Operation Marriage

Chapter Nineteen - A Third Lesson

NOTE: Thank you to my good friend Lucy, who made the wonderful poster at the side! Sorry that the pictures are bad quality, I am no photographer... But I am currently searching my house for a suitable frame so I can put it up in my room and admire it every day because it is so beautiful :')

Chapter Nineteen - A Third Lesson

"...And so he got on the horse the wrong way round and had no idea!" I finished as Katie squealed at the picture of a confused looking Devon sitting on a horse backwards in my journal, making 'grabby hands' movements while jumping up and down. As soon as we had finished with the horse riding, Lily and Devon followed me back into my house. Lily played with Russell in my bedroom as Devon and I added a few more entries to our journal. I had persuaded Devon to plug his phone into my laptop so I could print out the photos to stick in, making our journal not only super pretty, but pretty darn cool, too. And now, on a sunny Monday morning, I smiled smugly, taking one last glance at Devon's face on the page, before shutting the journal and tucking it under my arm as I walked. "So, Katie, that's about it for me. Let's be true girls for a moment and gossip. Anything new with Ryan?"

Katie smiled, twirling a bit of hair around her finger, smiling. "Well, on Saturday, when we were sticking in pictures in our journal, Ryan asked me if we could go out on a date. And not just as set up couples, as a real couple. This is something that you personally would insist on being cliché, but I think the thing we have is special. And, well, I know he's not incredibly handsome, or bright, and isn't good at singing, or dancing, or photography, or art, or music. He doesn't have muscles or a pearly white smile...but because I look past that and see him as the fun-loving, kind and amazing boy he really is, I think...for that reason...that I love Ryan."

I looked at Katie, who was smiling happily. I really was happy for her. I really was. She and Ryan had seemed to be made for each other, and I was glad that they had followed the red rope on their fingers and found each other connected. But I was thinking about my response if Devon had asked the same thing. We only had one more week of being married, and I wasn't sure where we would go from there. I wondered what Devon had meant when he said he wanted to be 'somebody to her'...was he talking about me? If so, I wanted to know what exactly he meant and why. I shook my head, frustrated, which was not something I wanted to be on a Monday morning.

"You're thinking about Devon, aren't you?" Katie said mockingly, wearing a wide and rather annoying smirk.

"I am not!" I chirped defensively, but I could feel colour rising up in my cheeks. Katie reached out and tugged my ponytail, something Devon now did frequently, and smiled smugly at the heat that trickled up in my neck, face and ears.

"Yes you are! You lo-o-ove him!" Katie teased. I smacked her lightly on the arm and shook my head, denying it as best as I could. But Katie wasn't for having it, and kept taunting me the entire way to school. Even when he walked through the gates, she was humming a tune that sounded very much like the words 'Devon and Holland, sitting in a tree'. I groaned, but was nonetheless thankful for Katie being annoying. She always had been, and I knew that she always would be. But nothing, not even Katie's teenager-esque way of annoying me, was enough to prepare me for the ultimate, most annoying lesson of the marriage that was to come that day.

* * *

"We have called this challenge, The Circle of Life, and for good reason, too." Mr Alfaro explained, looking around at the entirety of Year Eleven, everyone either looking exhausted, fed up, excited or happy. Operation Marriage had brought people together, but equally, it had been quite a bitter experience for some people. I was glad I had ended up with Devon as my partner; I had been exceptionally lucky. "This is perhaps the hardest task in this project, as it is in real life. For three days, you are going to have to look after a child-" The year group started talking. Devon slumped in his seat next to me, despite how amazing he was with his little sister.