My Lucky Charm is a Rose (HSMTMTS)

12. Now, that is a good line.

No, nothing else happened that night. No kisses (outside of the kiss on the top of my head), we weren't caught in the school (mostly because my mom called at midnight to say the power was back on and we left as fast as we could), and he even wants to take me on a date next Friday.

I call that a win. Especially given my lack of boyfriends.

And, there's still plenty of time to write this god-awful speech. Come up with something convincing enough to get them to change my birthday. Oh, this cannot and will not be easy. I don't think I can reiterate that enough. Still stumped on what to write. Gotten absolutely nowhere.

"So, how was being at home with no power?" Nini asks as soon as we walk into school. I'm happy she decided to do what was best for her, which was to stay in Salt Lake. Honestly, I would have supported her either way, so long as she was making the right choice for her. Not anyone else.

"Pretty nice, actually. I played cards with my mom until it was time to go to sleep." I don't want to tell her about being at North High since no one here would even think about approving a daring relationship between the rival schools.

"Lucky. I was stuck here, and just being around everyone for a few hours, despite the fact that I was supposed to go to Denver, made me realize that I'm leaving behind more than I'm gaining." That's a really grown-up decision. And I'm glad she's doing it for her, not anyone else. "Now that I'm staying, would you want to collab on a song together?"

"That sounds awesome. My place after school?" She nods, and I head to my classes, where I plan to be bored out of my mind even if I did just miss yesterday. And, I have to tell Zach I won't be there for rehearsal, so he should tell the theatre crew they have the night to vocal rest and relax. Since he's in LA and all.

Me: Hey, I'm meeting up with a friend after school and won't make it to rehearsal

Zach: I'll cancel

Me: Cool, thanks

Zach: No problem. Have fun with your friend

Plus, I need to figure out at least some of my speech for when I stand in front of the entire House of Commons. So far, all I've got is, "Hello, ladies and gentlemen. My name is Juliette Mason." Sad. I know.

"What are you thinking about?" EJ knows nothing about my appearance in England, mostly because I never mentioned it to him before, and afterwards, I can tell everyone the whole story.

"Oh, nothing super interesting." He seems to buy the blatant lie. "Wait, so have you heard back from Duke?"

"I was... rejected." That sucks. "Mr. Mazarra thinks my essay wasn't very strong. Well, he actually said it was all surface level." There are probably a million reasons why he thinks that.

"Did you write why you wanted to be there? Outside of your parents and grandparents meeting there?" Something seems to click in him, although I'm not sure what. "Oh, and EJ, dreams can change."

"Did yours?" Since I've started this school, yes. My dream was to be a regular kid when I started this school year. I didn't care what I had to sacrifice to be normal for nine months. Now, I would give anything to go back and change what I did, go to the courts and change everything before I started the school year.

If I could go back and change the past

"Yeah." Replying with a small smile, I head to class, wondering what would have happened if I did make that decision all those months ago.

After a long day of classes where I feel like bashing my head in from boredom, I take Nini to my house to collaborate on a song, although her feet stick to the ground when she sees the building. Yeah, my house is more like a mansion. That's what you get when you're worth three million dollars. You read that right.