Just as they finished dinner, the home phone rang. Melissa answered it and summoned Christine. "Hello, Christine. I don't know if you remember me. I'm John Dixon, but I go by William Ace. I worked the Mike Smith benefit, and you were girl dancing on YouTube. I've been asked to emcee a memorial tribute Saturday evening at the Church of Saints. It's that big church over on Third Street.”"I've been given carte blanche for this affair. The governor has agreed to speak. So has your school principal. The Chief of Police will have his moment in the sun, but mostly, I'm looking for students to speak, or perform. I want this to be a time of healing. The kids need that, as you well know. Would you be interested in speaking, or performing in some way? I know that dancing wouldn't be appropriate, but poetry, recollections, recitals. Hymns or nice songs would be fine.""A year ago, I would've been too nervous to do something like that, but I can tell you that I welcome the opportunity now. I'll
"You two do know that I'm standing right here?" asked Mitchell. "You should wait until my back's turned before you discuss this stuff. I never had any sisters and if I did, I'm sure they wouldn't be so Willing to share details like you sisters do.""I wish you had a brother," laughed Maddie. "We have enough girls to go around, but we need more Mitchells.""Getting back to your original question, Laura said I should be discharged tomorrow. She says that it's quite soon, considering I have two bullet wounds, but I'm healing already, and she thinks my spirits will pick up when I'm around your mom and Hailey, and maybe Willow,” Mitchell said."Really? Mom, Hailey, and Willow? Christine and I can raise a lot more than your spirits, stud. We'll take good care of you, won't we, Sis?""What's this 'we' stuff?" demanded Christine with a big grin. "I'll handle everything that comes up just fine. You'll be out shopping with Mom and Hailey.""Well, be sure to check for text messages if you'r
Dan drove the entire family, plus Mitchell, to the memorial service in his SUV. He dropped Christine and Mitchell off near the rear of the building so Mitchell would not have as far to hobble to reach backstage. Christine held his good arm as he tried to keep his right leg from moving very much. His bullet wound was high on his thigh and chaffed when he tried to walk on that leg. To lessen the rubbing, Mitchell tried to keep that leg immobile and rely on his left leg to provide motion. It all made for an awkward gait. Any step with either leg still caused some pain in his injury.When they arrived backstage, Mitchell and Christine were impressed with the caliber of speakers and performers present. A girl that finished in the top five in American Idol the previous year lived in their state. She had volunteered to sing "Amazing Grace". Cindy Burns and Laura Anderson were scheduled to speak. Governor O'Leary was scheduled to speak after the first prayer. The mayor and the police chief w
"Ladies and gentlemen, without further ado, let me introduce the two students most responsible for preventing the recent shooter attack from being even more devastating to the Highland Nation. Risking their lives to save others seems to be commonplace for these two. I give to you, Christine Leonard and Mitchell Kays."Christine held Mitchell's hand as they slowly made their way to the microphone. Mitchell's difficulty in walking required almost half a minute for the couple to reach it. As Christine helped Mitchell hobble forward, the crowd stood and applauded. After they reached the microphone, the crowd continued the applause. Christine and Mitchell both smiled slightly and nodded. Then Christine stepped back from Mitchell and gestured toward him, and the applause increased.Surprised, Mitchell raised his flat palm toward Christine in the same universal sign used when indicating others for praise. Once again, the applause increased. Christine smiled and stepped back to take Mitchel
"I want everyone to know that I will always have the backs of these three friends. Liam and Jared are now my brothers, and Christine is... everything. Anytime, anyplace, I'll be there if they ever need me."When I was a little more than a child, my grandfather died. My mother sang a beautiful song to me to help me feel better. She told me that her mother used to sing it to her in sad times. We all wonder why this terrible thing happened, and why it happened to us. There are no good reasons. How do you explain intolerance, envy, hatred, and fear? Just know that there is either a plan for us all, or everything in life is totally random. Your choice, but either way, you have to learn to accept what we cannot explain. I hope that Christine will help me with one final song, the song by John Lennon and Paul McCartney that my mother used to sing to me."Mitchell began playing a familiar tune on the piano and at the appropriate moment, sang into the microphone. "Imagine there’s no heaven it
"Mom. I know what you're doing and the joke you're making. Now let him go, so we can get home," insisted Christine."Just a minute, Sis. You're not going to try to stop me from getting my hug, are you," laughed Maddie as she stepped into Mitchell's arms. "You're right, Hailey. This guy is very fresh. To think he did this to Aunt Donna, Mom and even Willow. Christine, your boyfriend has been coping feels of the entire family.""That's what I've been saying. I hear you enjoyed putting his tie on for him earlier. Well, I'll be the one taking it off tonight. Quit squirming against him and let go. Look how red his face is," pointed out Christine. "You might put him back in the hospital if you don't release him pretty soon.""Maddie, let me give the guy a hug. As his doctor, I'll be able to determine if he needs another transfusion," suggested Laura as she stepped in against Mitchell when Maddie released him. "No problem, Christine. His blood supply and pressure seem to be excellent. If
"You're right, Mom. I'm sorry for being so selfish. Look. He's been bleeding again. Sit down so we can get this bandage off. I knew you shouldn't have been walking around. Hugging every woman in town didn't help any, either."Christine carefully cut away Mitchell's dressings while Melissa observed. Once they had the old bandage off, Christine carefully cleaned the wound the way Laura had shown her. Mitchell was using his good hand to hold his genitals up and away from the injured area. Melissa then handed Christine the necessary pads and gauze to rewrap the wound."That's a nasty injury. I can only guess how it looked when Christine first tried to stop the bleeding after you were shot. It looks to be healing okay and the blood was from the tissue and not the artery. That's a good thing. Christine, you did an excellent job. You'll make a very good doctor. Now let's work on that shoulder."Twenty minutes later, Christine put the finishing touches on Mitchell's shoulder bandage and tu
"You know I won't mind. We were going to go to the funeral today and pay our respects to our friend and classmate. We'll just plan on doing that song. You do such an incredible job with it; I'm not surprised he asked. You were great last night."So it came to pass that Mitchell was seated at the old piano in the Methodist church with Christine standing behind him. She held a microphone and Mitchell had one placed in front of him. He nodded to Christine and began playing. Christine delivered an extremely moving rendition of the song. He joined her for the chorus, the part that he sang solo the previous evening when Christine became too emotional to continue.As he finished playing, Mitchell realized that Christine had been absolutely unbelievable. Those in attendance were totally silent except for the many sobs that echoed in the church. It was a fairly large church and almost every Highland high school senior was in attendance. It was actually slightly awkward because many felt that
"If Christine gets cold feet, or her conscience won't let her go through with it, I'd be willing to trade with her, just because that's the kind of friend I am," volunteered Jordan. "Thank you, Jordan. Christine, you're so lucky to have friends like Jordan," stated Melissa sarcastically. "She's willing to take a bullet for you, if the need arises." "Gee, thanks. I don't think I'll need any help, however. I have all the protection necessary, so those 'bullets' will not be hitting the intended target. There's really no need to worry about me. I'll make sure that the gun is empty by morning." "That's how class valedictorians talk these days?" demanded Hailey. "A few months ago, she hadn't ever been on a date and now she's talking about single handedly unloading a dangerous weapon." "I never said anything about using my hands, at least not tonight." laughed Christine, as Hailey was the one to blush this time. "If I may change the subject once again, we're invited to a costume party t
"Look. It's the Eiffel Tower," exclaimed Willow as she pointed out the window of the shuttle van. "Everybody get lots of pictures and we'll share them all when we get home. I have to thank you again, Christine, for making me part of this great adventure. I'm lucky to be your cousin." "You're lucky to be so pretty and shapely. You're lucky to have such understanding parents. You're lucky that Mitchell, for whatever reason, decided to take a chance on me that day at the mall. We're all lucky that Highland won that first football game. I'm lucky I'm not in tears right now because I'm so happy," Christine said. "We're all happy, Sis, but you've got more reason to be happy than the rest of us girls. Tonight, you're going to go to bed a girl and waking up a woman," stated Hailey with genuine happiness for her sister. "Spring Break in Paris with your hunky boyfriend. I don't think it can get much better than that." "It would get better if everyone left my personal life out of their discus
"Are you kidding," shrieked Hailey. "I'm going to Paris on Spring Break. This is way too cool. I can't believe it. I have to go shopping for some new clothes. We should get one of those CD's that teaches you how to speak French in three days. I'm going to call Willow." "Just a minute, Hailey," interrupted her father. "I can't go since we have to work. It's the busy time of year for those of us in accounting. I expect all of you to obey Melissa and Donna without question or dissent. That goes for you, too, Mitchell. You're a very mature young man, but Melissa and Donna are the adults on this trip. I want all of you to have a great time but be safe. Mitchell, I'll rely on you to keep them all safe. You seem to have assumed that duty already. No one wanders off alone and always be sure that Melissa and Donna know where you are. That's my speech on this trip." Later, as Christine was standing on the porch with Mitchell, she mentioned what she knew had to be on his mind. "I made sure tha
Mitchell lifted his overnight bag and went to Jordan's room and knocked. She quickly opened it with her suitcase in hand and tears running down her cheeks. She stepped into the hall and slammed the door behind her. "Let's get out of here. I watched the news while I was packing. They had a clip of you carrying me half naked, but with my tits blurred out. Then they bleeped the bad parts of my brilliant speech about you bleeping me with your big bleep. I've probably destroyed both our careers and lost Christine's friendship. I hope she doesn't believe that we did anything. I don't know how I'm going to be able to face her." Jordan said. Mitchell had called for a cab to take them to LAX. When he and Jordan entered the lobby from the elevator, several photographers began snapping pictures of them and calling out questions. Mitchell calmly led a teary-eyed Jordan out the door to the waiting cab without making any comment. It was dusk when Mitchell pulled into the Leonard driveway "I can'
"You're right, Sweetheart. This relationship, this love that you two have isn't like anything I've ever seen. You aren't normal or average. Your capacity and ability are exceptional. Don't let me discourage you. I admire and respect your confidence in each other, as well as the Acep love you share. It's very rare and extremely special," Mitchell finished speaking with Christine and went to check on Jordan. She had managed to push the covers down, so she was on her side with her amazing breasts on display. Shaking his head, Mitchell covered her back up and went and stretched out as well as he could on a stuffed chair in the corner.He was awaited some time later by an unfamiliar sound and sat up to listen. Unable to identify it, he stood and walked toward it. He found Jordan huddled in the fetal position on the floor of the bathroom, sobbing uncontrollably. He gently picked her up, carried her back into the room, and sat back down in his chair while Jordan cried and clung to him. Mitc
Mitchell remained silent as he carried Jordan to the door while everyone watched. Before leaving, he gently placed Jordan on a chair, unbuttoned his shirt, took it off, placed it over her, and buttoned it up. More than a few of the watchers noticed the way Mitchell's biceps filled out the sleeves of his undershirt as he easily lifted Jordan and left the suite.By the time the elevator reached the bottom floor, Jordan was making no sense at all. She had her arms wrapped around Mitchell's neck and her head buried in his shoulder. Mitchell turned to his left and exited the hotel through a side door. He crossed the street as quickly as he could, entered his hotel from a side street, and hurried to the elevators. Jordan's room was next to his, but when he reached it, he realized that she didn't have her card key. All she had was a thong and the shirt Mitchell had placed over her nakedness.Mitchell had no choice but to take her to his room. As he kicked the door closed, Jordan began maki
Dwayne called Mitchell later in the day. "You and Jordan are going to perform on your big hit on 'American Singer' on their season finale. That's Thursday and they'll have a huge audience because that's when they name their season winner. The show's supplying two round trip tickets, two hotel rooms, and paying each of you ten grand for the day's work. If you want that directed to the hospital fund, I'll see that it happens. I have it set up for the two of you to fly out to LA Thursday. You'll do the show that night, stay in a good hotel and fly home the next morning.""That sounds great. That show's huge and millions of people watch it, especially the season finale," pointed out Christine when Mitchell told her about Dwayne's call. "You'll promote your song and make money for the hospital fund. I'm not upset about not being included. We're going to be apart a lot in the future, and we have to deal with it. You can bet I'll be watching the show and wishing you and Jordan the best."T
"This campaign has been an unbelievable success, and that's mostly the result of everything you two have done to make this work. We have almost three months left, so we should be able to build the total even higher. It would be great if we had a million dollars by graduation. I know that isn't likely, but it would be a tremendous pleasure to announce that total in front of all the parents. But whatever the total, it'll be a wonderful moment for all of us.""Do you want to tell Ms. Metzger, or shall I?" asked Christine, as she watched for Mitchell to nod at her. "Dwayne Burton called last night. He's roughly edited those TV shows we shot in LA, but ABC has already been pushing very hard to buy them. He told us that the network offered a huge sum. It would guarantee at least a million dollars for the hospital fund. Dwayne told them it wasn't enough. He said we'd agree if ABC would ante up another million just to buy an option to hire us to tape two more shows. If they decide to enforce
"She said her news director heard the rumor that Hardy clashed with us this morning and was escorted from the hotel. The local station was disappointed that it didn't have more coverage of Saturday night. They told Nell that she'd be traveling with us when we went to any significant events from now on. Her interview tomorrow will be replayed, at least in part, on the network's morning show. She's going to meet us at school a little early. She thought it would be a good backdrop while she asked us questions,” Christine stated."She wants Hailey, Jordan, and us to be available for the interview. She's going to ask about that encounter you had with that Chechen, so be ready for that. I'll probably tell her about our invitation to Paris, unless you have an objection, Mitchell.""I'm going to be on TV. What should I wear? What will she ask me? What if I sound stupid? Mom, you have to record it for me," insisted Hailey."Go ahead and tell her about Paris. She'll be excited about that tri