Natalie sat at her desk and fiddled with her pencil, trying to stop the small little smile that was threatening to break across her lips. She definitely didn't want her teacher to see her laughing at the situation. A boy who was just taking a nap had been woken up by his cell phone, which had just gone off in the middle of the teachers lecture. Now the class was trying to hold their giggles and sit in silence as the teacher and student bickered at each other.
"Mr. Beilschmidt, how long will you ignore me? Give me your phone right now or I will call security down to get it for me," Mr. Belflower raised his eyebrow and held his hand out in front of the boy, who just looked up at him with sleepy eyes. "Well? Are you just going to look at me?"
"Honestly, I don't understand why you guys take our phones when they go off," the boy muttered as he reached his hand in his sweatshirt pocket. "Just because it makes a noise doesn't mean we're using it. And if we aren't using it then what's the problem? We all have our phones and you know that."
He rummaged around in his pocket for a moment before pulling his phone out. "And I don't see teachers going through their students' book bags and taking their stuff just because they know it's there." The boy plopped his phone in the teacher's hand. He opened his mouth again to say something else, but the girl behind him kicked his desk as if to tell him to shut up.
When the teacher turned back around and walked over to his desk, Natalie heard the girl who had kicked the boys desk whisper "Oh my god, Gil, you really need to learn when to shut the hell up."
Gilbert just put his head back down on his desk and completely ignored her.
"Well guys, I'm sorry I didn't get to finish my lesson. You can go ahead and get the notes online and we'll talk about it tomorrow," Mr. Belflower dismissed the class as the bell rang.
Natalie stood up, slung her backpack over her shoulder and picked up her science book. She walked over to her teacher's desk and he looked up at her with a questioning look on his face. Natalie just hugged her textbook. "I need to retake the quiz I missed yesterday, right?"
"Oh yeah, that's right. All right go sit back at your desk and I'll give you your paper."
Natalie just nodded, but when she turned around she found herself face to face with Gilbert Beilschmidt. He glanced at her for a moment before moving out of her way and saying to Mr. Belflower, "Schools out. I need my phone back."
Quietly making her way back to her desk, Natalie sat down and listened to the conversation that was going on next to her.
Mr. Belflower just sighed before responding to the boy. "Mr. Beilschmidt, this is the second time I've taken your phone. Because of that, your parents have to come get it. I can't just give it back, it's the school rules."
Gilbert just rolled his eyes and balled his hand into a fist in frustration. "My brother was probably the one that called me. He forgets that he gets out of school before us so he doesn't think."
"Well then, you'd better remind him," Mr. Belflower broke eye contact with Gilbert to shuffle through some of the papers on his desk. Natalie expected Gilbert to give up and leave but to her surprise he kept arguing with the teacher.
"He probably needs me to pick him up from his club and without my phone I have no way of knowing what time that's going to be."
Mr. Belflower just stopped what he was doing for a moment to close his eyes before looking back up at his student. Gilbert just looked him steadily in the eye and continued, "So I really, really, really need my phone."
"Just tell your parents to pick him up."
"I'm sorry, but I have somewhere to be, and HOW am I supposed to tell them without-"
Natalie cleared her throat. As amusing as the conversation was beginning to be, she knew she needed to take her quiz and meet her mom in ten minutes.
At the sudden interruption, both Mr. Belflower and Gilbert looked up at her in surprise. Judging by the look on their faces, it was evident that they had both forgotten that she was in the room.
"Oh, I'm sorry Miss LeMar, of course. Here," Natalie's teacher pulled out a paper and walked over to her desk. Gilbert just stayed where he was. His arms were crossed and he shuffled his feet as he waited for Mr. Belflower to return.
Natalie began her work and bit her lip as the two started up again. Was she ever going to be able to concentrate?
"Look, my brother NEEDS to be picked up. I can't just leave him at school all day," Gilbert's said. He was starting to get quite persistent.
"Just because school is out doesn't mean I can't give you a referral, Mr. Beilschmidt," Mr. Belflower snapped back. Natalie could tell that he was beginning to get at nerves end with Gilbert. "Why don't you wait for Natalie to finish her quiz and then nicely ask if you can use her cell phone?"
Gilbert opened his mouth as if he was going to say something, but then he looked over at Natalie and it seemed as if he decided to hold his tongue. He just looked down and muttered "Yeah fine."
As Natalie quickly took her quiz, she couldn't help but notice how extremely attractive Gilbert was. She glanced up a couple times at him as she worked. He was leaning against the wall and looking around at all the math posters in the room.
You really couldn't say that he was skinny. He wasn't fat, at all, but he definitely wasn't skinny. He was just a big guy. His nose was kind of large, and his hands and feet were too.
Everyone in the school thought he was the hottest guy in the world. Even though he was notorious for getting wasted at parties, selling drugs to his friends, and causing trouble at school, there was just something about him that no girl could resist.
Seeing as Natalie was a sophomore and he was a senior, and she had practically never spoken to him in her entire life, she didn't have any firsthand proof that any of those rumors were true. And there was a small part of her that really didn't want to know, but one thing that she could agree on with everyone else was that Gilbert really was extremely hot.
About five minutes later, Natalie finished the last question and stood up from her desk. After she turned her paper in and started walking out the door, Gilbert straightened up and quickly followed her.
As they both made their way into the hallway, Gilbert sped up a bit until he was in front of Natalie. She stopped and looked up at him. She literally looked up at him. Standing next to him like this made her feel tiny. He was a giant compared to her.
"So can I?" He said, putting his hands in his pockets.
Natalie tried to look him in the eye when she answered, but his intense glare seemed to burn into her and she had to look to the side. "Yeah, of course."
She took her phone out of her pocket and handed it to him.
They both kept walking and Gilbert held Natalie's phone up to his ear.
"Ludwig?"
Natalie couldn't help but raise her eyebrows in surprise. Ludwig. What a weird name.
"Hey, yeah, what time are you getting out?"
As they reached the doors that led out of the school, Gilbert opened the door and let Natalie walk ahead of him. Natalie couldn't help but silently giggle to herself at how cute it was that he opened the door for her.
"Yeah, your club, what the heck else," Gilbert said. He paused for a moment before laughing, "Yeah I know right? Why are you even in it?"
Natalie smiled to herself as she walked over to a bench and sat on it. Gilbert followed her and stood next to her as he kept talking. Natalie totally knew that so many girls would kill to be in her shoes, so she decided to enjoy the moment as it lasted. This was probably one of the only times she would ever be alone with him, so why not?
"Mhmm, so like five minutes..? Wait what? No, Ludwig no we don't have time... Dude, no. Hell no. We're going home. Yeah. Too bad. Okay bye, love you."
Natalie decided that Gilbert and his brother must have a close relationship if they told each other that they loved each other when they said goodbye. Natalie just looked up as Gilbert turned her phone off and rolled his eyes. "Ugh, little brothers are annoying sometimes, aren't they?"
Natalie took her phone back and smiled. "I wouldn't really know. I only have one brother and he's twenty-seven."
Gilbert's eyebrows shot up and he laughed. "Well damn. That's... Old. My brother is twelve."
Natalie let out a little laugh and replied, "But that's normal. He's only like... Six years younger than you right? My brother is twelve years older than me."
"Woah wait, how did you do the math in your head so fast?" Gilbert asked. He looked genuinely impressed.
Natalie looked out at all of the cars in front of her to see if she recognized her moms little yellow Porsche. When she didn't, she looked back at Gilbert and couldn't help but twirl her finger in a strand of loose hair. "I don't know, I just did it."
"I wish I could do math like that. I've pretty much failed every single math class I've ever stepped foot in," Gilbert exclaimed. He looked down at his watch and sighed. "But yeah I have to like... Go now. My brother is waiting and stuff."
Natalie just stared at Gilbert for a moment until she realized what he had said and snapped out of her flirty daze. It was so hard to concentrate on someone's words when their amazingly attractive face was practically begging her to stare at it.
"Alright... Yeah, totally. Okay bye," Natalie stammered. Gilbert looked at her quizzically before nodding and walking off towards the student parking lot.
As soon as she knew he couldn't see her, Natalie fell back against the back of the bench and heaved a content sigh. She didn't even care that Gilbert hadn't thanked her for letting him use her phone. She just felt as if the smile on her face would be stuck there forever.
With shaky hands, she opened her phone. Her best friend absolutely had to know about this.