"I remember the first day of school here, I'd expected to be the quiet nerd of the school, ignored. And the thing was- I was okay with that. I accepted my fate- not that I wanted attention or that I minded." I paused.
"The second week of school here," I continued, "I sat in the very front of the class, people finding me annoying because I was quote a 'know-it-all.' I was actually pretty surprised, and I asked, "Wait, you can see me?" I had a pretty funky sense of humor back then."
I heard a few murmurs in the audience about me still having a funky sense of humor.
"So I'm going to make this quick," I said, "To those young people in the crowd, I'm pretty sure you've heard all those cliche quotes and stuff, so I'm going to wrap this up pretty quick. I've learned all of these along my way in high school, but I suffered punishment for not knowing sooner." I paused, waiting for the words to sink in.
"So if I were you, I'd listen very closely." The audience's quiet chatter went to pure silence.
"When someone tells you you can do anything, they're lying because you really can't do anything."
A murmur of agreeance scattered throughout the crowd of graduating seniors.
"Number two," I said, "When someone says life is an open door, do something before it closes, just watch it close and open it again. It's how doors work. If one door closes and another opens without you doing it, your house is haunted and you need to run."
"Number three," I concluded, "I promise this is the last one, parents if you're not that happy about your child learning all these wonderful things. The school cafeteria food tastes awesome, and try not to miss pizza day. Okay, I'm done now. Wait... what am I supposed to say? Oh, I remember now. Thank you."
When I went back to my seat, Lysander whispered in my ear. "Way to go, you, the only one that can actually embarrass yourself in front of society."
"Shut up," I grumbled.
We watched other people announce their speeches, and a million years later, it was Lysander's turn.
"Come up with me." He said.
"What? No!" He tugged me up to the stage anyway.
"Okay, stop gossiping, people," Lysander said to the crowd, "She's here because I know she probably forgot to say something because she was too busy embarrassing herself."
"He's lying," I commented loudly so the entire crowd could hear.
The crowd laughed.
"I'm going to give a pretty nice speech because I want someone else other than my 5th-grade teacher proud of me." He said, "Moving on."
"I really like Cheeze-its, and Goldfish, maybe-" I cut him off.
"This is a speech about, well, school-related, not an interview for the world to hear!" I said, trying to be quiet but I'm pretty sure the crowd heard, and they chuckled.
"Okay, fine. High school was pretty hard all the way in Cali. Oh, I loved the earthworm Sally song thing... it was awesome. Does no one seriously know what I'm talking about? You know, 'Earthworm Sally, carrying diseases from Florida to Cali, F-"
"Yeah, Lysander, we get the point."
"Oh. Okay." He said. "Continuing. Then I moved here, met crazy people, someone in particular named Julia," he looked at me, "And probably got mad at a few people... tried not to murder people... and that brings us up to date."
"Oh, and one more thing," he said, "I had no idea I was going to graduate or survive high school. The end." He concluded.
"This isn't a fairy tale!" I said, "If you lose your show at the party at midnight, you're probably drunk."
The audience laughed, I blushed and dragged him off the stage.
As we went back to our seats, I thought about what a crazy year it had been and how my life completely changed when I met Lysander.
_
The afterparty was terrible. I'd rather not admit that it was the first I'd been to since Jimmy's birthday back in first grade where I ended up scaring the clown he invited for the birthday party.
The experience was not pleasing. Let's just say... Jimmy's mom was not my biggest fan. Maybe it was just because she had a horrible taste in, well, everything. She hated money. Like, for real, who hats money? Certainly not me.
AND I HAD TO FREAKING DRESS UP FOR THE STUPID PARTY! DRESS UP!
Good thing that I didn't have anything fancy in my closet, so that's good.
I ended up wearing a long sweater (it's super comfortable) that said 'Get Lost.'
I literally facepalmed when I saw what everyone else was wearing. I guess they literally meant dress up.
They all were in their graduation gowns. Oh, well, I guess I'll just have to pretend I fit in...
Oh, wait. That's too hard for me, so I can't do it. Sad.
I found Lysander in the midst of all the screaming and yelling and who knows what the others were doing.
"HOW DID I NOT KNOW WE WERE SUPPOSED TO WEAR OUR GOWN THINGIES?" I yelled at Lysander, "YOU LITERALLY TOLD ME I HAD TO COME AND YOU KNEW?"
"Yeah," He said calmly, "I knew. But I wanted to join you so you wouldn't be the only one not wearing one." He explained, gesturing around the room and then gesturing to both of us.
"Wait, so you knew?" I asked, not that mad at him anymore.
"Yeah, that's what I said."
I sighed. "Whatever."
"Are you going to college?" He asked all of a sudden.
"I'm not sure," I said, "Come on, who would pass up a break from school? College isn't mandatory for anything anyway."
"Yeah," He agreed, "If I have the chance to not go to school, I wouldn't. Unless you're there." He covered his mouth, surprised by what he just said.
I pretended not to notice and just shrugged it off. "I'll probably go to a local college or something."
"WHAT?" He asked incredulously, "You have an ACT score of 35 and you want to go to a LOCAL COLLEGE?"
"You knew my ACT score?" I asked suspiciously.
"You told me..." He scratched the back of his neck.
"No, I didn't." I insisted.
"You didn't? I must've heard from someone else then..." He chuckled nervously.
Yeah, I didn't buy it. Stalkerish much?
Suddenly, a spotlight shone on us. "Give it up for Lysander Spooner and Julia Robins, our school's top couple of the year!"
"WHAT?" I yelled, "I didn't sign up for this! Maybe it's someone else?"
The audience stayed quiet.
"Or not?"
Then, the audience chanted, "KISS! KISS! KISS!"
We looked at each other, and I said, "Let's pretend we're, like, dating, alright? You don't like me anymore, right?" I babbled on.
"Yeah," He said softly, "I like someone else." He stared into the crowd of people.
"We're still friends, right?" He asked without making eye contact.
"Yeah," I agreed, "We are. Let's just... do it and get it over with."
He nodded, and a few seconds later, his lips crashed onto mine.
The audience cheered. Well, not the teachers, who were completely unamused. (Especially Ms. Thomas.)
During that kiss, I thought, "For we are not 'We the people' of the Declaration of Independence, but for we are 'We the Weirdos' of society."
Forever had it been sealed.
_
I'm not going to THE END in big letters or anything because it is NOT the end of this book! I'm still going to add short stories (AKA ship scenes of Lylia XD).
I hope you liked this plot! See, you guys influence a LOOOOT of what I write because people wanted me to make them kiss, and, well, they did.
This is the end of the entire plot I had. So... it's marked complete but I'm still going to update things in here weekly until I find that there are enough short stories.
And yes, you can request them! Just comment on a sentence of the outline of the story. Like, for instance, "Make Julia drown in a lake then Lysander perform CPR" or something like that.
Please don't write, "So make them go camping and then they share a tent! Then they can go hiking together, and Julia can go tumbling in a ditch. After that, they can cuddle up at a campfire. The next day, after they finish eating breakfast, Julia wanted to look at a river and stupid almost drowns! But, the holy Lysander swoops in and saves Julia, the-"
Okay, you get the point. At least I hope I do.
Anyway thanks for finishing this book (but there's more, I hope you remember)! Please let me know how you liked it (1-10 scale).
I love you guys a lot! Thank you for staying with me through all these chapters.
This entire book is dedicated to @puppyworld8910 because she was the one that encouraged me to write a book in the first place, and I've come so far with completing my second book.
If you liked it, please vote, comment, follow, and share!
Have a nice day!
Somerandomhuman88