Song: Boys Will Be Bugs by Cavetown
Words: 1475
Published: May 8th, 2020
Third Person POV
Rayna

The schedule for school today is completely different than usual since it's the last day of school. Their actual graduation ceremony is a few weeks, but they do have an assembly on the last day that the whole school attends to say goodbye to the seniors. Rayna knows she won't be able to attend the actual ceremony.

It starts out in homeroom, but they stay there for a half hour longer than usual. The teacher asks questions about what students are going to do after high school, and they play some games. Rayna is actually happy since everyone's too excited to tease her. She's able to put aside her anxiety and enjoy this morning.

They go to their classes, but only in half hour increments. Teachers ask similar questions, but each have different games. Each student has six classes in a day, disregarding homeroom, so after everyone's first three they take a lunch break.

Rayna meets up with Naomi in the hall.

"How's your day been?" The ginger asks.

"Pretty good, actually," Rayna tells her. Mimi digs around in her pocket and pulls out a dollar for Rainy. School lunch is paid for, but they can get extra sweets with their own money from à la carte.

They go through the line, talking about their day so far, before taking their usual seat in the corner of the cafeteria. The tables are rectangular and seat ten per table, five on each side. Rayna sits on the end, Naomi next to her. There's usually at least four other people there, sometimes up to eight.

One of them is Travis, Naomi's boyfriend. They've been dating for about nine months now, as they met and started dating last summer. Rayna has made her feelings towards him crystal clear.

Around Naomi, he acts like this perfect guy. Whenever he does something bad, he finds a way to turn it on someone else, and Naomi always believes him. Rayna has tried to tell Naomi, but she refuses to believe that.

Over the past couple of months, ever since Travis somehow caught wind of Rayna ratting him out to Naomi, a tension has been building up between them. Travis has been blaming things on Rayna and trying to get Naomi against her. Luckily, it hasn't worked, and has actually been backfiring on his part. For the past week he's been trying to earn her love back.

The other three regulars at the table consist of two of Travis's friends and one of their girlfriends, whom Naomi has a class with, so they talk a bit every time.

Some of the seniors pull a prank at lunch by riding in on a little toy train that you'd see in malls. Everyone applauded and laughed. Even Rayna couldn't help but giggle as Naomi ran over and hopped on. Luckily, she got off and away with it before teachers shut it down.

At the end of lunch, the students get dismissed to their next class. Naomi stops Rayna for a second as they're emptying their trays.

"It's my turn to clean the table. Wait for me?" she asks.

"Yeah, I'll be by your locker," Rayna assures with a nod. Naomi smiles and goes to grab a rag from the janitor.

Rayna puts her tray away and walks into the hallway, heading towards Naomi's locker. She lets out a surprised gasp when she's pushed onto the ground. Students around her snicker. She looks up to see Travis. That asshole, she thinks to herself but doesn't have the guts to say out loud.

"Oops," Travis says in an overly fake voice. He proceeds to kick Rayna in the ribs, winding her. She gasps for air. He lifts her up by her hood and throws her against the wall, making her seethe. He pins her against the brick with one hand on her chest before punching her twice in the face. She lets out a painful groan.

He backs up and punches her hard in the gut, causing her to double over and puke out what she had for lunch. Everyone else in the hall, watching the scene as if it's classic entertainment, turns to leave in disgust, but quickly turn back when there's a loud slap.

It's Naomi. She slapped Travis. Hard.

"N- Naomi . . . Wait, it's not what-" Travis poorly attempts to explain, but he gets cut off.

"Cut the shit, Travis. We. Are. Over," Naomi spits at him. His jaw and fists clench, but he turns and walks down the hall.

Naomi crouches down next to Rayna, wrapping an arm around her.

"Come on, let's get you to the nurse."

*~*~*~*

Rayna holds an ice pack to her face for half of her next class. She was offered snacks by the kind teacher, but she knew her stomach was still too uneasy to eat, so she politely rejected the offer.

Luckily, she heals fast, and there's no marks left by the time of the assembly.

She sits next to Naomi on the bleachers outside. There's too many students to fit into one gym, so they use the football stadium instead.

There's a small talent show, where the best from the other talent show earlier in the year preform. A dance group, a band, a singer, a magician, and a few other acts. Rayna's personal favorite part of the assembly is the minute-to-win-it games, where teachers and students battle each other under a timer.

Freshman, sophomore, and junior—along with some small senior—awards get handed out to students before the last part.

It's a slideshow, projected onto a large white sheet they somehow managed to hang behind the little stage they set up. It shows pictures of the class from kindergarten up until now. Rayna notices when people point out the years kids left or joined the school and shout when they see themselves.

Rayna sees a few pictures of her with Naomi, remembering each of them, though frowns when she hears a group of students somewhere else on the bleachers boo at them. Looking around, she figures it's Travis and some of his friends. Naomi notices, too, and whispers to Rayna, though it's more of a normal voice level with how loud everyone else was being.

"Ignore them. I'm honored to be your best friend, Rainy."

Rainy smiles at her.

"Same to you, Mimi."

The assembly ends after that, and seniors are the first to be dismissed to leave school. People are cheering and running and leaping down the bleachers. Hand in hand, Rayna and Naomi join, Naomi letting out a short cheer.

The fun sadly ends when Rayna is pushed and tripped and falls face first down the bleachers. Naomi screams, but through the noise, no one hears her. She leans over Rayna who groans. They both know it was intentional, and who did it.

Naomi helps Rayna up, and they realize she's twisted her ankle.

"Back to the nurses office," Naomi huffs, helping a limping Rayna to the school doors.

*~*~*~*

"I'm sorry for ruining your last day," Rayna says to Naomi.

She's strapped on an ankle brace and took some pills to speed up healing her scraped up hands. With Naomi being human, the nurse had lied saying they were painkillers, but Mimi already knows the truth. Now, they're sitting outside the school on a bench, waiting for the pain to wear off to give the brace back and go home. It should only be a few more minutes.

"You didn't ruin it, and it's your day just as much as it is mine. It's all Travis's fault, and if anyone else's, it's mine," Naomi sighs.

"What? This isn't at all your fault," Rayna argues.

"I should've listened to you as soon as you started telling me about Travis."

"No, it's okay. It's not your fault," Rayna assures her, giving her a hug. "He's a good actor," she mumbles.

"Thank you," Naomi says, chuckling. "And trust me, it isn't your fault, either. You didn't ruin anything. You know that, right?"

"Yeah."

"Good. How's your ankle now?" Naomi asks.

"I think it's good. Let me try walking first." Rayna stands up and quickly regrets it as her ankle is still in pain. She sits down. "Nope, not yet."

"Okay. Hey, I got a plan for your birthday," Naomi exclaims.

"Yeah? What is it?" Rayna asks.

"I already convinced Johnathan, so trust me, it's happening," Naomi starts with.

"Wait, really?" Rayna asks, sitting up and leaning towards her.

"Yeah."

"What's gonna happen?"

"You get to spend the night at my house!"

"Shit, really?" Rayna asks, still astonished.

"Yeah!"

They talk a bit more until Rayna tries walking again, and her ankle is healed. They go return the ankle brace before hopping back into Naomi's car.