Never Saw Blue Like That: Part 1

by Erin Kaye Hashet

"Kaitlyn, this is William Mulder. He'll be your lab partner for the year. You two can sit at that table over there."

Title: Never Saw Blue Like That
Author: Estrellita, aka Erin Kaye Hashet
Rating: G
Category: S, R
Keywords: Uh... other character romance, I guess.
FutureFic... William, maybe.
Distribution: Anywhere you want is fine with me!
Feedback: EKHashet@hotmail.com
Spoilers: Existence
Summary: "Kaitlyn, this is William Mulder. He'll
be your lab partner for the year. You two can sit
at that table over there."
Disclaimer: I don't own Mulder, Scully, William,
or the song "Never Saw Blue Like That." However,
I do own Kaitlyn Taylor. She's all mine!
Author's Notes: At the beginning this doesn't look
very much like a fanfic, but keep reading- it turns
into one. Mulder and Scully will show up eventually.

Never Saw Blue Like That
by Estrellita, aka Erin Kaye Hashet

I was fourteen the year we moved to Maryland. "We"
meant my father, Joe; my stepmother, Adrienne; my
seventeen-year-old brother Sebastian; Adrienne's
twin boys, seven-year-old Mike and Ricky; and me. By
then, I'd lost track of how many times we'd moved. My
dad was in the army, so we had to move around a lot.
"Army brat," I think, is the term they use for kids like
me. Ironic, really, since I was anything but a brat.

My stepbrothers were the real brats. You remember
that one kid in your second-grade class who was loud
and rude and obnoxious- "disruptive" is the word
teachers use- and always getting sent to the principal's
office? Well, that was Mike and Ricky in a nutshell. At
home they were no better. They thought it was funny to
do things like read my diary or lock me out of the house,
or spit mashed potatoes all over me at dinner. So,
needless to say, they took up a lot of Dad and Adrienne's
time and energy.

The rest of their time and energy was taken up by
Sebastian. Sebastian was seventeen and got into
worse and worse trouble with every move. He'd been
caught skipping school, keying cars, getting drunk,
doing drugs, you name it. He, perhaps, took up even more
time than Mike and Ricky.

My real mom died when I was nine. I was upset when she
died, but while she was alive, I never really liked her.
She was an alcoholic, and when she was drunk, which
was often, she had a horrible temper. She was angry
and loud and would bang things and yell at me. She had
died in a drunken car crash.

My father was an okay guy once you got past the fact
that he didn't pay much attention to me. I could forgive
him for that, considering what else he had to deal with.
What I could not forgive was how he and Adrienne had
gotten together. Adrienne had been a friend of my mother's.
When she died, Dad was sad, but I remember thinking that
he seemed a bit relieved. Soon I found out why. He and
Adrienne married as soon as she finalized her divorce from
the husband she'd been cheating on with my father. The
next time we moved, she, Mike, and Ricky came with us.
Even though I hadn't liked my mother, the idea that my
father had been disloyal to her made my blood boil. How
*dare* he?

Then there was Adrienne, who gave new meaning to the
term "wicked stepmother." She would have liked me a lot
better if I had been the popular, "wicked cool" teenager
that I'm sure she was. Before my first day at my high school
in Missouri, she'd said to me, all conversational, like a
girlfriend, "So, Kait, are you going to try out for
cheerleading?"

I'd looked at her in disbelief. Smart, buck-
toothed, uncoordinated girls like me did not go out for
cheerleading. "No," I'd replied. After that, Adrienne had
no use for me.

This is the point in the story where most people
in my position would say they turned to drugs or
alcohol or sex. But Sebastian had gotten all the
rebellious genes of our family. I had gotten the
smart genes. So instead, I turned to school.
Getting good grades was the greatest pleasure in
my life. It was so satisfying to get a really hard test
back with an A+ on top. It gave me a kind of happiness
that I couldn't get anywhere else. I wondered sometimes
if that was how Sebastian felt when he did drugs.

It hadn't been quite as satisfying at my high
school in Missouri, though. I'd found that
honors students tended to be the nicest
ones in the school- less likely to make fun of
me because I was smart and because my
teeth stuck out- and since I was smart, I was
usually in honors classes. But my school in
Missouri didn't believe in grouping- thought it
was degrading or something. So I ended up in
classes with all kinds of people, many of whom
made fun of me. But I was optimistic about my new
high school in Maryland. This school did group
us by level. Plus, I had braces by that time, and
my teeth looked a lot better.

Unfortunately, I found on my first day of
school that honors students may be nicer
than most kids, but no less cliqueish. They
were all divided into little groups and didn't
pay one lick of attention to me. A few kids
introduced themselves in a kind of oh-hey-
you're-the-new-girl-nice-to-meet-you kind of
way, but that was it. It was like that for my
first two classes, English and history.

Then came Physical Science Honors.

When I got to the class I had no idea where
to sit. Everyone sat at these big, heavy lab
tables, in groups of two. The teacher was
really nice. Her name was Ms. Larson, and
she was young and pretty, with short blonde
hair. I went up to her and asked, very quietly,
"Um, hi. Um, I don't know where I should sit. . ."

"Oh, yes," she replied, and introduced me to
the class. "Class, this is Kaitlyn Taylor. She
just moved here from..." She looked at me for
an answer.

"Missouri," I supplied.

"Missouri," she echoed. "We're going to have
to find a lab partner for Kaitlyn. Let's see." She
pursed her lips and scanned the room. "Well, we
have one group of three that we can split up." She
looked at a group of three boys sitting towards the
back of the room. "Will, would you mind being
partners with Kaitlyn for the rest of the year?"

The boy looked surprised, but he just said, "Okay."

"Great." Smiling, Ms. Larson walked me toward the
back of the room. "Kaitlyn, this is William Mulder.
He'll be your lab partner for this year. You two can
sit at that table over there."

I took a good look at Will then. My God, he was cute.
He was pretty tall, and thin, with reddish-brown hair
and these amazing true-blue eyes.

He looked over at me as we sat at the table together.
"Hi," he whispered with a smile.

Oh, God, what a smile. He looked about a million times
cuter than he already did when he smiled. And those
eyes- I had never before seen eyes that were such a
deep shade of blue. "Hi," I quickly whispered back.

"Okay, guys," Ms. Larson said, "take out the pre-lab
I gave you yesterday." She walked over and handed it
to me.

I looked it over and grimaced. It had to do with the
laws of physics- we hadn't studied that in my old
school. This was one of the worst parts of moving-
being behind in schoolwork. It happened all the time.

"What's wrong?" Will asked me suddenly. Apparently
he'd noticed the look on my face.

I looked at him. "Nothing," I replied quietly. "Just- I
haven't had this before."

"Oh." He sounded concerned- honestly concerned.
"Well, we're lab partners- I can help you with it."

Now he had my full attention. This was something
completely new- a guy being nice to me for no reason
on my first day of school. It was so unexpected that
for a second I didn't know what to say. Finally I just
whispered, "Thanks."

* * *
Will was a good teacher. After hearing his
explanation and reading over the section in
my textbook, I actually mastered the laws of
physics pretty well. When we got our lab report
back a few days later, it had an A on top of it. *Yes!*
I thought. I was happy for the rest of the day.
Now that I think about it, grades like that were probably
what kept me from having low self-esteem, which most
kids in my position would probably have had.

Then Ms. Larson announced that we would be having
a test on the whole chapter. That got me really
nervous, since we'd been in the middle of the chapter
on my first day. I would have to learn the beginning of
the chapter on my own.

So I studied. And studied and studied and studied.
*You can do this,* I told myself. *Just study hard
enough, and you can do this.*

I took the test. And two days later, I nervously
drummed my fingers on the lab table as Ms. Larson
handed back the tests. "This was a hard test," she
said. "Really, I'm impressed. I didn't expect many A's,
but we did have a few."

"Sweet!" I heard Will say under his breath next to
me as his test was handed back. He'd gotten a 91.

Ms. Larson started to walk toward me. I held my
breath as she set my test down on the table.
"Congratulations, Kaitlyn," she said with a smile.
In disbelief I looked down at the number written at
the top of the test. 100.

"Hey!" Next to me Will sounded surprised and happy.
"I thought you said you hadn't had any of this
before!"

"I *haven't*," I said, still not believing my eyes.
100. I looked over the test. There wasn't a single
correction mark anywhere on it. My face broke
into a smile. I was pretty proud of myself.

It was kind of pathetic. I felt like a little kid who
was proud of a painting that she'd made in art class,
but I was really dying for Dad and Adrienne to see it.
I guess I was hoping that if they saw it that maybe
they'd think, "Well, we have one juvenile delinquent
and two second-grade delinquents, but we also have
one really great kid- she's smart and she works hard
and gets good grades."

When I got home, there was a note on the table:

Kaitlyn,
We have a therapy meeting with Sebastian from
five to seven. Before we leave for the meeting we'll
pick up Mike and Ricky from day care and drop them
off at home. Please watch them until we get back.
For dinner you can make macaroni and cheese for
the three of you. See you when we get back.
Love,
Dad and Adrienne

My head dropped. I let out a long, exasperated sigh.
Teriffic, I thought, just teriffic. I set the test down
on the kitchen counter, in hopes that Dad and Adrienne
would see it when they got home. Then I headed to my
room to try and get done as much homework as I could
before I had to baby-sit the little brats.

A little before five, the front door opened and Mike
and Ricky came bounding through the door. "Ricky got
sent to the prin-ci-paaal..." Mike sang out.

"Shut up!" Ricky yelled. "I did not!"

"Yes, you diiiiid," Mike taunted. "He stuck bubble gum
in a girl's hair on pur-pose..."

"I did not! It popped out of my mouth."

"Enough!" I yelled, exasperated with them even
though they'd only been home thirty seconds. I
exhaled. "Look, guys, I have homework to do here.
You guys go watch TV or something, okay?" I figured
if they were in the next room, they'd be entertained by
the TV and I'd still be able to keep an eye on them.

"But I'm *hungry*," Mike whined.

"Me *too*," Ricky chimed in.

I sighed. "Fine," I said. "Go watch TV and I'll make you
some macaroni and cheese."

I heard them flipping from channel to channel in the
family room as I studied the directions on the macaroni
and cheese box. While I was microwaving it, I suddenly
got a funny feeling. The TV had been on one channel
for awhile- and it was the news. Somehow I didn't think
Mike and Ricky were big fans of the news...

Then I heard the toilet flush, followed by giggling.
Not a good sign.

When I went to check the bathroom, I found Mike
and Ricky standing by the toilet, into which was
stuffed my blue cardigan sweater, which I had placed
on the back of my chair.

"Oh, my God!" I cried, trying desperately to yank my
sweater from the toilet. I pulled at it and pulled at it
until finally it came free- soaking wet and torn in the
sleeve.

I'll leave the next two hours up to your imagination.
Suffice to say that I did not get one bit of homework
done.

A little after seven, Dad, Adrienne, and Sebastian
came through the door. Dad had a pizza box in his arms
and Adrienne was carrying some papers. "Honestly,"
she muttered, setting the papers down on top of my
test. She rubbed her forehead as if it ached. "I have
had such a bad day."

I stood quietly, looking at my test underneath all those
papers. "I didn't know you were getting pizza," I said. "I
wouldn't have made macaroni and cheese."

"Well, you had to feed Mike and Ricky something,
Kaitlyn. You really think they would have made it to
seven o'clock without food?" Dad replied irritably,
opening the pizza box. Therapy meetings always made
him grouchy.

"How were they, by the way?" Adrienne asked,
taking a piece of pizza.

I was silent for a moment, still looking at the test.
I sighed. "They were fine," I replied finally. "I have to
go do homework." I turned and headed upstairs. Maybe
they'd see it later.

* * *
When I went downstairs in the morning, my eyes
automatically drifted to the counter where the test
had been. It wasn't there.

Sebastian was arguing with Dad. "I can't believe
you're making me take the bus!" he exploded. "I'm not
a freshman, Dad! Nobody in my grade takes the bus!"

"Sebastian, you actually think we could trust you with
a car?" Dad replied incredulously. "After all your
shenanigans? All your accidents?"

I checked the refrigerator, not that Dad and
Adrienne had ever put one of my tests on the
refrigerator before, but you never know. Then
a horrible idea occurred to me...

"Sebastian, if you'd act like an adult, we'd treat
you like one," Dad continued.

"If you'd *treat* me like an adult, I'd *act* like one!"
he countered.

I opened the trash compactor as they continued
arguing. Sitting on top were all of the papers
Adrienne had had last night. Shakily, I lifted them.

There it was. They'd thrown out my A. My 100.
They hadn't even looked at it.

Over the years, I've become an expert at holding in
tears when I don't want people to see me cry. I look
at the ceiling and let the tears run backwards, behind
my eyes. But sooner or later, the tears had to come out.
I hoped that this time it would be later rather than
sooner.

I held the tears in through the whole bus ride, but I
knew it couldn't last. As soon as I got to school, I ran
right to the bathroom and locked myself in a stall.

My eyes ran like faucets, and since there was no one
in the bathroom to hear me, I sobbed loudly. *I hate my
life,* I thought miserably. *I hate my life.*

When I couldn't cry anymore, I wiped my eyes and
opened the stall door. I looked around...oh, God.

There were urinals on the wall. I couldn't believe
it. I was in the *boys'* bathroom!

I stood there for a moment, contemplating what to
do. Should I go outside? Someone might see me
coming out! But while I lingered in indecision, the
bathroom door swung open.

*NO!* I felt like crying out. I closed my eyes for a
second. I was caught red-handed now, and there
was nothing I could do.

But the person who walked through the door
was Will Mulder.

He stared at me for a second in disbelief. "Kaitlyn?"
he said, and his tone of voice wasn't mocking or hostile,
but soft and a bit confused. "What are you doing
in here?"

That he wasn't making fun of me was heartening, but
I was still embarassed. "I-" I took a gulp of air. "I- I'm
sorry, I must have come into the wrong bathroom."

He was looking at me curiously. "You've been crying!"
he said with concern when he saw my tearstained
face. "What's wrong?"

*Everything,* I thought. *I hate my parents, I hate
my brothers, nobody appreciates me, and my really
cute lab partner just caught me in the boys'
bathroom.* Suddenly, everything exploded inside
of me and my eyes filled with tears again.

"Hey," he said, his voice soft and gentle. He took
my arm. "C'mon."

I could have said no, could have told him that no, I
just wanted to be alone, because I did, kind of. But
something about him made me trust him, made me just
want to follow him. And I did- right to Cafeteria II,
where he led me.

The door was open, but the cafe was completely
silent.

"Nobody's ever in here at the beginning of the
day," he said to me as we sat down at a table. "People
go to Cafe I to drink coffee and stuff, but nobody
ever goes here. Except me," he added. "Sometimes I go
here when I just want to think."

I managed a shaky smile. "I'll remember that."

"So what is wrong?" he asked me again.

I exhaled. "It's probably going to sound stupid," I
said finally. "It's just- well, I wanted my parents
to see that test I got 100 on, so I left it on the
counter, and- and they didn't even look at it. They
just threw it out."

Will looked surprised. "Oh," he said, and though
he was trying to be sympathetic, I could tell he
didn't really understand.

"And- and just other things," I continued. "Like
last night, they made me baby-sit my stepbrothers-
who stuffed my sweater down the toilet- and they
didn't even say thank you." I sighed. "I really hate
my parents sometimes," I confessed.

Will smiled. "I know exactly how you feel," he said.
"Sometimes I hate mine, too."

For the first time that day, I smiled. "Really?"

"Yeah," he said. "Parents suck, don't they?"

"You're telling me?"

"Now, you're *sure* you're okay?" Will asked me
again.

"Yeah," I said, and smiled to show that I was.

"Good," said Will, and flashed his gorgeous smile
back at me.

I think that was the moment I began to fall in
love with him.

* * *
Over the next couple of weeks I got to know Will
better. He had a cool sense of humor, and being
his lab partner, I got to see a lot of it. He wasn't
popular, exactly, but the people who knew him liked
him, and he had a large group of friends he sat with
at lunch. He was the only freshman on the varsity
basketball team, and in the spring he was going out
for baseball. He was smart- he was in all honors
classes like me, although science was the only class
we had together. And he was the sweetest guy I had
ever met. Ever.

The most amazing thing was that he liked me. Me,
Kaitlyn Marie Taylor, who no guy had ever looked
at twice before. For a long time I wasn't sure- I
thought maybe he was just nice to everybody, and
the way he treated me wasn't anything special. But
then one day he asked me, "What lunch do you have?"

"Lunch two," I replied.

Will looked surprised. "Really? Me, too, but I've
never seen you there. Where do you usually sit?"

I blushed. Since I'd moved, I'd been eating lunch in
the library. I hadn't yet made anyone whom I
considered to be a close enough friend to eat with,
so it was much less uncomfortable to just eat there.
"Um- in the library," I confessed embarassedly.

To Will's credit, he didn't say anything to make me
more embarassed. What he said was, "Do you want
to sit with us today?"

I stared at him in disbelief, but of course I answered,
"Yes!"

And that was just the beginning. At luch I got to
know his friends- who were all very nice- but it was
Will who I was constantly talking to.

Then one spring day, something I had never thought
would ever happen happened. Will asked me if I'd like
to go to a movie with him.

I stared at him in disbelief. For a moment I thought
that he was kidding, that he was playing some kind
of a cruel joke. How could this be happening to me?
To me, a nerd whom no one had ever looked twice at?
But Will was so sweet, I couldn't imagine
him ever doing something like this to me.

My face broke into a wide smile. "Yes!" I cried. "Yes,
I'd love to!"

So that weekend I stood tapping my foot nervously
as I waited for Will to meet me at my house. Actually,
nervous is an understatement. I had never been so
terrified in my life.

*Why?* I asked myself as I studied my reflection in the
mirror. *This is Will. He's a nice guy. You know him.*

But I had never been on a date before. I hadn't the
faintest idea how to act, and my heart was about to
pound its way out of my chest. I bent over, my stomach
tying itself in knots. I was afraid I was going to be sick.

The doorbell rang, and I drew in a shaky breath. *It's
okay, Kaitlyn,* I told myself. It's just a date.*

I went downstairs and opened the door. I attempted
a smile. "Hi, Will," I said, trying to keep my voice from
shaking.

"Hi, Kait," he said with a smile. "You look nice."

"So do you," I replied, figuring that was a safe thing
to say.

"Uh, you don't mind walking to the theater, do you?"
he asked me.

Surprised, I replied, "No."

"It's just you live close enough," he said, "and I
thought it might be nice to take a walk."

"Um-okay," I replied with a nervous smile.

We headed out the door toward the theater. Silently.
I looked over at Will, dying to say something to start a
conversation- but I had no idea what to say.

"So, uh," Will said finally, "did you want to see this
movie?"

I looked up. "Oh! Uh, yeah," I said stupidly. "Yeah,
I did."

"Oh," Will replied. "That's. . . good."

"Yeah."

More silence.

"So, have you done the science homework yet?" Will
asked.

Flustered, I stammered, "Ah- no, not yet."

"Oh," said Will. "Me either."

I'd skip the details of the rest of our walk to the
theater, but honestly, there are no details to skip. I
didn't trust myself to put a complete sentence together,
and Will eventually gave up on trying to start a
conversation.

By the time we took our seats in the theater, I was
fighting back tears. *My one chance to go on a date
and I blew it,* I thought miserably. *And it just had to
be with the sweetest, cutest guy I've ever met.*

My mood didn't change when the movie started. I felt my
heart sinking not long after the opening credits. The
movie was *horrible.* I sat there in misery for about
twenty minutes.

I glanced over at Will. He didn't look very happy either.
Slowly, he looked over at me. I looked back at him. And at
the exact same time, we both burst out laughing.

"Shhh!" snapped the woman behind us, who, amazingly,
must have actually *liked* the movie.

"This movie sucks," Will whispered. "Let's get out of
here."

We were still laughing when we went back outside.

"Oh, God," I gasped between laughs, "that was the
worst movie I have ever seen!"

Will struggled to regain control of his self. "Let's go
back to my house," he said. "We can watch a video there."

"What do you have?" I asked.

"Just Disney movies," he said. "Plus *Caddyshack* and
*Steel Magnolias.* My parents have some weird emotional
attachment to those movies." His smile faded. "Oh, yeah, I
forgot. My parents are going to be there. You'll have to
try to ignore them."

I laughed. "Oh, come on," I said. "They can't be worse
than my parents."

End Part 1/2 of Never Saw Blue Like That