AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I stifle a laugh as I put the tools I used away. She just sits there, fuming, with her arms crossed, staring at the amazing fence I fixed.
“I’ll get back to my run now. For your paper, you already know about my middle name and how I like to run on my property. You can add that I do in fact cook sometimes, and not every meal is made by our personal chef—my specialties are lasagna and chicken sliders. I can also sing a mean George Michael song, but don’t ever ask me to show you. Have fun writing your paper.”
I start my run back across the creek and to my property, never looking back, but feeling more confident than I ever have in my life.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Dalton
Whoever thought writing a paper could be so much fun? Everything I’ve ever written for school had to be factual with citations and research, yet for this paper, I got to make stuff up, and I had more fun than I should have.
At first, I thought I shouldn’t get too in depth with lies, but then I thought what kind of stuff would she make up about me if I couldn’t fix that fence? So, I thought,Fuck it. If I had to write this paper about her, I might as well make myself laugh at the same time. I did keep some things true though with her hand massage and wanting to run the farm someday so the teacher wouldn’t suspect too much that it was mostly lies.
When I enter the classroom, she’s already sitting at her desk, trying her hardest not to notice that I just entered, but she can’t hide from me. I hope she’s nervous about the stuff that I wrote because she should be.
I hand it to Mrs. Anderson with a big smile on my face. “Thank you for giving me this opportunity to learn such personal things about Natalie. She really opened up to me, and I was able to write the paper exactly how you wanted.”
Mrs. Anderson grabs it from me with a suspicious look before she turns her sight to Natalie. “Do you have your paper to turn in as well?”
With a huff, Natalie reaches into her bag, grabs a paper, and walks it up to Mrs. Anderson, obviously without the same giddyup in her step as I have.
“Did Dalton share with you as much as you shared with him?” Mrs. Anderson asks.
“I gave her a ton of stuff to write about,” I respond for her.
Mrs. Anderson turns to her for clarification. Natalie just nods, then turns back around and walks to her desk, sitting down with defeat written all over her face. I’d say this is the best morning I’ve had in a while.
I walk past her chair to my desk in the back row, but can’t help myself when I stop and say, “Thanks again for all your help. Sharing all those intimate details really made for a great piece.”
The way her eyebrows pinch together, and her face turns beet red makes me want to bust out laughing, but I compose myself and walk to my desk, taking a seat, feeling like I’ll be riding high for the rest of the day.
Class goes pretty smoothly, and Mrs. Anderson even gives us time to finish our homework, which is always fine by me. The less work to do after practice, the better.
The bell rings, and we all start to exit the room whenI hear Mrs. Anderson say, “Natalie and Dalton, I’d like to talk to you for a second.”
She slides my paper across the desk and looks to Natalie. “Natalie, do you know what he wrote in his paper?”
Natalie nods her head while continuing to hold it up high. “I do.”
Knowing she’s gonna keep her end of the bargain puts a small smile on my face.
“So, you really told him that you peed your pants in class and dropped a water bottle on your lap to pretend it didn’t happen?”
She shrugs, her expression completely straight, like she expected Mrs. Anderson to ask that. “You told me to get personal, and we didn’t want to have to write the papers again, so I got as personal as I could possibly think of.”
Damn … I understand accepting what I wrote because she’d lost the bet, but seeing that she’s willing to lie to the teacher and admit everything I wrote in the paper is true kind of makes me look at her differently.
Mrs. Anderson inhales a deep breath as she places the paper back down on her desk. “Okay then, you both can go.”
Natalie turns and leaves without giving me a second glance.
“Thanks, Mrs. Anderson. Have a good rest of your day.” Yes, I might be gloating, but winning a bet has never felt so good.
When I exit the classroom, Natalie is nowhere to be found, so I head to the couches to relax before my next class.
“How was English?” Maya asks as she plops down next to me.
Ben swoops in and picks her up and places her back on his lap before I can answer.
