I was standing in line waiting for my name to be called so I could walk across the stage and shake the principals hand. Luckily with a C name I was one of the first to get it over with. I was so nervous. I looked into the crowd and spotted my dad, Clay, and Glen right as my name was called. They all stood and clapped except for Glen. I still haven’t spoke to him ever since that night. I didn’t care to. To Hell with him and mom if they wanted to be that way about everything. I now stood on the other side of the stage waiting to take my seat once more. We walked in a perfect line back to our chairs and we sat at the exact same time. They trained us for weeks to do this right and not mess up. We did a pretty good job. Ashley was in the row right behind me and I smiled as she walked across the stage. I was so proud of her. I sat and watched the rest of my classmates graduate and finally it was time for us to toss our caps into the air and exit the room to obtain our actual diplomas. They didn’t give you the real thing on stage in case someone wanted to act out and ruin the graduation as soon as they got theirs. I found Ashley and Kyla after the graduation was completely over with. At that exact same time my dad and Clay walked over to us. They congratulated us all and dad of course invited everyone over for dinner. He had been working for two days on all of the food. We fought through the crowd of families and graduates and left the building. Glen had the car pulled up close and was waiting on us. That must be where he ran off to. I can’t say I’m not thankful. The California summers were terribly hot, so I was glad the AC had already been running

Ashley and Kyla met us at my house and we all talked, laughed and ate. Everyone except for Glen. Clay had Chelsea over and he seemed to open up a lot more when she was around. In the time I had spent with her while she was around the house I had to say she was perfect for my brother. She’s a keeper for sure. Once dinner was over I looked up across the table at my dad. I got his attention.