"So, what's our story? How did we meet?" Katherine asked from where she was perched on Jack's couch. She still felt a little uncomfortable in his apartment without his parents knowing about it, even though he said that they wouldn't care. And Jack himself seemed very at ease with the whole thing.

"I dunno." He shrugged. He was sprawled out on the floor.

"Boy, some help you are." Katherine gave him a pointed look to go along with her sarcastic remark. He groaned.

"It's Friday afternoon, we have the whole weekend to figure something out."

"Oh really? You seem very close with those boys you're always hanging around, and I find it hard to believe that you go without seeing them all weekend."

"...oh yeah." Katherine sighed.

"Come on, Jack! We have to figure this out."

"Or you could figure this out, and I could watch you."

"If I had known you were this... This impossible, I would never have agreed to this!"

"It's kinda too late for that." Jack's dry response was answered by a throw pillow being flung at his face. He glared and threw it back at Katherine, who simply caught it. "You're the one who wants to be a reporter, you should be able to figure it out!"

"And you're the one who got us into this in the first place." She muttered, lapsing back into silence as she again began thinking up their 'back story'. So of course, right at that moment, Jack's phone rang. He looked, saw it was Davey, and looked at Katherine for permission to answer it. She sighed and nodded. He answered the phone and put it on speaker, as he had a sneaking suspicion that his new relationship status was probably what Davey was calling about.

"Hey, Davey."

"Hi Jack... What are you doing right now?" Davey's usual, slightly anxious voice came out of the phone.

"Just hanging out with Katherine."

"Hello, David." Katherine interjected.

"Oh, hi Katherine. Jack, that's actually sort of what I wanted to talk to you about."

"About Katherine?"

"Yes. I guess it wouldn't hurt to have you both here for this."

"Okay, talk."

"Well, I was just thinking, and I've never seen you two even talking to each other before. So, how exactly is it possible that you got to know each other so well that quickly?" There was a pause as they both tried to think of a response.

"We just had an instant connection the moment we saw each other." Katherine explained, just seconds before Jack blurted out his answer.

"Uh, we had a casual hookup that led to something more...?" He met Katherine's immediate death glare with a nervous shrug. Davey scoffed from the other end of the phone.

"No offense Katherine, but Jack isn't really a 'love at first sight' kind of guy. And you don't seem like the kind of girl who often goes around casually hooking up with people." Katherine sighed.

"You're right, we actually - " Jack cut her off.

"No, Kath was actually telling the truth, it was... Love at first sight." At that, Katherine gave him a rather hard slap on the arm, and he winced. "Okay, fine, you're right, Davey." Jack relented. "We don't actually know each other that well."

"So, why exactly are you dating then?"

"Uhh..."

"I'm not taking that as an answer, Jack."

"Okay, okay. Race was annoying me about my..." Katherine gave him a look, telling him to choose his words carefully. "My lack of interaction with the female gender. So, I grabbed the first girl I saw and told him that she was my girlfriend, to get him to shut up." There was a long pause. "Davey? You still there?" Jack asked tentatively. When his friends did things that could be classified as stupid, Davey had a tendency to inform them all of exactly stupid it was.

"Jack Kelly," Davey began slowly, "you are an idiot." There it was. Katherine suddenly started laughing.

"I completely agree. Jack I didn't know you had such smart friends."

"Actually, it's really just Davey." Jack said, after glaring at her.

"And how did Davey get roped into such an interesting friend group?"

"I have absolutely no idea." Davey said dryly, and Katherine grinned.

"You know Davey, I think you and I are going to be good friends."

oOo

"So, you ready?" Jack looked at Katherine. She scoffed.

"Uh, no. But I don't think I ever really will be."

"Probably not." Jack responded with a grin. They were about to introduce Katherine to the boys. All of them. Katherine didn't really know why Jack thought this was a good idea, something about getting it over with all at one time. And for some reason, she had agreed. Nevertheless, they were there now. Standing outside of the deli that Jack said they went to all the time, but that Katherine had never been to before.

"Well, this is a great situation you've gotten me into then, isn't it?"

"It won't be that bad." Jack insisted, determined to do everything in his power to make Katherine like all of the boys. "They're a bit much, but they're all great guys when it comes down to it."

"Okay." Katherine nodded and they entered the restaurant. They didn't have to look very far before they spotted the group of boys at a table in the back. Almost immediately, Specs stood up and waved them over.

"Hey, Jack, over here!" It was obvious that Katherine was already a little uneasy because of the unwanted attention they were attracting, but she would later learn that she would just have to get used to that. They walked over and took the last two empty seats, and Jack began to make introductions.

"Okay, boys, this is Katherine. Katherine, you already know Davey, and that's his little brother Les with him. And that's Crutchie, Race, Romeo, Albert, Specs, Finch, Elmer, Jojo..." He pointed to each of the boys as he listed all of their names, as Katherine looked at them all in a desperate attempt to remember everyone's name, and which face each name belonged too.

"Don't worry if you don't remember them all." Crutchie looked over at her from the other side of Jack. "It took Buttons over there almost two weeks to learn everyone's names." The boy in questioned glared at Crutchie, but Katherine smiled as she realized that maybe Jack's friends were nicer than she'd originally thought.

AN: So the new cover for this story is just kind of meh, but the picture is cute, and I've never been good at that stuff. Aaanyway, not much happened I'm this chapter, unfortunately the beginning is pretty slow (I think, I'm really just making up the plot as I go and getting lucky that inspiration has not run out). I hope you enjoyed it!