The Showstopper

Chapter 31 (Final)

Lauren's POV

"What a day it is today," my dad said as I came down the stairs.

"You look so beautiful, mija," my mom pulled me into a hug.

"Thank you," I beamed feeling extremely happy and excited.

Today was indeed a very important day. I was graduating high school. I couldn't believe how fast time flew by that I would already be at this milestone in my life. Hell, I remember being a freshman like it was yesterday and now I'm done. Done with grade school and I could at last be an adult. Sounded scary but I was ready.

"I remember you when you were just a baby and now you're graduating," my mom teared up, still squeezing me.

"Mama, don't cry your eyes out just yet. The ceremony hasn't even started," I chuckled.

"Okay okay, true. But when you sing your song, I'm just going to lose it," she shook her head.

The principal wanted me and my friends to sing the senior song during the ceremony and we chose "Good Riddance" by Green Day which seemed appropriate. It was going to be after the valedictorian's speech who was none other than the good man himself Shawn Mendes. He was the top of our class as he was super smart and had a perfect 4.0 unweighted and 5.0 weighted GPA. He even had an ACT score of 35.

I was the salutatorian with a 3.98 GPA so close to being valedictorian with him, but I matched his score of a 35. We even applied/auditioned for the same schools which were a ton such as NYU, Columbia, AMDA, University of Michigan, Cornell, and Penn and Florida State. I auditioned via video for all them except NYU. But Shawn also applied to places in California (USC, Stanford, UCLA) where I could never see myself living for some reason. And even Carnegie Mellon University, the top school for musical theater, which he got into and was going to attend. He had just received acceptance mid-April and I was so excited for him; we all were. Carnegie was a tough school to get into especially the musical theater program, but he did it.

I was going to miss him so much and Justin and Troye as well. Justin was going to U of M and Troye was going to Northwestern which were pretty far away from me. Well, at least they weren't all the way across the country. I was also happy that Dorito boy would be out of our lives for good. He was going to Texas State which had a good musical theater program but not near us, thank the universe.

During the ceremony, I knew I was going to cry. It was a very big day for us all and it was sad to let go of these past four years. I've learned and grown so much and would always remember the good times.

"Well, Mani, we finally ended senior year!" I smiled at her while we entered the doors of the building. "And Camz," I chuckled to her by my side.

"I know! I can finally get out of here and study dance! But I will miss this place too," my best friend shrugged.

We went into the bathroom first to of course look at ourselves and make sure we didn't look dusty. What a crime that would be. Good thing the ceremony was going to be in the gym and not the football field because it was way too windy outside.

"China!" Camila ran over to Dinah and koala hugged her as per usual. We had to wait with our class in the spare rooms before walking out to the gym.

"Hi, girls!" Ally jumped around.

"Excited to graduate?" I laughed at her.

"Most definitely. Hopefully you won't trip while walking across the stage, Mila," the shortest joked.

"I've been practicing!" Camila yelped.

"Yeah, she's been practicing in her heels and only fell once," I laughed.