@outofthelight / Goodman & Hansen (sounds like a superhero duo lmao)
She thinks it might have been English that she had with the kid. Evan Hansen, maybe, was what his name is? - Evan Hansen, who stuttered something vaguely about.... trees?...when asked about the most interesting thing he did that summer, during one of those “first day of class” ice breaker sessions that Natalie absolutely despises.
In truth, though - she’s unsurprised when she turns the corner, about to head to the practice room for her free period, just in time to see the kid go crashing into a locker. Natalie winces - grip tightening momentarily around her backpack strap. It sounds cruel, maybe, but even labeled “Freak” as she is, Natalie’s own notoriety, at least, was the helpful kind. Her reputed “crazy” mother made everyone, including the more unsavory members of the student body, skirt a wide berth around her. Hansen, however - well. Wasn’t so lucky in his unluckiness.
She shakes her head, inhaling sharply through her nostrils. The whole thing was none of her business, and besides, it’s high school - not like it’s the first time in the history of the universe that someone got slammed into a locker. Not like it’ll be the last.
Natalie makes it about another two feet down the hall before she curses at the top of her lungs and doubles back, dropping her backpack on the floor as she tosses herself between Hansen and his assailant. She fists a hand into the front of the much taller boy’s shirt, drags him down to eye level and socks him directly in the jaw.
“If I ever catch you shoving him into a locker again, there’s more where that came from, you hear me?” Her voice is steadier than she imagined it would be and - fuck it. Fuck it. She’d been called “freak” enough times. Who cares if she fuels the rumors a little? Blowing her hair out of her face, she swings her backpack wildly back onto her shoulders, crooking her hand at the boy she just - rescued. Since when did she do that, rescue people? “You, Hansen. Up you get. Grab your stuff. We’re going to get shakes.”