I really don't have much to say except we have found a Calum. Some of you might have a made up figure in your head, and that's fine. This is just how I will be picturing him. Thanks to Mocha Addict for finding someone!

Also, I hate saying this, but these next chapters will be the last...I'm really going to miss writing about these characters...

Anyway!

Chapter 17

"Hey! Come to my party!"

Calum turned around shaking his head as he heard Adam's voice fill the hall. He was passing out horrible, fluorescent yellow papers that had typed letters written all over it. "Here," Teagan said throwing a paper airplane made with the bright yellow paper at Calum. "It's a pre-graduation party Adam's having. Not that you need an invite."

"Why is it on fluorescent yellow-"

"Because that was the only color they had left in the copy room," Adam said walking up and interrupting Calum's sentence. "I see you already have one, good work Teagan."

"I try," he answered unenthusiastically.

"When is it," Calum asked.

"Look at the-"

"Adam, he wants to be able to see at this party. If he looks at the paper, he wont be able to."

Adam stuck his tongue out at Teagan before turning to Calum. "Friday night. Graduation is on Monday so everyone can come without it having to end at some lame time like nine or ten."

Calum nodded. "Who's the DJ?"

"My CD player. You know, the big one in the living room that can hold ten CDs, that should last us. Keisha and Bailey are making some up with a mix of genres."

"You think of everything," Calum told Adam as he shut his locker and they headed out the doors of the school.

"Oh yeah. I've got all the kids out of the house too. Gemma's going to Opal's house. Bridget, Sadie Kevin and Sam are camping in the backyard with movies and a television with an extension cord. So we're all set." He gave them two thumbs up. "No annoying little brothers and sisters. I could scream for joy!"

"They can't be that bad."

"No Teag, sometimes I envy you for being an only child," Adam said as they walked into the grassy area near the front of the school. "This is the only place I can go and not be followed around by one of them!"

Calum and Teagan smiled as Adam laid down on the grass. "When Gemma comes here next year, I'll be miles and miles away from here and I'm never coming back. I'm going to live on a secluded island that none of them know of until their mature and...old enough so I don't wake up with silly string in my shoe."

"Adam," Teagan said. "A secluded island?"

"Yes. Or maybe I'll just move to some town in Massachusetts or Maine, New Hampshire maybe. They'd never think to look there."

"Good luck with the winters," Teagan said.

"What are you doing after high school and college," Adam asked. "Are you going to stay in Albuquerque?"

"I don't know. I'd like to," Calum said. Teagan shrugged.

"Well I'm ditching this place."

"You are such a drifter," Teagan said. "Bailey and you can just travel around the world in your trailer."

Adam shook his head at Teagan before smiling. "You seriously don't understand. Calum you know what it's like to have siblings. Cam must have been awful if he's as bad as I am to my little brothers."

Calum shrugged and sat next to Adam on the grass. "Sure he's embarrassing, but after Da...Daniel left, he wasn't so bad."

Teagan looked sympathetically at Calum before glaring at Adam, who wasn't paying any attention and hadn't heard a word Calum had said. "Hey, what's there to do at this party?"

"Huh...oh party! Dance and 'mingle' as my mother put it." Adam looked up into the sun and sighed lazily. "It is going to be awesome."

"I still can't believe we're graduating," Teagan said. "It feels like just yesterday we were in ninth grade and scared to death. I don't know if I want to leave."

"Oh I don't know, it's a whole new experience," Calum said.

"No I mean leave my friends and my dad for college."

Adam snorted. "It's just like going to camp. We're going to see each other during breaks." He grabbed Calum and drew him into a head lock. "You're stuck with the two of us man," he said to Teagan while he messed up Calum's hair.

hsmhsmhsmhsmhsm

Mack laid her head on Calum chest and shut her eyes. The party had been awesome. The music blasted some of their favorite songs and they danced the night away. But as the hours drained away, kids began to leave until it was just Adam, Calum, Bailey and Mack left. Teagan had left to drop a sleeping Keisha off at home.

"Hey," Calum said as she shut her eyes. "Are you really that tired?"

She nodded into his chest. "And you're just so comfortable."

He looked down at her and smiled before starting to stroke her hair. She glanced up at him and Calum gently stroked her cheek. "You're beautiful," he whispered.

"Thanks." After she spoke, a yawn escaped her body. Calum laughed, "I guess you are tired."

"What time is it?"

He pulled his arm from around her waist and looked at his watch. "It's...one thirty. No wonder you're tired. I'm going to help Adam clean up a little and then we can head out okay." She nodded and slipped off his lap.

"Dude you can take her home if you want," Adam said. "I got it here."

"You sure," Calum asked looking around. The living room was a disaster and he felt bad that Adam would have to clean it all up.

"Bailey's in the kitchen putting the food away. It's not that bad. I've got to take her home anyway. You two head out, I got it. Don't feel bad either. I know you too well."

Calum smiled. "Are you sure you're going-"

"Cal! Come on. If you really want to help so bad, by all means stay. I'll take the girls home and you can clean."

"No thanks," Calum said. "I'll take Mack. See you tomorrow?"

"Of course, we're going to the movies remember," Adam said.

"What are we seeing anyway?"

"Some chick flick," Adam sighed. "And it's one they really want to see too, so they're going to be focused on the guy in the movie instead of us!"

"Jealous," Calum asked.

Adam shook his head. "Of some rich actor who will fifteen houses and twenty yachts by the time he's forty? No way." Adam hit his head off the couch. "I wish I had the money for fifteen houses and twenty yachts!"

"Well, when Teagan finds the cure to some unbearable disease and has loads of money, we'll have him buy us houses and yachts."

"I like the way you think."

Calum chuckled before grabbing Mack's sweatshirt off the couch. "I do too."

"Wait, you're going to be some big shot basketball guy. Why would you want to be friends with a computer nerd and a drifter?"

"I'm not going to be 'some big shot basketball guy.' I don't want to be."

Adam shook his head. "You're nuts. If I had your talent, I'd try to be in the NBA. Then I could pay for my houses, my yachts and any other debt I'm going to be in."

"See that's how we're different dude. You want to be away from your family, I want the opposite."

"What ever floats your boat," Adam joked.

Calum shook his head and walked over to Mack. "Hey? It's time to go," he whispered in her ear. Her eyes blinked open and she smiled. "I'm ready."

"Yeah, me too."

She stood and Calum walked her out the door to his car. Suddenly she wasn't so tired anymore and she fiddled with the radio until she found a station she liked. Calum sat down on the drivers side and drove out of the driveway.

Okay...how'd you like it?

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