Update!

I'm very distracted right now so I'm sorry if this is a very short chapter.

The New Kid

The first day of school came far sooner than any of them were prepared for, least of all Rick, who'd spent the entire year at a fancy private school with boys who teased him because he didn't have as much money as them. He only hoped that he would get along with most of the other kids PS 47 and that being the boyfriend of arguably the hottest girl in school would earn him some points. And it did…sort of.

Mostly, he got a lot of jealous glances from the likes of Tom Demming and Will Sorenson and, worst—or best; he couldn't quite decide—of all, Josh Davidson. Kate had told him about denying him last year and he could see now that it left the taller boy somewhat bitter as he glared at Castle and Kate as they walked, hand in hand, from class to class. They have most of their APs together, but Kate was in a different math than Castle and he still insisted on carrying her books for her all the way to the mathematics building before sprinting to the Phys Ed building in time for gym—which he absolutely hated.

Kate, of course, thought him ridiculous and threatened, more than once, to clobber him over the head with her ridiculously heavy backpack if he didn't quit waiting on her—it was bad enough that he was practically his mother's man servant at home, even though the other woman had grown tired of it as well. But, when she saw Josh glaring at them from his locker as they passed by for AP English, she held her boyfriend's hand a little tighter and Castle squeezed back, grinning down at her and ignoring the withering looks he got from Davidson.

She was his—and he only thought this in secret, lest she threaten him with even more physical violence—and he was hers; no big, tough varsity soccer player was going to rip them apart anytime soon and everybody knew it.

But that didn't stop most guys from trying.

The first was Will Sorenson, a muscular junior on the baseball team; he was the catcher and the team's most powerful hitter, one of the stars of the school, where sports were concerned. He was about three inches shorter than Castle and a touch narrower than the boy, his shoulders not as broad, but his face was angular and relatively handsome. Most of the girls in his grade swooned over him constantly and he milked that for all it was worth; he had a new one every single week, it seemed.

And in late September, he decided he wanted Kate. He must have timed it just right, too, because just as Castle was making his way through the halls to pick her up after her math class, he caught sight of Sorenson leaning against the wall by the door, blocking her exit from the classroom. Kate was glaring up at him, obviously not impressed, and Castle could almost hear the hissing whispers above the din of the crowded hallway. He leaned in and said something but Kate rolled her eyes and backed away.

Sorenson, however, didn't seem to get the message and ended up following her back into the classroom. Castle hurried through the crowd, ready to sock the pretty boy in the face, but before he could even reach the door, he heard a earth-shattering screech and then Kate was hastily running out of the room and grabbing the sleeve of the sweater.

"Walk," she said, tugging him along, "just keep walking."

Castle did as he was told but couldn't resist looking over his shoulder as a group of people gathered around the open classroom, through which he could clearly see Sorenson's floppy brown hair and he bent over. Castle's eyes widened as he realized what she must have done and he let out a snort. It turned into full on laughter as he looked down at the wry little grin on Kate's face as she kept moving along, just short of sprinting down the hallway towards English.

"You are such a bad ass," he said, squeezing her hand as they entered Mr. Raglan's class. Kate smiled proudly and took her seat, pulling him down to sit in the one adjacent.

"I know," she replied, cockily. "But my dad's not going to think so when he gets the call."

"Was Mr. Martin still in the room?" Castle asked.

Kate nodded. "That hard ass is not going to let me get away with this," she sighed.

Castle shrugged. "Our moms are going to love it, though."

"True."

And it was. Martha and Johanna were practically in stitches by the time Kate finished telling them about the "damage" she did to Will Sorenson's reproductive organs. And, predictably, her father was not as amused.

"You're lucky they're not pressing any assault charges," he berated her.

"Only because Mom threatened Will with sexual assault charges," Kate countered back. "Because that's totally what he was doing; I told him to back off six times and he wouldn't leave me alone. He had it coming."

"Hear, hear!" Martha laughed and rose her glass of water. Johanna tapped it with her own, before standing.

"I'm going to go get dinner started," she said, "but we will have to talk about your punishment, young lady."

"Whoa, whoa, punishment?" Kate groaned. "But, Mom, I—"

"Practically castrated a boy with your bare hands?" Johanna finished for her. "I know; I heard. And no matter what he was doing, you hit somebody in school and that's not okay. At least wait until after school so you can knock him out in the parking lot, huh?" Kate snickered and Jim sputtered. "Oh, relax, Jim," Johanna laughed. "I'm just kidding." But the wink she sent the kids said otherwise.

Castle leaned over to whisper in Kate's ear, "Your mom is pretty awesome." Kate nodded, beaming at the woman in question.

"Incredibly," she said.

For the most part, after the Sorenson Incident, the advances stopped—for the most part because nobody else wanted to be known as the guy who literally lost his balls to Kate Beckett—and things were pretty quiet for a while.

Until Josh Davidson tried his hand at seducing her, approaching her in the cafeteria one day during lunch—when Castle conveniently got stuck in detention for getting his pencil stuck in the math room's ceiling—and gave her that smile that, at one time, would have made Kate melt into a puddle at his feet. This time, however, it just put a bored expression on her face.

"What do you want, Davidson?" she practically bit out at him as he approached her in line.

Josh, apparently, wasn't deterred. "Nice to see you, too, Katie," he replied, his smile stuck in place. "Would you like to join me for lunch today, seeing as how your dorky boyfriend isn't around?"

"No," Kate said, before stomping away, head held high. Josh followed her.

"Aw, come on, Katie," he said, his voice silky and deep as he spoke directly into her ear. She ignored him and rolled her eyes, easily spotting Lanie and Javier bickering about something or other while Kevin and Jenny made goo goo eyes at each other. She placed her tray down hard on the table interrupting the former two and startling the latter.

"Hey, guys," she greeted, completely ignoring Josh, who stood insistently by her table. The other four, however, blinked up at him as if wondering what he was doing there. His gaze was focused on Kate.

"Come on, Katie," he said. "Don't be such a bitch."

Lanie and Jenny gasped as the boys stood, fists clenching but a single look from Kate had them both sitting back down as she rose and stepped out from her seat, leveling a glare at the boy, who was nearly a foot taller than her. Josh's shoulders dropped just slightly, but his jaw was set hard, a frown etched on his lips.

Kate tilted her head for a moment, as if considering him before she gave him a dazzling smile and crooked her finger at him, motioning him down to her level. A cocky grin replaced the frown and the tall boy leaned down as if expecting her to whisper something in his ear. Instead, Kate reached up and took a firm hold on his ear, twisting it at the same time she pulled and Josh let out a piercing shriek that didn't sound like it could possibly come from somebody his size and stature.

All the while, Kate kept that same smile on her face. "Listen here," she said, in a sickly sweet tone, "I know that you know that I already have a boyfriend—and I know this because I've told you more than once and because I've seen you look at us as we walk through the hall, holding hands and because you just mentioned him not two minutes ago. And I know that you think you're such hot shit and everything and you've probably been given everything in your life, but I'm not that easy, got it?" Josh tried to nod, but the movement caused him more pain, so he gasped out a confirmation to Kate's question and her smiled widened. "Good," she said, loosening her grip but not quite letting go. "And, one more thing? My name is Kate—not Katie." She let go and Josh backed away, furiously rubbing at his ear.

"Crazy bitch," he grumbled and Kate just rolled her eyes, before sitting down and digging into her fries, ignoring the astonished looks Jenny and the boys gave her and the cackle that Lanie let out as she looked at her friend in admiration.

"That was so hot," a voice said in her ear and Kate turned with a glare to find Castle standing there, holding his own tray. Her glare melted into a look of pure love as she stood and wrapped her arms around his neck.

"Hey!" she greeted. "I thought Martin gave you detention."

"He did," Castle confirmed, "but according to him, it was more his punishment than mine, so he sent me away with a warning."

"Naturally," Kate laughed, pressing a kiss to his cheek. "Come on, then," she said, "sit." Castle did as told and laughed at a few passing glances his way as he slung his arm around Kate's shoulders.

"I've been here a month and I don't think I've ever been cooler than this moment," he joked. "You are really the best girlfriend ever."

"Don't forget it," Kate said, grinning.

"Trust me," Castle said, "I won't. I want to have kids someday."

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