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"Look at us," Mike said, sharing a grin with Valeria. "Hey! Look at us."
"Look at us," Valeria repeated, flicking the tassel on Mike's graduation cap.
"Who would've thought?"
"Not me," she finished, giggling.
From the side, Angela rolled her eyes. "There was literally no doubt that both of you would graduate," she said. "No need for the act."
"Let us be theatrical and quote Paul Rudd memes, Ang," Mike said, throwing an arm around Valeria's shoulder.
It was the day of Forks High's graduation. All the students were lined up outside the gym in their yellow caps and gowns, waiting to be led inside where their families were waiting.
It hadn't taken long at all for Valeria to wander from the group of kids with the last names that began with C and find her other friends. Angela had gotten out of her place in line to try and get Mike and Valeria to stop goofing off and get back to their places.
"It's about to start, and if you delay graduation, Jess will kill you both," Angela stated. Jessica had been planning for this day since freshman year and she wouldn't let any of them ruin the perfect day.
"Fine, Mom," Valeria grumbled. She and Mike shot finger guns at each other before returning to their respective spots in line. She also waved at Jasper as she passed him in the H section.
"I can't believe your best human friend is Mike Newton," Edward whispered so that no humans could hear as Valeria got behind him in line. "Not Jessica or Angela. Mike Newton."
"Jealous, Edwin?" Valeria asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Oh, terribly so," he replied sarcastically, making Valeria and Alice laugh.
"You're about to learn, Val, that graduations are very lengthy and boring," Alice told her, leaning around Edward.
"I'll at least try and pay attention to Jessica's speech," Valeria told her. "She'd kill me if she found out all my attention wasn't on her."
Alice was right about Valeria getting bored. She had to sit through the opening speech, the Principal's speech, and the guest speaker's speech before they made it to Jessica's valedictorian speech. It was far too many speeches for Valeria's taste, and unfortunately for the mind reader, she had started going over all the facts about Princess Diana's death in her head.
But finally, Jessica's moment of glory arrived, and Edward lightly nudged Valeria, who started paying attention. She smiled encouragingly at Jessica, offering a thumbs-up as she started talking.
"When we were five they asked us what we wanted to be when we grew up. Our answers were things like astronaut, president — or in my case a princess. When we were ten they asked us again. We answered rockstar, cowboy — or in my case a gold medalist. But now that we've grown up, they want a serious answer."
