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The house was buzzing with excitement and anticipation. Hugo could hear everyone running around to get ready to leave on time. He heard smaller footsteps run down the hall before there is a knock on his door. He opens it and finds Dmitri standing there. His black hair is combed back neatly and he wears a similarly colored black suit with a blue tie. Said blue tie is help out and up to Hugo, "Can you help? Ms. Donella is busy helping Eleanor with her dress and said to ask you."
Hugo smiles gently, ushering him inside, "Of course kid, come on in." Dmitri walks in with a bounce in his step and jumps up onto the bed, his legs swinging as Hugo walks up to him. He leans down and begins tying the dark blue fabric, "So, are you excited? I know it's been awhile since you've gone out."
Dmitri looks up with a look of pure joy on his face, "YES! I never got to see Gill's school and I wanna go out and support her! But.. I am a little nervous to be around so many people."
Hugo pauses his tying and gives him a reassuring smile, "Don't worry kid, I'll be there the whole time." Hugo ruffles his head, "You have nothing to worry about, you know I would never let anything happen to you."
He finishes tying the tie and pulled Dmitri to his feet, "now come on, Donnie is probably waiting for us.. and you know how she gets when we're late." They laugh together as Hugo winks at the kid, they both walk down to see Don standing behind Eleanor and helping her finish the braid in her blond hair. Aiden sits on the couch, already finished getting ready and waiting for everyone else. Hugo and Dmitri move to sit next to Aiden and Don turns to them, hands moving on instinct, "Are you boys ready?"
A chorus of three 'yes ma'ams' reply, "Good. We'll get going as soon as I finish this, Aiden, go make sure everything we need is in the car. The checklist should be on the fridge."
"Of course," and with that, Aiden heads to the kitchen.
"You both are ready? Hugo, you have all your things on you?"
Hugo chuckles at her mild interrogation, "Yes ma'am, I have phone, wallet, keys… Wait where are my keys?" Don give him a look, "alright, alright I'm going to find them. Don't give me that look…"
Donella hummed, "well, maybe if you weren't constantly losing your things, I wouldn't have to give you those looks." And Hugo rolls his eyes as he walks back to his room. Of course his keys are right on his dresser, he just forgot to pick them up.
"Hugo!" Don called after him, and he runs to catch up before everyone leaves. As he thought, everyone is heading out the door as he gets back to the living room, he turns to Donella, "Keys, I got my keys."
She nodded at him, ushering him towards the door and into the car. He sees Dmitri in the car next to Aiden and Eleanor. and Don moves to sit in the passenger seat. So he's driving, ok that's fine. The drive itself is about an hour, but luckily they are leaving early enough to still get there on time, about three hours until the ceremony started.
The drive itself was a pretty simple one, Aiden and Eleanor swapping between who plays DJ, Dmitri simply along for the ride and singing along with the others, and of course Don next to him with a small but very clear smile on her face, one of pride. They get to the school with plenty of time, traffic minimal, and yet they are still rushing to get to the park on campus for the ceremony.
"Do you know where she is? I thought she was going to meet us out here. Are we too early?" He's rambling to Don, worried about where Gillian could possibly be.
Donella, ever the rational one, calms him down immediately, "Well, I'm sure she just got held up or they are running a bit hectically. I'm sure you can remember your knighting ceremony."
The memory of seeing Varian and just… face planting. In front of everyone. And yea, it couldn't be worse than that, "…Yea. You've got a point there, so we should get going to our seats."
Their seats are, because of Hugo, as close as possible to the stage. If Hugo could've sat right in front of the stage, he would have. But alas, he and everyone else was stuck behind the students.
With everyone now settled into their seats, Hugo begins looking around to see if he can find Gillian. Don takes his hand to pull him down, "Hugo. I can hear your thoughts from here. Calm down, at this point we probably won't see her until she walks across the stage. So please, for my sanity. Sit. Down."
He can't say much in retaliation of that. She was always right, though he would never say that out loud to her. So, he sits down next to her, on the very end of the aisle.
Donella is actually not next to him, he is sat next to Dmitri, and she is next to him with Aiden and Eleanor on her other side. He turns to Dmitri and whispers, "so, how you feeling about all this?" Dmitri looks confused, so Hugo clarifies, "you said you were nervous about being here, you still feeling that? Anything I could do?"
Dmitri gives a soft smile at that, "I think I'm feeling ok now that I'm here, it doesn't seem as scary now that we're here, just excited!"
"That's perfect." Hugo pauses for a moment before a smirk grows on his face, "Wanna make a bet on how freaked out Gill is?"
Dmitri smirks back, as well as gaining the attention of Eleanor and Aiden, "Oh heck yea, she's totally sweating bullets right now."
Aiden speaks up next, "I'll get in on that, she's probably on the verge of hyperventilating about her speech being too short… And I read it guys, it was seven pages. I love her and her over preparedness is a wonderful trait but I do wish she would chill out."
Hugo chuckles and watches as Eleanor is about to speak up before Donella beats her to it, "enough from all of you. She knows perfectly well how hard she worked to get here and how well prepared she is." She paused, a glare growing on her face as she turns to Hugo, "and you. Stop being a bad influence on the pups."
Hugo sighs, "Yes ma'am." Not able to say anything else, he turns away and just waits for the names to be called.
The names began being called about 45 minutes later. However, though Gillian didn't have a last name originally, she ended up taking the name Rottewange. Which Hugo was very happy about, but the idea of having to wait to get to the Rs to see her cross the stage felt genuinely unbearable. But for his family, he would do that and so much more.
Eventually, of course, they get to the moment right before she is called, Hugo can see her near the steps of the stage and the anticipation builds. As the person before her, Hugo doesn't even process what their name was, the principal speaks up, "Gillian Rottewange, master of engineering." Hugo, as well as the others—minus Donella, who is content to cheer calmly from her seat—shoot up and immediately yell her name. They get a look or two, but none of that matters when the kid that Hugo watched grow up from a quiet preteen, to a more outspoken teenager, to a genius young adult, looks towards them with her shy smile and gives them a wave.
The pride wells up in Hugo as he feels tears begin to poke at his eyes. As Gillian is starting to walk back to her seat they begin to settle down and he looks over at Donella, who has also gotten misty eyed, and the tears finally begin to fall as the smile grows impossibly larger on his face. Don turns back to the stage but sets her hand to rest on his shoulder as a sign of understanding, and Dmitri, now vibrating with what Hugo assumes to be a mix of pride and excitement, holds and squeezes Hugo's hand as he watches the stage as well.
Just as Hugo thinks the tears are over, the rest of the names are called and the principal pauses to address everyone, "and now I would like to call to the stage our valedictorian, Gillian Rottewange." The cheers come once again, with Hugo and the rest of his family cheering the loudest.
She walks up slowly but elegantly, taking the position of where the principal was in front of the microphone, "Hello to my fellow students, to the teachers and staff, and of course to the families and friends. We are all here to celebrate such an incredible achievement and I cannot congratulate all of us gathered here today enough. I have seen so many of us struggle and overcome so many different things and to stand here today with you all is just proof of all that we have achieved." She clears her throat and pauses to scan the crowd, locking eyes with Hugo and smiling, "and I know that I could not have achieved all that I have without the help and support of my family," both she and Hugo got misty eyed, still looking at each other as she continues, "they were the people there for me in my lowest, they were the people who—quite literally—pulled me out of the gutter and got me to where I am today." And the tears were officially falling again, thinking about the young pup she was when they had met and comparing her to where she stands now, it's obvious to anyone and everyone just how much she has grown. "So truly, from the bottom of my heart, Thank you. Thank you Hugo, and Donella, and everyone else." Finally, she looks away from Hugo and towards her fellow students, "and to my peers, I know this feels like a final step, but it really is just the first one. You will all go on to do amazing, world changing things. And I personally, cannot wait to see it."
And with that, she walks back off the stage and Hugo hears Aiden mumble something along the lines of "well, guess she shortened it." And before they know it, the ceremony is over, everyone is getting up, and they're looking for Gillian. Dmitri is holding onto his hand due to the large crowd, and the others are nearby scanning said large crowd. He's turned towards the stage when suddenly he's knocked to the ground. He turns in the hold of Gillian and beams, "Gill! Oh moon above you were amazing, that speech was incredible I'm so proud."
He holds her tight as the others join their impromptu hug pile. Dmitri, Eleanor, and Aiden on top of Gillian and Don just beside them with her hand on her head giving reassuring fluff of her hair. They are all crying tears of pride and happiness as they all congratulate Gillian on her wonderful achievement, but eventually the crowd begins to clear out and Donella coughs once to get their attention.
"I believe it is time for us to take our leave." She looks toward Hugo, who is still holding tight onto Gillian with tears streaming down his face, "Hugo please, get yourself together. We do have a celebratory dinner to get to."
Hugo smiles up at her, "Don't act like you weren't tearing up during that speech, you're just as happy as I am."
She smiles back, though slightly softer, "Of course I'm happy," she turns to Gillian, "and I'm so very proud as well. Now with that settled, please get off the ground so we can eat."
Gillian reaches out a hand for him to take, and as they walk to the car he continues to feel an intense amount of pride for just how much he was able to influence all of these pups, and he looks down at Dmitri by his side and realizes. He's still influencing them, and he's still someone they look up to and seek for guidance. And that couldn't make him happier.