Four

"Is anybody sitting here?" said a strong male voice.

After homeroom, Kate walked to Chemistry, but she couldn't take her mind off of the boy in homeroom. 'Jack' Kate thought. 'He seems so nice...no one has ever really been that nice to me. I hope I have more classes with him.'' What am I talking about, he was just doing what was right...he doesn't wanna end up with bad karma like the rest of us...he probably already forgot my name.' Kate thought again. She didn't know why, but just thinking about Jack gave her a small little chill up her spine...a good chill, like the chill you get when you wake up and you realize it's Christmas, or when you get exactly what you wanted for your birthday. 'But I'm not here to focus on Jack or any boys...I'm here to focus on my academics...if I want to go to Columbia University, I'm gonna need all of the good grades I can get.' Kate thought again.

Kate continued through out the day, going through Chemistry with Mr. Davis (who had really gross greasy hair), English with Mrs. Marks, and Math with Ms. Spencer. Finally, it was lunch time, and Kate made her way to the cafeteria. As she walked in, friends were meeting up with each other and gathering at the large lunch tables with their food. 'Great, only one problem...where do I sit?' Kate thought, and then spotted an empty table where no one was sitting. 'Guess I'm sitting there.' And Kate made her way over with her brown paper bag of lunch and sat down, all alone. As she began eating, she heard a male voice speak from right behind her.

"Is anybody sitting here?"

Kate turned around and saw him.

"Hey Jack! Sure you can sit here." Kate said, excited to see him.

"Thanks." said Jack, and he sat down directly next to Kate. 'He is so cute.' Kate thought, then mentally scalded herself. 'Stop it! He'll see you blushing.'

"You ok Kate? You look a little red..." Jack started, but was cut off by Kate

"I'm fine!" Kate said brightly, a little too brightly, and it didn't go unnoticed by Jack.

"O-k..." Jack said, and then laughed. "So how is your first day going? Are people being nice? Cause if their not, give me names so I know who to talk to." Jack said, and laughed at the end.

"It's ok. Except for this morning, this one kid tried to hit on me...but I talked to him and straightened it out." Kate said, flashing back to that morning where she threatened pain on the boy who flirted with her.

"Who was it?" Jack said, seriously.

"What?"

"Who was it, who was the guy?" Jack said again.

"Umm, I don't know his name, I'm sorry." Kate said, a little intimidated.

"Well, if you see him, let me know, and I will straighten him out."

For some reason, this made Kate feel...well...safe. Something that she hadn't felt in a long time. No one had ever stood up for her, in any situation, not even her mom, and here, a complete stranger that she just met a couple of hours ago and probably only said 10 sentences to was already defending her. She had to admit, she liked this.

She loved it.

"Oh Kate, do you mind if my friends come over and sit with us? They're really nice, don't worry." Jack asked politely.

"Sure, I don't mind at all. The more nice people I meet, the better." Kate smiled back at Jack.

"Ok, cool." Jack waved his hand in the air, signaling his friends to make their way over to the table.

A boy with semi-long blonde hair and blue eyes, a girl with long, wavy blonde hair and blue eyes, a dark-skinned boy, who looked middle-eastern, and another girl with short blonde hair walked over to the table, carrying their lunch trays.

"Kate, this is Charlie, Claire, Sayid, and Shannon...Guys, this is Kate Austen...she just moved here from Iowa." Jack introduced the teens.

"Hi Kate, I'm Shannon, I like clothes and shopping...oh and boys...I LOVE boys." Shannon said, and the rest of the group giggled at her forwardness.

"Hi Shannon, it's so nice to meet you." Kate said, still recovering from laughing.

"Hi, I'm Claire, and like Shannon, I like to shop, but not as much. I really like art though." Claire spoke sweetly, and Kate could tell they were going to be great friends.

"Hey Kate, Charlie Pace. I, unlike these two female shopaholics, hate shopping. I play guitar and I sing. I am in a Band." Charlie said, when Jack interrupted.

"You mean your are in the process of making a band."

"Well...yeah...but" Charlie started, but was then cut off by Sayid.

"Save it Charlie. Hello Kate, my name is Sayid. I like football, and I play on the team with Jack." He spoke confidently and very clearly.

"Hey, yeah, I think I saw you in my math class." Kate spoke, and was interupted by Shannon.

"Wait. You're in his math class?!?! No one is smarter than Sayid in our grade. Well, Jack is pretty close, but Sayid is in a Senior math class, are you a sophomore?" Shannon spoke shocked.

"Yeah, I'm a sophomore. But I already took the SAT's." Kate spoke and the whole table went silent.

"Is something wrong?" Kate said, confused and concerned.

"Looks like Sayid's got some competition on smartest kid in the 10th grade." Charlie chimed in, recieving a glare from Sayid.

"So you are all sophomores?" Kate asked.

Everyone nodded their heads 'Yes' and Kate suddenly felt very comfortable with this small group of people. She had a strong feeling that this was going to be a good year.

A great year.

Kate went through the rest of the day and the rest of her classes, discovering she had History with Jack, - which made her very happy - Art with Claire, Spanish with Sayid and Shannon, and a Study Hall with Charlie.

The 9th period bell rang, signaling the end of the school day, and Kate walked out of Spanish with Sayid and Shannon. They all walked to Shannon's locker, where they met Claire, Charlie, and Jack.

"So what's up for after school?" Shannon asked, striking up a new conversation.

"We've got football." said Jack, pointing to sayid and himself.

"Oh yeah! The season opener is tonight!" Claire said, excitedly.

"Yeah, Homecoming is next week." said Sayid. He and Jack smiled and pounded fists.

"And Homecoming means Homecoming Dance! Which means dress shopping!!!" Shannon yelled.

"God Shannon, don't you already have, like, 430 dresses?" asked Charlie.

"Yeah, but I can't wear the same dress more than once. I mean, what if someone saw me wearing one and then they saw me again wearing the same dress?!?!" Shannon stated as if it were a fact of life.

Everyone just stared at Shannon, confused and somewhat amused.

"Anyways..."Claire started "Kate, every year, the night before Homecoming, our school has a Homecoming Dance. Y'know, all football players ask the cheerleaders to be their dates, and then everyone else goes with dates or a group of friends. That's what we did last year. Charlie, Shannon, Sayid, and myself went as a small group. It's always so much fun."

"Hey, not all of the football players go with cheerleaders!" Sayid said, but Charlie chimed in.

"Sayid, you were one of 3 guys on the team that went by yourself. The rest went with cheerleaders. Sorry mate, your alone on that one."

Shannon spoke up. "Yeah, Jack went with Sarah." Claire then 'oooooh'-ed sarcastically.

Kate was confused. "Who's Sarah?"

"Don't even get me started on her." Claire said. "She's the captain of the cheerleading team. Sure she is pretty, but she is the biggest bi-atch you will EVER meet."

"I'm still here y'know." Jack chimed in, but Claire ignored him.

"All of the boys go chasing her around. It's like she has got them wrapped around her finger. And she is so mean. I mean Shannon, remember the time -"

"We're not gonna talk about that..." Shannon almost yelled. "Anyways, Kate, all you need to know about her is to stay away from her and if she is mean to you, it isn't personal. She's literally the devil."

"Ummm, hi. Yeah, I have been standing here the whole time." Jack said, a little uncomfortable. He almost didn't want Kate to know that he took Sarah to the dance last year. 'Why would she care who I dated.' he thought.

"Sorry Jack. But if there is one thing Kate needs to know about the school's Cheer-Devil, it's that she needs to stay away from her." Claire said, matter-of-factly.

Kate decided it was a good time to speak. "Well, I would love to come with you guys, but do any of you have dates yet, cause I KNOW I won't have a date by next week."

Jack had the urge to jump up and down yelling 'come with me! I'll ask you!' but instead he just blushed and looked down, not going unnoticed by Sayid and Charlie.

"Don't worry Kate, actually NONE of us have dates yet." Claire said reassuringly. "Nobody really get's them until next week. I mean, school just started 3 weeks ago...people are still getting the 'back to school' feeling."

"But you are so coming dress shopping with us next week." Shannon stated, almost forcing Kate to come with them.

"Okay, Shannon, I will, don't worry." Kate said.

"Great!" Shannon said and smiled.

Sayid looked at his watch and looked up. "It's 2:45, and our bus leaves at 3:15. We've got to go."

"Who are you guys playing?" Claire asked.

"Lincoln High...it's basically an automatic win." Jack said proudly. "We'll probably be back by six tonight."

"Good luck." Kate said, looking at Jack.

Jack blushed and looked down at the ground, and then back up at Kate, "Thanks...umm, so I see you tomorrow."

"Yeah, umm, see ya tomorrow." Kate said shyly.

"Ahem." Charlie coughed, and Jack and Kate looked up.

"Anyways..."Charlie began "Good luck guys. Jack, call me tonight, yeah?"

"Yeah, don't worry." Jack said.

"Alright, you two go, we'll see you tomorrow." Shannon said, ushering them towards the locker rooms.

"Good luck!!!" Kate, Claire, and Charlie chimed in together.

"Thanks!" Sayid and Jack said in unison.

Charlie, Claire, Shannon, and Kate were walking home when Kate started talking.

"So, where do you guys actually live?"

"Well, Charlie, Jack, and I live on Neil Drive." Claire stated

"No way! So do I!" Kate said excitedly.

"Wait, don't tell me your dad is Sam Austen." Charlie asked.

"Yeah! Oh my God, how did you know?" Kate asked, laughing.

"Dude, he only makes the best chocolate chip cookies EVER! Better than my mom!" Charlie said excitedly, and then looked around when everyone just starred at him.

"What, I like cookies..." Charlie said innocently.

Claire spoke up. "Wait, so you live at number 10?"

"Yeah." Kate said.

"Jack lives at number 8! And I live at number 5, and Charlie lives at number 2!" Claire said.

"Wow, that is so freaky!!! What a coincidence!" Kate said.

"Yeah, so it looks like Jack is your next door neighbor!" Claire said, very excited.

"How weird is that?! I guess we're all neighbors!" Kate said, very happy that Jack was her next door neighbor.

"Yup, and Shannon and Sayid lived around the corner." Charlie said, looking at Shannon.

"Yeah, we live on Mark Street." Shannon said.

"I guess it's a small world after all." Kate stated.