Senior Year Box Set

If I didn’t like her, I might have thought she was a bit of a bitch. All I know was Wolf was a better man than I. I would have had to tan her backside at some point if we ever dated.

“Actually, you’re valedictorian, David,” he said to ruin my fun.

Gina visibly relaxed.

“If you wanted to say a few words …” I offered Gina.

“No!” she blurted and then said quietly, “I’m good.”

“After the assembly today, we’ll be handing out caps and gowns to the seniors. I want to give you your sashes that indicate your achievements,” he said as he handed them to us.

They were orange with a blue ‘V’ on mine and an ‘S’ on Gina’s. In my head, I chuckled because Gina had called me a slut too many times. Now she had a scarlet letter giving her the title. Okay, a blue letter, but it still counted.

I laughed when I realized what my ‘V’ might stand for: virgin.

We had time to make it to our lockers, drop off our sashes, and collect all our books for first period, where we had to turn them all in. The hall was full of everyone lugging books to their first-period class. I spotted one of the bullies getting ready to trip Dare.

“Hey!” I barked. The guy turned and looked at me and then slunk away.

I never understood the desire to pick on someone smaller just for the fun of it. Unless, of course, it was my little brother. That was just something that was expected.

That thought brought me up short. Was it really expected? Greg had given me shit. Hell, I remembered my first day of high school. He said something along the lines of ‘don’t embarrass me’ as his only warning about how I was to act around him at school.

I vowed to treat Phil better. When I looked back, that wasn’t who I wanted to be for him. I admitted, though, that taking him to get checked for an STI had been worth it. Hopefully, he would learn to wear a condom next time. His friends were right; he didn’t need to follow the Dawson tradition of getting someone pregnant while in high school. Maybe Phil would be the first to wait until he was married.

Coach Rector had us all go to the gym to drop off our books. When he received them, he gave us our grades and checked us off his list.

I looked at mine, and I’d gotten straight ‘A’s again. I silently thanked my uncle for giving me my life goals, which made it possible for me to get ‘A’s all through high school. The goal to be financially secure had come with a need for a good education. There were many times when I would rather have done almost anything other than work on my studies. But then I would remember what the pot was at the end of the rainbow. Over time, it had just become a habit, which made it infinitely easier.

That left us the rest of the hour to goof around.

◊◊◊

As I walked into the field house, I saw the enormous paper banner proclaiming us state champions. The bleachers were pulled out on one side, and the student body had begun to fill them up. There was a stage with seats for the baseball players and coaches. I spotted Tim and Wolf, kicked back in their chairs, relaxing. Somehow, they’d beaten me here.

“Boys,” I said.

“It’s official. We’re high school graduates,” Tim said as he stood up and gave me a one-armed hug.

“You still have to get your diploma tomorrow,” I reminded him.

“Details, details,” he said as he waved his hand in the air. “We should all go out to lunch after this.”

“I can’t. I have to deal with my businesses this afternoon. They’re making me sit down with everyone because I’ll be leaving after this weekend.”

“After you’re done, text me. We were talking about going to the lake and having a few brewskis,” Wolf shared.

That sounded a hundred times better than going over financials or whatever Scarlet and my dad had planned. It would motivate me to wrap up my business meeting sooner.

“I’ll text you when I’m done.”

While we talked, the place filled up. Moose and Coach Haskins came on stage with Mrs. Sullivan, the president of our booster club, and Moose stepped over to us.

“Care if we get started?” Moose asked.

“If you think that’s best,” I said as I took my seat next to my friends.

Moose stepped up to the microphone.

“Welcome, everybody. While you were pouring in, I was thinking you all would probably prefer starting your summer vacation to coming to an assembly. So I’ll keep this short,” Moose said.

That garnered some good-natured applause. He put his hands up to quiet everyone down so he could continue.

“Before I introduce you to our state champions …” Moose started but had to stop because everyone stood and cheered.

He turned to us and told us to stand up, which only made them get louder. I looked at my teammates and saw them soaking it in. This would be one of those moments they would tell their grandkids about someday.