In Too Deep (Urban) Book 4 | The Sideline Series

Chapter 40 -The End

Victoria

"You nervous?" Teddy asked, pulling on my white graduation gown.

We were walking around the back of the graduation venue with some of our classmates, well the ones that could actually graduate on time. Even though the school started that new suspension thing for people who missed three consecutive days in a row, everyone still seemed to skip and come up with a 'signed' excuse as to why they were absent. 

At first, all of the teacher's were on every student about skipping, especially the Seniors, but eventually gave up by the time the second semester hit. A lot of the students failed the first two card markings, so they had D's and F's on their transcripts and weren't going to be able to walk across the stage with everybody else. It was a little less than half of us actually here today, but most of these people barely made the grade. I made sure me and my friends did it though.

"A little," I smiled. "Your tassel is the wrong way."

He smacked his lips. "Rob said this was the right way."

I laughed. "You know Rob was probably lying to you. Bend down," I said, pulling on his burgundy gown.

He leaned his head down and let me turn his cap around so it wasn't backwards. I also flipped his tassel to the right side of the cap and smiled.

"You look perfect now," I smiled.

"Thanks baby. So, we're going out to celebrate afterwards, right?" He asked as we began walking around all of our classmates again.

"Yeah, but you know Mama's gonna want to take a whole bunch of pictures."

He smacked his lips. "Yeah, I know. I still got a smile stuck on my face from Prom. You wanna run your speech by me before you go on stage?"

"Nope. You're gonna have to wait to hear it like everyone else, even though I'm sure you're tired of hearing it," I replied, which made him nod his head.

"Yeah, that's all you was saying yesterday and every other day since Prom."

I smiled. Just like Teddy said, I was Valedictorian, I had the bright gold honor cord to match my gown and I was going to be sitting on stage next to Hazel, the Salutatorian. I know it's crazy that the two of us are at the top of our class but our parents always wanted to make a better life for us, and strove for us to do the things they couldn't, so making us take tutoring together while we were younger really made an impact on our lives.

"My bad. I just don't want to mess up."

"You'll do fine," Teddy promised as the assistant principal came to back to where all of the students were.

"They're letting families in right now, so get lined up so you can walk out," She announced. "Valedictorian, Salutatorian and student council in the front in your order."

"Good luck," Teddy pushed me since he knew I was walking out first.

"Thanks baby."

I quickly kissed his cheek and walked up front of everybody and stood in front of Hazel. I was so used to this same routine. We gout out of school a little over a week ago, but we've been coming down to the graduation venue almost everyday just to practice. I could almost go through the entire graduation with my eyes closed but this time was different. There was actually going to be important people here and I couldn't embarrass myself.

Hazel shook my shoulders as soon as the music began playing. "Don't trip," She warned but it only made me laugh a little.

"If I trip, don't trip over me," I warned as the assistant principal, Miss. Paul, pushed me out into the hallway.