Your Forever Love

It's Just You, Forever (pt 2)

Ben was finally finished with the Royal Court meeting and was headed towards the practice field where his team was. He walked passed the stadium and saw the marching band moving smoothly down the field. The band split into two halves on both sides of the 45 yard line and stopped. Ben was searching for Miranda's small shapely figure, he finally focused enough to see her on the end drinking out of her camel pack. He heard the whistle blow and the drum major girl from earlier, tell the band to take it back. He watched in awe as Miranda hustled back to her spot back on the 10 yard line. Ben kept walking towards his own practice smiling.
His team was running drills already, Ben got in line with his friend Danny.
"Well, look who it is! Mister Freshman,"
Danny teased dapping Ben up. Ben and Danny met at football boot camp during the summer and they've been good friends since. Ben laughed and shrugged.
"Someone has to bare the burden."
Danny shook his head laughing, and asked Ben,
"So, did you ask Miranda yet?"
Ben looked at his friend in confusion.
"Ask her what?"
"Ask her to be your date to Homecoming, hell ask her to be your girlfriend. You claim you've been in love with Miranda forever, but you've yet to make a move. You're definitely slacking man. You've been sacked one too many times on the field. You keep on waiting and playing, and it will be too late to do either."
Danny said, jogging away disappointed in his friend. Ben actually stopped to think about it. It would break him to see Miranda with someone that wasn't him. And they did everything together, he just assumed that those conditions still stood for the dance. He jogged to catch up with Danny.
"Listen, man I know. But I just assumed that we would go together. We do everything else like that."
Danny stopped and looked at his poor, clueless friend.
"You really need to get your head check out for damage, if you thought that you didn't need to ask Miranda to the dance. It makes a big difference to a girl when she knows you actually want her there."
"Well, how do you think I should go about it?"
Ben asked seriously. The friends spent the rest of practice throwing ideas around and running drills and plays.
Thursday:
It had been two days since his conversation with Danny. Ben knew he was right and took his advice. He made a plan to ask Miranda to homecoming. He knew Miranda was a shy and private person so, asking her at the game or pep rally tomorrow would be overwhelming for her. He walked Miranda to the band room where she hung out in the mornings before school. He ran to meet Danny at his locker to go over the plan for this afternoon
     "I was trying to get here earlier. I couldn't leave without her this morning. What did some of the team say?"
      "No problem, but good luck man and I'll get Miranda when the bell rings and get you and the guy during the afternoon announcements, and line y'all  up in the hallway. Her locker is in the 200's building right?"
Ben nodded his head. He was a bundle of nerves for what was to come this afternoon. Hopefully, everything went as planned. Ben thanked his friend and the boys went their separate ways.
For Ben, the day seems to drag by slowly and it didn't help he was nervous about asking Miranda to Homecoming. But finally it was the middle of 7th period. He kept looking at the clock. Danny was supposed to come get him with a fake pass so they could set up during the announcements. Since he was a TA for the main office and could roam campus without causing suspicion. To calm him, he decided to focus on my his biology classwork. Ben was getting up to turn in the busy work, when the door opened and Danny walked into the classroom with a Yellow pass from the "Assistant Principal".
      "Mr. Peterson, I'm sorry to interrupt but I was sent by Ms. Gupta to retrieve a student from your class."
Danny handed Mr. Peterson the slip, and he called Ben's name.
      "Ben Warren, you're wanted in the main office."
Ben nodded and grabbed his backpack and walked out of the door smiling. So far his plan is going smoothly. He and Danny hi-fived and walked down to the 200's building to meet some other there teammates. Just as they opened the down to the hallway the intercom came on and Dr. Johansson.
Miranda was done with all of her seventh period work so she was reading a book. When the afternoon announcements came on she decided to pack up. She knew today's practice was going to more brutal than usual. The game is tomorrow, and they learned new stands tunes to play at the pep rally and the game. And they still had yet to run through the pregame show. Her legs burned just thinking about the long practice she was going to soon. Finally the bell rang, Miranda finished packing up and making sure she had a white t shirt for practice today. She zipped up her back and opened the door. Just as she stepped out she saw Ben's friend Danny racing frantically towards her.
     "Miranda! Miranda!"
Danny yelled, waving his arms at her. The panic in his voice made her stop, her heart started to pick up speed. She could hear her heart pounding through her ears. Danny finally reached her and in between desperate gasps for air he said.
      "Miranda! It's- it's Ben. Follow me, hurry!"
Danny motioned for Miranda to follow him, as he quickly walked off. She followed him, bobbing and weaving through people to keep up with Danny she saw him stop, she looked at him confused.
     "Daniel! What happened! Where's Ben? Is he hurt?"
She was spewing rapid-fire questions at Danny. Danny turned Miranda, she saw more of Ben's teammates lined up in front of her. The first one handed her a single African Violet, she knew this for a fact because they were her favorite. She thanked him and he said,
      "You are Magnificent"
And moved out of line, the next boy handed her another violet.
     "You are Intelligent"
      "You are Radiant"
She was handed another Violet. She walked to the next boy.
       "You are Amazing"
He smiled gave her another Violet and walked away. Behind him was Danny with two Violets in his hand. She looked at him confused.
       "Daniel, what's going on? What is all this?"
Danny never answered her question, smiling he said,"
        "You are Noble"
         "You are Determined"
She took the last two Violets from Danny and finally met eyes with Ben. He was in the purple shirt she picked out for him during the summer.
       "Benjamin Warren, what is all this?"
Ben only looked at her smirking.
       "Miranda, most of all, you are Absolutely gorgeous"
She looked down blushing. Ben took the hand that wasn't holding Violets, and looked deeply into her eyes.
       "Will you do me the honor of being my date to the Homecoming Dance?
The crowd around them bursted with gasps and aww's. Miranda looked at the nervousness oozing off of Ben. She paused not saying anything, enjoying watching Ben racking his brain trying to guess her answer. Finally, Miranda said smiling.
       "YES!"
The crowd cheered and Ben gave her another one of his big bear hugs. This time, Miranda wasn't even upset about it. He put back on her feet and kissed her cheek.
        "You don't even know how happy I am that you said yes!"
Miranda grabbed Ben and took him outside on the breezeway. Ben was still on a high from what just occurred. Until, he felt Miranda pinch him. 'So I wasn't dreaming' he thought to himself.
       "Benjamin Anthony Warren! You scared me!"
She pouted. When Danny was running to her panicked like that, it really scared the crap out of her.
       "Danny made it seem as if you were sick or dying."
Ben chuckled and grabbed her free hand once again and kissed it.
       "I'm sorry, but that was all part of my plan."
Miranda slapped his chest playfully. The two kept walking on their normal route. Until, Miranda stopped. Ben looked at her confused, he watched her finally turn around and face him.
        "Colors? What we are gonna wear?"
Ben shrugged his shoulders.
         "Miranda, I was just going to let you choose. Knowing your mom, you probably already have a dress."
They both laughed. They both knew he was right. Ms. Elena was always prepared.
           "You're right. It's actually a dark blue color."
Miranda blushed, because when she and her mother went dress shopping, she purposefully picked out Ben's favorite color. Ben grinned, that was his favorite color.
       "Miranda, I'm pretty sure I have something to match. Do you want to come over after school to pick out the closest suit and tie?"
Miranda nodded and looked at her watch it was 3:10. Ben watched her knowing.
      "Give me your backpack. Let's go get you dressed for practice."
Miranda let go of his hand to take off bag and give it to him. Ben slung her bag over his shoulder and grabbed Miranda's hand and interlocked their fingers. Miranda looked their intertwined hands. They held hands sometimes, but this time felt different, and they both knew it.
      "Ready?"
Ben asked. Miranda whispered,
"Ready."
The two walked hand in hand down the breezeway to the locker rooms. Ben stopped and gave Miranda her bag. And reached in his.
       "Wait, I have another white shirt for you. I wanted you to wear it to practice."
He said sheepishly. Ben scratched the back of his neck nervously. Miranda laughed,
        "Boy, give me the shirt."
Laughing, Miranda bent over to grab her shorts and shoes out of her bag.
"Take care of my Violets please. I won't take long I promise."
She ran into the locker room to change her clothes. She quickly slipped her school clothes off and changed into her clothes for practice. She smelled the white shirt as it passed over her nose. His cologne complimented her vanilla scent. She smiled and turned to walk out the door. She came back outside, to see Ben playing with the leaves of the violets. Ben heard the door open and he looked up, to see Miranda walking towards him. Ben handed Miranda her backpack and grabbed her hand once again and they walked towards the band room.

Miranda was hot and frustrated. They ran through halftime at least a million times, and now they are in the end zone running the pregame show. The sun was beating down her but luckily the wind was blowing gently, her frown slowly melted away when the wind carried the smell of Ben's cologne into her nostrils. Things didn't even seem as bad anymore. She looked at her watch it was 5:30. "Thirty more minutes" she thought to herself. She was hot and sick of playing "Lift Every Voice and Sing" every 5 mins into her oboe. Finally, the band ran through Pregame and Halftime in one try and were gonna be released early.
"Ladies and Gentlemen,"
Dr. Wells started.
"Please wear your parade sweats to school, that is the only way teachers will know to release you early tomorrow for the pep rally. And PLEASE go to ALL your classes tomorrow. Let me find out any of you are skipping classes to come down here, you will be running bleachers before the game and the next 2 practices. Do I make myself clear?"
Dr. Wells looked specifically at the freshman.
"I almost forgot, to my freshman, after your first pep rally, you will no longer be considered crabs. You are now fully apart of the Marching Spartan Band. Congratulations, no more white shirts in practice!"
Everyone started clapping and cheering. Dr. Wells laughed quieting down the band.
"Call time will be 5:30. Be out on the practice field in FULL UNIFORM, standing at attention to run through Pregame and Halftime one time, and one time only. Good job today, y'all. You all actually sounded and looked like a band today. Drum majors, please see me after you dismissed them. GoodNight."
"Goodnight, sir."
The band responded watching Dr. Wells disappear walking to go back to his office. The three drum majors stood before the band and blew their whistles and called the band to attention.
"You all are dismissed!"
"Thank you!"
Miranda and the rest of the band ran towards the music room. Ben was sitting on the bench waiting for Miranda. She saw and hurried inside to get her things. Ben was looking down in his backpack when Miranda walked up.
"Hey, you. How was practice?"
Ben looked up and smiled.
"I should be asking you that question. Your practice looked way more interesting than mine."
The two continued walking and talking and playing the whole walk home. Ben walked Miranda to her front porch.
"Give me thirty minutes... I want to shower. I smell like you."
Miranda teased. Ben raised an eyebrow.
"You must smell amazing if you smell like me. Come here let me see."
Ben said lunging towards Miranda. They chased each other around her yard. Ben lightly tackled her and the rolled in the grass. Laughing Miranda looked down to see Ben underneath her. They locked eyes, and got lost in each other's gazes until Miranda hopped up and Ben did the same.
"30 minutes max. And I'll be over to pick out the tie okay?"
Ben nodded and watched her walk into her house safely. He headed towards his side of the street and walked into his house, only to be met by his dad smirking.
"So, son, by the looks of it, she said yes?"
Along with Danny, Ben asked his dad for help. He came up with the African eViolets. Smiling, Ben nodded.
"Yes sir. She did say yes. So we're going to pick out the matching blue tie to her dress later. Is that alright?"
His dad nodded.
"Go get some of mine too. I have a larger collection of ties than you."
Ben and his father shared a laugh. He never realized how similar they actually are. Ben took on his father's height and charms. Their laughs sounded almost exactly the same. He also had his fathers eyes, you could always see the truth in them. He thanked his father and went to gather all of the blue ties he could find.