i don’t have a name for this au yet so let’s go with the ‘summer’ au
(yes it’s fuckin kleinphy)
important backstory for alana and jared!!!
alana: has two dads, is an only child, and thought she was straight until senior year. was best friends with connor in ninth grade, but they stopped hanging out because she thought their friendship was more than that. but it wasn’t. cause they’re both gay, but didn’t know it then.
jared: his mum and dad split when he was eight. his mum was bipolar, never took her medication and got involved in drugs. he comes from a really rich family, all the same. his mum moved out to some hippy farm on the other side of the country where they grow grapes and dye sheep wool with flowers. idk hippy stuff my grandma did in the 60s. his dad remarried, and had another son with his new wife alison. the brother is nine, and called nathaniel.
it’s the start of summer break: the summer break leading up to senior year
it’s raining loads and jared can’t sleep so he’s like ‘fuck it let’s go for a midnight drive’
he’s passing over this HUGE suspension bridge over a river, when he gets the spontaneous idea
this could all end right now
no one would really even care
because currently jared is dealing with like,,, accepting the fact he’s gay (he realised recently, but he’s closeted and in denial big time; his parents aren’t homophobic, he’s just an insecure lil shit)
he pulls over but guess what omg
there’s a mysterious figure sitting over the railings and smoking weed
he’s just getting high dw
however, he can tell what jareds up to
i see connor as very empathetic when he needs to be, and considering he’s on a GOOD high rn, he’s like ‘let’s drive’
he basically wants to keep jared preoccupied long enough for him to forget about stuff idk
they drive and talk for a little bit
jared goes to the bridge again but is thwarted once more
this time he blabs about being gay and all that jazz
and then boom! he’s like “im also kinda gay for u”
because yeah jared finds most tall boys attractive
(he hates himself for it but he has a list of cute boys)
so then there’s gay stuff
and ~ooh~ secret relationship is a go
it’s only secret because jared isn’t out yet and neither of them have any friends to tell anyway
so a lot of side plot is going on; jareds family, connor and zoe (noting that this is set before the events of the musical), and connor and larry
just so you know, larry is my favourite character and i’m writing him how he deserves to be written; as a decent person
larry wants to be supportive. he has a motive. when he was 17, his best friend at the time committed suicide. and that really messed him up. so, when his son starts going through that same struggle, he’s in denial. he doesn’t want to accept the fact that if he can’t do enough, he might lose someone else to the same fight. because that’s how a character works, they have motivation and backstory.
anyway i’ll stop being salty about larry now
connor doesn’t like his dad because of the whole denial thing
ANYWAY there’s also the alana side plot
she’s kinda starting to think ‘i like girls’ so she’s trying to reach out to connor and maybe reconnect with him
we get hints of this throughout, until a final big reveal later
so there’s lots of secret gay staff with connor and jared over the months
and then it’s connors birthday (28th august)
i headcanon his birthday is in summer and he hates it because he wants to be a mature, old, december baby. because august babies are always the youngest in the year, and aren’t exactly edgy emo children like the winter babies. (and yes i’m being sarcastic. connor makes fun of how pessimistic he is a lot, it’s all a dumb joke, he’s not actual emo and i understand he has bipolar disorder blah blah blah)
anyway jareds big surprise is sex because it’s kleinphy you know
anyway after that it’s nearly senior year again
connor is like “we should be open at school”
jareds a closeted little fuckin mess, so they have a massive argument that results in
just as senior year starts
and then the curtain rises and we have evan, typing out his letter etc
so yeah now you have this context in the lovely ‘freak’ scene
and here’s where the alana plot line meets a sweet end
so connor said to jared like MONTHS ago, when they were talking about death casually, like, in years and years and years to come:
“when i die, don’t cry for me. get high, so it feels like you’re in the sky with me.”
and so jareds smokin weed and crying in the park
and alana comes along basically doing the same
and they have a very vague conversation and lots of eye contact
“so u fucked up ur relationship with printer boy too?”
but much more poetic than that obviously
