Mistakenly Fallen

6. “Sorry, My Mom and Dad, they really love me.”

The entire school ground that once used to be the football field, had been turned in to the perfect ceremonial ground, with a stage set up at the north side of the ground, with a red backdrop that had large silver letters, reading ‘Congratulations to All The Graduates’.

Young and sharp witted minds, all who had graduated through the day sat together in rows of chairs, set up right in front of the stage, looking right back at the podium that was the center of the attention of the entire school. They all shun under the bright sun rays falling upon them but their faces shielded with black mortarboard hats that had yellow tassels hanging down from the front right corner with red gowns donned on their body, representing them as graduates for the day.

Proud parents of the graduates, sat on the bleachers of the ground, clapping in joy for their children, as the evenings mic coordinator and host, appreciated the children for passing through tough hurdles just to reach right where they were.

Everyone in the crowd wore Armani and Louboutin’s, as the school named, ‘Jersey High’, was one of the most prestigious and expensive private schools in the entire state and parents sent their kids to that school to make sure that they received the best of the education that was present in the country to be provided. Therefore, all the students that were graduating seemed so sharp and assertive.

In the middle of those bleachers, a couple stood out from the rest, as they were the dashing, glowing and the most attractive couple amongst the parents – the Santiagos.

Rachel couldn’t control her happiness to see how her children have grown up to become this big and graduating high school already.

“It just feels like yesterday that I went through twelve hours of labor and risked my life to get these little pumpkins out of my body.” Rachel cried, resting her head over Alejandro’s shoulder.

He smiled to his own self, as he heard his wife tell her favorite story of all time.

She had been through riskier and dangerous and life threatening situations but nothing stuck to her like the one when she was in labor because at the end of that situation she got something incredibly beautiful handed back to her.

“I can’t believe it either but my children came from a wonderful woman, of course they are to achieve wonderful things just like their mother.”

“Aww!”

Rachel patted Alejandro’s cheek, as she also felt proud of her husband’s soothing words.

“You really have extremely low hopes for our sons, too. Don’t you?”

Alejandro nodded at her words, agreeing to the fact that their sons were doomed for nothing as they were incredibly slow in academics and if it weren’t for their daddy’s money than they would definitely not be going to Harvard, one of the most expensive college with the highest bar to get in to in the entire world.

As the couple looked in the crowd and spotted their son, they sighed, feeling incredibly disappointed that they were busy, getting a picture with all their friends, posing for cameras and sticking their tongues out, having no care about the future.

Lucas and Nicholas posed with one of their friends from the football team and shook his hand, smacking a greet at once and patting on each other’s back, once the picture was taken.

“I request everyone to take their seats, before we invite our dean to say a few words and bid the graduating class a lovely farewell.”

Both Nick and Luke knew that the words were directed in to their direction, as they were the designated bad boys of the school.

Grunting in annoyance the two took their seats by the corner of the row.

Many girls turned in their direction and threw kisses and winks their way, giving them a hint at what was coming up at the after party.

“I can’t wait for the after party.” Nick announced with excitement, throwing a high five at his brother but all of their excitements were genuinely directed towards the after party when currently all they thought about and that made them feel proud and enthralled was only one girl in the entire crowd that was their own sister, sitting at the stage amongst the esteemed guests on the stage, wearing a familiar graduation gown and hat, feeling completely anxious and highly thrilled for the speech that she was about to give as the valedictorian of their graduating class.

She had already passed given her speech in front of the students during the rehearsals but it was obviously not thorough and she only had run a mic test. Her real speech was going to happen in front of everyone, who had their eyes towards her, looking forward to find even the slightest of the mistake in the so called perfect student that the entire school staff and the teachers always chanted applause and praised.

She felt a sting of gurling ache spark right in the pits of her guts, reminding her about her anxious sitaution, whereby she always got severe stomach aches, nausea and in some extreme cases she even got severe diarrhea.

She only hoped and wished that her other end didn't betray her and she would be able to give a graduating speech to all her fellow graduates and not make a fool out of her self when many newspaper, magazine and media photographers were present at the graduation ceremonies and were recording the entire event, for everyone to keep a memory of.

Camila wanted her embarassment to be the last thing any one would remember.

Oh God! Please don’t make me go crazy or silent on the podium!

Please, please, please! Help me keep my sanity together just for one more night… in fact only a few hours till I pass down the entire ceremony and after that you can make me do whatever you want to.

She gulped hard, subtly rubbing her sweaty hands against her thighs that were covered with her knee length black dress, that belonged to her mother but she gave it to Camila as a graduating gift and it fit to her like a glove.

“Now, to call one of your own, to give you light, courage and guidance to fall in to the right path in the future, I would like for all of you raise an applause for Camila Santiago.”

Many in the crowd clapped their hands, as Camila’s name was called but some didn’t, obviously feeling annoyed that the girl who always remained on top of the class got to be the valedictorian and lucas and Nicholas did notice those who didn’t clap for their sister, one of them being a student sitting right in front of them.

Lucas slipped ahead gently and grabbed the guy’s neck, “You think, you are too cool to not to clap for my sister.”

The hair on the boy’s neck rose, as he heard Lucas whispering in to his ear.

He immediately began clapping as Camila made her way towards the podium and at the same time seeing how Lucas had sent a threat to the boy, everyone else who wasn’t clapping for Camila also began applauding along the rest of the kids.

Reaching towards the podium, Camila’s first instinct was to roam a gaze around the crowd of the parents and her smile widened as she saw her mother and father, standing amongst the other parents with her father, whistling out loud to cheer his daughter, being the best of his Latin self.

Hearing the loud whistles and hoots coming from their parents, Lucas and Nicholas felt embarrassed, submerging their heads low and pretending to be invisible and not know who the two crackheads were who were doing obviously quite humiliating stunts in a very public place, where all their peers and their parents could clearly see what they were doing.

Camila felt amused at how her parents were showing their support to her and they didn’t just stop until they didn’t scream out loud.

“Go Camila! Mommy and Daddy are proud of you.”

Rachel yelled out loud, making everyone in the crowd laugh out loud.

Obviously everyone in the entire place was extremely sophisticated and poised, given the fact that they all belonged to a rich, upper class family.

“Okay! Sit down.”

Camila laughed, accidently speaking in to the mic, making everyone hear what she had to say to her parents but she wasn’t embarrassed even to the slightest.

“Sorry, My Mom and Dad, they really love me.” She laughed it off, suddenly all of her fears that she had built up in her mind regarding to how she will give the speech or if she would end up embarrassing herself dissipated in to thin air as her parents did something even more baffling and bewildering.

“And actually, you know what…” she put aside the papers over which she had written her speech, suddenly she didn’t need any papers to read from and everything just came to her naturally.

“I am pretty sure that all the parents sitting here on those bleachers are incredibly proud of their children.”

As Camila said those words, many parents cheered and clapped.

“And those of you, who couldn’t have their parents come today, I am pretty sure that they are extremely proud of you. And to everyone who is graduating today, congratulations! We all achieved one milestone. Some may see this as one step closer to their dreams or some may see it as achieving a dream, because let’s be honest, high school did kick our asses to some extent.”

Everyone laughed at Camila’s words and suddenly seeing how cool she was, many boys began cheering and hooting for her, with some even drooling over her.

“Do you think, she will be at the graduation party?” asked one of the boys.

“Which party is she going to? Because I would definitely go to that party.” Said another.

Listening to many boys in the crowd attracted to their sister, didn’t sit right with Lucas and Nicholas, as Luke smacked the boy sitting right next to him and urged him to shut up and refrain from talking about his sister.

“It was hard, to get through so many sleepless nights, right? But here we are and life may get easier or maybe even tougher from here on forth but one thing that we all should promise ourselves today, is the fact that we will enjoy our lives that lay ahead of us to the most and during those moments of joy, let’s not forget to be dreamers as well.”

She looked at her brother in the crowd and found them smiling right back at her. Satisfied that her brother also found her speech pleasant, Camila continued on.

“Because we all have a dream don’t we? So, let’s never stop working hard for our dreams and always remember to discover yourself first and work every single day, harder to become a better version of ourselves. It is going to be a true delight. So, here’s to our class. The best that this school has ever seen and the best this school will ever see as well.”

With that Camila, rose her hat up and high and everyone copied her actions, getting up on their feet and just as Camila stepped ahead and threw her hat in the air, everyone did exactly just that, with an uproar of screams of enjoyment blew right through the rest of the crowd.

“Congratulations!”

“Really happy for you!”

“The Speech was amazing.”

Camila received everyone’s compliments, as soon as everyone was allowed to get out of their seats and people gathered around to take pictures of one another.

“That was amazing sweety.”

Rachel hugged her daughter, feeling extremely proud of her and Alejandro also patted her daughter’s head with love.

“Thank you Mom! Your and Dad’s whistles really worked.”

“Yeah! What the hell was that?” Lucas complained joining his parents and Camila only shrugged her brother’s words off.

“Come on guys, let’s get a picture.”

The entire family posed together in front of the cameras, as many newspaper and other media outlets and their photographers had also come there to cover the entire event, gathered to click a picture of one of the most influential families of the country – The Santiagos.

As Camila took a picture one by one with everyone in her family, it was about time that she let her brothers also do the same and her parents went ahead to meet some of the businessmen also parents of their children, who had been dying to talk to Alejandro and Rachel ever since the ceremony started.

Of course, many parents looked forward towards school functions and parent teacher association meetings only to get to see Alejandro and Rachel and get a chance to talk to them, because of their status and influence, that they impacted by sending their children to the same school as the children of the rest of the parents.

Camila felt a small tap on her shoulder and turned around only to be greeted by her biggest nemesis.

Caroline Fitzgerald – the most annoying, plastic, the captain of the cheerleading squad and obviously the most blondest girl in the entire school.

She didn’t come along of course but came with the rest of her minions who also batted their extension donning lashes at Camila.

“Cool speech!”

She spoke, smiling through her fake Botox ridden lips and Camila also faked a smile back at her.

“Thank you!”

“It was really nice knowing you all those years in high school.” Caroline perched up her head and tried to sound genuine but deep down Camila knew how fake she was and actually Caroline loathed Camila because;

A. Caroline was actually one of the first girls that Camila made friends with and obviously she also ended up in Nicholas’s bed, not only breaking Camila’s heart but also breaking their friendship, when Camila rose her objection to Caroline dating her brother.

B. Caroline developed this undefined distaste towards Camila and ever since she joined the cheerleading squad, she made sure to not to miss even the single, slightest chance to not to bully Camila and throw her spirit down.

Caroline and Camila always were put together in many of the group projects and studies, because of their name falling together alphabetically and even though Caroline tried her best to ruin many of Camila’s project and assignments, by going as far as even stealing her homework or removing her data and work from the school library, Camila always kept her head high and worked twice as hard just to achieve the best score.

It annoyed and irritated Caroline that none of her tricks worked against Camila and standing in front of her, when Camila had just delivered a speech as a valedictorian, did hurt Caroline to the most.

She flipped her chemically treated straight blond hair, off her shoulder and rubbed the shiny gloss on her plum lips, to make it look more intimidating and shinier to Camila, who couldn’t help but notice how fake Caroline was pretending to be in front of the world, whilst whenever she would meet her alone in the toilet stalls or in the gym, Caroline wouldn’t miss a single opportunity to not to try and physically abuse Camila, who in fact was well trained by her father and his guards in many martial arts forms and knew quite well on how she should protect herself.

“I wish you all the very best in your future endeavors.”

Caroline extended her hand to shake up with Camila, who looked at her hand for once and then looked back at Caroline.

Camila could be the bigger person and shook her hand back with Caroline but no, that day she chose to be a violator, a rebel and decided to equal out all of her revenge from Caroline, who had tried her best to make Camila’s life miserable throughout the entire four years of high school.

Camila smirked looking at Caroline’s face, carrying a dead pan expression.

“I’d shake your hand but I have a no policy of mine, where I have just recently boycotted plastic.”

Caroline’s mouth hung open, along with her fellow minions and cheerleaders who were simply offended by Camila’s words.

Camila felt cool and out of the world, as she slammed Caroline down and finally claimed the last stroke in their little high school chase, that for Camila had just come to an end.

As Camila walked away from Caroline, she tried searching for her family in the crowd and finally locating a huge circle, she looked at it from a distance and finally found her parents, being the center of that circle.

She smiled, taking a step towards her parents but felt startled as a statue appeared right in the middle.

She gasped, taking a step back and looking up to find Edward looking back at her with his adorable smile.

Edward Bentley – the boy from the tech family, who wore glasses over his light green eyes, hiding his forehead under the bangs of his messy hair, whilst his lean figure carried his broad shoulders and his entire stature, very well. He smiled at Camila, throwing her off right away with his dimples that she found utterly attractive, ever since the first day she saw him, when he transferred to their school in junior year.

He caught many girls’ eye, as he definitely carried that smoldering mysterious look on his face.

Many were also amused after knowing that he was the son of the entrepreneur couple of the silicon valley, who had invented a data organizer software after quitting their jobs as tech supervisors in huge companies like Apple and Microsoft and had gone global with their invention, moving to a better place, settling in to a bigger society and their son, who was in high school, didn’t have to go through puberty as an only change and tried his best to cope with his parent’s change.

Camila’s heart beat really fast for Edward each time, she saw him and as the batch president, she was assigned with the task of giving him a tour of the school on his first day.

Camila never had the courage to ask any guy out but tried her best to muster it up to ask Edward for a joint group study session and he readily agreed.

She realized that just like her, he also had a knack for knowledge and loved debating over scientific facts and knowledges until during one of their group sessions, where Camila was trying her best to come up with a way to kiss Edward, he admitted that he had a girlfriend, who was still back in his previous school and he was very loyal to her, working out a long distance relationship.

Camila could have sworn that she heard shards of her heart broke exactly as loud as an untampered glass broke.

She obviously pretended to be happy for Edward and every now and then she and Edward would still have study sessions and Camila would feel nothing but awkward whenever she would be with him.

Edward would always tell her that he only felt comfortable around her because she wasn’t like the other girls who wanted to be with him for s****l reasons and in fact, whenever Edward would have any problems with his girlfriend, Camila would be the one to urge him to solve the problem.

Edward also adored her honesty and her ability to hive emotional support to others. Something he always told Camila that it was rare about her.

“Oh hi! Edward.” Camila smiled at the boy, who took off his graduation cap and bowed down to Camila.

“You beat me to be the valedictorian.” He stated in a honorable manner, finally admitting defeat.

Even though Camila always helped him study, Edward always tried his best to beat Camila and become the top student of the class but it just never happened, as Camila had one less of a distraction in the name of relationship, so she always remained focused.

“Well, you should’ve always seen that one coming.”

She stated with pride and Edward simply chuckled.

“So, I heard you are going to Harvard with your brothers.”

He added the last clause with much disappointment in his tone.

He was always annoyed by Lucas and Nicholas, who despite of being told by Camila a thousand times that she and Edward were not dating or seeing each other and were simply two good friends, gave an extremely tough time to Edward, always pulling his leg or throwing mean mugged looks his way, each time he went to their house to study with Camila, that was also the reason why he preferred having Camila over to his house most of the times.

“Actually! My brothers are going to Harvard but not me.” She smacked her fist over Edward’s shoulder, making his eyes go wide.

“Really? Then what about you… where are you…”

“Stanford!”

She smiled with a definite hint of pride.

Camila had shared her desire with Edward about getting in to Stanford as he told her that he wanted to get in to MIT, taking after his parents and trying his very best to make them proud of him.

“Really? Wow! That is amazing.”

He pulled Camila in for a hug, who felt her heart skip a beat for a split second but she immediately gained her senses, as she hugged Edward back and realized that Edward’s feelings towards her were entirely and truly platonic.

“Did you get in to MIT, sorry I was really busy in the past few days and didn’t get a chance to catch up with you.”

She pulled herself back and away from Edward not wanting to her heart to get any further ideas due to his hug.

“Dude! I am so proud of you…”

There it was again… Edward’s use of words of affection that were so peculiar in keeping Camila in her lane and not even allow her to play on the safe side.

“Yeah! Dude… I am happy for myself as well.”

She smacked Edward on his shoulder once again.

“So, tell me how did you family allowed you to go to Stanford again?” Edward asked in a suspicious manner and Camila shrugged.

“Just a little tantrum did the trick.” She admitted making Edward laugh along with her.

“So, about you? MIT?”

“Oh Yes! I got in.”

“That is so cool.”

She genuinely felt happy for her friend.

“And what about Yara, did she get in too?”

She inquired, referring to his long distance girlfriend, with whom Edward had planned to get in to MIT together.

A gloomy expression took over Edward’s face as he looked back at Camila.

“Umm, we actually broke up three months ago. She’s going to Yale.”

If Camila would have listened to those words, around three years ago, she would have been on top of the world but something about the fact that she saw Edward putting up so much effort in keeping things right with his girl friend and travel on weekends just to see her, despite of having extreme academic pressure from his parents as well, she couldn’t help but feel saw for him.

“I am so sorry. I didn’t get the time to hang out with you during the past three months, with exams and everything. I had no idea…”

“Of course, you were preparing your best to beat me in the final exams, weren’t you?” Edward smirked in a mischievous tone.

“Edward! I am being serious…”

“Hey! It is fine. In fact, what I thought would kill me, actually made me stronger. I am fine, honestly.”

“If you are alright, than I am happy for you too.”

Camila gently rubbed his arm with empathy and Edward looked down at her hand placed over his arm.

Sensing that Edward’s gaze seemed quite awkward, Camila pulled her hand back.

She smiled uncannily at Edward, who also held a strange expression.

“So, what are your plans for summer?” Edward rose the question.

“Oh! I am going to do an internship at my Mom’s clinic. I mean, I will be studying psychology, so what else would be best than sitting at a clinic and observing some patients on the pscholgical scale, studying behavior and such things. She thinks, it would help me prepare for Stanford. What about you?”

“Oh! I thought that you might leave early for Stanford.”

Edward stated with a disappointed tone.

“What? Why?”

Camila almost laughed at his assumptions.

“I don’t know, I mean, I will be doing an internship at my parent’s company’s head office in silicon valley. So, I thought that you know if you are nearby in Stanford, I could visit you around during my time away.”

“Well, if I make it earlier, then of course we can meet.”

“Yeah, I hope so too.” He smiled gently back at her and something about his smile told Camila that it wasn’t the same one, as it was before.

Previously he looked at her, only as a friend but this time, his smile didn’t carry any platonic feelings towards her.

Camila shrugged that eerie feeling off her, trying her best to make her heart understand that she was definitely getting way ahead of herself.

“So, best of luck for your future, I guess. It is time to make new friends?”

Camila suggested to Edward who nodded at her and looked at her face very keenly.

“Or maybe take old relationship to new levels?”

He winked at her, leaving Camila completely baffled.

Before she could’ve said another word or reacted, Edward looked over Camila’s shoulders and his eyes bulged out.

“Oh f**k! I need to go!”

“What? Why…?”

Sensing that Edward had gotten scared of something behind her, Camila turned around and laughed to her own self as she saw her brothers throwing daggers at Edward.

“It is fine…”

She turned back towards Edward but was left stunned, as he already disappeared from in front of her and saw craned her neck upwards and saw him mingling with others in a crowd, in order to hide away from Camila’s brother’s.

She laughed and turned away, only to be startled by her entire family.

“Who was that boy that you were talking to?”

Alejandro rose the question right away.

“Relax, Dad! He is just a friend.”

She immediately cleared her stance with Edward in front of her parents and her mother was next one to jump in the line but she chose to tease her daughter.

“Wasn’t that Edward, right?”

Camila nodded.

“Oh, he has gotten cuter hasn’t he?”

“Didn’t I tell you that he had a girl friend? He had a girl friend not a fiancé or a wife.”

Rachel rolled her eyes.

“Jesus! Mom….”

“That asshole’s girlfriend broke up with him.” Nicholas’s squinted his eyes, trying to locate Edward in the crowd.

“How did you know?”

“He’s been going around and telling every single girl about it, in order to gain sympathy!”

Lucas revealed.

“Really? But he didn’t tell me about his break up, until I didn’t ask him.” Camila answered.

“Good! Why do you want him to tell you about his break up? Do you also want to sympathize with him.”

Lucas grabbed Camila’s arm and pulled her away from the circle where he expected Edward to be.

Camila also laughed at Lucas’s attempt of acting as a protective brother.

“Let’s go home!”

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This story shares Camila's journey to become independent and fall in love :)

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