Happiness [Book 2]

Chapter 72 - True Happiness

It had been a full week of bidding farewell to the seniors and loads of hugging; every Glee club lesson ended in everyone crying and hugging because we were all going to miss each other. 

I was kind of sad the year was over and that the seniors this year were leaving.... oh, God. I was going to be a senior next year. That meant I'd have to decide what college I wanted to go to and there'd be more responsibilities and more tests and homework... and Ryder wouldn't be here to help me decide. 

It's next year, Marley, calm down. 

I was sitting with some of the graduates who had come down to watch the graduation, but I was the only student from Glee club attending at the moment sitting in the audience. Don't even ask me where everyone was, I wouldn't have known.

I began playing with my phone, sending Ryder a text message - we only talked briefly lately; it felt like he had no time for me. He was always saying he had to go, and it broke my heart. 

"Hey, Marley!" Brittany shouted, dragging Sam over with her and sitting next to me. "What's up?" She asked with a small smile.

"Not much; waiting," I laughed. "You?"

She shrugged and looked to Sam. "Nothing at all, really. I'm just chatting with Sam about Lord Tubbington's latest adventure!" Brittany clapped her hands together and opened her mouth to explain but the microphone made a loud noise and the celebration began.

“Hello,” Principal Figgins said, leaning over the microphone on the table. He began giving a speech about McKinley High and some of the great things that the school provided, and he made the announcement that there were no longer hamsters breeding in the auditorium.

Didn’t even know there were hamsters in there.

He began calling out names of people, but I wasn’t honestly paying much attention to them, until I heard a familiar name be called. “Wade Adams!” I watched as she walked down the steps, waving at the audience before collecting her paper and walking to the podium with a big smile and her wig hanging out underneath the cap.

“Joseph Hart!” Principal Figgins said with a smile. Joe came out, whipping his dreadlocks back and forth before running to the stage and doing the sign of the cross.

“Sugar Motta!” He finally called. Sugar came out in a pose and laughed at herself. She began running down the stairs and to the stage, where she collected her diploma and ran to the podium, waving up frantically at me and the rest of the Glee club.

I clapped loudly still, while Principal Figgins began calling out more names. I ignored them and pulled out my phone, feeling a light vibrate through my small purse.

Ryder: Skype me when your back at home. Xx

I nodded and smiled, looking back up as the last person made their way on stage. “The McKinley Graduating Class of 2014!” Figgins shouted before the hats came flying out of nowhere and began raining over the room, people laughing and catching some.

In exactly a year, I’d be over there, standing on that stage and staring into the audience, trying to ignore the celebrating couples around me.

I suddenly saw myself on the stage, looking like a loner as everyone around me kissed and hugged, congratulating each other.

I shook that out of my head as people began to file out of the room, Brittany shooing me out into the aisle that lead up into the corridors.

Santana lead the group to the choir room again, where Jake and Angie were sitting in the seats, talking to each other and kissing every couple of seconds. It reminded me of the Taylor Swift song, Last Kiss. Santana seemed really upset at the two of them for missing the graduation, because she was talking to them in Spanish. Aggressive Spanish.