Disclaimer: Characters not mine. Author's Note: Let's look at Smallville after we shake it up like a snow globe.

Let's Turn Things Around

One Year Ago

"Oh what a hottie!"

Chloe Sullivan's eyebrow arched when Lana Lang commented on the new boy strutting into the halls of Smallville High. Chloe stood by her locker with her two best friends. Somehow, Lana Lang, the fairy princess, fluttered her pretty gossamer wings and popped into the picture. She had no doubt that it was because Chloe was flanked by her two really handsome guys.

Pete frowned and turned to Lana, who was by now hanging very closely to Clark. "You think Lucas Luthor is hot?"

Lana smiled her innocent smile, blinked a few times to showcase long dark eyelashes. Clark looked down at her with concern, because never let is be said that there was another gorgeous rival other than the given Whitney Fordman, may he rest in peace.

"Well, you know, I kinda do," Lana answered in an expression that was the mixture of angelic and seductive, peppered with some teasing and humor, with a dash of shyness.

'Bravo!' Chloe thought. Lana Lang was able to crush Clark Kent and make him salivate more at the same time. Chloe shifted when she saw Clark looking at her with something she had never seen in his eyes before.

Lucas started walking in their direction, and Chloe watched from the periphery of her vision as Clark fidgeted on the balls of his feet. The four watched as Lucas as the student body parted like the Red Sea to allow the Luthor through. One of the students dropped his books and knelt down to pick them out. Lucas stopped beside him and looked down. For a moment, Chloe thought that the rich kid would help his new schoolmate. However, Lucas kicked at one notebook and said cuttingly, "Get out of my way."

Chloe's eyebrow arched and she murmured to Pete, "Arrogant bastard."

Lucas Luthor looked up from the peasant at his feet. Chloe's breath hitched when Lucas' gaze went directly to her. She met his eyes steadily. She swore that she could see the tiniest smirk gracing his lips, but she could not prove it. Lucas' face was as impassive as his brother's often was.

"Easy, Chloe," Pete whispered back to her, noticing the direction of Lucas' stare. "You can't hate this guy. If you had your way, he's going to be your brother-in-law."

Chloe glanced quickly at Clark and Lana, but the two were too involved in their own affairs to notice. If they heard Pete, Chloe would kill him. She had not even intended for nosy Peter Ross to find out about her pointless childhood infatuation. To her relief, Lucas looked down at the guy on his feet again. The boy scrambled to pile up his books and notebooks. "Pete, shut up," she said curtly.

Present

Three pairs of eyes peeked out of the Torch's half-glass door, following the approach of the Luthor golden boy, the illegitimate child who had taken the high school by storm when he joined a year ago. Green eyes widened at the sight of the Luthor black sheep stopping before his locker and shrugging out of his leather jacket.

Girls gathered around the popular and infamous Lucas Luthor, fawning, wanting to touch, making beautiful eyes. Lucas remained impassive as he handed his jacket to the servant following him around. He tossed the keys to his bike to the man and bid him wait there until he returned. Everyone knew Lucas would only come back when it's time to go home.

"He's so perfect!"

"He's so fine!"

The teenage girls folded their hands in front of them and breathed deeply to plump up their bosoms. They heard that Lucas liked older women. They heard that before Lucas had been rediscovered by his family, he was living with an Italian countess who divorced her husband because she had fallen head over heels for Lucas.

"Oh, to have his arms wrapped around me," one of the girls declared.

A cheerleader retorted, "Not before I have him first, bitch!"

There was a screech. Lucas turned around to see his groupies now rolling on the floor, tearing each other's hair out.

The Torch doors opened to reveal Clark, Pete and Chloe watching the battle of the girls. "Man, Clark, you gotta pull them away from each other!" Pete exclaimed.

"Well help me!"

The strength of Pete and Clark together was barely enough to break up the brawl. Chloe stood in the middle of the hallway, having forgotten about the violence that stemmed from Lucas, and stared at his retreating back. It was so pathetic, really. She was by far more intelligent than any of the girls in the school, but she was no different. After getting over her long distance infatuation with the first resident billionaire, Chloe had found herself falling for the amazingly incredible artist and rebel.

Lucas had of course always been an asshole. They became classmates in art and the guy stole all her colors before she was even through. He thought he owned the world, and Chloe snapped at him to buy his own paints. The next day, he brought with him a personal assistant. He even made it a point to get the man to take paints from her little station. She was so furious she asked that she be placed in another class. To no avail. When presentation came, Lucas showed a picture of a bowl of fruits.

She hated him so much. When she was alone in the room, Chloe went to his station and turned his pages on the easel. She came across a portrait of her, crude, but recognizable. And then Lucas appeared in the doorway and said, "When you find odd and freakish objects, Sullivan, what do you do?"

"Collect them," she had answered breathlessly.

"There we go. I'll be adding that to my collection."

And Chloe had been furious again. But she had never liked him more.

"Chloe!" the cry snapped her out of her thoughts. "Chloe, come on!"

Clark was then pulling her back into the Torch office by the elbow. She focused on Clark now, and the way he seemed so terrified that the girls would touch her. Pete had run inside before them, and he was panting, staring out at the field. Her back was pressed against the door, where the girls were pounding. They wanted to get revenge on Clark and Pete, for breaking up the fight, for making Lucas get away. Chloe gasped for breath, staring at Clark who was just now leaning closer and closer to her.

This was exactly what she had been afraid of since she saw that look a year ago. When he hooked up with Lana, she thought she'd be safe from this. Lana had been pining for Clark for so long. She could hear Pete muttering in the background, "Aww Clark man! Told you not to even try. Burn, man. Burn!"

Clark looked at Chloe's face, the lines of her eyes, her lips, her nose. When he moved in for his kiss, Chloe held him back with a hand on his chest. "You have a girlfriend, Clark. And we're best friends."

"Burn," Pete finished with a whisper.

"You realize that I've been in love with you for a year now, don't you?" Clark pleaded, hurting.

"Like you've been in love with Lana for several years?"

"Chloe-"

She held up a hand for silence. "We'll forget this ever happened," she told him. With a wave to Pete, she slipped out of the Torch office. It was too easy for her to slip away, just pretend to be one of the deranged Lucas admirers.

"Man, I told you, didn't I?"

"Shuttup, Pete."

"Well you know that girl's had her head up on the Luthor clouds for too long, Clark! You're only going to hurt yourself if you keep this up."

"Look!" Clark exclaimed. "Chloe is just fantasizing about rich mysterious strangers because she's young. Someday she'll grow into me just like I've grown into her."

"What about your girlfriend, Clark?"

Clark didn't hear the door open, or see the girl that stepped inside. "She was a dream, Pete. You know dreams aren't as good as they seem when you've finally reached it."

The sniffle coming from behind him made Clark turn around. He saw Lana blinking away tears. "Then why don't you let Chloe chase after her dreams Clark? Maybe after she gets disillusioned she'll let you kiss her."

"Lana!"

Lana Lang raced out of the door, leaving a dazed Clark and a frowning Pete. "Well that does it, Clark! You just made our high school life a living hell."