Written. (JB//Complete)

Chapter 35.

        Farewell speeches, scholarships, and diplomas and degrees thrown all throughout the ceremony, tears of content shared amongst others. At last the blue caps are thrown into the air, cheers and applause echoing throughout the crowds of proud guardians and staff. I see my pleased mother in the audience clapping for me somewhere between the first five rows, a tear or two surprisingly staining her cheeks, knowing she usually doesn't get this worked up over things.

I guess this is a huge deal though, graduating high school and all. I am officially part of the Edison High graduating class of 2014, leaving with an lovely $80,000 scholarship I've earned over the Zinch's Weekly Three Sentence Essay contests and other class awards. That will most definitely help me with Harvard and my reputation, but mostly the fees. Yet another reason for Mom to be crying tears of joy for not having to pay that extra eighty grand on whatever it was having to be spent on.

After everyone has gathered up their caps, Ryan finds his way to me through the crowd of advanced teens, now technically adults.

"We're high school graduates, how about that?" he says in excitement, myself smiling along with him. We give eachother a nice, big hug, both seeming overly thrilled and nervous for the lives we have ahead of ourselves.

"I know, it's unbelievable," I add. Ryan holds me in front of him, hands squeezing my shoulders in affection. Oh, God, I'm going to miss him so much.

"Well," he interjects our small moment of silence, "I better get going with my family. God knows how long they've been trying to look for me." Then he smirks at his feet, almost blushing. "Sophia came, too."

I quirk an eyebrow in a playful matter. "Really? That's nice. Tell her I say hi." It's so sweet when I see them together, or even hear that they're going to be together. They're both lucky people. Not a lot of couples are able to feel the love that is visible when they're around eachother, and not a lot of people get the chance to feel the amount of affection they feel from being an item for so long.

"I will." He looks off into the distance, smiling, supposedly because he spots his group of visitors. "Uh, I should get going. Everyone's waiting for me over there."

"Yeah, me too. My mom's probably bawling her eyes out, I gotta put her back in check," I laugh. We hug eachother once more-even though we're surely going to be meeting up again tomorrow, possibly even tonight (unless he's got stuff planned with Sophia)-then head our different directions. I'm left alone in the crowd of rambling parents and graduates getting their pictures taken, as I venture out to spot my mother throughout the commotion.

Justin

Although I just arrived, I can already tell everyone is beginning to head off to celebrate elsewhere. Great. I missed the whole thing. I probably wouldn't have made it throughout the whole thing anyway, it was probably a few hours long. But how would I know?

I've never even been able to attend my own graduation. But that's not the reason why I'm here anyway. I'm here for Scarlett, not anyone else; I'm here for one name, not any other of the hundreds of names that were called up to the podium. That would have been a waste of time to stay and listen to everyone else.

I search amongst the waves of people all around me. It's going to be impossible to find her, especially when almost everyone here is wearing the exact same thing, and her smaller size makes it no better. As I walk around a bit, checking every blue cloak and person, I stop when I think I see the little girl I've been searching for— or should I say woman. Do high school graduates really begin looking that old right after the occasion? Wait... Shit. That's not her.

My eyes widen and I quickly turn around, attempting to get lost in the large groups of people, but when I make the mistake of looking back, the woman who resembles Scarlett terrifyingly well is already stomping toward me with an unpleased look on her face. I flinch when I feel her lanky fingers—just like Scarlett's—grab ahold of my shoulder and spin me around.