Disclaimer: I do now own NCIS or any of its characters.

Chapter 5

"Does he always give out this much homework, or does he just wanna piss me off?" Taylor was not happy. It had been a long and difficult day. Paying attention and trying not to annoy Millar was a real pain in the butt, although it was better than the alternative. She was avoiding any potential detention like the plague. Jared sat beside her on the wall, he was waiting for his mom to pick him and his sister up. Taylor was there to keep him company.

"It's not usually this much, I think he's still angry about the crickets." Jared replied.

"Doesn't surprise me he's takin' it out on us. He wants everyone to be just as miserable as he is." She grumbled.

Then Taylor had a brainwave. It was something she would never have been able to try with Jason because they weren't in the same class. But now ….

"What we should really do is take turns."

Jared looked at her, not sure what she was talking about. "What do you mean take turns?"

"You know, I do it one night, and you do it the next. What's the point in both of us wasting time?"

"Isn't that cheating?" It sounded like a good idea, but it couldn't be right.

"Only if we get caught." She looked at him pleadingly. "Come on, half the amount of homework! Think of how much time we'd save!"

Jason checked his watch, in the hope that his mom, or Kayla would show up before he had to answer. He found it extremely difficult to say 'no' to Taylor and didn't want to disappoint her, but his dad would go nuts if he found out he had cheated. Unfortunately Taylor interpreted his silence as a yes, and she handed him her question sheets. "You can go first, and I'll do it tomorrow."

Instead of refusing, Jared said nothing, and slipped her homework into his bag, trying to convince himself that it just might be a good idea.

XOXOXOXOXOXO

To say that Taylor was in a bad mood was an understatement. It was Monday morning and that meant five whole days of school in front of her. It had been a great weekend. She'd gone to the movies with her mom and dad, and the rest of her time had been spent hanging out with Jared and Jason. Jared was actually coming out of his shell, and hidden behind that shy exterior was a wicked sense of humour. Now it was over, and Taylor sulked at the table as she tried to force down her RiceKrispies.

"You're very quiet, should I be worried?" Jethro had been studying his daughter from the opposite side of the table.

She shrugged. "Depends. How mad would you be if I didn't go to school today?" Not that she was going to cut school, but there was nothing wrong with toying with the idea.

He frowned at her. "You already know the answer to that."

Taylor nodded towards the window. "But look how nice it is out there."

"Doesn't matter how nice it is. Trust me, it wouldn't be worth it!"

She pouted. "Don't wanna go! How am I supposed to concentrate when I'm wastin' a whole day stuck in a classroom?" Giving up on her cereal she pushed the bowl away and stood up. "I'm gonna wait in the drive, at least I might get to see Jason for a couple of minutes."

Taylor had almost reached the door when her dad called out a warning.

"You'd better be out there waiting when your mom's ready to leave."

She didn't answer, just closed the door behind her with a little more force than was necessary.

Jason wasn't there so Taylor sat on the front step and worked herself up into an even worse mood. If she had of been allowed to stay at her old school, while her mom taught in the new one, this would have been the perfect day to disappear off the radar with Jason. In fact he was probably gonna do exactly that, only with someone else. That thought only pissed her off more. Out of the corner of her eye she spotted her dad looking through the window, checking to make sure she was still there. Taylor ignored him. I mean, where the hell did her think she could go, dressed like this? It was gonna be one of those days that really sucked.

XOXOXOXOXOXO

She was right. It did suck. What sort of a person asks for a six hundred word essay first thing on a Monday morning? Mr Millar, that's who, although Taylor had thought of plenty of other names to call him after he'd told them what he wanted them to do. She glowered at him as he powered up his computer. He wasn't fooling her, she knew he just wanted to keep them busy while he surfed. Well if he wanted six hundred words, he could have them. Chewing on the top of her pencil Taylor thought about what she could write about. Decision made, she put pencil to paper, and had absolutely no difficulty meeting the length requirement, even managing to finish well before any of the others. Mission accomplished, she spent the rest of the time staring longingly out of the window, wondering what Jason was up to.

Millar stopped Taylor leaving when the lunch bell rang. Letting out a bored sigh she dropped back into her seat again and waited to see what his problem was. He set her essay down on the desk in front of her.

"Do you think that's clever?" He asked.

Taylor shrugged. "What's wrong with it? There's no spelling mistakes and it's long enough."

Lifting the sheet of paper he started to read. " The ceiling light flickered on, off, on, off, on, off, on, off, on, off … Do I need to go on?"

"Well I did like the final 'on, off.' It was very dramatic." She replied sarcastically.

"You can do it properly tonight, and hand it in tomorrow." He told her, not rising to the bait.

There was no way Taylor was going to take that lying down. "Don't think so, there's nothing wrong with it."

"Are you so eager to spend another afternoon in detention?"

Okay, that didn't sound good. Taylor sat up a little straighter, racking her brain for a way out. There was only one she could think of.

"You ever heard of YouTube?" This was a long shot.

"Of course I have. What's that got to do with anything?"

Taylor searched through her bag to find her phone, then quickly scrolled through the photos to find the video of Millar trying to catch the crickets. Making sure she held it out of reach, she hit play. "It would be real easy to post this. Be kinda embarrassing though, for you."

Mr Millar didn't speak for the longest time, and Taylor was beginning to think it hadn't been the smartest move she'd ever made, until he sighed and walked away from her.

"If that's the way you want to play it Miss Gibbs, so be it." He nodded towards the door. "Go have your lunch."

Taylor almost floated out of the classroom, bad mood gone. She couldn't believe that had actually worked, and it meant there was no way she'd be getting any detentions between now and the end of term. Maybe this wasn't going to be such a bad day after all.

When Taylor related what had happened to Jared he was awestruck. It wasn't just that it had worked that impressed him, it was the fact that she had actually had the nerve to even try it. Taylor definitely made school more interesting.

Millar didn't ask Taylor a single question all afternoon, and didn't seem to be the least bit interested she wasn't paying attention. He didn't speak to her until everyone was packing up to leave at the end of the day, when he approached both Taylor and Jared and asked them to stay behind. Taylor was unconcerned , considering her newly discovered invulnerability. Jared on the other hand was worried and as soon as their teacher left the room he bombarded Taylor with questions as he tried to figure out what was going on. The only thing he could think of was their homework scam, but that seemed to have been working well. The first time they'd handed the work in, he had been terrified that Mr Millar would instantly figure out what they were doing, but he hadn't, so they had been using the system for over a week now.

After about twenty minutes Taylor decided she'd wasted enough time. Lifting her bag she made a move towards the door, only to be stopped in her tracks by the sight of five people now filing in through the door. Millar she's expected, but Jared's parents, and her own mom and dad, well that came as a bit of a shock.

Retreating quickly, Taylor sat down beside Jared again, wishing that she'd left ten minutes earlier, and tried not to make eye contact with her parents. As she stared intently at her hands Taylor could hear chairs being pulled out from neighbouring desks, then silence.

Mr Millar spoke first, addressing them both. "Were you two responsible for the prank with the crickets?"

Taylor was shocked into silence, acutely aware that everyone was watching her. That was not one of the questions she had been expecting. She glanced at Jared, who looked as if he was about to start crying, or even worse, own up. Taylor glared at the man and drummed her fingers on the wooden desktop.

When it was obvious neither were going to answer, Patricia tried. "Did you put the crickets into the car Taylor?" Although it was her mom who spoke, it was her dad's eyes she felt, trying to bore through her.

"That was weeks ago!" Taylor was pissed. There was no way they could know for sure what they'd done.

"What difference does that make? I asked you a question, now answer it!" Patricia sounded just as angry as she did.

"I'm not answering any questions until you show me some evidence."

Jethro stood up and took a hold of his daughter's arm, then turned towards Mr Millar. "Would you excuse us for a few minutes?" Not waiting for a reply he escorted Taylor, none too gently out of the room.

As soon as the door closed behind them Taylor tried to pull free, but her dad just ignored her struggles and she soon found herself standing in another classroom.

"Right, I want answers. Honest ones. Crickets, yes or no?"

Taylor was getting scared. Her dad looked beyond furious, but she didn't want to answer that question, or any of the others she knew would follow. Why the hell did he have to stand between her and the door?

"You want to do this the hard way then." Obviously her time was up, and he reached out for her.

She stepped back.

"Yes."

"What about your homework?"

"What about it? I hand it in don't I?"

"You know exactly what I mean!" He ground out.

Now she felt the way Jared did. "Alright. We take turns."

He folded his arms and looked down at her. "I'll need more than that."

"There isn't more. I do it one night, Jared does the next. It's good time management."

"It's cheating!" He growled.

Taylor made a move to go around him to reach the door, but her father put out his hand and stopped her.

"Where do you think you're going?"

"I just answered your questions." Taylor protested. She was feeling trapped now, and was seconds away from total meltdown.

"Do you have any idea just how angry I am with you right now?"

Something snapped in Taylor, and she started to yell. "No. Do you have any idea just how pissed off I am with all these dumb questions right now? Why does everything have to be such a big f****ng deal? Go to school! Wear your uniform! Listen to someone talk about something no one gives a shit about! If that's not bad enough I gotta waste more time when I get home! So if I can find an easy way around it, I'm gonna make sure I f****ng take it. And if you don't like it you can just stick it where the sun don't shine. Now get the f**k out of my way!" Taylor was breathing hard by the time she'd finished, but the red mist wasn't clearing and her father wasn't moving. Not willing to wait any longer she directed all her energy into trying to shove him out of the way. It had absolutely no effect whatsoever. Taylor didn't think anything could make her any madder right now, but that did. She tried again. Still nothing. Out of sheer frustration Taylor drew her foot back and aimed for his shin, but before she had the chance to make contact Taylor found herself lifted into the air by the scruff.