My Brother's Best Friend

Chapter 44

"Welcome students, families, and most importantly graduates to Kingston High" Our principal Mr Howard says "Over the course of these four years I have been privileged to watch all of you grow into fine adults. And today you all go into the real world"

If you haven't already guessed I'm sitting at the graduation ceremony for the seniors. I'm sitting between my mom and Blake's mom. They both can't stop crying. I roll my eyes at the cheesiness.

"Families before I turn the mic over to the valedictorian Stacy Meyer I would like you all to know that this year we've had one of the highest graduation rates in the whole state." He says "For that I am so grateful it makes me feel like I'm good at my job. Now I'm going to turn this over to Stacy"

The girl from the prom comes up and takes out notecards. before taking a deep breath and smiling

"Can you believe it?" She laughs "These last four years have taken us on a rollercoaster of emotions. Freshman year we came in these halls nervous as hell. We were the underdogs, the nobodies. Then Sophomore year came and we were anxious to get out of this place. We hated the tests, the classes, waking up early, almost everything about this place. Then in junior year we became stressed. We had the SATs to prepare for, we were looking at colleges, thinking about what we wanted to be once we left this place. And in the beginning of senior year, we were scared. We were scared of rejection from colleges, of what life would be like, and overall we were scared to leave this place and face the world on our own. Now, as graduates we look back on our four years here and remember nothing but love. We look back on all the friendships we made, All of the relationships we had, all the fun, and in a few years we're going to look back on today and remember that we did it! We actually survived"

My eyes scan the crowd and land on Blake. I can tell he's getting emotional about today. I look in front of me and see Ashley rubbing a tear from her eyes. I laugh at how easy it is to make her cry.

"When we were in middle school and we came to high school orientation we never believed the people that told us high school flies by. Now sitting here today we all know that they weren't kidding. It feels as though yesterday was just the first day of freshman year. Most of us hadn't really gone through puberty at that point. We were like fetuses" She laughs as she sniffs clearly choked up

"I'm sure we all remember in kindergarten being asked what we wanted to be when we grew up. Some of us said a singer, some said a dancer, a race car driver, or in my case a disney princess" She laughs "And then they asked again in middle school and our answer was who the hell knows we have plenty of time. Now, we may not be sure but we have an idea. Today we'd all like to think our families for supporting us through everything. The good and the bad. And the last thing I want to say is thank you for the best four years of my life. Congrats class of 2017 we did it!"

Everyone claps for her as she goes to her seat. Mr Howard comes back and starts naming off the graduates. Each row stands up as their names are called.

"Joshua Carrington"

Me, mom, Ashley, and Mrs and Mr Mathews stand up and cheer for him. He goes on stage and shakes the hand of all of the administration team. And then he gets his diploma at the end of the line from principal Howard.

The list goes on and I take out my phone looking to see if I had any missed calls. When I see that I don't so I go on facebook and scroll through the posts until I hear

"Blake Mathews"

I instantly stand up and clap for him with our families. Once all of the names are called we exit and go outside to meet the boys out there. When we find them in the crowd we start taking pictures. First it was one with Blake and Josh, then Blake,Josh, Mom, and Mrs Mathews. Then it's the boys, and Mr Mathews. Then it's me, Josh, and mom. Then it's Blake, His mom and his dad. Then one of us all together.