Living High School to the Fullest (Completed)

Chapter 34: *** Going to the winter ball stag***

Dear readers, the end is near. I just wanted to thank you all for reading and following my story, leaving so many encouraging comments and messages! An extra thanks to everyone who voted. And extra extra special thanks to my fans. An extra extra extra thanks to all the fans who read all of my broadcasted messages: Oh, and my Facebook peeps also get extra extra extra thanks. I have a feeling the last two groups will enjoy this chapter much more than the rest of you. Except for people who pay attention to author's profiles, maybe.

But now: The countdown begins...

WARNING: NOT EDITED

Chapter 34

In the evening on the day Dan’s puppy had died, Josh gave me a call. He just wanted to check in and see how the date went. Little did he know about the sad events that had taken place earlier. I filled him in on everything, the Lauren situation first. Josh was really surprised that he hadn’t noticed Dan liking Lauren before.

Great people watcher. Right.

Then I told him about Rambo. I was glad that Josh couldn’t see me since tears were pricking my eyes when I did. My voice didn’t waver, though. The running back’s spirits dropped low when he heard about it, I could tell. He knew way better than I did how much that dog had meant to Dan. Kingsley had even shared his bed with the German shepherd most nights since it didn’t want to leave his side, according to Josh.

To cut a long story short: we ended up chatting over two hours with each other. Josh also told me about his weekend trip so far, and then we somehow discussed several other more or less random topics, such as the most annoying TV commercial and why a grapefruit is called grapefruit even though it doesn’t look like a grape. It wasn’t until Josh ended the call, seeing that he wanted to check on his friend who had lost his beloved pet, that I noticed how long exactly we had stayed on the phone together.

Somehow, this reminded me of the phone calls Aaron and I had while he was away in Texas for the summer. Long calls, talking about everything, not having to struggle to keep the conversation flowing.

On Monday in school, I was on the look-out for Dan. He wasn’t as loud as usual, still grieving, although he put up a brave face in front of his team mates. I quickly talked to Josh who didn’t leave the side of his friend. Also, Lauren finally talked to me about something else than environmental issues. She let me know that she had stopped by the day before at Dan’s house again to check on him. Pizza pie included. I was a bit ashamed that I myself didn’t think about stopping by at his house. Not once did Lauren mention her ruined car which earned her massive points in my book.

She was really worried about Dan, and judging from the way she spoke about him and acted, I think it was safe to say that she had fallen for the football player. Hard. Most likely she only had had a little crush on him before, but I guess such a tragic loss really creates a bond between people.

The following days in school I noticed that she and Dan were hanging out more often.

Since the winter ball was coming up, James kept us winter ball committee members pretty busy. Despite everything, I had to give that guy credit for his organizational skills. Dinah told me that he had asked her to be her date for the dance.

I knew it! James was crushing on Dinah.

Unfortunately for him, Dinah didn’t feel the same way. Even if she did, she would have declined, seeing that she had agreed to accompany us and go to the winter ball stag. I could tell that James was a bit bummed out after Dinah’s refusal; he was still friendly and everything when it came to her, but the lingering gazes were gone. I was guessing he tried his best to get over her.

I’m happy to say that I didn’t clash with the student council president even once. Our truce was for good. Emma, on the other hand, started picking a fight. She insisted on hanging up mistle toes everywhere in the gym which James declined, claiming they were too tacky, expensive and most of all extremely difficult to hang up. The latter wasn’t necessarily true, I guess, since we would be having really heavy decoration hanging from the ceiling as well. Whatever his reasons, it was a big no for the mistle toe.

Maybe he was against kissing in general.

Actually, I was thankful for that. I still wasn’t a huge fan of public displays of affection, even less if it was forced onto you by some weeds and a supposedly tradition.