Another day, another early morning roll call. Stig groaned and grabbed a pillow to block out the light and sound.
"Forget it, wise-guy, you aren't missing your own graduation." Derek said sitting down on Stig's bed.
"Steven, we need to talk."
"Jeez dad. As if the early start isn't bad enough, now you're laying the 'Steven' crap on me."
"I'm going to talk and you are going to listen, because if you
don't it will be your mother who performs this speech and hers will
be longer and more intense…okay?"
"Fine. Go ahead."
"Good. Lucy."
"What about her?" Stig tried not to show his sudden interest. Lucy was not exactly the topic of conversation he had been expecting.
"I seriously hope you aren't planning to prank her during her speech?"
"What makes you think I'm going to pull a prank today?" He asked. "Maybe, I've decided not to. Maybe that's the prank."
"Nice try. But I pulled that pretence scenario first, remember? I just want to be reassured that whatever prank it is you are going to pull, it isn't going to be timed for during Lucy's speech."
Stig sighed, and was honest for once.
"Dad, I'm not going to prank Lucy during her speech, okay?"
"Okay. Good." Derek checked his son's tell, the nervous little flicker in the corner of his dark eyes. He believed him. "Now get up and get ready."
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Lucy had retreated to her usual bolt hole when she was nervous, the school library. Stig was fairly sure he wasn't supposed to have figured that out. But he had. And, as had been the case for so much of the past school year, his family and hers had come together to chat before the ceremony. Lucy had been missing and no one could answer as to where she had gone. Stig slipped away to look for her.
She was looking out of the library window at the school grounds. Her hair had been pulled up into a tight arrangement and she was wearing smart clothes under her graduation robes.
"If you're thinking of jumping, don't let me stop you." He said, leaning against a bookcase.
She smiled weakly at him. "I don't think even I'm that desperate."
He raised an eyebrow. "Really?"
"And I hate heights."
He chuckled. "So how come you managed that little stunt on the roof for prom?"
"I guess my sense of fun overcame my common sense." She frowned. "Did mom send you?"
"As if they would send me to find you." He moved closer and motioned to her hair. "Are you going for the tight-ass librarian look?"
She stuck her tongue out at him.
"Anyway. You're in danger of missing your own graduation speech, so unless you want to look like you're the one pulling the prank, I suggest we go join them now."
She sighed. "Yeah. I know." She stepped towards him on her way to the door. As she passed he reached up and pulled the hair fastening from her hair, causing it to tumble down to her shoulders.
"St-ig!" Lucy protested.
He grinned and made for the door. "Believe me Loopy, you look much prettier with your hair down." Then he made his escape, leaving a very surprised Lucy in his wake.
"What happened to your hair?" Cathy asked her daughter as she rejoined them.
"Change of heart." She murmured.
Her mother smiled. "Well I think you were right. It looks much prettier down."
Stig was standing with his own parents and over heard. He caught her eye and grinned.
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Derek watched his son carefully during the speeches. Stig looked bored to tears. He wore his graduation robes reluctantly and slouched in his seat. It was obvious to anyone who cared to look that he was there under duress. Stig still hadn't pulled his prank and despite the reassurance he had been given earlier, Derek was still concerned about his son's history with the pretty brunette who Stig had nicknamed 'Klutzilla'. Derek looked at his own 'Klutzilla and she met his eyes, her hand lacing itself with his.
"Are you as nervous about this speech as I am?" he asked in a whisper.
"You didn't interrupt my speech." She said with a smile.
"No. I considered it for a while though." He smirked at her.
"Why didn't you?" she asked. It was a question she had never asked before.
"I thought I was losing you, that you were off to college. I wanted to make sure you didn't sever all ties with me. I wanted you to miss me…and not because your life was suddenly less complicated. The time for you to go was drawing near, and we didn't have enough good memories of us. Of course, I hadn't realised that you were going to my college then. Or that there was any chance you would miss me the way I missed you."
Casey squeezed his hand.
"I stood on that podium and looked into the audience and you weren't there. It's what threw me; the thought that there would be a time when I would look up and not see you."
"I was there. I was in the wings, waiting. I nearly walked onto the stage and kissed you when you finished."
"Why didn't you?"
"Fucking Truman." He hissed. "I looked over and you were staring into the audience and I could see you were looking straight at the asshole."
Casey chuckled. "I was looking for you, moron."
Derek looked at her in surprise.
"Still it's probably a good thing you didn't. Afterall, I don't think Mom and George would have appreciated us announcing our relationship in front of half of London."
"Now that would have been a reputation to leave." Derek said with a smile. He saw Lucy stand up to give her speech and a few seats away, he saw his son straighten as he spotted her.
"Ladies, gentlemen, teachers, my fellow graduates. The time has come, the bell has rung. School is out. So before we push open the doors, stampede towards the car park, let us pause and reflect on what this means. Where do we go as we pass out into the post-high school world?
Some of us will soon make for college, some of us will stay close to home, some of us will travel the world, professionally or on gap years. The reality is, whether we stay close to home or move away, we are all travellers. We are all explorers. Each new experience of life is a new world waiting for us to enjoy, and each of us defines that world. We can say whether it will be a black and white existence or one full of Technicolor. If you take time with your discoveries the world will open up to you. The more you put into your exploration, the more you discover. We've been on planet high school for a long time, and what we are here has defined us. People have gained labels and reputations. But the worlds we move on to have no preconceived ideas about us. This is our chance to break the mould. Review yourself, redefine yourself, make the most of yourself. Go out into a world that needs new blood and don't take your old thoughts, have new ones.
The world does not need clones, it needs individuals, it needs people who have new thoughts, new feelings, it needs you to learn from the mistakes of the past. Don't settle for the rut. Don't settle for expectations. Challenge. If people only stayed in their comfort zones, we would not have learnt to fly, we would not be exploring space, and without the discovery of fire we would still be in caves.
You have studied the lessons of high school. Go out and study the lessons of life.
Break moulds, challenge theories. Let the class clown become the lawyer. Let the keener start the party."
Lucy looked at Stig as she finished.
"Do something crazy. Dance with the devil and learn to live."