Oakland [✓]

33. pretty little fears

These characters are my babies and the fact that they're about to graduate makes me feel like a proud mother.

Also, I kinda wanna write a screenplay for Oakland. When I write I have really vivid images of the environment and camerawork if it was a show/movie.

If you wanted to know all the dirty details that went down in the last chapter, here you go: (It's a comment)

"Beautiful black child, come and shed your black cloud."

***

Graduation week is one of the most stressful times of the year. There's always the people struggling to decide which college to go to, the people struggling to ace their final exams, and the people struggling to meet the graduation requirements. 

To top it all off, Principal Diaz has been acting like a dictator during these last few graduation rehearsals. The senior class has had to spend every Saturday of this last week of school going over what the day is supposed to look like. The staff wants it to be perfect since they have "important people" coming to watch. There's supposed to be like five different performances from the art department and a bunch of speeches given by valedictorian and the other scholars of the school. 

I'm just glad my name is at the beginning of the alphabet. After I get called up I can chill and play games on my phone until they call the final name, Lily Zhou. It must be tiring always being called last. Amour, Drake, Reese, and I are all pretty close together in last names. Amour gets called first, then Drake, then me, and finally Reese. 

"Jay Kinder." Mr. Rusell, the assistant principal, calls from the stage. 

I look to my left to see Jay nodding his head to the music playing through his headphones. I nudge him, causing him to look up with wide eyes. 

"You're up bro," I whisper. 

He quickly removes his headphones and stands up before walking onto the stage to shake everyone's hands. He looks unamused as he receives his fake diploma, this is like our tenth time going over this, everyone is tired of it. 

"Isaiah King." Mr. Russell says into the microphone. 

I stand up lazily and begin to walk in between the row of chairs to get to the stage. Reese is the only one to clap as I receive a blank piece of paper, the rest of my class is occupied with their own side conversations or scrolling through their phone. I quickly scan the sea of students to find Amour. His eyes are focused on his phone until Brandon Aragon taps him on the shoulder and points to me. Amour takes one of his headphones out and waves at me with a bright smile. I send him a wink as I begin to step down the stairs.