Love, Natalie

Chapter 7

"You might not believe me, but I completely understand how you feel," I respond after a few minutes of me processing what he had said.

"Sure you do. I hate it when people say they 'understand' when they actually don't." He shakes his head while looking away from me. Maybe I should let him know what happened to my mom.

"My mom passed away when I was eight years old," I say as low as a whisper. Hopefully he heard me because then I won't have to repeat myself.

"Wait, what?" he asks with complete shock in his eyes. I sigh as I try to think of words to say, but luckily someone else spoke before I did.

"Alright, today we're going to separate in five groups of five. Four of those groups will go and take pictures of the freshman in their core classes and the other group takes pictures of the athletic freshman. That's all we're doing today. So grab a camera and head on out!" Ms. Benitez says while taking out the Camera Box. I'm sort of glad she interrupted my little talk with Lucas. I wouldn't even know what else to say.

"We'll continue talking about this after school." I nod at him rushing to go with a group that needs one more person so he can't follow behind me.

"How about we take pictures of the science classroom?" a guy named Francisco suggests as we all grab a camera.

"Yeah, why not? I think they're doing a lab experiment today, so it'll be nice to take pictures of that." Everyone nods at Debby's statement. With that, I walked out of the classroom with my camera trying my hardest to not see what happened to Lucas or anything.

I can't believe I told him about my mom. I never tell anyone anything about my past, so why was it so easy to tell him? I'm going to try and avoid Lucas. I don't think it's safe to open up these things to him when he keeps all his things to himself too.

"Natalie, are you coming?" Francisco asks pointing to the rest of the group. I didn't even notice I was walking slowly behind them. I nod at him quickly and rush to catch up my group.

Now it's time to do what I love; take pictures!

<><><>

"Natalie!" I hear my name coming from the classroom, but it doesn't stop me from running out the door. I push through the crowd in order to reach the girl's locker room. I'm pretty sure Sam is in there.

"Is Samantha Gray still here or did she leave already?" I ask one of the girls that's inside the locker room.

"She left to her math class, I think." I nod and then head to Mrs. Croe's class. I forgot we had to go to her to get our work from yesterday. I walk down the hall and hear a set of footsteps behind me. I turn around and see Lucas walking slow, but following me.

"Are you following me?" He speeds up to catch up to me making me look at him weirdly.

"Now I'm not. I have to go to Mrs. Croe's class anyways for the work," he says with a bit of seriousness. "Just like you and Sam." 

"Well, isn't that great news?" I say sarcastically. He squints his eyes at me making me squint my eyes back at him.

"You're something else," he says with a laugh. I hope he means that in a good way.

"Don't you have somebody else to annoy?" I ask abruptly. He looks around as if actually looking for someone else, then shakes his head.

"No one else is worth annoying than you." I roll my eyes at his weak comeback. That almost sounded like a compliment. "Don't think I forgot that we have a conversation to finish."

I look at him with wide eyes. Did he actually hear me or does he want me to repeat what I said because he didn't listen? I hope he didn't listen to me so I can make up something else.