"Valerie, focus, alright?" My dad says, waving his hand at me through the screen of my opened Louie.
"I can't decide. Which one do you like more?" I ask him, sighing.
"Why are you asking me? I don't have a clue. Your mom never wore dresses." My dad says.
"Let me see the emerald green one again." I tell him and he nods, holding it out.
"Here." He says, pushing his hand up.
"Could you just put it against yourself?" I ask him.
"What? Oh, come on. Sweetie, I'm already late for work." He says.
"I know, dad. And I'm really excited that you're back to your old job. But this is really important." I tell him.
"Okay." He gives in.
"Hmm. Show me the other one? Which one is more fifties? You're from the last century, you should know." I say.
"Yeah, I'm going to ignore that. Uh..." He trails off and I hear Max asking Jackie about the dance but she declined harshly.
Don't worry, Max.
"You know what, dad? Send me them both." I decide, nodding at him.
"Sure thing." He says and I blow him a kiss as I shut off my Louie.
I then stare at Jackie with an amused smile on my face.
"What's your problem?" She says, lifting her head up from her book.
"Nothing." I happy sigh.
||
"Guess I act too quickly, I'm probably a fool. Should I have taken one more breath and try and keep my cool. But all the time just never seems to be-"
"What is this?" I ask with a grin, walking over to Leo with his guitar, surrounded by a bunch of girls.
"Nothing. I can't tell you. It's a surprise." Leo says.
"I really hate surprises." I cringe at him.
"You'll love this one. Trust me." Leo grins, nodding at me.
"Now, what kind of school is this? Don't you kids have homework to do?" A voice says and I turn around.
"Dad!" I exclaim, hugging me.
"Hey." My dad waves to Leo and he waves back.
"I thought you were late for work?" I say.
"I told Chief Diggs that I had a special delivery to make first." He says and I smile.
"Thank you." I say as he hands me the two dresses for tonight's party.
"Oh, gosh. I haven't been here in years. Your mom always used to be up on this board when she was a student here." My dad says, pointing to the chalkboard.
"Hmm. No pressure." I say and we chuckle.
"That's nice." His voice cracks as his eyes wonder to the amazing picture of my mom in the frame.
"Yeah, it is." I say, gazing calmly at it.
"Which reminds me, I also brought you this. You're mom would've wanted you to wear it tonight." He says, handing me a brown box.
"It's beautiful. Thank you." I beam, holding up the pearl necklace in my hand.
||
"Cut it out." I say to Leo with an amused smile as he makes a whistling sound at me.
"Hey." Leo grins.
"Hey." I grin back, standing neck to him.
"Wow. Look at you!" Max beams as Jackie walks over wearing a pink dress.
"I feel weird. I can't breathe." Jackie says as Max walks over to her and I chuckle as I let them chat amongst theirselves.
"Help me with this?" I ask, looking up at him and he nods, taking the necklace out of my hand.
I then lift up my hair and he gently wraps it around my neck.
"You're dying to kiss me, aren't you?" I say, biting my lip as I smile.
"You like to get right to the point, don't you, Ramirez?" He says as I put my hair back down, now facing him.
"No. I just remembered that you once said kissing me wasn't a good idea." I say, playing with my necklace.
"I say a lot of stupid things." Leo says.
"I'll keep that in mind." I nod at him.
He then grabs my chin and kisses me a few times. I grin and open my eyes to meet his green ones.
"Ready?" He asks.
"Yeah." I smile at him.
"Okay." He says, taking my hand.
||
"Wow." I beam, looking around the room as music starts to play through the speakers.
"Hello there." Sophie greets Leo and I as we walk to the dance floor.
"Hi." I greet back to Sophie.
"So, are you guys dating?" She asks.
"Um, I'm sure we'll find out the answer on your blog tomorrow." Leo says.
"Very funny." She grimaces.
I then motion my head to Carter and he nods, following me.
"Did you see dad? Doesn't he look great?" I beam at him.
"Totally! I'm so happy he's back at work." He says.
"Yeah, me too." I say as I turn my head to see Leo already staring at me.
I then turn back to Carter with a smile.
"I think things are starting to fall into place, don't you think?" I say.
"Yeah, except that every guy at my clubhouse hates me. So there's that. How'd you swing that? I thought he choked." Carter says, looking over at Leo and I scoff.
"He came to he senses." I say and he nods.
"Good. Or else him and I were gonna have a real problem after leading you on like that." Carter says.
"Stop." I chuckle at him.
"Dad told me he brought you this. She'd be proud of you." He says, gently lifting the necklace up from my chest.
"Thanks." I smile at him as I trace the necklace.
Carter then looks over and starts to laugh. I follow his gaze and I see Max dancing like a nutjob.
"Oh my gosh." I laugh as I hold only Carter's arm.
||
"Alright, guys. We have a special surprise for you. So he may be a Raven, but the Eagles had to have the best guitar player around. So I'd like to welcome our very own, Leo McFly!" Sophie says into the mic and I snicker as we all clap for him.
"Got get em', rockstar." I say, patting his arm he sends me a smile before walking on stage.
"Alright, this next one's an oldie but it's a goodie. Hope you guys can keep up." Leo says as he puts his guitar around himself.
"Leo's really good. But you're amazing. And with you're angelic voice." Carter says, standing next to me.
"Thanks, little bro. But tonight is about all of us." I tell him and he nods.
I then see a smiling Brooke pop up next to Carter.
"Hi." I say to Brooke.
"Hi, Valerie. I just wanted to say I'm so sorry about everything that happened to Daniel." She tells me.
"It's all good. You look great." I say.
"Thank you. You look really pretty too." She says and I send her a smile as her and Carter start to dance.
"Whoo!" I shout as Leo plays louder.
||
"Alright, so I wrote this one for someone special I met recently." Leo says into the mic, grinning down at me.
"Oooh!" Everyone says and starts clapping.
"Valerie, this ones's for you." Leo says to me and he starts to sing.
After a few minutes, the song ends and I grin up at Leo. I can literally feel the blush creeping up on my cheeks.
"Whoo!" I shouts as we all clap for him.
"Aspen, what are you doing here?" Leo says, his face dropping as he gets off stage.
"Surprise." A pale girl says with brown hair and dark eyes.
She pulls Leo's hand and kisses him. He starts to kiss back and my face drops at the sight.
What the fuck.