No Strings Attached, Please?

Wednesday wasn’t cool either.

I was having Biology class in the middle of the day. I was really bored as I rested my tired face on my palm, feeling bored as Mr. Buckberry explained Human Genetics on the chalkboard. He wasn’t the most interesting teacher, he had the lack of ability on lecturing, so I could get easily bored in his class.

So, instead of paying attention, I drowned into my own world as my eyes were clung on the plain board.

For some reason, my mind flickered to when I woke up today. Kat was rocking my body to wake me up and she told me to get up fast because we were almost late for school. She quickly got into the bathroom and took a super-fast shower and then my turn to shower, but I didn’t wash my hair this morning so that made my hair didn’t smell too good. Ugh.

Kat gave me her dry shampoo. You know, the thing that you spray on your hair and voila, your hair will look like it's washed and it smells good. When we were ready, we both went downstairs only to meet Nat. Carlton had already gone and for a moment I was confused why Carlton didn’t gave Kat a ride to school.

Then Kat reasoned she liked to take the school bus more because she could get a seat with Anthony Gomez. Oh yeah, I knew Ant Gomez, he was a pretty cute Hispanic boy with a kind smile. I never knew that the baby in McGregor would get a crush on him.

Nat was being fussy when he met us. He said that I was being a girl. Always late for everything. Then after I thanked Mrs. McGregor, Nat took my hand and led me to his Ducati for a ride to school while on the other hand Kat skipped to where the school bus just stopped.

I would lie if I said I didn't enjoy the smell of Nat's scent from behind. In between his gruffy expression when I was too late to take, I could see his adorable side that I had come to like. I didn’t know but I guess Nat somehow reminded me of my little cousin—Craig, he was nine.

“Can you define what Karyotype is?”

Craig wasn’t the nicest kid, I mean, he usually would be grumpy and heady when his wants weren’t achieved or someone just itched him out. But on the other hand, Craig could be so adorable and nice when his mood was on the top. Craig and his big brother—Maverick—were my favorite cousins in my whole family.

And being with Nat, honestly made me feel comfortable for some odd reasons. I enjoyed his company.

A hand just landed on my table that belonged to Mr. Buckberry.

“Ms. Connor, can you define what Karyotype is? Or would you like sharing your daydreams with us?” Mr. Buckberry glared through his thick glasses as I started to stutter.

“Uh... it’s...” In between my startled moment, I racked my brain out tried to find the answer. But the fact was, I couldn’t find it. I hardly paid attention to the lesson this entire hour. Oh great, maybe he would get me into detention.

“Well, Sir, she’s busy daydreaming some kinky stuff inside her filthy brain. You know her,” a comment came from Lynn who sat two desks away from me. She smirked at me while she swayed her head in her bitchy fashion.

Instead of giving me more pressure, Mr. BuckBerry turned his head to Lynn.

“By that means, I believe you paid attention to my lesson, Ms. Sonekiss, so can you help Ms. Connor to answer the question? What Karyotype is? It’s a pretty simple question actually.” His eyes now turned to Lynn with such demand as I watched Lynn's face grew uneasy.

I knew she didn’t pay any attention either. I smirked at her as I motioned my knuckle on her slightly.

“Umm..” Lynn was lost of her words. I knew that Biology wasn’t her best class, she even failed once. “Well it’s pretty simple what Karyotype is,” she chuckled nervously as she drummed her fingers on the table.

“Enlighten us, please?”

Lynn let out her annoying giggle, “Karyotype is... is....” She bit down her lip. “I think it sounds like... Crayons?” she dangerously answered making the whole class erupted in laughter. Well, it’s true that Lynn didn’t have brain. Her head was empty.

Nat raised his hand and interrupted the laugh, “Karyotype is picture of all the chromosomes in the metaphase stage arranged according to length and centromere position.” It dragged Mr. Buckberry’s attention. Mr. Buckberry offered his content smile to Nat and nodded to him.

“Thank you, Mr. McGregor,” he said smiling to Nat and abruptly turned to me. “With that I expect five pages essay about Karyotype from you, Ms. Connor, because you’ve been daydreaming in my class,” he informed me.

“But.. but.. I wasn’t daydreaming…”

“No buts unless you want a twenty pages essay.”

I sighed in defeat while I grabbed my agenda and scribbled down the essay in my agenda. Pfft. It wasn’t my fault if I was daydreaming. Mr. Buckberry was awfully boring.

“And for you, Ms. Sonekiss, a ten pages essay about Karyotype since you answered my question with crayons—“

“Mr. Buckberry! That’s unfair! You were asking her not me, I was only—“

“Interrupting her, yes. Besides, this essay will help you to sever which one is Karyotype and which one is Crayon,” Mr. Buckberry adjusted his glasses on the bridge on his nose.

And in the end of class I spread my victorious smile to Lynn’s irked face.



I didn’t quite catch the fact that Nat’s hand weirdly found itself to envelop mine when we were out from our Biology class. His body was dangerously close with mine as we walked and abashed, I decided not to complain about it. Besides, we needed to convince the whole school that we were still dating. Stupid, I know.

By the time we hit the canteen, we always found our favorite spot filled by Kale and Bridget already. Carlton wasn’t there yet, probably was still busy with his project on History class like me and Nat previously got. Bridget waved her hand cheerfully when she spotted me, she patted a seat next to her before Nat pulled a vacant seat and offered it to mine, being gentleman for himself.

As much as there were sparks of awkwardness and my fluttered cheeks at his manner, I pretended to take that coolly and sat on that seat that happened to be on Nat’s side. Bridget wiggled her eyebrows at me and tried to joke about Nat being so cute for me. I glared playfully at her as Kale started to giggle when he found me being awkward.

“I’m gonna get some grubs, you want anything?” What I didn’t realize was Nat’s face was almost collapsed on me when he asked that, his breath tickled my cheeks and made me shuddered to find he was too close.

“Umm..s-sure,” I managed to reply. Nat stood up from his seat and motioned me to follow him to the food stall. I wasn’t really sure to take Nat’s boyfriendly manner. He was being too nice and too boyfriendly, which was good. He grabbed a tray for me when we were on the queue.

Feeling awkward, I cleared my throat and decided to ask randomly at him.

“Why did you do that to me?” I asked.

Nat slowly turned his head when he grabbed a handful of French fries on the stall. He frowned his eyebrows with such demanding expression. “What?”

“I’m sorry, I mean about uhh.. you know, why did you kiss me last night on the lake….?” I remarked hesitantly, trying my hardest not to be too obvious.

“Ohh.. that.. it’s..” he looked like he was thinking as he scooted to the next stall. “I thought you liked it? Well, you kissed me back and we made out, what’s the biggie?”

“WELL… I did like it, but I didn’t quite find the faintest clue that you kissed me first. I mean, you kissed me from out of nowhere, so…”

“Honestly? I don’t really know, I just thought it’s the right thing to kiss you last night, maybe I could make you relieved with your problems at home or something,” he shrugged his shoulder off and turned to the next stall to get the smoked beef, but he winced when he smelled the smoked beef. He just grabbed as many as possible all the greens and smoothies.

Maybe he didn’t feel how I felt. I mean, I just thought the kiss was awesome and it made me happy. The back of my mind even told me that Nat developed a crush on me, but I guess it was not true. He seemed like he didn't really care about the things happened between us. Maybe it was just some random kiss. But I wouldn’t lie if I wanted Nat to develop some crush on me - I mean, oh come on, I’m Savannah Connor, the girl that boys always want!

We were near the cashier. I was rummaging my ten bucks inside my jeans pocket when Nat already shoved his dollars to the cashier, telling her that I was with him. We walked back to our spot where Kale and Bridget were playing feeding on each other with their French fries that made me to roll my eyes. I turned to Nat and murmured a small thanks as he just shrugged and quickly slipped to his seat without pulling a seat next to him for me again.

Kale tried to joke something about their last band exercise to Nat as Nat stifled a laugh, Bridget joined and made fun of Geoff, but I didn’t hear too much about it. I didn’t really knew what happened to their last exercise, but I was relieved that Kale mentioned something about Dante wasn’t heady anymore.

Nat munched a handful of French fries when he listened to Kale joked about what Geoff had something funny on their exercise while on the other hand I remained in silence with my meal.

“Mind if I join?” Someone suddenly interrupted the boys, which happened to be Lynn. She showed her wide grimace to Nat and put her tray on the seat between Kale and Nat.

“N-no.. not at all..” Nat managed to squeak and instantly grew awkward when Lynn pulled her seat closer to him. Nat even blushed to find she was too close to him. I gagged at her. Didn’t she see me there with Nat? Wow, real classy Lynn.

“Oh hey Lynn, what’s up?” Kale managed to greet her but Bridget tugged on his sleeve. Lynn turned her head to Kale and spread a fake smile.

“Oh hey, Kyle wasn’t it? As you know, I’m busy talking with Nat right now. You can just enjoy your meal. And hey Bridget, my dear cousin,” she said sarcastically before turned to Nat and asked about the greens Nat got. She giggled and told him that she was a vegan and that she thought they were so much in common when it came to food.

My eyes bounced to Kale and Bridget who were speechless and annoyed at Lynn’s presence at our table. They decided to chat and enjoy their meals in their couple-y world on the other side, I was stranded alone next to Nat. Nat didn’t pay any attention to me and he was too involved in conversation with Lynn about weird stuff.

I tugged Nat’s sleeve trying to draw back his attention, but he was enjoying the talk with Lynn as he let out his not fake laugh at what Lynn told him. I stared at Lynn and she had this dangerous flirtatious look on Nat as she twirled her blonde hair while I found Nat had this love-struck expression.

She glanced to him from the corner of her eyes and sent her most flirtatious look to Nat which I found disgusting. There were some imaginary bubbles around his head, and also a cupid was shooting him a love arrow deeply into his heart. Instead of looking cute, I found he looked like an idiot with that stare he had at Lynn.

A boyfriend shouldn’t flirt with another girl in front of his girlfriend. And sure, he was making fool of himself. He showed too much interest on her although I had told him that Lynn would get bored easily and then dump him if he was making this easy.

Kale drifted his eyes to me and he looked confused about Nat flirting with Lynn in front of his girlfriend. He frowned and showed his demanding look at me. He was confused as hell but I just shrugged and told him to lay it off.

Minutes later, between Nat’s fancy laugh and Lynn’s giggle, Carlton came out from nowhere and took a seat next to Bridget with bored face. I offered my smile to him and he just nodded aimlessly without noticing Lynn was there. For some odd reason, when I heard Lynn was chuckling at Nat and they flirted shamelessly with each other, there was something inside my head and my ribcage that came out weirdly.

I tried my hard to shrug it off, but it still found its way to bug me.

“What happened to you?” Bridget asked closely to Carlton who was in the middle of his incoherent murmurings.

“I hate History of America, and I don’t want to talk about it,” Carlton rolled his eyes in annoyance. I could tell he didn’t make it good on his History presentation at class. And Carlton wasn’t a kid who took it easy when he failed something in class.

Instead of serving himself with the food in canteen, Carlton played with Bridget’s French fries and took some bites before he finally realized there was something wrong in our usual table. His eyes drifted to me and then bounced to Lynn who was drawing imaginary circles on Nat’s bicep shamelessly.

“I thought Savannah was your girlfriend, bro,” Carlton said out loud after he stared at me with his message look. His voice was quite loud to drag back Nat from his Lynn’s world, he turned to Carlton and snapped the bubbles inside of his head.

“Excuse me?” he looked confused while I was already bored for Nat’s obliviousness so I decided to give it away to Carlton.

“I THOUGHT SAVANNAH WAS YOUR GIRLFRIEND, BRO. You hear it enough?” Carlton yelled aloud making the entire canteen turned their head to Carlton. I gasped and couldn’t help to giggle at his nerdy yet sarcastic mode. And finally, it worked, in between Nat’s lovestruck, he caught the drift here. He scooted over his chair away from Lynn and chuckled nervously.

“Geez, you have one weird brother,” Lynn commented.

“It’s better to be weird than being a shameless bitch who tries to steal someone’s boyfriend,” Carlton said monotonously and shrugged his shoulder off. I held my stifled laugh as Carlton smirked to me. Here we go, the very side of Carlton. Lynn and Nat needed to get a reality check.

“I’m not trying to steal someone’s boyfriend!” her annoying voice high-pitched.

“Of course, but I don’t accuse you to be one, maybe you only take the hint.”

Lynn stood up from her chair and grabbed her tray, pouting her lips. “What the hell is wrong with your weird brother, Nathan? Ugh!” she groaned and waltzed away from our spot as Nat tried to drag her back but she ignored him and went to her kingdom seat with her minions.

“Carlton, what the fuck, man!” Nat glared to Carlton while Carlton grimaced at him.

“Well, what I’m trying to say was, we’re having a band practice tonight at Kale’s-”

“Dude!” Nat groaned.

“Nat, Carlton was only trying to help you from Lynn. He’s right, she obviously wants to steal you from Sava because she's dating you,” Bridget chimed in.

“She’s not trying to steal me—if that's what you mean. We were only talking, what’s the big problem?”

Kale snorted, “That was not talking, you two literally flirted with each other. And Carlton was right, she’s a shameless bitch. You should be flirting with Sava, not her.”

Nat groaned and then turned to me with his annoyed look. I grinned and only shrugged my shoulder off. Nat rolled his eyes and then looking defeated so he continued to finish his lunch.



Today at school was really weird, I couldn’t help it. Biology class, then Lynn’s movement, and now was Nat’s mute capability. He was being all silent after the bell rang and since that he only took my hand and dragged me to his Ducati, riding me back home.

I climbed down from his Ducati and I was about to thank him but he cut him off.

“Go pack your clothes, I’ll wait for you here.”

“What?”

“We’re having a sleepover in Kale’s.”

“I don’t want to bother your practice. Besides, Dante’s there.”

“I thought you were my girlfriend. I thought girlfriends needed to be on their boyfriend’s side. And this is not about our usual practice, because tomorrow morning we need to head out to the Battle Of The Bands, so I really need you to be on my side.”

I blushed at his last comment. Did he just say that he needed me to be on his side?

“O-okay then, you don’t want to wait inside? I think it will take long.”

“I’ll be safe here, just make it quick,” he said monotonously as he slid off his helmet to reveal his glorious hair. I nodded quickly and then ventured inside my house to see my mother who was having a make out session with Mike in the kitchen. Ignoring them, I walked into my room and started to pack my stuff for my one night stay.

Stuffing my toiletries into the bag, I thought of Nat’s weird behavior these last hours. He was not an open book kind of guy, I couldn’t reach him. I didn’t understand why he wanted me to be on his side as his girlfriend - I mean, we were not really a couple. I thought it was just for an undercover at school, not in front of Dante and the rest of his bandmates.

Then, for some reason, Nat changed drastically into this mysterious guy again that I found scary because of his calmness and his serious tone. Sometimes I assumed he was mad at me. Or maybe he was mad at me at the moment since Lynn left him alone in the canteen today.

I just hoped Nat would change like into the normal him he would because I was kind of worried about something bitter to come in the future.