I smoothed my hands down the lacy, white cocktail dress I'd just put on and slipped my feet into some matching ballet flats. Looking in the mirror, I grabbed my robes and slipped them on over top of my dress. I was graduating today.

It didn't feel entirely real, but at the same time there was so much excitement flowing through my body. I was jittery and happy. Downstairs, I knew that my parents were freaking out and waiting for me to come down.

I was ready, so I guess it was time to put them out of their misery. I grabbed my cap and left my room, heading downstairs to where my parents, Jackson and Xavier were waiting for me. The tears from my mom were immediate upon seeing me in my graduation gown.

"My baby's all grown up!" she sobbed, yanking me off the last step and into her arms where she could cry on my shoulder and squeeze the life out of me. I wheezed and tried to pat her back, hoping she'd let go soon.

My dad came to my rescue with a smile, pulling her off me and pulling me into another hug, this one much more gentle. "I'm so proud of you, baby girl," he whispered into my ear. "You can do anything that you set your mind to."

"Thanks, daddy," I whispered back, now trying not to cry like my mom.

When he released me, I turned to Jackson who was quietly, but impatiently waiting for his turn. He wasn't obvious about it, but I could tell from his fidgeting that he was getting impatient for his own hug.

Now that he had my attention, he grinned and hugged me, lifting my feet off the ground and spinning me around. "You look beautiful," he told me, kissing me quickly.

I snorted. "Jackson, no one looks good in graduation robes."

"Baby, you make anything look good," he replied with a cheesy wink, making me laugh and kiss his cheek.

"Thank you. Is everyone ready to go?"

Xavier grinned and opened the door for me as everyone answered in affirmative. "Everything's set," my dad said, his voice gruff. "Let's get you to the school."

I led the way out the door and my parents, Jackson and Xavier followed closely behind. After today, I would finally be done with high school. There was supposed to be a lock in after graduation, but I'm pretty sure that no one was going. Nobody wants to be locked in the school they're finally escaping overnight. It was for that reason that I invited my entire class to the beach party that Xavier had all planned out for me. It was going to be huge. With my whole class coming, and the pack, all of the vampires had also agreed to come.

Xavier was ecstatic. He and Levi were very proud of themselves, taking a lot of pride in the fact that the party they planned was going to be a huge hit. I knew that they planned a lot of it with the other vampires at the club, but they were taking most of the credit.

Jackson and I climbed into the backseat of my parents' car while Xavier climbed into his own. He'd mentioned earlier that he had to go pick up some of the guests he'd invited to the party, meaning the vampires. They were coming to graduation as well. I was sure that Bane wasn't going to be able to get close to me with all of them there. I was officially worry free for the day.

The school was a short ten minutes away and it felt like hardly any time had passed before we were exiting the car again. "Go get 'em, Celia," Jackson told me, giving me a loving kiss before releasing me. I waved to my parents and headed inside the school to meet the rest of my class where they were preparing in the cafeteria.

Taylor was the first one to see me, attacking me with a hug and a lot of squealing. I laughed and squeezed her back tightly. "Are you ready for this?" I asked of her.

She nodded enthusiastically as she released me so Kayla and Lisa could have their turns trying to strangle me. "We are finally done with this place!" Lisa said happily as she backed away from me.

"It'll be so wonderful not to have to come here anymore," Kayla agreed. "Time to go meet some college boys."

I rolled my eyes at her. She and Aiden are so much alike. They're both horrible flirts. I'd bet almost anything that Aiden was thinking along similar lines about the college girls.

"And those girls!" Speak of the devil...

Aiden wrapped me in a huge hug when he reached us. "How's that idiotic boyfriend of yours?" he asked.

"He's fine," I told him. "We worked everything out and it's all good now."

Aiden nodded in approval. "Good. I'd have to kick his ass for you if it was any other way."

I found myself rolling my eyes again, something I did often around him and Kayla both. "Are you ready to be done with all of this?"

"Definitely," Aiden responded firmly. "Are you ready to walk down that aisle with me?"

The girls and I snorted with laughter. "Oh, definitely," I responded, copying him.

It wasn't much longer before the principle came in and called for everyone's attention. He handed everyone their honors, high honors, and academic excellence cords and tassels. Us girls all got high honors and Aiden got academic excellence.

And then, it was finally time to head down to the auditorium. We lined up outside and waited for the class song to start playing. It would be our cue to walk in. I linked arms with Aiden as the opening notes began to play and he gave me an excited smile as we began our walk to our seats.

We remained standing and turned to face the rest of the class until everyone was standing in front of their chairs. We turned as one to face the principle and super intendant and waited for them to tell us to sit.

I scanned the crowd quickly and was able to easily pick out my parents, Jackson, Eli and Alice. They were all sitting together. Looking harder, I was able to pick out others scattered throughout the auditorium. Not too far from my parents was Xavier, Levi, Lewis, Jerome, Anthony and Nila. I was also able to pick out Mason farther back along with a bunch of other werewolves and vampires that I wasn't well acquainted with.

As I was almost finished my gaze caught on one face that made me freeze and squeeze Aiden's hand tightly. Green eyes twinkled evilly at me as Bane Drabek casually ran a hand through his shaggy black hair and gave me a quick wink and a mocking, silent round of applause. I looked back to Jackson to see if he'd noticed the unwanted guest in the audience. He hadn't.

"Hey, are you alright?" Aiden whispered in my ear.

I nodded and forced myself to relax my grip on his hand. "I'm fine," I assured him, wondering how Bane managed to sit in graduation without anyone from the pack or coven noticing him. Jackson gave me a questioning look and I looked pointedly to where Bane had been sitting, but the spot was empty. Bane was gone just as quickly as he'd appeared.

My hand tightened around Aiden's again and stayed that way through all of the speeches. He kept giving me worried looks that I continued replying to with reassuring smiles. I didn't know where Bane had gone. I didn't know if he was still lurking around and waiting to catch me alone or if he'd just shown up to scare me.

I was so worried about it, that I almost missed it when the principle called my name. Standing just a couple seconds late, I quickly made my way to the stage to shake hands with the principle and superintendent and receive my diploma.

My mom raced down the center aisle to snap some pictures, making me smile slightly to myself. I gave her a goofy grin and crossed my eyes as I passed her and made my way back to my seat beside Aiden.

I was pretty sure that Bane was actually gone, but just in case, I knew that I had to find Jackson as soon as we were done in here. He needed to know that Bane managed to slip past the entire pack. He wasn't going to be happy about it though.

After just a few more speeches and performances by the band and choir, the principle ordered us to turn and face the crowd and pronounced us the class of 2014. Even though we were told not to, we threw our caps in the air and then scrambled around for the next five minutes, trying to relocate them.

As we walked out to meet our families, Taylor had tears running down her face and the rest of us had triumphant smiles, but hugged Taylor, telling her everything would be okay. She was just being a sentimental doofus and willingly admitted it.

I was engulfed by Xavier and Levi the moment I exited the school and they congratulated me on graduating. "You did good, little sister," Levi told me while ruffling my hair.

I smacked his hands away from my hair and glared at him. "Thank you, big brother," I replied testily.

He grinned and wrapped an arm around my shoulders as he led me to my parents, Jackson, Eli and Alice. I hugged both my parents, my mom wiping away more tears. "My baby's all grown up," she said, sniffling.

I rolled my eyes, but kissed her cheek. "You'll be fine, mom," I told her. "I had to grow up sometime."

My dad laughed and wrapped an arm around her shoulders, pulling me into him with the other arm. "We're proud of you honey," he told me. "Have fun at your party."

"But not too much fun!" my mom called as my dad pulled her around and back to the car.

I waved goodbye and turned to Jackson and Eli, my face becoming serious. "Bane made it past you guys," I told them.

Both of them were shocked by my statement. "How?" Eli asked. "I had pack members spread through the entire audience!"

I shrugged, wrapping my arms around Jackson's waist as he pulled me to him. "I don't know, but he was there. He winked and silently clapped when I looked at him."

Jackson growled angrily, gripping me tighter. "Where was he?"

"I don't know exactly, Jackson," I told him, wrapping my arms around his waist. "He was in the bleachers and when I tried to point him out to you, he was gone."

"Stay next to me for the entire party, Cecilia," he ordered me. "I don't want you out of my sight."

I sighed. I'd fight with him later when someone else wanted to dance with me. And the vampires would want to. "Where are the guys from Fangs?" I asked Xavier and Levi.

Both of them were tense and obviously angry, but Xavier still answered my question. "They went to the beach to get the last minute stuff around. You ready to get there?"

I nodded in agreement. "Let's go. We'll just have to be careful tonight," I replied, heading toward the parking lot.

"Don't worry about anything, Cecilia," Xavier assured me. "We'll all keep an eye on you. Even if Bane shows up, he won't get near you."

I nodded. I wasn't going to let Bane ruin this night for me. I was going to my party and I was going to enjoy it.

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