[Old Version] Playing for the Other Team [Old Version]

Chapter 3

Before Nathan knew it, he was fast asleep. He woke up moments before the maid knocked on his door, telling him it was time for dinner. He rubbed the sleep out of his eyes, and checked his watch, noting that he'd been sleeping for a little over an hour. He took a few moments to wake before heading back down the stairs to the dining room. His dad, and stepmother were already sitting by the long dining table.

Yes, Nathan had a stepmother. Jennie. But she wasn't evil, but sweet, caring, and she actually spent time with him instead of leaving him be all the time. Nathan liked that, it was nice to have someone he could spend time with, and Jennie never turned him down.

He took a seat next to her, and gave a tired smile. "Hello, Nathan." She said, giving his back a gentle pat. "Did you fall asleep?" She asked him and he nodded. She chuckled quietly. "You must be tired after school, and early basketball practice."

Nathan shrugged. "Just a little." He confessed.

Aaron didn't answer. He just gave a brief smile before looking back down at his phone with worried eyes. "Honey, why don't you put that thing away while we eat?" Jennie asked. "We'd love to have someone your attention. You're always so busy." She continued, just as eager to have his attention as Nathan was.

"I'm sorry, sweetheart, but I'm waiting for a very important call, and I have to be ready." Aaron said, sounding a bit apologetic. Nathan frowned slightly, and let his eyes drop to his plate.

They ate in silence, mostly. Jennie would from time to time try and start up a conversation. Nathan happily joined, but it wasn't the same when his dad didn't take interest in the small talk. Aaron stayed quiet during dinner, occasionally checking his phone.

After dinner Nathan got up and thanked for the food. Then he went back up to his room to take a shower. Once he's showered he logged onto Chatpage – the only social media he really cared for – but found nothing interesting, and quickly logged out. He went to bed early that night, dreaming about books, cars, and people with yellow-green eyes.

The next day Nathan got up early, ate breakfast alone, and drove to school as usual. In school he was – as usual – generous with his smile, and sent his dazzling smile to those he saw. Like usual, he met up with Oliver by his locker, but Josh was nowhere to be seen.

"Where's Josh?" Nathan asked and picked his books our of his bag before stuffing it into his locker.

"At the hospital." Oliver sighed. Nathan arched an eyebrow, waiting for an explanation. "He crashed with his car." Oliver continued with a shrug.

"Oh my gosh." Nathan frowned. "Is he all right?"

Oliver shrugged again and nonchalantly inspected a line of text in the book he held. "He's fine." He said. "A few broken ribs, and a slight concussion. Other than that, he should be up and running in a week or so." He explained, watching Nathan nod. "He tried to show off as usual, you know how he is."

Nathan gave another nod, and then they left the topic. Josh at the hospital wasn't that unusual. He loved cars, the faster the better, and he'd gotten more speeding tickets than Nathan cared to remember. Oliver would always joke about Josh's hospital visits, saying, "Some people should just live at the hospital. The mental hospital."

The school day was short since the last lessons were canceled because of the preparation for the much awaited school dance needed more students to help out. Nathan saw that as his chance to sneak in another hour of studying, to be able to nail his upcoming maths tests.

He went to the library, and kept telling himself that it was for studying, but in the back of his head he was hoping to run into a certain someone again. But he didn't realize it until he stood between the old bookshelves, looking at the blond sitting where he'd sat the previous day.

Jonathan was surrounded by papers and books, and he frowned while glaring down at one of the papers. Nathan's face split into a smile, and he walked over to the table, trying not to make much noise. "Hey." He said.

Jonathan flinched in his seat, and looked up. For a moment he looked scared, but he quickly wiped his face of any expression and relaxed, going back to his homework. "Oh." He mumbled. "It's just you." He sighed. Nathan's smile disappeared, and he was just about to leave again when Jonathan looked back up at him. "What do you want?" he asked.

Shrugging, Nathan averted his eyes, trying not to stare down at the blond with the oddly colored eyes. "O-Oh... um... nothing really." He said. "I just wanted to... say hi, I guess." He mumbled awkwardly.

Jonathan sighed. "Yeah? Well... Hi." He said before looking down at his books again.

"I-Is..." Nathan stuttered before clearing his throat. "Is this seat taken?" he asked, nodding towards the empty chair on the other side of the table. Jonathan looked at the chair before giving Nathan an annoyed glance.

"As you can see... it's not." he said, shaking his head.

Nathan ignored the look, and sank into the chair, picking his own books out. He was determined to solve the questions he had in front of him, and after reading around five pages in the dense book and thinking until he could hear his brain squeak, he managed to solve it.

Once he'd written his answer down he glanced over the table at Jonathan, that looked close to miserable. "What are you reading?" He found himself asking. Jonathan glanced at him.

"Homework." he said dismissively. Nathan gave a nod.

"What kind of homework?" Nathan asked.

Jonathan shrugged. "Um... history." he explained without looking up.

"Okay." Nathan said. For some reason he found it very easy to talk to Jonathan, even though Jonathan was obviously trying to ignore him. "Like American history?" He asked. Jonathan gave a long sigh, and tore his eyes off his books to glare at Nathan.

"No. Danish history." He said sarcastically. "Of course it's American history." he said and sighed. Nathan frowned a little, and looked away again.

A few minutes of silence passed, but Nathan couldn't help but throwing curious glances at the blond across the table. Finally he brought himself to say something. "H-How's it going?" He got out.

Jonathan looked up, and attempted to glare at him. "I..." He snapped, but stopped halfway. His glare faded into a confused frown and he let out a sigh. "I don't get it..." He confessed with a childish pout on his face.

Nathan nodded slowly. "Do you... need any help?" He asked.

"Yes." Jonathan sighed. Nathan rose from his seat and walked around the question. "This question..." Jonathan mumbled and pointed at a question before sinking so deep into his chair Nathan thought he'd fall off.

After looking at the question Nathan hummed to himself. "How did the consequences of the Vietnam war change America's self perception?" He read out loud, tilting his head to the side. "Well, for a start America got kind of a wake up call on how tough war can be, and found out that the they weren't invincible." He said.

Jonathan listened carefully to everything Nathan had to say. "That actually makes sense..." he said once Nathan stopped talking.

"Do you think you understand it better?" Nathan asked. Jonathan nodded slowly.

"Y-Yeah, I do." he said. "Thanks." He added. Nathan lingered, he didn't even notice that he lingered, hovering over Jonathan's shoulder. "Um... you can go now." Jonathan mumbled, and Nathan snapped out of whatever daydream he was in the middle of and went back to his own seat.

"Sorry." He said with a sheepish smile. "Just tell me if you need any more help." He offered, together with another smile.

"W-Whatever." Jonathan muttered.

After that they went back to the odd silence. It wasn't as awkward as it had been... but it was still pretty awkward.