When it Happens

Chapter 4

My grades were dropping the longer Nate was in town. I used to have a 94 in English, however, now I have an 86. English was my best class! The A's dropped to B's, and in order to save my Calculus grade, I had to remake a major grade test. So after Ms. Campbell's class, I went straight to the Calculus classroom during my lunch period and remade it.

The next day, I walked in History right at the bell and saw Nate sitting there with a ripped out piece of notebook paper on my desk in front of him. Ah, he was passing me a note since we got in trouble in Campbell's class anytime anyone talked while she was teaching.

Hey doofus. Where were you?

I felt butterflies errupt in my stomach, liking that he acknowledged my absence yesterday. He cared enough to notice! That's a start!

Ha, I was in Calculus.

I slid the note to the side, as he slid it back moments after.

Did you have to retake that test? I heard you flunked.

I rolled my eyes as I passed the next one.

Shush. Who from?

Shannon. Maybe you should study more, doofus. I would have passed that test in spades.

I sighed, as I rolled my eyes again at his silly remark. I knew Shannon couldn't keep her trap shut.

Sure..... doofus.

He laughed as quietly as he could and he started writing a huge paragraph as Campbell started teaching.

"Today class, you will choose your partners for the War of 1812 project. In this assignment, you will be assigned to a battle in the war and research the aspects of it and answer the questions that go along with them. You will present your project on a poster board. The project will be due on October 22. Choose your partner and start planning as I walk around to assign you a battle."

Cool. My birthday.

Nate slips the piece of paper we had been passing commentary with into his binder. Hell no. I was not going to be the last person to possess that thing. It was way to valuable to me just to have him probably throw it away.

"What were you writing?" I shot at him, and he shrugged, sliding the binder underneath his chair.

"Nothing."

Curiosity was killing me. Somehow, I would get that note. I didn't even care if it wasn't some delusional love letter I had hoped it'd be. Hell, whatever it was, I just wanted to get my hands on it so I could frame the damn thing when it was all said and done with.

Ms. Campbell then proceeded to go around assigning us battles. Luckily, we got assigned to Battle of New Orleans which was a pretty big one, so it'd be easy to find more information on it from the library.

"So, I was thinking we could meet every Thursday's at my house, and every Tuesday's at yours," he tells me. "Except tomorrow. Since it's the 7th tomorrow, my dad has this really important meeting and it's at our house, so unless you want to be around old men drinking gin and tonics, can we do your house?"

I laughed as I nodded my head. "Sure. Meet after school tomorrow?"

"You got it."

Lunch came soon after and Nate and I walked down to the commons with each other, going over plans for the project. When we got to the table, Shannon was the only one there, sitting down, staring off at a different table, one that sat the baseball players at our school.

"Whatcha lookin' at?" I asked, trying to match my eyes to exactly where she was looking.

"Look at Mason Oswalt."