Call Me Romantic (BxB) [BEING REWRITEN]

Chapter 3

{ꔫ Nash past - Natalie ꔫ}

"What are you wearing?"

Natalie turns around, a red Lego still in her hand, about to put it on her small colorful  Lego house.  An elderly teacher is looking up at the playground platform Natalie is sitting on alone while other kids play ball. Natalie is wearing blue overalls with a black shirt and a baseball cap she has stolen from her mom. She thought she looked pretty cool, like an ember. She was always inspired to be like her adopted mother, strong but loving. 

The woman sighs deeply, holding out her hand for Natalie to take. She jeers, "Come on, let's take you to the nurse to get some appropriate clothes." Natalie's eyebrows frown, and she puts down her Lego. She then looks down at her clothes and up again at the elderly lady, who's wearing a blouse and jeans comparing the two. Her mom has talked to her about how people can be judgemental over clothes. That’s silly, it almost makes Natalie giggle. Natalie shakes her head confused, "Why?" 

She is just wearing what makes her feel comfortable, even if it is a bit boyish. Like the older lady is, she’s wearing what makes her feel comfortable too. She’d probably enjoy a nice dress gown and laying in bed rather than the hot sun against her thin white hair. The elderly woman crosses her arms and gives Natalie the knowing glare she gets from a lot of people. Kids, adults, and strangers don't matter; Natalie just knows that glare, which makes her feel guilty.

Natalie jumps off the playground platform and lands on the grass obeying her even if she doesn’t agree it’s right. Other kids keep running around and throwing a ball in the air to see which one can catch it first. She’s never really been included in that game, but she loves watching. Natalie takes the woman's hand and walks to the school, where the nurse's office is.

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The young nurse searches through the cardboard box and then pulls out a yellow summer dress with white lilies on it. Her hair is pin straight and she’s wearing blue scrubs.

"How about this?" she asks, smiling brightly.

"No! I don't want to wear girly clothes!" Natalia argues, crossing her arms and sitting on the marble floor against the wall pouting. Things like this always happen to her. She gets pulled away from her masculine side and shoved into the feminine. Her moms always tell her that it's okay to have a touch of both and that clothes or toys don't have a gender. Other people don't agree most of the time, though. Why? Her young mind doesn’t know the answers, she’ll leave that for her older self.

Natalie normally gets in trouble for not agreeing with them and having enough guts to say that they are being mean.

The nurse's smile fades slowly, and there's that glare again. She sighs and tosses the box away, but she still has the yellow dress in her hand. The woman has been picking and choosing every overly feminine stuff in that box for 20 minutes.

"Natalie, you have to. People are going to mistake you for being a boy," the nurse says softly, but Natalie only huffs.

"So?"

"If you don't put on the dress, I'm going to have to call home." The nurse continues to glare at her, still holding up the dress like it’s a weapon.

Again, Natalie just shakes her head and sits with her back to the wall, her arms crossed, and her legs spiraling out like a spoiled little boy. The nurse's eyebrows frown, and she gets up and walks towards Natalie. Natalie's alarms go off and she's ready for any fight that comes for her.

"Ms. Hayes, you WILL put this dress on!" She demands it and tries to put the dress over her head. 

Natalie kicks her legs out making her foot spring the nurse in the ankle as she fights to put the dress on.

"GAH!" she yelps and shoots back, seizing the summer dress with her. Her face is red with anger, and she throws the dress on the floor and then slams the heavy wooden door with small angry whispers of naughty words. 

Natalie stares at the door, the ticking clock, and then the ugly, ugly yellow dress. 

God bless the next kid who's going to have to wear that thing. Natalie doesn't move a muscle from her spot against the wall and will stay like that until one of her moms gets here. 

She knows her mom will have none of it. 

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When Ember, Natalie's mom, gets here, she looks furious. Her mom never had a great temper but was always so patient with her adopted children. When Natalie turns her head to Ember, her thick black hair is messy, her dark brown skin is rosy, and she's still wearing her coveralls from working on cars all day. She’s a bit sweaty because her job is mostly by a garage but it’s in the sun. 

"This better be important; I had to leave work early." She grits her teeth and sits down in the small blue chair next to her daughter. Ember is tall, 6’0, and has the frame of a man. The nurse stares at her with a look of judgment. 

The office was small, and Mr. Samson's dark brown wooden desk took up most of the space. Mr Samson, sitting in his black leather seat and the nurse standing next to him as a witness. Is this what the court is like? Natalie wonders.

"Well, now that you're here, Mrs. Hayes, we have noticed your child has been wearing very inappropriate clothes, and we-"

"INAPPROPRIATE?" Ember booms before taking a deep breath and speaking again: "She's just wearing overalls, She's wearing clothes!" 

Both of her hands gestured at Natalie's overalls. 

"Your daughter kicked me!" The nurse protests as if that's the point. Ember's eyebrows raise, and she looks at Natalie from her side.

"She was forcing an ugly dress on me!" Natalie quickly defends herself.

"What!? Are you serious?

"Yes, we are aware that Natalie kicked you Miss Swimming.. and yes we know Ms. Swimmin did try to force on a dress. But you have to understand Mrs Ember—." 

The principal tries to calm Ember down, but she cuts him off again by putting up her hand. Her muscles are tense, and her skin pulses with anger. "I swear if I get more calls about useless shit, we're leaving this school.” Ember threatens her voice low and smooth with anger. 

Natalie still has tears in her deep blue eyes as she stares down at her small feet until she feels Ember's hand on her shoulder.

"Come on, Nats, we're leaving," Ember picked her up and dragged her daughter out of the office, giving the principal and the nurse one final death stare before slamming the door loudly.

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