17 Chapter 2

"Jeannette Matthews!" Her name rang out across the auditorium, and she received an encouraging push towards the stage where she was to receive her diploma. She held her head high and stepped out with a smile on her face. As she was handed her diploma and her honors listed, she beamed a smile out to the audience. She saw, sitting up front in the first row behind the graduates, not only her family, but Vivi's entire family as well. Then her eyes landed on Chad who was beaming right back at her, cheering for her alongside her family. He grinned at her as he held her little sister in his lap and pointed her out so that her adorable 4-year-old baby sister could wave and smile at her.

Her baby sister had come as a complete shock to her parents and had been an utterly unexpected surprise for their whole family. However, that didn't mean that she wasn't a loved child, just one that came late in her parents' lives when they both had only wanted one child. Just because she was a surprise and the circumstances of her conception a near microscopic chance of happening, didn't mean that her parents didn't want to raise her and love her as much as they had done for her.

Chad had been delighted to meet her little sister after she was born, and he absolutely adored her as she grew. And Alice loved him with all of her little heart. She called him big brother, much to his and her parent's amusement, but it wasn't far from the truth since someday she would be his sister-in-law when Chad became her husband. 

This last year of high school for her, had her discussing many things with Chad, one of which had been their bonding and that had led to a discussion on whether they wanted to get married someday. After a little while of back and forth, they decided that they would bond first and then get married after their college and her med-school graduation. Of course, Jeanie didn't know that Chad had plans on proposing to her before she fully entered med-school after her pre-med courses were complete. Nor did she know that he would end up selling off a few of his painted garage kit figures that he treasured, just to afford to pay for her eventual engagement ring.

After Jeanie's name was called and she walked across the stage, she met her best friend on the other side and gave her a big hug.

"Thank you, Vivi! I don't think I could have made it this far without you, and I'm so happy that you decided to stay with me throughout school even though you could have graduated last year!" Jeanie teared up as she hugged her nearly 15-year-old friend.

"It's not like if I graduated last year, that I would be able to do much anyway, Jeanie. Besides, the extra time to prepare for college was nice since my uncles kept me up to speed on the latest sciences. With my extra college credits, I'll be at least a year ahead of everyone by the time we start school in the fall." Vivi explained easily as she gave her slightly shorter best friend a hug.

"Vivi, it's not fair, you aren't done growing and you're already taller than me!" Jeanie whined. She was short, and hadn't grown much over the last year, while Vivi continued to grow taller, even though her growth had considerably slowed down now.

"You know I can't help that! I didn't get to choose the genes that are causing me to grow so tall, I got it from my mom's side of the family, all the girls in the family are tall; so, I simply inherited those genetics…" Vivi launched into an explanation which made Jeanie laugh and let go.

"Vivi, you are such a know-it-all, and I love it!" Jeanie laughed as she let go of her best friend.

Vivi just smiled at her best friend. She could always be herself with her friends, which had made her glad that she had met them in school and remained friends with them over the years.

"Okay, now that we have our diplomas, let's go and sit with our family. I want to see if the rest of our class trips!" Jeanie giggled.

"Jeanie! That's so mean! We shouldn't wish them to trip!"

"I wasn't wishing them to trip, only wanted to see if they tripped on their own!" Jeanie defended with a grin, making her best friend laugh and roll her eyes at her.

After joining their family, they watched the rest of their graduating class get their diplomas and only person tripped throughout the entire ceremony, but like the respectful young adults they were, they all laughed and jeered alongside the rest of the class, all in good fun as the person who tripped was Henry O'Malley their fellow friend. He had ended up being held back a year due to complications from suppressing his secondary gender since he presented and had led to a myriad of health problems before it was brought under control. 

Of course, none of them realized that was the cause, except for Noel, who had figured it out when she and her brother entered the high school portion of the school they all attended. Even though he was 8 years her and her brother's senior, they had all become good friends with him as well as Vivi's other friends since they had all attended the same ballet class together.

At the after party, Jeanie was having a lot of fun. Vivi's parents and uncles had rented out an entire party venue for them and hired a band as well as Vivi's Aunt Ra-Ra's family's catering business to cater the event. Good food and great music with the careful supervision of EEA officers posing as staff made sure that the party went off without any incidents. Ever since the fateful Homecoming Dance that ended up with her presenting and going into an early rogue heat due to a drug she had accidently ingested that had been meant for her bestest friend; EEA officers now chaperoned all events that any of the Bartley or Hendrix children attended.

After a while, Chad pulled Jeanie away from their friends and ducked into a corner where they weren't being directly observed. "Jeanie, you look so beautiful tonight!" Chad said as he pulled her into his arms.

Jeanie blushed slightly. "You always find ways of making me feel that way, even if I don't really look good…" Despite her loving upbringing and support from not only her family, but Vivi's family, she had never been one to be very self confident in her appearance, though she tried her best to always look good for Chad. Chad in turn always made her feel beautiful though, no matter how much effort she put in. 

There had been times when she looked like an awful mess and he still thought that she was pretty. Especially in the morning after answering the door while only being half-awake after listening to her baby sister cry all night. He thought nothing of her appearance and smiled his charming smile, made himself at home and promptly picked up her baby sister and played with her. She had only been dating him for a year at that point and her sister was only 9 months old at the time.

If there was one thing she knew for sure about Chad, it was that he had a way with little kids and he loved babies. She had seen it time and time again over the years they had been dating. He was a great big brother to his own little sister as well and loved her despite the sass she sometimes displayed. Kat was now 14 and would be a freshman in high school starting in the fall. He not only adored her little sister too but was great with Vivi's siblings and little cousins as well. It made her convinced that someday that if they had kids then he would be a great dad as well. She never told him this of course, since that was a long way off still and she had her dreams and he had his, so they would be waiting quite a while to start a family.

Chad held Jeanie close and just inhaled her scent. She was wearing a light perfume that complimented her peachy scent and it honestly was going to his head so he gave his alpha a bit of a stern reprimanding for being too eager when they had plenty of time to be together later.

"Jeanie, are you by chance wearing a pheromone perfume?" Chad had to ask since it was driving him crazy.