Anthony had a rough childhood. When he moved to Bushwick his family just got more and more complicated. The town wasn't exactly a good town for little kids to grow up in. Anthony was exposed to drugs and violence by the young age of ten.
It was when he was fifteen that his best friend was killed by some police officer. Sadly that was just the reality of this town and he had to move on from it like nothing happened.
He was seventeen when his friend died from drug overdose. That hit him harder than he had expected it to. He knew so many people that did drugs. Hell, Anthony had been asked to do drugs since he was ten but he always declined. What if that was him? He couldn't leave his little sister alone.
Anthony was twenty when he figured out what he wanted to do with his life. His family expected him to do something related to baseball but Anthony had a better idea. Acting. He loved acting. Acting and singing were probably his favorite things. Baseball got boring but acting and singing never bored him.
He was twenty one when he got a scholarship to AMDA. The school was so difficult but he somehow made it through without failing or dropping out. He learned that he was also good at dancing. He booked small gigs in small shows that closed after a few months. At least it was something.
That's when his agent told him about this fifteen minute musical written by Lin Manuel-Miranda. Anthony knew Lin. Anthony was in a production of In The Heights and he met Lin through that.
21 Chump Street was such a small musical but it hit home for Anthony. It was about this boy who had some hopeless crush on a girl and he would do anything for her. It reminded him of his elementary school crush, Jasmine. He gave up on her after a while. He knew he would never see her again. Also the whole drugs aspect reminded him of his town.
When Anthony was 23 he auditioned for Lin's new musical, Hamilton: An American Musical. He was one of the first ones to join this cast for a little mixtape album that was supposed to be made. Except it turned into a musical that would later hit Broadway and become huge.
Anthony knew all the cast really well so going back for rehearsals at The Public Theatre was nothing.
He heard Lin gushing about some girl named 'Jasmine Cephas Jones' and how amazing she was. Anthony automatically thought of his crush as a child. Nah, it couldn't be her.
// chapter three! if you're here from my tumblr, hello hello i hope you like these as much as my one shots! (im probably posting my one shots in a book so stay tuned) im currently working on chapter four so that should be up tonight!