The next day, Melissa walked down the halls of McKinley with confidence. My official first day here, she thought. Let's make it count.
She started humming the tune to "Don't Rain on My Parade" when she found herself crashing into someone, sending her books to the ground.
"Oh my gosh!" she spit out once she realized that the stranger's books were on the floor too. "I'm so sorry!"
"It's fine," the stranger replied. Huh, it's not a girl, Melissa thought. They both went to pick up their books off the ground, helping each other out along the way.
Melissa then got up and fixed her dress before helping the person up. "I am really sorry," she said.
"Hey, I said it's fine," he replied, cleaning himself off. "I wasn't looking."
"Yeah. Next time, you should be a bit careful there," she chuckled.
The boy noticed her accent and looked at her. "You're not from here, are you?"
"I moved here from London," she answered him, finally getting a good look at his face. Wow, he's cute. "I'm Melissa, by the way." She held out her hand. "Melissa Romero-Kendrick."
"I'm Ryder," he responded, shaking her hand.
"Well, it was nice meeting you," she said, starting to walk away, "but now I have to get to my locker and put away my books."
"Well, what's your first class?"
"Um," Melissa checked her schedule before finishing, "Algebra II."
"Cool. So, I'll see you around?"
"Yeah, see ya!" she said before sprinting off to her locker. She quickly put away her bag and her extra books before closing it and speed-walking to her classroom.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Hey hey hey," Rachel said, giving Gabe a hug from the back.
"Hi Rach," he replied, giving her a proper hug.
"How would you like to come over to my house later tonight for dinner?"
"Why, what's the occasion?"
"Well, I still don't know a lot about you, and you still don't know a lot about me, so I thought that this would be a great bonding time for us." Despite the fact that I found out about your musical love a few days ago over coffee, Rachel thought.
"Well, alright," Gabe smiled. Maybe I can see if she really is the person people say she is.
"Great! So, we'll go after my last class?"
"I'll be waiting."
They entered Ms. July's class with the thought of each other slipping in their minds.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Hold on a second," Gabe interrupted. "So, he choked the note on purpose?"
"Yup," Rachel answered as they both took another forkful of noodles.
"Why'd he do that?"
"He apparently didn't want his dad to be embarrassed because he sang an Elphaba song."
"How would he be embarrassed?"
"His dad's all manly and buff, while Kurt is more..."
"Flamboyant?" Gabe suggested.
"Yeah, let's go with that," she agreed. "But enough about me. It's your turn to spill!"
"Alright." He took a minute to think of something. "Oh, I got it! Well, you know how I was in all four of my high school's musical productions?"
"Yeah, I remember you telling me that."
"Well, in my junior year, we were doing a production of Grease. There was a cheer thing before our musical, and one of the confetti cannons misfired."
"Why was there a cheer performance?"
"Something about school pride or something."
"Oh. And who did you play in Grease?"
"Danny Zuko. ANYWAYS, during the reprise of 'Look at Me, I'm Sandra Dee,' the cannon finally worked, and the girl who played Sandy ended up covered in confetti."
"WHAT?" Rachel laughed.
"No joke!"
"Oh my God!"
Once they both calmed down, Rachel's phone started ringing. She checked the caller ID and noticed that Kurt was calling on FaceTime.
"Should I pick up?" she asked Gabe, showing him the caller ID.
"Hell yeah!" he replied. "I wanna meet him!"
"Alright." She answered to see Kurt's smiling face. At the sight of him, she found herself screaming in delight.
"Do people from Lima greet each other like that?" Gabe asked, hearing both her scream and the scream of the phone.
"How's NYADA without me?" Kurt asked.
"Boring as hell," Rachel replied. Gabe loudly cleared his throat before she added, "Well, with the exception of one part."
"Would that one part be the cute new guy you keep telling me about?"
"Shush!" Rachel whispered. "He's right here!"
"Sorry!"
"So, that's Kurt?" Gabe asked.
Kurt heard his voice and mouthed, Is that him? Rachel nodded.
"Kurt," she said, showing Gabe her phone screen, "meet Gabe. Gabe, Kurt."
"I've heard a lot about you," Kurt spoke.
"Same with you," Gabe responded.
Rachel then turned the screen back to her when she heard the doorbell ring.
"Crap," she whispered. "I have to get that."
"I'll be waiting," Kurt answered as she put the phone down. "And Rachel?"
"Yes?" she asked.
"He's cute," he mouthed.
"I know," she mouthed back before setting the phone down again.
As she went to answer the door, Gabe picked up the phone and started talking to Kurt.
"So," he started, "how long have you known Rachel?"
"Four years," Kurt replied.
"Really?"
"We first met in glee club."
"How was she?"
"She was a NIGHTMARE," Kurt laughed. "Now that I look back, it was actually pretty funny."
"Because of how nice she is now?" Gabe asked.
"Yeah, but enough about me!" Kurt exclaimed. "Rach told me that you like Broadway?"
"Yeah," Gabe answered.
"What's your favorite musical?"
"I think it would have to be either Wicked or Catch Me if You Can."
"The one based on the movie?"
"Yeah."
"Can you sing?" Kurt asked.
"Yeah, I think I'm pretty good," Gabe replied.
"Then sing!"
"What do I sing?"
"Anything!"
"Well," Gabe started. Maybe I can sing a bit of Live in Living Color... "Alright."
He cleared his throat before singing. His voice was a bit timid because he didn't want to disturb Rachel while she was at the door, but it came out when he finished the stanza. "So sit back and let me be your TV Guide!"
When Gabe was done, Kurt suddenly became speechless.
"WOW!" he managed to spit out.
"Thanks."
"You sound AMAZING! You HAVE to come to Lima and help us mentor the kids!"
"I might, if-" He heard the door slam and he looked up to see Rachel in tears.
"Whoa," he said, getting up and pulling her into a hug. "What's wrong?"
"I need to be alone," she replied, pushing him away and rushing to her room.
"Um," Kurt spoke, "what's wrong?"
"I don't know," Gabe replied.
"KURT!" Burt Hummel. Kurt's father, yelled. "COME HERE! THIS IS IMPORTANT!"
"I gotta go," Kurt said. "It was nice meeting you, Gabe."
"You too."
"Oh, and one more thing."
"What?" Gabe asked.
"Give her a few days. Let her have her space. Whatever happened...it must be really important to her. Just let her calm down."
"Alright."
"KURT!"
"Bye Gabe," Kurt said quickly before hanging up.
After he hung up, Gabe placed Rachel's phone on the table before grabbing his jacket.
"Bye Rachel!" he yelled before leavingg. "Your phone's on the table!"
I hope she's okay, he thought.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"What's up dad?" Kurt asked when he came in. He then saw Carol in tears.
"Whoa, Carol, what's wrong?"
"That's what I need to talk to you about," Burt said. "Sit down."
Kurt slowly took a seat. "What's going on?"
Silence filled the room. Then Carol spoke up.
"It's about Finn."
~~***~~
Song(s) used: Live in Living Color from Catch Me if You Can (Video on the External link)
(I know it's just the intro but still)
If you can tell what happened...DON'T KILL ME!!!!! :,,,,,,,,,( I was stuck on this chapter for a while, and then this popped into my head. I know it's probably too soon...
ANYWAYS, I also needed Rachel to go back to Lima sooner.
Yeah, too soon.
I'M SORRY
I'm still sad about Cory's death. A great man passed away too soon. RIP <3
So, I'm gonna go hide now...
~Rosie
~~***~~