MONDAY AFTER SCHOOL

Kate Tunney was furious.

The second she was off the phone with her mother, Kate called Tyler. He didn't answer so she sent back to back texts of CALL ME. She gave him ten minutes and when he didn't reply she called Caleb. After a few rings Kate got his voicemail.

"Hi Caleb, this is Kate. I really need to talk to Tyler. If you see him can you ask him to call me? Thanks."

Hanging up she scrolled through her contacts. The name POGUE stared back at her. She dialed and was not surprised when he didn't answer either. She left the same message for him that she left for Caleb. Grabbing her bag, she went out the door and headed for the library. It was a long shot, but maybe Reid would be there with Josie and he could get in touch with Tyler. There was no way in hell she could wait until she saw Tyler in class tomorrow to resolve this.

In the library, Josie sat alone surrounded by her highlighters, folders and notebooks. Kate noticed she'd already printed several pages of biographical information on Sir Isaac Newton for their calculus project.

"Hi Josie," Kate flopped in the seat next to her.

"Hi," Josie replied.

"Is Reid here?"

Josie frowned and shook her head no.

"Do you have any idea where he is?" Kate asked. "I really need to talk to Tyler and he's not answering his phone."

"They have swim practice right now," Josie told her.

"Now?" Kate's brow crinkled. Didn't they just have practice this morning? How many times a day did swimmers practice?

"Do you know where the pool is?"

"Yeah," Kate nodded. She'd already been on Stalker Balcony. "Thanks Josie."

Grabbing her things once more, Kate headed across campus to the building that housed the pool. When she got inside she went right to the balcony and looked into the water. Three coaches were on the deck with stopwatches and clipboards. The lanes were full of swimmers. With all the splashing Kate couldn't tell who was who. She had no idea if Tyler was even down there.

She thought about asking one of the other students loitering nearby, but she decided against it. Just then her phone rang.

POGUE

After a split second of shock that Pogue was actually calling her back, she quickly picked up the phone.

"Hello."

"Hey. I got your message. Guess you found your phone."

"Yeah. Kira found it in our bathroom."

"See? And you doubted St. Anthony."

"I didn't doubt St. Anthony." Kate pressed the phone against her ear. There was a strange feedback coming through the line. She went out the door and into the hallway.

"I believe you said and I quote "That's not a real prayer. Prayers end in Amen." End quote."

"Maybe I did say that," Kate continued. "But I never said that I didn't think it would work."

"You rolled your eyes. Body language speaks volumes."

Just then Kate turned the corner and came face to face with Pogue Parry, coming late to practice. He was wearing a tight fitting tee shirt over a loose pair of mesh shorts. His hair was pulled back in a low ponytail. On his feet were bright yellow slides.

"Hi," Kate said in surprise.

"Hey," he replied back.

They stood there for a few seconds before Pogue grinned. "Guess we don't need these?" he removed the phone from his ear and disconnected the call. Kate followed suit.

"So, uh," Pogue shifted the strap of his gym bag uncomfortably and glanced down at his shoes. "I guess you already found Tyler."

"Um, I don't know if he's here or not." Kate glanced over her shoulder at the door she'd just passed through. "I can't tell who's who out there," she admitted.

"Is that so?" Pogue looked at her skeptically.

Just then Reid strolled up to them. He had a towel thrown over his shoulders and was carrying something. Upon closer inspection Kate identified it as a baby carrier.

"Is that your brother?" she asked at the same time Reid dropped the carrier to the ground. "Oh my God," Kate gasped darting forward, realizing almost immediately that it wasn't a baby in the carrier. It was some kind of doll.

"Shit, no." Reid answered her question as he checked his phone. "Have you seen Paisley?" he asked.

Kate had no idea who that was.

"Nope," Pogue replied. "But I just got here."

"She was supposed to meet me fifteen minutes ago," Reid continued as he walked down the hall, peering through the window to the balcony.

Pogue chuckled as Reid pounded his fist on the plexi-glass then yelled "Fuck you", as he gave someone inside the finger. Kate noticed right away that Pogue made no attempt to defend Reid's swearing. She supposed that phase of chivalry was past.

When Reid joined them again he gave Pogue an elbow. "Saw Bailey and Chelsea in there. Gonna get laid after practice?"

Kate swore she saw Pogue blush for a very brief moment. But he recovered well.

"Naw, man," he shrugged. "We're just friends."

"Isn't that Tyler's line?" Reid said as he smirked at Pogue.

Kate could see a little bit of annoyance cross Parry's face.

Reid glanced down at his phone. "Where the fuck is she?" he mumbled looking down the hallway. "You mean friends with benefits..."

"Nothing's gonna happen with Bailey," Pogue continued, a wry smile on his face. "Cause I'm taking Kaylee out this weekend."

Reid crossed his arms over his chest. "You and Kaylee Abbott." He shook his head and laughed to himself.

Pogue shrugged and walked toward the locker room. Kate swore it was almost a victory walk. She caught Reid's eye. "And people think I'm a dick," the blonde grinned at her.

Why would Pogue do that to Tyler? Kate asked herself. Even if Tyler cheated on Kaylee, why would one of his close friends – who to Kate's knowledge had not expressed any prior interest in Aaron's cousin – now suddenly decide to date her.

Reid looked at his phone again. "Hey Kate, I gotta get in there before Hamm makes me swim a fucking mile warm up. Can you hang out until Paisley gets here?"

"Only if you can let Tyler know that I need him to call me as soon as he can," Kate bartered.

"Yeah. Okay." Reid nodded. "Oh and do me another favor," he said as he began walking to the locker room. "Don't fuck Tyler the night before any of his exams…"

As soon as the words left Reid's mouth, Kate was ready to strike. She was in no mood to deal with Garwin's attitude. But before she could say anything he continued.

"… I can't have my boy all distracted and failing any more tests. He's on academic probation right now and we need his ass on the A-relay." Reid winked at her.

"What?" Kate called after him. The alleged 'sex' incident with Tyler was overshadowed by this new information. "Did Tyler fail the Calculus exam?"

"I don't think he's passed any tests yet this year," Reid yelled back before disappearing into the locker room.

Kate stood there stunned. She had no idea Tyler was failing any classes. When they studied together he certainly knew what he was doing. There was no reason he should have failed the test – unless it was related to the whole fiasco that morning with Kaylee and the dogs.

Kate sunk further into thought. Maybe that would explain any tests he failed Friday – but Reid said he hadn't passed any tests. Was there something more going on with him? Maybe something at home? She started to feel bad for him.

But she didn't want to be sympathetic right now. She wanted to be angry.

Just then the doll that Reid had left in the middle of the floor began crying. Kate looked its way. Clearly it was one of 'those' projects. Maybe this Paisley girl was his partner?

The crying got louder and Kate continued to stand there, trying to ignore it as she mentally envisioned the conversation she was going to have with Tyler. As she played out the scenarios in her mind the crying escalated to such a level that she couldn't take it anymore. Kneeling down in front of the carrier, she unfastened the doll which was held in place by lap belt. She flipped it over and removed the doll clothes looking for a switch or something to turn it off.

There was an access panel in the doll's back held in place by three tiny screws. Naturally, Kate did not have a screw driver with her so the doll continued to cry.

She rocked it. Patted its back. Turned it upside-down.

It's crying was very loud now.

So loud that a couple girls from Stalker Balcony came out to see what was wrong. Kate rolled her eyes when she saw Bailey and Chelsea coming to her aid.

"You're Tyler's girlfriend, Kate. Right?" Bailey asked as the pair came forward. Kate was about to scream that she was not involved with Tyler Simms despite whatever rumors were circulating but again she hesitated and so Bailey kept talking.

"I'm Bailey and this is Chelsea."

At this point the doll was screeching so loud Kate was fairly certain it was going to pop whatever speakers were inside.

"Do you need help with that?" Chelsea asked.

"Please," Kate sighed forking over the doll.

"Where's the carrier?"

"Over there," Kate pointed to where Reid had left it. Chelsea flipped the carrier over and removed a laminated card from the back. She scanned down a few lines and then removed a small baby bottle from a bag attached to the side. Sticking the bottle in the dolls mouth stopped the crying.

"Thank you." Kate was grateful for the silence.

"You have to keep the bottle in for five minutes," Chelsea explained. "I guess you didn't read the handout."

"No, I missed that." Kate admitted.

"Hey Chelsea," Bailey said as she nosily poked around the carrier. "This is Reid's baby."

Chelsea looked at Kate curiously. "Are you baby-sitting too?"

"Baby-sitting?" Kate looked back and forth the girls. "No. Definitely not."

"You know they're not gonna be done in there for another hour and a half."

"I'm just waiting until Paisley gets here," Kate told them.

"I don't think Paisley is coming back," Chelsea said to Kate.

"What?" Kate looked at her.

"She was here about twenty minutes ago but she had to leave so she wouldn't miss the bus."

"Does Reid know that?"

Chelsea shrugged.

Kate became even angrier than she was before. As if the drama with Tyler wasn't bad enough – now Reid had tricked her into watching his 'baby'.

"Why don't you come sit on the balcony with us? Bailey is watching Little Pogue and there's plenty of room for one or two more," Chelsea held up Baby Reid and smiled.

"Thanks," Kate replied. "I think I'll take you up on that."

As Bailey picked up the carrier, Kate took her bag and they followed Chelsea back into the balcony. They sat down in the front row of the bleachers and looked out into the pool area.

Everyone was out of the pool and lined up behind the blocks. One of the coaches yelled something and the first person in each line climbed up to the top.

Then the shrill sound of a whistle rang through the air. It was so loud Kate could hear it through the plexi-glass. For a split second the heat of swimmers were airborne, then they gracefully slipped beneath the water's surface and raced to the end of the pool. Then another heat went and another and another.

Kate scanned the swimmers to see if she could find Tyler. Instead she immediately recognized Pogue. There was no way anyone could miss that body.

"Tyler's over there," Chelsea pointed out the window.

"Where?" Kate asked leaning forward trying to follow Chelsea's line of sight.

"Lane three," Bailey said. "Black jammers. Black cap. Silver goggles."

Kate wasn't sure what 'jammers' were but she did see someone in lane three with silver goggles. She made a note of what Tyler was wearing before her gaze shifted back to Pogue. He was up on the block, bent in half as his hands gripped the platform. The whistle blew and he flew into air. His body jerked slightly; legs bucked upward as he sliced through the water's surface. He looked like a dolphin beneath the water with arms outstretched; powerful kicks pushing his body forward.

Kate was mesmerized. Even though she'd made a small cameo at swim practice during the first week of school, the team hadn't been really doing anything. Today, it was different.

Pogue's arms surfaced and in perfect unison swung over his head propelling his body through the water. Every muscle in his back rippled as he swam.

It was almost…beautiful.

When he got to the wall, he shimmied out of the pool and removed his goggles. One of the coaches started talking with him.

"There's Reid," Bailey nudged Chelsea. Kate took her eyes off Pogue to watch the two girls watching Reid. Instead of stepping up on the block, Reid jumped into the pool, jackknife style with a knee pulled up to his chest. Kate saw the Coach yell at him.

Holding onto bars beneath the block (bars Kate hadn't even noticed until this minute), Reid tucked his knees up to his chest and planted his feet against the wall. The whistle blew and Reid threw himself backward underwater, hands above his head. When he broke the surface, his arms spun in a lazy windmill as he swam across the pool. He was by far the slowest swimmer. Everyone else was already out of the pool by the time Reid made it to the other side.

Kate overheard Chelsea ask Bailey about Reid's sub-par performance. She was surprised to hear Bailey respond with a very technical critique of Reid's stroke mechanics.

While she already knew the answer Kate had to ask Bailey the obvious, "Do you swim?"

Bailey's answer was 'yes' of course. At least she used to, until she got sick. Chelsea added some additional information including that was how Bailey and Pogue met – through swim team. Bailey blushed when Chelsea bragged that her friend was the only person on the team who could beat Pogue.

"Freshman," Bailey corrected Chelsea. "I was the only freshman who had a better time in the 100 Fly. But there were other people on the team who had better times than both of us."

Kate didn't want to sound stupid so she didn't bother asking what a 100 Fly was – but she made a note to ask Tyler later.

"You guys were so cute together," Chelsea mused aloud. Then she turned to Kate, "You know, Pogue was the first person Bailey ever kissed."

"CHELSEA!" Bailey wailed, smacking her friend's arm.

"What?" Chelsea laughed. "It's true."

As the two friends bantered back and forth, Kate studied Bailey Coffman. She knew it wouldn't do any good to compare herself to Pogue's ex-girlfriend but she couldn't help herself. Bailey seemed nice enough, maybe a little on the quiet side. She was pretty, with long dark hair and deep brown eyes. She and Pogue clearly had the whole swimming thing in common.

They'll probably get back together. Kate thought to herself. Not that she knew for sure, but had a gut feeling whatever was going on with Pogue and Kaylee was probably a well-timed rebound. The kind that lasts about five minutes. She was so caught up in her thoughts that she almost missed Bailey's half-whispered, "Actually, he's the only person I've ever kissed."

"Noooooo," Chelsea's eyes widened. "Seriously?"

Bailey's cheeks reddened and she stared down at her feet, but her head did bob up and down. "Yeah."

At that point Kate felt the need to know everything about Bailey Coffman and Pogue Parry. She was in luck, because Chelsea was a bit of gossip.

The shortened version of the story was that they met through swim team. They practiced together, ate together, walked to classes together. Basically they did everything they could together – as friends. Then at one of the early meets in November, right before Thanksgiving break, Bailey swam a district qualifying time in her race – only to find out after the fact that she'd been disqualified so her time didn't count. She was devastated, to the point of tears. She cried the whole ride home on the bus. That night when she was in her dorm room (Chelsea was her roommate), Pogue came by with a pint of ice cream and two spoons. For the record it was Ben & Jerry's chocolate chip cookie dough flavor. They went for a walk – but it was freezing cold outside – so they ended up sneaking into the pool. (To this day Bailey still had no idea how Pogue managed to get the door open). They sat on the pool's edge, eating ice cream and talking. When the ice cream was gone, Pogue made her close her eyes and make a wish. He also made her promise that her wish would not be about swimming or districts. When she closed her eyes Pogue leaned over and kissed her.

Then Pogue asked her to be his girlfriend.

Kate's head rested in her palm as she listened to the ridiculously cute story. Why couldn't she have a cute story like that? Why did Pogue turn into such an idiot? Even though she was still a little upset with him, when he called her back today – it was as though nothing had happened. They just started talking. Pogue was definitely easier to talk to on the phone than in person. Maybe she would call him back later to see how he did on the Calculus test. She was a little distracted with her own plan to get to know Pogue that she was taken by surprise when Bailey asked, "So how come you're not watching Tyler's baby?"

Out on the pool deck stood Tyler, wrapped in a towel, as he held the project baby in one hand and the card from the carrier in the other. Kate saw a few of his teammates comment to him and she knew the baby must be crying.

"He didn't ask me," Kate replied to Bailey. "But neither did Reid," she continued. "He just left the carrier in the hall and asked me to wait for Paisley. Do you know if they're working together on the project?"

"It's an individual project," Bailey answered. "Like a single-parent thing."

"Oh," Kate nodded, still half-wondering what the Reid/Paisley situation was about.

Chelsea and Bailey began talking again. The topic was Bailey joining the swim team again. She was going to stick around after practice and talk to Coach Hamm. Kate sighed. The idea of Pogue Parry was drifting further and further away.

Eventually, practice ended. Bailey excused herself to head down to the pool deck. Kate joined Chelsea as they took their 'babies' to reunite with their 'Daddies'. Outside the locker room was Ashley, with what had to be Caleb's baby. She must have been watching it while Caleb was at practice. She'd put a big pink bow on the doll and wrapped it in a white blanket with little pink hearts all over it. The baby was wearing a bib that said "Daddy's Little Princess". Clearly Ashley had too much time on her hands.

Caleb was the first one out of the locker room. He smiled wide when he saw his girlfriend, greeting her with a sweet kiss to the cheek. His happy expression changed when he saw the doll.

"What did you do?" His eyes widened in horror.

"Isn't Faith adorable?" Ashley said showing her off to Caleb.

"Faith?" Caleb crossed his arms over his chest. "I thought we agreed on naming him, Ace."

"We did but….," Ashley rambled on and on about how she thought the doll looked too feminine to be a boy. She also really didn't like the name Ace.

For the first time Kate saw Caleb getting a little irritated. It was almost funny when he took the carrier away from Ashley muttering, "Sorry, Ace", as he removed the bow from the doll's head. Once the couple left, Kate found herself joining Chelsea cracking up over the whole situation.

Tyler was the next to appear. He didn't look up at all, just headed for the door.

"Tyler!" Kate called after him. He didn't turn around so she went after him. "Hey," she said tugging the cord of his ear bud to pull it out of his ear.

"Hey!" he answered in surprise, removing the other ear bud. "What are you doing here?"

"Did you get my text?"

"Uh. Yeah."

"Were you going to call me?"

He shook his head no.

Talking with Bailey and Chelsea had taken the edge off Kate's anger but Tyler's responses were bringing back all the emotion.

"Why not?" Kate demanded, her decibel level increasing slightly.

"I can't do this right now," Tyler moved to put the ear buds back, when Kate reached out and stopped his hand.

"Can't do what? Talk to me?" she knew her voice was getting loud.

"You're obviously upset about something," Tyler replied. "And I just can't handle your drama right now, okay. I've got enough of my own."

"MY drama?" Kate snapped. "I wouldn't have any drama if it wasn't for you."

Tyler started walking away again but Kate followed him. "Did you know that your mom called my mom and told her that we were having sex?"

"What?" He whirled around, eyes wide giving Kate his full attention.

"Yeah, she told my mom to take me to the gynecologist so I could go on the pill."

"Oh my God," Tyler eyes closed and his head sunk to his chest.

At that moment, Kate realized that Chelsea, Pogue, Bailey, Reid and about half the swim team were standing in the hallway behind them. She felt the heat rise to her face. Moving next to the wall she cleared a space so everyone could walk past them.

As Reid walked by, Kate limply held out the carrier to him. "You keep it, Little Mama," he said as he patted her on the crown of her head. If Kate wasn't so embarrassed she would have thrown the stupid doll right at his face.

She couldn't even look at Pogue as he walked by with Bailey by his side.

When the hallway cleared, Kate was almost in tears. Even though she knew the truth, there was no way that anyone would believe her now. Sadly, she looked at Tyler, who looked just as miserable.

"I'm sorry," he said as he took out his phone. "I have to pick up Will, try to eat something and get to practice by 6pm."

"So I completely humiliated myself and now you're blowing me off?" Kate got her things and headed out the door before she said something else she would regret.

"Kate, hold up," Tyler said coming after her. "My mom will be at the Y. I'll talk to her about it after practice."

"What are you going to say to her, Tyler? It's too late – she'd already called my mom."

"I don't know," Tyler shrugged. "I'll think of something."

"You do that," Kate replied making a sharp turn and heading back to her dorm.

Kate dropped off her bag and took the carrier with her to the dining hall. She wasn't about to watch Reid's baby all night.

The dining hall was complete chaos. It was as though the entire student body was eating at the exact same time. The lines were long and Kate found it very awkward to hold the carrier and her tray. She circled the room three times before she found Reid. He was sitting with Pogue, Bailey and Chelsea. As much as Kate wanted go over there, she just couldn't. She meandered a little more until she saw the familiar faces of some of the seniors she'd met at the Fall Fest Brunch. Even better there were two empty seats at their table.

They welcomed Kate to sit with them and quickly got her up to speed on the current events. Andie Bradway was out of the hospital as of Friday afternoon. April Reeser threw a big Welcome Home party for her Saturday night. A party that, for its small guest list, had a ridiculous amount of memorable moments. Josh was kind enough to share photos of nearly everyone in their underwear, courtesy of a couple games of Strip Twister. There were also a few rounds of "Name that Penis" – and the not-so-shocking winner of that game was none other Hannah Friel – the girl Reid had taken to Fall Fest – well, sort of considering she had sex with someone else at the dance. The night ended with their all-time favorite game Monopoly Shots. Kate was shown a photo of the loser, vomiting into one of those Halloween plastic pumpkins.

Kate stared at the picture on the screen.

It was Pogue Parry.

Josh let her hold the phone and scroll through the photos as he talked with the girl sitting on the other side of him. Kate looked jealously at the pictures. Everyone seemed to be having a great time.

That is what I need to be doing. Kate told herself. Having fun.

When she started getting into the Fall Fest pictures, she heard a girl at the table announce, "Hey, it's the Pumpkin-Puker!" Looking over her shoulder, Kate did not expect to see Pogue Parry standing behind her.

Pogue groaned and shook his head. Everyone at the table just laughed and waved their hellos. Then Pogue leaned in next to Kate, "I'm headed back to the dorms." He pointed at Reid's baby project, "Figured I'd take this off your hands."

"Thank you," Kate tried to smile but she was still a little embarrassed about the post-swim team practice incident.

"Are those from Fall Fest?" Pogue asked checking out the pictures.

"Yeah," Kate nodded as she scrolled through them. Pogue crouched down beside her and leaned his head in against her to look at them.

Odd as it would seem, in the crowded, noisy dining hall, Kate was happy to get this moment with Pogue. He named the people she hadn't met yet and cited little details about the antics happening in the background. As Kate's finger swept across the display – her mouth curled into a sad smile.

It was a picture of her dancing with Pogue. It wasn't the best picture since it was dark and crowded in the gym. But you could clearly see how close they'd been dancing. Kate's arms were looped around Pogue's neck. They wore flirty smiles with faces were almost close enough to kiss.

Seeing that image brought back the memory of Fall Fest. When they danced and talked about spending more time together. It was supposed to be the start of something but now it was just a single moment that happened to be captured on film.

Kate wanted to say something but her mind went blank. Pogue remained silent too, wearing his unreadable expression mask, but his head did tilt slightly toward her shoulder. The ends of his hair brushed against her sleeve. She could smell the chlorine scent of his skin.

Why had things gone so terribly wrong?

Then Pogue stood up and took the carrier in his hand.

"See you guys later," he waved to the group as he went back across the room. Once he was gone Kate returned her attention to the picture. Right now Kate didn't care about Bailey Coffman or Kaylee Abbott. In her mind she was already planning what she was going to say to Pogue tonight when she called him.