Chapter 11
Graduation
Wedding Countdown: 20 days! You're almost there, Renesmee! You can do it!
This week's objectives: Get marriage license, arrange name change, prepare for rehearsal dinner, have bridal party, arrange hotel arrangements for out-of-town guests.
Also: Arrange graduation party! Congrats, Renesmee! You made it past high school. Thank your lucky stars you won't have to repeat those years like the rest of us did…unless we move again. Which we doubt, since we haven't moved yet. Well, congratulations, Renesmee! We're very proud of you.
Your loving aunts,
Alice and Rose.
xXx
Graduation. Finally. I thought that I was never going to make it here.
And with only twenty days until the wedding, I had more than one thing to be excited for. Twenty days, and I would no longer be a Cullen by name. Twenty-one days, and I would be far away, with just Jake, in whatever country (or countries…) Jake booked for the wedding. Twenty days, and I would be married to the man I would forever be with.
Twenty. More. Days.
xXx
I looked out over the crowd of parents, family members, students, and staff members of Forks High, as I prepared to give my valedictorian speech. I smiled, and rested on the podium.
"A couple hundred years ago, Benjamin Franklin shared with the world his secret of successes. Never leave that till tomorrow, he said, which you can do today. This is the man who discovered electricity. You think more people would listen to what he had to say. I don't know why we put things off, but if I had to guess, I'd have to say it has a lot to do with fear." I pushed myself off of the podium, and began pacing the stage, not losing eye contact with the audience.
"Fear of failure, fear of rejection, sometimes, the fear is just of making a decision, because what if you're wrong? What if you're making a mistake you can't undo? The early bird catches the worm. A stitch in time saves nine. He who hesitates," I paused, and looked across the room, "is lost." I started pacing across the stage again.
"We can't pretend we hadn't been told. We've all heard the proverbs, heard the philosophers, heard our grandparents warning us about wasted time, and we've heard the damn poets urging us to seize the day. Still sometimes we have to see for ourselves. We have to make our own mistakes. We have to learn our own lessons. We have to sweep today's possibility under tomorrow's rug until we can't anymore. Until then, we cannot truly understand what Benjamin Franklin really meant." I stopped on the right side of the stage.
"That knowing is better than wondering, that waking is better than sleeping, and even the biggest failure, even the worst, beat the hell out of never trying." I pause, and look over the audience, letting the first half of my speech settle in.
Going into my second half, I walk back to the podium, and rest my arms across it. "It's time to make mistakes. Take the wrong train, and end up somewhere chill. Fall in love, a lot." A few people chuckle, and so do I.
"Major in philosophy, because there's no way in hell to make a career out of that." People murmured in agreement.
"Change your mind, and then change it again, because nothing is ever permanent. Make as many mistakes as you can, because sometimes, we have to see for ourselves. We have to make our own mistakes, not let someone else tell us what to do, what's a mistake, and what isn't. We have to learn our own lessons, sweep the possibilities under the rug, until we can't anymore. So one day, you can tell your children, grandchildren, hell, some guy you meet on the street, one hell of a story. So that you can truly understand what Mr. Benjamin Franklin wanted us to know. So that we. Are. Sucsessful."
I finish the speech with a single quote.
"We're adults. When did that happen? And how do we make it stop?"
I stand back, as I get a standing ovation. Mr. Greene appears next to me, clapping, as he congratulates me. I shook his hand, and took my seat next to Jake.
"Nice job," Jake smiled, as I sat down. He gave me a small kiss.
"Thanks," I smiled, returning the kiss. "Twenty days." I smiled.
"And you're still here." He joked.
"I guess I can survive seven months of torture," I smiled.
"Torture?" Jake raised his eyebrows.
"Okay, maybe I'm being a little over-dramatic," I shrugged. "But wedding planning with those two," I jerked my head in the direction of Alice and Rose.
"Should be considered torture." I finished.
Mr. Greene finished his speech, and called us up by last name to get our diplomas. After receiving them, we threw our caps in the air.
We were no longer high school students. Welcome to the real world, class of 2014.
xXx
Of course, what graduation would be complete without a three-hundred dollar party? Somewhere, in all this wedding planning, Alice and Rose had also made plans to throw the biggest graduation party since they were graduates themselves. They, and the rest of my family, stayed out of the picture, so humans wouldn't get suspicious of the fact that they haven't aged.
Which left the nicest house in Forks to nearly two hundred recent high school graduates for the next three hours.
We could feel vibrations from the music blasting in the house, as everyone pulled into the long driveway. Rock That Body played, as we entered the house, and the party began.
"Damn, Crazy Pixie," Jake muttered, as we looked around the house. Alice had turned the whole house into party central. There was a DJ in the living room, with a dance floor that Alice had probably built last night. The dining room had been arranged in such a way that made the house look like a reception hall. About twenty round tables were arranged into a Banquet 10 seating arrangement, and in front of the tables was a long table with cake, finger foods, and pizza. There was a bar, complete with bartender that served all virgin drinks, and sodas. The lights were dimmed, and purple Chinese lanterns hung everywhere.
"If this is the graduation party," I mumbled. "Then what the hell does she have planned for the reception?"
"I don't want to know." Jake shook his head, laughing a bit. "Come on. Let's not put Blondie and Pixie's hard work to waste," Jake grabbed me by the arm, and pulled me onto the dance floor, as a hundred others were joining us in dancing. Rumor Has It began to play. I was immediately sucked into the atmosphere, letting the night fly by.