anonymous

40

6 Months Later

I walked into ValleyHigh that morning with the biggest smile on my face. The sun was shining, I was happy, and life was really good. As I walked through the hallway I passed a few Seniors cleaning out their lockers and it made me feel sad.

After today there's no more coming back here. Tomorrow we all get our diplomas and graduate. After this there will be no more High School drama. No more High School anything. We're stepping into the real world now.

"I'm going to miss this place!" A girl cried out to her friend as they hugged. I shook my head and giggled because no matter how much I'll miss this place I know that I won't cry.

After everything that went down they had to close down West ValleyHigh, so all of us came here. Since we didn't want a repeat we decided that we wouldn't be divided. We'll all come together and just unit. I guess everyone was shaken up so everyone just went with it.

For a while things were weird. Everyone was sad and because they were they acted on it. But after a month things slowly started to turn around. I'll admit I struggled a bit with getting over it. I know that Erica and Colin wanted me dead, but I still miss them. I had something special with them so of course I'm going to be sad.

But now I know that they never cared about me, or us and I'll just have to bury the memories and make even better ones.

"It's Mar!" Zion yelled out from behind me as he playfully wrapped his arms around me. I laughed and gave him a smile as we both walked down the hallway together. "I'm going to do it today." He said to me and I just laughed at him.

"Her boyfriend was murdered right in front of her. I think she's taking a break from dating." I informed him with a laugh and he sucked his teeth at me. Oh yeah after winter break Zion decided that he had feelings for Cheryl.

As we walked I saw a familiar figure standing at their locker cleaning it out and boy did she look amazing. Cheryl was glowing. She spent 2 months away for her mental health because was a mess. As you could imagine. She lost the love of her life right before her eyes.

Once she came back she was a new person. She was happier and wiser. And a lot nicer. One of the first things she said to me when she came back was, "We need to move on." She sounded like my Grandma, but it made me happy. She has forgiven, but not forgotten. And how do I know? Because everyday since she came back she has been wearing a necklace with Mike's name on it.

Once Zion saw her he slyly went over to her locker and began to sweet talk her. I laughed and continued to walk. Approaching me was now Jalen and I knew that he wasn't going to talk to me. We've talked here and there and he's doing fine and I'm happy for him. Our eyes met and he sent me a smile and walked past me as I did the same.

I turned the corner and sitting on the chairs outside of the counseling office were the twins. They both looked nervous which probably meant that they were waiting to talk to their counselor about Summer School because they didn't do so good this year. I was once in their shoes when I was a Freshmen. It'll get easier.

I walked past them and saw my locker at the end of the hallway. I still need to clean mine out and I need to do it right now. I made it to my locker and opened and saw the state that it was in, and that state was a mess. I grabbed the trash bag that was next to my locker and threw away all the unnecessary items.

It was going good until I came across something that made me tear up a bit. Resting in my hand was a Polaroid of all of us smiling. It was before everything went to shit. Before anyone had died. I didn't know if I wanted to keep it or toss it. I loved that day, and these people but it hurts too much.

"There's my bestie!" I quickly hid the picture by putting it in my back pocket and I smiled at Noah. Now remember how Noah had that thing for Max, and because they're gay we thought something would happen between them? Well after everything Max pretty much had sex with every guy here, except for Noah. I'll never fully understand why he never acknowledged Noah's feelings towards him, but hey we all gotta move on!

"Hi Noah." I said to him as I went in to hug him. Lately I've been super nice to him because of Max. At this point I think Max's just rubbing it in Noah's face. "How are you-" I stopped mid sentence when I saw Max and some really hot Jock walking down the hallway while holding hands.

I watched Noah watch them walk past and I felt really bad for him. I softly rubbed his arm and he smiled at me. "Anyways, are you almost done?" I looked at my now empty locker and then back at him.

"It's empty, isn't it?" Noah laughed at me as I closed my locker and held my lock in my hand. "There's my girl." Someone called out from behind. Noah smiled at me and I instantly knew who it was. "Hi Ingrid." I said as I hugged her and gave her a kiss on the lips.

Oh yeah Ingrid and I grew a lot closer, and I mean a lot. It hit me like a ton of bricks when I realized that I had feelings for her. Like I never knew that me, Mara McKay would have a crush on a girl. But now I'm doing one better. I'm dating a girl!

I happily wrapped my arms around my girlfriend as everyone in our group walked over to us. "Who's ready for the last day?" Cheryl asked and we all got excited. I know I am!

-

"Around this time tomorrow you all will be graduating." The Principal said to us as all of the Seniors sat in an overly packed computer lab. It was super hot and the fan that was in here was only blowing out hot air. I so could go for a cold glass of lemonade right now.

I felt someone looking at me and I looked to my right to see that it was Ingrid smiling at me. She made all of my worries go away. Her smile just melted them away, and I was just glad that she could do that for me. It made me love her even more.

"So you guys are probably dying to hear who the Valedictorian is." I secretly hoped that it would be me, but if we're being honest my grades have slipped a bit. When I was younger it was what I really wanted. It was something that I would die for, but sadly it slipped away from me.

I was excited to hear who it was though. Who ever it is obviously deserves it because out of everything we've been through they still managed to keep their grades on top. Not everyone can do that. I couldn't even do that.

"Your Valedictorian is our very own Cheryl." I didn't hesitate to give Cheryl a round of applause along with everyone else. She looked around at everyone applauding her and she just smiled and it was an honest one. Out of all people she really does deserve this.

As I watched Cheryl thank everyone I realized how amazing she is. Instead of giving up and completely shutting down she did the opposite. She worked hard, she never gave up, and she never pushed her friends away. Cheryl is a cool person to learn from. I think all of my friends are.