A Trip To Remember

Graduation Day

The next day I woke up at 5:30 and woke the girls up, who also fell asleep on the couch.
"Graaaaaduaaaaatioooooonnnnn!! Woo!" I cheered, and they jolted awake. They looked at me groggily and then jumped up and started dancing. "Call Sophia! We're gettin' ready!" Alysa called, waltzing to her room.
I dialed Sophia's contact and waited for her to pick up. "Good morning sunshine!!" I sang into the phone.
"What the fuck is wrong with you? Do you have any idea what time it is you moron!" She growled.
"I don't care! It's graduation day! So get your ass over here!" And I hung up the phone. Yeah she's probably gonna stab my eye with a mascara wand later sooo yep.
Within 20 minutes, Sophia showed up and we got ready. We put a little bit of makeup on and did our hair nice. Then, since we were a bit early, we ran to the Times bakery and grabbed some breakfast. We got to school and met up with the guys, who were dressed acceptably nice.
"You guys look handsome." I said with a smile.
"Thanks, back at ya." Caleb said. I looked down at my fitted, white, sleeveless button up, collared shirt and dark curvy jeans, then looked back at him and laughed.
"Ha, nope" I turned around and walked with the girls to the cafeteria.
"Ughhhh I'm so excited for our trip! I just wanna leave already!" Sophia cheered gleefully.
"Er, chill out mate." Rianna said, but Sophia was right. We were all excited. That is until I felt a hand on my shoulder stop me, while everyone kept walking. I spun around and my smile faltered. I crossed my arms and frowned as I came face to face with Nathan.
           "Look I know you have a right to be mad. I was a complete jerk. I'm sorry...like really sorry." He rambled. He took a deep breath and ran a hand through his hair.
           I stared at him expressionless, mentally challenging him, while he stood there awkwardly, squirming.
           "Look all I'm saying is--"
           "Stop. Stop talking. Don't go through the whole sappy speech. Don't talk to me like I'm a child. Because what annoys me is when you do this with your dumb awkward stance looking at me like I just kicked your puppy."
             He looked at me guiltily and I blew out a breath.
             "Stop looking at me like that." I sighed and closed my eyes. I opened my eyes and he was staring at me curiously. I smiled, "you know what? Today's graduation. One of the best days of our lives, and I'm not going to spend it being mad at my best guy friend. So we're ok."
              "Really? Look I'm really just so--"
              I smacked my hand on his forehead, "I swear if you apologize, I'll give YOU a concussion." I said with a playful little grin.
              He grinned and pulled me to him and I laughed, pushing him away as we walked together.

*******

             Graduation. The day your life begins. When you take on adult responsibilities. Millions of things could happen. The moment you walk onto that stage with your heart beating in your chest and the biggest, proudest smile in your face, you won't forget that moment.
              And then you take that little paper from whoever that person is, and you shake hands. Just one little piece of paper that you've basically worked your whole life for. You turn back to the crowd and quickly look for your people. Your people. The ones you know are so proud of you.
              Mother, father, siblings, relatives, and then your friends. And when you find them, and see them beaming at you with pride, you'll start to tear up. Tears of joy.
             And you walk off the stage with your head held high.

*******

            After a few hours of pre-graduation festivities at the school, where we pretty much just hung out, played games, talked with our teachers, handed around leis and crap, it was finally time.
      Time for my freakin life to begin.

********

           The actual ceremony was going to be out in a stadium field where they had set up hundreds of chairs and a stage and sound system and crap like that. They had decorated it with brown and gold balloons, streamers, and other things.
            And it was beautiful.
           When they sat us down, sadly they had to alphabetize the whole school, and sit us in alphabetical order. Rianna was kinda by the front along with me behind her, Sophia, Jo, Alysa, Nathan and Tyler, and then, (alllllll byyyyyy myyyyseeeelllffff), Caleb. Of course there were people that were between us all still.
           We stood in line behind the stage and waited to be called. "Are you freaking out?" Rianna whispered to me, since she was walking past me to get in the line.
             I laughed nervously. "I'm about to jump out of my skin."
             "We're all going." She said.
             "What?"
             "We've been friends since elementary and middle school...and that all changes after this." She said sadly.
             "We're gonna be ok. It won't be the same, I'm not stupid enough to believe it will, but there's holidays, and birthdays. We'll see each other I promise."
              She sighed and sniffled and hugged me. I smiled and hugged her.
              "Rianna Aquino!" I heard called. I gasped and looked at her, who was smiling and I gave her big thumbs up, and she disappeared behind the curtain.
               Blah blah blah blah, bunch of other people...
               And then...
               "Ashlyn Chamberlin!"
              More people. Then...
               "Sophia Everard!"
               "Joseph Hyde!"
               "Alysa Kotsakis!"
               "Tyler Scanlon!"
"Nathan Shinagawa!"
   And finally...
"Caleb Webb!"
Once all our friends were called, they weren't quite done calling other people up so when the teachers weren't looking, we all switched around our seats so we were all together. We laughed quietly and turned our attention back to the front, at the principal who was giving a speech and I tuned in.
"And that concludes our class of 2022!"
And that was our queue to throw our hats in the air.
A thunderous cheer erupted from the crowd and I quickly took out my phone and switched it to the video mode and turned it in selfie mode.
"Class of 2022!!" We all shouted at once, smiling and making faces at the camera. As if we all knew, everyone threw their hats up at once, in one big gold blur of cheering and laughing.
And there's no place I'd rather be.