Chapter 10: Don't play Fortnite around Natalie

"HELP!" I bang on the doors, screaming my head off. Alex sits on the floor, playing a game on his phone.

"Will you shut up?" he doesn't take his eyes off his phone. "I'm pretty sure if someone was here they'd have let you out."

I slump onto the ground beside the door and take out my phone. I dial Bubbles and hold the phone up to my ear. The static sound is so loud I have to pull my phone off my ear. I groan and call Mum, Dad, Kate and Meghan. The same sound greets me.

"Alex, can I try your phone?" I ask.

"Huh?" he doesn't look up from his screen. I roll my eyes.

"Can I borro-"

"I'M NUMBER 11!" his head snaps up and he grins, I stare at him blankly.

"Anyway," I roll my eyes again. "Could I please borrow your phone? There's no signal on mine."

"Sure," he holds out his hand with the phone.

"Thanks," I say. I hold out my hand for it but he pulls it back. I groan. "Alex, please?"

"Not until I get to 8th place," he rotates his phone and looks down.

I walk over to the cupboard containing all the equipment and search in there for a good five minutes before emerging and watching Alex, waiting for the perfect time to strike. He's deep in concentration and I stalk over, ten meters in front of him.

"Hey, babe?" I ask, he drags his eyes away from his screen reluctantly. I pull back the basketball in my hands and peg it at his face. It hits him square in the head and I chase over to get the phone that releases from his hand.

I try calling Callum, because he's one of the only people I know on his contacts that go to this school, and calling his parents would be totally awkward. The static sound is there again, and I groan and turn to Alex.

"There's no reception on yours-" I turn round and my heart skips a beat. "Either..." I say slowly.

Alex is lying on the ground, sprawled out, un-moving. The basketball is still rolling metres away from him. My heart starts to pound. I crawl over to him and toss the phone aside. "Alex?" I ask. he doesn't respond. "Alex, stop mucking around, honey," I hit his face with my hands but it doesn't twitch.

"Alex? Alex? I'm serious, stop playing. Alex?" I'm starting to get really worried, my heart rate increases and I think I'd be pacing around if I was standing. "Alex? Please, are you dead?"

I sit cross legged above him and pull his head into my lap. I check his pulse, grateful that he's alive. Probably shouldn't have pegged a basketball at him...

"ALEX?" I pat his face and pull his eyelids up. "Hulloooooo?" his eyes shut and I conclude that he's only fainted. Phew.

I go in search of water and find a bottle in lost property, still half full. I pull his head back into my lap and undo the water bottle cap, an evil grin on my face. I pour it over him and he stutters, his eyes opening immediately.

"NATALIE! Dude, what the hell?" he asks, wiping the water off his face. I grin at him. "You are so annoying," he closes his eyes and sighs before his eyes open again and widen.

"You look like my brothers when Fortnite's glitching," I say to him. He looks around before sitting up and blushing. "Ha! Now you've just killed one of those warrior girls on that BORING video game."

He comes to his senses, blinking a few times before returning to himself, the trademark smirk appears on his face. "You were playing with my hair," he teases.

My grin falls. "What?"

"You were playing with my hair."

"You are legit hallucinating. Should I throw another ball at your face?"

His smirk is wiped off his face as he remembers what I did. "NATALIE! YOU LITERALLY KNOCKED ME OUT!"

"Sorry, you weren't listening. I think today you've learnt a valuable life lesson," i nod my head at him.

"Life lesson?"

"Don't play Fortnite around Natalie," I get up and run off to avoid any other conversation and to retrieve the basketball. He gets up and stumbles after me. I pick up the ball and spin around.

"Don't you dare throw that," he says, holding a hand up. I laugh, spinning back around and shooting some hoops. He joins me a couple of minutes later with another basketball. We shoot for another few minutes before I walk backwards to the middle of the court and turn around.

"What're you doing?" he asks. He isn't completely back to his usual self after that knock to the head... Whoops. He looks puzzled and scratches his head like a three year old trying to calculate how much it would cost to buy the chocolate in the supermarket windows.

I try not to laugh. "I'm seeing if I can get this in," I stop and turn to ask him another question, he seems to be psychic because he pulls out his phone and checks the time.

"Six fifty nine," he says.

"Cool," I bend down and let go of the ball as I rise. I turn around and see it sailing towards the hoop. Its about to go in! Before we can see where the ball ends up, the lights turn off and we're shrouded in darkness. I let out a little scream, I've always been a tiny bit scared of the dark.

I see Alex walk over to me, guided by the light of his phone.

"You good?" he asks. I nod, even though he can't see it. He turns on his flashlight and turns it towards my face. He walks over and checks the doors before searching the gym for a light switch. "I don't think we'll be getting out of here until morning, lets go and get some yoga mats or something to sleep on," he says.

We walk over to the cupboard and I turn on my flashlight. We search for mats but can only find one two meter by three meter mat. "That'll have to do," Ale tilts his head towards the mat in my hands after fifteen minutes of searching. Although I feel I might die of humiliation and embarrassment of sleeping with Alex, my phone is about to die as well, so I'm glad we've stopped searching and I turn off my flashlight.

Alex lays out the mat and walks over to my bag, grabbing it for me and walking over. I lie down on the mat and stuff my bag under my neck as a pillow when he passes it to me, muttering a thank you. I lie as far on one side as I possibly can so that I'm on the edge of falling off the mat. When Alex does lie down it isn't beside me. I turn my head over my shoulder and look at him. He's lying on the ground beside the mat.

"Um... Alex?" he turns and looks over at me, his eyes look into mine, a piercing blue.

"You can sleep here. I don't want you to sleep on the floor, it'll hurt you back," wow, smooth Natalie, I totally doubt that was lame.

"Its fine, clearly you don't want me to sleep with you, its OK," I suddenly feel annoyed, but sad at the same time, like his words have stabbed a tiny knife into my heart.

"Stop acting like a frog-head Alex," I snap. "You better get on this mat or I'll sleep on the ground too."

The moonlight streaming in through the windows allows me to have a perfect view of his handsome face, I study his defined jawline, his hair, messed up perfectly, his mesmerizing blue eyes staring into mine.

Snap out of it Natalie!

I stutter, blink and focusing on a random spot on the floor, its not helping that its near his perfectly toned-

Stop it, Natalie!

He raises his eyebrows at me, shocked that I'm angry at him for not sleeping on a mat with me. Wow, I'm good.

"Please? I - um - I'm scared of the dark," I mumble. He chuckles, his eyes crinkling in the corners and his mouth moving into a bright, gorgeous smile. Why the hell am I only noticing this now?

God, stop it Natalie!

"Sure," he moves himself up onto the mat and lay down beside me. I sigh with relief, those windows were a tiny bit too wide for me.

But I can't help wondering: Was that the only reason I wanted him with me tonight?

***

Sometime during the night I wake up and feel Alex's hand snaking around my waist, pulling me in closer. I would push him off, although, the room is way to dark...

It gives me a sense of security and comfort, and I feel safe in his arms. But, again, I can't help but wonder, is this something much, much bigger than just feeling safe with someone?

***

BANG! I wake, my eyes opening widely as I hear the sound. I turn my head towards Alex.

OH. MY. GOD.

I'm LITERALLY TANGLED IN ALEX'S ARMS.

My heart rate increases as I see mine wrapped around his neck. We immediately untangle ourselves from each other and sit up awkwardly. I turn my head towards the door and see the angry gym teacher storming towards us. She points two fingers towards us.

"You two, principle's office. NOW!"

We stand up and rush towards the door. I brush my hands through my hair and pull down my baggy shirt, Alex does the same, though I doubt he moved a hair on his perfect-

Stop it Natalie!

We sit outside the office.

"Its seven," Alex tells me after checking his watch. I nod. Well... This isn't awkward.

"Sorry I hit you in the head with a basketball."

He laughs. "I know it was just so that you could play with my hair."

"Yeah, babe," I roll my eyes.

"You know it," he winks. I turn my head but look at him out of the corner of my eyes. Thank God we're back to our normal selves.

I hope.

***

"So what exactly were you doing in the gymnasium after school hours?" the headmistress asks us, shuffling some papers and looking at us from behind her glasses before leaning over and peering at us.

"Ah, well, I went back in to get my bag and Alex came with me. We were walking out when the doors shut," I say.

"I see-" the headmistress begins.

"Why don't you even have staff there after hours?" Alex asks rudely. "Shouldn't you have a janitor or something?"

I glare at him, nudging his knee under the desk. He turns to me and shrugs. I huff and turn back around.

The headmistress ignores his comment. "And how, exactly, did you end up sleeping together?" she glances at us from under her glasses, lowering her head and raising her eyebrows, like she's amused. I find this strange, she's probably dealt with stuff like this, so why is she amused?

"Well, the lights shut off. We didn't actually sleep with each other, we just slept next to each other," I ramble. She smiles.

"Very well, I believe you, you may go," she waves us off, a smile still on her face. Strange.

We walk out of the room and into the corridor. "That was easier than what I'd thought," Alex says.

"We still had to go in there in the first place," I huff.

"Naw, c'mon, you loved sleeping with me," he throws an arm around me and pulls me into him. I roll my eyes, fighting a smile. He sees this and grins. He jabs his finger into my side and I let out giggle. He keeps poking me and I keep giggling.

"Alex, Alex," I gasp for breath. "Stop! That tickles!" I giggle. He smiles and keeps poking me. We hear voices from around the corner.

"Oh, my, God!"

"They can't be doing it at school!"

"OMG!"

"Shh, girls be quiet, they might hear us! We don't want to disrupt them," I recognize Amanda's voice and the girls giggle around her. I groan and Alex helps me to my feet from were I had a seizure of giggles. We hear their heels clicking around the corner and Alex grabs my hand and begins running off. I do one of those thing in the movies where their bodies go first before they begin sprinting. Our shoes pound on the floor in sync as I run after Alex. He lets go of my hand and we sprint down the corridor, looking over our shoulders and listening for the click-clack of high heels. We just make it to the cafeteria, out of Amanda and her minion's vision as they round the corner.

We take a breath and stretch before we hear their footsteps coming closer. The process is repeated and we end up in the car park. People are just arriving and look at us strangely as we come into view.

"Hullo, PUMPKIN! How was your night?" Bubbles comes up to me with a little bag of clothes in one hand and her school bag in the other.

"Bubbles......" I say sternly, looking from her to the bag, something dawning on me. "YOU LITTLE APPLEBUM FACE! WHY THE TARTARUS WOULD YOU DO THAT?"

"Family bonding time, you've gotta get to know your future husband!" she claps her hands and hands me the bag, I glare at her. I look over to Alex and I see he's having the same conversation with Callum.

"Bubbles! When I become president I am going to execute you," I shake my head at her and we walk to the bathrooms.

"You're such a great friend!" she says sarcasticly.

"Mhm, touche," I tell her. "So you and Callum planned that did you?"

"Yup! We both decided you were perfect for each other, so we closed the doors. We are so fantastic!"

"Yeah, you sure are," I say glumly.

"Don't tell me you don't have feelings for each other though, that was the soul purpose," she leads me into the bathroom and I roll my eyes.

When I get changed I think over what Bubbles said. Was she right about me having feelings for Alex?

SNAP OUT OF IT NATALIE!

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A/N - Please read!

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Also, sorry for all the errors in my story! I'll probably edit it when I'm around 15 or something if I have time. I'm really sorry my ideas (A LOT OF THEM) are very unrealistic. I don't really know how American life works. I'm AUSSIE! *shout out to all you Australians!* and that's why some of the things don't make sense, like how she calls her Mum, Mum not Mom. Also, lots of the ideas just come from my mind, so they're VERY unrealistic.

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