17

Auriana

"Brooke chillax," Emma said. Brooke was excitedly jumping up and down excitedly. We loved Brooke but sometimes she could get a little too excited about the simplest things.

"Sorry, I'm just so excited for the party." She slowed her pace to rejoin the rest of us.

"Attention students, there's a school dance this Friday night organized by our own party team, it starts at seven and ends at midnight, you're all invited and you might want to bring some money." The headmistress finished the announcement.

"Hmm," I did. The disappointment was visible on my face.

"What's wrong?" Jake asked. He could tell right away when something was up these days.

"My grandma's never going to allow me staying at school past midnight." Jake grabbed my wrist and pulled me away without letting the other know where we were going. I don't know what he was planning exactly, but his plans were often chaotic and didn't always end well. We walked into the bike shed and he told me to jump on the back of his bike. I looked at him suspiciously at first but then jumped on his bike anyway.

"What are you going to do?"

"Just wait and see." About fifteen minutes later I could already guess what he was planning when we drove into a street that was all too familiar to me.

"This is not a good idea," I warned. My grandmother was very modern but could still be very old-fashioned about particular things.

"Just trust me." Jake rang the bell. An old lady opened the door.

"Auriana, have you forgotten your keys again?" I shook my head sheepishly.

"Grandma, this is Jake, he's my...uh...my boyfriend, Jake this is my grandma." Jake and my grandma shook hands. He didn't correct me and played along.

"Just call me Melanie." We walked inside and sat down in the living room.

"Melanie, we have a school dance this Friday but it'll last till midnight." Melanie nodded slowly, she wasn't sure what he was getting at.

"I was wondering if Auriana could stay until the end if I brought her home personally." Melanie thought about it. I was afraid she would disapprove, especially after everything that happened with my dad.

"Just this once." I gratefully hugged my grandmother.

"Thank you, thank you, thank you!" My grandmother laughed and hugged me back.

"And now back to school, you guys."

"Brooke, when did they say the confetti cannons would be here?" We were all standing in the gym, except Scarlet, busy checking the last few things before we could continue our preparations.

"Friday," Brooke answered. The principal walked into the gym.

"Auriana, I have a sign-off sheet here so you can see how far along you are with the preparations," Principal Nickolas said. She handed me the flipchart with the list. I let my eyes scan over the list to see if everything was on it.

"The party team?" Renee asked. The principal nodded.

"You can start decorating now...if you want." She also gave me an order form. I needed it to sign for the confetti cannons and another order. I didn't know exactly what that other order was to be honest.

"YEAH!" We gave each other a high five.

"A truck is coming with boxes that you can use to make the stage, wooden planks to straighten the stage and you can use the carpet to decorate the stage." I looked through the order form.

"Are all those things in the truck?" I asked as I went through the long list again. There were a lot of things on the list that we didn't know about.

"Yes, you can get hammers and nails in the art room and ladders and other supplies from the janitor."

"What time is the truck coming?" Jimmy asked. The principal looked at her watch.

"He should be at the emergency exit of the gym in five minutes, I'll have to get back to work." With those words the principal left us alone. We walked calmly to the emergency exit. As soon as I opened the emergency exit door a man came up to me.

"Order for Auriana Williams?" he said gruffly. He looked at his own clapperboard.

"That's me." Four more men emerged from the truck and started collecting the stuff and putting it inside.

"Good for you, sign here." I neatly signed the dotted line and handed back the pen.

"Thank you," I said politely, giving him a friendly smile.

"Whatever," the man said gruffly. I closed the doors behind him. Stuff delivered, check! Jesus, what a grump, I thought.

"Brooke, Jeremy and Skylar, you're going to get the balloons, streamers and our self-painted banner, Emma and Nikki are going to get the white canvas, Renee and Jimmy are going to get the metal arch." They walked away to get the requested stuff.

"What do you want me to do?" Jake asked. I put the clapperboard away and walked over to him.

"Talk and listen, I only said you were my boyfriend so my grandma would like you, you're not my boyfriend and you never will be." Jake looked down. He felt as if his heart had been ripped out.

"Hey Auriana, how are things going here?" Sil walked into the gym.

"Okay, we're about to start decorating, are you coming to help?" He shook his head.

"No, I can't, our fifteen minute break is about to start." My smile disappeared like snow in the sun. Sil had been very distant lately. We weren't really in a relationship but we did like each other. At least that's what I thought of him.

"Okay, have fun, you know where to find me." My voice thankfully didn't betray how disappointed I was.

"Okay." Sil kissed me on the cheek and walked away. Jake's mouth was slightly open in surprise.

"You're going out with Sil?"

"Yeah, that's why you can't be my boyfriend." A little white lie never hurt anyone, right? Two minutes later, Brooke, Renee, Skylar, Nikki, Emma, ​​Jimmy and Jeremy walked back into the gym with the stuff I had asked them to get, and not even a minute later the bell rang.

"Just in time," Renee said. They put the stuff down.

"Okay, instead of ladders we can also use the vaulting boxes, Jimmy and Jake, you go get the CDs, Jeremy and Brooke, you go make a design of how it's going to be decorated, Renee, you write down the measurements, Emma, ​​you measure the dimensions of the wooden shelves, Skylar, you count the crates and Nikki, you go get four hammers and nails."