** Sorry for such a long wait for this chapter. You probably hate me so much for making this the last chapter AND making you wait so long for it too! Haha! :P
I was being very indecisive about how I wanted to end this. Plus, this will be my very first COMPLETED chapter story, so it was really sad when I realized that it has come to an end, so that made me a little reluctant to finish it. xD
ANYWAYS, I hope you like this chapter! **

Chapter 21

Julius clapped his hands together in accomplishment. "Magnificent! I believe this is my best work yet!"

Luke fidgeted in his desk and picked at the fabric on his thigh. "Pants ain't meant to be this tight!"

"Or pink!" Gill grumbled.

Molly and Angela giggled. "We think you look cute!" they said.

"Very…cute!" Chase tried to say as he held on to his sides; he was getting cramps from laughing so hard.

It was the anticipated first day of school. Luke and Gill only had three more days of wearing Julius' flamboyant clothes, and, much to their despair, they had to wear them to school with classmates snickering over their shoulders.

Julius chuckled his obnoxious laugh and wrapped an arm around Angela's shoulders. "Angelina, darling, you've got to let me dress your fashion monstrosity of a boyfriend every day from now on! I can even make him throw away that atrocious bandana of his! He had to do a lot of kissing up for me to let him wear it today!"

"No! Don't do it, Ang!" Luke cried tearfully.

Angela smiled up at her friend. "Sorry, Julius, but I can't imagine my Luke without his bandana." She reached over for Luke's bare hand. "It feels weird not feeling your gloves when I hold your hand… I kind of miss it…" she said with her eyes looking longingly at their intertwined hands. A smile spread across her red dusted cheeks.

Luke touched the flame bandana on his head, and his face burned to a dark crimson color.

"That is just precious!" Julius squealed. He turned around and made a tunnel with his hands towards the blue haired girl in the corner by herself reading her book. "Candace, darling," he called to her, "you must see this cuteness!"

Candace's mouth moved up and down, but her words couldn't be heard from where she was at on the other side of the classroom.

Julius put his hands on his hips. "I can't hear a word outta you," he said in annoyance as he made his way to her.

"This is so exciting. We're seniors now! Gill, Chase, do you have math with me next period?" Molly asked. They both shrugged and handed her their schedule in sync. "Oh! Gill, you have me next period, and Chase, you have me in science after lunch."

"What do I have next period?" Chase asked.

"English."

"Looks like you have Candace and I in your next class," Angela said.

The bell sounded from the ceiling intercom, telling the students of Harmonica High to switch classes.

Molly and Gill walked together to math class. Molly began to grin giddily and break out in tiny giggle fits as they sat next to each other.

"Today, class," Cain, their math teacher for the second time, said, "I know it's the first day, so I'm passing out a sheet of extremely easy algebraic equations to solve."

The class groaned lowly, except for Gill, who didn't much care, and Molly, who was too happy to remember that she hated math.

"Oh, come, now," Cain said in response. "School has started! This is an easy A for your first grade."

Gill glanced over at Molly in midst of finishing his worksheet. She didn't have a single problem solved on her worksheet and was instead laying her head on her desk, sneaking childish peeks at Gill. She was in even more of a silly, happy mood than normal. "What are you giggling about?"

"We're in math class…together!"

"So?"

She giggled again. "This is how we met!"

She was right. Gill thought back on the first time they talked to each other and then gazed at her while she radiantly smiled at him, making his always-tense muscles relax. He couldn't believe that he used to call her an idiot all that time ago. It seemed like ages ago.

Gill smiled fondly. "You're right."

She hugged his arm and rubbed her cheek against his white sleeve. "You're so cute when you actually smile!" Gill looked away, and Molly knew exactly why. "Are you blushing?"

"N-No!"

"Hey, your face matches your pants now!" she teased.

"You're exaggerating!"

She smiled at his embarrassment. She decided to stop picking on the poor guy and start on her neglected schoolwork.

Gill cleared his throat and muttered, "By the way…"

"Yes?"

"I was wondering if you wanted to go out to eat with me tonight, if you want," he asked shyly.

She looked up from her work. "Sure!" she accepted gladly. "Are you taking a day off from work? It's unlike you. What happened to working like a maniac to be mayor?"

He smirked. "Who said I wasn't working to be mayor anymore? I just thought that one day wouldn't hurt. Besides, Father is overjoyed that I'm taking the day off to take you to dinner. He absolutely adores you."

"I suppose I wouldn't doubt that. I remember, the first time I met him, he wouldn't stop talking about you and about how handsome and polite you were and shoving it in my face that you were single." Molly looked back down at her worksheet and sighed. "Okay, no more talking. I need to work," she said in the best serious voice she could muster.

"Am I distracting you?"

"Yes, and if you try to talk to me again, I'll just pretend I don't know who you are," she said as she started on the first problem.

He raised an eyebrow. "I can't be that much of a distraction."

She glanced up and looked straight into his blue eyes with a sweet smile. "I'm sorry. Do I know you?"

"You know who I am."

She tapped her finger to her chin in imaginary thought. "No, I don't believe I do. Perhaps if I knew your name, then maybe I could remember."

Gill felt a corner of his mouth twitch upwards. "You know what my name is."

"Hmm, is it Steven? Or maybe John… Brandon?" she said, trying not to break character.

He narrowed his eyes. "You think you're so funny."

She grinned playfully. "I don't know what you're talking about, Brandon."

He chuckled. "Shouldn't you be working?"

Her face fell and she darted her eyes to her paper with a gasp. "You distracted me!"

Chase sat in class, his arms making a cushion as he laid his head on them. Angela was seated in the desk next to his and Candace close by. He never really sat down and talked with Angela, but he didn't mind her sitting next to him on account of her being Molly's sister, and he liked the fact that Angela was much more quiet and not as troublesome, though he could really use someone more lively to cure his boredom in class.

Angela bit her bottom lip in hesitation. She had something on her mind that was bugging her, but she didn't know exactly how to ask Chase without making him feel like she was prying into someone's business.

"Chase? Can I ask you something…about Molly?" she finally said.

He curved his eyes to her. "Um, yeah, sure. What is it?"

"Well, you and her were dating before the Ocean Festival, right?"

He shrugged nonchalantly. "I wouldn't call it that since she didn't even think we were. She thought we were pulling a prank on everyone. Remember?"

Angela fell silent for a moment. "Well…aren't you mad that she thought that? If you thought you two were actually dating, then you must've liked her at some point. So, do you not like her anymore? It's just that you seem very unresponsive about all this…"

"Eh, I'm not mad at her. I know how incredibly naïve she is when it comes to relationships – that's just who she is. So, I see how she thought we were pulling a prank on everyone."

"But do you still like her? I mean, do you wish you two were actually dating?"

Chase's mouth fell slightly, and his eyelids lowered as his eyes did when they gazed down to the edge of his desk. "I don't know how to give a straight answer for that. I instantly got along with Molly, unlike other people I interact with… I thought I liked her like that when I asked her to festivals and stuff, but when I really think back on it, things I did before to get romantically close to her felt a little off. Now that the bet is over and we're better friends… I don't know… It just feels better, natural…"

Angela nodded slowly. "It might not be any of my business, and I may be wrong, but I think you may have been subconsciously forcing yourself to think of her romantically. And sometimes when your mind does something like that, it means you're running away from other things, kind of like how Molly did with our parents. She would always tell herself that they would never abandon us when it's clear as day that they did. She would always make excuses as to why they never come here to visit or why they don't call. She would drill in her own mind that they still love us, but I could tell that somewhere inside of her, she knew that that wasn't true, and she was only trying to convince herself to run from the truth…"

Chase quietly listened, not rejecting, but not accepting the theories Angela proposed about him. Normally, he would feel provoked if someone he hardly knew made such deep, personal accusations about him, but he wasn't offended or angered at all. He only took in the words she said and considered the possibility of them. Running away from other things...

"I'm sorry," Angela said when Chase kept quiet. "That was very presumptuous of me. Forget I said any thing!"

"Angela, why are you asking me this stuff? Did Molly say something about me?" Chase reluctantly asked.

"She did last night. She mentioned that you and her have become better friends since the time you both made up and that the bet actually brought all of us together. Then…I thought about the Ocean Festival and then about how you two were 'dating' back then… It made me concerned about whether you were upset or not."

"Why would you be concerned about how I feel?" he asked cynically.

Angela smiled and said sincerely, "Because you're Molly's best friend. Any friend of Molly's is a friend of mine, and I care about my friends."

He smirked. "Molly was right - you are considerate."

Angela flushed. "She talks about me?"

He nodded. "It's obvious that she cares a lot about you by the way she talks about you sometimes. It almost makes me wish I had a sibling to know what she's talking about."

Suddenly, the bell rang for lunchtime, and everyone took a cue and stood from their seats to leave class.

"I guess we should meet everyone at the old lunch table," Angela said.

"Hey...thanks," Chase said, not very sure himself what he was thanking her for.

Angela blinked. She didn't feel like she was any help to him at all. "Thanks for what?" she inquired.

"Just…thanks," he simply said and left the classroom for lunch, leaving Angela without an answer.

Luke stared at Angela, eating his boiled spinach while Angela stared back, bringing a spoonful of yogurt to her mouth. "How can you eat that stuff?" they both said.

"They are so cute!" Molly whispered to Gill and Chase.

"They are something," Gill halfheartedly commented.

Chase didn't answer, for he wasn't paying attention at all. He was too busy poking the unacceptable food on his tray with a plastic fork after the first bite. "Are the cooks here idiots?" he grumbled.

"Oh, Chase!" a high-pitched voice called

"Crap…" Chase muttered.

Its source came up to Chase's side and licked her lips. She pulled her spoon out and stole a taste of his food. "Aww, poo! Your lunch is icky today too!"

"Did you only come here to steal my lunch, Maya?"

"Well, I'm not going to steal it now! Whoever made this lunch needs some serious help!" she declared.

"At least you two can agree on something, Chase," Molly encouraged.

"Yay! We have something in common!" Maya cheered and crushed Chase with a hug. She then abruptly gasped and released him to grab both of his cheeks in her hands to examine his face. "Is the bruise still there?" she mumbled out load to herself.

"You're still freaking out about that? It's been weeks since that happened!"

"But I still want to make sure my Chase is okay!"

A smile began to grow more and more on Angela's face the longer she continued to watch. She smiled at them the way a mother would smile at her young son when he says that girls are yucky and have cooties.

"You two are so cute together," Angela said.

Everyone at the table turned their heads to look at her.

"Really?" Maya and Chase both asked, though their expressions were much different from each other's. Maya's face lit up, but Chase narrowed his violet eyes at Angela, making her motherly smile grow upwards even more.

"Now that you mention it, they do look pretty cute!" Molly giggled. "I wonder why I didn't see it before!"

Maya's light blue eyes gleamed in excitement and turned back to Chase, her hands still holding his face. "Did you hear that? Now you can't say it's improbable for us to be together!" Then, she let out a small, quick gasp and started placing her hands on other regions of Chase's face. "Oh, no, you're burning up, Chase! Do you have a fever? You should've told me!" she frantically said. "Luna has an ice pack for her lunch. I'll be right back!"

Chase groaned as soon as she left for her table and laid his forehead against the table. "Do you realize what you've just done?"

"Chase, you didn't tell us you're sick," Molly said.

"Because he's not sick," Gill said knowingly.

Chase lifted his head just enough to give him a death glare. Luke burst into laughter and Angela giggled softly at the flustered Chase.

"I don't get it…" Molly said innocently.

"I'm back!" Maya announced with an ice pack in hand. She pressed it on his cheek and switched it to the other parts of his face whenever he would swat her hands away. "Hold still!"

Angela, Luke, Bo, and Chase walked together after school. Luke and Bo questioned why Molly wasn't walking with them, but Angela and Chase informed them that she was spending after school with Gill. It wasn't long before Luke began teasing Chase about his "fever".

"Luke, I will murder you," Chase threatened with a venomous bite. They came upon the crossroad that separated the paths, and Chase took the one for Flute Fields.

"Make sure you call Maya to take care of that fever!" Luke laughed. Angela punched his arm. "What did I do?" he asked like a child.

"You know what you did," Angela said.

Luke rubbed his arm. "Your punches are getting stronger…"

"By the way, Angela," Bo said, "the boss wants to know if you wanna eat dinner at our place tonight."

"Sure! Just let me stop by the farm real quick and let Kasey know," she said.

When they did arrive at the farm, Luke and Bo waited outside while Angela went inside the farmhouse. It was uncomfortably quiet in the house. She called Kasey's name to hear some sort of sound in the house.

"In here…" she heard.

She followed the voice and found Kasey sitting on the ground in her and Molly's room beside Molly's bed with his burly hands on top of his head as if he had a migraine.

"Kasey?" she said hesitantly and quietly just in case he did in fact have a migraine. "I wanted to stop by and tell you I'm eating dinner with Luke's family, and Molly is with Gill at Ocarina Inn… Is something wrong? What are you doing in our room?"

"I wanted to do something nice for you guys and surprise you with a clean room." Angela looked around and noticed that their room did look cleaner than before, making his story plausible. "When I was cleaning out from under your bed, I found this…" He showed her a wooden box that was labeled "Kasey's Savings". "How long have you been saving this money?" he asked.

"A little after you moved in with us. You said you were staying here until you gather enough money to support yourself once you leave, so we thought we'd help you out a little."

Kasey looked up at his sister with saddened eyes. "There's enough to pay for a semester of college and last me until I find a job in the city…"

"Do you not like it? We thought you would be happy."

"No, you don't understand how much this means to me. This is just what I need to start my life over in the city…"

Angela sat down beside him and gazed at his still saddened eyes. "Then, why are you upset?"

Kasey paused to make sure what he was saying was right and clear. "I don't think…I want to leave…"

Angela's brown eyes widened, and her jaw loosed a little, for her mouth to drop slightly. "But…you said before that you want to go back to college."

"Yeah, to make something with my life, but I've already got it pretty good here. I'm working here for a good amount of money, it's nice and quiet here, I get live near you two again, and also Anissa…" he trailed off.

"Anissa?" Angela inquired with interest.

Kasey blushed lightly. "Well, I was hoping…me and her…"

Angela smiled when he understood what he meant. "You want to stay on the island?" He nodded. "You know what we can do?" Angela said.

"What?"

"We can use that money to build you your own house on the farm," she proposed. "We have plenty enough property to do it, and I'm sure there's enough money to get it done."

He didn't speak for a while to let the idea sink in. "I'm going to have my own house," he said, seeing what it would feel like to say it.

"You're getting your own house."

Kasey nodded slowly and smiled at the spontaneous decision. "Didn't you say before that you were going to Luke's?"

"Oh, yeah, I did. There's still some leftovers in the fridge you can eat."

"Okay. Don't stay out too late or I'll hunt you down. Be back before dark!"

Angela walked out the front door and saw Luke and Bo kicking the dirt below them as they waited for her.

"Hey, what took so long?" Bo asked.

"Guys," Angela said, "I have a project for you."

Angela told them about her and Kasey's sudden plan and then told Dale about it during dinner. Dale was quite excited about it since he hadn't built a house from the ground up since he built the farmhouse.

"Let me help you," Angela said to Dale, carrying the dishes to the sink.

"No, no, I've got it under control," he said with his booming laughing. "Why don't ya hang out here a little longer, and make sure Luke doesn't get into any trouble? He's easier to handle when you're around."

"Whatever! I'm an angel!" Luke retorted from the dinner table.

Angela laughed. "Well, okay. Are you sure you don't want me to help, though? I can get Luke to help too."

"Yeah!" Luke pumped a fist over excitedly. "Let's wash them dishes!"

"You're not washin' any dishes tonight, boy!" Dale said. "Whenever you try washin' dishes, you break 'em!"

"They break themselves 'cause they can't handle my awesome dish washing skills!"

Angela saw Dale sigh and reacted by squeezing Luke's hand. "Actually, let's not wash dishes. Let's go walking outside," she said with a sweet smile that Luke couldn't turn down.

They walked down the dead end path in Garmon Mines, listening to the evening crickets sing their melodies.

"Today has been so great," Angela said. "It's made me think about how glad I am that I moved here. I didn't think my life would change so much. I can't imagine ever leaving this…"

Luke grinned her favorite grin. "I don't know what I'd do if you didn't come here. Having a life without meeting you sounds so sad. I hate thinking about it."

Angela felt the butterflies in her stomach go crazy when she realized that he just said exactly what was on her mind. She stopped walking and wrapped her arms around his neck, making him stop in place. "I love you, Luke."

"I love you too." They gazed at the orange glow the sunset gave their skin and looked out to it.

"Goddess, look at that!" Luke pointed in awe.

Angela looked at it rather sadly. "Kasey said I have to be back before dark…"

Eventually, Luke walked her home. Parting each other at her front door surprised them when it proved to be difficult for them. They said "Bye", but they never looked away from each other's mesmerizing eyes. It was like a witch put them under a spell that they both loved being subjects to. It wasn't until Kasey opened the front door, observed them questioningly for a few minutes, and called Angela's name that she could tear her eyes away from his.

"What?" she said, as if coming out of a trance.

"It's getting late," Kasey said. "You two have been staring at each other even before I came out here. Come inside, Ang."

Angela looked back at Luke, but avoided looking into his gold eyes, afraid of falling for the spell again. "Goodnight."

"Yeah, goodnight," Luke said back just as unwillingly as Angela was.

We waited until she followed Kasey inside the house before stalking back up the path to Garmon Mines. He took his time getting home; he wanted to stay out and watch the sunset, so he sat on the edge of a pier by a pond fairly close to the farm.

The only thing that could make the scenery would be if Angela was there watching with him, so he did the next best thing: replay her soft voice in his head.

"I love you, Luke," he replayed in his head as he glanced down at the water. His reflection had a smile across its face the more Luke thought of Angela.

"Luke!"

Luke almost laughed. That one almost sounded real…

"Luke!" it repeated.

It's like it's getting louder…

"Luke!"

And coming from behind me?

Luke turned around and saw Angela running to him fast. He sprung to his feet. "Ang?"

Angela tried to halt herself when Luke saw her, but couldn't stop quick enough due to the inertia and ran right into him, causing them both to fall into the pond. She came up to the surface and coughed, looking at Luke hold the most confused look he had ever had in his life.

"Ang! What the heck are you doing here? I thought you went inside earlier!"

Angela panted to catch her breath from the running while kicking her feet to stay above the water's surface. "I…I needed a few…more minutes with you before I…go to bed."

Luke felt a laugh creeping up on him. He didn't know what he found funny about that, but acted on the urge to laugh. "You did that just for a few minutes?"

Angela found his laugh contagious and began to mix her panting with laughter. "Yeah, I guess I did."

And then, they just laughed. When their unexplainable, hysterical laughter dyed down, Angela caught sight of the orange glow that still lingered.

"I guess we do get to watch the sunset together tonight," she said and leaned in to plant her small lips on his. They felt like they were specifically designed for her and only her. The thought made her smile in pleasure while she kissed him.

This is why she would never want to leave the island: she wouldn't be able to do this with Luke. What would life be like if she couldn't be able to talk to him, hug him, laugh with him, kiss him? It would be dull, not worth living. She loved his laugh, his happy-go-lucky aura that always lifted her spirits, his live-life-to-the-fullest attitude that made life exciting, the piney wood scent he seemed to always have no matter what he did that day, and his goofy grin that promised to make her heart skip a beat or two.

She couldn't think of any thing she would rather do than be with Luke, someone that could easily make her smile in a way that no one else could ever make her smile with just a simple, yet exhilarating grin.

** Soooo, I have a bit of an announcement for you guys... I am seriously thinking about a SEQUEL for this story, which might explain why I left a few things open in this story! So, what I want to know from you guys is what you would like to see in this sequel. (I haven't planned much of anything for this sequel.) Overload me with ideas, guys! The more creative they are, the more I love you... Just kidding. I love you already. xD
I honestly have no idea when this will be released, but the sequel will come much faster if I get more ideas to inspire me. And it doesn't have to be story ideas. You can also suggest me to pay more attention to something in the story that I seemed to neglect in this story to make the sequel better. Heck, I'll even accept title names for it since I don't have any idea what I want it to be called. I keep updates on my profile, so you can visit that every once in a while to see what I'm up to with my writing. (If you've already read my updates before, you already know about this sequel :P)

While waiting for the sequel, you can check out my other stories and a new story that I will be publishing within a few days. (It's an Ouran High School Host Club fanfic, FYI)

I'm very thankful to have such complimentary readers/reviewers. As of right now that I am typing this, this story has 94 reviews and I'm suspecting it to reach 100 after this chapter. THANK YOU SOOOO MUCH! When I started this story, I didn't expect to get so many faithful readers. This was a huge surprise! You guys made this even more fun to write. (Woow... Longest author's note EVER! o.O)

I hope you continue to read what I write! Thanks again for reading! :) **