Chapter Text
Calliope Mori sat at a mirror, a blonde woman standing behind her with a small smirk on her face, adjusting the girl’s hair while humming a tune to herself. “Watson-”, Mori began to say before being cut off. “You know what you owe me. 100 bucks if you guys got married within 10 years after graduating highschool.”, the blonde said, holding her hand out and gesturing for something to be placed in it.
“Fine.”, the girl said, pulling 100 dollars out of her wallet and placing it in the blonde’s possession.
“Well, from how good of a wingman I am, I think I deserve that.”, Amelia said, smiling as she stuck the money into the pocket of her suit.
“I think it’s mostly that horrible, horrible class to blame for this mess.”
“Yeah… Sensei did most of the work for me, but I still deserve some credit.”
“You’re lucky Calli, if you had listened to anyone about not doing that class you never would’ve become friends with her! Or us for that matter!”, A small gray haired girl spoke from the side of the room where she was swaying her legs from side to side in a small blue dress.
“Well… I’ve honestly forgotten why I signed up at all, but I guess I’m the tiniest bit happy I did…”, Calliope responded, smiling at the girl as her thoughts drifted into her memories.
-5 YEARS EARLIER-
Calliope Mori was in no ways what someone would call a “theater kid”. She was not interested in this subject in the slightest. In fact, speaking on stage repulsed her, she was much more comfortable with an online audience. These facts combined, may make you question things like ‘Why did she sign up for theater?’, or even ‘Why didn’t she take any of the classes that sound like they would interest her, but did take this?’. These questions were asked of course, by Calliope’s few friends, as well as Death-Sensei, an old man she was living with at the time. But they did not get a true answer, half out of Calliope not knowing, and half out of her knowing the exact reason but not wanting to tell them.
The reason of course, was that it was the easiest class she could think of. Calliope did not want to be going to school, so she believed the best way to not do so would be to take the easiest class, along with the required classes she still needed to get out of the way.
So she checked the box next to Theater and then moved on with her day. This would come back to bite her, do not worry yourselves precious audience.
And now here she was, 6 months after checking that box while laying around in her room and listening to rap while doing homework. On the first day of school.
An old black car drove up to the steps of the school building, and as it stopped and the door opened, a half asleep teenage girl with pink hair stepped out, a large hoodie and black jeans tattered by her disregard of cleaning her clothes especially well for the first day of school. As she stepped out she rubbed her eyes and looked up at the sun, barely having left her room, let alone the house, during her summer break.
She looked back towards the car, giving a nod to a tall figure in the driver’s seat, concealed by the dark windshield, before beginning to walk towards the school, a heavy looking backpack carried on her back.
Calliope Mori wasn’t that lazy or anything. She simply didn’t care what anyone at this school would think of her, as she was planning to not speak a word for the entire year. She kept that in mind as she entered the school building.
The school day, as expected and planned, was boring so far. She had been approached a few times, but just turned up her headphones and ignored whoever was near her. Now came what Calliope expected to be the most boring class, Theater.
The girl entered the room with a monotone look in her eyes, staring off into space as she studied the theater room. It was something in between a lecture hall and a full out auditorium, a stage for the teacher and performances being at the front of the class, and rows of what looked to be long cushioned benches, similar to what you might find in a church, facing the stage. Calliope noticed this, didn’t care, and then walked to a random seat and sat down, not really looking or paying attention to where she was sitting.
Now in her seat, Mori decided to pass the little time she had before the beginning of class by resting, closing her eyes and leaning her head down to rest on the surprisingly cushiony, warm seat to the right of her.
To her surprise, a voice from above her chuckled in a slightly high pitched voice. “Well, I knew Theater was very romantic but I didn’t expect this!”, the voice said, causing Calliope’s eyes to dart open, looking upwards into the grinning face of her classmate who Calliope had just used the thighs of as a pillow. She shot up, face bright red and gasped. “I AM SO SORRY. I WASN’T LOOKING, I’LL BE GOING NOW.”, the girl said while covering her face, standing up and beginning to leave before a hand wrapped around her arm.
“No, it’s fine! Especially if the person who did it is as hot as you!”, the mysterious classmate blurted out, pulling Calliope back into the seat. “I’m Takanashi Kiara, but Kiara is fine! Nice to meet you!”
Mori was very confused by this. Not only was this girl okay with Calliope resting her head on her surprisingly soft thighs, but she then immediately attempts to flirt with her. “Oh uh- I’m Mori! Calliope Mori, nice to meet you as well-”, she responded, her face still filled with blush before she was cut off from trying to apologize again by the lights turning off in the auditorium. “Oh! She’s here!”, Kiara said, looking to the stage as a spotlight appeared.
“Uh who-”, Calliope began before getting cut off by loud cutesy music blasting out of the speakers as a small blue haired woman jumped into the spotlight, grinning at the students. “Hey there guys, I’ll be your teacher this year, hope you enjoy, peko!”, the woman said, her fairly normal teacher outfit being overshadowed by her oddly styled hair and a headband with two bunny ears attached.
“Shit, our teacher is a weirdo.”, Calliope whispered to Kiara, the only response from her classmate being a smile and a thumbs-up.
The weirdo in question switched the lights on and and leaped off of the stage, looking around the audience with an ever widening smile. “Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeelcome to Theater One! My name is Usada Pekora, and I’m here to make sure that your Theater experience isn’t boring or lame, but an exciting adventure where you get to challenge yourself, meet new people, and have fun!”
At this Calliope grimaced, knowing this was exactly the opposite of what she had hoped for. As her teacher pranced around the auditorium handing out flyers Calliope slunk down in her seat as Kiara looked at her comfortingly. “What’s got you so sad?”
“To tell you the truth, I only signed up for this class cause I thought it’d be easy…”
Kiara stared at her classmate for a moment before letting out a sigh of relief. “Thank god I’m not the only one…”, the girl let out to Calliope’s surprise. “What? Really?”
“What makes that so hard to believe huh?”, Kiara said with a pouty glare.
“I don’t know you just seem kind of… Theatery? Plus you don’t seem like the type to just go for easy classes.”
“Well…”, Kiara said with a blush beginning on her face. “That’s not the exaaact reason I signed up for this class…”
Calliope looked at her confused, tilting her head at the orange haired girl’s remark. “Why else would you sign up for this horrible class?”
“I-”, Kiara began, stuttering a bit. “I kinda thought the instructor was cute…”
Calliope nodded at Kiara with a blank look on her face before looking forward, placing a hand on the back of her classmate’s head, and promptly slamming Kiara’s face on the bench in front of them. “I am already so done with this class…”