"Happy Halloween Clara!"
Chloe walked up to Clara with a beaming grin on her face and Clara put down the bale of hay she was stacking to give her a hug. It was Monday 31st October 2005 and Smallville as always was getting into the spirit of things. The closest farm to the High School, Mr Jefferson's, always provided bales of hay and a patch of disused land for the annual Horror Hay Maze. It was usually the senior teenagers who pitched in together to construct it, and they got extra credit for participating in a community activity. Clara was currently helping to construct the outer wall along with Tommy Jefferson, who was Mr Jefferson's son and graduated last year, he'd decided to stay on his father's farm. She noticed he kept glancing her way when she lifted the hay. She supposed he was surprised by her strength, although Clara was moving far slower and with far less bales of hay than she would at home. This was like picking up a flower to her. Clara's mind couldn't comprehend the fact that Tommy Jefferson was not amazed by her strength, but by her cleavage and how her t-shirt rode up when she lifted a bale. She had unbuttoned and rolled the sleeves up on her plaid over shirt in order to give the impression that she was hot from work, but she hadn't realised that blue scoop neck t-shirt clung in a very flattering way. Tommy busied himself with the hay when he saw Chloe approach, his ears went pink when she looked at him pointedly, Chloe didn't miss a trick.
"I see our Horror Maze is coming along! Smile!"
Chloe snapped a shot of Clara, with a crooked grin, wild waving hair and a relaxed stance by the assembling wall; she'd be featuring it in this week's Torch.
Tommy was called away by his sister, a red headed girl around Clara's age called Judy who she saw occasionally in class. Chloe took this as a moment to speak more openly with Clara.
"So, have you decided on your costume yet?"
"My Mum is making me something; she says it's a surprise. She's always made my costumes, though she never lets me see them beforehand. She knows I want a cape though."
"Last year your Dorothy costume was awesome! I will look forward to seeing this year! I, unlike you, have used the wonders of the internet, and you shall have the company of Alice tonight."
"I can definitely imagine you with the Alice band, not the apron though; I don't think I've ever seen you cook."
Chloe lightly tapped Clara's arm "I'll have you know I'm a great cook!"
"So, do you know if a certain billionaire is coming tonight?"
Clara gave Chloe a slightly affronted look.
"What makes you think I'd know?"
"Because you've been texting him every day for the last week two weeks since your "geek day" and you keep getting that goofy look on your face."
Clara was about to retort when she thought better of it, you could never win with Chloe.
Clara sighed "I told him about it, I don't know if this is his style. I told him it was costume optional but we'll see, he's been investigating some break-ins at buildings his father owns in the area."
"Was anything taken?"
Chloe had her reporters' hat on now.
"Only a few minor pieces of equipment, nothing important, but he says it looks like they were looking for something else."
"Like what?"
"He doesn't know, the buildings belonged to his Dad, only he'd know if something was missing. Lex says if they'd found what they wanted they wouldn't still be breaking into places."
"A sound assumption, but it deserves investigation..."
Yup, Chloe was on the trail again.
"Come on team, hustle! We've only got 3 more hours to get this maze constructed and decked out so you can all go home to get spooked up!"
Jason Teague stood there in his red coach's polo shirt; in his arms were some rubber skeletons. He'd been "nominated" by Coach Arnold to take charge of the festivities, mostly because it was him who usually got lumped with it, and he wanted to get out of it. Jason had gladly accepted it, his mother had a strange relationship with the occult, and especially hated Halloween's association with witches. So Jason had never been allowed to participate as a child. He'd jumped at the chance to get into the spirit of things.
"Clara, nice job on your part of the wall, Tommy, you should spend more time looking at your work than anything else, we don't want it falling on someone."
Chloe smirked; it appeared Jason Teague wasn't a fool either.
"Cheerleaders! I want to see more work and less chatting, that means you too Fordman! If you're not going to help to carve the pumpkins then go back to class."
Whitney looked affronted, standing over by the carving table with the rest of the team. But uncharacteristically she didn't say anything back. Rumours had gone around that she and Lucas had broken up, who did it to who wasn't known. But two weeks ago Whitney had gotten the bus to school, rather than coming in Lucas's car, and Lucas had switched seats in all his classes. Clara noticed that Lucas was looking far happier lately, smiling more and was much more relaxed. Chloe suspected it was he who broke it off, and felt unwilling empathy for Whitney, he Dad didn't have long and now her boyfriend had left her, Lucas mustn't have known about her family situation.
"Sam and Bobby, grab your green paint and head over to the west entrance. I want you to spray paint some symbols on the ground. Let's put you delinquent hobbies to some use."
Sam and Bobby were well known for their destructive habits, and over interest in the occult. They nodded and grabbed the red paint cans and the offered book and walked into the maze.
"Ellen and Jo, go put some overalls on and the bucket of paint and go nuts, we need a real massacre in there. Mary and John, I want you to go and make the banners, I hope I can trust you to keep your eyes on the paper?"
Jason kept firing off instructions and Clara went back to stacking bales, her section of the outer wall was almost done. Chloe bade goodbye and went off to take more pictures.
"You all know what you're doing? Alright, Cas you're with me, we'll grab some stiffs and hang them round. I want the maze ready to test in an hour; I hope you all followed the plans!"
Lucas Lang grabbed some more skeletons and robes from Jason's new car and headed into the maze with him. They'd been spending a lot of time together lately, Clara thought it was good for Lucas to have a strong male role model, he'd grown up without a Dad and it was important to have someone to look up to. Jason seemed to take Lucas under his wing from the moment they met, it seemed they had a lot in common and Chloe thought if they weren't teacher and student they could have been best friends.
They carried on working until 5pm, then Clara and the rest packed up to go home until the maze opened at 7pm. Clara had volunteered to be a steward, to walk around the maze and help guide anyone who freaked out, there was always someone. In previous years the maze had been fairly simple and not overly large, but this one was 3/4 of a football field, Jason may have overreached a little. All the stewards had maps, and with Clara's eidetic memory she didn't need it.
Her mother greeted her with a grin when she got home; their pumpkin was on the step with its ghoulish visage already alight. It was 5.30 when she cycled back, she found she'd been using her bike a lot lately; it was easy to hide in case she needed to run for any reason. They ate dinner, Spaghetti Bolognese and a pumpkin cake and then Martha went into her room to retrieve Clara's costume. Martha had always loved making costumes for Clara, she'd been a princess (which Clara has worn but not loved), an Angel, Dorothy, a Knight and Robin Hood (Clara had loved that), but remembering Clara's love for fairytales Martha had decided to go traditional. She presented the box with glee and Clara opened it to reveal swathes of red. Clara pulled out a bright red cloak that would fall to her ankles and underneath was a white peasants dress with a red corset.
"Mum it's beautiful!"
"I remember you loved this story growing up, I made you a little red cape when you were small and you loved to run around in it. I think Little Red Riding Hood is a good homage to your childhood love."
Clara went to change and her mother took pictures as she came down. Her hair flowed around her as walked, the skirts swishing as she moved and the cloak flowing behind her on the stairs.
"Oh honey you look great, doesn't she Jonathan?"
"Very grown-up"
"Your father and I are leaving for the Hay Maze in 5 minutes Clara, make sure you have everything."
...
"You sure we should use these? CJ said he only wanted the symbols."
"These are creepy looking right? The way they glow, stick 'em in with the Roswell section and we're bound to freak someone out."
"Fine, but if we get in deep for this, I'm blaming you Bobby."
...
It was 7pm when the Kent's arrived at the Maze and parked, taking out the pies and cakes they were donating to the snack table. The proceeds from the maze and the food stall would go to updating the High Schools teaching supplies. Clara admitted Smallville definitely needed updating.
Clara spotted Chloe, who'd also volunteered for stewarding, and was decked out in blue and white for her Alice costume.
"Chloe you look great!"
"That's Alice tonight Red!"
They followed the gathering crowd of seniors who were converging around the southern entrance. Jason Teague was looking dapper in a 1940's suit complete with Fedora and toy machine gun. Lucas stood beside him in a suit and tan rain coat, his hair gelled up, and Clara spotted what looked like Angels wings on his back. It was an odd choice. Whitney was over by the group of cheerleaders, her skin pale, her clothing tight, and plastic fangs in her mouth; she sent several hurt and almost pleading looks over at Lucas.
There were several boys in Scream gear, one Roman, a Michael Jackson, a few vampires and werewolves and one guy dressed as Spock from Star Trek. As they were oriented more and more people began to arrive, pay at the kiosk ran by the Teaching Staff, and enter the maze.
"Alright, everyone take a walkie-talkie, and I don't want to hear any unnecessary chatter! You're going to walk the maze in case anyone needs to be led out, but feel free to periodically scare the pants of anyone passing by. You all know your team numbers, I'll call out when it's your turn for a snack break, and volunteers get free refreshments but don't abuse it! Okay, go have fun and remember you're representing the school, anyone caught messing around will answer to Principal Kwan and won't get their credits."
They walked into the maze and split up in separate directions. The decorators had done an excellent job, skeletons and coffins, bloody scarecrows and bright green occult symbols on the floor, and what must have been Ellen and Jo's section, which was covered with bright red splatter patterns. Clara and Chloe walked around with each other for the first half hour, jumping out at middle schoolers and juniors, and once or twice their own classmates, until after an hour and a half Chloe's group was called for a snack break.
Clara kept on walking, giving directions and occasionally leading people out of the maze, ears picking up screams and giggles, and the eerie sounds and music from the sound system.
After another half hour hadn't seen anyone for a while, and so decided to move from the gothic to the extraterrestrial part of the maze, which she hadn't seen yet. There as silver ship debris strewn around the edges of the corn bales, one of two bright green corpses, which somewhat offended Clara, and as Clara turned the Clara, the emanating glow of meteor rock.
It was too late to turn back, she was surrounded by it, she felt sick to her stomach and fell to her knees. Clara tried to crawl back the way she came, but she didn't have the strength, and when she fell forward she had landed on her walkie talkie, and she didn't have the strength to try and reach under herself to pull it out of her bag. She felt dizzy, and it was as if the ground was moving underneath her, she wished someone would come this way, anyone...
Clara must have gone unconscious, she didn't know how long she was out, but then she heard someone calling her name, and she was turned over, and above her...above her was Warrior Angel.
Clara blinked, she must be hallucinating, a blue eye mask and suit with a "W" insignia on the chest, along with a flowing red cape than matched hers but for her own hood. A bald head and piercing ice blue eyes, wait, she knew those eyes...
"Lex?"
"Clara, what's wrong? Are you alright?"
Clara didn't have time to obfuscate.
"It's the rocks...they make me sick...please...help me move away from them."
Lex looked around at the meteor rocks with a queer expression, and helped Clara stand, but when it was clear she couldn't support herself he swept her up bridal style and carried her away, he kept walking until Clara told him to stop. They were at one of the rest zones, a dead end with a Coffin and Skeleton and a bale of hay to sit on.
"Are you feeling better?"
"Much, thanks"
Clara tried to draw attention away from what just happened.
"I like your costume, the original Warrior Angel, the one I told you I liked."
Clara reached out and touched the cape on Lex's shoulder.
"It looks good on you."
Lex was wise to her game, but would play along for a little while.
"You look good yourself, little red riding hood right?"
"Yeah, my Mum made it, she always makes my costume."
"So...what happened back there, what was the meteor rock doing to you?"
Clara felt ice in her stomach, she didn't want to lie, but she couldn't tell the whole truth either.
"I'm ... allergic to them, If I go anywhere near meteor rock I become violently sick."
"If you knew that why were you in there?"
"The rock wasn't meant to be there. It wasn't in the plans for the maze at all. Someone must have added it after we were done."
Lex stayed quiet, his insides warred between his scientific curiosity, and his growing adoration for Clara, now his closest friend. Clara was looking at her feet, her stance was stiff and Lex could tell she was terrified of what he would say. If he pushed now, he could lose her forever, but perhaps there was another road, one that was better for the both of them right now. He made his decision, and went for the plunge.
"Clara, I'm your friend and I think I know you well enough by now to know you don't like to lie. I can see this is far more than an allergy, you looked at deaths door, and the minute you were away from them you were fine. It's not the only thing about you I've noticed. But, you are inherently an honest person, so, if you feel the need to lie to me, then it must be something very important to you. Now, I know all about secrets, and I know they can destroy friendships, usually because people refuse to acknowledge they have any. I'm not asking you to reveal all your secrets to me now; God knows I have many you don't know about. In my short time in this town I've found that respect and trust have to be earned, and from my dealings with my father I know secrets can be damaging. So, I say we have a pact."
Clara for the first time since the rescue looked into Lex's eyes.
"What kind of pact?"
"That we know we have secrets, important ones that we can't tell each other now, we've only known each other for over a month. But, we acknowledge that these secrets do exist, and that one day, when we know each other better, we will tell each other the whole truth."
Clara nodded at his suggestion and rephrased.
"So, hypothetically, if there was a reason I'm allergic to meteor rock, and...I wanted to tell you but I couldn't yet..."
"I would know that there is indeed a reason, that you are an amazing individual who has saved my life and others, and that one day, when we trust each other enough, you will tell me why."
"And ... the same for your secrets?"
Lex's jaw tightened but he nodded.
"Even my secrets, there was a reason I came to Smallville, apart from my father, and one day, I'll tell you."
Lex and Clara sat looking at one another; Clara unconsciously noticed they were holding hands. Clara felt a sense of relief and a growing warmth within her for Lex. He hadn't ostracised her for not revealing her secret, as long as she admitted there was one. The pact was a large commitment, an acknowledgement that Clara anticipated the growth of their relationship to a point where they would bare all to each other.
Lex too felt relief, he wasn't insane, there was something going on, and he had taken the risk of acknowledging it, only to have his trust returned. How differently this could have gone, Clara could have openly denied anything was wrong, could have called him crazy or lied about what the rocks had done to her. But Clara was inherently an honest creature, a special girl, and Lex now knew it. There were dark moments in his past he could not reveal to Clara now, moments of grief and pain and vengeance, those memories were not to be revealed now. He could admit they existed, but was not ready to reveal them. He could give Clara the same courtesy.
"Thank you Lex, really, for everything."
Clara reached forward and kissed Lex on the cheek, he felt his insides flutter in a way he hadn't felt...he didn't think he'd ever felt it. Lex reached forward and returned Clara's kiss on the cheek.
They looked at each other and found themselves compulsively moving closer, they faces reached towards each other, their eyes closed, lips about to touch...
The walkie talkie burst into life.
"...This is Jason, Team B can go on break now, assemble at the snack stand for check in! Sam, Bobby, come see me after your break, I have a bone to pick about some, artistic license you've taken...over and out."
Lex Luthor cursed Jason Teague with all his being, and if the Gods were just, Jason would be struck down by lightning.
Clara startled away and blushed red, before standing up awkwardly and Lex did the same reluctantly.
"...You want to come get something to eat?"
Lex let out a breath he didn't know he was holding.
"Yeah, I could use a snack right now; you probably should eat something too."
"Come on, I can at least pretend to do my job, I'm supposed to lead people through the maze tonight."
Lex's gently took Clara's hand, "Lead me through the forest Red. You wouldn't want to wolves to get me."
Clara looked at their hands entwined, and her heart soared.
The crimson cloaked couple didn't drop each other's hands until they reached the southern gateway, when they gave each other one last squeeze and parted.
They had a bond, a pact, an acknowledgement of secrets that kept their silence.
Perhaps you could keep a secret without destroying a friendship, Clara thought, as long as you acknowledge there was one.