Editor’s note: Around this time every year, social media is filled with the creative signs, cheesy puns, and smiling faces of “hocoposals.” You’ve seen the pictures. Now read the story behind one of the many proposals. Section editor Lily Hager had the inside scoop for this one and was at the scene to tell the story.
Every time he heard her name he smiled with his eyes.
Seniors Weston Hall and Jensen Kinnebrew became best friends during freshman year. When she saw the Marvel poster in his hands before homecoming that year, she just stared.
Weston Hall first asked Jensen to the homecoming dance his sophomore year.
After a long pause, a question: “You’re asking me?”
Even though she eventually said yes, she didn’t discover the dance meant something more to Weston until two years later.
Throughout their friendship, she dated and had a couple relationships, but Weston didn’t walk away. He waited.
Junior year brought another poster, this time covered in tulle, feathers, and princesses for prom. The plan was as it had been in years past- to go to the dance as friends, but times were changing. Jensen slowly but surely saw more than a best friend in Weston. By the time the dance arrived, they were no longer purely platonic. Prom marked the beginning of their official relationship, something Weston patiently waited three years for.
After two dance proposals, Weston was determined to make senior homecoming special for his girlfriend of six months. For hours each weekend, he painted his vision on a 10-foot sign, littering it with inside jokes. After a few weekends of painting, the sign displayed Earth, the moon, and the path of Apollo 11. With hearts lining the path, the sign represented his love for her to the moon and back.
Senior Weston Hall collects his friend sophomore Joe Harris from class to help with the ‘hocoposal.’
Even though they were in a relationship this time, Weston was still nervous, especially the night before. He knew she would say yes, but he said he wanted it to go according to plan.
He met a mutual friend, sophomore Joe Harris, outside the band hall. As they detailed a plan, they listened to her play runs and trills on her piccolo. Joe was excited and nervous for Weston, who never stopped smiling. Rolled up poster in hand, he led Joe to the parking lot right outside the fine arts doors.
They were locked out.
All according to plan.
Oh, no–they would need Jensen to open the doors.
The sun shone off their skin and the light sidewalk and caught sweat on their heads from the heat and nerves. Cars raced against traffic to the streets, as the dismissal bell would ring in a few minutes. The wind tossed and grabbed at the poster as Weston and Joe unrolled it. Weston’s smile left, replaced by a look of concern that the sign would wrinkle.
After a text and a few minutes, Jensen opened the glass doors and immediately smiled.
Senior Weston Hall and sophomore Joe Harris hold the sign in preparation for Jensen’s arrival.
“You’re asking me?” she exclaimed.
Weston’s familiar smile returned.
He let her admire the sign and its hidden treasures for a few minutes before moving inside to roll it up, safely hidden from dirt and wind. The sign lay in the hallway between the outside doors and the black box theatre. The bell rang and band kids trickled past them to the doors. Other students came running in from the opposite direction.
One fell.
Right across the top of the poster.
A mixture of screams and laughter cut through the serenity like a knife. Weston stared, eyes wide. Beneath the fallen student lay the crumpled poster. Luckily, after flattening out the mess, there was no tear– just some wrinkles and a footprint.
Hand in hand, Weston and Jensen led each other into the band hall, cheers from the band members filling the air as the door closed.
Seniors Weston Hall and Jensen Kinnebrew embrace after a successful ‘hocoposal.’
