Lois Alone

Lois dodged a twenty-foot banner as it fell from the ceiling.  Metropolis High's overenthusiastic event-planning crew wasn't the smartest bunch of kids, and they'd already dropped the banner a couple times before.  This time, Lois had had to stop in her tracks in order to avoid getting wrapped in the blue plasticky paper.  She hated stopping.  One short glare from her was all the boy on the ladder needed to see; he hurriedly began clumsily pulling the banner out of her way.

She glanced at the blue-and-white text written across the banner before passing on:
"Christmas Formal, December 5th!"

Lois did the math in her head.  December 5th was three and a half weeks away.  She would have to endure the obnoxious teenage "excitement" over the dance for another twenty-four days.
Grumbling to herself as she walked, she reached the Daily Star office and sat down in her chair.

A burst of wind blasted through the room.  "Hey," Bart said, suddenly appearing at her side.  "What's up?"
Lois, severely startled and very irritated, restrained herself from snapping at him.  "Someone dropped a banner in the hallway.  Why don't you go help them fix it?"
"Sure thing," he replied.
He zoomed out the door, then reappeared less than two seconds later.  "Okay, done with that.  Now what?"
This time, Lois snapped.  "Bart! I'm BUSY right now!"
"Okay, Okay!" he said defensively, running back out the door again.

Lois waited for another few seconds to make sure he was really gone.
...
He really was gone.  She turned back to her desk and started to pull up her email when two voices crept closer to the doorway.
"Did you see the way that mugger tried to stab me?"
"Ha! Yeah, it's like he couldn't already tell that you were super-strong by the way you'd thrown his partner across the alley."

Lois slammed her head into her keyboard and let it sit there.  She was not in the mood to hear these two talk about their latest crimefighting adventure.
Clark and Diana walked through the door, moving over to one of the desks and casually leaning against it while they continued talking.

Lois felt bad about how irritable she'd been lately.  It wasn't that she didn't like school dances, and it wasn't that she didn't like the fact that Clark, Diana, and Bart had been working together for the past week and a half fighting crime in the city.  She just hated the fact that all of those things, as good as they were, made her feel more alone.

She'd been to a few school dances with Bruce before.  He had always been both a perfect gentleman and the most handsome boy there, making Lois, for one night, the envy of every other girl—which she rather liked.  But lately, she and Bruce had been less friendly with one another.  Ever since Bruce had started his "combat training" with Diana, Lois felt the slightest bit uneasy about him.  She saw how he paid less and less attention to her.  It probably wasn't Diana's fault at all; he was probably just focusing too hard on school and his "work" of finding a way to topple Luthor and his crime kingdom.  Still, though, that wasn't a lot better.  She worried about him constantly.  After all, he'd nearly been killed three times in the past few months due to his overzealousness.

But while Bruce had been distant and dark, Clark was always honest and caring.  Lois constantly found herself surprised by Clark's kindness—and he certainly gave Bruce a challenge in the "who's hotter" arena.  Not that it mattered, anyway.  Lois wasn't anywhere near ready to break up with Bruce, and as far as she could tell, Clark and Diana were becoming very close.

Clark took half a second to turn to Lois and give her a "hello" nod.
"Well, at least that's something," Lois thought to herself.

"So... Clark..." Diana slowly said, "are you going to the Christmas Formal?"
Lois's eyes shot over to her.  Diana was sitting on the desk, her ankles crossed, and a slight bit of shyness across her face.  Apparently, under the right circumstances, Clark even made an amazon feel bashful.
"Yeah, maybe," Clark responded.
"Well..." Diana began, "would you like to go with me?"
"Uhh..." Clark responded, turning towards Lois for a second.  He was clearly embarrassed that Diana was asking him in front of Lois.  Diana didn't really care who was watching; she never really cared much what other people thought of her.
Clark wasn't sure exactly what to do, so he accepted.  "Um... sure, yeah."

"Great!" Diana said excitedly.  "Oh, and... you'll have to come over for dinner.  My mom'll want to meet you."
Clark was confused and wary.  "Wait, what?!"

The bell rang.  Thank god, Lois thought.

The two super-teens left the room on their way to class.  Lois had the rest of the day free, so she could finally be in peace, alone.
Her phone rang.
She pulled it out of her purse and looked at the name: Hal Jordan.
"Hello?"
"Hey, Lois? It's Hal, remember me?"
"Yeah, of course."
"Okay. Well, before, you seemed like you had some history with investigating Lionel Luthor."
"...You could say that."
"Alright, well... I've... I've got a problem that I think is Luthor-related."
"At the Air Base?"
"Yeah.  Can you meet me here, ASAP?"
"Sure.  I'll be there in a half-hour."