Caskett and the gang are Andrew Marlow's, not mine…yet ;)

...Story.

3. Penelope Whithall

"We just have the gym left," Kate said and smirked at him. "Then I'm free of you."

"So charming," said Rick and Kate's smirk turned into an evil smile. "I'm not sure why, but I actually find that look appealing."

Rolling her eyes Kate threw open the gym doors and said, "Why do all boys do that? If they're not staring at me they've got their minds in the…"

"What's the matter, Beckett?" Rick teased lightly, following her line of vision. "Cat got your…?

"oh."

Just then, Madison Queller - Kate's former best friend - looked up from the body she was kneeling beside and ran towards them, screaming at the top of her lungs, "Kate! You've got to help her! I think she's dead!"

"Who's dead?" Kate asked, staring over Madison's shoulder at the body and Rick noticed that Madison's bloody hands rubbed blood onto Kate's sleeve though Kate either didn't care or didn't notice.

"Penny Whithall!" said Madison, turning to look back at the body.

"The head of that dumb pep committee?" Kate said and Madison looked at Kate, appalled.

"The pep committee is not dumb, Kate!" Madison reprimanded and it took all the strength Kate had not to roll her eyes. "It plays an important part in our school society."

"Yeah, Madison, so do the Mathletes," Kate bit out briefly before shutting her mouth.

Trying to resist the temptation to laugh, Rick caught sight of the scrunched up piece of paper in Madison held in a tight grip in her hand. "What's that you've got, Madison?" he asked and when the blonde gave him a confused look he nodded to her hand.

Madison looked at the scrunched up, bloodied piece of paper. "It was taped to the inside of Penny's locker, I saw it when I opened it to return a shirt she loaned me," Madison replied, unfolding the paper and showing it to them.

If they find out, you're dead.

Rick and Kate blinked at the note and then Rick's voice filled the silence, "Wow that's chilling: look's like they found out, huh?"

If looks could kill then the one Kate gave Rick would have been enough for him to die a thousand slow, painful deaths and then some.

CASKETT-ESPLANIE-RYAN/JENNY-CASKETT-ESPLANIE-RYAN/JENNY-CASKETT-ESPLANIE-RYAN/JENNY-CASKETT-ESPLANIE-RYAN/JENNY-

Madison was sat on the far side of the gym stands with a paramedic, her head in between her knees. She was the lucky one, she was so dar in shock the medics were considering dosing her just so she would stop hyperventilating.

They had it worse, Rick decided as Detective Roy Montgomery looked up from his notepad and at the teens sceptically. "So, let me see if I've got this right," Montgomery said, looking at Kate. "You were showing Rick here around and that's when you found Miss Queller with the body?"

Kate nodded and Montgomery indicated Kate's blood-stained shirt. "That will have to go with the crime scene techs," he said apologetically to a blushing and irritated-looking Kate, who nodded and followed a female crime scene tech to the girls' changing rooms.

"Why does Kate's shirt have to go with you guys?" Rick asked. "I understand why Madison has to because her shirt and hands are covered, but not Kate."

"Secondary transfer," Montgomery replied. "We have to take every sample of blood, and that includes the blood on your friend's shirt even if it it is only there through Miss Queller." Montgomery shrugged. "So what about you, Rick, did you know the victim?" he asked.

Rick shook his head. "I only just started today, that's why Kate was showing me around - though I think she wishes Mr Sikes hadn't "volunteered" her," he said and Montgomery smiled sympathetically. "But what Kate said was true: she was showing me around and the gym was last and when we came in here we found Madison with Penny."

"What about the note?" Montgomery asked, showing him the note Madison had found in Penny's locker which was now in a plastic baggie marked evidence. "Any idea what it means?"

"Haven't a clue," Rick replied. "Maybe Madison knows?" Montgomery shook his head 'no' and Rick regarded the note thoughtfully. "Penny might have been blackmailed," he said after a moment. "I didn't know her at all, but that just seems like the kinda note you get with blackmail."

"We'll consider that, Rick," Montgomery said and stood, shaking Rick's hand in the process. "Just one more question," he said and Rick blinked up at him. "You didn't kill her, did you?"

Rick wasn't sure whether he was supposed to laugh or not so he simple smiled and said, "No, and I'm sure Kate doesn't hate me enough to say that we were apart at any time this morning."

A few minutes later Kate, wearing the blue-and-black striped sweater she kept in her gym locker for emergencies, met Rick outside the gym. "So what did you tell Detective Montgomery?" asked Kate and Rick shrugged.

"Same thing you did," he said and they set off back down the corridor to meet their friends for an emergency assembly in the hall, "except I mentioned that I thought that Penny was being blackmailed."

"You didn't even know Penny," Kate said.

"I know, but the whole note in her locker thing just makes me think of the kinds of blackmail in all those old movies my mother makes me watch," Rick said and Kate gave him a side-long glance.

"You and your mom watch old movies?" Kate asked, thinking of the few nights of the week she and her own mother watched Temptation Lane. "None of the guys I know do that, don't you do anything with your dad? Baseball or football or something?"

"Well, I haven't got a dad to take me to baseball games and my mother's an actress so I'm more Damn Yankees! than real Yankees," Rick replied. "Besides, the movies aren't bad…when they don't have my mother in them."

Suddenly, there was a gust of wind and a force like a herd of elephants poughed into Rick and Kate and suddenly Kate was whisked away from Rick and Lanie pressed her firmly against some lockers. "Lanie!" Kate said, as Rick was interrogated by Kevin and Javier and Jenny sauntered over to where her girlfriends stood. "What're you doing?"

"The whole school's talking about it!" Lanie said. "About Penny Whithall!"

"You and Rick found the body?" Jenny asked, concerned for her friend. "Are you okay, Kate?"

"Yeah yeah." Kate nodded quickly. "Better than Madison anyway."

"Wait, that's not the shirt you were wearing this morning," Lanie said. "Where is it?"

"Alright, Rodgers," Javier said in a deadly quiet voice that was laced with threat. "What happened in the gym? 'Cause I'm seeing Beckett in a shirt she wasn't wearing this morning."

"Madison got blood on it so the CSI-guys had to take it for evidence or something," said Rick, playing it too cool for school even though he felt anything but.

"Move along, you kids," said Dr. Phelps - the crummiest Biology teacher to ever walk the earth - jogging down the corridor from his classroom. "To assembly, move it."

Grumbling angrily, Javier and Lanie let up on their respective victims and led the way down the hall - plotting to do some murdering if Dr. Phelps didn't walk away now.

CASKETT-ESPLANIE-RYAN/JENNY-CASKETT-ESPLANIE-RYAN/JENNY-CASKETT-ESPLANIE-RYAN/JENNY-CASKETT-ESPLANIE-RYAN/JENNY-

Mr. Johnston's slate grey eyes ran over his young charges before addressing them both sternly and solemnly. "Students," he began, "I regret to inform you that Stuyvesant High School lost one of its own this morning: Penelope Whithall - chair of the pep and homecoming committees - was found dead in the school gym today by a couple of students -" if every pair of eyes in the hall wasn't on Rick and Kate by now, they were now "-and the NYPD have reached the conclusion that it was no accident."

That got a reaction: the shocked gasps and mutterings began and someone, somewhere, was crying. Who the hell is crying? Kate wondered as Johnston slammed a fist down on his podium, demanding silence which he got almost immediately. Rick couldn't blame the student body's reaction: when a teenager dies they assume it was an accident or illness or the like, but murder? It didn't register in the mindset of the average teen until it actually happened and affected them directly, which made it all the more tragic.

"This sucks," Kevin whispered under his breath and Jenny put a hand on his, giving it a reassuring squeeze and Rick couldn't help but smile at the scene. They were so innocent.

The entire hall was plunged into icy silence and not even the principal's words stating that they could take a half day if they so wished and that gym classes would be cancelled for the foreseeable future brought back even a whisper. Kate was shocked by it, the severity of the situation hitting every single student hard on the head and stunning them into silence.

In truth, although she was a genuinely miserable person to be in class with, Penny was someone's friend, someone's daughter, someone's sister, someone's worst nightmare and someone's classmate and, in hindsight, Kate decided that Kevin was right: it sucked.

Deciding she couldn't sit through class that day, Kate grabbed her bag and her jacket eager to get home and tell her Mom, and maybe her Dad, everything. The weather seemed to have adapted to the mood of the day, the clouds were a dark grey and the first few drops before the torrential downpour were making their appearance with an increasing frequency, and she didn't have an umbrella. Shit.

There was a flash of red and shelter in the form of a red umbrella appeared above her head and holding onto the silver handle, keeping her sheltered from the rain no matter how wet he got, was Richard Rodgers. "I don't have the energy for class today, and I've got Dr. Phelps for Biology so I think I'd be insane if I didn't skip," he offered her as an explanation and Kate smiled weakly at him as they walked down the steps of the school.

"This has got to be the worst first day of school ever," said Kate and her smile turned apologetic. "Sorry about that."

"Not your fault," Rick replied with a light shrug and a grateful smile. "But thanks."

They kept walking, talking about everything but the events of that day and without even realising how far they had walked, they arrived outside Kate's house. "Thanks," Kate said, a hand resting on the iron gate. "Really, and I'm sorry about what a suckish first day this has been for you."

Rick meerly smiled. "Until tomorrow, Kate."

Kate smiled slightly, her mouth lifted up at the corner. "You can't just say, 'See you tomorrow'?"

"I'm over-dramatic, and 'See you tomorrow' is boring."

"Yeah well, I'm normal," Kate said, truly smiling for the first time since they'd met that morning. "See you tomorrow."

With that, Kate strolled through the Kate and jogged up the driveway towards the awning and shelter from the rain, rapping lightly on one of the front windows and waving weakly to whoever was inside. Rick watched as she and an older, slightly smaller woman embraced - her mother? - and went inside with an arm around each other and he smiled. "See you tomorrow."

...Story.

How 'bout that for Caskett ;)

I'm not sure why, but when I pictured the last scene in my head I had an "Awww!" moment but I dunno, I'll let you judge *hint hint review hint hint*