Finding Claire

Chapter 25

"What are you so smiley smiley? Thinking about Nathan huh?" my mom laughed, shaking me out of my thoughts. I blushed, and shook my head. "Then why are you touching your lips?"

Huh? I looked down and sure enough, I was touching my lips like if I was petting a cat. I looked over at my mom and she was wiggling her eyebrows as she tried not to laugh.

"I had a hair in my mouth. I was trying to get rid of it."

"Sure," she smirked and I laughed. She dropped the subject and a few moments later, parked the car in front of the house.

As soon as I got in my room, I hung up my dress, placed my mask next to my shoes and smiled.

Only two weeks left until prom.

*

*

*

"Do you know why Mr. Zee and Mr. Bass want to talk to us?" Nathan asked as we both headed down to their offices one morning. There was only one week until prom and that was all everyone was talking about. But for right now, we were wondering why they had asked us to come to their offices early on our off periods.

"No clue. It must be something big if they want both of us there."

"Well I'm sure it's nothing bad. Nothing we both can't handle," he said with a wink and kissed our entwined hands. I smiled, scooted closer to him and walked into the class just as the teachers rounded the corner from the other entrance.

"Ah! Just in time," Mr. Bass smiled and we both looked at him.

"What can we help you with?" I asked them both and then that's when they got nervous.

"Umm.... Do you remember when I told the class that we are having a recital for our finals?" Mr. Zee asked and I nodded. He gulped and swayed back and forth before continuing. "Weellll..... We want you both to perform..... together."

It took me a moment to process what he said and then I exploded. "What?" I looked over at Nathan, who was just raising an eyebrow and then stared back at the teachers. "What?" I repeated and they flinched.

"Ok! Now before you say anything else, we kind of knew you would not like the idea so we came up with a truce. If you two perform together for the recital, you won't have to do the written portion of the test and any other assignments in class for the rest of the year. You will still need to do your solo, but that's it. Only two pieces each, but one will be together."

I blinked rapidly and stared at them like if they were joking. When I noticed they weren't, I looked back at Nathan and opened my mouth in shock.

"Did you hear what they just said?" I gasped.

"Yeah. And that doesn't sound that half bad."

"What?!" I shrieked and he smiled.

"Come on Claire. Live a little. We won't have to do any more performances for the class or any stupid tests. We will just have to practice our final piece and the duet. Seems like a good deal to me."

I stared at his face as he spoke and raised my eyebrows. "So you want to do this?"

"Only if you want to. I'm not forcing you to do something you don't want to do."

"What's in it for me if I agree? You have to persuade me to do it, not the teachers." I told him and he smiled. He pecked my lips once and cupped my face in his big hands.

"Whatever you want."

I thought about it and then I smiled. "I want another bear."

"You want another teddy bear?" he asked confused and I shook my head.

"No. I want another gummy bear. I finished the red one two months ago."

"Deal," he promised, pecked my lips one more time and then turned me around to face the nervous teachers.

"Alright we will do it."

*

*

I laughed for a good solid five minutes at the song the teachers had chosen. When they mentioned we had to sing as well, that's when I stopped laughing and glared at them.

"No. I take the deal back," I hissed and gave them back the music.

"No! You can't take it back!" Mr. Zee said, pushing the papers back into my hands and I was about to tear them in half when Nathan stopped me.

He looked into my eyes and as soon as I was calm, he whispered, "Will you do it for me?"

I slowly smiled and when he smiled back, I frowned. "No."

"Please!!" Mr. Zee begged.

"Then I don't want to do my solo. If I'm singing, I won't do the freaking solo."

"Deal!" Both teachers screamed and I jumped. Nathan laughed and I groaned as they pushed us into the soundproof office of Mr. Zee. He had a piano there already, so it wasn't that hard to bring a guitar for Nathan.

When I read the title again, I laughed and rolled my eyes. This was the song that had been stuck in my head that day I met Nathan. It just made me laugh at how far we had advanced since that day.

"Ready to play A Thousand Years?" Nathan asked me as he strummed his guitar.

"Ready as I'll ever be," I sighed as I began to read the music.

*

The day before prom came faster then I expected and before I knew it, I was done practicing with the choral part of the song and heading home. We were pretty far ahead of what we had accomplished and we could practically do the song with both instruments and voices. I just had to tweak a few measures on the piano, but besides that, I was good.

Every single person was excited for the next day, and I could finally say that I was one of those people. I was going with my boyfriend, I was going to have a blast, and nothing could stop me from having fun.

So when morning came, I found myself fighting with my hair and wincing as I brushed the tangles out. My mom found me with my brush stuck somewhere in the nest on my head, and me playing Marco-Polo with it.

"Need some help?"

"Yes. Why am I so nervous?" I whispered as she managed to remove the brush safely. She just smiled as she brushed it, making me moan in delight.

"It's natural sweetie. Every girl goes through nerves on days like these. That's why I'm here to help you."

"And I appreciate you helping me. Now how should I do my hair?"

She laughed and pulled out the curling iron. I nodded at her thoughts and waited for my hair to dry. Meanwhile, we laughed, gossiped and screamed at my dad -who was trying so hard to change my mind into going- before my hair was dry enough for it to curl.

"Ready?" She asked as she held up the wand.

"Ready as I'll ever be."