Showmance - John Dory x Reader (College! AU)

- chapter one -

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Walking into his music theory class, John Dory sat at his normal spot, kicking back and sighing, smiling smugly as his buddies had greeted him.

"Okay, time to put away all devices for our test.."

His heart dropped to his stomach.

There's a test today..?

Looking down at his empty desk, he looked around. He didn't keep a single school item with him, as he felt it was a "waste." He sighed, tapping the shoulder of the girl in front of him.

"Oh, hey John.. what's up?" She asked, raising an eyebrow and speaking in a whisper.

"I uh.. can I borrow a pencil?" He asked, avoiding eye contact. She smiled.

"Sure! Here," she said, handing him a mechanical pencil. The fancy kind.. nice.

Thanking her quietly, the test had begun, as he tried to get into serious mode.

...

After some time, he lightly tossed his pencil on the table, getting up to turn in his music theory exam. Confidently, he walked back to his seat, grabbing his stuff to leave class. As he walked out, he glanced around the room for a second, noticing most of the class was still stuck with their exams. He shrugged and exited the classroom, smirking to himself.

Must have done pretty damn good, John. Pat on the back for me.

He walked across campus back to the frat house in which he lived, waving to his friends on the way to his room. He opened the door and sighed, throwing off his shoes and kicking back to lay on his bed.

"Welp, a smartie like me deserves a good nap after that test." he said, letting sleep take over.

...

After having some rather strange dreams, a few hours go by and he wakes up. Suddenly, he began to feel gross.

"Damn it." he mumbled to himself. It was one of those unfulfilling naps. The kind that usually leave you with a headache. He stood up and went to get a bottle of water, grabbing his laptop to watch a movie and distract himself from the massive headache he was feeling.

He opened the laptop, and a notification popped up from his emails. Meaning to click the "ignore" button, he accidentally pressed the entire email, earning a groan in annoyance from him.

"Stupid computer-" he grunted, stopping in his tracks as he read the subject of the email.

"Grade Concerns"

He raised an eyebrow, seeing as it was from his music theory professor.

"Hello, John Dory. I hope this email finds you well. I am emailing you in regard to your current grade. I've noticed that you have a 45% in the class and would like to discuss solutions to help you pass for the semester. Please let me know when you are available to meet to talk about the matter. Thank you."

He bit his nails, getting nervous.

I used to have all A's as a kid.. what on earth happened?

"Yo, John! You wanna go to a party at 11?" He whipped his head up as he overheard one of his fraternity "brothers" yell across the hallway.

"Sure thing." John yelled back. He quickly got ready, throwing on some party attire and immediately forgetting about the important email sent to him.

...

After an exciting, party-filled weekend, John was back in his miserable classes for the week. Being a music major sounded fun in theory, but man was it a pain in the ass. All he wanted to do was sing and write songs, but all this 'proper junk' came into play. What should have been his senior year was only counting as his junior year due to retaking classes.

But music theory.. god. His music theory class was by far the worst class he had to take. Just thinking about it bored him to death. It was the one thing that really made him question if he wanted to keep pursuing college. But.. he had to do this. Not only was he doing it for himself, he felt that he needed to do it for everyone he loves.. his family.

After an hour of scrolling through his phone and occasionally looking up at the lecture, he yawned and stood up as the class came to an end.

"Hey, John. Quick question before you go!" He heard his professor say as he was about to pass her on the way out. He looked at her, wide eyed.

"Now, I don't know if you got my email the other day, but I would like to have a meeting about your grade. When are you available?" She asked. He wanted to groan. He had purposefully been avoiding responding to the email, but now he was trapped.

"Uh.. we-we can do now if you want?" He said, nervously.

Even as an adult, talking to teachers was scary.

"Okay! Better for me. Just have a seat right here." She said, sitting at her desk and letting him sit across.

"Now, I'm gonna be straightforward with you, John. With the grade you have now, you're at risk of losing some things. It says here you're in a fraternity. As well as your music writing scholarship..You need a certain grade level to keep those things. You know that right?" She asked.

His heart dropped to his stomach. He fiddled with his fingers.

"I-I didn't really think about that. No." He said. She sighed, thinking for a moment.

"Okay, I don't usually do this but.. I truly believe you have the potential. Now, there is a way I can give you bonus points that will boost your grade to a passing level—"

"I'll do it." He said, immediately. College was pricey as it is, and not having any parents to help pay for it didn't make things easier.

"Oh, o-okay. Well, I'll email this information to you. All I ask is that you audition for this musical and actually try. If you don't make it, you will work on production for the musical to get the credit." She said, smiling. He nodded nervously.

"Gotcha.." He said. After some attempted words of motivation, he left the class, nervously looking at the information given to him for the auditions.

The auditions are tonight?!

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Welp, there's the first chapter! You'll start coming into the story soon don't worry ;)