The girl with the bad reputation

Chapter 39

"You suck" I chuckled as I watched my soaked dress.

I lay in the bed with Kaden next to me, he was sleeping peacefully. I checked my watch and it was only five am. The sun was waking up outside and the birds were starting to sing. The hangover slapped me across the face, a stupid idea to drink before graduation day. But we had fun, we danced all night, swam and laughed. All the things you're supposed to do when you're young. I glanced at my camera in my window watching how the streets were empty due to the early morning. I skipped through the many new memories that were created due the past months. I watched the picture from the first day Marcus and Kaden had joined our table back at lunch. I chuckled to myself how Marcus sat telling them about something stupid that he was wondering about, it had caused the whole table to laugh at his ignorance.

Kaden sat staring into the camera with a smile and a wink at this picture, how come I haven't noticed this before. I looked at the text below the picture, "Handsome and my knight in shining armor"

I switched to another picture, it was of Kaden and me at the froyo store outside of town. He had taken the picture while I had ice cream on my nose. In the picture, we both were making a silly face and after the one there was a picture of me trying to reach the ice cream with my tongue. I chuckled again as I felt his presence next to me. "Hey beautiful, what are you doing?" I watched him sit down next to me, as I showed him the picture he had taken, he chuckled at my silliness. "Looking at memories." I skipped to the next picture. It was me in the sunflower field dancing. I didn't know he had the camera with him when we went out there. I glanced at him and he had a relaxed smile when he watched me go to the next one which was another one of me and him.

The next was with all of us, Grayson, Jason, Caleb, Marcus, Aubrey, Kaden, and I. The whole group before his gang tagged along.

I found it insane how in only a few months a complete stranger could change your life completely. A complete stranger changed and became your best friend. I was grateful for the new expansion to our close friend group; the others didn't seem to mind either. We all had become attached to those two. Marcus and Caleb had become good friends; their personalities matched instantly. They were like Grayson and Jason now. While I have become happy about Mr. Handsome. He grew onto me and had taken me on many adventures the last couple of months.

I kissed his lips and said "thank you" he smiled confused and asked "for what" I looked at him "For everything, the experiences, memories, for fighting for the two of us and staying." He chuckled and kissed my lips once again. "If I had the choice to do it over, I wouldn't change a thing love"

I put my camera on the table and the printed pictures. Decided to take a shower since I wasn't going to fall asleep again. So I was getting ready for the graduation that was only hours away now.

When I entered my room again, Kaden was passed out on the bed. I had started reading and spending time since the graduation started at eleven am. I went to the guest room dressed in my graduation clothes and saw Marcus passed out on the bed. I woke him up by pouring water in his face, when he woke up he glanced around in panic.

I chuckled and told him we would do the same to Kaden, which made him stand up from the bed immediately. We walked towards my room and I filled the glass again with cold water. Marcus grabbed the glass and instantly went to Kaden's side of the bed and poured the cold water into his face.

Kaden woke up and glanced towards me and Marcus with an annoyed expression. Marcus always supported my ideas whenever they revolved annoying Kaden. To be honest he supported all my stupid ideas. Kaden got up from bed and I reminded him that he didn't have clothes on. He instantly grabbed the blanket and Marcus and I fled out of the room. We ran downstairs laughing when I smelled the pancakes. I watched as my mother prepared a huge breakfast; "Good morning darling, did you sleep well, and good morning Marcus". I nodded as my attention was on all the food.

"Happy birthday Heather," my brother said as he walked down the stairs and I looked confused for a moment. Oh my god, it's the seventh of June. How did I forget?

Marcus looked at me and ran upstairs again. I watched him confused and glanced at Hamilton thanking him when he handed me two presents. "One for graduation and the other for turning nineteen" He smiled, when I gave him a hug. I opened the small one as my first birthday present. Inside of it was a jeep car key, I glanced confused at it and realized what it meant. I went to the door and opened revealing my Jeep fixed and back as it was before the crash. I hadn't been able to pay for the damages so Kaden had been driving me these past weeks that turned into months. I hugged him when Kaden came downstairs with a small box "happy birthday, angel." I opened his present that revealed a beautiful necklace with a green emerald. I looked at it shocked. This must-have cost a fortune. He helped me put it on and it went perfectly with my outfit. I kissed him and thanked him a lot.

"Heather Bailey Brooks" I walked towards the stage as I heard my dad whistle in the crowd. This was it, the day that my high school life was done. I was officially done with high school in a minute. I walked up the few stairs and shook our principal's hand. I had been honored with the school's inspirational speech. So I had to finish that as well.

"Good evening parents, friends, teachers, mentors, administration, and of course the graduation class of 2019

Some of you know me as the girl with the bad reputation and others know me as Heather. I was honored with the graduation speech of the year 2019 as a graduate of Lakeside High.

Today is a day to celebrate with family and friends. We have been waiting for this day since kindergarten for christ's sake.

Today we've become lakeside high graduates. The home of the lakeside students is now also the home of tomorrow's future doctors, lawyers, teachers and psychologists, musicians, actors and engineers, architects, nurses, and lots more.

For some, this is the final step to get out of school and live life. It's a time when the old childhood rhyme "No more pencils, no more books, no more dirty looks from teachers" describes perfectly how you feel.

For many others, high school graduation is the next step in your education. You're headed for something greater as a university, community college, apprenticeship training- for the daunting task to prepare for your wanted career.

Each of us had our own unique experiences at lakeside high, a combination of good times and bad times, times of laughter and of joy, and of course, times of last-minute studying for that exam we forgot was taking place tomorrow morning. Good thing for Starbucks for our cluelessness.

Graduation marks the end of yet another extraordinary chapter in our lives. With this chapter closed I'm sure many of us are already anxious about the next one because, unlike an English book, we cannot skip through the pages of life and see how long the next chapter is going to be. We all have our own book of life that has yet not been written and each day that passes is another page we write in ourselves.

One thing I will reflect on is to throw this graduation cap in the air and finish a wonderful chapter of our lives, thank you and congratulations to all of you"

As I finished I threw my hat in the air along with all the others laughing as this meant my high school chapter was finally done. And a new one was about to begin at Princeton University.

 where I'm standing looking out at all of my fellow classmates. We did it guys- We finished the year and made it through a lot of hard tests with many well-earned grades.

This has been a rollercoaster of fun times and many memories. Lots of drama, but in the end, I won at life. I found love and made new friends throughout my school years. I have the most amazing friends. I wouldn't trade my life for anything, even though life seems hard sometimes stay strong, you can make it through it. Trust me I should know ;) now live your best life for me and be happy then you'll receive happiness back.

Smile to the world and the world will smile back. 

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Edited 14.03.22

Thank you for reading, 

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