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Chapter 2

DEREK

"Mr. Andrews!"

I look up startled. All around I see students at desks with their heads down, and my teacher Mrs. Perch glaring at me from the board.

"Huh?" I say, still a little dazed. A quiet wave of laughter goes through the students.

"For the third time, Mr. Andrews, what is the answer?" she says agitated.

I watch as she points to a complex math problem on the board.

I look down at my paper and see that I already did half the problem; all that was left was mental math. I quickly solved the rest of the problem before she could squawk at me again

"42" I say with a little more confidence then before.

"Correct"

She turns back around and begins on her merry little way through the wonderful world of math.

I'm good at math, well I'm good at most subjects, but math is probably the easiest in my case. So I'm not usually distance in class.

I'm usually not a daydreamer at all, I don't know what my issue is. These past two weeks have been odd for me, with the daydreams and I haven't been getting any sleep. Maybe I'm just going through a weird time, it can't mean anything.

I lean back in my seat and try to remember what I was thinking about in the first place. My eyes begin to shift over and I see my binder and in the see through cover there is a photo booth strip. Those two dollar pictures you get when you go to a carnival or fair. There is other random stuff in that cover too like: little drawings and sticky notes with writing on them, from Natalie. Just goofy stuff we do together. But the picture catches my eyes the most.

There are four pictures and each one consists of Natalie and myself. The top one is just us smiling, her blonde hair was half tied up and the other left down, while I had messy weekend hair. The second picture was of us being silly, with her giving me bunny ears and my tongue sticking out. The third one was kind of blurry because we were laughing. The fourth one on the other hand is quite different from the others. It is just Natalie and I staring at each other, not in a weird-uncomfortable way, more like a loving and passionate way.

The camera did not capture what came after the stare. I can't remember how it happened we kind of just fell into each other and we kissed. It wasn't our first kiss, it was just a really special kiss. Nothing long or involving, it was just sweet and fun and....intoxicating. It is one of those memories that's stuck in my mind.

So I guess it was Natalie that I was thinking about, and what I'm still thinking about. I shake my head, as if I could shake out all the nonsense trapped inside.

I am not this kind of guy. The one that can never leave his girlfriends side, the one that has to see her whenever he can. Don't get me wrong I love when I get to see Natalie and I get excited when we can go out, but I am not worried if we go a whole weekend without seeing each other, and I don't freak out if she falls asleep and doesn't call me; the same goes for her. We are very independent people, so we don't need to be together every second.

But lately it seems like I am that guy. She is usually on my mind but not every thought of everyday. I usually don't get a chance to walk her to class but today I was determined to. So I skipped the last ten minutes of training to go to the theater and walk her to class.

Last week I skipped practice twice, twice! Because she wasn't feeling good and I wanted to hang out with her and make her feel better. I'm captain of my soccer team, if any other guy skipped practice I would chew them out. But now I'm that I guy.

I'm constantly checking my phone to see if she texts me. I kiss her whenever I can, and I am by her side on a regular basis. I'm surprised she hasn't gotten annoyed with me; I'm boarder line needy!

I can't sleep because all my dreams are about her and usually something bad happens in them. Whether it is her screaming my name and I'm trying to find her, or her running away from me as if I scare her.

But the most common one, is the most haunting. We are in , what I think is, a military plane. The back end where it opens up. I'm holding on to Natalie and all of a sudden a bump in the plane sends us spiraling. I grab the edge of the ramp and reach for Nat. I don't want her to fall out. Then I hear a loud 'bang', which reminds me of a balloon popping. I turn around to see what it is, and just as I do she slips away from me and falls into the clouds.I scream so loud my head throbs, and I'm want to jump after her, but somehow, I can't. And I just as I know she is about to hit the ground- I wake up.

I just don't understand wh-

And before I can finish my thought, the bell rings. It is the end if school, which means, I get to see her.