50

"Tell me why the hell I have to dress nicely if it's all going to be hidden under the gown?" I groan as I go through my closet. "And it's so hot out, I swear if I could I'd just wear underwear under it."

"I'd like to see that," Soph laughs from my bed. "As soon as a little breeze hits it you'll be doomed."

"It would be the perfect goodbye, and one no one would forget."

"Go ahead, I'll have my phone ready," Soph says as I throw a shirt at her.

Today was officially the last day of school and tomorrow, the so awaited graduation ceremony and I'm freaking out. I'm so excited and anxious, I'm having a heart attack.

I just couldn't wait to be actually free from high-school. It was already something I looked forward to, but now it's much more than just wanting to be over with homework and mean teachers.

And to think that Daniella was one of those mean teachers. Well, she still is, even to me... I was never really bothered by that though if you know what I mean.

Pretty women can step on me all day and I'll say thank you, come back soon.

We barely had any classes today, it would be the perfect opportunity to spend some time with Daniella in her classroom. But unlike students, teachers had a lot to do, especially at this time of the school year. Daniella has been grumpy all week, so I'd hate to be the one to add even more stress on her. We'll have loads of time to spend together later on anyway.

Also, grumpy Daniella is scary... but not as scary as jealous Daniella, that's for sure.

Instead, I spent the rest of the day with Jenny and Soph, deciding what we would wear and planning on where to meet each other once we get there.

The day went by quickly and it was around 10 PM when Daniella called, and I must admit that I always get a little surprised and anxious every time she calls. I almost threw my phone at the wall out of excitement.

"Hey!" I say picking up immediately.

"Hey," she says amusedly. "Are you ok, why are you screaming?"

"I'm fine, I was just really excited to hear your voice."

"You've just heard my voice this morning."

"Nope, I heard your teacher voice telling us F off your classroom. I'm excited to hear your less bitchy voice," I say and I can almost hear her eyes rolling from the other side of the line. "So, why are you calling?"

"Can I not?"

"Of course you can, but your reasoning is?"

"No reasoning," she says simply and just like that, I'm the one eye-rolling.

"Just admit that you wanted to hear my voice too," I tease making her chuckle but she quickly changes the subject.

"Are you excited about tomorrow?"

"I'm having a nervous breakdown," I say partially joking. "Are you?"

"Yeah," I hear her say in a small voice. "For a moment there I thought you wouldn't make it," she says now in clearer tone.

"Well thank you, it's nice to know you had so much faith in me," I joke.

"Anna, please, faith in you? You basically either slept through most of my lessons or shamelessly stared at my butt."

"And look, I made it. The butt sighting gave me strength."

"I'm pretty sure it was our countless studying sections."

"That too but the butt sighting was definitely the main reason," I say only getting a small tired chuckle out of her. "Tired?"

"Yeah, it's been a long week," she says yawning afterwards. "I only called to check on you, you're obviously still the same idiot so I'll go to bed, you should too, I'll kick your ass if you're late tomorrow."

"Aye, aye, ma'am," I say in a teasing tone. "... Did you just roll your eyes."

"Yes, I did."

"Don't worry Miss E, I'll be on time tomorrow, I'd hate to miss such an important event," I say in the same teasing tone.

"I swear I'll hang up," she attempts to say in a dry voice but I could definitely sense some amusement.

"No you won't, not before sending me a goodbye kiss," I say wiggling my eyebrows even though she couldn't see it.

And just like that, she hung up.

Yeah, this is definitely the woman I fell in love with.

I sent her a goodbye text with kissy emoji faces which she responded with a single emoji rolling its eyes. I'm actually surprised this is the first time she's sending me that, that emoji was clearly made for her and her alone.

I didn't sleep much that night, I was so excited I 'woke' up at 5:30 to start getting ready, I wore jeans and a t-shirt, because to hell with formalities, which took me less than an hour including showering and sitting naked at the bed thinking about life.

The rest of the time I spent obsessing over the fact that today is the day I would be officially asking Daniella out, which she has no other option but to accept.

As we had planned, Soph, Jen and I met at the parking lot as our parents went to the external seatings to watch the ceremony, our seats were far apart from each other so we wanted to meet before the actual thing.

"This is really it girls," I say fixing the cap on my head.

"We survived hell!" Soph says as we cheer.

"And now she shall survive another hell called adulthood!" I say and we cheer for that too.

After our gathering we part to sit at our designated seats, I haven't seen Daniella yet but she did tell me she would be arranging stuff at the back scene.

It is only when the ceremony starts that I catch a glimpse of her, she sat at the teacher's area and the moment she spotted me she sent me a wide smile that made all my anxiety magically vanish. We would catch each other glancing over throughout the whole event up until my name was called and I went to get my diploma.

"I'm so proud of you," Daniella says walking up to me by the end of the ceremony. "I'll be waiting for you at the classroom," she completes nodding her head at Soph and Jen that were making their way over.

I just nod my head extremely fast I don't even know how I didn't get dizzy, if I could I would just throw myself in her arms here and now. I almost flew down the corridors to Daniella's classroom after biding my goodbyes to my classmates and friends, and of course, making plans with Soph and Jen for later.

I could feel my heart beating fast and loud on my chest as I opened her door, she sat at her table like she would every day, and damn, I'll miss that.

She looked up the moment I walked in. "Took you so long, I thought you had changed your mind," she says amusedly as I walk up to her desk.

"I would never," I smirk. "Here," I say handing her a folded piece of paper.

"What's this?" She asks raising one of her eyebrows.

"Open it."

She rolls her eyes the moment she does, in it was written the famous "Will you be my girlfriend? circle the answer: Yes; No".

"Are you serious?" She asks shaking her head.

"What? I've always wanted to do this, it's my childhood dream," I say amusedly handing her a pen so she could answer it.

"Fine," she says grabbing the pen and circling one of the answers, but I couldn't see which one she did.

"Let me see it," I say trying to grab it but she's faster.

"Why? Don't you know the answer already?" She smirks devilishly.

"Uhm, no? One never knows with you."

"Are you that insecure?" She asks getting up from her desk and walking up to me. "You don't need this, Anna," she says folding the paper and sliding it into one of her back pockets.

"But you have to give me an answer."

At that, she closes the distance between us in a brief but warm kiss. "Isn't this enough of an answer?" She asks caressing my cheek with her thumb.

"Maybe? I think I'll need more though," I say making her chuckle. She kisses me again, this time for a while longer.

"One last lift home from school?" She asks taking me by surprise, four words: 'a dream come true'.

The drive to my house is silent, we didn't need to talk, the feel of her hand intertwined in mine was enough to make my heart flutter. Which soon turned into a slight panic as I saw Soph's car parked on my driveway, Daniella definitely noticed it but still parked her car just beside it.

"Should we go inside?" She asks already taking off her seatbelt and opening the door.

"But Soph's here," I say with wide eyes as I fumble to take off my seatbelt.

"Yeah I can see that," she says walking to my front door with me.

Does she want me to introduce her to Soph already? This soon? I'm shook.

But I was, even more, shook the moment I open the door to find Soph, Jen, dad and no other than Lucia and Ed in my freaking living room.

"Surprise!" They all cheered in unison. The living room was decorated with balloons saying 'F*cking Finally' and there were snacks on the centre table.

"What the hell?" I ask still in disbelief.

"Congratulations for finishing highschool before your twenties," dad says as everyone cheered.

"Is this a 'roast me' party?" I ask amusedly. And just then I remembered. Daniella. I look over at her standing next to me. "Did you know about this?"

"I can keep my mouth shut too," she answers taking my hand and walking us further into the room.

"Wait, Soph... You know?" I ask looking from Daniella to Soph.

"I hate you for not telling me you had miss bootylicious all along," Soph yells amusedly pointing a finger at me.

"How did you find out?" I ask raising my eyebrows. Soph is the most clueless person I know.

"Jenny told me like 5 minutes ago."

"Are you not mad?"

"Of course, I'll still whip your ass after the party," she answers with a playful smirk, that I know is not playful at all, and that she'll indeed whip my ass really hard.

"Congratulations my dear," I hear Ed saying as Lucia pushed his wheelchair closer to me.

"Thank you, Ed," I answer pulling him into a hug.

"For getting the girl, I mean," he whispered in my hear before pulling away.

My face instantly went red even though I was trying to do my best to hide it.

"But you did too," I counterattack nodding to Lucia making a light blush appear on his cheeks too.

This was definitely a 'roast me' party, but I must admit, it was pretty cool. The only downside is that, even though Daniella and I would stick together throughout the whole time, I could still feel her stiffness. This is still all so new for her but she's still trying, even though she's out of her comfort zone.

Ed and Lucia were the first to leave, they still had to go back to the clinic, then Jen, she sleeps early... and Soph... I basically had to kick her out.

The moment the house was Soph free and my dad was upstairs I ran up to Daniella, yeeting... I mean, carefully taking Potato out of her lap and sitting on it instead.

"That's evil, poor thing," she pouts but still hugs me back.

"Your lap is my property now," I say ghosting my lips over hers.

"Is it now?" She whispers trying to close the distance between our lips but I slightly pull away.

"Yeah, is that a problem?" I tease.

"No," she tries again but I continue to playfully pull away.

She only lets me do it once more before grabbing my face and pulling me into a kiss.

"You have no chill," I chuckle into the kiss. She simply rolls her eyes and pushes me out of her lap.

"Let's take a walk," she says all of a sudden.

"Right now? It's almost midnight," I ask amusedly as she pushes me by my hand to the door. "Let's go to the park!"

"That's what I was thinking actually."

"Can I drive?"

"... No."

We started walking hand in hand once Daniella parked her car at the park's parking lot. It's still a little chilly at night but there was no wind so it was kinda pleasant.

"So, why did you want to come here?" I ask playfully swinging our arms back and forth as we walk.

This is the first time we're walking hand in hand in public, even though there's literally no one around.

"I don't know, just thought you'd like the idea."

"Do you like the idea?" I ask making her stop in her tracks and face me.

"Yes," she says simply, even in the dark I could still see a blush creeping up her cheeks.

"You're adorable," I say squeezing her hand, pushing her closer to me and into a hug.

She tried to protest but her facade immediately went down the moment I pulled her into a kiss. "I hate you."

"No, you don't."

"I really don't," she sighs pulling me into another kiss, one that was definitely more passionate, her hands holding each side of my face.

"What now?" I whisper once we pull away for air. The question was pretty vague but something in her eyes told me she knew exactly what I was talking about.

She gave me a little smirk, her warm hand still caressing the side of my face. "Who knows?" She teases pinching my cheek.

I huff pulling her closer to me and laying my head on her chest as she played with my hair, we just stood there, in the middle of the park; in each other's arms; in what seemed like an eternity.

I've always been a happy and positive person, my goal in life has always been to live as happily and as free as I could. Giving up is hardly ever on my dictionary, and so when I started pursuing Daniella I was ready to go all the way, no matter what obstacles would come, but I never actually thought we'd have a happy ending... No, not an ending, this is just the start of something new.