Kurt made his way slowly down the hallway, a textbook open before him to mask the Vogue he was reading.
Need more vee-necks...
Suddenly an arm shot out of a classroom door and yanked. Carried by the momentum, Kurt slammed into the opposite wall of the classroom, sliding down into a crumpled half-sitting position.
"Money in the front pocket of my backpack," he whispered, covering his eyes. He had found in the past it safer not to look at his attacker; it helped him to maintain a semi-professional attitude. "I would really appreciate you twisting my left arm over my right; I have an essay in history and injuring my writing hand would put me very far behind."
"Oh, will you calm down?"
Instead of a deep grunt, the voice of his assailant was high, feminine, and pissed off. And the warm breath on his face smelled like peppermint toothpaste and cherry lip gloss.
Kurt dropped his hands to find Rachel Berry standing over him, hands on her hips and looking extremely harassed.
"I try not to put myself in debt with other people," she said crossly, "but my MySpace followers have made a song request and I can't do it alone. It requires a soprano with vocal strength and emotion. I have no one else to turn to."
"You want me to sing with you?" Kurt asked, wondering if he had seriously injured his head hitting the wall and begun hallucinating.
"Yes. Please," Rachel added as an afterthought.
What does not kill me only makes me stronger.
"Um, sure, I guess so."
Rachel let out a breath. "Thank you. I really do appreciate this, Kurt." She tossed him a packet of sheet music. "You've heard of Wicked?"
Kurt nodded. "I've heard some of the music." In fact, he knew "Popular" by heart and had choreographed a dance to it, but that wasn't something he felt like sharing.
"Excellent. Do you think you can learn it tonight?"
"Yeah, I should be able to," he replied, getting a better look at the music.
"Defying Gravity." Ah, yes. The song his copy of the soundtrack refused to play. Well, that was what he got for buying secondhand CDs.
"Thanks again." Rachel turned to go, then quickly, awkwardly hugged him. "See you after school tomorrow in the auditorium!"
"Bye..." Kurt watched her leave, then straightened his jacket and adjusted his backpack, preparing to enter the hallway and the land of normalcy again.
Weird...
***
"Oh, good!" Rachel cried, running down the aisle to grab Kurt's hand and hurry him up to the stage. "I was afraid you wouldn't show up. I had another song planned just in case, but I hadn't rehearsed it much, and I really didn't want to do anything else when my viewers have been getting so insistent and I'd done so much planning for this and made copies of the music, I mean Kinko's prices are just outrageous when you consider-"
"The video?" Kurt broke in. Honestly, Rachel's chatter made him more than a little dizzy.
"Right." Rachel made a few adjustments to her video camera and checked the CD player. "Ready?" Kurt nodded; she turned on both electronics and ran back to Kurt as the opening began to play.
Rachel planted her feet, took a deep breath, and began to sing. "Something has changed within me – something is not the same. I'm through with playing by the rules of someone else's game."
"Too late for second guessing, too late to go back to sleep." Kurt felt himself slip into a falsetto, but Rachel didn't seem to care. "It's time to trust my instincts, close my eyes and leeeeeap-"
"It's time to try defying gravity, I think I'll try defying gravity, kiss me goodbye, I'm defying gravity, and you won't bring me down!" Their voices swirled together, his supporting Rachel's as she soared through the highest notes and moved onto the second verse.
I'm through accepting limits
'Cause someone says they're so I'd sooner buy I'd sooner buy
Some things I cannot change
But till I try, I'll never know!
Too long I've been afraid of
Losing love I guess I've lost
Well, if that's love
It comes at much too high a cost!
Defying gravity
Kiss me goodbye
I'm defying gravity
I think I'll try
Defying gravity
And you wont bring me down!
Defying gravity
Kiss me goodbye
I'm defying gravity
I think I'll try
Defying gravity
And you won't bring me down!
Bring me down!
"Oooo-ah-aooh!" Rachel belted out the last aching note as the CD ended and the video camera shut off, leaving the two of them in silence.
Kurt opened his mouth, desperate to put into words all the things that singing with her had meant to him, what the song had made him feel, how talented he thought she was and how proud he was to know her. How proud he was of what she had done to Glee club, giving him a place when he wasn't brave enough to make one for himself. But all that came out was an ugly croak. And then tears, coursing down his cheeks and running along the curve of his jaw.
Rachel turned to face him, and he saw that she was crying as well. She tentatively opened her arms to him. He hugged her fiercely, sobbing into her shoulder as they swayed awkwardly.
Finally they broke apart, gasping and red faced. Kurt wordlessly offered Rachel a tissue from the pack in his pocket, waiting until she had finished blowing her nose to speak.
"The problem with that song is that being different isn't as easy as they make it sound. It's not something you can just do without regrets."
Rachel nodded, giving him a weak, teary smile. "I agree completely. Believe me, I know."
She began to pack up the video camera. Kurt handed Rachel her backpack, waiting until she had her things together so he could walk out of the auditorium with her.
"I hear Mirror Theatre's putting on 'Once On this Island' over the weekend. Want to go see it?"
"That sounds great." Rachel replied.
Kurt felt his step lighten into a skip as they made their way across the student parking lot. The stares he received for his trouble didn't seem to matter. Defying social gravity wasn't so bad, really, as long as you had someone to do it with you.