Lois thumbed through the small notepad she was holding in a palm. She had been carrying one since she could remember and used it only for notes on observations. The lined pages were filled to the brim with notes; the penned letters might look like some kind of code to an outsider or an onlooker, but the journalist knew every section of every line and could find any tidbit of information in a second.
Since coming to this place, Lois had been keeping meticulous notes on her daily activities, the environment and anything that might seem suspicious. The notebook was almost halfway completed, and the reporter was getting no further in to the story than when they had arrived and first begun. She didn't like that she was being held up for a reason beyond her control. She needed to get with Clark and pick his brain about anything he might have seen on his nightly flights.
And then Lois sighed softly and smiled to herself at the thought of Clark. There had been a secret there, one Lois intended to keep, but something they shared now between them. He was Superman! Of all of the people in the world he could have been, Clark had chosen a persona completely opposite his normal stature. She understood it, and it was still flooring her. But she smiled about it anyway and then made herself get back on track.
"Focus, Lois..." She breathed to herself.
She was standing in the middle of the hallway, talking to herself like some looney, unaware how crazy she might look to anyone else shuffling down the corridor. In one hand she held a small iced coffee, and the other still held the notebook. Her shoulders were bearing the weight of her shoulder bag with her assortment of textbooks, papers, etc., while also holding her purse. Sometimes beneath the strain she felt a bit like a pack animal.
A swift turn, and Lois managed to run right in to someone whom she hadn't seen there before. She dropped her notebook and reached out to steady the person she had bumped, "Oh gosh! I'm so sorry, I wasn't paying much attention."