Chapter 1: Watch Where You're Going, Dude

A/N: Thank you so much Nefarious_99 for this wonderful collage above! i love it!

Red hoodie. Black hoodie. Grey hoodie.

Red hoodie. Black hoodie. Grey hoodie.

I stare at the options that lie on my bed while quickly tying my hair in a messy, curly fishtail. I pull on some black leggings and a plain white singlet.

"Natalie!" Mum yells up the stairs. "Five minutes and you need leave!"

Shoot.

"Ok!" I yell back quickly, bouncing around the room on one leg, pulling my shoes onto each of my feet in turn.

As I stuff items into my black back-pack, I consider my options. A red hoodie would draw attention to me, - given its colour - something that I'd like to avoid on my first day at my new school. A black hoodie would most definitely make people think I resembled an emo. A grey hoodie... will make me look dark enough to blend in, but light enough for me to look less like an emo and more like a student who has been at the school for years.

I quickly pull on the grey hoodie and grab my bag and phone and race down the stairs of our large, new suburban home. For the moment, our family is just renting it. We plan on finding a house sometime soon, but the move was quick, and we had limited time to look for a suitable home.

I grab an apple from the kitchen bench and take a bite, while walking over to my dad – who's doing the dishes – to say goodbye.

"Have fun, sweetie," he says, and leans over to kiss me quickly on the cheek.

"Thanks, Dad," I take another bite out of the apple and walk into the front foyer of the house, where my mum is adjusting my brothers' small ties on their maroon and white uniforms. My twin brothers – Lucas and Paul – are starting at a new school today as well. Lucas is more like me and my dad in personality, shy until he opens up and becomes more sarcastic and fun-loving. Paul's more of an extrovert. Bossier too, just like Mum.

Paul lets out a big huff and stands even straighter then before, jumping slightly so that his gigantic backpack rests higher on his back, making himself more comfortable.

"Can we go already?" he sighs.

"Be patient, Paul," Mum snaps back before she continues adjusting Lucas's tie. Lucas looks extremely nervous. The corners of his mouth are angled slightly down, and his large, blue eyes are squinted along with his eyebrows, an expression I've seen far too many times. Mum pats his cheek and stands up. He pulls on the bottom of his shirt nervously and plays with a button.

Mum turns and sees me standing there. "Nat!" she says. "Finally."

I roll my eyes. I see her frown as she looks at my outfit. Here we go.

"What're you wearing?" she squints at my cropped, grey hoodie and the black drawstrings I'm playing with.

"Clothes," I say.

"Good observation," she replies. "But it's your first day Natalie! Don't you want to make a good impression, make a couple of friends!"

"Mum, what kind of people do you think I want to be friends with? I'm not going to go wearing a mini skirt and a crop top just to make friends with some mean girls," I say adjusting the straps of my backpack.

"Yeah.... But most of your friends won't be wearing hoodies in fall at the start of second quarter of their senior year," she says, hands on her hips.

"Maybe my future friends will be wearing hoodies! No one knows!" I say, waving my hands around like a mysterious hypnotist.

Mum rolls her eyes. "Just promise me you won't be wearing that tomorrow, okay?"

"Okay," I shrug. I'll wear a cardigan instead.

"Now, you're driving yourself, Nat?" Mum asks me after turning to the boys, looking at their impatient faces. "C'mon you two."

Paul follows Mum out the door but Lucas stays behind, staring at their backs. I walk over to him. He looks up at me.

"What if they don't like me, Nat, what if they like Paul more?" he says nervously.

"They'll like you," I say, ruffling his hair. "If they don't, they're not your friends. You're a great person Lukey, don't doubt yourself."

He smiles at me and I hug him, whispering into his ear, "If they hurt you, I will personally hire a team of FBI agents to punch em' up."

He laughs and squeezes me once more before waving goodbye and following Mum and Paul, who are waiting on the street expectantly.

I grab my car keys from off the key tables and toss them into the air as I walk into the garage, catching them with one hand and repeating the action until I have to stop and unlock my car.

I open the garage door with the remote in the glove box and reverse out. I click the button to turn the radio on. My parents bought me my car for my sixteenth birthday. It's a white C-class Mercedes Sudan, and somehow was parked outside our house when we arrived. Mr Potter must be around somewhere, it was like magic.

"Thought I'd end up with Sean, But he wasn't a match, Wrote some songs about Ricky,

Now I listen and laugh," I turn up the radio and sing along with Ariana the whole three-minute trip to school which I scouted out on the weekend, memorizing the short route.

I do a few laps around the car-park, trying to find a spot closer than a hundred meters away. I can't find one, and so I settle for one of the only parks left. I lock my car and stuff my keys into my backpack.

I start walking to school and see a couple of groups of people, boy and girls, looking over at me curiously from where the stand against their cars, chatting. I pull the hood of my jumper over my head and walk with my head down until I reach the main office.

"Hello," I say to the receptionist lady.

"Hi," she says, looking at me from over her semi-circle glasses with a warm, kind expression. "And who might you be?"

"Oh, um..." I pull out a folder from my small back pack. She takes them. I tell her my name before she glances down at them.

"Oh, yes, that's right. I've got your schedule here... somewhere," she says and pops down for a second before returning with a page or two. She hands them to me. "There's a map there too, just so that you can find your way. If you have any questions you can come back here or ask another teacher. Have a great day, love."

And with that, she swings on her swingy chair and types something into a computer beside her. I walk off, pulling my hood up over my face and opening the map. I continue to walk to my classroom in A14, occasionally looking up to see if I'm going in the right direction.

Even though I know most people won't recognize me, I'm still cautious. I only had one friend when I lived here 9 years ago, Amanda. She turned on me, and left me alone, luckily my mum got a work call and we moved to Paris after I had just started at a new school.

I really don't think I've changed that much since I was here. When I showed Adele pictures of me she was totally confused, so hopefully people won't recognise me. Not that everyone who went to my elementary school would go to my new high school, but some would, I'm sure about that. Back then, I'd had completely blonde hair, not the brown-at-the-roots-with-light-blonde-ends-kind-of-like-a-natural-ombre-colour hair that I have now since I've never, ever dyed it in my life. I also had large gaps in my teeth when I was younger, which was fixed up with braces. I was really overweight back then, before I started running and going to the gym frequently.

I'm about halfway there, walking through a courtyard in between buildings, when I bump into something – or rather, someone.

My eyes meet the piercing dark-brown ones that tortured me in second grade. I blink quickly and look down.

"Out of my way, loser," Amanda snaps at me. She really doesn't look that different, her porcelain skin is a shade darker and her hair has dark brown streaks through the light brown colour, and she wears a mini-skirt and a crop top. She has croons following her and I quickly step out of their way as they march forwards in their high heels, a flowery perfume smell being left in their wake.

I look back down at my map and continue walking.

I really expected her to notice me, recognise me. I'm glad she didn't.

I barely walk ten meters from where I was before I trip over a tree root and tumble towards the ground, my map and timetable fluttering to the ground before me. I squint my eyes shut before I feel strong hand grip my arms and smell an amazing cologne smell. I open my eyes and look up at the person holding me.

Holy. Hell. My eyes meet with the face of the most beautiful male specimen on earth. His dark brown hair is perfectly messy and his eyes are hidden beneath ray bans. His jawline is probably the sharpest one I've ever seen in my life and his cheek bones are high. He's got a perfect nose and pink lips.

I really, really, really, hope my mouth hasn't fallen open. When I manage to tear my eyes off him, I pull myself out of his arms and bend down to pick up my map and timetable, muttering 'sorry' as I do. He leans down and picks up my map for me. He straightens up I see he's extremely tall and has lean muscle.

He hands my map to me.

"Watch where you're going, dude," he grumbles.

Well, damn, I guess his temper is as hot as him. "Did you just call me dude?" I ask, stuffing my timetable into my bag and map into my back pocket.

"Oh," he says, leaning down slightly to look at my face from under my hood. "You're a girl."

"You thought I was a guy?! Do I look like a disgusting person that pees in the shower and combs their hair with their hands at least once a minute?"

He immediately stops his hand running through the dark brown mess on his head. He looks momentarily surprised before he smirks. "Yeah."

I'm not usually this confident around strangers, especially boys, but this guy just wants to infuriate me – regardless of how good looking he may be. Only girls call each other 'dude.'

I look over at his two friends standing behind him, one's Korean and is wearing glasses and jeans, the other has hazel eyes and is a lot shorter than both his friends. He, like his annoying buddy, is wearing a leather jacket. Great, I must've bumped into the bad boys. I fight a sigh.

"Ok, well I'd suggest getting some new ray bans, babe, because I find that urinating in a place that you're supposed to clean in is the most revolting thing a human is capable of doing. Maybe buy some prescriptions as well, I strongly recommend it," I snap at him before stepping around him and continuing on my way.

I'm almost a meter away before I feel a strong hand grip my arm and spin me around. My hood falls off my face and my singlet un-tucks itself from my leggings and my pants fall a little too low, exposing my stomach. The cold air feels uncomfortable on my bare skin. I turn and look at the annoying guy, or girl, whichever he thinks he is, seeing that I'm a guy.

His mouth forms a perfect 'o' as he looks at me. I feel my cheeks start to heat up as he looks me up and down. I quickly pull my leggings up further on my hips and pull my hood back on.

"Go get your prescription," I mutter and push past him, hands in the front pocket/pouch of my hoodie.

***

I walk into A14 for English. I sit down and wait for the bells to ring. I expect an embarrassing introduction in front of the whole class but I don't get one, thank God for that. The teacher starts the lesson well before the whole class arrives. People file in 5, 10, 15 minutes late. I see one girl with a cute blue skirt and singlet dash in late, straightening her glasses as she creeps into the classroom.

"Glenna?" the teacher turns around.

"Yes miss?" she shrinks down. She begins to bite her manicured nails nervously.

"Twenty minutes late Miss Harrolds," the teacher says sternly.

"Oh, no, no, please, no detention miss, I couldn't bear being viewed as a disruptive student by the teachers," the girl bursts out in tears as the class shouts out with laughter.

"Very well, Glenna, this is your first warning," the teacher returns to her lesson and Glenna walks over to the spare seat next to me. She sniffles as she gets out her books. She wipes her eyes from under her glasses, her make up is on the verge of running. I dig through my bag and hand her some tissues. She smiles at me gratefully and takes them. I remember Glenna, she wasn't technically a nerd, even though she had glasses, she was extremely dumb. Glenna was a wannabe teacher's pet, though I think most teachers were, on a whole, annoyed by her. She had very rich parents and wore make up to school. I think she had a couple of friends when I left, but I know people thought she was an ultimate loser.

***

I walk into the cafeteria for morning tea after my first double. Luckily, no one took much notice of me and I focused on my notes and the teacher.

I walk over to the area with food and grab a small box of fries, deciding it would be too awkward to sit in here until I've made at least one friend. With my hood on and after a quick look at the map, I walk towards the library, eating my fries on the way and tossing the box in the bin at the entrance.

I walk inside and look around. The air con is on and makes it feel warm and cosy. The smell of a library fills my nose and I smile, walking over to the books and choosing one to read for ten minutes before the bell rings.

I borrow the book after chatting with the librarian for a couple of minutes. As I walk out of the library I think of Lucas. How's he doing? Has he made any friends? Paul obviously has, its Paul. I hope Luke's ok, he usually does get quite nervous when around strangers.

He'll be ok. I tell myself.

I open the door to my calculus classroom and take a seat at the end of the second row. Its shaped more like a science room or a university classroom, and the desks are joined and all on different levels so everyone can see the white-board and teacher, a mousy looking woman in what look like her mid-forties.

"Aren't they just so dreamy?" a girl beside me says. I turn to look at her. She's looking over her shoulder at three guys, the three guys from earlier.

"Nah," I say. She turns to me and widens her brown eyes, her auburn Dutch braids sail through the air as she ships around to face me. Her hoop earrings dangle and one hand plays with the knot at the end of her red and black plaid shirt, buttoned up almost to the top, stopping just above her chest.

"How can you say that!" she asks in a sort of boy-ish voice. "They're so hot!"

"Yeah, I get sweaty just looking at them," I say, taking out my notebook and doodling in it.

She turns back to the guys. "Leo's not that good looking. He's too smart for me. This is my only AP class. Callum's too short. But Alex... oh, Alex, he's so beautiful," she says, balancing her elbow on the back of her chair and resting her head on her hand, a dreamy expression on her face.

"He's ugly," I say, noticing she's looking at the extremely annoying, extremely good looking one. She turns to me and shakes her head.

"I'm Chloe. And you are probably the craziest girl I've ever met, not looking at him and seeing God himself," she nods in the direction of 'Alex.'

"Natalie," I say, grinning at her and sticking out a hand. Once we've shook them, I pick up a pen and doodle in my book. She leans over when I'm done.

"That's a cute penguin," she comments.

"Thanks," I say and draw a small bunch of grapes.

"Can you draw something for me?" she asks. I shrug and nod, class only starts in two minutes, but I suppose that's enough time. "Alex Collins. Draw him."

I roll my eyes but put pen to paper anyway.

I feel a presence in the desk behind me and smell in the delicious cologne. My hood is pulled off my head and I turn to look at the guy behind me. He takes my book from me and I glare at him, this guy I haven't even known for a day, and I already hate him. Annoying little girl.

"What've you been drawing, dude?" he asks before turning my book around. I stifle a giggle as I see his face. Under his name in my book I've drawn a pig.

"Well, this is beautiful," his shocked expression lasts for a few seconds before he smirks.

"You wouldn't expect any less of me right girlfriend?" I say to him.

"'Course not Bro."

"Good, thank you, sweetie pie."

"No problem, mate," he says and returns to his desk. I roll my eyes and spin back around, returning to my notebook which he's thrown back on my desk.

"You already know him?" Chloe asks, gaping at me.

"You could say that," I mutter, still drawing.

"And you're on nickname turns already! Aren't you new, though! Have you hooked up with him before? Are you his ex? I mean, you're pretty enough to be that," she says, and I blush. I hate it when people comment on my appearance.

"No. I hate him," I say and look up at the teacher as she begins the lesson.

About five minutes into it, Annoying starts throwing crumpled pieces of paper at me. He whispers "Dude," to me but stops when I don't turn around and Chloe side-eyes me.

As the bell rings and the lesson finishes Chloe leads me outside and drags me to the cafeteria.

"You know him! You totally do, and you lied me to me!" she says to me as we sit down with a group of strangers that she greets.

"No."

"Then how come you actually talk to him like you know him?"

"Because I have no time for people like him, and talking to him might make him get sick of me until he finally takes the hint and stops annoying me."

"You should've thought about that before you bumped into me, dude. Literally," I hear his voice. Turning around and rolling my eyes I play with the strings of my jumper.

"I'm not psychic babe," I say to him. "Like I knew I'd bang into you."

"Everyone wants to bang into me." he smirks.

"Could you please go away. You stink," I turn back around but he pulls me back.

"Is that the best comeback you can think of, dude?"

"EXCUSE ME!" I yell to the whole cafeteria. "COULD SOMEONE PLEASE COME AND TAKE THE TRASH OUT! IT STINKS!" I turn around and pull my hoodie further down my face. I hear him chuckle as he walks away.