J
JAY-JAY POV
Graduation was supposed to be formal. Polite. Tearful in a quiet, dignified way.
Yeah. Not for Section E.
The moment our names were called, we didn't walk across the stage. We stormed it.
Mayo did a cartwheel.
Blaster dabbed like it was still 2016.
Edrix hacked the mic and played a dubstep remix of the school anthem.
Felix looked like he wanted to disappear into the floor.
David tried to keep a straight face and failed.
Eman threw glitter.
Denzel held his baby daughter up like it was The Lion King.
Josh tripped over his own shoelaces and still managed to bow.
The teachers tried to maintain order.
They failed.
Spectacularly.
And then— Ci-N, ever the chaotic one, stood up mid-photo and shouted:
"I LOVE YOU, RAKKI!"
The room exploded.
Rakki turned red. Like, tomato-level red.
I swear I couldn't tell the difference between her face and an actual tomato.
It was that bad.
Blaster dropped his diploma.
Mayo screamed like someone had proposed.
Felix whispered, "Emotional contamination confirmed."
Percy clutched his chest like it was a telenovela.
Luna gasped so hard she choked on her gum.
David blinked slowly, like his soul had left his body.
Jare just stared, stunned into silence.
Kit raised an eyebrow and said, "Finally."
And Ci-N?
He just sat back down.
Calm.
Smug.
Like he hadn't just detonated a social bomb in the middle of our graduation.
Rakki blinked.
Twice.
Then turned to him and said, "You're lucky I'm wearing heels or I'd chase you."
Ci-N grinned. "Worth it."
The photographer tried to salvage the moment. "Okay, everyone smile! One, two—"
"CI-N AND RAKKI FOREVER!" Mayo screamed.
The photo was taken mid-chaos.
Half of us were laughing.
Half of us were screaming.
And Rakki was trying to strangle Ci-N with her graduation sash.
Perfect.
When it was my turn, I froze for half a second.
Just long enough to feel the weight of it.
The moment.
The years.
The everything.
Then I heard them.
"GO JAY-JAY!" "OUR LAWYER QUEEN!" "PERCY'S STILL PRETTIER BUT WE LOVE YOU!"
I walked. Head high. Heart pounding.
And when I got my diploma, I didn't cry. Not right away.
But then I turned around— And saw them all standing.
Clapping.
Yelling.
Smiling like we'd made it out of a war zone.
Because we had.
After the ceremony, it was chaos.
Photos.
Tears.
Confetti.
Mayo tried to crowd-surf.
Luna tackled him before he could
Percy tried to flirt with someone mom
Keifer held my hand like it was the most normal thing in the world.
David hugged everyone like he was trying to memorize us.
Felix gave a speech about entropy and emotional closure.
Ci-N tried to propose to Rakki again.
She threw her shoe at him.
Blaster started a chant: "SECTION E! SECTION E!"
Eman passed out cupcakes with our names on them.
Denzel's daughter tried to eat mine.
Sir Alivin gave us a speech that was supposed to be serious.
Something about growth and legacy and "the future is yours."
But halfway through, Percy shouted, "WE LOVE YOU, SIR!" And the whole class joined in.
Even Sir Alivin laughed.
Which was terrifying. And kind of beautiful.
We took one last photo together.
Section E.
Some of us crying.
Some of us laughing.
All of us loud.
It wasn't perfect.
It wasn't quiet.
But it was us.
The kind of goodbye that doesn't feel like an ending.
Just a loud, messy comma in the middle of something bigger.
I looked around at all of them— My chaos. My heartbreak.
My found family.
And I knew, no matter where we ended up— Different colleges.
Different cities.
Different lives—We'd always be Section E.
The loudest goodbye.
The best kind.