2. For the next week or so, Catherine woke up smiling. She didn’t know why. She never woke up smiling. Before 8AM, Catherine was a nightmare. She tried to convince herself it wasn’t because Nate had taken to sitting next to her on the bench every day, she assured herself that her week was just going well. Today wasn’t any different, she woke up smiling again. Slamming her hand on the top of her alarm clock, she hastily dressed in a pair of jeans and a plain white shirt. After brushing her teeth and braiding her hair she skipped downstairs to make coffee. Her dog, Luigi, loped into her kitchen and licked her hand. After giving him a quick belly rub, she checked her phone to see that that she was going to be late for school if she didn’t get moving. Stuffing her books into her bag, she dashed out of the house and the cool October air hit her. Backtracking into the house, she snagged a coat off the hanger before rushing back into her car. When she reached school, Laney was waiting impatiently by the spot where Catherine usually parked.

“Lets go!” Laney yelled as Catherine slid of her car and grabbed her bag. “So,” Laney grinned, looping her arm around Catherine’s. “Did you talk to Nate?”

“Um, yeah.. We were texting last night.” Catherine blushed, avoiding Laney’s gaze.

“Catie’s gonna get a boyfriend,” Laney sang loudly, causing a few freshman to stare at her, “KEEP WALKING. YOU DON’T NEED TO LOOK.” she screeched, and the freshman dashed away, frightened out of their minds. Laney kept bugging Catherine all the way through homeroom and up until she got yelled at by Mr. Brown in pre calculous.
“Ms. Smith! If I hear your voice one more time, I’m going to move you to the back of the room.” Mr. Brown scolded Laney.

“Yeah, whatever Mr. B,” Laney muttered, but she stopped talking and focused on her work.

Two hours later, Catherine was headed for her least favorite class, gym. It had started raining, courteously to Massachusetts’ bipolar weather, so they were stuck in the gymnasium playing basketball. This was the one class Catherine didn’t have with Laney. Catherine stood awkwardly on the sidelines, until her gym teacher forced her to get involved. That’s when she realized Nate was on the opposite team. He was dribbling the ball towards her and her team mates were screeching “Block it! Block it!” as he flicked his wrist and sent the ball sailing far over her head. Catherine feebly made a jump for the ball just as Nate’s hand came down from the shot and with a loud crunch landed on her pointer finger.

“Mother f*er! Ouch.” Catherine screeched, before clapping her other hand over her mouth. Nate’s eyes widened in shock.

“Did I- I just- oh my god-” he stammered realizing he had broken Catherine’s finger. A giggle bubbled to Catherine’s lips before exploding over and she collapsed in laughter. Nate started laughing beside her. The entire gymnasium was standing, staring at the two of them.

Twenty minutes later, Catherine was in Nate’s car, and he was driving her to the nearby clinic. “I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean to break your finger..” he apologized glancing over at her hand which was covered in ice.

“Don’t worry. I’ve survived worse.” Catherine replied wincing slightly as her finger throbbed. “You didn’t have to drive me, I could have had Laney take me, its really no-” she trailed off.

“No, this was my fault, so I’m taking you.” He cut her off, as they pulled into the clinic. After arguing about if Catherine really had to go in (Nate wouldn’t take no for an answer) he escorted a grumpy Catherine into the clinic. “Hi, I’m here with my friend she broke her finger.” The blonde office assistant batted her eyelashes at Nate and said,
“Just friend?”
“Yeah, we had gym class together and I landed on her hand” Nate replied grinning at her. Catherine held back a laugh as the assistant flirted with Nate, giggling as he told the story. When it was time for Catherine to fill out a form, the assistant stared daggers at her when she gave it to her.

“Let me do it. I broke your right finger so I know you can’t,” Nate teased snagging the form from Catherine. They went to sit down and Catherine whispered,

“That assistant was totally into you. You guys could play doctor and patient,” and she cracked up as Nate’s face turned bright red.

“Shut up,” Nate snapped at her laughing softly, “Date of birth?”
“December 12th, 1995” Catherine replied.
“Height?” “five feet”
“Weight?” Here, Catherine blushed slightly, “122”
“Age... sixteen.. hair color.. brown.. eye color...” Nate looked up at Catherine and into her eyes before scribbling “most damn beautiful green eyes I’ve ever seen.” Catherine snatched the form “You did no-” only to see he had written green.

After waiting for twenty minutes, the doctors saw Catherine and gave her a splint for her finger. Nate waited patiently for her, even though Catherine said she could have Laney come get her, he insisted that to apologize, they were going to skip the rest of the school day and have fun.

“Where are we going?”, Catherine asked suspiciously as they got back into Nate’s car (she had protested greatly to missing school but had lost the fight). ?
“You’ll see, be patient.” Nate grinned starting the car and the song Thrift Shop came blasting through the speakers. Catherine stabbed her finger at the power button.

“Oh my god I hate that song!” She groaned.
“Don’t touch my f*ing radio,” Nate growled, turning it back on.
“Oh jeez. Sorry Mr. Tough guy.” Catherine teased, but he changed the station and the song Mermaid by Train came spilling from the radio. Catherine began absently singing along.

“Woah.. You can really sing.” Nate whistled, impressed. Catherine’s face reddened.

“Not really. What about you?” she laughed. Nate began singing (more shouting then anything) along with the song.

“Oh my god, you’re so bad.” Catherine cracked up.
“What are you talking about? I’m the next Adam Levine. I’m a great singer!” Nate feigned a look of sadness. “You really hurt my feelings Catie!”

Almost automatically Catherine spit out, “Only Laney calls me that.”
“Oh.. Sorry..”, Nate shrugged looking sideways at her.

“oh its actually fine.. I’m just not used to other people.. You can call me Catie” she trailed off.

“Alright good.” He replied as they pulled into a plain looking building parking lot.
“Where are we?” Questioned Catherine, hopping out of the car.

“We, are going to in here!” He pointed to the building that looked deserted.
“Oh thanks for that, sherlock” Catherine muttered, following Nate into the building. Inside, she saw that they were at a Skyventure, this place where they simulated skydiving indoors.
“No freaking way.” Catherine squealed, “I’ve always wanted to do this!”

“I know, same. Remember? We talked about it the other day, loser”, Nate replied.
Catherine rolled her eyes and pulled Nate towards the doors that read sign up. After signing all the papers, gearing up, and paying (another fight Catherine lost to Nate), they were both set up in wind tunnel together. The wind whipped them into the air, it made Catherine feel completely weightless and free. She just let go, and had fun. Something she hardly let herself do. After a half hour of air tricks and laughter, they got released from the wind tunnel. Nate then drove the both of them to some small diner in the middle of nowhere where they both scarfed down burgers and shakes. They talked about how they both loved the city. Catherine told Nate about how she wanted to be a music producer but how her parents would never support her dreams because of their professions. Nate talked about how his father was an editor and his mother had been a school teacher.

“But, um, she had to stop teaching when the cancer progressed to a point where she had chemo every week..” Nate trailed off.

“Oh Nate.. I’m so sorry.. I didn’t know..” Catherine sputtered choking a little on her shake.

“Oh no its fine.. it was like two years ago.. and yeah you didn’t know.” He shrugged taking a fry from Catherine’s plate and chewing slowly.

“Well, I’m here if you ever want to talk about.. Anything..” Catherine assured him.
“I know, thank Catie” Nate grinned but didn’t mention his mom again. On the ride home, Nate casually placed his hand across Catherine’s which she had laid on the arm rest.

“I had a lot of fun today, well, minus breaking your finger.” Nate remarked as they pulled into Catherine’s driveway. She had given him directions earlier in the evening on how to get back to her house.

“Me too, I’ve never done anything like that before.. I don’t miss school or do.. Spontaneous things.. Ever..” Catherine explained.

“Well, thats going to change. Our next date will be just as spontaneous.” Nate replied parking his car next to Catherine’s. She grinned when she heard Nate call their trip a date. Stepping out of his car she remembered,
“Oh s***! My car. Its still at the school!”

“Hey, don’t sweat it. I’ll come get you tomorrow morning and then you can just drive yourself home in the afternoon.” Nate assured her, stepping out of the car and walking her towards the front steps of her house.

“Thank you for today.. it was, amazing to say the least. Well, minus the finger” Catherine laughed, holding up her hand.

“Here ya’ go,” Nate handed Catherine her backpack and planted a soft kiss on her cheek. “I’ll see you tomorrow at seven-thirty, be ready. I’m not gonna wait” Nate called over his shoulder as he walked back towards his car.
“Okay” Catherine called weakly after him. She let herself into the house before collapsing on the floor. Luigi came galloping towards her.
“Well buddy,” She sighed, “I think I really like this boy.”