"Shouldn't we have done this weeks ago?" Virgil grunted, hauling one of the lights over to the other side. "The play's next month, and winter break's coming up."
"Some of the bulbs died and we had to get new ones," Elliot explained. "And we needed to stock up on films. Kai, you're about to drop that on your foot."
Kai gave them a look. "I know how to do this, Elliot. God."
Elliot shrugged. "I mean, there is a reason Larry made me the light crew head---"
"Uh, yeah, because you're the only person who knows how to work the light board."
"Kai, calm down," Lauren said, resting a hand on his shoulder. "Elliot's a great head, and we should probably listen to them, okay?"
"Fine," Kai grumbled. "I just wish---"
Virgil snapped his head up. "Don't you dare finish that sentence. Last time you wished for something, you gave the physics teacher a two-week long stomach bug."
"Hey, I can only wish for little things, okay?" he protested. "It's not like I can end the world with a wish!"
"Still. Try using 'I want' instead of 'I wish,' okay?"
"Well, using 'I want' doesn't make this change color," Kai said, pointing at his hair.
Elliot let out a long-suffering sigh. "Kai, he just means that you should be a little more careful about your wishes."
Virgil hoisted one of the lights up. "Here?"
"A little to the left," Elliot instructed. Virgil scooted in that direction and attached the light to the bar.
"Y'know, this is a really hard job, but it's a lot better than what run crew has to go through," Virgil said, dusting off his pants. "They have to build and paint the sets."
Kai let out a sigh and looked over at the run crew members, who were busily painting a wallpiece a sunny yellow. "I dunno, I think that's way better than having to lug these heavy-ass things around."
"You're welcome to switch crews for the next performance," Elliot told him.
Kai perked up. "Really? I can do that?"
They nodded. "As long as you're fine with having to constantly move sets on and offstage and never getting a chance to just relax during the performances."
"Oh." Kai deflated. "I can stick with lights."
"Costumes aren't that stressful," Virgil said. "I'd probably join, but I'm too loyal to the light crew to do that at this point, and it means lots of interacting with the actors, so..."
"Aren't you dating one of the actors?" Lauren pointed out.
Virgil blushed. "You know what I mean."
"Yeah, if I was close friends with Janus Kapoor, I wouldn't want to interact with him any more than I already had to," Elliot admitted. "Nice guy, but he's insane."
Kai snorted. "Uh, you do know who his future husband is, right?"
"I have a strict policy against interacting with Remus."
Virgil socked Elliot in the arm. "That's one of my best friends you're talking about."
Elliot raised an eyebrow, rubbing the spot where Virgil had hit. "You're not denying that he's so far off his rocker, he's left the playroom entirely?"
"I'm stealing that, and no, but Remus is a cool guy when you get to know him."
"Yeah, I don't have any interest in getting to know the guy who nearly set fire to my favorite vest." Elliot paused. "Granted, it was an accident, but still."
"'Left the playroom entirely,'" Kai muttered, grinning. "Genius."
Logan walked onstage, loudly clearing his throat. "Are you going to be done anytime soon? We have to make sure the mics work."
"Do you need us to be out of the way to do that?" Virgil said.
"Yes."
"We'll be done in a second, Logan," Elliot called. "How's it being the head of sound crew?"
"Not as stressful as I would've initially thought," Logan admitted. "We've successfully banned Janus and Remus from the sound equipment room, so my major headache is gone for the time being."
Kai smirked. "Oh, yeah? When'd you ban them?"
"A few weeks ago."
"Oh." He blinked. "They lasted that long?"
Logan made a face. "To the best of my knowledge, they've moved into the dressing rooms."
"Yep, there it is."
A loud shriek sounded from backstage, followed by one of the costume crew members---Kathy, Virgil remembered her name was---running onstage, waving her phone around. "Janus won the bet!"
Kai let out a loud gasp. "Are you shitting me? I thought Adrianna would win for sure!"
Kathy proudly displayed her phone to him. "Read it and weep! Both of them timed it, and both of them had the same result! Four minutes and twenty-eight seconds!"
"Wait, wait, wait, wait!" Kai flapped his hands around. "Does that mean---"
"They're in the hair and makeup room right now, but Janus won't do it unless he has an audience, and there's only a couple of people there, so we gotta MOVE!"
Virgil looked back and forth between them. "Could---could one of you explain?"
Elliot rubbed the bridge of their nose. "Okay, so... this weekend during rehearsal, Adrianna claimed that the longest Larry could talk about Dot when he was supposed to be focusing on something important was three-and-a-half minutes, and Janus decided to bet on that. If she won, he'd have to not wear his hat for two full weeks, and if he won---and he did---then he'd get to give her bangs."
Virgil raised his eyebrows, grinning. "Has he ever done that before?"
"Don't ask me. You're his friend."
Kai grabbed Virgil's arm and started tugging him backstage. "Come on, emo, let's go! I wanna see the show!"
.......................
"I can't believe I agreed to this," Adrianna grumbled.
"You knew the risk when you claimed something debatable in front of me," Janus said, holding up a pair of scissors with a grin. "Time to pay the piper, honey."
"You watching this?" Roman murmured, hugging Virgil from behind.
"Kai's taking care of the recording bit," Virgil answered. "He's sending it to me later."
Adrianna reached for her bandana, then paused. "You do know that I can't really afford a bad haircut, right? I mean, I've got a pretty important role in---"
Janus let out an offended hmph. "Who said I was going to give you a bad haircut? I bet on giving you bangs because I thought they'd suit you."
"Have you ever cut someone's hair?"
"No, but there's a first time for everything." Janus squinted at her. "Hmm... maybe a fluffy, choppier style would work for you. Like, not perfectly symmetrical all the way across, but still fairly symmetrical---"
"Just do the haircut already!" Kai shouted. "I've been recording for thirty seconds and no hair has come off!"
"I agree with the skater gremlin child!" Remus called.
Adrianna took off her bandana and pushed the front parts of her hair over her face. "Kai, if this turns out to be awful, I'm counting on you to wish it back to normal on opening night."
"No promises!" Kai said cheerfully.
Janus sat down across from Adrianna and held up the scissors to her hair.
"Wait, wait, wait!" she yelped, holding up a hand. "I don't want them too short, okay? Don't make them---"
"You don't get to choose," Remus told her.
"Shush, love," Janus said, waving his other hand. "It's her hair I'm styling. Her choice should factor into the end result, and a woman's choice is never invalid."
Remus paused. "Yeah, yeah, you're right."
Janus looked over at Kai. "Camera ready?"
"Camera ready! Just do it already!"
"All right, all right." Janus took a fistful of Adrianna's hair and carefully started snipping away. Disbelieving laughter rippled through the room.
"That's too short," Adrianna mumbled, eyes squeezed shut.
"It's not supposed to be incredibly short," he told her. "I'm going for two little swoops on either side of your face. Frames it nicely."
"It looks really cute so far," Tess put in.
Adrianna let out a little grunt. "You're just saying that."
"No, yeah, your girlfriend's right," Ricky said. "Jan's doing a good job."
Janus continued the cut, sticking out his tongue in concentration. "Almost... almost... there."
He stepped away, revealing a fluffy, swooped set of bangs framing Adrianna's face. A loud cheer broke out among the people gathered.
"Wait, wait, hold on, I missed a spot," Janus said, snipping off a stray lock of hair. "There we go."
Adrianna poked at her bangs. "So? How do I look?"
"Huh." Kai tilted his head to the side. "Way better than I expected, to be honest."
Janus spun her chair towards the mirror. "Your new look, madam. No need to thank me."
She blinked at the mirror, looking a little surprised. "Okay. Wow. You... you actually did a great job."
"What, you thought I'd give you a bad haircut almost a month before opening night?" Janus scoffed, patting her on the shoulders. "I was either going to make you look like a star, or call it off entirely. You may be playing a handmaiden in the show, but you're a queen and you're going to look like one."
"Thank you for that." Adrianna held out her hand. "No hard feelings over you winning?"
"Water under the bridge," Janus promised, shaking her hand.
"Aaaaaaaaand CUT!" Kai declared, lowering his phone.
Tess gave Adrianna a kiss on the cheek. "You look adorable."
"Are you sure you're not saying that because you're my girlfriend?" Adrianna asked.
"No, I'm not just saying that. The bangs are cute." Tess smiled at Janus. "You might have a future career in hairstyling."
Janus shook his head. "My future career is doing music, acting, and YouTube while being an operative on the side. So, basically, what I'm already doing." He looked around. "Okay, this is getting way too claustrophobic. Everyone out."
......................
"Does this stuff go on all the time?" Virgil asked. "Like, do the actors make bets over dumb stuff and I've just never paid attention?"
"Actors, stage crew, actors and stage crew---it gets pretty crazy." Elliot looked around the break room. "Kinda hard to believe that this is my last year here."
Virgil lowered the doughnut he was eating. "I mean, this isn't your last performance you're working on, right?"
"No, I'll be working on the spring musical, too, but after that, it's off to college," Elliot said. "I'm thinking of doing something comic-related---I really like to draw, but I've kind of stopped in recent years."
"How come?"
Elliot raised an eyebrow. "Take a wild guess."
"Oh. Yeah. Right." Virgil patted Elliot on the back, feeling a little awkward. "Sorry about Mich---"
"What? No, I've been too busy with crew," they said. "Do you know how much work goes into being the head? And with schoolwork on top of that? And yeah, I guess being in a relationship affected that, but I never had enough time."
Virgil looked down. "Right. Sorry."
"It's fine."
There was an awkward pause.
"Who do you think's gonna be the lighting head next year?" Virgil wondered.
"I mean, it's not up to me, it's up to Larry, but not Kai," Elliot answered. "I doubt he'd want to. Lauren would probably make a good lighting head, though." Their eyes flicked over to Virgil. "Or you, to be honest."
Virgil balked. "Me? No, I---I can't do leadership. I'd suck."
"Well, you've got really good ideas, and you've already proven that you can get along with the actors," Elliot pointed out. "I'm an anxious mess, too, but I've done a fair job in the past couple years. And it'd only be two performances for you."
"El, thanks, but I'd be an awful head---"
"And who says you're not a good leader?" they continued. "Logan keeps on telling me how you're the reason that Roman and Janus are friends now, and you've also helped him tolerate Remus more. That's good leadership if I've ever seen it."
"But you just said, it's a lot of work," Virgil persisted. "I dunno if I can deal with the stress. I do want to have personal time, you know."
"You'll have personal time!"
"El---"
"Look, again, it's all up to Larry, but can you at least let me show you the ropes with the light board at some point before I graduate?" Elliot said, holding up a hand. "Please?"
Virgil paused, then let out a heavy sigh. "Okay, fine."
"Great." Elliot patted Virgil on the shoulder. "Now finish your doughnut or I might end up stealing it."
A/N: First off---yes, the chapter title was a Double Trouble reference. I'm absolutely not sorry about that.
The bang-cutting thing was inspired by a real-life recent event, though instead of getting to give a friend of mine bangs, I got to give my teacher bangs. She loves them, and I apparently did a good job, but I thought it deserved a funny scene.
Also, I got my second vaccine shot yesterday! I'm almost entirely immune!