The Only Girl He Couldn't Get [T][W][O] First Day Back

First Day Back

"It's good to be back." Were the first words Natalie uttered on the sunny Tuesday morning; her first day of her last year of school.

She walked through the practically empty halls of Gravina Hill Academy, headed towards the familiar wooden table she had sat at every day for the past six years.

Not surprisingly, nobody was there. It was still early and Natalie expected her friends to show up only moments before the bell, just like every other year.

As she plopped down on a seat, making sure her school skirt wasn't revealing much, Natalie pulled out her discman and book, opening the book to the marked page.

Placing the headphones in her ears and hitting the play button, Natalie spent the next 30 minutes listening to her music and thoroughly engaged in her book. Well, until somebody suddenly slammed down in the seat next to her.

Natalie jumped and removed the headphones from her ears, turning to face the visitor, slightly glaring at them for interrupting, before giving up and rolling her eyes when they began pouting.

"You suck, Bo." She said, shutting off her discman and shoving it back into her bag.

"Good morning to you to, Nat." the boy replied, slinging an arm over her shoulders and pulling her into him in a side hug.

"What are you doing here so early?" Natalie asked, before checking her watch only to see that it was already 23 past eight. School started in two minutes.

Bo shrugged.

"I dunno. Couldn't sleep in any longer. Besides, I couldn't wait to see you." He said with a wink. Natalie laughed.

"You saw me yesterday, moron." She said.

"Well excuse me for missing you." Bo laughed.

"Yeah yeah. Let's get to class." Natalie said as the bell rang.

"Nuh-uh darling. There's an assembly, remember? You'd think after six years you'd have things memorised." Bo said, tugging Natalie in the direction of the school auditorium.

"Hey, at least I don't get lost walking home!" Natalie retorted.

"One time. I've done that one time."

-x-

Trey walked into the school almost 10 minutes late, realising that he had probably missed a whole bunch of important announcements in the school's regular "welcome back" assembly.

Not that he really cared.

Trey couldn't remember the last time he'd actually sat through one of those things. Smoking at the side of D Block was much more appealing.

Trey lifted his blazer a couple of centimetres higher so it was no longer dragging on the ground.

The school's uniform policy was clearly laid out to students and they had all been threatened with after school detentions on several occasions. However, not being big on rule-following, Trey's uniform consisted of an old pair of worn out jeans, his white school shirt unbuttoned revealing his black wife beater and his tie hung loosely around his neck.

As he made his way towards the auditorium, Trey could hear the principal's voice loud and clear. The old woman was rambling on about some fundraiser to be held next month.

When he reached the entrance to the auditorium, Trey hesitated before moving to push open the door. He wasn't too keen on sitting through the assembly, but he was trying to quit smoking and if he was going to succeed he needed to keep himself occupied.

He had to succeed.

Natalie hated smoking.

He sighed. Natalie.

He couldn't wait to see her.

She had been on holidays all through break and had only returned yesterday.

God, could he sound any more like a stalker?

As he walked through the door and into the packed auditorium, it seemed as if every face turned to look at him.

The principal stopped in the middle of her speech and narrowed her eyes as the boy walked down the centre aisle to one of the only remaining seats, all of which were in the very front row.

"Well, it's nice of you to join us Mr. Barker." Principal Simmons said as Trey took a seat.

"No problem, Bea." Trey replied, laughing slightly at the scowl that now adorned Beatrice Simmons old and wrinkled face.

"Oooh's" and "Aaah's" came from the crowd.

"See me after the assembly, Barker." The principal snapped before returning to her speech.

Almost immediately Trey zoned out and began glancing around the room. He caught sight of some of his mates and they smiled and gave him thumbs up. Trey smirked back and kept searching the crowd until his eyes locked with a pair of sparkling olive green eyes.

Sitting on the opposite side of the room, five rows back and three seats in from the aisle, was Natalie Bates.

-x-

When Natalie realised Trey had caught her looking at him, she quickly averted her eyes and focused on Principal Simmons. Without meaning to, Natalie began tugging on her bottom lip, hoping her face hadn't gone red.

Taking a quick glance back at Trey, she realised he was still watching her, a smirk on his face. Natalie shifted uncomfortably in her seat, catching Bo's attention.

"Something wrong?" he whispered in her ear.

"Uh...no, I'm good. Just a little bored." Natalie whispered back.

Thankfully, the assembly didn't last much longer.

As Natalie headed to her first class, Maths, a hand grabbed her wrist and spun her around.

"Hiya chicka!"

Natalie laughed at her enthusiastic friend.

"Hey Katie!" Natalie laughed as Kathleen pulled her into a tight hug.

"Aah, I've missed you! How was your holiday? Did your step-mum bug the hell out of you? Did you meet any hot boys? Ooh, did you buy me something?" Kathleen said quickly.

"God, take a breath woman!" Natalie said as they linked arms and began walking. "Please tell me you have maths?"

"Of course. What kind of Tuesday morning would it be if we didn't have maths to begin the day? Now answer my questions, woman!" Katie demanded.

"Well, let's see. Australia was wonderful. Honestly, it was amazing. We went to Sydney and walked the Harbour Bridge, and went to the Opera House and the Aquarium. It was gorgeous. Lorna didn't bug me too much, mainly because I avoided her, but my god. She's milking this whole pregnancy thing for all it's worth. She's barely three months and she acts like her stomach ways a ton and her back and feet hurt and I should wait on her hand and foot. I swear if this kid is anything like her, I'm moving out. I did actually meet a guy in Australia. His name was Blake. We hung out a couple of times before I had to leave, but he gave me his email and phone number. And of course I bought you a present! Don't I always?" Natalie said, rummaging around in her bag for the trinket.

"Oooh, gimme gimme gimme." Katie said, unlatching her arm from Natalie's and doing a little jig on the spot.

Finally, Natalie found the present at the bottom of her bag and handed it to Katie as they made it to the maths room.

Katie quickly ripped the tacky Christmas paper off and pulled out a large amethyst ring.

"Ooh, thank you so much! I love it!" she screamed, pulling Natalie into another tight hug.

"No problem, Katie. I know how much you love your rings." Natalie said.

It was true. Katie's each of Katie's fingers had at least one ring, each one with their own symbolic meaning. Katie only had rings that meant or represented something.

As Katie admired the beautiful ring that now adorned her right thumb, Natalie grabbed her friends arm and tugged her in the direction of their maths classroom. If they were late, Walker would massacre them. He wasn't the nicest teacher in the world.

"Alrighty, no need to get violent Nat."

-x-

"Oi! Trey!"

Trey whirled around to see Matt Langdon's familiar face walking towards him. Trey waited for Matt to catch up to him, greeting him with the traditional guy hug.

"Hey man." Trey said. "Glad you could pull yourself away from your time-consuming task of sticking your tongue down Kirri's throat to talk to your best friend."

"Please man, Kirri and I broke up almost a week ago. It was common knowledge I was in it for the sex, and she wanted to get closer to you through me." Matt said.
Trey gave a snort of laughter. Kirri was pathetic. And Matt...well, Matt was just...Matt. Just looking at the boy well, he looks like one of the sweetest, most kind young adults you could ever come across. His shy smile and icy blue eyes enthralled girls and adults alike, something that Matt often used to his advantage.

In layman's terms; Matt was a player.

It wasn't that he didn't respect women; he just didn't respect those that acted whore-ishly.

Ironic, eh?

"So, are you actually going to attend class today? Or did you just plan on wandering around the school by yourself for the morning?" Matt asked.
Trey shrugged his shoulders. He had been walking in the direction of his maths class, but he hadn't decided whether he was going to attend.

Who really wants to start off the day with 80 minutes of maths?

"So are you happy to be back? It must have been so very hard for you; all those weeks without being able to see Miss Bates. How did you survive?" Matt asked, faking concern.

Trey laughed and slightly pushed Matt to the side.

"And speaking of..." Matt nodded his head and Trey followed his gaze.

Up ahead, standing in the middle of the hall, was Natalie and a girl Trey remembered to be one of her friends. Karly? Kathy? Kathleen? Yeah, Kathleen. That's the one.

Trey watched as Natalie handed a small wrapped something present to her friend. A few moments later Kathleen gave a little squeal of excitement and hugged Natalie.

As Natalie returned the hug and began to pull her friend towards the math room at the end of the hall, Trey turned back to Matt, a smile on his face.

"Maths is suddenly looking a lot more appealing."