"Darling, pls hurry up," Dad said as he hurried Mom
"It's almost noon, we are going to be late."
"I am coming, wait just a minute," Mom replied from her room.
Fred was already dressed and waiting with Dad. He was dressed in cultural attire. Usually, the rest of the students who weren't graduating would wear their school uniform to the graduation unless there was a theme for that year, and the theme for this year was "celebrating culture"
Luckily, my parents arrived just in time when we were entering the hall.
We sat down and the ceremony began in earnest after an opening remark and prayer by the proprietress.
There were many activities like; dance, drama and lots more but the highlight of the ceremony was; our dance, beauty pageant( which has become a yearly event), giving of awards, and item 7
I danced very well when it was time for us to dance, maybe because I was very happy. We freestyled the dance when the excitement from the audience became loud and explosive.
We were all given a gift as we left the stage to find our parents and give it to them as a way of saying thank you to them for all their care and effort.
"It is now time to give prizes to well-deserving students for their wonderful performances. I will like to call upon the proprietress to present the award.
The parents or guardian should also come up to the stage when their ward is called out." The MC announced.
The prize-giving began in earnest. Prizes were given to the prefects, and I got one being the assistant head girl. I was given a drawing set.
Next was for the most punctual, best behaved, neatest, most polite, and most creative student.
I received the prize for best behaved and neatest student and my parents went up the stage with me.
Katie got the prize for most creative and Victor was the most punctual student.
I also won an award for best graduating student and Ben was the second best. Prizes were also given to the best students in individual subjects.
And for other students, prizes were given for the first, second and third positions in each class for the recent examination. Ben came first and I was second.
The ceremony began wrapping up slowly when it was time for item 7. Most of the graduands began moving outside for photos.
I took some photos with my parents and Fred. I also took some photos with Katie and her parents. I wanted to take some photos with Ben but I couldn't find him. And by the time, the vote of thanks was given by the proprietress, many people had already gone home.
*******************
"We are so proud of you," Dad said to me as he hugged me tightly.
We got home very late in the evening and we all ate and slept off.
If not for Mom insisting on cooking before they left for the ceremony, I would have gone to bed very hungry. The food given to us at the event was very small.
*******************
The next day went on normally and soon Monday came, it was my last day in primary school. All students were expected to come and collect their results on that day and those who couldn't make it had to wait for the next session to begin to collect theirs.
As we were all catching up for the last time, Mira walked up to me and tapped me on my shoulder,
"Elsie, can I speak to you?" Mira asked me.
"What do you want to speak to me about?" I asked her as we got to a corner of the classroom.
"Congratulations on winning the scholarship," She said to me.
I was shocked when she said it, no one else knew about it except from my parents and Katie's family. Katie wouldn't have told anybody and not Mira of all people.
"How did you find out about it?" I asked her.
"My cousin also wrote the entrance exam even though she didn't make it and her mother's friend works in the school. She was the one that told me about it when I asked her about it." Mira explained.
"So Mira has been keeping tabs on me. Is this how much she disliked me?" I thought to myself.
"I am sorry for encroaching on your privacy. I do admit that I did it with a malicious intent." Mira added.
"That's alright, apologies accepted. Is that all you wanted to tell me about?" I asked her.
"No, I wanted to apologise for everything. I found out it was mostly out of jealousy that I did what I did. It was wrong of me to have judged you based on a misconception. I am truly sorry." Mira apologised.
" Wait, is she apologising? Mira apologised to me." I said to myself. I didn't see that coming because I had moved past whatever that brought about the whole issue. Thanks to Katie, I was now learning not to be bothered by people's opinions.
"Well, I must say that you are very brilliant," Mira said as she hit me on my shoulder shaking me out of my thoughts.
"Ooh!, you think so?' I said to her.
"I know so," She said laughing. "It's not easy to pass Elite Academy's Exam let alone win a scholarship.
"Thanks for the compliment. I also wish you the best of luck in your future endeavours." I said to her as I hugged her.
I was happy that we finally reconciled. She was my seatmate after all and I didn't want to go to high school with grudges from primary school.
After that, we spoke for a while and we even made a joke out of the petty and silly things that caused our fight.
After getting my result, I looked around for Ben but I didn't see him, instead his elder sister came to collect his result. I wanted to see him for the last time, he was going to a school in another state and his family were likely to move.