February 2, 2025

I was running through the school halls and each of the classrooms I ran past had makeshift bathrooms set up. The graduation ceremony was today but seats were not assigned and I didn’t have people to sit with. I tried to at least look for people who were in the same class as me.

I eventually found a pair of familiar faces from my elementary school days. One of them commented on how gathering a class only gets unsustainable at numbers greater than a hundred people. “It’s just too much work”, they said.

The MC on stage started cracking jokes about skibidi toilet and quizzing the audience about song names from the JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure fighting games. He then started asking about the car brand featured in the Barbie movie, or was it the Marvel Cinematic Universe? Apparently it was Toyota. He asked my friend if she’d like one.

My friend had to leave early while I sat on the grass wrapped under my blanket. I teased his partner that he was abandoning us for someone else which she didn’t seem to take very lightly. My dad approached me from behind and hugged me through the blanket.