My Father's Best Friend novel Chapter 10

The familiar sight of the majestic Anderson Building greeted Andrea, together with her parents, as they rolled to a halt on the parking lot of the university.

"Are we late?" asked Pam, slight panic noticeable in her voice.

Andrea smirked, "No, Mom," she answered.

"Oh, good," Pam visibly relaxed, making Andrea smile.

Andrea got out of the back seat and slipped her rented black toga over her peach wrap dress that she bought at Rodeo Drive last month. She looked around the lot, looking for a certain type of car, and noticed that almost all the spaces are filled, none of them inhibited a black Audi A4.

"Will Lance be here?" Andrea blurted out as her parents got out of the car.

Simon fished his Blackberry from his pocket before saying, "Yeah, he has to wrap up some meeting and he'll be here," looking up at his graduating daughter with pride in their eyes.

The three of them walked to the Anderson building and went straight to the auditorium for the graduation ceremony.

"ANDIE!!!" Victoria yelled from the gathering number of graduates.

"Mom, Dad, I'll meet you after," she said, before turning her back to her parents but she was yanked by her mother in to one of her super unladylike hugs.

"Oh my gosh, Andrea, I never imagined this to come this early," Pam sobbed.

"Mom," Andrea said in a wavering voice, "Don't get too melodramatic. I'm just graduating, I'm not going to die," she said.

"Come on, Pam, she needs to go line up," Simon said while pulling his wife away from his daughter. After the third try, Pam let go and Andrea met her father's eyes, "I'm very proud of you, Andrea," he smiled at her.

"Thank you," she said and then she turned her back and went to her friend.

She was going to deliver her summa cum laude speech after the dean's and the words she had rehearsed earlier before going to the event, left her head completely.

"And now for her speech, may I call on Andrea Owen."

Andrea stood up, not letting anyone see her nervousness as she walked up the stage and occupied the podium.

She gave a wide smile to all the graduates, parents and professors, before starting, surprising herself on how naturally the words flew out of her mouth as if she was just talking to her friends, rather than the whole graduating class of Business Management together with their parents and professors.

"Good morning, fellow graduates, parents, professors and Mrs. Farnsworth. Today is a very special day, indeed. Not just because we are graduating and getting the heck out of our boring classes- no offense, profs-, our graded lives, our university dramas, our last stage towards a real job. Today we are celebrating the end of our adolescence. Today we are celebrating our big leap to independence. Today we remove our training wheels and bike our way to the world, full of overtimes, stress, business reports and bosses," she paused, taking a breath while watching the not so big population in front of her.

Her nervousness subsided as her speech flow flawlessly out of her mouth as if she was just talking instead of saying a memorized piece. She ended her speech with a playful wink to everyone in front of her and after a little curtsy, all of the people gathered in the hall applauded.

She exited the stage and went back to her seat with a big grin on her face.