I Swear He's Different

Graduation

- Your name is Opal, and your just your average brunette straight out of high school. You want to become a photographer for a living. You always thought getting to do what you love, for a living, and get paid to do it was so unrealistic but, you didn't let that stop you, you still knew it was possible.

- You have a best friend named Sadie, who you've know almost your entire life. You both did Field Hockey together for 3 years. Sadie has black hair and brown eyes.

- You have younger a brother named Jackson. He has blonde hair and brown eyes. He's the smartest in his class and surprisingly loves video games.

- Your parents are Liam and Becky.

Pilot;

  I was sitting in class knowing this was probably the last time I was going to see any of these people, tomorrow I graduate. A part of me felt sad and another part of me loved knowing I'd never see these people again. My best friend Sadie was the only one I'd miss, she planned for years, starting all the way back 8th grade to join the Navy as soon as she was done in high school. She didn't want to have to worry about college, she didn't have to worry about paying student debts and always wanted to do her part in helping her country. She was always such a generous person and I looked up to her for that. She once tried to talk me into going along with her, but "I just can't do it." I told her. I was so afraid of the fact that I might never come home.

  I was more of a person who wanted to go out and explore. I would have love to become a professional photographer and capture what I see along the way, but that doesn't seem like something that is in the near future. So, since I couldn't do it professionally, I would do it for my own enjoyment. My first destination to visit would be Time Square. I had talked to my parents about it, months before I would graduate. I couldn't get them to give in.

  Today was the day, I was finally going to graduate and could be 'free' from that 'hell hole'. I hated it there. Everything was so much more complicated then it needed to be. The people were rude, the teachers didn't care whether you failed or passed and the principle was such a low life. I had thought about home school for a while, but I've wanted to graduate through a brick and mortar and my parents weren't going to let me anyways. There was one guy though, that was always in the back of my head head, my distraction. His name was Anthony. I liked a lot of guys through out my 13 years of school, but Anthony stuck out for some reason. Since this was more then likely one of the last times I was going to see him I decided I would tell him how I felt. Whether I was nervous or not, I knew I would regret it if I didn't do it.

  As everyone gathers into to the auditorium I grew more and more nervous about getting up on that stage, even if it was for 5 seconds. I still knew everyone would be watching me for those 5 seconds. When it was my turn to go up on stage and receive my diploma I walked up and heard nothing but clapping, what really stuck out was the yelling and clapping of my grandmother who didn't care what anyone thought. She was proud of me. I looked in the crowd and my eyes immediately focused on Anthony, who was staring right back at me with a little friendly grin on his face. He smiled and clapped and let out a whistle, the ones like they edit in, in the movies and I could tell I was blushing, so I just smiled lightly and walked off stage to sit right back down in the alphabetical order we were forced to sit in.

  When everyone received their diplomas everyone headed back to where ever it was they were going, but they all left in groups. Of course I immediately thought everyone was going to some party and I just wasn't invited. Right before I was going to pull away and go home, Anthony came running up to the side of my car, out of breath, and said,

"Hey where are you going?'

"Home, why?" He paused for a moment like he was nervous to say what he was about to let out.

  "Okay, well you can go home if you want, but there's this thing and one of the teachers rented it out for the whole grade and most of us are heading over there, and I wanted to ask you to come. I could drive you?" He said like he thought that would make me want to go even more. Which it did.

"I said sure but I don't mean to sound like a 'party pooper', but I'd like to be home at 11."

"No problem!" He said and then clicked his tongue and winked at the same time. Running off to go get his car.

  About 3 minutes later he pulled around the school in a nice, sleek, shiny, black car. I knew nothing about cars, but could tell it was expensive. He said we were going to some empty room that the teachers rented out and filled it up with food and music and disco balls and it was basically just a club that would fit everyone, minus the alcohol because obviously what would the teachers be saying if they bought us that. He said if I thought it was lame he'd take me home early. Even though it wasn't my thing I decided to stay because it was the last time I'd see everyone and Sadie was here and I wanted to spend as much time with her before she headed off. Anthony drifted away from me for a bit.

  Later he saw me sitting at a table with just Sadie and asked me to dance. Sadie knew I had a thing for him and gave me a wink telling me it was alright if I left her. So I got up to go dance. It wasn't a slow dance ether so its not like he had his hands on my hips and mine on his shoulders, so we kind of just did our own thing. It was some kind of dub step song that just had a beat and maybe 20 words in the whole song. I was always shy through school so it felt nice to just be able to dance and not worry about what other people would think. It felt like a mosh pit. Everyone was just bumping in to each other, but for some reason I liked it, it was like I was at some concert. Anthony asked me if I wanted to go grab a drink and I agreed. It wasn't as loud over at the drinks because the speakers were on the other side of the room.

  Midnight rolled around sooner then I expected and Anthony apologized more times then I can count about not dropping me off when I asked and I told he not to worry about it. We pulled up to my house and he said,

"We didn't spend the whole night together like I would have liked but maybe I'll see you again sometime, besides, I do know where you live!" He said with a little chuckle.

"I'd liked that."

"Good, how about next weekend, I'll pick you up?" He said it so unexpectedly I didn't know how to react.

"Yes!" I said sounding overly excited. He smiled again.

  Before I got out of the car I forgot that I wanted to tell him how much I liked him, but I thought there was no need for it, because it obviously looked like he liked me. He waited until I got in my house to make sure I got in safely, like you might do some times with loved ones. I walked in and the first one to greet me was my dog Mandy. Mom then asked me how the party was as I was walking up the stairs to my room

  "It went better then I could of ever thought!" I said with a huge grin on my face as I motioned Mandy to follow me up the stairs. As soon as I got up stairs I texted Sadie and told her everything that happen between me and Anthony.

  "Hes trying to get with you!" She said excited. We babbled on and off through out the whole night about how our days went. The whole night we were just texting back and forth about jokes and she would tease me about Anthony, but then in a serious tone she said,

"Opal, there's something I must tell you."