It's Crazy How Much We Can Fit in A Year

The seconds seemed to drag on for hours. Each one, ticking by at a snails pace, was bringing me closer to the moment I had been waiting for my whole life. Countless hours of hard work, frustration, sacrifice of my social life, and more were all leading up to this. I could hardly contain myself as Mr. Heald started saying his closing words.
I peeled my eyes off the clock to glance at my three best friends, all who were waiting as impatiently as I was. We shared a knowing smile with each other, all knowing that the following year would be the best of our lives, but unknowing just how life-changing it would be.

“And now, the moment you have all been waiting for, Congratulations to Mountain Vista High School’s Class of 2014! School is officially out!” proclaimed Mr. Heald, a big grin plastered on his face, eyes starting to fill with a few tears.
What could I say, we were the best class to ever pass through Mountain Vista High School.
Plus, he was an emotional principal.

No sooner had Mr. Heald barely got those last four words out of his mouth, did the entire Class of 2014 break out into celebration, screams of excitement filling the gym, hats flying everywhere, friends hugging and jumping up and down. After about a minute of being caught up in the frenzy of celebrating the end of my high school career, did the realization hit me.
I was done with high school for the rest of my life.
I was free from being tied down in Mountain Vista.
I was in control of the rest of my life. From here on out. Just me, my hopes, and my dreams making things happen.
Oh, and my three best friends. Speaking of the devils, all three of them; Kendra, Rachelle, and Melanie, ran up and tackled me to the ground. Hitting the rock hard gym floor hard, I silently cursed them under my breath and made a mental note to get them back later. But soon all that was forgotten, as my friends and I soon became a laughing, crying, disbelieving, ecstatic heap of emotions. We joined for our traditional group hand-squeeze circle, promising to text each other later that night, before being whisked away to be congratulated by countless friends and family.

“Honey, I am so ridiculously proud of you! You’ve accomplished so much, congratulations sweetheart!” my Mom made out to me in between tears. I gave her a big hug, but didn’t get a chance to finish saying thank you before being grabbed away, by nonetheless than my Dad.

“Punk, (short for Pumpkin, don’t ask me how that became my nickname) you are so amazing and this day is for you! A million congratulations!” my father exclaimed before pulling me into a bear hug. I’m lucky I still had enough breath after that to mumble out “Thanks” before yet another bombardment of people surrounding me. Oh joy.

After I had finished receiving congrats from, and talking, to all my aunts, uncles, grandparents, cousins, family friends, friends from school, dance friends, parent’s friends, some semi-friends from school, teachers, and some people I had never seen before in my life (bit creepy, eh?), I thought I would have a little breather.

I snuck a look over at my Rachelle, Kendra and Melanie. I’m sure they all had been in similar situations, but, unlike me, who looked like someone had just gone through a war zone, they looked fairly relaxed and normal.
No sooner had I mouthed “Lucky! Save me!” to Kendra, who smirked playfully back, did something catch the corner of my eye. I twirled around just in time to think, Oh shit!!, before someone, or something, landed on top of me.

Just my luck. The one day I get my strawberry blonde, straight as a stick, hair to give in and curl into perfect, loose waves, did something land on top of them and ruin them completely. Awesome start to my new life.

I struggled to get the thing off of me, I’m sure looking downright hilarious as I flailed about. Of course, I tripped over a rock, and ended up falling backwards into one of the rows of chairs set up for the spectators of the graduation ceremony. Once on the ground in a sufficiently awkward position, did the damn thing finally get off me. I had just embarrassed the shit out of myself. In front of tons of people.
Over a giant, stuffed teddy bear.
Which is ironic, since one of my many nicknames is Clar-Bear, my name being Clarice.
I would never live this down tonight at grad night. Hopefully, I would be drunk enough to laugh it off.
But back to the giant teddy bear. It was cute alright, with a huge, fluffy, cream body and an adorable face. Even cuter was my littlest brother, Ryan, standing behind it grinning at me with his goofy little grin and red, curly hair.
So that’s the explanation for the giant flying teddy bear.... I mused.

“Congrats on finishing High School, Clair!! I love you lots!” Ryan said as he picked his way over the fallen chairs to give me his signature hug and kiss.
As much as I was royally pissed off for having embarrassed myself in front of so many people, I had to forgive him. He was the cutest little kid out there. Even though he had grown progressively more annoying once he passed age 10 (Where did the time go?!?), reaching “oh-so-big” eleven.

Holy crap, if he’s eleven, I must be ancient! I thought. No, no, calm down Clarice, you’re only eighteen. Still young enough to have fun. Right? Well, I better be, cause tonight will be a night to remember. I wanna stay up all night and jump around until we see the sun...... The lyrics to one of my favorite songs started pouring out of me. The song, was by no other than my babies. But back to that later.

Then my other little brother, though not so little anymore, came over to help me.
“Well, that was graceful, Clair!” he chuckled, while offering me his had to stand up.
“Oh, shut up, it was more graceful than you would have been, you with your two left feet!” I teased him back. We put all the chairs back as nonchalentley as possible, hoping not to draw any more attention to the situation.
Well..... I didn’t break the tables, but I managed to break the chairs. I guess that close enough. Off to a great start. Zayn and the rest of the boys would be proud. I giggled to myself.

“Oh, by the way, congrats! That’s awesome you’re done with high school.”
“Thanks, Garrett. I am excited to be done too. But it’s nice for a change that ‘Congrats!’ wasn’t the first word out of you mouth. I was getting sick of it.....”
“Know what you mean. Me, being as amazing as I am, realized that, and therefore, didn’t mention it in my first sentence. Just for you, dear sister.”
“Oh shut up! You plain forgot and are trying to make up for it, you idiot!” I laughed. Yup, he was back to his annoying old self. Helping me clean up the chairs was a pleasant surprise. Guess that was the extent of his kindness. Oh well, better than nothing.

After grabbing some clothes, shoes, makeup, hair products (in attempt to fix my hair after the teddy bear incident) , my wallet, and my keys, I headed downstairs to say bye to everyone. I was heading over to Kendra’s house to get ready for the night ahead, then coming back to her place to crash for the night.
Err, morning. Grad night wasn’t supposed to end until 3 or 4, but I had a feeling it would be more like 6. Which was totally fine by me. As quoted by one of my five favorite people in the world; “All day, all night!” Gotta love DJ Malik.

I hugged my dad goodbye and waved to my brothers, then venturing into my favorite room in the house, the kitchen.
I love food. Especially baked goods. Those are definitely my weak spot. I actually have quite a knack for baking, and love to decorate cakes for family birthdays. But, since I have no free time, I haven’t really gone much further than having it as a hobby. Good thing I have a really high metabolism, otherwise the constant eating of batter, frosting, and the actual product wouldn’t do me much good. But, YOLO.
I kissed my mom goodbye while grabbing a bag of freshly baked sugar cookies. I glanced at my mom, who smiled back with a twinkle in her eye. She always knew exactly what I meant, needed, or wanted. We were very close, and had our own sort of language. Living with two crazy boys, and my dad, who may as well be one, kinda required it.

After hopping out of my light blue, convertible Volkswagon Bug, I was immediately surrounded by my fellow-directioners, who happen to also be my best friends, and dragged into the house.
Who I should probably introduce you too officially.