51. Chapter 51

Graduation came on a beautiful day. The sun was high in the sky over Ghost River High, the birds were chirping in happy harmony from the trees, and the parking lot was buzzing with excitement. 

The four of them piled out of Gus’ blue pickup truck in a flurry of clutches and heels and Waverly’s silver Valedictorian sash. Her outfit was hidden entirely underneath the deep blue gown she was wearing. The two layers of synthetic materials were almost suffocating on this sunny day, especially in the heat of the truck which, incidentally, had a broken AC.

Gus had come home from Purgatory yesterday, with plans to stay until the end of Waverly’s school year. It was nice to have her back home, but also a little weird. The dynamic between the sisters and Nicole had just leveled into something that felt natural and home , and the presence of a real adult somewhat disrupted that feeling. Wynonna had already been told off for having her feet on the living room table, and Waverly’s favorite tea mug was suddenly occupied by Gus’ coffee. Nicole didn’t know what to do now that Gus was back and had left yesterday evening to sleep at her own place, leaving Waverly’s bed feeling cold and naked. At least Nicole was here today.

Wynonna climbed out of the backseat of the truck, elbowing Nicole in the face on her way out. 

Wynonna was wearing one of Waverly’s summer dresses, displaying various medium-sized flowers and leaves on a pale purple background. She looked strangely clean, with simple make-up and flats, but also slightly uncomfortable in something that was very Waverly , and absolutely not Wynonna. Waverly hadn’t worn the dress since last year, and she probably wouldn’t have the chance to wear it again any time soon, so it was better to see it on her sister than leaving it unused and lonely in her closet.

It had been quite the battle to put Wynonna in something that wasn’t too flashy or inappropriate. First she had opted to just wear casual clothes - torn jeans and her trusted black leather jacket with the frills down her arms. When Gus had protested, she had put on the one dress she had stored in her own closet, which was tight and bright red and very sexy with her boobs halfway out. Gus had nearly flipped and pointed her upstairs again, this time to Waverly’s closet. The ruckus was almost the highlight of Waverly’s morning if it hadn’t been for Nicole’s appearance at the front door a few minutes later.

Nicole Haught had put on a semi-casual suit, and it was the hottest thing Waverly had ever seen. She was wearing pressed grey dress pants and a creamwhite shirt underneath a navy blue blazer. When Waverly opened the door, Nicole was just fiddling with the top button of her shirt, which for once was actually closed. When glancing up at Waverly, she looked a bit unsure, as if that last button was maybe too much. 

It wasn’t. It was perfect. 

Waverly was, of course, a big fan of the open button. The more skin visible at the pit of Nicole’s throat, the better. The opening also allowed Waverly to sneak her hands inside, to feel the skin with the tips of her fingers and trace the outline of Nicole’s clavicle. But this new look, with minimal skin for Waverly to ogle and touch, was somehow even sexier. The button hid the treasure underneath, a treasure that Waverly wanted , and it was the most enticing display of sexiness. 

Waverly smiled appreciatively as her girlfriend came climbing out of the backseat behind Wynonna. Nicole was rubbing her forehead where Wynonna had hit her, and was momentarily distracted, but then she straightened up, tugged her blazer in place and looked up. Upon seeing Waverly’s smile, her own face split into a wide grin that lasted right up until Wynonna elbowed her again, this time on purpose.

“Hey, lezzos, focus ,” Wynonna hissed. She nodded her head around to all the other arriving cars and people. 

Waverly’s wasn’t sure if she’d ever seen so many people gathered here all at once, not even with ice hockey matches or the school musical last year. Students were wearing big smiles and deep blue gowns that glittered in the sunlight, parents were helpfully adjusting caps and tassels, and grandparents were documenting every second on their photo cameras. 

Just then, Gus came walking around the truck, pointing her own camera to the three of them. “Smile,” she said without actually waiting for them to do so. 

Waverly tugged at Nicole’s hand, drawing her closer. The crowd made her nervous. They were students and teachers and parents and faculty members, and all of them were gonna pile into the assembly hall, where, just in an hour or so, Waverly was gonna walk onstage to address her fellow students. A fresh wave of nerves hit her plain in the stomach at the thought, and she instinctively pulled Nicole’s arm around her. 

Wynonna bent down to her ear. “I thought you were still keeping it a secret,” she mumbled through closed lips. 

“Shut up,” Waverly whispered back. 

The original plan had been to keep it a secret, but then Chrissy had spilled Nicole’s name in the locker room last week. The next day, Waverly had had a longer conversation with Jake about her new, queer relationship while they were preparing the agenda for a meeting with the student council. Jake had been nothing but positive, asking lots of interesting questions without ever being nosy or rude.

More than a few people knew about it now, but there hadn’t been a storm of uncomfortable rumors and whispers - like last time - and thus Waverly squeezed herself into the safety of Nicole’s embrace. 

Nicole pecked her temple. “It’s gonna be okay, baby. You’re gonna be perfect.”

Waverly wanted to protest, to tell her “How do you know? You haven’t even heard it”, but suddenly Chrissy was there, with her father, and Nicole immediately let her arms fall to her sides.

“Chief,” she said with a serious tone and a nod towards him, taking a step away from her girlfriend.

“Haught,” he greeted back, equally stern.

Wynonna chuckled with delight at Nicole’s sudden blush, Chrissy squealed with excitement and went to hug Waverly, and Gus stuck out her hand to Nedley.

“Randy! How nice to see you again.”

The two of them started talking about boring adult stuff and trailed off to follow the slowly moving crowd towards the school. Waverly, Chrissy, Nicole and Wynonna huddled up and followed along, letting themselves be swallowed in the jittery excitement all around them. 

---

The graduation ceremony entailed a long list of various speakers from the faculty and the teachers, and several musical performances by the school band and Jake’s acoustic guitar. Waverly, who was the only student speaker, was seated at the end of the very front row, next to Headmaster Moody himself. At first, the headmaster was huddling in a side room together with Mrs. Lewis to prepare the diplomas, and then he went up and down the stage to give his own speech, so the seat remained mostly empty, leaving Waverly alone with her nerves. 

A strange thing happened to time during the ceremony. Some parts went quick and some parts were sluggish and dull. It slowed to an almost standstill when Mr. Ramaker took the stage after Moody’s speech and the headmaster finally took his place next to Waverly. 

Ramaker’s words sounded meaningless flowing from the speakers. He talked for a few long minutes, but Waverly didn’t hear a single word he said. Her eyes were blindly watching his figure on top of the stage right in front of her, terribly unfocused on the blob of colors that made up his person. But suddenly his voice penetrated the screaming silence in her ears, and she could hear her own name in his voice. She blinked. His eyes were on hers, twinkling kinder than they had ever done in any of his Biology lessons. He held out his hand towards the few steps that went up to the stage, welcoming her to the speaker stand.

Waverly took a deep breath, clutched her notes in her hand and pushed herself from her chair. The crowd started clapping. Some of the graduates even hooted, or was it Wynonna? With the wave up cheers bringing her forward, a sudden smile appeared on her face, just as time returned to its normal pace. She reached Mr. Ramaker and turned towards the audience. 

She was ready for this.

Waverly shook his hand and spoke into the microphone, “Thank you, Mister Ramaker”, before turning fully towards the audience. She folded out the sheets of paper containing her speech and flattened it on the surface of the stand. Finally she raised her head proudly, put on her brightest smile and looked out over all the faces in the assembly hall. The faculty members were sitting on the front row. More than a hundred graduate students sat on the rows behind them. Parents and friends filled the areas on both sides of the graduates, but Waverly couldn’t spot the three people who were here specially for her.

“Hi, everyone,” she started. Her voice was loud and clear and steady, just like she’d practiced. “My name is Waverly Earp, and I’ve been a student at Ghost River High for the last three years. I’ve accomplished a great many things during my time here. I’ve been Head Cheerleader. I’ve been Class President. I founded the Green Devils, and I’ve achieved a great number of A’s. And now I’m Valedictorian for the Class of 2019.

Apparently I’m also the nicest person in high school, and if I’m gonna be honest, that is really my greatest accomplishment of all. Especially as I’ve spent almost every break or spare minute these last few months in the girls’ washrooms in the East corridor, peeing for the third, fourth, fifth time that day. How you guys even knew to vote for me is honestly a mystery.”

She grinned a little as scattered laughter came from the students right in front of her. Her grin melted into a gentle smile as she continued, emphasizing the next words of her speech.

“They say kindness comes a long way, and I think it is kindness that brought me to this stage today.”

She nodded towards the student mass, thanking them for their votes. 

“Now, before I start, I would like to give out some thanks. To the teachers, for shepherding us to greatness over all these years. To the families, for supporting us throughout it all. To the faculty, for finally installing proper ventilation in the locker rooms.”

A few laughs from the students. Waverly spotted a smile tugging at the corner of Moody’s lips. 

She continued. “And most of all, to the students. To all of you, sitting in these shiny, blue gowns. We’ve done this together. We entered this three year long rollercoaster, and we’ve been riding along with laughter and motivation and strength. We’ve done it with kindness . I would like to thank every one of you for taking part in these years, and for getting us all over the finish line.”

Her gaze moved appreciatively over the teachers and the parents in the room. 

“Alright. Everyone who knows me, knows that one of my favorite things to talk about is homework. Today is naturally no exception. 

Mrs. Lewis had us writing an essay this term: Canada, the melting pot. We were supposed to discuss how different cultures come together and somehow form one homogenous group in our society. The thing is, Canada is broadly considered a cultural mosaic, and not a melting pot. A mosaic implies that different cultures coexist. They are next to each other. They don’t dissipate. They are equal. And together, they form a picture.

Now, I’m sure that Mrs. Lewis was perfectly aware of this fact, but chose the theme nonetheless, as a basis for reflection. And she was obviously successful, because it got me thinking.”

Waverly could see the smile on Mrs. Lewis’ face a little ways to the right in front of her. She gave her a quick smile and a nod before diving into the reflections she’d been doing lately.

“I’ve been thinking about what high school really is. High school is education, sure. It’s the part that comes after middle school and before college or university. It’s what we need to become citizens of our society. But it is also so much more. 

In many ways, high school is its own little mosaic. We are a patchwork of larger and smaller groups. Some are blue and white, like the Blue Devils, and some are red or green or even purple. The pattern of the mosaic is most obvious in our lunch hall. The ice hockey team and the cheerleaders take up the two loudest tables. The chess club shares a table with the goths. The brainies are either huddled together or spread out throughout the entire room. 

Some groups are even uniformed. The jocks have their varsity jackets, the geeks have their t-shirts with the Optimus Prime helmet, and the artistic kids wear anything that no one else wears.

And then there’s all the inbetweeners. The floaters. They don’t wear anything special, and they don’t identify with one or other hobby. But they are friends, and they stick together in their own little cliques, forming colored patches that are all essential in the mosaic.

We have strong opinions about the different groups, or patches if you will. The cheerleaders are brainless, the stoners have no ambitions, the loners have no friends. The opinions are often crude, and they are never accurate. They arise from grudges, and jealousy, and misconceptions. 

But, as it turns out, behind the groups and the patches and the colors, there are people.

If you actually take the time to talk to them, the members of the wrestling team are suddenly smart. They want to be lawyers or doctors. The trumpeter in the marching band turns out to be outdoorsy and a keen hiker. The anime fans give the best relationship advice. The list goes on and on, because everything that we see and everything that we think is wrong. 

High school is a mosaic to the eyes, but a melting pot at heart. 

I don’t know how we ended up with these groups, but I do know that they have greatly influenced our ride on this rollercoaster that is high school. 

Some parts of the ride have been exciting, and some parts downright terrifying. Sometimes you needed someone to hold your hand, and sometimes you flung your arms high up in the air. Some parts were boring, and some parts too fast. Sometimes we screamed, and sometimes that feeling in our stomachs got too much and we were left speechless. 

High school is a rollercoaster of happiness and joy, of fear and regret. Sometimes we’re thinking “I wish I wasn’t on this ride”, and other times “I can’t wait to go onto the next”. Sometimes we wished we could stay forever, and sometimes we wished we hadn’t been here in the first place. 

But we were. We’ve been along for the ride, every single one of us. It’s been fun, and it’s been tough, but we’ve all endured. 

We go through all of these experiences together. We learn from each other, and we change, and suddenly the mosaic looks a little different. Jocks become brainies and theater kids become cheerleaders. Some of us have found our true calling, while others remain clueless. 

Some changes are slow and some changes are quick. One success can grant you access to the top of the hierarchy. One goal or one boyfriend. One party. And a failure can have you plummeting down. From one second to the next, a blue patch can suddenly turn yellow. 

But most of the time, we’re somewhere in between. We belong everywhere and nowhere all at once. We’ve been at the top and we’ve been at the bottom. We’ve been red and we’ve been green, and we’ve been every step in between. But then there’s a new change, and a new image appears. The lunch hall suddenly looks a little different.”

Waverly stopped, preparing herself for the next part. She didn’t have to say it, she could just skip it. She had even marked the paragraphs so that she could easily move onto the next bit. The speech was written that way on purpose, so that she wouldn’t have to get all personal if she didn’t feel like it in the heat of the moment. But now the moment was here, and the whole thing suddenly felt very intimate, as if the assembly hall wasn’t as big as it used to be. As if the crowd wasn’t littered with people she no longer associated with.

She arranged her papers a little and looked up, squaring herself one last time. The crowd had gotten stiller, somehow sensing that this next part was worth hearing.

“Six months ago I was Waverly Earp, head cheerleader and president of the student council. A good day was jam-packed with meetings and practices and lunch at the loudest table. There were essays and homework and applications for Valedictorian.”

Waverly spoke directly to the room, letting her eyes wander in a sweeping motion over everyone’s faces. She didn’t even have to look at her notes, she knew all of this by heart. 

“The Waverly Earp from that time would have written an entirely different speech. She would have said something motivational. She would have given a send-off to all of you who are continuing on to college or university over the summer, and she would have been one of you. That Waverly Earp was hardworking and ambitious, and she knew the exact steps she was gonna take in life. High school was a stepping stone for that Waverly Earp, right until it wasn’t.”

A few murmurs sounded from the crowd, accompanied by a hush. Silence returned. Everyone was listening to every word Waverly was saying. She took a breath.

“Somewhere along the way everything changed, and today I stand here a different person. I’ve become a different color, a different patch, and I play another part in the mosaic. I sit at a different table. I still have dreams and ambitions, but they, too, have changed.

Even my definition of a good day is now completely different. Last Thursday was a good day in this new life I’m living, and do you know what happened? I had an ultrasound. I ate Chinese takeout with my sister and my girlfriend. I fell asleep on the couch. And somehow, that is exactly what I want to be doing right now. 

I still carry that old Waverly Earp with me, and I know I will get to do some of the things she dreamed about. I’m sure I’m gonna go to university, maybe in a year or so. I’m sure I’m gonna fit back into my cheerleader uniform again.”

There was some laughter again in the audience. Waverly smiled.

“My plans changed, and everything was wrong for a little bit, but it made me change too, and now I’m ready for this new life. Today I am Waverly Earp, Valedictorian and mother. And I can’t wait to see what I’ll become next.”

That was it. That was the hard part. And people seemed to like it, because the room suddenly filled with a shattering applause, right where she hadn’t expected it. Maybe they thought the speech was finished, but it wasn’t. She was just getting to the final bit now. 

Waverly looked up at the crowd, taking in the applause that was for her . She could hear Jake’s booming voice calling “Yes!”, and then the clapping started to disperse a little, giving her space to continue.

“There’s no clear message to my speech. There’s no single piece of advice that you’ll remember in the years to come. No inspirational quote. I haven’t got anything powerful like “Don’t do drugs” or “Wear sunscreen”. I’ve only got a few reflections and one encouragement, which is this. 

I encourage you to take a minute and think back. Think back to that person you used to be. Can you remember those last few days before we started high school, almost four years ago? Think about your goals and ambitions back then. Think about your expectations. Were you gonna have thirty friends or only one? Were you gonna get straight A’s or star in the school play? Were you excited for the rollercoaster ahead? Were you scared?

Now think about the ride and everything that you’ve been through since then. Think about that essay you wrote that made you so proud, and the party you will never forget. Think about the people you've met. Your friends. Remember the moments you shared with people you didn’t really know. Think about the person next to you in maths. 

What part did you play in the mosaic?”

Everyone was silent. Waverly looked at the sea of blue gowns and black caps, hiding the students underneath. They were all wearing serious expressions on their faces, seemingly following the reflections Waverly guided them through. She nodded.

“Finally, think about right now. Are you excited for what’s to come? Are you nervous for the upcoming exams or are you only thinking about tonight? Are you sitting next to your best friend? 

Remember all of this. Or don’t. Maybe it isn’t important. Or maybe it is monumental.

One thing’s for sure. Every single one of us is different from that person four years ago. Each one of us has learned something or changed in one direction or other. And that’s good. That’s what we were supposed to do. That's what high school is for. 

Four years ago we were kids, and together we became something else. And this?” 

She spread out her hands to the room at large. 

“This is where we part. And I, for one, cannot wait to see what will become of that mosaic in the lunch hall. Thank you very much.”

Clapping started from the center of the room, slowly at first, but quicker and louder. Cheers and hoots were added, and suddenly people were standing. Waverly could see Chrissy grinning up at her. Jeremy was close by, and Robin too, and they were all smiling. A whistle sounded from somewhere on the left, and Waverly recognized it as her sister. 

Waverly gathered her papers and took a step back from the microphone. She smiled and nodded and took it all in: The end of an era.