The uproar was immediate and insane. It was bedlam, pandemonium. The boys were screaming, hooting and hollering, hugging me, each other and the Professor. I tried to stay close to him because I was worried that he might get knocked over and hurt, but Gethin seemed to have the same idea, and gave me a thumbs up from behind the Prof's back, letting me know that he'd keep him safe.

I made my way to the stage, since the winner was expected to say a few words. I thanked the judging committee, praised my fellow applicants, and thanked my advisor, Professor Van Dyke, for always being available to me, for not caring that I didn't come from a rich family with connections, and for teaching me so much, so fast.

"And I have to thank my boys, my UKC family, Matty, Geth, and Ronan, for believing in me, for showing me by example that living fearlessly isn't always easy, but it's always worth it, that being true to yourself is always the best choice.

"And I thank Teddy, for loving me, no matter what, so that I could come here tonight and fly." I kissed my fingertips and waved them in his direction, leaving the stage to a swell of applause. I saw him and the boys wiping away tears.

Then came the photographs, of me with the Prof, of me and the Prof with the judges, of just me with the judges, of me with the other contestants.

After these "official" photographs, the press wanted pictures of me with the boys, of me just with Teddy, with the piano, without the piano, even some with Professor Van Dyke. It would've gone on all night if Matty hadn't finally just said that we were finished.

"Guys, let's go and eat, please?" I asked. "I really need some food that doesn't come on a toothpick, you know?" This was met with approval all around. I turned to my prof, asking him what he'd like for dinner.

"Oh, heavens, I won't be joining you," he exclaimed.

This was met with protests all around from the boys, and my heart swelled with love for them; that they would even think to include an octogenarian in their dinner plans was so sweet, just so damned nice.

"I wouldn't dream of it," he said firmly. "I belong in bed, you young people celebrate without me, please." He checked his phone. "In fact, there's my car now. If one of you young men would help me to the door, you'll be quit of me right now."

He turned to me. "Ms. Foster, being called your teacher has been an honor, and knowing you these last eight years has been a real privilege, a real privilege." He shook my hand, and pulled me in to kiss my cheek. "I don't know when we'll next meet, my dear, but we'll keep in touch via our usual means, I'm sure."

I nodded, wiping away a tear.

He turned to Teddy. "You, young man, take care of her, as well as she takes care of you." He winked at Teddy. "Do we understand each other?"

Teddy smiled at him and nodded. "Yes, sir, we do. Goodbye, sir."

I made a quick pass of my dressing room, fixing my make-up and gathering up my stuff. I briefly debated putting my undies back on, but decided to just be crazy, so I stuffed them into my purse. By the time I got back, the car was waiting, but the front of the building was absolute mayhem.

"Jesus," I said, looking through the doors, "I don't think I've ever seen it this bad."

Gethin had called for some emergency security while I was in my dressing room, and they surrounded us as we prepared to leave. "Any one of them could be one of those 'Wendies'," he said darkly.

Ronan took my stuff from me. "This can go in the boot, right? You won't need it?" I shook my head. He passed it off to a beefy guy. "Okay, so that's one less thing to worry about. Do we know where we're going?" He looked at us.

"We wanted to try to go back to our sushi place," Teddy said. "It was good, but small, and we don't remember what it was called or anything, so we'd have to just pull up and hope they had room for us..."

"So let's first just get safely to the car without getting killed," said Matty, "then give the guy directions. I'm sure we can find some place to eat eventually, right?"

"Ready, guys?" Gethin nodded to the huge security people, who pushed open the doors. The screaming hit us like a solid thing, the people pushing in from all sides. Teddy kept his arm around me, while Ronan stayed on the other side, keeping himself between me and the screaming girls.

"Congratulations, Tinker Bell," someone in the crowd called to me. "How does it feel to be the youngest recipient ever to win the Hamilton Scholarship?"

I stopped walking, turning in the direction of the voice.

"I'm very proud and honored to represent young women, actually," I said. "Hopefully others out there will see me and realize that they're capable of doing things, and won't just not try because of their age or gender. Everyone deserves the chance to see if she can fly," I finished with a smile. Spontaneous applause broke out in the crowd, and we continued on to the car, an actual limo, where Teddy handed me up to Geth, who was already inside. Geth, Teddy and I sat in the back, with me in the middle, while Matty and Ronan sat behind the driver, facing us.

Teddy explained where the restaurant was to the driver, and settled back in the seat, putting his arm around me.

"That was a rather wonderful answer you gave, considering it was spontaneous," he said, kissing my cheek.

"Who needs media training?" asked Ronan rhetorically, smiling.

"Someone should send a copy of what Tink just said to that fucking Mitzi cunt," said Gethin, brows drawing together.

I put a pacifying hand on Gethin's arm. "Geth, it's fine, it happened months ago," I said softly.

"I don't care, I still can't believe that bitch had the balls to say that. To you, of all people!" He was still furious.

I turned to Teddy. "Why on earth did you tell him? What possible purpose did it serve, other than to get him into this state?"

"I just wanted to make sure that we all left Mitzi for good, and that was the fastest, surest way," he explained.

"I'm sorry, Tink," Geth apologized. "We're meant to be celebrating, and here I am, pissing all over your joy." He hugged and kissed me, gently noogeying my head. He smiled at me. "You surely are the most amazing creature, poppet. Watching you play tonight has got to be one of the high points of my life, honest. I wish our Janelle had been able to make it, but she had a design final or some such that she just couldn't miss. You were simply mind-blowing.

"I think it was the first time in my entire life I actually felt like I got classical music, like I felt it get inside of me, you know? Like me and Beethoven, we were like that." And he crossed his index and middle fingers.

I turned to him, touched. "Wow, Gethin, thank you so much! That's what any performer hopes for, you know? That the listener would feel at one with the music." I leaned back into Teddy's arms, overcome.

Matty and Ronan were nodding. "Thats what it was like. It was as though the music got inside us, like you took us somewhere. It was incredible," Matthew said. "Tink, what were you thinking about during your performance?"

I tensed up, and Teddy felt it. I felt him rubbing my shoulder reassuringly. "I don't know," I said vaguely. "I try not to think about anything, I try to just feel the music, you know?"

"Plus, you were smokin', white hot," Ronan declared. Matthew hit him in the head.

"Ow, what'd you do that for?" Ronan asked, honestly perplexed. "She was, you all know it, whether you say it or not!" He looked around at everyone, saving me for last. "I don't get it, Tink. After all you said about not wearing flashy jewelry and clothes that show off your body, you go out on stage looking like that, which don't get me wrong, you look amazing; the little ankle bracelet that shows off your gorgeous legs, and the low cut dress that shows off your, um,--"

"What, Ro?" asked Gethin with a grin. "Shows off her what?"

"Ah, fuck," said poor Ronan, looking out the window.

"You mean boys stop it right now," I declared, switching sides to sit between Matty and Ronan, putting my arms around Ronan and pulling his head down to kiss it.

"Tink, I'm sorry," he said. "You know I don't mean anything bad, that I'd never mean anything disrespectful towards you, ever--"

"Oh, for fuck's sake, Ronan, of course I know that," I said, exasperated. "These boys are just being morons, you haven't said anything wrong." I looked around. "Was I or was I not smokin' hot?"

The other three looked at each other, then looked at me. "Smokin' hot," Teddy said. "Yeah, you were, you are," he said with a smile.

And for maybe the first time in my life, I was able to accept a compliment, on my appearance, no less, without wanting to qualify it, negate it in some way.

I smiled back. "Thank you," I said. "Just keep in mind that you four are the only people in the world from whom I'm comfortable hearing words of that nature, okay?" I kissed Ronan on the mouth and returned to my place next to Teddy.

"Great, now that we've gotten my appearance all sorted out, are we there yet? I'm so hungry." It turned out we were, so we piled out of the car and into the tiny place, hoping that they could accommodate a party of five.

And they could. We took the last five stools at their sushi bar, where we were welcomed like old friends. Teddy told them we were celebrating my acceptance at Hamilton, and my winning of the scholarship. This news was met with a roar of approval from the entire place, and we were all given a drink on the house to celebrate.

I sat, with Teddy to my left and Ronan to my right.

Finally, food. Ah.

After about twenty minutes, Teddy leaned toward me. "Feeling better?" he asked softly. I looked at him, nodding, still chewing. He smiled at me. "So cute," he said, tracing my jawline with his forefinger.

I swallowed and smiled back, saying, "I'm so lucky that you find the sight of me eating cute, I guess." I laughed, grabbing my other piece of hirame.

I excused myself to use the restroom a little while later, and I realized as I was washing my hands that I was feeling a little strange. Between the lack of food, and possibly a lack of fluids as well (when I didn't eat, I knew I tended to forget to drink), and the nerves over the audition, I was feeling a little bit like I had jet lag, just kind of dizzy and odd. There was a little chair in the hallway, which was quieter and a bit cooler than the restaurant, so I sat for a minute, just to collect myself, before returning to the boys, who were full of sake and boisterous high spirits. I really hoped I wasn't getting sick, not with Teddy's birthday tomorrow.

"Tink?" I jumped at the sound of Matthew's voice. "You okay, lass?" He knelt next to my chair, looking into my eyes, smoothing my hair off my forehead.

I smiled at him in what I hoped was a reassuring way. "I'm fine, Matty. I was a little warm, so I thought I'd sit here for a sec before I went back into the hot restaurant, you know, cool off a little."

"I think you were sleeping, love, right here in this chair," he said, looking worried. "That's not okay, you must be exhausted." He felt my forehead. "Do you have any other symptoms?"

"Matty, listen to you," I laughed. "Symptoms? No, I have no symptoms at all. I told you, I was warm, that's all, honestly." I shook my head.

"Well, you don't feel like you have a fever, which is good," he said, looking at me. "Maybe you're just tired." He stood, tilting my head up by my chin, still looking so worried.

"I'm going to get Theo," he said. "You just sit tight for a minute, yeah?"

I thought about objecting, but as I thought it, he was gone, so I just sat.

He was back almost immediately with Teddy, who had that line I hated between his brows. He knelt in front of me, reaching for me. "What's wrong? How do you feel?"

"Like I told Matty, nothing's wrong, I was just a little warm, so I sat down to cool off a little, that's all, honestly." I looked back and forth between the two of them, standing there, looking so concerned and beautiful.

"No, Theo, I'm telling you, she was sleeping," Matthew insisted.

Okay, maybe I fell asleep for a few seconds while I was sitting here," I admitted. "Would that be so horrible? That doesn't mean I'm sick, does it?"

Teddy looked at me. "Hey, stop being so flippant about all this. I mean, this is your health we're talking about here. At the very least you must be exhausted to fall asleep outside a toilet in a restaurant." He looked at Matty.

"I'm taking her back to the hotel in the car. You guys can catch a cab, right?" he asked as if I weren't there.

Matthew nodded. "Sure, no problem." Again, as if I were invisible.

"Hello?" I waved my hand. "Remember me? The person you're talking about? Don't I have a say? How about if I just go back to the hotel on my own? There's no reason for any of you to cut your evening short. I'll be fine. I already feel totally normal. In fact, I don't even want to go back to the hotel at all. I want to go back and eat some more, I'm still hungry." I stood up and looked from one to the other, from sapphire to gray eyes.

Teddy put a restraining hand on my arm. "Birdie. Please don't do this. Please. I'm worried. Please let me take you back to the hotel and put you in bed so you can sleep. Even if you feel fine, and sleep is all you need, please, then, get that sleep that you need. What harm will it do? Hmm? You'll get the sleep you need, and I won't worry. Where's the wrong in that?" I looked at his eyes, felt the gentle pressure of his fingers.

I finally sighed and nodded. I could feel the relief in his body.

He closed his eyes as he kissed my forehead. "Thank you," he whispered.

How could I get angry with someone who thanked me for letting him take me somewhere and going to sleep for him? I sighed.

We went out to the restaurant, where the other two were watching for us, looking concerned.

"I'm fine, guys, no worries, honest," I said, smiling. "I'm just suddenly very, very tired. All of the stress just caught up with me, you know?" I kissed Gethin. "I just need to go to bed, that's all." I kissed Ronan. "I feel totally fine. You know how, like, with jet lag, you'll be fine, then suddenly you'll just have to sleep?" I kissed Matty. "It's like that. I haven't been sleeping well, and now that it's over, suddenly I'm exhausted; it just hit me all at once.

"I'll see you all in the morning, okay? I'm so excited to see the Rainbow Room finally." I called out good night to the restaurant from the front door, and the boys called for me to sleep well.