Sk8r Boi

Prologue

I stumbled slightly up to the podium in front of my whole graduating class. I set my speech down and cleared my throat. All the faces I've known for years looked up at me in expectancy. Their parents and families were all in the audience of the arena staring at me. I saw my best friend, Olivia, smiling brightly up at myself. Her last name started with an a, so she was in the first row, as usual. I cleared my throat again.

"Hello, I'm Hannah Williams," I started reading from my speech paper. "and I'm this year's valedictorian. Tonight, we move on in our lives. We move on to a new chapter." I looked around again. "It's been a long four years together. Our time at this school was full of learning, both academically and socially." I continued reading my speech I had printed out, my brain shutting down for a moment. It really hit me then, that I was leaving this school, my friends, this country behind. It was an incredible opportunity, and even though I was going to miss my friends and family, I was so excited to move to New York City and go to Juilliard for dance. "As we all move on and mature into the big world ahead of us, we'll remember the times we had together, as a class, as a community." The lights in the arena blared on the faces of my classmates. I looked down at my paper. I was on the last paragraph. I must be in some sort of shock to have read my whole speech and not remember saying half of it. "Tonight, we take the next step into our lives as adults. So congratulations, class of 2010, we did it!" Everyone cheered as I smiled and stepped back from the podium. I shook hands with our headmaster.

"Congrats, Hannah," he said. I thanked him and headed back to my seat, only to be stopped by Olivia standing up to hug me. I made my way towards the back, as my last name started with a W. I sat down, and the rest of the ceremony was a quick blur.

****

Olivia and I weaseled our way through the crowd to find our parents. We've been best friends since primary school, so we knew our parents would be with each other. We were all planning to go out to dinner that night together.

"Hannah! Olivia!" I heard my father yell from my left. I turned, and saw him waving at the two of us. Luckily, he was taller than anyone around him, so he was easy to spot. Olivia dragged me towards him, and the rest of our family. Her younger brother, Max, who looked up to her, threw his arms around her. They hugged, and her mother was taking pictures of the whole thing. We could always count on her to document every event. My parents embraced me warmly.

"We're so proud of you, honey!" My mother said in my ear.

"Only two months till you leave!" My father joked. I knew he would miss me a lot. My father and I were very close. He taught me everything I knew about being a mature, responsible adult.

"Hannah!" I turned and rushed towards my group of friends. We were all in the top GPAs at our school and studied together all four years. We'd become a really good group throughout the years. "Congrats!"

"Thanks, you too!" We had a big group hug. Suddenly, I was bumped into. I turned to see Zayn Malik standing next to me. His cap and gown fit really well, unlike his normal attire. His hair was shaggy and messy. He had a little bit of stubble, making him look unkempt, but still one of the hottest guys in our class.

"Oh, sorry about that," he mumbled. "Uh, congrats."

"Thanks, you too," I replied. He awkwardly smiled at me and turned away, then turned back to me.

"Have a good summer, and good luck at Juilliard," he said to me. He gently placed his hand on my arm and smiled again.

"Thanks, Zayn," He disappeared into the crowd and I looked after him. My friends turned me back into the group.

"Can you believe him?" Kathy said, rolling her eyes.

"Believe who?" Olivia said, squeezing in the group next to me.

"Zayn Malik," Sarah explained.

"Oh my God, what did he do now?" Olivia asked, super interested.

"He didn't dress up at all for graduation," Kathy explained. "He was just wearing his normal baggy jeans and hoodie under his gown."

"Does he not own any decent clothes?" Sarah scoffed.

"Or a hairbrush?" Kathy laughed. I just stood there, not saying anything. I knew my friends didn't like him at all, and for good reason. He was probably one of the biggest slackers in our class and never showed a big work ethic. But besides that, I thought he was really cute. I knew they wouldn't approve of me liking him, so I just kept it to myself. As they continued to make fun of him, I looked back through the crowd and saw him zoom away on his skateboard. 

a/n: i hope you guys like it! I'm really excited to write this one.