Author's Note: Another on time one! For once I'm not sending this to thebookhobbit late Tuesday, or during the day Wednesday! This one needs kind of a long one, and I debated doing this one right now, but at the same time I thought that it might lead to a "wait, who is this guy?! And what's all this about theatre?!" for the next chapter.
In my headcanon, John's entire family (well, siblings...) have been in the theatre program at the high school (John is a freshman at nine, and this takes place when he's a junior at eleven) and so John is as well. It's partially through theatre, and partially through being the lonely nine year old eating lunch by himself, that he met Alex (and several others who I'll get to in the next chapter) who became his best friend. Originally, I wasn't going to put Alex in this series at all, and wait for my next headcanon series, which I've already almost finished, to introduce him. But then I was at a loss for prompts, and thebookhobbit suggested that I be sure to put in some more monumental ones, like high school graduation. So I figured that Alex, at least, would definitely be in that; and then when I thought of this one, I figured that I should introduce him through this, so that everyone had a little bit of an idea of his character.
I hope you like it! Once again, thank you so much to thebookhobbit, without who this series would not have been published, and I would still punctuate like a freshman failing their English class. (Okay, maybe not quite THAT bad since I've never actually been a freshman failing my English class... but I was pretty bad before she got a hold of me!)
Picture: Alex is holding John in a chair near the stage, cramming a "happy birthday" hat shaped like a cake on his head. John looks like he can't decide if he should be surprised or unhappy or terrified. It's John's 11th birthday.
Alex had set it up ahead of time, it really was unfair that John had to be at an all-day rehearsal on his birthday (well, everyone had to be there, but it was John's birthday) especially when they were supposed to still be in the middle of a school holiday. He knew Sister Karla's reasoning, they were taking this musical to competition (like everything else in this school – were all Catholic school's this competitive, or was it just theirs?) and breaks were the perfect time to have productive, all-day, rehearsals; but he also knew that she had a soft spot for John – nearly everyone in the theatre department did. So the motherly nun had agreed to hold a birthday celebration during lunch, and to hold John back a few minutes so they could get set up… she did need to get him measured for a costume, after all. (And, according to her, even though he was in the middle of a growth spurt, she didn't know if she had any boys costumes small enough that were what she was looking for.)
Alex had managed to spread the word around, with an assurance that if they let John find out he would beat them over the head with a chair (which he was joking about, but everyone got the message) and by the time John's birthday rolled around, everyone was in high spirits. John's parents (even his father who usually barely left the ranch) both his sisters, and two of his brothers (Mark wasn't anywhere to be found, apparently) waited until Sister Karla had John safely back in her office.
"I baked this just this morning!" John's mother had brought a cake for everyone; it was a nice looking cake, decorated simply, big enough for everyone, and the seasoned theatre kids knew that Mrs. Brown's cooking was always good.
"And I didn't drop it on the way here!" Luke grinned, which got a laugh out of everyone.
Several of the girls were helping Mrs. Brown and Sarah, John's older sister, get the table that Mr. Brown and Matthew had set up all set. Alex found a chair and put it on the edge of the stage, and John's little sister, Rachel, climbed up on stage and trotted over to him.
"Hey, little bit, whatcha doing?" Alex ruffled her hair. Rachel was a good kid, and to be honest, looked like the spitting image of John on estrogen (same blonde hair and blue eyes, same small size and same brains: John was reading Shakespear with her before bed) but a good deal more outgoing than her older brother.
"Make him wear it!" she laughed and held out a rather ridiculous looking hat: shaped like a birthday cake with "happy birthday" written on the side.
"It's a tradition!" Sarah had been watching them, and called out helpfully.
Rachel nodded: "Whoever's birthday it is has to wear the hat during their birthday dinner. In this case, we're in public and John looks RIDICULOUS in it!" She giggled and walked over to the edge of the stage to climb onto her father's shoulders.
Alex just laughed, and walked over to the stage door; he'd have to grab John if he didn't want him running off… John was all for celebrating holidays or doing musicals, or plays, or whatever in public… except for his birthday. Mainly because his siblings seemed to have taken it as a personal challenge to see who could embarrass each other the most.
"John, costuming is my problem, you don't need to worry about a thing" Alex heard Sister Karla talking before they got to the stage door.
"But I-" John cut himself off as Sister Karla ushered him through the open door, and he got a good look at the scene just past the stage. Alex had time to see his expression change to a mixture of "what on earth is going on" and then "oh dear… no…" as it registered.
Unfortunately for John, that was when Alex grabbed him.
"You planned this, didn't you?" John was trying to get out of his grip.
"It's your own fault for having your birthday during an all-day rehearsal." Alex replied with a grin.
John was so busy pointing out all the logical fallacies in the sentence, that he almost forgot about exactly what was going on around him… until Alex sat him down in the chair that he'd put at the edge of the stage, and had crammed the cake hat on his head.
And when John's mom, Sister Karla, and one of the girls who was on the school newspaper started taking pictures as the rest of the cast sang "happy birthday" Alex found himself very, very, glad that John was his best friend… anyone else would have beaten him up already.