#elsa miller my sweet lil theater kid baby

[clairenovaking]

Would any of the tessjoel kids be a theater kid. Would any of them do a rendition of defying gravity to their parents at 5 in the morning. 🎤🎤🎤🎤

i have to split this into parts because i have Thoughts.

so the easy answer is elsa. she's the baby, and she's the youngest by a relatively significant amount, so everyone kind of has their Thing by the time she comes along in a modern au. sarah is in college, ellie's nearly done with high school and her first girlfriend, maeve got into soccer to be like sarah and darcy quickly followed, and ruth is the painter of the family. then elsa watches singin' in the rain.

suddenly this little eight year old is goggling 'theater camp' (well, okay, she begs ellie to help her, and her big sister does so, begrudgingly) and asking to put on performances for them all every other night and tess is looking at joel like "is this really our child???" considering they HATE public speaking of any and all kinds. but elsa is a little beam of light who consumes EVERY musical she's allowed to (tess bans rent until she's at least twelve). she does get consumed by phantom of the opera, as every young girl does, and joel hates it (he tries to ban it, but tess rolls her eyes and reminds him she's eight, and not running off with a masked man anytime soon).

it's a little different in jackson verse- it's hard to find musicals to watch, but they do still find singin' in the rain. elsa is still enthralled. it's tess that introduces her to defying gravity in this verse, stumbling over the lyrics in the kitchen one day while they make homemade hot cocoa as the snow falls, and elsa memorizes every single word painstakingly until she can belt it out, twirling around the backyard in a cape Maria had sewn for her, hood included.

when elsa is fifteen she finds a beat up, waterlogged script for guys & dolls in the back of the library, and she has a Vision. she wants to put on a show for the town. she does it all- writer, director, casting, costumes, and she's the star. but in the end the show is great, if a little stilted, and elsa is so stinkin' proud of herself tess can't help but lean over to joel's ear, murmurs softly (fondly, affectionately, so lovingly) "are we sure she's ours?". joel just chuckles, and clutches the wildflowers he's holding for elsa a little tighter.