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Closing her eyes, Anne held the phone to her ear. After three rings, Derek finally picked up. “Hey! Where are you?”
“I'm running a bit late,” he said from his end of the connection.
The past week was nice. Derek was on leave until they determined his next station. He could have completely missed her graduation, but instead, they got to talk on the phone every day.
“How late?” she asked, ignoring Robin in the background that Anne needed to hurry up.
“I'm maybe five miles away. I can hear Robin telling you to hurry up.”
“She can wait,” Anne responded. “I don't have to walk.”
“No, you are walking and I will be in the stands watching you.”
“But your ticket!” she cried, looking at it in her hand. “You can’t get in without it.”
“Anne,” Robin hissed from five feet away. “Mr. Castleman is glaring at us! Hurry up!”
Anne scanned around them for somewhere she could leave the ticket to the ceremony so that Derek could get it and nobody else would pick it up. Looking at where the computer teacher was tapping his watch, she grinned. “Mr. Castleman!”
“Anne Elliot. You need to hurry up.”
“My boyfriend is on his way and I have his ticket. Can you hold it for me? He’s only two minutes away if he can find a good parking space.”
“I’m in the parking lot,” Derek said in her ear.
“Yes, fine!” Mr. Castleman threw up his hands. “Only because you were such a big help in my class this semester.”
“Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!” she bounced up and down, knowing better than to hug him. “Derek,” she redirected her focus after handing over the ticket and heading towards where another teacher was gesturing at her. “Mr. Castleman is wearing black Chuck Taylor All-Stars with his suit. He’s also wearing a bright purple tie with computers all over it. You can’t miss him. He’s by the main entrance leading into the stadium.”
“Miss Elliot!” her English teacher hissed. “Get off that phone and get in line!”
“I’ll see you after the ceremony. By the giant mascot statue to the left of the main entrance. You can’t miss it.” Then, with Mrs. Perkins tapping her finger against the invisible watch on her wrist and signaling for Anne to wrap it up, she quickly said, “Bye!”
Shaking her head, Mrs. Perkins sighed. “Miss Elliot, you are a brilliant student, but...”
“I’m sorry,” Anne interrupted, apologizing. “That was my boyfriend, Derek. He’s enlisted in the United States Navy and has been at Boot Camp and A-School and I haven’t seen him since Christmas, and before that back in the summer.”
“It’s fine,” Mrs. Perkins sighed, shaking her head. It was her signature move. “We’ll be in line for another thirty minutes anyway. Mr. Castleman will make certain that Derek gets his ticket. He’s in charge of admission anyway.”
“Thank you!” Anne started walking down the hallway before a thought occurred to her. “If I had thirty minutes, why the rush?”
“You know how Principal Monroe is.”
Thinking for a moment, Anne nodded her head before dashing down the hall to join Robin where the other girl was tapping her foot against the tiles impatiently. “Hurry up,” she sighed.
“I still wish he was running on time,” Anne grumbled as they made the dash towards the cafeteria where their fellow graduating class was assembled, waiting to be led out on the football field. “It’s been months.”
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Derek finally made it to the front of the stadium before looking around for the teacher that Anne had described. Parents, family members, and friends all gathered around, clustered in small groups as they started making out their game plans.
“Which side would be the best side to sit on?”
“Should we get up high or try to get a spot down low?”
“How can I possibly manage to walk up these stadium seats in these heels?”
Finally, after overhearing way more discussions than he cared to hear, he spotted the computer teacher standing at the front entrance. It was a good thing Anne had described his tie; Derek never would have seen the teacher’s shoes in this crowd.
“Where did everybody come from?” Derek asked as he approached. “It wasn’t this noisy when I was talking to Anne on the phone.”
“That’s what I would like to know,” the teacher grumbled. “You must be Derek.”
“Yes, Sir,” Derek almost saluted out of habit. “Thank you, Sir,” he replied as Mr. Castleman handed over the ticket.
“Right. The military boyfriend,” Mr. Castleman nodded his head.
“Navy, Sir.”
“Thank you for your service.”
“I haven’t served yet beyond training,” he pointed out.
“But you are about to,” the teacher nodded. “Good luck. Anne was one of my favorite students, but don’t tell her that.”
“You were one of her favorite teachers. She mentioned some of the assignments you gave her for the Graphic Arts class and the drawing class this semester.”
Nodding his head, Mr. Castleman headed towards where he was supposed to be. “Facing the graduates,” he started to say, “Anne will be on the left.”
“Thank you, Sir,” Derek finished, handing over the ticket that had just been handed to him.
Once he was through the gate, he patted his suit coat to make certain he hadn’t dropped anything of any importance.
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A few hours later, Anne threw her arms around Derek as they finally met up at the mascot statue that somebody had put a Graduation cap and gown on. “Finally!” she sighed where only he could hear her.
A throat cleared from nearby.
“You have to be kidding me,” one of her sisters grumbled. “Can we go home now?”
“Does anybody see Charles?”
“Aren’t they so cute together, Walter?”
“I’d like to meet him first,” her father, the Throat Clearer, declared.
“You met him at Christmas.”
“I did?”
“Yes, and he’s such a gentleman,” Aunt Cassandra teased, even though Anne and Derek both knew that she wasn’t too thrilled that their relationship had lasted this long in spite of the distance between them. She disliked Walter Elliot even more.
“Well, out of the two of us, only one of us has met him.”
Anne pulled Derek over to where her family was standing. “That’s only because you were busy and told us to go away over Christmas Break when I tried to introduce you, Father.” Turning to grin at Derek, she stated, “Father, this is Derek Worth. Derek, this is my father, Walter Elliot. You have already met my aunt, Cassandra Russell. And these are my sisters, Beth...” Beth cleared her throat, “Sorry, Elizabeth, and Mary.”
“It’s a pleasure to meet you,” Derek smiled, holding his hand out for Walter Elliot to shake.
Anne’s father stared at Derek’s hand for a long moment, then made eye contact for an even longer moment, before he took Derek’s hand. It had been a test and both men knew it. “I have heard many things about you, mostly from my late wife and my sister-in-law.”
“I am terribly sorry for your loss, Sir.”
“Where were you?”
“Boot Camp,” Derek replied honestly. “They wouldn’t let me leave.”
Nodding his head, Walter only turned to head back to his car only because Elizabeth was behind him tapping her foot and sighing.
“Where is your friend, Charles?” Mary asked Anne again.
“Probably somewhere with his parents,” Anne answered her.
“Will we get to meet him tonight?” Derek asked. “He’s your only friend that I haven’t gotten to meet.”
“No,” Anne sighed, shaking her head. “Father doesn’t want me to go to Project Graduation, even though I’m allowed a guest because he thinks it’s not enough.”
“Enough?”
Anne struggled to figure out how to explain her father’s logic. “I won’t be making the right connections, being seen by the right people. He wants to take us out to some fancy restaurant where he can brag about my accomplishment, show me off to his friend’s sons, and name drop. He can’t do that if I’m somewhere else having fun.”
“He’d try to set you up in front of me?” Derek asked with a raised eyebrow.
“We’ll see,” was all Anne said with a shrug. “Possibly.”
