Break a Leg ( MHA Momojirou theater AU)

Chapter 1

        "Jirou, mic one," a static-y voice came from the walkie talkie on the desk next to the soundboard. Jirou spun around in her chair and picked up the iPad attached to the soundboard, turning microphone one up to low volume. She picked up the walkie talkie and said, "mic one is on." She looked up and out the window of the booth in the school auditorium.

        The first few rows of seats were filling up with students auditioning for the school's fall play. The stage was empty except for a lone microphone on a stand. Off to the side, a flash of purple could be seen moving around in the wings. That would be Shinso, the stage manager. "Copy that," he said through the walkie talkie, "lights stand by." Kaminari reached over Jirou and grabbed the walkie talkie, "got it!"

       "Dude, get off me," Jirou said, shoving him away. Kaminari, who'd been expecting her reaction, barely even stumbled. "Careful Jirou," he said, teasingly waving a finger at her, "what did Mr. Aizawa say about being rough in the booth? You could break something." Jirou rolled her eyes and leaned back in her beat-up swivel chair, "shut up. That speech was almost entirely for you and you know it." Kaminari shrugged and went over the spotlight, adjusting it.

        Shinso's voice came over the walkie talkie again, "lights ready?" Kaminari nodded at Jirou, and she responded for him, "lights are ready." "Lights, go." At that, Kaminari turned off the house lights and stage lights, leaving the auditorium completely in the dark. Below them, the sea of students went silent. The walkie talkie clicked on again. "Cue spotlight," Shinso said. Kaminari turned on the spotlight, creating a circle of light around the microphone on stage. Behind it, a dark, slumped over figure stood. Having appeared out of nowhere, Mr. Aizawa, the stage crew director, had successfully gotten the crowd's attention.

        "Alright, everyone listen up 'cause I'm not gonna repeat this," Mr. Aizawa, sounding so bored he could fall asleep right there in front of all of them. He looked the part, too. Jirou slowly turned the volume up on the mic so that his bored voice could clearly be heard from even the booth. "Auditions for this year's production of Annie begin now. When we call out the name of the character you're auditioning for, move to the open seats in the first row. From there, we'll have you volunteer for the audition order. Once you're done, you can leave. Or stay and listen to the rest, I don't care."

        Mr. Aizawa continued droning on about audition instructions. Beside her, Kaminari flopped down into his chair. "Urg, can you believe they're doing Annie this year? That's such a, like, middle school show." Jirou shrugged and started spinning absentmindedly in her chair, "could be worse. I don't really care what show we do as long as I'm doing lights and you guys are on crew." Kaminari nodded, "fair enough, but what if we could do ANY show? Like Dear Evan Hansen, or Heathers?" Jirou stopped spinning and leaned forward in her chair. "That," she said, pointing at him, "would be a completely different story. Not that it would ever happen though."

        Behind them, there was a knock on the door. "Password?" Kaminari called behind him. In order to get into the booth, you needed a card. There were only three, which belonged to Mr. Aizawa, Kaminari, and Jirou. Anyone else had to be let in. From outside the door, several voices said in unison, "can I PLEASE get a waffle?" Plus another voice shouting "F*ck off!" Jirou snickered and Kaminari got up to open the door. Lined up on the stairs outside the door were Sero, Mina, Kirishima, and Bakugou.

        Kirishima, Kaminari, Sero, Mina, and Jirou had met, for the most part, through stage crew. Jirou and Kaminari had always lived in the same neighborhood, but they'd never really talked before. Jirou had other friends, but they hadn't been very close. Once she started stage crew though, she and the others just clicked. She'd never really had a close friend group like this before, and it was incredible. They hung out outside of stage crew and were constantly talking. Bakugou had joined the group a bit later, a few months before he'd started going out with Kiri, although he wasn't technically a part of stage crew.