Normal's Not The Watchword: 4/?
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Part 4: Videotapes and Metahumans
Chloe locked the door to the journalism room, perching on the desk as she dialled Oliver's number. He picked up on the first ring.
"Don't pick up that quickly." Chloe teased. "I might start thinking you like me."
There was silence for a second, before Oliver sighed. "You could be in danger."
Chloe rolled her eyes. "I'm only calling for one reason."
"…because you miss me?"
Chloe snorted. "No, Impulse is worried about someone named Veronica. Apparently, she's been looking into a Bart Allen. He's wondering if Victor will be able to magic up another person."
Oliver groaned. "He won't be happy. He's still writing fake articles by a Moira White, but I'm sure he can create a Bart Allen in his free time."
There was a comfortable pause and Chloe hopped down from her desk, rearranging some paper's for her next class.
"Chloe…" Oliver mentioned, pausing as he heard the bell ring in Neptune High. "I meant it, you know…you need anything, I came back to Star City so if anything happens, call me and I'll be there within two hours."
"Ollie, I have to go." She turned, frowning at the small crowd outside the door. "But remember, you're number 1 on my speed dial."
As Oliver laughed, she hung up. She inhaled, preparing herself for another class, then unlocked the door, frowning as the students filed into the room. She watched them, scowling when almost half of them were taller than her.
*
Another day and Chloe was already thanking the heavens that she herself wasn't really a teacher. She was sure she wouldn't have minded it, had not she been working for a secret team of super heroes for the past year. It had ruined most regular day jobs for her. Letting in the first class, her eyes widened when she saw Logan Echolls walk in and settle by a computer. Veronica was close behind him, running her hand along his back as she passed to a further computer.
Chloe grimaced. "Hi." she greeted. "Any stories this week?" She paused, remembering what back-story Victor had given her. "As long as it doesn't involve any sort of psychopathic clown, I'm sure it's suitable for the student body."
Chloe remembered that that probably wouldn't have stopped her when she was editor of The Torch.
She watched as Veronica frowned at the reference to Gotham, loading up an internet page and quickly typing in the address for the PI website, loading up the search website and typing into it. From what Oliver had said, it didn't seem like Victor was prepared for anyone attempting to search for articles by a Moira White. With a roll of her eyes, Chloe opened her laptop and with a single press of a button, smirking as Veronica cursed as the website crashed.
Logan turned, eyebrows furrowed in concern, but Veronica shrugged. With a quick glance around the room, Logan wheeled his chair to Veronica's side.
"Having problems with Carmen's case?" he whispered.
Veronica shook her head. "No. Beaver's. Yesterday, the website crashed when I was looking into Bart Allen, and when I tried again last night, it turns out he is a sixteen year old boy from Manchester, Alabama. I look today to find some stuff on Ms White and again, it crashes. "
"You sure it's not the website."
Veronica shook her head. "It's only doing this at school, but it used to work just fine. It's like someone's trying to hide stuff from me."
Logan smirked, leaning closer so his breath was fanning her ear. "Veronica." he whispered, smirking when her eyes widened. "It's probably some computer nerd trying to mess with you."
Both their eyes flew open wider as someone cleared their throat behind them.
"Ms White." Logan croaked. "Did you want something?"
Logan and Veronica watched as she arched an eyebrow. "Just wanted to see what you were doing." Chloe stated. "Veronica, I heard you're stand-in editor while Duncan Kane is away." Veronica nodded. "I know it's annoying to have to print articles on bake sales and football games when much more interesting things are going on outside of Neptune High, but come on, at least muster some enthusiasm." They nodded, frowning as she leant closer to them. "If I must, I could assign you two to do an article together. It'll make it a lot easier for you to come up with excuses for meeting up so you don't have to keep your romantic affair in the bathrooms."
With a smirk, she strode back to the desk. Logan gaped after her, but Veronica bit her lip. "Are we that obvious?" she murmured. "I mean, she's been here two days and she already knows about us. How are we supposed to keep it a secret until Duncan comes back?"
With a sigh, Logan pushed away and returned to his computer.
*
Veronica walked away from Tad, wishing that she was able to enjoy him being taped to the flagpole, able to enjoy his 'mutually assured destruction', but all she could think of was Logan having the GHB at Shelley's party.
She sniffed, rubbing her eyes and instead of driving away from school and heading towards Logan and his father's boat, she turned into a computer lab.
"I thought you wanted to meet tomorrow?"
Veronica turned, smiling weakly when she saw Mac in the doorway. "Yeah, well…"
"You needed a favour." Mac finished.
Veronica nodded, wiped her eyes and gave Mac a wobbily smile.
"Veronica, are you okay?" Mac asked, closing the door.
"I'm fine." Veronica said quietly. "The PI network keeps crashing whenever I'm at school, no matter what computer I'm on. Any chance you can find out what's going on?"
Mac nodded, logging on to the nearest computer. As she typed furiously, Veronica looked down, thoughts and blurry memories of Shelley's party playing on a loop in her head.
Logan may have had the GHB, but that mean he had drugged and raped her. Logan probably wasn't the only one with GHB at the party and even if he was, anyone could have found her afterwards. She could definitely remember seeing Logan before she fought her way through the crowd and grabbed the drink.
"Veronica…" she looked up at Mac's tone. "Whatever happened to the PI network was done from Ms White's school-issued computer."
"What?" Veronica said, confused. "Are you sure?"
"Yes. It looks like she got into the school mainframe and stopped you from accessing the site." Mac frowned. "I'm not sure though. I don't know how she did it. This is beyond even my capabilities." Veronica nodded. "I'm sorry, but I have class so…"
Mac left the room and Veronica's head hit the table. She reached for the phone, scrolling down so she was hovering over Logan's name. He was probably on his dad's boat, hunting for beer because she stood him up.
She sighed, attempting to push all thoughts of Logan to the back of her mind, she returned to the hallway, stopping outside the journalism classroom. What was Ms White doing? Was she somehow involved with the Casablancas case?
Breathing in, Veronica glanced into the journalism room, eyes widening when she saw Ms White at her desk, coffee in hand, discussing something with Beaver.
Her eyes widened as Beaver turned slightly and caught her eye. Before she could even blink, the door was closed and she could hear a key turning in the lock. She exhaled, unsure how the door could have closed that quietly that fast.
"Did you hear?" Cassidy asked, watching in amusement as Chloe downed what he knew was her third cup of coffee that day.
Chloe glanced up at him. "About that guy on the flagpole? I guess it's not just Smallville High that likes to tie people to poles."
Cassidy raised an eyebrow. "Okay, you'll be telling me about that later, but no, I was talking about why he was up on the flagpole."
Chloe shook her head. "I think people prefer it if stories never reach the teacher's ears."
"Tad sent out a video of his girlfriend and she's…."
Chloe raised her hands. "I get it!" she exclaimed. "I don't need a play-by-play." Cassidy laughed. "You know, in Smallville, if they weren't crime lords, metahumans or Luthors they tended to be alright."
"Or alien."
Chloe chuckled. "Then again, if you discount metahumans, that over half of Smallville out of the equation." Chloe finished the coffee. "You have study hall now?"
"I've always found it boring." Cassidy answered.
"Look, Impulse, its nice having someone I know to talk to but if you want to keep Veronica away from whatever she's looking for, maybe we should stop these coffee meetings."
Cassidy nodded. "Coffee meetings… if you phrase them like that to Oliver, he's going to kill me."
Chloe raised an eyebrow as he left room, opening her laptop. She grinned. "Time to shut down a certain video."