a dick; lacking gorm

Jean and Jeremy get photographed kissing and it's all over the news. It's a problem for both of them because of their pasts, with Jean stressed because he got caught wanting a man and Jeremy stressed because of pressure from his family and because this reminds him of the banquet. The media is vicious, because they're the first confirmed-gay Exy players (Andreil does no PDA, Cat and Laila are obviously Just Good Friends, and I guarantee the 2007 press misgenders Cody).

They keep saying that gay players are ruining Exy, that they should be kicked off the team, that the founders of Exy would be horrified, etc.

And who should read all this bullshit but Kevin Day? Kevin "it'll be easier if he remains heterosexual" Day, who is now watching reporters bully the man he failed all his life and the man he has always idolized. Kevin Day, who is watching bigot online say that his mother would be ashamed of having gay people play Exy, like Kevin himself isn't bisexual.

It's the last straw.

So when they play the Trojans, Kevin decides to make a point. I imagine this is Neil's sophomore year, so the Foxes scraped past the Winter Banquet by the skin of their teeth but everyone knows they won't make it more than a match or two into the spring season. And they just happen to be up against the Trojans as one of their first games of the spring semester.

So a reporter gets to Kevin before the game to ask him about the new scandal and, thinking Kevin will be supportive, says something like, "don't you think Exy would be better if there were no gay players?"

And because Kevin is a diva and a drama queen, he says, "I'll answer that after the game." And he walks off.

He goes to the locker room and he asks Wymack if they've gotten their line-up to the Trojans yet. Wymack says no. And Kevin says, "Good. Take Neil, Andrew, Nicky, and I off."

Everyone looks at him like he's insane. The whole locker room goes quiet.

Neil asks if Kevin is joking.

Kevin looks at Andrew. "A reporter out there thinks Exy would be better without gay players. So I thought we should let him see what that looks like."

And then while Kevin and Andrew are having a moment of dramatic eye contact and understanding, because Kevin is finally prioritizing protecting his loved ones above Exy, chaos erupts.

(Mostly it's Nicky loudly asking why no one ever tells him they're gay).

Kevin hands the line-up to Jeremy and it's a mirror image of the year before, one team sacrificing a chance at victory for a greater cause.

Kevin Day, for the first time since his hand healed, does not play a single minute on the court the entire game.

Neither do Neil, Andrew, or Nicky.

The Trojans win.

At the end of the game, Kevin finds the reporter, in a sea of other reporters trying to ask post-match questions. They're al asking if Kevin's hand hurts, if the Foxes are ill, and what the hell happened that most of the best starters didn't play.

Kevin, in a speech that Neil would be proud of, says that he heard Exy would be better without queer players. So they all sat out, since they weren't wanted.

The reporters go quiet.

Kevin goes on about how Exy has always been a co-ed sport. It's always been welcoming to everyone. How the Foxes, started by Kevin's father, have always been about making sure everyone gets a chance to play. How the Trojans, perpetual winners of the Kayleigh Day Spirit Award, have always stood by their queer teammates. How last year's winners (the Foxes) and this year's future winners (the Trojans, Kevin is calling it a half-season in advance) wouldn't be half the teams they were without the queer players on them. And how Kevin can't believe the reporters dare insinuate that Kayleigh Day wouldn't want her own son playing Exy because he might taint the sport by being queer.

It's the most massive thing Kevin's ever done. Bigger than saying Wymack is his dad. Bigger than "I've never been skiing." Bigger than getting the two on his cheek covered up.

Because Exy is the Queen's game. Kayleigh and Tetsuji and Riko are all gone and only Kevin can now define what Exy is and what it was meant to be.

He's found his spine and decided that he's going to use it to fight for his right, and the right of those like him, to play Exy. He's going to fight for Andrew and Neil, who fought for him. He's going to fight to Jeremy, who embodies the spirit of Kayleigh Day's Exy better than anyone Kevin's ever met and who was the only sunshine he ever saw in the Nest. And he's going to fight for Jean, who he never fought for before but he never wants to let down again.

In 2007, with no out players in the sport and his entire career ahead of him, Kevin Day decides to come out, gambling that the world loves him more than they hate gay people, deciding that he loves his friends and his spine more than his spotless reputation.