This is War

Chapter 19

Chapter 19 - Natalie's P.O.V 

It was another dreary day; rain falling from the dark grey clouds at  constant rate all morning. Pulling down the hood from my jacket, I shook off some of the rain that had gotten on me as I made my way to my locker. Putting in my combination, I furrowed my brows as I realized it wasn't opening. Pulling with both hands, I yanked and the door came off. 

Like, it completely and totally ripped off and clattered to the ground. Heads turned to me and conversations suddenly stopped. Turning around, I found myself face to face with Noah, who was holding a handful of nuts and bolts. 

"You know," He begins with a taunting smile, "the not-depressed Natalie would've kicked my ass halfway to China by now." 

I raised an eyebrow at him, "I thought I told you to stay out of my locker." 

He smirked, "I never went in your locker." 

"Jackass," I muttered, whirling around to grab my books and turned back to face him. "Fix it." 

"Of course," He nods, but there's a hint of mischief in his eyes as he does so and it's enough to keep me lingering next to him. 

Skeptically, I questioned him, "What are you up to?" 

Shoving his hands into his jean pockets, he gave me a lazy smirk and leaned against the locker next to mine, "I'm not up to anything. I just think it's time that our prank-break is over." 

Was he being serious right now? Hasn't he realized that I quit? Why would I even continue the prank war when I'm still actively grieving over my Gram? 

"There was never a prank-break, Hall. I quit-- wasn't that obvious?" I voice my thoughts to him. 

Noah shrugged, "If you change your mind, you still have two days to retaliate." 

"Why two days?" I couldn't help but ask. Hey, I was curious; I couldn't help it! 

He walks backwards down the hall, that arrogant and annoying smirk still plastered on his so-called charming face and says with a shrug, "Why not?" 

Confused, I continued to think over the situation as I make my way through the corridors to first period. I'm about halfway there when I spot a familiar brunette with a certain friend of Noah's. Kate was leaning with her back against her locker, fiddling with her hair at the ends while Jarrett was leaning on his arm that was placed over her shoulder on the locker. A blush fell upon her face as he said something to her and he leaned in, kissing her lightly on the cheek. 

Shocking me, she leaned back in after he pulled away, pecking him quickly on the lips before pulling away and making her way to first period. Or, she would've gotten to first period if I hadn't stopped her. 

"Kate!" I called out. She spun around and when she spotted my knowing smile, blushed like a mad woman. I quickly caught up to her, "Are you and Jarrett a thing now?" 

She shrugged, "I don't know, maybe?" 

"There are no maybe's in the rules of boys and girls, Kate," I reprimanded and she sighed, nodding her head. 

"Well, he asked me out yesterday and I think we have a date on Friday to go Mini Golfing but I'm not so sure I'm ready to go out with him alone and I do really like him and stuff but I just, I don't really know. I'm kind of always nervous when I'm alone with guys now," She admits, looking down with a sad expression. 

I felt for my friend. I knew it had to be hard to be going through what she was and I wanted to make everything as easy as possible for her, "Tell you what, tell Jarrett to bring a friend on Friday and I'll join you guys, too. It'll be like a double-friend-supervised-date-thing." 

She laughed at my definition of Friday night, "Really?" 

"Of course," I nodded, excited for my best friend. As we chatted excitedly, walking into class, I realized that I was actually smiling for real. For some reason, it felt like everything was back to normal. Taking our seats, I caught Olivia, Logan and Dylan off guard as I began chatting with them. Nevertheless, the responded after a few moments with great excitement. 

Sauntering into the room just as the bell rang, Noah smirked and me and gave me a wink before sitting directly behind me again. How irritating. 

"You know, I'd be very disappointed if you quit the war," Noah whispered, his breath tickling my ear. I leaned forwards, pretending to ignore him, but his words kept ringing in my head. 

Natalie Brooks does not quit. 

During lunch, my friends and I got to work immediately. Logan and Dylan easily disassembled the video cameras in the hallway and the girls and I got to work quickly on Noah's locker. 

To answer any questions, no we weren't childishly ripping off his locker door. 

We were painting it. 

Olivia, Kate and I were all pretty handy with paint brushes which, well, came in handy. Olivia began in the top left corner of the locker, painting butterflies in purple and pink pastels. Kate took the bottom of the locker, painting grass and pastel-colored flowers (very girly ones) as if they were blowing in the wind. Taking a hot pink, I painted in the middle in perfectly girly cursive, his name: Noah Hall. 

Giggling, we all took off and hid any evidence of what we just did to his locker. When the bell rang, signaling the end of lunch, students pointed and laughed as the passed his locker and when he stopped right in front of it, he took my off guard by cracking the tiniest smile ever, before covering it up and shaking his head. 

Walking away and to (coincidentally) art class, I took a seat and mulled over why exactly Noah didn't flip shit and kill me on the spot. 

He walked into the classroom and everyone held their breath as he came over and chose the desk in front of me. He sat on it backwards, straddling the seat and looked at me with an unrecognizable twinkle in his eyes. 

"You know, next time you do that, I really prefer a nice light purple. I feel like it complements me better than pink," He muses, referring to the color I painted his name in. 

I feigned innocence, "I have absolutely no idea what you're talking about." 

The rest of the day went by in a blur and suddenly the final bell was ringing, I was driving home and then I was doing homework. At around six o'clock, mom called me downstairs. 

"Come on, let's have some dinner," She smiled at me, "I made chicken Parmesan!"

"Great," I grinned, taking a seat across from Nate as our parents took their places at either end of the table. Digging into the food, I moaned in delight at the taste of the heavenly wonder. "Mom, this is amazing!" 

Nate and Dad agreed, with not so many words as they made noises of content as they ate. At some, I couldn't help but let out a giggle. Even mom would sometimes chuckle at them. 

Once we were all finished and Nate and I had washed the dishes, we all sat down on the couch to watch Wheel of Fourtune on TV. Smiling, I melted into Nate and whispered to him, "I like this." 

He smiled, draping an arm around my shoulder, "Me too, Nat, me too." 

∞ 

a/n: So, do you guys like? love? hate? I don't know, I guess this chapter was meant to show that Noah and partially Kate (but mostly Noah) kind of yanked Natalie back into the real world. So I guess we'll see how she does in the next chapter. See y'all next week!! :)