47Disclaimer: I don't won White Collar. Just my OC and the general plot for her.
AN: School has started for me. I listened to "Lips are Moving" by Meghan Trainer for part of this.
"Hello, sweetheart."
"Hello, dumbass."
"Your words wounds me."
"Cool. How about my fist wounds you instead?"
"Hmm. How about your lips?"
I slammed my hands face down on the table. "I'm so close to hitting you again, really, I am."
"I thought I did the hitting on?" James cocked his head to the side, brown eyes sparkling.
I groaned, only to be rewarded with a very harsh 'Shhh!" from the other students around me.
"We're in a library, love, you're going to have to be quiet." James tries to put his head near my ear but I take both hands and shove his head back. "We're in a library," I mocked, "I need to study."
"I-" I stopped myself and sighed instead, putting my head on the table. I needed to study, no matter how much I hated it.
It gave me shudders up my spine that I acted this way. Sometimes I wanted to throw everything away and run. I just want to run, run so far away that no one ever, ever finds me. Flip a table or two at school, burn down a museum. Break something. Other times I can't help but want to be near the Burkes. I get a… warm feeling when I'm around them. It felt… homey.
"Thinking of me?"
At school, ever since the 'incident', I was left with quite possibly the most annoying person I've ever met. James. Freaking. Kovad. Also known as the quarterback for the school and the somewhat local flirt. He's made it his personal mission to hang out with me. And make me realize that we're meant to be.
His words.
"James, I'm so close-"
"Tell me more-"
"I SWEAR-" I was interrupted by several 'shhh's'. I stood up, pushing my chair back, and getting away from James. Grumbling, I made my way out of the library. I could hear him follow me out though and into the hallways. I turned swiftly on my heel to face James.
"James, what can I do, to make you leave me alone?" I reasoned for the fifth time.
James pretended to think about it before flashing me a big smirk and answering, "A date."
"That's not leaving me alone." I replied, "That's like, the opposite of leaving someone alone almost."
He shrugged. "One date, Katty. If you-"
"Did you just call me Katty?" My name has several nicknames. Kat, Kate, Katie, Rhiny, whatever. But no one has ever had the-the-the pure audacity to call me 'Katty'. Kat-eee.
He leaned down towards my face, causing me to lean back. "Mhm." He hummed, smiling a slightly smaller smile, "Whatcha gonna do about it, Katty? Gonna bring out your claws?"
I controlled my face so that it was blank. I could not show how much this affected me, it would be disastorous. "I will so kick you in the groin if you continue this, asshole."
James tilted his head to the side, making his eyes wide and giving me a pout. "Ah, but Kat-"
I slammed my hand over his mouth, "Stop." I ordered. I seemed to have shocked him into silence. I rolled my eyes at James. "You're a dumbass, James. A dumbass with potential, but a dumbass never-the-less." With those words, and a slight flushed face, I ran-no, I walked very quickly-away from James, leaving the tall boy speechless.
The next day at school I didn't see James at all. Granted, I saw the back of his head during classes, but otherwise, he didn't approach me at all. I didn't question why and instead basked in the lovely absence of him and his annoying-ey-ness.
When lunch came around, I sat between Kaiden and SJ, who were the only ones whoever wanted to sit next to me, it seemed. "Kaiden," I started, setting down my sandwich and gaining my old comrade's attention. I asked the question that had been on my mind for a while. "Why didn't you write?"
Kaiden didn't have a reaction. He met my stare head on. I ignored the murmuring and the laughing at the lunch table and leaned in closer.
"Why don't you write?"
I slid back into my chair, taking in his words. He had me stumped.
I had never written any letters to the foster home. Just like every single kid before me who had left. Every one of them had swore that they would write, but failed to keep that promise.
Luckily I knew better than to make promises.
SJ burst out, "What was it like?"
"Noisy."
"Dingy."
"Luke-warm."
"Tear-soaked."
"Shitty."
"Fu-"
"Alright!" Someone slammed their hands down on the table in front of me. I took in the kid who had interrupted Kaiden and I's answering. Slightly red in the face, they said, "Do you always swear so much?"
"Get over it, Lily." SJ spouted off, munching on her salad as she listened eagerly to us.
Lily, the kid, rolled her eyes at SJ. "Sorry, but I'm not that comfortable with swearing." She glanced over to Kaiden. "You never used to swear this much until Kat showed up."
Kaiden's cheeks grew flushed and he wouldn't looked at me. "Kaiden." I said, raising an eyebrow. "What does she mean?"
"Oh no!" Lily stammered, "I meant, I mean, I didn't mean to offe-"
"Shut up kid." I snapped. Turning to face Kaiden completely, I asked a different question, "Did you turn good-boy on me?"
After a pause, Kiaden finally glanced up and admitted, "Technically, you were never here before, so…" Seeing my face Kaiden groaned and rolled his eyes. "For fu-"
"Kaiden!"
"Pete's sake," Kaiden corrected, glaring at Lily. "Listen, Honesty Policy, my…" His face looked strained for a moment before he continued, "Parents, are pretty good, alright? So I just, well, you know…"
"You wanted to stay." I filled in. "So you cleaned up?"
Kaiden nodded, looking embarrassed and reluctant.
SJ bursted in again with a different question, "Whose Caffrey?"
I knew that she was probably just doing so to change the subject. Still, I answered, "A conman, grifter, alleged art forger… Also, an idiot."
Kaiden spat out his drink. "What?!" He cried, outraged, "What do you mean, an idiot?"
I shrugged my shoulders, "Well, maybe idiot isn't the right word…" I thought for a moment before coming up with a better description of Neal Caffrey. "A romantic." I confirmed.
There was a brief pause before Lily broke it. "Isn't that a good thing?" She asked, tilting her cute little head to the side.
Kaiden snorted, "If you're this piece of shi-"
"Ahem."
"Jeez Lily, get over it. Anyway, this piece of crap happens to be not so good with feelings-"
I interrupted Kaiden, "I'm just saying! You've only got a couple of months left, and then you escape freaking prison for a girl? Why?! I mean, it's just plain stupid."
SJ and Lily stared at me and I stared back. I repeated, "I'm right, right?"
Simultaneously, they chimed in high voices, "How romantic!"
"Ugh!" I threw up my hands and laid my head down on the table. "I just don't think so."
"Mhm," Murmured Kaiden. "C'mon Kat, we both know you think he's totally hot."
I slammed my hand over Kaiden's mouth. My cheeks slightly pinker, I corrected him. "I never said that." I replied icily.
"But you think it." SJ tried.
"Who do you think that is totally hot?"
Enter James into the increasingly frustrating equation. "Not the time, dumbass."
He tried to lean on my shoulder but I scooted my chair back, making him move out of the way. I flicked Kaiden on the forehead, "So what if he's good-looking?" I said, scoffing. "He's like, three times my age."
"I highly doubt that."
I shrugged my shoulders, "I'm not saying anything definite."
"You just said he was three times your age!"
"Take heed of the 'like' I placed in there, SJ."
"Kat!" James whined, tugging slightly on the hat I was wearing. "Who are you talking about?"
I slowly turned towards him. "Quite possibly the most clever man I've ever met." However, I did not meet James's eyes, nor did my voice retain its usually low tones. Shoving my terrible lying skills behind me, I walked away from the lunch table, leaving no goodbyes behind.
"You're in so much trouble." I whispered to Neal. I shared a look with Elizabeth. "Peter's beyond pissed that you lied to him." I 'tutted'. "Almost feels kind of nice to be the one who isn't in trouble."
Neal frowned at me a little and retorted, "Don't you have homework you need to do?"
I laughed, "Yeah right, I'm all-" I froze, thinking over everything that day that happened at school. Eyes wide, I shot up and scrambled up the stairs. "Shit!" I swore, remembering that I still had an entire math problem set to do.
I heard chuckles down the stairs briefly, before hearing Neal getting chewed out by Peter.
I smirked to myself, before frowning at the homework left for me.
The end!
Hello, my friends! What did you think of this chapter? It's shorter, but I was kind of lost on how to continue, you know… That ending bit was from like the fifth or sixth episode? I don't know, lost track a bit.
Anyway, school's keeping me busy, but I'm trying to update this! If you read any of my other stories, you'll notice I haven't updated in a while. Currently, my focus is on this story, and EHCLL. I might update IAAB, or ARBAON, but those are not likely.
However, EHCLL just got an update! Yay!
Please review, and with that out of the way, it's time say-
-GP2 OUT!