Chapter 35 // Nominees
2 weeks later
“Daniela? Are you ready?” I looked up from my desk to Mr. Villa. I nodded as I picked up my portfolio and walked to the front of the room. I stuck the pictures onto the wall. Then, I faced my classmates and opened my portfolio. “The topic I got was ‘Nature’.” I pointed to the first picture of Luke to present it. “The story behind this is a teen growing up. Metaphorically speaking, the flower is the teen. As you can tell throughout the pictures, the teen wants to leave where it’s located and bloom somewhere else. Even though that means leaving friends and family behind, he still wants to leave because he knows it will be good for him.” I move across the wall and point to the last one. “And here is where he finally reaches where he wants to be. The place that is good for him.” My class applauded so did Mr. Villa. “Now that’s photography. Great job Daniela.” After I took my pictures off the wall and handed them to Mr. Villa, I sat back in my seat. I took out my phone while someone else was presenting.
To: Luke <3
I presented my project to the class..
From: Luke <3
How’d ya do? (:
To: Luke <3
They loved it! (:
From: Luke <3
That’s great! Let’s get dinner to celebrate!
Just then the bell rang. I got my bag and went to gym.
~*~
After gym, I met up with Luke in the parking lot. “Dani!!” I turned around and saw Violet running towards me. “Hey Vi.” I smiled.
“Dude I haven’t seen you in forever! You disappeared for like a month!”
“Yeah sorry about that.”
“Luke took you away from us..” Vi frowned.
“I’m sorry! Here let me make it up to you and the guys. How about movie night at my house this weekend?”
“Really?!” Vi exclaimed. I nodded. “Yay!! I can’t wait!”
“Can’t wait for what?” We heard Luke say.
“Dani is having a movie night for all of us this weekend!” Vi told him. He smiled at her then at me. “That’s great! Can’t wait!”
“I’ll give you the details later, Vi.” I hugged her goodbye then got in Luke’s car.
“So where do you want to go for dinner?” Luke asked me as we backed out of the school’s parking lot.
“We’re going to dinner right now?”
“No, later but, I want to make reservations.” Luke chuckled.
“Surprise me.” I smiled at him.
“I have an idea then.” The rest of the car ride was silent besides the music coming from the radio. A couple of minutes later, Luke pulled up in front of my house. “I’ll pick you up at 6. Wear something nice.” He said. I nodded then opened the passenger door. Before I got out I quickly pecked Luke’s lips. “See you later. Love you.” I whispered.
“I love you too.” Luke smiled.
~*~
“Dani!! Luke is here!” I heard my mom call out.
“I’ll be right down!!” I yelled back. I grabbed my purse and walked down the stairs. I walked up to the door and saw Luke standing there with colorful flowers in his hand. “Hey.” I said, causing him to look up.
“Wow. You. I. Um. These are for you.” He held the flowers out. I took them and told him to come inside while I out them in a vase. “They’re beautiful.” I said after setting them in a vase. “Just like you.”
“Smooth.” I replied.
“It’s my job.” He smirked. “So you ready?” I nodded, as he took my hand. “I’m leaving mom!” I yelled, causing Luke to flinch.
“Have fun sweetie! Be home by 10:30!” I heard my mom yell back. I turned back to Luke and smiled. “So where to?”
~*~
Luke didn’t tell me where we were going. He said he didn’t want to ruin the surprise. After half an hour car ride, we finally got to the restaurant. It was a small restaurant with barely people inside. Once we parked the car, we walked inside hand in hand.
“Good evening, Mr. Hemmings and Miss. Gray.” I looked up and saw Michael dress in a nice suit with two menus in his hand. “You work here Michael?” I asked.
“Yeah, they pay good here.” He chuckled. “Follow me to your table.” We followed Michael to a booth located by the corner of the restaurant. “How did you do all of this?” I whispered to Luke.
“Michael’s uncle owns the place and so a little convincing and bam.” He smiled.
Once we sat down, Michael handed us the menus. He then walked back towards the front of the restaurant. I opened the menu, as did Luke until a familiar voice was heard. “The finest of wine just for the lovely couple.” I looked up and saw Calum, smiling and holding a bottle of wine. “Hey Calum. I didn’t know you worked here.” I said.
“Yeah, Michael got me this job.” I smiled up at him as he poured the wine into two glasses for Luke and I. After pouring the wine, Calum dismissed himself as he walked to where Michael was. I turned to Luke and held up my glass. “Cheers.”
“Cheers.” He smiled back.
~*~
“I had a wonderful time tonight, Luke. Thank you.” I told him as he walked me to my door.
“I’m glad you liked it.” He smiled. I leaned in closer to him and kissed him. His hands immediately went to my waist as my hands went to his quiffed hair. His kisses became soft and loving. I loved it. We both pulled away for air. “Come inside.” I whispered. He nodded as I got my keys out and opened my door. I softly closed the door once we were inside. I turned to Luke and held a finger up to my mouth. He nodded then followed me up the stairs. Once upstairs, we went to my room and locked the door. “Now, where were we?” Luke smirked, undoing his button down shirt. I helped him but he pulled away. “Go change into something comfortable.” He told me. I nodded and went to my dresser to change into some shorts and a big shirt.
After I finished, Luke was already under the covers. I went under the covers too and cuddled right next to him. “Luke?” I whispered.
“Shh sweetheart. Go to sleep it’s late.” He whispered back. I snuggled closer to him and closed my eyes. I soon fell asleep on Luke’s chest.
~*~
“Dani!! Wake up!!” I heard knocking at my door. I opened my eyes and yawned. I slowly turned to my phone on my dresser and checked the time.
8:25
“Luke wake up! We have to go to school!” I turned to the other side of the bed but saw no one there. Just then my phone buzzed.
From: Luke<3
I’m ready and outside. (:
I rolled my eyes at the text and went to go change. Once I was done, I decided to skip breakfast and go straight to Luke’s car.
“Good morning sleeping beauty.” He smiled. I pecked his lips and smiled back. “Good morning. How did you wake up without an alarm?”
“It’s a talent I have.”
“Ah I see.” I laughed. Luke then started pulling out of the driveway. I reached into my bag and took out some of my makeup to apply. “Why do you where that stuff?”
“What?”
“Why do you where makeup? You look fine as is sweetheart.” Luke replied.
“Thanks but I look like a zombie in my opinion.”
“A very cute zombie.” He chuckled. I rolled my eyes and continued to apply eye shadow.
I finished right after Luke turned off the car’s ignition. “You ready?” Luke asked. I nodded in reply. We got out of the car and met in front of the car. He took my hand in his hand and intertwined our fingers together. While we were walking, I noticed people were looking at us. “Luke why are people looking at us?” I whispered for only Luke to hear.
“Maybe because we’re the cutest couple in the school?” He smiled. I smiled back at him and squeezed his hand a bit. We went to our lockers and met up in homeroom. When I walked into homeroom, I immediately noticed that Vi was absent. I walked over to Luke’s table. “Hey guys.” I said. Luke pulled me closer to him to give me a kiss on the cheek. “Hey Dani.” Michael and Calum said in unison.
“I forgot to thank you guys for yesterday it was great.” I told them, still in Luke’s arms.
“It was nothing.” Michael said.
“Fun fact, we actually gave Luke that idea when he told us he wanted to go for dinner with you.” Calum added.
“What?” I turned to Luke. Luke’s jaw was on the floor. “It was not!” Luke said a little to loud, “Don’t listen to them, sweetheart.”
“It so was our idea! You needed a restaurant and I suggested my uncle’s restaurant.” Michael argued.
“Alright, alright it was their idea.” Luke rolled his eyes as his smile faded. I lifted his head so he could face me. “I don’t care fi they came up with the idea. I think it’s great that they helped you. Plus the night went great Luke.” I said.
“Really?” I nodded, causing Luke to smile.
“Please sit in your seats! I have to take attendance!” My teacher yelled out. I gave Luke a kiss and walked away to my desk.
~*~
The day went by so fast that the next thing I heard was the bell, allowing students to leave school. I walked to my locker and opened it. I took all the books that I needed for this weekend. “Attention students! Prom 2015 is going to be held on April 14th. Tickets will be on sale all this week and next week in the front office. Have a good weekend.” I heard over the loud speaker. Prom is so close wow. I wonder if Luke wants to go to prom. My thoughts were disturbed when Luke hugged me from behind. “Hey sweetheart.”
“Hi.” I smiled as I felt him kiss me cheek. “So you wanna hang out with everyone tonight or Saturday?”
“Crap. Saturday because we have yearbook!”
“Oh right. Come on then.” Luke took my hand in his after closing my locker. “So how was your day?”
“Pretty good, but much better now that I could see your cute face.” Luke replied, causing me to blush.
“Hey Miss. Ambrosey!!” Luke yelled, causing me to laugh.
“Luke! Please! My name is now Mrs. Lopes.” Miss. Ambrose smirked, causing our jaws to drop. “Miss-Mrs. Lopes! You got married?!” I asked, walking towards her desk.
“Yes, over break.”
“Wow. Congrats.”
“Who’s the lucky guy?” Luke asked.
“Brad Lopes. He’s a police man.” She replied with googly eyes. I smiled at her happiness.
“We’re so happy for you.” I said as she smiled.
“I’m happy for you two also! When you first worked together you two couldn’t even look at each other.” She smiled, causing Luke to pull me closer to him.
“She makes so happy, Mi-Mrs. Lopes.” He said then kissed my head.
“Good. Now let’s get to work shall we?”
“What do you need to get done?”
“We need the awards page.”
“Awards page?” Luke questioned.
“People vote for people who are nominated for things such as for best hair, best smile, etcetera.”
“Oh.” Luke replied.
“I already have the nominees but I need you to type them up and print them out for Monday to hand them out at homeroom.” Mrs. Lopes said. Luke and I nodded and went to our computers. Once my computer was on, I began to type up the top 3 nominees in each category. Luke was watching me intently.
“Look Dani! There’s a category for cutest couple and we’re on there!” Luke said. I looked down at the sheet of paper.
Cutest Couple:
Ashton I. and Violet B.: Finalist
Calvin C. and Claudia K. : Semi-Finalist
Paulina R. and Nick M.: Semi-Finalist
Kat S. and Liam R. : Finalist
Daniela G. and Luke H.: Finalist
It’s true. We were nominated. “Oh no.” I whispered. We’re against Ashton and Violet.
“What’s wrong?”
“I’m not putting us in there Luke.”
“Why not?” He asked.
“I don’t want to go against my best friends.”
“It’s just something for yearbook Dani. It’s nothing big.”
“I’m not putting it in.” I stated, taking a pen and scribbling ‘finalist’ next to our name and changing it to semi-finalist. I also changed Calvin and Claudia’s rank. I then typed it up with Luke in disbelief. “What the hell Dani?”
“I just don’t feel like betraying Vi and Ash, Luke.”
“I’m pretty sure Violet would be happy if she found out we’re in the finals for cutest couple just like they are.” Luke replied.
“I’m not changing my mind Luke.”
“But-“
“I’m not changing my mind.” I stated. I clicked print and stood up from my chair to go get the printouts.
~*~
I finished midterms!! Yay! More updates!! 4/5 chapters left probably and then I will be taking a break to plan out my new story. (:
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Thank you for reading!!