Love, Natalie

Chapter 14

Natalie's POV

"I can't believe it's already Monday, and I still don't know what happened to my laptop." Sam offers me a hug, but I shake my head. Whoever got my laptop must have read my diary, unless they completely cleared it and sold it. I hope that's the case.

"Let's get going to first period. You know how Mrs. Croe gets," she says with fear clear in her tone. I nod quickly before getting my math book out of my locker. No way I'm going to miss her class ever again! That was way too much homework we had last time.

The bell rings once we make it through the door. Mrs. Croe notices, so she doesn't tell us anything. But I feel like deep down she wishes we were late.

"Whoa, is that-" I turn to see what Sam's looking at. Lucas seems to be sitting next to Palmer.

"Lucas and her? Yeah, didn't see that one coming! Let's go sit down." I honestly never thought he would hang around with her. But hey, people are unpredictable.

"Oh, Lucas! You're so funny. Girls, isn't he funny?" And then there's Palmer who is extremely predictable. Next, she will giggle like a little girl while discretely grabbing Lucas' arm.

Just as I predicted, Palmer starts giggling.

"There's her famous arm-grab trick," Sam whispers as if she's reading my mind. "I wonder if he's actually interested in her, though."

"He has to be. She's Palmer Reynolds. Every girl wants to be her and every guy wants to be with her. She's flawless from head to toe, and has even charmed every teacher on campus. Remember how she had Mr. Newman send us to the principal's office last year?"

"Yeah. We were just talking, just like everyone else, but somehow she walks over to tell Mr. Newman that we are being too loud and are 'disrupting her focus on the assignment'. He didn't even bother to tell us to stop talking. He just sent us to the principal right away. Even though she has every teacher wrapped around her fingers, she isn't perfect. No one here is perfect," she mutters quietly as the rest of the class gets silent. I wonder why everyone has someone like Palmer in their life. Someone who believes they're better than everyone else. Someone who feels the need to push people around the way they want to. Someone who acts so high and mighty. But why? Aren't we all the same? Aren't we all rowing the same boat we the same paddle? Because sometimes it feels like some people have either two paddles or they have a better paddle than others that's more durable.

"Good morning, class!" Mrs. Croe looks a bit too excited this morning.

"I'm glad all of you were able to arrive to class on time," she says as she glances over at Sam and I. "Because we have a pop quiz!"

We all begin to groan in unison. I should have seen this coming. She normally is super grumpy and tired. Kind of like a fat grumpy cat. Hehehehe...

"Oh, I can feel the excitement radiating off of you." I really hope this quiz is easier than the previous ones. A couple of weeks ago, she gave us another pop quiz and I turned it in without realizing there was a backside. Turns out that there were bonus questions back there. I could have easily gotten a higher score than my average 82. I'm trying so hard to be in the A Honor Roll this year.

"You have thirty minutes to complete-" Mrs. Croe is interrupted by a knock on the door. "Who the he-"

The door is opened by a group of students with huge smiles. Theater class, if I'm not mistaken. One of them steps forward with a clipboard in her hands.

"Yes, ahem, we need a couple of students for the musical auditions. Well, more like a rehearsal for the auditions. Mrs. Jennings wants the auditions to run smoothly next week." Mrs. Croe could not be more angry. I can tell from her face that she's really trying to keep herself together.