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[flare-star.insanejournal.com]

Who: Thomas & Jamie Kemp, Kat Lowsley, Theseus Stavros
What: Graduation!
When: Saturday morning
Where: Some...auditorium


Jamie had woken up at 6 on Saturday morning, unable to fall back asleep. He was fucking graduating today, holy crap. High school was all over but the diploma, and he was going to SVA in the fall. His life felt vaguely dream-like as he ate breakfast and drank some coffee, staring out the window as he ate, lost in his thoughts.

He took a shower and made his hair somewhat presentable, pulling on a nice shirt and slacks. His cap and gown were in a dry cleaning bag in his closet, and he kept them folded over his arm during the car ride to the auditorium where the ceremony was taking place. His graduating class topped out at over 400, there was pretty much no way they could have held all the graduates and their families in the school's gym.

Jamie was herded backstage with the rest of his class once he arrived, pulling his gown on over his clothes and adjusting his hat over his insane hair. Then, there was nothing left to do but wait for it all to start.

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[flare-star.insanejournal.com]

Pomp and Circumstance started to play, and Jamie and his classmates filed out onto the floor of the auditorium, where chairs had been set up. He knew he'd have to wait a while, since his last name fell smack in the middle of the alphabet. But before anything could happen, there would be speeches from the principal, the head of the school board, the valedictorian, and gods only knew who else.

[thomas_kemp]

Thomas had been about to express his excitement about returning to school as well, when the music started. He immediately flapped his hands and then craned his head to pay attention to everything, even the speeches which were likely to be cliche about new beginnings and growing up and everything it brought with it.

[shades-of-fate.insanejournal.com]

Both Kat and Theseus smiled to Thomas' reaction but they too went quiet. They'd both heard this sort of speech before, with little variation, but it was for Jamie so it mattered.

[flare-star.insanejournal.com]

Jamie fidgeted through most of the speeches, and started playing cliche bingo in his head to amuse himself and pass the time. He was pretty sure he heard the words 'growth' and 'opportunity' at least ten times each, but he sort of expected that. And really, he knew this was a big milestone in the lives of him and his classmates, he got that.

The speeches finally wrapped up and they went up in rows, kids he'd gone to school with, some of them for over a decade, getting their diplomas and listening to their families cheer.

Finally, it was his row's turn. They filed up the center row and stood at the foot of the stairs leading up to the stage. There were about six people in front of him, and then he heard the principal say, "Jameson Kemp" into the microphone. The walk across the stage seemed both short and long all at once, and he shook the principal's hand and took both himself and his diploma back to his seat. They still had a whole half an alphabet to go.

[thomas_kemp]

People cheered when they heard the names of their sons, daughters, friends, classmates, etc. The moment his son's name was called, Thomas let loose a huge whoop of joy and then he clapped like a seal before bursting into dramatic tears and turning to hug Kat as Jamie sat down.

[shades-of-fate.insanejournal.com]

When Jamie's name was called Theseus had gotten up to offer a loud cheer, mostly because he could be like that. When he'd taken a seat, he'd grinned at one of the parents who'd given him an odd look and simply said, "I'm dating him," motioning to Jamie. Sometimes, Theseus had his moments.

Kat just gave a happy grin then laughed as she returned Thomas' hug. "You are the most adorable thing sometimes Thomas.

[flare-star.insanejournal.com]

Jamie grinned as he sat back down, because he knew one of those whoops was his dad. He could feel his shoulders unclench as the subsequent rows were called, the L's, the P's, the T's, and finally Tina Zheng meant that they'd reached the end of the line. The whole class moved their tassels to the other side of their caps, then threw their hats into the air. It was pretty much straight out of a movie, but Jamie still couldn't stop grinning.

[thomas_kemp]

When the ceremony ended, Thomas jumped up and clapped before searching the milling crowds for Jamie, figuring the others were right behind him. It did help that Jamie was so tall he stuck out above most of the people and his hair made him even more obvious. Thomas rushed over to his side and he pulled his son into a crushing hug.

"You're a graduate!" he said gleefully. "I'm so proud of you!"

[shades-of-fate.insanejournal.com]

Both Theseus and Kat followed Thomas, making sure not to get too lost in the crowd. The crowd of people meant they arrived a bit after Thomas and smiled when they saw him hugging Jamie.

"Congrats," Kat offered with her own huge smile, waiting for Thomas to finish so she could give Jamie her own hug.

Theseus just beamed and waited his turn, giving Jamie a kiss. "Congrats man. And you manage to look cute in that."