He Loved Her So
Chapter 1
Jenny O'Hara was the typical college graduate, you know, 21, going on 22, tall, pretty, very tired, and happy to have graduated, except she was sort of special in her own right. She had graduated 2nd in her class from Carnegie Mellon University, one of the top theatre schools in the country. She graduated Maxima Cum Laude in Stage Management. Jenny had studied and interned in the West End, Broadway, and even did a semester in Paris. She was unique in that she was one of the best stage managers of her generation; she was on top of everything, always prepared, always one step ahead of the director, and had the most important thing you want in a stage manager; passionate about what she did.
But like any other person, she had a past. When Jenny was in 6th grade she tripped and dislocated her elbow. It should have been a simple fix, but the doctor messed up and didn't tell her or her mother. Jenny went on to have 6 more surgeries and ended up suing the first doctor for malpractice. Although she won her case and got a nice sum of money, she could never forgive the doctor for what he had done; he had taken away her innocence and her ability to trust someone. No sum of money could ever replace what she lost over the course of the 5 years she had had her surgeries. After all of the surgeries, Jenny developed many gnarly scars all over her right arm as expected and she still couldn't mover her arm fully. The scars healed all red and bumpy, but Jenny showed them off proudly because they told her story and showed how tough and resilient she was.
Jenny had already gotten tons of job offers from all over, West End, Paris, California, and Broadway. The offer she got that she couldn't refuse was Production Stage Manager of Wicked on Broadway. Wicked will be celebrating their 10 year anniversary at the end of July and Jenny could hardly wait. Their current Production Stage Manager decided to retire after almost 40 years working on Broadway and boy was he ready; he had been slacking off completely; he was just ready to leave the show and never come back. Jenny planned to announce to her family her job decision at her graduation party the next day.
The next day was the day of the party and Jenny was in the bathroom curling her hair, when all of a sudden she heard a banging on the door "JENNY! Come on, hurry up already you've been in there for an hour! I have to take a shower!" It was Kieran, her younger brother, he'd be turning 20 in the fall and he was the laziest person Jenny had ever met in her entire life.
"It's my party I have to look good! Besides you should have showered this morning when you had the chance! People are going to be here soon!" Jenny shouted back
David retorted "Ugh! Fine, I'll just go use the pool shower outside, take your sweet ass time!" And as he finished his sentence, Jenny heard him trot down the stairs and outside.
"Finally some peace and quiet" Jenny said to herself as she turned up her favorite song, "Music of the Night" and sag along with it. Five minutes later Jenny finished curling the last piece of hair just in time to hear the doorbell ring. The first guests had arrived, it was her older cousin Kelly, who also had some news she said she was going to share today.
Jenny had always looked up to her older cousin and when she saw Kelly in her first amateur production, jenny knew she wanted to be involved in some way or another. Kelly gave Jenny a hug and said "Congratulations! I knew you could do it! Can't wait to hear where you're gonna start working!"
"Oh you'll find out soon enough and I'm sure you're going to be quite jealous!" Jenny replied as they were walking to the backyard where jenny discovered a bunch of other guests had already arrived, like her two best friends Kevin and Allison.
Jenny hadn't seen them since spring break and was so happy to see them now! Jenny ran over to Kevin and said "Congratulations almost Dr. ! I can't believe you're going to be a psychotherapist by the time you graduate next year! That's insane! I'm so proud of my best friend! And you Allison! Congrats on visiting all seven continents! I can't believe you have time to travel so much!"
Allison and Kevin both blushed and Allison said "Oh thanks, I try to find time and if I can't find it I make it!"
Kevin just rolled his eyes at Allison being Allison and said to Jenny "Oh thanks! I can't believe it either, everything is working out so well and I can't wait for you to meet my new boyfriend. He's going to come with us next week to Coney Island for your birthday."
Jenny was happy that Kevin finally found someone he was happy with and said "Awesome, I can't wait to meet him."
The party went on and Jenny mingled among her guests, thanking people for their congratulations and answering questions about her plans for the future, but she hadn't revealed where she'd be working until cake time. Jenny ordered a special cake to reveal to her family and friends that she would the next Production Stage Manager of Wicked.
Jenny brought the cake out and it read "Congratulations on Graduating CMU! Soon you'll be Defying Gravity at Wicked!" and as people read the cake, the party erupted into cheers of congratulations all over again.
Kelly saw the cake and had a puzzled look on her face when she said "Wait a minute…..you're the new Production Stage Manager of Wicked? I'm the new Elphaba! We're going to be working together! This is going to be the greatest experience of my life! I can't wait to start with u! When do you start? I start Monday"
Jenny immediately squealed in delight and said "Me too! I start Monday too!"
The party was a success and the next day Jenny moved into her new apartment on the Upper East Side of Manhattan along with her dog that she named Elphaba because Wicked has always been one of her favorite musicals, along with The Phantom of the Opera. Ever since middle school Jenny had been obsessed with Phantom, everything about it intrigued her; the story, the characters, and especially the Phantom, whose real name was Erik Destler. When Jenny was in middle school, she would pretend she was Christine and she would choose the Phantom over Raoul every time because she felt like she related so much to him; they both had deformities on their bodies, Jenny on her arm and Erik on his face. She had always wished the Phantom was real and that he would whisk her away and they would live happily ever after. Jenny thought that would happen once when she was studying at the Populaire in Paris.
Enter Flashback
One day she had ventured into the parts of the opera house that were closed off to the public and she had found a trap door in one of the dressing rooms behind a mirror. Jenny looked around to make sure no one was coming and she stepped in and left it open a crack so she could get out when she came back.
When she stepped into the dark hallway, candles flicked on by themselves and this creeped Jenny out a lot. Like a good stage manager, Jenny had her flashlight on her, so she pulled it out and walked a little faster deep down into the dark insides of the Populaire. Jenny walked down a winding staircase right to the bottom, where she met a strange, glassy lake with a little row boat on it. Although Jenny was hesitant to get in it, her curiosity overpowered her, so she hopes in and started rowing. He arm started to hurt but it wasn't long until she saw hundreds of candelabras come out of the water and as soon as they hit the surface, they lit the cave up to reveal a lair with an organ as its centerpiece and a jewelry box with a monkey sitting on top of it, on top of the piano. Jenny though she saw someone out of the corner of her eye, so she didn't want to get out of the boat for fear of getting caught. So she turned the row boat around and paddled out of there as fast as she could. When Jenny got back up to the surface world, she found the groundskeeper and told him about what she saw down there. What Jenny later found out was that Andrew Lloyd Webber had commissioned an exact replica of the Phantom's lair underneath the Populaire, and they have an actor dress up as the Phantom and they take tourists down there at night. People apparently love the experience and it's one of the number one tourist attractions in the area.
Exit Flashback
Jenny spent the entire day leading up to her first day at work setting up her new apartment and playing with Elphie. Jenny went over her mental checklist of what she needed for her first day at work "pens/pencils, check. Spiking tape, check….." and so on. But Jenny would soon realize that this would become a week she would never forget.