Spirit

Chapter 3: Spring
“What’s up?” Lawren greeted me as I sat down next to him on the bus.
“I brought you a bagel,” I said handing him the bagel wrapped in plastic.
“With cream cheese?” he asked.
“Of course!”
He smiled at me. “You know what I like,” he murmured and unwrapped the bagel.
We rode in silence while I debated on if I should bring up yesterday or not.
I sighed in frustration. “So are you going to tell me?” I asked, weary.
He looked at me, confused and innocent.
“You were going to tell me something yesterday, remember? But then my mom interrupted. So are you going to tell me now?” I was kind of irritated now.
“Oh! Right! Uhm…can we just forget about that?”
I stared at him, bewildered. The way he stared at me, the way he looked with his dark brown curly hair, his chocolate colored eyes it made me weak. “Fine,” I whispered in defeat.
He smiled at me. “Your not mad, are you?”
“No! No! Of course not.” Hopefully I was a good liar.
When we got to Roosevelt High School, Lawren and I walked to the front door of the school where our friends hung out every morning.
“Your party yesterday was fun, Natalia,” Chloe told me. Chloe clearly resembled a Malibu Beach Barbie Doll. She had long blonde hair, a perfect body, and clothes that you would wear in California other than Seattle, Washington, perfectly tan skin, and sky blue eyes. She was perfect! I’ve known Chloe since second grade and we’ve been best friends since then.
“That was your party? I thought it was your little sisters!” Blaine teased. Alex slapped him in the back of the head. “I was kidding! It was a very… exhilarating party! I thought that if we ‘d played Pin the Tail on the Donkey, the neighbors would’ve called the police!”
I glowered at him.
Blaine was a jock. He played football and baseball. Blaine occasionally irritated me, but we were still friends. It was hard to not be friends with someone like him.
“The weather is nice today,” Alex pointed out. “It looks like summer is coming early! I’m so excited!” Alex’s parents were very strict. They had her where school uniforms even though she doesn’t go to a private school. It looked as if she went to an all girls academy. Her uniform was blue, red, and black. She wore square red-framed glasses, long white tube socks, a skirt, tie, and a sweater. Her hair was sleek and black and she had the same hairstyle and cut every since I met her in eighth grade. The person behind this schoolgirl façade was very loud, full of energy, and quirky. I always wanted to take her shopping with me and Chloe to see what she would wear other than her uniform, but of course, her parents would never let her go shopping.
The bell rang for school to start.
“I’ll see you in second period,” Lawren mumbled to me.
I nodded me head and grinned.
“You don’t look very happy,” Alex said, scrutinizing my expression.
I didn’t know Alex very well so I wasn’t sure I was able to trust her with my secret after all, if I were to tell someone, it would be Chloe. No offense to Alex though. “It’s just uh… I’m old. I mean it seems like just seventeen years ago, I was a baby!”
Alex nodded her head slowly. She probably thought I was weird.
As I tossed the Frisbee to Drake and Alex, I kept thinking about Lawren. Maybe I was wrong on my theory. Good thing I didn’t get my hopes up.
“Ow!” I said and rubbed the back of my head. I turned around and saw a Frisbee lying on the floor. It was obviously the one that hit me in the head. I looked up and saw Taylor walking toward me.
“Oh my! I’m so sorry,” she said, trying to sound sincere but that smug smile on her face hid most of the sincerity.
“Do you want me to shove that down your throat?” Alex yelled at Taylor as she stomped over to me.
“It was just a joke,” Taylor said, still smiling.
Alex threw her head back and pretended to laugh out loud then looked back at Taylor, her expression serious. “It’s not funny when you’re the only one who understands it. Freak! C’mon, Natalia,” Alex said and took my hand and dragged me to Blaine.
“Thank you,” I said.
“No problem. You know, you should learn how to stand up for yourself. You can’t let Taylor push you around like that.”
“I wish I can.”
“Oh it’s easy! Just put some in offensive words and she’ll learn she can’t mess with you.”
Offensive wasn’t me and even if I tried, I’d probably end up being the worlds biggest freak.
I rushed to math from gym. I was the first one changed and the first one out of the locker room. I couldn’t wait to see Lawren. I ran across the school to get to second period and once I got to my math class, people were just now leaving the room. I laughed at myself and shook my head as I waited for people to exit the room. I was pretty tired. I wasn’t much of a runner. Once everyone was all out, I saw Lawren running from the other side of the hall to get to class I waved at him. He waved back and followed me into class.
“You ran?” he asked, incredulous.
“I am panting, aren’t I? You don’t seem tired at all.”
“I have long legs. It was easy as pie.”
“Show off,” I muttered.
We waited for everyone else to enter the room as we sat at our desk and stared at each other, smiling.
“You still want to know, don’t you?” he asked.
I nodded my head, smiling.
“Alright,” he sighed.
“Natalia, I-”
Then the bell rang.
“Urg!”
“It’s okay, Natalia. Next time.” He didn’t sound so sure of a “next time”.
What was wrong with all of these interferences? It was like fate didn’t want us together. I was going to have to bring matters into my own hands.
“Do you want to hang out after school today?” I whispered.
He smiled. “Sure.”
“Lawren, Natalia, stop talking,” Mr. Erikson warned.
I ignored his demand. “Cowen Park?” I suggested.
“Yeah, why not?” he replied.
“Cowen Park. Hmm. Nice place for a date, eh?” Mr. Erikson said, butting into our conversation. “You two are going on a date?” he asked. He was obviously trying to humiliate us.
“We’ll be quiet, Mr. Erikson,” Lawren chuckled.
“That’s exactly what I wanted to hear,” he said and turned back to the board.
I couldn’t wait for school to end. I didn’t even eat lunch because of how excited I was. Spanish was the same. I just wanted Mrs. Rodriguez to be finished with today’s lesson. Mr. Birdine in Language Arts was the most tedious. Not because it always is, but because Lawren didn’t have that class with me. Since it was the last class of the day, it felt like the longest. I stared at the clock most of the period. At times, it seemed like time stopped or went back. When there was only one minute left, every part of me started to shake. I heard Taylor call me a freak in the background but I paid no attention to her.
“Calm down, Nat,” Chloe said.
“It looks like your having a seizure,” Alex said and giggled.
Then the bell finally rang. I jumped out of my seat and rushed to my locker. I had to go through three tries because I kept messing up. It aggravated me.
I slammed my locker shut and started walking toward the exit while I stuffed some books into my bags. Then a pair of hands caught mine holding open the bag. I blushed, looked up and smiled.
“Do you need help?” Lawren asked.
I stared at him smiling. He must have that I was delusional. “Oh. Uhm. Yeah. Sure.”
He chuckled and held my bag open. When I got my stuff in my bag, we started walking. He put his arm around my neck like he always did as we walked him. It didn’t make me blush anymore but I still did get butterflies.
“Cowen Park?” he asked.
“Yup,” I said, popping the “P”.
“Alright.”
We walked all the way to the park. It was a beautiful sunny say, so it made me even happier.
“Would you like a smoothie?” He asked me and pointed to a smoothie stand.
“Sure.”
“Kiwi strawberry?”
“You know what I like,” I said, repeating his words from earlier this morning.
He chuckled and got the smoothies.
We walked around the bicycle track sipping our smoothies and his arm around me. The moment felt fantastic. Our relationship reminded me of a flower. It gradually blooms and although you can’t wait for that flower to bloom in the winter, you can still look forward to something beautiful in the spring.
“Natalia, come sit with me. The sunset is magnificent,” Lawren said as he took my hand and pulled me to the top of the hill where the sun was setting in the horizon.
I couldn’t help but giggle for the moment felt so… perfect, so right. My fingers were entwined with his, the sun in front of us. It felt like I was on top of the world with the person I cared most about. I didn’t even feel like asking Lawren about what he had to tell me. Words would ruin the moment. I leaned my head down on his shoulder and smiled.
It felt like spring was finally coming.