Chapter Two:

"Too Good To Be True"

It was that conversation that led to me, standing at the very top of the school oval's stands, the microphone I had just paid a considerable sum of money to acquire the use of, slipping slightly out of my nervous grasp. Taking a deep breath I stepped around the corner and looked down at the soccer practice going on down below where I stood.

"You're just too good to be true," I started to sing, stumbling on the first few words in my state of nervousness, "cant take my eyes off of you." I was wishing and hoping with my whole heart that the ground would open up and accept me into the depths below.

"You'd be like heaven to touch," I wonder if she's seen me yet. If she has, I started to say a brief silent prayer, please let her appreciate what I am putting at stake here.

"I wanna hold you so much," maybe if it didn't work I could change schools. There were other schools in Seattle, I was sure of it, and one of them would take a senior year student halfway through the year....right?

"My long lost love has arrived, I'm so glad I'm alive," Damn you, mum. If I live through this I'm going to refuse to take the garbage out for three months.

"You're just too good to be true, can't take my eyes off of you," I pointed to her, hoping the added effect would increase my chances of survival.

Just then the marching band started up, causing the girls on the soccer team with Kat to cheer. Unfortunately their cheering triggered a large amount of nervous-induced male cockiness inside me and before I knew it I was running all over the stands, dancing to the best of my limited ability.

"I love you, baby, and if it's quite all right, I need you, baby, to warm the lonely nights. I love you, baby, trust in me when I say..."

Good God, is that the security? Well, if I was going to get in trouble, I might as well do it in true Verona style. My mother told me once that when they were at school together dad streaked across the football field. Yes, my father was seen by hundreds of students, teachers and parents alike, completely in the buff.

After what seemed like forever, I finished the song and even added a few of my own flourishes such as slapping the more portly of the two security guards smartly on the behind. I even managed to escape their clutches for the duration of the song. Afterwards, however, I felt as though the longer I held them off, the longer and harsher my punishment would be. That's how I ended up in Perky's office about ten minutes later.

She shut her laptop with a snap and smiled at me over the top of it.

"Hello, Patrick," she started as she clasped her hands together and lay her elbows on the desk, one either side of the laptop, "why are you here this time?"

I blinked at her. She knew why I was here, they always gave her a memo on what the student had done to earn this important invitation to the guidance counselor's office before the student was admitted in so that she could think of something encouraging and short to say before they got there. This way she could launch right into her speech, prattle on for a minute or two and dismiss them quickly so that she could get back to the steamy romance novel she was writing.

"I shot a teacher," I said with a straight face. I had to give myself credit for that, usually I can never keep a straight face when something is funny.

"Did you?" I really have no idea why she was acting so interested in what I had done. Maybe she had reached a boring part in her story and had no inspiration right now.

"Yes. Can I go to detention now?"

She smiled at me, "not yet, Crocodile Dundee. I want to know why you have this sudden interest in Katarina Stratford."

For absolutely no reason that I could summon up, I actually felt a sudden rush of terror as I thought about having to explain to a teacher that I was being paid so that another guy could have sex. Fortunately that only lasted a moment or two before I realised that I didn't have to tell them the truth. I know its pathetic but I actually thought that telling the truth was the only option.

"What do you mean? I like her. I would like to have sex with her," I smiled sweetly at her hoping that if I was rude she might send me straight to the detention hall where I could tune out and not have to talk to anyone. Ah, solitude. How sweet it seemed while talking to Ms Perky.

"Mmm hmm," Perky pushed her laptop to one side and watched me through her bug-like eyeglasses, "well, whatever it is you're doing to her, keep it up. She hasn't been sent in here in over a week."

"Really?" I was surprised. Kat was usually in here even more that I was. Anyone with half a brain could see that her rebellion was just basic teenage behavior but everyone made out that she was some kind of delinquent out to destroy the faculty. Well, isn't everyone?

"Yes. In fact," Perky continued, holding up her coffee cup as she did so, "I have decided that your little stint out on the oval, while having to earn some sort of punishment, will not be as bad as all that."

Something was up.

"Why?" I asked her suspiciously. I had been coming in here every week since I arrived at this stupid school and I knew that Elvira Perky was not the sort of women who makes allowances.

"As a sort of reward for turning one of our most feared female students into someone people aren't as afraid of anymore. You know, more people are signing up for soccer now that she isn't terrorizing the younger players anymore."

I leaned back in my chair, "well, that's just peachy. I am glad to extend my services to you. Could I have my punishment now please?"

Inspiration must have suddenly struck because Ms Perky slid her laptop back in front of her and pulled up the lid. Typing madly she said vaguely, "detention until five. Scoot!"

I rolled my eyes and got out of my seat. I waved to the secretary who seemed to be filling in for Judith while she was sick and she looked hurriedly back down at her computer screen. I sighed inwardly. Being a juvenile delinquent had its downside, that replacement was hot.

Detention hall was boring as usual. I had been there many times before and knew basically every single other person in there if not personally. Well, there were the occasional few who got shoved into detention for talking too much in class or for inadvertently causing havoc in the biology lab but most of the time it was the same group of guys getting caught smoking or vandalizing school property. I hope Kat understood that I was now sacrificing an entire afternoon of boredom for her. Though realistically, I knew my song and dance routine probably didn't make any difference whatsoever. Depressed slightly by this realization I slumped back into my seat and tried to tune my senses out so that the time would go a lot faster. Suddenly, however, something happened that made detention a lot more interesting.

Kat walked into the room and straight up to Mr. Chapin, the coach of her soccer team. When his back was turned she motioned to get my attention. She hissed something under her breath and gestured towards the back of the room. I shook my head to show her that I didn't have the slightest inkling of what she was talking about. She whispered a little louder and this time I heard what she said.

The window.

Oh God she was going to get me to sneak out the window. Um, Kat, I mentally tried to say to her, can you say 'suicide'?

Apparently she didn't care and she began to use different strange yet somewhat effective tactics to distract Mr. Chapin from my craven attempts to escape. To her credit she did make a complete idiot out of herself so I suppose that does make up for what I did to get in detention in the first place. At the last minute I accidentally let the window fall back with a clunk but before Mr. Chapin could turn around and catch me out Kat had completely sacrificed her dignity to help me escape. I have seen breasts on a girl before, and they had never made me laugh before. But something about the scene I had just witnessed made me roar with laughter as soon as I was around the corner of the school. Wiping my eye and trying to calm myself down I made me way down to the entrance of the school where I hoped she'd be. I was right. A minute after I got there, Kat arrived looking slightly embarrassed but smiled when she saw me.

"Thanks," I said returning the smile.

Kat shrugged, "it was nothing.

I repressed the urge to make any further comments and pulled my keys out of my pocket, "need a ride?"

Kat shook her head and pulled out her own set of keys, "no, I have my own ride," she watched me for a moment, perhaps deciding whether or not to say what she said next.

"But if you come to my house in about ten minutes I'll need a ride then."

"Yeah?" I leaned against the wall, trying not to think about the cigarette I would usually have in my hand at a moment like this, "Where to?"

Kat shrugged, "wherever."

I grinned at that. The girl was tamable after all. "Pick you up in ten minutes then?" I asked her and she nodded with a small smile as she turned away from me and started towards her car.

Thank you, I said a silent prayer to those above and walked towards my own vehicle.

Exactly ten minutes later I was driving somewhat slowly up Katarina Stratford's street. The slowness was partly due to not really recognizing Kat's house now that it was daylight and partly to my car. It had been misbehaving more and more frequently of late and right now it was making that strange clunking noise cars make before they stop completely. I should know, its happened to me enough times to become like a sixth sense. I wish I could have a cigarette but if Kat smelled it in the car when she got in there would be hell to pay and I didn't want to blow my chances. I searched the street with my eyes to determine which house was hers. Ah, there it is. I pulled up in front of the Stratford's house, hoping that the clunking noises wouldn't bring anyone to their windows. Getting out of my car I noticed that in the daylight, this street actually isn't a lot different to mine. It was quite creepy actually. Walking up the Stratford's front path I saw a flash of white in the upstairs window. A curtain being pulled back into place. Great, I thought to myself, I'm being watched either by her head case father or her conceited sister. Neither of these prospects gave me a lot of comfort. Just before I had the chance to ring the doorbell the door opened and Kat's face appeared.

"My dad was going to answer the door," she explained as I rose my eyebrows at her, "trust me, you don't want to have to answer any of the questions he'd ask you."

"Ah," I said, understanding. I smiled at her, "ready?"

She nodded and closed the door behind her, "where are we going?"

I grinned at her, "boating."

I didn't blame her for the questioning look she gave me. I mean, who takes a girl boating? But she followed me to my car nonetheless and didn't ask anymore about it. I got into the drivers seat and prayed that it would start on either the first or second try. Success! It started on the first try and I grinned triumphantly much to Kat's confusion. I shrugged, "it usually doesn't start the first go."

"Oh," she nodded knowingly and I figured she must have the same trouble what with the piece of trash she drives. As we drove I tried to make conversation, "so, who was watching me out of the window when I first drove up?"

She laughed, "That would have been my father. Yeah, he likes to interview each boy that comes to our house," at this point she sat back and surveyed me, "then again, I wouldn't exactly call you a boy."

Ok, I'll admit I kinda took offense to that, "well what am I then?" I asked her, taking my eyes off the road for a moment to look at her. I hurriedly put them back, however, when I heard the sound of a horn being blasted in my direction.

She smiled and shrugged, "you're....too old to be a boy."

I hesitated then returned the smile.

When we got to the bay I parked somewhere I knew would have boats that would allow us to boat over to the paintball. Kat still suspected nothing but a harmless boat ride and I liked to keep it that way for a while at least. I parked the car and climbed out, locking the door behind me and beckoning for Kat to follow me. I led her down to the water where a man was standing amongst his colourful prized pedal boats. I paid for a round trip and told Kat to choose the colour.

Blue?

I wouldn't have expected that but I merely smiled and climbed into the boat. We unhooked the rope from the boat and started to pedal away. On the way Kat began to tell me a joke about a guy who ran for governor in a small town in Italy. This led me to tell her my favourite joke, the one about Cinderella going to the ball. Soon we were both laughing and just to see what her reaction would be I asked her how she managed to keep Chapin distracted while I crept out the window.

"Oh, I dazzled him with my....wits," she said casually before laughing again.

I grinned then turned serious as I began to ask her a question I had been wondering about for a while.

"So, what's your excuse? For acting the way we do," I added when she looked a little confused.

She stopped laughing and looked at me critically.

"I don't like to do what other people expect," she said without heat, "why should I live up to other people's expectations instead of my own?"

She had a point. I briefly thought about the reasons I dressed and acted the way I do. I had spent a year with my grandpa when he was ill and that really threw my family and routine out of whack. He did get better in the end but the damage had been done. I began to rebel against my family and the rest of authority all because I hated to see everybody so upset about my grandpa.

"So, you disappoint them from the start and then you're covered, right?" I wish I hadn't said that so cruelly. As soon as I had said it Kat looked a little embarrassed that I didn't see her point of view.

"Something like that," she said quietly.

I decided that now would be a good time to say something nice to her, even if it were just to make up for my brutal comment just before. "Well, then you screwed up."

She looked at me, a little baffled and I continued, "You never disappointed me." I turned to see her reaction and she smiled gratefully. I mentally berated myself for saying something so lame but she seemed happy so I smiled back at her. To break the silence that followed I cleared my throat and said, "are you up for it?"

"Up for what?" She followed my hand as I pointed towards the mainland where Paintballing Park was. She looked a little skeptical for a moment before a grin spread across her face and she nodded.

Well, there's my second chapter up and running. Thank you to the ONE person who has reviewed so far! Hehe. Next chapter there shall be some fighting and a little romance...well, you know how the movie goes. Please review!!!