This was the day she had long awaited. Paul was on an airplane this very minute, and before the day was over, she would see him and …
She forced her imagination to shut down. All in good time, she coached herself, using one of Granna Mae’s familiar lines.
Sierra prayed as she showered, dressed, and tried to get her hair to cooperate. After spending an extra minute with the mascara wand, she went downstairs, where she found Jeremy and Wes engaged in serious battle with a video game.
“You guys are pathetic,” she teased. Neither of them had showered yet, and both had wacky hair and wore crumpled T-shirts and shorts.
“Hey, don’t make fun of our male-bonding rituals,” Jeremy said.
“Yeah,” Wes agreed. “Do we break into your little tea parties and tell you you’re pathetic?”
“No. My apologies. Bond away, big boys.”
“Whoa!” Wes said, bobbing and ducking with the controller in his hand. “You shouldn’t have gotten that one, Jeremy. I was in there way ahead of you. Whoa, look out!”
Jeremy laughed. “You snooza, you looza.”
Sierra smiled on her way into the kitchen. Paul would fit in nicely with this clan, especially since his own big brother was already part of the gang. Mom had set out a basket of muffins, a pitcher of fresh orange juice, and a big bowl of fruit salad. Bright, golden sunshine tumbled through the open kitchen window, lighting up the counter. Sierra could hear four-year-old Tyler in the backyard with his grandpa, laughing his adorable laugh. Brutus was barking and probably slobbering all over Tyler. Someone upstairs was running a shower. A blow-dryer ran at top speed in the downstairs bathroom.
Even though Sierra was the only one in the kitchen as she poured her orange juice, she felt surrounded by love. At times like this she enjoyed being in a big family and thought that anyone who didn’t come from such a clan was really missing out.
The extended family had to take three cars to fit everyone in for the ride to Sierra’s school auditorium. Sierra rode with Tawni and Jeremy. Fortunately, Tawni had slept in, so she was in the best of moods. If Sierra needed to tell Tawni that she and Paul wanted to do something alone rather than with Tawni and Jeremy, it seemed more likely her sister would understand now that she was in a cheery mood.
Sierra had laid her gown across her legs with her cap balanced on her lap. She felt nervous, but she wasn’t sure why. She didn’t think it was graduation. After all, she wasn’t valedictorian, so she didn’t have to make a speech or anything. All she had to do was walk up to the podium, shake the principal’s hand, take her diploma, and walk down the stage. So why did she feel queasy?
It has to be Paul, she thought. I’m so nervous and excited about seeing him I can hardly think about anything else. But graduation is something a person should probably pay attention to!
She tried to imagine what Paul was doing on the plane right now. Was he sleeping? Reading? Or gazing out the plane’s window, just as she was gazing out the car’s window? Was he feeling nervous about seeing her?
When the car pulled into the school parking lot, Sierra put aside all her thoughts of Paul, separated from her family, and scurried with her cap and gown to the school library, where all the girls were meeting before the ceremony.
Vicki was already there, wearing her gown and adjusting her cap. She gave a happy squeal and dashed over to hug Sierra when she walked in. Several other girls greeted Sierra with hugs and nervous laughter. They helped each other get their caps on right, and Margo said, “Whoever thought up this flat-head style anyhow? I don’t know why someone didn’t come up with something better. I mean, really, they can put men on the moon, but they can’t design a decent hat for the masses to wear when they receive a diploma.”
Sierra decided this would be a good time to demonstrate her talent of making her tassel do the hula. Vicki was the first one to notice and tried to imitate the subtle head motions that set the tassel swaying just right. Two more girls copied them, and then three more came over and joined the impromptu competition. Ripples of laughter rolled over the group, providing a release for their nervous energy.
“Which side is this tassel supposed to be on?” one girl asked.
“This side,” Vicki said, demonstrating. “Don’t you remember their telling us at practice? Then we flip it at the very end of the ceremony.”
One of the history teachers entered the library and clapped her hands. “All right, ladies, this is it. Line up alphabetically in the hall. Shall we go now? Nice and orderly.”
The guys were already lined up in the hall, with big gaps where they remembered girls being from the practice session. The boys looked as if they had been goofing around, too. At practice, strict warnings had been given to all the students about attempting pranks during the ceremony. The year before some girls had smuggled bottles of soap bubbles into the auditorium and had filled the air with bubbles. The harmless trick caused more trouble than it was worth, so this year the administration had come down hard about no shenanigans of any kind. Sierra wondered if the rule would be respected.
“Sierra, over here,” Randy called to her. At practice, they had discovered for the first time that they were next to each other alphabetically at Royal Academy. Sierra slipped in line between her buddy and a guy she didn’t know very well who was fiddling with the tie he had on underneath his gown.
“You nervous?” Randy asked. His half grin was broader than usual.
“No,” Sierra said. “Are you?”
“Naw, I’ve been looking forward to this.”
“Me, too,” she agreed.
“All right, everyone, listen up.” The football coach’s booming voice echoed down the hall. “Let’s go. Exactly as you did it in practice. This is it. Go make your mamas proud.”
The auditorium’s doors opened, and the music rushed out to welcome them inside. The line of students, all wearing deep blue caps and gowns, began to march down the hallway.
Just as they were to move forward, Randy reached back and took Sierra’s hand. As the music played, Sierra walked down the aisle, holding hands with her best buddy, Randy.
nine
AFTER THREE SONGS and a speech from a man who had graduated from Royal Academy and now ran a chain of furniture stores in Arizona, the principal finally moved to the podium. Sierra blew air out past her protruding lower lip in an effort to cool off her perspiring forehead. The auditorium was stuffy, and the cap and gown made her feel a little claustrophobic. Fortunately, the awards and special recognitions went quickly. The last award was a new one they had added this year for the student who had best demonstrated Christian character during his or her stay at Royal.
“It’ll probably go to you,” Randy whispered.
“Hardly,” Sierra whispered back. “You’re the one who stopped the school riot last fall when you voluntarily cut your hair.”
Before they could argue any more, the principal announced, “And the winner of this award will receive a four-thousand dollar scholarship, which was generously donated by Pellmer’s Furniture of Arizona, to the college of his or her choice. The recipient is … Randy Jenkins.”
Randy nearly rocketed out of his chair. He gave Sierra a huge grin and playful tag on the shoulder before going up to the podium to receive the envelope and to shake hands.
This is so perfect, God! Sierra thought exultantly. You knew how much Randy needed scholarship money for Rancho. You are so awesome! Thank You, thank You!
Randy returned to his seat, looking as if the reality of the award had just sunk in. He was more dazed than when he first had heard the announcement.
“That was a total God-thing,” Sierra whispered.
“Yeah,” was all Randy could say.
The calling of the graduates’ names began, and row by row the students went forward. By the time Sierra stepped onto the podium, she didn’t feel nervous at all. Out of the corner of her eye, she noticed the camera’s flash as her mom captured the moment on film. Sierra smiled, accepted the diploma in he
r left hand, and remembered to cross over her right hand to shake hands with the principal. That’s when her English teacher, who stood at the microphone, announced Sierra’s name and her scholastic rank with resounding clarity. “Sierra Mae Jensen, magna cum laude.”
A burst of applause followed, sending a little shiver up Sierra’s spine. She paused right before going down the stairs and looked in the direction of the wildest clapping. Sure enough, there was her family and her mom with the camera. Sierra held up her diploma, smiled back, and gave her mother the chance to take a shot.
Her one moment in the spotlight ended when the name of the next student was called, and a burst of applause for him followed. Sierra returned to her seat next to Randy. They gave each other clandestine pokes in the arm to show how proud they were of one another.
The ceremony ended without any shenanigans. After a prayer and a charge to the students, they were instructed to switch their tassels. They marched out much more triumphantly than they had entered. Sierra looked for her family as she passed their aisle and gave a special little wave to Tyler and then blew him a kiss.
As soon as they were in the hallway, a string of poppers and flying streamers were released. It was impossible to tell where the party favors had come from, but it didn’t matter. Everyone was cheering and hugging and tossing the streamers back into the air. Caps and tassels were flying in the crowded hallway. A can of Silly String appeared, and suddenly Sierra had long, bright pink bits of Silly String in her hair. She was laughing so hard that she could hardly breathe. She watched Randy switch hats, putting on his black baseball cap with the long ponytail attached to the back. He placed his graduation cap on top of the baseball cap. Some other friends of theirs—Tyler, Jen, and Tara—came over, and Tara put a clip-on hoop earring in Randy’s nose.
By the time the parents and other guests tried to exit into the hallway, it was impossible to calm the wild seniors. None of the teachers tried to stop the antics. Sierra wanted to think it was because the students had followed the rules through the whole ceremony. They deserved to go a little crazy at the end.
The only one who tried to yell above the crowd was the football coach. He kept directing them to take their party into the parking lot, which they eventually did.
Mrs. Jensen snapped lots of pictures of Sierra and her friends. Since Sierra didn’t want to stop having fun with her friends to become the photographer, she was glad. She knew these were the snapshots she would keep in her photo album for the rest of her life.
Randy was the wackiest she had ever seen him. He climbed onto the top of the planter in front of the school and acted as if he were leading a cheer with his ponytail flapping in the wind.
Amy made her way through the crowd and greeted Vicki and Sierra with a big hug. “This is way wilder than my graduation was!” Amy yelled over the noise.
Sierra nodded and yelled back, “Where’s my air horn when I need it?”
Amy laughed, sharing a not-so-fun memory with Sierra that involved an air horn and Sierra’s overzealous good intentions.
Vicki put her thumb and first finger in her mouth and let out the shrillest whistle Sierra had ever heard. She covered her ears and turned to her usually polite friend. “Where did you learn to do that?”
“My dad. Here, like this. Try it!”
Amy, Sierra, and Vicki worked at improving their shrill whistling as Randy wound down his final cheer. Many of the parents were trying to coax the students to calm down and get their things together so they could leave and have a nice, respectable family dinner. Sierra’s family kindly stood to the side and let her have her graduation moment with her buddies.
Vicki’s dad motioned for Vicki to come along. She stopped her whistling, and after another hug for Sierra, she said, “I’ll be over to your house as soon as I can, but don’t try to hold any food for me.”
Sierra nodded. It suddenly struck her that Paul could be here already. He could be at the airport or even on his way to her house. She didn’t have her watch on, but she knew it was getting late. “I’m going to get things ready at the house,” Sierra told Amy.
“I’ll pick up the food now,” Amy said. “What are you going to wear? Do you think this is too fancy? Should I stop at home to change?”
Sierra glanced at Amy’s short, sleeveless black dress. It was fancy, but it looked great on her. “I don’t know what I’m going to wear. Just wear that, and if you want to change, you can borrow something of mine.”
Amy nodded and took off for her car. Sierra joined her family and gestured to Randy that she was leaving. She didn’t know if he saw her, since her departure didn’t stop his antics. Sierra shook her head. Ever since Randy had found out he was going to Rancho, he seemed to have gone through a personality transformation. It made her wonder if he was going to be one of those guys who go berserk once they move away to college and experience freedom from parental authority. She had never thought of his parents as overly strict, but maybe they were more so than she realized.
Sierra linked her arm with Granna Mae’s and walked to the Jensen family van. She noticed how many of the cars in the parking lot were decorated. Most of her friends had written congratulatory notes with white shoe polish on the windows of their cars or their friends’ cars. Sierra had been so absorbed in the rush of the last few weeks that she hadn’t even thought of decorating her little car.
“Such a to-do,” Granna Mae said. “My, my, my!”
“It’s so much fun!” Sierra said. “Just think, Granna Mae, I’m a graduate!”
Granna Mae gave Sierra a foggy look as if she weren’t sure who Sierra was or what she was talking about. The blank look caused Sierra to hold her grandmother’s arm a little tighter and make sure she got situated in the front seat of the van. Sierra whispered to her mom, “I think this was a little much for Granna Mae.”
Mrs. Jensen nodded, and they all climbed into the van.
At home, Sierra didn’t see any unfamiliar cars parked in front of their house, so apparently Paul hadn’t arrived yet. She wanted to hurry inside to change, but her mom was set on taking a whole roll of family photos. It took only ten minutes or so, but each minute seemed like an hour as Sierra watched every car that came down the street. None of them stopped in front of her house.
Cody, Katrina, and Tyler left after hugging everyone, and Sierra hurried up to her room. The time was exactly four-thirty. Paul was in Portland. Was he still at the baggage claim? She stopped and smiled at her reflection in the mirror. When she and Paul met a year and a half ago, they had both grabbed for the same bag on the luggage carousel.
She could hardly stand the anticipation. She pictured Uncle Mac picking Paul up and bringing him over to her house.
Sierra had no idea what to wear. She heard the doorbell ring and knew she had better hurry and decide. The dress she had worn under her robe was kind of dressy, and it was similar to Amy’s. That wasn’t unusual. Sierra and Amy shared the same taste in clothes. But would it seem odd for the two of them to wear the same sort of dress at a small dinner party? Sierra couldn’t remember what Vicki was wearing.
The doorbell rang again, and Sierra decided she wouldn’t worry about changing. She had a party to hostess and a very special guest to greet. A quick freshening-up in the bathroom was all she allowed herself before lightheartedly skipping down the stairs to see her family and friends.
A rattle of excited chatter rose from the front porch. Sierra looked through the open door and saw the back of Randy’s head with the ponytail. Tawni was in the circle, as well as Jeremy, Sierra’s mom, and her two little brothers. Amy stood by the steps. The group seemed focused on something on the porch.
“What is it?” Sierra asked, opening the screen door and approaching the huddle.
Tawni and Jeremy both stepped back so Sierra could see. It was the last thing she expected.
ten
“THEY’RE ALIVE,” Sierra said, looking at Amy for an explanation.
“I know.”
Sierra
gazed at the large bucket of fidgeting red lobsters trying to climb up the slick plastic sides. “You didn’t say we were going to fix live lobsters.”
“I didn’t know. My uncle just said ‘lobster’ and that he would give them to us at cost, by the pound. I thought he was going to cook them for us.”
“How do you cook them?” Sierra asked.
“It’s easy. You just boil them,” Wesley said, coming up the steps with a second bucket. “Haven’t you ever seen how they do it in the huge vats down on the coast?”
“At least you know they’re fresh,” Jeremy said. Tawni playfully punched him in the arm.
“How many did you get?” Sierra asked.
“Sixteen.”
“Can we have two of them?” Dillon asked. “Then Gavin and I could have a race.”
“Cool,” Randy said. “I’m in.”
“You guys!” Sierra said. “No, you may not play with our food!”
“I don’t know if I can go through with this,” Amy said. “I mean, I don’t know if I can eat them. They were looking at me in the car on the way over.”
Wes laughed. He had worked at Degrassi’s restaurant last summer as a waiter and was heartless when it came to the fresh catch of the day. “You’ve eaten them before at the restaurant. I’ve seen you.”
“I know, but I never actually met any of them before I ate them.”
Now everyone was laughing.
“What’s this one’s name?” Randy teased, picking up one of the plump fellows and holding it up for Amy to see. The claws were taped closed, but Amy pulled back as if it could pinch her.
“This one is Rory,” Gavin said, bravely picking up another lobster.
“Where did you get that name?” Tawni asked.
“I dunno.”
Just then a car pulled into the driveway, and Sierra moved away from the group with her heart pounding. She thought how unlike any of her dreams it would be to see Paul at this moment. She had conjured up a variety of scenarios, but none of them involved greeting Paul with half a dozen people gathered around two buckets of live lobsters.
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