Disclaimer: I just heard back from my lawyers. I'm not going to be getting the rights to Big Time Rush. Therefore, I don't own them.

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A/N: I'm so sorry! I know it's been over a month since I last updated and believe me, it wasn't intentional. I got busy, I got sidetracked with other stories, the usual. Please forgive me?

There's another hockey scene in this chapter, and it's entirely possible that I got my facts wrong, so if you guys catch anything that's off, go ahead and let me know so that I can correct it :)

Enjoy the chapter :)

Chapter Three – Party Planning

Katie's POV

It didn't snow until Friday morning, which was a bit of a relief, although it meant that my dad had to go out into the driveway to clear out enough snow so that we could each get down to the street without any trouble. Plus, it was threatening to continue to snow and not stop until either Saturday or Sunday.

"So, James is having a party at his parents' lake house," Kendall told me over breakfast on Friday.

I blinked at him as I took a bite of my eggs. "What kind of party?"

"Just a small gathering for the hockey team. I thought maybe you and your friends would like to come," he added generously.

"Explain to me why the hell I would want to go to James Diamond's party when I make a point of saying every day that he drives me nuts."

Kendall shrugged. "I just thought you might have fun. It's going to be a hot tub party," he added in his best wheedling voice. "And you love hot tubs."

"Yeah, but I don't need to be in one with James."

"Katie, come on! I want you to come. It seems like we never get to do anything together anymore."

"That's because we're both busy with school and hockey and friends."

"I think Logan's inviting Camille to the party, and Carlos asked Stephanie to come. And the rest of the hockey team isn't really invited…"

"Why not?"

"They're either busy or they drive James nuts."

I sighed. I knew a lot of people would be heading up to their cabins for a couple days of ice fishing, or driving down to Minneapolis to visit with family where it was probably a little bit warmer.

"Carlos is going to be home by himself, otherwise he would be heading to Lake Superior with his family, and Logan's mom doesn't want to deal with the traffic, so that's why they're not going anywhere."

"And our parents are driving over to Grand Rapids this afternoon to spend this evening with Aunt Charlene and Uncle Jerry," I added. I wasn't talking about Grand Rapids, Michigan. Minnesota has a Grand Rapids too. It's a decent sized town, complete with a movie theater and bowling alley. Normally Kendall and I would have gone with our parents to visit our aunt and uncle, but since we were in the middle of hockey season, we were both training six days a week. While neither of us had an official hockey practice during the weekend, we both hit the local gym for a couple of hours in order to stay in peak condition. We each had an hour during school that we spent in the school's weight room, lifting weights, running on the treadmill, and working on the elliptical machine. It was a requirement with hockey, and I knew that before long we would be adding an hour to practice so that Coach Carter could put us through our paces some more. While Kendall usually let himself go during break and on the weekends, I was constantly pushing myself, watching what I ate and going to the gym to work out. Part of my dedication definitely came from my love of the sport. The other part…well, that had more to do with the drive to prove myself.

It wasn't easy, being one of the shortest girls in school, much less being the smallest girl on the team. And hockey was such a physical sport. It was even easier for me to get hurt because I was so tiny and could so quickly be knocked over or worse. People usually estimated me on the ice and I had to prove them wrong. I had to make them eat their words; make them forget everything they had ever said about me. I had grown up hearing the short jokes and they didn't bother me, but it pissed me off when people automatically assumed that just because I never topped five feet I was a crappy hockey player. And I wasn't, I knew I wasn't. I hadn't been voted team captain for nothing. I had hoped that once I made team captain that people would lay off, but all it did was inspire another round of jokes about how the girls' hockey team had been hoping to find a midget to force into the captaincy, but because they couldn't find one they had to settle for the next best thing.

But a part of me felt like I should have been thanking those fucking naysayers. After all, it was the fire of determination that kept me going, otherwise I probably wouldn't have gotten as good as I was.

That didn't mean the occasional comment didn't sting or make me want to run to the bathroom to bawl my eyes out. But I had long since learned to shoot a sharp comment back at them and not pull any punches, because otherwise they would think that it was okay to walk all over me.

I was a big fan of equality, and when people treated me like I was a special case of crazy or like because I was so tiny that I must need extra help with everything, it kind of made me want to go on a screaming rampage and just start punching walls and kicking doors. I always worked on controlling my anger, but that didn't mean that it wasn't there, just bubbling under the surface, waiting until the day I was pushed just a little too far so that it could come exploding out of me. And when that inevitably happened, beware, because things were not going to be pretty.

"Please come?" Kendall insisted, snapping me out of my thoughts. "It'll probably be a lot of fun. James is ordering pizza, he got his hands on a few six packs of beer – "

"I don't drink," I said automatically, quickly glancing around to make sure that neither Mom nor Dad was in the general vicinity. "And you don't either."

"But still. He'll have soda, and I can probably get him to pick up a pack of fruit water for you," he added quickly when I opened my mouth to remind him that the only time I drank any kind of soda was at the movies. I was a sucker for root beer and cherry coke, and an even bigger sucker for popcorn with lots of salt and butter. It was my one weakness. Well, that and chocolate mousse. And salt and vinegar chips. But other than that, I behaved myself when it came to food.

"Fine," I finally relented. "But only because I know you'll be so persistent that I won't get a moment's rest."

He grinned and pulled out his phone. "I gotta let James know that you're coming."

"I'm sure he'll be thrilled," I said dryly, finishing up my eggs and standing up, the chair's legs scraping against the linoleum floor as I did so.

"You never know," Kendall shrugged. "I don't think James really hates you as much as you think he does. If anything, I'd say that he's rather…fond…of you."

I snorted. "James isn't fond of girls. They're split up into two categories – the girls he's made out with/the girls he wants to make out with, and the girls who he doesn't want to make out with and, by extension, can't stand. I fall into the latter category, which means James doesn't like me in any sense of the word."

Kendall shrugged. "You never know. You could be wrong."

"Trust me on this," I said as I grabbed a couple of plastic bags from under the sink to keep our boots from soaking our lockers, "I'm completely right."

James' POV

I gaped at the text Kendall had just sent me. He couldn't be serious. Was he fucking insane?!

"Hey, dude. Katie's coming to your party tonight, okay? I invited her and she's down for it. :)"

Yeah, he was insane. Because no one invited Katie and me to the same place intentionally. The school hallway wasn't the only place she tackled me, and it definitely wasn't the only place I provoked her. It was funny in a way. I generally got along with most of the people at school. I mean, yeah, there were a few people I couldn't stand, but none of them brought out this insane urge to piss them off. Katie did, though. For whatever reason I couldn't seem to keep my mouth shut around her. It was like she brought out the worst in me, and I had a feeling that I brought out the worst in her.

As far as I knew, I was the only guy she was knocking to the ground in the middle of school hallways.

I growled and texted Kendall back, "We'll talk about this at school." Traitor. He had been on this let's get my little sister together with my best friend so that we can all be one big happy dysfunction family kick lately. And Carlos and Logan weren't helping any. Logan was trying to hook up with Camille, Carlos was trying to get with Stephanie, and Kendall was trying to figure out if he could ask Jo out without completely humiliating himself.

For two teams that supposedly hated each other, there sure were a lot of crushes and sexual tension going on here. It was times like these when it seemed like Katie and I were the only ones with our heads in the game. Talk about annoying.

I shoveled the rest of my omelet into my mouth and stood up so that I could rinse my plate off and place it in the dishwasher.

Fifteen minutes later I was pulling through the gates into the school parking lot. Because, you know, nothing says warm and welcoming quite like a chain link fence around an educational institution. I was just thankful it wasn't barbed wire. That might have discouraged me from skipping school in ninth and tenth grade, before I got my license.

The snow plows had done their job well, so the roads had been clear coming through town. The parking lot was pretty cleared as well, so it was just my fellow students that served as the usual early morning hazards.

After honking at two people and hollering that I was going to run some dumbass over if he didn't move his ass out of my way, I managed to locate a parking spot relatively close to the school. I pulled in and parked. Just as I was getting out of my car, I spotted Kendall's Honda Civic heading towards me. I swung my backpack over my shoulders and crossed my arms, shooting him my best shit's-about-to-go-down face.

Kendall parked beside my car and climbed out, grabbing his own backpack as he shuffled towards me, snow boots kicking up the occasional pile of slush.

"So…you're mad," he stated once he reached me.

"Not so much mad, just…confused."

"Why?"

"Oh, I don't know. It might have something to do with the fact that you A – invited your sister to a party that I'm throwing without asking me first, and B – your sister and I have never been able to stand each other. Every time we're stuck in the same room together, bad things happen. We almost burned down Fun Burger last year!"

"James, they said that fire had nothing to do with you and Katie. Even if you two were arguing near the kitchen when the stove caught on fire…"

"Like I said, we almost burned Fun Burger down. And I kind of like the lake house the way it is. You know, still standing."

"So don't do anything to demolish it," Kendall advised me, shifting from foot to foot. "Can we go inside? It's fucking cold out here and I'm pretty sure I'm getting frostbite."

"Baby." We headed for the steps together, crossing the pathway. Just as we reached the curb, a familiar Toyota Camry passed by, and my eyes locked with Katie's for a split second before she turned into one of the rows of parking spaces.

I shook my head and took the stairs leading up to the front entrance two at a time, Kendall following closely behind. The second we were in the warm hallway, I turned to him. "Okay, explain why you invited Katie to the party tonight."

"Because I thought it'd be fun. And come on, James. Cami and Steph are going to be there, and probably Jo. It'll be us all together again. And besides, if Katie doesn't come, then that means it'll be four boys and three girls. Do you really want that? At the very least you and Katie can sit on the couch and make sarcastic comments about how sickeningly adorable we all are."

"You do know you and Jo aren't together yet, right?"

He ignored me. "And who knows? You two might actually have fun."

I snorted skeptically.

"Anyway, she's coming, so…"

"Yeah, thanks again for asking if it's okay with me," I said sarcastically as I unbuttoned my coat and unwound my scarf from around my neck.

"I'm sorry. You're right, I should have asked especially since it is Katie. But can she please come tonight?" he pleaded, sweeping his beanie off his head and mussing up his dark blond hair.

I sighed. "Yeah, okay. Am I going to have to get any special food or drinks for her?"

He beamed. "Fruit water works. Or what about those sparkling fruit drinks she likes?"

"IZZE drinks?" I replied. "Yeah, I can get those. I was considering buying them anyway, so…"

"Cool. And as for food, as long as you have popcorn, I think she'll be good. Wait, are you doing nachos?"

"I was planning on it," I said as I began to walk again, Kendall quickly breaking into stride as well.

"Okay, she'll eat those too. You know how she is with popcorn and nachos."

I smiled a little. When Logan turned thirteen, he had a party at the local movie theater. He invited a bunch of us down to see an action comedy. The snacks were put on his parents' tab, so of course we had loaded up on them. Katie had gotten a small popcorn which looked like it should have been a medium, and a box of nachos. She was even tinier back then and none of us had honestly thought that she would be able to eat all that. But she had finished her food without any problem, and she had even helped herself to a couple of Kit-Kats that Jo hadn't been able to eat because she was so full due to her other snacks.

"Yeah," I said after a moment. "She loves them."

"Exactly. So just make sure you have them and she'll be good to go."

"Will do. I'm going to stop by the store during lunch so that I can get the rest of the food. I don't want to have to do it after hockey practice."

"Sounds good," Kendall nodded. "Come on, let's get to our lockers so that we can get out of these damn coats."

Katie's POV

James and I had three periods together at school: English, lunch, and Biology. English was our first period, which meant that no matter what I did I was going to have to see him first thing in the morning. Ugh.

I made my way to English, sighing as I did so because I knew James had already beat me there. I had seen him heading into the school with Kendall when I pulled into the parking lot, so he was at least a couple of minutes ahead of me.

I walked into the classroom and immediately clenched my teeth. James was sitting at his usual desk, flirting with a blonde cheerleader who probably thought a penalty shot was something you did with salt and tequila. That also meant that James was probably zeroing in on the stupid, slutty girls. Not that I was being catty. I was just telling it like it is, from my perspective. And with how low that girl's sweater was cut, my perspective was pretty much dead on.

I rolled my eyes as I sat down at my desk, trying to ignore the way the blonde kept trying to shove her cleavage into James' line of vision. Was there a class on acting like a dumb slut? Because if there was, then I was betting she had aced every test.

I pulled out my textbook, notebook, pen, and last night's homework, before plugging into my iPod and studiously reviewing the worksheet Mrs. Pembeny had assigned us.

"Question #1: In your opinion, what was Shakespeare trying to accomplish when he wrote 'Hamlet'?"

Probably warn against paranoia and depression. Fortunately that wasn't what I had put. I had given a nice, long, thoroughly detailed answer, so I doubted she could fault me for it.

I glanced up as I sucked on my pen, considering whether or not I should add anything else. Out of the corner of my eye I could see Blondie – whose name I was pretty sure was Kaylie – running her hand up and down James' arm. Could you say desperate?

"Question #2: What could Ophelia represent to Hamlet?"

Well, it sure as hell wasn't sanity, that was for damn sure. The girl was as bat shit crazy as her boyfriend. My God, was anyone in this play sane? And speaking of sanity, James had to be insane since he was still letting Kaylie flirt with him. Just because she was blonde and pretty was no reason for him to ignore everyone else in the room. Talk about rude.

"Question #3: Explain thoroughly Claudius's motivation throughout the play. What, besides cruelty and corruption, could cause him to commit such heinous acts?"

Also something I had taken my time to detail meticulously. Just like Kaylie was meticulously running her finger up and down James' shirt – why the hell didn't they just get a room?! This was sickening.

I got to my feet and marched over to them. They both looked at me, James in confusion, Kaylie in annoyance, as I approached.

"What do you want?" Kaylie wanted to know.

"I want you to stop running your hands all over James like he's a store mannequin. The sight is sickening, and some of us actually want to get a decent grade in this class. I can't do that if I'm vomiting a lung up."

"Why? He's not your boyfriend," she retorted. "You don't even like him."

"Yes, but you two are right in my line of sight and I don't want to see anyone all over someone else, especially when I'm trying to go over my homework. So I'm going to go sit down again, and if you two start up again…well, let's just make sure that doesn't happen, kay?" I flashed her a chipper smile before flouncing back to my desk and plopping down, tossing my hair over my shoulder. I turned back to my homework and continued to go through the questions and my answers. I was just finishing up when I spotted James shaking Kaylie off and walking towards me.

I looked up at him, laying my pen down. "If you're hoping to get a lap dance, my services are closed for the night. You'll have to try again at another desk. Have a nice day."

He rolled his eyes, sitting down on the edge of my desk. Okay. His butt was touching my desk. This was no reason to panic, no reason to suddenly scream for disinfectant, no reason at all.

He so owed me a new desk.

"Dude, you're sitting on my desk," I informed him, like he hadn't already figured out exactly what his ass was parked on.

He glared at me. "No shit, Sherlock. I can see why you're the one who solves mysteries and not Watson."

"What do you want?" I demanded, doing my utmost best not to let my eyes rake over him. He looked amazing in broken-in jeans and a black long-sleeved thermal shirt with the sleeves pushed back to his forearms, revealing a watch on one wrist, and homemade bracelets on the other. Kendall had bracelets similar to those as well. A couple of years ago the cheerleading squad, drill team, and the girls' hockey, basketball, and soccer teams had held a fund raiser to raise money for the school sports teams. While we had had the usual bake sales, car washes, and lemonade stands, we had also sold bracelets and necklaces that we had made ourselves. I wasn't particularly artsy, but it had been fun to give it a try, and my jewelry had actually turned out halfway decent. My family had bought a bunch of my bracelets and necklaces, and to my surprise James had purchased a few bracelets as well. He had said that that was because they looked the coolest, but I rarely saw him go a day without wearing at least one of them.

It was almost sweet.

Almost.

"To talk to you. It's why I'm sitting on your desk, as you so perceptively pointed out."

I clenched my jaw. "If you're over here to tell me to mind my own business about you and whoever you flirt with – "

"I'm not. I'm over here to talk to you about the party tonight."

"Oh."

"Yeah. Kendall told you it's a hot tub party, right?"

I nodded. "Yeah, he mentioned it."

"Okay, good. And I'll make sure there's food and drinks there that you can have. I might even get a couple of foot long sandwiches, since I don't think anyone's going to be eating much before the party."

"Probably not. We have hockey practice, and then we'll all be dashing home to try to get ready for tonight. What time's the party?"

"Eight. And remember," he said as he got to his feet, "make sure you bring a swimsuit. A bikini will do nicely." He winked at me before heading back to his desk.

Flirt.

Pervert.

Pig.

Hot flirt, pervert, and pig.

Hmmph. Didn't Shakespeare write a play about him? The Taming of the Shrew?

Shaking my head I leaned back in the chair, waiting for the day to officially start and thinking about which bikini I was going to wear that night…

I didn't see James at lunch, and when I commented off-handedly about it to Kendall as I was passing by the boys' hockey team table, he told me, "He's getting stuff for the party tonight so that he doesn't have to do it after practice."

I nodded in understanding. It was always a pain in the ass to do anything after hockey practice. You were always sore, sweaty, and starving – the three Ss. Not exactly the kind of state you wanted to walk into Wal-Mart in.

Lunch passed by quickly, and then it was off to – ugh – biology. James slid into his chair at our table seconds before the bell rang, shaking his bangs out of his eyes.

"Whew, I thought I was going to be late."

"And thank goodness you're not, because there was no way in hell I was going to dissect a formaldehyde-drenched flower corpse by myself."

"It's just a flower, Katie," he huffed out as Mr. Greenberg passed out the flowers and dissection kits, going over the instructions so that we wouldn't accidentally butcher an innocent flower. "It's not like we're dissecting a frog or a pig or something."

"Yet. We're not dissecting a frog yet. Get your facts straight, Diamond."

He rolled his eyes and carefully made the first incision, following Mr. Greenberg's directions. "You make the second cut."

I did so. "Well, at least it doesn't have guts or a heart."

"Oh, you're going to be fun to dissect a frog with," he muttered. "Thanks, Greenberg."

"Suck it up," I told him as I sliced again. "At least you're not stuck with Kendall." I nodded across the room and a row back, where Kendall and Jo were sitting. Jo was staring at the flower in fascination while Kendall appeared to be holding his breath so that he wouldn't accidently breathe in the formaldehyde.

"Good point," he admitted. "Is Kendall even doing any of the work?" He peered across the room at them too. As we watched, Jo elbowed him in the ribs and handed him the knife. He stared at it blankly, as if he couldn't wrap his mind around what it was supposed to be used for.

Nice one, Kendork. That's the way to win a girl's heart – act like you don't know how to use a simple kitchen appliance. She'll love you forever.

Oh God, this was pathetic.

I turned resolutely back to the flower, James following my lead.

"Okay," he said, peering at the flower, "I think we're supposed to be looking at this little bit." He jabbed at the stem's inside and I gaped at it

"What are we supposed to be looking at? It's the inside of a flower."

"Here." James passed me a magnifying glass. "Try not to blow it up, okay?"

"I'm not like you and the boys, James. I never fried ants on the sidewalk with a magnifying glass."

"You did crash my remote control car once, though."

"It was an accident!"

From across the room Jo and Kendall were giving us very obvious shut up and do the freaking experiment looks. Kendall was also slashing his finger across his throat, signaling us to keep our mouths shut.

"It still happened."

"Oh yeah? Well, remember when you sent your G.I Joe dolls on a mission to save my Barbies, only they were too late and my Barbies were gunned down by evil dragons?"

By this point the entire room was staring at us like we had gone nuts. I couldn't blame them. What kind of six year old boy sent their G.I Joe dolls on a Barbie rescue mission, only to kill off the Barbies via dragons with machine guns? I mean, really? James' imagination was clearly already wacked back then.

Mr. Greenberg finally got a clue and walked over to us. "Do I need to separate you two?"

We looked up at him innocently, before I chorused, "Yes, please!" and James hollered, "Fuck yes!"

He rolled his eyes. "Clearly you two would like that too much. And you have a warning, James. Keep your language under control, please. Continue on with the experiment, please. And stop talking about Barbies and evil dragons! This is a biology classroom, not a fantasy kingdom."

Wow, Mr. Greenberg, you don't say. I never would have figured that out for myself. And to think, I had been expecting sword-toting ogres to pop out of the walls at any second.

James and I re-focused on our experiment as Mr. Greenberg headed over to check on Kendall and Jo. "Kendall, why aren't you making any of the incisions? Do you really want to let the poor girl do all the work?"

"Um…" I heard Kendall respond and I shook my head. My brother was hopeless. Sometimes it amazed me that we were twins.

Once biology finally let out I scurried down the hall to the newspaper room, where I spent the next fifty minutes. Kristen and I had thrown out a few ideas for the exposés, most of which consisted of whether or not our designated teams used steroids and cheated.

For whatever reason, Missy didn't like those ideas. Instead she wanted us to portray their integrity and honesty. I didn't have the heart to tell her that – A) they were the same thing, and B) I was pretty sure none of the boys' teams had either. Well, okay, maybe that was a bit of an exaggeration. But I couldn't help it. Every time the damn exposé was brought up, I immediately went on the defensive and began cussing out the boys' hockey team, even though a few of the guys at the very least were perfectly nice.

"Well, that wasn't as stressful as I thought it might be," Kristen said to me as we packed our bags up once the bell had rang. "How was biology with James?"

"I'm pretty sure we almost got detention because we started arguing about stuff that happened when we were kids."

"Wow," she intoned, staring at me. "You two really know how to hold a grudge."

I shrugged. "It's what we do best, apparently."

Kristen shook her head. "You two really are going to kill each other. Are you going to James' party tonight?"

"Yeah, Kendall conscripted me. You're not going, right?"

"Nope," she popped the P. "The boys' hockey team and I don't mix. Besides, Nate's decided he wants to interview me."

I gaped at her. "You're kidding me."

"No. I'm fully expecting him to act like a complete asshole. He wants to know about the girls' hockey team and our games and stuff, and he's probably going to make a whole bunch of comments like, 'if you guys are so great, then why didn't you win that game back in 2012' and 'if you were on the boys' team your practices would probably be a lot more rigorous'."

"Probably," I agreed. "Are you guys going somewhere?"

"Duh. You think I want that sexist asshole in my house? We're going to Starbucks and I'm going to load up on as much chocolate as possible so that I don't wind up strangling him."

"Sound like a plan. I'll see you at practice," I added as we walked out of the newspaper classroom.

"See you at practice."

We went our separate ways and, as always, I ran into James at my locker.

"For the record," he said, leaning against his own locker, arms crossed over his chest. "My G.I Joe dolls would have rescued your Barbies if you hadn't decided that the dolls looked stupid."

"I was six! Give me a fucking break! Besides," I added as I stuffed books into my messenger bag roughly, "you smeared black paint all over their faces."

"Yeah, to make them look like they were camouflaged."

"That's what you were doing? They looked like they had been sprayed by an octopus."

He glared at me and let his door slam shut. "I'm out of here. See you tonight."

"See you tonight," I growled, banging my shoulder into his – well, his arm, due to the height difference – as he stormed off towards the boys' locker room. I banged my own locker shut before stomping off in the direction of the girls' locker room, still mumbling about stupid boys under my breath.

It was a relief to get out onto the rink, where the air was frigid and tasted of ice and pucks. I threw myself into practice, trying to figure out how the hell I was going to get through the rest of semester with three periods with James and with his locker next to mine. In the past two years we had only had one class together, period. Last semester we had barely even seen each other at school besides at our lockers, and even that was rare because we were coming from different distances.

The schedule gods clearly hated me. Clearly.

We were halfway through practicing passes when none other than the boys' hockey team, led by James and Coach Benson, came parading into the rink.

A muscle throbbed in Coach Carter's cheek as she headed off to face them down. I dropped my stick and joined her, placing my hands on my hips once we had reached the guys.

"What are you doing here?" I demanded of James. "Because if you guys think you're going to be able to use the rink for 'drills' – " I held my fingers up in quotation marks, but he cut me off.

"We just need the rink for – "

"For fifteen minutes, I know. That's what you guys said last time, and it turned into a half hour."

"Melanie," Coach Benson said to Coach Carter, "you understand, right? We need to use the rink just for a little while."

"We need the rink, Jack," she snapped. "This is our rink, not yours. The school specifically stated that, and if you don't remember than I'll go dig out the paperwork. But you can't use our rink right now. If you need extra practice, then call one for Saturday, but don't try to kick us off the rink during our practice time."

"You've never minded before," he shot back, crossing his arms.

"You only did it once or twice a semester, but this is twice in the first week of school. My girls need the time – "

"They have plenty of time," he interrupted her. "And, I mean, no offense, but isn't two hours a little long for them to practice?"

Her eyebrows skyrocketed and her jaw set into a hard line. "Excuse me? Are you insinuating that the girls can't practice as long or as hard as the boys can?"

"I'm just saying, girls don't have as much stamina as boys."

I was seriously wishing I hadn't dropped my stick on the ice because at that moment I was thinking he really needed a good smack upside the head.

"And, no offense, but your captain is…well, a lot of people are wondering if she was really the best decision."

I bit down hard on my bottom lip, ignoring the lump that had just popped into my throat.

James blinked. "Wait, what? Why are they wondering that? Katie's a pretty good hockey player."

"She's so tiny," Coach Benson said apologetically. "No offense, Katie," he added to me. "I know you're a good player, but we do have to take your size into account."

"Then it's a really good thing I'm not on your stupid team," I spat, turning around and stomping back towards the ice. "Because if I was, then I would just be a pigheaded sexist like you."

"You can't use the rink, Jack," I heard Coach Carter repeat. "And if you ever insult any of my girls again, I'll make sure you're very sorry you ever stepped foot in my rink. Take your team and go."

I snatched my stick up and wrestled the puck from Allison, before backing up into my zone. I slammed my stick into the puck, watching with satisfaction as it flew across the ice and past Alexis, swishing against the net. "Can any of your boys do that?!" I hollered at Coach Benson. "Do they have the aim or the swing for that?!"

"I can do that," James announced, stepping out onto the rink. "Alexis, shoot me the puck."

Alexis glowered but sent the puck back his way, making sure to send it off course so that he had to skate a couple of yards to retrieve it. He glared back at her, before pulling the puck to the opposite zone so that he was standing beside me. I watched as he took the swing, his stick connecting smoothly with the puck and knocking it across the ice, into the net.

"See?" James turned to me, eyebrow quirked.

My bottom lip trembled, the lump in my throat growing as I looked up at him. I had spent ages perfecting that shot, and he had just completely ruined the point I was trying to make.

But bursting into tears in front of half the boys' hockey team wasn't going to do anything to make them respect me or my team or coach. So instead I shrugged and said simply, "Well, of course you can do that. You're built, so of course you have the power for it. But as your coach so observantly pointed out, I'm tiny."

He pursed his lips and skated off the ice. "I think we need to head back to our own rink," he said to Coach Benson, before gesturing for that half of the team to follow him out.

I watched them go, anger and humiliation pooling in the pit of my stomach. Something told me that that wasn't the last time I would have to prove myself. I just hoped I wouldn't have to go up against James again.

So, that was chapter three. What'd you guys think? Did you love it? Hate it? Like it? Enjoy it? Thank you for reading, and please review :)