p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; text-align: center; line-height: normal;" align="center"emspan style="font-size: 13.5pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"Cynthia ~ 17/span/em/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; text-align: center; line-height: normal;" align="center"emspan style="font-size: 13.5pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"Leon ~17/span/em/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; text-align: center; line-height: normal;" align="center"emspan style="font-size: 13.5pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"Our First Dance/span/em/p
div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; text-align: center; line-height: normal;" align="center"hr align="center" size="2" width="100%" /div
p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; line-height: normal;"span style="font-size: 13.5pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"Cynthia sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose, Leon was honestly going to drive her insane. She loved the blonde to death but he was fretting way too much over this entire thing. "Leon…" she groaned in exasperation, you would think that after being kidnapped and held hostage for two years he would be able to handle a dance of all things and not freak out like this./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; line-height: normal;"span style="font-size: 13.5pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;""... and what about the actual date? I've been gone for two years! I have no idea what everybody thinks is cool!" Leon continued to ramble and pace, rather nervously for that matter. "I'd hate to have this dance ruined because I've screwed this all up and can't give you what you deserve…"/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; line-height: normal;"span style="font-size: 13.5pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;""Leon."/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; line-height: normal;"span style="font-size: 13.5pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;""And what about after? I don't want to end it with just taking you home!" Leon exclaimed, aparently not hearing Cynthia saying his name twice now. "I want to make it perfect and if I can't do that then I'm an utter failure-"/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; line-height: normal;"span style="font-size: 13.5pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;""LEON!" Cynthia yelled and affectively cut him off, "will you please stop rambling and calm down!" She glared heatedly at him, her glare able to melt steel, "it's just a dance! Just. A. Dance! You're not proposing to me, nor are you planning a wedding! It's just a dance!" She grasped him by the shoulders, yanked him down to her level and lightly shook him by the shoulders, "calm down!"/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; line-height: normal;"span style="font-size: 13.5pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;""But it's our first dance!" Leon complained even as his annoyed girlfriend shook him by the shoulders, "our first dance together and I want it to be perfect!" He looked pitifully at Cynthia, "I want emour/em firsts to be perfect. All of them."/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; line-height: normal;"span style="font-size: 13.5pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"Cynthia stopped shaking him and lightly shook her head, "Leon you're paranoid. All of them will be perfect as long as you're the one doing them with me." Her blue eyes were soft as she continued, "as long as I get to be at the dance with you, you dance with me at least once, and we end the night with a kiss, I don't need anything else to make it perfect."/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; line-height: normal;"span style="font-size: 13.5pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"Leon looked nervously at her, nervous about the idea of taking Cynthia to a dance after he had been gone for so long. He had spent a year returning to normal, getting used to having so many people around after two years of isolation, and to having Cynthia around. They had been inseparable since Leon and his siblings' rescue, to the point where Skylar and Brad had gotten used to Cynthia pretty much living with them and sharing a room with the blonde. Part of it was because of her nightmares. She used to have stayed in Holly's room, but after a particular terrible nightmare where Cynthia had seen her friends be captured one again she had started to sleep in Leon's room. At first it had been just her sleeping curled up on the floor in one corner, then over the past year it had evolved to her sleeping next to him, able to imeadiately reassure herself it had been a dream with Leon right next to her./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; line-height: normal;"span style="font-size: 13.5pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"Then she had started to just stay there. By now the room contained a mix of both of their stuff, clothing, nick nacks, tech, books, etc. Despite the oddity of the arrangement Skylar and Brad trusted both of them to behave properly and treated Cynthia as part of the family like they always had. Cynthia rarely stayed the night in her own room at her parents' house, saying that it triggered memories she wanted to forget the longer she was in the room. Sure her parents were still a little sore about how she was practically living at the Brambles' now, but they let her, understanding how shaken up the past three years had been for her and how much she had gone through./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; line-height: normal;"span style="font-size: 13.5pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"Cynthia spoke softly to Leon, resting her hands on his chest as she did so. "I'm just glad your here with me and not held hostage at the cabin anymore Leon, I don't need anything else." She stepped closer and rested her head on his chest with her eyes closed. "Just you, that's all I need./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; line-height: normal;"span style="font-size: 13.5pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"Leon took a deep breath and ran one hand through his hair while his free arm wrapped around her waist, holding her close to him. "I'm sorry I was gone for so long," he sighed, "it really messed up the rest of our lives."/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; line-height: normal;"span style="font-size: 13.5pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"Cynthia lightly shook her head, "it wasn't your fault," she wrapped her arms around his back, hands resting just below his shoulder blades, "and it pulled us closer together," she closed her eyes. "I love you, you know I do."/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; line-height: normal;"span style="font-size: 13.5pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"Leon buried his head into her black hair, "I know, but it's not fair."/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; line-height: normal;"span style="font-size: 13.5pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;""Life's not fair," Cynthia murmured into his chest, "so you have to take advantage of what you get Leo."/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; line-height: normal;"span style="font-size: 13.5pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"Leon took a deep breath, letting the faint ocean smell from Cynthia's shampoo help soothe his nerves. "I still want it to be perfect."/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; line-height: normal;"span style="font-size: 13.5pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;""There's only one thing you can do to keep it from being perfect Leo," Cynthia told him quietly, "and that's not going with me."/span/p
div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; text-align: center; line-height: normal;" align="center"hr align="center" size="2" width="100%" /div
p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; line-height: normal;"span style="font-size: 13.5pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"Leon looked distantly up at the cieling, listening to Cynthia's soft and faintly rumbling breaths and thinking. The near snoring was something Leon had noticed that she had developed while sleeping next to him, having never heard her to anything of the sort before he was kidnapped. However, Leon was actually soothed by the sound. Cynthia only breathed like that if her dreams were peaceful and she wasn't any where close to having a nightmare about his kidnapping. Even now, a year later, Cynthia was sleep deprived and had been told by multiple doctors that she was still recovering from the strenous two years./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; line-height: normal;"span style="font-size: 13.5pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"While Leon had been taken care of despite his kidnapping, Cynthia had spent many a day eating nothing, drinking little, and sleeping even less, and it seemed that it was going to take a long time to rectify. She still struggled to eat properly, unable to eat more than a small amount at once without getting sick, and to Leon's dismay, she had issues staying hydrated, so used to being dehydrated that she didn't recognize when she became dehydrated. While she had finally developed a normal sleeping pattern after a full year, she didn't always get anything out of her sleep, ridden by nightmares or restless sleep. Of which he helped with, and he was glad./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; line-height: normal;"span style="font-size: 13.5pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"He could feel Cynthia's breath against his shoulder where the girl had her head partially resting on, and felt her arm draped across his body along with the leg she had drawn up at the knee. Cynthia's breathing changed and she groaned in her sleep in a complaining fashion before she stilled and her breathing steadied, remaining a lot more light than before./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; line-height: normal;"span style="font-size: 13.5pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"Leon sighed and rubbed her back with the arm she had pinned down and was sleeping on top of, he hated how she went from having a good dream to having a restless sleep, to a nightmare, and back to having a good dream. All without completely waking up. Cynthia was a heavy sleeper, now more than ever. Unless he moved a decent amount, then she was one of the lightest sleepers he knew./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; line-height: normal;"span style="font-size: 13.5pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"Leon glanced over at his alarm clock, of which read six-twenty-nine in the morning, and then back up at the cieling, letting the sunlight from the window begin to spill in and over the bed and the cieling. Half a year ago and the sunlight would've startled Cynthia from her sleep, but now it did nothing as she stayed asleep in her deep slumber, undisturbed by the world. emI don't want anything to happen during the dance,/em he admitted quietly to himself, emI want the whole thing to be perfect, for both of us./em He sighed, he missed some social stuff with the occasional dance being one of them. He had always wanted to take Cynthia to a dance, especially after the goofy ediquitte dinner they had been forced to go to just a few weeks before his kidnapping. Now he could and he had no idea what to do for it. emWhat am I going to do? I have a week and a half to plan everything and I can't even decide on what to do for the day date./em/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; line-height: normal;"span style="font-size: 13.5pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"He heard his alarm start to go off and sighed, not really in the mood to go to school today after his own nightmare and his earlier mood. emAnd so the day begins…/em/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; line-height: normal;"span style="font-size: 13.5pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"Cynthia stirred at the sound of the alarm clock and she lifted her head in a drowsy fashion, "what time is it?" She asked in a slurred voice and let her head rest back down on Leon's shoulder./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; line-height: normal;"span style="font-size: 13.5pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;""Six thirty," Leon responded to her words and lifted his other arm to run his fingers through her silky black hair, "and time to get up and ready for school."/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; line-height: normal;"span style="font-size: 13.5pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"Cynthia yawned, "I'd rather stay here with you," she mumbled already half asleep. "I'm not really in the mood to go to school…"/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; line-height: normal;"span style="font-size: 13.5pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;""Well Sunshine," Leon sighed and gently pushed her arm and leg off of him before sitting up, "we both have to get up and go no matter how much we want to stay home."/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; line-height: normal;"span style="font-size: 13.5pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"Cynthia gave a disgruntled grunt and rolled onto her back, putting one arm over her eyes. "Why? You have a day date to plan and I'd rather not deal with so many people."/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; line-height: normal;"span style="font-size: 13.5pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"Leon felt a pang of guilt, another thing that had happened due to his kidnapping. Cynthia was so used to having only a few people around that even now a year later, she was incredibly claustriphobic and almost panicked anytime she was in a hall. These days she usually had a death grip on his hand as he walked her to class and half the time had her eyes squeezed shut muttering about the noise and the amount of people. "Well I'm still behind remember?" He pointed out and stood up, "and while I do have a date to plan along with Jay, I do need to go to class. I don't have your math and science skills."/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; line-height: normal;"span style="font-size: 13.5pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"One thing that hadn't changed was how smart Cynthia was, she had used to have a brain hardwired for math and science and she still did. She was almost as good as Bree in Calculus and even surpassed her in College Chemistry, which was saying something. Over the past year Bree had graduated as a junior in highschool, and tested out of her first and second years of college. Now she was in her third year and soaking up new concepts like a sponge soaked up water./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; line-height: normal;"span style="font-size: 13.5pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"Leon moved to stand up but Cynthia wrapped her arms around his chest from behind and rested her head on his shoulder near his ear, keeping him there for at least a moment or two./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; line-height: normal;"span style="font-size: 13.5pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;""I can always teach you," Cynthia pointed out, clearly she had her heart set on skipping class with him at least once today./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; line-height: normal;"span style="font-size: 13.5pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;""I'm sure you can, but I really shouldn't miss anymore days Cia, I already missed a lot." Leon pointed out with a sigh, "and it's really hard to keep up."/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; line-height: normal;"span style="font-size: 13.5pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"Cynthia's breath tickled his ear as she spoke, "not the whole day, just one class, just one. I want time with you outside of watching you study or tutoring you."/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; line-height: normal;"span style="font-size: 13.5pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"Leon rolled his eyes, "Cia no, I need an education remember?" But he had to admit that the idea was rather tempting, it had been atleast a month since they had really gone somewhere and acted like normal in love teenagers instead of overly mature and tired teens still working out the kinks in their lives./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; line-height: normal;"span style="font-size: 13.5pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"Cynthia moved to be sitting next to him and looked at him through half pleading half sleepy blue eyes, "we could go to the lake," she prompted, "and the cabin… the lake's still warm despite the chilly nights and the cabin's furnished properly now." Her eyes lit up as she expanded on the idea and leaned closer, "I could teach you how to swim properly and we could climb a tree or two."/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; line-height: normal;"span style="font-size: 13.5pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"Leon weighed his options and hesitated, school was important and so was Cynthia. He had a day date to plan, Cynthia had been patiently waiting for his exams to finish, of which ended last weekend, and he had been wanting to visit the lake before it got too cold… "Okay fine," he sighed softly, "you win." The excited smile and warm kiss Cynthia gave him was worth every moment of missing his first and maybe second class of the day./span/p
div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; text-align: center; line-height: normal;" align="center"hr align="center" size="2" width="100%" /div
p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; line-height: normal;"span style="font-size: 13.5pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"Leon bit his lip to hide a grin as he and Cynthia waited patiently for both of their parents to arrive at the Principal's Office, they were both soaking wet from the lake's chilly waters, and they were both fighting identical grins and exchaning half smug glances. The visit to the principal's office was nothing compared to how much they had enjoyed themselves goofing off together at the lake and cabin, and if Leon wasn't so worried about failing math class he would do it again in a heartbeat. Even then, the happy twinkle and absence of the misty glaze in Cynthia's eyes made everything worth it. Even Clark nearly dragging the blonde by the back of his shirt to his car with an irritated growl when he caught them./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; line-height: normal;"span style="font-size: 13.5pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"Cynthia caught his eye and let a grin slip through, she was extremely happy, Leon could tell that today was clearly one of her favorite days so far. After all, cuddling together in the cabin, having at tickle fight, Cynthia trying to teach him how to swim properly, and playing together in the lake was a blast./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; line-height: normal;"span style="font-size: 13.5pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"Leon barely managed to keep from grinning back as the principal and their parents walked into the room./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; line-height: normal;"span style="font-size: 13.5pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;""... skipped first and second period," the principal was saying with a faintly amused and semi irritated tone, "which isn't tolerated, especially when a teacher is the one to catch them." He sat down at his desk and looked at the pair of students over top of his glasses, "if you're going to skip class then make sure you're not caught."/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; line-height: normal;"span style="font-size: 13.5pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;""Firen!" Skylar, the principal's daughter and Leon's mother, chastized, "how is that supposed to teach them to not do it again?"/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; line-height: normal;"span style="font-size: 13.5pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"Firen took off his glasses and lightly chuckled, "Skylar as much as I disaprove skipping class I don't think there is anyone in this room unhappy to see the clearly very happy look on their faces. Especially Cynthia's. Now, which one of you had this brilliant idea?"/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; line-height: normal;"span style="font-size: 13.5pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"Cynthia adopted a guilty yet proud smirk and lifted her hand from her lap, "me."/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; line-height: normal;"span style="font-size: 13.5pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"Firen's green eyes softened slightly and Leon knew that it was because how normal of an action this was for Cynthia to have done before Leon's kidnapping. Firen then leaned back in his chair, "usually I would give out a detention for a week to both of you and stagger the times, but today I'm feeling generous. So Cynthia, I expect you to be at the gym after school to help the basketball team with anything they need for a week. Leon, after practice I expect both of you to organize the gym storage closet for a week, understand?"/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; line-height: normal;"span style="font-size: 13.5pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"Both teens nodded, and at that point everyone seemed to relax./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; line-height: normal;"span style="font-size: 13.5pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;""If this happens again maybe you two should be split up," Firen suggested casually then laughed heartily at the terrified expressions on the two teens' faces. "I'm just kidding," he smiled at them both, "but I do expect both of you to stay out of this office for at least a week, understand?"/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; line-height: normal;"span style="font-size: 13.5pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"Cynthia grinned and nodded while Leon's gave a thumbs up before they both caught each other's eye and grinned an identical mischievous grin./span/p
div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; text-align: center; line-height: normal;" align="center"hr align="center" size="2" width="100%" /div
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;" align="center"strongspan style="font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 107%; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"Character Emails (all are gmail accounts)/span/strong/p
p class="MsoNormal"emspan style="font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 107%; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"Caylee and any other side character – youngcrazyteenageauthor/span/em/p
p class="MsoNormal"emspan style="font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 107%; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"Cynthia – athleticsapphiresinger/span/em/p
p class="MsoNormal"emspan style="font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 107%; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"Leon – athleticgoldenboy/span/em/p
p class="MsoNormal"emspan style="font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 107%; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"Bree – cheerfulcuriosity/span/em/p
p class="MsoNormal"emspan style="font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 107%; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"Jay – perfectgrumpytone /span/em/p
p class="MsoNormal"emspan style="font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 107%; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"Holly – emeraldintelligencequeen/span/em/p
p class="MsoNormal"emspan style="font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 107%; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"Fini – gingerandwhiteteenager/span/em/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; text-align: center; line-height: normal;" align="center"strongspan style="font-size: 13.5pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"WHSS Art/span/strong/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; text-align: center; line-height: normal;" align="center"emspan style="font-size: 13.5pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"Deviantart: tigercryrocks | Instagram: tigercry/span/em/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;" align="center"strongspan style="font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 107%; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"WHSS Audiobooks/span/strong/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; text-align: center; line-height: normal;" align="center"strongemspan style="font-size: 13.5pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"*Coming Soon*/span/em/strong/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; text-align: center; line-height: normal;" align="center"emspan style="font-size: 13.5pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"Leon ~17/span/em/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; text-align: center; line-height: normal;" align="center"emspan style="font-size: 13.5pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"Our First Dance/span/em/p
div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; text-align: center; line-height: normal;" align="center"hr align="center" size="2" width="100%" /div
p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; line-height: normal;"span style="font-size: 13.5pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"Cynthia sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose, Leon was honestly going to drive her insane. She loved the blonde to death but he was fretting way too much over this entire thing. "Leon…" she groaned in exasperation, you would think that after being kidnapped and held hostage for two years he would be able to handle a dance of all things and not freak out like this./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; line-height: normal;"span style="font-size: 13.5pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;""... and what about the actual date? I've been gone for two years! I have no idea what everybody thinks is cool!" Leon continued to ramble and pace, rather nervously for that matter. "I'd hate to have this dance ruined because I've screwed this all up and can't give you what you deserve…"/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; line-height: normal;"span style="font-size: 13.5pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;""Leon."/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; line-height: normal;"span style="font-size: 13.5pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;""And what about after? I don't want to end it with just taking you home!" Leon exclaimed, aparently not hearing Cynthia saying his name twice now. "I want to make it perfect and if I can't do that then I'm an utter failure-"/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; line-height: normal;"span style="font-size: 13.5pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;""LEON!" Cynthia yelled and affectively cut him off, "will you please stop rambling and calm down!" She glared heatedly at him, her glare able to melt steel, "it's just a dance! Just. A. Dance! You're not proposing to me, nor are you planning a wedding! It's just a dance!" She grasped him by the shoulders, yanked him down to her level and lightly shook him by the shoulders, "calm down!"/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; line-height: normal;"span style="font-size: 13.5pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;""But it's our first dance!" Leon complained even as his annoyed girlfriend shook him by the shoulders, "our first dance together and I want it to be perfect!" He looked pitifully at Cynthia, "I want emour/em firsts to be perfect. All of them."/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; line-height: normal;"span style="font-size: 13.5pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"Cynthia stopped shaking him and lightly shook her head, "Leon you're paranoid. All of them will be perfect as long as you're the one doing them with me." Her blue eyes were soft as she continued, "as long as I get to be at the dance with you, you dance with me at least once, and we end the night with a kiss, I don't need anything else to make it perfect."/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; line-height: normal;"span style="font-size: 13.5pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"Leon looked nervously at her, nervous about the idea of taking Cynthia to a dance after he had been gone for so long. He had spent a year returning to normal, getting used to having so many people around after two years of isolation, and to having Cynthia around. They had been inseparable since Leon and his siblings' rescue, to the point where Skylar and Brad had gotten used to Cynthia pretty much living with them and sharing a room with the blonde. Part of it was because of her nightmares. She used to have stayed in Holly's room, but after a particular terrible nightmare where Cynthia had seen her friends be captured one again she had started to sleep in Leon's room. At first it had been just her sleeping curled up on the floor in one corner, then over the past year it had evolved to her sleeping next to him, able to imeadiately reassure herself it had been a dream with Leon right next to her./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; line-height: normal;"span style="font-size: 13.5pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"Then she had started to just stay there. By now the room contained a mix of both of their stuff, clothing, nick nacks, tech, books, etc. Despite the oddity of the arrangement Skylar and Brad trusted both of them to behave properly and treated Cynthia as part of the family like they always had. Cynthia rarely stayed the night in her own room at her parents' house, saying that it triggered memories she wanted to forget the longer she was in the room. Sure her parents were still a little sore about how she was practically living at the Brambles' now, but they let her, understanding how shaken up the past three years had been for her and how much she had gone through./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; line-height: normal;"span style="font-size: 13.5pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"Cynthia spoke softly to Leon, resting her hands on his chest as she did so. "I'm just glad your here with me and not held hostage at the cabin anymore Leon, I don't need anything else." She stepped closer and rested her head on his chest with her eyes closed. "Just you, that's all I need./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; line-height: normal;"span style="font-size: 13.5pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"Leon took a deep breath and ran one hand through his hair while his free arm wrapped around her waist, holding her close to him. "I'm sorry I was gone for so long," he sighed, "it really messed up the rest of our lives."/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; line-height: normal;"span style="font-size: 13.5pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"Cynthia lightly shook her head, "it wasn't your fault," she wrapped her arms around his back, hands resting just below his shoulder blades, "and it pulled us closer together," she closed her eyes. "I love you, you know I do."/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; line-height: normal;"span style="font-size: 13.5pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"Leon buried his head into her black hair, "I know, but it's not fair."/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; line-height: normal;"span style="font-size: 13.5pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;""Life's not fair," Cynthia murmured into his chest, "so you have to take advantage of what you get Leo."/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; line-height: normal;"span style="font-size: 13.5pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"Leon took a deep breath, letting the faint ocean smell from Cynthia's shampoo help soothe his nerves. "I still want it to be perfect."/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; line-height: normal;"span style="font-size: 13.5pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;""There's only one thing you can do to keep it from being perfect Leo," Cynthia told him quietly, "and that's not going with me."/span/p
div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; text-align: center; line-height: normal;" align="center"hr align="center" size="2" width="100%" /div
p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; line-height: normal;"span style="font-size: 13.5pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"Leon looked distantly up at the cieling, listening to Cynthia's soft and faintly rumbling breaths and thinking. The near snoring was something Leon had noticed that she had developed while sleeping next to him, having never heard her to anything of the sort before he was kidnapped. However, Leon was actually soothed by the sound. Cynthia only breathed like that if her dreams were peaceful and she wasn't any where close to having a nightmare about his kidnapping. Even now, a year later, Cynthia was sleep deprived and had been told by multiple doctors that she was still recovering from the strenous two years./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; line-height: normal;"span style="font-size: 13.5pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"While Leon had been taken care of despite his kidnapping, Cynthia had spent many a day eating nothing, drinking little, and sleeping even less, and it seemed that it was going to take a long time to rectify. She still struggled to eat properly, unable to eat more than a small amount at once without getting sick, and to Leon's dismay, she had issues staying hydrated, so used to being dehydrated that she didn't recognize when she became dehydrated. While she had finally developed a normal sleeping pattern after a full year, she didn't always get anything out of her sleep, ridden by nightmares or restless sleep. Of which he helped with, and he was glad./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; line-height: normal;"span style="font-size: 13.5pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"He could feel Cynthia's breath against his shoulder where the girl had her head partially resting on, and felt her arm draped across his body along with the leg she had drawn up at the knee. Cynthia's breathing changed and she groaned in her sleep in a complaining fashion before she stilled and her breathing steadied, remaining a lot more light than before./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; line-height: normal;"span style="font-size: 13.5pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"Leon sighed and rubbed her back with the arm she had pinned down and was sleeping on top of, he hated how she went from having a good dream to having a restless sleep, to a nightmare, and back to having a good dream. All without completely waking up. Cynthia was a heavy sleeper, now more than ever. Unless he moved a decent amount, then she was one of the lightest sleepers he knew./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; line-height: normal;"span style="font-size: 13.5pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"Leon glanced over at his alarm clock, of which read six-twenty-nine in the morning, and then back up at the cieling, letting the sunlight from the window begin to spill in and over the bed and the cieling. Half a year ago and the sunlight would've startled Cynthia from her sleep, but now it did nothing as she stayed asleep in her deep slumber, undisturbed by the world. emI don't want anything to happen during the dance,/em he admitted quietly to himself, emI want the whole thing to be perfect, for both of us./em He sighed, he missed some social stuff with the occasional dance being one of them. He had always wanted to take Cynthia to a dance, especially after the goofy ediquitte dinner they had been forced to go to just a few weeks before his kidnapping. Now he could and he had no idea what to do for it. emWhat am I going to do? I have a week and a half to plan everything and I can't even decide on what to do for the day date./em/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; line-height: normal;"span style="font-size: 13.5pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"He heard his alarm start to go off and sighed, not really in the mood to go to school today after his own nightmare and his earlier mood. emAnd so the day begins…/em/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; line-height: normal;"span style="font-size: 13.5pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"Cynthia stirred at the sound of the alarm clock and she lifted her head in a drowsy fashion, "what time is it?" She asked in a slurred voice and let her head rest back down on Leon's shoulder./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; line-height: normal;"span style="font-size: 13.5pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;""Six thirty," Leon responded to her words and lifted his other arm to run his fingers through her silky black hair, "and time to get up and ready for school."/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; line-height: normal;"span style="font-size: 13.5pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"Cynthia yawned, "I'd rather stay here with you," she mumbled already half asleep. "I'm not really in the mood to go to school…"/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; line-height: normal;"span style="font-size: 13.5pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;""Well Sunshine," Leon sighed and gently pushed her arm and leg off of him before sitting up, "we both have to get up and go no matter how much we want to stay home."/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; line-height: normal;"span style="font-size: 13.5pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"Cynthia gave a disgruntled grunt and rolled onto her back, putting one arm over her eyes. "Why? You have a day date to plan and I'd rather not deal with so many people."/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; line-height: normal;"span style="font-size: 13.5pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"Leon felt a pang of guilt, another thing that had happened due to his kidnapping. Cynthia was so used to having only a few people around that even now a year later, she was incredibly claustriphobic and almost panicked anytime she was in a hall. These days she usually had a death grip on his hand as he walked her to class and half the time had her eyes squeezed shut muttering about the noise and the amount of people. "Well I'm still behind remember?" He pointed out and stood up, "and while I do have a date to plan along with Jay, I do need to go to class. I don't have your math and science skills."/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; line-height: normal;"span style="font-size: 13.5pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"One thing that hadn't changed was how smart Cynthia was, she had used to have a brain hardwired for math and science and she still did. She was almost as good as Bree in Calculus and even surpassed her in College Chemistry, which was saying something. Over the past year Bree had graduated as a junior in highschool, and tested out of her first and second years of college. Now she was in her third year and soaking up new concepts like a sponge soaked up water./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; line-height: normal;"span style="font-size: 13.5pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"Leon moved to stand up but Cynthia wrapped her arms around his chest from behind and rested her head on his shoulder near his ear, keeping him there for at least a moment or two./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; line-height: normal;"span style="font-size: 13.5pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;""I can always teach you," Cynthia pointed out, clearly she had her heart set on skipping class with him at least once today./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; line-height: normal;"span style="font-size: 13.5pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;""I'm sure you can, but I really shouldn't miss anymore days Cia, I already missed a lot." Leon pointed out with a sigh, "and it's really hard to keep up."/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; line-height: normal;"span style="font-size: 13.5pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"Cynthia's breath tickled his ear as she spoke, "not the whole day, just one class, just one. I want time with you outside of watching you study or tutoring you."/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; line-height: normal;"span style="font-size: 13.5pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"Leon rolled his eyes, "Cia no, I need an education remember?" But he had to admit that the idea was rather tempting, it had been atleast a month since they had really gone somewhere and acted like normal in love teenagers instead of overly mature and tired teens still working out the kinks in their lives./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; line-height: normal;"span style="font-size: 13.5pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"Cynthia moved to be sitting next to him and looked at him through half pleading half sleepy blue eyes, "we could go to the lake," she prompted, "and the cabin… the lake's still warm despite the chilly nights and the cabin's furnished properly now." Her eyes lit up as she expanded on the idea and leaned closer, "I could teach you how to swim properly and we could climb a tree or two."/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; line-height: normal;"span style="font-size: 13.5pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"Leon weighed his options and hesitated, school was important and so was Cynthia. He had a day date to plan, Cynthia had been patiently waiting for his exams to finish, of which ended last weekend, and he had been wanting to visit the lake before it got too cold… "Okay fine," he sighed softly, "you win." The excited smile and warm kiss Cynthia gave him was worth every moment of missing his first and maybe second class of the day./span/p
div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; text-align: center; line-height: normal;" align="center"hr align="center" size="2" width="100%" /div
p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; line-height: normal;"span style="font-size: 13.5pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"Leon bit his lip to hide a grin as he and Cynthia waited patiently for both of their parents to arrive at the Principal's Office, they were both soaking wet from the lake's chilly waters, and they were both fighting identical grins and exchaning half smug glances. The visit to the principal's office was nothing compared to how much they had enjoyed themselves goofing off together at the lake and cabin, and if Leon wasn't so worried about failing math class he would do it again in a heartbeat. Even then, the happy twinkle and absence of the misty glaze in Cynthia's eyes made everything worth it. Even Clark nearly dragging the blonde by the back of his shirt to his car with an irritated growl when he caught them./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; line-height: normal;"span style="font-size: 13.5pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"Cynthia caught his eye and let a grin slip through, she was extremely happy, Leon could tell that today was clearly one of her favorite days so far. After all, cuddling together in the cabin, having at tickle fight, Cynthia trying to teach him how to swim properly, and playing together in the lake was a blast./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; line-height: normal;"span style="font-size: 13.5pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"Leon barely managed to keep from grinning back as the principal and their parents walked into the room./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; line-height: normal;"span style="font-size: 13.5pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;""... skipped first and second period," the principal was saying with a faintly amused and semi irritated tone, "which isn't tolerated, especially when a teacher is the one to catch them." He sat down at his desk and looked at the pair of students over top of his glasses, "if you're going to skip class then make sure you're not caught."/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; line-height: normal;"span style="font-size: 13.5pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;""Firen!" Skylar, the principal's daughter and Leon's mother, chastized, "how is that supposed to teach them to not do it again?"/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; line-height: normal;"span style="font-size: 13.5pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"Firen took off his glasses and lightly chuckled, "Skylar as much as I disaprove skipping class I don't think there is anyone in this room unhappy to see the clearly very happy look on their faces. Especially Cynthia's. Now, which one of you had this brilliant idea?"/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; line-height: normal;"span style="font-size: 13.5pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"Cynthia adopted a guilty yet proud smirk and lifted her hand from her lap, "me."/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; line-height: normal;"span style="font-size: 13.5pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"Firen's green eyes softened slightly and Leon knew that it was because how normal of an action this was for Cynthia to have done before Leon's kidnapping. Firen then leaned back in his chair, "usually I would give out a detention for a week to both of you and stagger the times, but today I'm feeling generous. So Cynthia, I expect you to be at the gym after school to help the basketball team with anything they need for a week. Leon, after practice I expect both of you to organize the gym storage closet for a week, understand?"/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; line-height: normal;"span style="font-size: 13.5pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"Both teens nodded, and at that point everyone seemed to relax./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; line-height: normal;"span style="font-size: 13.5pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;""If this happens again maybe you two should be split up," Firen suggested casually then laughed heartily at the terrified expressions on the two teens' faces. "I'm just kidding," he smiled at them both, "but I do expect both of you to stay out of this office for at least a week, understand?"/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; line-height: normal;"span style="font-size: 13.5pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"Cynthia grinned and nodded while Leon's gave a thumbs up before they both caught each other's eye and grinned an identical mischievous grin./span/p
div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; text-align: center; line-height: normal;" align="center"hr align="center" size="2" width="100%" /div
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;" align="center"strongspan style="font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 107%; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"Character Emails (all are gmail accounts)/span/strong/p
p class="MsoNormal"emspan style="font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 107%; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"Caylee and any other side character – youngcrazyteenageauthor/span/em/p
p class="MsoNormal"emspan style="font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 107%; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"Cynthia – athleticsapphiresinger/span/em/p
p class="MsoNormal"emspan style="font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 107%; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"Leon – athleticgoldenboy/span/em/p
p class="MsoNormal"emspan style="font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 107%; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"Bree – cheerfulcuriosity/span/em/p
p class="MsoNormal"emspan style="font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 107%; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"Jay – perfectgrumpytone /span/em/p
p class="MsoNormal"emspan style="font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 107%; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"Holly – emeraldintelligencequeen/span/em/p
p class="MsoNormal"emspan style="font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 107%; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"Fini – gingerandwhiteteenager/span/em/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; text-align: center; line-height: normal;" align="center"strongspan style="font-size: 13.5pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"WHSS Art/span/strong/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; text-align: center; line-height: normal;" align="center"emspan style="font-size: 13.5pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"Deviantart: tigercryrocks | Instagram: tigercry/span/em/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;" align="center"strongspan style="font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 107%; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"WHSS Audiobooks/span/strong/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; text-align: center; line-height: normal;" align="center"strongemspan style="font-size: 13.5pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: black;"*Coming Soon*/span/em/strong/p