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twenty-nine

⋆ twenty-nine ⋆

Peter and May are living somewhere new a week later, somewhere... further away. And not 'a few blocks' further away, but very much further away. Like, on the other side of the school, a good forty-five minutes cycle away.

It's not the same, looking out of my window anymore, knowing Peter's not there. I still send him good morning messages and good night messages, and he replies, but not with the usual enthusiasm behind the things he says.

I barely see him around anymore, and it sucks in the classes we have together because now we're redoing the year and midterms all over again, so we're stuck behind our desks and doing boring notes all over again. Peter sits on the opposite side of the class, too.

But I've started doing a thing. We don't see much of each other anymore, and the times we do get together, such as at lunchtimes, are with Ned and MJ and are super silent, so what I've been doing is slipping something into his locker every morning. A letter, or a joke, or a memory. Something to make him smile, to remind him that I care and that I'm here whenever he wants to talk. That time might not be now, but I'm here, because I'm not letting him go.

When I reach school, I slip today's into his locker before heading to record today's article, greeting Betty and Jason when I get inside. Only to realise it's not just the three of us. There are a lot more people here than I expected, comprised of Alex, MJ, Ned, Joshua, so many others.

I frown, glancing around at them in surprise before starting to set up the computer. "...Okay. I wasn't aware this was a different kind of broadcast, but fill me in and I'm all for it. What's going on?"

"It's not a broadcast, it's a message for you," MJ says, stepping forward, eyes trained on me. "We have two months, and it doesn't seem like we've been doing anything. It looks like you've given up."

I just stare blankly at her. "What are you talking about? Given up with what?"

"We're going to have to sort some things out because we lost a lot of people," Jason shrugs a little as he sits up on the table. "Sally, Abe, Cindy..." At the mention of his date he looks a little sad, and I can only imagine. "They've moved on to better things, but we're still in high school, aren't we? We're still going to make it work."

"Make what work?"

"Winter Formal, of course!" Joshua exclaims, like it's obvious. "Come on, Xara! We're still here. We're back now."

"Isn't that why we shouldn't do it?" I protest quietly, glancing around at all of them. Did they really just meet up to convince me that we should still do Winter Formal?

Alex shakes his head vehemently, coming over and pulling me to my feet. "But isn't that why we should. There's so much going on. Everyone's struggling to get back to their normal lives. Everyone's struggling to pick themselves up and put the pieces together. Hell, most of us lost people in this five years. So isn't that what we need? Something for us to look forward to? A time to set aside our problems and just be ourselves? Something to help put life back into perspective again and start it on the right track?"