AN: I've read a lot of fan fictions on this site that have played with the idea of a younger Castle and Beckett in a teenage/ high school setting. obviously AU fictions. and I enjoyed reading them. They're all pretty interesting. :)
Its amazing to see what goes on in the imaginations of others from the Fandom just like me. so I thought why not give it a shot myself. Here it goes.
Don't forget to leave me a review, telling me what you think of it. :)
Disclaimer: I do not own Castle.
Chapter 1
Rick was Kate's best friend! They'd been tight buddies since Kate's first week here at Brooke High. Kate was a new student in senior year, and she had managed to make a few friends on her first day itself.
There was Lanie, a beautiful girl with an amazing personality, Javier, Lanie's boyfriend since two years, and Kevin, Javier's Childhood buddy.
The three of them had been very friendly and welcoming, and they made Kate feel completely comfortable for a new student at a new school.
However, it's who she met on her second day there that turned her world around. She remembers it, like it was yesterday…
She had walked onto the lawns her bag slung over a shoulder and book in hand, Lanie had asked her to meet her at her locker before class, and she couldn't wait to see her new friends. Distracted as she was, she didn't see the hot shirtless guy running towards her, his eyes up in the sky, eyeing the football he meant to catch, and Bam!.
He had run straight into her. And there she lay on the ground, her book and bag thrown at the side because of the impact of the fall, and a huge, shirtless guy fallen over her.
She assessed the situation in her mind, 'ok, this guy was sweaty, but surprisingly hot, and not just literally, he actually had a nice body. And he was on top of her'
he quickly lifted himself a little off her, lifting the weight of his body off her, and now balancing himself over her on his hands and knees. Still hovering over her.
And Kate found herself looking into the bluest of eyes she'd ever seen. He had dark brown hair, the edges of which were slightly falling over his forehead, and the rays of sun that were beaming from around his face only made him look more angelic.
Kate wondered whether she had passed out or something. But then she saw his lips move, he was saying something, his eyebrows raised in question, now he was waving a hand in front of her, oh right, 'say something!' she heard conscience scold her.
And she could hear everything around her, there were some guys in the background cheering, she guessed it was because this guy landed over her. There was a crowd of people around laughing and giggling, yup, the new girl humiliated herself. Kate sighed, and she heard his voice now. "Hello, are you alright?"
She said "uh, yea, I think so..."
he still look worried… his eyes... deep blue… had something in them, and it looked like actual concern, she really had to be dreaming!
He must have suddenly realized what the scene looked like now, what with him hovering over a girl that way, wearing nothing but his football shorts, so he quickly moved and stood up, and held out his hand to her,
"Think you can get up?"
she took his hand and he pulled her up. As she straightened herself up, he continued to say "I didn't see you coming…."
"It's alright, I was a little distracted too."
"Wait let me finish, I didn't see you coming, but I'm not sorry I didn't" he smugly replied.
She looked at him, bewildered "what? You just knocked me down and you got the nerve to say you're not sorry you did it."
"Hey, I didn't do it on purpose, but I don't regret that it happened. It's not always you get fall down on a beautiful woman like yourself"
Kate wanted to smack the daylights out of this guy; he was flirting with her, after running her down. She wanted to ignore his comments just like she did the other creeps, who passed lines at her. But her face had plans of its own, and she realized she was smirking at his compliment, in fact, it was the kind of smirk she used when she tried to hide her blush, and she couldn't believe what was happening to her.
The sound of the bell brought her out of her train of thought, and she ran towards the building, but she knew there was a pair of eyes staring after her.
That day at lunch, Kate sat down at the table, and listened to her day-old friends talk about their plans for the weekend, they invited her to join them for movie night. After a lot of convincing she finally agreed. Kate stood up to pick her mom's call, and moved nearer to the window of the cafeteria to get better range.
When she returned, there was a new face at the table, and it was only until she sat down again that she realized, it wasn't a new face. It was the same blue eyed man who had tried to flirt with her this morning, after almost injuring her.
He looked confused when he caught her eye, but then smiled knowingly, he was about to say something, when Lanie began to speak,
"Rick, this is Katherine Beckett, She's new to Brooke High."
She then turned to Kate and said "Kate, Rick's a part of our group, I would have introduced him to you yesterday, but he didn't turn up"
Kate just nodded at him, acknowledging him, he spoke up "I know her, we met this morning actually."
Kate looked up at him, he was smiling proudly. She just hoped he wouldn't tell them how they met. She really did not want to relive that embarrassing moment.
"That's great then, Oh and, Kate will be joining us at your place for movie night by the way."
Kate almost choked on her food, everyone at the table turned to look at her, Kevin asked "you alright there?"
She had a sip of water and said, "Yea, sorry. Ummm... did you say we'll be doing movie night at his place?"
Javier answered, "well of course? Rick's got the best collection of movies, a huge Projection screen and unlimited popcorn. There's no place I'd rather be."
"Why? Is that a problem Kate?" asked Rick.
Something made her watch the way her name rolled of his lips, because the sound of her name in his voice was just so… nice?
"Uh, not at all... I just misheard something that's all"
He smiled, genuinely at her. And lunch period went on, all of them joking around the table. It wasn't until the bell rang for class, and Kate began walking down the corridor to her class, that she heard from Rick again.
He ran to her side from behind and was now walking beside her, both his hands in the pockets of his jeans. "Hey" he said.
She looked at him and smiled "Hey"
"we started off on the wrong foot, let me properly introduce myself to you, I'm Richard Rodgers"
He held out his hand to her, she looked at it for a second, hesitating, but then shook it anyway and said "Katherine Beckett, but most people call me Kate."
"Yea, I think I'd like to call you that to."
She just raised an eyebrow at him.
"Listen, I didn't mean to come across as rude, earlier on the lawns…"
"Oh, its ok, could we just forget about it?"
He said, "yea, yea sure. So umm… no hard feelings?"
She stopped and looked at him, intently. Why was he suddenly acting so sweet? This was a total contrast to the Jock/stud she met this morning. "What do you want Rick?"
"What do I want? Well, let's see, other than for you to join us for movie night at my place, I just want to start our friendship on a good note."
She said "okay. We could do that"
"that's great, so I'll see you around then Kate."
Saying this, he ran off into an adjacent corridor.
After class Kate met Lanie, and asked her a little bit about Rick, and she explained to her how rick used to be a total jackass some time ago, dating random girls just for fun, going to parties, getting drunk, and creating a nuisance. Rick was 3 years elder to all of them. He had skipped a few years of school for reasons he doesn't share with anyone and then resumed, and that's how he landed up in our class.
"But off late he's cleaned up his act, he's turned into a pretty nice guy; really charming in fact, almost every girl here would want to be his girlfriend. But he's not dated in quite a while now, says he's waiting for the right girl to come along."
Kate nodded in understanding.
Rick sounded like a really nice guy. And she found herself feeling glad to have him as a friend.