himself.
So she’s not so oblivious as she pretends to be, he thought. Well two can play that game.
When the barista came over with Chloe’s refill, Oliver ordered a coffee for himself. Once the girl left, after casting a suspicious glance toward him, he turned his gaze back to Chloe, looking away only briefly to thank the barista when she returned with his order a few minutes later.
They sat like that for almost ten minutes. Occasionally, Chloe would reach out for her coffee and take a quick sip before turning back to her papers. She always carefully made sure to avoid eye contact with him. Oliver could see the tension in her shoulders. More than once she marked the paper so hard that he was surprised she didn’t poke a hole in it. Her forehead was creased in concentration that was partly the result of how hard she was trying to ignore him.
Then, to his surprise, the tension began to melt away. Her shoulders relaxed and the furrow that had appeared across her forehead slowly disappeared. At first he thought that she was warming up to him. But when she shifted in her chair so that she was no longer facing him and frowned at the paper in her hands, Oliver realized that she had managed to completely forget his presence.
That’s a first, he thought.
He leaned forward and broke the silence. “Have I done something to offend you?”
At the sound of his voice. Chloe started. Her pen jolted across the paper, leaving a long red mark across the black words. Oliver suppressed a sigh. This was going to be harder than he thought.
“What?” she asked, sounding slightly dazed.
Oliver leaned forward. “Have I done something to offend you?” he repeated.
Heat flooded to her cheeks. Dropping her papers back to the table, Chloe turned to face him. She chewed her lip nervously for a moment before answering. How was she supposed to explain what had kept her up the past few days? It wasn’t like she could tell him that Stephen Hamilton had discovered the key to Clark’s space ship. It wasn’t like she could tell him that he’d managed to trace it to the Ross’s after Clark had moved it to their shed for safe keeping. It wasn’t like she could tell him that Pete had been taken when Hamilton tried to steal the ship. And she definitely couldn’t tell him that she’d been up for forty-eight hours because she’d spent the night trying to figure out where Hamilton might have been keeping Pete and then freaking out until Clark returned with their friend and his ship in tow. No, she couldn’t tell him any of that. So she settled for what she could tell him.
“I’ve been stressed out the last few days,” she said carefully. “I’m just tired and this issue of the Torch is giving me some trouble. I really didn’t mean to snap.”
For a long moment, Oliver just looked at her. He could tell she was dancing around the finer details of what had her stressed out and he didn’t blame her. They didn’t know each other well enough for her to confide in him. But he was still slightly surprised that she hadn’t understood his meaning.
Cocking his head slightly, he said, “That’s not what I meant.”
Chloe frowned. Confusion was plain on her face. “Then what did you mean?”
“The day we met,” Oliver said slowly, “I got the impression that I insulted you somehow. You practically ran away from me once the bell rang.”
It took her a moment to realize what he was talking about. When she did, her hand flew to her mouth. “Oh my god,” Chloe gasped sheepishly. “Oh my...no. God no. You didn’t offend me at all.” Her cheeks burned red in embarrassment. For once she was at a loss for words. Here she’d thought that she’d offended him and he was worrying that he’d offended her.
It was Oliver’s turn to be confused. “Then what happened?”
“Well,” Chloe said, biting her lip again. “You got all quiet after I asked why you moved here and you kinda seemed to zone out. I thought it was a sore subject and that you resented the fact that I brought it up. I know I have a tendency to stick my nose where it doesn’t belong, and I figured that was exactly what happened. So instead of hanging around and making things worse, I left.”
She trailed off lamely, feeling like a complete idiot. Finding her way into embarrassing situations was definitely her superpower. Matters weren’t helped much by the fact that Oliver was staring at her, mouth hanging open slightly.
“So let me get this straight,” he said, shifting in his chair so that he was sitting upright. “We both spent the past two weeks thinking we insulted each other when we didn’t?”
Chloe nodded. “Yeah.”
Silence stretched between them for a moment. Chloe eyed Oliver cautiously, unsure of what exactly was going to happen given their revelations. She half expected him to get up and leave now that he knew his reputation as a charmer hadn’t taken a hit.
After all, she thought miserably, what would he want with a nosy reporter?
Her crush on Clark may have been a thing of the past, but that didn’t change the fact that her love life was absolutely nonexistent. Guys saw her as a friend if they saw her at all. And guys like Oliver, the cute, popular ones, tended to ignore her. She’d been in high school for three years and every chose either leggy, loud-mouthed Lois, or ethereal Lana. It was simply the way of the world and she’d come to, grudgingly, accept it.
Oliver, completely oblivious to the internal battle she was waging with herself, smiled broadly. “I guess that means we can start over and actually be friends.”
Chloe’s mouth almost literally fell open. As it was, she managed to convey her astonishment by merely raising her eyebrows and leaning back in her chair. She floundered for words for a moment--how did he do that, by the way--before simply saying, “Really?”
“Why not?” Oliver asked, his grin become wider.
“No offense, but I don’t seem like your type.”
She regretted the words the moment they came out of her mouth. His smile slipped slightly and a guarded look appeared in his eyes.
“You’ve been reading the tabloids,” he said flatly.
“No I have no...well, yes actually I have, but that’s not the point.” She crossed her arms indignantly. She was a real reporter, not some gossip mongering wannabe. “I didn’t believe those rags anyway. Besides, it doesn’t take a genius to notice all the girls you’ve been with since you got here and this,” she shoved the picture she’d been looking at when he first arrived toward him, “is proof enough of that, don’t you think?”
Oliver stared at the image. She must not have been the one to take the picture otherwise she’d have known that his date had planted one on him without warning and the second after the flash he’d been disentangling himself. He couldn’t explain it, but the thought that Chloe would think so little of him, would dig into his life like that, was painful.
When he made no attempt to answer, she went on. “For the record, the only reason I looked you up in the first place was because I recognized your name, but I couldn’t remember why. I wasn’t trying to find dirt on you or anything.”
That last sentence jolted Oliver out of his reverie and suddenly everything she’d said hit home. He sighed and pushed the picture away. Looking up, he caught her eye. “Now I’ve really have offended you, haven’t I?” he asked softly. She opened her mouth to say something, but her overrode her. He needed to get this out. “Unfortunately, having people digging into my life and making assumptions is part of being me. I don’t like it, but I live with it. I hate it when what the tabloids say influences the way people see me.”
“And I played into the stereotype,” Chloe realized. “Well that’s not what I meant to do, if it helps.”
“It does,” Oliver said, smiling a little, before quickly changing the subject in an attempt to ease the tension. “So what exactly are you working on here? It looks like you have enough information for a research paper.”
She laughed, appreciating the change of direction. “Practically. I’m writing an article about how this year’s football team measures up to the teams of the past. I have stats on some of Smallville’s glory years and stats on some of the years that should definitely be forgotten.”
“And how’s this year shaping up so far?” he asked.
“Not bad. Based on what I can figure, it’s really too early to tell. But since the team’s finally gotten settled, we’ve been doing pretty well, so there’s still a chance this year won’t be embarrassing,” she finished with a cheeky grin.
Oliver nodded. “You know, you don’t strike me as the sports type.”
“I’m not,” she assured him. “But my best friend is on the team and in a small town like this, football is practically sacred. If I don’t write about it, I get f--”
“CUZ!”
Chloe winced and dropped her forehead to her hand. “Can I just apologize in advance?” she asked weakly.
“For what?” Oliver asked in confusion.
She pointed at Lois, who was bustling across the crowded cafe. “For her.”
Lois glared at Oliver as she approached. Her hands settled on her hips and he had the feeling that lesser men would have quailed under gaze. “Well if it isn’t the jolly green giant,”
she snapped. “Still stepping on the little people?”
“Lois!” Chloe hissed.
“You do realize that you ran into me, right?” Oliver pointed out.
“That is so not true!” Lois scoffed.
Chloe glared at her cousin. “Be nice, Lois. I’m sure that whatever happened, it was an accident. There’s no reason for name calling.”
Lois snorted. “Whatever, cuz. You’re dad’s cooking chile tonight.”
Chloe blanched. “Pizza or dinner at the Kent’s?”
“Pizza, definitely.” Lois frowned. “I’m not going anywhere near Smallville until he comes crawling back admitting how charming I am. I need five bucks so we can split the pizza.”
Sighing tiredly, Chloe dug the appropriate bills out of her pocket and handed them to her cousin. Lois beamed. “Thanks cuz! See ya at dinner.”
And just like that she was gone.
Chloe slumped back in her chair, rubbing her hands over her face. “Well, at least you survived hurricane Lois relatively intact. Believe me when I say a horrible nickname is the least of your worries where she concerned. I don’t know what happened the other day, but knowing Lois, you may want to watch your back.”
“That was your cousin?” Oliver asked, raising an eyebrow.
She nodded in embarrassment. “Unfortunately she was absent the day they passed out tact in pre-school and she got a lot more of the Lane genes than I did. The General taught her that whole “take no prisoners” thing way to well.”
He laughed. “I can tell. She certainly is abrasive.”
“That’s putting it lightly,” Chloe said ruefully. “Let me know if she’s bothering you and I’ll try to tell her to back off. I’m not saying it’ll work, but I may be able to talk her out of her crazier schemes.”
Oliver was just about to ask what kind of schemes Lois could come up with, when his phone buzzed. He pulled it out and read the angry text message from his guardian. What had he done this time?”
Standing, he smiled contritely. “I have to go. Do you think we could hang out some time?”
Taken by surprise, Chloe nodded. “Sure.” She grabbed a piece of paper and scrawled down her number. “Call me whenever. Or stop by the Torch.”
“Thanks.” Oliver pocketed the number and smiled before leaving the shop.
Chloe watched him until he was out of sight.
There goes one guy I definitely do not understand. I really hope Lois didn’t offend him too much.
She stayed at the Talon for another hour or so, before gathering up her papers. Getting one last coffee to go, she headed out the door. She had just gotten home when she felt her phone vibrate. The number listed on the screen was unfamiliar. Frowning, she flipped open the phone and read the message.
Looking forward to seeing you soon.
O
Chloe was grinning when she walked into the room she shared with Lois. Her cousin looked at her closely, a sly smirk spreading across her features.
“What’s his name?” Lois demanded.
“What?”
“The guy’s that’s got you all googlely-eyed!”
Chloe grimaced. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
The doorbell rang, signaling the arrival of the pizza. Lois rose to get it, smiling knowingly. “Sure you don’t, cuz. Sure you don’t.”
Author's Note: So in case you can't tell, canon's gone to hell the hard way, or maybe's the my way. Well whichever. Just to be clear. Chloe is a Junior. Anything from the show is fair game. I'll use it as I see fit depending on what I'm saying, regardless of where it's supposed to be in the timeline. Coming up in the next chapter: Oliver is introduced to the world of the meteor infected.
Chapter 4
Summary: Oliver finds himself at Smallville High where he meets Chloe and discovers the world of Meta-humans. But will his newfound happiness be threatened by the presence of an old enemy?
Rating: PG-13 (Mostly for mild language and violence in later chapters. I don't see it going any further, but if it does, the rating will change accordingly.)
Warning: This is mostly AU. I plan to work in as much from the series as I can, but the timeline is completely mine and character ages have been changed as I see fit. Oliver's only a year older than Chloe in this. She already knows about Clark's powers. And Lois is living with Chloe.
Relationships: Chlollie, Clois (just a teen tiny bit)
Previous Chapters: Chapter 1, Chapter 2
Author's Note: Thank you so much to
552158 for the awesome banner. And thank you again to all the people who commented. It makes me feel all warm and fuzzy :)Chapter 3
Chloe sat in the Talon, examining the pictures from the football game. The freshman she’d convinced to be photographer had done a decent job. Normally, she would have just gotten Lois to do it, but her cousin had gone to Metropolis to spend the weekend with her dad while he was on leave.
The last picture was a crowd shot, obviously taken after a Smallville High touchdown. Everyone was standing. Except for two people right in the middle of the image. Chloe rolled her eyes at the sight of Oliver, making out with a red-headed senior she knew to be on the gymnastics team. In the two weeks since she’d met him, Oliver had done an excellent job of proving the tabloids right. Every time she saw him, he was wrapped up in a girl. Sometimes the same one, sometimes not. She’d really wanted to give him the benefit of the doubt.
She was reaching for her coffee when a voice sounded from behind her.
“If I didn’t know better, I’d say you were stalking me.”
Startled, Chloe almost knocked over her mug and managed to spill half of it in the process. When she was sure it was steady, she turned to glare at the owner of the voice.
“Don’t you know that it’s dangerous to sneak up on someone with hot liquid in their hands?” she snapped.
Before he could answer, she turned her back on him and grabbed a napkin to mop up the coffee that had sloshed across the table before it ruined the pictures. She almost whimpered at the sight of the wasted coffee.
Oliver stared at the back of her head. That was not the reaction he’d been expecting. It wasn’t as though he’d been attempting to startle her. What the hell had he done to make her dislike him so much? Seeing what she was doing, he grabbed a couple of napkins and helped blot up the quickly cooling brown liquid. She made a move to swat his hands out of the way, but he dodged her easily enough. He gathered up a few papers that were dangerously close to the spilt coffee and set them on one of the empty chairs that surrounded the table. It was only then that he noticed how pale her skin was and the bags
under her eyes.
“Are you all right?” he asked abruptly, trying to inconspicuously get a look at her face.
Chloe gathered up the wet napkins. “Fine,” she mumbled as she stood to walk to the nearest trashcan.
Before she could move a step, Oliver was blocking her path. She glowered at him. He ignored her and took the napkins from her hands, balling them up tightly, and expertly tossing them into trash.
“You don’t look fine,” he said, gazing at her. She looked half dead, but he wasn’t about to say that out loud. No reason to make her dislike him even more than she already did.
“I’m a little tired,” she admitted, “but I’m fine.” Nothing like have to track down the maniac who stole your best friend’s spaceship and is keeping your other best friend hostage until he reveals who the ship belongs to. That’s just the makings of a good night’s sleep.
Oliver raised an eyebrow, obviously disbelieving. “You look exhausted.”
“Nothing a little coffee can’t fix,” Chloe said with as much energy as she could muster. She caught the eye of one of the baristas and gestured toward her empty cup. The girl nodded and Chloe turned back to Oliver. “Sorry I snapped,” she went on briskly. “You just startled me.”
She immediately sat back down, picked up a rough draft of her article and a red pen, and went to work. Oliver knew that she was nonverbally telling him to go away, but he wasn’t about to give up so easily. Had it been anyone else he probably would have taken the hint and walked away. But, for the past two weeks he’d been playing the part of the playboy, mostly to prove to Lex that he didn’t have as much power at Smallville High as he thought, but also to get his mind off of Chloe Sullivan. He hadn’t stopped thinking about her since that day. He had the strangest feeling that somehow she’d seen past his defenses for just a second. The thought that he might have somehow offended her bothered him more than he liked to admit.
What is it with this girl? he asked himself.
Keeping his eyes fixed on her, Oliver lowered himself into the chair beside her. Her hand tensed ever so slightly on the pen she was holding, but she didn’t look up or speak at all. Oliver smirked to himself.
So she’s not so oblivious as she pretends to be, he thought. Well two can play that game.
When the barista came over with Chloe’s refill, Oliver ordered a coffee for himself. Once the girl left, after casting a suspicious glance toward him, he turned his gaze back to Chloe, looking away only briefly to thank the barista when she returned with his order a few minutes later.
They sat like that for almost ten minutes. Occasionally, Chloe would reach out for her coffee and take a quick sip before turning back to her papers. She always carefully made sure to avoid eye contact with him. Oliver could see the tension in her shoulders. More than once she marked the paper so hard that he was surprised she didn’t poke a hole in it. Her forehead was creased in concentration that was partly the result of how hard she was trying to ignore him.
Then, to his surprise, the tension began to melt away. Her shoulders relaxed and the furrow that had appeared across her forehead slowly disappeared. At first he thought that she was warming up to him. But when she shifted in her chair so that she was no longer facing him and frowned at the paper in her hands, Oliver realized that she had managed to completely forget his presence.
That’s a first, he thought.
He leaned forward and broke the silence. “Have I done something to offend you?”
At the sound of his voice. Chloe started. Her pen jolted across the paper, leaving a long red mark across the black words. Oliver suppressed a sigh. This was going to be harder than he thought.
“What?” she asked, sounding slightly dazed.
Oliver leaned forward. “Have I done something to offend you?” he repeated.
Heat flooded to her cheeks. Dropping her papers back to the table, Chloe turned to face him. She chewed her lip nervously for a moment before answering. How was she supposed to explain what had kept her up the past few days? It wasn’t like she could tell him that Stephen Hamilton had discovered the key to Clark’s space ship. It wasn’t like she could tell him that he’d managed to trace it to the Ross’s after Clark had moved it to their shed for safe keeping. It wasn’t like she could tell him that Pete had been taken when Hamilton tried to steal the ship. And she definitely couldn’t tell him that she’d been up for forty-eight hours because she’d spent the night trying to figure out where Hamilton might have been keeping Pete and then freaking out until Clark returned with their friend and his ship in tow. No, she couldn’t tell him any of that. So she settled for what she could tell him.
“I’ve been stressed out the last few days,” she said carefully. “I’m just tired and this issue of the Torch is giving me some trouble. I really didn’t mean to snap.”
For a long moment, Oliver just looked at her. He could tell she was dancing around the finer details of what had her stressed out and he didn’t blame her. They didn’t know each other well enough for her to confide in him. But he was still slightly surprised that she hadn’t understood his meaning.
Cocking his head slightly, he said, “That’s not what I meant.”
Chloe frowned. Confusion was plain on her face. “Then what did you mean?”
“The day we met,” Oliver said slowly, “I got the impression that I insulted you somehow. You practically ran away from me once the bell rang.”
It took her a moment to realize what he was talking about. When she did, her hand flew to her mouth. “Oh my god,” Chloe gasped sheepishly. “Oh my...no. God no. You didn’t offend me at all.” Her cheeks burned red in embarrassment. For once she was at a loss for words. Here she’d thought that she’d offended him and he was worrying that he’d offended her.
It was Oliver’s turn to be confused. “Then what happened?”
“Well,” Chloe said, biting her lip again. “You got all quiet after I asked why you moved here and you kinda seemed to zone out. I thought it was a sore subject and that you resented the fact that I brought it up. I know I have a tendency to stick my nose where it doesn’t belong, and I figured that was exactly what happened. So instead of hanging around and making things worse, I left.”
She trailed off lamely, feeling like a complete idiot. Finding her way into embarrassing situations was definitely her superpower. Matters weren’t helped much by the fact that Oliver was staring at her, mouth hanging open slightly.
“So let me get this straight,” he said, shifting in his chair so that he was sitting upright. “We both spent the past two weeks thinking we insulted each other when we didn’t?”
Chloe nodded. “Yeah.”
Silence stretched between them for a moment. Chloe eyed Oliver cautiously, unsure of what exactly was going to happen given their revelations. She half expected him to get up and leave now that he knew his reputation as a charmer hadn’t taken a hit.
After all, she thought miserably, what would he want with a nosy reporter?
Her crush on Clark may have been a thing of the past, but that didn’t change the fact that her love life was absolutely nonexistent. Guys saw her as a friend if they saw her at all. And guys like Oliver, the cute, popular ones, tended to ignore her. She’d been in high school for three years and every chose either leggy, loud-mouthed Lois, or ethereal Lana. It was simply the way of the world and she’d come to, grudgingly, accept it.
Oliver, completely oblivious to the internal battle she was waging with herself, smiled broadly. “I guess that means we can start over and actually be friends.”
Chloe’s mouth almost literally fell open. As it was, she managed to convey her astonishment by merely raising her eyebrows and leaning back in her chair. She floundered for words for a moment--how did he do that, by the way--before simply saying, “Really?”
“Why not?” Oliver asked, his grin become wider.
“No offense, but I don’t seem like your type.”
She regretted the words the moment they came out of her mouth. His smile slipped slightly and a guarded look appeared in his eyes.
“You’ve been reading the tabloids,” he said flatly.
“No I have no...well, yes actually I have, but that’s not the point.” She crossed her arms indignantly. She was a real reporter, not some gossip mongering wannabe. “I didn’t believe those rags anyway. Besides, it doesn’t take a genius to notice all the girls you’ve been with since you got here and this,” she shoved the picture she’d been looking at when he first arrived toward him, “is proof enough of that, don’t you think?”
Oliver stared at the image. She must not have been the one to take the picture otherwise she’d have known that his date had planted one on him without warning and the second after the flash he’d been disentangling himself. He couldn’t explain it, but the thought that Chloe would think so little of him, would dig into his life like that, was painful.
When he made no attempt to answer, she went on. “For the record, the only reason I looked you up in the first place was because I recognized your name, but I couldn’t remember why. I wasn’t trying to find dirt on you or anything.”
That last sentence jolted Oliver out of his reverie and suddenly everything she’d said hit home. He sighed and pushed the picture away. Looking up, he caught her eye. “Now I’ve really have offended you, haven’t I?” he asked softly. She opened her mouth to say something, but her overrode her. He needed to get this out. “Unfortunately, having people digging into my life and making assumptions is part of being me. I don’t like it, but I live with it. I hate it when what the tabloids say influences the way people see me.”
“And I played into the stereotype,” Chloe realized. “Well that’s not what I meant to do, if it helps.”
“It does,” Oliver said, smiling a little, before quickly changing the subject in an attempt to ease the tension. “So what exactly are you working on here? It looks like you have enough information for a research paper.”
She laughed, appreciating the change of direction. “Practically. I’m writing an article about how this year’s football team measures up to the teams of the past. I have stats on some of Smallville’s glory years and stats on some of the years that should definitely be forgotten.”
“And how’s this year shaping up so far?” he asked.
“Not bad. Based on what I can figure, it’s really too early to tell. But since the team’s finally gotten settled, we’ve been doing pretty well, so there’s still a chance this year won’t be embarrassing,” she finished with a cheeky grin.
Oliver nodded. “You know, you don’t strike me as the sports type.”
“I’m not,” she assured him. “But my best friend is on the team and in a small town like this, football is practically sacred. If I don’t write about it, I get f--”
“CUZ!”
Chloe winced and dropped her forehead to her hand. “Can I just apologize in advance?” she asked weakly.
“For what?” Oliver asked in confusion.
She pointed at Lois, who was bustling across the crowded cafe. “For her.”
Lois glared at Oliver as she approached. Her hands settled on her hips and he had the feeling that lesser men would have quailed under gaze. “Well if it isn’t the jolly green giant,”
she snapped. “Still stepping on the little people?”
“Lois!” Chloe hissed.
“You do realize that you ran into me, right?” Oliver pointed out.
“That is so not true!” Lois scoffed.
Chloe glared at her cousin. “Be nice, Lois. I’m sure that whatever happened, it was an accident. There’s no reason for name calling.”
Lois snorted. “Whatever, cuz. You’re dad’s cooking chile tonight.”
Chloe blanched. “Pizza or dinner at the Kent’s?”
“Pizza, definitely.” Lois frowned. “I’m not going anywhere near Smallville until he comes crawling back admitting how charming I am. I need five bucks so we can split the pizza.”
Sighing tiredly, Chloe dug the appropriate bills out of her pocket and handed them to her cousin. Lois beamed. “Thanks cuz! See ya at dinner.”
And just like that she was gone.
Chloe slumped back in her chair, rubbing her hands over her face. “Well, at least you survived hurricane Lois relatively intact. Believe me when I say a horrible nickname is the least of your worries where she concerned. I don’t know what happened the other day, but knowing Lois, you may want to watch your back.”
“That was your cousin?” Oliver asked, raising an eyebrow.
She nodded in embarrassment. “Unfortunately she was absent the day they passed out tact in pre-school and she got a lot more of the Lane genes than I did. The General taught her that whole “take no prisoners” thing way to well.”
He laughed. “I can tell. She certainly is abrasive.”
“That’s putting it lightly,” Chloe said ruefully. “Let me know if she’s bothering you and I’ll try to tell her to back off. I’m not saying it’ll work, but I may be able to talk her out of her crazier schemes.”
Oliver was just about to ask what kind of schemes Lois could come up with, when his phone buzzed. He pulled it out and read the angry text message from his guardian. What had he done this time?”
Standing, he smiled contritely. “I have to go. Do you think we could hang out some time?”
Taken by surprise, Chloe nodded. “Sure.” She grabbed a piece of paper and scrawled down her number. “Call me whenever. Or stop by the Torch.”
“Thanks.” Oliver pocketed the number and smiled before leaving the shop.
Chloe watched him until he was out of sight.
There goes one guy I definitely do not understand. I really hope Lois didn’t offend him too much.
She stayed at the Talon for another hour or so, before gathering up her papers. Getting one last coffee to go, she headed out the door. She had just gotten home when she felt her phone vibrate. The number listed on the screen was unfamiliar. Frowning, she flipped open the phone and read the message.
Looking forward to seeing you soon.
O
Chloe was grinning when she walked into the room she shared with Lois. Her cousin looked at her closely, a sly smirk spreading across her features.
“What’s his name?” Lois demanded.
“What?”
“The guy’s that’s got you all googlely-eyed!”
Chloe grimaced. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
The doorbell rang, signaling the arrival of the pizza. Lois rose to get it, smiling knowingly. “Sure you don’t, cuz. Sure you don’t.”
Author's Note: So in case you can't tell, canon's gone to hell the hard way, or maybe's the my way. Well whichever. Just to be clear. Chloe is a Junior. Anything from the show is fair game. I'll use it as I see fit depending on what I'm saying, regardless of where it's supposed to be in the timeline. Coming up in the next chapter: Oliver is introduced to the world of the meteor infected.
Chapter 4
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Any please post more soon!!!
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"But when she shifted in her chair so that she was no longer facing him and frowned at the paper in her hands, Oliver realized that she had managed to completely forget his presence.
That’s a first, he thought."
And I found it so adorable when Ollie texted her and LOL @ Lois, love her curiosity on Chloe's behaviour hehehe
Awesome update can't wait to read more :D
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That text was my way of working in a little of the arrogant, playboy Oliver. Chloe pretty much kills it in him, but I couldn't resist.
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I love hurricane Lois and I love how Chloe and Olivers friendship is slowly developing, cant wait to read more..;D
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