Here I Am

A Modern Day House/Cuddy Schoolfic.

Characters include House, Cuddy, Wilson, Chase, Kevin, Ellis, Brittney and Katheryn.

Enjoy! And special thanks to Reena for helping me out on American Schooling details, because, being British is a bit of a hold back for me.

When you need some shelter from the rain
When you need a healer for your pain
I will be there time and time again
When you need someone to love you
Here I am

~Leona Lewis...Here I Am

'So Lisa,' said Katheryn. 'What class do you have first period?'

'Uhhh,' said Lisa, looking at her schedule. 'Music Theory with Mr Gore.'

'You're a musician too?' enquired Katheryn. 'That's awesome! What instrument do you play?'

'I play the guitar and I sing,' said Cuddy sheepishly.

'Cool. We have a band going, with me, House, Kev, Jimmy, Ellis and Chase. You should come along to a rehearsal!' said Katheryn excitedly.

'Great,' said Cuddy with a warm smile, loving how all of the people she had met today had been so kind, and taken her under their collective wing. 'Whereabouts is it?'

'We rehearse over at Kev's, it's closer, bigger and his Mom and Dad are cool with it,' replied Katheryn. 'You can follow us there if you like, we're all going in Jimmy's jeep.'

'Jim has a jeep?' said Cuddy, raising her eyebrows.

'Yeah,' replied Katheryn with a hearty laugh. 'It's quite surprising how many people you can get in there. We car pool to save petrol. Usually, we manage to fit in me, Jimmy, House, Chase, Brit, Kev and Ellis.'

Cuddy gave a small laugh and said, 'Sure, I'll be there. So, anyway, what's this Mr Gore like?'

'Legendary,' replied Katheryn. 'Really laid back, funny, a bit big headed but a wicked musician. We better be going though, he doesn't like it when we're late.'

'Okay,' said Cuddy, following Katheryn, Ellis, Kev, Chase, House and Wilson as they walked to Music Theory.

'Where's Brit?' asked Lisa curiously.

'She doesn't take this class,' said Ellis. 'I can't remember what she has now.'

Arriving at Mr Gore's classroom, the gang sat on their usual table, pulling an extra chair up for Lisa. After realising that Mr Gore wasn't there yet, they turned back around and started to chat about general stuff.

'I wrote a song for the band,' mentioned Chase.

'Awesome!' exclaimed the others. 'What's it about?'

'A very special girl,' said Chase vaguely.

'Meaning Brittney?' said Ellis with a teasing tone.

'No,' said Chase, blushing slightly.

'Oh My God Chase!' exclaimed House mockingly. 'You totally like Brittney!'

'Dude,' said Kevin. 'I'm happy for you. You deserve someone special after that whole Allison Cameron incident.'

'Yeah,' said House. 'You totally weren't expecting her to develop a major assed crush on me and make a move.'

'Which you didn't reciprocate?' asked Wilson.

'Well, she's hot, and she certainly can kiss. I was curious,' said House in reply.

'Well, you know what they say,' said Katheryn. 'Curiosity killed the cat.'

'Good thing that I'm not one then,' replied House, sticking his tongue out like a child.

Mr Gore made his entrance and sat at his desk, setting them some chapters to read from their textbook. Making a quick apology, he said that he needed to leave again for a while to run some errands, and that he was trusting them to behave themselves and do their work while he was gone.

'He's trusting us?' asked Wilson in disbelief.

'What can I say?' said House. 'He's delusional. We're gonna sit here, talk about the band and Chase wanting to get into Brittney's pants.'

'HEY!' said Chase. 'I respect Brit too much to rush into things like that.'

'Is it the way that Kevin respects Ellis?' asked House.

'Hey!' exclaimed Ellis, hitting House on the shoulder. 'Kevin does respect me!'

'So he waited until High School to sleep with you?' said House, winking. 'You have been together since Middle School, I'm surprised he managed to hold back for that long.'

'Ass,' said Ellis, glaring at House.

'Teenage Mom to be,' replied House.

Ellis got up and left the classroom in tears. Kevin stood up, looked at House and said, 'Man, that was outta line.' He walked out of the door to console his crying girlfriend.

'House, that was so not cool,' said Chase in shame.

'How did you know?' asked Wilson curiously. 'I mean, it's not obvious that she is, you know, pregnant.'

'Well, I know Brittney, Katheryn and Ellis' cycles better than they do. When they've got their period, it's ice cream in the cafeteria until the cows come home. Brittney had hers last week, Katheryn has hers now, and no ice cream sighting from Ellis for 2 weeks. She and Kevin have been at it like rabbits, ergo...'

'Yeah yeah, we get it,' said Katheryn. 'It was still so out of order House. You made her cry.'

Kevin returned to the room holding the hand of a teary Ellis. Sitting back down at the table, Kevin said, 'House, you got something you wanna say to Ellis?'

'Yeah, I'm sorry,' said House. 'It was really mean, and now everyone knows.'

'It's ok,' said Ellis. 'I overreacted. My hormones have been up and down recently. Kevin and I went to tell our parents last night, and it didn't go so well. Kevin's parents were great, but mine, not so great. I'm living with Kev now, and before the baby's born we're gonna get our own place.'

'Awww sweetie,' said Katheryn, pulling her friend into a hug. 'It'll be ok. You have us all if you need anything.'

The room went eerily quiet.

Chase, breaking the silence said, 'So everyone still on for tonight? Thought we could order in Chinese.'

'Yeah!' came the reply from the others.

'Brit's coming along tonight to watch,' said Katheryn, elbowing Chase.

'Oh God!' groaned Chase.

Mr Gore returned to the classroom, slightly breathless.

'What did I miss?' he asked.

'Ummm band talk and my pregnancy being announced to the whole class,' said Ellis boldly. 'Thought I might as well get that out of the way before some of the jerks in this room opened their mouths.'

'Good to know,' said Mr Gore, chuckling nervously.

There was a knock on the door, and in came Brittney, with a note in her hand. Walking up to Mr Gore, she gave him the note and made her way out of the classroom.

As she was halfway out the door, Kevin shouted, 'Hey Brit! Chase wrote a song for you!'

'Well maybe he should play it for me sometime,' said Brittney, winking at Chase then leaving.

The whole class found themselves wolf whistling at Chase, who was now red as a tomato in his embarrassment.

'Sorry bro,' said Kevin, punching him lightly on the arm. 'It will all work out okay, trust me.'

'Says you who slipped one past the goalie and knocked up your girlfriend,' said Chase.

'Just call me Cupid coz I'm spreading the love,' said Kevin cheesily.

'We gotta get you out more,' said Chase, rolling his eyes.