Title: Tuesday Afternoon
Rating: PG-13
Setting: cafeteria, junior year of high school, mid-year.
Summary: Chris and Kate eat lunch together for the first time and it's not exactly a picnic.
Feedback: Feel free to review.
Disclaimer: I own Chris, Lex, Anna, Jeff, Anthony, Matt, and Sammie. My friend Cee owns Kate, Fred, and Daniel.
Story Notes: This fic was inspired by and based loosely on the events in Cimmy's 'Seven Days A Week' story. 'Tuesday Afternoon' is a song by the Moody Blues.

Kate looked around the cafeteria, looking to spot Fred and Daniel. Fred was always with Lex if he could be, and Daniel was routinely trying to win over Anna. She didn’t remember the last time she sat with just Fred and Daniel without Lex and Anna and the rest of their friends. Wherever Anna and Lex were, Sammie, Jeff, Matt, Anthony, and Chris weren’t far away; usually they were all sitting at the same table. Kate didn't mind; even though she missed sitting with Fred and Daniel and having all their attention on her, she liked their new friends. She was Kate McKinley, after all, and she liked everyone. Well, not everyone, but she always pretended she liked everyone. And even if the table was full, they always made room for her, which she appreciated. She’d rather sit with them than with Chrissie Connors and have to pretend to like her.

So Kate looked around, but today she didn’t see anyone except Chris sitting by himself quietly with a couple of books. Chris was about six feet tall with beautiful gray eyes, brown hair, and broad shoulders. He was rather handsome, a musician, and popular in his own way. Not as popular as Kate of course, but popular. Kate didn’t know him too well, but with her choice of Chris Mitchell or people she had to pretend to like, Kate smiled cheerfully and bounded over to where Chris sat.

“Hi!” she said cheerfully, setting her tray down.

Chris looked up from his books, which were math books. “Hey,” he said coolly, looking back down at his books. “What’s up?”

“Where is everybody?” Kate asked, wondering if she was really early for lunch.

Chris shrugged. “Fred and Daniel are chasing their victims. Jeff is helping Anthony change a tire on his car and Matt took Sammie out for lunch.”

Kate frowned a little bit. “Lex and Anna aren’t victims! They’d be lucky to have Fred and Daniel as their boyfriends!”

Chris knew that he shouldn’t encourage Kate to talk, because once she started she didn’t stop, but he couldn’t help it. He looked back up at her and smirked. “Lex might get lucky with Fred. Anna and Daniel are another story. He’s going to use her, and when that happens, I will personally kick his ass.”

“Daniel is very nice!” Kate said indignantly, feeling obligated to defend her friend, “He just doesn’t like to show it! He won’t use her!” Kate wasn’t sure that was true – she was pretty sure Daniel would use Anna, although he treated Anna better than most girls he planned to use. He actually tried to talk to her. But that didn’t mean much and he could still be trying to use her…but that wasn’t the point right now. Hopefully Chris didn’t know Daniel the way she did.

Chris looked skeptically at her. “If you say so,” he said finally. “It doesn’t matter. Lex and Anna are happily oblivious to both Fred and Daniel’s feelings, so we’ll cross those bridges when we get to them.”

Kate thought about this, and decided no more defending was necessary. She sat down across from Chris and opened her water and sandwich. “So what are you up to?” she asked.

“I’m studying math. Or trying to study, anyway,” he said, knowing now that she had sat down, the peace was all but broken.

“Oh I’m not any good at math either!” Kate said, excited to be able to relate. “I nearly failed geometry last year, and –”

“I’m not bad at it,” Chris cut in coldly, “But I’m in pre-calc, and if I don’t study I won’t do as well on the test as I want.”

This obvious attempt to get Kate to stop talking didn’t deter her at all; she had noticed Chrissie Connors watching them from the next table and Kate didn’t want to appear like she wasn’t with someone who didn’t adore her. Plus, most people knew Chrissie had a thing for Chris. Chris probably knew it. He was good at reading people, Kate could tell, by the way he trusted Fred and not Daniel with two of his best friends. She continued to chatter.

“Oh pre-calc!? You must be so smart! Maybe you could help me with French? You’re in my French class!” she said happily.

Chris stared at her in mild disbelief that she didn’t take the hint. “I actually suck at French. I’ve got seventy average and I actually try. You should help me,” he said honestly, again looking down at his books.

Kate switched tactics to get Chris talking more at the speed of light. “You’re the only one of your friends with a pierced ear!” she said. “Why’s that?”

“Jeff hates jewelry, Anthony doesn’t like the look, and Matt isn’t a big fan of needles,” Chris said shortly, wishing she would be quiet. “The girls all have their ears pierced.”

“Is it true you’ve got a smurf tattooed on your leg? Everyone says it’s because you’re a stoner, is that true?” Kate asked with her usual perk, again not taking the hint.

Again, Chris stared at her. “Yes and no,” he said finally, recovering his voice. “I have the tattoo of a smurf. Not because I’m a stoner, but because my grandfather used to watch it with me when I was kid before he died and they’re some of my best memories.”

“Oh that’s so sweet!” Kate twittered happily, “You loved your grandfather a lot then!”

“Thanks for the newsflash,” Chris said with an air of annoyance, once again immersed in his calculus book.

“Hey, do you think –”

“You know what I think?” Chris said, cutting her off and all patience was gone from his voice. His gray eyes flashed in her direction. “That you talk too much. I’m busy, all right? Give it a rest, enjoy the quiet, look out the window, but please stop talking!” He said the last part loud enough for Chrissie Connors to hear and Kate felt her face get red. She felt the tears well up in her eyes and she sat quietly. She couldn't figure out why this bothered her so much; teachers always told her to be quiet, and Daniel told Kate she talked too much at least twice a week. It was the way Chris said it that really made it hurt.

Chris, realizing she was too quiet, looked up again from his book and saw she was sad and embarrassed. He immediately felt badly. He sighed, “Kate, don’t cry, I’m sorry. I’m just wound up tightly about this test, I didn’t mean to hurt your feelings.”

Kate frowned at him, wiped her eyes, and was carefully not looking and the next table where Chrissie and her friends were watching them and giggling. Chris bit his lip, “Oh come on, Kate, I’m sorry, please don’t be upset, please.”

Kate decided the best thing to do was to get up and leave. Why she thought that, she didn’t know, because as she got up, she tripped and dropped her purse, her books, and her lunch all over the floor. She also landed on her hands, one of which started to bleed; she’d landed on a pencil. Everyone turned to look at her, and Chrissie and her friends burst into open laughter now. Kate was trying not to burst into tears of embarrassment and pain. Chris jumped up from the table and grabbed Kate’s hand.

“Are you okay?” he asked, while simultaneously grabbing napkins to stop the bleeding. Kate didn’t have time to answer; that was when Chrissie came sauntering over to the table, still laughing.

“Who invited you?” Chris asked coldly.

“I just thought you’d like some company you actually wanted,” Chrissie smiled. Through her embarrassment, Kate noticed Chrissie had undone almost all the buttons on the top of her uniform shirt.

Chris didn’t buy it. “Yeah, well, unless you’ve got one of my buddies hiding in your cleavage, get lost,” he said, picking up Kate’s things. He stacked them neatly on the table.

“Oh come on, you made it perfectly clear you didn’t want her near you, why don’t you take me instead?” Chrissie asked, smirking.

“Wrong, I just wanted her to be less loud,” he smiled apologetically at Kate. Kate shrugged, but at least he was honest. She was aware everyone in the cafeteria was still watching them.

“Come on Chris, you want me, you know you do,” Chrissie said, “Let’s just be honest.”

“You’re wrong on that too. I don’t want you. And you’d start crying if I was just honest,” Chris said. “I can’t believe this, I thought scenes like this only happened in stupid teen movies.”

“Oh, you must be joking,” Chrissie continued her pursuit. “You really prefer Carrot Top here over me?”

“Yeah, yeah I do,” Chris said.

Chrissie laughed again. “Yeah right. Prove it.”

Chris looked at Chrissie as if she was dog crap on the bottom of his shoe. “Fine,” he said. And he walked back over to Kate and cupped her face in his hands and kissed her firmly on the lips.

Kate was about as shocked as the rest of the cafeteria, but the crowd recovered quickly and erupted into whistling and applause. Chris was right, it really was just like a stupid teen movie. Kate figured she should close her eyes to make it more movie-like, but before she did, she glanced over at Chrissie. Her mouth looked like it was going to drop through the floor. She stomped back over to the other table and sat down, muttering angrily to her friends.

Chris stopped kissing Kate about fifteen seconds later. He grinned at her and winked. She smiled back at him.

“Thanks,” she said a little sheepishly. “That was really nice of you.”

“Yeah well, I meant every word. I’d much rather spend my time with you than with her. And I’m sorry I yelled at you earlier, I was just wound up,” he smiled.

“It’s okay,” Kate smiled. They stood there for a moment in semi-awkward silence before Kate noticed red stains on Chris’s shirt. “Oooh I got blood on you!”

“It’s all right,” he said, looking at his shirt and then at her hand. “Come on, let’s take you to the nurse’s office.”

He picked up her stuff with his own, and carried it to the nurse’s office with them. There, in spite of the stinging liquid the nurse put on to clean Kate’s wounded hand, and the rumors they both knew were flying around the school, and the answers to the questions they’d have to give their friends, they had a very pleasant lunch.