(A/N: thank you for 400 reads, love y'all :))

Ryder's POV (about a year later)(age 16)

A year passed quickly, and things were pretty normal. The adults would go on missions and return injured from time to time, but other than that it was just the usual, eat, sleep, train, and repeat. 

I dried my hair after my shower, and sat at my dresser, putting some soothing cream on my face and rubbing it in gently. 

Sam sauntered over to me. I spotted him in the mirror and smiled. "Hey,"

"Hey," he said. He turned and perched beside me, on the dresser. "What's up?" he asked. 

I gave him a confused smile. It was kind of a random question. "Nothing much," I said slowly. "You?"

"Same." he said, watching me caressing my face. 

"Did you want something?" I asked, a few minutes later. 

"I wanted to ask you something," he said. 

I swivelled my chair to face him, resting my elbow on the table. "Sure,"

He cleared his throat. "You know every few months we have a ball?" I hummed. "And the next one is next week?"

"Yeah?"

He gulped. "I was wondering if you wanted to go with me," he said. 

I tilted my head. "We always go together,"

"Yeah I know, I mean like-" he blushed. "-like a date," My eyes widened. "I understand if you don't want to," he added. "You can say no if you like," he looked away. I realised my silence was making him lose his confidence. 

"Yes," I blurted out, making him look back at me.

"For real?" he asked. 

My cheeks tinted. "Yeah, why not?" I said, trying to play it cool, and pretend that I hadn't been waiting for this moment for 4 years.

He grinned his signature grin. "Great!" he looked at me for a few more seconds before standing up and walking to his bed. 

I did the same, walking to my own. 

"G'night, Rye," he said.

"Night Sam," I replied, before turning the light off.

I lay in my bed smiling for a few minutes. I wanted to scream out of happiness into my pillow, but I had to settle for just smiling at the ceiling. He finally asked me out! I mean technically he didn't ask me out yet, he asked me to be his date for the ball. But still, it was progress. I fell asleep, thinking about him, hoping he was thinking about me too. 

-------------------The Next Mornin'------------------

We talked normally, as if he hadn't asked me to the ball the night before. I was slightly worried it would be awkward, but thankfully, it wasn't. 

After breakfast, Sierra asked if I would help her and Josy with something.

"What are we doing?" I asked as they led me to their room. 

"We have a lot of papers that need to be put in alphabetical order for Rick. Do you think you could help? It would be nice to sit a chat while we do it." Sierra said. 

"Yeah, sure. I have something to talk about," I said as we began. The looked at me expectantly. "Last night Sam asked if I can be his date for the ball next week,"

A smile grew on the two ladies faces, as they got excited. "We've been waiting for this for so long!" "How did he ask it?" "Do you know what he's going to wear?" "I'm so proud of him," "We knew he would take his time,"

"Okay that's too many questions!" I cried. 

"Right right, sorry," Josy said. "But this is so exciting!"

I blushed. Sierra handed me a set of papers. "So what happened?"

"He asked if we could go together, but I was like, we always go together. And then he was like, nah I meant like a date," I took a sip of my mango juice. "And then he was like, it's okay, you can say no, but I was like yes. And he was like for real? And I was like yes,"

"And then?" Sierra inquired. 

"We went to bed," I finished. 

They blinked at me. "You didn't kiss?" Sierra asked. 

I blushed and face palmed. "Why would we kiss already? He just asked me on a date!" I exclaimed. 

"Okay, okay I guess we're a little eager," Josy said. "But ahh our kids are growing up," she added. 

I smiled. It felt nice to be surrounded by such supportive people. "There's a problem though. What do I wear?" I said. Sierra and Josy looked at each other and smirked. I raised an eyebrow. "Guys?"

Josy stood up and went to her wardrobe. She pulled a a box down from above it, and brought it over. She lifted the lid. 

"Remember at London Heathrow when we first picked you up?" I nodded, "And we asked if you wanted that dress?" Sierra asked. 

"That was like 4 years ago though. Surely I've outgrown it," I said. 

"Okay well remember we told you on your 13th Birthday that we were certain he'd ask you out in a few years?" I gave a nod. "We may or may not have bought the dress in a few sizes bigger," Josy admitted. 

My jaw dropped. "How did you know?"

Sierra shrugged. "We just had a feeling. And either way, you could still use the dress at one point,"

I smiled, understandingly. "Okay well, how am I supposed to know what Sam is going to wear? Like what if he wears something totally different?" I asked. 

"Leave that to us," Sierra said. 

"Yeah, Samuel is more than likely to tell Gray about this. And when he does we can get Gray to get him thinking about what he's going to wear, and we'll make sure it's black." Josy added. 

"Okay, this might just work out," I said. 

"It might?! It definitely will," Sierra said. 

"Yeah, leave the dressing up part to us, it's going to be perfect," she said, holding up the black dress. 

I looked calm, but really, I was freaking out. Not out of fear, out of happiness.