3.The Graduation Ceremony

"Bella, aren't you going to wake up, it's eight already, or aren't you going to the graduation anymore?" Aunt Rosie shouted at Bella's door. She had been walking her up but seems like she was adamant about not waking up.

Graduation!

That's the only word Bella heard, she threw her duvet away and immediately rose from the bed but her pounding head made her stagger as she sat back on the bed.

She only had forty-five minutes to prepare and drive to the university.

With that in mind, she removed her nightgowns and ran to the bathroom, she doesn't remember how she got home last night but that was the least of her concern at the moment.

Since she wasn't that well prepared for the graduation, she just picked up casual ragged denim pants, a plain t-shirt, and a hoodie all black, and as always she put on her boots, all black though unlike always she hadn't tied her hair into a ponytail but left it flowing.

When Bella came out of her room, Aunt Rosie was really surprised, it seemed like the girl before she was on a robbery mission and not a graduation ceremony.

"Are you for real, what are you putting on, this is your graduation, can't you put on something else other than your gangster uniform," Aunt Rosie asked as she handed her a bowl of creamy chicken mushroom soup for her hangover.

Bella just ignored her nagging and took the bowl and drank the soup before picking up the keys to her scooter, and as she left the room she kissed her aunt, and off she was gone.

This brat!

Aunt Rosie thought as she saw her disappearing silhouette.

Bella rode her scooter ignoring all the traffic rules since she didn't want to be late for her graduation ceremony too. Throughout her course, she was always late for her lectures but despite this, she was such a genius that she would always argue with her lecturers concerning some concepts that other coursemates found difficult to grab a concept.

"Bella, what the hell is wrong with you and why didn't you pick up my calls?" Akira who is among the group is always the silent one half yelled at her when she finally arrived.

"Wait, and what the f**k are you wearing!" This time Bella smiled sheepishly, seeing Akira's angry face and she knew that Akira had completely lost it so she knew better than to answer back.

"Come let's go before the ceremony commences, I won't allow you to put on your gangster uniform today, so you better shut up your mouth until we're done," Akira said dragging her to a certain hostel room and it seemed like they had been well prepared for this because all the cosmetics and different dresses were on the display.

Bella allowed Akira to drag her until she sat her before the mirror, and out of nowhere, many beauticians flooded the room, as the others were dealing with her hair, a few others were on her face and the other was working on her nails and after fifteen minutes they were done as they sighed in relief, and their work was truly visible and appreciatable as they had transformed her into a fairy tale cinderella.

Earlier on...

"Do you think she would put on the dress that you had sent her, based on her character am sure she would show up late dressed in her usuals, so we better be prepared," Sharon had suggested to Akira.

Akira had sent Bella a dress for her graduation as she was sure she didn't have a single one in her wardrobe and for once, she wanted to change her best friend's wear forcefully.

Akira had called her family's beauticians and she had even threatened them of losing their job if they wouldn't do a satisfactory job within twenty minutes.

Bella, just like her best friends was putting on a designer floral skater dress, a matching pair of chunky heels, and a matching Gucci bag, though she was feeling uncomfortable with the outfit, she appreciated their work.

As they left the room, they met with Alex who was looking all handsome in a black three-piece tuxedo, paired with a red bow tie and brown pair of shoes, and for once Alex was surprised seeing Bella's transformed look, in all his life since he had known her not even once had he ever seen her dressed in feminine clothes.

"Someone is looking beautiful today," Alex commented kissing her knuckles making her shy, but the other girls just laughed out.

"Thank you, you're not looking bad yourself," Bella replied with a smile.

"Let's head to the hall already before we miss the front seats, and I also heard that the guest speaker is handsome, I would not want to miss checking him out, Sharon suggested slutty, and as they passed by everyone in the corridors gasped seeing Bella on the dress, but she didn't care at all, it was only for today.

"Welcome everyone to the sixtieth graduation, and I would like to thank all the graduates, and stakeholders so far, and today we are very lucky to have a guest who also studied in this university some years back..."The MC continued as several guests gave their speeches.

The best student would be given a chance to have an internship at JB Inc. company for six months and depending on their performance, if their work is satisfactory they would be given the chance to work there.

Several names were called out and each one of them was awarded depending on their performance and their courses.

"The best overall student would be awarded by our guest of honor, Mr Kevin Burke of..." The MC wanted to name Kevin's company but just a glare from him made him shut up, Kevin didn't like when anyone introduced his company in public, in fact just a few people knew he was the owner of JB Inc. company, he always avoided the public as much as possible.

"Now the overall best student of this year goes to Bella Jake from software engineering, step forward for recognition," the MC announced as the students cheered on.

Bella climbed the podium, and Kevin was really surprised when he saw her, seems like destiny was playing a bad joke on him, how could he meet her severally in these two consecutive days, and every time he met her she always made him angry.

As Bella lifted her head to see the person who she was supposed to be the guest of honor she nearly lost her footing but she hurriedly composed herself, last night's event came flooding into her mind.

When Kevin had held her back, she had thrown up on him, and when her friends had begged Kevin on her behalf, she had laughed at how stupid they were for begging him on their knees so she had gone to where they kneeled and lifted them.

"Am very sorry Mr dumbass for that, send me your suit, and I will wash it for you, so you don't have to worry about that," she informed him casually as if it wasn't a big deal to her.

Kevin had just laughed at her stupidity, a sarcastic laughter.

"Do you think you can afford this, are you crazy, and you know what, you will pay for this," Kevin had half-yelled at her.

"Why are you doing this, haven't I said that I would wash it, I am sorry," Bella kowtowed as tears ran down her cheeks, and for unknown reasons, Kevin felt guilty for yelling at her, and just like that, that's how she had slept on the floor until Alex carried her to his car as he and the girls escorted her home?

End of flashback.

"Isn't she the girl from last night?" Joel Kevin's brother asked Ben. He had insisted on coming along with him and throughout the speeches he had been quite bored to death, but seeing this unexpected encounter between an innocent cat and a furious tiger in front of him, he thought it was worth it.

"Yeah, she is," Ben replied with his usual short answer, he wasn't such a talkative person.

"Congratulations Miss Bella on your graduation and internship offer," Kevin said with a smirk as he handed her the prize and the internship forms.

"Thank you so much sir, but could you at least smile, I don't want an ugly photo on my graduation," Bella added smiling sweetly as if she hadn't said anything at all, and just as Kevin turned to look at her, Joel and Alex captured the moment.

"Congratulations little Bella, Alex's father said to Bella as he hugged her, he always takes her for his daughter. He had wanted to adopt her a long time ago but she wasn't willing to leave her aunt so he had taken it upon himself to take care of her education fees and her other financial needs though most of the time she was always stubborn to ask for any assistance from him.

"Thank you so much Pa," Bella smiled as she hugged him back, he had asked her to call him Dad but since she wasn't comfortable with it, he had given her a choice to call him anything as long as it was not uncle and so she had settled for the latter.

"Dad, am still here, alive and kicking," Alex whined waving his hand across his father's face when his father didn't appreciate his presence at all.

"Of course, I can see you am not blind, "Mr. Morgan answered uninterestedly making Alex fume in anger, and just to piss him off more, Bella stuck out her tongue at him, and in the next few seconds, they were running around as Alex ran after Bella.

These kids seem like they would never grow up, Mr Morgan thought as he shook his head chuckling at their behavior, he was already used to them since they were young.

"Pa, Alex is bullying me," Bella whined too when she couldn't run anymore so she decided to hide behind him.

"Alexander Paul!" Mr Morgan called out sternly feigning anger making Alex stop on his track, his father only called him by his full name when he's done something wrong.

Seeing his son's reaction, Mr Morgan burst out laughing, Bella joining him only for Alex to realize that he had been pranked by both.

"Dad, am I still your kid, why do I feel otherwise, you're also bullying me, you didn't even congratulate me, Alex whined.

"Ooh come on son, you're a grown-up man already, and am very proud of you, congratulations son," Mr Morgan as he hugged both on either side leading them to his parked car.