Natalie Peterson was a beautiful, intelligent and athletic teenager, but she hated high school for all of the right reasons. When she's bored, she smokes pot in the ghost area with her best friend Tamara Woods who's bullied by Gina, the hot popular...
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In class Mr. García, our Spanish teacher sent out a letter to each student saying that we would have a one week break for Thanksgiving. I grabbed the letter and pasted it on my notebook.
"That doesn't mean that you won't have any work, mis queridos,"
"Ah," everyone in the classroom complained. Why were teachers so evil? It was a whole week and they had to give us a bunch of homework even when we didn't have class. It sucked. It was for "our educational experience" our teacher said. Yeah right. He just wanted to torture us with more crap.
He assigned us chapters twenty to twenty five. We had to answer all review questions at the back of each chapter and then we had to read a short story he assigned to us titled "En el Aeropuerto," and write a summary of the story. He gave us a handout with a list of story elements in Spanish.
School was crap, as usual. I took my History class, we had to read a chapter and write an essay about Squanto and the Native Americans who helped the pilgrims agriculturally. Then, in Science we had to watch a video on YouTube and answer some questions about plants.
"And don't tell me that your phone lost the signal. I'll flunk you and you'll have to repeat again," Mrs. Delinger warned. These teachers were monsters. The only teacher who didn't give us any homework was our new teacher Mr. Milford. He simply wished us a good break and a happy thanksgiving.
"Now this is an improvement," I mumbled to Tamara. The desk behind me was empty though. When the bell rung I turned around and looked at it's emptiness. I missed Brad so much, I felt my heart ache.
"Why don't you go to his house and see him? I'm sure he wouldn't mind," Tamara said, but would he?
"We argued the last time we saw each other," I said.
"So? He could be in a lot of pain Natalie. I mean... I don't know."
"Have you heard anything from the teachers?" I asked her. She shook her head.
"Sorry," she told me. Maybe she was right. Maybe I should go to his house and just see him. Just know what was going on.
"Will you take me?" I asked her.
"Nope. You drive. Preston tells me that your driving test is tomorrow," Tamara said.
"Yeah, and Brad doesn't even know about it," I replied. I wanted to cry at the mention of his name, but didn't. The world has lost it's splendor without him.
"I really don't want to," I said.
"Come on, you have to live on. For me. What the hell am I going to do without you?" Tamara said trying to cheer me up. She half hugged me and I nodded.
"Okay," I said. We walked to her mom's van and got in.
"It's so cool that your mom let's you use her car," I said.
"Yeah, but you're going to have your own car. I know your mom's going to buy you one," she said.
"So what?" I remarked.
"So what? I wished my mom bought me a car," she said.
"I'm going to buy you a car," I told her.
"Really? How?" Tamara asked me. We got in and closed the doors of the van. I turned on the ignition and checked the rearview mirror.
"My dad's going to give me a job, plus increment my allowance. He says that my game was really cool and he wants me to play professionally," I said.
"Wow, you're so goddamn lucky," Tamara said.
"Yeah, lucky because I have everything in a silver platter," I replied.
"That's not what I meant and besides who cares. You're going to buy me a car, so the silver platter has it's rewards," she said. I laughed and reversed the car.
"Hey, you're doing pretty good," Tamara said.
"I got a good teacher," I replied.
"And I got a good boyfriend," Tamara replied. I smirked. I drove to Brad's house. It was still a sunny day, but it was quite windy and the leaves were all red, brown and yellow.
"I like autumn. It's nice," Tamara said.
"Yeah, me too," I replied. We reached Brad's house. His motorcycle wasn't on site.
"That's strange," I said.
"What is?" Tamara asked me.
"His motorcycle, it's gone," I said.
"Maybe you should stay in the van," I told her. Tamara nodded. I got out of the van and reached the porch of his yellow house. Then, I knocked on the door. I waited and heard a thud, so I knew that somebody was in there. Then, the door opened.
"Natalie?" His mother asked me.
"Hello Mrs. Wolfram," I said.
"What are you doing here? I thought that Brad was with you," she said. I shook my head confusingly.
"Umm... well... he's not," I said.
"That's strange. He told me he was," she said.
"So, he's not here," I asked. She nodded.
"Oh," I said, not knowing what else to say. This was so awkward for me, that I didn't know what to say or do. She seemed as confused as I was. I just turned around and left. His mom closed the door. I went back into the van.
"He's not there," I said.
"What? Where the hell is he?" Tamara asked.
"I don't know, but he told his mom that he was with me," I replied.
"What? He's lying to his mom? What's going on?" Tamara asked bewildered. I was as awed as she was. I didn't have a clue.
