Hi again!! I just wanted to thank all of my readers and reviewers again. You guys are really supportive and really keep me going. Thank you!! Also, I realized there isn't a disclaimer in this, and my paranoia started up. Sooo…… I don't own it. I don't even own the DVD, which is sad. I own Catt. That's it.


"Catt Gates!" The bark from her teacher made Catt jump as she slid her cell phone back into her school bag.

"Yes, Mr. Kemper?" She asked, widening her eyes slightly.

"Did I see a cell phone?" The old man narrowed his eyes at the high school senior, inspecting for any sign of guilt.

"Not from me, sir." She shook her head gently, her dark hair falling into her face.

"I better not." He warned, concluding that she was guilt-free. He turned his back, and Catt grinned mischievously.

"Now, as we have discussed many times," Mr. Kemper continued. "The Supreme Court has a specific job. Who can tell me what that is??"

Catt knew the answer, but did not volunteer it. Instead, she pulled out her cell phone again and began texting furiously to her uncle.

What do you mean Grandpa can't view a text??

Just what I said. Your grandfather is still text challenged.

Well then call him.

Why can't you??

I'm in class, Ben. Just promise you will be here tonight.

Yes, we will be there.

Catt sighed in relief. Her small family had an excellent record of attendance so far as her plays went, and she was not about to let them start slacking her senior year.

"Now come on, class." Mr. Kemper nearly whined. "I know you know this. How long is the term of Supreme Court Justice??"

Catt shot her hand up. "Life long, sir." She shouted out.

"Thank you, Catt." He rolled his eyes. "But you spoke out of turn. Detention."

"But Mr. Kemper, I have-" Catt was cut off by the distinct sound of chalk on the board as he crossed a 'T'. "Actually, Sir, its two 'T's. And with a C." The students around her began to laugh as Mr. Kemper glared at her. "Or not." She muttered, sinking lower into her seat.

"Now class, let us continue with our discussion on the judicial branch-" The bell rang, signaling the end of classes "tomorrow."

Catt joined in the bustling of the students as they left their AP Government class. She stopped at her locker, giving the evil teacher time to send her name down to the office to be added to the detention list. Grabbing her Spanish book, she looked up as she heard her name being called over the PA.

"I know, I know!!" She yelled up at the speaker. Slamming her locker shut, she made her way down to the main office, passing her cast mates and explaining in as few words as possible her reasons for being late. She finally opened the door to the office and promptly ran full on into a rather solid something. The force knocked her and the other person down, scattering bags and supplies everywhere.

"Smooth, Catt." The school secretary, Mrs. Fox, said, looking down at the mess.

"I am so sorry." Catt mumbled, sitting up. She looked around and spotted her school bag, fully closed with the contents safe. The other person had not faired so well. A black messenger bag laid nearby, paperwork spilling out of it to reveal a very expensive laptop. Stacked neatly next to Mrs. Fox's desk were four hard black cases with a familiar company name stamped onto them. Catt put two and two together and concluded that she had knocked over the tech that was going to upgrade the entire school's computer system.

"It's fine." She heard male voice say. Turning towards that voice, she saw a guy not much older than herself, his dark hair a mess and his glasses slipping down his nose. He was dressed how you would expect an employee at one of the most successful computer businesses in the tri-state area to dress, with his khaki chinos, blue striped shirt, matching tie and navy blue sports jacket. Although as Catt looked down, she changed her mind, and decided that the battered Chuck Taylor's made the look much closer to a student being forced to dress up for church than successful computer nerd.

"No, really, it's my fault." Catt stood up, now quite sure she hadn't broken any bones. "Here, let me help you." She held out her hand, and the techie studied it. "It's a hand, not a torture device." She laughed.

"How can I be sure of that?" He asked in mock suspicion, accepting her hand and letting her pull him to his feet. "I don't know what you do in your spare time."

"Apparently she mouths off to teachers." Mrs. Fox cut in, checking the detention list on her computer. "Catt, that's not like you. Especially in a history class."

"He spelled my name wrong." She shrugged, unconcerned.

"A teacher spelled Catt wrong?" The techie asked.

"I bet you would too." Mrs. Fox said, rolling her eyes at the teenage girl. "It's not a normal spelling."

"It's very normal!" Catt insisted. "If he knew anything about history, he would have no problems spelling it."

"Wait, so now we have a history teacher that not only can't spell, but doesn't know about history?" The techie was trying to laugh. "No wonder you mouthed off to him. It sound like it would be too easy."

"You shouldn't take her side on this!" Mrs. Fox scolded him.

"At least not until you've tried to spell my name." Catt agreed. "Go on, spell Catt."

The techie thought for a moment, then answered. "Well, you said yourself that it's not spelled normally, so that rules out K-A-T and C-A-T. Then you also mentioned how he would have to know about history, which means you were named after someone. The only Catt I can think of is Carrie Chapman Catt, so I am going to guess C-A-T-T."

Catt's jaw dropped. He was the first person to guess right in the six years she had been playing that game.

"This guy's good." Mrs. Fox nodded, obviously impressed.

"You can say that again." Catt agreed, before shooting Mrs. Fox a glare. "Don't."

The secretary, who had already opened her mouth to repeat herself, closed it with a "Humph."

"So I got it right?" He asked. Catt nodded. "Wow, I'm awesome."

Catt giggled. "And so modest." She added.

"Eh, that comes and goes." He shrugged with a grin.

"So, Miss Gates, let's see what we can have you do during your half-hour." Mrs. Fox scanned the list of detention chores, looking for something suitable. "Well, since you two seem to get along so well, you can be Mr. Poole's student guide."

The techie winced. "Please, call me Riley."

"Sure thing, Techie." Catt said, stashing her school bag under Mrs. Fox's desk. As the secretary printed out two name tags, Catt snuck into her candy drawer and pulled out two lollipops. Mrs. Fox closed the drawer sharply as she handed Catt the name tags with a look of disapproval.

"Catt will show you around and help you with your things, Riley." Mrs. Fox explained as Catt put on her own name tag, trying not to blush at the bright red "DETENTION" splashed across the bottom.

"Here." She handed him the other name tag printed with his full name, the company name, and the word "GUEST". "Are those going with us?" She asked, motioning to the black boxes.

"One for every ten computers." He nodded, having difficulty with the sticky part of the name tag. "We don't have to do them all in one go. There are two labs, right?"

Catt nodded. "One in the library on the first floor and one in the media room on the second floor."

"Oh fun. Let's go upstairs first." He suggested, grabbing one of the black boxes. Catt grabbed the other, and together they headed towards the stairs.

"So what year are you?" Riley asked, breaking the slightly awkward sentence.

"Senior." Catt replied with a smirk.

"Nice." Riley grinned too. "I remember senior year. There's nothing like feeling in control of the whole school."

"You still are in control of the whole school, computer whiz." Catt pointed out. "You have the power to shut down the whole system and throw us back into the dark ages."

"Was that a hint?" He asked as they turned entered the room that housed the twenty computers in five perfect rows of four.

"Maybe." She grinned, setting down the case and pulling out her cell phone, which was vibrating. Flipping it open, she found a new text from Ben. What time is your play again? Rolling her eyes, she text back the time when doors open. No sense in having him arrive late.

"You kids and your modern technology." Riley muttered, glaring at the cell phone as he tinkered with the insides of the modem.

"Yeah, how dare we?" Catt muttered, raising an eyebrow as he hit a few keys and made a multitude of things happen at once.

"So who was it?" He asked. "You're boyfriend discussing prom tickets?"

Catt actually laughed out loud at that statement, an image of Ben in a tux taking her to prom flashing across her mind. "Not quite." She finally managed to choke out as Riley looked at her though she were nuts. "Just my uncle Ben wondering what time my show is tonight." Riley suddenly burst into peals of laughter at her words. "What is so funny about that?"

"I'm sorry." He tried to stop, but failed. "It's just…Uncle Ben?? Seriously??"

"Yeah…" She still failed to see the humor.

"Like Uncle Ben's Rice??" He asked.

Cat cracked up, now realizing why he was laughing. The image of the old black man on the orange packages flashed across her mind as she shook her head. "I never thought of that." She giggled. "But no. He definitely does not look like that Uncle Ben."

"I would hope not." He laughed one more time, then continued. "So you're in that play?" He motioned towards the poster taped to the media room door. Catt nodded. "Are you that weird blonde chick?" Catt nodded again. Riley gave her a funny look. "But you're not blonde."

"No, but I am fully capable of wearing a wig." She informed him.

"That's a musical, right? So you must be a good singer." Riley continued.

Catt nodded. "There are only a few things I'm really good at. Singing, dancing, and acting all kind of count as one, if you ask me. It all goes under performing. I remember facts well. But I'm not very good at using them. Like for riddles and stuff. Ben, he's always trying to get me to figure out riddles. I never can." She sighed, and Riley gave her a mildly concerned look.

"What was that heart-wrenching sigh for?" He asked.

"It was nothing." He raised an eyebrow in a skeptical manner, which she took as a hint that he wasn't buying. "All right, then. I just feel like sometimes he isn't proud of me for the things I do well, because he's too busy focusing on the things I don't well. My whole family is about solving puzzles and figuring out clues, and the fact that I can't figure out some of the simplest ciphers bothers them. I guess it bothers me too, but only because it bothers them, if that made any sense." Riley nodded, his eyes still on Catt. She shrugged. "I just wish they expressed that they were proud of me more."

"Everyone wishes that about their family." He explained. "I'm sure that eventually, your uncle is going to realize that you are really amazing. It's just going to take him some time. It always takes grown-up time to figure things like that out." Riley made a face as Catt giggled, and with that screwed on the side of the last modem. "Okay. We're all set here."

The two joked their way back to the office and repeated the routine in the library. Catt's half hour detention was long since up, but she didn't make her way down the auditorium right away. She helped Riley load his cases into the pale blue company car with the logo on the side.

"Well, I need to go get into costume and stuff." Catt checked her cell phone for the time. "The show goes up in three hours. You know you should come." She said, putting on a dazzling smile and her best used-car-salesman voice. "I mean, just because we're a high school doesn't mean we don't have the talent to pull off Evita!!"

Riley took one look at her and laughed. "Yeah, okay kid. Bet that's your speech for when your friends tell you that musicals are lame."

Catt dropped the dazzling smile. "Okay, so maybe it's not Tony worthy or whatever," she agreed. "But it can't be that bad, can it?? And all the money raised goes to buying us a new light system. That's geeky, which means you'll love it."

"Hey!" Riley looked only slightly indignant at the rib against him. "I'm not promising anything. But…if I get out of work early enough, I might come."

"Cool." Catt said, checking her phone again. "Okay, now I really have to get into costume, before my cast kills me." She ran back towards the building, turning back to wave at Riley before disappearing into the building. Riley shook his head at the cheerful teen as he pulled out, wondering if he should actually keep to his word.

oOoOoOoOo

After three hours of dressing, putting on make-up, practicing dances, and trying to focus, the cast of Timothy Matlack High School's production of Evita took their opening positions. Catt, her natural dark hair curled and prayed within an inch of her life, took a deep breath, and flipped open her cell phone (breaking several rules) to check her text messages one last time. Sure enough, three words popped up attached to Ben's name.

Break a leg.

Grinning broadly, she slipped her phone into the stage manager's desk and waited.

oOoOoOoOo

After several bows, the cast scuttled off-stage to clean themselves up well enough to go out and see their family. Catt pulled off the sticky wig and quickly wiped off some of the stage make-up. Shaking her natural hair out a bit, she didn't even bother to change out of costume before rushing at the house door.

"Great job, Catt!!" She heard called out by various people. She smiled in their general direction, but absorbed herself with looking for the father and son duo she knew was out there somewhere.

"CATT!!" Her smile grew as he uncle's familiar voice broke through the hub-bub. She turned and saw him standing in the center aisle, her grandfather slowly getting up from his seat. She rushed up to him and he pulled her into a fierce hug, surely ruining his jacket with her stage make-up. After a few moments, he held her at arms length, inspecting her as though he had never seen her before. "You were fantastic." He said. "We've never been prouder."

"We sure haven't" Her grandfather said, finally making his way into the aisle. He smile grew even wider as she hugged him, realizing how true their words were.

oOoOoOoOo

After nearly 45 minutes talking with the rest of the cast and crew and their families, Catt made her way backstage to change into her street clothes and go home. Pushing open the girl's dressing room, she saw it deserted except for the stage manager, Lacey.

"Great show, Lace." Catt said, slipping her jeans on under her dress.

"You too, Catt." Lacey was putting the costumes back in order for the shows the next day. She suddenly turned her blonde head towards the girl, realizing who it was. "Oh, by the way, some guy gave me this to give you." She reached over to the table and handed her a rumpled copy of the program. Furrowing her eyebrows, Catt flipped through it until she found what had been a blank page for autographs, but was now marred by some very messily written words.

You were right: high school theater isn't that bad. I was right: You're uncle has every right to be proud. Promise to be my student guide for the spring upgrades??

--Riley (that weird techie who thinks your uncle sells rice)

Catt cracked up reading the writing, and Lacey gave her a knowing look.

"Catt's got herself a boyfriend." She sang in a sickly sweet voice. Catt rolled her eyes and threw her dress at her.

"I'll see you tomorrow, Lace." She said, running out to meet her family.