Whoohoo! Chapter six is up! Yeah, I'm kinda doing a mass update today. I hope you guys don't mind...

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Chapter Six: Blackmailing the Blackmailer

James' POV (Cont.)

I was still wondering what I had gotten myself into when I stepped into the gymnasium, side by side with Carlos, the next morning. So far it had been a very quiet, albeit stormy, morning. I was really hoping that the sudden onslaught of rain wasn't an omen for what was going to go down in the library in a few hours.

When I had casually mentioned to the guys the day before during hockey practice that I was going to tutor Katie, Kendall had slammed his hockey stick at the puck and missed, Logan had run into the railing, Carlos had toppled over, Dak had shook his head, checking for ice that might have gotten in his ear, and Shane, who had also managed to fall, began banging his head against the ice.

Their reactions weren't exactly positive.

"I'm sure Katie will be fine," Carlos said, sounding more nervous than what his words would have led me to believe. "After all, you're tutoring her, and she knows she needs to behave."

"Let's hope so…"

A moment later, Katie and Stephanie came out of the girls' locker room. Katie nodded at me, and then the girls headed over to their usual corner.

PE went by very uneventfully, and Carlos and I headed to Chem. without having to stop by the nurses' office first.

I hung out with Carlos and Kendall until class began, and then I joined Katie at our table.

"Have anything you want to say?" she asked me.

"No…"

"How about thank you so much for not pelting me with volleyballs?"

"Why would I thank you for that? It's not something you should be doing anyway."

"Well, it would have been nice to know that you appreciated the gesture."

I gave her a dirty look. "So, you want me to thank you for not bruising me, when I'm going to be tutoring you?"

She nodded. "Exactly. You're finally getting it."

"Yeah, I'm not tutoring you."

"Dude! We haven't even started! You can't back out now!" she protested.

"I have no reason to help you! You're a bitch."

"You already knew this when you agreed," she pointed out. "Besides, you're getting something out of it too."

"I don't care. I'm not doing this. It's not worth having to deal with you for a whole extra hour every day."

She remained quiet throughout the rest of class, but as we began to pack up, she pulled me aside. "You said it wasn't worth having to deal with me. Is it worth your brother's reputation?"

I blinked at her. "What're you talking about?"

"Your brother. Shane. He was staring at Kyle and blushing."

I swallowed hard. "You don't know what you're talking about."

"Maybe not, but do you really want to risk it? What if I accidentally let something slip to the wrong person? Shane's entire reputation could be ruined."

I shoved her aside. "You fucking bitch." I headed towards the cafeteria, but she followed me, running to keep up with me.

"You want this thing about your brother kept quiet? You tutor me."

"Do you even have a heart? Or do you keep alive feeding off everyone else's misery?"

She gave me a charming smile. "Wouldn't you like to know?"

"I'm not tutoring you."

"Not even for your little brother? Wow. What a caring big brother."

"You're a bully. I don't like bullies, and I don't give in to their demands."

"Too bad. You're getting more than enough out of this, so I don't think you can go around screaming about your dignity and how much you're suffering. Tutor me, James. I need your help and Shane's reputation is on the line. Do it, and no one will ever know."

"You don't know anything about his sexuality," I snarled. "You're only assuming based on circumstantial evidence."

"That's what a rumor is, and I'm the queen of them."

I swallowed again. She had me trapped, and judging by the little smirk playing around her lips, she knew it.

"Fine. I'll tutor you."

"Thank you!" she chirped.

"Uh huh, sure. I'm pretty sure I just sold my soul to the devil."

She grinned. "Not quite. But I do only survive in very hot places. And I look amazing in red."

"That's what I thought. I'll meet you in an hour in study hall." I headed into the cafeteria, grabbed my food, and sat down with the guys.

"Don't talk to me," I told them. "I'm already about ready to kill Katie."

"That bad already?" Logan said to me. "How're you two going to survive?"

"Not easily." I dug into my food, glowering at my plate. Once I had finished, I got to my feet and threw my trash away, before heading out of the cafeteria. It was very tempting to just skip study hall, but I knew that that would just be a temporary solution. I needed to figure out how to solve this problem permanently.

I walked into an empty classroom and closed the door, sitting down on a desk, biting my lip. Katie was a brat. And me tutoring her hadn't even phased her bratty-ness. She hadn't even thought twice about behaving herself, or trying to be nice. And why? Because she knew she didn't need to. She had something on me, and whether or not it was true she didn't really care. She could ruin my brother by simply pulling out her phone and texting someone. She had the power and I didn't like that. I needed to figure out a way to get the upper hand in this arrangement.

The first idea that came into my mind was that I could dig up something damaging on her. After all, didn't we all have our dirty little secrets, whether they were ours or our families'? But the fact was, I was too nice for my own good. I could never release one of her secrets, or make something up about her. It was against my very nature. And I was betting that she knew it.

I sighed and ran my fingers through my hair. How the hell was I supposed to get the upper hand in this battle? I needed to ensure that she would actually start being nice to the hockey players, and that she wouldn't tell everyone that Shane was gay. I think that was the part that pissed me off the most. She didn't even know for sure, but she was still willing to tell the entire school about him. How would she like it if someone told the entire school about her failing grade in English – wait.

I smirked slightly. Okay, so it might be a little hard for me to tell people that she was failing English, and it wasn't even that big of a deal. But I was betting that she wouldn't want that news spread around. Plus, my friends knew, and one of them could 'slip up'.

It wasn't much, but it was a start, and it might just scare her into straightening up her attitude for a day or two.

With that thought, I slid off the desk and left the classroom.

I headed to the library and plopped down at the table I had been at yesterday. I pulled out my English textbook and notebook, and waited for Katie to show up.

She did, five minutes later. She sat down next to me, swinging her long hair out of her face.

"Let's get one thing straight," I said to her. "You're going to be nice and polite to me, because if you don't, the entire school's going to know that you're failing English. I'm sure you wouldn't want that information to get out, now would you?"

She blinked at me, and then started laughing. "Are you seriously trying to blackmail me?"

"I'm not trying; I am."

She patted my cheek. "You'll never go through with it."

"Maybe I won't, but Kendall, Logan, and Carlos all know about it. All it's going to take is us talking about it in front of the wrong person, and the entire school's going to know. Oh, and that will also happen if you say anything about Shane."

"You're blackmailing me with my English grade?"

"For the time being."

"Oh?"

I nodded. "At least until I can dig up something better on you."

"Are you serious?" she gaped at me. "But you're friends with Kendall."

"So? You two barely talk. And once he knows you were going to ruin my brother's reputation, he'll understand."

She took a deep breath, but her eyes darkened with anger. "You know what? Fuck you. I don't need your help. I'll do it on my own."

I watched in astonishment as she got to her feet and heaved her messenger bag over her shoulder. "I will ruin your life if my grades get out. Stay the fuck away from me." And she stormed out of the library.

I sat at the table in complete shock. What the hell had just happened?!

I exhaled deeply. I guess the blackmailer couldn't handle being the blackmailee…

I finally stood up and gathered everything together. I hid out in the boys' bathroom for the rest of that period.

Katie's POV

The second I was out of the library, I broke into a run, dashing through the hall and outside, racing towards the ice skating rink. I pushed into the lobby and ran to the girls' locker room. The second the door closed behind me, I sank down to the floor, sobbing.

Fine. I admit it. I'm a bitch. I'm a bully. I'm a conniving, manipulative little brat. But I had never thought that James Diamond of all people would ever even attempt to challenge me at my own game. And I certainly never thought that he'd be able to use my brother against me, or that he'd be willing to. He definitely wasn't the innocent little hick from Minnesota that everyone else seemed to think he was. I had no idea what he was, but there was definitely a lot more to him that what I had originally thought.

"Katie?"

I looked up as the locker room door opened and Kyle walked into the room.

He quickly closed the door and sat down next to me. "What happened?"

"N-n-nothing," I sobbed out.

He wrapped his arms around me. "Then why are you crying? Weren't you supposed to be meeting with James Diamond?"

I silently nodded.

"Come on, Katie, tell me what happened."

I leaned into him. "I don't wanna."

He sighed. "So, your cat and mouse game finally backfired on you, huh?"

"Something like that…I was blackmailing him into tutoring me, and now he's blackmailing me right back. And he's gonna use Kendall against me."

"Katie…" he sighed. "I told you one of these times there would be someone who would beat you at your own game. You brought this on yourself."

"I'm crying and you're telling me that this is my fault?!"

"Yes. And I'm sorry if that makes me a bad best friend, I really am, but we both know that it's the truth. Look, I don't know what you're blackmailing James with, but if he's bringing Kendall into this, then it must have been something pretty bad."

I sighed. "Yeah…It kind of is…"

"So, he's not going to be tutoring you?"

I shook my head. "I ran out on him."

"Katie, if you want to ice skate again, you're going to need his help. What does he want?"

"He wants me to be nice to him. Can you believe that? He doesn't deserve – "

Kyle shook me slightly. "What is it with you and thinking that people deserve you being nice to them? I've seen him in the halls, and I've heard him talking to his friends. He seems like a really nice guy. You can't just push around anyone you want, Katie. Now, you need to go and find him and tell him that you're willing to go ahead with the tutoring sessions and that you'll be nice."

"But – "

"You need to do it. He was nice enough to agree to tutor you, to take an hour out of his own life to help you with yours. You should be grateful, especially considering your little stunt in PE a couple of weeks ago. You've done nothing but treat him like crap from day one. Now you need to try to make it right."

"He's a hockey player – "

"So, what? He's our mortal enemy?"

"Yes."

"No. No, he isn't."

"Yes he – "

"No. Katie, I'm a gay figure skater. Believe me, I know who my enemies are, because I've got a lot of them. And no one on the hockey team is my enemy."

"But they're mine."

"And they're yours because you've made them yours. The same goes for Jo, Stephanie, and Jett. They can complain all they want about how rotten the hockey players are to them, but they're even worse. Camille and I don't have any problems with the hockey team because we don't make them. And you can't afford to have James as an enemy. So go and make sure that he doesn't become one."

"I really hate you," I informed him.

"Yeah, I know, but you also love me." He helped me to my feet, and I grabbed a paper towel. I wiped my face and blew my nose, before tossing it in the trash. I walked over to the sink and brushed my hair and reapplied my makeup.

"How do I look?" I asked him once I had finished.

"Beautiful like always. Now go and charm the pants off of him."

"Figuratively or literally?" I smirked.

"You know you want to literally."

"Okay, really? It was a joke."

"It's not a joke if you actually mean it."

"I don't mean it…"

"Yes you do. That red in your cheeks? Yeah, that's not from makeup."

"Screw you."

"Sorry, you have boobs, so you're not my type."

"Barely," I mumbled, looking down at my chest with distaste.

"You had them two weeks ago…"

"Yeah, well, Sarah made me lose five pounds. I'm back to an A cup." I sighed.

"At least you're petite," he pointed out. "So it doesn't look so small on you…"

"Kyle, I barely have any chest. I'm an A 32! Do you know what they say A stands for?"

"A plus…?" he tried hopefully.

"No! Almost there! That's all I am! Almost!"

"What's B…?"

"Barely there."

"Well, it doesn't count because you're only about five foot one on a good day," Kyle said with false cheerfulness.

I groaned and leaned against the wall. "I look like a boy. I'm a sixteen year old girl and I have the body of a boy."

"No you don't. Wait – are you PMSing?"

"I don't know. Maybe."

He sighed.

"What?"

"You know what. Check your calendar."

"It's at my house."

He face-palmed. "Katie? Do you have your phone with you?"

"What? Oh…"

"Yeah…"

"My bad…"

"No kidding…"

I pulled my phone out of my skirt pocket and checked my calendar. Yep, my period was due to start on Saturday.

"Do you have Midol with you?"

"In my locker in here." I walked over to it, unlocked it, and pulled out the bottle. I found a bottle of water in my bag, and took a couple of pills.

"You get so freaking moody and emotional when you're PMSing," Kyle sighed. "I should have known right away."

"It's not your job to keep track of my cycle. That's mine."

"And you suck at it," he teased.

I stuck my tongue out at him, just as the bell rang.

"Come on, let's go," he said, and we hurried out of the locker room.

"How did you even find me?" I asked him.

"I just finished up my routine when I saw you run by the rink." He gestured to his practice outfit, which I hadn't even noticed he was wearing because I was so used to seeing him in it.

"Oh, I'm sorry. You didn't have to leave the rink – "

"You're my best friend and you looked upset. Of course I was going to go after you."

I smiled at him and hugged him tightly. "Thank you."

"You're welcome."

We pulled back, and hurried to our different classes. I slid into my seat in English just as the late bell rang.

Mrs. Wattburgon began the lecture, and I made sure to take very clear and precise notes. By the end of the class, my hand was cramping so hard I thought I might have done some vital damage to it.

As everyone else packed up, I walked over to James. "Look…I'm sorry."

He blinked at me. "I don't think I heard you right. I could have sworn you just apologized to me."

"I did."

"Why?"

"Because…because I was out of line earlier. I'm sorry. I'm used to being able to push everyone around and I always get my way, and when I didn't, I kind of freaked out. Can we try again tomorrow?"

He sighed and leaned against his desk, his bangs falling into his eyes. "Will you be nice?"

I nodded. "I'll try."

"Okay. Tomorrow after lunch."

"Sounds good." I headed back to my desk and gathered everything up. I really needed something salty and sour…This being nice crap had left a bad taste in my mouth.

After school, I drove home. Dad wouldn't be home until at least eight that night, so I had the house to myself for awhile. I got the rest of my homework done, and then walked down to the kitchen to make myself some dinner. Just as I was about to pull out a can of Clam Chowder, my phone beeped with a new text. I checked it and saw that it was Sarah's annual evening reminder: Every pound shows in a skating leotard. Stick to salad and broth. I don't want you to be over 95 pounds when you return to skating. –S.

I sighed and resisted the urge to text her back Screw you. It was tempting, but I didn't want to piss her off. So I made myself a large cup of chicken broth and a salad, and dumped a tablespoon of Caesar dressing over the salad. I plopped down in front of the TV with my food and ate while watching Gossip Girl.

I spent the next morning mentally preparing myself to be sweet as sugar to the hockey head. How he had managed to be top of our English class was beyond me…I was betting that he was a complete idiot otherwise. Okay, fine. So he didn't do too badly in Chem. But that was sheer luck. We'd gotten an easy chemistry class.

I behaved myself in PE and Chem. lab, and didn't say anything snarky to him in the cafeteria at lunch time. By the time study hall rolled around, I felt like I should be sucking on a lollipop and skipping down a rainbow paved street.

It was not a good feeling.

James was waiting for me in the library. He had our English textbook out, along with his notes and something that looked like the test from last week. It had a big red A+ on it.

Show off.

He looked up at me as I approached. "Ready?"

"Yeah." I sat down opposite him, trying not to grit my teeth. I swear, even his clothes hung perfectly on him. No, no, that wasn't it. There wasn't room for them to hang. His body was all muscle. Wonderfully delicious muscle…

Oh crap. And now he had my hormones going. If I ended up giving him a lap dance, it was not my fault! It was his fault, for using his gym membership to the fullest extent.

I took a deep breath. "So, what are we working on?"

"Allegories."

"Great. Definition please?"

"It's basically symbolism."

"Awesome. What's symbolism?"

I got the weirdest feeling he was about ready to start banging his head against the table.

"Symbolism is basically just that – symbols and their meanings. It's like – like – like rain signifying being sad."

"So, when it's raining, that means the world's sad?"

He face-palmed.

It took him an entire hour of explanations before I finally understood what symbolism and allegories were.

"We'll work on your assignments and stuff tomorrow," James told me as we began packing up. "That'll be the best way for you to really understand what it is we've been doing."

I sighed. I hated repeating assignments. Doing homework once was bad enough. Doing it a second time should have been punishable by law. "Okay."

He nodded. "Come on, let's go to English."

Going to English was the last thing I wanted to do. My head was swimming with all the information I had just soaked up. All I wanted to do now was to get out onto the ice and skate. I hadn't skated since Friday, and I was craving it.

Nevertheless, I walked to English class with James. I plopped down in my usual chair and gave Mrs. Wattburger the evil eye. Per usual, she ignored me and went on with the lesson.

Class finally ended, and I couldn't wait to get out of there. Anything to get away from the Wattburger and the Diamond in the Rough.

James' POV

I continued to tutor Katie through Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. After Tuesday's study session, she seemed to get the basic gist of allegories and symbolism, although she was still struggling during our tutoring session on Friday afternoon. And yeah, I'll admit, I wasn't as attentive as I should have been. In just a few hours the hockey game would be over and we'd know the outcome. But until then…

I was beyond nervous. I wanted to show the ice skating snobs what they could do with their figure skates, and I wanted to prove that the hockey team was amazing, fantastic, wonderful, and on top of the world.

And I couldn't do that if we lost.

At last, Katie spoke: "Are you okay? You've been really quiet and not half as annoying as you were yesterday. Either I'm getting used to you, or something's wrong. And I don't think it's the former."

She always knows how to make me feel better.

"Just nervous about the game tonight," I mumbled out as I checked over the assignment she'd been working on.

"Oh. Well, don't worry about it. My brother's the captain, and as much as I hate to admit it, he's pretty good at hockey. But don't tell him I said that. I don't want to ruin our relationship."

I smiled a little. "Your secret's safe with me."

"Good. Now, how many questions did I get wrong this time?"

By seven-o-clock, the ice rink was packed with people. My stomach was churning like crazy, and I felt like I might end up throwing up my dinner at any second. Gearing up felt like it took all of five seconds, and then Coach Billings was coming into the locker room and giving us a pep talk. The next thing I knew, we were skating out onto the ice.

The game was a total blur, a colorful rush of nets, hockey sticks, and goals. Exactly what I loved the most about it. It was an adrenaline rush, a power trip. All I could focus on was the game, and getting the puck to the other team's net.

And then…

The buzzer sounded, and I heard the scores: La Castillo High won by three points. Yes! Yes!

Once we did our victory lap, we headed back to the locker room.

Kendall grinned at us. "Good game, team."

We all grinned back and high-fived each other.

Once Shane and I had changed, we walked out of the locker room, to where Mom was waiting for us. She squealed and hugged us both. "You two were amazing out there! I'm so proud of you guys!"

"Yeah, you two did a good job."

We all looked around to find Katie walking towards us. She was dressed casual for once, in sparkly jeans that looked like she might have bought them in the kids' section of a clothing store, and a thick hoodie and sneakers.

"You came?" Shane asked, surprised.

"Duh. I had to see my hockey-head brother play and make sure that my English tutor didn't get a concussion."

Mom's eyes widened when she realized who Katie was. Immediately she straightened up and smiled brightly at her. "Hi! You must be Katie Knight! I've heard so much about you! I'm Brooke Diamond, James' and Shane's mom."

I mentally groaned. Did she have to bring up the fact that I'd mentioned Katie a few times? Really?

Katie actually smiled back. "Nice to meet you. Anyway," she turned to me, "see you on Monday." And with that, she headed off to find Kendall.

Mom turned to me. "She's pretty."

I groaned out loud this time. "Can we go?"

"Well, she is."

"I know!"

Mom chuckled as we headed out to the car. "I can't wait to see what happens with you two."

Sorry if the ending was a little rushed or if this chapter was a little bumpy or uneven. Hopefully it was okay and you guys liked it! So...do a favor for the review button and let me know what you think? :)