Are You The One ?

❄️Chapter Sixteen❄️

"Synchronized swimmers, you are the magician. Pull me back together again the way you cut me in half. Pull the sorrow from between my legs like silk, knot after knot after knot. The audience applauds...but we can't hear them."

This is the moment that I have been working hard and pushing myself to the brink of exhaustion for the past 4 years for. All the blood, sweat, tears, and late hours studying had finally paid off. I finally finished the marathon race that I wanted to give up on at the beginning of the year.

Graduation Day (well night for us seniors) was finally here.

I was now getting ready to head to school where the ceremony would be held in the gymnasium. I would be lying if I said part of me isn't going to miss high school. Not so much the work and the people in it but the whole high school experience.

Arriving at the school, I departed from my parents and made my way inside and into the cafeteria with the rest of my class. They were making us sit in here until everything was set up and everyone was in their seats.

While we waited, we passed around each other's yearbooks and wrote small messages inside them. I wrote maybe one or two lines in everyone's book but wrote long ass paragraphs for Dwayne and Jazmine.

I refused to read what people put in my book until I got home. I didn't want to get emotional before the ceremony even started.

It felt like we were waiting forever until someone came and got us. They had us lined up in alphabetical order just like we've been doing in practice all week. The closer we got to gymnasium, I became more nervous.

Standing in front of the gym entrance and hearing the traditional graduation music playing, my nerves were all over the place. My heart was racing 150 beats per minute, my hands were shaking, and my mouth was dry. Good thing I had Korey next to me and he was able to talk to me and calm me down but I still had this nervous feeling in my stomach.

Once they opened the door and the line started moving, I turned on my led sneakers, shook off the leftover nervous feelings and turned into the bad bitch that I always am.

As we entered the gym, I could feel everyone looking at my sneakers. That's right, give me all the attention. I loved every second of it until I walked to my seat and we all sat down in unison.

Now, it was time for the commencement ceremony to begin.

We had someone in our class singing the national anthem. Followed by a bunch of speeches. From our school's lead person (who's basically the principal but they don't use that word), to our guidance counselor, to our senior class president, to our class valedictorian. They even invited a speaker from within the city.

When I tell you I was worn out after all these speeches. I was damn near about to fall asleep in my chair. I didn't hear half of the things they were talking about because I zoned out.

As soon as all they speeches were done, it was now time for us to line up and go on the stage to get our diplomas. I had to get comfortable because it was going to be a long time until they call my name. There were 7 rows of students and I was sitting in the last row.

They told the families to hold their applauses until after all the names were called but they didn't say anything about the students. So when Jazmine and Dwayne's names were called, I was the loudest person in the gym.

That was until it was my turn to go on stage, then Jazmine took the title of loudest person in the gym.

When the final person got back to their seat, they had us remain standing as our guidance counselor gave a final remark.