When Our Stars Aligned

Chapter Seventy

*A week later*

I stood nervously waiting for the graduation ceremony to begin as Mrs. Davis adjusted my gown and honors chords.

"Relax sweetie! You're going to be fine!" she cooed sweetly. I gave a quick smile but it disappeared even quicker.

Mrs. Davis had been my second grade teacher but she recently got moved to my high school and put in charge of all the graduation duties. She's hands down one of my all time favorite teachers. She's the one who inspired me to want to be a teacher and I'm glad to have her here for this special occasion.

"What if something goes wrong? What if I trip going across the stage? What if I forget my speech?" I asked as every possible horrible scenario ran through my head.

"Nothing's going to go wrong. You're wearing flats so there's no way you can trip. And you've got notecards for your speech" she told me.

My eyes bugged out at the mention of the cards. "Oh my god! My notecards! Where are they?" I panicked as I searched my person.

"They're already at the podium for you" she said calming me down. I took a deep breath and tried to calm down. "You're going to be fantastic" she encouraged me.

"But I don't want to give the class speech!" I whined as I stomped my foot.

"Well the senior class voted you to do it so you're going to do it! It'll be over before you know it and then you'll be off to UCLA with that hunk of a boyfriend by your side" she said smirking.

I laughed a little at her comment. "Have you seen him yet?" I asked as I craned my neck to peek through the curtains.

"No but I got him seats with your parents so you find them, you find him."

The assistant graduation director called for us to begin lining up so I had to make my way to the front. Halfway there I turned back and stopped to look at Mrs. Davis. I jogged back to her and enveloped her in a big hug.

"Thank you for all you've done," I whispered, "I wouldn't be here if it weren't for you."

"Anything for my favorite student," she winked, "Now go on, go get graduated!" She gave me one more squeeze and I made a mad dash back to the front of the line just in time to process down and out onto the football field.

As we sat through all the boring introductions I kept twisting and turning in my seat trying to spot Kendall. Then all of a sudden the principal was introducing me and my classmates were cheering me on. I approached the podium and pulled out my notecards before clearing my throat to begin.

"Good evening family, friends, staff, and fellow classmates. Tonight is a night that many of us have been waiting for for quite some time. The day we toss our caps into the air and pray we don't get hit in the eye by one. The day our mothers cry and scream 'That's my baby!' as we walk across the stage. Today's the day we close a chapter of our lives and begin to write another. Today is the day we say goodbye to the friends that we've known since elementary school," I paused and found Matt in the sea of students dressed in their sky blue gowns, "Or we assure our preschool best friend that they'll always be our best friend through it all. That it's not goodbye, but I'll see you soon because we can't bare to actually say goodbye to one another."

I felt my voice and knees shaking as I paused and scanned the crowd. Finally my eyes fell on my parents, aunt, uncle, nieces, and nephews. I smiled at them and then my smile grew even bigger as I saw June sitting on Kendall's lap, both of them waving excitedly.

"But today is most importantly about us and our futures. I know it sounds cliche but from where I stand up here, our futures are brighter than the brightest star shining above us. Some of us may be attending colleges close to home or some may be venturing out into the world, like I am. Either way we're all chasing something that we love, may it be a dream, a school, a career," I paused for a moment as I made eye contact with Kendall, "or a person. If you don't remember anything else I say tonight, remember these next few things. Be the person you want to be. Go out and discover who you are and pursue your dreams and never let anyone take that away from you. A pretty great guy once advised me to 'Find your passion and run with it. Anything is possible' and that's what I'm telling you to do. Secondly, live in the moment. Go on that date with the stranger who asks you out at some random place, you could end up falling in love with them. Go on a spontaneous roadtrip across the country. Do anything! And lastly, don't worry about making everything work out perfectly right now. Some things may work out instantly but some may take some time to fall into place. But in the end your stars will align and you'll be just fine. And tonight, all our stars are just beginning to align. Thank you all for a great four years, or longer, together and I'll see you soon."

I smiled and waved as I sat back down and awaited my name to be called to receive my diploma. I received several congratulatory hugs and handshakes as I crossed the stage to get my diploma and was accompanied by several cheers.

At the conclusion of the ceremony we were announced as the graduating class of 2014 and our caps went flying into the air. Thankfully I found mine and set out to find my family.

I pushed through the crowd, accepting random praises for my speech and finally found them coming toward me. I raced full speed ahead into my mom and dad's arms. "I did it!" I squealed.

They laughed along with the rest of my family as they each hugged me and congratulated me. "Where's Kendall?" I asked as I searched behind them.

My dad jerked his head back and to the side and I saw Kendall leaning against a light post with three other guys. "Excuse me" I said as I handed my parents my diploma and walked over to him.

As I got closer I recognized the three strangers. "Oh my god! What are you guys doing here?!" I screamed as I happily ran into the open arms of James, Carlos, and Logan.

"Kendall thought it'd be a good surprise" Carlos said.

"And we didn't want to miss out!" James exclaimed.

"Where were y'all sitting?" I asked curiously.

"Right behind your folks but we had hats on" Logan explained. I nodded in understanding as I turned to the person I had been wanting to see since I saw him in the stands.

"You rush to my best friends instead of me?" he asks acting like I stabbed him in the chest, "I'm a little hurt."

I shook my head laughing and ran into his arms. He lifted me up off the ground and spun me before sitting me down. I kept my feet up off the ground so that he had no choice but to continue holding me.

"But I can't do this to them" I said before I placed my lips on his. He smiled into the kiss and pulled back.

"I sure as hell hope you don't," he joked, "I'm proud of you, baby." I only laughed and kissed him more until we were interrupted by my family and the flash of Carlos' cell phone camera.

Kendall put me down and we walked hand in hand to the cars with everyone else. "So what's the next step, Miss High School Graduate?" Logan asked playfully.

I stopped as everyone tried to continue walking but when Kendall was jerked back they all stopped and turned. Kendall looked at me confused and moved his eyebrows around in weird manner.

"I'm off to start my next chapter. Only this one is going to be set in LA" I said happily.

"Really? I had no idea" Kendall said as he played along and came closer.

"Yeah I hear UCLA is fantastic and apparently there's a hot singer who might be interested in me so I guess I'll follow him out there" I said giggling a little.

"Are you trying to make stuff work out perfectly right now?" he joked pulling my own words from my speech, "What happened to letting the stars align?"

I gazed up at him lovingly as I played with his hair. "My stars have already been aligning," I whispered to him,"They aligned and brought me you."

He gave me his famous little half smirk that exposed his dimples as he pulled me in close and planted a kiss on my lips. We kissed for a moment before we broke apart.

"Funny," he said, "My stars aligned and somehow I got you too."

"I guess our stars aligned perfectly then" I replied. We both laughed as we shared another sweet kiss before getting in the cars to go home and begin this new chapter.