Chapter 72

:o

Clark is on the pace lap in last place, waiting to take the green flag. His crew chief, Mark Chastlen, who Clark hasn't even met talks to him on the radio. "Green flag! Green flag!" He annouces and Clark takes off with the other cars. Clark concentrates on running the same line as he did while practicing, and starts ticking off cars, one by one. "How's the car feel?" Mark asks.

"Great! Either everyone is slower, or i'm just that much faster." Clark shouts over the engine hum.

"Your lap times are as fast as the leaders. Conserve your tires, pit stops are in 40 laps." He reminds him. In the next 30 laps, Clark makes it up to 19th place before he starts to slow down. He trys taking a higher line around turn three to find some more speed and... BANG! The right rear tire blows out, causing the car begin to spin around.

Lois sees this from her spot in the stands and gasps, placing her hand over her mouth as he starts to spin.

"Tire blew!" Clark shouts, giving it full throttle to keep it from hitting the outside wall. The car continues to spin across the track, as the other cars narrowly miss him. He finally comes to a stop at the bottom of the track.

"Are you alright?" Mark asks.

"Yes. I'm bringing it in." Clark answers and slowly drives into the pits. The caution flag is waved all the other cars come in also. A couple laps later, the green flag is shown once again and Clark is in last place after his spin.

"There is still 80 laps to go, you might run out of fuel before the end. Try to to take it easy until the end" Mark informs ihim.

Wonderful. First race in the car and i might not even finish! "Will do." Clark says and focuses on the track. He moves up through the field slower this time, only passing cars he can get by easily.

"Your doing great! Acording to your lap times, and my calculations, you should be goond on fuel. 15 laps to go." Mark says, right before hell breaks loose. In 6th place, the black and read #47 begins to lose the engine. Thick, white smoke pours from the tailpipes and coats the track with oil. The driver tries to get down off the track, but not fast enough. Two cars get in the oil, spinning around around and slam into the wall.

"Woah, wreck up ahead! Go low to miss the debris!" Mark shouts. Clark sees this and swerves low, not seeing the oil. The car spins around 360 degrees, but all that dirt practice in the field taught him a few things. Clark waits for the car to spin around one more time, and punches the throttle, straightening the car out from the spin. He keeps the pedal to the floor and races away from the wreck. The caution flag comes out and Clark slows the car down. "Good driving, Clark! Now THAT is how you get through a wreck!"

"Whew, that was close! So I can breath now?" Clark asks.

Mark chuckles. "Yes, for a few laps Your running in 15th place. That wreck gained you 6 positions." Once the green flag flies, Clark races with everything he has. Without worrying about fuel or tires, he can push the car to the limit. Within the next few laps, Clark gets by three cars. After passing these cars, he stops gaining ground and can't close in to 11th place. "White flag this time by! Oone lap to go." Mark announces.

"I don't have anything left for them." Clark sighs. Coming of of turn 4, Clark crosses the finish line in 12th place in his first ever Whelen Southern Modified Tour race.

"12th place! You did a great job, Clark!" Mark congratulates him.

12th place sure doesnt feel like a win to Clark, but if only he could see the smile on Lois's face right now. As soon as he crossed the finish line, Lois rushes as fast as she can back to the pits.

:o

Clark pulls the car to a stop beside the trailer. As he gets out, team owner, James Chavez and Mark are waiting for him. "I'm telling ya, this kid has some talent! " Mark tells James.

"Clark!" James says happily as Clark turns to them. "That was some race you ran for us!" He says and shakes Clark's hand.

"Thank you. I just tried to bring it back in one piece." Clark tells him with a bright smile.

"Well, you brought it back in one piece and finished in the top half of the field." James says, smiling.

Clark starts to respond, but is pleasantly interupted. "Smallville!" Clark hears someone scream and collide with him. "You were awesome!" Lois tells him and gives him a hug.

Clark laughs and hugs her back, holding her to him. "You know i came in 12th place, right?"

Lois looks up at him. "Yes, Clark. But, you passed more cars than anybody." She says, looking into his eyes. Clark is about tso say something, but suddenly forgets the words. Just kiss her already!

Lois continues to stare into his blue eyes and finds her heart beating faster and faster. Oh would you just PLEASE kiss me!

After what seems like an eternity to Lois, Clark slowly moves his face toward hers and touches his lips to hers. Lois responds by opening her mouth slightly and Clark kisses her back in full force. This kiss heats up and Lois puts her hands on his cheeks, holding him to her. Clark continues to hold her tightly in his arms and their tongues continue to dance around together. Lois starts to feel short on oxygen and reluctantly pulls away. They rest their foreheads together and continue to stare into each other's eyes.

"Lois..." Clark starts.

"Shh." She interupts him and kisses his lips softly. "We'll talk about it later, k?" Lois smiles.

Clark smiles back and says, "Sure." He keeps an arm around her waist, and they turn back to James and Mark, who are talking with each other.

James faces Clark. "We already have your address, so you will be getting a check of $770 in a few days. I can't thank you enough for running the car for us."

Clark's eyes widen at the sum of money he wasn't expecting to get. "I-I can't accept this. I wasn't expecting to get paid."

James laughs and slaps Clark's shoulder. "Relax, Clark. You deserve every cent of this money. After all, your part of Team SRC now. And we pay our drivers the money they deserve."

Clark just gapes at him. Did he just hire me?

Clark's expression causes him to laugh once more. "Welcome to Team SRC, Clark Kent." He says and holds out his hand.

Clark smiles brightly and shakes his hand. "Thank you! Thank you so much!" He looks down to Lois, noticing her smiling just as much as him.

"So Clark, where are you headed now?" James asks.

"Back to Smallville I guess." Clark answers.

"Smallville?" James asks, as if he's crazy. "Forget driving back tonight. I'll call The Planet Hotel downtown and reserve you a room. Consider it a welcoming gift."

Clark smiles again. "Really? Thanks so much." He says, relieved that he doesnt have to drive back to Smallville.

Just then, Clark sees a familiar face step out of the trailer. "Jimmy!" Clark calls.

The young racecar driver stops and turns. His face smiles and he rushes over. "Clark, my man, that was one hell of a save you pulled off back there!"

"Thanks. It was quite the ride." Clark answers as Jimmy grabs his arm and shakes his hand. "You know Lois, right?" Lois waves and Jimmy nods. "Your part of Team SRC now too?"

"Yeah, i was in the black and red car that blew up." He says, still looking a bit peeved by the engine dying. "Which i'm still not sure why it blew." He says, loudly enough for James to herar.

Clark sees James roll his eyes behind Jimmy. "I don't know, maybe it was because the RPM's read 8900?" He suggests, raising his arms. Jimmy doesn't buy it and shoos him with his hand playfully.

Lois speaks up. "Clark and I are going to get something to eat, would you like to join us?"

Jimmy nods. "Yeah, sure."

The three of them begin walking out of the pits and Lois and Jimmy discuss where to go while Clark calls his parents, filling them in.

:o

Twenty minutes later, Clark pulls into the parking lot of Metro-Burger. Yes, Clark drove Lois's beloved mustang. It only took a five minute arguement with Jimmy laughing at them the whole time.

Clark steps out of the car and helps Lois out of the backseat. "Do you know how humilulating it is to ride in the backset of my own car?" Lois asks, glaring at Clark.

"Do you know how humilulating it is for me to ride in the backseat? Professional racecar driver, remember?" Clark replies.

Lois rolls her eyes. "Oh, im sorry, it must have slipped my mind." She retorts sarcastically. "I can see this hasn't gone to that gigantic head of yours."

Jimmy interupts. "Sorry to interupt you too, but uh... food?" He says and points to the building.

"Right." Lois replies with a smile and grabs Clarks arm, pulling him along. As they walk, Clark pulls his arm from her grasp and slips his hand inside hers.

Lois smiles as she feels his warm hand squeeze hers. She can feel his eyes studying her and a blush spreads across her face. Me, Lois Lane blushing over Clark Kent? Is it true? Yes… it is.

:o

After the three of them finish eating, they walk out of Metro-Burger. Clark turns to Jimmy. "So Jimmy, where are you staying? Can we drop you off anywhere?"

"Yeah, that would be great. I'm staying at The Planet Hotel." Jimmy replies.

Lois and Clark both smile. "That's perferct." She says. "That's where we're staying too."

"I take it James set you up there too?" Jimmy asks Clark.

Clark gives a smile. "Yeah, he's a pretty nice guy."

:o

As soon as Lois parks the car, (yes, she managed to talk Clark into giving her keys back), Jimmy says goodbye and goes his separate way. Lois and Clark enter the expensive hotel and approach the front desk.

A tired receptionist looks up at them. "Can I help you two?" He asks in a tired voice.

Clark smiles politely, "Yeah, My name is Clark Kent and this is Lois Lane…"

"Yes, Mr. Chavez made a resevation earlier this evening." The man interrupts. "One moment please." He whistles to a young bellhop asleep in a chair, a couple feet away. The bellhop awakens at once and hops out of his chair. The receptionist motions him over and whispers something in his ear, which the bellhop nods his head to. "Kevin will show you to your room now" The receptionist says to Clark and Lois.

Kevin leads them to an elevator, and they all step inside. On the way up, Kevin studies Lois closely (well, more like everything below her neck). Clark narrows his eyes at him and pulls Lois closer to him.

Lois on the other hand, has something to say, "Hey buddy, my eyes are up here." She tells him, pointing to her eyes.

Kevin smirks and replies, "I wasn't exactly looking for your eyes, gorgeous." He says, his smirk turning into a wide grin.

Clark's jaw tightens with enough force to bite through steel and stares daggers into the bellhop. Lois just stares at him disgustingly. That arrogant little . I bet ripping off a certain appendage and ramming it down his throat will wipe the grin off his face.

The doors open and Kevin calmly exit's the elevator, ignoring the looks from Lois and Clark. As they follow him down the hall, Clark holds Lois back from charging after him. "Lois, would you just relax?" Clark whispers in her ear.

"Clark! Did you not hear what he just said to me?" She whispers back fiercly.

"Yes. I heard him." Clark replies, his grip on her hand tightening.

"Were here." The bellhop announces when they reach the end of the hall and turns to unlock the door.

Lois and Clark are so caught up in whispering back and forth, they almost crash into Kevin when he stopped suddenly. He swings the door open and both Clark and Lois gape at the site before them.

:o

A/N: There, I FINALLY posted another chapter. I am sooo sorry it took so long to update. I had some issues in my life that kept me from writing. And then it was so long since I updated, I had to reread the entire story just to get back into it. To the people that like reading about his racing career, I hope you enjoyed this chapter. His career will really be taking a jumpstart now. The Whelen Modified Tour is the grass-roots series of NASCAR. Its one of the lowest series in NASCAR and Clark will be getting a lot more exposure.

Princess-Fictoria: Im glad ou enjoyed my story! I don't know where you got the idea Clark is back with Lana lol. Its been mostly Lois lately. The hospital scene was just there to show that Clark and Lana still care for each other, even after everything. About Sophie, I am sad that I had to make her move away. But, I had to, to progress the story. I doubt you will see her again in the story.