Cool Girl

49: Graduation Day

For graduation day, we're allowed to wear clothes of our choice as long as they're navy blue. I picked out a beautiful plain navy blue, knee-length dress from Zara. I've curled my hair and slipped on a pair of matching navy blue heels. My black graduation gown and cap are looped around my arm as I head downstairs for breakfast.

"I can't believe you're graduating high school." Mom says as she stands up from the outdoor breakfast table and kisses the side of my head.

"Me either." I smile and then take a deep breathe.

Sebastian is already here, wearing a light blue dress shirt over khaki pants since he's going to attend the ceremony too. Mom looks breath-taking as always in a pair of brown plaid pants and a white blouse. Dad joins us a few minutes later. He kisses my head before sitting down.

"Excited?" Dad raises an eyebrow at me.

I smile sadly, "Yeah but really sad too."

"Aww, Bunny." Mom says and she's sitting next to me so she wraps her arms around me. I lean into her and close my eyes for a second before sitting back up again.

We drive to school together and once dad has parked the car, we step out and start towards the football field where ceremony is to be held. Chairs are arranged in neat rows. Family in the back, and graduating students in the front with an aisle in the middle.

We run into Aakesh and his parents as we near the field entrance.

"Hey!" I call out as I hug him.

"I'm getting so jittery." He laughs and I join in, "Me too."

"We're going to go find seats, will you be okay?" Mom asks me.

"We'll be fine." I nod as my family and Aakesh's parents walk off together.

"Hazel!" I hear Mia call out and I turn around to find her and Ben walking up to us.

"Hi!" I smile as she embraces me, "I can't believe this day is finally here." She gushes, smiling at me, then Aakesh and finally Ben.

Ben smiles back at her before I point out my parents to her and she heads off to meet them. Mia has been making an extra effort towards her relationship with Ben and I already know that things between them are healing fast. I still ask Ben,

"Are the others coming?"

He nods, "Yeah, they're on their way. They left the house a few minutes after us because Charles was making a fuss."

Soon Liam and Angelina arrive too and we take picture until we're asked to find our seats. The seats are labelled in alphabetical order by first name. So, Liam is behind me and the other three in front of me. The ceremony starts after fifteen minutes with an address from the principal, followed by the annual school year report by the high school headmistress who announces that this year Rushmore Academy won a record high, 32 sports medals. We all cheer and clap for our teams at this.

The headmistress at the end announces,

"Now I would like to welcome to the stage our valedictorian, receiving two medals for academics and athletics, also the top of the graduating class, Hazel Aaron!" My class jumps to their feet as they cheer for me.

I get up from my seat and walk towards the stairs at one side of the stage on top of which teachers and the administrations sits. On the way, Ben and Ash are right next to the aisle so they stop me and offer hugs of encouragement.

Once I'm on the stage, stationed in front of the assembled crowd, in front of the pedestal with the microphone. I pull up my speech on my phone and set it down in front of me before taking a deep breathe.