Destiny Revealed (2 page)

Our newly formed group had a regular lunch routine.
We always sat together, and even Jack was getting used to
Dash. I caught Dash and Helene holding hands under the
table a few times. I had a feeling this was going to turn into
something more than just going to prom together.

On the last Friday before prom, I heard the guys
finalizing the plans for the next day. They were taking us
on a picnic in a town about fifteen minutes away and to the
natural rock waterslide in the canyon there. We would have
dinner at Aberto’s and head to the dance after that.

The next afternoon, everyone met at our apartment and
we carpooled to the canyon. They had done a pretty good
job on lunch even though the sandwiches were store
bought. “I love JoJo’s Deli,” Nat said with a mouthful of
pastrami sandwich.

“They have the best potato salad,” I agreed. Rene’s date
was a werewolf girl that went to Nick’s old high school—
West Valley. She hadn’t said much and Nat and I tried to
include her in the conversation so she wouldn’t feel so
awkward.

Nat asked.
“That is a stupid question, Nat. Why would it be
different?” I said.
“I don’t know. Just asking,” Nat said.
“No, not really,” Yvette said politely. “I’m sure I’m
prettier.” She laughed. “As far as strength and speed, I’m
no slower than them.”
“She can actually outrun me,” Rene said. She blushed
and kissed him on the cheek.
“Well, who’s ready to get wet?” Dash asked, jumping
up. We started upstream at the cliffs and jumped the forty
feet down into the deep water below. Dash, of course, was
the first to jump. He did a front flip and Helene clapped.
“I’m not so sure I can do this,” Nat said as she got to
the edge.
“Do or do not. There is no try,” Dash yelled from the
water in his best Yoda voice.
“Thank you Master Yoda,” Nat said sarcastically.
“Hey, I’ll hold your hand and we’ll go together. I’m not
super stoked about this either,” I offered. She nodded and
on the count of three, we jumped in together. I’m not sure if
either of us had ever screamed that loud before.
Nick came after and did a backflip. It scared the crap
out of me. I thought he would land on his back or head and
knock himself unconscious. “Don’t ever do that again!” I
yelled at him when he swam over to me. He wrapped his
arms around my waist underneath the water.
“Were you honestly worried?” he asked.
“Yes! What if you hadn’t rotated far enough?”
“You would’ve healed me,” he grinned.
I shoved him and splashed water at him. “I’m serious,
Nick. Don’t freak me out like that again. I couldn’t have
healed something that big.”
“Is she bossing you around again?” Nat yelled over to
us.
Nick stared right at me and splashed me in the face.
“Oh, it’s on,” I wiped my face and glared at him. I started a
giant water fight that ended up including almost everyone.
“Remember how I told you that I’m good with earth?” I
shouted at Nick above the noise.
“Oh crap,” he yelled as he tried to swim away from me
as fast as he could.
I put my hands under the water and chanted,
Water, my friend, my partner, my world,
the only thing I ask from you is for a little control.
As I raised my hands the water rose with them.
“Merde!” Nat swore. “Swim for your lives, she’s lost her
mind.”
There was no need for her to worry though because I
focused my aim right at Nick when I shoved hard. The
wave overtook him and he went completely under the
surface. There were cheers from the other guys and I heard
Dash say, “Ha! Serves him right for messin’ with my girl.”
I laughed until I realized Nick hadn’t come back up yet.
I was still the closest to where he had gone under the water
and swam as fast as I could to where I had last seen him.
As I was about to dive under, I felt a warm hand on my
ankle and he yanked me down. Nick wrapped his arms
around my back and kicked us back up to the surface.
“Are you trying to drown me?” I gasped.
“
Me
? You’re the one who sent a freakin’ tsunami at
me,” he panted.
“It wasn’t that bad,” I defended.
“You’re lucky you’re so beautiful or I would be
seriously mad right now.”
“Note to self,” I heard Dash yell over to Nick. “Don’t
marry a witch next time.”
“Excuse me? Next time?” I turned to Dash. I raised my
hands in the air like I was going to send a spell his way.
“Kidding, Sof!” he held his hands up in surrender.
“You’re the best.” He gave me one of his cheesy Dash grins
that had really started to charm me and I lowered my hands.
The guys jumped several more times before we moved
downstream to the rockslide. Helene did an elegant swan
dive and Dash hooted and hollered like she’d just won the
Olympics. He ended up doing a double front flip after that,
just to show off.
We stayed at the slide until after four and hustled home
so we could get ready in time for dinner. We gathered at
Nat’s house while the guys all went home to change. Nat
wore a floor length, pink chiffon gown. It had a single strap
on the left shoulder that was pleated and covered in
crystals.
Helene was in a knee-length, white gown that brought
out her olive colored skin. Yvette had on a short, deep blue
dress with cap sleeves and covered in lace.
My dress was extravagant, but I used the excuse that I
didn’t get a traditional wedding dress, so I was going all
out. It was a silk, silver gown that hit the floor and flowed
out slightly in the back. It was strapless and hugged my
body to just beneath my hips. The top half was gathered in
a crisscross fashion with a strip of crystals on half the bust
and half the waist. Nick hadn’t seen the dress yet and I was
excited to show it off.
“I even have curves in this dress,” I admired myself in
Nat’s mirror.
“Nick is gonna flip,” Nat agreed. “You’re one hot
mama.”
“Yeah, Sof. You look a-maz-ing,” Helene enunciated
each syllable.
“I think we all look pretty good,” I smiled.
The guys picked us up at six sharp for dinner. I hid
behind the other girls so I could surprise Nick. He had on a
new suit. He wore a white dress shirt that was fitted close
to his body, showing off his definition. The non-traditional
tuxedo with skinny tie had a slim fit cut that hugged his
body in all the right places. His black and gray Chuck
Taylor’s completing the ensemble.
I heard him gasp as I stepped out from behind Nat. He
was in front of me before I could blink. “Wow. Wow.
Wow,” he breathed out. “Sei così bella.” He leaned in and
kissed me hard and everything but the two of us
disappeared as I wrapped my arms around his neck. The
kiss lasted longer than it should have and I heard someone
clear their throat.
“Would you like us to leave?” Dash asked. I blushed as
I pulled away from Nick.
“You just might get lucky tonight, Signora Bartolini,”
Nick whispered in my ear.
“I heard that,” Nat said. “And eww.” Nick gave her a
huge grin.
After dinner, we left for the hotel where prom was
being held. It wasn’t the same one from Spring Fling,
which I was glad for because I didn’t want to see the spot
where Ky had kissed me that night.
This year’s theme was James Bond. Most of the guys
wore tuxedoes and the girls had long, slinky dresses. The
room was twice the size of the room at the other hotel. The
prom committee had gone all out to capture the theme
exactly. A giant-sized Fathead of Daniel Craig in front of
the iconic bullet swirl hung on the left wall. There were
plenty of tables in front of it for when anyone got tired of
dancing, or wanted to feast on the amazing spread they had
out. The food table even had an ice sculpture of a gun on
top of it. The colors were black, white, and red, giving
everything a classy feel to it.
The entire right side of the room was filled with casino
tables. There were three blackjack tables, a craps table, a
roulette table, and two poker tables. They were already
filled with students tossing their chips down and shouting.
We were all given one hundred dollars in fake chips as we
walked through the door to start us off with.
“Sweet, I know what I’m doing tonight,” Rene
commented. Yvette looked annoyed, but followed him to
the blackjack table.
“What would you like to do, Bella Mia?” Nick asked
me.
“Hmm… how ‘bout we dance for a bit. Maybe some of
the tables won’t be so crowded after a while,” I answered.
“Sounds like a plan,” Nat added as she dragged Jack off
to the dance floor. He looked over at the casino tables
longingly, but followed her.
Dash gave Helene a really pathetic look and she said,
“Oh fine. Let’s go. But only for a little while. I am
not
spending my first prom gambling all night.”
The four of us danced for at least an hour to the nonstop dance music. One of the really good things about
Mason was that they always hired excellent DJs for their
dances. “Is it weird that I’m hungry?” I finally asked.
“No, it’s been a few hours since we last ate,” Nick
answered.
“Let’s grab some grub,” Jack added. We headed toward
the food table where we ran into Dash, Rene and their
dates.
“Check it out,” Dash exclaimed, showing me his plate.
“They have freakin’ pâté!”
“Holy crap, what was their budget?” I wondered aloud
as I looked down the table. It looked like a gourmet food
explosion. There were several different cheese plates with
Roquefort, Camembert, Gruyere, and several different goat
cheeses. There were baskets of baguettes in between those
and the trays of foie gras, smoked salmon, pâté, crab cakes,
and mini quiches. There were bottles of an array of
sparkling cider flavors sitting in buckets of ice.
“Apparently they didn’t have one,” Nat said.
We sat down and enjoyed our food until we were full,
and the four of us that hadn’t gambled yet, went over to the
tables.
Jack and Nick wanted to play a game of poker while
Nat and I played blackjack. It really wasn’t fair, but I
couldn’t help using my magic to keep winning. “How are
you doing that?” the dealer asked. It was my art teacher,
Mr. Whitman.
“Magic,” I answered honestly. Of course I knew he
would never believe me. After that, I decided to lose a
couple hands just so it wouldn’t seem as obvious. “Looks
like my luck has run out.” I made it so Nat would win
several hands, but not all in a row. We walked by the poker
table that Nick and Jack were playing at to see how they
were doing.
“Somehow, Nick here can figure out everyone’s tell,”
Jack frowned. “He’s kicking my trash.”
“How’d you ladies do?” Nick asked.
“Hmm… let’s see, your wife somehow managed to win
almost
every
single time,” Nat complained.
Nick looked up at me and grinned. “That’s my girl.”
Just for fun, I glanced at Jack’s cards and changed them so
that he would have the winning hand.
“What the…” Jack said, and looked at me and smiled.
“Thanks,” he added in a whisper.
“So not fair,” Nick said.
“Hey, give the guy a break. He’s almost out of chips,” I
said.
Nick let out a deep sigh and tossed his cards on the
table, “Fine. I fold.”
Nat and I moved to the roulette table, where I continued
to win. “You’re not going to have enough room in that tiny,
fancy pants purse in a second,” Nat laughed. By this time, I
had gathered a crowd. People were putting their chips on
the same numbers I did and cheered as we all won.
Nick came up behind me after a while, wrapped his
arms around my waist, and kissed my neck. “Hey, don’t
distract me. I’m on a roll,” I said. He stood there watching
me and cheering along with the crowd. After twenty or so
minutes, I decided it was enough. “Sorry guys,” I said to
the crowd. “I wanna dance.” Everyone grumbled at me as I
walked away.
We met up with the rest of our group on the dance floor.
Rene turned to me and asked, “Well?”
“She freakin’ cleaned up,” Nat beamed.
“And Nick kicked everyone’s trash in poker,” Jack
complained.
“I swear I had nothing to do with that,” I defended. “I
only helped myself and Nat.”
“Ah man, where were you when I was losing money?”
Dash asked. I just shrugged at him. We continued to dance
long into the night. They let the dance continue until
midnight, but kicked those of us left out so they could clean
up.
“What’s next?” Dash asked.
“Seriously?” Nat said. “How about bed.”
“Well then,” he wiggled his eyebrows. “I thought you
were spoken for, but sure, why not?” Jack looked at him
like he was going to murder him. Helene whacked him on
the arm. “Chill, dudes. I was just kidding.”
“What about dessert?” I offered. I didn’t mind staying
out a little longer.
“I’m in,” Dash said.
“Me too,” Rene looked at Yvette to make sure it was
okay with her.
“Fine. You’ve twisted my arm,” Nat said. Nick looked
anxious to get home. “Relax. You’ll get her to yourself
soon enough,” Nat said loudly to Nick. I blushed, but Nick
just grinned wickedly. There was only one place in town
that would be open. Not actually open, but we had the keys
to Nick’s family restaurant, so we went back there. He
whipped up a few of the desserts in no time with a little
help from me.
“Oh man, this was a fabulous idea,” Nat said with a
mouthful of tiramisu.
“That would be me, thank you very much,” Dash said.
It was a little past one a.m. by the time we closed up and
left.
Nat pulled me aside before we left. “Isn’t prom night
the night where everyone usually… you know…”
“Nat!” I exclaimed. “I’m telling you, you need to wait.
Besides, I highly doubt Captain Prude is ready for it
anyway.”
“Couldn’t you put a love spell on him or something?”
she complained.
“You know I’d never do that. Wait until you’re
both
ready.” I gave her a stern look.
“Fine. Buzz killer!” she gave me a dirty look before she
turned around.
“What was that all about?” Nick whispered as he
opened the car door for me.
“Oh, she’s just a little wound up. She thinks she’s ready
to go all the way, but I told her there was no way slowpoke
Jack would go for it. So she wanted me to spell him,” I
rolled my eyes.
“You cannot be serious,” Nick laughed.
“Dead serious. I think she’s worse than you were.”
“Hey,” he complained. “I’m really glad we waited, you
know.”
“But I thought you were going insane in Mexico?” I
asked.
“Oh, I was. I’m just glad we waited until the perfect
moment. It meant more than just doing it because we were
already making out.”
“You sound like such a girl,” I laughed. He frowned at
me. “But I absolutely love that about you.” He looked over
at my dress and sped up. I started to laugh again.
“Can you blame me?” he asked. “We’re finally alone.”