Chapter Text
John really wishes it hadn’t come to this. He really, really wishes it hadn’t. But the number of past due bills piling on top of his kitchen table has become too alarming to ignore, so he’s out of other, more dignified options.
John is currently in the driver's seat of his car, which is currently parked next to the looming building. He’s supposed to be inside by now, surely; rehearsal will start soon, and he needs to get acquainted with the director.
He just can’t bring himself to go inside just yet.
It’s ridiculous, John knows this, it's a job, just a job, one that will pay the bills, it’s even one that requires a level of knowledge he’s spent the better part of two decades cultivating. It’s just-
John loathed high school the first time. He could never understand the rules people expected him to follow, so the thought of going back–willingly, even to work as a sound tech for a school he’s never stepped foot in, is-
Well, it feels like he’s lost somehow. Lost what? John doesn’t know. But it feels like by going into that building and spending his evenings there, he’s somehow failed.
And he’s not going to dwell on that thought any longer. In reality, it does not matter how John feels about any of this, he needs the money, and that's that. So John grabs his headphones, keys, wallet, and bag, opens his car door, and steps out.
Immediately, when John steps inside the building, he regrets it. Students are just getting out of class, and the noise and chaos overwhelm him. He wishes he had brought a real fidget, but he was worried about how that would look to his new boss?, or any of the students he’d have to encounter, so he’ll have to make do with just his headphones.
The walk from the front doors to the auditorium isn’t that long, and after John gets directions from the woman at the front desk, he finds it easy enough. No, it’s not the length of the walk that bothers him, it's the number of students who stare at him as he does so.
He can’t really blame them, to the students, he’s a tall, strange, adult man dressed in almost all black, walking through the hallways of their high school. If John were them, he’d probably stare at him too, but still, he doesn’t like the way it makes him feel watched, judged, at all.
John is almost entirely sure that taking this job was a mistake. He’s almost convinced himself he actually doesn’t need the money that badly when he suddenly finds himself at the doors of the auditorium. He takes a moment to take off his headphones and put them inside his bag (John has found, through years of observation, that people like him better when they can’t see the headphones compared to when John just had them resting on his neck) and walks inside.
What he sees inside is not what he’d expected. He expected to see dozens of high schoolers already getting ready to begin rehearsal, talking, eating, and generally producing more noise than John believes is ever necessary.
What he doesn’t expect to find is about five students lying on stage quietly, staring into their phones, and three adults talking in somewhat hushed tones at the front of the stage. If John knew anything, he’d say it almost seemed like the five students were listening in on the conversation.
John figures one of the adults is the person he’s supposed to talk to to get further instructions, so he approaches the group slowly. They’re still talking when he gets close enough that an introduction would be appropriate, so John resolves to wait until they finish.
John stands there for about two minutes when one of the students calls over.
“Hey, Mr. Dowd someone’s here, he’s been waiting for like a while.”
John is hit with the sudden desire for the earth to swallow him completely. All three adults are suddenly staring at him.
“Yes, I-I’m John Doe, the person you hired to help the students in the sound booth.” Great job, John. Very normal, only took you staring at them for two whole minutes.
“Ah, yes, Mr. Doe, welcome to Chamber’s High School theater department. I’m Charlie Dowd, the head of the department and the director. I wish we had more time for introductions, but the rest of the students will, well, are supposed to be here in a couple of minutes, so we will have to wait until after I give them their instructions for the day. Today is the first official rehearsal, so don’t worry about being behind. For now, I will leave you with your copy of the script, and you can stand over there until I’ve sent the students off.”
Mr. Dowd hands John a thick stack of paper, whole punched as if intended to be put in a binder. The first page has the words, Little Shop of Horrors, written at the top. John then looks up to where Mr. Dowd is pointing and walks over, choosing to lean against the wall and look like he belongs there. The other two adults have also moved, standing slightly to the side, still in front of the stage, but now closer to John’s spot on the wall.
Mr. Dowd is in the middle of kicking the five students off the stage and telling them to put their phones away, when suddenly upwards of two to three dozen high schoolers are walking into the auditorium, talking and laughing.
John cringes at the increase in volume and looks at his hands. He notices there is less nail polish on them than when he left the house an hour ago and internally curses himself for not realizing he’d been picking on it during his conversation with Mr. Dowd. He really needs to work on this whole first impressions thing, he really can’t afford to lose this job.
“All right, students,” yells Mr. Dowd, clapping his hands together while doing so, “thank you all for your involvement in this year's fall musical, Little Shop of Horrors! Before we get started, I just want to take attendance and tell you what to expect for this and future rehearsals, as well as introduce you to some new faces.”
Oh. John is a new face. He wasn’t prepared to be introduced to the entire cast and crew, although he knew he should’ve expected it. So, while Mr. Dowd takes attendance, John practices what he’ll say if Mr. Dowd asks him to introduce himself and not just do it for him.
“Alright, and that’s everyone. Now you all know me and Oscar, our light tech, but you have probably noticed we have two new people here today.” Mr. Dowd jester towards John and the other man, and John hopes Mr. Dowd will introduce the other man first.
“We’ll start off with Mr. Lester. Mr. Lester has generously donated his time after work to help us practice each song with live music during rehearsals. Everyone in the cast will work closely with him while learning their songs, and he will also be a part of the love orchestra this year.”
Thank God, John thinks, he doesn’t have to introduce himself. He can just give a quiet wave and be done with it.
“Yes, hello everybody”
Fuck
“Some of you may know me, I’m Faroe’s father, Arthur Lester, and I will be your pianist for this production. I am happy to be able to help young performing artists, so if you need help with anything, don’t hesitate to reach out.”
While a part of John hates Arthur Lester for adding that frankly unnecessary introduction, another part of him is intrigued by the man. First off, he’s British, and John wants to know what on earth he’s doing here in America. Second, there’s no denying the man is, well, attractive, and well, John wouldn’t mind getting to-
Nope, nope, nope. He’s stopping that right there. John does not need another infatuation with a (probably) straight man; been there, done that.
John is brought back to the conversation by hearing his name,
“Mr. Doe is our new sound tech, so sound crew, you’ll be working with him, learning from him. He’s worked on multiple professional productions, so I expect he will have a lot to teach you.”
Right, he’d forgotten about that. John would rather do this work alone, but he recognizes he cannot possibly be in multiple places at once, and students had already been on the sound crew before he took this job, so he’ll have to learn to work with a handful of students.
The entire room is staring at him, and John realizes they’re waiting for him to say something.
“Right, right, yes, I’m John Doe, you guys don’t have to call me Mr. Doe, you can just call me John. If you have any questions related to mic placement or anything like that, you can come talk with me during rehearsal.”
John really hopes that was okay, and it seems like it was as Mr. Dowd turns and continues to address the students. John doesn’t really listen, he assumes any specific instructions he needs will be given to him directly. Additionally, he knows he won’t have much to do these first weeks, besides getting himself familiar with the system and getting to know the students on sound crew.
Finally, Mr. Dowd finishes talking with the students and starts walking over to where John is standing. To John’s alarm, four students are following him along with Mr. Lester, who appears to be engaged in a sort of argument with one of the students approaching him.
“Mr. Doe! I wanted to introduce you to the students you’ll be working with, along with Mr. Lester, who you’ll be working with later on in the production.”
Ah, yes, John almost forgot, this is a musical. He hates musicals. More specifically, he hates working on them. Even more specifically, he hates working with the musicians working in a musical. They can be so demanding, and can cause so many problems with their equipment when the system is on the more…fragile side.
“Ah, yes, hello. And John’s fine, really. I-I’m excited to work with you all.”
“Right, well then, John,” Mr. Dowd turns away from John, gesturing towards the girl Mr. Lester was arguing with, “this here is Faroe Lester, she’s been on sound crew for four years now and will be your biggest resource when navigating our sound system, as it can be quite…difficult at times.”
It’s reassuring that he has a student on sound crew with a decent amount of experience, and at least now John knows he won’t be stumbling through his blind. However, Faroe is Mr. Lester’s daughter, and given where John’s mind immediately went after his introduction…John would prefer to keep as much distance as possible between himself and Arthur Lester.
“Hello, Faroe, I’m glad I’ll be working with someone with some experience in this system. I hope I’ll be able to teach some strategies to help troubleshoot its difficulties.”
“Likewise,” as Faroe says that she holds up her hand for John to shake, and after a second's hesitation, John takes it, “I’ve sorta been the head for these past years, the other three are juniors and sophomores, but we can do more in-depth stuff in the booth. I wanna show you how we’ve done things since I joined.”
John opens his mouth to respond, but is cut off by someone else.
“And I’m Arthur, as you may have guessed. Faroe is my daughter. I know I won’t be needing your assistance until closer to the actual showtime, but I figured it's best to get acquainted now so things will be easier down the line.”
Like his daughter, Mr. Lester, Arthur, holds up his hand to shake, and John takes it. His hand is warm and surprisingly rough for someone who is playing piano for a high school theater department in his spare time. John can feel his heart beating faster and moves quickly to let go of Arthur’s hand. If he notices, Arthur doesn’t say anything.
“Okay well I think that's enough for introductions, Mr. Lester if you’ll follow me to the music room and…John, you can follow Faroe up to the booth to get started and acquainted with the rest of the sound crew,” Mr. Dowd looks back at the other three students, who have been listening silently the entire time, and walks away.
Arthur follows Mr. Dowd towards the music room, but as he’s about halfway towards the exit of the auditorium, he looks back. John assumes he’s looking back at Faroe, but when he turns to his right, where she was, he realizes she’s already started walking towards the back of the auditorium, where the booth is.
No, Arthur is looking back at John, and when he catches his eye, Arthur smiles and turns around, and John can feel his cheeks warm.
God, he’s so screwed. He knew this was a bad idea. But he’s in too deep now, so he turns and hurries after Faroe and reminds himself he’s here to work, not to get involved with men with kind eyes.
And he almost convinces himself he’ll be fine.