Friendship for this one. First chapter of my little AU series, featuring Kate, an OC and Helen later on as well as Thad :) Hope you like it, please drop me a line :) And yes, Experiment Gone Wrong is still in the making. Mostly small drabbles, occasionally longer ones.


Kate hated school. It was boring and annoying and absolutely useless. She'd rather spend her time outside with her friends or doing something, hit the club until the early morning than sit at school. Not like she paid the lessons any attention. Instead she made little balls of paper and threw it at her fellow classmates. Now that was far more fun. She only stopped with it when the lesson ended and she could leave the room.

In the hallway, she spotted a girl from her class she liked to tease and pick on. She was so easy. As clever as the girl was, it was incredibly easy and funny to annoy her. Though there was a new one just a grade below Kate that had caught her attention. Manu, she believed her name was. The younger one was shy and awkward, highly intelligent and apparently absolutely loved studying, if her marks were any indicator. She kept watching her from time to time when she got the chance. Something about her had really gotten her interested. She crunched up her nose when the school bullies headed towards them. They glared at each other but luckily, Kate was always being left alone. Everyone knew she'd have no troubles punching someone to the ground. The small group of students went to Manu, cornering her and grabbing her books and bag, laughing when she got teary.

"Hey, hold that for a sec." Kate said to the girl next to her, pushing her bag into her arms, „And don't drop it."

She walked over to them, people letting her pass upon her expression. She grabbed the bigger one of the two guys harassing Manu and before he even knew what was going on, she had punched him in the face; hard. He stumbled, holding his nose that was bleeding quite badly by now.

"Fuck off. And leave her alone. If I see you bully her again, your next stop is the hospital."

"Bitch."

Kate just grinned at him but him and his friends left, leaving Manu's things behind. She knelt down to the younger girl, offering her her hand to take and tugging her back up when she did.

"You okay? Here."

Manu nodded, sniffling and taking her bag and books again.

"Thank you."

"Sure. They'll leave you alone. See ya later."

Kate waved at her briefly, walking back to get her own bag and leaving the building. She didn't expect the girl to follow her though. There were still classes now after all.

"Wait. What's your name..?"

"Kate. It's Manu, right? You're the intelligentbot around."

"What?"

"Sorry. Just a nickname, don't think anything to it. I have one for most people. Don't you still have classes?"

"I have one free now... Can we.. go have lunch together?"

Kate grinned at her, nodding before they left. This could make for an interesting friendship.