A/N: Hey everybody. I am going to reply to my reviewers and celebrate that I have now broken 700 hits. If I had that many reviews, now that would be something. But...
ObessedTWFan: I'm usually all for Warrick and Catherine, too, but I wanted to see if I could make a good Gil/Cath. The romance should be heating up in the next chapter, but it doesn't get really good until chapter 10 or 11. Catherine's birthday.
JoonSanders: Why are you stunned to wordlessness? I hope I didn't make you sad! >
XxbluemoonxX: Thanks for saying nice things about my story, I love to hear 'em!
Greglvr-127: Sorry, but I can't put you in my story and hook you up with Greg. Look for yourself, though, because I think I have a small part you can play. And I will definitely IM you sometime, I'll try to check out your fics, too.
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That Thursday, at lunch, Catherine was not at the back table with Sara, Nick, Greg, the newly recovered Gil, and everyone else. In fact, she wasn't in the cafeteria at all, and the group speculated on this.
"She wasn't in English this morning," Gil said with a brooding expression marring his face. "Is she even in school?"
"Yeah…" Sara trailed off. "I saw her this morning, before school, but maybe she went home?" Sara didn't want to tell any of the guys that she had seen Catherine crying in the bathroom. She knew as well as anyone that Cath had a big reputation as a bully, and she didn't want to be responsible for a ruined rep.
Catherine's whereabouts were the main topic of conversation, and Warrick didn't see her in Middle East Social Studies after lunch either. When he asked Mrs. Wells if she had gone home sick, her answer surprised him. "She didn't say exactly, but she came in this morning and said she might not be coming back for a little while. She also said she was resigning from the school play." The usual dreamy look was gone from the teacher's face, and it was replaced by a look of concern. "Do you know what's happened to her? She's a great actress, you know."
Warrick just looked helplessly at the teacher, deciding it was time to take matters into his own hands.
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"Hello?" A disgruntled female voice had answered on the other end of the line, and Warrick was sure it wasn't Catherine's.
"Ms. Willows? My name is Warrick Brown; I'm a friend of Catherine's, from school." Warrick was nervous talking to Ms. Willows, and he was trying desperately to remain calm and collected.
"Hang on a sec, lemme get her for you," Catherine's mother said gruffly, but before she could call Cathy down, Warrick interrupted quickly, "No, I don't need to talk to her, I just need to know if she's going to be at school tomorrow."
"Yeah, she better," Ms. Willows said in a tone that made Warrick justifiably uncomfortable. "Home sick my ass, I don't know what kind of shit she's trying to pull. I know what she does on the weekends with those loser friends of hers."
Warrick, on the other hand, had no idea what Cathy supposedly did with "those loser friends", but he chose to ignore it and said his goodbyes quickly.
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The next day, Warrick snuck into the school behind Catherine, undetected by her and everyone else. He deftly unzipped her backpack without disturbing her or the steady stream of music coming through on her headphones, and took out her textbook for the class she had with him. Two periods after lunch should give him enough time, by his calculations.
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Catherine was sorting through her textbooks at her locker, and noticed that she was missing the one for second period after lunch. "And on the day of the open-text quiz," she thought angrily, noticing only then that a small slip of paper with neat printing on it was at the bottom of her backpack.
If you want your book back, come to the side entrance, ten minutes before lunch ends. You'll thank me when you hear me out.
Catherine had no idea what this person was talking about, but she decided hastily that she would go and see what he had to say, beat him up if he didn't give her back her text.
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At precisely ten minutes until noon, Catherine was waiting at the side entrance to McKinley high, and a familiar face was staring back at her.
"Warrick, what the hell is up with you?" she snarled, trying to snatch her book back from him. "I don't want to hang out with you and all the losers!"
Catherine knew as she said this that she was lying through her teeth, and it seemed that Warrick knew, too, because he showed no sign of emotion at the harshness of her words. "Just listen to me, Cath," he said patiently. "Gil hasn't been the same since you stopped hanging out with us. Sara misses you and we all want you back, and I know you want to come back! What's wrong with you?"
Catherine slapped Warrick across the face, a red mark clearly visible on his cheek. She grabbed the textbook off the floor where Warrick had dropped it, and ran.
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Sara entered the bathroom to a familiar voice sobbing. She quickly locked the door to the rest of the school, and after making sure no one else was in the rest room, knocked on the door of a stall.
"Cat, it's just me. I want to know what happened."
"Go away, Sara! I hate you!" Catherine screamed through the cheap Formica door at her friend, and began to cry harder. Sara blinked, barely fazed by her friend's words, then hopped into the stall on one side and, climbing onto the seat of the toilet, stared down at her friend, who was in a similar position.
"Cathy, why can't you tell me?" Sara's face bore genuine concern and something about that expression made Catherine say everything she had been storing up since the accident a week before.
"Everyone I meet hates me and if I start to care about them they get hurt and I don't want them to and I can't make it go away and Gil hates me but I love—" Catherine stopped, mid-rant. "I did not say that," her mind was screaming. "I don't love Gil." But another side of her mind fought back, one that knew what was going on.
Sara, meanwhile, was looking thoughtfully at the girl across from her, the girl whose raccoon circles of eyeliner were running down her cheeks and whose expression was that which a person might wear when they have just been shot by their best friend. A look of disbelief at a betrayal.
"She loves Gil," Sara mused, reaching over the partition and taking her friend's hand. "It's okay, Cat," she said soothingly, still puzzling over the bizarre situation they were in. "Let's get down off these toilets and talk it out."
Catherine allowed her friend to unlock the door and, after a long talk, a conclusion was reached.
"Let me get this straight," Sara said. "You thought he hated you for hitting him in the back of the head with a wooden sword, so you gave him a gift and a kiss, and you expected to leave us all alone?"
Catherine felt rather foolish, because when her friend put it like that, it sounded like Cath was being selfish and rude.
"I don't know how he feels about you, but he doesn't hate you and I think you've got a bad love buzz," she continued, "so why don't you come back to the group and we'll see how he reacts."
Catherine nodded. "I will, on one condition. The entire group has to do something I want in three weeks. It's my birthday, and I have just the thing in mind."
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That afternoon, sitting at their usual table in Catherine's coffee shop, everyone was looking at her with a skeptical look on his or her face.
"You're taking us to do some surprise for your birthday?" Nick asked. "And you won't tell us what it is? It sounds suspicious to me."
Catherine smiled mischievously. "All in good time, my dear Nicky. All in good time."
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I've been watching Season 3 on DVD, and I just saw Lady Heather's Box. I missed it before, and I can't believe I missed one where Gil gets laid! Well, I hope you like the chapter, that episode sort of inspired me. As always, reviews are appreciated!
Maddy