Chapter 1
“Beep! Beep! Beep!” I slapped the alarm clock with one quick motion. After four years of waking up at 6:00 a.m. I still hated the freaking sound of my alarm clock. Today was different though. When most days I would just slump out of bed practically dragging myself to the bathroom, today I just couldn’t wait to get to school. 6:00 just couldn’t come sooner. I went to the bathroom and couldn’t help but stare at my reflection. After today I wouldn’t be the childish little girl everyone thought I was. I’d be different. I guess I’d still be the same nerdy, awkward girl with the same brown messy hair tomorrow, but for today I was someone totally new. After finishing in the bathroom I went straight towards my closet and stole a glimpse of my beautiful graduation dress. That’s right I said graduation dress! It was probably the only beautiful thing I owned. I usually wore blue skinny jeans piled rip after rip with a boring tee tied together with baby blue converse. Obviously I wasn’t very style savvy, but that would change today or for at least a couple hours. I slipped it on and instantly felt like Cinderella. Which yeah sounded dorky, but honestly there was no other way to describe a transformation from an unnoticed wallflower to a freaking supermodel. My dress was bright baby blue, which was perfectly fitted from the top and exposed just enough so I would look sexy and elegant at the same time. It was pretty short and hugged my body making me look amazing. I grabbed my silver heals that were about 4 inches, which isn’t a lot for a normal teenage girl, but for me it seemed like fucking rocket science to walk in.
After another hour of attempting to tame my hair I finally got the perfect curls I wanted and was called down stairs.“ Juliana, your friends are here and it’s time for pictures!” I tried to elegantly walk towards everyone down stairs like in those movies where they go to prom or a party and look completely HOT!!!!!!! So far it was working. As I strutted down stairs my friends began to whistle. “ Damn girl!” “Whoa Julie” I even saw a couple of them drop their jaws. I was so proud of myself for getting those kinds of reactions till it happened. Literally, I was only 2 feet away when I missed the step and slid down the stairs flat against my butt. At that moment I was so glad to be tanned because then everyone would have seen my face tomato red. After a couple of, “ Oh My God! Are you okay?” and “ Call 911!” I finally was able to respond after practically committing social suicide in my own house. “ Guys, really? I’m fi….” I couldn’t even finish the sentence before they were all practically dying of laughter and rolling on the floor. I was usually very clumsy, but I promised myself today I wouldn’t be that girl. Only an hour before the ceremony and already I was transforming back into little old clumsy me. I guess not everyone can get until midnight. After the humiliation finally died down, all the pictures were taken, and my parent’s were finally done crying it was time to head out. We all squished into my beautiful, but tiny yellow convertible buggy except for my parents who refused to even consider it a car just because it wasn’t their choice. I’m glad they didn’t come with us though because this is the last time we all get to be together as seniors before graduation. All throughout high school it was always the 5 of us against the world, now all of us had different plans after high school. Elaina was the smart one in the group. She was heading straight to New Haven, Connecticut to study the law in Yale. Not only was she smart, but she was also incredibly beautiful. I admit when I first met her I kind of thought she was a bitch. I mean she was a straight A student with looks that could kill and she knew exactly how to make a guy go crazy by just the flip of her long curly blonde hair, which was a quality I unfortunate was ungifted in. Then there was Maya who was sort of the complete opposite of Elaina. For one thing she had jet-black hair with rainbow highlights and cared way more about music then boys and let alone grades. She was sort of the glue that kept us all together and she was moving to Los Angeles to sell her CD to some big shot label. What’s going to happen to us after theirs no more glue? West was the bad boy type who every girl wanted and every guy feared except for us. We knew the real him which was actually really smart, sweet, and had a romantic side ever since he started dating Elaina. West decided to go to NYU, so he could study engineering and still is close enough to his girlfriend. Lastly, there was Matthew. Matt was my best friend since birth and he was pretty much perfect. He was tall, built up well, with perfect dark chocolate hair that made his hazel eyes pop out. He was also the quarterback on Valley Hills Football team. The best part that you’d expect him to be a dumb jock, but we wasn’t. He’s was never just Matt to me, I mean I was in love with him since 2nd grade, which is a long time for someone to be in love with their best friend and have them not know it. He could have gone anywhere on a football scholarship, but he decided to go to Colombia just because of a promise we made a long time ago. The first day of freshman year we made a promise to each other that no matter what we’d stick together. I didn’t think he’d take it so seriously, but I’m glad we’ll be together.
After another 15 minutes driving to school we were finally there. We all just sat there in the car taking in everything that was happening. I guess the realness of graduation had not synced in yet. It was kind of overwhelming to see gold and black streamers and balloons everywhere invading the grounds we once ruled and a long banner that read ‘Congratulation Valley Hills High Seniors’ that kept reminding us that our old life was finished. We were done. Done with high school. Done with pretty much everything we once knew and going into a whole new world. Maya was the one to break the silence. “ We’ve been siting here for like 10 minutes can we get out now?” Only she can break a serious life lesson moment and add a little humor. A second later we were all out and practically sprinting to the theater. Graduation wasn’t until 9:30, but our stupid principal doesn’t trust us enough and is forcing us to practice everything before. Which kind of ruins the element of surprise in speeches and who wins what awards. We tried sneaking in unnoticed, but before we could take a step 500 eyes were staring back at us. “ Glad the rest of the class could make it. Care to explain your tardiness?” She gave us her signature evil smile that left all of us speechless. I would definitely not be missing her. “ Well, explain!” West, being the badass he is, responded in the only way he knew how to, with sarcasm. “Oh, Sorry Principal Patterson. We just thought it would be funny if we were late one last time. You know, end our senior year on a high note.” Principal Patterson’s face was priceless. It was the kind of face you’d see on a tomato commercial. Even behind her badly tanned orange skin the redness of her cheeks were undeniable. “Get in your places before I decide to take graduation privileges!” “We apologize Principal Patterson,” I quickly spat out before Matt could say anything else to make it worst. We headed straight to our places avoiding all contact with the wicked witch of Valley Hills till her focused was on some other poor sap. The rest of the practice was almost horrifically boring and slow. Every mistake we made whether it was a simple misstep or a breath out of place she noticed. Maybe there was something about this day that brought the worst out of people. I mean who wouldn’t be worried about the expectations versus reality. This right of passage we take, it can be magical or maybe the worst day. I’m just hoping for it to be over, so the real world can begin.
