Here's Chapter Seven! Whoo hoo!

Disclaimer: After what I constantly put James and Katie through, I wouldn't be allowed to own Big Time Rush, even if I could afford it. So nope, I do not own Big Time Rush.

Guest: Hopefully this makes up for that! Thank you for reviewing!

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Enjoy the chapter!

Chapter Seven: Let the Games Begin

James' POV

As we left the school, Mom grinned at me. I mentally groaned. Here we go...

"Katie's very pretty, isn't she?"

Shane smirked. "Doesn't she look good in red, James?" he asked, referring to the color of her shirt.

"Shut up," I groaned. "I'm not talking about this."

"So, you admit it. You think she looks good in red."

"I think I'm gonna duct tape your mouth shut if you don't shut up about Katie."

Shane grinned widely. "Bring it!" and with that, he took off across the parking lot.

I ran after him, and quickly caught up with him. I leapt onto his back and sent us tumbling down in the middle of the parking lot.

"Boys!" I heard Mom screech, but Shane and I ignored her – we were too busy rolling around on the ground and laughing our heads off.

"So, where's the duct tape?" Shane grinned at me as I got him pinned to the ground.

"In my backpack."

"I'm waiting."

"James! Get off your little brother!" Mom cried as she reached us, three inch heeled boots clacking against the pavement.

I pouted. "Aww. Do I have to?"

"Yes!" She hauled me up, and Shane got to his feet, still laughing. We brushed our clothes off, and headed to the car. "So, I was thinking about taking you guys home so that you could get a real shower, and then driving us to a restaurant," Mom told Shane and me.

We both grinned. "Sounds good!" I chirped.

Once the car was in park, Shane and I leapt out and hurried into the house to take quick showers and change clothes.

As soon as we were ready, we were back in the car. Mom drove us to a hamburger place that was set up like the old diners from the '50s.

We sat in a red leather booth, waiting for our menus to be brought out.

"You two did amazing tonight!" Mom said to us enthusiastically. "I'm so proud of you two! You were incredible!"

We both beamed.

"Thank you!" we chimed together.

We were almost done with our food when my phone buzzed in my jeans pocket. I pulled it out and checked it. It was a text from Katie: Nice job, loser. I was almost proud of you.

Wow. From Katie, that was like a declaration of love.

"You look happy," Shane observed.

My head snapped up. "What? I do not."

"Yes you do. You've got this huge, dopey smile spreading across your face."

I blushed. "I do not!"

"You do! Katie texted you, didn't she?"

I scowled. "None of your business!"

"Hah! She did!" He snatched my phone from me and read the text. "Nice job, loser. I was almost proud of you. Hey, James, I think she's warming up to you!"

I grabbed my phone back from him. "Shut it."

Mom chuckled. "She's high maintenance, isn't she?"

Shane grinned widely and held his thumb and index finger apart a couple of centimeters. "Just a little bit."

"Hmmph." I stuffed my phone back into my pocket and grabbed a couple of fries.

After the excitement of Friday night, the rest of the weekend was relatively quiet. I did my homework, watched TV, and chatted with Carlos a little bit on Facebook on Sunday afternoon.

On Monday morning, Shane and I walked into the school together. People congratulated us on our victory from Friday evening, and quite a few girls tried to chat with us. Shane politely brushed them off, but I stuck around to flirt with them.

It was particularly fun when Katie was nearby. She tended to get this cute little glare on her face, and she'd shoot nasty looks at the girl and me. She never mentioned these little incidents in any of our classes together, or during our tutoring session, but I could tell that it made her grind her teeth. I liked the idea that seeing me flirt with another girl could do that to her.

"I don't know why you're so surprised," Logan said to me that day during lunch. Kendall and Carlos were running late, since they had managed to spill their lab experiment in Chem. lab and Ms. Straumner was making them clean up the mess. Shane would be there any moment, but he had been held up as well.

"What do you mean?" I looked up at him from my beef stroganoff.

"About Katie getting pissed over you flirting with other girls. It's not exactly a secret that you two want to jump each other."

I gaped at him, completely dumbstruck. "What – you – I – what?"

"You want to jump Katie. She wants to jump you. Didn't I say that in plain English before?"

"But – I mean – huh?" I looked at him helplessly.

"You want to have sex with each other!" he cried, causing several people within a ten foot range to turn and stare at us.

"Mind your own business," he snapped at them, before looking back at me. "You and Katie are fiercely attracted to each other. You have been since day one. You love aggravating each other, because it gets your blood pumping."

"It's an adrenaline rush," I agreed.

"Exactly. You two love it! And the fact that you're a hockey player and she's a figure skater just adds to it, because hockey players and figure skaters do not date, and they certainly don't sleep together."

"So, what am I supposed to do about this?"

"Nothing." He bit into his apple.

I blinked at him. "You just told me that Katie and I want to sleep together, and now you're telling me we don't do anything about it?"

"Yep."

"I'm done talking to you."

"Okay. Oh, and whatever you do, don't look over at Katie's table."

I looked over at Katie's table.

"I hate you," I informed him as my eyes bugged out slightly. She was eating frozen vanilla yogurt, topped with cherries and strawberries. Even from where I was sitting, I could see the way she was wrapping her lips and tongue around her spoon, trying to get all of the yogurt off. It was probably a pretty innocent move…

…Or it would have been, if she didn't keep cutting her eyes to me. When she realized I was watching her, she smirked around her spoon, and made a twisting motion with her tongue, like she was wrapping it around something that wasn't her spoon…

I let out a tiny whimper. Oh my God…

She pulled the spoon out of her mouth, and instead dipped her finger into her yogurt and placed it in her mouth, sucking it all off.

I whined quietly. Why was she doing this to me? Why?!

"Ummm…dude?" Carlos' voice jolted me out of my Katie-induced trance. "Why're you squishing your sandwich?"

I blinked and managed to look away from Katie. I glanced down and winced. Sure enough, my sandwich was being squashed into a ball in my hand.

Logan snickered. "I told you not to look."

"Shut up."

"What wasn't he supposed to look at?" Kendall wanted to know as he sat down with us.

"Your sister was doing stuff to her spoon," Logan informed him.

"Such as?"

"Mimicking a blow job."

He dry choked.

"Who was mimicking a blow job?" Shane asked as he joined us, sitting down next to me.

"Katie," Logan answered. "She was doing things to her spoon."

"And then she started sucking on her finger," I moaned.

Shane snickered. "Sucks to be you."

I glared at him.

"Well, we know what he'll be jacking off to tonight," Carlos piped up.

My face turned bright red, and Kendall clapped his hands over his ears. "Not in front of me! I'M NOT LISTENING TO THIS!"

"How am I supposed to face her now?" I asked them.

"Well, you faced her just fine after he practically groped you," Shane pointed out. "Just act like it didn't happen."

"I guess…"

He nodded. "She probably won't even bring it up."

"I hope not."

"And if she does…well…just take her to a supply closet and have your wicked way with her," he grinned.

"Shane!" I hissed. "Not – we can't – not in school!"

"So, outside of school?"

"No!"

"But she's trying to tempt you."

"Or she's trying to humiliate me."

The others shrugged. "You never know with Katie," Logan admitted. "But that's a bold move. Seems to me like she might be trying to get you back for flirting with those other girls."

I blinked at him.

"Come on, you pissed her off. Did you really think she wouldn't try to get some kind of revenge on you?"

"I hadn't really thought about it," I reluctantly admitted.

"Well, you better be prepared. I doubt this is the end of it. You're in trouble."

"I'm always in trouble when it comes to Katie. That much hasn't changed."

He shrugged. "Well, lots of luck. You're going to need it."

"Really? I hadn't noticed."

Logan just shrugged and took a sip of his apple juice.

When the bell rang, I dredged off to the library to meet up with Katie. I beat here there, so I set up our study area.

She showed up a couple minutes later. "So, in the mood for frozen vanilla yogurt now?" she smirked at me as she dropped into the chair across from me.

Shane had been so wrong.

"I don't know what you're talking about," I retorted.

"Really?" she licked her lips, sliding the tip of her tongue slowly and tantalizingly over them. "Well, damn."

I shifted uncomfortably in my chair. "Come on, we need to work on analyzing this Emily Dickinson poem."

"Fine." She scooted over to me and we began to go through it.

About halfway through, she looked at me. "Is Shane gay?"

I pulled back, startled. "What?"

"Is Shane gay?" she repeated.

"Why?"

She shrugged. "Just wondering."

"Well, it's none of your business if he is or not."

She sighed. "Look, I have a friend who's gay, and I think he and Shane would be a cute couple."

I stared at her. Was she serious?!

"It'd be good for both of them," she added. "If Shane is gay, I mean. And judging from your reaction, I'd say he is."

"I'm not saying either way," I replied. Shane and I had long since agreed that neither of us would lie if we were asked about his sexual orientation, but that didn't mean I had to say outright that he was gay. I didn't have a problem with it, but a lot of people did, and I didn't want to put him in an uncomfortable position.

Katie scooted her chair back and crossed her legs. "Come on, James, let me set him up with my friend."

I shook my head. "Sorry, but it's not happening."

"I'll push you until you give in."

"I know."

She reached over and ran her finger over my neck. "Please?"

"No," I said firmly, and moved away from her.

Her eyes narrowed, and I knew in that moment that she was going to push me over the edge.

She didn't do anything else for the rest of the day, and I could only hope that she had simply forgotten about her threat.

Tuesday morning did not start out all that well. Katie had once more invaded my dreams…using her tongue the way she had used it on the spoon, only there weren't any eating utensils in sight…

Mom raised her eyebrows as I handed her my sheets, my face bright red.

"Katie?" she asked.

"I don't want to talk about it."

Shane smirked at me as he walked out of the bathroom, towel drying his hair. "So, what was she doing in your dream?"

"Shut up."

"Did she blow you?"

"You don't listen." I pushed past him into the bathroom.

"She did, didn't she?"

"I'm not talking to you about this."

"If you can't talk to your brother, than who can you talk to?"

"God!" I answered, and then slammed the door shut and locked it.

I brushed my teeth, washed my face, and took a quick shower, before heading back to my room. As I pulled on a fresh pair of boxers, my phone vibrated. I grabbed it to check the text, and immediately wished I hadn't – it was from Katie: Did you dream about me last night? About how talented my lips and tongue are? ;)

I groaned. Why oh why did she have to do this to me?! It wasn't fair! I was trying to protect Shane. If her friend was gay, then wouldn't she understand that?

She's selfish, I reminded myself. She doesn't think about anyone but herself. She doesn't see anything outside of her own little world.

Scowling, I finished getting dressed and headed downstairs.

"Shane was just telling me about a boy at your school," Mom told me as I sat down. "His name's Kyle?"

I nodded. "He's an ice skater. He seems to be pretty nice."

"Is he gay?"

I paused, as something fell into place. Katie had said her friend was gay…Kyle was her friend…And he didn't exactly seem to hate Shane if you get my drift…

"I – I don't know…"

"Oh. Well, Shane's interested in him."

"Mo-om!" Shane whined. "I just said he's cute and maybe gay! I didn't say I'm interested in him!"

"Maybe you should try to go out with him," I suggested as I took a bite of cereal. If Shane went out with Kyle, than that would get Katie off my back. Maybe things could be solved really, really easily, and Katie wouldn't send me anymore teasing texts.

Shane snorted. "Yeah, right. I don't want a boyfriend. I mean, I do, but…not yet. I don't want to go through what I went through in Shakopee," he added quietly. "I'm just not ready."

I nodded, stomach sinking. He was right. Once he started dating, the atmosphere would go from non-threatening to aggressive in ten seconds flat. I couldn't do that to him. I just couldn't. I would just have to take whatever crap Katie threw my way. But I wasn't going to put my little brother in danger.

Once Shane and I finished eating, we headed off to school.

"So, Halloween's coming up," Shane grinned.

"Yeah, in, like, a half week," I said.

"They have a Halloween/homecoming dance on Saturday. Think you'll go?"

I snorted. "I doubt it. I don't have anyone to go with."

"You have the guys. Ohhh…you were thinking of – "

"Do not say her name."

"Say whose name?" chirped a female voice from behind us. "My name?"

Crap. Crapcrapcrapcrapcrap.

Shane and I both turned around to find ourselves facing Katie. She gave us a stunning smile, before switching to a pout.

"You never texted me back," she whined to me.

"Because it was none of your business what I dreamed about last night."

"You've gotta give a girl something. It's not like hot guys are falling from the ceiling around here."

There was a pause where Shane and I both looked up at the ceiling.

Yeah, okay, no hot guys.

Katie shook her head. "Are you two going to the dance?" she asked us.

"Well, Mr. Life-Of-The-Party isn't," Shane answered her with a pointed look at me. "But I'm going to try to go."

"Are you going with anyone?"

He shook his head.

"Well, would you like to go with someone?"

He blinked. "Ummm…"

"Not me! Gross. Like I would lower myself to date a hockey head." She made a disgusted face.

"Yeah, because hockey players are so last season," I exaggeratedly rolled my eyes.

She ignored me. "But I do have a friend who would love to go with you."

Shane shook his head again. "Sorry, Katie, I've gotta say no to this one. I'd rather just go with my friends. But thanks for thinking of me." He patted her arm and then headed off to his locker.

Katie turned to face me, looking slightly affronted. "I don't believe it. He's just as stubborn as you!"

I smirked and walked towards my locker. "It runs in the family."

"I got told no by two hockey heads!"

"Honestly, what is this world coming to?" I reached my locker and opened it. She joined me about a half second later.

"He'll listen to you."

"About what?" I pulled what I needed to out of my locker.

"About going to the dance."

"I doubt it."

"Please. You're his big brother. He worships the ground you walk on."

I snorted.

"He does! I can see it in the way he looks at you. He looks up to you. So he'll listen to you."

"I'm not going to tell him to go to the dance with whoever your friend is. There are reasons why he doesn't want a date."

"And what're those reasons?" she cocked her hip.

"I'm not at liberty to tell you. It's his business. If he wants you to know, he'll share it with you."

She stomped her foot. "You Diamond boys are so damn frustrating!"

I winked at her. "And we get worse once you get to know us."

"I'm not finished with you," she snarled.

"I never thought you were."

She gave me a smirk, before walking by me, and jutting her hip right into my zipper. She rolled it slightly, before sauntering off, throwing me a wink over her shoulder.

I let out a small whimper. Oh man…I looked up at the ceiling. "God? I think I could really use your help right about now…"

He must have had a lot of pleas for help that day, because he didn't get around to answering my request. Or else he thought that dealing with Katie would make me a better, stronger person. I preferred the latter.

Whatever his reasons were, he didn't intervene when it came to her. And believe me, Katie made sure to tease me as often as she could. During PE, she'd sashay by me, wearing the smallest pair of shorts and lowest cut shirt she could get away with. In Chemistry, she made sure to touch me every couple of minutes. At lunch, she once more had frozen vanilla yogurt with strawberries and cherries. I watched, completely transfixed, as she once more wrapped her tongue around her spoon, licking off every drop of the yogurt, and then set it down, before proceeding to pop a strawberry into her mouth. Once she had swallowed that, she wrapped her lips around a cherry, eyes locking with mine, and slowly pulled it off the stem.

I stuffed my fist into my mouth to keep from whimpering.

"Dude," Logan said to me. "Just to let you know, if you get caught jacking off in the bathroom, you'll get suspended."

I groaned.

"Why is she doing this to you?" Carlos asked. "I mean, the way she's teasing you…Is it just that she's trying to get a rise out of you – wait – I didn't mean – "

Kendall covered his hands with his ears. "LA LA LA! I'm not listening to you talk about this!"

"I know what you meant," I assured Carlos. "And…it's complicated."

"Why is it complicated?"

I sighed. "It just is. I wish it wasn't, but it is."

"Does it involve someone else? Does she want you to do something?"

I reluctantly nodded. "Yes and yes."

Shane looked at me. "What is it?"

Kendall cautiously removed his hands from his ears. "Is it safe?"

Logan nodded. "It's safe."

I shook my head, addressing Shane's question. "It's not important. I'll deal with it on my own."

"But – she's going out of her way to turn you on…"

"Or not…" Logan corrected himself.

"And I'll deal with it. This can't last forever, right?" I said to Shane.

"I – I guess not – "

"Maybe she just wants you to ask her out," Carlos suggested. "Take her to the dance! I bet she'd love that."

I snorted. "She wouldn't go out with a hockey player."

Kendall nodded in agreement. "She wouldn't. It's one of her rules. She doesn't date hockey heads."

"Does she even date?" Logan asked.

"Nope. Mainly because of her bitch coach, Sarah. She won't let Katie even look at a boy most of the time. When Sarah finds out about whatever's going on between you and Katie," Kendall addressed me, "some serious shit is going to go down."

"I can believe it."

Tutoring Katie went as well as could be expected. We had a chapter test coming up on Friday, and Katie was determined to pass it. This, thankfully, meant that she was more focused on studying the Nathaniel Hawthorne short story that was last night's homework than teasing me and trying to get a rise out of me.

It made a nice change of pace.

She teased me through Wednesday and Thursday. It was the same routine. She'd walk by me and nudge her hip into my zipper. Let her fingers brush over my chest. Stuff like that. Always just enough for me to feel myself begin to react, but she never pushed past that.

She also continued to haunt my dreams every night. Every dream was a little different, but they all elicited the same effect from me.

"Sweetie," Mom said to me on Thursday morning, "I know you can't help these dreams, but…Have you tried something else?"

"Like what?" I looked at her as I pushed my Cocoa-Puffs around in my cereal bowl. "Yoga?"

She shook her head. "Masturbating."

Beside me, Shane choked on his Cap'n Crunch.

My face reddened. I had…every night…and it didn't do any good…

Mom sighed, taking my burning face as a yes. "Damn hormones, right?" she gave me a weak smile.

I nodded, looking back down at my cereal.

She reached over and took my hand. "Whatever this girl's doing to you, give it back to her."

"What makes you think she's doing something?"

Shane suddenly stood up. "I'll wait in the car."

"You told her, didn't you?" I glared at him. "You told her!"

"I had to! She asked me if I knew why you were having so many…problems. But I think she's right. You should give it back to Katie. Make her want you as much as you want her."

"How?"

"I don't know! You're creative! Figure something out!"

I turned to Mom. "And you approve of this?"

"No. But I think it's the only thing you can do at this point. I mean, how're you supposed to go to the principle and say that Katie's teasing you? He's not going to buy it. And I'm sure you've tried to get her to stop, and that's not working. So yeah. This is your best bet."

I nodded, biting my lip. I had no idea how I was going to do this, but it would be worth a try.

"They're right," Carlos said to me after PE that morning. We had just finished showering and were about to re-dress. "You need to give it right back to Katie."

"But fighting fire with fire? All you get is more fire."

"Yes, but at the very least you'll be holding your own, until you can come up with a way to get her to stop. You've gotta try it."

I sighed as I pulled my boxers on. "I guess…"

"You need to."

I slid my jeans on, but before I could zip them up and button them, there was a commotion from outside. Every guy in the locker room ran to the door, and we all piled out into the gymnasium. The girls came rushing out too, most of them fully dressed and holding hair dryers or brushes.

The football players were running around the gymnasium, throwing confetti into the air and blowing on party horns.

Carlos rolled his eyes. "Reminding everyone about the big game on Saturday. Awesome."

But that wasn't what was drawing my eyes.

Katie was looking over at me, completely dressed, her hair down and around her shoulders. Her eyes grazed over me, over my bare shoulders, chest, abs, open jeans, like she was starving and I was a huge cheeseburger. Her eyes seemed to smolder slightly, and it looked as if her breath might have caught in her throat.

A slow grin crossed my face. Apparently she liked my body. And, unless I was very much mistaken, she was getting turned on.

Well, Miss Knight, Mom, Shane, and Carlos were right. Two can play at this game. Bring it on.

Things just got interesting...What'd you guys think? Any thoughts on James and Katie? Show the review button some love and let me know! I love hearing what you have to say :)