Disclaimer – Disney owns Lizzie McGuire

A/N – "Thoughts" , They're juniors in high school.

Chapter 1 – Unexpected Connections

Kate sat at her desk in her room starring at her math book. She had just spent the past half hour working on her math homework and understood less of it then when she started. "God, I hate math." Sighing, she folded her arms on her desk and rested her head on her forearms.

A minute later, the doorbell rang and she heard her mother answer it. "Kate!" Mrs. Sanders yelled.

"Larry's here," she thought as she stuffed her math notebook inside the textbook. Closing the book, she picked it off her desk and walked to the kitchen. Because of Kate's borderline math grades, her parents had gotten her a tutor. She had hoped it'd be Gordo but grudgingly accepted Larry when her parents threatened to take away her car.

Like Kate, Larry didn't exactly look forward to their weekly sessions either. The only thing that made it bearable was that he got twenty bucks a session.

"Hey," Kate mumbled as slid her book along the top of the kitchen table.

Larry was sitting at the head of the table and greeted her with the same enthusiasm. "Hey."

"You get any of the homework done this time?" Larry asked trying to keep the sarcastic tone out of his voice.

Kate glared at him as she sat in the chair next to him, "What do you think?" Larry closed his eyes as he rolled them.

About fifteen minutes into the session, they heard the front door slam. Larry's head snapped up at the loud slam but Kate just ignored it, like she was used to it.

"Karen!" a deep male voice yelled.

Larry looked at Kate with a questioning look. Kate glanced up from her notebook. "My dad's looking for my mom," she told him. As they heard footsteps storm off and upstairs, Larry turned back to looking over Kate's work.

A few moments later, they started hearing muffled voices gradually getting louder. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Kate flinch slightly but try her best to ignore it. As they got louder, the more of a distraction it became. You really couldn't make out the words but defiantly could tell they were shouting angrily at each other.

Larry looked over at Kate and while she acted like she was oblivious to it, he could see her lips slightly moving as if muttering to herself. "Kate?" he asked carefully.

"What?" she snapped irritated.

"Nothing," he answered and turned his attention back to the math book. "What did you expect? You reach out to a snake, you're gonna get bit."

Suddenly, a door flew open upstairs and now they could hear the yelling as Mr. and Mrs. Sanders shouted back and forth as they came down the stairs. "Its no wonder Kate acts like a slut, look at her mother."

"Oh like you're some kind of angel. You're fucking your secretary every other day." They continued arguing as they walked out the front door.

Larry had never heard that kind of viciousness between two parents before. He glanced at Kate and saw her biting her lip and tapping the tip of her pencil. "She almost looks like she's gonna cry." Larry rubbed his wrist as he debated whether or not to ask if she was all right. Going against his better judgment, "Kate?"

Letting her pencil drop onto the table, "I'll be right back," she quickly said, then got up and practically ran to the bathroom. Hearing two cars pullout fast out of the driveway, he shook his head in disgust. Slowly standing up, Larry followed where Kate had ran off to.

Pausing at the bathroom door, he strained to listen for any sounds. He could faintly hear crying. Sighing, he gently tapped on the bathroom door. "Kate."

"Hold on," she shouted through the closed door.

Larry could hear water getting turned on for a moment, then it get shut off and Kate shuffling around in a cabinet for something. A minute later the door slowly opened. He quickly noticed that her mascara was gone and her eyes were slightly red.

"You ok?" Larry asked softly.

"I'm fine," Kate said quickly and walked past him, back to the kitchen.

"Kate," he called as he followed her. "If your ok, than why is your mascara gone?" He said that because he knew Kate would never go anywhere with her makeup messed up, much less gone all together.

She quickly, self-consciously, touched underneath her eyes. "Damn it," she said under her breath. Sighing, she slid into one of the kitchen chairs, defeated.

Larry looked at her; it was a mix between embarrassment and sadness. "Do they always act like that?" he asked as he sat down next to her.

"Not always," she said very softly. "Only when they're together." Kate then laughed sarcastically. "I just wished they get a divorce and get the hell out of each other's lives," she said as she ran a hand through her hair.

"How long have they been fighting like this?"

"About six years." When she said it, Larry's mouth dropped open in surprise. "When my mom had a miscarriage. My mom blamed my dad and my dad blamed my mom."

"A miscarriage? Wow." Larry rubbed his chin as he tried to think of something to say. "Why don't they get a divorce?"

Kate shrugged, "Image. The so-called socialites can't ruin their image," she said with a harsh sarcastic tone. "No matter how much it screws up my life." Kate then let out a small laugh, "Guess now you know that the princess is cracked."

Larry snorted; he didn't mean to, it just happened. "I kinda knew that already," he said with a small grin.

Kate looked at him for a moment confused and then slowly, a small grin tugged at her lips as she snickered. "Yea, I guess from your point of view, I cracked a long time ago." They both start laughing softly for a few minutes. "Why are you being so nice to me? I haven't exactly been nice to you."

He shrugged, "I know what its like to come from a not exactly stable family."

"You do?"

"Not exactly like this but my mom died when I was very young. Even before she died, we never really had a lot of money. When she got sick, my dad struggled to pay her medical bills. After she passed away, my dad decided to move in with my grandmother to help raise me and cut down on a lot of the bills he had to pay."

"Wow," Kate said. "Does anyone else know this?"

"Gordo and Miranda, and I'd be surprised if Lizzie didn't too." Larry then grinned at her, "Didn't you ever wonder why I basically only wore two different styles of shirts?"

She shrugged, "I never gave much thought to why, just that you did. Can I ask you something?"

"How many shirts I actually had?" he asked with a grin and she nodded. "I had five of the weekday and two of the weekend. They got washed twice, once on the weekend and once during the week. I always had on a clean shirt. When I became a freshman, my dad got a better job and we had some more money to spend. Plus, since me and Miranda were dating, she always gave me some kind of clothing for a present. I knew she felt sorry for me and just wanted to help but she'd never actually say that and secretly, I was grateful for it."

Kate looked at him in awe. She had always teased him and thought he was completely beneath her. But now, it was like she was seeing a totally different person. Larry looked at her confused and kind of embarrassed. "What?"

Shaking her head, "Nothing." She then gently tapped the top of the table with her fingernails. "Uh, Larry?"

"Hmm?"

She bit her lip as she tried to force out what she wanted to say, "Do you think, sometime, I could call you and we could talk?"

Larry grinned at her a little, "Sure."

"And I'll try not to be so mean to you, or anyone actually."

He snickered, "Well I wouldn't go that far. We wouldn't want to let everyone knowing you've cracked," he teased.

Kate looked down at the table and smirked as she snickered. "Okay."

"Enough of this touchy feely crap. I am here to make sure you pass math," Larry said and they slowly got back into working on Kate's homework.