Mr. Jean R. Audet [ Headmaster ]

Jean Roseau Audet. (Pronounced: GENE REU-SOW ODD-AY). Most students call him Headmaster Audet, Mr. Audet, or Sir. His colleagues are encouraged to call him Jean outside of work. He doesn’t like when students address him as his first name alone, as he believes that is a sign of disrespect.

His birthday is July 16th, and he is 58 years old.

Mr. Audet is the headmaster of the Academy but he is “by no means a reclusive shut-in who only stares at his office all day” (his words). Mr. Audet is well known throughout any students enrolled in singing or acting courses because he is a regular in those classrooms as an ‘assistant’ to the teacher in charge. Mr. Audet attends every scheduled recital, every performance, and every school event put on by Metric. Of course there are certain times – such as concerts put on by third parties elsewhere that students are invited to – that Mr. Audet cannot attend due to short notice but he makes an effort to attend every performance he can to express pride in his students. Mr. Audet is well known as a headmaster who holds high opinions of the Academy and its students.

Headmaster of Metric Academy

Jean is the Headmaster of the Academy. He used to teach singing and acting courses when he was a professor. Though he is generally not supposed to impede upon classes, Jean still makes it a semi-regular habit to burst into acting and singing lessons to give students his two cents. Thus, most students who take those courses know Jean on an instructor-based level.

As headmaster of the whole Academy Jean is usually in his office doing paperwork, overlooking the admissions board, and making sure the academy is staffed and functioning smoothly.

He considers his ex-wife Hannah his best friend.

He’s got several unnamed folks who dislike him for various reasons.

His secretary, Mrs. Blanc, is driven crazy by how often Jean wanders out of the headmaster’s office to avoid paperwork. She does not hate him but that part of his personality drives her insane.

Bisexual

Separated and not looking.

5’10”

Salt and Pepper

Brown

Formal, respectable clothes. He is rarely ever seen by students in anything other than a button down shirt and tie.

Closet

French-American

Mandy Patinkin

Respectful students, Metric Academy, acting, singing, performing, the stage, people, harmless pranks, Sundays, holiday vacations, inviting the parents of the students to the academy, being respected, procrastinating work by wandering around campus (it happens a lot), laughter, bowling, spending time with his family, irony

Disrespect to anyone for any reason (he has a zero tolerance policy in this regard), underage drinking/partying/pregnancies, students who break the rules, the sketchy part of Salem, Halloween, being asked about Mr. Powell and Mr. Tesslow, chaos, getting lost, not knowing where Robin is (terrified he’ll get lost again), paperwork, writing things by hand, confusing computer programs, rumor spreading,

Respectful, polite, empathetic, approachable, tough, forgiving, accepting, good sense of humor, goofy, family oriented, wanderlust, reliable (though he tends to push things off to the last minute, he does get things done), very good memory, “hip” (he’s the type of man who likes to act like he’s part of the “young generation” in a humorous sort of way), extrovert, intelligent, true to his word

Stubborn, lazy, procrastinator, rarely serious (unless the issue is about someone showing disrespect towards others or physical harm to others), laid-back, nosy, judgmental (though he’s been working on changing that after what happened with Christina),

Jean likes to take walks around the academy grounds. Usually this happens when he has a lot of work to do and simply doesn’t want to do it. He has a hobby of hiding from his secretary, Mrs. Leblanc, in classrooms when deadlines are approaching. He likes to go out bowling every Wednesday night.

Ex-Wife – Hannah Campbell (56) – Hannah was not Jean’s first love, nor was she his last. However he considers her one of the most important people to him, even though they’ve been divorced for 14 years now. Jean met Hannah in college, and she was his best friend when he lost someone he admired very much, Mr. Tesslow. It was thanks to Hannah that Jean managed to finally laugh again when it felt like he could never even crack a smile again. Hannah currently lives in Salem with Christina, and helps their daughter-in-law raise Robin. Of course Jean helps as much as he can though since Hannah is unemployed, she can be at Robin and Christina’s sides while Jean can only come over once a week. Jean owes a lot to Hannah, and even though they are separated they still look out for one another and love one another strongly.

They were married at 26 and 28, and had Henry at 28 and 30. Their divorce happened when they were 41 and 43.

Son – Henry Campbell (would be 29) (deceased at 20) – Growing up, Henry has always looked up to Jean, but he had a tendency not to be quite as smooth or intelligent as his father was. Despite this, Jean always tried to do activities with his son while he was growing up to give them a good bond. Henry started to act out due to the divorce of his parents when he was 15 and got into the wrong crowd. Henry snuck out, got into drugs and partying, and got into verbal fights with his father all the time, who had primary custody of him. When Henry was 18 he didn’t move out. But he did fall in love with a girl four years younger than her – she was only 14. Jean didn’t approve of the relationship and when he found out Henry had impregnated Christina, he threw Henry out of the house. After that, Henry went to live with his mother who was much more welcoming than Jean was. Henry was working towards sobering and cleaning himself up for his wife (he married Christina shortly after they found out she was pregnant) and one year old son until he died tragically in a motorcycle accident at 20. Jean and his son had a strained relationship at the very end. Eight years have passed since Henry died, and there’s nothing more than Jean regrets than the fact that he kicked his son out of his life.

Ironically, it is through exchanging memories of Henry that Christina and Jean came to realize they are both still mourning his loss and brought them together. Jean wishes Henry was alive to see that his family is finally getting along after years of struggle.

Daughter-In-Law – Christina Campbell (25) – Stock Manager at the local Supermarket – Jean’s relationship with Christina is complicated, to say the least. Christina has a very stubborn, tough, and abrasive personality. When she became pregnant and was subsequently disowned by Jean, Christina grew to resent him. When she lost her husband she wanted Jean to have no part in anything and only relented when her more understanding mother-in-law intervened. She was not receptive to his apologies and wanted no part of Jean in her or Robin’s life ever again. It wasn’t until Christina realized keeping Jean away from Robin was taking something away from her son that she agreed to allow Jean into their lives again. Though at first it was difficult – Jean did not respect her nor did she him – as time went on they slowly begin to open up to one another. Jean considers Christina one of the most intelligent people who he’s ever met, while simultaneously one of the dumbest people he’s ever met. Still, he knows she’s suffered for her mistakes and respects her owning up to them and moving on with her life.

Christina has earned Jean’s respect through her dedication to raising her son and moving up through the ranks at her job. Jean is now allowed to go over to Christina and Hannah’s house to spend time with his grandson at least once a week, and he cherishes every minute he gets with him. Every holiday, Jean eats dinner with all of them, either inviting them over to his house to cook or being invited over there. Jean and Christina still argue at times and butt heads, but have a strong familial bond that cannot be broken.

Grandson – Robin Campbell (10) – Jean and his grandson have a good bond even though for the first few years of his life, Jean was shut away. Now Jean sees Robin at least once a week, and looks forward to Sundays the most (because that’s the day he gets to go to the Campbell house). Robin is a very talented young vocalist and Jean hopes that Robin enrolls in Metric as he gets older. Jean is reminded of his son when he sees Robin and occasionally over the summers Christina allows Jean to take Robin on trips. Though it’s harder for Jean to keep up with Robin, he tries his best to make as many memories with the boy as he can.

Jean’s parents moved to Salem from France a few years before he was born. Jean had always had a natural talent for acting and performing, which his parents encouraged. Jean was enrolled in Metric High. While attending the school, Jean discovered his passion was performing and he was involved in many of the school’s productions. By the time he was a senior he had to decide what to do with his life – a question that gave Jean many anxieties. As much as he loved performing, he didn’t want to devote a whole career to the musical arts. But at the same time, he didn’t want to have attended a prestigious art school, only to have gone on to a career that literally had nothing to do with his years of studying.

Jean looked up to one of the acting teachers the most out of all his instructors – Mr. Tesslow. And it was Mr. Tesslow who told him maybe he could look into becoming a professor at the Academy. It was a stretch and a competitive field for sure, but he had confidence that Jean could do it. Jean went to college to pursue a teaching degree and kept theater as his double major. When Jean was 23, he applied to be a student teacher at Metric. Mr. Tesslow agreed to take Jean on, and thus Jean became Mr. Tesslow’s assistant in the classroom, helping him with his lesson plans and class time management. They made a good team together.

It was also in college that Jean met Hannah Campbell. She was an actress, and two years his junior. She was actually a student in Mr. Tesslow’s class, one that Jean helped out with. They actually didn’t get along at first and Hannah always had a tendency to out-smart Jean when he was trying to instruct her. Her smart mouth caused Jean to lose lots of respect with Hannah’s classmates, leading to them doubting his skill and intelligence and all agreeing Hannah should have been the student teacher. Hannah was always getting under Jean’s skin and he hated her for it. Despite her annoying attitude though, Jean still had to respect her dedication to her acting.

It was through Hannah rehearsing for an upcoming script that the two actually got to have a civil conversation outside of class with one another. They went out to the café for some coffee and went over the script. Seeing one another became a regular occurrence and despite the fact that they argued more often than they got along, as Hannah’s rehearsals started to come to a close neither of them really wanted to stop seeing each other. On the last day of Hannah’s rehearsing, Jean mustered up his courage and asked her to go on a real date with him sometime, saying these words as she walked away from him. That caused Hannah to pause and then turn around. Jean had half a mind to think she’d reject him, but she smiled and said sure. That was what started his and Hannah’s relationship.

Three years later, in 1985, Jean was still Mr. Tesslow’s teaching assistant. Jean was now 27 and building up his resume to apply to become a colleague of Mr. Tesslows. He was still dating Hannah and now lived on his own in a small apartment in Salem rather than in one of the dorms. One day Mr. Tesslow just didn’t show up to work. No call, no nothing. Jean had to take over the entire class himself, which was overwhelming but not unwelcome. In fact, Jean loved being able to have complete control of the classroom and took to it well. He didn’t know why Mr. Tesslow wasn’t around but figured he was just very sick, too sick to have called. Mr. Tesslow’s absence extended for about a week before Jean started to grow worried. Mr. Tesslow had not been home for a week, the police said, and the Academy was considering how to handle the consequences for Mr. Tesslow when he returned.

It was a normal Monday morning when Jean went into work the next week, but the day quickly grew fowl. An emergency faculty meeting was called and the students of the academy were sent home. The police were in the staffroom, along with the headmaster, who looked as though he was about to throw up. The police informed the staff that Mr. Tesslow had been discovered dead by the headmaster though they did not go into details about the fact that it was a decapitated head that had led to the discovery. They did, however, say it was a premeditated murder and one done due to a vendetta. Jean went completely numb upon hearing that his professor had been murdered, and completely shut himself down after that. He doesn’t remember anything about his days except that he went to work, went home, refused to eat, and just felt emotionally blank throughout a period of a week until the body of Mr. Powell was discovered hanging from the tree in the commons area. The police closed the case of Mr. Tesslow after that, claiming to have found the remains of Mr. Tesslow. They did not tell anyone that Powell was connected to the death of Mr. Tesslow, aside from the headmaster of Metric and a few select older professors. Jean remained oblivious to the connection.

Jean fell into a depression after the funeral was held for Mr. Tesslow and felt like nothing had meaning anymore. It was Hannah who helped him get through this time – her way of comforting him was harsh and honest but it was exactly what he needed to hear. Slowly, Jean picked himself back up off of his feet and realized how damaged the school he loved was becoming. He knew Mr. Tesslow would be unhappy at this, so he worked towards breathing more life into the school. He was officially declared a teacher – bittersweet, since he took Mr. Tesslow’s position – but Jean did not reject the offer.

The years after that went by slowly, but surely. Though he still missed his favorite teacher, the loss became easier to bear as time passed and the new students coming in knew nothing, and cared little. Jean got married to Hannah at 28, and two years later they were blessed with a child – Henry. Jean adored having a son and despite the fact that Henry was vastly different than both his parents in terms of personality, Jean took Henry out on bonding activities and formed a close connection. The years between his wedding and Henry’s fifteenth birthday were the happiest years of Jean’s life. In 1993 the headmaster retired and Jean was promoted to Headmaster of Metric Academy.

Problems with Hannah arose. At first they were easily overlooked but by the time Henry was 14 the fights they got into were so severe they caused Henry distress – his grades were dropping, his school counselor spoke to the Audet family about it. Hannah was the one who decided a divorce was for the best. Jean wanted to work towards fixing the relationship but Hannah had had enough. Jean was not happy about the divorce but Hannah promised they’d maintain a friendship – them being in a romantic relationship was just too toxic for the both of them.

But Henry could not understand why his parents were separating. Somewhere deep inside, he blamed himself. He thought that he looked too fragile to them, too easily swayed by their arguments. He tried to ‘toughen himself’ and acted out, in an effort to force the divorce to stop. As it angered his parents, he continued, trying to make it impossible for them to divorce. He put them in between a rock and a hard place. While Hannah was understanding of her son’s plight, Jean was less sympathetic and harsher towards Henry’s life choices and actions as he lashed out. Jean and Henry’s once close relationships became one fueled by fights, while Henry went to his mother for love, and stopped visiting his father unless he was forced to. Henry took his mother’s surname Campbell.

This strain upset Jean, but nothing upset him more than when Henry was 18 and was in a relationship with a 14 year old problem child. Christina was young, dyed her hair, wore her skirt too high. Jean said very unsavory things about her and tried to get Henry to leave her but it didn’t work – when Henry was 19 he became a father with his girlfriend only 15 years old. Jean claimed he knew something like this would happen. When Henry came to his father’s house begging for support, Jean slammed the door in his face telling him not to expect a shred of empathy.

Hannah took Henry and Christina in. While she was just as angry she didn’t want to lose her family, and she constantly told Jean all about how Henry was trying to better himself for his wife and newborn son. He’d cleaned up and gotten a steady job. He married Christina with her mother’s consent, and the girl was working at a supermarket while Hannah watched her grandson. Jean pretended not to care. He pretended not to care until on October 13th, he got a phone call from his ex-wife. She was barely able to talk but she told him Henry was dead.

Jean went to the funeral but felt ostracized. Christina, the mother of his grandson, would not look at him. The only friendly face was Hannah. All of Henry’s friends present knew of the strained relationship and hated Jean. He was barely present in the time reel of Henry’s short life that played on the screen. It was a closed casket, but the photographs to be buried with him did not include any of Jean. Hannah, Christina, and Robin were there, though. Despite the negativity, Jean stayed. The funeral of his son, who had died much too young, was overwhelming. He saw his grandson there, one year old, sitting on Christina’s lap. He had Henry’s wide eyes and freckles, but the untamable mop of hair was undoubtedly his mothers.

After the funeral was over Jean tried to get into contact with Christina. He called the house but she screened his calls, he sent letters but she never read them, and eventually Jean just went to the house (which he knew was Hannah’s) and Hannah let him in. When Christina came home from work and saw Jean playing with little Robin she freaked out and got into a huge fight with him, causing Robin to start crying and Hannah to take the poor kid out of the room. Christina eventually kicked Jean out of the house and threatened to get a restraining order on him. Furious, Jean left.

Despite Hannah’s pleas to get Christina to change her mind, the girl would not budge. Hannah eventually arranged for a sneaky way to get Jean to be able to meet Robin. Hannah took her grandson to the park every Sunday afternoon from about 1 in the afternoon to 5 PM, and she told Jean where the park was. At the park, Hannah introduced Robin officially to his grandfather. Robin was reluctant to open up to Jean at first, remembering how mad his mom got, but eventually he warmed up to Jean and the two were able to meet and play for a few hours a day.

When Christina found out she was furious. Not even Hannah’s pleas could stop Christina from threatening to get a restraining order on Jean if he didn’t back off. Fearing being unable to see his grandson ever again, Jean had no choice but to stop visiting Robin in the park.

Robin missed his grandfather and pled with his mother to let him see Jean. Christina refused and when Robin was 7, he ran away to try to find Jean’s house. Not knowing where he lived, Robin got lost. This sent Christina, Hannah, and Jean into a panic.

Robin was eventually found on the grounds of Metric by Jean going into work one day. Robin had gone there knowing that Jean worked there.

After this incident Christina slowly allowed for Jean to become a part of their lives. Jean was only intending to grow closer to Robin but wound up viewing Christina as a daughter rather than an in-law. She proved herself to be smart and independent, and the older she got the more mature she seemed to grow as well. Christina was beginning to make a career for herself despite the fact she had a son so young and lost her husband so soon. It was Henry’s memory that began to bring the both of them together.

Jean had learned from his mistakes in the past and tried to judge less than he used to. He still does not approve of relationships like the one his son had with Christina, but he has realized he misjudged Christina entirely based on her mistake as a teenager.

When Christina was promoted to a manager at the local supermarket, Jean told her he was proud of her. And he really was. As they grew closer together, Jean felt a paternal connection with Christina. He considered her his daughter and he still does, to this day. He still wonders, every year when he goes to visit Henry’s grave, if he is happy in heaven knowing that his family is reunited again. Or perhaps Henry is angry at him for being involved now… either way, Jean regrets his past.

Now, Jean resides as headmaster over Metric Academy. He is proud of his position and loves the school. Jean can often be seen trying to connect with the students. As a result of his judgmental behavior when he was younger, Jean tries to be more open minded than he once was. In regards to the rumors circulating about Mr. Powell, he tries to ignore them rather than entertain them when asked about it. He knows a blunt dismissal will lead to suspicious inquiries increasing, so he just tries to brush off questions. It’s a topic he’d rather avoid.

• Mr. Audet is in attendance at every official school function. However he will probably not be mentioned in my intro posts unless he has a particularly important plotline. So just assume he’s always there. Likewise, he’s always there for school-funded performances. Just kinda assume he’s there unless otherwise stated.
• The blonde you can see present in his pictures is Christina.
• Jean’s backstory heavily involves the rumors about Mr. Powell and the murders of his children.
• The rumors say Mr. Audet was a professor when Mr. Tesslow went missing but that’s incorrect—he was actually a teacher’s assistant at the time, Mr. Tesslow’s assistant to be precise. After Mr. Tesslow went missing Mr. Audet essentially taught the classes himself until it was discovered that Mr. Tesslow was murdered and the former headmaster found himself with Mr. Tesslow’s decapitated head on his doorstep. The loss of Mr. Tesslow shook the school greatly but Mr. Audet was not going to let this killer get away with ruining the school’s image so he tried his best to keep spirits up. Despite the drop in student population and GPA, as a few more years passed, the school slowly caught itself back up to steam.
• Jean had a few relationships since his wife, the most significant of which with one of his best friends since before the divorce, Sven. However they broke up due to strains in the relationship after about a year.
• If anyone would like to create a character for his secretary, or an old friend, or whatever, just let me know. I’m down for pretty much anything.
• Jean drives a 2012 Chevrolet Malibu.

• Immortal – Marina and the Diamonds
• Don’t Stop Believing – Mariette
• Gone Too Soon – Daughtry
• Oblivion – Bastille
• Jack Sparrow – The Lonely Island (just because)