A/N: Alright everyone, this is the last chapter of the story, the epilogue is at the bottom. I hope you all like it; this is going to be my last story for a while. I've found some other interests, and I'm beginning to loose interest in writing. So I don't completely hate it, I'm just going to finish this story, and then I'm going to take a break. I do have another story in the works with three chapters and a prologue written, but I don't think I'll post it for a while. Oh, happy Valentines Day everybody.
Labeled 'Bad'
Chapter 10: How it all turned out
The next week and a half of school went by pretty uneventfully for Raven and Rich. Raven's hunch was right; Josh Stokes did like Dakota, so they were going to go to the Valentines Dance together. Raven and Rich, deciding that they'd have more fun not getting dressed up, decided together that they were going to spend the night of Valentines Day at Raven's house together. In the half of a week leading up to that day, Rich ran about planning a whole lot of surprises for Raven which he knew she would just love.
One of them was the flowers. He doubled his previous order and also ordered a box of rose petals. He was going to lay down a trail of them from Raven's room to the kitchen to make sure that she didn't go any where else in the morning.
Rich had already talked to Nanu. After Raven fell asleep, Nanu was going to go in and change Raven's alarm clock an hour ahead so that Raven would wake up at the right time, and not have to run around afterwards to get ready for school.
Another plan that he had set up were reservations at a few restaurants so that Raven could choose where they were going to go. He figured it was most likely going to be the one that was in his dad's office building because Raven absolutely loved the food when Rich took her there on one of their previous dates.
Before Valentines Day, Rich had to go out and buy some cards from Hallmark that had sayings that were meaningful but not cheesy. He could find none of the sort, so he got a few blank ones and was going to put song lyrics in them. The sale was three for a dollar, so Rich bought six. He did this without realizing that that would mean he would have to find six excerpts from songs, it wouldn't be that challenging to find, but writing them all would surely make his hand tire.
At school on the tenth, the day of the dance, Raven and Rich nearly died with all of the pink frilly things all over the place. But they had so much fun reading all of their 'fan mail' which was really all of the hopeful people putting Valentines cards in or on their lockers. Rich got some really big, frilly, pink cards and Raven got some really cool ones from guys who knew she couldn't stand pink. One was a black card with a red rose on it that looked more gothic than Valentines Day. Inside of the card, the stalker managed to figure out a song that Raven really liked and put the lyrics to it in there.
"Raven, I can tell why you're unanimously hated by the female population of our school! You've got the attention of the captains of the basketball, soccer, and football teams after you!" Rich exclaimed.
"I know, it sickens me," Raven replied, pulling out her lighter and one by one lighting each one and putting them in the trash can. Rich laughed to himself over Raven's way of dealing with things.
"Why do you have a lighter Raven?" Rich asked suddenly, realizing what she was holding in her hand.
"I'm not a smoker Rich, I've got chemistry now, remember? I've got to use the lighter to light the flames on my Bunsen burner," Raven said, laughing at her boyfriend.
"Oh yeah! Sorry, I just forgot, I thought… I don't know what I thought…" Rich replied.
"Oh God, if this is how much each of us get on the day of the dance, imagine how bad it's going to be on Valentines Day!" Raven exclaimed.
"I don't even want to think about it…" Rich grimaced.
The couple laughed it off and then got their books out of their lockers. On their way to biology, Raven and Rich hesitated, not really wanting to be in school, but knowing that they should be.
Sitting in their usual spots in the back of biology, Raven and Rich planned out their evening. They were going to go home, chill out for a while, then they'd both get ready, and then they'd either go to one of their houses or go out to eat. When the classes changed, Raven and Rich left silently.
The rest of the day was spent pretty normally. They got in trouble multiple times, both of them just escaping multiple detentions. When school was out, Raven, Rich, and Dakota got into Raven's truck and waited at the middle school together for Damian, Tommy, and Zane to be done.
"So, do are you and Josh going to the dance tonight?" Raven asked.
"Yeah, but we're going to go for only about half of it, and then we're going to go to a movie," Dakota replied.
"Nice, what movie are you going to see?" Rich asked.
"Date Movie," Dakota answered.
"That sounds like a funny one, we should go see it sometime Rich," Raven hinted.
"Okay, we'll go see it on Saturday or something," Rich replied.
When the guys came into the car, Raven made them throw their bags in the truck bed because their stuff smelled so bad. Raven first dropped off Dakota and Zane, then she dropped Rich off, and then she took Tommy and Damian home.
After parking her car in the drive way and getting into the house, Raven went right up to her room to get the little bit of homework that she had done or else she and Rich weren't allowed to do anything at all.
After she was done with her homework, Raven went and got into the shower. When she was out, she called Rich and he was going to come pick her up in about half an hour so that they could go out for dinner before returning to Raven's house for movies.
When Rich came to pick Raven up his breath caught in his throat at the sight of her. She wasn't dressed any more differently then some days, but something about her seemed different to Rich. She was wearing a deep purple cami with a pair of medium blue jeans and her black and white Adio shoes. Her shoulder length black hair was just hanging straight and she just had some eye shadow and mascara on.
"Rich, are you okay?" Raven asked.
"Yeah, you're just, really pretty," Rich replied, coming out of his stupor.
"Thanks," Raven said, blushing and smiling, "are you ready to go?"
"Yeah, come on, I left the car running," Rich replied.
He took Raven's hand in his and led her out to the car. He went around and opened the door for her and closed it once she got in. He walked back around to his side of the car and got into the driver's seat.
"So, where are we going for dinner?" Raven asked.
"You'll see," Rich said, pulling out of the drive way.
They drove for a while, listening to a CD Rich had burned before coming to pick Raven up of a whole bunch of their favorite songs. He drove them to The Cheesecake Factory, one of Raven's favorite restaurants, and parked the car. He got out, walked around to Raven's door and opened it.
"I should've known, but really, what did you do? You usually only take me here when you did something," Raven said.
"Can't a guy treat his girlfriend to something special for an early Valentines Day?" Rich asked.
"If this is for early Valentines Day, I'm going to be amazed if you can manage to over do this on Valentines Day!" Raven exclaimed.
"I've already got Valentines Day planned out, and I think you're going to like it twice as much as this," Rich replied.
"Really now, I'd like to see that happen," Raven said skeptically.
"What, you don't believe that I can organize a perfect evening for you?" Rich asked.
"I never said that," Raven replied, as they followed the waitress to the table she was taking them to.
After dinner, they went back to Raven's house and went down to her basement. They started the first movie for the night but weren't really paying attention to it because they started making out. They put in a second one and watched about half of it. But they never got to the third movie because they were to busy making out.
Around midnight, Rich went back home, leaving a tired Raven to go to sleep.
The next day, Raven woke up at about 2 PM and went and got into the shower. She got out and got dressed and then went into the kitchen to get some food. When she was done eating and had brushed her teeth, she called Rich to set up plans to go see the movie like he said they would.
They went to the four o'clock showing and then went out for a cheap early dinner afterwards.
"So, Tuesday is Valentines Day, do you want to tell me what you have planned?" Raven asked.
"Nope," Rich replied.
"But, please?" Raven inquired.
"That's okay, I think you're going to like the surprise," Rich answered.
"You know that I like doing the surprising and that I also get very upset when I get surprised," Raven said.
"Yeah, I know. I'm willing to risk upsetting you, because I think you're going to like the surprise so much that you'll forget to be upset. It's going to be so good, you can't ever pretend to be upset," Rich said.
"It better be," Raven murmured, kissing Rich goodbye before getting out of the car and going back inside her house for the night.
The next day went by pretty normally. Rich added a few more things to his surprise and put the final touches on it. The flowers were going to be delivered at 4:45 AM, so that meant that Rich was going to have to get up around 4 to get ready before going over to Raven's house and then he'd have fifteen minutes to set everything up. He already had the cards made using lyrics from six of songs Raven really liked.
That night, Raven went to bed around 10:30. At 11, Nanu snuck in and changed the time on her clock. She snuck out quietly, Raven had absolutely no clue that Nanu had been in her room.
The next morning, Rich came into Raven's room as soon as he got to their house. He made sure her alarm was on and then put the first card in her room right where she'd see it. Then he went and set up the rest of the cards and waited until the flowers came. Then he set all of the flowers up with a little help from Nanu.
At five o'clock, Raven's alarm went off. She opened her eyes to turn it off, but before she could do that and roll back over and fall asleep, she spotted something that definitely wasn't there the day before.
'Dad must have had to leave early for work so he left me my Valentine,' Raven thought to herself.
She sat up and turned the light on to read it. Squinting at the sudden blindness she was temporarily acquired, Raven quickly got over that and read the card.
No day, no night, no
moment,
Can hold me back from trying.
I'll fly, I'll fall, I'll
falter,
I'll find my day may be,
Far and away,
Far and
away.
Follow the cards Raven.
That was all it said. Raven, not knowing what was up, brushed her hair first incase there was pictures. Then she left her room to 'follow the cards' as she was instructed.
She opened her door and walked out but it didn't take her too long to realize something was different. She wasn't walking on carpet; there was something much different under her feet. She looked down and discovered the wonder below her feet of tons of blue rose petals. She gawked at the genetically modified wonder that was one of her favorite flowers. And then she spotted a spot of red a little bit away that was another card. She walked over to it and picked it up.
Where it began, I can't begin to know when
But then I know it's growing strong
Oh, wasn't the spring, whooo
And spring became the summer
Who'd believe you'd come along
Do you like your flowers?
Raven nodded even though no one would see her nod. And she kept walking. Sitting propped up on the table that the Roth's had standing right before the stairs was another card.
Little darlin' it's
been a long cold lonely winter
Little darlin' it feels like years
since it's been here
Here comes the sun, here comes the sun
And
I say it's all right
Be careful not to slip coming down the steps, I scattered the petals out a little to help prevent that some what.
Smiling to herself at what she thought was her father's antics, Raven walked slowly and carefully down the steps. At the base of the steps, she found another card.
From lashes to ashes
And from lust to dust
In your sweetest torment
I'm lost
And no heaven can help us
Ready, willing and able
To lose
it all
For a kiss so fatal
And so worn
Do not fear, you will be alright.
Confused a little by this one, Raven stopped for a moment. Not being able to figure this one out at the early hour, she continued on down the path of blue rose petals.
The next card, she found on another table they had decorating their halls.
Life goes on without
any breaks
I got it baby what it takes
Dreaming on and on of
better days
So many things to get done
Everyone's here a chosen
one
We've got a long, long way to come.
Almost there, just one last card and a few steps and you'll get your big surprise.
Raven, completely convinced that this was something her father had planned and set up, was walking towards one of the biggest surprises of her life. She walked down the hallway a little more until reaching the door to the kitchen that was closed for the first time in a long time. Professionally placed on the doorknob was the last card. Raven picked it up, opened it, and read the inside.
And there are
voices, that want to be heard
So much to mention but you can't
find the words
The scent of magic the beauty that's been
When
love was wilder...then the wind
Walk through this door my sweet.
Considering that only her dad called her anything but Raven or Rae, there was no doubt in the teenager's mind that she was going to be greeted by Nanu and her father. She had no reason to suspect that there was someone else waiting for her beyond the threshold. Turning the knob slowly and pushing the door open with vigilance as not to wake up Damian with the obnoxiously squeaky door, Raven entered into the kitchen.
As she opened the door, Raven was amazed by the beauty covering the entire place. The room was covered in her two other favorite flowers. Tiger lilies were covering the counters and on the kitchen table was a vase full of white roses. Right in the middle was one red rose sticking out from the entire bunch.
After examining the entire room, Raven moved her gaze to the people present. She realized that only Nanu and Rich was in the room, not her father like she had expected.
"Rich, d-did you do all of this?" Raven asked.
He only nodded and handed her one last card.
'I'll love you until the last one dies.'
That was all it said. Having heard of this story before, Raven remembered that a boy had given his girlfriend a dozen roses and one of them was a fake rose that would never die. She gasped at the realization and hugged Rich tightly. She tilted her head up and embraced his lips sweetly. Nanu stepped out of the room to let them have their moment together.
"Do you like it?" Rich asked.
"No," Raven replied.
"No?" Rich inquired, horror struck.
"I absolutely love it," Raven replied.
Rich exhaled a sigh of relief. Then he looked down at the beautiful girl in his arms. She looked back up at him knowing that this was the man who she was going to spend the rest of her life with. She smiled at him, he smiled back. Right there, they made a commitment to each other and revealed their true feelings with a single look. Their hearts would always belong to one another and no one could ever try to interfere. They kissed one more time before Raven let go to inspect her flowers.
One day, one night,
one moment,
My dreams could be, tomorrow.
One step, one fall,
one falter,
East or west, over earth or by ocean.
One way to be
my journey,
This way could be my book of days.
From day to day, my
journey, No day, no
night, no moment, One day, one night, one moment, This day ends together,
The long pilgrimage before me.
From night to night, my
journey,
The stories that will never be again.
Can hold me back from trying.
I'll fly, I'll
fall, I'll falter,
I'll find my day may be,
Far and away,
Far
and away.
With a dream to
believe in.
One step, one fall, one falter,
Found a new earth
across a wide ocean.
This way became my journey,
This day ends
together,
Far and away.
Far
and away.
Far and away.
"" "" "" "" "" "" "" "" "" "" "" "" "" "" ""Six Years Later "" "" "" "" "" "" "" "" "" "" "" "" "" "" "" ""
(Exactly Six Years Later to be clear)
Raven Grayson sat up in her comfy California King Size bed. She looked around the room to see if anyone was in there, the coast was clear. She slowly climbed out of bed and walked over to the dresser. There, she opened up a drawer and extracted a tin that had a few keepsakes in it. Six of them being the cards she had received five years prior to this very same day. Then she looked around and was disappointed to not find any cards. She looked around again and then decided to make sure that there was nobody in the room. She went over to her drawer and pulled out a card with Rich scrawled across the front. She opened the door of her bedroom and saw the most gorgeous display of flowers ever in the seven years that Rich had been doing this. There was one card lying on the floor a few feet in front of her. Knowing where every card was going to be located from here on out, Raven tried to do what she normally did. But she was unsuccessful. Rich had changed the path.
The blue rose petals made a trail all the way around their mansion located in the development next to the one they grew up in. Raven followed it all the way back to their bed room where Rich was waiting for her.
"You tricked me," Raven said.
"Sorry, but I couldn't help myself, I thought you'd be getting to used to the old one that you wouldn't like it as much," Rich replied.
"Well I'm glad you were thinking of me," Raven said.
"Do you like your surprise?" Rich inquired.
"I do, but I've got one for you too this year," Raven told him while handing over the envelope.
Thinking it was a normal card, Rich opened the envelope, read the front of the card, and then opened the inside. Before he had a chance to react, something fell out of the card. He bent down to pick it up. It had landed face first on the ground so all he knew was that it was a white sheet of paper.
Rich bent down to pick it up and when he had risen back to his full height, he turned the paper over to reveal a black and white image with Raven's name in the top left hand corner and some other numbers around it. Staring at it puzzled, Rich tried to figure out what it was. And then it hit him. What we was looking at wasn't just a blur of white on black paper. It was his blur, his blur growing inside Raven. He was going to be a father.
"Happy Valentines Day Rich," Raven said simply.
Rich looked up at Raven, eyes full of wonder. "Is, is this what I think is it?"
Raven nodded. Valentines Day had always been special to them since their first one together when they were seniors, so she figured she'd tell him about their future son or daughter on Valentines Day. It just worked out that she had found out the week before.
"I'm gonna be a dad!" Rich cheered. Then he wrapped his arms around Raven in his protective way. Right now, she was safe from everything in the world. Nothing could ever harm her. Not while Rich held he close.
"We're going to be parents," Raven said.
Rich looked down at Raven. She was still about a head shorter than him and the way they were standing was the same way they had stood together years before on that fate-sealing day.
"Happy Valentines Day Raven."
"" "" "" "" "" "" "" "" "" "" "" "" "" "" "" "" "" "" "" "" "" "" "" "" "" "" "" "" "" "" "" "" "" "" "" "" "" ""
A/N: So, how did you guys like this story? I had fun writing it, but now I'm going to enjoy not feeling like I need to get this done so that you guys aren't being tortured. Anyway, it was difficult for me to write a really happy ending, so I went with a special, romantic one that usually turns out pretty happy. I got completely screwed over again today. The guy that I'm waiting until I get to high school next year to date (which everyone knows is going to happen) is already in high school, so I didn't get to see him today and I didn't even get to talk to him. I'm pretty sad, but I'll live.
Happy Valentines Day everybody, hope your days turned out okay.
Oh, before I forget, has anyone ever heard of the comic series Ctrl+Alt+Del? If you have, please tell me, that is my favorite and I am looking for anyone who's ever heard of it or read it. If you have, please send me a PM or write in a review what you thought about Monday, February 13th's comic. I thought it was adorable!