A Little Hope

19. Past Is Now

"What have I become, my sweetest
friend? Everyone I know
goes away in the end."
~Johnny Cash

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Savannah's POV
Disneyland was fun and memorable; however, when we got back, it was back to business. Our final report cards from high school were waiting for us. We all sat at the table with our report cards in the middle. We all glanced at them with different expectations of what those reports would say. I opened mine up first and was relieved when I saw that I had all A's and B's. I was also in the top half of the class rank. I guess all those nights of Sebastian making me sit at the dining room table to do my homework actually paid off. Sebastian's eyes wandered over to my report card with suspicious eyes. When he saw my grades, his face lit up with pride, "Good job, Savannah! I always told you that you were a smart bean."

I giggled and kissed him gently before telling him, "Now it's your turn."

"Alright, alright," he said as he tore open his envelope and put it on the table for everyone to see. He had straight A's and was in the top fifty. For working full-time jobs, his grades were amazing.

Rue reached out and handed it to Jasmine, "Can you open it for me, Jasmine? I'm too nervous," Rue said nervously.

"Of course, baby," Jasmine said. She opened it up and she gasped and told Rue, "Sweetheart, you got all A's and one B. But since all you took were honors, you got well above a 4.0. Love, you're seventh in the class rank."

Rue did a happy dance and I hugged him a congratulations hug, and then we all turned expectantly at Jasmine. Jasmine was already enrolled at the local university for the fall term on a full scholarship so her report card mattered a lot. It could jeopardize her scholarship, and then her parents could make her go back to Hawaii. She opened it up and her eyes started to tear up. At first, I thought it was because she didn't do as well as she hoped she did, but when I saw a smile reach her face, I knew she was crying from happiness.

"You guys, I got all A's with all honor classes. Mix that with all my other semesters of straight A's and you get the valedictorian. I'm first in our class," Jasmine said with utter excitement.

This was amazing and worth celebrating. I got up and squealed, "Jazzy is the smartest in the entire world and
everyone is going to know it now!".

Rue went to hug Jasmine and congratulate her. Jasmine was even more excited when she FaceTimed her parents and told them the news. Her dad was still recovering from his heart attack but he said would travel back down here with her mom to go to her graduation and hear her give her valedictorian speech.

We were all now excited to graduate and close this chapter in our lives and start the next one. We started to help Jasmine write her speech that she would deliver and by the end of the night, Jasmine had perfected it. It was emotional and inspiring and nobody else but Jasmine could have written it like that.

The next day, the halls were buzzing at school. With only three days left in the school year, everyone was excited to get out of this hellhole. Except as Rue and I went through the halls together, we couldn't help but hear some rumors. Apparently, the principal had pulled some strings because of a favor he owed to his vice principal. The vice principal's son had gotten second in the class rank, but his football scholarship required him to be the top, so the principal declared him to be valedictorian, even though everyone knew it was Jasmine. Guess who was rumored to be the new valedictorian? Our favorite person ever.