I know I said I would, but I prolly won't finish this by July...MAYBE!

I love… The Cucumber Lady, x Fade x To x Black x Angel-san x, Teh Future Mrs. Kyo Sohma, lilhazelnutta, Shiro Aki, Edakumi, Joey8, and shaffer!

Some of you mentioned… yes, that last chapter was very short. I really wanted to make every one of these chapters 1,000 words, so if they run short I just ramble in my author's note, as I'm doing right now. This one actually went over 1,000, so I had to take out some of my author's note!

AHH! ONLY ONE CHAPTER LEFT AFTER THIS! This chapter is totally my favorite. I didn't cry while I was writing it, but I'm crying now after typing it! I love it… and I hope you do too!

Kaze no Namidawa: The Diary of Isuzu Sohma

Entry Eleven

"Are you nervous?"

I looked at Bitchtoko and rolled my eyes. "Don't talk to me," I snapped as the audience applauded the last student to receive their graduation diploma. Mine was covered in sweat in my shaking left hand.

"I would like to introduce our final student speaker, who will be reading her farewell speech," the principal smiled into her microphone like 'Oh come on, does this stupid brat really have to read her stupid speech? I wanna go home!' "…Isuzu Sohma."

With a final glare at BBB, I walked up to the podium and shuffled my papers around. "Uh… hi," I said over the polite applause, then I stopped. Well over 600 people were in the auditorium… and they were all staring directly at me…

The room seemed to suffocate me and I could hear the crickets chirping.

Then…

"GO RIN!"

"YOU CAN DO IT!"

"YEAH!"

"WE LOVE YOU!"

…and multiple more cheers and whistles from the third row of the middle section, my own little cheering section consisting of Haru, Gure-nii, Tohru, Ayame, Kyo, Yuki, and Momiji, while the rest of the family sunk down in their seats, embarrassed. So what if we only got four tickets? Each extra fifty dollars spent buying another seat to hold my "family" members were well spent. I think they were trying to give me some confidence, but it wasn't really working too well.

"Hi," I cleared my throat again, and made the microphone squeal and my papers fall to the ground. I ducked down quickly to retrieve them and when I stood up again, I slammed my head into the podium.

"Ow… uh… I'm okay," I forced myself to laugh, and some of the audience members followed.

Stupid nerves, I thought, rubbing my head. I was about to run off of the stage when I remember Kagura's method of speech-ing: imagining everyone in their underwear.

I really did not want to picture the fat grandparents in the first row wearing underwear, but I did anyway. I was about to start my speech when I blurted out.

"HAHA! You're wearing UNDERWEAR!"

The room went silent.

"Well… I hope so anyway…" I cleared my throat, embarrassed, and stared at Haru, who looked utterly worried. Or maybe bored. Probably both. I tried to focus all of my attention on him like when he had helped me practice, but there were 600 other people and it was kind of hard…

"Yeah… sorry for that odd introduction," I laughed. Cricket. "Now… I have a speech to read, and you all are probably sick of this graduation—I know I am—so I'll just make this quick…"

With a final smile at Haru, I finally began my speech.

"Farewell. It's like… goodbye. But… where's the good in goodbye?

"I'll tell ya where it is. It's all over the place. Literally, it's at the beginning of the God forsaken word, but FIGURATIVELY, it's a part of the word that would be sad if it were forgotten? Oh, wait. Never mind. Yeah. Ummm… It's in the way that we say it. We say goodbye because we want to wish a person luck. And even if we don't, or if luck doesn't come their way, we still say it. Think about it, who really wants to hear some idiot say 'Bad Bye!'? It's just moronic.

"Sometimes goodbye is the last thing you ever hear from a person, and with a slightly logical reason. It's a dismissal, a chance and change, an opportunity to move forward, to start anew. Just the feeling you get from hearing the word, you know it's over.

"It's over. This semester—for me—of hell in a school surrounding is finally over. Now we're all moving forward… or are we? Just a few weeks ago I had no idea where my life was going. Now I ask you, senior class, do you know where you're going?

"And the final question arrives: What'll happen to Kaibara High? My answer: I'll probably never come back even if I wanted to, even though the people and teachers and stuff kinda helped me get through a tough time. Embedded in these walls are words, memories, and souls, none of which belong to me. So I leave this school, and I leave you now, ready to walk into life with open arms.

"So, farewell. Goodbye. Sayonara. And let's get out of this damn auditorium because it's like five thousand degrees and I'm sweating the Pacific Ocean."

I gave a final sigh as the room exploded with tears and applause, some who were just being nice, and some who actually enjoyed that crap (although the principal was mad at me for saying 'hell' and 'damn'), and loudest of all… from my Juunishi family.

"Congratulations, graduates, you may now move your tassel to graduation status!" the principal exclaimed, coming next to me on the podium with a pat on my back.

"THREE… TWO… ONE!" the class chanted, and graduation hats were flung into the air and came showering down in rain of white and blue.

It's finally over. Now I just have to see where life takes me.

-RIN : )