Natalie Bestick

Natalie Bestick is a major character in ''Surviving High School. ''She is the prettiest girl in Mangrove Cove High School, and the romantic idol of most of the school's male population. Natalie is a popular, outgoing girl who is captain of the cheerleading squad. She is best friends with the richest girl in school, Venice Carlton, and fellow cheerleader Charlene Charleston. Her ex-boyfriend is Ace Dienf, the school's star quarterback, who Natalie currently dislikes and feels is obsessed with her. She knows that several boys like her, including Leo Smith, but the only guy she has a crush on now that she's newly single is the gorgeous Brian Narcissus. She is starting her sophomore year of high school in Book 1.

Personality
Natalie is popular, friendly, charismatic, and ambitious, although deep down she can be petty and even cruel at times. She appears much kinder than any of the other cheerleaders, especially toward the unpopular kids like Leo. Widely considered to be the most beautiful girl in school, Natalie not only acknowledges this title but uses it to her advantage, and occasionally flirts with some of her more naive admirers just to get an ego boost. Although she can come off as cruel because of this, she isn't actually being malicious and never purposefully leads anyone on to the point of making him believe he can date her; it's mostly harmless flirting to raise her own self-esteem. She's easily frustrated and bored when people compliment her appearance, since she's so used to it, and likes it when boys look deeper into her personality. She is so used to being treated as a piece of meat that she is taken aback when Leo compliments her on her intelligence and kindness.

Appearance
Natalie is classically beautiful. She has a perfect hourglass figure: tall and long-legged, with large breasts, a tiny waist, and flaring hips. She has long, lush blonde hair that curls at the end and a perfect face with a small, straight nose and green eyes. She usually wears orb earrings, a matching necklace, a light pink shirt, a brown-and-tan plaid skirt, and tan-colored boots. She is also often seen carrying a Michael Kors pocketbook/purse. Kendall describes her as having "golden hair, golden skin, and a golden personality." Although all the female characters are drawn with heavy eyelashes, Natalie seems to have mascara on over her eyes as well.

Book 1: The New Kid
Natalie is first seen in Venice's group of friends during Ms. Periwinkle's class, but Leo doesn't notice her until lunchtime, when Valentine points her out. When Leo first sees Natalie he is taken away and daydreams about her hair flowing in the wind, and he stares at her for so long that she and her whole table notices. He decides to approach her and uses several corny pickup lines to get her to go out with him, but only ends up boring her. Just as he's about to give up, he finds Ace behind him, which makes Natalie nervous (implying she knows what's coming next). Ace threatens Leo, who decides to stand up to him, but Leo quickly finds out that Natalie is Ace's girlfriend. Natalie tries to calm Ace, saying he doesn't have to fight Leo, but the jocks drown her out by chanting "fight, fight, fight!" After Kendall steps in to prevent a fight, Natalie dumps Ace in front of the whole cafeteria and storms away with her friends, but only a few seconds later is seen sitting at a different table surrounded by male admirers. Later, Natalie finds Leo in the halls and the two share a moment, strengthening his crush on her before Venice comes and pulls Natalie away. Before the fight, Natalie says she feels terrible that guys are fighting over her, but Venice says Natalie secretly likes it. It's also revealed that she has a crush on Brian now that she's single. During the fight, Natalie looks worried for Leo, but when it's over she leaves with everyone else.

When Venice's Louis Antoinette necklace is stolen, Natalie is at first a prime suspect because she's close to Venice and was treated badly by her previously, and as the case progresses she flirts with Arthur Christie to distract him, making her far more suspicious (although Arthur, enticed by her beauty, refuses to consider her a suspect). Nonetheless, she is innocent, and it turns out Venice made the whole thing up. When she finds out Leo signed up for football, Natalie, Venice, and Charlene approach him. After Venice mocks Leo and leaves, Natalie treats him kindly and says she looks forward to seeing him, since the cheerleaders practice at the same time the football players do. This inspires Leo to go to the gym, where he runs into Natalie again on the treadmills. He tries working out in front of her but makes a fool of himself, causing her and Venice to walk away laughing.

Later, Natalie and her friends are approached by Arthur, who is investigating the disappearance of Spencer's PLPZ. A few days later, Natalie runs into Leo in the courtyard and tells him a little bit about her relationship troubles while brazenly flirting with him and unintentionally turning him on (Kendall later reveals this is a common tactic of hers to get guys to fall in love with her and give her an ego boost). Despite this, Natalie is surprised to hear Leo speak well about her personality and kindness, and she suddenly feels bad about leading him on and hurries away.

On the night of the tryouts, Natalie and the rest of the cheerleaders cheer for Ace (which is odd, considering both she and Charlene dislike Ace at this point). She does not cheer for Leo of her own accord, but simply because Charlene starts doing it and she knows Charlene is too stupid to be corrected. Leo later erroneously assume Natalie started the cheer, making him love her even more. After the football tryouts, Natalie is much colder toward Leo, presumably because she is uncomfortable leading him on when he seems to genuinely like her for her personality as well as her beauty. Leo defends her from Ace, but she in turn simply walks away while Ace beats Leo up. Later, she ignores Leo while he tries to flirt with her and turns away when he falls. Leo's mental popularity ladder places her at the top of the list, making her the most popular girl in school (even though earlier in the book it was established that Venice was the most popular). During the locker room fiasco, Natalie is one of the cheerleaders who finds Leo in the girls' locker room with Charlene. After this, she calls him a pervert and stops talking to him altogether.

Kendall's journal reveals that Natalie was in fact a new student freshman year and that Ace cheated on Kendall with Natalie. Because of this, Kendall is embittered toward Natalie. Leo, however, uses this to exemplify Natalie's innocence, since she couldn't have known Ace was dating Kendall. Natalie doesn't appear again until the night of the homecoming game, where she performs with the other cheerleaders during halftime. After the show, she goes up to Valentine and Kendall and gets Valentine to leave her and Kendall alone. Once he's gone, Kendall confronts Natalie about Leo, and Natalie brushes it off before saying Kendall should forget about Ace and move on. While the football field collapses, she and Kendall are stranded up on the tallest point of the bleachers, and it's up to Leo to rescue the two of them. When their island falls, Leo manages to catch both of them, but can't pull them up, so he drops Natalie into Ace's arms. She thanks Ace for rescuing her, and appears to stop hating him (although she refuses to get back together with him).

She makes her final appearance at the very end of the book, thanking Leo for helping save her and offering to stop the rumors about him being a pervert. In doing this, she shows her gratitude, but also managed to halt any intent of a relationship as compensation, since now they're even. Leo vows that he will win her over someday, and the book ends.

Trivia

 * Like most characters, Natalie's personality is derived from her name. Natalie comes from an old Latin phrase for "Christmas," which can be fitting since every guy wants her. Bestick is Swedish for cutlery, which doesn't really make much sense (although it is also a shorter version of bestickande, another Swedish word meaning "seductive," which is far more fitting). The Swedish surname also ties into the stereotype of Swedish women being extremely attractive.
 * Natalie appears to have histrionic personality disorder, as evidenced by how she flirts with men so they'll continue to be attracted to her.
 * More characters have a crush on her than any other character in the series.
 * As of Book 1, her list of admirers includes Leo, Valentine, Ace, Marco, Santiago, Arthur, Spencer, Nick, Martin, and Wyatt.
 * Her favorite food is sushi.