Serenity Falls reached #46 on Teen Fiction today! Highest I've ever got, so thank you so so much! Proper author's note at end, so enjoy!

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Olivia was frozen to the spot, unable to move or do anything other than stand there like an idiot. Ethan had now stepped off the stage, still holding the microphone in his hand. The crowd parted immediately, as if they had rehearsed, leaving a pathway up to where Olivia was standing.

It seemed to take an eternity for Ethan to approach her, even though in reality it was probably more like ten seconds. It was as if time had slowed down completely, and Olivia’s body was still frozen up, rendering her incapable of moving or even opening her mouth to speak. Ethan stopped in front of her, his gaze locked onto hers, looking at her so intently he may have been having a deep conversation through them. He paused, studying her expression closely, before reaching out and taking her hand in his.

"Since you stopped speaking to me, I have thought of nothing else," he said softly, his quiet voice projected around the room. "I couldn’t cope without you. I spent my time racking my brains thinking of what I could do to make it up to you."

Olivia was breathing deeply now, her heart fluttering uncontrollably in her chest. How was she supposed to react to this? The intensity of Ethan’s gaze was overpowering, and yet she couldn’t look away.

"From the bottom of my heart, I am deeply and sincerely sorry. Because I love you, Olivia. And I am going to prove it to you."

The entire population of the gym was standing there, looking at them. Some of them were murmuring soft ‘aww’s, some of them had smiles on their faces and some of them were just standing there, watching intently to see how the situation would play out.

Ethan turned around to face everyone, his hand still holding Olivia’s. He had no intention of letting it go, and he did not even see the surprised expressions of everyone was watching them. He was oblivious, blissfully unaware, and not caring about the aftermath of what he was about to do.

All he cared about was making Olivia happy.

"The entire time I’ve been here, I’ve been hiding something," he said, his voice unnaturally calm, considering what he was about to announce. "I hid it because I was ashamed, and because I wanted to fit in. But now I realise... that’s not what I want."

He turned to look at Olivia again, but by now she had emerged from her frozen state. Realising what he was about to do, she gripped his hand tighter and pulled him closer.

"You don’t have to do this," she murmured, trying to avoid her voice being picked up by the microphone. "Honestly, you don’t have to."

But he merely shook his head, smiling down at her. "Yes, I do."

"Seriously," Olivia said, looking up at him, her eyes glazed with worry. He didn’t have to do this. If he did, she was sure that she would be overcome with guilt that she was the reason he had been thrown out of the popular crowd. "You don’t need to do this. Not for me."

"I’m doing it for myself as well," he told her, before raising his voice again. A smirk was playing on his lips. "Some of you may be shocked to hear this, but it is true. Start spreading the rumours now because... guess what, folks? Ethan Shaw is on scholarship."

A few startled gasps escaped from the crowd, but Olivia didn’t have any time to process what happened next. Before she was even aware of it, Ethan had thrown the microphone somewhere in the crowd, wrapped his arms around her and pressed his lips to hers.

Honestly, as cheesy as it sounded, it felt like it was a scene from a movie, or at least a cliché romance novel. However, this was reality, and the feeling of his soft lips that she had missed so dearly was as real as you could get.

When they finally broke apart, Olivia’s face spread into a smile as she realised that their classmates had now broken into a round of loud applause. On everyone’s faces was also a smile, something that only made her own grin even wider. She took the opportunity to look up at Ethan, who was gazing intently at her.

"I’ve missed you," she managed to breathe.

"Me too," Ethan said, pulling her closer so they were able to sway in time to the slow music that the DJ had just started to play through the speakers. The crowd around them began to disperse, finding their partners and joining them to dance. "I am so sorry."

"You don’t need to keep apologising," Olivia said, smiling. "You’ve already proved it enough. I can’t believe you announced it like that!"

"It just seemed like the right thing to do," he said, pulling her arms up and linking them behind his neck. "It feels like a massive weight’s been lifted off me – as cliché as that sounds. And you know what? I don’t even care if Carter and that lot ditch me. I’d rather hang out with you guys anyway."

"You really mean that?" Olivia raised her eyebrows. "Are you sure you’re okay with hanging out with scholarship nerds?"

"Totally cool with it," he responded, smiling as he brushed a strand of hair away from her face. "Besides, I’m one of them."

She smiled back at him, and they continued swaying in time to the music until the track finished. When it did, Ethan suddenly felt a small tap on his shoulder and he let go of Olivia, spinning round to see who wanted his attention.

It was Carter.

"Oh, um, hey," Ethan said, growing increasingly wary as he studied his best friend’s unreadable expression.

"Hey," Carter said awkwardly, shifting his gaze to the floor. "Um... what you did just then..."

"Say no more," Ethan said, raising his hand as he cut him off. "I know what you’re going to say, and I understand. I know you don’t want to hang out with a scholarship nerd and... it’s fine." He forced a smile onto his face. But to tell the truth, even if Carter did ditch him, he wasn’t really that bothered about it. He knew that there were far more genuine people in the other crowd, and every second he spent with Olivia only made that more appealing to him.

"Wait, what?" Carter looked upwards, his brows furrowed into a frown. "I wasn’t going to say that."

"You weren’t?"

"No! Of course not. What kind of person do you think I am?" Carter shook his head. "It’s weird how you didn’t tell me, but still, that was pretty brave to announce it like that."

"Sorry for not telling you," Ethan murmured. Now it was his turn to look at the floor. "I just... I didn’t know how you’d take it."

"It’s okay, man," Carter said, punching him in the arm lightly. "Stop acting so awkward about it. I’m fine. You’re still the same guy just... a whole lot smarter. And hey, you never know. You might make the whole ‘scholarship’ thing cool."

"That’ll be the day," Ethan responded with a laugh. "Now if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got to get back to my girlfriend."

"Oh! Of course," Carter said, with a playful wink. "Don’t have too much fun, you guys."

And with that, he had turned and disappeared into the crowd of people, leaving Olivia and Ethan alone. Well, alone with about two hundred other people round them, but you get the idea.

Ethan turned to his girlfriend, a smirk playing at the edges of his mouth. He bowed down in front of her, holding out his hand. "May I have this dance?" he asked, faking a really bad English accent that Olivia couldn’t help but laugh at.

"Of course," she replied with a smile, taking his hand. "But you know, you should stop with the accent. You’re really bad at it."

"Hey!" Ethan pouted in mock offence. Then his face softened and he smiled widely, his lips parting to reveal his white teeth. His arm snaked around Olivia’s back and he pulled her in closer, until she was pressed up against him. The proximity made her blush, and he laughed at the colour of her cheeks. "Do I make you nervous?" he asked her, smiling teasingly.

"No..." she persisted, even though her cheeks had now surpassed pink and were now settling at scarlet. "It’s just... hot in here."

"You’re so cute, Olivia," he said, planting a kiss on her forehead. "Are you going to start blushing every time I come near you now?"

"I’m not blushing!" she said pointedly, despite the fact that her cheeks were still flaming. She sighed. "Okay. Maybe I am. But it’s not my fault."

"I think it’s sweet."

"Is that a good thing?"

"Yeah. It’s one of the reasons why I love you."

Olivia stopped, her eyes widening. Despite having heard him say those words earlier, being so close to him and this time not having everybody’s eyes on them made it have much more of an impact. She inhaled sharply, looking upwards so she was looking him right in the eye.

"I love you too."

And it was true. Even though she may not have realised it before, through all those ups and downs, the feelings of happiness that were so powerful she thought she might burst, the emotional rollercoaster of trying to forget about him, and yet at the same time trying to rid herself of the constant pain of missing him so dearly.

It was really true. She had fallen in love.

***

Partway into the evening, and a few slow dances with Ethan later, the music stopped blaring out from the speakers and there was a rustling from the microphones as someone climbed onto the stage.

Ethan removed his arm from around Olivia’s shoulders as they turned their attention to the front of the gym, where Mr Delmar was now standing on stage, looking somewhat taken aback by the bright light that was now shining on him, combined with the intensity of the students’ intrigued gazes.

"Hello, everyone," he said, his eyes widening slightly when the sound of his voice echoed loudly around the room. He narrowed his eyes at the microphone in his hand, as if it was somehow its fault, and pulled it further away from his mouth. "I just have one announcement to make and then you can go back to... dancing, or whatever you were doing."

Olivia smirked slightly at Mr Delmar’s visible discomfort on stage.

"As you all know, we experienced some... unexpected interruptions during last week’s election. As both candidates were removed from the running, we currently have no one acting as class president."

A few murmurs broke out around them. Olivia frowned, but she was unable to come up with a suggestion as to what he might say next. She turned to Ethan, giving him a questioning look, but he shrugged.

"Now, after some deliberation between the faculty and I... we have come to a decision."

His eyes narrowed slightly as he scanned the crowd. Out of the corner of his eye, he spotted Alyssa and Courtney standing together, but he looked away quickly as irritation rose inside of him. He was still angry about their behaviour, but now he was aware that Alyssa was soon to be leaving, he supposed that they would be separated soon. Things would start to improve if she was out of the school. It would be for the best.

"We have received no other nominations for class president, so we have decided to hand the title down to the only person who was running for vice president."

Another ripple of murmurs broke out, more quickly this time, but Olivia didn’t know what they were talking about.

She couldn’t think of who had been running for the title of second in command to either Alyssa or Courtney. Who in their right mind would want to stand there doing nothing apart from getting ordered around by one of them? She hadn’t really been paying much attention to the other titles, and neither had anyone else, since the attention had all been stolen by the main candidates – no surprise there.

"Who’s that?" she whispered to Ethan.

But Ethan’s response was cut off by the sound of Mr Delmar speaking again. "So, it gives me great pleasure to announce that your new student body president is... Kayla Manning."

It took a number of seconds before Olivia realised that her hearing hadn’t completely failed her, or that Mr Delmar hadn’t mistakenly said the wrong name. It was only when he handed the microphone to the blonde who had climbed up on stage that realisation hit her.

Stifling a laugh, she resisted the urge to look at Chelsie, who was standing close by.

Kayla stepped up on stage, smoothing down her chiffon skirt as she did so. She looked similar to a Barbie doll in the hot pink sequinned dress she was wearing. She took the microphone from the principal’s outstretched hand, looking at it strangely for a couple of seconds as if wondering what she was meant to do with it.

"Did I just win something?" she asked, looking slightly startled as her voice echoed through the room. Did she really not know how a microphone worked? The prospect was slightly worrying, if it turned out to be true. She turned to Mr Delmar, who was standing at the side of the stage.

"You’re student body president," he told her, his voice sounding half disbelieving and half irritated. "You know... head of student government?"

"Oh!" Kayla said, with a smile, even though it was likely that she had no idea what Mr Delmar had just told her. She paused. "Am I going to be on TV?"

"No, you’re not the president of the United States, just Serenity Falls," Mr Delmar said exasperatedly. "Just make a speech."

She turned back to the front of the stage, eyeing the crowd suspiciously. Anticipating silence consumed the room as she hesitated, trying to think of something to say. The cogs whirring in her brain were practically audible. Then, after a few agonising moments, her lips parted and she spoke. "I don’t really know exactly what I’m supposed to do, but I’m going to the bestest president this school has ever had!"

A few seconds of silence followed her outburst, but this was soon replaced by an eruption of loud applause and cheering. Kayla looked incredibly pleased with herself as she smiled at the crowd and lifted her hand in a small wave.

"Never thought I’d see the day when Kayla was school president," Ethan murmured, struggling to be heard over the chanting of the blonde’s name which echoed around the room. "Still, I suppose it’ll be better than being under the reign of Queen Alyssa."

"I think it’ll be quite fun," Olivia said, grinning at the thought. "I mean, come on, it’s Kayla Manning."

The sound of cheering gradually faded as a dance track played over the speakers. Olivia looked around the room, as all the students on the dance floor began to group together and start dancing with their friends. The atmosphere was lively, friendly, and had suddenly changed from before. Maybe it was just the realisation that all the tension of the past few weeks had finally been relieved, and everything was drawing to a close.

Maybe that was it.

Chelsie suddenly appeared by her side, grinning up at Ethan. "Mind if we steal her away for a bit? She owes a dance to her best friends."

"Sure, go ahead," Ethan responded, with a smile. "Go have fun."

She grinned back at him as she was tugged away into the midst of the crowd by Chelsie and Fred. She studied his chocolate brown hair and piercing green eyes for a few seconds, before she lost sight of him behind her fellow classmates.

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Can't believe this story is so close to the end! What did you guys think of this chapter? Kayla as president? Ahahaha, I couldn't resist ;) And Olivia and Ethan are FINALLY together, after like 50 chapters of waiting. I hope you're happy with me - hopefully it was worth the wait :D I just hate stories where they get together in like the 3rd chapter, it's like ugh -.- BUT ANYWAY. Remember to vote, and drop me a comment to be in with the chance of a dedication!

There are only 2 dedications left, so if you want one, leave me a comment! Until next time!