"Why are you so anxious? It's just a video." Libby exclaimed, slamming her glass of fruit tea onto the table at breakfast. Tally and I jumped backwards in our seats.

"But every senior will see it." I grumbled, and Tally nodded despite how outgoing she always is. It seemed as if the two had switched personalities.

"You'll be fine. Now, we have to hurry or else we will most certainly be late." We hurried down to the bus stop together, meeting up with Lucas.

"Hey." I smiled at him, but I saw his attention was on Tally who was talking to someone else that was waiting.

"Now he's noticing her." Libby whispered into my ear as we watched Lucas stare at Tally.

Quickly, his eyes switched over to me, and I kept talking to Libby, working on keeping my eyes away from him.

It seems as if he likes the two of us.

We boarded and sat all on one bench, Tally and Lucas talking. I felt a hand on my thigh. It was Lucas'. I took it off, placed it in his lap, and scooted toward Libby, but Tally had seen the act. Her eyes were tearing up, and she burst open onto him with all of her anger and vengeance.

"Look, I'm not willing to be your second choice every time Ryla rejects you, especially when you are my first choice. Do you not see what you do to me? I am best friends with Ryla and you two are best friends so you have to know that it's not easy for me. At least Ryla respects me about this." There were a few tears on her face, but Lucas looked up surprisingly at her.

Libby shook her head sadly at him while I spoke. "Go away. I don't want to talk to you until you get yourself figured out." I watched as he walked to another section of the train.

Tally wiped at her eyes.

I handed her a tissue, and she thanked me. Tally is strong enough, and I know that soon, she will be over him. I'm just not sure what Lucas will do. I really hope he takes time for himself and leaves us alone for awhile even though he's coming to my party. Maybe it'll be okay by then.

When we got to campus, we walked off, just the three of us, and started toward the big auditorium.

"The boys are supposed to turn the video in, right?" Libby asked, her eyes looking off in the distance as we walked.

"Yeah. We'll watch the video and then a picture of the girl showing off the ring appears on screen." Tally answered softly, her voice quivering.

We walked inside, earlier than most people as last Saturday had been. There were coffee cups in most hands, work being done, and conversations being held.

"I'm going to miss this." I muttered.

"What'd you say?" Tally turned and looked at me, unlike Libby who couldn't peel her eyes way from who I had learned to be Thomas.

"Nothing. It doesn't matter." I gave her a small smile as the place became flooded with seniors, stepping over legs and going over and in between seats to get to the seat they wanted to sit in.

All of a sudden, Mr. Clemon's voice came on over the dull roar. "If all seniors would be seated as soon as possible, we would like to start in two minutes." I could see him peek his head out from behind the curtains on stage before a white sheet was lowered.

"Nervous?" Vega sat down on my right side.

"Why would I be?"

"You have to pee, don't you?" Libby joined the conversation over Tally.

"Yes."

"Does that mean something?" Tommy asked from Vega's other side as Shyanne sat down next to Libby.

"It means I'm nervous." We all laughed as the lights dimmed, and everyone went quiet except for the rebels who kept whispering.

"Silence, and remember girls, don't take off your rings a day early. The office will know when you are supposed to take them off." Mr. Clemson spoke before the first video appeared on screen.

Throughout the presentation, there were tons of awe's, clapping, and comments. When Tally's showed, I couldn't help but let out a small squeal at how amazing the guy did.

Then Libby's came on, and there were lots of awe's and wow's due to how cute Lucas' idea was, I do admit that, and the editing I had helped him do to fit the different views on screen.

A few videos later, Shyanne appeared on screen, looking through the bookstore, suddenly grabbing a book. It was her favorite old Grimm's Fairytale storybook. She opened it and gasped at the heart that had been completely cut out, and a ring was sitting inside. Vega appeared and apologized for hurting a book, gifted her with a new one, and then proposed.

Everyone was still laughing at the horror on her face.

We waited and waited for what seemed like forever. Soon, the video appeared on the screen. Tons of people laughed as I spoke about my ignorance and obliviousness. When it came to the last part, it showed Tommy proposing and me hugging him before it switched to a camera that was following me up the stairs.

"You're kidding me." I muttered, and I felt Vega's hand grip mine.

"I promise I didn't know about this." There was a perfect view of us talking it out before the video changed to a picture of me showing off my ring to a waitress at the diner.

The auditorium went dark for a few seconds before the lights clicked on, and Mr. Clemon walked on stage.

"Thank you to all of you seniors for participating in Proposal Week. Luckily, there was no drama with mixed up girls that had to be fixed. I have seen many relationships start and people get engaged in this week. We ask that if anything goes wrong, that the school will not be blamed. Thank you and have a good weekend and then last week of school before Christmas Break."

All of the seniors clapped before people began to file out. "Let's wait until people get out before we leave." We all agreed with Tally and sat there as we waited.

"Hey. I have something to give y'all." I pulled the invitations from my bag and held them out. "Shyanne and I are holding a party this coming Wednesday, and we really want you to come. It's extremely important

." There were light chuckles as I passed them out to them before I stood up and started leading us out.

We all separated ways to go to our classes. On my way to my class, Robert caught up with me, panting.

"Hey, Ryla." He grinned. "That was an amazing proposal. How sweet."

"It really was. You did a great job with Harper."

"Psh, it was so lame." He started laughing, and I just shook my head.

"You did better than a bunch of boys, and that's what counts. She was happy." We high-fived and continued on our way to our next class in silence.

~

After classes, I headed over to the pool to get extra practice in with Missy. We started on dry land, doing a lot of versions of what drills can be done in the water, intervals and all.

She had me outside, bearing the cold in my tight capris, t-shirt, and sports jacket. My hair whipped behind me as I panted while sprinting. I knew that soon, she would have diving and swimming inside. It was a cycle I would have to get used to.

Once practice finished, I stuffed invitations in each locker, and before we headed out, I explained my plan to Missy. She thought it was a good idea, that I wasn't waiting for the day of us leaving and that I was telling everyone as a whole.

She explained to me more in depth on how things would work. She would be giving me strict rules on what to buy throughout and how to go through my day, doing all sorts of things to make my body feel and be better.

It was a lot, but I wasn't on my own when it came to doing this. She would be watching over me, having gone through the same thing. After six months, I would have Libby join me who was going out there for volleyball, but she doesn't know that I'm going to be other there yet.

I arrived at Shyanne's flat so that I could shower and get ready for us to go shopping. I used my own key to get inside and headed to the guest room to get ready.

"That you, Ryla?" Shyanne called out from her library/office.

"Nope, just a robber heading to your guest room." There was a chuckle from her room before I shut the door to the guest bedroom and headed to her shower.

~

"We can't buy much, and we don't need much." I said as we walked through Dollar Tree.

"I know, I know. I only put too much on Power Points."

I gave her a look, and she sighed. "And some other things. Now shut up, we need to focus."

We piled food, drinks, cups, plates, napkins, utensils and decorations all on top of each in the cart. Soon, the cart was completely full.

"When you feed a heard of elephants." I mumbled as the poor cashier rang up all of our things.

"You mean your swim team and your friends?"

"Sarcasm. Geez, you're like Libby when it comes to my sarcasm." She hung her head, pretending to be upset with me.

"So, we're taking this all to my house, and then, we're setting up Wednesday morning?" Shyanne asked as we brought everything out to her car.

"Yup! I'm coming with you to your house. We'll unload it all and put things where they need to be until Wednesday. Then, I'll leave and take Marta home."

"I'm taking you home." She said almost immediately, starting to help me unload our buyings into her trunk.

"I'm not making you waste gas. Period." She finally agreed with me, and we got in her car and went back to her flat.

After unloading the great haul of everything, we sat in her kitchen, eating as we talked.

"Can I spend the night Tuesday night so that we have tons of time to set up?" I asked, taking a bite of my chip.

"Sure. That's no problem. I am always alone here."

"If the thing with Joshua works-" She cut me off by protesting and shoving my phone accidentally into the cake on my plate.

I looked up at Shyanne, envisioning myself as Tally's Queen of Cool self, and spoke monotonous. "Thank you. I totally wanted a cake case." I picked up my phone and shoved it into her face, getting crumbs and icing all over her nose and glasses.

"Quit! It's so sticky." She squealed and giggled.

I stopped and stared at her wondrously. Seeing Shyanne giggle is a rare appearance, like seeing a dinosaur.

"What?" She snorted, and I burst into my own laughter at her.

"You giggled and then snorted. A picture of grace." I kept laughing just as hard, and she was now giving me a flat look.

"That's me." She was holding her finger under her nose, a habit to keep her from snorting and now, apparently, laughing.

"I'm sorry." She let out a small laugh before she looked at the clock. I followed her gaze and stood up.

"It's time for me to get going, or I'm going to miss the train." I had memorized the schedule and times of arrival and departure. It wasn't too hard after four and a half years of living in New York and taking Marta to save gas.

My car was rarely used, and mostly Tally used it since the three of us, meaning Tally, Libby, and me, share the car. Her dance is too far away to take Marta.

I walked out of her house, yelling goodbye and tossing a wave over my shoulder before stuffing my fists into my coat pockets and walked briskly down the sidewalk to the nearest stop.

I sat down on the bench and waited, dreaming of a life where I could manage a long distance relationship around Vega's soccer and my swimming, in which still nobody except Shyanne knows about.

The bus pulled up, its windows foggy and making a whine as if it was ready to retire for the night. It depressed air as the driver pressed the brakes and opened the doors, welcoming in the cold air to his bus.

I stood there, standing silently as I stared at the doors.

"You coming or not?" The gruff voice of the driver cut through my sudden thoughts.

I nodded and hurried up the steps, taking a seat right under the heater.

"Ryla!" I turned around to see Joshua and Jeremy sitting together in a group of three seats.

I stood up and went to sit with them, sighing as I collapsed into the seat.

"What's on your mind?" Jeremy asked, peering at me around the basketball he spun on his finger.

"Why would you care?" I looked out the opposite window, wishing I hadn't sat down with them.

"You don't look happy. Something is definitely on your mind." Joshua leaned on the basketball he held in his lap, looking at me from the seat next to me.

"Not like you would care."

"We're not heartless like people think." They said in perfect unison, making me chuckle.

"There's that smile." Joshua laughed.

"Here, are the two of you going pro?"

"I am." Joshua nodded and looked at Jeremy, wanting an answer.

"No. Basketball isn't my dream." It's computer game designing. I know it.

"So Joshua, say you're leaving before senior year finishes, and you don't know how to tell people that. Would you tell all of your friends and the people on your basketball team all at once?" I saw the knowing glance in his eyes since Jeremy had tuned us out.

"In your case, you should do it all at once since you are so well liked, but only to the closest people. It can spread around after that." I nodded, still not sure if I was doing the right thing since Joshua gave me the advice.

I have him his invite and fell into silence.

Sure, he's a great friend, but he's not too smart.