To my viewers who supported me in Front Page News...welcome back! :) To my new viewers...welcome...and don't forget to read Front Page News first so you will know what is going on in this sequel! This story line is truly my favorite of them all. Ready for the first chapter? Here we go! See you at the bottom of the page! :)
One Year Later
LIZZIE'S POV
Heel...toe. Heel...toe. Heel...toe. Heel...toe. Heel...toe. Heel...toe.
The tedious pattern raced through my mind as my high heels clapped on the hardwood floors in the gym. My whole life of schooling flashed before my eyes as I crossed the stage and took my neatly wrapped sheet of paper. I looked into the audience; there was no sign of him. With a bright smile on my face I shook the principal's hand and held up my diploma as my mother snapped a picture. I guess his plane was delayed, or maybe he had missed the take off all together. After taking my seat on the bleachers once again, I saw an excited Emma receive her diploma and run off the stage. I knew she would end up passing despite her doubts.
"Students, would you please rise. As you make your way into the world, remember where you came from. You will always be a part of our school family. So, congratulations students...you are officially graduates!" The principal announced. We all threw our hats up into the air in celebration of our newest achievement and freedom. I immediately ran over to my family and savored their loving embrace. Aunt Nellie and Christopher, as well as their new baby boy, congratulated me with showers of hugs as well.
"Oh, my baby is a graduate!" My mother said as she held my hat in her hands and rubbed the tassel through her delicate fingers. I smiled as I saw tears start to form in her eyes.
"Mom, I am still here for a few more months. We have all summer to be together!" I reminded her. Suddenly, a hand found mine and pulled me through the parking lot. I turned around and saw my family wave as I got to my car.
"Give me the keys. I'm driving this time." Emma said as she held out her hands and stood in front of my door.
"It's my car...shouldn't I get to drive?" I said. She smiled and pulled a blue blindfold out of her back pocket. Hesitantly I got in the passenger side and blinded myself with the itchy strip of cloth. I liked to pride myself in my sense of direction. I had lived in this one place for so long that I knew every turn and every street for miles, but this time, Emma completely threw me off. As she drove I started to map out where we were going in my head, but soon lost it as she made a turn that I did not recognize.
"Do you mind telling me where we are going? You lost me when you turned off of Maple Street." I said.
"Oh my gosh are you actually mapping this out in your head? It's a surprise! Can't you just let one thing be a surprise? Good gracious you are difficult." Emma replied. I took a deep sigh and sat back in my chair. I knew that I was not going to be able to find out any information from her. After a five minute drive down a gravel driveway the car finally stopped. Emma still refused to let me take off my blindfold until I was inside the building.
"This is going to be the only thing you are allowed to know for the next three hours." She said. She slipped the blindfold off and I found myself in a small, but neatly decorated house. The walls were dressed in pink and the floors were a dark hardwood.
"This is my cousin, Alissa. She is an expert hair and make up artist." Emma said as she pushed me over to a chair and sat me down. Alissa introduced herself as just out of college and wanting to become an aspiring beautician.
"And you said I cannot know any more than this?" I asked Emma as I let Alissa rub her fingers through my hair. She nodded and sat down in the chair next to me. Alissa started with nails and toes, then moved up to hair, where she did a curly half up half down. Lastly was make up, where a navy smoky eye seemed to be in order.
"Okay there is one more thing you need. It's a graduation present from me." Emma said she came out of the back room with a coat bag.
"I thought we agreed not to do presents, Em?" I said as I took the bag from her.
"We did, but after almost fourteen years of being best friends, well, this is something I just had to do." She said. I unzipped the bag and took out a black dress hanging on a velvet wrapped hanger. It was short with swirly embroidery all around the shoulders and skirt. I thanked her thousands of times and went to change.
As I zipped up the dress and brushed off the lint on the skirt I started to laugh. All of this seemed so funny in my mind, yet I did not quite know why. As soon as I came out of the back room the blindfold went back over my eyes. Emma led me back to my car and drove off.
"Look at us all beautiful going out for some fun!" She said as she pulled out of Alissa's driveway.
"How can I look if I am blindfolded..." I reminded her.
"Oh...right...yeah don't look." She replied. I could feel the intensity in the air as Emma tried to keep quiet about this surprise. When the car stopped she could hardly stay in her seat long enough to turn the engine off.
"Okay, okay don't worry I am totally calm right now. I won't run you into any polls or walls or anything." She said as she helped me out of the car. There was nothing but silence as we walked, and I started to become even more curious of why we were dressed up in the first place. My hands reached forward and found a poll, so I tried my best to stop myself.
"Emma! Poll! Stop!" I said.
"Oops, sorry! Really cute blonde guy over to my left. Okay, now keep your eyes closed as I take off your blindfold. You cannot peak under any circumstances until I tell you too!" She said. I did as she requested even though my curious nature told me to do otherwise. We stepped through the main entrance of a building and stopped once we went through one more door.
"Open." She said. The first thing I saw was Robbie in the middle of a dance floor holding a white rose. I looked around to find a whole graduation party had been planned for me at the most popular event center downtown! I turned around and hugged Emma, overwhelmed with joy to even move. "If you aren't going to go hug the guy that I helped organize all of this, I will." She said as a joke. I went straight into his arms for a hug without even accepting the flower. Two months had been much too long without seeing him.
"I cannot believe you came! I thought you had missed your plane or something when I didn't see you at the graduation ceremony." I said as I released from the hug with a big smile on my face.
"As you can see I did not. I had to have something to keep you guessing all day otherwise the surprise wouldn't have seemed as wonderful. Now, you better enjoy this party. It's all here for you." He said. That's when I glanced behind him and saw my parents trying out a new dance to "Timber."
"Umm...let's just try to keep them off of the dance floor as much as possible. They might destroy the whole place with their moves if this goes on any longer." I said.
"Believe it or not, they requested this song. I tried to talk them out of it, but I wasn't surprised when they insisted on it." He said with a laugh.
The night was unfortunately close to being over after four hours of dancing and eating. All of the guests cleared to either side of the floor, leaving just me standing in the middle. The song ended and I stopped my crazy dance moves while I stared at the people around me. Emma ran up to me giggling from head to toe.
"Why did everyone stop dancing?" I whispered to her as I pulled her arm closer to me.
"Turn around." She said.
"I think it's time for the last dance of the evening, and I was hoping you had saved it for me." Robbie said as he walked closer and held out his hand. Other dancing couples formed around us as "A Thousand Years" came on the speakers.
"I swear things like this whole day only happen in moves. I'm just waiting for the plot to twist and something bad to happen." I said as we danced.
"Alright, alright. Get the writer out of your mind for the next three minutes and relax. I cannot think of anything bad that could happen in the next three minutes." He said. Now that I knew for sure I wanted to become a writer, I had a hard time seeing the amazing things that were around me. I slowly dropped my head on his shoulder and rocked back and forth to the music. I sang the words in my head slowly...trying to absorb the magic of that moment. This only happened once in a lifetime to most girls, so I wasn't going to waste a minute of it. Robbie, Emma, and I were the last to leave the venue. We were either saying goodbyes to old friends, or making sure that everything got cleaned up.
"So, what are your plans for tomorrow?" Emma asked me as the three of us stood outside the building.
"I am going to sleep...a lot. These past few years of learning have really taken their toll on me." I said with a slight laugh. I handed Emma the keys to my car and told her I would come to her house and get it in the morning. She smiled and hugged us both goodnight. Robbie and I walked to his black Mercedes and took a deep breath as we sat down and closed the doors.
"I'm assuming I'm taking you home?" He asked as he started the car. I smiled and nodded as I turned on the radio. The reflections of the street lights sparkled on my window as we drove. My whole world seemed to be sparkling. When we arrived at my house I grabbed my heels off of the floor and waltzed up my driveway. Robbie was heading for the front door, and yet I was heading for my backyard.
"And just where do you think you are going?" I asked as I opened the wooden gate and waved him towards me. I threw one heel after the other up onto my balcony and started to climb the side to get to my room. Once I had reached the top I realized my boyfriend was not behind me. "Come on!" I said as I leaned over the side.
"This was so much easier a year ago!" He said as he laughed at himself trying to get up the side of the balcony. I reached for his hand and helped pull him over the rail. I went in for another hug once he got two feet on the ground.
"Two months seemed like an eternity without you." I said as I squeezed him tighter.
"I didn't like it either. We said we were going to make this work so I think we are both determined to do it." He said.
"There is absolutely no doubt about that. Plus, once I start traveling in a few months maybe we will get to see each other more often." I said. We spread out our usual red blanket on the floor and laid down to look up at the stars. For the past two months this is all I had been wanting, and I would have been more than happy to stay right there...with him...forever.
Okay gotta love this right? To kind of put an image in your head I imagined Lizzie wearing a short Karen Millen Baroque Black Dress. You can look it up on Google if you wish! So, did you enjoy this? I hope you did! It is so good to be back with you all!
Remember to R and R and follow/favorite! :) Until next time my dears! :)