THE ROSE AND THE THORN

Chapter 48

"Settle down class, or you'll be sent to the principals office!" Mrs Rysteck scolded us as we all talked excitedly about our last day.

"That's not very Christian of you, Miss!" I teased, swinging my chair back on its hind legs and placing my feet up on the table.

Firing up Mrs Rysteck was without a doubt my favourite thing to do during class time. Six whole years of pissing her off, having her send me to Mr Geoffrey's office, giving me detentions...I was starting to think I'd actually miss it.

"And who are you to tell me what is and isn't Christian, Miss Thorn?" She folded her arms crossly and glared at me from across the room. "You have made it clear since you first stepped foot in my classroom that you will defy the bible with your homosexuality. You are living a life of sin!"

I didn't want to spend my final day of school cooped up in the principals office, so I bit my tongue, winked, and took my feet off the table. Mrs Rysteck resumed her writing in the whiteboard and I zoned out, thinking of Ruby and how we could come out about our relationship in just a few short weeks.

"Abstinence!" Mrs Rysteck screeched, slamming her bible loudly on the table and snapping me out of my daze. "The act of sex, between a man and a woman, must be saved until marriage. In my years of teaching, I have seen countless young women ruin their lives by getting pregnant at such a young age. Abstinence is the only way to avoid pregnancy."

"Uhh, abstinence didn't really work for Mary though..." I pointed out.

The class giggled quietly, but stopped abruptly when they saw the look on Mrs Rysteck's face. She looked as if she was trying to birth a baby elephant, her face turning red and contorting into the ugliest expression imaginable. I knew I was headed for Mr Geoffrey's office, so I said my piece.

"Well, it's true! How can you preach abstinence when this entire religion is based off a virgin getting pregnant? And wasn't she like, what...twelve, when she popped out Jesus? That's pretty young, don't you think?"

I didn't wait for her to scream at me. I gathered my things, threw them unceremoniously into my backpack and stood up, walking towards the door.

"God bless, Miss. Don't miss me too much!" I said, waving goodbye as I walked out of the religion classroom for what would hopefully be the last time.

༻✧༺

Two weeks had passed since school had finished, and I had hardly seen Aimee, Scott or Connor in that time. Everyone was so busy studying, including myself, that we didn't have time to see each other. Not even Aimee had suggested an extra day to plan the graduation party. The exams came quicker than I would've liked, and before I knew it, it was November 9th and I was sitting in the school library going over my study notes with Aimee before our final exam.

"You're lucky that Mrs Rysteck doesn't have anything to do with marking our HSC exams, otherwise you'd fail for sure!" Aimee chuckled as we packed up things and walked towards the auditorium.

"I'm surprised she passed my school assessments and assignments to be honest," I admitted, "Although I feel like Mr Geoffrey probably intervened!"

Aimee gave me a quick one armed hug before walking to her seat at the back of the hall, and I walked to mine halfway down the last row of chairs. I wasn't as nervous as Aimee was about the exams - I already had a full scholarship, all I needed to do was pass.

By the time I had finished my exam, there was only thirty minutes left. We weren't allowed to leave until everyone was finished in case we disturbed anyone, so I closed my paper and leaned back in my chair, closing my eyes and remembering how Ruby and I had spent the night before.

Ruby had cooked me dinner and brought it up to my room while I was studying. She meant over the back of my computer chair and pressed a kiss to my cheek. I decided I'd had enough of studying for the night and swivelled my chair around, kissing her full on the mouth. Before long we were both naked on my bedroom floor, swallowing each other's moans as we fucked each other senseless.

"Pens down, time is up!" I was snapped out of my daze as the exam coordinator called out from the front of the auditorium.

I turned around to see Aimee looking half relieved, half stressed. I gave her an encouraging smile and a thumbs up, which she returned. I packed up my things and walked towards her table, pulling her into a hug.

"I'm sure you smashed it!" I told her, ruffling her hair. "And now you get to focus on the graduation party!"

"Yeah, but we have to get through graduation first," Aimee said glumly.

Graduation in Australia wasn't nearly as exciting as it is in America. There are no caps or gowns, no scrolls. Just one long, boring assembly where Mr Geoffrey is obligated to make one long, boring speech, and then each student walks on stage, gets their certificate, and walks off. Families usually attend, and each student is allocated three seats in the auditorium for their family members. Since Ruby was going to be sitting with the faculty members, there was no one for me to bring. That didn't bother me though, I wouldn't have really wanted my parents there anyway.

Aimee and I got into my car and we drove to Connor's house where we knew he and Scotty would be playing video games. They had finished their exams a few days earlier than we had and for the past three days had not been letting us forget it.

I took the spare key from underneath the pot plant by the side of the door and let myself in, Aimee following closely behind me. We could hear Con and Scotty screaming profanities at the TV as we walked through the hallway.

"No need to swear, boys. We've arrived, you can calm down now!" I joked, throwing my bag in the floor and flinging myself onto the couch.

"How was it?" Connor finally asked, after ignoring us for a few minutes while he and Scott finished the game.

"It was okay, I reckon I passed for sure," I shrugged, looking over at Aimee.

"I think I messed up one of the long answer questions, but otherwise I think I did well," she said nervously.

The rest of the afternoon was spent discussing what we thought Mr Geoffrey would say in his speech, who would get DUX (top student) of the year, and who would embarrass themselves by tripping on stage. I couldn't help but be excited for the graduation ceremony, not because of the party that followed, but because after that, Ruby and I would be able to be open about our relationship. I couldn't wait to show her off to everyone because I was the luckiest girl in the world.