Author's Note – Last chapter, kind of short, but it wraps things up pretty well, I think. Thanks to my reviewers:

Camikaza – I’m glad you liked it… and I hope this update was soon enough for you.

Gummybaby – Yeah, I wish it went that fast, too… but whenever you want something to go quickly, it goes soooo sloooowly!!!

Tohru Daihikashousha – Yeah, you’re right about that… and I’m glad you liked it. I’m also kind of sad that this is the last, because I had fun writing it, too.

Esquirella – speechless, huh?

Momoro – you are the first person to have commented on that! I wonder if anyone else even noticed?

Multiples of six – I suppose you’ll find out after reading, huh?

authordream4life – don’t worry, Fiona will be all right… I would never do that to a character I like so much.

CHAPTER SEVEN

[Monday, Last Class

Mallory

When I walked into the classroom for the last class, Levon was already there. He didn't have his computer out for once, though. Instead, he had a Tupperware container of cupcakes in front of him. Fitzgerald had said that we could bring snacks, but I hadn't really remembered until the ride to class, and didn't really know what kind of snacks I wanted to bring anyway.

"Mallory, hey," Levon said, smiling at me. He opened up the container of cupcakes and offered me one. I shook my head because I wasn't really hungry right now. I sat down and took out my paper. I'd finished it two days ago on the computer, with a nice cover page and even a few pictures. I'd prepared a short speech to go along with it, since Fitzgerald said that we had to talk a little bit about the research we'd done to the rest of the class.

Wes and Lance showed up a little while later, and they sat together in their usual seats. Wes had brought brownies, and Levon had chips and soda. At least we weren't going to be going hungry today.

Ginny didn't bring any food, but she had a poster to go with her presentation. Fitzgerald was last, as usual, and he had pizzas. They smelled great, and were beginning to threaten my appetite. I was hungrier than I thought I was originally.

"Okay, so we'll start off with our quick presentations of the project, and you can go ahead and snack if you'd like." Fitzgerald said, doing a quick look around to see if everyone was there.

"Okay, who wants to go first?" he asked, looking around again. No one said anything right away, and then Ginny raised her hand. Since she was the only one volunteering, Fitzgerald let her go, and she went to the front of the classroom. She put her poster on the board and took out some notes.

"I'm going to talk about abortion," Ginny said, and pointed to her poster. Her 'short presentation' ended up being twenty minutes long. I didn't mind, though, because I wasn't going to be able to go home until noon anyway, so the longer we actually spent in class, the better it was for me.

After her presentation, she passed her poster in and sat down. Now it was down to the other four of us. Everyone looked around but nobody wanted to go. I'd prepared my speech, but it wasn't a very good one. However, no one else was volunteering, and I wanted to go now instead of waiting to be the last person. I walked to the front of the classroom and took out my notes.

I gave my presentation without too much nervousness, and I only stumbled on my words once. After I finished, I took a piece of pizza and one of the brownies. Everyone else took their turn with their presentations and we were pretty much finished with all of them by ten thirty.

No one really wanted to leave right away, and I took one of the cupcakes that Levon had brought in. Levon came over to stand with me. I was packing my things up into my bag. Even though we hadn't actually learned anything today, I'd brought my notebook, textbook, and several pens and notes - as well as my paper.

"You want a ride home?" he asked me, "I can bring you." He grinned at me, and I got a little nervous.

"That would be nice," I replied. He picked up the Tupperware container with the leftover cupcakes and I picked up my bag. I followed him into his car and he opened the door for me. I slid into the car and then he closed the door for me, too. I was still kind of nervous, though. I wanted to say something to Levon, about how I'd had this crush on him for the whole semester, and I wanted to know if he felt the same way about me. I wanted to thank him for helping me bring Fiona to the hospital, and ask him if the bowling and the diner had meant anything to him, because it meant a lot to me.

We drove the entire way in silence, because I kept thinking about what to say and trying to get up the courage to actually talk to him about this stuff. If I couldn't say anything, then I didn't deserve to date him if he wanted to date me.

When we got to the house, both of us got out of the car and he walked with me to the door. As we stood there, it was cold, but I had my winter jacket on. My nose and hands were cold, and it was starting to snow. I didn't worry about any of that stuff, because Levon was right there, and I was going to talk to him.

"Um, Levon," I said, and started getting nervous because now that I started talking I had to say something, "I just wanted to say that, um, I don't know if I'm going to see you next semester or whatever, but I've really liked spending time with you and I want to thank you for helping me with Fiona and when we went bowling a few weeks ago, I really enjoyed it. I really like you and I don't know if you like me, too, but I couldn't let you go without saying anything to you." I knew my face was turning bright red, but I didn't want to walk away without knowing what he was going to say.

He was silent for a while, and I waited, holding my breath.

"I'm glad you had the courage to say that to me," he said, and he reached forward to take my hands in his, "I really like you, too, but I wasn't sure if you felt the same way, so I didn't say anything." He took a step closer to me, and released my hands. He put his hands on my cheeks instead, the back of his thumb rubbing against my left cheek. He leaned closer and I closed my eyes.

He was kissing me, and it was soft and warm and beautiful. I kissed him back and felt the wind and the snow swirling around us, like a perfectly choreographed end scene in a movie. And it was my perfect beginning.

Lance

Since I didn't have anything to do for Christmas, living alone and all of that (well, except for the fish, but they don’t celebrate any holidays), Wes had invited me over to his house to spend the holiday with his family. I didn't mind that, because I liked his parents, and Cade was starting to grow on me.

I'd gotten gifts for Dante, Ethan, and Wesley, though I hadn't been entirely sure of what to get for Dante and Ethan, and ended up just getting them a joint present, which was a gift certificate to a local restaurant. It was the best that I could come up with on kind of a short notice. Wes had told me that they weren't going to be up and ready until around ten, so I decided to go over there around eleven, which was what time it was when I showed up. Wes answered the door, still in his pajamas, obviously, as evidence by the flannel pajama bottoms and gray t-shirt. He let me in, giving me a long slow kiss in the hallway before we walked into the living room, where Ethan and Dante were sitting on the couch. There were still some gifts under the tree, though there was evidence that some had been already opened – piles of wrapping paper sitting in the corner. However, the wrapping paper seemed to keep Cade occupied, which was a good thing, because he tended to get a little enthusiastic when he greeted me.

"We opened some stuff, but we wanted to wait until you got here for the rest," Wes told me. I sat down on the floor, since there was plenty of room there, and Cade seemed to notice me then. He came bounding over and started licking me in the face. I let him do that, because I knew eventually he'd get tired.

"Hi, buddy, long time no see," I said. Wes took out the presents from under the tree and passed them around. I gave him the ones that I'd brought so that he could pass those out as well. Two of the presents were for me.

I opened the one from Ethan and Dante first. It was a gray t-shirt with the characters from The Goonies on it.

"Aw, thanks!" I exclaimed, because I really didn't know what to say. I pulled it on over my long-sleeved black shirt that I was already wearing.

"Wes told us that it was your favorite movie," Dante said, glancing over at my boyfriend, who was now sitting next to me on the floor. I glanced over at him, remembering last week when he'd watched the movie for the first time at my house. Actually, he watched about the first fifteen minutes. The rest of the time was spent doing … other things. Needless to say, he had yet to see the entire movie. I had a feeling that wasn't going to be a problem, though. We would have plenty of time to watch it some other time.

"And thanks for the gift certificate by the way," Ethan said, holding up the envelope that housed their gift from me.

"I figured you might like a romantic evening out without Wes," I said, and Wes gave me a look. Of course, he didn't think about the fact that if they had a romantic evening out, we could have a romantic evening in. I just squeezed his hand. I started to open the present from Wes, but he stopped me.

"You might want to wait to open that until we're alone," he whispered. I raised my eyebrows and looked at him, wondering what it could be. My gift to Wes had been a t-shirt also – similar to the one with the gold superman emblem he had commented before. He seemed to like it, as evidenced by the long kiss he gave me after opening it.

"Um, we're going to go up to my room now," Wes said, standing up and grabbing my hand. I stood up with him. "You can holler when we're going to eat." I saw Dante and Ethan exchange looks. Well, it wasn't like they had no idea what we would be doing up there. I mean, they had probably been in the same situation when they were younger.

I followed Wes up to his room and he shut the door behind us, locking it for an extra measure of safety. He pulled me over to his bed and we both sat down.

"Open it," he said, gesturing to the small package I held in my hands. He looked kind of nervous, which made me nervous, wondering what he was nervous about. I ripped the wrapping paper off and there was a small box inside. I opened that up and looked at what was inside. It was a ring – gold, kind of big. It was just a gold band, but it was a ring.

"Um, well, I have to kind of explain the story behind this. It belonged to my grandpa. His wife, my grandma, she proposed to him, and this was the engagement ring she bought him. When Ethan was a teenager, my grandpa gave the ring to him, and Ethan used the ring to propose to Dante. And, well, I'm not exactly proposing to you, since we haven't gone out that long, but it's like… well…" Wes trailed off, clearly nervous, "I love you, and I want to be with you for a long time. If you want." I looked down at the ring and thought about all that history behind it. And here Wes was, asking me to be a part of that history. How could I refuse? I put the ring on my left ring finger and it fit perfectly. I took Wes's hands in my own and he looked at me.

"I love you, too," I said, and leaned forward to kiss him, sealing the deal.

The End