White is for Virgins

Chapter 36

.FOX'S POV.

I swung my head from side to side, playing with the golden tassel that hung from my graduation cap. It was the only thing I could do to keep me from punching the dude sitting in front of me out of sheer annoyance. Bernard St. Clare's monotone voice droned out of the speakers as he delivered his valedictorian speech – the bastard had written a freaking novel. I was having a considerable amount of trouble sitting in my seat as he continued. My hands locked together in my lap as I exhaled obnoxiously, watching my knuckles turn white.

"It'd kill them to make graduating easy," Nick muttered under his breath.

"It'd kill Bernie to not over-do shit, like always," I replied in the same fashion. "How is he even valedictorian if he fucking grasp the concept of a 'speech'?"

A few guys around us snickered as we all started mumbling about how we just wanted to get the fuck out of the building already. Never come back. It distracted me for a bit. "And now, I'd like to call up the class salutatorian, Ms. Emery Price," Principal Harris stated into the microphone, "so that she may give her speech." Just a bit.

Everyone applauded, some even cheered, as Em walked up to the podium and into the spotlight. Her navy blue robe swayed with her every move; her head was slightly bowed. I was unconsciously clapping too, watching her; judging how she was taking in the view before her. At least half a thousand pairs of eyes were trained on her, silent as she spoke into the microphone. I was close enough to the stage to see her eyes scan the audience; see her pink lips finally start to move.

"Thank you, Principal Harris, family, friends, faculty, and fellow peers," she started, as was customary, eyes darting down to a paper. I detected the shaking in her voice, and she paused uncertainly. She looked up again at the overwhelming crowd and cleared her throat. My fingers were losing circulation with every second that that lost look stayed on her face. "I have this entire speech written out," she said finally, waving the paper up for everyone to see, "and it's filled with all these motivational quotes and peppy, encouraging words that are meant to hype up all of our bright futures... but to be perfectly honest, I don't think I can read it." The look on Harris' face was priceless as she dropped that bomb. Comments began to arise at her confession.

The mumbling ceased as she continued. "For one thing, I wrote it yesterday," the crowd chuckled, "I know most of my classmates are more shocked than amused, considering I never procrastinate. Ever. If anything, I do more than I'm supposed to. That's what it takes to get to this podium at the end of our high school careers, I guess; Bernard is proof of that, no doubt." More laughing. "In all seriousness," she said, placing her hands on either side of the podium and leaning forward a bit, "I've worked my, for lack of a better term, butt off to be 'the best'. Studying, even when I didn't need to; doing extra curriculars and volunteer work; tutoring; debating. You name it, I tried to be perfect at it. What'd that do for me?" There was a pause.

"Well, it got me second place," she smirked, cuing everyone to chuckle again, "and there's no aggression there; Bernard totally deserved valedictorian. Still, second best. I get to be able to tell people I was second in my class, which is a pretty fair title I'll admit. For coming in second, I had to come up here, in front of everyone today, and present some marvelous, promising speech. As long as I'm being honest, I wanna say that the thought of having hundreds of people listening to what I have to say makes my knees shake. The thought. By some miracle I'm still going." Everyone smiled encouragingly, grinning at her truthful rant.

"I want to thank my family: Mom, Dad, Nina," she continued, the shakiness returning, "for showing me just how tough life can be, and for making me appreciate my life and how easy it's been so far, compared to theirs; before I go on to conquer a mortgage and electric bills and pressure at work." I registered that she was tearing up as she continued. "I also want to thank the amazing friends I've made this past year at HSA. If it wasn't for you guys, I think all I'd have to take with me after graduation is the title of salutatorian. You have challenged and taught me in areas Calculus couldn't cover – trust, hope, love... I wouldn't have any memories worth revisiting were it not for you."