For graduation day, we're allowed to wear clothes of our choice as long as they're navy blue. I picked out a beautiful plain navy blue, knee-length dress from Zara. I've curled my hair and slipped on a pair of matching navy blue heels. My black graduation gown and cap are looped around my arm as I head downstairs for breakfast.

"I can't believe you're graduating high school." Mom says as she stands up from the outdoor breakfast table and kisses the side of my head.

"Me either." I smile and then take a deep breathe.

Sebastian is already here, wearing a light blue dress shirt over khaki pants since he's going to attend the ceremony too. Mom looks breath-taking as always in a pair of brown plaid pants and a white blouse. Dad joins us a few minutes later. He kisses my head before sitting down.

"Excited?" Dad raises an eyebrow at me.

I smile sadly, "Yeah but really sad too."

"Aww, Bunny." Mom says and she's sitting next to me so she wraps her arms around me. I lean into her and close my eyes for a second before sitting back up again.

We drive to school together and once dad has parked the car, we step out and start towards the football field where ceremony is to be held. Chairs are arranged in neat rows. Family in the back, and graduating students in the front with an aisle in the middle.

We run into Aakesh and his parents as we near the field entrance.

"Hey!" I call out as I hug him.

"I'm getting so jittery." He laughs and I join in, "Me too."

"We're going to go find seats, will you be okay?" Mom asks me.

"We'll be fine." I nod as my family and Aakesh's parents walk off together.

"Hazel!" I hear Mia call out and I turn around to find her and Ben walking up to us.

"Hi!" I smile as she embraces me, "I can't believe this day is finally here." She gushes, smiling at me, then Aakesh and finally Ben.

Ben smiles back at her before I point out my parents to her and she heads off to meet them. Mia has been making an extra effort towards her relationship with Ben and I already know that things between them are healing fast. I still ask Ben,

"Are the others coming?"

He nods, "Yeah, they're on their way. They left the house a few minutes after us because Charles was making a fuss."

Soon Liam and Angelina arrive too and we take picture until we're asked to find our seats. The seats are labelled in alphabetical order by first name. So, Liam is behind me and the other three in front of me. The ceremony starts after fifteen minutes with an address from the principal, followed by the annual school year report by the high school headmistress who announces that this year Rushmore Academy won a record high, 32 sports medals. We all cheer and clap for our teams at this.

The headmistress at the end announces,

"Now I would like to welcome to the stage our valedictorian, receiving two medals for academics and athletics, also the top of the graduating class, Hazel Aaron!" My class jumps to their feet as they cheer for me.

I get up from my seat and walk towards the stairs at one side of the stage on top of which teachers and the administrations sits. On the way, Ben and Ash are right next to the aisle so they stop me and offer hugs of encouragement.

Once I'm on the stage, stationed in front of the assembled crowd, in front of the pedestal with the microphone. I pull up my speech on my phone and set it down in front of me before taking a deep breathe.

"Good morning, dear parents, school faculty and of course my fellow students." This earns me shouts of 'hi Hazel' from my classmates that make me laugh and somewhat ease my nerves.

"Today we bid farewell to Rushmore Academy, a school that we've called ours for a range of different years. I'm sure we still remember our first days. If you were really little like me, then it may be a blur now but for others who joined more recently, it will be clearer. Regardless, this day we'll all remember for the rest our lives. Because this day we did not just leave Rushmore, we left with memories, both happy and sad, friends..." I have to pause to let the cheers die down at erupt at this sentence. "...friends some close but some so close that we call them our family."

"We have all been admitted to different universities around the country and around the globe. We don't know where we'll be in the next five years but what we do know is that right now we're all here, together, the graduating class of Rushmore Academy, and we'll always have these people we call friends to fall back on. Right?" I question and shouts of 'yes' answer me.

"I also want to take this speech as an opportunity to remind everyone that you are you. You are an individual person who needs no comparison to others and should be perfectly happy and content with who they are as beings."

"And on one last note, thank you Rushmore Academy for being our home away from home."

The crowd is on their feet again as I step away from the microphone and the high school headmistress steps up to it.

"Before we hand out the certificates and officially call these gathered students, graduates, can I please have the school's graduating student body council members on stage, please?"

I frown at this because this was not part of the rehearsal we had. But I fall in line with the others anyways. The student council has a total of thirty members and fifteen of those were from my class this year.

"Each year we hold votes before summer break and then announce the new school student council at the beginning of the next school year but this time we're making an exception to announce the student body president's name before summer break since we already have vote counts."

The headmistress seeks me out from amongst the student council members and motions me to the microphone. I'm even more confused more now.

"Here, announce the name please." She hands me a folded piece of paper.

I realize that my hands are shaking as I begin to unfold the paper and when I read the name a wide smile erupts on my face as I realize whose name it is. I laugh to myself and then step up to the microphone.

"Sebastian Aaron." I say as the crowd jumps to their feet again. This time louder than ever. Clearly I lost track of how popular Sebastian has gotten with the school crowd over the year.

I spot Sebastian walk up to the stage as the principal stands up to hand him his varsity jacket which each student council member receives. But the president's has a special embroidered patch on one side of the chest.

The crowd grows unbelievably loud as Seb gives me a hug before walking to the other end of the stage and steps down.

"Now, students please line up to receive your certificates." The headmistress announces as the principal takes her place in the middle of the stage and I walk back to my seat.

I cheer loudly for first Aakesh, Angelina, and Ben and then soon it's my row's turn. I'm the only student out of the entire graduating class to receive who medals of honor.

"Hazel Aaron." The headmistress announces my name as I walk onto the stage to ear splitting cheers from the crowd and accept my medals and certificate from the principal.

Once the ceremony is officially called to an end, Ben is the first one to reach me and engulfs me in a tight hug. I wrap my arms around his neck and bury my face in his shoulder. When he pulls away, he keeps his arms wrapped around my waist and kisses me. The kiss is too short because we're aware of all the people around us but I'm left blushing anyways.

"Let's go find our parents." Ben says, taking my hand as we walk through the crowd congratulating our classmates until we spot our families standing together in the aisle, chatting.

"Our freshest high school graduates." Mia is the first one to spot us.

Mom hugs me and I sigh into her embrace. She pulls away and kisses my forehead before pulling away her arms which are replaced by dad's.

"Congratulations, Bunny." He says, rubbing my back.

"Thanks dad." I smile at him before turning to Sebastian.

"Congratulations." He says, sheepishly, his new council jacket in hand.

I raise an eyebrow at him, "Congratulations to YOU, little brother." He laughs at this as I hug him.

"You're going to be an amazing president." I tell him when I pull away my arms.

"But please don't stop playing soccer. The Rushmore team needs you." Ben says, thumping Seb on the back.

"Never." Seb shakes his head, making us all laugh.

We spend a good forty minutes taking pictures. I take separate pictures with each member of my family, Ben and Mia. Then there's a family picture of the four of us and a mandatory picture of Ben and me just like Mia and mom have taken at every event since we were little.

We all already had plans with our families so we disperse for our individual plans. Mom, dad, Sebastian and I already had plans to have sushi for lunch after the ceremony so that's where we go. Lunch passes with mom and dad gushing over both of us and it makes me love my family even more.

After lunch, a driver comes to take Sebastian and me home while mom and dad have to go to a meeting together for some new Aaron Limited offices in Bangladesh that mom's helping dad with.

Around eight at night, I get a text from Ben asking if I plans for the night and I quickly send a reply saying no. He offers to pick me up in twenty minutes. I confirm the plan and get changed before stepping out of the house to wait for him in the driveway.

I'm perched on the edge of the fountain in the middle of the circular driveway when his black Mercedes stops in front of me and he rolls down his window.

"Everything okay?" He asks, clearly referring to me being outside my own house.

I laugh and nod, "Just wanted some quite to think about today."

"Totally get that." He nods in understanding as I hop off the fountain's edge and walk around the car to get into the passenger seat.

We drive aimlessly talking until somehow we end up in The Hills and just like always, this late at night, there is not a soul in sight.

"Hazel?" Ben suddenly says.

"Hmm?" I ask, turning away from the window that I was looking out of since the car is parked.

"Is it weird that I'm scared of leaving Pasadena?" He looks at me.

I lean my head back against my head rest still looking at him and shake my head, "No. I was actually thinking this exact same thing over and over this morning."

"How do you feel now?" He asks.

"Content." I sigh, a small smile on my face.

"Really? Why?" Ben whispers.

"You." I whisper back and I see realization in his eyes. I'm content because he'll be every step of the way for the next four years with me.

He cups a hand around my cheek and leans across the console to kiss me. I unbuckle my seat belt and crawl onto his lap as he unbuckles his seat belt too. I rest my hands on the sides of his seat and lean into him as I kiss him deeply.

His lips move off my lips and onto my neck. I gasp as he slips a hand under my shirt but I don't stop him. I just nod in consent against his forehead as he hesitates to progress. My shirt is the first to come off, leaving me in my bra followed by his shirt. I run my hands over his strong chest as his hands find my bra's clasp and it is added to the pile of our discarded clothes.

Sometime later I'm on the backseat with my head on Ben's chest and his arms wrapped around my body as we both catch our breath.

I feel Ben's hand in my hair so I lift my head and rest my chin on my hand so that I'm looking up at him as he softly tucks a strand of hair behind my ear, "I can't wait to spend at least the next four years of my life with you."

I reach up and kiss his cheek before kissing him lips, "I can't wait either."

Ahhh just one last chapter (the epilogue) to go :')

I've posted this today because I want to take my time with the epilogue. I will post it within a few days but I want to make sure that I'm happy with it. So as of now the story itself is complete but I will add a epilogue to tie up the ending :)

Love you all!

-T

P.S. I have some ideas for the epilogue in my mind, let's see which one makes its way onto Wattpad ;)