chasing love ;; cth

Chapter 12

Chapter 12

Almost a week had passed since my audition, and I was more nervous than you can ever imagined. I'm pretty sure that my audition went horrible, but I was so nervous I barely remember. Ashton said practicing for 9 and half hours was insane. He suggested that I should relax before my audition so that I won't be all tense when I'm performing. He insisted on buying me a cup of coffee, and so we both walked to the nearest Starbucks which wasn't that far off campus. We talked a lot, and it turns out we have a lot in common, except for the fact that he has a pretty smile, a cute laugh, nice eyes, and a good sense of humor. Okay we really don't share that much in common, but we share a lot of the same interests. After we walked back to the campus, he gave me his number and wished me luck on my audition. He said to text him anytime and that he hoped that we both get into the school next year. That was the most attention I had ever gotten from a guy, let alone the nicest one I had ever met.

Today is Friday, November 9th and graduation is finally here. I am finally done with high school. Since we have to wear gowns, my outfit was not something I had to worry about. I just put on a simple black lace sleeve dress that goes to about knee length. I matched it with some plain black platforms just for height purposes, hoping for the best that I don't trip. I simply curled my hair and put on a light layer of make up. I put my best efforts in to looking my best, because this will be the last time I see most of my classmates. I will see the small portion of the students that go to prom tomorrow, but half of them aren't even going to show up. I hate most of the people in my school so graduating high school is a good thing for me. The only bad part is that I probably will never see Calum, but I try to remain positive, so I push the thought to the back of my head.

Elliana picks me up at 5:30 to drive to the concert hall that our graduation ceremony is being held. We went there this last Wednesday for rehearsal, and the place was huge, and I can imagine myself getting lost easily. When we arrive there, tons of students are outside taking pictures with their relatives that had come to celebrate this special occasion. None of my relatives even bothered to fly out here, and they live in Brisbane which isn't that far from Sydney. Even my mum said she was gonna be late, because she has to work.

Elli and I make our way to the concert hall. She greets her family and Chad in the hall and leaves me alone in the waiting room. I try to press down the wrinkles in my robe when I feel a tap on my shoulder. I turn to see Calum wearing a huge smile on his face. He is wearing a white golf tee, tucked into black khakis. It was very different from what he usually wears, but he still looked so good that I felt my heart beat rapidly increasing inside my chest.

"Guess what?" He asks kind of quietly, but by the expression on his face I can tell that he is very excited.

"What?"

"We got an A+ on the project," His smile grows bigger as his eyes gaze straight into mine waiting for a reply,

"Yay!" I exclaim trying to seem excited. It wasn't my first A+ this year, so it probably isn't as big of deal for me as it is for him. Then again, when I first found out that Calum was my partner I was pretty sure we were going to fail, so we did do better than I expected.

His smile grows even bigger as he moves forward and wraps his arms around me. I stumble back a little, because that was totally unexpected, but the comfort of his arms around me definitely makes up for the complete state of shock I am in. Then I realize that this is our first hug. I instinctively wrap my arms around his waist and hold them there tightly as I begin to mentally count the seconds, '1, 2, 3, 4, 5...' He slowly loosens his grip, and I remove my arms from around him even quicker so it looks like I was the one to pull away first. I don't know why I found it important to do that, it's just what my first instinct told me to do. I also know that counting the seconds is something a crazy obsessive fan girl, would do to the celebrity she is in love with. Well I am in love with someone, not someone famous. But, when your as madly in love as I am, you tend to do crazy, stupid things.

When he fully pulls away I feel a sudden chill run down my spine. It's weird, like when he removed his warm grasp all the heat went away. My teeth start to chatter slightly and I feel goosebumps crawl up my arms. This is strange. One hug and I'm already feeling withdrawal symptoms from the minute he pulls away.

"Are you okay?" He asks, his smile fading into a look of concern,

"Umm...yeah I'm just cold," I reply as I try to warm up my arms by running my hands against them.

"Oh okay, well I gotta go," he says sliding his robe over his head, "I'll see ya around," he waves me off slightly before walking to his friends who had just walked in on the other side of the room.

I think I'm having trouble processing what just happened. Calum just hugged me. Oh my god, Calum just hugged me. I didn't hug him he hugged me. He, himself personally chose to hug me. This could just possibly be one of the best days of my life.

A teacher walks into the room, and informs everyone that we have to begin to line up for the ceremony. I take my place in line as we make our way down the isles of the concert hall and on to the stage. I stare blankly out in to the audience as the graduation begins. My eyes keep traveling to the empty seat in the audience. The seat where my mother is supposed to be sitting.

I zone out during the first two hours filled with boring speeches from our principal, teachers, and student gov. My eyes find Calum on the other side of the stage. He is sitting two rows ahead of me, but he is slouching over and his head is cocked to the side, and I assume that he is sleeping. I silently laugh to myself, and I get a stare from the girl sitting next to me. She's looking at me like I'm crazy, meanwhile she's the one who has on about 5 layers of bright blue eye shadow and tons of fuchsia lipstick.

The speeches finally come to an end and the principal gathers all the diplomas and one of the teachers makes her way to the microphone. Her monotone voice rings through the whole room, as she begins to call the names. I automatically don't recognize the first name called. The words 'William Anderson' echoes trough the concert hall. I don't remember there being a William Anderson in our school, let alone in my graduating class. I watch closely as he makes his way down the stage towards the principal. He shakes one of his hands and hands him his diploma in the other. It seems as if the boy is slightly hiding his face from everyone. He already goes around unnoticed, so all the attention he is getting must seem weird to him. Then I realize, he is just like me. I go around the school barely noticed, attention is not something I'm used to. I can just imagine that when I go up there to get my diploma, that people won't recognize my face or my name. In high school it's all about how much you put yourself out there, you determine whether you get noticed or not. And I'm just realizing this now, and I'm about to graduate.

When the name 'Calum Hood' rings through my ears my attention is immediately drawn to the front of the stage. I watch as Calum walks from the side of the stage to the center, a small, simple smile spread across his face. My eyes move to the people in the audience that had stood up to clap when his name was called. I recognize his sister, who seems to be even happier about this occasion than he is. He briefly shakes the principals hand and holds his diploma in the air for everyone to see. His confidence is one of the things I love about him I guess. I guess considering the fact that I have zero confidence. He continues down the opposite end of the stage and back to his seat.

I sit silently waiting for my name to be called. Finally when it gets down to my row we stand up from are seats in unison and make our way to the side of the stage. I wait patiently in line for my name to be called. My eyes move back and forth between Calum and the empty seat where my mother should be sitting. Finally I hear my name echo through the arena. The monotone ringing of the words "Valerie Wells," fills my ears. I take in a deep breath and start to make my way towards the principal who is holding my diploma out for me. Time seems to cease. Everything seems to be in slow motion. I hear few claps from the audience and I turn to see Elliana's family clapping for me. I'm glad that I can always count on them. I try to keep the smile on my face very prominent as I continue towards the principal. 'What could go wrong?' Is the last thing I say to myself before my face begins to plummet towards the floor.

And I spoke to soon.

I prop myself up on my elbows as I look around the concert hall. Everyone's eyes are on me, which is exactly what I was afraid of. I look behind me to see exactly who I expected. Danielle is sitting right in the front row with her leg stuck out into the aisle. She smirks at me before chuckling to herself quietly. My whole body is aching and suddenly it feels like the temperature has just raised a hundred degrees. My cheeks are flushed, beating red. I feel sweat building up on my forehead. This is probably what I deserve for never putting myself out there. Now at least I won't be forgotten. I'll be remembered as the girl who fell on her face at graduation. Or even worse, I'll be remembered as Victor. I never thought I would come to hate a name so much. At least I know what my future child's name won't be. In fact the only thing that could make this situation worse is if someone calls me Victor right now, so I hope for the best that no one does. I try to remain calm and make my way towards the center stage. The principal gives me a sympathetic smile, as he shakes my hand and hands me my diploma. I briefly make my way to my seat and try to ignore stares from the majority of the senior class. I only let one tear escape for the remainder of the ceremony. The only good part of this is that I don't have to go to that stupid school anymore.

Finally once the ceremony is over, I run out as fast as I can. I make my way through the long sets of halls in the back of the building in search of the bathroom. All I want to do is sit in the bathroom stall and cry. Get all of my emotions out. I need to get all this embarrassment and anger that's bubbling up inside me out of my system. Then I can clean myself up and make my way out with out being noticed. I've been traveling through these long winding halls for about 5 minutes now and still no sign of a restroom. I hear faint voices in the distance, and hurry my way in that direction hoping someone knows where the bathroom is. I turn the corner to see Danielle sucking on some guys face. She turns to face me when she senses my presence and her face turns paler then it already is from all that cakey makeup. I look past her to see Harrison Williams, who has finally wiped that amused smile of his face and is now wearing a regretful expression.

"Why the fuck are you here?" Danielle yells aggressively and takes a step towards me as if she's about to attack. I am not going to let this girl talk to me like this. I am a person and I'm going to stick up for myself for once, and not act like I'm scared.

"Well I was looking for the bathroom, but I've stumbled upon something else and I'm glad I did," I cross my arms and take a step towards her to let her know that I'm not afraid of her. She seems slightly surprised by my reaction. I guess she had expected me to stumble back in fear and run away.

"You are not telling Calum about this," She crosses her arms, realizing she has to put up a fight,

"Um yes I am. You're like his best friend," I say looking towards Harrison, "and you're his gi-," I begin but I catch myself remembering what Calum had told me when we were working on the project, "...prom date. Calum is such a great guy and he doesn't deserve this,"

"If you tell Calum, I'll give away your little secret," She challenges me, her eyebrows furrowing in annoyance.

"What secret?" I ask, a bewildered look present on my face,

"You know you tend to make things really obvious Victor," She gives me that evil smirk as she looks towards Harrison and then back to me, the amused grin returning to Harrison's face. I give her a puzzled look, obviously not understanding the message she was trying to get across. She slams me against the wall, and pain crawls up my spine, "I know all about your little crush on Calum, and if you tell him anything about what just happened, I'll tell him how you really feel about him,"