DEFENDING KATE'S OWN

Kate Hotchner - 18
Calleigh Reid - 18
... or there abouts

--

"Damien Nicolao."

Damien looked up from where he sat with his baseball buddies at the slim form of the girl that had called his name. The boys around him wolf whistled, and Damien felt his smirk grow. "Kate Hotchner."

A smirk played at the corner of Kate's mouth. A game was a foot, a game that they'd played since they were children. It was no secret that they hated each other, which made him all the more intrigued to see what this was all about.

"A word?" she asked.

Damien moved immediately falling into step beside her. "To what do I owe the pleasure?"

"Calleigh Reid," Kate replied swiftly, apparently not wanting to beat around the issue.

Ah. So she'd heard. Well, of course she'd heard. The oddity that was the friendship between science geek Calleigh Reid and musical starlet Kate Hotchner was no secret around the school. "What about her?"

Kate turned to him, arms folded across her chest. "Whatever you and your little cronies are planning, it ends here."

"I have no idea what you're talking about," Damien replied, face a mask of innocence.

Kate made an unhappy and disbelieving sound. "Try again, Nicolao. I have ears everywhere, so you know exactly what I'm talking about. Your little bet."

Sometime, Damien swore, he was going to teach his teammates the meaning of discretion. That bed was supposed to be kept quiet specifically for this reason. Everyone knew the best friends were also each other's greatest defenders. He vaguely recalled a fifth grader who tried to bully Kate in third grade suddenly developing chemical burns and holes in his backpack. There was also the kid who reduced Calleigh to tears. Damien had never heard what words were exchanged, but a conversation with Kate put that kid in their place.

The bet was, for one thing, ridiculously high school. And admittedly, embarrassing. He probably should have known better than to anger Kate. Well, he probably should have known better than to agree to the bet and thus, asking Calleigh Reid to the school's Spring Fling – how cliché could the school get – with the intention of never actually meeting up with her. Though, in Damien hadn't known Calleigh would actually agree to the whole thing.

Now, he had a choice. "What's your point, Hotchner?" It was much safer than denial.

"My point is this," Kate began. "While I'm unsurprised that you had the utter... stupidity to go through asking her out, what baffles me is that you picked her based solely on the fact that she can spell words you can barely pronounce."

Damien rolled his eyes. "Right."

An elegant eyebrow arched. "Did you know Calleigh played soccer?"

Damien flat out laughed. "We're talking about the same girl, right?"

Kate rolled her eyes. "Exactly my point. Everyone gets too wrapped up in Calleigh's IQ to realize that she has a life outside of schoolwork."

"This is Calleigh Reid we're talking about. The girl with the highest average in the eastern seaboard."

Kate chewed her lip for a minute. "Not quite. But that's not the point here."

"What is the point then?"

"The point is that if you think I'm going to stand by and watch her get humiliated in front of a class of her peers, you should probably get your head checked. Well, other than because you just need to get your head checked."

"Am I supposed to be afraid of that?" Damien scoffed.

Kate's lips twisted. "I'm just warming up. Let's start with her parents shall we?"

"I'm supposed to be afraid of her parents? You know I have broken a few hearts in my day," Damien replied.

"Right, because sleeping with them and leaving them behind is really considered breaking a few hearts," Kate said with a roll of her eyes. "And I was more talking about their influence in the FBI."

Damien arched an eyebrow. "FBI."

"Yeah. You know, Federal Bureau of Investigation? Both of her parents work there."

"As what? Secretaries? Forensic scientists?" If she was trying to intimidate him, she was doing an absolutely terrible job.

"Special agents, actually. Both of them," Kate replied with a small satisfied smile. She then took a small step closer, lowering her voice. "Her mother is the best shot in the Bureau and has absolutely no qualms about putting a bullet into the heads of those she loves. And I'm not making up stories. She shot a man in the head for my Aunt Penelope."

He had to admit, that was pretty good. "Empty threat," he accused.

Kate shrugged. "Her aunt and uncle could bring the entirety of the FBI down on your head, if they so desired."

Damien found himself swallowing. "Empty threat," he repeated.

Now Kate's eyes glittered. "Calleigh's mom's best friend is a technical analyst for the government because they'd rather have her on their side than against them. Would you like me to detail the havoc she could wreak on you because you humiliated her niece?"

The evil sparkle in her eye told him everything he needed to know. "I think I get it."

Her smile turned triumphant. "I figured you'd see my way of thinking. It's nice to know you'd prefer to live in America than have to move because you've been listed as a sex offender in all fifty states." She started away, then seemed to think better of it and turned back. "I'm not kidding, Nicolao. You either tell her what's going on or you go to the Spring Fling with Cal. Either of those choices is endlessly better than what Aunt Jen's technical analyst could do."

Calleigh Reid looked up as Kate came skipping down the hallway. "What did you do?"

"What do you mean, what did I do?" Kate asked, sliding down the locker between Calleigh and her boyfriend Callum.

"You look much too happy to have just 'done nothing'. I know you Katherine Marie. What have you done?"

Kate exchanged a look with Callum. He'd actually been the one to tell her about the deal and about Calleigh's involvement in it all. "Nothing you'd disapprove of. I was just... Defending my own."

Calleigh snorted in amusement. "The last time you said that nobody talked to me for two weeks."

"Not true," Kate argued feebly, unwilling to give anything else away. What Calleigh didn't know, couldn't hurt her. And her family always asked her to look out for Calleigh. She was absent-minded on a good day, usually so wrapped up in something that little mundane things often slipped her mind. "And what does it matter? They bullies never bothered us."

"Which proves my point. Who did you threaten?" Calleigh asked.

"Is it too much to ask for a little trust?" Kate replied, snuggling into Callum's side. She smiled when he kissed her head.

Calleigh rolled her eyes, but smiled. Kate knew her best friend was glad Callum was around if only because it irritated Kate to no end when they ganged up on her. "You know I trust you with everything in me and I always have, that doesn't mean it always works in my favour when you, as you so charmingly put it 'defend your own'."

Kate's smile was affectionately evil. "Trust me, Cal. This time, it could only work out in your favour."