Chapter 9: I was downright depressed

"Natalie!" my mum bursts into my room, carrying a bag of clothes. I immediately know this isn't going to be good.

"Yes Mum?" I finish folding clothes and turn to look at her.

"I bought you something!" she sings.

"Ok... Why?" I question as she lays the bag down on my bed.

"For the dress up day tomorrow!" she winks and walks out. I don't understand. Why did I not get notified?

"Everyday is a free dress day in America," I roll my eyes and walk over to the bag. I pick it up, look in, and groan.

"Hiiiiii! Ms Bennett!" I hear Bubbles call from downstairs. She lives a couple of streets away so we sometimes drive to school together and she's always welcome in our house. I swear she has a spare key.

"NATALIE!" Bubbles bursts into my room, a bag swinging around her wrist, her too? What is this nonsense?

"Yeah?" I ask, taking out my outfit and scrunching my nose up as I hold it up.

"OOOOOOOOOOOOH! Yaassssss! Kate is obsessed with that show!" she runs over to me and looks at the outfit over my shoulder. I look at the yellows striped patterned outfit in front of me.

"She's obsessed with Clueless? Really?"

"Yup," Bubbles pops the 'p'.

"So what're you going as?" I put the yellow flannel patterned outfit down and look at her, she must already be in on this, so I ask.

"Well, since you gave me that nickname, I though't I'd go as Bubbles from power puff girls!"

I laugh. "Cool," I walk into my walk in robe and hang the outfit up. .

"I'm staying the night too, to get ready!" She holds up her bag and jiggles it. I smile.

"Sure," I say, walking out of the walk in robe, this is going to be a long night.

***

It turns out Bubble's didn't just bring her outfit for tomorrow and toothbrush. She brought some chocolate and a packet of chips as well. She is currently running around the room like a ninja and laughing so hard tears are streaming down her face. Its difficult to watch without giggling.

"LET'S CALL ADELE!" she screams before giggling again. She's lucky my walls are sound proof. She literally frog jumps over to my computer and calls Adele. "HIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII!"

"Um.. Hi, Bubbles?" Adele raises her eyebrows, turning from Bubbles and looking at me. I shrug and eat a chip. Bubbles jumps quickly over to my bed with the laptop and lays it down.

"I've had some chocolate," she giggles.

"Oh, gosh... I should've known," Adele says.

"This is why I've decided not to drink alcohol," she shrugs. "Who knows what I'm capable of doing!" she giggles. I think all I've been hearing from her all night is 'hehehehehehe."\'

She throws a pillow up and down and catches it. "Hehehehehehe, bl-" she flashes her hands and giggles. "Bl-" she laughs again, breathing heavily after she does the weird I'm-laughing-but-not-making-a-noise-now-I-can't-breath thing.

"BLINKER!" she falls off the bed and hits her head on the floor. "Ow," she says before laughing again. Adele and I make wide eyes at each other.

"Adele..." I turn my head from Bubbles to my friend's face on the computer, "I'm going as Cher from clueless for a dress up day thing tomorrow and Bubbles is going as Bubbles from power puff girls-"

"Poppy puff!" Bubbles yells from the ground.

"-what're your thoughts?"

"That's alright. Can I see your outfit?" I go into the closet and get my outfit out. When I come back I see Bubbles showing Adele her blue dress. It's a cute little dress that flows down around her legs, up to her knees.

"I love this dress!" she says, holding it to herself and twirling. "I'm going to the bathroom!" she says.

"Ok," I wave her off and she exits into my bathroom, leaving the room peaceful and quite. "This is it."

"Oh, that's nice, your mum bought it for you I s'pose?" she asks.

"Yup."

"Ok well, straighten your hair and put a black head band in it - I know you have one - and wear knee white socks with white high heels."

"High heels? WHAT?" I say, groaning. I know I can't go against Adele's wishes, she does have the best style in fashion...

"C'mon, I know you wanna impress that guy," she raises her eye brows and smiles.

"Alex is an annoying nugget, ew," I say, walking back into the closet and putting my outfit back on the hanger. I walk back outside to hear Bubble's giggles.

"Hehehehe, I cut it! See Nat! I cut it!" she holds up the dress and I see she's cut half the bottom off.

"CLAUDIA! WHY!"

"Because I felt like it," she giggles and flops onto the bed. I shake my head at her and throw out our chip-and-chocholate rubbish, picking up her dress and walking over to my sewing machine.

"What're you doing?" she asks me, getting up and walking over to me.

"I've gotta sew this so people will just think that you bought it like this and not that you LITERALLY CUT IT UP!" she is so going to regret this tomorrow. Bubbles shrugs and walks back over to the bed, chatting to Adele.

"You are going to be one depressed little Bubble tomorrow," I mumble, shaking my head as I sew.

***

And indeed she was. When Bubbles woke up she yawned and stretched, before widening her eyes and running over to her dress, groaning in misery as she holds it up.

"WHY DID I DO THIS?" she yells.

"I dunno? You were drunk on sugar? No, you were high," I say.

"Yeah, I was obviously as high as Mount Everest," she mumbles. I laugh. "You're going as Cher right? From Clueless?" she asks.

"Yeah - actually, I have a better idea," I spring up and walk towards my closet.

"Okay, don't tell me then," she sighs and walks into the bathroom to get changed.

I get changed into my new and improved out fit and emerge a few minutes later. Bubbles smiles at me, immediately guessing who I am.

We hop into my car and travel to school, belting out the lyrics to "Hideaway," by Daya.

We walk into school together and are greeted by Meghan, Kate and Chloe. Bubbles keeps whining and tugging on her skirt, throwing suspicious looks around when people look at her.

"Why did I do this?" she groans, hoists her bag onto her shoulder, taking a deep breath, she stands up and opens her eyes. "I will survive this day! No matter how much the wind feels like I'm doing a fluff in reverse," she says. Meghan laughs and I smile at her. Bubbles walks in front of us, her head held high. We walk after her, laughing.

"Who're you?" an arm snakes around my waist and I immediately push Alex off me, rolling my eyes.

"My name is Natalie Bennett," I say, walking away, trying to catch up to my friends. He pulls me back.

"No, I believe that's me," he says and I whip around. He's wearing jeans and a baggy pink T-shirt.

"Puh-lease, when have a ever worn a bright pink shirt?" I raise an eyebrow. "Where did you get that from anyway?"

"Oh, haha, my Mum's sister gave it to her because she thought she was much 'larger'" he quotes with his fingers. "Since when did I ever wear a cap?" he asks me.

"I had to use something to hold my hair up! And I got everything else right, the leather jacket, the toothpick - actually do you have some kind of dental issues? Why do you suck on a pointy little stick?" I ask.

"Well, I like it better off," he reaches over my head and pulls the cap off, stuffing it in my bag and ruffling my hair.

"You ruined the boy aspect of my outfit!" I pout.

"You'll survive," he walks off. Idiot.

***

I walk into the gymnasium for a seniors assembly.

"Are you excited?!" Bubbles runs over to me, pulling on her dress.

"About what?" I question.

"The retreat day thingomiboby!" she says.

"The what?"

"The retreat thingomiboby!"

"Yeah, gee, thanks for giving me context," I huff, pulling on my bag strap.

"Its this thing all the seniors have to do every year. We get to sit on pillows and meet new people. But from what I've heard, you just sit around and talk to friends," Kate walks over, biting into an apple. Chloe and Meghan are with her.

"Oh, OK," I say. Chloe, Kate, Meghan, Bubbles and I walk over to a group of pillows and sit down. Siena, Jasmine and Millie are sitting with some other girls so they don't bother inviting us over. There are still four pillows in our little area, waiting to be filled. We talk about different things, school, music, celebrities, nuggets (Bubbles introduced that topic, saying she though nuggets were like people. She said she thought that some nuggets were soggy and some were wholesome...?) and boys, Kate and I tuned out of that last one.

"Hi," we all look up from our conversations to see Noah standing there, glancing at us nervously. He looks around at all the other taken spots and back at us. "Can I sit here?" he asks.

"Sure, sure, of course!" I pat the spot beside Meghan and he sits down gratefully. We continue with our nugget conversation and I glance over at Noah. "You all good?" he's fidgeting with his bag strap, adjusting then re-adjusting it.

"Yeah, yeah, I'm fine. My friends forgot to save a spot for me, that's all," he flicks a hand in the direction behind me and I look over my shoulder at the jocks, laughing and joking with all the wannabe barbie dolls surrounding them.

"You're friends with them?" I ask, raising an eyebrow,

"Yeah? Is that surprising?" he chuckles awkwardly.  Noah keeps glancing over my shoulder at his friends but I ignore it.

I laugh lightly. "What do we do for the French club thingo?"

"French club?"

"The thing you were talking about yesterday," I say.

"Oh, yeah, its-" he is interrupted by the headmistress on the stage. I swivel around and face her.

"Welcome to the annual senior retreat day!" she smiles forcibly. Everyone woops and claps. "Its going to be a great day for you all, please meet some new people! After the meeting and greeting we will pla-" she is interrupted by the door banging open by Alex and his friends.

"Sorry Miss Lestrange! Leo here bumped into a wall," he gestures to Leo, who stares at him angrily.

"Take your place please Mr Collins," the headmistress nods at Alex. He looks around and spots my face. I roll my eyes and look away. I can feel him smirk behind me. He walks over to us and I swear I hear all the girls swoon as he walks by them.

"Hey Dude," he plonks down next to me and whispers in my ear. Miss Lestrange continues with her speech and I turn to Alex.

"Hello Patricia," I say.

"Are you excited to meet me, Mate?"

"No, and I wasn't the first time either. I was downright depressed."

"Good to know," he nods and smirks.

"Ok, well now I'd like to continue listening to the headmistress, as we're supposed to be doing. So, goodbye, honeybunchkins," I hear him snicker as I swivel around, that was a very awkward conversation, I sounded like a goody two shoes. Not that that's bad or anything...

The headmistress walks out, and so do all the teachers. Oh, wow, they must really enjoy not having to teach. No one stays to supervise- even though someone is probably supposed to- and the students begin chatting. I turn to Noah and completely ignore Alex.

"Sooooo... The French programme?"

"Oh, yeah," his head snaps up from where it was, staring down at the floor. "So we've just gotta make brochures and probably tutor people in class."

"Oh, Ok cool!" I turn back around to my friends.

"Who're you?" I turn back around and glare at Alex.

"I'm Noah," Noah sticks out his hand and Alex shakes him.

"Not wanting to steal my girlfriend, correct, right mate?"

"YOUR GIRLFRIEND? What the flip babe?" Oh, oops, babe probably wasn't the best word to use. Noah looks uncomfortable. "I am NOT this douche bag's girlfriend."

"She just doesn't want all the other girls to know," Alex explains to Noah, whispering. I elbow him in the stomach and he doubles over in pain.

"Noah, I am the exact opposite of Alex's girlfriend. I hate him with all that I am."

"Oh, um, Ok," Noah pulls out his phone and quickly looks down, typing.

"Embarrassed Greg?"

"Who wouldn't be if you said that they were your girlfriend. Grow up Alex," I turn around to my friends and listen into the conversation that they are now having about Big Macs.

"Oh! Wait! We're talking about the burger. Not the laptop," Chloe says in the middle of the conversation, causing Meghan to slap a hand to her head.

***

"It is now home time. Please collect your belongings and exit the gymnasium," a voice on the loud speaker calls. People grab bags and phones, chatting to each other and walking out.

"Claudia right?" I see Callum stand up and go walk beside Bubbles.

"Yeah?" she shuffles away quickly, he catches up to her and I can barely make out what they're saying, but I listen hard.

"That's a cute dress," Callum says.

"Go away you knuckle headed dimbo f-" their voices are lost in the crowd as I see Bubble's large bow bob along the sea of students. We make it out alive before I realize something.

"I left my bag inside," I dash back inside.

"I'll come," Alex walks beside me.

"Eugh, why Alex?"

"Because you are such a forgetful little boy that you need supervising. You're so clumsy that I fear you will lose a body part one day."

I roll my eyes and pick up my bag.

"What is the time?" he asks me. I check my watch.

"Wow, its 4:30," I say. We begin walking towards the doors when all the lights turn off and the doors shut. We hear the locks close on the doors.

"Oh, my, God," I say breathlessly. We run in sync towards the doors. I try the handle but there is no way to escape.

"We're stuck together forever," Alex says.

I stare at him for a few seconds before groaning.

Great.

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Hi!

Sorry this is a pretty bad chapter in terms of editing and grammar and stuff...

But I hoped you enjoyed it! Thanks H.Hancock for the awesome idea!

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Thanks again for reading my story!