Practically Ever After

by Isabel Bandeira

  “Thanks.” I held back the urge to argue with him again on the financial part—especially since he wasn’t really supposed to be grading us on that—and picked up my glove from his desk. On my way back to my desk, I glanced down at my report, letting out a little sigh of relief at the bold “A” he’d scribbled next to my name. It wasn’t like this final grade really mattered much on the grand scale, especially since I wasn’t in the running for valedictorian, but it would have been embarrassing to get a bad grade in the class that was supposed to prepare me for my future major. I took my seat and patted my prototype gently, tracing my fingers over its curves. It was going to be hard not to take it through some more iterations and testing to a final design, but I was glad I hadn’t stopped at a plastic printed prototype and calculations, like most of my classmates. I slipped my phone out of my bag and, hiding it under my desk, I texted Oliver an “A” while the next person went up to do their presentation.

  My phone buzzed and I looked down at the message. “Congrats. Prof said to tell you she’s sure you’re going to be an amazing engineer someday.” It buzzed again and a second message popped up. “Everyone here is really proud of you.”

  I felt my smile grow into a grin.

  Chapter 52

  The lake water was finally getting warm, almost perfect for swimming. I splashed my toes in the shallow water and watched as the water rippled away from me in concentric circles. A turtle family had the same idea as me and were sunning themselves a few feet away on a fallen log, which my dad hadn’t had the heart to have removed from our private “beach.” I still had a few hours until I had to get ready for the graduation ceremony, so I had decided to come out back and just, as Phoebe liked to jokingly say sometimes, “commune with nature.” The butt of my jeans was getting soggy from the patch of moss I was sitting on and I tried shifting over a little, to no luck. Soggy butt aside, I could have stayed there forever, waiting for the sun to set and the fireflies to come out, like I’d done a million times before. And while I knew I had to leave eventually to change, I let myself think otherwise and splashed my toes a little harder, scaring all of the tadpoles and making the turtles give me the turtle equivalent of a stinkeye.

  “Hey, I was expecting macarons today.” I jumped at the voice, this time really scaring the turtles off the log, and Leia gave a small laugh as she dropped down onto the ground next to me. “You disappointed me.”

  I clutched at my chest and fell onto my back dramatically, earning another round of laughter from her. After my heart rate evened out and I could breathe evenly again, I pushed my hair out of my eyes and looked up at Leia with my best attempt at a heartbreaker smile.

  “The day isn’t over, you know.”

  “I figured you’d be busy tonight—it’s your graduation tonight, right?” At my small nod, she continued, “Since I haven’t seen any macarons yet, I doubt you’ll have time to hide any now.”

  “Who’s to say I haven’t hidden them already, and you haven’t found them yet?” I said back, teasingly, and trying not to let her teasing get my hopes up. Things were getting better with Leia, but I didn’t want to jump to any conclusions just because she stopped by.

  “Because you’re way too practical and won’t put them anywhere where they could be missed and either picked up by someone else or where bugs could get to them.”

  “You know me way too well.” I rolled onto my side, trying to look as adorable as possible by uncomfortably half-propping myself up on my elbow. I was thankful I’d worn my cutest shorts and the tank top she’d given me for my birthday last year.

  “I definitely do.” She picked up a flat rock from the pile I’d made earlier and flicked it so it skipped across the water. “I saw that glove thing you made on Photogram. It looks pretty amazing,” she said in her most casual tone.

  I nearly fell over, but fought it, using practically every muscle in my body to keep my balance. She was following me again on Photogram. “Thanks. It got an A.”

  “That’s great,” she said with a genuine smile, then it faded and her expression grew serious. “So, we really need to talk.”

  “I know.”

  “Macarons and the garden aside, you still kinda suck at emotional stuff, you know,” she said while wrapping her arms around her knees and hugging them close to her like a protective barrier.

  I forced myself not to straight-up disagree with her. “I’m trying. I think scooping layers of manure and compost for you has to count for something.”

  “Actually, it does. You are really cute when you’re trying to hold your breath and not pass out.”

  I let out a weak laugh. “I honest-to-goodness have no idea why you enjoy gardening. It’s dirty and smelly and my back still hurts from being hunched over so long.”

  She lit up, taking a deep breath and scrunching up her shoulders in an achingly familiar happy movement. “It’s amazing. There’s magic in seeing seeds turn into plants.” Her expression flattened again as she seemed to remember the purpose of the conversation and turned to meet my eyes straight on. “So, why did you break up with me and then change your mind?”

  I shrugged. “I was afraid we’d get to our new schools, break up at Thanksgiving, and that it would destroy our first semester grades because that’s right before finals. And that it would be a downward spiral from there into uncertain futures. So, I thought if we broke up now, we’d both have time to get over it and be ready for our new lives away from each other.”

  “You pre-emptively dumped me,” she said flatly, but the corners of her eyes were crinkled like she was holding back a smile.

  “Kind of?”

  She rolled her eyes up to the sky and shook her head. “That is ridiculous.”

  “It made sense on paper,” I said, realizing a little too late that my voice had taken on a slightly whiny tone.

  “Correction, you are ridiculous. I can’t believe you thought we weren’t worth fighting for.” She poked me in the arm, hard.

  “I do now. I didn’t think it would hurt as much as it did. I didn’t realize how important you were to me until I lost you. I knew I loved you, but I didn’t realize how much.” I could feel sweat forming on my palms but I didn’t dare wipe them on my shorts.

  Her voice stayed level. “You hurt me. I had no idea why you just up and stopped trying.” I stayed silent as she dug into me with her calm words, which hit harder than yelling ever would. “You know what the worst part was? You knew how crappy things were at school with Brooklyn and her minions and then, suddenly, I didn’t even have you to lean on. Do you know how hard that was?”

  “I’m so sorry.”

  “You better be. Because if we’re going to try to fix this, I don’t need you doing anything like it again. Or I’ll head straight up to State College and kick your butt all the way back to New Jersey.” Halfway through, she had cracked a smile, a bright, beautiful smile I hadn’t seen in forever, and hope finally seemed like something feasible.

  “So…you want to try again?”

  Leia nodded. “We’re not one hundred percent yet but, yes. We have a whole summer to try. Just don’t overthink it this time, okay?” She reached down to the hand I had on the ground and tentatively intertwined her fingers with mine. “By the way,” she whispered, looking straight into my eyes and letting her smile spread wider across her lips and touch her eyes. “I missed you, too.”

  Chapter 53

  I was going to sweat to death. Me, and the entire PCHS Senior class. If we didn’t melt first, that was.

  Someone seriously needed to rethink forcing hundreds of students to wear miles worth of unbreathable polyester in what was basically summer weather. At least our school had red graduation robes—I couldn’t imagine wearing black, even for a late afternoon graduation ceremony. We were currently waiting to be lined up in the gym and half the kids had ignored the teachers and had pulled off their robes or were flapping their arms around to try to get some air circulating under the cheap material. I had unzipped mine because it h
ad already started to suffocate me, and I was clustered with my friends under one of the air conditioning vents in the stands.

  “Perfect,” Em said as she finished pinning Phoebe’s graduation cap to her head. “It’s so much easier on your hair than mine.”

  Phoebe made a face and checked herself with her phone. “You mean because my hair is flatter than my singing.” The humidity had plastered Phoebe’s hair to her head, her waves only starting from the ear down in something that was more half-straight/half-curly frizz than any actual style. But with the cap, she looked cute, like she’d planned it.

  “You said it, not me.” Em pressed down on the top of her cap again and readjusted the bobby pins holding it in place. “At least you and Grace know yours won’t move. Mine just doesn’t want to stay. These caps were definitely not made for curly hair.”

  “You look smart and beautiful,” Kris said to her, reaching over to flick at her orange tassel, and then bent over to give her a kiss on her cheek. “Which is exactly what you are.”

  Em’s cheeks took on a slightly coral shade and waved him away with a grin. “As much as I could hear you say stuff like that forever, you have a speech to prep for and I don’t want to be the reason you’re not ready, Mister Class President.” She reached over and pulled the folded papers out of his hands. “Do you want me to go over it with you again?”

  He shook his head and took back the papers. “I think I’m good. I’d rather just hang with you guys. Matt is panicking about his speech and he’s driving me nuts.”

  “That’s what happens when you have valedictorians for best friends. Grace and Alec at least had the common courtesy to just graduate with honors. No nerves and speeches about how we’re ‘embarking on our future adventures,’ etcetera.” She winked at us and I reached up to touch my own “honors” gold tassel.

  “Please don’t tell me you’re going to force us to listen to something like that, too,” I said to Kris.

  “Nope,” He said, deadpanning. “Em nixed that about four drafts ago.”

  “Bless you,” Phoebe said to Em, leaning over to prop her head on Em’s shoulder. “Now I remember why you’re my best friend.”

  “Ten minutes to line up,” Dev said as he made his way over to squish next to Phoebe on the bleachers. His own hair was sticking out haphazardly from the bottom of the cap and Phoebe reached up to try and smooth it down. “Kris, MacKenzie asked me to remind you that you need to line up in front instead of alphabetically,” he added around Phoebe’s fussing.

  “Got it.”

  “You know,” Alec said, waving the air in front of him, “if they were going to stick hundreds of people in here in sweaty robes, the least they could have done was up the air conditioning. It smells worse than usual in here.”

  We all twisted our noses and nodded in agreement. “I’m actually going to miss this place,” I said, looking around the gym I’d cheered in and suffered through endless PE in for four years. “I kind of want one more pep rally, you know? And a little more time hanging out here with all of you.”

  “Meh, you’ll forget all about us when you’re spending time around all the other super practical people going for degrees that the rest of us can’t even pronounce,” Alec said.

  “Actually,” I said, twisting the hem of my graduation robe so tightly that it was definitely going to have a major wrinkle, “I’m thinking of changing my major. Maybe practical isn’t everything.”

  “No way,” Em said, laying her hand across my forehead to mime checking for a fever.

  “So, dance?” Phoebe asked, taking a moment to pull the robe from my hands before I could ruin it beyond any chance of ever getting my deposit back.

  “Yeah, I’m not changing that much,” I said with a smile. “But, I’m switching to an undecided engineering major and, at the end of the first semester, I’m going to audition and see if they’ll let me take a dance minor. Working on that glove project made me see that maybe I might want to look into doing medical stuff. Or maybe there’s some other kind of engineering I don’t know about that is the perfect fit for me. I know I want to design things, but I want to try a few different things before really deciding.”

  “Grace, going in without a plan. We’re definitely headed towards the apocalypse,” Alec said in a teasing tone, bumping my shoulder with his.

  I held up one finger like a teacher about to clarify a point. “I’m not going in without a plan, I’m just being flexible about my options. I looked it up and the first year of engineering has a lot of the same classes for all disciplines. And dance will keep me in shape so I don’t have to worry about the freshman fifteen.”

  “There’s also the perk of being able to transfer to a campus that’s closer to here,” Em fake-coughed and added, “Leia,” before fake-coughing again and finishing with, “hmm?”

  I turned my most serious expression on her. “Doubtful but possible, depending on the major I pick, but that’s not a reason to change a major, Em.”

  “Let Em have her fairytale romance fantasy,” Kris said with a grin, “Or you know she’ll just keep coming up with ideas to make things work for you two.” She poked him in the side and he ignored her, adding, “She has a huge packet of train schedules made for us. And I think she already bought tickets for a few musicals in the city.”

  “He’s exaggerating.”

  “Better be, because everyone knows you only buy tickets the day of from the TKTS booth,” Dev said, and Em nodded and pointed at him, mouthing “see?” at Kris.

  “Anyway,” Phoebe piped in, “it still sounds super logical.”

  “It is,” I said with a grin back at her. “But if I decide to switch totally to a dance major, please make sure I wasn’t taken over by some alien or something, okay?”

  “And,” Em said, stretching out the ‘a’ like an announcer, “she’s back.” She tossed a huge grin at me and followed that with, “No insulting performing arts majors, because you’re got two of us in hearing distance right now.” She looked over at Dev, who put on the most hilariously fake-angry face, hamming it up so it was hard for all of us to keep from laughing.

  “Pfft, you’ll do amazing, since you aren’t risk-adverse like me,” I shot back with a matching smile, just as someone blew a whistle and teachers called for us to start lining up in alphabetical order. “I’m learning that sometimes the safe way in things isn’t always the best, but let me have my somewhat predictable future.”

  Chapter 54

  It was already 11 a.m., but after spending most of the night riding roller coasters and eating greasy amusement park food, most of us in the booth looked like we still needed a week’s worth of sleep. Except for Leia, who was annoyingly awake as she took her seat next to me in the diner booth, punctuating her, “How was it?” with a super-bright smile at me, Phoebe, and Alec.

  “Coffee,” Phoebe muttered, holding up her cup before taking a long sip, then added, “I’m never staying up until 3 a.m. ever again unless a book is involved. Books aren’t as exhausting as roller coasters.”

  “Awesome one-hundred-year-old wooden roller coasters with no lines so we could ride them over and over again,” Alec said as he poured almost half the carafe of maple syrup on his stack of pancakes. “Someone text Em and tell her to tell her boyfriend that the student council gets two thumbs up for picking the best place for us to have Project Graduation.”

  “She’s just running late. She’ll be here and then you can tell her yourself,” Phoebe said, then yawned.

  “So, I guess it was good,” Leia said in an amused tone.

  I held back a laugh and nodded. “It was. I wish it hadn’t been PCHS-students-only so you could have come. I know the carousel is your favorite.” Collington Park was over a century old and every time we visited, Leia would make a beeline for the carousel, always marveling over the artistry of the carved wooden horses.

  “It’s okay. The park is open all summer. It’s not going anywhere. We can go anytime.”

  I thrilled a little at the
casual “we,” but tried to just as casually cut and spear a piece of my cheese omelet, instead. “You’re right.”

  “You’ll have to count me out since I’ll be in India and then it’s Trix’s wedding.” Phoebe, now looking a little more awake, shook her head and, with a little, almost dreamy smile, said, “Wow, that sounds a little weird to say. I can’t believe it’s almost here.”

  Alec nodded. “Right? Sorry, guys, I have to bow out, too. Mom has me painting the garage floor and doing all the stuff I’d been promising to do every summer for the last four years. I’ll probably never see the sun.”

  “I guess it’s just you and me, then,” Leia said to me, then stole a cherry tomato off my plate.

  “I guess so,” I said, then grabbed a napkin and pushed all of my cherry tomatoes onto it for her.

  Phoebe looked at all of us over the top of her mug, her eyes wide. “I still can’t believe that was it. School’s over.”

  “We’ll probably never see some of those people ever again,” I added.

  Alec bumped me with his elbow. “That’s a good thing. I’m getting tired of being surrounded by Lamberts,” he said with a grin.

  “No more late bus or band,” Phoebe said.

  Leia tilted her head at that comment. “Are you giving up playing flute?”

  “Not really, but I’m not doing band anymore. I’ll just play for fun. Dev will have enough marching band stuff for both of us.” She shrugged, and added, “I love it but we all know I’m never going pro.”

  “No more disco fries here after Friday night football games,” I added, just barely keeping the melancholy out of my tone.

  “The diner’s going to go broke and close without us here to keep them busy,” Alec joked. “And Marranos.”