The Graduation

Chapter 2- The Party

6:30 pm

Alex's cheeks throbbed with the effort of smiling, and she glanced sideways to see the quiver in Dix's cheeks as she struggled next to her. There was a large camera standing before them, with an extremely loud and bossy man operating it. He was constantly moving, fidgeting with lighting, the camera lens, buttons, their hair, dresses, the people. The boys stood behind the camera, massaging their jaws and loosening their ties, done with pictures for the moment. 

Alex longed to relax her face, but anytime she moved even a muscle, the cameraman hurried over and adjusted her back. Her feet were killing her, the heels not her favourite footwear. Dix, standing next to her, eventually sighed and looked at her parents. "Mum, can we please be done already. Surely one of the thousand photos you've taken is good enough!"

The queen laughed and turned to the bossy man, "You heard your future queen, I'm sure that is enough". Alex relaxed and let her face revert to its usual vaguely downturned expression. She turned to Dix and whispered, "Thank goodness, I thought my lips were about to fall off." The sheer effort of speaking made her exhausted face hurt and she sighed, Dix laughed at her discomfort. Alex stepped towards her friends, who had made their way to sit beneath a large tree, bottles of water and snacks in their hands.

Dix walked to Jordan and plucked the bottle from his hand, grabbing a biscuit from the box he had already half-devoured and sat next to him, head on his shoulder. Declan and Bear stood to the side, nudging each other gently, trying to not draw attention to their flirtation. Alex took the bottle of water and packet of chips from her boyfriend's hand and leant in for a soft kiss. She turned to stand in front of him, allowing his arms to wrap around her waist as she took a large gulp of the water.

Alex laughed when DC tried to steal some chocolate from Jordan's stash, she knew how much her friend loved it. Jordan smacked his girlfriend's hand away, instead scooping up his stash and leading her in the direction of the RecRoom. Bear and Declan had mysteriously vanished when no one had been watching, they'd been doing that a lot lately. Alex had a suspicion that her friends planned to leave her and Kaiden alone for a bit, which Alex was extremely grateful for. She leant up and kissed him, savoring it. His steady hand on her back and gentle fingers tilting her face toward his, helped to block out the wolf whistles erupting from the crowd. She knew everyone could see, and her face wasn't hiding her embarrassment as she felt the hot blood slowly creep up her neck. But standing there, in Kaiden's arms, she didn't care, she was just happy to be done with school and, hopefully, the memories of Aven forever.

A few moments later, everyone started to converge in the dining hall for the celebrations. Decorations filled the room, the mismatched tables and chairs pushed back to the sides to make room for a dance floor. The banquet immediately caught Jordan's attention and he dragged Dix from talking with one of the parents to go check it out. Bear and Declan suddenly appeared behind Alex and Kaiden, their faces expressing some shock at the suddenly formal dining area. Silver and gold decorations hung from the ceiling and a banner stretched from one corner of the room to the other, with "CONGRATULATIONS CLASS OF 2023" elegantly painted in shimmering silver and gold paint. Many of the decorations looked almost Meyrian in nature, so it was only a little surprising to see Roka, Kyia and Zain standing in the corner, trying, and failing, to look inconspicuous. Zain smirked at Alex and whispered "hello little human", which Alex's Meyarin scenes picked up on.

Alex turned to Kaiden and whispered, "Give me a second, I see some friends." Kaiden glanced up from his conversation with Bear and Declan to see Zain staring at him and laughed. Kaiden nodded towards the group, and turned back to his conversation with his friends. "Hey, guys! What are you doing here?" Alex questioned as she approched.