The choices

Six weeks ago…

The senior class filed into the auditorium and took their seats as Principal Fairborn stood on the stage with a microphone in his hand. He looked over the one hundred fifty students as they slowly moved into the auditorium. Fairborn expected that as least a third of them would not be able to go on the senior class trip due to poor class grades and failed state tests. Once the last students took their seat and the group quieted down he walked forward and cleared his throat.

“You probably know what this meeting is about” said Fairborn.

“To tell us that we are a bunch of hoodlums” said someone in the group.

“No, Mr. Walters” Fairborn said sternly “this is about the class trip but with your grades you probably won’t be able to go.”

“You might be surprised” replied Chris Walters and placed his hands behind his head.

“Back to the matter at hand, the senior trip” resumed Fairborn “your student government, led by Ms. Walters, has shortened the list of potential destinations to a small list.” He looked over to the side of the auditorium and waved Stephanie Walters up on to the stage.

A young blonde girl walked up on to the stage holding several papers in one hand.

“They better be good places sis” called out Chris from the seats.

“Chris can you do me a favor and shut your mouth for a few minutes” said Stephanie glaring into the seats at her twin brother. Some of the students snickered at her remark.

“Fine Steph” Chris raised his hands in surrender.

“Now our class has done some really great work on raising funds for the trip so we have quite a few options to choose from” she began raising up the papers in her hand. “The top choices that we have are a Caribbean cruise, a week at Miami beach, a week in Niagara Falls, and the last being a ski lodge in the mountains.” The entire auditorium erupted into conversations about the choices.

“Calm down please” Fairborn raised his voice over the auditorium “in the next two weeks there will be voting going on to determine where the class wants to go. The choice with the largest amount of votes will be where the class will go. All seniors are encouraged to vote, even the ones that won’t be going.” As Principal Fairborn finished speaking the bell rang and school was out for the week.

A tall student with black hair walked over to Stephanie Walters and pulled her aside. “So which trip are you hoping for Steph?” he asked as he kissed her deeply.

“Any of them are fine with me Matt” she replied when their kiss ended “you know I am not picky as long as we are together.”

“Hey sis, thanks for the shout out” laughed Chris and patted Matt on the back as he walked by. “I’ll meet you at the car.”

“Are we still on for tonight?” asked Steph turning back to Matt holding both his hands lightly.

“As long as practice doesn’t take forever like last time” Matt replied tapping the baseball bat hanging out of his backpack “Coach Jackson has been riding us hard lately, I think things haven’t been going well at home.”

“Well that can’t be helped and it is near the end of the season as well” Steph stated “just text me if something comes up.” She leaned in and kissed Matt softly on the lips and headed out to meet her brother in the parking lot.