Graduation Day

Today was the day, finally it was graduation day. After today they were officially adults and well Fedora wasn’t entirely sure she was ready for that. Sure she had dreamed about this day since the first day of high school, but now that it was here she was freaking out.
After today she would no longer be a high school student, no longer be seen as a teenager, now she had to take care of herself. But she was only seventeen! So technically she was still a teenager, she wasn’t supposed to be responsible and take care of herself, but that was not what her mom thought. Her mom obviously forgot that she wasn’t eighteen just yet.
Luckily she had Sacia to get her mind off of all that important stuff, since all Sacia could talk about was her summer vacation plans, moving to New York next year, and what she was going to wear to graduation. Yeah, she was a good distraction.
She especially needed a distraction from the fact that in a few hours she would be saying  a speech in front of the whole class and their families, that was nerve wracking. But Sacia wasn’t that good at distracting her from that, since she seemed to think it was the coolest thing and kept asking her if she was going mention her which fedora kept saying “you’ll see” all mysteriously though the answer was no, she wasn’t.
On the way to the ceremony with her parents, yes both of them since her dad came down to see her graduate, her mom wouldn’t shut up about how surprised she was to see her little girl get here and her dad just kept congratulating her on getting valedictorian.
People were bustling around the parking lot, hugging each other, taking pictures, talking loudly, and just having a good time.
Fedora saw Sacia and Bryan talking while their parents introduced themselves to each other. Fedora waved to them, and ran over, her parents following closely.
“Fedora!” Sacia exclaimed, as if she hadn’t seen Fedora in years.
“Hey,” Fedora said before getting crushed in a hug from Sacia.
“Today is the day!” Sacia said.
“Yep,” Fedora said.
“Sup,” Bryan said.
“Hey,” Fedora said, again. “Are you excited?”
Bryan shrugged, “sure.”
“Come on!” Sacia said, punching him lightly on the arm, “get excited, this is the last day of being a teenager.”
“Not if you’re still seventeen,” Fedora said, though she was one of the few seventeen year old in her graduating class.
“Oh, shut up,” Sacia said.
“Fedora!” Harriette hugged Fedora from behind, surprising her. Obviously today Harriette was putting away the facade of hating her.
“Hi,” Fedora said.
“I can not believe you are already graduating,” Harriette said.
“Yeah,” Fedora said.
“Let’s go inside,” Harriette’s mom, and Fedora aunt, said.
Harriette gave Fedora another hug and then followed her mom, and the rest of their families into the auditorium.
Then it was time for them to put their cap and gowns on. They all went into the cafeteria to do so, because it was sort of weird to do that in the parking lot.
Sacia helped Fedora pin her cap onto her unruly hair, it was a tough fight but it all worked in the end. Fedora couldn’t help but feel important in her cap and gown, like she was going to do something big soon. And she was, she still had to do her speech.
After waiting for what felt like hours, in which Sacia was talking excitedly the whole time, though Fedora doesn’t really remember what she was saying, it was finally time to enter the auditorium.
That song they play at all graduations was playing as they entered in a single file line, now the nerves were getting to Fedora, in just a moment she would be up there saying her speech, which sounded really stupid suddenly.
Fedora just wished she could sit next to her friends, but since she was an honor student she was up in the front with people she didn’t know or care about.
The first part of graduation was boring, Fedora would have probably fell asleep if she wasn’t counting down the seconds till it was her turn to get up there and say her speech.
After listening to a bunch of old people talking about the joys of high school and stuff like that it was finally time, Fedora almost jumped out of her chair when she heard her name called.
But no, she had to be confident, show the school that she was a put together person who does not run away from challenges.  Even though she really felt like running.
But somehow she made it on the stage, laughed a little bit when she saw Sacia waved enthusiastically at her. Then took a deep breath and started;
“To be honest I’ve been writing valedictorian speeches my whole life,” she started, “ever since fourth grade when my math teacher called me the smartest person in the class. So when I was told that I was actually going to have to write this speech I expected to write it in the matter of a few second.”
She paused for dramatic effect, “I was wrong,
“I sat in my bedroom for hours asking myself what do I want to say to my class, that isn’t inappropriate, because trust me I want to say a lot of things that I shouldn’t.”
The audience laughed,
“Trying to keep it nice and clean is not something I usually do, as many of you know, but I’m trying. Trust me.
“I didn’t want to say a bunch of cliche stuff about how high school was great and now we’re moving on to great things and basically we’re all going to become presidents of some country.  No, that’s not what I want to say, because that’s all lies.
“I’m not saying high school wasn’t great, but it did suck, at least for me, but I’m not supposed to be talking about me up here. I’m supposed to be talking about all of you. The Populars, the Jocks, the Nerds, and the Losers, like me. All of us.”
Another pause for dramatic effect, so  far so good.
“Over these four years a lot has happened, for all of us, some good, some bad. We’ve made friends, lost friends. We’ve dealt with teasing, rumours, and all that stupid high school stuff. We’ve dealt with heartbreak, love, crushes, even if that does sound really cheesy and I sort of want to jump off a cliff just for writing that, but it’s true. We’ve felt jealousy, anger, sadness, but also, happiness, friendship, and bravery.
“So congratulations on getting through high school, you guys deserve it. I remember when I told my mom that I wasn’t going to college, sure I only said it to spite her, and it did, and now here I am graduating and moving on to the top college in the USA. My mom is probably really proud of me. And so are yours, even those who are just going to community college, at least you’re going to college.”
More laughs.
“Now I guess I should thank some people, because that’s what people do in these speeches. I thank our parents, even if mine didn’t really do much to help me, I thank our teachers, even if they gave me too much homework sometimes and actually expected me to finish it in a week, and I thank my classmates, yes even the Populars, because really without you guys what would my high school experience be? And I’m sure you guys are grateful for them too, even me, so thanks to me too. Because I’m sure I made your high school years a little bit more fun, I’m just saying.”
She shrugged and the audience laughed some more.
“So thank you for listening to me talk, I’m sure none of this made sense, but I hope it inspired you, or something like that. I hope it made you cry, because that’s what happened in all of the movies I watched to get inspiration for this. So goodbye and and have fun in the next stage of life.”
And applause, Fedora smiled, relieved to be done finally.
She didn’t hear the rest of the speeches, she just kept reliving her speech over and over. It worked out perfectly, people laughed when they were supposed to laugh and were quiet when they were supposed to be quiet and even better, nobody threw any tomatos at her!
She clapped when Bryan accepted his diploma, and waved to him when he passed her to get back to his seat. Then it her her turn, and it was just like in all those movies. She even tripped on her way up, which wasn’t really embarrassing it was actually perfect. She took her diploma and sent out kisses to her family, and then danced off the stage.
Karina Black, who Fedora remembered most as her competition for Homecoming queen, looked like she was about cry as she accepted her diploma.
Chris practically ran up when her name was called her bubbly side coming out as she made a heart with her hands before accepting her diploma.
Gregg went right after her and was a lot less bubbly, just casually accepting the diploma and walking down.
When Bentley went up he got the most cheers, he was probably the most popular guy in school.
Sacia looked like a model as she walked up there like a diva, accepted her diploma and then waved to everyone.
And when the ceremony was finally over they all threw up their hats and cheered. It was perfect and Fedora hoped her mom got a picture of it all because she wanted to remember this day forever.