A/N: I was going to post this in the last chapter but didn't get the chance.

I've always maintained in my story writing that them getting together is only half the story, and I've always spent more time exploring the relationship than I do exploring the two trying to get together. That's why I wrote this story. I wanted a story that was just them together, where they had settled in a place, it wasn't all new and fresh, they knew what they were to each other and they help each other grow as both people and as a couple. I'm very happy to say that it turned out better than I imagined and I'm so happy with the praise its gotten, especially with it being my first crack at first person.

Anyway, this is part of of the epilogue.

Epilogue: First comes... speeches.


"You're not going to win!"

"Oh, yes we are! You'll see!"

"You have nothing on us!"

"We have everything on you two!"

"Everybody loves us more! We prettier!"

"And we're the minorities! Class clown and class genius, what you guys got?"

"Duh, we're better!"

Helga and Gerald have been going at it the whole way home. It's been like this for two weeks now, and Phoebe and I are getting sick of it to be quite honest. Helga and Gerald have gotten to be like siblings since last year. Well, siblings who hate each other. Helga and I are competing against Gerald and Phoebe for class couple. The winner gets their picture in the year book. We're the only two couples who got nominated.

Things have been great since Helga and I came out. She's more confidant than ever before. It's brought out the side of her that I always knew was there. I can safely say that we're more in love than we've ever been before. We don't have any classes together this year, but we have the same lunch. Helga spent the summer writing mostly. She sat down with Mom and Dad about a week after prom and they talked things out, about what they went through.

Whenever she met with Janette to talk over the first chapter, Janette said that she loved it. That it's exactly what they were looking for. They didn't want just another romance novel that would sit on the shelves. What they were looking for was a book to rival Harry Potter. Helga didn't want it to go that far, but if anyone can do it, I know she can. I've read every word that she's written, more than once, and she has a gift. It's easy to follow with out being too boring, it's exciting while still making sense, not too out there, complex characters. She's just an amazing writer. Everyone that's read her work says how great it is. So the book is coming along. She's about half way through with the first novel.

And as it turns out, we weren't the only ones hiding relationships. And the one that came into light was more shocking than ours.

Rhonda and Curly came out not two days after we did. Turns out they had been dating since freshman year. No one even suspected a thing. They never even spoke to each other. Curly was always hanging out with the people who volunteer down at the animal shelter, and Rhonda always sat at the popular table. They never even spoke to each other. I still remember when I first saw them together. Rhonda was walking down the hall like any other normal day, Curly was digging through his locker, which was a few down from mine, Rhonda turned him around by the shoulders, said and I quote "Give Momma some sugar!", and kissed him in front of everybody.

We later found out that they got together after Curly had thrown a bucket of fake blood on her after she walked out of the mall in a fur coat. At least I hope it was fake.

But overall, things couldn't be going better.

It's nearing the end of our senior year, and it's prom night. Well, everyone else's prom night. Helga and I decided to skip it this year, and I'm surprising her with a dance of our own up on the roof tonight. I asked Phoebe to steal her prom dress out of her closet for me and bring it over, and Grandpa decided to let me have that tux that I wore last year.

As for our future, I'm going to Hillwood University. I know what field I want to go into, but that's it, and Hillwood U has a decent music program. I'm taking music theory this year, and I was scared at first, until I found out that I'm really good at it. I get it so easily. I even started to play Grandma's piano more often. Helga loves to sit up on the roof with her laptop and listen to me practice as she writes.

After I found out the condition that Mom and Dad gave Helga when they told them that they wanted her to write those novels, that got the conversation going to what would happen if we ended up going to different schools. And that snowballed into everything else. We don't want to be apart, and my parents won't budge on her going to college even though she's right in the middle of the first book. So after talking with the schools guidance councilor, she decided to attend Hillwood U with me.

She's worked hard this year on improving her grades, with Phoebe's help. But she's accepted the fact that she's slacked off the rest of the time before that. And she won't accept any of her dad's money, and there's only so much in scholarships that you can get. We're both going to live in the dorms, and she's assured me that we won't drift apart. I'll make sure of it. We've closer now than we've ever been before.

Gerald pulls to a stop outside of Phoebe's house after ending his argument with Helga, and her and Phoebe hop out. "Okay, I'll be over in a few hours, I have some home work for Algebra." Helga says leans down in the window. "Love you, love." She says and puckers out her lips.

I laugh and kiss her, "Love you too."


If you had told me a year ago that this is how my life would have turned out, I would have had you committed.

Arnold and I are better than ever, I'm not afraid of what's to come, I'm on my way to spend the night with him, just hanging out on the roof and talking. It's prom night, and I didn't want to go. Before he rushed the stage last year, we both agreed that it wasn't all that fun. Just wasn't us. So we're just going to sit up on his roof while he serenades me. He's getting so good at the piano. He says he aspires to be as good as Randy Newman, his song writing hero, and I can already hear it. I still remember I went up there and heard him all excited about finally figuring out Short People.

I smile at the memory and open the door to the boarding house. I stopped knocking a long time ago. This is a second home to me now. I've spent more than one all nighters working on the book, late nights talking with Stella, about a lot more than just the book. Even if Arnold and I never officially get married and just say boyfriend and girlfriend, she considers me to be her daughter, and I consider her to be my mother at this point.

The boarding house is pretty quiet for a Friday night. Stella and Miles are in the living room watching TV, and I'm sure Grandma and Grandpa are in their bedroom watching TV, they've been having trouble getting out of bed lately. "Hi Hun." Stella says as she sees me enter. "Arnold's upstairs waiting for you."

"Thanks Stell."

I wonder where Nelius is. He usually greets me by trying to tackle me when I walk through the door. He must be upstairs with Arnold. I never really considered myself a dog person, but Nelius is the best dog ever.

I head up and open the door to his bedroom and find it empty. The couch is put up, the TV is off, the bed is even made... wait. I take a few steps closer and find what's sitting on the bed. How'd he get my prom dress? What the hell is that Football Head up to? There's a small piece of paper at the top, and now I'm starting to get all mushy and excited. 'Put this on.' It says. Such a hopeless romantic, I swear.


"You are so dead, Football Head!"

"Can't hear you, too busy waiting up here to surprise you!" I call back down and lift the lid to the piano and start playing this slow jazz song I've been working on. I have some lights hung up and some candles lit, the stereo is ready to play whenever she gets up here, I have my tux on.

"Alright, alright, I have this get up on. What..." Her voice falls and I look over, and my beautiful girlfriend is standing having just climbed up with her dress on, and her hair falling down past her shoulders in loose curls like it always does. I love it now that she let it grow back out. I remember having to talk her out of cutting it short again just because I missed playing with it whenever we would lay in bed. She's aw struck and her eyes are following the lights around the roof, the small table I borrowed from one of the rooms with some flowers on it. "Okay, I'm surprised."

I smile and stop playing and pull out the remote from my pocket and hit play, turning on some slow background jazz. "You know," I say and stand up and slowly walk towards her, "I wanted to do this for you last year."

"Oh really?" She says and sashays her way slowly towards me.

"Mmmhmm." I extend my hand out to her and when she takes it, I gently tug her in.

Without another word, we start effortlessly dancing together, I twirl her out a couple times, she gets that bright, completely unreserved smile on her face when I bend over and try to grab a rose with my teeth. Emphasis on try. I forgot they had thorns.

When it's just us holding each other, with her head resting on my shoulder with my head resting on hers, her arms around my neck and mine around her waist, just swaying with each other, listening to the music, it's perfect. "If you had the chance, would you do it differently?" She asks me in a small voice, not lifting her head off my shoulder.

"Do what?"

"Us. The hiding, I mean."

"Not a chance. It was pretty hot while it lasted."

She chuckles lightly and shifts her head against me a bit, "Yeah. But it was way too much drama."

"Way too much drama."

"But you really wouldn't do it any differently?" She asks and lifts her head up.

"No. We went through what we went through to get us here. If we didn't go through it, then we might not be here, and right now, I wouldn't give up being here... with you... for the world."

She smiles a soft smile and kisses me, then puts her head back on my shoulder. "It was hot though."

"So hot."


Man, last night was the best.

Nothing happened. We just spent the night with each other, holding each other and enjoying the night. Helga said she's going out shopping with her sister today. Olga only stayed with us that one night. After that she started seeing Dr. Bliss, and now as a nice, normal day job at an office. She and Helga have gotten closer since then. What's weird is, from what I've seen, Olga is the one that looks up to Helga. It's weird.

"Hey, sweetie," Mom says over by the sink.

"Yeah, Mom?" I ask and hand her a plate.

"Can you go wake up your grandparents. Your grandpa has a doctors appointment in an hour."

"Sure thing, Mom."

I have to give a Grandpa his tux back anyway. He says there's a certain way to hang it up and he never bothered to show me how.

I get up to their bedroom door and it's still closed. That's weird, they're usually up by now, it's almost ten o'clock. "Hey Grandpa, you awake?"

I see them both in bed, but their still asleep.

"Grandpa? Grandma?"

No no no no no no no...

"Grandpa?"


I hit the brakes on the car and am running up the stairs to the boarding house as fast as I can, shooting through the door, my heart pounding in my chest. I run into the kitchen and find Stella and Miles at the table, Miles with his head down in his hands and Stella beside him rubbing his back. "Where is he?"

I head upstairs and slowly open the door to his room. Nelius' head pops up from the covers and he jumps off the bed and runs over to me. "Hey buddy," I kneel down and scratch his ears. "Where's our boy, huh?"

He whines and jumps back on the bed. He must be on the roof. I slowly climb up and find him at the piano. He has the lid up, but he's not playing. I quickly walk over and sit down beside him, leaning down to try and make eye contact. But his head is bent down and he has a sad expression on his face. He's not crying, but he just looks... so sad. I reach up and gently put my hand on his back, running it up and down his spine, hoping to soothe him, just like he did for me that night when my mom died.

"I remember one day," he starts, looking down at the keys, just running his finger up and down one in the middle, "I had this list of how to have a perfect Saturday. And of course it just... all went wrong. At the end of the day, I came up here and was mad about how the day went. Then Grandma comes up on a crane with the piano and starts playing this up beat song. About how you just need to look up, when times get you down..." His voice is starting to shake. It's coming.

He sniffles and both his hands go to the key board and starts playing a slow, upbeat and happy melody. I look back up at him and see a tear hanging from his lashes. "They want me to give the eulogy." I sniffles again and pauses for a break in the song. I can understand them wanting him to give the funeral speech. I hope he knows that he doesn't have to if he doesn't think he can't. "Give me your hand."

I look up at him again and see him looking down at my hand and I give it to him. He puts his on top and moves it to the keys, putting my fingers where they he wants them.

"Just these two keys, just C and G." I presses down on the higher note, then the lower note, and repeats it a few more times before I'm doing it on my own. He then goes back to the song. As the song progresses, watching his slender fingers dance effortlessly across the piano, it feels like he's trying to lose himself in the music. His eyes are closed and his head is moving to the tempo. After a couple minutes, he ends the song and let's his hands fall down to his lap. "I think I know what I want to do." He says and opens his eyes. "A music teacher."

"You'll be great."

When I see his expression start to crack, his lower lip start quivering and his eyes screwing shut, not wanting to break down in front of me, I quickly reach over and wrap my arms around him, pulling him down to me and cradling him to me. In a second, he's clinging onto the back of my shirt and his body is wracking. It's breaking my heart, but he was there for me, and now I have to be here for him, and there's no where else I'd rather be. He lets out a wave of sobs and I softly press my lips to his hair. "It's okay, love, it's okay... I'm here." I start rocking him from side to side and petting his hair. I know he likes that and hope that he finds a little more comfort in the action. "I'm here."

His arms move around me a little further, pulling me in, and his head moves up to my shoulder, and he buries his face in my hair.

"I'm here."


Looking down at the index cards in my hands, I haven't rehearsed my speech yet. I probably should have but... it's too difficult. It was hard enough writing it, now I have to go up there and read it in front of everybody. Helga offered to write it for me, but it needs to be from me. They wanted me to do it because they wanted to hear what I had to say.

"Hey..." She says from behind and puts her hand on my back. "It's almost time, love."

I look over to her and muster you a smile. She has her hair tied back in a low ponytail and has on a simple black dress. "I know."

"If you don't want to do this, it's not too late to back out."

"No, I... I'm going to do this. They'd want me to."

I see her nod and look away. We're down at the water front. They wanted their ashes spread out in the ocean, and me, Mom and Dad are going to do it together. Helga turns around and reaches out her hand. I let out a sigh, trying to be brave for my family and hold her hand on my way over to the podium.

Everyone is seated already and they were just waiting on me. They must have sent Helga to remind me. She holds my hand, running her thumb against mine the whole way until we get to the front, where she steps up to me and kisses me on the cheek. When she steps back, she gives me a look, asking me if I really want to do this. I give her a small nod and she smiles and sits down in the third chair in the front next to Mom and Dad.

I step up to the podium and put the index cards down, with all the information and the story that I want to tell. "Hi." I start. Everyone is looking at me, dressed in black, and they came here to honor my grandparents. "Thank you all for coming." I clear my throat and I'm ready as I'll ever be to start. "Seventy years ago, Phillip Shortman stepped off of a US carrier, after have just fought in World War two, and saw his girlfriend standing among the other wives and girlfriends waiting for their husbands and boyfriends. The only thing he said when she ran up to him... is 'will you marry me'. They got married that summer and were together ever since. They spent their whole lives with each other... even as kids. That's a certain kind of love that's unshakable, that can't be broken."

I look up from the cards and my eyes go to Helga, who smiles.

"It's the kind of love and friendship that can't be explained or analyzed, it just is. They were among the few people that actually found that person that they were meant to spend their entire lives with. To live with..." Be strong, "and die with. I'd like to say that I am who I am because of what my grandparents taught me. How to care for one another, to never give up and yet, how to accept the reality of how the world works, that sometimes you can't win, and that there's no secret formula or pass word that you can say that will fix everything and make all of your dreams come true, that you have to make your dreams into goals, and that you have to strive to accomplish those goals. They taught me that no matter how grey the skies are, how bleak things might look, or it might all seem like it's all against you, even when it seems like the end, you just gotta look up. That you can't just look away, or hide and shy away, you just have to look up. More than anything, that's what I hold most dear about them both. They taught me to look up."

I smile and step down and hear a small applause. It didn't go exactly how I wrote it, but they seemed to like it. Right as I'm a few steps away from the podium, I look up and see Helga stand up from her seat. I can see that her eyes are glistening with ears just before she throws her arms around me, and I hug her back as tight as I can. "That was beautiful." She says in my ear.

I lean back and grab her hand. "Come on."

Mom and Dad are already at the edge with the urns, and they don't seem to have any objections with me bringing Helga up with me. We stand in between Mom and Dad, with Dad on my side and Mom next to Helga. "They would have loved your speech, Son."

"Thanks, Dad."

Mom and Dad open the urns and Helga and I watch as they sprinkle the ashes into the water.

"Goodbye Grandma... goodbye Grandpa. I love you guys."


"Helga, we're going to be late!" Phoebe yells and runs down the hall way.

"We're not going to be late, Pheebs! You could have graduated three years ago, you know."

"I know, but I'm graduating today, and we're going to be late."

"Alright, geez Ms. Valedictorian. Get your panties untwisted."

We're graduating today, and the ceremony is in a half an hour. I'm excited for it to be over, and to be out of high school. The first year sucked, the second year wasn't so bad since Arnold and I first got together, first have of junior year wasn't so bad, second half was the worst. But senior year has been the best, by far. But I'm really looking forward to the summer, more specifically next week. Rhonda's taking everybody back up to her parents beach house for the week. I was busy writing all last summer, so this summer, Arnold and I are taking off. We're going to dedicate it to having fun. He mentioned something about going back up to that cabin we went to last year.

He's been better since his grandparents died last month. It was real quite around the boarding house for a long wile, but it's back to normal now. Well, even more normal now without Phil and Gertie antics to keep things crazy. I still remember that day I was hiding up on his roof that one day last year and Gertie came up and starting playing the piano. I'll always remember that talk.

"Come on, the boys are waiting for us!"

"Alright!" I shout down stairs. "Crimeny..." I mutter and grab my cap and gown off the dresser.

We run downstairs and out the door where Gerald is waiting in his car with Arnold in the front seat. "Hey babe." He says out the window.

"Hey love." I say and quickly get in on his side in the back.

We get to school and quickly find out seats. We had to sit for five hours rehearsing this stupid ceremony yesterday. Arnold sits just a few chairs down from me, and once this thing is done, Reba and Kyo, Stella and Miles and Gerald's parents are all going out to lunch, but I'm hoping Arnold and I can sneak away early.

The ceremony starts and the principal starts his speech and how he's recognizing us, blah blah blah. Phoebe's speech is next. She asked me to write it for her, and I was happy to do it, I just don't want people to know that the valedictorian asked me to write her graduation speech for her.

"And now, introducing the Valedictorian of the senior class, Ms. Phoebe Heyerdahl."

I send out a loud whistle above the applause, and I hear Gerald send out an 'ow' as she gets up to the podium.

"I want to start by saying that the speech I'm about to give, I didn't write. I promised I wouldn't say anything, but the last time I took credit for something I didn't write, I had a creepy little statue start talking to me."

There's a small laugh in the crowd, and I should be mad, but I remember her telling me about that.

"This speech was written by my best friend, and one of the greatest people I've ever met, Helga Pataki." There's another whistle coming from the audience, and I'm guessing that it's Olga. "There aren't many times where people say the things that we need to hear when we most need to hear them. Most people just wait for things to happen and just say I told you so with indifferently crossed arms. From the speeches I've heard given, that high school as been a fun ride and that the future holds hope, I've always wondered what it would be like if someone just got up and told it like it is. Because, after all, our generation is a generation of hand holders and hand sanitizers. What would happen if someone just showed us the reality of the world before we're thrust into it?

What if we were honest about the world beyond these walls? What if someone were to tell us the life lessons that we would only otherwise learn through personal, traumatic experiences? I may not be sparing you any heart ache, and it will probably be easy to hear, but will be harder to take to heart. Number one, the world isn't fair. Get used to it. A zebra in the wild breaks it's leg while running care free across the plains, and gets eaten by a lion. It's not fair, when the lion could have waited for the zebra's leg to heal, but the lion has cubs to feed. Trying to make the world fair is how communism started.

We're taught by the social norms that we all deserve a castle to live in, but aren't taught to take into account that someone has to slave to build it first. We've been instilled with a sense of instant gratification, impatience, and narrow mindedness in such a way that we think we deserve the world, but forget that we have to live in it. It's a generation that has spent so much time asking questions about life and not lived it. A generation that has spent so much time trying to figure out the point of it all, and not enough time trying to make a point of their own.

It's going to be hard to hear, but we aren't all that special, and we can't do anything we want. I can't be a professional basketball player because I'm not good at basketball. It's that simple. Just try to take away as much comfort and humility as you can with the knowledge that every single person you will ever meet in your entire life knows something that you don't.

So as we walk out of these walls and out into the world with the expectation to be productive and tax paying members of society, some of us may learn these lessons, enough to pass them down to the next generation, will know that you will look back on these days and realize how easy they were. Thank you."

There's an applause from everybody in the audience and I'm honestly surprised. I basically just insulted everybody in the room and they seemed to love the speech I wrote. I see Arnold lean forward in his chair and look over to me with a bright smile and give me a thumps up. I loves everything I write.

The ceremony drags on and we all get our diplomas and sit back down. Then we all stand up and throw our hats in the air and I let mine hit the ground and don't care to find it among the other people grabbing theirs. I just want to get out of here. I see Arnold making his way toward me with his cap on and the tassel hanging down right through the middle of his face. "You ready to get out of here?" He asks me and pulls me in by the waist.

"More than ready."