so i blinked and suddenly hadn't posted in 6 months? anyhoo this was drafted last summer but by the time it was done graduation season was long gone and this would have made no sense. also - vaguely inspired by a real-life graduation i attended many years ago
The Harrington family is about two-thirds of the way through Moe’s eighth-grade graduation when Eddie leans over to Steve.
“I really thought Moe’d get some kind of academic award,” he says.
“They don’t really do that,” Steve shakes his head, “For morale, or whatever. The high school doesn’t even have a valedictorian.”
Eddie must sit on this for a bit, because it’s a while before he leans back over.
“Okay, but…I dunno. There are about a dozen reasons it took me three tries to finish high school, and I’m reeeeally confident that other kids getting well-earned academic recognition wasn’t one of them.”
“Uh,” Steve hesitates, because this seems like something Eddie could get riled up about if he wanted to, which would then rile up their daughters, and Steve’s not sure he wants to deal with all that today, “We can talk to the school if you want.”
He only suggests it because he knows that Eddie’s interest in talking to the school about anything starts and ends with the annual parent-teacher conferences, and sure enough, he sees Eddie’s nose wrinkle.
“We have one final award to give,” the principal says, “Every year, we give this award to the student who our faculty agrees has truly embodied the values of our school during their three years here.”
“Well, there’s always her high school graduation,” Eddie mutters just loud enough for Steve to hear.
“– Values like taking care of themselves and others, treating peers and faculty alike with empathy –”
Even Robbie is giggling as she semi-whispers, “Moe’s never gonna win that.”
Which – yeah, Steve knows his oldest daughter. She’s kind of a pistol of a kid, honestly, but nice? Steve’s not sure about nice.
She’s definitely not mean, or a bully or anything – Steve is sure about that. He just wouldn’t exactly say that she’s leading with empathy, or whatever the principal had just said.
“– This student has stood out to their teachers for their remarkable compassion for others and for standing by their conscience and by others.”
“Yeah, so Moe’s gonna be sitting this one out,” even Steve can acknowledge.
“It’s an honor to present this award to…” she pauses for suspense, angling herself back just slightly to address the students behind her, and Steve prepares himself for yet another polite round of applause, “Lucy Harrington.”
Steve feels his jaw drop, hears Eddie starting to laugh beside him as they watch Moe walk up to the podium to receive the award.
“Oh my god,” Eddie says, still laughing, “Talk about the damn twilight zone.”
Parents in the general area of the auditorium are shooting them congratulatory looks. Grey’s dad turns in his seat a few rows ahead of them to give them a grin and a thumbs up.
Later, when the ceremony finally ends and everyone is reconvening outside the school, Steve asks Moe, “Did you know you were gonna get that award?”
“Yeah,” Moe shrugged, fiddling with her little cardstock ‘diploma’, “I had to do an interview with, like, the principal and the guidance counselor and whatever.”
“Why–” Eddie starts, and then he stops, and Steve can tell he’s choosing his words carefully, “What made them choose you?”
Moe shrugs again, “I dunno. Something about how I invited the new kids to sit with us at lunch at the beginning of the year, and there was this time some boys were making fun of someone and I told them to stop because, like, that’s so lame. I can’t imagine being so lame and boring and stupid that the only thing I can do to entertain myself is pick on other people. Like, grow up.”
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