A/N: if you don't like, don't read and don't flame. Thanks.

Disclaimer: School of Rock belongs to me. I WISH.

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Oh snap. Sheila was crying again.

Katie tiredly pushed herself up with her elbows and attempted to get the bright numbers on her alarm clock into focus. It was FOUR in the morning. She already had already gotten up at one to feed her, play with her and sing her to sleep, which she hadn't until three, and here she was, wailing loudly just one hour later.

Katie sighed as she rubbed her eyes and walked over to the neighboring room to check on Sheila, pain shooting up her legs with every step that she took. Damn, her muscles hurt so badly.

She walked into Sheila's room, the blinding yellow of the room's walls practically shining as brightly as Sheila's personality. Figuratively speaking, of course.

She took her bubbly one year old sister out of her bed and sat on Sheila's bed, which creaked under her weight, placing Sheila comfortably on her lap. Katie looked at the tattered blanket her little sister was forced to sleep under every night.

She felt guilty that her sister had to sleep in such bad conditions every night. She tried to earn and save up some money, but she still couldn't afford a proper blanket. That extra bed had always been there and it was the only available space for Sheila to sleep on.

Katie took out Sheila's favorite teddy bear and let her cuddle it, while singing her to sleep again.

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The faint sound of her alarm clock echoed through the empty house. Katie shot up as though the bed had burnt her, and looked down to see Sheila tucked away safely in her bed, holding her teddy bear tight, squishing its face into her collar bone.

She managed to take a shower, throw on her usual pair of black jeans and pull her huge dark blue sweatshirt over her CBGB tank top, all in seven minutes. She pulled on her socks, her old worn black track shoes, and grabbed her school bag along with the house key on the way out.

'KATIE!' an extremely loud and high-pitched voice woke her up for the fourth time that morning. She slowly raised her head off her desk and glared at Summer for screeching in her ear.

Unfazed by the evil eye Katie was giving her, summer rambled on about the sleepover the band would be having at Dewey's new house.

'Whoa, whoa, wait. What sleepover? And Dewey has a new place?'

Summer sighed. 'Where have you been this past year? We've always had band sleepovers once a month! Remember the one at Marta's last month? Oh no, wait, you didn't come, did you? By the way, you still haven't told me why you…'

Katie tuned out of Summer's blabbering and picked at the eraser dust on her table, probably left there from the previous days' class. She had not gone to the previous three sleepovers as she had to stay at home to take care of Sheila. That was when it all started. Her lack of sleep, her deteriorating friendships, all the stress of taking care of the house…

As suddenly as it had come, Summer's loud, annoying voice stopped as their teacher, Mrs. Webber walked briskly into the classroom and greeted them.

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-LUNCH-

'KATIE! KAAATIEE!'

Oh god, no.

Marta ran up to her, as she had done every morning, and began the grueling process of persuading Katie to join the cheerleading team again.

'Marta, you've been bugging me about this for the whole of this year, what makes you think that I'll be joining that stupid team of preps anytime soon?'

'Come on! It'll be loads of fun!' Marta's voice had grown to become quite screechy, due to her frequent squealing and screaming during cheerleading practices. The band had somewhat ignored the fact that one of the backup singers from their ROCK band had turned into a semi-prep, but Dewey had developed a certain dislike for Marta because of it.

Katie grabbed her filled tray of cafeteria food while ignoring Marta and sat down at the school of rock's 'official eating table'. The band had become very widely-known after their first battle of the bands and their popularity had grown steadily over the past four years.

All the band members, roadies, and groupies were already seated at the table and Katie's heart sank as she realized that the only seat left was next to the arrogant drummer. She couldn't stand Freddy. Though all their fame and popularity had not inflated his ego, unlike Zack and Lawrence, she could not quite figure out why he constantly bugged her.

'Jones, move.' She commanded. He was taking up enough space for two people on the bench, leaving no space for Katie.

Freddy didn't even look at her as he continued eating.

'OH KATIE! YOU CAN SIT WITH US!'

Marta? She wants me to sit with the cheerleaders! Like hell I will.

'You know, Katie. You never did tell us why Marta's always pestering you to join cheerleading. It's not like she's trying to get anyone else to join. Is there something you'd like to tell us?' Summer asked casually.

There was a terrible secret behind that story. The truth was, the money that Katie got from playing gigs in the School of Rock was barely enough to support paying for everything. The house, her school fees, supplies for Sheila; everything was extremely expensive. She was forced to take up the first part-time job that she could find, which happened to be a professional dancer.

Her parents had always thought that a 'proper young lady' had to know how to dance, so they had made her take up ballet and salsa classes when she had been younger. To compensate for them, they had let Katie take up hip-hop as well.

Marta knew about her excellent dancing skills. How? It was one big coincidence. It was a coincidence that Katie was performing her hip-hop solo. It was a coincidence that Marta had walked into the theatre she had been performing in. It was a coincidence that Marta had seen Katie.

Marta had gone backstage immediately and confronted Katie. She had promised that she wouldn't tell, but it sure didn't stop her from constantly trying to get Katie to join cheerleading. In return, Katie had to do Marta's homework for a month. It was a childish thing to do, and Marta knew it, but Katie had always managed to get her work done very fast and Marta never had any time, as 'the mall' took up too much of her time.

Katie ignored Summer's questioning gaze, slammed her tray of food onto the table in front of Frankie -who looked at it hungrily- and swiftly walked away.

'Freddy, man, why did you do that?' Zack exclaimed 'we already know she doesn't eat enough as it is and she doesn't listen to us when we try to force feed her. You don't have to make our job harder, you know!'

Freddy looked up at Zack. 'Okay man, I get it, I'll go apologize. Don't get so pissed, it's just a girl.'

'Yeah, a girl who will be ANOREXIC soon if we don't watch out for her!' Alicia shot back.

Freddy got up and went in the direction that Katie had left minutes before. Crap. He didn't know what her next class was. He checked all the classrooms, as well as the lockers, but she was nowhere to be found. He decided, after twenty minutes, to just go to his biology class and apologize to her after school or at the band practice or something.

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-KATIE, AFTER SHE LEFT-

Katie walked sleepily to her biology class and sat down at her usual seat, even though it would probably be twenty minutes before everyone started coming in.

She stared at the table in front of her, and couldn't help but feel that she had forgotten something. She soon realized how exhausted she was and fell asleep on her table in front of her.

She woke up –how many times had she done that today? - just before her class was about to start and shot out of her seat, the books on her lap falling on the floor.

SHEILA! SHE HAD FORGOTTEN TO FEED SHEILA IN THE MORNING!

Grabbing her books from the floor, she ran out of the classroom and crashed straight into a certain blonde drummer at the door. She gathered her books again and ran down the hallway and out of the school, ignoring Summer and Freddy who were shouting after her.

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A/N: okay, I think this fic may end up being quite long, cause Freddy and Katie are still at the 'hating' stage… and there's quite a lot of stuff to come. I'll try to update soon.