My Christmas Star ( A Santa Clause Story Ft Bernard x OC)

Chapter 11: Graduation

The next morning, when I woke up, the necklace was back around my neck. I groaned and tried to take it off, but I couldn't. No matter how hard I tried to unclasp it or pull on it, it wouldn't budge. Also, the cuts I had just gotten the day before were all gone, almost as if they never existed. Ugh...Bernard...

As the weeks passed on, I had to hide the necklace in my clothing. I didn't want to look at it. Not to mention, I was almost out of that mist stuff. It was a good thing that I was going to graduate soon. Soon as in, in a couple days. I finished all my finals and will be graduating with honors. I've been offered several scholarships, but I had no choice but to decline, since I would literally be leaving only a few days after I've graduated. I'll be graduating on the 21st of May, which oddly enough, is a Sunday. And just to make things more stressful, I'm valedictorian. It's funny how I'm one of the students with the highest grades, and yet...I'm not going to be doing anything with them. I've thrown away every scholarship given to me because I'm already going to be stuck in one place for the rest of my life. Although, at first I had no complaints about it...now I do. And it has nothing to do with the job itself, just the elf stuck training me for the job.

***

Well, now it's the day of my graduation and I'm backstage with all the rest of the graduates. I had my speech in the pocket of my dress pants underneath my robe. Once all the graduates were called out to do their march or intro or whatever you call the walking around the auditorium bit of graduation, we all walked out. Since I was a C name, I wasn't too far from the front. I chose not to look into the crowds of families because I was afraid that someone would be in the audience that I didn't want to be. Me and all the other graduates circled back to the chairs. We took a seat and the girl chosen to sing the national anthem, sung the national anthem. Once she finished, the principal did a speech, then a teacher chosen by the students did a speech. We chose Mr. Woolsey, our English teacher because he was honestly the greatest English teacher at the school. He knew how to work through problems, come up with solutions, and teach everyone no matter how hard they were to teach.
"And now we bring up our first valedictorian. Stella Calvin," Principal Newman announced. The audience applauded, some cheered and I got up on the stage and brought out my cards. I went to the podium and placed my cards neatly onto it, in order.

"Hello and good evening. As little of you may know, my name is Stella Calvin. It has been a personal honor for me to have been chosen as one of the valedictorians here at Sycamore Secondary School. Now, I know that no one has really known me until now and you probably won't know me for the rest of your lives, considering we're all going to branch off to college, work, or maybe even travel. Your life is what you make of it. Now, I'd like to personally thank Principal Newman. When we all came in as freshmen, we were all terrified of you–" the audience laughed. "You asked us to look into your eyes and asked what we saw. Usually, we'd respond with honesty and say we saw them as dark and cold. You referred to that as our future if we didn't choose to change or grow. And now as seniors I think it's safe to say that now when we look into your eyes, we see light and warmth. Well, most of us anyway. Some of us are still terrified–" the audience laughed again. "But, now, I ask you this, Principal Newman. Look into our eyes as you hand us our diploma and tell us what you see. Has anything changed? Has it stayed the same? We want to know the answer as you look into our eyes and hand us the key to entering the adult world. I would also like to thank...my dad, Scott Calvin. Without him, I probably would not have known where my future would take me. Even though we have both struggled to find our way, I know that we're both going to be just fine. Change can be scary, but something tells me that we're going to work through this change. As someone once told me, everything will fall into place and everything will be okay. It'll just take time." I paused for a second. "I would also like to thank my little brother, Charlie Clavin. Without him, I wouldn't have a best friend. He teaches me things as much as I teach him. He taught me that you should never let anyone interfere with what you believe and to speak out strongly about what you believe in. To let yourself be heard no matter how small you are or feel," I looked out into the audience and smiled at my kid brother who smiled and waved at me. I smiled and glanced back at my note cards. "Okay, well that's enough of the boo-hooing. Let's earn those diplomas and kick the world in its butt!" I yelled, triumphantly. The audience clapped and cheered for me and I left the stand and returned to my seat. The other valedictorians did their speeches. But, something told me that mine beat them all. Then it was time for the diplomas.