"And now, our valedictorian, Aranea Serket!"
Vriska rolled her eyes, even as her sister stepped up to the podium to give her speech. Because of course little miss perfect would be valedictorian. The thing was, she barely won it at the last minute, squeaking past Kankri in the last month of classes. And it wasn't because she was smarter, either. It was because Kankri's focus wavered after his dad died. And Aranea's speech was so cliché. All about how they would be going into a new phase of their lives and being adults and college is scary but Vriska knew half of the audience were people who definitely peaked in high school. Which was sad. No surprise her mom wasn't there, either. Because it wasn't as though she gave a shit. She'd been harping about Aranea 'abandoning' her and so said, "why would I go to celebrate her? She's a traitor" and left Vriska to figure out her own transportation. At the very least, John was there. John was the only thing keeping Vriska from just bailing. The more she thought about life with Aranea gone, the more she just wanted to leave her mother's house and go somewhere. Anywhere away. With Aranea gone, it would be nothing but screaming matches and manipulation and hatred. But John seemed to make things okay, even if it was just that Mr. Egbert always made it clear the door was open for her. She just needed to keep her chin up and power through the last three years. Then she'd go off and become someone. She could leave behind her terrible life and maybe drop some of her defense mechanisms. Everything would be fine. Maybe.
