“Nolan, I am so honored to present this to you. I’ve never had a student deserve it more, and I wanted your fellow classmates to know what you’ve achieved,” he was a little emotional as he spoke. “Your memoir essay was very well-received by the writer’s college, Nolan.”

I gulped a little, my heart pounding as I waited to hear what this meant.

“Class, Nolan entered her essay in a very competitive contest. Only three awards are given out, and students from throughout the country compete for this award. Nolan, you were given the Note of Distinction. That’s the highest prize, and it means $5,000 a year for your education, provided you keep your GPA up.”

I wanted to faint, but instead just held myself up on his desk, my eyes I’m sure as wide as they’d ever been. I vaguely could hear the others in my class clapping and whistling for me. I was so stunned, I think it took a few minutes for me to let it all sink in and to smile. I shook Mr. Bosch’s hand as he handed me an envelope full of the information about my award as well as confirmation about my stipend.

When I turned to walk dazedly back to my desk, I caught Reed’s view and the look on his face was so very much the old Reed, my Reed. He was…proud. Sienna gave me a huge hug and whispered how proud she was of me in my ear. I couldn’t believe it.

I couldn’t wait to get home to tell my parents, so I broke the school rule and snuck into the girl’s bathroom to call my mom at work. I wasn’t certain, but I think she cried a little as we spoke. And for the rest of the day, a weight was lifted and I felt invincible.

--------------------

Ironing the purple silk gown was impossible, each time I flipped it I only seemed to add a new set of wrinkles to the mix. I still couldn’t believe that I was graduating from high school and would be moving from my tiny room into a place of my own with Sienna. Sure, it would be a dorm room, one surrounded by hundreds of other 18-year-old pseudo grownups just like me. But it would be far from home, or at least the farthest I’d ever been.

My mother was excited for my new adventure in life, but I could tell my dad was having a hard time letting me go. We still had two months at home together over the summer, but my dad had already started prepping my car, checking oil, hoses, vents and parts I didn’t know existed. He’d called Buck a few times, too, to get his opinion, and together the two of them had worried themselves into more than a dozen new parts for my old beater of a car.

I had practiced my speech for tonight’s ceremony at least a hundred times. As much as I wanted to be valedictorian, I was also thankful that the responsibility had fallen into someone else’s lap, and Sienna was worthy of the honor. I was content to be her number two. My speech was one that was pre-written by years of students before me—the traditional school pillars of pride. Sienna and I had fits of laughter the night before about the pillars and how silly the entire thing seemed. Preaching about character, adversity, discipline and respect to a couple hundred graduated teenagers who were thinking about the beer party that awaited them seemed nothing more than a tremendous waste of time. But my dad planned on filming the entire thing anyhow, so I would perform it well.

The sky outside was orange with the sunset and I was anxious to get to the football field for the ceremony. I heard a knock at our front door. Sarah was here to pick me up so I grabbed my gown, speech, purse and headed to the front room, yelling out to my parents that I’d meet them there. When I turned back to the door and opened it wide, Reed was standing there.

Always a vision. He was wearing a pair of khaki pants and a white dress shirt with a fitted black sweater vest over it that hugged his chest. Of course, his chest looked like it had already gone to college and took a pounding on the football field and come back a man. He had cut his hair some, but the curls were still there and the length swept to the sides and front just right. With the whoosh of the door, I also caught his scent, and between the sight of him and the smell that was now attacking my senses, it’s a damned miracle I didn’t just throw myself at him and forget the hurdles we had yet to overcome.

“Soooo….hi,” he said coyly, in a tone that suggested he was wondering what was taking me so long to speak. I was pretty sure my ogling had been overt.

“Hi… uhm… happy graduation? Is that even a thing people say?” I was still nervous and clearly unable to think of clever things to say.

He just laughed a little. “It’s what you say, so I guess that’s all that matters,” he smiled, flashing his perfect teeth and melt-worthy dimples. “I wasn’t sure if I’d see you at the desert party after graduation, and I wanted to give you something…so, I hope it’s ok?” He looked in the house a little to see if we were alone and then gave me a half-smile as if he was unsure of himself. We were both walking on glass around one another, but it was nice to see him struggle, too.