Kitty has given the Cheerios their last minute pointers and the series of threats that pass for a pep talk these days. She's made sure that every high pony is in place, that every shoe is free of scuff marks and that even their underwear is regulation. Even still, it's not time for them to go on yet, so she peers out from behind the partition to look at the day’s crowd.
"KITTY!!!"
Kitty freezes. Her eyes scan around the bleachers until she sees what she’s looking for- a cluster of loud, unashamed glee students. Jane is standing up, waving with both hands and grinning with all her teeth, wearing the red McKinley t-shirt with the gladiator on it in what looks to be a men’s size. Spencer is howling; has been howling for a while now come to think of it- Kitty should have known it was him making that noise from the second it started. There’s two or three Warbler boys whose names escape her at the moment, making the goofiest good luck gestures; Myron is jumping up and down on the bench. Alistair is holding a handmade sign.
For a moment, Kitty can’t feel anything at all over the sensation of her soul leaving her body.
"What are they doing here?" she hisses. Mason, who has been trying his darnedest to match the others in both volume and unprofessionalism, turns to grin at her.
"Isn't it obvious?" he asks, a little giddy.
Madison picks up the slack. "They came for us!"
Kitty considers not being charmed by the Incest Twins to be a defining aspect of her personality. Still, she has to twist her lips extra hard against a smile this time.
"If you two mess this up, you're dead," she warns them, a little unnecessarily. "Especially you, Thing #2. No getting lost in your girlfriend's eyes and forgetting the steps."
Madison has been blowing kisses into the audience. Kitty's not sure she ever wants to know at who. "Worry about yourself," she says. Kitty wouldn't have expected any less from her. "Me and Mason never mess up."
_
Later, she’ll feel grateful. She’ll lie in bed, staring at the first place trophy that she gets to keep over the weekend, and she’ll think about how Jane had launched herself into her arms before she could even get the first words of her reprimand out. She’ll think about how Spencer lifted her onto his shoulders and carried her around the gymnasium in a victory lap, whether she liked it or not. She’ll think about Roderick, clearly suffering from the worst case of secondhand embarrassment ever known to McKinley High, but showing up anyway.
She’ll try to remember that thing Rachel always says about being a part of something special.
And then she’ll toss the whole adage out the window, because it’s pretty dumb anyway.
Because who isn’t a sucker for a prom fic? Set in the end of the school year after season six. Thanks to pareidoliarps for beta-ing this!
Roderick was the only one, besides Jane, who used to bring his lunch from home, and Jane feels another little pang of missing him while she waits alone for the others in the cafeteria line. Mason is the second to arrive, though, and he slides into the space opposite Jane with practiced ease and a secret on his lips.
“You know there’s been talk of you getting the nom for Prom Queen.”
“Oh yeah?” Jane pushes her food aside so she can put her elbows on the table, leaning forward towards him. “Who’s talking?”
Here Mason breaks, returning her smile with a shy grin of his own. “Me, mostly.” he admits. “But you know, if you wanted to put your name in, you could totally take it.”
It would be a lie to say she hasn’t thought about it. But it doesn’t quite feel right. Not this year, at least.
“We’ll see,” is what she says.
_
“Hey, J? Be my campaign manager for Prom Queen?”
“Sure Mads, no problem. I thought you said it wasn’t really your thing, though?”
“Yeah, I know I said that, but then I heard that witch-with-a-b Rebecca talking about how we couldn’t have a psycho McCarthy as queen.”
“So, you’re running because Rebecca said you couldn’t?”
“Yeah, pretty much. And?”
“Atta girl.”
_
“Oh, Mason, you look so handsome.” Jane’s mom says when she answers the door, and kisses him on the cheek. “Jane’s not quite ready yet- she’s been all over the place. I’ll go up and let her know you’re here.”
(Mason is pretty sure there’s a clause somewhere in the mom contract that says you have to say “You look so handsome” on prom night, because his own mother had said it the same way before he left the house tonight. Still, he accepts the compliment for what it is, and tries not to look as nervous as he feels when Jane’s mother leaves him alone in the foyer.)
“Oh.”
Jane’s soft gasp draws his eyes to the kitchen door, where she’s standing still as if startled. She’s not ready yet- she’s barefoot, and has in two different earrings as if she’s still deciding which one to go with- but she’s still so beautiful that Mason can hardly believe she’s real.
“Hi.” she breathes out, and they’ve been together for (wow) almost two years now, but she still has that smile that’s just for him- a slow, shy thing that lends her face an almost lopsided look. “What do you think?”
“…I love you.”
He says it without thinking, and he’s never said it before; he’s been waiting for the exact right time but okay, maybe this is it. She half runs the short distance between them and holds him close, and Mason feels like a movie.
“I’ll be ready in a minute.” she promises, and then she’s a whirlwind again, taking the steps up to the landing two at a time and shouting down to her mom about her earrings (“Mom, do you think I should-” “The one on the left, dear.”) and it doesn’t feel just like a movie anymore, but it does seem too good to be true.
_
"Your Prom King is... Spencer Porter!"
["It's rare for a king to win without his queen."]
["You think Mads will win, then?"]
["She’d better. Just try not to be too embarrassing, Buttercup."]
"And your Prom Queen, for the year 2017, is..."
["Come on, come on, come on..."]
"Madison McCarthy!"
_
Mason hasn’t drunk anything that didn’t come out of a can all night, but Spencer is louder than usual and Madison is a little gigglish from the spiked punch by the time the glee kids all pile back into the limo at the end of the night.
(All things considered, Mason is pretty sure that Spencer is the one who spiked it, but he’s not going to say anything. Even the crown on Madison’s head wouldn’t make her gracious enough to forgive Spencer for risking getting kicked out.)
“So Al, what do you say?” Jane asks around a yawn. “Do you still wish you hadn’t come?”
Alistair takes a while to answer, but only because Madison has been loudly admiring his hair for a while and is now trying to run a few strands of it through her fingers. “Nah.” he says, after he brushes her off. “It was fun.”
“And you got to see me win?” Spencer adds.
“And I got to see you win.” Alistair agrees. “Oh, and Jane, tell your dad thanks again for the limo. I’ve never been inside one before.”
Jane looks a little embarrassed- the way she usually does when someone points out that she can afford things the rest of them can’t. “It’s nothing.” she says. “Literally nothing. Don’t worry about it.”
And then Madison is sidling up next to Spencer, giving him the doe eyed look that she gives to Mason and Roderick and Spencer but never to any of the boys on the football team who fall ‘in love' with her. “I can’t believe this is your last year.” she pouts. “I’m gonna miss you.”
Spencer pats her on the back but makes a dismissive gesture. “We can think about that later.” he says. “It’s prom night! Who wants to go back to my place and get fucked up?”
Madison and Alistair let out whoops of agreement, but Jane links her arms through Mason’s. “Pass.” she says, and she already sounds half asleep. She lets her head loll onto Mason’s shoulder, and Spencer is joking about just getting fucked instead but it doesn’t really matter. In this moment, all that matters is the both of them.
“I love you too, by the way.” she murmurs, and her words are a little minced from sleep but she still says them like they’re precious. “I didn’t say it earlier but it’s true.”
Mason doesn’t reply because he knows he doesn’t have to, but once she’s slipped into sleep he kisses the top of her head.
