THE WRAITH / J. HALE

12 / It's Gettin' Hot In Here

CHAPTER TWELVE
IT'S GETTIN' HOT IN HERE

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                         SABINE HAD GRADUATED HIGH SCHOOL OVER TWENTY-FIVE TIMES. It never changed — the boring ceremony, the cringey jokes, the kid who did a backflip after collecting his diploma. It was all the same, every single time. She hated it.

"Do I have to go?" She complained, climbing into the passenger seat of Jasper's car. Usually Alice was the one to sit there, since they were the closest, but he'd been offering her the spot recently. She might've had a clue as to why.

"Do you want to graduate?" Edward asked from the back seat.

"Not really." She murmured, "These gowns are bright yellow. Nobody wants to graduate in this. I mean, this is the only opportunity these human kids are gonna get to graduate, and they have to do it in yellow."

"It'll be over before you know it." Alice smiled, "It always is."

She scoffed, "Right." Then she turned to Bella, who was squished between her boyfriend and Alice, "You better get used to this. I haven't."

Bella grinned, leaning her head on Edward's shoulder. They held their caps in their laps — rhyme unintended — and chatted mindlessly as Jasper drove them to the school. Emmett, Rosalie, Esme and Carlisle followed behind them, ready to watch from the audience.

When they got there, late, they were ushered into the auditorium and told to find their seats quick-time. Edward, Alice and Sabine all went to the C section, with a goodbye wave to Bella who was further in the back with the rest of the S'. Jasper walked up the aisle with them until they got to the H's, and he tipped his imaginary hat at them before shuffling past all the kids who were already sitting to get to his seat.

"This is going to be fun." Sabine murmured to her brother, who nudged her to be quiet. The principal took her place at the podium, and began her long dreary speech about their future and what lied ahead.

Then Jess was ushered up to make her valedictorian speech — which wasn't as painful as most of them were. Sabine's applause was genuine for once.

As for the rest of the ceremony...pretty typical. Eric whooped and hollered when Sabine went up, and then again even louder when Angela did. Mike attempted the backflip but failed, and Tyler redeemed it with his perfect form. Edward kept whispering other people's thoughts in her head — like when the principle was thinking about what sort of underwear she was gonna wear on her date later that night — and she kept swatting him away.

An hour and a half later, and the crowd of sweaty teens were finally pushing their way out of the hall and into the fresh air. They met their parents and friends with hugs, waving their diplomas in the air. They kissed their partners, they cried in relief.

Sabine laughed as they approached the rest of their family, sharing hugs. She accepted Emmett's embrace, swatting him away when he scuffed the top of her head, "Bet you don't regret going now, huh?"

"It's boring and pointless." She made clear, "But, no, I don't regret it."

"She never does!" He exclaimed, picking her up and spinning her around.