Thanks for clicking on my story(: I had the original rough draft written up about four or five years ago. I keep trying to polish it up snd I

think this might be the most shining copy yet. I do own all of these characters. Please review if you have the stamina to make it through this.

It is nine pages on Word. Haha. Sorry it's long, but please enjoy! :D With love, water, and dancing, NotY

Chapter I - Slew

My face turned about the same hue as the paint he had just smeared on my cheek. "Tim…Liles…" I stomped my foot. "I cannot believe you!" In response, he laughed, thriving off of my frustration. "It is not funny!" I shrilled.

He chuckled some more. "Come on, Katy," He said in his proper tone, and odd unidentifiable accent. "Red is definitely your color,"

"Shut up, Tim!" I picked up my hall pass and began to fill it out. I could feel him peering over my shoulder, trying to read my sloppy scrawled handwriting. "If you absolutely have to know Ti-" I turned to see dazzling Jeff. "Oh, I'm sorry, Jeff, didn't mean to snap at you like that."

"I know, you alright?" He was always so caring and kind, quite the opposite of his best friend.

I halfway attempted to smile, and continued to fill out my hall pass. "Yeah, I just need to go clean this stuff off in the bathroom. I'll be right back," I approached the teacher for him to sign me out.

"Gee Ms. Frutoni, I see you've missed the drawing." The teacher told me, signing the pass.

"I realize this," I headed out of the art room and down the hall, involuntarily watching the classrooms I passed by. Some watched me back, but I was dazed, caring less if they saw the fluorescent red streak on my face or not.

"Oh look," A voice stopped me in my tracks, did she seriously find me out here in the middle of class? I was almost to the restroom! "It's little baby fruit basket,"

"Wow, Cathleen, are you so stupid you can't come up with your own pet name to call me? So you stole your boyfriend's?"

"Shut up, Katy," She shot me down with her perfection and grace, I could not compare to her at all. Apparently, she moved here with her boyfriend, Mr. Timothy Liles. They both had the same accent. I wanted to know a little more, I was only morbidly curious, every time someone called them a "thing", someone would get defensive, but they always gave kisses on the cheek and held hands down the hallways, what else are you supposed to think as a teenager? "Point is you need to back off of Tim, okay?" And that only further proves my point.

"When did we start talking about this? I was talking about how unintelligent you are. And since when did anyone say I was coming on to Tim anyways?"

"Just back away, I don't need him messing around and wasting his time with girls like you." At that she walked past me. Girls like me? I thought, what is her problem with me?

---

"There you are, Katy," Tim awaited me outside of the bathroom when I washed all of the paint off.

I glared at him. "What? Did you come to reapply your handiwork?" He laughed and started walking back to class with me. "How did you get out anyways? Mr. Castlen only let's one out at a time."

"He'll never notice, silly Katy," I wasn't exactly an expert on flirting, but it certainly sounded like Timothy Liles, Timothy freaking' Liles, was flirting with me. I chuckled underneath my hair at that stupid thought. "What are you giggling at?" He grinned at me.

"N-nothing," I quickened my pace so that I was ahead of him by only a little bit, but he caught up.

"No really, you began to laugh at nothing that was said, so what's on your mind, Fruit Basket?" He stepped in front of me, smug as always. That look that just ticked me off deep inside, that look that made my mind violent, that look that made his eyes glow…

"I-I was thinking you dropped your pocket," I shifted my eyes to the floor not moving my head, then looked back at him and veered around his chuckling structure.

He still caught up with me as I power walked down the hall. "That's not what you were thinking at all, Katy,"

"What I was thinking," I opened the art room door and stepped inside. "Is absolutely none of your freaking business, Tim," I swiftly shut the door before he could enter and flicked the lock in place. Playfully, I stuck my tongue out in a display of victory. He just chuckled at me, knowing he'd been defeated, obviously hiding his anger.

"Yo!" Jeff called down the sidewalk as I was walking home. "Wait up Katy!" I turned to see him running after me. Once he was finally at my side, he said, "Wouldn't you rather I escort you to your humble abode Miss Frutoni,"

I giggled and thanked him for pronouncing my name right. "I am for certain not Miss fruh toe knee." I laughed. "So is Tim menstruating or something? Because he's even more up my butt than ever."

He laughed at me. "I don't know what's up with him. He has kind of been bothering you more often."

"Doesn't that tick off Cathleene at all?" I situated my bangs, trying to fix them away from my left eye so I could see, but they fell right back into place.

"Cathleene? Why would she care?" Jeff scratched at his scalp, not actually meaning to look confused, but it seemed to fit.

I was beginning to blush, feeling like an uneducated idiot. "Isn't she … his …girlfriend?" I sheepishly quizzed. This enticed Jeff to cackle loudly, filling the neighborhood, filling the world.

"No no no!" He laughed some more. "Cathleene is his sister, dude!" Now feeling like a complete imbecile, my face warmed to a feverish temperature.

"Oh," Was all I could come up with, followed by a nervous chuckle. "Well I feel stupid now…" I sighed. "Why are they so lovey dovey then? They kiss!"j

Jeff shoved his hand that wasn't supporting his backpack's broken strap into his pocket. "It's not an odd thing for them, pretty normal where they're from." "Where they're from" was a big empty blank in my gossip mad lib game. So I ventured and asked him. "Well…"Jeff said then looked at me with a mystery in his eyes. "Nobody knows,"

I looked deep into his eyes, involuntarily shifting from his right then left. "I think you do know, Mr. Simmons."

"Maybe I do, but I'm pretty sure I don't," I hadn't realized we were standing there, staring into each other's eyes, right in front of my house. "Here we are Miss Frutoni, have a wonderful evening," He took my hand, kissing the top of it, just like the movies.

"You too, Jeff," I trotted up the steps of my porch stopping in the doorway. "Hey Jeff?" He turned back around to look at me. "One of your eyes," I made an odd circular gesture toward my eyes. "Is lighter than the other one."

"I know, thanks," He turned and walked away. How could such a sweet guy like Jeff be good friends with such a douche bag like Tim? The male mind never made any sense to me. Then I found myself hoping he didn't hear my mother screaming at me as I tried to quickly close the door.

After finally opening my challenged locker, it was slammed before I could get any books out, "Tim! Damn you! Leave me alone!" I yelled at him.

"Ah tah tah!" He wagged a finger at me. "Temper temper, Katy. You really shouldn't swear, it's unattractive for a lady such as yourself," He leaned in really close to my face observing my eyes.

"I don't think cussing would really affect how I look in your eyes, Tim," I turned away but he snatched my wrist. "Let go, Tim! Seriously!"

He laughed at me. "You still need your belongings, do you not?" I glared at him and spun my correct combination, pounding the locker three times before it swung open. "Why is your locker so difficult?"

"I don't know," I bent down, very self conscious knowing Tim was flirting with me yesterday and knowing that was not actually taken after all. "Jaycee was supposed to find out at the beginning of the year,"

He shut the locker when he saw I was done. "It's well on its way to winter now though, Katy,"

"I know, she's gotten drunk every night of her life, if not that every weekend and Wednesday," I dropped my agenda book before my feet, like it was a lower subject, bowing. I leaned to pick it up, but Tim beat me to it. "Needless to say she's forgotten,"

He handed me the small planner. "You could move into my locker, it's easier to get into,"

"You're asking me to move into your locker?" At that point I knew something was up. Timothy Liles was asking Katy Frutoni to move into his locker. This was beyond normal, and I wasn't sure if I liked it.

"Sure why not?" He flashed his dazzling smile, the one he saved for the swooning girls. Why was I getting the smile? I'm Katy Frutoni and he hates me! I'm not a pretty little play thing, I'm not cute, I am nothing, and I am especially nothing to Tim. "I know I come off as a complete jerk sometimes, but I think we should start over, you're a pretty cool and talented person."

My heart dived for my stomach, bathing in its acids, slowly deteriorating. "What is your problem? Is this supposed to hurt me, is this some sort of pay back for locking you out of the classroom yesterday? I'm not falling for it," I walked away swiftly from him.

"Katy!" Tim jogged after me. "Quit being so god damn paranoid and just believe I'm being genuine and true. I want to be friends with you."

I stared at him with anger turning to realization in my face. "You don't have to, Tim. I realize Jeff probably told you to do this. I know you hate my guts and I can accept that. It's alright, didn't know I complained about you that much." I started to walk away again, but this time, Tim grabbed my shoulder firmly.

"Look," He sighed heavily. "I wasn't thrilled when I first found out…" Then he stopped and twirled me around to face him. "It's really hard to explain, but I need to be your friend, Katy, there's going to be a whole slew of things about to happen and I'll need to be there for you, partially because I'm apart of the things about to happen." He halfway frowned, this must have been a hidden expression, I had never seen anything but positive expressions on his face. "Like I said, I was not very thrilled when I heard about this, but the more I thought about it, the more I realized that it wouldn't be so terrible. You're not a dreadful person. I think what I was most scared of was you rejecting me, because I am a terrible person, and for that I do deeply apologize."

I just stared blankly at him. "Things? A slew of things will happen to me? Timothy Liles you are out of your flipping mind!" I removed my shoulder from under him. "I'm really sorry I don't understand what you're talking about." I walked a little faster. Why were my eyes burning, I didn't understand why he was all of a sudden interested in being my friend. He was right, he was a jerk, he was a big jerk. Did he really expect me to just accept everything he said?

"Katy, wait!" The hall fell silent as he called my name, people stared at me, attention I'd always wanted but was neglected to get, was being given right now, and I did not want it. I wanted to melt into the linoleum and sink into the earth's core, never to be found. I turned around, feeling much warmth in my face. "Don't give up on me just yet, kay?" That was what he said.

"Kay? Don't give up on you? You want me to keep on with your little prank? I'm not stupid, Tim, I'm really the opposite. If you think for one minute that I'm going to play along and become vulnerable, then you're wrong." I whirled back around storming away, he didn't stop me this time, but there was an odd and out-of-place part of me deep and buried inside that wanted him to.

"So…Katy…" Jeff sat next to me in second block. "Did.. Tim tick you off this morning?"

"As a matter of fact, yeah, yeah he did." I slammed my laptop shut. "You told him to say all that crap didn't you?" I said accusingly. Jeff looked very left out, like he had no idea. Of course he had every idea, he had to of….

He drew his eyebrows inward and said, "What crap?"

I rolled my eyes and pulled my notebook out, prepared for class to start. "Don't play stupid, Jeff. I told you yesterday Tim was getting on my nerves, and all of a sudden today he asks me to move into his locker? Not cool, the whole hallway was watching him beg, and the whole hallway watched me reject him."

He looked at me all goggle eyed, like I had just told him that the world was to end in a week. "He asked you to what? And you rejected him?"

"Well yeah I rejected him, did you expect me to say 'yeah sure, that'll be fun!' to that douche bag?" I shook my head. "Why'd you tell him to do that?"

He threw his arms up in frustration. "I didn't even talk to Tim after school yesterday, I went straight up to my room and didn't even look at him." This alibi confused me, why would he look at him on his way up to his room? Maybe I had misinterpreted the sentence, I thought.

"Do what?" I said, but the bell had rung. I shot him a look, a look that said "I-know-you're-lying", and he shot me a look back, one saying "I-don't-know-what-you-are-talking-about" That entire block I kept glancing at Jeff, why did he do that? He knew that Tim would come up to me about it, but maybe he didn't know he would say such a thing. He must've known Tim would say something though, a ridicule, a pun, anything.

Something mean and hurtful would have been said, or would have occurred, so why would he do that? Why would Jeff actually tell? He should have known how much of a jerk Tim was, he should know that Tim knowing he was being a bully, it would have been worse. So why did he do it?

Amidst all of my thinking, the bell actually did ring, catching me off guard. Now thoroughly pissed off, I picked up my belongings from under my chair and gasped at seeing Jeff's feet suddenly before my face. "What? Good God, Jeff!" I barely smacked his arm, just enough to let him know he had startled me and I was upset.

He actually laughed. Jeff laughed at my frustrations? This was out of character to the extreme. "You're always so cute when you're frustrated," My already reddened cheeks turned an even rosier hue now.

"Cute? Jeff I am in no mood for you to put a move on me! You've set me up for Six Hills' Hell, do you realize what Tim will do to me? He's going to ruin me, Jeff, and you knew it."

He frowned. "Please, don't cry, Katy, he won't do anything, I'll make damn sure of it, mkay?" I hadn't noticed that throughout the entire rant my voice was cracking, about to break into sobs of rage.

"I still don't understand why I should believe your story, Jeff," I started down the hallway. He was gliding right beside me with ease, and I was power walking – a habit of mine when I'm angry.

"What are you talking about, Katy? I didn't talk to him yesterday after school, at all, what's not to believe?"

I stopped in front of my locker, immediately setting to work on unlocking it. "Why would you see him on the way up to your room?" I said blunt and almost to quiet for my own ears over the eager teenage crowd. I waited for an outrageous and obvious lie, some sort of response, but the entire time I was bent down to snatch next block's binder and book, nothing was said. Nothing was said when I shut the locker, neither was anything said when we walked away from my locker. "Well?"

He looked away from me, he knew he had been defeated, the contradiction was found in his testimony, and he didn't like it. "Look, I'd love to explain things, but now is not the time, and here is not the place." He said coolly, calmly.

"I don't give a flying fuck where or when we are! Fact is you're hiding something from me, and I do not like that. You're losing my trust, Jeff, and you're losing it fast," I made a swift turn right into the choir room. That was when I remembered that Tim had this and the next block with me, myself, and I. I froze mid doorway and stared at him, wanting to scream, or at least fall to my knees and weep. Why did he have to be here right now when I was pissed off to an extreme level?

"Katy? Is there a problem?" The bell had rung, I was standing in the doorway with a look of absolute fury, and Tim was sitting at the tippy top of the stands. I turned to Mrs. Castlen, wanting to tell her there were so many problems I was to the point of hysterical laughter. Only I did not say that, I just shook my head and mumbled cuss words searching for a seat far away from that imbecile. Who did he think he was anyhow? Some god? A prince? A shining knight? Did he think I would swoon and give into some prolonged prank? No way not me.

"Katy," I heard that demon with the green eyes whisper my name. "There's a seat up here," He was pointing to the seat next to him. Was he kidding? He had to be, me sit next to him and then sing my soprano heart out? He was planning a witty remark, I could practically feel his evil cogs turning around and around, chasing each other into an idea. I could see it in his face, it appeared happy, gleeful and generous but I am not a dull girl. I am not stupid, no matter how many times I told myself that. The smile on Tim's face disappeared for a split second, the only way I saw it was because I didn't blink. For a moment, his face was unguarded, and it was said, pitiful, and made me want to hug him. The last emotion of mine made my heart quit for a moment, I was for some reason self conscious for thinking that, like others would somehow know and poke fun at me. But I scowled at his returned face and sat next to him, flipping through my sheets of music, only trying to look like I knew what I was doing.

Mrs. Castlen shut the door behind her and approached the piano before the choir stands observing all of us. "Laptops away, cell phones off, and get out the new piece we're working on." I looked down at my binder searching for said piece. When it wasn't in my left binder pocket, my face gave into panic and displayed it. I looked through the right pocket but found no such music.

Suddenly it was hanging in front of my face, dangling from the fingers of Tim, the taunting patient fingers of Tim. With drawn together eyebrows, I snatched the music from him, shooting a look into his emerald eyes. He laughed. "At least I gave it back," He told me with a gorgeous smile. "I could have kept it the entire block and let you make a fool of yourself." I opened my mouth to say something but the only thing going out was air. "But I didn't because, I don't want to," I could just feel the sarcasm dripping off of his words and into my ears, I could hear the little gears in his head, wishing so bad he had kept the music from me, he wanted me to seem a fool… he wanted me to look stupid… "Now, now, Katy, look alive, we don't want Mrs. Castlen catching us in a side conversation." He turned his attention to the choir director who was observing the entirely full choir room.

When you first think Six Hills, you think maybe one hundred people, but this room was always packed, singing was what we're known for and it really makes you think about how many people actually live here. I know for a fact that there were three hundred and forty-seven inhabitants of Six Hills, Ohio. Tim kept cutting looks at me as I pondered upon our sweet little town, it made me angry and worried. I mean, not that I would know, because I had no desire to look at him….

"Katy," Mrs. Castlen called my name out in the middle of class. Oh god, oh god! She's going to slaughter me here and now! In front of everyone! In front of Tim! "Hum us all a D, sweetheart." Extremely relieved, I did as was asked very swiftly. People stared oddly at me, amazed, in awe. Could no one else do that? It was a simple D. "Huh, well then, hum us an A sharp," She ordered me. Okay…? So I again hummed. Was she going somewhere with this? She dished out some more notes. B flat, G, F sharp (That one was fun…) I hit them all. First try. No one was in awe anymore, they looked angry and jealous. That was a riot, people jealous of plain jane Katy Frutoni. Tim was smirking with approval.

"Perfect pitch, eh Katy?" I swear I had heard him say to me, but his lips never

moved. I looked at him with confusion and he shrugged with that wide grin, the one that was usually at the end of a prank of his.

"Well, well, well, Katy, I was unaware of your perfect pitch." What is all of this talk about perfect pitch?

"You hit notes perfectly; you can find the note at someone just telling you the name. You're astonishing, dear, vask in it." Tim told me, I looked over at him and he nodded back to Mrs. Castlen.

"Oh, uhm, I wasn't really aware of it either, Mrs. Castlen." I cleared my throat uncomfortably, feeling every eyeball on my face, which was blushing profusely. Including Mr. Top Tenor, Tim Liles himself. Mrs. Castlen then looked to my left, smiled a little and turned to stand behind her piano, where she asked me to hum us all a D again, which I did. There was a murmur across the room, a murmur about me… A murmur I'm not sure I wanted. Then we went about our warm-ups, and rehearsed our songs. A very fast block indeed. I was ready to just get my lunch and go straight to the orchestra room….

"Katy," Tim called after me as I made my way quickly out of the choir room, hoping he wouldn't catch up. "That was pretty astonishing in there,"

"That was pretty easy in there, gee, what's the big deal?" I stood in the line for a sandwich.

"Perfect pitch? Uhm, it's kind of a big deal, not many people have it, you are a music fan and didn't know about it?"

"I've always been like that, didn't know other people couldn't do it… Can we please not make a big deal out of it? People hate me for it apparently," I crossed my arms from the room being and cold, and me being uncomfortable.

Tim laughed, deep and heartily, "Katy, Katy, Katy, you're mistaking hate with jealousy, my dear," Him saying "my dear", threw me for a loop. This was the Timothy Liles who slops paint on my face, dumps milk down my shirt, would pants me at any given moment if I was wearing sweatpants or basketball shorts. This very same Timothy Liles just said "my dear" in a sentence directed at me. Jeff I'm going to kill you in about five minutes… "And if anything you should be happy that people are jealous of you, which means you're doing something extraordinary. You really shouldn't worry about what other people think anyways."

"Speaking of caring of what people think, would you please quit talking to me? People are going to get the wrong idea," Tim frowned, I wasn't used to seeing this emotion, but now that he for some reason talks to me without using a taunt or a hateful sneer, I supposed I would have to get used to it.

"Well since you said please, see you next block, your piece looks lovely and I can't wait to see it finished." He turned and walked away slowly, his European accent still reverberating around my eardrums. Half of my insides wanted to call out to him and tell him it was okay to talk to me, but my other half said "Good riddance" and went about its business, so I followed that half as I grabbed a tray and fork.

"Jeffrey Simmons…" I barked as I walked into the second musical rehearsal room (did I mention our school is obsessed with our musical reputation), which was really a large glorified closet, interrupting his violin warm-ups. "I am going to slit your throat

with that silly bow of yours…." I sat on the keyboard bench and glared at him, shivering with my anger bubbling up.

"What?" Jeff was annoyed now. "What did I 'do' now?" He was yelling at me now. "I'm not going to sit here and be yelled at for something I didn't even do, Katy! You've got to believe me, dammitt!" Oh God… "I told you I didn't even talk to him yesterday; I'll explain my wording later, that's not the important part. Whatever Tim is saying or doing is on his own flipping terms Katy, not mine."

I stared at him blankly now, his chest heaving from all of the bottled up energy, my eyes watered from guilt, and I started to shake from my sobs, "I'm sorry, Jeff, I should've believed you… I can tell you're serious when you swear…" I hid my face and wiped all the spilled tears away. I felt him wrap his arms around me, making me feel very small.

"I shouldn't have yelled at you, I'm sorry, too," He said. "I can understand why you were suspicious. I can find out what he's up to if you want me to, that way if something goes wrong, you can yell at me all you want."

"That's okay. Jeff thanks though," I smiled up at him. "I'll try not to go psycho bitch next time, but I can't promise anything,"

He laughed. "Well now that all that's out of our system, how about we start practicing," I nodded and turned to the keyboard. "Panic or Amy?"

"Panic, we always start with Panic silly," I played my note, then his, and made it a chord. "One…two… one, two, three," And away we went into our little world. Music is the best world in the world. I could easily get lost in this world, in a good way of course. It's so easy to give your everything to it as well, it has to be the only thing you can succumb to and not have regret. All of my anger, frustration, and annoyances of the day just melt into lyrics, rhythms, melodies, and harmonies. The moments with music couldn't get any better.

"That was our best Panic yet, for sure," Jeff said, I turned to him smiling, music was an auto pilot for me, I just take off, subconsciously. "Where in the world did you get that voice?"

"I just found out today I had 'perfect pitch, so don't look at me," I laughed, but Jeff looked serious. "What? Not you too… I thought you knew!"

"No… not exactly, Katy… That's great though!" Jeff laughed at me. "God, you talented girl you," He said ruffling my hair, me giggling at this action.

"I am not, quit it!" I laughed swatting at his hand, he started laughing, too as he began to tickle me instead. "Jeff! You know better!" I giggled insanely with tears pouring out of my eyes from the laughter. He had now tickled me to the floor, hovering over me, tickling my sides to the point at which I could take it no more. "Quit!" I kept trying to tell him through my breathless chuckles. Eventually, he did stop and allowed me to realize he was sitting on me, straddled in an awkward position. "Er, Jeff?" I asked once I got my breath back. "This kind of doesn't look right…" I giggled.

"Not to me it doesn't…" My eyebrow arched at hearing his voice saying that but seeing no lip movement at all. "Oh, uhm, sorry, Katy…" He got off and picked up his violin again. "How about 'Fireflies'?"

I just stared at him, still laying on the floor, propped up on my elbows. "What did you say?"

"I said 'Fireflies'… you know, Owl City?" He laughed and propped his violin on

his shoulder ready to play. "It's one of your favorites, right?"

"No, not that, Jeff," I was annoyed and questioning if what I had heard him say, or what I thought he had said was really what I heard. "Before that, when you were on top of me, and I told you that it looked wrong."

He shifted his eyes, trying to think of what he had said. "I said I was sorry…"

I sat up completely this time, becoming a little more ticked off, but concealing it. "No… before that even,"

"I didn't say anything before that, what are you talking about?" He took the violin off of his shoulder with drawn together eyebrows.

I shook my head and got up, "I must be going crazy, I'm sorry," I sat back down on the bench.

Jeff laughed and put the violin back up on his shoulder. "What did you think I said, silly?" I laughed with him trying to find the beginning note.

"Well, I thought you said 'Not to me it doesn't'," I used a deep voice to imitate his, poorly of course. Jeff stopped trying to find his note, creating a terrible screech that made my neck hairs stand on end. "Gee Jeff! Ouch!" I laughed at him.

"Sorry," He chuckled nervously, finding his note. And away we went, into the world, the best world, in the world.

Thanks for reading! Review please and thank you! :D