Angels of Moirai (Book One) (19 page)

Although I hadn’t been driving for many years, it had almost become second nature to me. The moment raindrops started hitting my windscreen, I turned the wipers on. It wasn’t until I realised that the sun was still shining everywhere else and the only rain that was falling happened to be on my moving car, I pulled over.

Once stopped, I looked out my side window and saw James standing amongst the trees with a wide grin on his face. I pointed up at the rain falling on my car, indicating if it was his doing, although I already knew it was.

The rain slowed until it completely stopped. I used this moment to step out of the car, and when I looked up into the sky, the rain clouds disappeared quickly into thin air.

James tilted his head for me to follow him into the woods. To any other person, this might have been creepy, but I knew we had to be careful about being seen together.

I followed him for several minutes into the forest, hoping no one would see my car on the side of the road and get worried.

James kept up a brisk pace until we reached a clearing. There was still signs of small stumps where it had been used as a logging area for some time, but a part of that, the grass grew thick and reached just above my ankles.

I had no idea how James managed to find these kinds of places when I’d lived in this area for years.

The clearing spread for about fifty square metres and formed a circle surrounded by tall woodland trees.

James waited for me to stand by his side before turning and taking my lips with a deep, hungry kiss.

It was hard having to deny our relationship, but even harder having to experience long periods without any contact, so whenever we had a chance to be together, it was full of a burning desire to be as one.

I didn’t want to leave him, but I knew I had to get to school, and the fact that my car was still sitting on the side of the road.

“I have to get going.”

“Stay.”

I sighed, “I can’t.”

“You won’t be late.”

“So you know that for sure, do you?” I said with a smirk on my face.

“You won’t be late,” he repeated with definition.

I gave in, after all, how I could argue with someone who pretty much knew the future.

When James outstretched his wings, I asked where we were going, thinking that meant he was flying me somewhere.

“Nowhere. I just thought they would be more comfortable to lie down on than the grass.”

I nodded as he guided me to the ground. We both lay on our backs staring at the blue sky above.

“You’re right,” I said feeling the soft wings against my body. “It’s like lying on a bed of feathers.”

James sarcastically replied, “That’s because it is.”

“Ha ha. There you go again with that smart mouth.”

James squeezed his arm around me and I rested in against him.

I didn’t want to ruin the moment, but the curiosity within me was yearning for answers. “How come you don’t talk about your family, and I don’t mean Mark. I mean your human family. The family you had before you became an angel.”

I could feel James’s body tense up at the mention of his family.

“Because the past is the past, and it should stay that way.”

“But surely you think about them?”

“I cannot think about them.”

“Why?”

“Why are you so eager to know?”

“Because it’s a part of you. Your human life made you who you are today. You can’t just ignore that side of you.”

“I’m not ignoring it, Lila. I don’t see it has any relevance to my life right now. It was a long time ago. I have changed; everything has changed.”

I could tell I’d hit a sore spot with James. I didn’t want to make him upset, I just couldn’t understand how he didn’t think about them.

I apologised, “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to make you upset. I… I thought that maybe talking about your human life would make this feel more normal… It’s hard not knowing much about you…”

“I understand, but my life is complicated.”

He didn’t elaborate any further and I couldn’t help but feel that in his human life, something sinister had happened. Something that made him cut that part of his life out of his thoughts and his angel life forever.

I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. I wanted to live in the moment I was in, and stop thinking about the past and the what if’s so much. So instead, I concentrated on the now, and when I opened my eyes, I felt something very small land on my finger; a tiny little lady bug.

I held my finger over my eyes.

“Look,” I said to James.

“You know what that means don’t you?”

I shook my head, “No, what?”

“Ladybugs are said to be an emblem of luck. When one lands on you, your wish will come true.”

I closed my eyes and wished for the one thing I craved the most, and when I opened them, the ladybug flew off into the sky. I hoped they really did make your wishes come true.

***

I took my pen off the paper, finishing the final question, and in turn, finishing my final exam for school,
ever
!

I placed my pen in my pencil case and looked at the time, only seconds to go.

“Pen’s down,” Mr Avery announced.

A welcoming sound of sighs filled the air.

I looked over at Jackie, a broad smile across her face. No doubt, she did well, she loved anything to do with the human body so our phys ed exam would have been easy as pie for her.

I avoided eye contact with James as he sat behind Jackie’s chair. It was the easiest way to have no contact with him. ‘Out of sight, out of mind’, I liked to remind myself.

We waited for Mr Avery to collect all our papers, and then we were allowed to stand and leave the hall. The moment we left, there was a huge cheer from the other classmates.

I hugged Jackie and cheered along with them. I noticed out of the corner of my eye, James smiling and giving Dale a man hug before walking away.

I focused back on Jackie and the defining moment in our lives that we’d just experienced. “Pretty sure I never want to see another exam paper ever again!”

Jackie laughed at me. “Well, don’t get used to it! In a few months, you’ll be at Uni and pretty sure that’s going to be ten times worse.”

We walked to our lockers and began cleaning them out for the last time. Every year they moved us around the school in random. We never knew why they did it, but luckily, this year, Jackie and I were positioned right next to each other.

“It’s kind of sad,” I said reminiscing, “This will be the last time we do this.”

“I know,” Jackie said pouting her lips. “You never know, next year you might change your mind and go to Hensley University,” she joked.

I laughed.

Piling all the textbooks into my school bag to take back to the Resource Centre, I stopped short, when on top of my math exercise book that I’d placed in the locker the day before, was a single white rose.

I smiled at the gesture, even at the thought of James breaking into my locker to put it there.

“Okay, I’m officially finished,” Jackie said over my shoulder.

I closed my locker and looked at hers quickly. “Wow! You are quick.”

“Yep. Did you want me to wait for you?”

“No,” I said shaking my head, “you go ahead. I’ve got so much junk in here, I’ll be a while.”

“Okay,” she said happily, “I’ll see you tomorrow.”

“For sure, I wouldn’t miss it!”

“You better not!”

She laughed and walked off down the hall, leaving me alone.

Although we had finished all our exams, we hadn’t officially finished school until tomorrow. There wasn’t any classes or anything, but they did a final farewell to all school leavers, and I definitely wasn’t going to miss that.

I opened my locker again and took the rose in my hand. I closed my eyes as I brought it to my nose, smelling the sweet scent.

It didn’t take me much longer to clear out my locker. After I dropped off all my textbooks, I loaded up my belongings into my car, including the rose, and drove home, readying for tomorrow and everything it was going to bring.

12… GRADUATION

Graduation. A time in our lives that nobody forgets. The moment when all your hard work, all those painstaking hours studying over an exam, finishing an assignment in the wee hours of the morning, and doing your absolute best to try to fit in, were at a closing chapter.

The world was your oyster, and it was all on you now to make it work, and to make everything you ever dreamed about a reality.

It was such surreal feeling as I stood in front of my bathroom mirror, putting on my school uniform over my swimmers for the very last time. For so long I only saw it as pieces of clothing that we were made to wear because we were told to, but now I saw it as a symbol. A symbol of an era in our lives, an era that shaped us into who we were today. Granted, I didn’t like it very much, I knew every time I would see someone in a school uniform I would reminisce on my days at Eden College, and that was something I was grateful for. It hadn’t always been easy, growing up surrounded by teenagers, whose hormones were all over the place. It never was. I hold some of the most special memories in my heart from my schooling years, not only meeting my great friend, Jackie, but also James…

I could barely contain my excitement, especially when Jackie was dropped off at my house before school so we could decorate my car in streamers, glitter, balloons, and writing all over the car with washable ink.

We couldn’t stop laughing and giggling with excitement as we made my car into a driving party. Every senior did it to their car, it was a tradition that we all loved to follow.

“This sucks,” Hayley pouted on the step at our front door. “I’ve got another two years before I get to graduate.”

Jackie rolled her eyes at me as she tied on the last balloon. I kept myself from laughing at her as I finished writing, ‘So long suckers’ on the back of the window in pink chalk ink.

Jackie walked around next to me and looked at what I’d written, and burst into laughter. “Nice.”

I laughed back, “Hey, it’s the last time we can be silly and immature, so why not?”

Hayley shook her head, “You two really are nerds. You know that, right?”

Jackie and I looked at each other and smiled. “Yep,” we both said in unison.

I let Jackie drive us to school, she had her licence, but her parents couldn’t afford a car, so we took turns driving when we were going places.  I wouldn’t admit it out loud, but she was a way better driver than I was.

“Are you going to the bonfire party tonight, Lila?” Hayley asked in the backseat.

“Of course,” I replied, “I couldn’t miss that. Why, are you going?”

“I was thinking about it,” Hayley said quietly.

“Isn’t it meant only for graduates?” Jackie chimed in.

Hayley replied, “Yeah, but there will be heaps of juniors going.”

I raised my eyebrows at Jackie, “Awesome. Juniors at our grad party.”

“The other seniors don’t care,” Hayley continued, “they invited us.”

I turned around in my car seat and looked at Hayley. “Who invited you?”

She hesitated, then lifted her chin and proudly said, “Well, if you must know, Dale did.”

“You can’t be serious.”

“What?” Hayley replied defensively.

“Dale?”

“Yeah. So?”

“Dale,” I repeated.

“Stop it, Lila. I happen to think Dale is pretty cute.”

“And going off to University next year,” I said a little pissed.

“So? It’s only a few hours away. We can visit each other on the weekends and stuff.”

“You’re already planning your future with him? Are you even together?”

“Lila,” Jackie warned.

I closed my eyes and shook my head. I could hear the venom in my words as I spoke them, and that was wrong and I could see I’d hurt Hayley.

“I’m sorry,” I said sincerely, “it’s fine. I just get a little over-protective. If you like Dale, then who am I to challenge that?”

Hayley’s face lifted. “Thanks, I do.”

Years of being Hayley’s protector had made me cautious about Hayley’s love interests, especially players like Dale. It was wrong of me to ridicule her choices when I had dated Dale myself. Her choices in love were hers, and I had to respect that.

The seniors were buzzing when we arrived. Everyone’s cars looked amazing and the atmosphere was electric. Although Jackie tried to drive at a slow speed with the balloons attached to the outside of the car, some had popped along the way. Most of them, however, were still attached.

I spotted James and Dale together, and I broke out laughing when I saw Dale’s sports jeep with the words, ‘seiors hell yeah’ on his back window, missing the n in seniors.

James saw what I was laughing at and shrugged his shoulders smiling.

The teachers gathered us in for a class photo in front of the school sign, and James had carefully made sure his face was completely blocked by another student. We then all took our blazers off and began signing everyone’s uniforms with black permanent markers.

For years, the teachers tried to ban this tradition, but they ended up giving up as no-one listened to them anyway, not on the last day of school.

I felt a tap on the shoulder and turned to see James with a marker in his hand. “May I?”

“Only if I can sign yours too,” I replied.

“Of course.”

James leaned forward and sucked in air. His head was only inches away from mine, as he signed his name on my shoulder.

“Congratulations,” he whispered into my ear.

“You too,” I replied, my voice a little hoarse.

He leaned back so I could do his shirt. I looked around for a space, but his was already covered in signatures, many of which were actually dirty drawings from Dale and the other boys.

“Boys.”

James laughed, “I’d like to say they grow out of it, but not all of them do.”

I shook my head, smiling as I found a place on his right shoulder blade.

I kept it simple like James, only signing my name, although James’s signature was ten times better than mine was. He had beautiful script handwriting that put our generation to shame.

“See you inside?”

I nodded, and we parted ways, moving onto the next classmates signing our uniforms. I didn’t ask to take a photo with him, since I knew it wouldn’t work anyway.

I watched on anyway, as I carried on signing uniforms and taking selfies with the other kids, I smiled knowing what he thought of selfies.

Stolen glances between us was all we were going to be able to have for now. I was drawn to him and all I wanted to do was share every second of this day with him, but I had to keep my distance.

We all had to wait outside the performance theatre as the rest of the school took their seats. We giggled and laughed at the sheer adrenaline running through us, especially when the teachers were still telling us to be quiet, teachers until the end!

I heard my phone go off in my pocket, earning a nice scowl from two of the teachers. I was curious to see whom it was from, since everyone I talked to was here with me now, or inside the theatre.

Mum- Your dad and I are sorry about the other night. We shouldn’t have said what we said. You are right. It’s your future and your decision on where you go. We want to make it up to you. We’ll be flying in tomorrow, I hope we can all sit down and have a big talk. We love you. Congratulations, we are so proud of you. Love Mum & Dad xoxo

I felt my stomach drop. Tears filled my eyes.

“What’s wrong-” Jackie cut short as she saw my phone with the message from my mum.

She turned towards me, hugging me tightly. “See, I told you. They love you, Lila.”

I closed my eyes against her shoulder. I was so overcome with emotion that I didn’t want to move.

Although I’d always said I’d given up on my parents, there was always a small part of me that hoped it wasn’t over. Our relationship was damaged beyond repair, but this one message gave me hope again. Hope that our future was one of a family. I tried not to put all my hope into it, for it could all be for nothing again, but I was happy for that moment. I was hopeful.

I pulled away from Jackie and smiled, typing back a quick reply.

Lila- I’m sorry too. I shouldn’t have spoken to you like that. I love you both. Talk soon x

I put the phone back in my pocket and took a deep breath, wiping the tear from my eye. I was ready, ready for the future.

Jackie and I stood in the middle of the crowd, hand in hand, and when the doors opened, there was a huge cheer from the school as we made our way into the theatre towards the stage.

Since it was only going to be a short farewell, as most of the formalities had been done at the formal, we were only to stand on the stage. There was not even one hundred students in our grade, so we were all able to fit on the stage standing in rows, side by side.

Jackie was by my side as we listened to the principal’s speech, wishing us farewell and all the best for the next chapter in our lives. When his speech was concluded, Jackie stood to make hers. She wasn’t the school captain, but she was a prefect and was elected by our classmates to make a speech, which was pretty bloody cool.

A warm heat came over me when I felt a familiar hand graze mine. I looked beside me. It was James.

He smiled down at me and my whole body responded.

We were so close, and with a row of people in front and behind us, I couldn’t resist the urge to touch his hand against mine. I felt the smoothness of his fingers touch mine, and he did what I never expected him to do. He entwined our fingers and held my hand. I knew it was a risk. What if someone saw? It was a risk I needed.

I didn’t think my day could get any better; graduation, my mum making contact, and now James holding my hand. It may have been such a simple gesture to others, but it’s exactly what I needed. He created a reassurance within me that I was so grateful for.

I turned my attention to Jackie as she began her speech, I didn’t want to miss it.

“Today marks a special moment in our lives. A moment that will forever be remembered by those standing on this stage with me right now. Together, we have achieved goals beyond anyone’s expectations. We pushed past the trials and tribulations that threatened to hold us back. We pushed forward, not just as individuals, but as classmates; students with the same goal to succeed in life and graduate with our heads held high. 

“It hasn’t always been easy, but we are proud to stand in front of you right now as the men and women we are today. We don’t know what tomorrow will bring us, but what we do know is that we are ready, ready to take on the world and make our mark in history.

“Thank you to all parents, teachers, and loved ones for their support and guidance throughout the years. Your influence in our lives is irreplaceable and we thank you for everything, but now we ask for one more thing, and that is to set us free. Send us out into the world with open arms and have trust in us; trust that we can make it. Thank you,” Jackie concluded. A round of applause broke out, and just as she was about to walk away from the microphone, she stood back in front of it, “Oh, and, let’s party!” she said loudly into the microphone.

My mouth dropped in shock and I began to laugh and cheer with the rest of the school. I couldn’t believe Jackie just did that. She was the biggest ‘goodie-two-shoes.’ This day was proving to be full of surprises.

I looked at James and his face was just as shocked. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen you surprised,” I said laughing.

“Just goes to show, you can never truly know what will happen next,” he replied.

I laughed.
Yep, this day was full of surprises.

After the speeches concluded, we waited for all the students to leave and make a human tunnel through the school. They did this by standing side by side across from each other with a gap in between.

When they were all ready we were set free, like Jackie had wanted. Some ran, some skipped, and some walked their way through the tunnel as the school clapped and cheered us on all the way, until we were at the car park.

One by one, each colourfully created party car left the school grounds, cheering and beeping their horns loudly.

Jackie and I yelled goodbye for one final time as we set off to the lake. It was the same lake as the one that backed onto my house. The day had been all about traditions, and this was one of them.

We all pulled up outside the lake and scrambled out of our cars, running fully clothed into the water. It was thrilling as much as it was fun! I only wish you could bottle the feeling we all had in that moment, as we danced around the lake, singing our school anthem like a bunch of crazy kids.

Most of the girls, like Jackie and I, wore swimmers under our clothes, but there was of course the girls that wore sexy lacy bra’s, and weren’t afraid to show them off.

We didn’t care at that point anyway. It wasn’t a bombshell. That was just who those girls were and after today, we wouldn’t have to see them again, anyway.