Seventeen

Natalie O'Malley was a little nervous, giving the presentation all by herself. It had initially seemed really petty to ask for another partner, when it became more or less clear that Elena wasn't coming back, but now she was wishing she had.

Natalie was nervous by nature. Getting so far set back in this project when Elena had up and disappeared had made her nervous. Giving the presentation made her nervous. Hell, even the project itself made her a little nervous, because parapsychology was a little freaky.

She was shaking when she finished. This had not been in the original plan.



In the original plan, Elena gave the presentation and Natalie learned how to embed the video clips they'd pulled off the internet into their power point. But whatever. If Elena wanted to drop out of school with only one semester left to go, that was her prerogative. Natalie thought it was stupid, but whatever.

Honestly, if Natalie hadn't used words like "prerogative" in casual conversation, she and Elena might have been friends. Natalie was okay, if a little serious--but Elena was confident that she could teach her how to have fun. Elena genuinely liked Natalie.

But poor Chloe wouldn't have been able to handle the "prerogative" thing. Chloe wasn't stupid, just a little--well, perhaps a little silly. And she liked to keep her academics separate from her everything else. And so Elena had made the choice to never really get close to Natalie.

Mark was in Natalie's Psychology class. "You did really well," he assured her, seeming genuine, as she walked back to her seat, head down. Natalie offered him a tentative smile. Boys made her nervous. Mark Goodman made her especially nervous because he was tall and athletic and smart to boot.

"Thanks," she mumbled, trying to make her voice as tiny as possible without actually whispering. This was the first time she'd actually seen Mark pay attention to anything that wasn't his notes or his assignments or his tests, and she didn't want to bother him if he didn't want to be bothered.

But Mark was more than ready to be bothered; in fact, he was something like interested. Natalie had given her presentation well, even though she was shaking like a leaf the entire time, and he found her material to be interesting. And he didn't believe he had ever talked to her before, which made her interesting in and of itself.

"How come you did the project by yourself?" he asked kindly. The poor girl nearly looked like she was going to cry. Well, he didn't exactly like giving presentations, either.

Talking made Natalie nervous, so she just shrugged and gave the simplest explanation she could think of: "My partner hasn't been in school," she shrugged.

Mark tilted his head and looked at her and thought about who her partner could have been. Things were coming together in a strange sort of fashion, but they were coming together nonetheless.

That they were coming together at all would have surprised Elena.