Chapter 3: Natalie Gets a Love Life
After a while, everyone was getting tired of games so they just went back to their seats and talked. Natalie sat talking with Samantha, Julie, Blake and Stephen. Her eyes shifted back and forth between the two pairs, from Samantha and Stephen to Julie and Blake…Samantha and Stephen…Julie and Blake…Samantha and Stephen…Julie and—
"AHHH! I CAN'T TAKE IT!" she randomly blurted out.
"Huh? Can't take what?" asked Julie, since it wasn't all that normal for Natalie to randomly spaz out like that, though she did have a tendency to…
"The fact that you guys are lucky enough to have a love life…" she said a little quieter.
Julie laughed. "Hey, don't freak out about it…you'll get someone. Hey, let's help you start now…is there anyone you like right now?" Everyone stared, waiting for the answer.
"Hey hey hey! Don't freak her out or anything! Wow, talk about pressure…" Samantha exclaimed.
"Okay, well, who is it…if you do like someone, that is."
"Hey, I like someone…" began Natalie, then clapped a hand over her mouth before she could say any more.
"Oooh…Who is it? Who is it?" said Chad.
"Is it just me or is Chad starting to get really annoying?" asked Liselle as she slapped him yet again.
"Wow, Liselle…you're not usually like this, from what I remember," Julie stated.
"Come on, give everyone else a turn at the 'slap Chad' game, I mean, geez…" Blake said with a laugh. Once again, Chad was quite speechless.
"Hey, I wanna join too!" said Allison with a smile as she slapped Chad. Soon, everyone was joining in the game.
While everyone was giving poor Chad a hard time (in love of course…hahaha) Julie pulled Natalie over and asked her, "Well, who is he? Hey, you can tell me…you know that."
Natalie looked over her shoulder uneasily before finally speaking. "Well, you know that trumpet player, Matt? He's totally hot!"
"Which trumpet player? There's like ten million of them…Hahaha…"
"I told you, Matt!" said Natalie.
Julie then remembered that Natalie had just told her which trumpet player a couple of seconds ago. "Oh, yeah…Matt? I wouldn't say he's hot…"
"Duh, that's because you already have a boyfriend!"
Julie spazzed out a little before talking again. "Well, hey, just go talk to him, get to know him more, you know?"
"Gah, you have no idea how many times I've done that, and it doesn't get me anywhere, now does it?"
"Hey, at least it doesn't leave you with any injuries," laughed Julie.
Natalie laughed too, remembering that day all too well…
It was around October or November, and it was really rainy for California weather. Julie was pretty hyper that day; she was going around pulling on people's backpacks. Mike went up to her and said, "You know, if you do that to tall people, it puts them off balance…" Julie laughed and said, "Oh, you mean like this?" and as she said the last word, she pulled on Blake's backpack. All at once, Blake went down and fell on top of Julie, which saved him from injury. Julie however, wasn't so lucky…even though she was laughing, the pain in her ankle was unimaginable.
The next day, Julie was in a leg cast and on crutches. She had a broken ankle for quite a while…
"Hey, if nothing like that happens, what could go wrong? Hmmm?"
"He could end up not liking me!" Natalie countered.
"Hey, life's too short to try to get right. Take the chance while you still have it…"
Natalie thought about this for a moment before saying, "Darn, how come you're always right, Julie?" Then she started toward the back of the bus to where Matt was hanging out.
Julie smiled. My work here is done…she thought. Then she went back and saw a very red-faced Chad. "Holy crap! How many times did you guys slap him!" she practically yelled.
"We were having a contest to see who could make Chad yell first!" Katherine yelled back.
"Well, I think he's suffered enough…Okay, no more slapping for him today, all right?"
Chad gave Julie a look of pure gratitude, which was thanks enough for her.
"Okay, so while Natalie's over there, talking with Matt, what do you guys want to do?"
"Let's play truth or dare!" suggested Katherine.
"Nah, we've done that already," said Mike.
"Shall we slap Chad again?" asked Allison, while Chad was furiously shaking his head.
"Uhhh, let's not…maybe later," said Julie with a laugh.
"Thank you! Wait, what do you mean later?" said Chad nervously.
"Exactly what I said. Okay, seriously you guys, there have got to be more games than just those…"
Everyone pondered for a while, and for once there was actually silence amongst them.
"Hey, we should all try to sing some more of those kpop songs…" said Mike.
"Hahaha, awesome! Okay then, who's up for it?" said Julie.
Soon they were all laughing over Stephen trying to sing Luz Control by Se7en.
Natalie and Matt came back to the group trying to get Eric to sing a kpop song.
"Come on, Eric! Just one song, that's all you have to do!" Julie said.
"No! I'm not going to sing, at least not with you guys watching…" Eric argued.
"Hey, what'cha guys doing?" Natalie asked.
"Oh hey, Natalie. Hey! You brought Matt! Awesome! Okay, well, we're all singing kpop songs, or doing the best that we can, but someone isn't cooperating…" said Julie as she stared at Eric.
"Hahaha, nice! Hey, who's sung so far?"
"Well, we got Stephen to sing Luz Control…" began Julie.
"I sang Two Steps!" said Dakota.
"I sang The Way U Are…" said Mike.
"Oh! And I sang Shy Love!" said Chad.
Natalie thought for a moment. "Shy Love…isn't that by BoA?"
"Yes…" Chad said.
"And isn't BoA a girl singer?"
"…Yes…" Chad said quietly. Everyone laughed like crazy.
"Okay okay okay, Eric…Honestly, either you sing something that you can choose now or I get to choose the song for you later!" Julie said with exasperation.
"AHHH! All right! Fine! What songs are there that are not by girls?"
"Well, there's always Dong-Bang-Shin-Gi…"
"I'm not gonna sing that."
"Psh, fine…Well, how about Se7en?"
"Ummm, okay, that doesn't sound too bad…"
Everyone was rolling on the ground laughing after Eric finished somewhat singing Real Luv Story.
"Wow, this is really entertaining…" said Julie. "Okay, who's next?"
"Hey, is it just me, or have guys been the only people singing so far?" said Blake, eyeing Julie suspiciously.
"Relax, I'm not gonna make you sing…you already sang in truth or dare, remember?"
"Okay, well just saying…"
"All right…Hmmm, hey Natalie! You want to try?"
"Hmmm…" Natalie thought for a moment, and remembered Matt. AHHH! I can't embarrass myself like that in front of him! He's gonna think I'm some kind of freak!
"Uhhh, Natalie?"
Then again, I could take the chance…
"Natalie? It really doesn't take that long to decide," laughed Julie.
"Okay, I'll do it. What songs are on there?"
"Hey, try singing BoA. I don't think anyone else has done it except Chad." Again, everyone laughed while Chad sat there quite embarrassed.
"Hmmm, okay. What song should I sing? Oh, never mind…You choose. I have no idea what's on there anyway," said Natalie.
"Okay then…"
Everyone watched as Natalie began singing Listen to my Heart. Once she was done, there were actually comments other than laughing.
"Hey, I think I could actually recognize the melody there…" said Julie.
"Okay then, so girls are better singers than guys…Cool!" said Katherine.
"Hey, who said anything like that?" said Dakota. The two began a poke-war again.
"Uhhh, Natalie? Can I talk to you for a moment?" asked Matt.
"Okay, sure…" said Natalie, fingers crossed that it was for the best.
Again, Natalie came back to a very interesting scene. Apparently, the poke-war had spread from just two people to the entire group.
"Oh my gosh, Julie! I swear, you're a genius!" yelled Natalie.
"Huh? What did I do again? AHHH!" she whirled around. "ERIC! MIKE!"
Behind her, both Eric and Mike were laughing, as they had both poked her at the same time, and gotten the result that they had wanted.
After she calmed down, Julie turned to Natalie. "Okay, anyway, how am I a genius?"
"Matt just asked me out! I can't believe it!"
"Oh wow, that's great! So I'm guessing you took my advice?"
"Yes, and it was completely worth it! Thanks so much Julie!"
"Hey, don't mention it."
Katherine went up to them. "Hey, what'cha guys talking about?"
"Natalie got asked out by Matt!" Julie exclaimed.
"Yes! I have a love life now!" said Natalie.
"That's cool. How'd it happen?" Katherine asked.
Natalie and Julie told her the story.
"Hey! Julie, you think you can get me a love life too?" said Katherine after hearing the story. Julie just laughed.
(A/N: Sorry about not updating for a while…I thought that maybe I could write down everything so I could have it for future reference or something, but for the time being, screw that. Well, you could say that this next chapter is dedicated to Mike. Yayy, ramen!)