The Princess Pages: A Girl Like Cinderella

Song Sixty Seven

LOVE IS SIMPLE. PEOPLE ARE DIFFICULT.

March 9, 2015. Monday. 1:00pm.

Graduation Day at Pleasant Hills Elementary.

And it was also Vance's 13th birthday.

Each 6th grader was allowed to have two companions at the ceremony. Gail and Beverly weren't up to attending three hours of sitting in one room, but it didn't matter if they came or not.

Lucy was present, and she was more than enough.

It was a double celebration, so she dressed up more formally than she ever had.

Vance had on a white cap and toga thrown over a light green long-sleeved polo and black pants and black shoes, his dark brown hair gelled back, and around his right wrist was a good luck charm that his sister had given him that morning. A thin, silver circle with the initials L & V dangling from it. L for Lucy and Lance. V for Vance and Violet. Genius.

Lucy wore her long black hair in a semi up-do, some sections braided and clipped together by a lime green ribbon clasp, and the rest of her raven tresses cascaded over her shoulders. It had been Annie Fisher, Ronda's sister, to fix her hair, as well as provide the pale green dress she was wearing; a green sleeveless, turtleneck dress that reached her thighs and hugged her slender waist comfortably. She wore black leggings and pitch black flats. Slung over her shoulder was a small black purse, rectangular and would be easy to carry around when she and Vance head to the mall later to celebrate both his birthday and graduation.

The event was to take place in a few minutes, located in the spacious school chapel.

"I'll be in the front row," Lucy had reminded her brother before he was summoned inside the venue.

She had squatted in front of her toga-clad sibling outside the school gates and had given Vance a sisterly pep-talk.

"You'll see me in the fourth pew," she had told him, waving her ADMIT ONE ticket in the air.

"When you're standing there on stage, giving your speech, just look at me, okay? Keep your eyes on me, and it'll be like I'm the only person you're talking to. I'll be cheering you on."

"Okay," Vance had breathed out.

Lucy cradled his face in her hands. She gave him an encouraging smile. "You can do it, V."

"Thanks, L." She had wrapped his arms around him, and he returned the hug before queuing into the school chapel.

Fast forward to the present. There were about a hundred people seated inside the church. Half of them were 6th graders in white togas and caps, while the other half were parents, siblings, and guardians holding up camcorders and cameras, filming the momentous event of their children.

An hour or so passed into the program, and Lucy wore a proud smile as she watched her 13-year-old brother climb up the steps with dignity, his chin up,back straight,and face serious.

"And now the batch valedictorian will give his speech," the principal announced.

Vance stood behind the wooden lectern, his blue-green eyes surveying the audience and spotting a pair of bluebell eyes that stared back at him.

Lucy shot him a supportive smile. He smiled, too, then cleared his throat:

"Teachers, classmates, friends, and families," Vance began in calmly, confidently.

He smoothly flowed into his practiced speech, from time to time, he looked at his sister, but as he surged through the moment, his eyes were able to sweep around the crowd, and he found a confidence that sprouted from the seed of strength Lucy had planted in him earlier.