1.19 - Crush

Chloe and Pete go to a rave in the Kawatchi caves; Pete is worried about them and the paintings, Chloe is sure everything is going to be fine.  When they get inside, they notice people acting abnormally - Chloe's dorky chemistry partner tried to make out with her and then jumped to his death (a Clark and Superman riffs); Pete gets bitten by one of the worms in the cave.

The next day, Chloe finds out from Lana that Lana and Clark are going on a date when she asked Lana to go shopping with her and talk about what happened to her chemistry partner; Chloe tells her to go for it, not to let her "be [Lana's] excuse."  Later that day, when she asks Clark if he has plans for the weekend he dodges her question.  Clark brings up that Pete skipped school and helping out on the memorial issue; Chloe points out that her chemistry partner had a small puncture wound in the back of his neck as did two Smallville Community College students. 

There is a job fair at SHS and Chloe finds out that the Daily Planet only accepts four high school internships. When Clark reminds her that Lex is willing to get her a job at the Inquisitor, Chloe protests - "No. I'm interning at the Planet, I don't care if it's delivering coffee to the classified department." Pete tells her to try again when she goes to the journalism conference; only Clark forgot to buy the tickets. Chloe is frustrated that Clark's not willing to spend non-school time around her any more and tells him that while "most men are from Mars, [he's] from some distant planet [she's] never even heard of."

Justin Gains, former Torch cartoonist, shows up back at SHS and tells her he probably won't becoming back to the paper. Chloe tells him that she's re-adjusting her priorities as well and agrees to go out for coffee with him fresh off her fight with Clark.

Chloe and Clark attend a party out at Crater Lake where Chloe makes the first reference to Lois in the whole series: "Just because I don't have raven hair and the initials L.L. doesn't mean that guys don't find me attractive, Clark." Of course, given Lana's looks in the series, it has a double play to Clark's official love interest on the show as well. 

When Clark is not happy about Chloe's choice in possible boyfriends, Pete tries to hook Chloe and Clark up. Clark is right to worry; Sean Kelvin is bad for her and is the first in a line of bad relationships for Chloe in the series. Chloe makes a crack about being a Crash Test Dummy (a reference to their Superman Song, no doubt) for their dating skills and tells both of them to treat her better. The three of them run into Sean later that day where he blows Chloe off because she's putting the paper to bed; she comments how once Clark hooks up with Lana, there is no "luck left for the rest of us."