Undercover: Book 1 — Chapter Thirty-Three

"Time to welcome your class valedictorian, Clover Thompson,” I was introduced as I walked up on the stage. I was a bit surprised to find that I was the top of the class, but I was more than happy with it. I guess it was all those years of studying and being the class nerd that got me here.

"Class of 2013. To most, that year means so little, but to our class, it means so much. We’ve held our world at our fingertips. All these years of being here have held so many memories. Heck, so many fights, so many friendships, so many different romances. We’ve faced stress and times of happiness. We’ve been completely and utterly depressed and completely and utterly happy. We’ve faced life. School has been all we’ve ever known, so when our grandparents, aunts, uncles or even our parents ask us the same question over and over again— What are you gonna do with your life?—we always face that pause of hesitation. We answer rather bluntly, I don’t know.

“Today... Today is different. We stand here as graduates of 2013. Some can now say, ‘I know what I'm gonna do.’ Some may still not know, but guess what, Class? You have your whole life to figure it out and do what you want. In the next few years, we will see some of our classmates in the Super Bowl, some on the news and some even on Judge Judy, but that’s okay because even then we’ll know we made it somewhere,” I said, pausing slightly as I made eye contact with as many students as possible. “Congratulations, class of 2013. Today, we can say we made it," I said, causing people to clap and cheer. I thanked everyone before an administrator took the stand and started talking as I made my way back to my seat.

***

School was a life event that I’d never forget, but I couldn’t be happier as I stood in London a few weeks later, with nothing but my best friends beside me. My mother was the one to thank for this trip; she had a private plane and she let us use it, which made the whole trip ten times cheaper.

"We should go visit Big Ben first!" Tori exclaimed, looking at a tourist booklet as we all relaxed and took the time to unravel a bit in the hotel room.

"A clock sounds great and all, but I’d rather eat first," Zach said, causing us to roll our eyes.

“You should appreciate beauty,” Tori said, shaking her head with a frown.

"I’m gonna second that. Airplane food is absolutely disgusting." Andrew shuddered and I smiled at my boyfriend.

“How about we go to Nandos? Their Peri Peri chicken is amazing,” Jasmin suggested and we all looked at her curiously.

“Have you been here before?” I asked, surprised she knew where to eat around here.

Her face paled slightly before she nodded, waving it off. “Yeah, I have some family friends up here that we visit from time to time.” Chris nodded, agreeing with her.

"What the hell is Nandos and what is per per chicken?" Michael asked, not caring much about his friend’s past visitations.

"It's a place you eat at and trust me when I say you'll love it! And it's called Peri Peri chicken," I said, rolling my eyes.

"Thank you, Captain Obvious," he said sarcastically

"No problem, Sergeant Sarcasm," I said, smirking as he glared at me.

Nandos was surprisingly close to our hotel, so it ended up being our choice for food. After some moving of the tables, we all grabbed a seat.

"Hi, what can I get you?" the waitress asked, smiling at us. After ordering our drinks, we decided to go with the easier route of ordering two of the jumbo platters and one full platter, as it worked best with so many of us here. When we originally planned this trip, I never expected every single person from our group to come, but with all of us here, it made the cost of rooms and food cheaper as we all pitched in.

"You should’ve gotten the garlic bread over the Peri chips and the mashed potatoes,” Chris complained and Michael nodded in agreement.

"Boo hoo, majority rules,” Tori said, looking down at her freshly painted nails she did on the way here. I smiled at my friend as Chris just sat there pouting.

“Go add it on if you want it so bad,” Jasmin said to her brother and he stood up.

“You know what, I most definitely will,” he said, sticking his tongue out before walking away.

"This is about to be expensive,” Andrew commented when all the food did actually arrive. I nodded in agreement.

“Well, I mean, when there’s you, Clover, Tori, Jack, Jake, Zach, Jordan, Chris, Michael and on top of me eating, then, yeah, I’d say so," Jasmin said honestly.

“I blame it on all the pig-like boys,” I said, looking a Michael, who was already shoving mashed potatoes down his throat.

“You’re not a princess yourself,” Andrew said defensively.

I raised an eyebrow. “Yeah, but I’m not shoving food down my throat before anyone even got a chance to see what’s actually on the table,” I said, crossing my arms over my chest. Andrew grabbed a spoonful of mashed potatoes and pushed it right onto my nose.

I gasped and closed my eyes, hoping that when I opened them that there wouldn’t be food on my face. My boyfriend isn’t that stupid, right?

“Oh my gosh,” Tori said as the rest of the table burst out laughing.

“You’re dead, Carter,” I hissed and he smiled cheekily.

“Yeah, yeah, you’re my favorite person, too,” he said while chewing on his food.

“You’re a pig,” Tori commented.

“Oh, for the love of food. Stay out of it,” Michael told Tori, causing her to stare at him with wide eyes.

I could already hear his funeral music playing now.

We spent a week in London, exploring all different things. I think we tried more restaurants than anything, but I loved the experience. Even with Zach and Michael not being able to understand the beauty while Jack and Jake constantly asking questions, it was a place I would visit again in a heartbeat.

Our next destination ended up being Paris, France and if you thought London was beautiful then you would almost die from the sight of this place.

"So, there is a four-star hotel about a block away from here. We can all split up and meet up there tonight. The whole top floor is ours," Andrew said, holding up a set of room keys. We decided on the plane ride that it would be easier if we did some things as a group and other things in pairs. There were too many of us to be traveling and eating all at the same time, three times a day.

"What? Since when did you book the whole top floor?" I asked curiously, knowing we only had two rooms booked.

"Well, when your mom owns hotels and is friends with other owners, you have connections," Andrew smirked and handed everyone their keys.

"Well, then, au revoir, mon ami," I said and Andrew quirked an eyebrow.

"You took French?" he asked and I nodded.

"Oui. Je Parle français," I said, my lips quirking upward as he leaned closer and kissed me.

“That’s kinda hot,” he said, and I bit my lip to hold back the smile spreading across my lips.

"Show off," Zach scoffed, interrupting and I laughed.

“That’s the most basic thing you learn in French,” I said, shaking my head.

"Well, see you guys later." Tori waved as her and Michael surprisingly went off. Everyone followed their lead, splitting off in groups.

"We are gonna go meet some hot babes. See ya, lover boy," Jordan said, saluting Andrew as he, Jack, and Jake walked off together.

It was pretty late, so there wasn’t much to do. At least, that’s what I thought until I found out Andrew also managed to get us a date on the top of the Eiffel Tower.

“This is incredible,” I told him, looking at the view.

“You taking all of your friends around the world is incredible. Your personality is incredible. Your constant happiness, your forgiveness, everything about you is incredible, Clover Thompson,” he said, holding my hand.

I smiled. “When I compare you to when I first met you, you’re so happy now. I honestly love it.”

“That’s because you reminded me of what I didn’t need to fear. I never really told you about my childhood, but my father consumed my life when I was younger. He was a drunk fool. He constantly abused my mother, and my sister and I were too young to really comprehend it all. He’d keep hitting her until she was bruised, bleeding, or passed out,” Andrew told me, his body shaking lightly from the memories.

I didn’t say anything as I let him continue talking while I squeezed his hand tightly to remind him that he wasn’t alone.

“It wasn’t until she was laying on the floor with a bleeding head injury that I realized the extent of it all. That day, I called the cops. My mom always told me that I saved her life, yet I can’t help but think about the what ifs with everything,” he said, looking at the view.

“You’re probably always going to think about those. Everyone does in traumatic situations, but you know what? You can’t ever blame yourself for not understanding or for fears,” I said softly.

He nodded, knowing I was right. “He went to jail for a couple of years. We didn’t have contact during that time, but when he got out, he managed to use his connections to get partial custody. My mom was terrified he was going to hurt us, so she sent my sister away. She tried to do the same with me, but it didn’t work out as planned, since by that point I had already started getting into trouble and creating a nice record. I never told anyone this, but his alcohol addiction turned into a drug abuse addiction. He only became a worse drunk. “

I stared at his look of sadness and frowned. “Did he ever hurt you?” I asked carefully.

Andrew nodded slightly. “I let him. I could easily fight him, but when you grow up seeing a father who’s the best parent that slowly got sick and turn into an alcoholic, it’s sickening. You can only see yourself pushing him away from you. You feel terrible just stopping his punch from going through because that only leads to him stumbling and falling over. You can’t hold his hair back when he’s throwing up his stomach, but there’s been times where you just put your hand out and let him release his contents right there. It’s disgusting, but he’s your father, which is why it all hurts so much. I could only hope that the place he’s in now will help him get better.”

I pulled him into a hug. I had no idea what to say to all of that, but I knew just hugging him would get my feelings across.

“I’m telling you this because I want you to know I don’t hide anything from you. You’ve told me your secret and you told me your history. I want you to know that I trust you, too. Which is why I have something to tell you,” Andrew said

“I’m hoping this is something good and you’re not breaking up with me?" I said with a slight frown.

"What? No. Of course not," he said, mirroring my expression.

"Then what is it?" I asked and he let out a deep breath.

"I love you," he said and my lips went upward and I couldn’t hide my bright smile. “I never thought I’d say those words to anyone, and I didn’t expect to even have a girlfriend, but something about you pulls me in and I want to stay with you and find out what exactly that is.

"Andrew Carter,” I whispered in his ear. “I love you." And I meant it. Our lips connected and I knew in that moment that I could spend my life with Andrew Carter. For someone so cliché, he was mysterious and interesting and I wanted to know everything about him. I’m not sure how we got here, but I know it all started in detention and that was something I would relive any day if I got to eventually come back to this epitome of happiness. Andrew Carter wasn’t a bad boy, and he no longer was the player.

He was Andrew Carter, my forever.

We pulled away and I smiled widely at him before turning and looking at the beautiful view once again. We had a positive future waiting for us. We were happy, I was happy. It’s funny, I was this content with my life because there wasn’t anything to hide anymore. I, Clover Thompson got caught as one of the world’s biggest models undercover in high school and I have to say,

I couldn’t be happier with that fact.

And, I definitely couldn’t be happier with my future.