novelraw Chapter 367: Graduation (3)
Chapter 367: Graduation (3)
"Today’s the day. Are we ready, ladies? I have our tickets." Grace asked as she hopped into the car with Rachel and Justine while waving the bright pink family and friends ticket she had gotten from Ari.
"Yep!" Justine shouted excitedly from the driver’s seat.
"Yep! I brought the goods!" Rachel said, holding up the bouquet of flowers and cards they had all pitched in to buy.
"Alrighty, let’s go, girls! We need to secure a good parking spot before things get crazy! Drive, drive, drive!!"
As the car peeled away, Grace began checking online with a smile.
She couldn’t wait for Ari to see what his fans had planned.
*********
"Big man Ari, wagwan. You’re looking bare sharp today. The suit is fitted, the red bottoms are blinding. You’re stylin my guy." Benjamin whistled as he praised Ari’s outfit.
Since Ari was pretty good-looking, he generally looked good in whatever he wore, so he got away with wearing what Benjamin liked to call rubbish.
On any given day, Ari usually wore his favorite brown tracksuit, and if that wasn’t available, he wore a random t-shirt and sweatpants with the excuse that he would be in the practice rooms anyway, so who cared what he looked like if he was covered up.
That had been slowly changing during their trip to Korea, and for important events, but today, Ari was really decked out.
He looked as if he had been dressed by a professional stylist.
His hair was styled nicely with just the right amount of curls hanging in his face and no frizz in sight.
He was wearing a proper suit with subtle red embroidery along the cuffs and buttons, matching his hair color.
A class watch was on one wrist, a sparkling bracelet on another, and dark designer shades tucked into his hair while he carried his maroon cap and gown with one hand.
"You’re not dressed too shabbily yourself. Everyone looks good today." Ari commented as he looked at Benjamin and the rest of them.
Despite his protests, everyone was wearing their version of a nice suit, since they would double as their stage outfits, and each person had styled theirs to suit their preferences.
Benjamin wore black slacks and a fitted white shirt, which emphasized his muscular arms and shoulders. He had a black harness strapped over his shoulders and across his chest, several chains around his neck, and his suit jacket held up by two fingers over his shoulders.
He had also gotten a haircut with a crisp line-up and his dimples showing as he smiled; he was as handsome as usual.
Mathew was dressed in a more laid-back street style with the black jacket and pants of his suit loosely cuffed, and black high-top sneakers on his feet.
Carlos wore black slacks, a white button-up shirt and tie, his leather jacket, and dark sunglasses while holding onto his black motorcycle helmet.
Levi wore a black turtleneck under a black suit jacket and matching pants, with boots on his feet, sunglasses over his eyes, and silver rings on his fingers, making him look like an imposing bodyguard or a mob boss.
And Jamie was dressed in a black shirt, with an embroidered black leather vest over it, black pants, and, of course, a black cowboy hat to round it off, which made his blonde hair glimmer like golden strands.
"Did that old, French lady send the clothes to you? It looks custom-made. Very Parisian."
"Yeah, Chloé shipped it from France, so I don’t know. Maybe? She took my measurements the last time I saw her." Ari answered honestly.
All he did was receive the package, then deal with 30 minutes of Chloé nagging him to wear it on graduation day or to just throw it away and feed it to a rabid dog if he didn’t like it, before hanging up.
Since it fit well, and he had nothing better to wear, he wore it, but didn’t think about anything more than that, since Chloé got more clothes from her work than she knew what to do with.
"Nice. What size shoe do you wear?" Benjamin asked as he eyed the red bottom loafers.
They were very snazzy.
"42 or 43 cm, depending on the shoe. You want them? They’re not comfortable in the slightest." Ari held his foot out.
Even though his feet were on the narrower side, they still felt horribly pinched in the shoes.
Since he had no plans to wear them again, he might as well give them to someone who would before selling them off.
Benjamin placed his foot next to Ari’s before clicking his teeth.
Way too small.
"Tsk. Too small. You’re lucky, or I would have lifted them and the whole outfit. After all, comfort is temporary, style is forever."
"Is it?"
I can literally feel the blood flow being cut off to my toes, so I don’t really know about that.
"You don’t get it, mate. The outfit has to match the face! Unfortunately, you’re built like a beanstalk, so your nice clothes survive another day in your closet."
Ari: ಠ_ಠ
"Drop dead."
"Only if you toss those shoes into my casket so I can look good at the funeral. Fresh to death, innit?"
"No."
Benjamin winked before slapping Ari hard on the back, "Good to see that you’re not nervous on your big day. Now let’s take the photo. Hold the flowers that the lads got you. Put that cap and gown on, yeah? Levi, where’s that fancy camera of yours? Let’s take a group shot too. We gotta post to celebrate the graduate!" Benjamin yelled as he slapped Ari hard on the back.
After taking several photos of each of them and then a group photo using the tripod Levi somehow packed into his sleeves, Ari thanked them all before rushing inside.
He needed to get into place.
*****************************
As the attendees began to fill the seats in the large arena, Ari sat with the choir students, waiting patiently as the band and orchestra students played an elevator-music-like medley to fill in the silence.
He was observing the seats, trying to spot where Benjamin and the rest would be sitting or whether Grandma Lisa and Grandma Kim, who had repeatedly insisted on coming, had arrived.
As Ari looked around, he caught sight of PD Emily and some staff members waving at him while pointing the camera in his direction, then heard a loud cheer as his face appeared on the large projector screen hanging from the ceiling.
Lovely.
Smiling and waving at the PD, even though he wanted to give her a dirty look, Ari turned away and hid himself at the very back of those playing instruments.
The seats of the arena kept filling up, and the chatter grew louder and louder, almost drowning out the band and orchestra students’ playing.
When it reached the correct time, students began filling the rows of folded chairs on the arena floor, and soon Principal Matador, whose bald head was hidden by his voluminous hat and whose handlebar mustache looked even larger than usual, led all the administrators involved in the ceremony onto the stage.
Getting ready for his cue, Ari took off his graduation cap, which Grace had helped him decorate and glue to a headband before glancing at Sophia, who was arranging her white gown so it flowed properly.
Principal Matador, after glancing around with an excited smile that Ari could see all from where he was, began speaking into the podium microphone.
"I’d like to give a warm welcome to the students, their families, friends, and loved ones joining us here today to celebrate the graduation of our seniors at LA CENTRAL HIGH SCHOOL...we would like to welcome Ariel Matisse, our class valedictorian, and Sophia Villanueva, the leader of our choir to please come forward and start us off by singing the national anthem as well as our school’s anthem."
As the principal gestured towards him and Sophia, the two of them began walking toward the stage, Sophia holding onto and putting all her weight on Ari’s arm as she struggled to walk in her extremely high heels.
After helping her climb the stage steps, the two of them grabbed a microphone and stood by each other in the center of the stage.
As the music began playing slowly, Ari took a moment to look up.
He could see his classmates all standing in neat rows.
Some of them had their hats off and their hands over their chest in preparation, while others fidgeted and whispered to each other.
The only common denominator was that they were all staring at him.
When he glanced up into the stands, from where he stood, he couldn’t recognize a single face; it just looked like a giant mass of people, just staring at him.
For a second, Ari felt an unusual feeling of nervousness.
He was a bit used to performing on stage, but he rarely had to do it alone like now.
None of his friends had helped him practice, and in the audience, Grandma Lisa and Grandma Kim, who had never seen him sing live, would be there.
He always bragged to them that he was a good singer and now was the time to prove it.
Would he mess up?
While the song was easy, he had only practiced harmonizing a few times with Sophia and while it sometimes went well, at other times, it felt like their two voices were battling for dominance.
Would his voice crack?
Even though he was being careful not to strain his voice, nothing was ever 100 percent.
As the music got louder, his cue to sing almost arrived, and just as his hands tightened on the microphone, he heard somebody scream.
"Let’s go Ariiiiiiiiiiiii!!!"
"Sea Captain, let’s gooooo! Wooooooooooooo!!!!!"
Hearing Benjamin and Jamie’s loud voices piercing through the music and actually echoing in the arena, Ari genuinely burst out laughing before schooling his face into one of seriousness.
While he was thankful for the words of encouragement, he could only feel bad for the people whose eardrums probably exploded due to the unexpected shouts.
Still, his nerves flowed away, and he began to sing with Sophia.
"Oh say can you see~,
by the dawns early light~,
what’s so proudly we hailed,
at the twilights last gleaming~"
As Sophia sang the high notes of the melody, Ari did his best to harmonize at a lower pitch, just like they had practiced.
He made sure not to be too loud, that his breathing wasn’t caught and transmitted by the microphone, and that he enunciated everything clearly.
"Oh say does that star-spangled banner yet wave~~~~~~"
As Sophia sang the second to the last line, her high note increasing steadily as if it wanted to pierce the heavens, Ari began singing the final lyrics, starting low, and smoothly rising up in pitch
"O’er the land of the free and the home of the bra~aaaaa~aaaaaa~ve~~~"
As Ari sang the final word, extending the last note for multiple seconds, an enthusiastic round of applause broke out and filled the arena.
Filling much more at ease, he breezed through the school song as well before taking his seat on stage as the ceremony continued.