Hammel Graduation 2012

Mia was drunk. Not really drunk. Not throwing up in the corner before rolling into bed with some shady character drunk, more a slightly giggly, grabbing Jonah's ass whenever he turned around to check how much time they had before it was time to go drunk.

Her theory was that if she had to wear a gown and a stupid hat, it would be much more enjoyable if she was drunk. Also her parents weren't going as her dad thought graduation ceremonies were a last gasp of bourgeois romanticism, and had just taken them out for dinner. Ollie had also bought her a case of champagne. He was a great brother.

"So, tell me," she said to Jonah, spinning the tassel on her hat as she looked around at the growing crowd. "Are you super duper proud of me, King?" The short girl grinned, then spun in the tailored robe. They'd had to order one in; they had some small ones for the child protegees who graduated at 11.

Jonah had been present when Mia partook of her first ever alcoholic drink, and he had the feeling that he would probably be there for her last, as well. Drunk people always fell somewhere between ‘entertaining’ and ‘irritating’ for a telepath, but he was so used to Mia being inebriated that he was very good at taking it in his stride.

So he just gave one of his silent laughs when Mia tried to grab him, sidestepping neatly and catching her by the arm when she looked like she was about to overbalance. Jonah glanced at the clock once again, turning when he caught Mia’s intention to speak in the constant stream of thoughts coming from her. ‘Of course,’ he said with a grin, warmth in his eyes. And because he could, he leaned down and kissed her.

‘So, Keystone,’ their faces were still close, and Jonah smirked at her. ‘Think you can get through the whole thing without starting a fight?’ She hadn’t admitted to having anything up her sleeve, but you could never tell with Mia – she was in a very good mood, and that was usually because she was plotting or scheming something.

Mia had started to pout as Jonah effectively blocked her attempts to molest him, but that faded as he kissed her and she grabbed his face and made it a proper one. Public displays of affection were not really her thing, but bugger it, there was a bottle of champagne in her system and it was hard for her not to remember that this time last year, the telepath had been AWOL.

When they broke apart, her grin faded into dramatic indignation. "I am shocked and appalled at your accusations!" she said, maybe a little loudly, poking a finger at her best friend/booty call/friend with benefits/fine ok boyfriend. "How dare you suggest such a thing!"

Still, she couldn't keep the face and waggled her eyebrows, thinking hard.

As soon as that diploma is in my hand, I was thinking of flashing Doctor Sean the girls.

The technopath had a reputation to uphold, after all. And while she couldn't top the sex ed talk without possibly being arrested, someone needed to inspire the next lot of kiddies, didn't they?

Alice sat patiently in her seat wearing the tacky cap and gown attire which was forced upon every graduating student. She had voiced her opinion on the colors and the design, but apparently good taste skipped passing its blessing onto the designers. Aside from the hideous attire, things seemed to be moving forward today in a positive direction. This was part of the last moments of her being a student here at Hammel and her first steps into the next stage of her life. Alice's parents were here somewhere in the crowd of people in the auditorium, along with her father's personal assistant Sebastian. Sebastian had been with her family since before Alice's birth and so, Alice sort of looked at him as part of the family.

Pulling out her phone, Alice sighed and sent her mother a text, wondering where she was sitting at. Alice hadn't been able to greet her parents properly upon their arrival into Vermont last night as she had been busy getting things ready for today and as such, she had not seen them when they arrived today. Just as her phone vibrated to let her know of her new message, Alice's father appeared before in one of his typical fancy entrances. Her father was a meta, a teleporter. His visage appeared before her, fading in and out quickly before locking into place for good, much like a weak television signal would. He was dressed in one of his three piece suits and held a rose for his daughter in his left hand. Then as quickly as he had appeared, he was gone, leaving behind the rose in Alice's lap. Alice smiled and checked the message on her phone, looking up and toward the direction her mother had informed her of and then waved. Her father was standing, nodding to her while her mother seemed to be scolding him about showing off again.

It was very strange to be standing here.

Like Mia, Henry’s robes had taken a bit of careful sewing, and the tall boy was rather skeptical of the result. He couldn’t help but feel that he looked like one of the bat-creatures from the film Titan A.E.—imposing, and a little vampiric. Or Grim-Reaper-esq. Well, it couldn’t be helped. He was here now, and frightening or not, he was going to go through with this.

His family was there as well, which was only adding to the strangeness. His father had hugged him, and Henry, filled with curiously mixed feelings, had found himself hugging him back. And then, of course, there was Richard, who was currently balanced on his half-brother’s shoulders directing him where to go and giggling and squirming so much that Henry was afraid he was going to fall off. Still, he couldn’t quite help the smile that kept appearing on his face. He had his little brother with him, he was moving onto something more independent, and he had people around him who he’d actually started to care about.

Life could be a lot worse.

It had occurred to Jonah too, the fact that he had missed his own graduation ceremony – they hadn’t mentioned it all week, and he was glad of that. Then again, they didn’t need to: Mia had thought about it a couple of times, and he had seen her doing it, and he’d held her a little closer when the thought had crossed her mind.

‘Sorry, sorry!’ Jonah held up his hands in a gesture of surrender, a smile still on his face. He couldn’t tell if she was being too loud or not, but he could pick up the faint echo of her words in the thoughts of people around him, so he guessed that they had heard her. A few teachers turned their heads, a few thoughts of those two are going to get a shock in the real world, but Jonah just smiled back at them.

But when Mia held one particular thought clearly in his mind, obviously intending for him to hear it, Jonah couldn’t help it – he spluttered with laughter at the unexpected comment, looking over at his friend with an expression somewhere between amusement and horror. Really? he asked her, trying to work out if she was telling the truth – she certainly seemed to be, from what he could read in her surface thoughts.

Oh no.