Chapter Text
The theater had always been a refuge for Yasuho. Not that the rest of highschool had been horrible for her or anything, but she felt most at home on the stage. This would be her third year taking the class, and because of the fact that graduation was looming, her last. Sighing, she ran her hand over the frame of the heavy wooden door as she walked inside. Missing may end up being an understatement... Still, this was only the first class of the year! There was lots of time left to enjoy it before she was done for good.
High school theaters were sometimes great. Huge auditoriums with hundreds upon hundreds of seats. Yasuho had been to a few on trips with the class to some of these, even though it just proved to make them jealous of the other school’s facilities. Their theater wasn’t bad, per say, just average. It sat around eighty people and had a working lighting system, and that was good enough for most of them. Still, a fog machine would be nice… Maybe some better speakers...
Yasuho giggled to herself as she walked inside the theaters threshold, making her way way over to where Trish, another pink haired theater girl, was sitting. She looked up at Yasuho and smirked, her styled hair barely moving as she tucked her rose gold iPhone into the purse beside her.
“Back for one more year of fun, Yas?” Trish snickered and looked softly at her. The other girl was younger, but had gotten ahead in school for reasons unknown to Yasuho. That meant that it was also her last, sort of bittersweet, year with the class.
“Did you think I was going to miss it?” Laughing along with the other girl, she took a moment to scan the room. They were rather early, so she wasn’t surprised that there weren't that many other students there yet. Other than Buccellati, their teacher, it seemed to be all other people that had been in the class before. Other than…
“Hey, Trish…” She started speaking while turning back around to look at the girl, who had begun talking to Fugo, their stage manager, when her back was turned. The boy nodded at her, leaning onto the wall behind him.
“If you’re wondering who Caesar is with, that’s one of the Joestar kids.” He opened his bag as he spoke, pulling out a sheet of paper. “Joseph…” Fugo seemed to hiss slightly as he spoke, crinkling the paper in his hand. “The kid is some sort of sports star,” He spat out those words with far more contempt than was necessary. “He’s probably just here because he think it’s going to be easy.” Trish laughed and pulled the paper out of his hand before it got any more damage.
“Isn’t he like, dating Caesar?” She scanned the slightly crumped paper, nodding every so often. A class list, Yasuho realised. How did Fugo manage to get his hands on those… “Bubbles won't let any slack off, let alone whoever he’s fucking…” Trish got to the bottom of the list and sighed, casting a quick glance at both of her friends.
“It’s bad, right?” Fugo looked at Yasuho and narrowed his eyes as he spoke. “Three girls.” Yasuho blinked at him, that couldn’t be right. There were always at least… five other girls in the class. No way they could find a play with just three female roles… Trish thrust the piece of paper in front of her face, one finger pointed to a name.
“Do you know who that is?” Her voice was flat, and Yasuho couldn’t quite tell if it was a rhetorical question. Nevertheless, she looked at the name the other girl was pointing to. Jolyne Kujo…
“Isn’t that Jotaro’s sister?” She had only heard the name a few times in passing, and despite being in the class, Jotaro never talked about her. Fugo scoffed and pushed off the wall.
“That’s because she was in jail for the past year.” Fugo laughed, grabbing a chair from a pile and faceing it towards the two girls. “I mean, she could be a great actor, but still…” His smile faded as he sat down, pushing his long bangs behind his ear before leaning back, letting the front two legs of his chair come off the ground. Trish took one last look over the list before handing it back to the boy.
“Looks like we’ll have seventeen people overall, assuming no one quits.” She looked like she was about to say more before Fugo interjected.
“And they will!” Trish rolled her eyes and ignored the comment, looking back to Yasuho.
“Us three, Ceaser, Jotaro and the tech guys are the only ones that have been in the class before.” Taking a quick look around the room, Yasuho saw that she was right. Caesar was off with Joseph in one corner of the room, Jotaro was sitting on the total opposite side of the auditorium with headphones in his ears. The three members of the tech crew were up on the stage, harassing their teacher.
“Do you think Josuke and Oku are actually going to figure out how to work the light board this year?” Yasuho wished that was more of a joke. Last years production was done in pink lighting for half the shows because neither of them could figure out how to turn it off. At least Koichi was pretty good at the sound stuff…
“I think we all know the answer to that question.” Trish laughed and sent a quick wave to the boys when they looked back to see what was going on. “They’re only in their second year, I think we need to give them at least one more try.”
Giggling and also waving, Yasuho nodded at Trish’s comment. “Yeah, that’s fair.” They may not have been the best at their jobs, but it helped to have some people to lighten to mood when the production started to get rough.
“Oh... Anasui is coming back too.” All excitement seemed to drop from Trish’s voice when she remembered that little fact. Yasuho shrugged, watching as Fugo put the front legs of his chair back on the ground and looked at the younger girl.
“Say what you want about him, Trish, but he’s a damn good actor.” Blondie was right, Anasui may have hit all levels of creep-factor, but he knew his way around a script. Trish scoffed, kicking Fugo’s chair lightly.
“Whatever, as long as he finds someone else…” She paused, holding up a finger as she stood up and wrapped her arms around her body. “to be his future bride!” She puckered her lips and made several kissy sounds at Fugo before he gave up his trying to keep an eternal frown on his face and started laughing at her impression. Leaning in closer, she pressed her lips to his ear and managed to stage whisper “celebrate us…” before her own joke got to her and she burst out laughing.
“Please…” Yasuho had to stop to wipe a tear out of her eyes before continuing. “Never do that in front of him, I think he might actually kill you.” Trish nodded and after another few minutes the three managed to curb their laughter down to a manageable level.
“So,” Yasuho paused to take one more breath. “Everyone else is new?” She had assumed that there would be at least a few more people coming back into the class…
Trish and Fugo both nodded at the same time. The boy spoke up first. It was clear he had spent a while studying the class list, trying to figure out how they could make things work. “Most them are in grade twelve too,” he ran a hand through his hair. “There are a few younger kids, though. Enough to make a class next year, anyway.”
“We managed to convince our other friends to take the class too!” Trish said. “Even Mista…” To be honest, outside of theater, Yasuho wasn’t very close to the other two. She had no clue who Mista was, but smiled none the less.
“That.” Fugo stood up and started to walk towards the stage. “Was an actual miracle.”
Trish rolled her eyes and stood up too, motioning for Yasuho to stand.
“Come on, let’s go see what’s up with Caesar now that the Jojo hater is gone.” She took a moment to look at the time on her phone. “Five minutes until the class actually starts!” Grabbing the other girl by the wrist, Trish walked them over to where Caesar and Joseph were standing.
The theater wasn’t very large, and it didn’t take Yasuho very long to realise that the blond man was angry. Not… unusual, but it usually took a week or two for him to start treating the class like Broadway. When she got into earshot of their conversation, it was nothing less than what she expected.
“You understand that High School Musical wasn’t real, right, Joseph?” That was Caesar all right. Joseph looked sullen for a moment before noticing the two girls and waved at them.
“Don’t listen to him ladies, I fully intend to make High School Musical real!” The brown haired boy laughed, extending a hand and ginning.“Joestar. Joseph Joestar.” The girls looked at each other and smirked. No matter what his acting was like, he at least seemed to have a personality fit for the class. He shook both of their hands eagerly, and Yasuho introduced both of them before Caesar came closer to the group.
“Everyone knows who you are, Joseph. Do you need to introduce yourself like that every time?” Caesar spoke with his usual contempt, but it seemed to have more effect when he was talking to Joseph.
“It’s a bit narcissistic to assume they would know who I was, don’t you think?” He laughed again, and Trish nodded.
“Yeah Bubbles, not everyone knows that you’re dating the big, famous sports star.” Everyone, save Caesar, who was now glaring daggers at Trish, snickered at the comment.
“Will you ever stop calling me that?” He said.
“I stop calling you that when you can erase your grade ten monologue from my mind.” Yasuho giggled. Brining a ten dollar bubble machine in as a prop certainly made for an unforgettable performance.
Caesar scoffed and crossed his arms. “At least I didn’t the Barbie monolog like everyone else that has ever touched a stage.” Trish frowned and looked ready to speak up before Joseph interrupted her.
“Hey now, let’s just say you both did horrible, okay?” He patted them both on the back before shooting a grin at Yasuho. “How have you put up with these guys for two years already?”
She rolled her eyes and smiled back at him.
“Who knows? If it gets too bad I just ignore them...” They both laughed, not paying much attention to the other two, who had managed to start an argument in the seconds that Joseph turned his back.
“And I’m assuming my cousin takes that to the extreme?” He nodded towards Jotaro who was still sitting alone, tapping his foot to whatever music he was listing to.
“Ah, yeah…” Yasuho hadn’t actually talked to Jotaro that much, despite them both being in the class for their entire high school careers. He was scary, to put it bluntly. Not like she thought he was going to hurt her or anything, but someone who was that good at stage fighting must know how to throw a real punch. “He, uh, keeps to himself…” Joseph nodded in recognition.
“I’m surprised he’s in the class at all, honestly. He’s not any better at home.” The brunette fiddled with the hem of his varsity jacket, seemingly unsure of what to say about the other Joestar boy. Really, though, that was about all there was to it. Yasuho was sure that Jotaro had a dark secret or two, but she would be damned if anyone could figure them out. Without knowledge of those hidden personally nuggets, though, he was just the person that taught them all to throw good fake punches. A skill that Yasuho did manage to admire if she wasn’t the one he was partnered with. Her thoughts about getting punched were interrupted when the familiar sound of the first school bell echoed through the room, causing everyone that had arrived early to perk up. Looking at Joseph, the pink haired girl smiled.
“C’mon, let’s see kind of competition you have in your quest to become Zac Efron.” They both laughed, and along with Caesar and Trish, walked to the front of the class. They sat on the ground directly in front of Buccellati, who offered a warm smile as the rest of the returning students came to join them. Even Jotaro sat close enough to make it seem like they were a part of the same group.
“I’m very glad that you’re all back.” Buccellati said. Their teacher always seemed to assume that they hated the class and had no reason to return, despite the fact they all promised to take the class at the end of last year after thoroughly enjoying the year.
“Hey now, you didn’t think we would leave you here with Caesar and the guy that threatened to kill everyone, did you?” Josuke was the one talking, of course. Only he would bring up the Fugo death threat incident. Somehow, both of the offended parties managed to keep their composure, although Yasuho clearly saw Fugo clench his fist in retaliation. It may have escalated further if Buccellati didn’t interject.
“Now now, I would have been happy with any of you coming back...” Yasuho was prepared to say something else to annoy Josuke before she was tapped on the shoulder by Joseph.
“Hey, you’re uh,” He was speaking less to her and more through her as he looked towards the doorway to the classroom. “You’re dating that guy, right?” He was pointing now, but there was no way… Not in theater...
Reluctantly she turned around and found her assumption proven right. Among the students entering the classroom was her… friend… Joshuu Higashikata. Shooting a quick save me glance and a mouthed denying of his question to Joseph, she waved halfheartedly at the boy.
“Joshuu… I didn’t know you wanted to do theater…” She said, trying to sound at least somewhat enthusiastic about the situation. The boy sat down next her and grinned, attempting to put a hand on her shoulder before she shrugged it off.
“Well you’re in the class, so how could I no~t?” How could his voice be this annoying? Of course he had to be here… Yasuho brought her knees to her chest and sighed, attempting to salvage what she could of the situation in her mind. He would probably drop out when he realised he needed to do work and not just oogle over her all day, right? Yeah… a small smile returned to her face as she caught Trish sneaking a sympathetic glance her way. Two weeks tops, then he would be gone. Two weeks... She took a deep breath in an attempt to calm herself before turning her attention to the front of the class.
“You guys do romance right? We can be the lead roles~!”
Two… Weeks...