Chapter Text
The day had come. It was time for Maple Hills to go against Viewmont in the game that would decide who went to nationals, and who didn’t. A lot of pressure was resting on Donovan’s shoulders. His teammates were relying on him to bring them to victory, and here he was, debating whether or not he was going to do so.
He felt disgusted with himself for even entertaining the idea of throwing the game, but he couldn’t ignore the fear that shot through him when his mind drifted to the photo in Justin’s phone, ready to expose him to the entire school.
Everything would change after Donovan came out. People would look at him differently; his teammates, his peers, even his family would view him differently. It was terrifying. His plan had been to wait until college to come out, where he would be far away from the judgement of the people currently in his life, but now his plan was being thrown out the window.
“Donovan, remember,” His father’s voice brought Donovan back to the present. They were on the field, warming up before the game. The stands were full, and people were cheering his name. He couldn’t help but wonder if they would still cheer once they knew who he really was.
“Viewmont is going to go out of their way to try and hurt you, to take you out of the game.” Donovan’s dad reminded him; Viewmont had decided to play dirty, and put his health at risk just so they could win. It was downright immoral and Donovan promised himself he wouldn’t take it lying down.
“You have to stay vigilant, but don’t let them distract you from playing your best, okay?” Coach didn’t wait for an answer, walking away after giving Donovan an encouraging slap on the back. Donovan swallowed. His heart was pounding and his ears were ringing.
So much depended on him; if they won the game, they would go to nationals, where Donovan could get scouted for Harvard and finally fulfill his lifelong dream of playing for the Crimsons. But he would also be outed to the whole school, and his entire life would change. On the other hand, if they lost, Donovan would lose his opportunity to get scouted, and he might blow his chances at getting into Harvard, but at least he would still be able to control when and how he came out.
Donovan looked towards the bleachers, and it didn’t take long for him to find who he was looking for; Kaden. The Kaden who had captured his heart, and had flipped his whole world on its head. The Kaden who loved him despite everything the football team had put him through. The Kaden that made him want to be better each and every day. Seeing Kaden standing there in Donovan’s letterman jacket, cheering for Donovan, finally helped him think clearly.
In the end, the choice was easy. Donovan pulled his helmet on, and walked onto the field with the rest of his team, his mind made up.
—
It was 2 hours later, and Maple Hills was losing 12 - 17 against Viewmont. The Hawks were on their 4th down on the 40 yard line with 7 seconds on the clock.
“I’m lost,” Alexa said, “What do we need to do to win?” Kaden was looking towards where Donovan was huddled with the rest of the football team, biting his thumb nervously. “We need to score a touchdown in the next 7 seconds or we lose the game.”
“Well, shit.” Alexa said, crossing her arms. “And what’s the likelihood of that happening?” Kaden just grimaced. “Not good then. Got it.”
The football team needed to win this game if they wanted to go to nationals. If the team went to nationals, Donovan would have a much higher chance to get scouted for Harvard.
In Kaden’s opinion, Donovan doesn’t need nationals to get scouted. He’s already made a big impact in town; big enough that Kaden would be surprised if there weren’t already scouts interested in him. But he knew that this was important to Donovan, so Kaden was rooting for him all the same.
The game had been brutal so far. Unfortunately, Kaden had been right about Viewmont trying to injure Donovan. Every single time he was on the field, Donovan was being charged at, left and right. The amount of times he had been tackled to the ground was enough to give Kaden heart problems for the rest of his life.
Kaden couldn’t help the rage that filled him whenever he saw the Viewmont coach talk to his players; he could just imagine the kind of vile advice that asshole was giving. What kind of coach actively encouraged his players to purposefully injure someone? It was awful and Kaden hoped that someday that coach would get in trouble for his shitty behavior, but for now, they had no proof that it was happening, so they could only do their best to avoid it.
It was time for the final play. Both teams lined up at the 40 yard line, jittery from the adrenaline filling their veins. These next 7 seconds were crucial; whatever happened next would decide who won the game, and who went to nationals. Kaden was pretty sure his nails were bleeding from how hard he had been biting them, but he couldn’t find it in himself to care.
Kaden held his breath as the whistle sounded, his eyes locked onto jersey number 90. If they didn’t get this touchdown, and they lost to Viewmont, Donovan would be crushed.
It was like the world had slowed down around him, and he watched Donovan tuck the ball under his arm and begin sprinting down the field, dodging around the defensive linemen who attempted to tackle him. Kaden couldn’t help but flinch when one of Viewmont’s linebackers barreled towards Donovan, who managed to plow through the attack.
In his peripheral vision, Kaden saw the seconds ticking down; 4… Donovan passed the 20… 3… he jumped over another tackle, sending the opponent careening out of bounds… 2… The entire stadium held its breath… 1…
“TOUCH DOWN!!”
The voice of the officiator filled the stadium and the crowd screamed. Alexa squealed, and threw her arms around Kaden, who had yet to move, still staring at the end zone in shock. He snapped out of it quickly and began to scream with the rest of the crowd, tears starting to fall down his face. He returned Alexa’s hug and buried his face in her shoulder for a moment, letting it all sink in. Donovan did it; he was going to nationals.
Kaden lifted his head when he heard a couple confused shouts coming from the pitch. He turned to look and realized that Donovan had run past his team, who had tried to pull him in to celebrate, and was heading straight towards the stands; straight towards Kaden.
Kaden stepped down onto the bottom platform that stretched in front of the seats and approached the short fence that separated the stands from the pitch. When Donovan reached the stands he jumped up onto the platform, holding onto the top of the fence to keep himself from falling backwards.
“What are you doing?!” Kaden yelled to be heard above the cheering crowd. Donovan tugged off his helmet and dropped it on the ground, grinning wildly. “Something I’ve been waiting to do for 3 years.” With his free hand, Donovan cupped Kaden’s face, and pulled him into a kiss.
The crowd screamed even louder, and Kaden just barely heard Alexa’s voice shouting above the others, “I FUCKING KNEW IT” before he tuned the rest of the world out, and melted into the kiss.
—
It was a week after the game against Viewmont and a lot had changed. The biggest change was that Donovan was now out, and Kaden and Donovan’s relationship was public knowledge. Of course, there was some backlash, but not as much as they had expected. The football team had accepted Donovan pretty easily, and when Lucas had made a comment about Donovan peeking in the locker rooms, the rest of the team had been quick to defend him. A lot of them even went out of their way to apologise to Kaden for their previous behavior.
Apparently the student body was content to continue putting Donovan on a pedestal, gay or straight. All they really seemed to care about was the fact that he was good at football, and hot. (A fact Kaden took great pleasure in teasing Donovan about.)
Maya whined about it for a while, going on and on about how she was supposed to end up with Donovan ect ect, but she quickly got over it and moved on to other exploits. Though, she had the foresight to avoid mocking Kaden anymore lest she bring on the wrath of the entire football team.
Donovan’s favorite part of all of this was that when Kaden found out that Justin had tried to blackmail Donovan, he marched right up to Justin during lunch, and decked him in front of the entire senior class so hard he knocked a tooth out. Both Justin and Donovan had ended up on the floor; Justin in pain, and Donovan because he was laughing too hard to stand up. The week Kaden spent in detention was so worth the facial expressions of the people who witnessed the event.
Homecoming had arrived, and Kaden was nervous. Donovan had gone all out with his homecoming proposal, getting the entire football team to hold up signs to spell out, “D E A R K A D E N… H O C O ?” outside the school entrance right after school had ended. Of course Kaden accepted and the entire crowd that had gathered cheered when he nodded his head, yelling even louder when Donovan picked him up and swung him around.
“You ready?” Donovan asked, holding out his arm for Kaden as they stood outside the gymnasium doors. The theme for the night was “A Sky Full of Stars” and Donovan was wearing a dark blue suit with a black undershirt. Kaden was wearing a deep maroon, almost purplish tux with a white undershirt, aiming for a galaxy sort of look.
Kaden nodded. “Ready enough,” He said, hooking his arm through Donovan’s. Together, they pushed open the double doors and walked into the gym which had been decked out in all kinds of decorations. There were silver streamers hanging from the ceiling with stars attached to the bottom. The tables around the edges of the room were covered in a glittery plastic tablecloth, with star centerpieces.
After mingling with some of their friends for a while, Donovan turned to Kaden and held out his hand, bowing deeply. “Care to dance?” he looked up, a grin on his face. Kaden rolled his eyes, placing his hand in Donovan’s and letting himself be led to the dance floor.
They danced for a while, Kaden giggling when Donovan realized he didn’t really know how to dance before helping to teach Donovan how to dance with a partner without stepping on their toes. He was semi successful, walking away with only half of his toes crushed. They had just finished the Cupid Shuffle when the music was paused and Principal Alvarez stepped in front of the DJ, a mic in her hands.
“For those of you who are new to this, every year we hold elections for homecoming court! Everyone votes for two out of ten nominees, and the two people with the most votes are crowned the homecoming monarchs. Usually, we end up having a boy and girl as our winners, but you can vote for anyone regardless of gender.” The principal explained, most of the students already aware of how this worked. She continued, “I will now announce our ten nominees; these are the ten people who received the most nominations. If I call out your name, please come line up next to me. Donovan Miller,”
The crowd of students erupted into applause, Donovan obviously being the most popular nominee. Donovan grinned widely, squeezing Kaden’s hand before bounding towards the front to stand next to Principal Alvarez.
“Helen Markley,” Kaden nodded his approval, and cheered with the rest of the crowd. Helen was the president of the ‘give back’ club; a club she had started that participated in a lot of community service and giving back to the community. She definitely deserved to be nominated.
“Maya Delacourt,” Maya skipped forward, a smug look on her face. She was already at the front of the crowd, probably anticipating her name being called, and Kaden clapped politely while people cheered.
“Evan Parrot,” This actually surprised Kaden a bit. Evan was one of the few out queer kids in the school, proudly nonbinary and not afraid to let everyone know it. Kaden was glad they were nominated and cheered loudly as they walked to the front.
“Peter Kallister,” Well that was expected. Peter was the center on the football team, and almost as popular as Donovan when it came to looks. He was a pretty quiet guy, but a lot of girls thought it made him hotter and more mysterious. (He was really just an introvert.)
A few more names were called, though Kaden didn’t really know these people that well, but he cheered anyway. However, when Principal Alvarez got to the tenth nominee, Kaden’s mouth dropped open in shock.
“Kaden Russell!” The people around him began cheering, but Kaden was frozen. He stood there dumbly for a few seconds before Alexa gave him a push forward and he stumbled his way to stand next to Donovan. Well, he was going to stand at the end of the line, but Helen scooted over, leaving a space between her and Donovan, and sent him a wink.
“Now, everyone who isn’t a nominee, make a line at the table here, and vote on who you want to name homecoming monarch. After the voting is done, I’ll give you a few more minutes to dance while we tally the votes, and the winners will be announced at the end of the night!” Principal Alvarez handed the microphone back to the DJ, and walked to the table where voting was taking place.
Kaden was still standing at the front, trying his best to process the fact that not only had someone nominated him, enough people nominated him for him to be within the top ten nominees. Donovan reached over and gently lifted Kaden’s lower jaw and shut his mouth which was still hanging open.
“You’ll catch flies that way.” Donovan advised, a serious look on his face that made Kaden snort. Of course Donovan knew exactly what to say to bring him back to Earth.
Voting went by fairly quickly, and Kaden still hadn’t moved from his spot by the time Principal Alvarez walked back up to the front, mic in hand. She had the nominees line up again before having the rest of the students give a drumroll.
“Our first homecoming monarch is….. Donovan Miller!” Cheers erupted from the crowd, Kaden cheering the loudest, as Donovan walked to Principal Alvarez who placed a plastic crown on his head. After congratulating Donovan, she called for another drumroll.
“Our second homecoming monarch is….. Kaden Russell!” Kaden swore he almost passed out in shock, though Maya’s shout of outrage snapped him out of it rather quickly. He watched as she stormed out of the gym, several other cheerleaders trailing behind her trying to offer comfort that was angrily denied. The rest of the crowd ignored her and cheered as Kaden walked towards Principal Alvarez, still a little lightheaded from the several moments of major shock he had experienced that night.
“Congratulations Kaden,” Principal Alvarez said as she placed the plastic crown on his head. “I can’t imagine a more worthy candidate.” She smiled warmly and backed away, giving Donovan room to grab Kaden and spin him around. Kaden shouted to be put down, much to the amusement of the surrounding students. Donovan obliged and pulled Kaden into a kiss once he was safely back on solid ground.
The rest of the night went well. Donovan and Kaden spent the rest of homecoming dancing before heading back to Kaden’s house and marathoning a bunch of different ‘Cinderella stories’ before falling asleep wrapped around each other on Kaden’s couch.
It was a bit of a shock when they woke up the next day to Kaden’s dad making coffee in the kitchen. He had come back in the very early morning and hadn’t blinked twice at the highschoolers cuddling on his couch, throwing a blanket over his son and his son’s boyfriend before heading back to his room to sleep.
When the pair finally woke up, Kaden’s dad had already made breakfast and called them both to the table to eat where he made casual conversation with Donovan before pulling out the newspaper, ending the conversation. Kaden just sighed and pulled Donovan back to his room where they promptly burst into laughter at the absurdity of the situation.
“Well, I guess your dad approves of our relationship?” Donovan said once they had calmed down. Kaden shrugged, “He’s not a huge talker, and he’s always been kind of indifferent to… well- everything I guess.” Donovan nodded, sympathetic while also a tad bit jealous. Kaden’s dad’s reaction to their relationship was the complete opposite of Donovan’s parents.
When Donovan kissed Kaden at the game, his parents had immediately demanded that Kaden come over for dinner. When he did, they bombarded him with questions left and right before giving both of them ‘the talk’ right there at the dinner table. Kaden had yet to let Donovan live that down.
It wasn’t long before Kaden’s dad had to leave again, this time making sure to tell Kaden that he was proud of him, and that he was happy that Kaden was happy, even if he wasn’t always there to see it. After a couple tears were shed, and Kaden finally gave his father a piece of his mind for constantly leaving Kaden alone, Kaden’s dad promised that he would make an effort to do better. Which, so far, he was doing a pretty good job of; calling Kaden regularly and finally taking interest in his life.
Nationals came and went, and while the Hawks did not take the championship title, they did well enough that Donovan was approached by several college scouts, including one from Harvard. (Though Donovan will deny it till the day he dies, Kaden swears on his life that Donovan had cried when the scout offered him a recruitment as well as significant financial aid if he accepted.) Unlike Donovan, Kaden will admit that he burst into tears when he received his acceptance letter from Harvard.
So that was that. Donovan and Kaden were going to attend Harvard together, and after that… well Kaden didn’t quite know yet, but he couldn’t wait to find out, with Donovan at his side.
Well, just because Kaden doesn’t know what happens next doesn’t mean the author doesn’t ;)
Kaden and Donovan both graduated Harvard with flying colors. Donovan went on to play for the NBA and was the quarterback for several different teams. After Kaden graduated from Harvard, he went to UCLA where he got his masters in Marine Biology. Now, he works as an Environmental Consultant, helping many different businesses manage their environmental impact.
And if you’re wondering whether or not they are still together, five years after they graduated from Maple Hills, they got married. Their wedding was in the spring, with Fiddleford as the ringbearer. And while Princess was not able to perform the role of flower girl, Donovan’s little sister, June did a very good job in her stead.