SOUNDTRACK:  "Wolves" - Kanye West

Kate was halfway through signing her name on the list for the crew of RENT when the door she was writing on swung open and the pen slid across the page, leaving a long black line down half of the paper. She cursed under her breath and looked up to find Professor Hall standing in front of her.

"Signing up to audition?" he asked hopefully.

She shook her head. "No. The crew. I don't have time with soccer practice."

"Shame. I would have liked to see how you got on singing," he replied with a sad smile. "To see if you had your dad's talent."

She watched him walk away for a moment before running after him. "Sir!" she called. He stopped and turned to face her. "You didn't cast me just because of who my dad is, did you?" she asked.

"Of course not!" he said. "You have talent, girl. I wouldn't have cast you if you didn't. I hope to see you at the next auditions if you're not doing these."

Kate nodded and smiled weakly. "Sure, we'll see."

In truth, she didn't know what was going to happen by the next time auditions were going to take place. Since Sloan had dropped her little kernel of knowledge a few days ago, Kate had been walking on eggshells and keeping her head down, waiting for the other shoe to drop. She was walking toward her locker when she was once again cornered by Olivia Garland. The girl was like a bad case of herpes that just kept popping up just when you thought you'd gotten rid of it.

Kate sighed heavily as she opened her locker. "What do I owe this pleasure, Olivia."

"You're sleeping with Jared Leto?!" she hissed.

Kate whipped her head around so fast, she was surprised her neck didn't snap. "What?!"

Olivia leaned against the lockers. "He's so fucking hot. I heard he's into BDSM. Is that true?"

Kate tried to keep the horror off of her face as she struggled to keep her breakfast down at the same time. The idea of anyone suggesting she and Jared were doing...that...made her stomach turn. But the fact that Olivia believed it was more alarming to her.

"I - I - who told you that?" she asked the older girl.

"Sloan Harlowe did. I mean, it makes a lot of sense if you're living with him, you know?" Olivia tittered on. "Ugh, God I'd give anything for him to choke me."

Kate slammed her locker shut, making the other girl jump and drawing several glances from other students. "First of all, Sloan Harlowe is a no good gossip. Second, what you're suggesting is illegal and...and...disgusting! I'm sixteen. Why the hell would Jared Leto want a sixteen year old when he can have any woman he wants? LEGAL women."

She started walking away from Olivia, but she followed her. "So it's true, then? You're sleeping with him?" she asked. "I heard he's got a huge dick. Is it true?"

"For the love of all that is good and holy, Olivia stop," Kate said. "Why are you so worried about this gossip? It's not true."

"Sloan said he kissed her," Olivia said softly as several teachers walked by them.

"Give me strength," Kate muttered to the ceiling.

It was becoming increasingly apparent that Olivia would work things out on her own. And if it were left up to Sloan, the 'truth' would be a ghastly one. Kate needed at least one person on her side through all of this. She couldn't keep Sloan at bay on her own and her method of simply ignoring the stares and whispers wasn't going to do any good if Sloan kept on with her attacks.

"Come here," Kate said, yanking the girl after her into an empty meeting room.

"What?" Olivia asked in surprise as Kate shut the door.

"Now, just shut up. For five minutes, please, just shut up and let me talk. Because I don't think I can repeat it," Kate started. Olivia's blue eyes were wide as saucers. Kate swallowed thickly before speaking again. "It's true - that I'm living with Jared Leto," she said. "It's not true that I'm sleeping with him. Because that would be absolutely disgusting given the fact that I'm his daughter." Olivia's mouth popped open and she resembled a dead fish. "You cannot tell anyone about this, Olivia. Because, I swear to God, if you do I'll break your neck myself."

The other teen got her wits about her fairly quickly. "I won't. I promise. No one will hear it from me."

And just like that, Kate found herself bonded to the most unlikely of people, in the most unlikely of ways. Kate bit her lip and sighed.

"Why can't other people know about it?" Olivia asked.

"Because he doesn't want them to," Kate said softly. "And I'm not really sure I want them to, either."

"Why not?" Olivia scowled. "If my dad or mom was an Academy Award winner, I'd scream it to the Hills and back."

"I don't want people to use me to get closer to him," Kate explained. "And that goes for you, too. Don't think that just because I've told you, you'll get to meet him or anything. Because you won't."

The other girl nodded. "I'm not gonna use you."

Kate scoffed. "How could you not? You want to be an actress so badly that it's coming out of your pores."

"I know, but I'm not going to rat you out or anything. I don't want to get famous that way," Olivia assured her. "It wouldn't look good for me if someone found out."

They stood in silence for several minutes before Olivia spoke.

"You know, you do kind of look like him, now that I think about it," she remarked.

"Same eyes," Kate sighed. She was beginning to understand how Harry Potter had felt. "I know."

"Well what are you gonna do about Sloan?" Olivia asked. "She's saying some pretty nasty shit."

Kate bit her lip as her mind raced. This was definitely not something she could just ignore. She had to tell Jared.

"I'm gonna tell him. I have to," Kate said.

She pulled her cell phone out and selected Jared's number, hiding the screen from Olivia. He picked up after the second ring.

"This is Jared," he said automatically.

"Jared it's me," Kate started, ignoring Olivia's squeal of excitement.

"Why are you calling me? Aren't you at school?" he asked.

"I am - it's - look, there's something I think you need to hear," Kate replied. "I'm gonna put you on speaker. There's someone here who needs to tell you something."

"What?" he asked. "Kate what are you doing?"

Kate put the phone on speaker and held it out for Olivia to speak. She gave the starstruck girl a stern look, urging her to respond quickly.

"Hi, Mr. Leto - er, Jared...sir," Olivia stammered. "Big fan."

"What the hell is going on?" he practically screeched.

"Olivia just tell him what Sloan told you," Kate insisted.

"She told me that you and - and Kate were...sleeping...together," Olivia said uncertainly.

There was silence on the other end of the call. Then Jared spoke.

"Kate please take me off of speaker," Jared said. When she had, he continued. "Who is that? And how the fuck does she know about this?"

"She's a girl from school. Sloan told her you and I were...whatever...and she asked if it was true. I had to tell her," she answered.

He sighed. She could hear the tension in his voice. "I think I need to get Robin in on this," he said. "And get Sloan to stop this shit."

"How? How are you going to get her to stop?" Kate asked.

"Don't worry about it. I'll handle it. Put Olivia back on the phone," he said. 

She looked over at the other girl with wide-eyed confusion. "He wants to talk to you," she said, putting the phone on speaker again. 

"Olivia, I want you to confirm that everything you're saying is true," Jared asked as politely and calmly as he could. 

"It is. Sloan Harlowe first said that Kate was living with you and then added that you two were...you know...together," Olivia replied haltingly. 

"Thank you," he said. "I will talk to you when you get home, Kate. Olivia, please do not share this information with anyone else."

With that, he ended the call. Kate looked to Olivia. "I have no idea what he means when he says he's going to handle it," she said. 

"I just talked to Jared Leto," Olivia whispered, her face in rapture.

Kate rolled her eyes and walked toward the door. "I'm going to class. Please remember not to tell anyone."

Jared was fuming. He knew it wasn't Kate's fault, but he couldn't help but blame her. If she had just checked with him before bringing that girl over, none of this would have happened. He'd have cleared out of the house and no one's tongue would have been down anyone else's throat. The threat of the rumors gaining traction and getting out hung over his head for at least two hours before he finally decided what he needed to do. He spent the time sitting in a marketing meeting, deaf to everything but the words going round and round in his head. 

When the meeting let out, he had Shayla cancel all of his afternoon appointments and left the Compound for Winterlake. Everyone was in class and the Quad was completely empty as he walked quickly across the campus to the main office. He breezed past the secretary and went right into Headmistress Choi's office. She looked up at him in shock as he shut the door behind him and sat in front of her desk. 

"I'm afraid I'll have to call you back, Roger," she said, ending her phone call. "Mr. Leto, this is rather unusual. To what do I owe this surprise?"

"Jaclyn, we have a problem," he said, leveling her with his gaze. 

She blinked rapidly before responding. "What exactly seems to be the problem?" she asked. 

"One of your students is spreading malicious rumors about myself and my daughter, Jaclyn. It needs to be stopped and she needs to be dealt with," he said cooly. 

The headmistress blinked in surprise. "What are you talking about?"

 "A student by the name of Sloan Harlowe is spreading lewd rumors about Kate and...myself," he said, crossing his arms. "I want you to make her stop."

Jaclyn folder her hands on her desk. "What do these rumors say?"

He swallowed. "That I have an inappropriate relationship with Kate." 

That seemed to be all the headmistress needed to hear. "I will handle it immediately. Thank you for bringing it to my attention."

"I just want the rumor shut down," he said. "If you expel her or do anything like that, you'll only confirm that whatever she's saying is supposed to be hidden."

Jaclyn nodded. "Of course, Jared. As one of our biggest donors, and given your situation, I completely understand the desire to end rumors before they get strong footing. As I said, I will do my best to get to the bottom of this and make sure the rumors stop."

Jared sighed. "Thank you." He stood and turned for the door. "I'm sorry I barged in like this. But I didn't think it should have waited."

 "Don't worry about it. It's fine," she replied with a gentle smile. "If there's anything else I can do, please have Kate tell me. Or call."

GOSSIP BOARD

GAMMAWREYJOKER POSTED: These rumors are getting out of hand. Now someone is saying that this teenage girl and Jared are in a sexual relationship? What the hell?

HURRICANE POSTED: I wonder who the hell started that rumor. Because it absolutely cannot be true. Who did Jared piss off to cause that?"

GAMMAWREYJOKER POSTED: Well, it's not as though he hasn't been around teenagers before. Remember back when they were recording TIW and he had that house party? A bunch of teenagers came over? I hate to say it, but there are a couple stories out there from that event and neither of them are complimentary of him. 

LOSTATSEE899 POSTED: I don't follow any gossip. I for one and holding out that this has got to be his child. But until we see her face, we don't really know. I mean, assuming she's under 18, which she likely is, that would mean she was born right after they started the band. And we all know how absolutely wild those days were for Jared and Shannon. Sure, he's calmed down considerably now, but back then he was at sex clubs all the time, he was hooking up with people, he was trying to become more famous and spent a good deal of time in the press. It's not out of the realm of possibility.

HURRICANE POSTED: Let's say this is his daughter. Why the hell would he start spending time with her now? I always thought that if he were to have a baby mama he'd be responsible, but stay out of the kid's life. Don't know why; that's just the way I see him. He's too selfish to do much of anything else in my eyes.