TROUBLE MAGNET - Completed

Chapter 29 - Afterglow

Okay so this is the final chapter of my first book. I'm happy but kind of sad too. I want to thank you for joining me on this journey. I have learned so much from writing this book and if you have any comments, I would love to hear them. 

Chapter 29 - Afterglow

When the dance is over, everyone clears the room quickly. We are excited about the next part of our evening – The After Party. It is a tradition that after prom, all the students get together somewhere and spend the entire night partying. This year the after party is being held at the Dalton twins’ mansion. Everyone knows that the Dalton family is loaded. Mr. Dalton is involved with one of the major banks in town. The twin boys, Daniel and David are well liked and often hold parties. They allowed all of the students to set up tents in their yard the day before the prom. Their dad arranged to have a super large tent put up for dining and socializing. He also arranged to have two portable outhouses brought in for the night.  

We all pile back into our limo and ask the driver to drive around Harmony Beach one last time before dropping us off at the Dalton’s. When the limo finally drops us off, all of us are ready to get changed into cooler clothes. We look forward to the more relaxed part of the evening still to come. Sarah, Meghan, Kate and I have a four-man tent that is set up beside a tree. On the other side is Matt and Landon’s two man tent and beside theirs’ Rob and Yanik’s two man tent, though truthfully none of us plan on doing much sleeping. Everyone left their knapsacks with their change of clothes and overnight necessities, in their tents earlier, when the tents were being set up.

We decide that after changing, we will all meet up at the bonfire located at the back of their spacious property. I pull on a pair of cutoff jean shorts and a cherry red tank top. I step into a pair of red flip-flops and gather my hair up into a ponytail.  I feel much cooler. Meghan and Sarah tell us that they will meet us at the fire, as they are going to use the outhouse facilities first. Wisely, Kate and I used the washroom at the dance just before we left, anticipating the nastiness of the plastic porta-potties.

Kate and I make our way to the bonfire to find the guys. When we arrive, there are quite a few of our friends already gathered there. All of the chairs have been taken. We find the guys sprawled out on a couple of blankets a little ways away from the fire. Landon is sitting on one blanket, leaning up against a tree. Matt and Rob are arm wrestling on the other blanket and Yanik looks like he is asleep beside them. Each of the guys is already drinking a beer. Landon motions for me to come and sit with him. I sit in front of him, between his legs and lean my back against him. Kate sprawls out beside Yanik.

“Oh here, we made you girls each a drink,” Landon says as he reaches over to a small cooler, beside the blanket and grabs two red plastic cups off the top. He hands both Kate and I a cup that is filled with vodka and Seven Up.

“Wow! You guys made us drinks? That’s incredible!” says Kate excitedly.

“Yeah, thanks,” I say, as I take a quick sip.

When Meghan and Sarah arrive Landon passes them each a plastic cup as well. Matt and Rob finally finish their arm wrestling with Rob the pronounced winner. Matt reaches for Kate and pulls her up to go and sit with him. We all sit for a while; chatting about how great the prom had been, as we sip our drinks. Over by the fire Daniel and David have brought out their guitars and are playing songs that everyone can sing along to. We sit just listening to the music, and occasionally singing along to the songs we know. We talk about our upcoming plans for summer and for school next year.

It turns out that Matt, Kate, and Landon have all gotten accepted into Western University in London.  Rob has gotten into McMaster. Yanik is going to work with his dad. Meghan is going back to high school for a victory lap. She still needs to pick up some extra courses and Sarah is going to Georgian College. We all have plans to work as much as possible through the summer in order to make as much money as possible.