Chapter 8: YOU LITTLE CHICKEN NUGGET

I arrive at school on Monday morning with Bubbles, who I gave a lift, since she doesn't have her own car. I explained my weekend to her and she let out a bunch of girly squeals, she's still giggly now. We walk towards my locker and meet up with Kate and Chloe. Chloe's moved on from her boyfriend, I'm pretty sure that she's got someone else in mind 🙄.

Bubbles explains to them my entire weekend and Chloe jumps up and down with Bubbles while Kate chews on her gum and walks over to me.

"This guy could be different to all the others," she tells me.

"Pfft, you mean nice smelling, kind, good looking? Nope, he's the total opposite, same as all the others," I say, stuffing some books in my bag. Kate raises her eyebrows at me, chewing on her gum.

"I'm the exact opposite of what?" I turn and see Alex leaning against the lockers on my right. He has his sunglasses on top of his dark, curly head, and is wearing a plain white shirt with his leather jacket. He's chewing on a toothpick again.

"Nothing," I shove the books in my bag, looking away from him, worried he'll see me checking him out. I pull out my sweatshirt and chuck it over my singlet top because it is a pretty overcast day. I pull my hair out and look over at Alex, he stares at me.

"Alex? What's wrong?" I ask, shutting my locker.

"Nothing," he shakes his head and stands up. I look over to my friends to see them walking away.

"Well done, you scared them off," I huff and start walking. He jogs after me.

"Me! Scare girls off? No way!" he smirks.

"You obviously do, given that there aren't any girls left here," I say.

"You're a girl. You're still here," he smirks again.

"I thought I was a dude, remember?"

"Oh, yeah," he flicks me.

"Would you stop flicking me?" I say, shoving him.

"Would you stop shoving me?" he says. "People could say you just can't keep your hands to yourself."

"Did you just quote Selena Gomez?" I ask.

"I didn't mean to," he grins, I roll my eyes but smile nevertheless.

"Oh, yeah, you left yesterday before I could thank you," I stop outside my classroom, taking my books out of my bag and placing them on my hip.

"For what?" he scrunches his face up.

"For, you know, picking me up, taking me home," I say. "And I'm sorry for being stubborn."

"Its fine, I shouldn't have let you walked out the door," he looks down.

"I'm too stubborn."

"I'm too arrogant."

"Well, you came after me."

"Yeah, so would've anyone."

"I'm sorry for being such a drama queen, fainting and all that," I roll my eyes.

"Knowing you, there must've been a reason behind it," Alex says, I raise my eyebrows at him.

He's right though. After I transferred schools , I befriended a girl called Susan. She and I had only been friends for a couple of weeks before I heard that she had been kidnapped. They searched for a month before finding her remains a couple of kilometers away from the school. They found the man who kidnapped her and he was sent to jail. It traumatized me, when we went to Paris I almost forgot about it as I got older. I did manage to see a picture of the man's face on the news. He had a scraggly beard and sunken eyes, he had dirty clothes and a beanie, his hair was past his shoulders and he looked very much the same as the guy from yesterday.

I smile at Alex and swallow. He notices this. "Hey, hey, hey nothing happened, you're safe," he puts his hands on my shoulders and brushes a lock of hair behind my ear and I look up, his eyes widen and he mumbles a "bye," before walking away at full speed. I stare after him, a slight blush on my cheeks.

I turn to go into the classroom and I see Amanda standing in the hallway, staring at me with an angry face, breathing heavily. I quickly turn around and walk into the classroom. I sit at a desk and swing my bag underneath. Amanda walks in a couple of seconds later and crosses her arms as she walks past me.

I take out my book and pencil case. I start doodling before I hear a voice behind me. "Hey! I know you!" I turn to face the girl behind me. She smiles. I recognize her, she's the model I was talking to at the shoot. Her dark hair puffs behind her in a messy bun, and she rocks her trendy glasses.

"Yeah! I saw you at that modelling thing I did?"

"Yup!" she pops the 'p'. "You know Alex Collins then?"

"I wish I didn't," I scoff.

She smiles. "You guys are so cute, so many girls are jealous."

"Cute? That's the opposite of what we are," I say.

"You even have nicknames for each other!"

"We don- Oh... Yeah."

"You actually call him babe! Are you not together?"

I gag. "I would never dream of it!"

"Because you won't allow yourself to?"

"No, because it would be a nightmare not a dream."

She sighs. "I don't understand how you don't find him the most beautiful person that walked on the earth! Girls would give a million dollars to have what you have with him!"

"I'll give it to them for free."

"Then you'd hate yourself."

"Nope, I'd love myself."

She smiles. "I'm Meghan."

"Natalie," I shake her hand professionally and we laugh.

"But seriously, don't you think he's good looking?" she says. I look down and fidget with my pen. "Oh My God! You do!"

"Nope, nope, nope," I say.

"You totally-" she's cut off by the teacher who begins the lesson, I'm really thankful. I write notes until the lesson finished. I pack up my bag and walk out, Meghan hurries along behind me.

"I think you've got someone watching you," she whispers and I turn my head around. I see a boy watching me. He quickly walks out of the classroom and whips his head around when I turn to look. He's got curly hair and brown eyes. His hair isn't as curly or as dark as Alex's. He's got a muscular build, although, while Alex is lean, this guy's more bulky. He is tall, around my height, but not close to Alex's. He has small lips and a long nose. He's pretty good looking, but nowhere near as hot as Alex.

Oh my God. Did I just compare him to Alex?

"Oh," I turn to Meghan. "Where do you sit at lunch?"

"Oh, well usually I go to the library, people have invited me to sit with them at lunch, but nah, I'd prefer to look at things interweb."

"Oh, well, if, for one day, you wanted to come sit with me, you'd be welcome to!" I say, smiling at her.

"I might take you up on that offer today, actually, the only websites I have yet to investigate are gossip girl magazines, and I do not wanna read them," she smiles and we walk off to the cafeteria together.

***

I take a bite out of my cheese pizza and introduce Meghan to everyone. Its pretty easy to separate the group, on one side there is Jasmine, Sienna and Millie, and on the other there is Bubbles and Kate, and now Chloe and I. Meghan sits down on Kate's and my side. Bubbles basically ties the group together, speaking to everyone.

"So this is Meghan, everyone," the girls wave and introduce themselves.

"So Meghan, you model at the same place that Alex Collins does?" Chloe asks, sipping her milkshake.

"Yeah, he's, like, a big star," Meghan replies.

"Pffft. Why?" I ask.

"Have you seen him, gurl?" Bubbles waves her hands around frantically.

"Well, I've seen him, but, like, no?" I eat my pizza, coughing as I choke on some cheese.

"Well, she admitted to me in Geography that she thought he was hot," Meghan eats her sandwich.

"No I didn't!" I say, glaring at her.

"Come on Nat, we all know you love him," Chloe says. I glare at her.

"They are destined to be," Bubbles says dreamily.

"I hate him! I would never think of 'being with him' he's a gross, disgusting slug," I put my pizza down and turn to look over at Kate, she's usually with me on this.

Kate shrugs. "Go for it babe, I approve of this dude," she points her straw over at his table and I turn around to glare at him even if he isn't looking. I see him and his friends at a table, talking to Amanda. She puts her hand on his arm and he looks disgusted, GOOD ON YA BRUH.  He flicks her hand off and says something to her. She puts her hand back on and I see his eyes flick over to me, he looks surprised I'm looking, but quickly looks away. He says something to Amanda before pulling her in and kissing her. My heart starts to beat. Well, that changed quickly.

I turn around and look at my pizza. It doesn't look that appetizing any more. "You guys want this?" I ask, looking up at them. Kate, Meghan and Chloe look at me sadly, I turn to Bubbles, who looks like she's about to burst.

"YOU LOVE HIM YOU LITTLE CHICKEN NUGGET!" she claps and woops. I smile at her before shaking my head and rolling my eyes. I turn to my other friends, who still look at me sadly. I push the pizza towards them and gather my things.

"I'm going to go borrow a book from the library, help yourself," I gesture to my pizza. I walk away and they descend into hushed chatter, I sigh as I walk out of the room, avoiding Alex's gaze that I can feel burning into the back of my head.

***

I walk into the library and borrow my book for English. I sit down in a corner just as the rain starts to drizzle. I smile to myself and curl up among the pillows, leaning my head on the window and feeling the water pitter patter down the glass.

I'm about a chapter into the book - which I'm really enjoying - when I feel eyes on me. I see the boy Meghan pointed out walking around the shelves.

"Hi?" I say, waving cautiously.

"Um... Hi," the boy sits down next to me. "I'm Noah."

"Natalie," I shake his hand which is extended politely.

"I'm sorry, I've just been walking around here..." I raise my eyebrows, waiting for him to continue. "Well, the French teacher told me that you and I are top of the class, and that she wanted us to do the brochures for the open day thing."

"Oh, that's all?" I laugh. "Sure."

"Oh, great, thank you so much."

I laugh. "When will we start?"

"Oh, I'll contact you," he gets up to leave.

"Um... do you need my number?" I ask, raising my eyebrows.

"Oh, yeah, haha, sorry," he grabs out his phone and hands it to me. I put my number in and wave goodbye. That was awkward.

***

I walk out of school after all my friends have gone home, I guess I'll just have to walk in the rain. I fold my arms across my chest and lower my head, walking forwards. I spot my car a hundred meters away and internally groan.

"Nat!" I see Alex chasing me with an umbrella in hand. I turn back around when I see him and walk faster. "Nat!" he runs after me. The umbrella is waving around, so he's getting soaked. I stop and wait for him.

"What?"

"Did you need this?" he holds the umbrella out to me, the rain pouring down on him.

"No. You keep it," I push it back to him and walk faster.

"Nat, c'mon!" he says. "At least let me walk you to your car."

"I'm fine thanks," I say and walk faster.

"Nat! I don't want you getting soaked," he says, catching up to me.

"Yeah, but then you'll get soaked," I say, walking faster and faster, the umbrella is over me and Alex is soaking wet. We argue all the way to my car. I turn to it then pout at him. "Guess you did walk me to my car, huh."

"Yup!" he says proudly. I open the car and roll my eyes. "Are you OK? You left the cafeteria early today," I look up at him in the eyes, even though the rain drizzles in between us I still see a look that I can't place in them.

"I, um, I needed to go borrow a book," I step into my car and he pulls the umbrella back over himself. He shuts my door and I wind down the window. "Well, thanks for that, sugar pie," I smile and he smiles back, his eyes sparkling.

"Anything for you Greg," he says.

"Yup. Thanks for yesterday too, again, sorry for being a drama queen," I roll my eyes.

"No, I'm sorry, I shouldn't have let you leave like that," he mumbles, scratching the back of his neck and looking to the ground.

"Aw, is little Alex Collins apologizing? I'm so proud of you Patricia," I smirk. He looks up and glares at me.

"I'll see you tomorrow," he winks and turns around. I check my texts for a few minutes before driving off. I see Alex walking through the rain. His umbrella is by his side and turned out and its getting windier and windier, there's lighting in the sky.

"What happened to the umbrella?" I ask, pulling up beside him. He looks at me and runs a hand through his hair.

"A kangaroo jumped on it," he says. I laugh.

"C'mon, get in, I'll drive you to your car."

"Hallelujah!" he mumbles under his breath. I smile. Alex walks around and gets in.

"Wowie. You're soaking," I reach over into the backseat and pull out a blanket. I hand it to him and he dries his hair. "What the flip babe? Why're you drying it?"

"What'm I s'posed to do?" he asks me.

"Um, maybe keep yourself warm?" I say, narrowing my eyes and shaking my head at him  sarcastically.

"I'm a boy, I don't do that."

"Last time I checked, you're a girl, sweet heart," I say.

"Of course," he says, but throws the blanket back into the back seat.

"Where is your car?"

"Just here," he points about ten meters away and I stop there.

"Bye Alex."

"See you tomorrow, Greg."

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Sorry.... This was a pretty horrible and un-eventful chapter...

BUT STILL -please vote and comment!