Chapter 51: What's The Tea, Sis?

"Nat, my honey boo boo," Bubbles slams open the door to my room the next day with two buckets of ice cream and a packet of crisp chips.

"Hey Bubbles," I say, getting up glumly and walking over to give her a hug. She embraces me warmly and strokes my hair.

"It's ok," she says when I start crying. "It's alright."

I hear a yap and pull away from Bubbles, wiping my tears off my face. I smile and pick up the miniature cavoodle.

"Hey, boy," I say, scratching behind his ears. "I've missed you. You're so big now."

He yaps happily and nuzzles his noggin into my hand. I smile. Bubbles takes my hand and pulls me over to my bed. We sit down. She opens both tubs of ice cream and hands one to me with a metal spoon.

She lets me eat the salted caramel and chocolate goodness for a few minutes before cracking open the chips.

"Ok, now what's the tea, sis?" she asks.

***

Talking with Bubbles did ease the pain. Instead of keeping everything bottled up inside of me, I was able to let it all out.

"Well, my lil' nugget," Bubbles says as she eats her ice cream, my head on her shoulder with a full stomach. "I think you've ruined your whole life. Now there will be no Natalex babies. No wedding where I could be a bridesmaid at. No time for me to watch you two bicker and then say 'I love you's.' Anyway, if you do ask me to be a bridesmaid at your wedding to someone else, I will downright refuse," she says, I take my head off her shoulder and slap her arm.

"You're supposed to be making me feel better!" I say to her.

"Hey," she gestures around us. "I bought you food. But seriously, just go with the flow Nat, its the only thing you can do."

I nod slowly, biting into a chip like a depressed chipmunk. Bubbles gives me one last hug before getting off the bed.

"See you at school in a few days, alright, Nat?" she asks. I nod again, crunching on the chip. She gives me a small smile before walking out the door, shutting it quietly behind her.

I lie back on my bed, Wombat snuggles up beside me and I thread my fingers through his fur. I close my eyes and he whimpers at me to keep patting him. I do.

Eventually, I get to sleep. My dreams are haunted with his handsome face and the feeling of his lips on mine.

***

I wake up on Monday morning to the sound of my alarm buzzing. I fumble around for a few seconds before I find the clock and hit the snooze button.

I close my eyes but feel my blanket being dragged off me when I try to pull it up. I open one eye and look at the end of the bed. Wombat's pulling the blanket off the bed with his teeth. I sigh and hop up, walking to my closet. Wombat trails after me.

I bend down and force the blanket out of his mouth to stop it falling off the bed behind us. I yawn as I enter the closet.

I'm too tired to notice what I pick out, and even what I put on. I don't notice I'm straightening my hair or putting on a swipe of glossy, pink lipgloss.

Its only when Mum calls me down for breakfast that I look at myself in the mirror. What the actual heck did I just do?

My hair straightened reaches down to my bum. I've got my sunnies perched on top of my head. I'm wearing a stretchy white top that reaches just above my belly button and tight, ripped, black high waisted shorts. Then I've got my ankle boots on my feet. The only thing that's missing is my necklace.

I stare at myself. I look like some random girl from 'Bring it on.'

"NATALIE!" Mum yells up the stairs. "Let's go!"

I sigh and wipe the lip gloss off with my hand before grabbing my backpack and shoving my phone inside.

My car is getting serviced, so I have to go to school with Mum and the boys. I hop into the car just as Mum's about to drive off without me. She gives me the evil eye, but then comments, "Nice outfit."

I nod and quickly take the spare headband out of the glove box, tying my hair into a high ponytail. Mum side eyes me.

"What?" I ask her.

"Nothing," she smiles. "I just think that you look like a real American school girl. Anyway, is it for Alex? Your way of showing him how independent you can be?"

"What?" Paul asks from the back seat.

"Alex and Nat have a thing going on?" Lucas asks, suddenly interested in our conversation.

"Yes, honey," Mum says. "Have you not noticed?"

"MUM!" I yell. We stop at a red light.

"Well," Lucas and Mum ignore me. "I have noticed that they're always around each other. But I didn't think it was a thingamabob, ya know?"

"Yeah," Paul agrees. "But I do really want Alex as my brother in law, he's cool. But I think he likes Nat."

"I think he loves her," Mum says.

"Eugh! Stop!" I say. Mum hits the accelerator when the light turns green.

"Sorry, honey," Mum laughs. I roll my eyes. "We'll stop now."

I sigh and look out the window. "I'm staying late today at the library. I have to type up my application for Oxford."

"Oh, well, call me when you're ready. Alex might be staying late to do that as well! Then you can make amends!" Mum says.

"Make amends?" Lucas asks. "Are you two fighting?"

"What? Really?" Paul says. I stare at the window while Mum turns around.

"Boys! Stop making her feel bad! Did you not notice how Nat stayed in her room the whole time we were on Fraser? And how Alex wasn't eating his food? Boys, are you blind? Its called young love," Mum says. We're just about to pull into school when I unbuckle my seat belt and jump out of the car.

"See you!" I yell and make my way through the car park. I cannot stand to be in that car any longer. Are my brothers blind? Probably. Have they not been noticing that I've been staying in my room all day being antisocial and sometimes crying when I see a picture of... him.

Obviously, they haven't noticed that.

I sigh and walk into the school gates. I hear a whistle and turn my head to face the jocks standing beside the gate and looking at me.

I quickly make my way into the building, avoiding all the glances. Why was I getting ready absent mindedly this morning? I tug on my pants and flick my sunglasses down so hopefully, no one recognises me.

I walk over to my locker and pull my books out.

"She looks even hotter than usual."

"Yeah man, go for it! I'll back you up!"

"You sure man?"

"She's all yours, bruh!"

"Thanks, Dude, here I go!"

I whirl around to see two boys walking towards me. One's energetic, the other's nervous.

"Heyyyy, Natalie," the nervous one says, leaning on the locker beside mine. "You're looking fine."

"Uhm, she doesn't want that, idiot," Bubbles walks up to me. "Go find someone else. Go."

I turn to Bubbles with a big grin. "Thanks."

"All good. What are friends for. Boy, do you look different today!" she says, looking me up and down. I hide my bare stomach with my books.

"I was daydreaming while I was getting ready. Don't mention it. I'll go crazy like a monkey for bananas," I say, slamming my locker shut.

"Point taken," she says as we start to walk away.

We walk along the corridor for a little while before I start hearing the whispers of the other girls around us.

"Have you seen him?"

"Oh my actual God, he looks even hotter than usual!"

"His hair is like, really, really messy. It's sooo sexy."

"My God, he is so hot."

"I'm actually in love with him."

That last comment sets me off guard. I trip over my feet and fall straight into someone's arms. The whispering around us stops.

I look up into the blue eyes. Why does he always seem to be catching me? I scramble out of his arms, inhaling the smell that is so calming subtly. I stand up straight and look at him.

His hair's really messy and his eyes are bloodshot. He's got massive bags under his eyes like he hasn't slept for weeks. I look away.

Bubbles takes my arm and pulls me away. The whispering immediately starts up again and I look down at the ground through my sunglasses.

"It's ok," Bubbles says, pulling me through the doorway to our English classroom. I sit down beside her and doodle in my book. Bubbles watches me warily.

The class starts again and Bubbles has to pull my book away from me to stop me from drawing broken hearts with arrows in them.

***

"Could Natalie Bennett and Alexander Collins please report to the front office immediately. Natalie Bennett and Alexander Collins to the front office. immediately."

I look over to Meghan when I hear the announcement. Everyone's eyes flick to me and the teacher opens her mouth to speak.

"You can go now Nat," she says. I nod and pack up my stuff, avoiding everyone's eyes. I walk out the door and make my way toward the office.

There's only one office. I don't know why they bother calling it the front office. Like, bruh, seriously, we know the office is. At. The. Front.

I walk into the office and the receptionist, Ms Gardiner looks up at me. "Just through there, darl."

I nod and give her a small smile before walking into the headmaster's office. Alex is already sitting in there, looking out the windows. The headmaster is on his computer. He gives me a small smile and turns off whatever he's working on. He walks up and stands, leaning on the front of the desk.

"Take a seat, Natalie," he says. The seat is barely even thirty centimetres away from Alex's. I hesitate. The headmaster looks at me weirdly.

Alex sighs and kicks the chair away from him. He doesn't even look at me. I swallow and quickly collapse on the seat he kicked a meter away from him.

"Okay..." the headmaster says warily, looking between us. We both look at different sides of the way. "Well, I'm sure that you both know why I called you in."

We both shake our heads.

The headmaster- Mr Greene, opens his mouth to speak but closes it and nods awkwardly. He has a slight resemblance to Will Smith, and he's always wearing suits.

"Well," he claps his hands, trying to ease the tension. "You're both applying for the Oxford scholarship, yes?"

We nod and he, in an attempt to seem cool, puts his hand back on the desk, knocking over a pot of pens in the process. He curses loudly and my eyebrows shoot up. He hastily rearranges the pens and stands back up.

"Yes, well," he starts, running a hand over his bald head. "They only give away one scholarship to this school."

a/n: I don't know if that's true. Pshhh, but I made up Lakewater school. I hope it's not true though, I wanna go to Oxford and there are heaps of smarter people than me at my school. Everyone knows and says I'm not gonna get in but I'LL TRY ANYWAY. I also need $50 000 to actually go there, and I don't even have a job. Wish me luckkk!

"What?" Alex asks. I haven't heard his voice in so long that I bite my lip after hearing how foreign it is now.

"Yeah," Mr Greene runs another hand through his hair.

"Why?" I ask. Alex looks the other way, at the bookshelves beside him.

"I don't know. So, I wish you both the -" he starts.

"She can have it," Alex says.

"What?" I ask. Mr Greene's hand slips off the desk.

Alex keeps his eyes on Mr Greene.

"She can have it," he repeats. I turn back to Mr Greene.

"He doesn't have to do that."

"She deserves it."

"He deserves it just as much."

"She's smarter than me."

"No, she's not."

"Yes, she is."

"Please!" Mr Greene says. "I wish you both the best of luck! Please return to class."

I pick up my bag and practically sprint out the door. "Thanks!" I call the receptionist and dash out of the room.

The bell is about to ring so I take a turn to the bathroom. I get in there and have a pee pee. When I get out of the cubicle I look at my face in the mirror. I've still got lip gloss on so I wipe it off with a paper towel. What the hell was I thinking?

The bell rings and I chuck out the paper towel. I'm about to walk out of the bathroom when the door swings open and I hear click-clacks coming towards me. I shut my eyes until I smell the rich perfume scent coming from in front of me.

"Hello, Natalie," Amanda smiles slyly.

"Hi, Amanda," I reply stiffly.

"How are you going?" she asks, rolling her shoulders.

"Just fine, thank you," I say.  She smirks.

"And how are you and Alex?"

My back straightens. "Ok."

"Really?" her smirk widens.

"What do you want, Amanda?" I sigh.

"I want to offer you some advice," she says. I look up at her.

"What?"

"I was a total b****, and I'm sorry. I didn't mean to leave you when we were younger. I turned into a little toad when my parent's divorced. I forced them to get me anything I wanted out of their own guilt. It made me act like a spoilt brat and I'm sorry for that. And now you've come back. And I've realised you haven't really changed from that girl I used to know. I shouldn't have anything against you. It was jealousy. Even though he told me we were fake dating, but I still got jealous of you and him -"

"Hold on, you were fake dating?" I ask, shocked at both her apology and that revelation.

"Yes," she dismisses me with a wave. "Anyway, you're so much prettier and smarter. And I was extremely jealous. I'm not assuming you'll just forgive me, I'm still a bad person, but I hope we can be allies."

"Allies?" I question.

"Yeah. I give you something if you give me something back," she says.

"What do you want?" I ask.

"I want you to help me," she says simply.

"With what?" I ask.

"I need you to help me get Noah Ross."

______________________________________________________________________

hey everyoneee

Really short chapter, but I really wanted to get it up.

PLOT TWIST. At the end.

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Comment!

byeee!

Abbey