(Disclaimer: I do not own Patrick Verona, or 10 Things)

Hey ladies and gentleman, this Season 2, Episode 1.

Patrick's POV

I was the one who had to help her break into school. Why, would you ask, would I help her do that? Well, it might be that I, Patrick Verona, am a little obsessed with her.

It all started the previous night, when I took her to the beach after she hopped onto the back of my motorcycle. I've been waiting her for to do that for a while now, and it felt as good as in my dreams. Her body pressed up against my back and her hands secured tightly around my waist.

It almost was a fantasy, having her sitting behind me on my bike. Only in my dreams did I ever think that she would knowingly get on the back of my bike and trust me enough to take her wherever I wanted. I'm sure it was no surprise to her that I would take her to the beach. The sun was setting already, being late fall. When I pulled up to the beach, she stayed on the bike until I got up first. She took off the helmet and gave it to me, like it poisonous. She wouldn't even look at me as she slowly got up. She stared out at the water and started to grin, glancing at me before unlacing her shoes and running to the beach. Laughing and screaming she threw her shoes and bag down, jumping around and throwing off her tie. I followed her, surprised by her for the second time today, as she screamed and jumped around the beach.

She ran almost all the way to the water before turning around to scream, "I can't believe I just did that! I can't believe I just walked out of school, it was so exciting!"

She paused while she ran up to me, a small smile apparent on my face. I don't think she would ever believe how beautiful and amazing she was, when she was this carefree. It made others around her feel alive.

"I wonder if Gandhi ever felt like this," she continued. "So alive, so inspired, so-"

"Hot?" I interrupted her. I just couldn't take it anymore. The tingling sensation pooling in my stomach was growing watching her jump around. I grabbed her and held her close to me, quickly planting my lips on hers. She made a small grunt, probably the start of what she was going to say. Surprising her seemed like the only way for me to ever get to kiss her.

When I did kiss her, she froze, taken by surprise. After the shock, I felt her hands on my shoulders for a minute, pulling me closer. She tasted amazing, like strawberries. Her hands moved to rest on my chest, and she pushed me away after a few seconds.

"We took a stand," she told me, breathless and smiling. I felt the grin spread on my face as well, and it hurt so much that I agreed with a grunt and smashed my lips back onto hers.

She broke away again, bouncing in my arms, "We told the establishment to stick it!"

"Yeah, yeah, we're heroes," I commented, just wanting the feel on her lips back on mine.

She broke away again after a few seconds, turning away and running towards the water.

"Let's go in!"

"Hell no." There was no way I was going in the ocean and getting sopping wet. Someone had to be the responsible one of the two of us. Right now, while Kat was acting high off of freedom, I was the only one fit for the job.

"Oh, and I thought you were a tough guy." I gave out a laugh, acknowledging that she used my own reputation against me as she spun and finally made her way into the waves, diving in and jumping around.

I plopped down on the beach by our bags, thinking how this carefree Kat was about to go Sianara the minute the high passed. The fun, free girl I loved would soon go back to the hard-shelled feminist I admired.

It was no surprise that a tired, worn out Kat finally dragged herself back to the beach. She dropped herself next to me, shivering, and exclaimed,

"I'm suspended. My Dad is going to kill me!"

I had no words of comfort, but my actions always seemed to speak louder than my words. I grabbed my leather jacket, shook out the sand, and wrapped it around her. She gave me a look while I pulled her in close to me, but accepted the tight squeeze I was giving her, all in effort to show her how much I really, truly cared about her.

It was no surprise when I woke the next morning happier than I'd been in a while. Who cared if I was suspended? My mother would only give me another lecture about how I was throwing my life away and remind me that my dad would be disappointed in me. Like I honestly cared about that anymore?

I left the house in the morning and having nothing to do, I drove around the neighborhood. I found myself parked in front of her house. It made me nervous to see her again because I didn't just want to see her again, I needed to see her again. I finally got myself under control, and gained the guts to open the front door. I found her painting the walls, freaking out about something when I knocked on the door.

One look from her and I knew I wouldn't be welcomed. Her words and a point of the finger weren't encouraging either, "You cannot come in."

That didn't stop me though, and she continued pushing me out with her words. "If my dad sees you here, his head will explode, and then I'll have to repaint."

"Your dad's at work. How's he gonna see me, hidden cameras?" I asked, starting to add some of my famous charm to every word. I wanted to impress her and bring her closer, not repel her away from me even more.

"Yes," she looked at me, eyes wide, like the answer was the most obvious one in the world.

"Come on. I'll help you paint. It's the least I can do. After all you did get suspended for me," I joked as I turned to grab a paint can. This was the usual banter between us. One of us made a sarcastic remark, and the snowball started to roll. All of our banters usually ended the same- in one of us getting frustrated with the other. It once ended with a kiss though, which I do take credit for.

"Don't flatter yourself. I got suspended for my principals. I just fled the scene with you." It amused me how she did everything in spite of me, when she had her walls up. I couldn't resist with the next comeback though.

"Really? Because I think..." I trailed off, grabbing a paintbrush and writing K hearts P, underlining it.

"I'm not kidding. There're cameras around." She took the paint that she had laid out in the tray to cover up my artwork. The same artwork she had texted me when she was drunk.

"You don't get the point of being suspended at all. The day off, no school. It's like a vacation," I told her, changing the subject and painting the wall. She was standing right next to me, and I could feel the heat radiating off of her.

"This is not a vacation. After I paint this entire room, I still have to study for an English test I was supposed to take today."

"If you get suspended on a test day you get a zero. That's the rules," I almost felt like adding a duh to the end of that sentence, but I figured that since this was most likely the first time she was ever suspended, she hadn't had the break down of how it works yet.

"A zero. No," She turned to me, like I was one not understanding her, "They'll just have to make an exception."

I snorted, "I don't think they do that, not that I've ever tried."

She looked at me, and lurched forward like she was going to gag. "Oh my God."

She turned around and placed the roller on the painting tray, "Oh my God, I can't get a zero." It was amusing watching her, and I could feel the smirk on my face. I had never been close to anyone in my life who wanted to do something so badly, academically, that they would flip out over getting one zero. From this little freak out, I could see the reasons why.

"That will bring down my whole GPA, and on top of the suspension... why did I do something so stupid? I have ruined my entire life, my whole future. I won't get into Brown. I won't be able to protect civil liberties and crusade against injustice. And I can't even be a house painter because I suck at it," she plopped down on a covered armrest, completely overreacting in my opinion. I could see the gears working in her head though, turning and cranking about how wrong of a decision it was to follow me out of school yesterday.

"Don't you think your overreacting?" I asked her, trying to calm her down. She looked at me as if I might be right for a minute. She then looked at me like I was crazy when I added, "It's your first days of painting, you'll get better."

"Just kidding," I said quickly, not wanting her to get too mad at me. If she did, then I would be out of here with nothing to do for the remainder of the day. "If this test is that important, we'll just break into school and take it."

"How am I going to do that?"

"With my help," I told her, with a small smile before backing away, knowing she would soon be following.

So that is how we ended up at school, on a suspension day. She threw on a sweatshirt and sunglasses, the same ones she wore when she was drunk at her party- as a disguse.

To make things even more interesting, we were parading around like freakin' FBI agents on our first top-secret mission. I was the leader, and she was the co-agent, following my lead. As the head agent, I made sure to keep her close to me at all times, even when that was pressed up against me in a corner.

"I'm not so sure about this," she announced as I brought her up to the druggie van. "What if someone recognizes me?"

"Don't worry. With the hood and sunglasses, they'll just think you're a celebrity."

When she didn't answer, I took this as my que and knock on the door of the van. Da-da-da-da, da-da.

I heard the van unlock, and Keith opened the door once he saw that it was me. "Hey dudes, its Patrick Verona."

He turned to his friends as they awed, "And he brought our favorite freedom fighter, the Dalai Lama."

"Really? Me, your favorite?" Kat exclaimed, and I turned to look at her with a smirk on my face, to see if she were serious. She was.

"Yeah 'cause you got the protesting back on, we got to empty out our lockers. All full and brimmin' with sweet hydro," Keith turned to his friends for high-fives as Kat said sarcastically, "That's exactly what I was fighting for, your stash."

"Uh, can you guys get in and grab a double Williams please before the big K doubles catch us."

We both climbed in, and I shut the door behind us. I turned to Keith and said, "We need passage."

"Oh," Keith said, disappointed as he grabbed his phone. "The southwest hall is clear."

"How do you know?" Kat asked, taking her glasses off.

"There's an app for that," Keith turned to Kat and showed her, proud of his new found app.

She tucked her glasses in her shirt, and followed me out of the car, waiting for me to pick the lock of the school door. Once the entering part of the mission was complete, all we needed to do was get to Kat's English classroom to so she could take the test.

I walked ahead of her down the hall, determined to complete the mission for her. It was going fine until I heard, "School police." It was my favorite person in the world, the school police, otherwise known as Jerk.

Kat grabbed my shoulder and started pulling me back, like I couldn't already hear Jerk's voice yelling down the hall. I turned to her and held up my finger, and she hit my chest. I grabbed her waist and turned her around to push her into the nearest janitors closet, where we had some unlikely visitors.

Kat gasped, when we ran into her sister, and Joey Donner.

"Your skipping class to make out with your boyfriend?" Kat accused.

"Just the last ten minutes. Besides, it's history, I know how it ends. Everyone dies," Bianca gave her sister a once over, "Aren't you supposed to be painting the living room?"

"I have to take an English test."

"You broke into school to take a test?" She waited for Kat's awkward nod of the head before saying, "You are so weird."

Joey all of a sudden reached out and grabbed my hand, "Hi, I'm Joey, Bianca's boyfriend. We should double sometime." I just looked at him, expressionless and cocked my head, wondering if he was serious or if he was just trying to get on my good side. I was amused though, at the fact that he thought Kat and I were dating.

Bianca sighed, as if this was the millionth time she was explaining something, "Joey, we're dating in secret."

"Bianca, I think they know."

It was at that moment the bell rung. Both sisters turned to each other and said, "I was never here."

There was a pause, like they were waiting for the other one to deny this proposal. When nothing was said, I cut in with, "You Stratford sisters are a strange breed." Giving Kat a look.

It was funny how true that statement was though. They both came from the same mom and dad (or so one would think) and yet they were two totally different people. They didn't look alike or act alike at all. If someone hadn't told me, I would have never pegged Bianca as Kat's sister or visa versa.

Kat decided it was time to go, so she turned to the door and opened it while pulling her hood up over her head. I followed her out the door and down to her English room, where I left, but not without saying, "Good luck."

I leaned up against the lockers, a minute before the period ended, waiting for the bell to ring so we could get out of here. I had fifty minutes to wait for her. I decided to sit in the bathroom to wait, pondering why it was that I felt compelled to do everything with her. I did almost everything for her or in spite of her. I woke up, got dressed, and made myself somewhat presentable this morning so that I could go and see her. I had a great day yesterday because she had made it one.

No matter what I did, I couldn't get her to leave my thoughts. I dreamt about her, I wrote about how much I hated her (which was such I lie because I don't think I could live a day without her), and I even talked to my cat about her. If I were anyone else but me, I would say I was going crazy. If my mother saw me like this, she would tell me I was falling for her, Kat.

The name rolled off the tongue so easily, and her face in my mind was so crystal clear it was scary. I could see her smile and hear the carefree laugh she had given off, just hours ago. If I tried really hard I could taste her strawberry chap-stick on my lips, smell the lavender and vanilla shampoo in her hair, or feel her warmth spreading through me. I was sickly obsessed and I knew it.

She came out of the classroom looking both ways before seeing me. She had a bounce in her step and a smile on her face.

She bounced on over to me, "Academic catastrophe adverted."

We started to walk along as I smirked at her, "I took the test. Actually, I aced the test."

From down the hall we could here Jerk yell, "Incense my ass, I know my incenses..."

Kat looked down the hall and saw him, and turned to me, wide-eyed. We were in the middle of the hallway and there was nowhere to go.

She finally looked back at me, made a grunting noise, and jumped at me. Now let me tell you who was more surprised. This was third time that I had been truly surprised by Kat Stratford in the past two days. I was so surprised I barely had time to catch her as she threw herself at me. My back hit the lockers and I was thrown off balance. When I regained my positioning, I was able to put my hands at her waist to hold her against me. When she threw herself at me she had wrapped her arms around my neck to keep herself pressed against me and still be able to reach my lips.

The kiss was simple and sweet, and when she couldn't hear Jerk anymore she pulled away, a smile on her face and a smirk on mine. She looked away quickly, wiping the smile off.

"You've been wanted to do that all day." And so have I, I wanted to add. I knew if I did, I would have her running for good, and that was something neither of us wanted.

"Hah, let's get out of here," she took my arm and bent it, so her hand was resting in the crock of my arm and she could drag me with her. "I still have to finish painting the living room before my dad gets home."

I looked both ways down the hall. On a whim, I grabbed her waist and spun her around so fast she didn't have time to fully react when I said, "Shh, someone's coming."

I bent down to kiss her, but by now she noticed that no one was coming. "Oh, shut up. Let's go." I smiled at her, and she smiled back good naturedly as I walked ahead of her into the hallway, waiting for her to put up her hood.

I froze, when I heard Jerk yell, "Hey you. Motorcycle man. You shouldn't be in here."

I quickly looked at Kat and said, "Today was fun," before turning and leaving her in my wake, running the other way.

After a while, running from the law can get tiring. I honestly can say that I never had actually been arrested before. I had gotten a speeding ticket, and been dragged out of a school dance, thanks to Keith, but beside that, I really haven't been able to say I'm good friends with the police force. I tend to stay my distance, and they stay theirs.

I always thought it was amusing that people thought I was a criminal, just like they thought my mom was a Mexican Drug Whore. My mother was not Mexican, has never done any drugs (except drink alcohol), and married her first boyfriend ever, my father- and had me. I was always pegged with these crazy weird rumors, none of which were true. Not that I cared, you learn not to. It did get annoying though, being sent to Holland's office every other day for stuff I didn't even know anything about.

But when Jerk backed me into a corner, cuffed me, and was taking me to the office, I knew that there would be rumors spreading tomorrow about how Patrick Verona broke into school to collect his dead bodies.

I wasn't too happy to be brought into Holland's office. I couldn't wait to hear the same speech that she hd given me a hundred times before, "This will go on your permanent record and you will never make anything of yourself, blah, blah, blah."

As the Jerk and I got closer, I could here a male voice yelling at Holland. A male voice that was insanely familiar- Kat's father's. This, of all things caused my face to go blank and etch with the deepest form of apology I could muster. This means that Kat is probably in there too, for Holland wouldn't just call Kat's father in for a chat without a good reason. I was not good at saying sorry, but I did everything I could to try to make the message I was trying to convey known to Kat when she saw my face.

"I got the other one. Man he's fast," Jerk said as he pushed me into Holland's office.

"Well, well, well, if isn't it that poor kid now. That poor, defenseless kid," Holland said, pleased that I was apart of this.

I stared at Kat, trying to get my message across, but she only glanced at me for a second before looking away and staring at her hands.

Well you could say that in the end, Walter saved my butt. Holland ended up lifting the suspension for both of us, and nothing about today went on our permanent records. I knew that she wasn't too thrilled about it, but I think that she can handle defeat every now and then. I made sure to whisper goodbye to Kat, not knowing if I was going to see her tomorrow at school.

I got home, and my mother was waiting in the kitchen, angry as ever that I hadn't been home all day or hadn't answered my cell phone. I waited through the yelling, and apologized when she was done. I gave her no explanation about where I was today before I walked upstairs, with her yelling, "You're now grounded for two months!" after me.

I dropped onto my bed, ready to fall asleep and wait for tomorrow. I was exhausted and I would bet you that tonight, I won't be able to fall asleep. Partly because I would be dreaming of her, and partly because I would be arguing with Dr. Seuss in the back of my mind...

"You know you're in love when you can't fall asleep because reality is finally better than your dreams."