Tangled Strings (sequel to Red Strings)

Chapter 14

"Please?" she begs and I nod grabbing all the make up supplies I could find.  I applied warm, colours to her eyes lids to match her dress and a peach gloss. I then plugged in her hair straightener which took an hour to do.  "That's it your hair is officially more annoying then mine" I declare making the finishing touches Natalie shrugs "I've been trying to tell you." 

I wait at the bottom of the staircase with Mrs. Lane who is holding a camera.  "Ta da!" she sings spinning around Ms. Lane claps her hands together the camera now dangling from her neck "You look beautiful." "I know!" Natalie laughs spinning around again. 

Her dress is a dark blue strapless flowy gown with a sliver jewelled belt sinching the waist.  "When's your date gonna get here?" I ask curiously, Natalie bites her lip glancing at the clock she had hanging over the foyer of her house.

"Bout an hour." "I should go get dressed." I say dryly "You're going to have fun. I promise." Mrs. Lane assures me resting an arm on my shoulder and I smile at her hopefully. The truth was I wasn't exactly sure why I was going without Luke the whole thing just seemed pointless. 

"Wait Sky you never told me which shawl to wear." "You don't need one he'll lend you his jacket it'll be romantic!" I chuckle, I see something flicker in Natalie's eyes but it's gone quickly "What would I do without you Sky?" she calls as I open the door "Love ya!" I reply. 

The gym is decorated the same as it was for our formal the only exception being the twinkly lights now hanging from the ceiling. I find my way to the punch spotting Natalie dancing with Cameron she waves excitedly at me as she walks over holding the bottom of her dress. 

"You look pretty!" she smiles "I know." I tease, both of our dresses had the same silhouette but mine was navy blue and had gold lining throughout the bodice. 

"You're late" she states "Crazy traffic," I lie "Do you wanna come dance with us?" She questions obviously just being polite "No I'm good." "Sky you have to least try to have fun!" "I am having fun." I reply holding up the red solo cup I had filled with punch.

"You know that's spiked right?" "That's what I'm hoping." I sigh downing it.  Natalie smirks mischievously at me grabbing my arm and pulling me onto the dance floor making me drop my cup. 

"Nat!" I laugh as the attempts to twirl me around "Yolo!" she laughs jumping in her gown "Please never say that again" I chuckle starting to have fun. "Mind if I cut in?" 

Natalie's POV

"Luke!" Skyler squealed as they quickly embraced before Luke kissed Skyler, arm wrapped around her as they were pulled tightly together.  "Alright I'm just gonna....ya know....leave you guys to it." I said motioning between the two of them.

Skyler giggled a little before I heard the mic squeaking a little.  "Alright everyone although we seem to having a blast on the dance floor, it's time for the ceremony to commence!  Please make your way to the theatre for the graduation ceremony to begin!" our principle Mr. Waters spoke into the mic before suddenly the music stopped and everyone headed off.

Me and Skyler headed quickly to grab our caps and gowns, and we changed into them, and we got into our line to begin the procession into the theatre.  Here we go, I silently thought as I heard the music beginning to play as we all filed in and sat down in our assigned seating.

"Alright graduates.....you have all come so far, and have done so much here at Norwest, we can't be anymore proud of this class.  So we'll first introduce our speaker...." Mr. Waters eventually had the special speaker who went on and on about how this was an amazing chapter of our life that was ending, but another amazing one was around the corner.  I nearly fell asleep because I was so bored.

Soon, he finished, and Mr. Waters approached the podium again before saying "Alright, and now we're going to invite our voted and chosen validictorian, so give a warm welcome to Natalie Lane."  I swallowed, as I got up and headed up the side steps of the stage and stood in front of the podium, my notes already set up for me.

I looked out to the crowd.  The stage lights were so bright that I could barely see the people out in the audience, but I took a deep breath and began.  

"Well, we finally did it.  We all finally graduated.  Pretty crazy really guys." I say, trying to be humourous and I can hear the audience laugh a little.  I look at my notes.  I realize that most of my points are the exact same as the previous speaker.  I look at my paper before looking back up.  

I suddenly pick it up and crumble it, and toss it aside, in front of everyone.  "See, I decided to throw away my notes for my speech, because I realized that I was going to say what our amazing speaker did.  But because I don't want to go on about university.....I want to talk about right now.  Where we're sitting."

I took a deep breath before I began to make everything up on the spot.  "Obviously, I had no idea that our speaker was going to say everything I was going to say to you all today.  So I had a change of plans.  And I think that's the biggest obstacle we're all gonna face.  Like the fact that I had no idea that I would get accepted to a university in America.  I had a whole change of plans, because I realized I'm gonna be away from my family, and how difficult it might be."

"But the greatest thing we've began to learn at our time at Norwest is learning to adapt, and figure out that there's always a second way to do everything.  It's not always going to be the end all and do all." I said and I can suddenly see Luke, Michael, Ashton and Calum in the crowd.  I feel my stomach twist at the statement I made about the second way.  Calum was probably going to kill me for it later.

"At the end of the day, we're gonna have tough times, and that's something we can't prevent.  Sometimes, we're gonna have a couple changes of plans, and bumps along the way.  But at the end of the day, all that matters is that you not only come out in one piece, but you also come out happy with whatever decisions you made.  Because regrets aren't something you should have in life." 

"So take tonight as your last night.  It's the last time to see a lot of us, to see our teachers before we head out into the world.  And truth is, if we have regrets about the things we didn't do in life, than we have to make sure that tonight we don't leave with regrets not only about what we did do, but hopefully what we did do....and honestly I'm so glad that we've all made it this far, and that hopefully wherever you all go, you'll be just as successful there as you were here." I say as I look at the crowd.

"And by the way....I'm heading to California, and to be honest, I'm gonna miss absolutely nothing, so have fun here at home, while I go and have fun!" I say as I strut off the stage, grinning all the way, and sitting back in my spot, smirking.

"Good speech you had there." Cameron whispered to me and I shrugged.  "Well there's always going to be a change of plan." I say before my stomach twisted in a knot.  I remembered that Calum was in the crowd.  Perfect.

"Alright, now let's start handing out your diplomas...." the principal coughed, before the fun part actually came along.