Disclaimer: I don't own Castle, but it would be totally awesome if I did!

It was a long day at the precinct. Detective Kate Beckett was finally going to be able to go home to her cozy little apartment in the city. Her case that day took so long to close, and Castle's little smart remarks every two seconds didn't help either. It's not like she didn't like them, the smart remarks, but work has to be done. They had to take a huge stroll down the victim's memory lane to find the answers. It made her think about her past. It seemed to be so long since she took a look at those old yearbooks. Those horrifying, high school yearbooks.

Kate never even opened her yearbooks since she got them. She was really tempted to look, but didn't want to open them up and get engrossed into searching for all her school crushes for hours. Wait, since when did Kate Beckett, Detective Kate Beckett at that, back down from a challenge? It was just a stupid yearbook! She braced herself, and searched for her yearbook box.

She had put, no, more liked stuffed, all her high school memorabilia away when her mom died. She wanted to move on, start a new life. Not that it worked… (No offense Castle.)

Aha, there it was. She pulled it down, and searched through. Oh god, there were her high school yearbooks. She couldn't resist this time. She plucked it out, and opened to the back. That's where all of the student titles, and dances, and school spirit stuff were.

It was kind of fun, seeing all her old memories. There were her friends, herself as the winner of the chemistry test, and all the school proms. She looked at all the couples, and looked for herself. She wondered if she even went. She forgot all her happy high school memories when her mom died. Oh wait, there she was, with…

"Holy crap!!!!" she thought.

Her "date" looked mysteriously like a certain writer that shadowed her everyday.

" There must be a mistake," she thought. "He didn't even go to my high school!" she exclaimed.

But the more she thought about it, the more the memory came back to her…

15-year old Kate Beckett was never interested in guys, or the new fashion, or prom queen or anything like that. At least that's what everyone thought. No one besides her knew about her secret crush. She just stuffed the thought into the back of her brain. She only focused on studying hard and getting good grades. She never even noticed when Richard Castle, the high school hottie, stared at her when she was studying. She didn't notice, until he went up to her in the public lunchroom and asked her to the Spring Prom. She heard a loud gasp at the cheerleaders' table.

"Um, sure?" she answered. It came out more like a question.

"Great. Pick you up at seven."

He left the lunchroom, and she quickly dumped her tray so she could make the first bell.

During History, Kate couldn't concentrate at all because she kept thinking about what she was going to wear, what car did he drive, would it be flashy, and she daydreamed all through class. Even when her teacher congratulated her for acing the super-easy Mesopotamia quiz that she learned about in the sixth grade, she kept daydreaming.

She rushed home as soon as the bell rang, and was so excited that when she got home she screamed," MOM!!! I GOT A DATE TO THE DANCE!!" But then she remembered her mom was working. Her dad was working too, so he wasn't home either. Then she also remembered: she hadn't even had her mom's consent to even go! She texted her mom, and even though she got no response, she ran to her room to get ready.

She didn't really have anything dressy to wear, since she only wore jeans and some faded T-shirts to school. She searched through her whole closet until she saw her tight green dress that she wore to her aunt's reception. She thought about how it would bring out the green in her eyes, and ran to the bathroom to try it on. It fit! She just applied some light green eye shadow, easy blush, and put on some of her mom's lipstick. Oh, and don't forget the lipstick.

She glanced at the clock: 6:56. She wrote a quick note to her mom about where she was, and heard her doorbell ring. She rushed to open it, and there stood a very handsome, very young looking Richard Castle.

"Ready?" he asked.

" Yeah! Let's go!" Kate was so excited.

They jumped into his silver Ferrari. Kate was so freaked that she didn't even care that it polluted the environment.

Once they arrived, arm in arm, they entered the dance. It was so beautiful! She saw the twinkling lights, the very creative outfits, and her stomach fluttered as she saw that they were headed to the photo booth.

"Smile!" the picture-guy said.

Kate smiled her biggest smile; she hoped that it wouldn't look cheesy when it came out in the yearbook.

"I'll be right back," Richard told her. " I have to use the restroom."

Kate sat down at the snack table and ate a small Ritz cracker topped with who knows what. She waited for her date to return.

Seven more songs had passed, and she wondered where he was. She decided to look around for him, taking a cup of grape juice with her. She left the room, and turned the corner. There, right there, was Richard Castle, her date, making out with the head cheerleader, Meredith.

Kate dropped her drink. They both turned toward her, and a single traitor tear fell down Kate's face.

"Is that your date?" Meredith asked. "She looks so, familiar. Wait, aren't you the girl who won the geometry bee? She's your date?" She asked, turning back to Rick.

"Ex-date," Kate answered before Rick could say a word.

She quickly stormed off, and walked home in the rain. Figures. All she could think was," Why did he do that? To humiliate me? What did I ever do to him?!" The more she thought about it, the angrier she got. Finally, she got home and plopped face first on her pillow, swearing to never look at the yearbook, and to never, ever, have feelings for Richard Castle again.

A shrill ring pierced the air. Kate quickly snapped out of her memory, and went to answer her phone.

"Beckett."

"Hey Beckett. Or should I say, Kate?"

She knew that voice anywhere, sadly. "What, Castle?"

"You know the case we closed today?"

'Yeah. What? Did something change? Did the boys find something knew?"

"Geez! Calm down Beckett! You're such a workaholic."

"Well then what?! I don't have all day, Castle. Or all night, quite frankly."

"Well, I was just looking flipping through my old high school yearbooks…"

All the color instantly drained from Kate's face.

Thanks for reading! Reviews would be very helpful! Sorry if it's not very good, it's my first fanfiction of any kind. Thanks again for taking the time to read!