Graduation Day
Title: Graduation Day
Fandom: The OC
Characters: Marissa. Mentions of Summer, Seth, Ryan, Julie
Rating: PG
Summary: Written for prompt #97: graduate at 100fandoms and the 1_million_words pool party. Marissa thinks of all the different ways her graduation could have gone.
When Summer asked the question of what everyone thought their lives would have been like if Ryan had never moved to town, Marissa had laughed along with everyone else as they joked that Summer would have never ended up with Seth (probably true), or that Marissa would still be with Luke (she wasn’t sure about that; either she would have still found out that Luke cheated with Holly, or Luke would have still left town with his father when his parents separated, or both). But she didn’t share with the others that the whole time she’d been on the stage, or watching her friends walk on, Marissa had been imagining all the other possible ways that graduation could have gone.
She didn’t want to talk about the first one she thought of, where she hadn’t even graduated from Harbor High at all, but had walked on the stage of Newport Union, Johnny by her side, Dennis (or Chilli if he was still using that name) in their wake. For a moment she smiled as she imagined Julie Cooper sat amongst the Newport Union parents, looking around them and not knowing what to say, choosing to distance herself from them as if to say she wasn’t one of them, barely concealing her disdain and her longing to be sat at the Harbor High ceremony with people more like herself. Yet Julie had adapted to living at the trailer park better than Marissa had expected, so maybe Marissa was doing her an injustice.
As for the actual Newport Union graduation, that had been the day before. Dennis had texted her saying it had been really weird for him going up on stage without Johnny by his side, but that there had been a photo of him on display at the ceremony, and they’d spoken about him. Casey, apparently, had sat there looking uncomfortable the entire time; Marissa wasn’t sure she needed to know that.
She’d seen Summer’s father sat with her mother in the audience, cheering as loudly for Marissa as he did for Summer, and thought about how at least that was an improvement on her previous stepfather, who would probably not have cracked a smile if he had even turned up at all, but there was a part of her that wished her father had decided to turn up in person. Of course, if things had gone differently again, she could have been celebrating her graduation at some school in Hawaii, surrounded by nameless and faceless strangers - well, if she had moved to Hawaii as planned, they wouldn’t be strangers to her, but they would never be the friends that Ryan, Seth and Summer were.
She wouldn’t let herself think about the possible graduation where she and Ryan were still together, planning to go to Berkeley together, or the graduation which she never attended because Kevin had successfully convinced her it was pathetic and she should go on some drunken trip to Mexico with him instead. The latter would have been the biggest mistake she ever made; as for the first, Marissa had believed for so long that she and Ryan would still be together at graduation, but she accepted now that they were better off as friends, that it was time to move on from that part of her life.
Yes, any one of those possible graduations could have been the outcome. But Marissa wouldn’t have it any other way than the way things had turned out today. Harbor High and her past lay behind her; now graduation would be her opportunity to move forward.
Fandom: The OC
Characters: Marissa. Mentions of Summer, Seth, Ryan, Julie
Rating: PG
Summary: Written for prompt #97: graduate at 100fandoms and the 1_million_words pool party. Marissa thinks of all the different ways her graduation could have gone.
When Summer asked the question of what everyone thought their lives would have been like if Ryan had never moved to town, Marissa had laughed along with everyone else as they joked that Summer would have never ended up with Seth (probably true), or that Marissa would still be with Luke (she wasn’t sure about that; either she would have still found out that Luke cheated with Holly, or Luke would have still left town with his father when his parents separated, or both). But she didn’t share with the others that the whole time she’d been on the stage, or watching her friends walk on, Marissa had been imagining all the other possible ways that graduation could have gone.
She didn’t want to talk about the first one she thought of, where she hadn’t even graduated from Harbor High at all, but had walked on the stage of Newport Union, Johnny by her side, Dennis (or Chilli if he was still using that name) in their wake. For a moment she smiled as she imagined Julie Cooper sat amongst the Newport Union parents, looking around them and not knowing what to say, choosing to distance herself from them as if to say she wasn’t one of them, barely concealing her disdain and her longing to be sat at the Harbor High ceremony with people more like herself. Yet Julie had adapted to living at the trailer park better than Marissa had expected, so maybe Marissa was doing her an injustice.
As for the actual Newport Union graduation, that had been the day before. Dennis had texted her saying it had been really weird for him going up on stage without Johnny by his side, but that there had been a photo of him on display at the ceremony, and they’d spoken about him. Casey, apparently, had sat there looking uncomfortable the entire time; Marissa wasn’t sure she needed to know that.
She’d seen Summer’s father sat with her mother in the audience, cheering as loudly for Marissa as he did for Summer, and thought about how at least that was an improvement on her previous stepfather, who would probably not have cracked a smile if he had even turned up at all, but there was a part of her that wished her father had decided to turn up in person. Of course, if things had gone differently again, she could have been celebrating her graduation at some school in Hawaii, surrounded by nameless and faceless strangers - well, if she had moved to Hawaii as planned, they wouldn’t be strangers to her, but they would never be the friends that Ryan, Seth and Summer were.
She wouldn’t let herself think about the possible graduation where she and Ryan were still together, planning to go to Berkeley together, or the graduation which she never attended because Kevin had successfully convinced her it was pathetic and she should go on some drunken trip to Mexico with him instead. The latter would have been the biggest mistake she ever made; as for the first, Marissa had believed for so long that she and Ryan would still be together at graduation, but she accepted now that they were better off as friends, that it was time to move on from that part of her life.
Yes, any one of those possible graduations could have been the outcome. But Marissa wouldn’t have it any other way than the way things had turned out today. Harbor High and her past lay behind her; now graduation would be her opportunity to move forward.