Clark met Sam right outside of his school as soon as classes let out the next day. He'd been diligently scanning everyone in all of his classes all day, just like Sam had said.

He did get scolded a little by his English teacher for making funny looks at other students when he was supposed to be answering a question she asked him, and Chloe teased him a little about it, but after that he learned to be more aware of what his face looked like when he used his X-ray vision. He didn't really need to squint to use it. It was also nice to practice looking into people at certain depths—he could see through just clothes to skin, or through just skin to muscles, or to internal organs, but all of those were pretty awkward, so he got used to looking deeper, at the bones.

For better or for worse, though, he never found the shape shifter. One of the guys on the football team seemed to have a broken collarbone that he was ignoring, but that was the strangest thing Clark saw all day. Not a trace of green on anyone's skeleton.

He sat beside Sam on a bench just outside of campus, scanning everyone who passed by. "Have you heard from Dean today?" Clark asked.

"Yeah. He's going to the bank to talk to some witnesses. Says some girl named . . . Carly or Chloe or something, came by the mansion."

"Chloe went to see Lex?"

"You know her?"

"She's one of my best friends."

A short pause, then Sam asked very softly, "Does she know your secret?"

"No. I told you, you're the only one who knows, besides my parents."

"Are you ever going to tell anyone?"

Clark grimaced. His dad had had a lot more talks with him recently about the danger of his secret, and the fact that he wasn't the only one who might be hurt as a result of it. "I'm sorry, Sam, but if I could go back and stop myself from telling you, I would."

"But . . . that's so stupid."

Clark's breath caught. "It's not safe, Sam!"

"Neither is what we do! But we tell people who need to know."

"That's different."

"How is it different?"

"Because your secret won't make people want to dissect you."

"How can anyone dissect you? A knife won't cut your skin."

"It will if there's meteor rock around."

That quieted Sam down for a bit.

Clark kept scanning people for a minute, then he said, "It's not just unsafe for me. It's unsafe for anyone who knows."

"Maybe," Sam said, "but . . . what if you get married?"

"I don't know if I can."

"Aren't you, like, in love with that pretty girl next door?"

Clark's cheeks felt hot. "Lana."

"So, what are you going to do? Ask her out, date her, then . . . what, lie to her forever?"

"I can't help how I feel. That's a big part of why I haven't tried to talk to her yet. I don't know . . . where that can even go, but . . ." Clark looked up at Sam. "Haven't you ever wanted something you knew you couldn't have, but you had to try anyway?"

Sam let his breath out. "Yeah. But mine's different. I'm willing to do what it takes to get what I want."

"You like someone?"

"No, I want to get out of hunting."

"But . . ." Clark shook his head. "You get to travel around the country saving lives."

"I'm homeless and I don't have any friends."

"You have me."

"Yeah, and I see you, like, once every two years. Do you know what it's like to go to a new school every few months, sometimes every few weeks? Having to pack up all of your things and just go? I'm eighteen. I've never had a real girlfriend, or a group of friends, or a dog, or a bedroom that I got to keep. And . . . there are always hunters around. Yeah, you save lives, but so do doctors and firefighters and lots of other people, and . . . there are other ways to make a difference, you know? I want a life. A real life."

"What are you going to do?"

"I'm applying to college."

"Your dad's okay with it?"

"My dad doesn't know."

Clark hissed. "That's rough."

"He's probably going to kill me, but . . . I dunno, my SAT scores were really high, and I had good grades in the end, and I got some help on my entrance essays. Maybe I can get into a really good school and get a scholarship, and maybe . . . my dad might even be proud of me."

Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website.

Clark smiled. "I'm sure he will be."

Sam didn't smile back.

They were quiet for awhile after that, Clark scanning each person who left the school building. It was down to the last few stragglers on campus; he doubted a shape shifter would be hanging out at the school so late. "Sam, I don't think the shifter is here," Clark said.

Sam sighed. "Okay. Maybe Chloe was wrong, and it's not a teenager."

"Or the shifter is a teenager but he's pretending to be an adult, so he's not at the school."

"That, too. Let's go into town and have a look there?"

Clark nodded. "It's worth a try."

----------------------------------------

Chloe barely paid attention in her classes that day. She spent every spare minute she could in the Torch office going over files, as well as perusing school documentation. She'd managed to get access to the school administrators' documents ages ago; it was pretty strictly against the rules, and it would definitely get her fired if anyone found out about it, but it had also saved her more trouble than she ever could have anticipated. Besides, it wasn't the only skeleton in her closet. Being a school reporter didn't come with many privileges.

Specifically, she'd been looking at students' attendance records and comparing them to the medical information the school had on file. If the shifter was a student, they would probably have a lot of absences over the past few days, and there was a good chance they would have been absent on the day of the robbery. It had taken place after school, but bank robbery probably took a lot of preparation. She didn't know how long it took the person to change from one form to another, but Chloe figured if she were planning to rob a bank, she wouldn't be able to focus at school.

The attendance records weren't very helpful, though. The school was just too big; there were several dozen students absent on the day of the robbery, for various reasons, several of them unexcused. She tried narrowing it down to only students living below the poverty line, since they were the ones who would be most likely to have motive to rob a bank, but apparently, kids from poorer backgrounds were also the ones who missed school more. Unfortunately, it didn't narrow her search by very much.

She thought about narrowing it down to just the boys, but if the person was a shape shifter, it didn't have to be a guy—it could be a girl who had taken Lex's form. She started looking through the people individually. She didn't know everyone in the school, but she knew a fair number of the names on the list. Some were people who she knew would never try to rob a bank; kids who came from solid, hardworking families and never would have done anything dishonest. She could be wrong, but with a long list of leads, she could return to the unlikely ones later.

After narrowing those down, she was left with a dozen names. She started looking through the medical histories that the school had on file. They weren't complete medical files, but the school had information about anything important, just in case a health issue came up during school hours. One of them had severe allergies, one had a learning disability—neither of those seemed to have anything to do with what Chloe was looking for.

One of them had had a rare bone disorder as a young child that had been cured with an experimental treatment involving meteor rocks.

Jackpot.

Chloe carefully logged out of everything on her computer, so she wouldn't be caught with the incriminating files, and headed out.

Tina Greer. Her mom ran a jewelry shop in town, so Tina would know a few things about theft and security. She was awkward, always trying to hang around Lana and some of the other cheerleaders even though she had never made it onto the squad. As far as Chloe knew, the jewelry shop wasn't doing very well, either. Everything fit.

The town was in walking distance from the school—Chloe often spent time at the Beanery when classes let out, if she was in the mood for a busier work atmosphere, but there was no time to make a stop today, not even for coffee. She went straight to the jewelry shop.

The front door was locked, which was weird, since the sign said they were open and the shop wasn't supposed to close for another three hours. All the more reason to be suspicious. Chloe glanced around to make sure no one was watching, and she slipped between the buildings. A lot of these shops had a back entrance.

Sure enough, there was a back door to the shop, and it wasn't even locked. All the more evidence that something wasn't as it should be.

The first thing that struck her was the smell. It was like the factory where her dad worked, except worse. A lot worse. It smelled like something had died. Or maybe someone. Chloe swallowed hard, gritted her teeth, and started rummaging through all of the cabinets that were big enough to hold a body.

Of course, that didn't mean she was expecting to find one.

----------------------------------------

Dean was wrapping up going over some details about the robbery with Lex when Sam called the mansion. Lex handed the phone over to Dean, who said, "Hey. Find anything?"

"Not yet," Sam said. "Clark hasn't seen anyone acting suspicious. We looked all around the school and around town."

Dean really hadn't expected anything to come of that, anyway. "Well, why don't you get over here and do some real work?"

"I will after dinner. Aunt Martha cooked, I don't want to be rude. And . . . I dunno, Dean, there's no evidence the shifter's actually killing anyone. Maybe there's no case here."

"I'm gonna pretend you didn't say that."

"Come on, Dean, think about it."

"There's nothing to think about. It's a thing, Sam. We gank things. It's what we do."

"No, that's not what we do. Our job is hunting evil."

"Yeah, and this shifter landed an innocent man in jail." Dean knew Sam wasn't into hunting, but he really got sick of these kinds of arguments.

"Yeah. The guy pretends he's Lex to rob a bank. Lex has an alibi, shifter realizes it's not so easy to get away with crime. Maybe he gives up."

"Okay, but who even thinks that way?"

"Kids, Dean. What if it is just a teenager?"

"Sammy, I'm not playing this game. Our job is black and white. We kill monsters before they kill us."

"And if this one's not killing? Is bank robbery worthy of a death sentence?"

"Sam—"

"You're really gonna kill a kid?"

Dean groaned. He hated it when Sam had a point. "Okay, maybe not. But we still have to find this thing, we can't just let it go."

"Fine. I'm just saying, maybe it's not causing as much trouble as we think."

"What's your point?"

"I'm gonna enjoy dinner with the Kents. I'll catch up with you after."

"Fine." Dean was definitely going to use this against Sam next time he wanted more freedom on a hunt, though. "Maybe I'll come meet you."

"Aunt Martha's been asking about you, she'd love to see you."

Just then, Dean's police radio started blaring. Something about a dead body at a jewelry shop. "I've got to go," he said.

"Okay. Talk to you later."

"Yeah." Dean hung up and looked over at Lex. "Something happened."

Lex was staring at the police radio. Dean could have sworn he could see sweat beading on the sides of his head. "You think the shifter killed someone?" Lex asked.

"He might have been trying to rob the jewelry shop."

"I dunno, Dean. They didn't kill anyone at the bank."

"Maybe something went wrong." Dean stood up. "I'm going to go check it out. You should stay back."

"Why?"

"Because I'm here on your behalf, and I don't need the police suspecting that I know you."

Lex nodded. "Smart."

"If I'm not back in an hour, call Sam and tell him to find me."

"At the jewelry shop?"

"He can start there, yeah."

"Okay." Lex swallowed hard.

"You doing okay, Luthor?"

"Yeah," Lex said, but he was definitely sweating. "Just, ah, if whoever killed that woman was using my face, I don't have an alibi this time."

"There's security cameras in the mansion, right?"

"Ah. Right." Lex sighed, but he didn't look particularly relieved to Dean.

Dean clapped him on the shoulder and headed out.