AN: Writing these stories is kind of hard because I always get off track and write a whole scene that I end up deleting because it doesn't fit with the storyline. I always save them though in case I want to use them later or even in a different story. They're usually like steamier encounters between Jack and Kim, so if you like that and you want to read them I could post them as one-shots or something. Is that something you'd want to read?

Anyway, I hope you like this chapter. It adds more layers to the characters and to the plot, and I like how it's building up. Everything that happens will be important in future chapters…

Enjoy!

Disclaimer: I don't own Kickin' It or any songs by The Rolling Stones.

It's Monday morning. I hate Mondays. But for some reason I'm excited to go to school today.

I take a shower, scrubbing my whole body with my peach scented body wash on my pink loofah. I wrap a towel around my body and go back to my room. I put on my outfit for the day: light wash skinny jeans and a white fitted scoop neck short sleeve shirt. I slip on my black vans and go back to the bathroom to put on some makeup and blow dry my hair. When I'm done, I can say confidently that I look hot. Usually I wear more loose fitting clothes and don't put on makeup, but today I feel like dressing to impress.

When I finally get to my school after a fifteen minute walk, I see Jack parking his motorcycle. He's wearing his usual black leather jacket and dark clothes. When he pulls off his helmet, his hair falls down and he combs through it with his hands clad in fingerless gloves. His expression is angrier than usual. He looks so hot when he's mad. He always looks hot though.

I should have expected the wolf whistles and catcalls from all the guys in the hallway. I don't understand why I'm attracting so much attention—I'm not showing a lot of skin. I mean, there are girls at this school who wear practically nothing but don't get this reaction from guys. I open my locker and take out some books from my backpack.

"Damn, baby. Those jeans are really doing your ass a favor." I take a deep breath and try to keep my cool before turning around. I see one of the Black Dragons smirking at me. I see his group standing across the hall watching him and snickering. Jack is with them, but he looks unamused.

"Oh, babe, your tits are as nice as your ass! With a body like that, you could get any guy you want… even a guy like me," he says with a smirk.

I raise my eyebrows and scoff. "If you ever talk to me again I will kick you so hard up your ass you'll taste feet," I say in a low voice.

He raises his eyebrows in surprise but then chuckles. "Ooh, you're feisty. Just how I like 'em."

I smile and grab his hand. He smirks and I give him a sweet smile before flipping him hard onto his back. As he groans in pain I close my locker and 'accidentally' step on his chest as I walk away. His friends are howling and laughing and saying stuff like "daaaaamn girl!" I look at them to see that Jack has the slightest bit of a smirk on his face.

"So, Kim, are you gonna tell us how your study session with Jack went?" Eddie asks.

I pull my lunch out of my backpack (the food at school is inedible, so I bring my own now) and take a bite of my apple. "It was normal. I worked on some practice problems, Jack fell asleep, oh and apparently he's my neighbor," I tell them.

"What? We need more details, woman!" Milton yells.

"That's all I'm going to tell you. Now will you please calm down? People are looking."

"Yo, did you make him smile?" Jerry asks.

"No. Not yet."

I can't tell them about my flashback or my panic attack. Especially not at school. I ignore most of their questions and when I do answer them I purposely talk with a mouth full of food so they can't understand me.

I finish changing into my gym clothes for PE and walk out of the girl's locker room. As I enter the gym I see the Black Dragon group: Jack, Brody, Brett, Randy, Frank, and Todd. Randy is the one I flipped this morning. He has a sling on his arm. I hear them talking as I walk past them.

"Dude, check out the new girl. She makes sweatpants and a T-shirt look hot," Brett says.

"Dude, watch this. I'm gonna do my classic pick-up line," Brody says.

"Uhh, Brody that's not such a good idea. She's feisty," Randy warns him.

"Just how I like 'em." He looks at me and makes the "come here" gesture with his index finger. I roll my eyes and walk over. I stand in front of him with him with my hands on my hips.

Brody smirks. "I just made you come with one finger. Imagine what I could do with two," he says seductively.

The whole group yells and laughs—besides Jack, who Rolls his eyes. I slowly walk up to him and smile. Then suddenly Brody is on the floor holding his face in his hands. When he uncovers his face his nose is bleeding and his eye looks fucked up.

I look down at him and smirk. "I just broke your nose and gave you a black eye with one punch. Imagine what I could do with two." Everyone shouts, "OHHHHHH!" and "Duuuuude!"

I turn around, my ponytail flying behind me, and see Jack with his eyebrows raised at me as I walk away.

Brody is on his way to the nurse with Brett helping him walk.

"No girl has ever turned down Brody like that," Frank says.

"Maybe she's a lesbian. I mean, any other girl would be all over him if he said that. And the same with what I said in the hallway," Randy says.

Then Todd says, "She's not a lesbian. You guys just don't know how to pick up a girl."

"Why don't you go get her then, Todd?" Randy says.

"Not now, she's too fired up."

"You're scared!" Frank says.

Now I'm out of hearing distance but I can still tell they're arguing. Guys are so stupid.

Tuesday Morning

As I enter my math classroom I see my teacher passing out the scored tests from Monday. I take my seat and flip over my test to see a '88%' written in red ink. I smile and look over to see Milton scowling at his test.

"What did you get?" I ask him. He sighs.

"Ninety-six percent! Can you believe that?"

I laugh and say, "And you're mad about that?"

He looks at me in shock. "Of course you wouldn't understand. But I actually care about my grades. I was expecting to see a three digit percent!"

I roll my eyes and laugh. I see Jack come in and I smile at him. He ignores me and sits down, brooding. Typical. I brush it off and flip through my test to see what I got wrong.

Wednesday Morning

I search the halls for Jack. He's not at his locker or anywhere around. Then I see him walk through the doors at the entrance of the school and the air suddenly feels hotter and harder to breathe. His mop of shaggy brown hair, his leather jacket, his stone cold glare—he's so attractive yet so intimidating. I approach him awkwardly and he furrows his eyebrows at me.

"Unless you have the pizza or the ice cream you owe me, I don't want to talk to you."

My heart sinks to my stomach. "I just— remember how we got our tests back yesterday? In math?"

"I really don't care what grade you got," he says coldly.

"Oh. Well I still have to give you the twenty bucks that I didn't give you on Friday," I say.

He holds out his hand, raising his eyebrows in impatience. I pull a twenty dollar bill out of my jeans pocket and he snatches it out of my hand. "Jeez. Why are you so mad?"

"Go away. I'm not your friend. And I don't want to date you. So just leave me alone."

"Why do you assume I want to date you?"

"Because you're being nice to me when I'm an ass to you. Nobody's nice to me. Except girls who are trying to hook up with me."

I roll my eyes. "I'm not trying to hook up with you. I'm being nice to you because I can tell you're going through shit and you don't have any real friends to talk to about it."

He scoffs. "So you think I'd want to talk to you about my problems?"

I shrug. "You probably don't want to, but you should. Try finding someone else who actually cares if you really don't like me."

"Nobody cares," he says firmly.

"I literally just told you I care." I frown. "Why don't you just give me a chance? To be your friend?"

He sighs and looks around to make sure nobody is listening. Then he whispers, "Okay. I'll… hang out with you or something. But don't tell anyone. And don't talk about it at school."

I furrow my eyebrows. "Why?"

He rolls his eyes. "If people find out I made a friend they might think I'm friendly and try to talk to me. I don't like it when people talk to me," he says, like it's the most obvious thing in the world.

I smirk. "So I am your friend now?"

He sighs in exasperation. "God, you're so annoying. No, you're never going to be my friend. I just agreed to give you a chance so you'd stop bothering me. Now go away before anyone hears us."

I laugh and walk to my math class.

I just got home from karate practice and finished taking a nice warm shower. I walk into my room in my bathrobe and a towel wrapped around my head. My skin smells like peaches and my hair smells like strawberries. As I look through my drawers for pajamas, I hear my phone buzz.

We can hang tonight. I just got home. P.S. you should close your curtains when you get dressed.

I look out of my window to see Jack laying on his bed, looking at his phone. I laugh and close my curtains. I text him back.

Ok. Where? P.S. thanks for not being a perv

I pull on a pair of lacy black underwear and my fuzzy purple pajama pants. I put on a lacy black bra and a black cami. I zip a gray hoodie over it and slip on my fluffy slippers. My phone buzzes again.

My house. Bring snacks.

I laugh and go downstairs. "Mom, I'm going to the neighbor's house. I made a friend."

"Oh, that's great honey. Be back by eleven," she says. My mom is cool—she lets me stay out pretty late because she trusts me. I look through the cabinets and get tortilla chips. Then I get guacamole from the fridge and ice cream from the freezer. I walk over to his house with my hands full and notice there are no cars in his driveway. I kick up my leg and ring the doorbell with my toe. Jack opens the door and I see him wearing gray sweatpants and a black henley t-shirt with the sleeves rolled up to his elbows. He looks me up and down and just stands there with a grumpy look on his face.

I roll my eyes and push past him into his house. He closes the door and I look for a place to put the food. "Why did you want me to bring food?" I ask.

He takes the tub of ice cream and puts it in his freezer. "My parents went on a business trip and there's no food here."

"Why don't you go grocery shopping?" I ask.

He takes the bag of chips and I follow him into his living room. "I would, expect I don't have money and it's kind of hard to carry groceries on a motorcycle," he says sarcastically.

"They didn't leave money for food?" I ask, sitting on his couch.

He sets the chips on the coffee table and looks for something while saying, "Nah, they kind of forgot about me." He picks up a remote and turns on the TV. He sits on the chaise of the couch, with one leg straight and one bent.

"Oh," I mumble awkwardly.

"It's no big deal; it happens all the time." His parents kind of suck. Maybe that's why he's always so upset. He clicks through the channels and stops on a wrestling match.

There is an awkward silence and I try to break it. "What shows or movies do you like?" I ask.

He shrugs. "Sports. Action. Horror."

"Oh, horror? Have you seen the remake of 'It' that just came out?"

He shivers and looks disgusted. "No. No clowns. Anything but clowns."

I put my hands up defensively. "Sorry." I open the tub of guacamole and the bag of chips and start eating. I take the remote from him and change the channel, looking for something funny to watch. "What are you doing? I was watching that!" He says angrily.

"Do you ever watch comedy shows?" I ask.

"No. They're not funny."

I frown at him. "Do you even have a sense of humor?"

He dips a chip in guacamole while saying, "Nope."

I continue flipping through the channels. I don't find anything I want to watch and turn off the TV. He looks at me with irritation. "You turned it off," He says.

I roll my eyes and say, "I don't want to watch TV. That doesn't really count as hanging out."

He groans and tilts his head back. "What does count as hanging out?"

I shrug and say, "We could talk?"

"I don't like talking."

I sigh. "We could play a game?"

"I don't have any games."

I roll my eyes. "I mean a game like Never Have I Ever or Truth or Dare. I want to learn something about you."

He groans and turns to face me, laying his feet on my lap. I look down and laugh. "You have hairy feet."

He lifts his leg up and puts his foot in my face. "Why do your feet smell like… vanilla?"

He rests his foot down on my lap and mumbles, "I just showered." Then he says in a bored tone, "How do you play Never Have I Ever?"

"Okay, so we both hold up ten fingers. If you've done something the person says you put a finger down. The first person with all their fingers down loses."

"I'll start," he says, holding up his hands. "Never have I ever kissed a guy." He looks at me expectantly but I keep my fingers up.

"Never have I ever kissed a girl," I say, and he doesn't put a finger down. So neither of us have had our first kiss.

"Never have I ever shaved my legs," he says, and I put a finger down.

"Never have I ever seen a penis in real life." He looks at me with a shocked expression and doesn't put down a finger. I reach out and bend one of his fingers down. He rolls his eyes.

"Never have I ever seen boobs in real life."

I roll my eyes and put down a finger. "Never have I ever masturbated."

He looks at me incredulously. He puts down a finger and then says, "Seriously?"

I blush and nod my head. He raises his eyebrows and says, "Um, never have I ever… um…"

"This game is stupid. Let's do something else," I say.

He sighs in relief and says, "Now I get to choose what we do."

"Okay, what do you want to do?"

He just gets up and I follow him into his garage. He turns on the light and I see his motorcycle parked inside. He gets a helmet from a shelf and hands it to me. He gets his leather jacket from a coat rack and puts it on. Then he takes his helmet off his bike and puts it on.

I put the helmet on and ask, "Where are we going?"

He doesn't answer. He just opens the garage and rolls the bike outside. I follow him and he presses a button on the keypad on the wall and the garage door closes.

"I'm in my pajamas! I'm wearing slippers!" I say.

He ignores me and gets on the bike, and I reluctantly put on my helmet and get on behind him. I wrap my arms around his chest and feel safe. He starts driving west. I watch as the colors flash past us in a blur and the sun is setting, giving everything a golden glow. I take in his scent of vanilla and leather. By the time he stops, the sky is a dark orange and pink color along the horizon. He parks on the side of the road and I get off of his bike. He gets off too. I swear, every time he takes off his helmet my heart skips a beat. I take off my helmet and look around. I hear waves crashing, but I don't see the ocean.

He starts walking into the trees by the road and I follow him. "Where are we going? What if I walk into a spider web?"

He ignores me and continues walking along a small trail. After about five minutes, we emerge from the trees onto a sandy beach.

"Woah, I didn't even know this beach existed," I say in awe of the beauty.

"It's a private beach. I found it a few years ago but nobody else knows about it. So don't tell anyone, or it won't be so private anymore," he says.

I nod and smile to myself. He hasn't told anybody about this beach, not even his friends, but he told me. My heart flutters when I think about it. I take off my slippers and hold them as I walk towards the shore, loving the feeling of the sand between my toes.

Jack follows me and takes off his leather jacket. Then he pulls up his sweats and puts his feet in the water. I follow him and do the same.

"I like to stand still and see how far down my feet will sink in the sand," I say, looking off to the darkening horizon.

Jack sighs and says, "Yeah, me too." We stand there in silence for a while. Then he walks back to the dry sand. I follow the sound of his footsteps; it's so dark now that I can't see him. An idea forms in my mind and I say, "I'm going to go swim."

Jack scoffs. "Yeah, right."

I unzip my hoodie and and he says, "Wait, you're serious? Are you going skinny dipping?"

I laugh and say, "Yep. And you're going to go with me."

"No way. I'm not getting naked in front of you."

I scoff and say, "Am I wearing clothes right now?"

He's silent for a moment before saying, "I can't tell."

"Exactly! We can't see each other. And this beach is private. Come on, it'll be fun!" I say.

He groans and I hear him taking off his clothes. I remove my bra and my panties. I pick up my phone and say, "Okay, look away. I'm going to turn on my phone flashlight so we can find our stuff when we get out."

I turn on the flashlight, making sure it's aimed in the opposite direction of us, and set it in my pile of clothes. "Are you ready?" I ask.

He sighs. "Yeah." I reach out and grab his hand. He flinches and pulls his hand away. I brush it off and say, "Okay, let's go."

I hear him following me and when I get to the water I stop, shocked by how cold it feels. Jack walks into me from behind and both of us fall down with a splash. His bare chest is against my bare back, and the feeling of our wet bodies pressed together is just—

"What the hell!" He says. I stand up, wading deeper into the sea.

"Sorry. We need to keep talking or we'll lose each other or, you know, get too close."

"I don't like talking," he grumbles.

I sigh. "It's either that or you hold my hand."

He hesitates before reaching out and trying to grab my hand. Instead his hand brushes against my butt. It's like everywhere he touches me sparks fly.

"Where's your hand?" He says in exasperation. I laugh and grab his hand. Electricity jolts through my arm and spreads through my whole body, settling in my center and creating a tingling sensation. We get deeper and deeper until we're about chest-deep with our feet on the ground.

I hear a wave coming and I pull him down. We both dive under it and come up for a breath at the same time. Jack coughs and says, "I got water up my nose."

I laugh and say, "Sorry." I feel a piece of seaweed brushing against my leg. I grab it out of the water and throw it at him.

"Ah! Something just hit me in the face," he says. Then I feel the same piece of seaweed hit me in the face. I laugh and throw it back at him. This time he holds it up against my face and tries to shove it in my mouth.

"Ah! Mmmstopit!" I say, trying to talk with my mouth closed.

"What was that? I couldn't hear you," he says, pulling his hand away from my face.

"I said, stop i—ahmf!" He shoves the seaweed in my mouth and I spit it out. I hear Jack laugh and I'm about to get back at him so bad he's gonna regret messing with m— wait, did he actually just laugh?

"I'm going to get back at you."

He scoffs and says, "I'd like to see you try."

I forget the fact that I'm completely naked and lunge at him. My bare chest touches his and we both gasp. I immediately back away and say, "Oh, sorry, I forgot, you know, that we're naked."

He clears his throat and says, "Um, I think we should get out now."

"Oh, uh, okay." We swim back to the shore and walk towards the light coming from my phone. When we get there, I realize my clothes are missing, except for my bra and underwear.

"Jack, are your clothes missing?" I say nervously.

"All I can find is my underwear," he says.

"Me too." I groan and look at my phone. "Somebody stole our clothes, but not our underwear, or our phones. This is some sick prank," I say, pulling on my lacy black thong. I hear shuffling and freeze.

"Did you hear that?" I whisper to Jack.

"Shh," he whispers. We stand there frozen in silence and all of a sudden a flash of light comes from behind me and the sound of a camera shutter. I just saw Jack in only his boxers! It was for half a second, but still! I turn around to see who it is but I'm blinded by light again. Shit! I'm not wearing a bra! They just got photos of me and Jack practically naked together. Then my clothes are thrown at me and I hear hushed voices and they run away.

"What just happened?" I ask awkwardly.

"I think someone just stole our clothes to get pictures of us almost naked," he says.

"Well, at least they left us our underwear. Which was kind of pointless because I didn't even get to put on my bra on before they took the pictures."

"Wait, so they got pictures of your…"

"My boobs," I groan. I hook my bra and spin it around, flipping it up and pulling the straps over my arms. "Who do you think it was?"

Jack grumbles something to himself. Then he says, "Why did you make me do this? If it wasn't for you this wouldn't have happened!"

"It's not like I wanted some creep to come take nudes of me! I just wanted to have fun!"

Jack sighs in frustration. I zip up my hoodie and am finally dressed.

"Let's go," he says, walking back into the mini jungle.

I pick up my phone and my slippers and follow him. It's been about ten minutes and we're still walking. "I think we're lost," I say.

Jack stops and turns around. "Yeah, I realized that, Dora the Explo—"

"Shh," I say. I hear cars driving in the distance and I follow the sound. "Follow me."

We emerge from the trees and I see Jack's motorcycle shining under the streetlight. I smile at him and he ignores me, getting on the bike and putting his helmet on. I put mine on too and get on behind him. Now instead of smelling like vanilla he smells like salty seaweed.

We walk back into his house and he completely ignores me, going upstairs. I follow him and he closes his door behind him before I come into his room.

"Uh, Jack?" I say, knocking on the door. He opens it and looks at me with hostility. "I just wanted to say sorry. For, you know, everything that just happened."

He rolls his eyes and opens the door all the way for me to come in. I awkwardly walk into his room and notice that he doesn't have much of anything in his room besides furniture, school supplies on his desk, and a rack of electric guitars in the corner next to a small amp. There's also an acoustic guitar resting against his bed.

"Wow. You have a lot of guitars." I stand there awkwardly and he ignores my presence. He lays on his bed and picks up the acoustic guitar.

I sit at the foot of his bed, turning sideways to face him awkwardly. He begins strumming and plucking the strings. I recognize the song he's playing: Paint It Black, by The Rolling Stones. I sing along quietly.

I see a red door and I want it painted black

No colors anymore, I want them to turn black

I see the girls walk by, dressed in their summer clothes

I have to turn my head until my darkness goes

I see a line of cars and they're all painted black

With flowers and my love both never to come back

I see people turn their heads and quickly look away

Like a newborn baby, it just happens every day

I look inside myself and see my heart is black

I see my red door I must have it painted black

Maybe then I'll fade away and not have to face the facts

It's not easy facing up when your whole world is black

No more will my green sea go turn a deeper blue

I could not foresee this thing happening to you

If I look hard enough into the setting sun

My love will laugh with me before the morning comes

I see a red door and I want it painted black

No colors anymore, I want them to turn black

I see the girls walk by, dressed in their summer clothes

I have to turn my head until my darkness goes

Hmm, hmm, hmm,..

I wanna see it painted, painted black

Black as night, black as coal

I wanna see the sun blotted out from the sky

I wanna see it painted, painted, painted, painted black

He stops playing and looks into my eyes. "Woah."

"What?" I ask.

"You're um, just really good… at, um, singing. And I didn't think you'd know the lyrics."

I shrug. "Thanks. You're really good at guitar."

"Uh, thanks."

I squint at him and say, "You relate to that song, don't you?"

He stares at me, his eyes dark and his face hard. "Yeah." I start to feel as if his gaze is burning a hole through me.

"Did you know that song is about, um, his girlfriend's funeral?"

He furrows his eyebrows at me. "How do you know?"

I look down and say, "Well, there's a line of black cars, like at a funeral. And his love will never come back, and 'like a newborn baby it just happens every day' is referring to death. And the red door is his heart—he wants to paint it black and not open it up to anyone anymore because he's afraid he'll get hurt again. That's why he says 'maybe then I'll fade away and not have to face the facts'— it's the fact that she died. 'I could not foresee this thing happening to you'— he feels guilty for her death, like he could have protected her. And he feels like he can't go on without her. Him wanting all the colors to turn black represents him wanting to block out any emotions and to just be numb so he can't be hurt again." After I explain this I look back up at him and he's looking at the ground, his jaw clenched and a single tear trailing down his cheek.

"Oh, um, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to—"

"Go home," he says coldly, not looking at me.

I nod and know better than to push him. So I get up and before I leave his room I say, "If you ever need someone to talk to, I'm here." He ignores me and continues looking at the ground. "Um, bye."

AN: How was it? I actually don't know how I feel about this chapter, but everything will start making sense if you keep reading. Review and tell me what parts you did like and which parts you didn't!

Thank you so much to everyone who has favorited, followed, and/or reviewed so far!