The Way We Were

The Way We Tell

"Marcus Donald Taylor-Jones Jr.!"

Marc walked across the stage and accepted his diploma. He shook his guidance counselor's hand and switched his tassel before walking off stage.

In the audience, his family cheered for him as if he'd just won the Nobel Prize. Just like with all their graduations, his grandparents were there.

After the ceremony was over, he walked to his family and accepted hugs.

"We're so proud of you!" Judy rocked a little with her hug.

"Thank you! I coulda been valedictorian if that brownnoser hadn't cut me off at the knees."

"Be grateful to be second." Olga told him.

Richard looked at her like she was crazy. "Never be grateful for first failure!"

Olga sighed heavily and rolled her eyes. "It is not failure."

"Yes, it is!" Po Seon snapped. "He would rightfully had been first place but some rokudena shi took his place!"

"Father!" Jeanette was furious. "Don't talk like that in front of the kids!"

He rolled his eyes.

His wife (and Jeanette's mother) Xhi-Xhi shook her head. "He will place first in his class in university."

"No pressure, Marc." Judy pursed her lips.

"I will." Marc didn't feel the slightest bit of pressure. He knew he was going to dominate at Ohio State University.

"Do you want to take pictures with your friends?" Victoria Jones asked.

"Uh... I don't care. I'm going to see them all later at the senior party anyway."

"Are you excited for your party tomorrow?" Maddie asked.

"It'll be alright." He ran a hand over her hair. "I've seen these jokers every day for four years. I don't need to see them ever again."

Marcy laughed.

Mike grinned. "You won't miss anybody? Not even the girls?"

Marc punched him in the shoulder. "I can't wait for you to grow up."

"Never gonna happen."

"He'll grow up." Michael's mother, Gertie Chang ran a hand through Mike's hair. "He'll have no choice."

"That's depressing, Mamma." Marcy said.

"It is not." Victoria hugged her. "You can't avoid adulthood."

"I think I can. I'm going to be a kid as long as I can."

"You have children. You're already an adult." Michael Sr. said.

"So we're stuck?" Mal wanted to know.

"In cement."

"And it isn't depressing?"

"It is."

"Michael!" Victoria snapped. "Adulthood is a wonderful thing!"

"You kids don't know how good you have it." Michael Sr. rolled his eyes. "Life was hard in the fifties."

"I thought life was better in the fifties?" Michael blinked in total innocence.

"It was. Because it was harder."

"So in order for something to be good, it has to be difficult?" Mike tried to work that logic out.

"Yes."