Paranoia

•~{Four}~•

As a young child, everyone always told me to be obedient, to always follow the rules. It seemed like everybody had no problem following them except me. It was like everyone were robots that had been brainwashed and they forgot about me. All these years, I have been following these rules, no questions asked, but it was today, the day I was graduating from high school that made me wonder, why?

As I went down the familiar white walls of my high school, my stress was starting to build up and I could feel my palms getting sweaty. Every now and then I would wipe my hands on the blue graduation robe I was wearing. I wasn't feeling any excitement about all of this, unlike the people around me that were wearing the same boring blue robe.

I felt someone softly tap my shoulder, taking me away from my thoughts. When I turned around, I saw my best friend, Angelica. She was staring at me with pure excitement in her eyes, which made my stress fade and get replaced by happiness.

"Rach! I'm so excited for this! I can finally move on and actually do something with my life!" She cheered, happily. My mind was stuck on the nickname she had given me, Rach.

"For the thousandth time, Angel, do not call me Rach."

She sighed and took off her black hat and ran a hand through her straight black hair before correcting herself. "Sorry, Rachel."

I heard the dean of the school start speaking loudly in a microphone and quickly mouthed a "thank you" towards her, before turning around to look at the man on the stage.

"Hello everyone. Thank you for coming tonight." He started, stopping the parents and children in the auditorium from talking. "We have a long reunion this evening, so we will be commencing now, shall we?"

After around an hour and a half, the man on the stage was calling each one of us on the stage, one by one, to give us our diploma. Honestly, I didn't feel like going up there, at all. Mostly because it seemed like everyone said something to the dean and watching by their lip movements, they said the same thing. Also because of my sweaty palms, I didn't want to shake an adult's hand knowing mine would be a sweat mess.

"Anna Kennedy."

There it was, the name right before mine. I wiped the rest of the sweat on my robe and tried to read Anna's lips, but it was no use.

"Rachel Knight."

Here we go. I took a deep breath and walked forward to the stage, feeling everyone's stare on me, making me feel smaller than I already was.

After all these years of learning random things I would never use for the rest of my life, I was finally getting the reward to it... but honestly, I didn't really understand why we were getting a diploma. Everyone had the same grades all the time in every single class, 85%. Always 85%. There was not one student that had 84% or 86%, it was always the same number, 85%. There were no tests too, so I never really understood the point of going to school. It was pretty much a waste of precious time. Anyways, it's not like anybody would do anything more interesting if there was no school.

When I climbed the three little steps leading to the stage, I felt even more eyes landing on me. It was intimidating, I admit. I never really had a doubt that I was scared of attention, but this time, I knew I was completely sure.

I walked over to the man, standing in the middle of the stage and grabbed my diploma, then shook his hand lightly.

After a few seconds, he didn't let go of my hand, which scared me a little.

"Thank you?" I said, but it sounded more like I was questioning myself.

He slowly moved his microphone away from his mouth and I could've sworn I heard him curse silently under his breath.