Luca nervously tapped his feet as he went over his speech in his head for the hundredth time. He didn't want to embarrass himself on stage in front of his fellow classmates, their parents or the school staff. He relaxed a bit when he felt Chris grab his hand.
"Come on babe, your gonna do great"
"Are you gonna go back to your assigned seat" Luac asked. The seats were put in alphabetical order by last names and Chris's last name started with a S while his started with a M so they weren't suppose to be sitting beside each other. The boy that was originally sitting beside him practically ran away when Chris told him to get up which Luca scowled him for.
"No, I'm good here"
"You know that's not your seat right. Michael is gonna need his seat back"
"Who's Michael"
"The kid you scared away dumbass"
"I wanna be close to you not only because I love you but also because I know you'll be killing your self with all kinds of humiliating scenarios that could happen to you on stage if I wasn't here to talk to you and distract you from your speech"
Luca's eyes soften.
"Thank you"
"You never have to thank me for anything baby"
"Ladies and gentlemen will you please settle down" the principal paused and continue when it was quiet enough.
"Thank you. Will you all please welcome the valedictorian of the 2013-2014 senior year Luca Mitchell"
Luca took a deep breath before standing up. He tried to keep his head up while he walked to the stage but even that was hard to do. He just hoped that he didn't mess up the speech or even worse, forget it.
He made it to the Mic without tripping which was a win on his part since everyone knows he can't go one day without tripping. He stood in front of the Mic and stared at the faces in front of him. He looked at his parents in the back smiling proudly, he looked at Kristen who blew him a kiss then he looked at Chris. Chris held up a little sign that said "that's my sexy ass boyfriend up there" which he had raised high. He could hear the teachers gasping behind him.
Luca shook his head fondly trying to hide his smile. He cleared his throat and began.
"My fellow students, we only arrived here four short years ago, and now it's already time to leave. How did it all go so fast? It seems like only yesterday that we were skinny little freshmen fighting with the locks on our lockers, trying to figure out where our next class was, and looking generally clueless to all the upper classmen. Now we are the upperclassmen, the seniors who stand here ready to graduate and move forward in the world. Yet at this seminal moment, we can't help looking back"
"How do we measure the time we've spent in high school? In the beginning, we measured it in class periods, counting down the day to eventual freedom. As the days and weeks passed, we measured it in semesters, and later in years as we moved from being those clueless freshmen, to becoming sophisticated sophomores who thought they had it all figured out. By the time we reached our junior year, we were confident that we were prepared to take over for the graduating seniors, and we couldn't wait to "rule the school"
And now here we stand. Our rule is over, and it's up to the next class to step into our shoes and take over. I know that as I look out at all of you, I will measure my time here in a much different way. I will measure it in all the friendships I've enjoyed these last four years. Some were pretty casual and others were much closer, but I'll remember each one fondly, as I'm sure you all will, too. And when many of our high school memories begin to fade, that's how we'll ultimately measure the time we spent here, not in periods or semesters or years, but in the friendships that we made and the times we shared together"
