Operation Marriage

Chapter Twenty Two - Wilted Sunflowers

Mark and Amelia walked down to the stage from the row behind me. They clambered onto the stage, Amelia pushing their journal underneath the projector. The first page came up. It was neat, containg a lot of writing with a single photo placed to the side.

"Our marriage has been good from the very start, to be honest." Mark said. Amelia flipped the page, zooming in and out of the page. Their presentation was cute, but short. It was what you would call short and sweet. To finish Amelia explained how they have now become close friends, and were going to go to prom together. With much clapping they left the stage and Mrs Kampe walked back on, before announcing the next couple. It was definitely a pleasant morning, as all of the couples so far said how they had either become friends or even ended up in a relationship. One couple, the one that had shared an overly passionate and supposedly 'romantic' kiss, was the only couple so far to let everybody down. They ended up arguing with quite a lot of profanity, and stalking off the stage in different directions, their journal torn in two in the middle of the stage. From what I could see of the crumpled pages, there wasn't much written down in the first place.

"Right," Mrs Kampe said as she scurried over and picked up the ruined journal, "It's not as if these journals were expensive to buy and personalise or anything..." After Mrs Kampe had handed the journal to Mr Alfaro, who stood in front of the stage next to a table with piles of white books the size of an annual, she straightened up and checked the list she held in her hand. "Now, this couple started because of a love triangle! A metal one to be exact. Ryan Warren and Katie Summers!" I smiled and patted Katie on the arm as she got up, still holding hands with Ryan, who was holding their journal. I could tell glitter glue was going to rub off on the projector or something, because from what I had seen of the journal, they had used a lot.

Ryan helped Katie up onto the stage, earning them a collective sigh from the parents. Ryan then clambered onto the stage and stuck the journal underneath the projector. Katie stepped in towards him and opened the journal. The first page was just covered in glitter glue flowers and pictures. The title, 'The Love Triangle!', was written in silver glitter glue.

"Our marriage has been the best marriage I could have ever asked for as a sixteen year old. It has been an amazing experience and I couldn't have asked for anything to be different." Katie said as Ryan turned the page, showing pictures of their wedding day. Katie looked beautiful in her 'wedding dress', and Ryan looked so happy in the pictures.

"We have learned many things. I for one have learned to truly accept myself as I am, because someone out there will look past your flaws and think you to be beautiful as you are. You don't need to change anything about yourself because every flaw and imperfection are perfections in someone else's eyes." Ryan said, beaming over at Katie. Katie smiled, turning the page of the journal.

"And I learned that someone you may not believe to be perfect when you first lay eyes on them can turn out to be the most kind, funny and beautiful person you will ever meet. And I know, Ryan, that you sometimes feel like you're not perfect, and that you may think your waistline defines you, or that you don't like your hair, or your laugh, or you are ashamed of your completely die hard obsession with glitter glue...but those are things that make you and I love you for that. You are you and I wouldn't change anything about you...because being you sounds like a pretty good and beautiful person to be." They had reached the end of their journal, which had a picture of the two of them sat on some rusty old swings at a park, holding hands and smiling at the camera. I was beaming at the two of them, blinking back tears and smiling like a lunatic. Underneath the picture, in a cursive font I recognised to be a transcript written by Devon, read: Two imperfect people, both sat in an old and rusty place. What could possibly be more perfect in this beautiful world? Nothing.