.:Chapter 09:.
"Kendall, come on, I want to get going!" Katie impatiently rested her arms on top of the wooden fence, kicking her legs back and forth, and her riding boots gently scuffed the ground, kicking up clouds of dirt. Her hazel eyes moved over to her brother, who was tucking the bottoms of his jeans into his own riding boots. "You're not going for the best dressed award, we're just going riding."
"I don't think I've seen you this impatient before," Kendall replied, now purposefully moving slower. "You haven't really showed any interest in riding since we got out here." He stood up and walked over to his sister, leaning on the fence beside her. "You used to do it all the time."
"Yeah, well, I didn't think there was a place around here to do it," Katie said. She leaned back, pulling her legs out from the fence and scampered over to the horses that were patiently waiting for them. "Besides, I didn't think anyone would want to come with me." She reached out a hand and gently ran her fingertips over the nose of her horse. The skin felt leathery under her fingers and she smiled as he moved forward, pressing himself further into her grasp. "It's so cool that he's my Christmas gift, now I have something that reminds me of home like you do." She looked up at Kendall, who was gently running his hand over his own horse.
Kendall gave her a funny look before smiling warmly. "Definitely." He agreed. He reached up and grabbed onto the saddle. "Let's get going!"
Katie grinned and swung herself up onto her horse, settling into the saddle. She leaned forward and gathered the reigns in her hands, looking over at her brother, waiting as he got settled into his own saddle. Katie placed her feet firmly in the stirrups and made a clicking sound with her mouth, lightly flicking the reigns, leading the horse towards the gate that opened up on the ranch's acreage. Katie leaned over and expertly opened the gate without having to get down from the saddle. She waited as Kendall led his horse through then followed after him, being careful to close the gate once more.
"You never cease to amaze me, Baby Sister," Kendall said with a proud smile.
"Yeah, but you're going to be amazed at how quickly I can beat you in this race!" Katie declared. She slapped the reigns down on her horse's back and her horse charged forward across the vast acreage of grass and trees, kicking up dirt as she went. She briefly glanced over her shoulder to see Kendall starting up his horse and starting after her.
Katie laughed as she leaned forward, squeezing her legs into the horse's side, spurning him as fast as he could go. The wind blew across her face, trailing her hair behind her as she went. Her eyes teared up, not used to the copious amounts of dust and wind blowing at her, but she loved it. She loved everything about horses and the way they made her feel; being so connected with an animal that they could feel what each other was feeling. The horse she used back in Minnesota had always seemed to know whenever she was having a good or bad day and seemed to try and make her feel better for the latter. He would nuzzle her more; want to stay close to her side, anything that finally put a smile on her face.
And whenever it was a good day, the horse would seem to run faster and work harder to prove that it was the best horse at the ranch. The lessons got to be so expensive that she had been close to having to stop going, which crushed her at the time. Her brother was able to do whatever it is he wanted when it came to hockey, his mother tried hard to get him to every game and every practice, he often went by himself or with one of the other guys whenever the time came. Yet her riding lessons and stable fees grew to be too expensive. If it wasn't for Kendall having started at Sherwood's and helping their mother out with the bills, she would have had to quit.
He didn't know she knew, it was something she had found from one of the many times she snooped around her mother's things, looking for something interesting that she could use against someone. It was also how she had found out that her father, at the time, hadn't been paying child support. But things seemed to be coming full circle now, now that Kendall and Mrs. Knight were making more money than they could imagine with the band and her being their manager. Adding in the fact that Kevin was back and trying to regain a relationship with his former family and had started to pay child support again, there were more to spend on whatever they wanted.
Katie leaned to the side, blasting her horse around a line of trees and starting towards a body of water. She clicked her teeth once more and slowly lowered herself back into the saddle, squeezing her knees hard enough to indicate the horse to slow down and stop. She grinned, looking over the crystal shards that reflected off the body of water and waited for her brother to come up beside her. He was breathing heavily and sweat was pouring down his face.
"Getting old there bro?" Katie called to him.
"I just haven't ridden a horse in a while," Kendall replied. As his horse stopped he leaned over in the saddle, looking like he had just won a marathon. He was sweating enough anyway. Katie giggled. "I didn't remember how much it hurt."
"Yeah, you're going to have to get used to that bro," Katie said. "Because I plan on being here as often as I can now." She leaned back, running a hand through her hair. "I'm sure I'll have a lot more intelligent conversations with this guy rather than you idiots."
"Hey!" Kendall reached over and gently slugged her on the arm. "That's not nice."
"The truth hurts, Kendall, deal with it," Katie said. She dropped the reigns and climbed down from the saddle. Walking over to the water's edge she took off her shoes and stuck her feet into the water. It was warm enough, cool at the water line. "In fact, I think I've been prepping you for that for years," she added over her shoulder.
"Oh yeah," Kendall agreed. He leaned over and rolled up the bottoms of his jeans to his knees before walking out into the water next to her. "Along with that you've tortured my friends, ran away each and every time I tried to babysit you, cut my lifespan in half on more than one occasion, and nearly gave me heart attacks with each occasion, I'd have to agree with you." He reached a hand down into the water and swiped it over to Katie. She let out a shriek of surprise and jumped backwards.
"Kendall!" She looked down at her clothes, carefully brushing at the wet spots.
"Wow, Katie, I never thought you would ever be such a girl," Kendall teased. He splashed her again. "You used to just tackle me back into the water." Katie gave him a warm half smile, shaking her head as she continued to brush at her clothes. Kendall crossed his arms over his chest. "Ok, Baby Sister, who do I have to kill?"
Katie glanced at her, her heart stopping for a moment. How much did he know? It couldn't have been a lot or else he would have done something a while ago. That was Kendall's usual mode of operation, when he got some information he didn't like, or if he saw something he didn't like, he immediately went into action. Especially when it was something that directly affected him. If it was someone else, he would use his head, thinking of any other way to get the problem to stop and to use every source he could get his hand on to do so. When he thought that Jo was dating Jett, his jealousy and need to fix it made him turn into a raging bull in a china shop, blindly running in and doing whatever it was that he could to keep them apart. When it came to Hawk stealing his and the guys' music, he was craftier, thinking of everything he could to get it back and to help Gustavo out as much as possible.
Did that really apply to her? Since they had gotten out to LA he seemed to be more into his own problems while Katie ran around with Gustavo, Kelly, Tyler—before he left the Palm Woods—and the hotel staff whenever she felt like it. She knew she could probably chalk it up to the fact she wasn't particularly interested in the music industry or being famous and being in the spotlight. She wanted to work behind the scenes as a talent manager—something she was going to have to get experience in soon or else she wouldn't be credible by the time her schooling at the Palm Woods was done. Maybe she was the one that had pushed him away and not the other way around? She hadn't really tried to hang out with him after a while, finding her own friends her own age and wanting to be around them as often as she could.
And because she didn't want him to worry, like he always did.
"I'm being serious," Kendall continued, noticing Katie's prolonged silence. "I know you haven't really liked me getting into your business lately—"
"That's because all you do is ask what me and Patrick have done so far," Katie replied with a sigh. "And as creepy as that is, it's actually kind of pathetic to tell you that we've been together this long and still haven't kissed yet." She crossed her arms over her chest, turning away from him. She had just admitted that, to her brother no less and it was still as embarrassing as when she had become aware of it herself. Everyone around her was getting further and further with their boyfriends faster than she had ever imagined—not that she intended to have sex anytime soon, the thought alone disgusted her—and here she was, stuck in the hand-holding and hugging stage.
"That's all?" Kendall's eyebrow lowered. Katie scowled at him. That certainly was not all it wasn't as blasé as he was making it out to be, it was actually kind of a big deal. "I don't mean to laugh at you, Baby Sister, but that's not anything that you really need to agonize over." He held up a hand. "Unless he's trying to force you to kiss him, then—"
"You know he's not like that, Kendall," Katie interrupted. That'd be hysterical, having a boyfriend that wanted to force her into kissing him. At this point she was willing to kiss anyone just to get it over with and get Victoria off her back. It seemed that no matter what Katie did it was seen as a personal attack against the blonde heiress.
"I'm just saying that if you're really agonizing over a first kiss, then you're probably not ready for it in the first place," Kendall said with a shrug.
Katie gave him a withering look. "Oh yeah, this is coming from the guy who's first kiss was when he was thirteen, at a party, and kissed the friend of our cousin who was seventeen years old." Kendall grinned as she held up a finger before pointing at him. "Then continues to brag about it each and every time he gets. I'm sure all of your girlfriends were glad to hear that one."
"Yeah, after the first two, I was smart enough not to bring it up again," Kendall laughed. He walked over to his sister and placed a hand on top of her head. Katie lowered her head, not allowing him to see the embarrassment that washed over her. "My advice, Katie, is that you're going to get your kiss when you stop thinking about it."
Katie threw her hands into the air. "How can I stop thinking about it when I keep getting teased about it?!" It came out before she could stop herself. "Is it really that big a deal? We haven't even been dating that long, who cares if we have or haven't!"
Kendall's mouth dropped open before a thunderous expression came over his face. Katie gulped. She recognized that look. Kendall always got it whenever he was going into what people called his 'Killer Instinct', one of the reasons for his hockey nickname. He would do anything to inflict damage to the other person to prove a point and to protect those around him. She had seen him go into that mode over and over again on the ice, whenever he was doing his best to win, doing whatever dirty trick he could think of that was well within the rules of the game. She was always scared when he did that.
Though it was when he was going to protect her as much as he could, like he always had when their parents started fighting late at night. She could remember going into his room and being comforted by him when the yelling got too loud. He would sing her songs until she fell asleep. And as time moved on after their father left, he would get that look on his face whenever someone would mention how Kevin left them. Now that's he thought about it, she saw that look a lot.
A lot more than she hoped.
"Who's been teasing you, Katie?" He asked in a low voice.
Katie tried to diffuse the situation, waving a hand in the air. "Just some girl in my class who thinks she's better at life than anyone else." She forced a chuckle. "She's like, the most popular girl at the Palm Woods right now, it's pathetic really."
Kendall's face slightly softened. "If it's so pathetic, then why do you care so much?"
Katie opened her mouth to reply, and then closed it again. He wouldn't understand. Girls had a lot of emotional and mental power than anyone else in the world could. Especially high school girls who were also rich socialites who thought the world revolved around them.
"And don't say that you don't," Kendall continued. He reached out and tapped her chin. "Because I've known this face since you were born and I know each and every emotion that goes over it when you think I'm not paying attention or when I don't understand." Katie turned her head away. "Words of wisdom form an older brother," he said then lowered her voice. "And Mom can't know this because she'll kill me for telling you this." Katie perked up. "Sometimes the best way to get someone like this off your back is to prove that you're not going to take their intimidation. Even if it means doing it systematically, which you're really good at."
"Really?" Katie gave a wry smile. "Riles said to just kick her ass." Kendall laughed for a moment before bringing a hand up and pinching the bridge of his nose. When he lowered his hand, he was frowning, his jaw set. Katie's eyebrows furrowed her mouth puckering. "What?"
"Nothing," he said quickly. "Just don't do anything stupid," he said. "And you know us, Knights, we're usually better at thinking with our heads before going into something." Katie nodded in agreement. Kendall moved forward and cupped her cheeks in his hands. "I'm serious, Katie. You're smart, very smart. You can outwit anyone that I know. I'm not condoning that you should do something, but if you do, then I want you to use this." He tapped her on the forehead.
"Thanks Big Brother," Katie said quietly. She twisted her mouth to the side for a moment before smiling. "So how is it that you always know what to do, but you always do the wrong thing?"
Kendall shrugged. "Like I said, I usually do something stupid."
"You got that right." Katie took the opportunity to kick her foot up, splashing water all over the front of Kendall's jeans. She laughed loudly, stepping back and pointing at his front. "Aww, did little Kendie have an accident?"
Kendall shook his head. "God! You know I hate that name!" He bent down and swiped water at her once more. Katie jumped back out of the way and splashed him back; causing Kendall to bring his arms up to shield his face, opening himself for more attacks from Katie. The brother-sister duo ran around in the water, laughing and splashing each other as their horses continued to pace the sand, eating the tufts of grass that poke out near the surf.
Katie hadn't been that happy in a while, knowing that Kendall had her back whenever she needed it. She didn't know how she could ever question it; he had always been there for her in his own way, behind the scenes, even if it did seem that he had been ignoring her. Honestly, she could admit that, there were times were James stepped up to be her 'big brother' whenever Kendall was busy with his own problems. She resented him for that sometimes, but still loved her brother no matter what. And if he was able to pay attention enough to know what was going on without her ever having to say anything, if he just knew, then it proved that he was always there for her, even when she didn't know it.
Plus, he had given her some good advice over what to do with Victoria and she knew then, it was all going to go down at her New Year's party. What better way to start off the New Year than with a bang?
She loved her big brother more than anything and she was going to make him proud.
A/N: Sorry for the long wait on a new chapter. I hope you guys liked it. Last ten chapters of the story focus on Katie, Patrick, Noah, and Lizzie.
Cheers,
-Riles