Love, Natalie

Chapter 1

My alarm wakes me up. I'm surprised my dad hasn't walked in here to turn it off. He usually does that every morning.

I walk to my closet to pick out my clothes for today. I'm not really the type of person who is picky on what she wears. I just love to wear clothes that I feel comfortable in.

I grab my South Park t-shirt. It's black and it had Cartman on the back riding a motorcycle with the words "Respect my authority!" around him. Next, I go to my drawer and take out a pair of black skinny jeans. The only color jeans I own are blue and black. Black being my most favorite.

I run back to my closet and take out my all black converse. Then I make my way to the bathroom. Luckily, no one is awake at this time. It's six in the morning and I always wake up at five thirty so I have time to get ready.

I start brushing my hair so it'll stop getting frizzy. Just a little perfume and some light makeup. Just eyeliner and mascara so my complete outfit is black.

I exit the bathroom to find Sylvia at the door half asleep.

"Natalie?" she asks looking up at me. I smile at her moving to the side so she can get inside.

"Good morning Sylvia. You might want to hurry up because it won't be long before everyone else wakes up. You know how Max and Georgie are in the mornings," she giggles and nods before closing the door. My brothers always wake up cranky and they love to hog the bathroom. That's the reason why I started waking up earlier.

I stop by my room to grab my backpack and my laptop. I rush downstairs finding my dad sitting at the table eating waffles.

"You made waffles?!" I ask him in complete shock. The kitchen doesn't look burned or filthy in any way.

"Haha, no. These are the Eggo's I bought last night. You're welcome to eat some. They're in the freezer." I nod as I run towards my freezer. They're chocolate chip Eggo's! Yum!

I pour some orange juice in a glass while the waffles are in the toaster. Once they pop out, I put them on a plate and sit across from my dad.

"So, aunt Sheryl told me you came home late last night. Is that true?" he says after a few minutes of silence. I was waiting for him to bring it up. I bet he didn't know how to touch the subject since he doesn't really get reports from my aunt about me.

"Yeah, I told her that I studied with Sam." I kept eating my waffles while my dad kept looking at me.

"Oh, I believe you. But Sheryl doesn't. She said she lied plenty of times when she was-" I cut him off. I don't want to be rude, but I just want to avoid him talking about my aunts rebellious teenage years.

"I know, I know. But I'm not like her. And I'm certainly not like Max and Georgie. I'm like.. Like-"

"Like your mother," he finished my sentence.

"Yeah, just like mom." I go back to eating my waffles. Where are the twins? I need to drive them to school and they aren't even down here yet.

"Natalie, I fully trust you because of that. I believe in you. I just don't want you to keep inside all of those ideas of going out and doing things like your brothers because then one day it'll all just explode and you'll be doing things you never did before or even thought you'd do," he says frowning down at his empty plate.

"I understand, but I won't explode any day. And I don't have any of those ideas going through my head. I want to graduate with honors and earn a scholarship so you don't have to waste money for my college. I have the smarts to get past this. I would never do anything stupid that would disappoint you and my aunt. Especially mom. Never." I get up to wash my plate and glass.