How Things Changed Forever.. PART - II

CH 59: One-Last Chance

Hillary found Luke before he could find her the next day. "I have something important to discuss with you!" she said brightly, dragging him to a quiet corner during the morning rush. He glanced at the big clock hanging in the corridor—they barely had ten minutes before school started—and then at Hillary, who seemed to have a skip in her steps after a long time.

Luke swallowed his own questions—he had thought of approaching her after lunch, but God surely seemed to have other plans. He instead played along with her. "What is it?"

"Mr. Nakamura agreed to introduce a hierarchy in the club!" she beamed.

He blinked at her in surprise. "He did what now?" he asked, completely out of the loop.

Hillary gave him a quick overview of what she'd been up to the whole week—how she went to the principal after talking with him that day during lunch, the principal's request for a proposal, and how it was granted after school yesterday.

"Damn, you really don't know how to take a break..." he commented jokingly as they walked together.

Hillary flushed at his remark and slapped his wrist playfully, making him grin. "Seriously though, this is awesome!" Luke added, still in awe of everything she'd accomplished in her short duration as president.

"Why didn't you tell me about this sooner?" he asked.

"I didn't think anything would happen this soon. And Luke, there's one more thing I've got to ask you," she said, suddenly wringing her hands a bit. Luke recognized the nervous tic, since his sister also had the same habit.

Luke slowed down, intrigued. "What is it?"

"Would you be open to the suggestion of being the Design and Performance lead? I thought of asking you sooner, but then something came up and I thought it would be better if I put this to a vote in the club when we met today, but now I'm not so sure about that either. Almost everyone worked hard during the fundraiser last week, but some people worked harder than others. I can think of no better way to reward you guys. You're free to say no, but I'd love to have you on my team for all of our future endeavors," she rapidly stated, nervously waiting for a reply. It took him a moment to process the whole request.

"You want me to be one of the leads?" he asked again, just to be sure. Hillary nodded rapidly and was about to go into another rapid rant. "You're free to say no if you don't want to work with me, or if you think the work will be too much, I won't be offended—" she was saying when he interrupted her again.

"Are you out of your mind? I'd love to be the Design and Performance lead. I already like working with you! Why were you this worried about it anyway?" he said, grinning widely.

She exhaled slowly, loosening up for the first time since their conversation began. "It's just that—it's nothing really... We should get going, we're already late for our classes." she tried dismissing the last bit of his question, trying to part ways.

Luke didn't hesitate though. He took her hand and guided her to an empty classroom on the opposite side of the corridor. The crowd was already thinning with everyone rushing into their own classrooms, but Luke didn't think of that for the moment. He could feel that she was keeping something important from him.

"Alright, spill," he said, entering the classroom behind her and closing the door.

Hillary developed a sudden interest in her shoes—leaning on one leg and then the other, refusing to meet his eyes.

Luke frowned. "We don't have all day, you know. Classes start in five minutes," he reminded her.

She took a deep breath at that, "I had a fight with Cassie yesterday," she finally admitted, her voice quieter than before.