Song Listened To : Confetti - Hilary Duff
*Chapter 98*
Tessa inhaled a sharp, nervous gasp and froze, though her nervously happy dragon slowly continued to bumble on over to her, across the massive stretch of grass. As if Lickity, so badly, wanted to bound and gallop straight over to Tessa, she held a strict, solid march, as if she was going through a routine. Tessa furrowed her eyebrows in horror and began to feel her skin grow cold. The only thing running through her mind was to get Lickity off of the campus as quickly as she possibly could, before she could get in trouble for bringing her massive, fire-breathing pet onto school grounds. Just as Lickity neared, Tessa quickly filled the gap and pushed her hands to Lickity's cheeks in a rush of nervous fear.
"Lickity, what the hell are you doing here?" Tessa hissed in a hard whisper, "How did you get in? I told you to wait for Zed!"
Lickity grumbled a small noise and, as if following a cue, she gently sat down on her rump and plopped with a satisfied grunt, as if she was quite pleased with herself. Tessa gawked and began to push on Lickity's chest, slightly. She nervously whirled around and caught eyes with Jeska, who had stepped even farther away from the escalating situation. She uttered a nervous noise of fear and continued to push on Lickity, as well as urge quick, sharp demands to hopefully get Lickity to finally stand and move. She glanced at her lunch table, where Tammy and Otto were sat, though she quickly double took and noticed Penny had joined them, though all three of them beamed excited smiles, in a knowing sort of way.
Tessa immediately dropped her pushing stance, against Lickity, and peered at her three game-mates in pure, growing curiosity. She opened her mouth to call to them, in hard annoyance, though she flinched as she suddenly was graced with a core grumbling sound; a certain, growling engine she knew all too well. Her eyes bulged lightly as she quickly took a step away from Lickity and peered up at her; Lickity's body was a little bit taller, when she was sat on her hind-quarters. Lickity peered down at Tessa in growing excitement and it looked as if it were literally taking all of her will-power not to glomp Tessa with all of her force. The core shaking, familiar growl of a noise continued to grow louder and louder, though it wasn't until a certain, familiar light-bike shot by, did Tessa largely whirl around in a flinch of surprised fear.
Tessa eagerly glued her eyes to the curious situation, though she lightly gawked as to just how slowly the gears, in her brain, clicked everything together. She stumbled a few curious steps away from Lickity, though she kept her eyes honed to Zed and his light-bike. He quickly dart through the wide open, massive courtyard, and was quickly drawing a crowd, though Tessa was surprised to see that he had turned on the light-cycle's large, tangible light ribbon, which glowed a hot, electric blue. He largely circled the courtyard and was careful not to trap anyone in the massive area he was seemingly sectioning off. Tessa exhaled a small, curiously laugh and continued to watch as his light-bike roar through the stone walls of Academy. Tessa furrowed her eyebrows in hard, nearly terrified, though overjoyed confusion as Zed swung the bike around the front end of the courtyard, to make his way towards Tessa and Lickity.
Tessa nervously peered about the glorious, sunlit grass and finally glued her eyes to Lickity, whom of which Tessa hard largely stumbled at least two dozen feet away from. Lickity looked smug, as she remained solid in knowing. Her ears were largely perked atop of her head, and she looked just about ready to pounce for Tessa, in excitement, though she remained still; though not without a twitchy tail. Tessa glanced about and noticed that not only had Zed made a perfect circle about the courtyard, but he had trapped himself, Lickity and Tessa inside. Before she could continue to question if this was even reality, Zed's light-bike suddenly roared louder as he picked up speed. As easily as Zed could, he swung the bike and part the grass in between Tessa and Lickity, with the powerful, electric light ribbon.
On a cue Lickity was properly trained for, she expanded her chest, with a short inhale, and with as much care as she could muster, she finally exhaled a hard cough of fire straight into the light ribbon. Tessa largely covered her face and felt her heart dip in horrified surprise, though after a few seconds of hearing a curious, crackling sound of fire eating away at the pixeled light ribbon, Tessa peeled her face from her arm's protection and got a good look as to just what was before her. Etched into the side of the light ribbon, with Lickity's fire, was a skillfully, though slightly messy, written message that read one question Tessa had been worrying about all week.
Tessa beamed an incredulous, though nearly scared smile as she finally dropped her defenses and peered at the message as a whole. Written before her, with confused pixels and sparks of fire was the word 'prom' with a curious, messy question mark after it. Tessa softly covered her mouth with her nervous hand, though her eyes watched as the message slowly began to eat away at the light ribbon. The blue pixels folded into themselves before it all slumped to the ground with the fire. The flames slowly flickered out, though the large circle of Zed's light ribbon, around the courtyard, remained. Tessa finally slumped her shoulders and watched as Zed slowly hooked back around and stopped his light-bike a few feet away from Lickity's still body.
She watched his figure gingerly dismount his powerful, gorgeous light-cycle, though without hesitation, he gently strolled over to Lickity and carefully stroked her snout, as if to express to her the utmost of thanks. Lickity gently, and barely, bowed her head for Zed, so he could softly slip something that was tucked into the front of her saddle. He pulled out a gorgeous, curious-looking long stemmed flower and turned around, to face Tessa head on, though she remained a dozen or so feet away, stood still in poised shock. Zed finally straightened his spine and held the gorgeous flower over his center, as if to express he was eventually going to give it to Tessa, though on his silent cue, Lickity slowly sprawled her wings to reveal a second set of a message.
Tessa heaved a silent, confused chuckle and watched as Lickity's massive wingspan sprawled to it's full potential, though written on the inside of each of her wings was a second part of Zed's burning question. On Lickity's right wing was the word 'yes', though on her left wing was the word 'no'. Tessa ogled each of her two choices, though she finally tore her eyes from all the information hitting her brain and honed in on the one thing that could calm her mind in two seconds flat. She slumped her shoulders slowly and beamed a smile of disbelief into Zed's eyes. He gave her a kind, though nearly apologetically humbled smile, as if to convey sorrow for putting her through his mild bout of confusion. He was absolutely dashing; he wore a handsome dress shirt and a bright blue bow-tie, to match his hair, though held true to his surfer-esque lifestyle, with the sleeves of his shirt messily rolled to the nooks of his inner arms and elbows.
Zed finally showed his teeth through his bashful smile and choked a small, knowing laugh towards her utterly shocked demeanor. Tessa easily followed his contagious behavior and slapped her arms lazily to her sides, as if to wonder just what else he had up his sleeve. Just as Tessa was about to attempt to collect herself and approach the wing in which was her burning answer, she suddenly noticed that nearly the whole school had gathered around the edges of the barrier of light ribbons. Her school-mates all eagerly gawked at the situation, though it wasn't until a few gamers began to call out 'say yes' did the whole crowd begin to messily chant it. Tessa beamed an embarrassed smile, towards Zed, though she knew she could likely have fun with this.
With a sly demeanor, and a cute smirk, she tucked her arms and hands behind her back and began to slowly mosey towards her answer, though she did so in a painfully slow saunter, as if to express to Zed that she could potentially change her mind and switch up her answer. Her and Zed held burning, excited eye contact, though it wasn't until Tessa pretended to lightly aim her footwork towards Lickity's 'no' wing, did Zed scoff an annoyed noise and beam her a pleading smile. Tessa beamed a cheeky look in his direction before she slowly eased her footwork towards Lickity's right wing. Just as she reached Lickity's large, bat-like wing, she turned heel and stood before her positive answer, though she flinched once the crowd, that was gathered, loudly began to cheer with riled excitement.
Tessa finally looked at Zed down her nose in a playfully snotty, curious, girly look of delight. She continued to hold her arms and hands behind her back, as if to convey to Zed that she was going to playfully make him feel bad for scaring her, like so. Zed finally relaxed his shoulders, as if to curse himself for even being worried that she might have a negative response to all the nonsense. As gently as he could, he finally began to close the gap between the two, his eye contact held to hers in burning, passionate knowing. He gave her a kind smile, and as if he had been rehearsing this for centuries, he kindly pressed into her presence and peered down to the beautiful, exotic, long-stemmed flower in his tender, masculine fingers. He opened his mouth, through a curious, toothy smile and finally let his eyes dig into hers with an innocent smolder.
"Is it too late to ask you to prom?" Zed wondered as softly as he could, though he was thrilled to see Tessa lightly relax her shoulders and give him a curious, though understanding string of loving eye contact. He nervously chuckled and kept his glorious eyes gripped to hers as he continued, "That is, if other guys haven't already tried to vie for your attention..."
"Even if they did, I would have turned them all down," Tessa lightly argued with a kind, humbled smile.
"I'm sorry, Tess," Zed breathed softly, his demeanor just barely sunk, though he remained solid in their joyous moment, "My plan was to throw you off... I didn't think it'd backfire this badly. I-I... I really hope this makes up for the grief I've probably caused you."
"No harm done," Tessa said through a reviving sigh as she lightly looked down to the beautiful flower in Zed's gentle hands, "I probably could've been a little less dramatic about it..."
"The butt of your favorite gun houses more than just bullets, I'll have you know," Zed chuckled as he gave her a playful smirk, "That thing can give bruises like there's no tomorrow."
Tessa raised her eyebrows in apologetic surprise and opened her mouth to let a slew of apologies fall out of her mouth, though before she could even begin, Zed raised his hand and lovingly stopped her, with a gentle shake of his head and kind eyes that continued to put her soul at ease.
"Don't say sorry," Zed rushed, though his handsome smile widened as he eased his demeanor and kept his loving eye contact to hers, "Just... Please do me the honor of being my date, to prom."
Tessa finally let a bashful smile sprawl her face, though she looked down through an apologetic stare to the beautiful white and blue flower in Zed's hands. She finally gave her eye contact back to Zed, and lightly shook her head, as if to convey she didn't deserve any of this, though she quickly switched it to a gentle nod and a wide, toothy smile.
"I will," Tessa concluded, though her smile only grew as Zed's did, as if his prayers had been answered.
"Just KISS HER ALREADY!" Penny suddenly shrieked from the distance across the grass; she hovered her elbows over the light ribbon and had cupped her hands around her mouth to get her message across the gap.
Tessa and Zed flinched as they eagerly peered to Penny, to Lickity's right. Tessa beamed a bashful smile, up to Zed's existence, and was thrilled to catch his eye contact. Tessa nervously looked down to the ground and lightly shook her head.
"I really don't deserve it, for how snotty I've been acting all weekend," Tessa muttered, though much to her surprise, Zed slowly moved the flower to the center of her chest.
Tessa raised her eyebrows and, as kindly as she could, she gingerly wrapped her fingers around the stem of the gorgeous flower Zed had graced her with. Before she could tilt her head up and peer into Zed's eyes, out of bashful curiosity, Zed tenderly tucked his finger underneath her chin and moved her face so they were finally on the same page. As warmly as he could, he pushed his smile to hers and welcomed her into his secret bubble of divinity only she had access to. The two only lightly broke their sweet kiss before Zed warmly bowed to meet her once more, he tilted his head and, with a simple touch of his fingertips to the dip of her waist, Tessa took her cue and easily slid her arms loosely around his neck in growing, dainty desire. The two warmly pushed their curious, happy kisses to one another a few, lingering times before Zed softly slid his hand up and cupped Tessa's left cheek. As his fingers softly dug into the now short hairs on the side of her scalp, the two ever so slowly parted. Zed tenderly pushed the side of his nose to hers and gained her close eye contact, though he breathed a hot, curious chuckle on her bashfully pink cheeks.
"I'm guessing this sexy new hair-cut, of yours, was done to spite me?" Zed eased calmly on her skin, though with her bashful, annoyed giggle, he knew he had hit the nail right on the head.
"If you were to wait to ask me, any longer, I'd probably have the same hair-style as you, dude," Tessa muttered in quiet, playful annoyance.
"In all honesty, I WAS going to wait to ask you until the day before prom," Zed chuckled nervously as the two just barely parted a little more, so to make conversing easier.
"At that point, Jeska would have likely asked you to prom, herself," Tessa pressed in a dull tone, though her bashful smile never faltered, "She already made me believe you weren't asking me because you were preparing to ask HER."
Zed suddenly choked into a small fit of laughter as he squinted his eyes in disbelief and hugged his arms lightly around the middle of Tessa's back. She lightly lulled into his embrace, though she gave him a growing, annoyed, dull look. Zed suddenly furrowed his eyebrows and cleared his throat through one last chuckle of amusement.
"Wait, you're not joking?" Zed suddenly wondered in a dumbfounded way.
"Do you HEAR me laughing," Tessa barked quietly with an annoyed smile and a side-eye of sass to boot.
"What?" Zed continued on with his amused fit of light laughing, "She already asked me, a week or two ago... You were there. I said she'd have to go through you and Lickity."
"Yeah, well, with the weekend I've had, it's clear I'll believe anything," Tessa muttered, though she felt a smile continue to prod at her cheeks with the safety of Zed's arms around her.