Pam

She packs up her supplies and looks around the room where she’s spent most of her senior year. The independent study art studio has been like a second home to her. She loves how it always smells of oil paints and clay.

She’s got a collection of sketches and watercolors. A real portfolio! She’ll use it to apply to art programs.

Roy’s got a job at some paper warehouse for the summer, so soon they’ll have enough to leave Scranton forever. They can move to Philadelphia or New York.

There are so many possibilities. The final bell rings. She’s free.

*****************

Jim

The auto mechanics teacher lets them hang out in the garage all day. Pete’s brought booze and they sit around talking about their glory days: basketball games, teacher pranks and making out at the quarry.

He’s been special here…a real BMOC. Everybody loves him and his sense of humor.

Out there in the real world, though? He’s nobody. His dad got him some internship selling something boring and he’s afraid that the best years of his life are behind him.

The bell rings. His buddies leave. He takes another sip from the flask and wishes it didn’t have to end.

Kelly

She shuts her locker and grabs the books that her parents insisted she purchase from school so that she can continue to study during the summer.

She knows that her classmates will be busying themselves with parties and bonfires tonight. She’ll be at a quiet family dinner and maybe tonight she’ll be the star instead of her sister, the 19-year old college senior.   

As she walks down the hall she passes a gaggle of popular girls…pink, pretty, giggling.

They don’t notice her as she passes and she thinks that maybe once she gets to college she can become someone else.

Ryan

He skips his graduation because he doesn’t care. He’s not one for walking across the stage and shaking hands and throwing hats. Besides, he knows he’d be the shortest in all of the photos.

He’s been taking business courses at the community college at night, trying to get a jump start on something bigger…something better…something out of here.

He wants to make something of himself. He wants to attend his 10 year reunion knowing that he “won”.  He has something to prove.

A week later his diploma arrives in the mail.

He throws it away.  

He’s ready to move on.

Angela

The last morning meeting of the Bible Study club closes with prayer. It will serve as protection against the foolishness she knows will come later. Shaving cream and food fights. What horrible wastes! And then there’s that travesty of a yearbook!

Her purse contains thank-you notes for a few teachers…ones that value discipline over hugs and self-esteem building.

She leaves high-school today with high grades and with her character and dignity intact (despite the rumors that those awful girls spread about her.

There may have been a bit of  truth to them, but those girls are still going to hell.

He’s spent the last few hours putting slides in trays for the senior presentation.  It’s his last duty as president of the A/V club.  He arranges picture after picture of a-holes and weaklings and snickers at how pathetic they all look.

He knows that people will marvel at his personal photos: hunting trophies, Mose in a complicated choke-hold, him sporting a new orange belt, his pork butchering skills in graphic color.

He didn’t get a letter jacket or athletic medal…those “recognitions” don’t matter once you leave high school.

Everyone will understand. Dwight K. Shrute will one day rule the world.