Here it is: the last part of this series, as promised. I'm so sorry for the wait. Hopefully you guys like it!
"Mom!" Tori Vega begged with a laugh, ducking her mother's camera. "I have got to go get in line now!"
"Just one more picture, sweetie? It is your graduation day, after all!"Holly Vega said.
"I know, and that's why I don't want to miss it! Take pictures of Camden or something else for a little while," Tori said, gesturing to her ten-month old son asleep in Trina's arms. "I have got to go find my spot!"
"Let her go, honey;" Officer Vega said, laying a hand on his wife's arm. As Tori glanced at him gratefully and hurried off to join her classmates, he leaned down and whispered in his wife's ear, "You'll have another reason to take more pictures soon enough."
A long while later, Tori felt twin rushes of adrenaline and satisfaction jolt through her when her diploma was placed in her hand. It was hard enough to get through high school, but as an unwed mother who had went through the added process of recovering from the events behind her son's conception, she felt especially proud of the fact that she had graduated on time along with the rest of her class. She knew that her friend who was right behind her in line – Jade West – could also relate as another teenage mother to a daughter who was now three years old.
Tori was startled when, as she went to step down from the podium, the headmaster laid a hand on her arm, saying, "Wait one more second, young lady; I believe that there's someone here who wants to ask you something."
Tori looked at the headmaster in confusion, and then she caught sight of her boyfriend of almost two years coming back up onto the stage.
"Oh my gosh," Jade gasped softly behind her, realizing what was going on long before Tori did.
"Andre?" the Latina asked. "What's going on?"
And that's when Andre Harris – the young man who she counted as the true father of her son – got down on one knee in front of the entire auditorium full of people and said, "Tori Vega, you and Camden are the best part of my life – the best things that have ever happened to me, and I love you both like you were already my own, but I want to make it official. I want to marry you. Will you, Tori Vega, marry me?"
Tori Vega threw her arms around his neck, drawing him to his feet to kiss him soundly as she answered with a resounding "yes." Andre slid an engagement ring onto her ring finger as the auditorium exploded with applause.
"I love you," Andre whispered against her cheek so that only she could hear.
Taking his hand and letting him lead her off of the platform so that Jade could move up and get her diploma, Tori snuggled into his shoulder and replied, meaning every word, "I love you too."
Eight months later – Valentine's Day
Tori shivered as Cat and Jade helped her into her wedding dress. The pink and red shimmer of the dress caught the light as Tori turned to look at herself in the full-length mirror while Cat zipped her dress up.
"Are you nervous?" Jade asked knowingly, readjusting the curls that came down from Tori's upswept hair to frame her face.
They were two girls who had grown extremely close, having been forced to grow up and take on adult responsibilities before their time, but they were happy with their lots all the same.
"Honestly?" Tori replied. "No, not really; just excited to be getting married. But now that you mention it, what if I trip walking down the aisle?"
"Then you fall into some old man's lap, which would make for an absolutely horrible wedding picture, so I definitely wouldn't trip if I were you."
"Not helping!" Tori whined loudly.
Jade smirked, but there was a friendly light in her eyes as she asked, "When has my job ever been to help you, Vega?"
Tori could've named a million instances that Jade had done just that since the night near Maestro's over two years ago, but since she knew that her best friend was only kidding, she didn't bring any of them up.
"You do know that the real reason that she doesn't want you to mess up is because she's been living so vicariously through you during this whole wedding thing, right?" Cat asked with a twitch of her lips.
Jade shrugged shamelessly, twisting her own wedding ring around on her finger as she freely admitted, "It's true."
"I know," Tori said with a roll of her eyes.
"Hey, guys?" Trina said, poking her head into the bridal room. "They're ready for you whenever you're ready for them."
Cat fluffed out the tulle skirt of Tori's dress and Jade added one more bobby pin to her hairdo before Tori's two classmates stepped back to view their work and declared her fit to walk down the aisle.
"Ready to get married, sweetheart?" David Vega asked, offering his arm to his daughter as the bridal march started up a minute later.
"So ready," Tori breathed, resting her hand on his arm.
She looked towards the front of the church building as she walked beside her father down the aisle. Trina was helping four year old Roxy and eighteen month old Camden down the aisle as the daughter that Jade had given birth to and Beck had taken in as his own tossed red rose petals in front of them. Once the kids reached the altar, Jade gently pulled her daughter in to stand right beside her and Beck scooped Camden into his arms. A moment later, Tori's father was brushing away a tear, giving her a kiss on the forehead, and placing her hand in Andre's.
As she glanced one final time around her at the people gathered with them at the altar, it struck her again how lucky she was to have all of these people support her, both in the past and on hers and Andre's wedding day.
Her parents, God bless them, had put up with her pregnancy and grandson without a word of unhappiness about it at any time, despite the fact that Tori knew full well that she and her son had both kept them up many a night. Trina had become a surprisingly caring and supporting sister and aunt when the time had called for it, and the Vega sisters were now much closer because of it. Jade… where was she even supposed to start with everything that Jade and Beck had done for her, Camden, and Andre? There was simply too much to even name. Cat had, as always, been their wonderfully unchanging ray of sunshine, and, along with Robbie, had often dragged Tori out of her dark moods whenever they had attacked her during that difficult time of being pregnant and learning how to be a teenage parent.
They each had been there for it all – through the sunshine and the rain, the horrors and the happiness – and there was no one else that Tori could imagine sharing her wedding day with.
Her smile widened just a little bit more at the thought as Andre squeezed her hand, looking lovingly into her eyes as she took that final step to stand at his side and get married to the man of her dreams.
And thus we end the series... although I do have an idea for a Bade prequel to the series, if you guys want that... Thanks so much for sticking with me and reading these stories! As always, reviews make my day! Thanks again!:)