All day Saturday, Jake had to stay in bed, the only forms of entertainment being the many visitors that stopped by. Billy provided breakfast, lunch, and dinner, courtesy of Emily. Dr. Cullen also stopped by earlier in the morning with the morphine drip like he promised, which was a huge relief to Jake. And through it all, Lilly rarely left his side, only for bathroom breaks or to help Billy with something in the house. Her Gran also stopped in to see how Lilly and Jake were doing.

Jake still had to take it easy on Sunday, but he could at least walk around the house and get in the shower. Deciding to be cute as well as take advantage of his time off patrols, Jake decided to set up a small picnic lunch in his living room for him and Lilly. It was fun and sweet and Lilly loved every second of it.

Just to be safe, Billy kept Jake home from school on Monday, but by Monday evening he was completely healed and it was agreed he could go back to school and patrols Tuesday morning. Most classes were reviewing and preparing for finals, or the classes with Seniors were already taking finals.

Lilly and Paul's English class spent Tuesday taking a short quiz and then starting their final speeches with the couple seniors in the class. Wednesday, the Seniors' last day, was spent finishing up the speeches.

Jackson reclaimed his seat after giving his speech as the class clapped.

"Alright," Mrs. Alexander smiled before looking back down at her roster for the next name. Her smile fell just a bit before she looked back up. "Lilly Fuller."

Lilly looked over her shoulder at where the teacher was sitting in the back of the room.

"Are you ready to give your speech?" Mrs. Alexander asked in a tired voice, as if she already knew her answer. Everyone turned in their seats to watch Lilly's response, already knowing what she'd answer.

So, the entire class except Paul was absolutely shocked when Lilly nodded in answer.

Mrs. Alexander was shocked into silence for a second before she managed, "Oh, well, by all means." she gestured to the front of the room, pulling out a grade sheet from her stack and filling it out as Lilly gathered her note cards.

She met Paul's eyes briefly from where he sat in the back, and he gave her a small smirk. She grinned back before approaching the podium in the front of the classroom. She set her cards on the slanted surface, facing the class. She took in a deep breath to steel her nerves before starting.

"Dag Hammarskjold once said, 'Pray that your loneliness may spur you into finding something to live for, great enough to die for'. The most important thing I learned this year wasn't something you can learn in a textbook or classroom. I learned that I don't have to do everything alone. That there are plenty of people out there that are willing to help me and be there for me. I started this year out with really no close friends and in the last few weeks I've gained a whole group of them. People I can trust, and laugh with, and talk to. People who have my back, and I have theirs in return."

Lilly's eyes swept the room as she spoke, briefly meeting eyes with a girl on the far side of the room, by the window. Maggie, one of her former best friends, "They gave me a reason to talk when I couldn't find one. When it felt like the whole world was against me, they took me in, stuck up for me, and became some of the greatest friends I could ask for."

She turned back to the rest of the class to finish speaking, "And that's the most important thing I've learned, not only this year, but in my life as a whole."

The class applauded as Lilly gathered her note cards and headed toward her seat. They went through the last few people in the class, and at the end Mrs. Alexander handed out everyone's grade sheets so they knew what they got before she put them in the computer. When Lilly got her own grade sheet she saw that she got a 17/20, a 'B'. The only thing that really hurt her grade was that her time was under a minute, when it was supposed to be at least 2 minutes. But it was good enough to keep her final grade at an 'A'.

When the bell rang Paul and Lilly walked to their lockers to drop off their things before going to the cafeteria.

"So, what'd you get on your speech?" Paul asked as they walked down the hall.

"A 'B'. You?"

"'C'." he admitted with a smirk, not really caring. He was almost done with high school, he didn't care about his grades.

"What are you doing after high school if you can't go to college?" Lilly asked curiously as they followed the crowd.

"Well, the Elders are working on a plan to somehow pay those of us who aren't in school, since it's hard to hold down a serious job when we can get called in at any moment. Plus, Sam wants to start a small business that some of the guys can get in on to earn a little extra, just finding little odd jobs around the rez, like fixing up stuff around people's houses."

"That's cool." Lilly smiled as they got their trays and headed toward their table. She took an empty seat next to Seth and Paul sat across the table next to Jared.

"How'd your speech go?" Seth asked excitedly.

"Yeah, and what'd everyone's faces look like when you talked?" Quil demanded, leaning forward.

Lilly laughed, "My speech went well, I got a 'B'; and everyone looked pretty surprised that I actually gave a speech."

"Surprised? Did you miss one of the guys who was half asleep drop his head on his desktop when he realized it was you talking?" Paul asked, making the guys burst out laughing. "He had a huge red spot on his forehead!"

Lilly laughed, shaking her head and wishing she'd actually seen that. A wave of heat touched her side before a pair of lips touched her cheek and a body made the seat next to her groan. She turned and smiled at Jake, who returned it with his own 100 watt smile.

"So, you actually gave your speech, huh?" he grinned before taking a bite of his cheeseburger.

"Yep." Lilly beamed proudly before taking a bite of her macaroni.

"She did pretty good. I got it on video if you wanna see." Paul smirked at Lilly as he held up his cell phone.

Lilly's eyes widened and her mouth fell open. "You did not."

His smirk widened. "Oh, I did."

"Paul!" she whined.

Everyone at the table laughed and started demanding to see the video, making Lilly roll her eyes. Jake chuckled, wrapping his arm around her waist and scooting her closer to his side, pressing a kiss to her temple.

"Don't worry about it, I'm sure you did great. You've got nothing to be embarrassed about." he whispered into her hair.

"I know, but still." she grumbled, pouting up at him. Jake smiled, knowing by the way her eyes were lit up that she wasn't really upset about it.

"Just think," he whispered near her ear to give them the illusion of privacy, "we've only got a week left of school, and then we've got the whole summer to hang out. And I can take you out on a proper date."

Lilly failed to fight off her smile as she peaked up at him from under her lashes. Jake leaned down and Lilly met him halfway, ignoring the warm butterflies in her tummy as she kissed Her Wolf.

THE END

XXX

And that's the end of Silence of the Flower, thank you to everyone who stuck with this story from the start. I will be posting chapter 1 of the sequel The Flower's Nightmare right after I've posted this, so go ahead and check that out!