Dark Night

Party!

For the most part, the graduation ceremony was kind of boring. The mayor was one of the speakers, and good heaven, he needed a speech writer. I wasn't the only one who was groggy when he he finally shut up. I felt sorry for our class president who followed him; she had an interesting and funny speech, but it fell strangely flat as we all struggled to recover. I looked around the gym in a bit of a fog, trying to recover. We were down on the newly repaired gym floor with our families on the bleachers on both sides. A stage had been placed across one end, the basketball hoop and backboard taken down for the occasion. I was glad about that, it would have been distracting to have the backboard looming over the whole thing. Seating on the stage was restricted to the principal, school board president, superintendent, and the speakers. The school faculty were quarantined in their own seating area, and we were all on metal folding chairs placed on a subflooring to prevent damage to the hardwood. Our class gift had been for the talented kids in the art club to paint a Spartan mural on the end of the gym that had been damaged by the explosion, so at least we had something to look at. They'd done a really nice job. The podium was draped in white and purple satin embroidered with the Spartan helmet. I fanned myself with the program as first our salutatorian and then the valedictorian spoke. Edith had asked me to proofread her speech, so I happened to know that she cut out over a third of it. While it had been a good speech, I couldn't be sorry about it because I was having a hard time keeping my eyes open.

But finally, it was time to receive our diplomas and we all sat up straight, blinking as our energy returned. One by one, our names were called and we walked across the stage as the principal shook our hands and presented us with a diploma cover, since grades had to be posted before we could receive the actual diploma. And a few kids, while they passed their grades, had to make up excessive absences in summer school before they could get theirs. I scanned the stage nervously before I walked across, but there wasn't anything to trip on. I still walked nervously, however, because I wouldn't put it past me to trip over my own feet. But I collected my diploma cover without incident, shook the principal's hand, and went back to my seat to examine my new acquisition. The cover was black, with the high school name stamped in a Gothic typeface in gold foil. Inside, a pretty white fabric lined the inside, a drawing of the school on the top part, and purple corners on the bottom part awaited receipt of my diploma. Examination of the case took all of a couple minutes, so I started to get sleepy  again, although I did pay attention when John made his voyage across the stage. I looked around the gym, remembering the pep rallies and performances, the gym classes, and realized that while this was business as usual for the teachers and staff, for the rest of us, it was an end. The end of my comfortable and familiar routine. There wasn't going to be drill practice this summer or classes with my friends and John to look forward to. And yeah, I was going to college, but the university was massive and what had looked like a bright future was starting to look a little scary from the perspective of my current cozy cocoon. Well, now was not the time to freak out about it.

At last, the final student (Kate Zhang) sat down, and, as we practiced, we all drew our tassels across our mortarboards, and the school fight song was played. Those of us who remembered the lyrics sang along. Finally the principal congratulated our class and we were allowed to toss our caps. Our families applauded and cheered, and students hugged each other or had some other display of relief and pride. Then we filed out of the gym to return our regalia, and I looped my tassel over my wrist so I wouldn't lose it as I sought out other friends like Theresa. I couldn't find John, but he found me, and he put his arms around me and lifted me off my feet for a kiss, and we stayed in a hug for a bit. "See you at the party tonight," he said, smiling, his eyes warm and he kissed me lightly once more. And that was something to look forward to.

I found my family and we went back home. Grandpa was hosting a cookout for me with my family. It was going to be nice, but I was grateful that I had the class party to go to in order to keep the family time to a reasonable length. But first: presents!  My parents gave me a pretty blue Bose Bluetooth speaker and an Anker portable battery charger. Stan, although I wasn't expecting him to get me anything after the money, gave me an ivory Fujifilm instant camera that would produce pictures--my generation's version of Polaroids. And Grandpa gave me a pearl necklace that matched my earrings that he'd bought at the same time. They would be pretty for dress up occasions and also for job interviews. And I would think about our China trip every time I put them on.