CHAPTER 29
Okay. Quick author's note before I start the chapter. I'm really sorry, I've written a lot of these recently but I gotta write one more.
Person on fanfiction net whose username is gtCGO17 (you know exactly who you are), this is for you…
First, you wrote 4 anonymous insult comments that I deleted. Then, when you realised, you decide to write a public one that I can't delete. Why don't you just stop reading mate? You are clearly not enjoying it. I'm not judging you. Just close the fucking tab and stop dissing. Imma leave your public reviews up there, but I stand by the fact that I took down 4 other of your reviews.
I get it, you hate your life. You're a virgin living in your mom's basement and you have nothing better to do than piss all over everyone around you. I honestly feel for you. But I just want to warn you. One day, you're gonna piss off the wrong person and you're gonna get your ass kicked. It's easy to be a dickless pussy and diss people online. Just make sure you don't do that in real life, as you can't hide behind your laptop then.
Why don't you write your own story? I would love to read one of your stories and be as critical of it as you are of mine. I'd love to be proved wrong. BUT SHOW ME. Show me that you're the next JK Rowling.
The rest of the weekend flew by for both dojos. Before they knew it, it was Monday, the beginning of their final month of sophomore year. It was May 6th, and all of their final exams were on, but they still had summative projects for a couple of subjects. Obviously, all of Miguel's friends had passed the year, and none of them would be held back. Even his most badass friend - Hawk - finished the year on the honor roll, the 'Eli' in him shining through.
Miguel definitely needed summer vacation. It had been an extremely long year for him, starting with him breaking his back, and ending with the dojo split. He deserved a break to kick his feet up and relax, but he knew that wouldn't happen. Johnny had already told Miguel that he was going on a strict diet and exercise regimen, as well as extremely intense training, to prepare him for the All-Valley. The All-Valley was very soon. It was crunch time.
Miguel's car was in the shop, so Johnny dropped Miguel off at school that morning, before driving back home. When he walked into his place, Carmen had prepared them a large breakfast. Miguel's yaya was at church that morning, so they had the place to themselves. Johnny kissed her and the two of them sat down at the table.
"Thanks for dropping Miguel at school." Carmen said. Johnny nodded.
"Yeah, no problem. It was my pleasure. Small things like these… they make me feel like a dad, you know?"
Carmen smiled and nodded. She could tell how visibly happy Johnny was becoming as Miguel leaned on him more and more as a father figure. Johnny had been given a second-chance at fatherhood after everything that happened with Robby.
"Miggy really loves you, you know? It's like he finally has a full, happy, normal, textbook family. That's always been his dream." Carmen stated.
"Him and me both." Johnny laughed. "Two years ago, I never imagined I'd be where I am today. Part of me still can't believe it. I keep thinking I'm going to wake up the next day and it's all going to be gone."
"Well, I'm not going anywhere. Ever." She said.
"Neither am I." Johnny replied. Although he hadn't proposed, Johnny and Carmen pretty much knew that they were soulmates, and would probably be together for the rest of their lives. The two of them smiled at each other for several moments in comfortable silence, before Carmen broke it.
"Hey, crazy idea." Carmen murmured. "This is just an idea. Feel no pressure to say yes to this. It's completely up to you."
"What is it?" Johnny asked, extremely curious now. Carmen took a deep breath.
"What if we went away for the weekend to Vegas and got eloped?" She suggested. Johnny's eyes widened and his mouth gaped open in shock.
"Eloped? As in married?" He asked. Carmen nodded.
"Yeah. We practically live together, we basically have a child together. Why don't we just make it official?"
"For real? I thought every girls' dream was for a big wedding. You know, big dress, big party, all that expensive crap." Johnny remarked. Carmen shrugged.
"Key word being 'expensive'." Carmen replied. "And besides, I was never into that whole thing. It's too… girly and superficial for me. I find any woman who spends thousands of dollars on a dress that she's going to wear once in her life to be really shallow."
"You and me both." Johnny laughed.
"So…?" Carmen asked nervously. Johnny thought for a moment and then finally nodded.
"I mean, I'd love to, if you want to." Johnny replied. Carmen broke out into a wide smile.
"Is that a yes?" She asked. Johnny nodded.
"Yeah. Let's get married…"
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That morning, Daniel, Amanda and Anthony were sitting in the dining room, eating breakfast. As Sam and her dad were fighting, Sam normally just grabbed a piece of fruit and raced out the door before they got a chance to say 2 words to each other.
However, this morning, Sam actually came downstairs and sat at the breakfast table, smiling at her astonished parents.
"Hey guys." She smiled. Daniel and Amanda looked at each other, confused, and then looked at their daughter.
"Hey, Sam." Daniel said, cautiously. "What's going on?"
"What? Am I not allowed to get breakfast or something?" Sam laughed.
"No, it's just… you're not mad at me anymore?" Daniel asked. Sam smiled at her dad and shook her head.
"No, I'm not." Sam replied. "I realised that you did everything you did with your heart in the right place. Yeah, you definitely went too far with hitting Miguel but if he's forgiven you, I guess I can too. You do have to promise to be less overbearing in the future though. I can handle myself out there in the world. I'm a Larusso."
Daniel grinned, relieved, and he hugged his daughter tightly.
"Deal." He replied. "Now… you fancy some Bananarama pancakes for breakfast?"
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"All right class! Listen up!" Mr. Smith, their music teacher, announced to them. Music was their first class of the day, and they were yet to be assigned their final summative project for the subject yet. Miguel, Hawk, Sam and Demitri were all in the same class, Hawk and Miguel sitting at the desk directly behind Sam and Demitri. The seats had been chosen while they were still in the same dojo and then when they split, it was too late to change seat. It was fine though. All of their projects thus far had been individual or duo projects, which Miguel and Hawk had managed to snake past at. Neither one of them were very good at music (Academics and Athletes were more their forte, not the Arts) but they hadn't been failing which was good.
The group all turned their attention to their teacher, who stood in front of the 20 person class.
"As you know, we'll be starting our end-of-year summative project today. The project is worth 75% of your final grade, so if you fail the project, you will most likely fail the course and will have to spend your entire summer in music summer school Basically, don't fail is all I'm saying, so listen carefully!"
Miguel and Hawk looked at each other, worried. They had both been averaging C- in music, so there was a fair chance that they could potentially fail the course if they failed this assignment. They had to all pick an instrument at the beginning of the year, and learn how to play it. Miguel had chosen the guitar; Hawk had chosen the piano. Neither of them were great at their respective instruments, to say the least, so they were nervous.
"What's the assignment?" Sam asked the teacher. Mr. Smith smiled.
"Well, Sam, the assignment is to cover a song that was written in the past 10 years." He replied. "Any song you want. Anything you heard on the radio while you were growing up. You need at least one singer, and at least one musical instrument accompanying you."
"We're supposed to do all of that?" Hawk exclaimed in disbelief. "I can barely play hot cross buns on the piano, let alone sing and play a whole song!"
Mr. Smith nodded.
"I know, Eli. That's why you're being split into groups of 4. Hopefully, between the four of you, you can put together an excellent performance."
Mr. Smith then started to split the class into random groups of 4 based on where in the class they were sitting, ending off with the final quartet.
"Miguel, Eli, Demitri and Sam. You four are group 5." He announced. All four of them internally groaned in annoyance. Of all the groups they could be in. The four of them looked at each other and felt the awkwardness immediately in the air. Although they had all agreed to be 'friends' with each other despite the dojo split, things were still undeniably awkward though. And now they had to do a massive project together. The next month was going to be fun…
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That evening, Johnny parked the car at a wedding chapel in Vegas. They had driven the four hour drive to Vegas, and had checked into a three star hotel for the night. They didn't need much as they were just staying there one night, and they weren't spending any time in the hotel anyway. Immediately after check in, they drove to a wedding chapel.
They got out of the car, presented their ID papers to the person at the front desk, and then were directed to the waiting room, where they waited for 30 minutes in relative silence. There were three other couples there: a pregnant couple, an extremely young couple, an extremely old couple, and them.
Finally, the door to the waiting room swung open and their names were called. They stood up and looked at each other, nervously. Carmen squeezed Johnny's hand.
"You ready?" Johnny asked. Carmen nodded.
"Yeah. I love you." She said.
"Love you too." He replied. "Let's do this…"
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That afternoon, Sam, Miguel, Demitri and Hawk were hanging out at Hawk's place, meant to be discussing their music project but getting bored immediately and playing a game of Scrabble instead.
"How am I supposed to do this with so many I's on my rack?" Sam complained, talking about letter 'I's on her scrabble tile rack of course.
"Sorry." Miguel joked, pretending to look at her chest, and then look down, interpreting 'I's as eyes, and rack as… you know.
Everyone held back a laugh at this sarcastic remark, but the tension in the air prevented the laugh from escaping any of their lips. Miguel sighed.
"Seriously, guys? What happened to us? Why is everyone being so awkward?" He asked.
"I know, right? Things have gotten so weird between us, huh?" Demitri remarked. "The four of us used to be like the Dream Team."
"Yeah, I blame Miguel and Sam!" Hawk stated. Miguel and Sam protested indignantly. "If they hadn't broken up, things wouldn't be weird!"
"Hey, it's not our fault!" Sam stated. "It's just that we've gone from all seeing each other all day, every day because of training, to like never seeing each other."
"Well, we need to fix that. You guys were like my closest friends. We can't become just any other strangers to each other." Miguel said. "Now, we should probably start working on that music project, huh?"
"Hey! Let's finish the game! You just want to quit because you're losing!" Demitri exclaimed. Miguel raised an eyebrow
"What are you talking about? I'm winning." Miguel stated.
"Well, yeah. Only because you already played your turn this round and we all haven't." Demitri replied. Miguel grinned and shushed Demitri.
"Shhhh Demitri. No one likes a sore loser." Miguel joked. Everyone did finally laugh at this, the tension and awkwardness in the room lessening by the minute, all of them feeling their old friendship starting to come back.
"All right. So what are we doing for this music project? Who's singing? One of us has to do it." Miguel asked.
"Not me!" Sam suddenly exclaimed.
"Not me!" Hawk quickly repeated.
"Not me!" Demitri said, right before Miguel realised what was going on.
"Not me!" Miguel said, too late. He groaned. "Damn it!"
"Atta boy, Beyonce!" Hawk laughed. Miguel put his head in his hands.
"Okay. Let's get to work…"
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The next evening, Carmen and Johnny pulled into the driveway, officially a married couple. Their mini vacation was over, and they had to go back to facing the world again.
"You haven't said much on the way back. How does it feel to be a married man?" Carmen asked Johnny.
"It feels great." Johnny replied. "So when do we tell people? I'm sure Miguel's gonna want to know."
Carmen took a deep breath.
"Look, Johnny, I need you do something for me, and trust me, okay?" Carmen said. Johnny nodded.
"Sure, what is it?" He asked.
"Don't tell Miguel for now." Carmen said. Johnny looked at her, confused.
"Huh?" He asked.
"Don't tell Miguel." She repeated. "There's a lot on his plate right now, with exams and the All-Valley and everything. He's under a lot of stress and I don't know how he'll react to this, and I don't want him to crumble because of it."
Johnny eventually nodded.
"Okay, we don't tell Miguel. For how long?"
"For now." Carmen said. "Can we reassess after the All-Valley tournament?"
Johnny nodded. He had a sinking feeling in his chest. He knew this was a bad idea, but he wasn't about to disagree with his new bride the day after their marriage.
"Okay, deal…"