Graduation Day

"Stand still", my mom mutters.

"Mom you already took so many pictures", I groan.

"Shut up and say cheese", she retorts.

"Got it now let's go before your late to your graduation", she says grabbing the car keys.

I take one last look at myself a smile forming on my lips as I see my cute short pink dress nicely hug around my curves.

My hair is down in loosely curls and my simple makeup bringing my hazel eyes out more.

I can't believe today is graduation day. One more step and high school life is over.

I submitted my registration application to Evergreen Valley College about a week ago. I'm honestly really looking forward to college life.

"We're here!", my mom squeals parking in front of the football field.

I step out of the car grabbing my cap and gown putting it on me.

My mother assists me in putting hair pins, so the cap stays in place.

She then gets my sash and puts it over me.
"I'm so proud of you.. you did it", she says cuffing my cheeks with her hands.

"It's all for you mom.. Thank you for always believing in me even when I wasn't on the right path and for never giving up on me", my voice cracks.

"Don't cry you can't ruin your mascara right now", she chuckles her hazel eyes a glossy sheen.

I nod in agreement flapping my hands in the air trying to calm myself down.

"Go", my mom hastily says.

I turn my heel making my way towards the gym where everyone is instructed to meet before the ceremony.

As soon as I enter the gym all of my friends spot me and wave for me to come over.

I smile seeing everyone in the their caps and gowns. We've all came very far from being the bad kids on the block to now getting our shit together and thankfully graduating in time.

I hug all of my friends as I congratulate each and every one of them.

Suddenly my eyes lock with Claudia who's staring at us from across the room with Ana.

Funny how someone can be one of your closest friends to now a complete stranger.

Claudia throws a hateful glare at me averting her attention away.

Today is a very big accomplishment for me to let someone ruin it, so I brush it off.

"Everyone get in line.. we are going to start to walk out", my Uncle instructs through the microphone.

15 minutes later

We're all lined up impatiently waiting for the gym doors to open, so we can proceed out.

"I'm so proud of you", my Uncle says from beside me.

I quickly turn to look at him not expecting this at all.

"Thank you", I smile.

"I'm glad you've changed your ways", he grins.

"I'm glad too..Now I'm officially the first to graduate high school and go off to college", I twinkle my eyes.

"Yes you are congrats", he tugs me into a tight hug.

"Thank you uncle for always helping me in every way even if I was too dumb to see it before", I mutter.

"Your welcome sweetie"

He pulls away from our hug heading towards the gym doors to open them.

Everyone starts to cheer out loud as we make our way towards the football field.

As we all approach the football field all of the audience that consist of our parents, families, relatives, friends, and school staff start to cheer, scream, blow horns, whistle, and flashing lights were flashing everywhere as pictures from every angle was being taken.

Damn I honestly thought I wouldn't be here right now from how I started my high school off. I'm glad I changed even if sometimes life literally kicked my butt challenging me, but it was all so I can get onto the right path.

I see my mother and her boyfriend waving at me all happy and taking pictures of me, so I come to a halt and pose real quick before proceeding.

We're all sitting on white wooden chairs waiting for everyone to be seated.

I'm in the middle of Lulu and Celeste gossiping about the after party that's going to take place  after the ceremony is over.

2 hours later

I'm currently in line waiting for my turn to walk up on stage and receive my diploma.

My nerves are going crazy right now making me very sweaty.

I take a few breathers to calm myself down. I'm scared once I go upstage I'm going to trip and fall on my ass because of my heels.

Isn't that every girls nightmare on graduation day?

Oh my god I'm next!

Once Lulu walks off the stage. I give my note with my name on it to the speaker.

She then says into the speaker..

"Gia Marin"

The crowd cheers, whistles, and blow horns as I step onto the stage. I can legit hear my mother going crazy with her blow horn as she screams, "that's my daughter".

I walk towards the stairs crossing the stage coming to a halt and shake everyone's hand as they all congratulate me.

On my way towards the exit I shake hands with the last person standing on stage which is my Uncle.

He smiles hugely causing me to smile wide from seeing how truly proud of me he was.

He hands me a rolled up beige paper that has a red thick ribbon wrapped around it. I grab it and head downstairs stepping on the concrete.

Standing still I smile holding my diploma with pride posing for the camera man.

After taking my picture I walk over to my seat. Lulu pulls out her phone and starts to record us showing off our diplomas for our Snapchat viewers.

2 hours later

The end of the ceremony was coming near as they finished the speeches from students and teachers.

"Everyone stand up", my Uncle speaks through the speaker one last time.

We all stand up waiting for him to speak further.

"Hello Graduates, Graduation is one of the important milestone in a person's life. It is after graduation that you sore to the world of new dreams and aspirations. It is after graduation that you spread your wings wide and fly out to explore the world around, in pursuit of your goals. Today is a very important day of your graduation because it's the last chapter to your high school story. You'll now will start a new chapter a new story of college and so on. It was all a pleasure as well as an honor to have you all here and now we must ship you off to bigger things and I am confident you'll all succeed as longest you put your mind to it and protect that dream and pursue it at all costs. Trust me they're will be people who will try and bring you down and say you can't do something because they cannot or couldn't do it themselves. Those haters are your biggest motivators. Prove them wrong and most importantly prove it to yourself that you can do it. Everything is possible as longest you keep trying and always remember success is going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm. I can go on and on, so I'll cut it short my graduates. Good luck and I wish you all nothing but the very best in your journeys. Ladies and Gentlemen I present to you all the class of 2017"

We all went crazy screaming on top of our lungs as we all threw our caps up in the air.

The audience cheered out loud blowing their horns and clapping.

I tried so hard to not cry, but I'm a whole new sentimental person now.

Tears flew down my cheeks of pure happiness.
My uncle's speech was beautiful and the motivation was real.

I remember the days I hated school and wished it was over always so eager for this day to come, but now that it's here I'm emotional about it.

We all start walking towards our families as the ceremony beautifully ends.

I walk up to my mother squeezing her into a tight hug. We're both full of watery eyes from pure happiness.

My mother's boyfriend Leo takes a picture of us both.

We start making our way towards the parking lot ready to leave.

I wanted to say bye to my uncle, so I tell my mom and Leo I'll meet them in the car.

After a few minutes of looking for my uncle I finally say bye to him.

Making my way back to the parking lot I pull out my phone sending a text to Lulu to meet me at my house.

I bump into someone and I quickly look up ready to apologize for not paying attention.

My eyes widen and suddenly I lose the ability to speak.

"Hello dear I was looking for you everywhere"

"H-Hi April", I stutter a baffled expression plastered on my face.

I haven't heard nor spoken to the Gold family since the day he broke up with me. I found it odd how no one contacted me after, but I'm sure Eli had something to do with it.

Many times I found myself staring at April's contact as I fought myself whether to call her or not since I was curious to know how his court trial went.

However I ended up erasing her number from my phone, so I wouldn't be tempted and can truly move on.

"I came to congratulate you and give you a gift", she smiles giving me a nicely wrapped box with "you did it" and "class of 2017" balloons.

I take the box and balloons, "Thank you I really appreciate it", I truthfully say.

Suddenly Eli appears on my mind making me curious about what has happened to him. It has been three full months now.

I open my mouth to speak, but quickly close it swallowing what I was about to ask her.

"It's okay hun I understand", April cuffs my chin making eye contact with me.

I force a half smile fighting myself back from asking her about him.

"I have to go thank you for taking time out of your day to be here for me", I genuinely say.

"It was my pleasure.. I'm glad to see your doing good Gia", she smiles.

I smile pulling her in for a hug. I pull away and start to walk away when suddenly she grabs my arm bringing me to a halt.

I turn back and look at her confused.

"Someday you will look back and know exactly why it had to happen", April splutters.

I scrunched my brows together not quite understanding what she means by that.

April let's go of my arm and smiles as she walks away on the opposite direction from where I was heading.

I ain't going to lie her words replayed in my head over and over again as I walked towards the parking lot.

I wonder what she meant by that. Either way the past is the past and I swore to myself I would never look back, so I just brush it off.

Once I spot my mom's car I make my way in.

-
-

I take my gown and sash off pinning it to my wall.

Sitting on my bed I decide to open the box April gave me.

I gasp as I see all the beautiful goodies laying neatly inside.

"This must of cost so much", I whisper to myself.

Yet again I'm sure it's nothing to April after all they're filthy rich.

Suddenly my smile falters as I remember these are all the things I had on my wish list on Pinterest for when I get started in my career.

I furrow my brows of how weird this is, but brush it off my mind feeling grateful for April being so generous even though I'm not a part of her life anymore.

At least I have a new backpack for college.

-
-

Later that night

Lulu and I finally arrive to Jesiah's mansion. Drinks were everywhere. The whole class of 2017 were literally all here partying it up.

After having a few drinks I make my way to the restroom.

Once I finished my business I come back downstairs bumping into someone along the way.

"I'm sorrr", I stop in the middle of apologizing when I look up into those chocolate brown eyes I haven't seen for awhile.

Gabriel

"Oh my god!", I mutter under my breath.

"I'm back", Gabriel smirks.

I pull him in for a tight hug. Damn Gabriel not being around completely sucked. After all he is the class clown.

"When did you get released?", I ask pulling away from the hug.

"Yesterday", he responds.

"The last time I saw you was in juvy"

"What the heck were doing in there?", Gabriel furrows his brows.

"I was serving my time for violating my probation.. it's a long crazy story", I chuckle.

"Wow bad girl", he huffs.

"No no not anymore", I laugh.

"Glad to have you back now lets party", I add pulling him by his arm towards the group.

We all take shots to celebrate our graduation and welcome Gabriel back.

The night was full of fun and alcohol. The whole crew was here and I'm glad all of us graduated together.

I take a seat examining my surroundings. A huge smile forms on my lips as I see my friends all laughing and dancing.

I've learned a lot this year, I've learned that things don't always turn out the way you planned, or the way you think it should. And I've learned that there are things that go wrong that don't always get fixed or get put back together the way they were before. I've learned that some broken things stay broken and I've learned that you can get through bad times and keep looking for better ones, as long as you have people who love you. I've learned from my mistakes. Ive learned that not all friendships are meant to be. I've learned what love is as well as loss. I've learned to always push through the obstacles thrown at me. Life is precious and sacred and that's why we must always find a way to keep going forward.

I will miss my friends since we're all going our separate ways to fulfill our life goals, but one thing is certain that our bonds will never break and we'll always keep in touch.

High school was a rollercoaster from drama to fights to parties to getting locked up to heartbreak to graduating. However without it I wouldn't be where I am right now and even though it sucked at times and it really took a toll on me. I'm glad it happened since it shaped me up for the better.

I'm ready to close this chapter in my life and start a new one.

I'm ready

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Hello guys, let me introduce you to my new story "Juvie". Please check it out on my page!
Please and Thank you 😘