The auditorium was packed with teenagers milling around, filled with a general hubbub of children talking to families. Mostly, though, it was filled with a sea of black gowns all arranged in orderly rows, thankfully not by alphabetical order.
Aerienna Johnson sat fairly close to the back, knowing she would be the last one called. In her hand was a much-crumpled piece of notebook paper that had her speech on it. This row hadn't filled up yet; there were two open seats on one side of her and one open seat on the other side--
Make that one seat on either side, as her best (and only) friend, Astra Shepard, slid in next to her and hugged her.
"Hey, Aery! Why so serious?"
"I h-have to give a sp-speech... i-in front o-of all th-these people..." She started to cry, shamefully, softly, hiding her face under the sleeve of her too-big gown. The smallest size they'd had was for a girl 5'2"; she needed more like a 4'4".
Astra pinched her cheek, hugged her tighter. "Oh, love, don't cry. You're the scary one, when you get up on that stage and get your transcript with your 4.75 GPA, when you're fourteen years old and going off to Johns Hopkins on a full ride."
"Y-you're going too, though. Y-you a-a-and Jake a-and Joe. I-it's not that special." But she quit crying, enough to wipe her eyes and smile a tearful smile.

The band was starting playing, the cue for all the soon-to-be-graduates to take their seats. Aery scanned the crowd, looking for Joe and Jake.

Jake Willis walk through the corridor of the school and open the locker to find the book to grab until he notice his friend Joe he know from primary school, walk over to him and notice him stuck reading on his notebook, tap Joe's shoulder to accidently scare him.
"Never do it again please!" Joe said with a sigh and try to figure on the notebook "I make a speech very soon, will you be there?"
"Of course i never miss my old mate's speech!" Jake said with a grin, can't help being cheeky and pat on Joe's back to reassure him. They head inside the Auditorium together to see plenty of childrens, teachers and famillies. "If they laugh at you then they're idiot, you will be awesome" Jake said to Joe before find Astra there, walk over to her with a grin.

"Alright Astra?" Jake said with a soft smile while Joe come to sat near Aery and give her a warm smile before try to figure the speech on his notebook. Jake turn back to Astra "Joe is nervous about the speech anyway" Jake said before sat next to Astra.

Astra grins up at Jake. "I know, Aery's freaking out about it too. Who'd have thought, the valedictorian four years ahead of schedule, and the salutatorian three ahead?" She shakes her head and leans back slightly against Jake's arm, rather enjoying the contact. "I'm excited though. Off to college in less than two months!"

Aery looked up at Joe and smiled shyly in return, before going back to obsessing over her own speech. In a moment, she looked over at Joe's notebook, reading over his shoulder a little bit. "H-hi, J-joe... A-are you e-excited t-to g-give your s-speech?"

Jake slowly nod his head with a soft smile then turn back to Joe and Aery reading a note together "They will be fine, if people find it so funny then they're idiot" Jake said with a grin and turn back to Astra when she mention college "Oh yeah of course I'm super excited, can't wait to get out of school soon" Jake said also enjoying the contact to her, actually let her lean against his arm gently, smile to himself.

Joe bit his lip nervously and turn over to Aery when she ask him a question "Well a bit...and I feel nervous though, I never give speech to public before" Joe explain to Aery and finally figure the note, sigh in relief.