Chapter Text
5:47am. Akko Kagari was certain it was the perfect time to announce her newest plan to her roommates. She took the obvious route to wake them up (because how could they be sleeping with something this monumental going on?), by dropping all of her textbooks on the ground together at once, creating a massive boom. Lotte and Sucy flipped out of their beds and accidentally landed perfectly in front of Akko, who stood proudly before them.
“Guys, you won’t believe what I found out!” Akko yelled.
Sucy and Lotte didn’t share her enthusiasm, and didn’t even react to the cool pose she busted out just for them. Instead, they got back into their beds and pulled their blankets back over themselves.
“Akko, it’s really early. Can you tell us later?” Lotte asked.
“It’s a big thing though!” Akko said.
“And we have a big amount of sleep we should be getting back to.” Sucy said.
They fell back asleep pretty quickly, already used to Akko’s early morning wakeup announcements. Akko sat down and waited while they slept, then fell asleep on the floor. When she woke up, Lotte and Sucy were getting ready to leave for class.
“Oh yeah, what was your thing again Akko?” Sucy asked.
“I thought I dreamt that.” Lotte said.
Akko snapped awake, proudly presenting a poster she’d ripped off of one of the walls.
“Ta da!” Akko said.
Lotte and Sucy leaned in to read the fine print and examine the silhouette drawings on the poster, and the big text above that read Moonlit and Heartfelt.
“A play?” Sucy asked.
“Hmph. You didn’t hear?” Akko asked.
“I don’t care.” Sucy said.
Sucy’s indifference didn’t damage Akko’s smug enthusiasm. Instead, with twinkling eyes, she pictured her hero, Shiny Chariot.
“I have to be in this play!” Akko said. “A play would be the perfect way to hone my skills as a performer just like Chariot!”
“But you can’t act.” Sucy said.
“I so can act Sucy! You’ve never seen me act!” Akko said.
“Don’t they normally use that area for movie nights?” Lotte asked.
“They said they need to do something for the arts there for ‘budgetary’ reasons or something like that.” Akko said. “Anyways I’m gonna go
“But we have…class?” Lotte asked, but Akko was already out the door.
After getting dragged to class by Finnelan, Akko could barely focus. She daydreamed the whole time about how incredible her performance would be, and she made sure to sneak peeks at the section of the script she had to use for her audition whenever she could.
There was a sizeable turnout to the auditions when Akko arrived with Sucy and Lotte, somehow managing to drag them there.
“Ugh, Diana’s here?” Akko said.
“Are you really surprised?” Sucy asked.
“She should be asking the same to you,” Barbara said. “Because there’s no way you’re getting a part so you shouldn’t even bother!”
Professor Ursula and Professor Croix were seated in front of the stage area.
“Are they both directing?” Lotte asked.
Amanda was sitting in one of the nearby rows of chairs, leaning her sneakers on the seat in front of her.
“Ursula’s handling acting, while Croix is doing the backstage stuff.” Amanda said.
Amanda saw that Akko was holding the audition page.
“There’s not like a spell for good acting you know.” Amanda said.
“Why does everyone think I can’t act?” Akko said.
“Maybe you should just be on the crew with Jaz and Constance,” Amanda said. “I mean, Constance and Croix already rigged up most of the special effects, so it won’t be too much work.”
Constance gave a trademark thumbs up.
“So, I can get some nice extra credit without even trying.” Amanda said.
Ursula and Croix stood up to line everyone up.
“Attention students!” Ursula said. “Welcome to the auditions for Moonlit and Heartfelt! Anyone who’s auditioning for a role in the play please sit in the left section by me, while those looking to work on the crew should stand by Professor Croix!”
Akko could barely pay attention to the other auditions. She suddenly felt very nervous about acting in front of the class. What if she really couldn’t act? Had she ever even done anything like this?
Making matters worse, Akko couldn’t deny Diana’s audition was incredibly good. She seemed like a different person, her poise and vocal tone was completely different.
“Akko?” Ursula asked.
“Huh?” Akko asked, standing up quickly.
“It’s your turn.” Akko said.
Akko moved slowly to the stage. Diana brushed her hair as she passed by, giving a familiar look that said, “You’re out of your element, don’t even bother.”
Akko took a deep breath and read her lines the best she could. She stumbled over her words a few times, but she was proud of her vocal
“Excellent, Akko.” Ursula said.
Akko slumped into her seat and enjoyed the rest of the auditions with a bit less stress. Each of the students were given a copy of the script, and were told the casting would be announced in the next few days.
When the bulletin board had the casting announcements on it, Akko sprinted all the way from her room to it, and pressed her face as close to it as she could to see if she got in. Of course, Diana had gotten the lead role of Alice Moonlit, but the second character Etta Heartfelt…
“Alright! I made it in!” Akko said.
Akko stood happily by the board to watch the others’ reactions to her big part. Amanda was surprised and had a snide comment, but still patted Akko on the back.
“You’ll figure out how to act eventually.” Amanda said.
When Diana stopped by, she didn’t say anything to Akko. She gave a strange look, and left immediately. Hannah and Barbara held hands and squealed and loudly announced most of their scenes would be together as the chorus. Lotte and Sucy stopped by next, and Akko was glad they’d be on the crew with Amanda’s team.
“Congratulations Akko!” Lotte said. “The deuteragonist is a huge part!”
"Deuteragonist?" Akko asked.
"Second-to main character." Sucy said.
Lotte thought for a moment, and paged through the full script.
“Oh…oh.” Lotte said.
“What is it?” Akko asked.
“Akko…have you read this play?” Lotte asked.
“Yeah, I read…the first few pages.” Akko said.
Akko looked at Lotte, who buried her face in the script to hide her blushing.
“Is something wrong?” Akko asked.
“It’s just…there’s a lot of kissing.” Lotte said. “And since you’re the deuteragonist…”
“Then I’m going to be kissing…” Akko said.
Akko’s smile faded. She darted through a couple pages of the script, then paged through even more frantically. In her first play, she’d have to be kissing someone on stage more than a few times. That alone was terrifying, but that terror was amplified when she realized she’d have to be kissing Diana Cavendish.