Chapter 4 (Natalie)

I got up at 5am again. The weatherman said that it'd be hot today, so I put on my favourite tank top. I looked at myself in the mirror. It was me. Natalie Anderson. Same as always.

"Nat? Breakfast is on the table!" my mom called from the kitchen. I ignored her. I turned around, seeing if it made any difference that more of my skin was showing than usual. My parents wouldn't approve.

"Natalie! Please get him up!" Meaning my brother. I sighed.

"Okay, okay!" I called to her. I walked over to my dresser and pulled on a green sweater before grabbing my bag and leaving my room.

"Zach!" I yelled to my brother as I walked to his door, "Wake up!" I opened his door, only to find his bed made and looking unslept in.

"Didn't come home," I told my mother, rolling my eyes. How typical of him.

When I got downstairs, the rest of my family were already up, my dad and my little sister sitting at the table and my mom bustling about in the kitchen. I grabbed a cup of orange juice, ignoring the breakfast on the table.

"Oh, good morning!" my mom greets me as I walk over to her. She looks at me, and I realize the strap of my tank top is showing. I undo my ponytail and leave my hair down.

"Naty," my dad calls from the table, his nose inside the morning paper, "Mills is a leftie, which means we're going to have to work on your -,"

"Backhand," I finish for him.

"We know, we're gonna spend a whole practice working on it," my mom says. Oh, great. I'm getting really tired of tennis.

"According to my records, last year..." he begins.

"I'm all over it, Dad," I tell him, but he doesn't hear me. I start flipping through my cue cards, studying for French.

"Graduate of Surr. Eleven—"he continues.

"Aces," I finish, again, "Thanks for reminding me," My dad doesn't seem to realize that he's reminded me the same thing for the past two weeks.

"Naty's quicker now," my little sister says, looking up from her colouring.

"If you beat her, you're ranking jumps at least 3 places," my dad, not hearing her.

"If? What's this if about?" my mom says over my dad. Is nobody listening to anyone at all?

I walk over to my dad and kiss him on the head, saying, "Bye," and rubbing my sister on the head.

"Naty, sit down and have some breakfast," Mom says.

"I can't, I've got key club this morning," I say, turning around and heading for the door.

"You need to have some protein, sit down, please,"

I turn around with my backpack halfway on tell her, "I have a bar," meaning the energy bar which will get me out of the house faster.

"A bar is not breakfast," she says, irritated.

"Bye!"

"And as for the states of attraction, the couples are Hobbs, Merton, Carling, Stevens, Brand, Eldridge, Anderson Zetterstrom, Brandon...", Mr Miles reads from his list at the front of the class.

While the rest of the class finds their partner and sits at a bench along the side of the class, I stand in the middle of the room, looking around. Apparently, Zetterstrom decided not to show up for class today. I go over to the only bench left in the room and take out my books. I reach over to grab the beakers that we need and turn around to-

Apparently Zetterstrom decided to show up to class after all.

It was kind of unnerving to turn around to an empty seat and find a brown haired boy grinning at you from the seat.

"Zetterstrom?" I asked.

"Haven't lied to you this far, I'm not gonna start now," he said with a grin. He looked like he was laughing to himself. Weird.

I turned back to my binder and began writing the chemical formulas of the reaction we'd be making in a few minutes. I could feel the boy staring at me, and when I looked up, he was still staring at me, grinning.

"You gonna help?" I ask him while reaching under the desk to grab the safety goggles. He kept grinning and nodded his head. He grabbed a matchbook, turned on the Bunsen burner and lit a match. Why did he do that?

I leaned over and blew out the match while turning off the gas. "We don't need that for this," I tell him, though it should have been obvious.

"Look," he began, "You're not gonna be disagreeable about this because Walt specifically promised me an agreeable lab partner," I looked at him. What was he talking about?

"Walt?" I asked him. He narrowed his eyes at me, while still grinning to himself, and considered me.

"You need to relax," he recommended. What? Okay, now I was becoming a little bit impatient with him.

"Actually, I need to learn this,"

"Because why?"

"Because you need to get a 4 on your exam if you want to get a college credit, in case you didn't know," I said. His nodded and smiled, like he understood.

"And then you'll be ahead of the game, right?"

"Then I can focus on the things I'm good at and keep up my GPA," I inform him. "Okay, so we need to fill this one with sodium nitrate and this one with nitrate..."

"Gotta keep up that GPA," he interjected, looking up and not really paying attention to the beakers.

"Kinda helpful if you ever wanna get a job,"

"A job!"

"Can we just do the lab?"

"I'd love to!" he said, putting on the goggles. "Let's do the lab! Except..." he continued, turning on the gas again, "You're about ten years into the future," He lit a match and smiled.

I was pouring some of the sodium nitrate into another beaker when I noticed smoke and flames coming from the burner. I looked at Zetterstrom. He was grinning at me again.

"We don't need chemistry!" he began, "We need time travel!" What. The.


"But Mr. Miles, this is AP," I told him after class. How someone like Keith (his first name, according to the girl behind me) could get into this class was baffling.

Miles leaned over and whispered, "Keith is actually pretty sharp," He hesitated before adding, "When he applies himself,"

"Okay..." I reply, doubting it. "But we kinda..." I trailed off, shaking my head. He was one of the weirdest kids I'd ever met.

"Lab chemistry?" Miles asked me with a grin, laughing at his pun.

"Yeah," I said, laughing uncomfortably. He looked up from the paper he was grading, looking very serious.

"Try to make it work, okay?" he pleaded. I realized that I wasn't going to be switched partners. I nodded and headed for the door. As I was leaving the class, I heard Keith talking to Miles.

"About this Natalie Anderson thing," he began. I stopped and listened. "Walter, she's a complete anal-compulsive control freak, how do you expect me to work with that?" he continued. What?

"But Keith, you were the one..." he whispered.

"I'm kidding," Keith interrupted. I shook my head. What the hell? I left the class. "I'll whip her into shape," he finished, turning and leaving the class.

He turned out of the class and stopped a few centimetres away from me, where I'd been waiting for him. He had that grin on his face again.

"Who the hell do you think you are?" I demanded before he could say anything.

He looked at me and smiled wider. "Who do you think I am?" he asked, looking at me condescendingly before grinning and walking around me.


a/n It's been a while, I know. But I started this during winter break, when I didn't have school, but I've been busy. So for the next chapter, there might be a bit of break between this one and chapter 4 (5?), sorry! Semester 2 just started so... Also, I also cut this scene short, as Natalie is supposed to talk to Raf before it ends, but I don't have time to finish it, and I wanted to post something.