.:Chapter 07:.


Katie sighed heavily, resting her chin in her hands, staring down at her notebook and open textbook. What was the point of even doing homework when there were more important things that she could think about? Like…other ways to get on Bitters nerves, other ways to scam people out of their money at the Palm Woods, hanging out with her friends, finding new outfits for concerts…Katie leaned forward and wrote a note to herself in the notebook: figure out new concert outfits.

She leaned back, studying what she just wrote. It was starting to scare her, how much she said that she wouldn't turn into a 'girly girl' and care so much about her makeup, the clothes she wore, who was good looking, what the latest styles were. She didn't care at all up until she got to LA. Her brothers made a pact to say that they wouldn't let LA change them…they should have said not to let fame change them. Everyone changes as they get older, but being in new places did the same thing to all of them. Her mother didn't use to care in how she dressed, just as long as she was able to get her work done and be there for her kids. Even she was aware that there were different standards that you had to stick to, to make it in LA. Katie wasn't immune to it. But she was growing up as well, so there was going to be a time where she had to change a little.

And concerts were fun; yeah it was cool that she got to go in for free and got backstage passes with little to no effort, being able to see her friends and family live out their dream was cool too, but when was it going to be her turn to drop everything that she didn't deem necessary just so she could live out her dream? Instead, she was stuck doing homework and trying to pay attention in class at a school where the teacher was young (-ish) and had most of the guys' attention, and yet she couldn't see that Katie was being tormented on a nearly daily basis.

Katie looked down when she heard the sound of her phone starting to ring. "Saved by the bell." Leaning over, Katie saw that she was getting a Face Talk notification from her best friend, Lizzie Zevon. Finally, someone to talk to. Katie picked up the phone and opened up the application. "Hey, Lizz."

"Heyyy!" Lizzie waved. "So, I got some time away from practice today and I figured I'd see how my girlie was doing!"

Katie grinned to herself. Lizzie was probably the girliest girl that she knew, but unlike other girls she knew (mainly Victoria and her posse) Lizzie could be just as much of a tomboy. One day you could see her in her frilliest dress and in makeup, the next you could see her in a hat, one of her brother's jerseys, and sneakers. Katie never thought she could ever be friends with a girl that was so much of her polar opposite, but Lizzie had been so outgoing when the two met, and since she was the only girl around that was her age (not that she didn't like hanging out with Jo, Camille, Stephanie, Riley and Rhuben) so the two clicked pretty quickly. Katie was a bit jealous of Lizzie, being completely honest with herself. She was tall, blonde, had guys drooling over her, and didn't ever really put her foot in her mouth. Whenever she did have a blonde moment, which Katie liked to tease her about as much as she could, she just laughed it off.

It would be annoying if they weren't such good friends.

"I'm good," Katie replied. "Sort of bored, though. Nothing's really been going on over here." Katie thought back to the fights that she had watched Patrick participate in and frowned. It was a secret, one she didn't like much, nor did she understand, and it was killing her that she couldn't tell her best friend. I wonder if Lizzie even knows. I mean, all of the Jacksons know and Patrick and Noah are close with her. She felt envy rush through her veins. No matter who she became friends with out in LA, they always seemed to be closer to someone else. The only one that was essentially close to her was Sydney, but he liked everybody so it wasn't that special.

"Really?" Lizzie didn't look convinced. "Last I checked there was always something going on with your brother and the guys or with the Jacksons involved." She gave a cheeky smile. "I remember someone always going on and on about what sort of trouble you had to help them out of. Even running over security guard in a golf cart."

"Yeah, that was an accident," Katie said. She laughed at the memory. "I was just so engrossed in my game, and the guys kept interrupting me to get on that stupid morning show. If I wasn't so close to finishing the game, I would have seen them."

"Instead, you ran over them?"

"All's fair in video games and war."

"Sweetie, I think that the correct words you're looking for is all's fair in love and war," Lizzie corrected her. Her cheeky smile widened and Katie studied her closely, her eyes narrowing.

"Something tells me that you didn't want to see how I was doing," Katie said slowly.

"Why Katherine Apple Knight, I don't like your tone. It sounds like you're accusing me of something." Lizzie placed her hand on her chest and batted her eyelashes, trying to look as innocent as possible. Katie continued to look at her. "Ok. Ok. I wanted to ask you about what was going on with Kendall and Riley. Word on the street is that he finally asked her out on a date? You know, I thought that he would do it eventually; I just didn't know that he would wait so long. How long can you wait after you tell a girl that you like her, to want to go out with her? I mean, yeah, I get that he did jump through girlfriends pretty quickly and he was, sort of, with Lucy at the time, but that doesn't mean that…"

Katie started to zone out. As much as she loved Lizzie, she sometimes forgot how much of a tangent she could go on. It didn't matter the subject, if Lizzie could talk about something, she would talk about it as long as she could. Her major topic of choice was clothes, dancing, boys and any other combination of the three that you could come up with. But she could equally talk about surfing, baking, and whatever her current TV obsession was. Katie ran a hand through her hair, bringing her hair up to her face to look for split ends. Maybe I can do something different with my hair. It's been the same since we got out here. She blinked, dropping her hair. Where did that come from?

"Are you listening to me?!" Lizzie demanded.

"No," Katie said honestly. "I zoned out after the first three seconds." She laughed at the offended look on Lizzie's face before answering her questions. "And don't get too excited about them going out. I had to ask him for her, so I'm not sure what's going to happen with that."

Lizzie's face puckered as she shook her head. "Ooh, he lost a lot of potential points there." Lizzie shook her head sympathetically. "Girls like it when guys take charge, though considering their situation, it may have helped. So you'll be there to have them thank you on their wedding day."

Katie laughed. She rested her cheek in her hand as she gazed at her best friend. "How do you know so much about this stuff?"

"Experience, my dear, experience," Lizzie said.

"Anyway, how did you find out?" Katie suddenly paid attention to that fact. "It happened, like, only two hours ago. Word couldn't have traveled that fast."

"You have to remember, with our friends, nothing stays a secret for long," Lizzie said. She placed a finger to her chin, thinking for a moment. "My guess is that it happened one of two ways. Kendall told the guys, who told Jo, Camille, and Stephanie, who told WayneWayne, who told Dak, who told me. Or Riley told her brothers and sister, since they never keep relationship stuff a secret from each other,"-again, Katie cringed at the word, knowing the sort of trouble that Patrick could be in if anyone found out what he was doing-"and they told Dak and WayneWayne who told me. Either way, if it's something that's meant to be a secret, the Jacksons will make sure it's a secret. If not, it won't be."

"Good to know," Katie said.

"Speaking of, did you know that Logan and Camille broke up again? I heard they're completely done this time."

"Really?" Katie didn't expect that at all. Logan and Camille constantly broke up and got together, ever since they started going out. But they never stayed apart for too long, they liked each other too much. Though she was sure that there would be a time that they would officially call it quits, Katie didn't think it would come so soon. "Did they both agree to it or…does it have to do with Rhu? Or what?"

"I don't know." Lizzie shook her head. "It's all really complicated; all I know is that they broke up on good terms."

"Well, that's good," Katie said. She stretched her legs out in front of her, leaning back against her headboard. Resting her arm on a stack of pillows, she adjusted her phone in her hand. Holding it up so long was starting to tire her out; she didn't know how anyone could be on their phones for so long. But it seemed that everyone had it attached to their hands lately. It was kind of funny to her; some would say that Kendall and Logan were the closets out of the four guys (her money was on Kendall and James) and their relationship problems were similar. Though she did understand why Riley had gotten upset at her brother, she cared more about their friendship than potentially being with him, and he almost threw it away. "At least they can still be friends without it being awkward."

"That's what you think!" Lizzie snorted. "No one can really go from dating to being 'just friends' with each other, but whatever." She waved a hand. "Not my problem, I'd just like to hear the gossip." Her eyes lit up. "Speaking of gossip, what's up with you and Patrick?"

Katie rolled her eyes. "Why? What's going on with you and Noah?"

"Nothing while I'm out of town, I'll let you know when I get back. But don't change the subject." Lizzie was always quick about things like that. "He's there, you're there, what's going on?"

"Nothing and I'll leave it at that," Katie said simply.

"You've been spending too much time with Riles and Rhubes," Lizzie remarked.

Katie gave a small smile. She was always uncomfortably talking about things like that, even with her best friend. She couldn't even talk to her mother when she got her first period, it was embarrassing. Then to know that her brother and his friends knew about it too and wanted to let her know that they would be there to talk? That was even worse. If she could avoid embarrassing situations for the rest of her life, she'd do it in a heartbeat. Not until she was mature enough to handle it, and at that point, she hoped she never was.

"Ok. Ok. I'll cut you some slack for now." Lizzie said. She then turned serious. "But I really wanted to know if-"

"Knock! Knock!" Katie turned, swiveling with the phone in her hand as well, to see Patrick leaning against her doorway. She hadn't even heard him get to the crib. He and his siblings always did a double knock at the front door before barging in. If not that, they would announce their arrival by throwing themselves down the swirly slide. Both sounds were hard to miss. Kendall must have let him in, she said to herself. Katie looked down when she heard Lizzie's tiny voice.

"Is that Patrick?" She asked.

"Yes," Katie said quickly. She hovered her thumb over the phone. "Bye."

"No! Leave me on!" Katie tuned her out and ended the call. She locked the screen on her phone and smiled at Patrick. He stayed in the doorway, probably too nervous to get closer just in case Kendall or James was around. Even Noah and Sydney were afraid to be in her room with her, alone, when the guys were around. "What's up?"

"Not much," Patrick replied. He shrugged, crossing his legs. "Just came to ask you something." He lifted his chin, pointing to her phone. "Was that Lil Bit?"

Katie was suddenly struck with the thought that he and his siblings hadn't really come up with a nickname for her. Ever since they had met, Riley, Rhuben, Patrick, Noah, and Sydney had given clever nicknames to all of their friends, something they did with everyone, from what she could understand. Lil Bit was something that came up before Katie, herself, had even met them or Lizzie, and that stuck pretty quickly. But now that she noticed, she didn't get one. Other than Kates, but it was just another nickname for her already shortened name, so it didn't make that much of a difference.

"Yeah, she was just saying 'hi'." Katie dug her finger into her comforter. "Her dancing retreat or whatever it is must be going well. She didn't have much to complain about this time."

"Probably just upset that she's missing everything going on here," Patrick sympathized.

"Exactly."

There was a brief silence. Katie was startled when Patrick started speaking again, it was so sudden. He brought a hand up and rubbed it through his hair, being careful not to disturb the spikes that he spent every morning meticulously making sure stood up against whatever could be thrown at him that day.

"So, I heard that you, somehow, orchestrated it that Kendall and Riley are going to the movies tomorrow," Patrick said. Avoiding her eyes, he pushed himself off of the doorframe. He bit his lower lip, bringing his piercings into his mouth. "They're going to see the new Bond film, yeah?"

Is he nervous? Realizing that she hadn't actually responded to him, Katie nodded. He never gets nervous for anything. Not even playing a really big show or public speaking.

"Well, I wanted to see the movie too. So, I was wondering if you wanted to come with me. Sort of like a double date thing," Patrick continued. He shrugged again, now scratching the back of his neck. Having known him so long, she realized that it was his nervous habit. "Besides, I'm sure that once he finds out, Kendall would try to watch you like a hawk anyways."

Katie's smile faded and she mentally cringed, curling up on herself. He was right. Kendall had a habit of watching her and making sure she wasn't getting into trouble with everything. Ever since James told him about the guy that she wanted to go see that 'make out movie' with, she didn't even remember his name, anything that had to do with her being girl set him off. It was like he couldn't function, knowing that his baby sister wasn't exactly his baby sister anymore. I bet Lizzie had to go through this too. Katie laughed to herself, knowing that it wasn't something that Lizzie Zevon had to go through before; it was what she always went through. Dak Zevon could be so protective over his little sister that it wasn't even funny. Their friends even though that Kendall and James were tame compared to Dak, and the two Big Time Rush guys were bad when together.

"Did I say something funny?" Patrick looked at her, his face scrunched up in confusion.

Katie abruptly stopped laughing. Way to go, Katie. Make yourself look even more stupid. "No, I was just thinking about…something else." She shook her head. "Yeah, I'd like to go to the movie with you." She mustered her confidence and gave him a look of nonchalance. "You're lucky I like Bond films. Exploding cars, fast paced action, and a handsome guy in a suit, where can you go wrong with that?"

"Stale popcorn and week old candy," Patrick said.

Katie laughed.


A/N: For those of you that asked before, we don't actually have anything set up for the Patie part of our timeline, just that they get together in season 3. So I'm having fun with this story, doing what I want with it while Rhu and I figure out what we'll do with them. I needed Lizzie to appear in this (not sure if Dak and WayneWayne will) because I needed Katie to have some other plots for this story as well.

Don't know if I want to keep going back and forth from Katie's to Patrick's POV or keep with Katie's. I'll decide by the next chapter. The next chapter really starts the plot of the story, btw, and you'll see more of the other characters starting the next chapter as well.

Cheers,

-Riles