Title: Of Avoidance, Plans and Butterflies…3/5

Author: KourtTears
Pairings/Characters: Kat/Patrick; Michael Bernstein
Rating: PG
Disclaimer: 10 Things I Hate About You is not mine. I'm going to borrow it for a bit though.
Spoilers: Up to 1.5
Summary: "Verona, just shut up, kiss me and I'll owe you one."

Kat sat in her car and looked up at the school building. It had been two days since Patrick had told her they were involved and kissed her. It had been two days since Mikey had upped his game and pretty much chased her all over the school. It had been two days full of avoidance tactics to get away from her stalker. Stalker as in singular. Normally this would have put Kat on cloud nine. Unfortunately, it was the wrong stalker she was running away from.

It had been two days since Patrick had spoken to her. Hell, it had been two day since Kat had seen him anywhere but class. It was like he disappeared from one class and magically reappeared in the next.

It had been two days since Patrick had made his declaration and Kat wasn't sure if she was relieved or hurt that he had just been playing with her. On the one hand, since it appeared the game was done, she could get back to her normal life. On the other hand, if the game was over she would have to go back to her normal life. Kat wasn't really sure how the same ending could cause such conflicting feelings.

She looked up at the school for a few more minutes, contemplating the situation, before she decided to just deal with things as they happened. She had enough to worry about as it was (a non-threatening stalker by the name of Mikey was the first thing that came to mind) and she refused to dwell on something that was done and over with.

Kat shook her head to clear her mind and put a smile on (more like a grimace really but she felt she should get points for trying). Then she pushed open the car door.

Or attempted to.

"Good Morning Katarina."

There stood Patrick Verona, holding her car door to keep her from opening it and with his ever present smirk.

Kat looked at the smirk and saw red. She turned in the car seat, put one leg against the car door and shoved with all her strength. She could envision the door slamming into his surprised form, him losing his balance and falling right onto the ground. Then she would casually step out of the car, step over his sprawled body and be on her way to class. It would have been the perfect start to the day.

Patrick had apparently been expecting her violent streak because he barely stumbled backwards when she kicked the door open. He stood there holding the door like he was a gentleman and opened it for her. And he was still sporting that stupid smirk. She wanted to slap it off but figured he would be expecting that as well.

Kat sighed as she stepped out of the car. Her entire week had been shitty so why would today be any different? Well, if she couldn't knock Patrick down then she would do the next best thing. She'd ignore him.

She swung her backpack on her shoulder and stepped around the open car door without even a glance at the smirking man holding it. She was parallel with the headlights when she heard the door slam and she sped up hoping to stay ahead of him. She heard his boots hitting the concrete before she felt his leather clad arm drape over her shoulder.

Damn his long legs.

"Get off," she said as she shrugged his arm off.

He just placed his arm back on her shoulder and chuckled. She could feel the butterflies (indigestion…not butterflies, never butterflies) start to move about.

"Now, now Katarina, is that how you greet the man you're involved with?"

"One, we are not involved. Two, don't call me Katarina and three I'll greet you however I want."

"Are we really going to argue about this again? I've already told you my thoughts on the subject."

Kat shrugged his arm off again but he had it back in place before she had completely finished the motion.

"What do you want Patrick?"

"Can't I just say good morning? Besides I haven't talked to you in a couple days."

"And whose fault is that? I'm not the one that went out of his way to show up to class right with the bell and be the first one out of the door. I'm also not the one who's been practicing his avoidance techniques" (except she was of course, just not because of him).

Kat winced as soon as she heard the edge to her response. It gave too much away.

"You've been keeping track of me!"

And of course he would pick up on it.

"No I haven't."

"Yes you have. Don't be hurt Katarina; I was just busy this week."

"Yeah sure," she muttered. They had finally reached the school so now she could continue to her locker and he would go to his. Luckily they were on different sides of the school so she wouldn't have to see him until their afternoon History class.

She tried to pull away to go to her locker but he tightened his arm around her shoulders and matched her turn.

"What are you doing?"

"Going to my locker."

"You locker is that way," she said as she made a vague hand gesture behind her.

"I knew you were obsessed with me."

"I'm not obsessed with you."

"Yeah right. Tell me Katarina, do you keep track of everyone's locker?"

"Don't call me Katarina."

"I'll take that as a no. That means that you only keep track of certain peoples' locker and I'm obviously on that exclusive list. I'm touched."

Kat let out a growl (not that she would ever admit it was a growl) and jerked out from under his arm. She had finally reached her locker and turned around in front of it to face him.

"Cut the crap Patrick. What do you want?"

Patrick leaned in and invaded her personal space.

"I told you, I'm going to my locker. Or I was." And then he leaned into her space a little more and started spinning the lock on the locker right next to hers. She watched him in shock as he pulled it open. And there on taped to the inside of the door were his few pictures of various motorcycles (at least they didn't have bikini-clad women draped over them).

"What—when..?"

He chuckled and answered her garbled question.

"I told you I was busy this week."

She stared up at him in astonishment before she turned to open her locker (and get a few seconds to compose herself). When Patrick finished putting things in his locker, he shut it and leaned his shoulder against it to stare at Kat. It appeared he was going to wait for her. Goody.

"That's not all I've been up to this week." He stopped talking and it took Kat a few seconds to realize he was waiting for her to ask. As she finished exchanging the books in her bag for the ones in her locker she tried to decide what to do. She could ask but that would just encourage him. But if she didn't ask he would inevitably pull more surprises from his bag of tricks and she wasn't sure if she could handle any more surprises like his magical moving locker. She finished getting her books for her morning classes and finally turned to face him.

"Oh?" There, that would get her answers without really encouraging him (hopefully).

He looked at her like he knew exactly what she was trying to do but had decided to humor her anyway.

"I've been working on solving your little stalker problem."

"I can solve that one easy: leave me alone and there won't be a stalker problem."

Kat turned away from him and headed to her first class happy that she had the last word for once. Her happiness was short lived of course.

"Funny, but I said little stalker. That most definitely does not apply to me." He stepped in front of her and did a 360º turn with his arms out. She looked into his eyes and saw that he was just begging her to comment on his statement. Kat decided to play it safe for once and brought the conversation back to the original topic.

"What about my little stalker problem?" Patrick's eyes called her a coward but he too went back to the main topic.

"I asked around and figured out why Bernstein was so obsessed with you all of a sudden."

Kat continued to walk to class and Patrick fell in step with her.

"Ignoring the fact that you didn't believe he would like me just because I'm me, what did you find out?"

Patrick looked shocked that she would just overlook an insult, intentional or not, but decided to continue with his story before she changed her mind. "Well, it seems that Bernstein has decided that if he can date the 'scary girl' of the school then he'll get bumped up the popularity ranks. Especially since he plans on dumping you in front of everyone after he gets you to agree to a date."

Kat stopped in the middle of the hall surprised by the hurt at learning of Mikey's duplicitous actions. She didn't notice the students who grumbled as they moved around her. She didn't notice Patrick take a few steps before he realized she wasn't with him anymore. She didn't notice his expression of sympathy when he turned back to her and she didn't notice when he took her arm and guided her to the empty classroom to her left.

She took a few steps into the room and dropped her bag. She heard the door close but wasn't really paying attention. She was shocked that the harmless little guy she had compared to a puppy dog could be so cruel. Kat didn't hear Patrick walk closer to her but she did feel his hand cup her cheek and turn her face toward him.

"Katarina?" When she didn't respond he rubbed his thumb across her cheek bone and tried again. "Kat? Are you okay?"

She looked up into his eyes and answered him, "Um…yeah. I just can't believe he would do that."

"I'm sorry."

"I mean, I thought he was sweet, you know? Annoying but sweet. He reminded me of a puppy dog." She took a couple steps away and turned her back to him.

"I guess that explains it."

She didn't turn around as she responded, "Explains what?"

"Explains why you didn't just tear him down when he first started chasing after you."

The tardy bell rang and they stood there for a few minutes before Kat finally exploded.

"That little twerp! I was nice to him! I did everything in my power to keep from hurting his feelings. Hell, I avoided him rather than turn him down flat. I don't avoid anyone, not even you, and I avoided him hoping he would find someone else to go after. I didn't want to embarrass him in front of his friends and the whole school."

During her rant she paced around the room and kicked out at anything that got in her way. She finally stopped and stood looking out the windows. She took a few deep breathes to calm herself and was just about to thank Patrick when she felt his hands rest on her shoulders.

"I'm sorry."

Kat just nodded and leaned into him for a few seconds before she pulled away and faced him.

"Thank you for telling me."

He gave her a gentle smile, "It was nothing. I was hoping you would need some help dealing with him."

Kat smiled at him, leaned up and gently pressed her lips to his. "Thanks but I've got this covered."

He brought his hand back up to cup her cheek and rubbed his thumb across her lips. "That's my Katarina."

"I told you to stop calling me that."

And just like that things were back to normal between them.

Kat stepped around him, grabbed her backpack off the floor and headed out the door. Patrick followed her out the door and down the hall.

"What are you doing? You're class is on the other side of school."

"I love how you're so obsessed with me that you have my schedule memorized."

She just glared at him and walked into her first class. She didn't realize he had followed her until the teacher spoke up.

"Miss Stratford, Mr. Verona, you're late. Detention this afternoon. Now take your seats."

"But…"'

"Yes, Miss Stratford, was there something you wanted to share with the class?"

"Um…" Kat looked at the teacher and then Patrick's back as he moved past her and sat in the seat that just happened to be behind hers. "No ma'am."

"Then take your seat."

Kat just nodded and moved to her seat. Thirty minutes into the class Patrick leaned up and whispered into her ear, "I told you I had been busy this week Katarina."

Kat put her hand over her stomach to settle the butterflies (yes, fine, they were butterflies) that had taken up residence there and tried to hide her smile.

A/N: Here's the third chapter. I hadn't planned on there being a lot of drama in this, I was more going for humor, but this just kinda snuck up on me. Claire, I hope this answers your question. I am planning two more chapters with a small epilogue. That could change but I really dont' think it will. Let me know what you think please. (And for the record I like Mikey but I do think he's a social climber that would go just a little too far to lose his loser status).

And THANK YOU SO MUCH to everyone who reviewed or favorited or added this story to their alerts. It's so nice to wake up on Monday morning with over 60 emails letting me know that people like what I write.