The Bittersweet Ballad of Pete Ross ~Chapter Four~
Title: The Bittersweet Ballad of Pete Ross
Author: The Satyr Icon
Rating: PG-13
Spoilers: Set in Icon AU; Freshman Year
Classification: Smallville; Chloe/Clark; Pete Ross; het_fic
Disclaimer: All characters, references, and other things pertaining to 'Smallville' are property of the WB, DC Comics, Tollin-Robins, Al Gough & MilesMillar, and J. Siegal & J. Shuster; I am just writing for fun, and if I owned them, all would be good and clean in the World.
Summary: Pete and Clark go camping, but why is Chloe coming along? and why does that infuriate Pete?
Word Count: 46,164
Written: Start: Plot: December 2004 Actually Writing: July 2006 Finished: August 2007
Chapter Three
http://the-satyr-icon.livejournal.com/67723.html
~The Bittersweet Ballad of Pete Ross~
~CHAPTER FOUR~
A few minutes earlier, several miles away, Clark was in his house, sitting on a stool at the kitchen nook, a tall glass of milk in his hand, looking forlorn. He had just told his parents that Chloe want to go on the trip.
"I mean, she just butted into the conversation Pete and I were having, and, at the end of it, she invited herself," the teen said with some exasperation, if not the whole truth; he conveniently forgot to say he'd like to see her camping. He winced; this wasn't Chloe coming over to his house at 9 AM on a Saturday, or staying over until 10 PM, or just being around the house all the time. This was big.
"That does sound like her M.O., huh, dear," Jonathan Kent smiled at his wife, and sipped the coffee in his cowhide-print mug. He thought that Chloe was a good girl, if not utterly persistent to get what she wanted, even if it was in the pursuit of the 'Wall of Weird' material. Both Jon and Martha liked her smarts and common sense, and liked that their son liked her a lot, too.
"She still has to get her dad's okay to go with us," Clark said, more to himself than his parents, "and even though he's a funny guy, he's really protective of her. I doubt that she can even go..."
"I know, dear," his mom, Martha, said. She handed her son a huge blueberry muffin, and got one for herself. She didn't mind Chloe being over so much; Martha liked having another girl around, especially one that knew the city of Metropolis like Martha did.
"Pete's parents have to okay this, too," Clark finished. "It would be fun if she could go, even though it's a little unusual."
It was unusual. Martha thought of the times that Clark asked permission to go with Chloe on investigations and stake-outs and, as Chloe put it: "Can Clark assist me in some covert information gathering and assessment, with possible legal repercussions for the baddies?" Allowing Clark to go with Chloe was so much easier than what Chloe would ask for now.
"I don't think it's that great of an idea," Martha said between bites. "I mean...not because she's a girl, but there are no adults around to watch over you kids."
"What do you mean?" Clark piped up, looking at his mother. "Are you insinuating that she's a ...naughty girl? or that I am bad boy?"
Martha looked aghast her husband, then at her son. Jon was usually the one to misspeak, like he had when Chloe first came around with her driver's license. He looked away, with a small grin. "No, I'm not honey," she said in a calm tone. "But, it might not look good."
"To whom?" Clark said, his cheeks flushing. He stood, and finished his milk in several angry swallows.
"Clark," Jon said, in a flat tone. "Calm down."
"Dad," the teen said, sitting back down, "I am calm. I honestly don't expect Chloe to go on the trip but I don't like my parents thinking she's going because I want to get in her pants." Martha choked on her sip of juice, and Jon gagged on his sip. "Or her getting into mine."
"Clark!" Martha wiped the juice that she sputtered from her blouse. She and her husband thought that certainly by now Clark and Chloe were kissing; they giggled at the rule that his bedroom door remained open when they were in there together, and Martha and Jonathan both found ways to enter the barn, and the Loft in particular, when the kids were there. She found them napping together, on the couch, textbooks at their sides, radio on. It was cute, but maybe too comfortable. It wasn't exactly like Dawson and Joey sleeping together platonically in his bed on The WB's television show 'Dawson's Creek', but Martha didn't want any inkling of 'Clark Kent's Loft'; Clark and Chloe were not in a platonic relationship, not anymore.
"Well," Clark dipped his head, forlorn. "That's the insinuation."
"He's got a point, Martha," Jon said and clasped her shoulder. "I think we feel that this whole thing is a bit unusual, Son. Even you said it yourself, Clark."
Clark nodded, conceding that point. "It IS unusual, Dad, but we don't want to be stars for the local rumor mill. We get enough weird looks for what we do around town anyways. She just wants camp out," He said, his strong fingers tearing at a napkin. "It's just a one day trip...maybe two days or even less if she hates it. Me and Pete will be at the usual places, do the usual stuff, only with Chloe this time." Martha looked at her son with some tenderness. "Yeah, I love her, but she still my friend. This isn't a date...it's friends... Me, Pete and Chloe being kids, not putting our lives in danger, like so many times already this year." His voice went quiet. "I think it would be nice if she could go on the trip."
Jon and Martha never heard her son so eloquent, never seen him standing up for himself or his friends so powerfully. They knew their son was superhumanly fast, was superhumanly strong, and had other fantastic powers and abilities far beyond those of mortal men. But he was still a young teen, their baby boy. They didn't know that Chloe meant so much to him, or on such a deep level.
Martha thought of the time she took Clark to the comics shop in town, 'Sea Level Comics and Games'. She trailed him, watched him look around the shop with his usual amazement and wonder. He peeked through the Archie comics and Marvel comics, and later after grabbing a few comic books that he liked, ran to the game counter where other kids clamored; Clark tried to fit in as much as he could, and the fad just starting was the Pokemon collectible card game, and the cards seemingly became Clark's only vice, and the last remaining remnant of his childhood. Pete played 'Magic: The Gathering', similar card game, and collected the cards, but Clark, despite his savvy, just wasn't good at Magic as he was with Pokemon.
The Pokemon advertising tag line was 'Collect Them All!', and Clark did collect them all, of course, fanatically trading and getting the cards to build the collectible card game basic set. He had all but one card, the ultra-rare Charizard, and he desperately wanted that single piece of foil-covered cardboard. Martha looked at her son, and saw that he had the same little boy desperation in his face now about Chloe going on the camping trip as he had trying to get that Charizard. "Where is that boy that just wanted Pokemon cards?" Martha said with a wistful smile. Jon laughed.
Clark smiled, blushed and gave his mother a hug; he still wanted that one card, a first edition Charizard card, to finish off his collection. But he just he wanted Chloe around much more. Then he heard the telephone ring. Clark greeted his friend, but Pete wasn't so nice.
"Don't "Hi Bro" me, Clark. I'm mad at you, man," Pete growled into the phone. The last time Pete was really, really mad at Clark was...maybe when Clark, as P.E. captain, didn't pick him to be on his team for dodge ball back in fifth grade, and pick Lana Lang instead. Pete was selected instead by Sean Kelvin, and spent the remainder of class time trying to knock Clark out of the game; unfortunately, Clark was a brilliant player, and Pete himself was knocked out of the game by Jodi Melville's erratically-aimed shot to the head. Pete rubbed the side of his skull. "Real mad."
"Me? What? Clark stammered back. "Why?"
"C'mon, you know, man...Chloe's going OUR trip," Pete snarled. "What the hell? Why couldn't you get one day off from her?"
"Dude...chill out!" Clark snapped back. He rushed and shut the door to his bedroom; he didn't want his parents hear him and Pete squabble. "Why are you going nuts? Why, all of a sudden, do you have a beef with Chloe? Or me? I thought we were all friends?"
Pete looked incredulously at his phone, then talked to it. "I'm not friends with Chloe like you are..."
"What do you mean?" Clark said through gritted teeth; first his mom's insinuations, now his best friend was implying that Chloe and he were more than just lingering around 'First Base'. Before Chloe and Clark were going out, officially dating everyone except their parents and Pete thought they were a couple; now that they were dating, everyone including Pete and their parents thought they were doing more than holding hands and giving kisses goodnight. Maybe they were, but Clark needed to defend Chloe. "You better not mean what I think you mean..."
"I'm not dating her, man," Pete said a bit more calmer; visions of a red-eyed hot-mad Clark was not what he wanted. He just need Clark to see the injustice of it all: Chloe wedging between them. "You are dating her, she and I are not...things are different now man, don't you see?"
Clark listened, and didn't see what Pete saw; he saw, in his mind, Chloe in camping mode, in faded blue jeans, not stylish ones like she normally wore and a regular red cotton shirt, not her preferred silk screened ones she liked, dressed much more different than she'd ever dress for school. Thats what he saw, and Pete wasn't in his thoughts. "We three still hang out," Clark said automatically. We still do stuff together."
Pete took a breath. Let it out. And calmly said, "Not lately, Bro. Not lately."
Usually when school was in session, if they didn't finish their conversations during recesses or in class, Pete and Clark sat together on the bus and gabbed, and if they didn't finish whatever they were talking about, phone calls were needed. Nowadays, since 8th grade and Chloe's appearance in town, the sitting arrangement changed, the calling scheduled changed, even emails and instant messages changed. Now, right now, that change manifested itself in a jarring silence between friends. It was new and uncomfortable for Clark, not-so-new and just as uncomfortable for Pete.
"Well," Clark said, breaking the silence, "this is a good way for all of us to be together."
"This trip was our thing man," Pete shot back. "Not a me, you, and HER thing."
Quiet again.
"I just wanted to chill with you, Bro," Pete admitted. "Like we used to, just hang out and tell each other stuff...thats why I am mad...its like we're growing apart."
"Pete...we're brothers," Clark said with a sincerity that was almost always in his voice. Then he smiled. "The only way we'd grow apart is if I get any taller."
"Thanks for making fun of me, jerk," Pete said; the gentle jibe at Pete's height, or lack thereof, usually a good natured Clark staple, was not appreciated now. "Seriously. Am I still the one you tell your secrets to? Not Chloe? Or god forbid, Lex?"
There was a beat of silence. Then seconds of of it. Heartbeats of damning quiet.
"Thats what I thought, man, that's what I thought," Pete said, voice eerily calm. "We'll go, because you're right, it's a good way to be together."
"Thanks," Clark dry swallowed.
"But Clark?"
"Yes?"
"This is what it feels to be out of the loop..."
Clark heard the connection die with a harsh CLICK.
Pete felt satisfied. Then he waited for Clark to call back, contrite and apologetic, for hanging around Chloe so much, and for even saving Lex Luthor's life, let alone becoming that bald fool's friend. He waited. And waited. No matter how hard he stared at the phone, no chime came from it.
That was because Clark's girlfriend called ten minutes after the boys' call, and Chloe talked to Clark about camping and other things until they were both told it was time to hang up and go to bed. Pete was mentioned in the call; Clark said that he said all three going on the trip was a good way to be together, and Chloe was glad. Then she whispered some barely audible sweet nothings to her boyfriend that could make even a man made of steel weak at the knees.
Chapter Links
Prologue ~ One ~ Two ~ Three ~ Four ~ Five ~ Six ~ Seven ~ Eight ~ Nine ~ Ten ~ Eleven ~ Twelve ~ Thirteen ~ Fourteen ~ Fifteen ~ Sixteen ~ Epilogue
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