Chapter 62: Graduation
The last days of the semester flew by, with Sarah finishing up the last of her school projects and packing up her things. By the morning of graduation, she had completely moved out of her apartment and brought some of her things to her father's house and some of them to Underground.
Graduation itself was interminable to Sarah. She didn't know many students in her class, and the speaker was stultifying. She took off her necklace and amused herself by surreptitiously watching various scenarios in the crystal necklace. She whispered, "Show me Jareth," and the crystal darkened for an instant before showing her the harried Goblin King pacing around his study barking orders at Sir Didymus. She smiled to herself.
Sarah had done well in her final year. Not valedictorian or anything, but she'd made a respectable showing. The woman in front of her was so nervous that she went too far across the platform and tried to go down the wrong set of steps, and Sarah smiled. A month ago, she would have been just as nervous, but graduation now seemed small potatoes after an Underground royal wedding. Sarah gave the woman an understanding smile as her own name was called, and she strode proudly across the platform shaking hands. Then, instead of returning to her seat to wait for the names to end, she just kept walking out the back of the stadium.
Her father and Toby were there, waiting for her. "Okay, let's roll," Robert said. "If we leave now we can beat the crowds. Is Jareth coming up to join us for your graduation lunch?"
Sarah was secretly amused by her father's directions. He had very neatly categorized the Underground as "down," and their own world as "up." He referred to Jareth's visits as coming "up" to see her. She had wondered why he'd taken the news of her upcoming marriage--and her bridegroom!--with such equanimity, until Jareth confessed that he'd put a calming spell into the wine and h'ors-deuvres that he'd created for Robert during their last visit.
"Yes, I think so. Where are we going?"
"Dunno; what do you feel like? Steak? Seafood?"
"Probably not lobster," Sarah qualified with a secret smile. "I'm good with anything else."
Jareth met them at the steak house, emerging from the gents' washroom as if he'd been there all along waiting for them. They had requested a private table in a corner, and the conversation over the meal flew fast and furious. By the end of the meal, Robert was smiling and affable (of course, the wine he'd drunk had nothing to do with his genial mood) and extremely eager to go visit the Underground for himself.
Toby was eager to visit as well, and Jareth—after some cajoling—agreed to let them come to the wedding… and have an extended visit at some point shortly after that. He winked at Sarah as he told them about the intricate Underground etiquette and history lessons that he would have to give them. His delivery was deadpan, however, and Sarah—remembering the debilitating shock of her own lesson crystal—had to cough into her napkin to hide her laughter.
She couldn't wait to see the reactions of her father and brother to their own "educational crystals."
A/N: Eariwen,this was the chapter I told you about. Hope you liked it.