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“Hey!” Natalie said as she sat next to Tanya in history the next day.

Tanya looked up from the note she was reading and smiled, “Hey Nat.”

Brooke stayed quiet until Tanya softly pushed her, “Hey Natalie.”

Professor Centurial quickly walked in the room as the bell rang and started class. Like the day before, his monotone voice bored the entire class. Natalie desperately tired to stay awake to take notes. “Tomorrow, I am bringing coffee,” she whispered.

Tanya giggled and quickly wrote something in the margin of her notebook. Natalie looked, as Tanya pushed it towards her. It said, “Don’t forget some for me.”

The bell rang, signaling that it was time for lunch. “Totally.” Natalie said.

“So are you going to sit with us again? Ryan will be there,” Tanya asked. She wink when she said Ryan’s name.

“Of course I will sit with you, but why would I care if Ryan is there?”

“No reason. Come on.” They walked to the cafeteria. This time, Natalie didn’t care if she saw Cam and Bianca or not.

“Hey Natalie,” Ryan said as she sat down. She thought it was odd that Ryan didn’t say hi to anyone else.

“Hey Ryan.”

“How are you?” Ryan asked as he moved his seat closer to Natalie.

“I am fine. How about you?”

“I’m good.”

Lindsay came and sat in between Natalie and Ryan. “Hey guys.”

“Hey Lindsay,” Natalie said. After about twenty minutes of listening to everyone else talk, Natalie got up to go to Photography. “I have to get to photography. See ya.”

“Bye Nat!” Tanya called after her.

She was halfway down the hallway when she heard someone running up behind her. Natalie quickly turned around to see who it was and saw Ryan. “Hey Ryan,” she said as he caught up to her.

“Hey,” he said, smiling at her.

“Should we just leave together tomorrow?”

Ryan looked at her, slightly amused, “What’s the fun in that?”

Natalie shrugged, “We could make people think we are together I guess.”

“But if we really were, then the fun would be gone again,” Ryan looked at Natalie, hoping she would understand. She didn’t, of course.

Natalie kept walking and didn’t say anything. “Plus, I like running after you.” Natalie stopped and looked at him. Ryan winked and walked away.

Professor Kodak announced that they were going out to the garden for class. Everybody was excited except for Natalie. She remembered how last night’s visit hadn’t seemed as magical as when she went with Cameron. Going with the entire class would hardly be magical at all.

Natalie and Ryan were sitting next to each other and he placed his hand on her knee, “Sounds fun. Right?”

“Oh yeah,” Natalie tried to sound enthusiastic, but she was really dreading the whole “trip.” Everyone was lining up, so Natalie got up to join them, mostly to have an excuse to get Ryan’s hand off her knee.

Things were moving was to fast for Natalie. Hadn’t she liked Cameron just the night before? Now she felt like she never wanted to see him again. How dare he try to tell her who she can and cannot be friends with! At the same time, she couldn’t wait to see him again though. Then there was Ryan. Talk about confusing.

“Rebecca! I need to talk to you soon,” Natalie muttered as the class walked to the garden.

“Ohmagawd! It is awesome!” Some of the girls squealed as they walked through the gates. It didn’t look as awesome to Natalie. Not like it had that night with Cameron.

“Everyone! Come and sit over here so we can begin class please!” Professor Kodak said, motioning near a large oak tree. The class sat down where Professor Kodak said and she started to show the class different lightings and positions for the camera. When Professor Kodak was done explaining, she let the class go off on their own. Many of the students started taking pictures of the different plants and animals.

Natalie walked into the woods, away from the other students. Ryan followed her and leaned against a tree. “Hey beautiful,” he said softly.

Natalie jumped and faced him, “God Ryan! You scared me.”

Ryan lifted his camera and took her picture, “Sorry.”

“It’s okay,” Natalie said as she walked deeper into the woods.

Ryan followed her. Natalie tripped over a tree root and Ryan grabbed her arm before she fell. “Careful.”

Natalie blushed and wriggled her arm out of his grasp.

“God you’re beautiful,” Ryan said, staring at her.

Natalie looked at him and then toward the light at the edge of the woods, “We should really get back to the class.”

Ryan looked at his watch, “We still have ten minutes.” He walked closer to her, close enough that he could touch her. Natalie took a step toward him. She looked at him and saw a longing in his eyes, but she wasn’t quite sure what it was.

The next thing she knew, he was kissing her and she kissed him back. Natalie pulled away and stared at Ryan. "I'm sorry Nat. I shouldn't have done that."

Natalie just shook her head because she was speechless. She kissed him again and said, "There, now we're even." Before Ryan could say anything, Natalie was halfway out of the woods.

Natalie couldn’t think as she made her way back to the class. Thoughts of what she just did, what Bianca would say, what Cam would say, clouded her mind.

“Natalie! Wait up!” Ryan called after her. She heard him, but couldn’t stop. It was like an invisible force was making her move.

When she was out of the woods, Natalie stood next to the group of students. She tried to pretend she was listening to Professor Kodak, but really Natalie couldn’t comprehend a word her teacher said.

As soon as they were back in the classroom and the bell rang, She ignored Ryan’s calls for her to stop and eventually he disappeared. Natalie thought about skipping her last two classes, but she needed to do something to preoccupy herself, so she went anyways.