7 Graduation Ceremony
The doors opened with a flourish and an immaculately dressed Chiron stood behind the doors smiling widely at the students. He gestured with a "come on" wave and turned his back as the two lines followed after him. Just ahead lay the gymnasium and it seemed to be bursting with life. Parents with cameras turned their short walk into a red carpet affair and many students were seeing spots from all the flashes by the time they reached the doors.
Chiron paused for dramatic effect before turning to address the crowd. "Ladies and Gentlemen I would like to welcome you to the Chiron's school second ever graduation ceremony!" Chiron swirled back to pull both doors open and confidently strode ahead of the class directly to the front of the gym which had been outfitted with scores of fold-out chairs for their guests.
Jayce leaned forward to whisper in Micu's ear, "Do we really need this many chairs for 30 something parents?" Micu didn't turn around but shrugged to indicate he wasn't sure what was going on either. Chiron stopped before 16 chairs colored in their schools crimson and silver colors and directed the boys to enter the second row and the girls to sit in the first. There were two more boys than girls which created the balance of six chairs flanked by ten chairs behind them. The chairs were split in half so that each section of seats were diagonally facing the presenter whom they all assumed would be Mr. Chiron. Jayce and Ralnas were separated from Micu and Jenira by Chiron as he directed students to their assigned seats. After casting a careful glance over his students he nodded to himself and disappeared behind the curtains on the stage. Their assistant principal then announced that parents and spectators could now enter the gymnasium.
The students couldn't help but turn their heads to watch who was going to be coming through those doors. First, came all the parents who had been waiting hours to ensure that they got good seats. They waved at their sons and daughters before quickly finding seats that they judged to be the best place to watch the ceremony. Jayce knew not to even search for his mom as she would assuredly be one of the last people in the gym. Glancing at Ralnas he noticed there was a sadness in his eyes as he watched the other kids wave to their parents with proud smiles on their faces.
"Hey buddy," Jayce put his hand on his back, "They would be more than proud of you. Hell, I'm proud of you and I don't even like you." Ralnas looked over and smiled. "You're a moron." Then he seemed to release the gloom he had been carrying with him through the march to their seats. The two friends began trying to guess which kid's parents were hidden in the crowd while laughing to themselves making inappropriate jokes.
After the parents came hired photographers, reporters, and journalists. Micu glanced at them and then leaned forward to talk to Jenira who was sitting directly in front of him. "Uh, aren't those are the journalists who cover the elite team's competitions. Why do you think they are here?"
Jenira put down the program she had been studying to try and guess when she would be called and looked to where Micu was pointing. Noticing that there was her favorite reporter, Human Daily's Leon Roberts, Jenira nearly started blushing just knowing he was in the crowd. "Leon is here..." she said dreamily.
Micu knew this conversation was over and he leaned back in his chair to think. Just as he was about to ask the boy sitting next to him he noticed the next group of people walking in. They were some of the highest ranked competitors in the elite teams. He watched them and cursed that Ralnas wasn't sitting next to him, he would have known every single one of their names and where they played. Micu was far more interested in their tactics and often forgot that they were living, breathing individuals when he watched their videos for homework. Still, he recognized some of their armor patterns and their frames from when he had studied certain strategies in depth. One he knew for sure was that team Ocean's third in command, Dark Blue, had entered the building. Micu sucked in his breath and decided he would be best served by appearing as relaxed as possible. While forcibly making his shoulders lower he continued to scan the crowd to see if he recognized anyone else.
At the same time, Jayce was frantically trying to wake up Ralnas who seemed to have gone into shock seeing so many of his heroes in person. Jayce eventually resorted to a slap to the face and Ralnas' eyes opened and he turned to punch his friend in the arm before remembering why he had been slapped. Doing a double check to ensure that yes so many of the people he had posters of in his room where actually here to watch him graduate Ralnas felt like he was going to faint again before grabbing Jayce and holding on for dear life. "Hey, Jayce am I dead? Am I dreaming? Where am I, is this real life?" Ralnas asked shakily.
Jayce laughed and pinched his friend's leg, "Did that hurt? Well looks like this is indeed real life my friend. Try not to think too much about it or you'll faint on stage in front of all these important people."
Ralnas nodded and then his body language took on that of a monk entering the holiest shrine of his religion. Jayce had never seen this side of Ralnas but decided that this was probably better than him freaking out during the ceremony. Still, he was also concerned that there were so many famous team members here. He didn't think that Chiron was that important to invite all the top teams and have them actually show up.
As other students began to notice who was arriving and gasps echoed through the gym suddenly a trumpet player appeared on the stage and blew his horn in three long, low blasts. Then the assistant principal stepped out from the curtain and spoke, "Ladies and Gentlemen, esteemed guests, and all non-human races we welcome you to the Chiron school's second annual graduation. Underneath your seats are program guides. We expect the ceremony to be somewhat short as there are only 16 students but we are certain it will be a memorable night for those in attendance. Now without further ado, we ask that you welcome tonight's host and head of this school, Mr. Chiron himself!"
Thunderous applause rocked the gymnasium and Chiron appeared again. He was delightedly still overindulging in the drama of the night. Jayce rolled his eyes and wished he had thought of a way to prank his professor tonight. Chiron was wearing an exquisite crimson jacket with silver trim that looked quite expensive and his normally pedestrian glasses had been replaced with the latest fashion style making him look far more impressive than he usually did. Chiron was obviously trying to impress these elite teams and it seemed to be working. Quite a few journalists began furiously taking notes and pointing out people for their photographers to capture pictures of.
Chiron stepped up to the podium and placed his notes down before readjusting the microphone to suit his height. "Thank you all for your warm welcome! I won't waste your time tonight because I know tonight isn't about me but your sons and daughters. But please spare me a moment and allow me to brag just a little bit about the class in front of you. This class spent the last ten years here and they have become like family to me. Many of them decided to board here so that they could train anytime and their efforts have certainly been rewarded. This class was significantly higher in potential scores than last year, had higher overall grades, and made my life much more of a hell when they pranked me." He smiled at this last line and looked pointedly at Jayce.
The parents and students in attendance who knew about the hi-jinks that Jayce had pulled over the years all laughed at this joke. Those less familiar with the school's norms politely laughed and clapped at his introduction. Ralnas elbowed Jayce in the side and laughed at his friend's discomfort from being called out.
"But I am proud to have been their teacher on the journey. Most of these students have quite literally grown up in front of me. One of our star students, Isabel Wallace literally turned six the day she entered the school. Now at 16, she has one of the top potential scores of all our graduates today." Chiron stepped back from the podium and clapped for Isabel who turned to the crowd and curtsied before sitting down.
"It's so like Mr. Chiron to still be trying to get her dad to donate more money to the school on the day she graduates eh Jay?" Ralnas whispered in Jayce's ear. Jayce nodded and then glanced at Isabel's dad who was sitting with two butlers next to him and a lavish fur coat wrapped around his robust body. He was smiling and nodding obviously pleased that his daughter was being praised in front of everyone. Jayce sighed and then whispered back, "Well props to him, because it looks like it's working." Ralnas smiled and rolled his eyes before returning to his monk-like state.
Chiron continued, "Now I will be calling up students by their potential scores this year. I know last year that we did it alphabetically but I have been requested to do this by one of our larger benefactors and I don't see a problem with it. Now if you will please hold your applause until the graduate has received their diploma so that we can make sure everyone can hear their name being read aloud." Chiron picked up his notes and cleared his throat and allowed the parents to pull out cameras, video recorders, or adjust their glasses to record.
Jayce slouched down in his seat and tried to see if he could find his mom in the crowd. "Why didn't I just tell her the truth? Now Chiron is going to call me first and she's going to know I have a negative score. Dammit, Chiron. Dammit dammit dammit." He braced himself to stand up and be the first called as he watched Chiron look down and prepare to read the first name. "Well here begins my life as a crafter, maybe I'll make enough selling pots and pans to afford to watch my friends compete live." Jayce sunk into a depression just thinking about it and was about to stand up when he heard Chiron speak.
"Tyson Lancaster please come up and receive your diploma!" Clapping followed this before it petered out abruptly as parents remembered Chiron's request from earlier.
"HUH?!" Jayce almost fell out of his seat. "Tyson had a score of 455 if I remember correctly... which is only 465 more points than me." Jayce looked around wildly before spotting Micu also staring at him across the aisle with confusion plastered on his face. He looked at him and shrugged to indicate he had no idea either. Ralnas was too busy trying not to freak out to really be aware of his friend's panicked state. Jenira was in front of them and couldn't turn around without making it too obvious who she was looking at. Jayce resolved to just ride it out since he now had no idea when he was going to be called. Jayce looked up as the clapping began again, this time much more confident as all the people who had followed Chiron's request joined in this time.
Jayce finally located his mom, buried in the back left corner. She noticed him looking at her and winked at him. She was happy he hadn't lied and wasn't the lowest score even though she had somewhat expected him to be with all the letters sent home about how often he had goofed around in class.
Jayce breathed a sigh of relief. "Well, at least she's not disappointed in me." He turned back to face the front and picked up the program to try and figure out when exactly he was going to get called up. "As long as I'm not last," he thought to himself as he heard the second name called.
