There weren't enough banana nut muffins for the entire table. Kurt and Quinn share glances from across the table as Finn piles them on his plate, wrappers piling onto his plate. The wake is his favorite part, because the mourning period is kind of over. They aren't in a chapel and the people around them aren't crying anymore. Finn doesn't have to hand his mother tissues each time she's busy reaching for Burt's hand to squeeze throughout the ceremony. He gets to sit at the table and not think about anything for a while, no matter how much Elliot wants him to.

"Only you could spend all of your time at a wake eating," he says with a flip of his hair. It's coiffed off to the side and looks fabulous, as always. There isn't a day that goes by when Kurt doesn't look like he belongs at New York Fashion Week. Finn looks down at his growing pile of muffin wrappers and looks to Quinn, who smiles weakly.

"Kurt's right," she tells him with a pat on the back.

But they're banana nut. They're his favorite.

"Fine," Finn says with a huff, setting his half-eaten muffin back on his plate.

:.:.:

Memorial Day weekend comes and goes, and Quinn stops by the Hudson-Hummel home with a picnic basket that Monday evening, planning a picnic for her and Finn underneath the crab apple tree in his backyard. Kurt just looks at them with a small scowl and they continue into the backyard, Quinn leading him to the tree and Finn following behind her like a lost puppy.

She's made him a batch of banana nut muffins just for the occasion, which he finds the moment she opens the picnic basket.

"You know, the community theatre's going to do a production of West Side Story this summer," she tells him, picking at her muffin wrapper. "I was thinking that maybe we could audition together. We could both be in a show this summer, Finn. I think it would be fun, anyway." Finn thinks about the fact of being in a musical for a moment. He doesn't understand how people pretend to be other people and can sing and dance about it, but it's all Kurt's been talking about for the past few weeks. He waltzes around their living room singing songs from the show and drives home blasting the soundtrack in his car.

"Are you going to try out?" He asks Quinn with a small grin. She giggles bashfully and continues to unpack their picnic basket.

"I thought it would be fun," she tells him sweetly. "I know it's all Kurt talks about. I thought it would be fun enough just to be in the chorus. Singing and dancing… and it would be even more fun with you there." She leans over on the picnic basket until she grazes his lap, leaning up to kiss him. Finn smiles and kisses her back, holding her close. She's the best thing that's ever happened to him.

:.:.:

"God, Finn, I wish you would just come with me," Kurt groans, grabbing his car keys from the hook by the door. "I'm going over to spend time with Nana and I think you should too. She just lost the love of her life, Finn." Finn looks back at the TV, his current game of Call of Duty causing him more concern than the conversation Kurt's trying to have with him.

He doesn't want to go. He knows that if he does, he's going to have to listen to Kurt talk about how much he loves listening to Barbra Streisand records and preparing dinner for their Nana. It's not like his grandmother is even Kurt's biological grandmother. His dad's mom has nothing to do with Kurt, and yet they have a better relationship together in the small amount of time that they've known each other than she and Finn do. Part of it angers him; making him feel like Kurt's worth the world to his grandmother while he's just his grandmother's grandson, the one that never talks to him. Maybe that's how it's supposed to be. Finn's pretty close with Burt, anyway.

His Nana needs him right now, though. No amount of old movies and Poppycock that Kurt buys her is going to mend her broken heart.

The game gets paused and Finn continues to turn off the television set, standing from his bean bag chair and looking at Kurt with a smile.

"You want me to drive?"

:.:.:

"I just love it when you come over," the old woman says from her chair, looking at Kurt with a smile. "And Finn! You've gotten so tall." She smiles sweetly as Kurt offers a hand to take her plates to the sink. "The last time I really got to see you, you didn't come up past your grandfather's shoulder."

Finn cringes a bit at the mention on his grandfather. He looks to Kurt in the kitchen and swears her can see him reacting in the same way. "Yeah, I'm over six feet now," he boasts, puffing his chest out a bit. If Quinn were with them, she would have laughed.

"You're a handsome boy, Finn. Any girl would be lucky enough to call you her own."

"That's what Quinn is for," Kurt tweets from the kitchen, causing their grandmother to look at him funny.

"You're seeing someone?"

Finn rubs the back of his neck nervously. He never would have guessed that talking about Quinn in front of his Nana would make him feel so uncomfortable, but it has. "She's my girlfriend, Nana. I should introduce you to her. She's really nice."

"And has an excellent taste in clothing, if I do say so myself," Kurt says again, waltzing into the living room. "Now, Nana, what movie shall we watch today, hmm?" He sits next to her on the edge of the couch, crossing his legs and leaning in to speak to her. "I was hoping maybe a Barbra classic and then ending the night with a Judy Garland picture?"

Their Nana shakes her head and smiles at Kurt, patting him on the knee. "That all sounds lovely, sweetheart, but I thought since Finn was here, he could choose. We can save Barbra and Judy for another day."

Finn feels dumbfounded; knowing that his Nana wants him to choose the movie they watch. He looks at the shelf by the television and tries to pick one, but he doesn't know where to start. They all look like they're in black and white or one of those movies where the actors don't talk and their words are shown up on the screen on cards.

He finally spots a title that he recognizes. One of his mother's favorites, if he remembers correctly.

"What about this one?" He asks, pulling the VHS from the shelf and displaying it to the two. "I think it's like, really famous or something, right?"

Kurt's face lights up and he smiles, clapping enthusiastically. "Casablanca! A classic." Finn smiles and pops the tape into the VCR, sitting down on the couch by Kurt. He hopes it isn't terribly boring.

:.:.:

It isn't terribly boring. He finds himself enthralled in the world of the film; in the lives of Rick Blaine and Ilse Lund. The woman reminds him of Quinn a bit, even though he knows he can't compare to the actor playing Rick Blaine. He could never be so suave and debonair and make women fall for him like that. He's still surprised that Quinn still dates him. Sometimes he thinks that it's all for the social status they receive. They were elected prom king and queen this past year, at their junior prom. Quinn is all about appearances; looking good and making sure Finn looks good. He doesn't know how he feels about that yet.

An actress in the film catches his eye by the time it ends, after he realizes that he's seen her throughout the entire movie. She doesn't speak at first, just stands in the front of the crowds of people whenever a large amount of actors are needed in a scene. She has these eyes that have to be the biggest eyes he's ever seen, and they remind him of Bambi's eyes from that cartoon movie he's watched over and over again. Every once and a while she smiles when the occasion calls for it, and her smile lights up the entire screen – even if it's just the television screen in his Nana's living room. It makes him wonder what it would look like to be in a movie theatre, seeing her smile up on a big screen. She's stunning; an ideal image in black and white.

She finally speaks towards the end of the film; some kind of line about Rick Blaine. Finn wants to know what her name is. She's so lovely that he feels like she has to be the star of some kind of movie. She's like Marilyn Monroe, only not as direct as the blonde bombshell. She exudes loveliness, not pure sexuality.

By the time the film ends, Kurt and his Nana are sharing a box of Kleenex between them. Finn sits on the edge of the couch, reading the screen. The list of starring actors are presented first, but he doesn't care about those. He wants to know who the girl with the million dollar smile is.

A long list of actors appears on screen, headed with the name he believes belongs to the girl he likes.

Rachel Berry. He types it into his phone quickly and saves the text message in his drafts.

I'll Google her when I get home, he thinks. It's not like Kurt's going to know who she is.

:.:.:

She hasn't starred in any movies. It brings him close to the point of disappointment, and he doesn't know why. Part of him was secretly waiting for her to be some kind of pin-up model or be like the second coming of Grace Kelly or Doris Day – not that he knows who those actresses are to begin with.

She has different movies to her name – Casablanca, Citizen Kane, Gone With the Wind – even South Pacific. All are small, unnamed roles that have one or two lines. Finn tries to do more research on her, but to no avail. All he can find out is that her name is Rachel Berry and that she was is age when she appeared in the movie that he watched with Kurt and his Nana – eighteen.

Finn adds the movies she's been in to his Netflix queue. It's a great excuse for him to spend time with his Nana.

:.:.:

"I think I should wear something period for my audition, don't you, Finn? That way the directors can already picture me as their Tony." Kurt makes a face in the mirror in the main hallway of their house, Finn seeing him as he walks out of the kitchen.

"Whatever you say," he says with a laugh, giving Kurt a light pat on the shoulder. "I think you'll do fine no matter what you wear, man." Kurt gives Finn a little scoff, not bothering to lose eye contact with himself in the mirror.

"Tony was never partial to fashion-forward cardigans that end just above the knee, Finn." Finn rolls his eyes for a second and Kurt follows after him into the living room, sitting in the couch as he watches Finn finish off the Thin Mints his father bought, planning to eat for himself when the Indians game aired on Sunday. "You're not planning on auditioning, are you?"

Finn scoffs a bit, nearly choking on his cookie. "Not with my two left feet. They wouldn't know what to do with me?" Kurt laughs and adjusts himself on the couch. "I was thinking of maybe playing drums for the pit orchestra. Quinn wouldn't like seeing me pretend to be in love with some other girl or whatever, even if it was just for two weeks."

"Isn't she auditioning?"

"She wants to be Maria," Finn says. He doesn't know who Maria is, but he assumes it's the lead. Quinn was the lead in the musical at their school this year, anyway. A lovely Marian Paroo in The Music Man, alongside Kurt's interpretation of a traveling salesman.

Kurt nods his head and smiles. "Of course she does. She probably will be, too. Besides, Santana's going to kill anyone who gets cast over her in the role of Anita, so I think Quinn will fit in just fine as Maria. A blonde Maria, but who knows? Maybe they had bleach in Puerto Rico." He chuckles to himself and Finn laughs along with him, nervously and not knowing exactly what he's laughing at. He just knows that Quinn wants the coveted role of Maria.

"You can buy me flowers to give me at the end, too," she's told him after they're done making out and lying on the couch together. "Everyone can know that you're my boyfriend and that I'm your girlfriend."

Finn doesn't even know how he feels about it all. There's no one else in town that can play the part of Maria as far as he's concerned. Quinn's it.

:.:.:

He brings the movies over one by one to his Nana's as he gets them in the mail. Kurt doesn't come with, and he spends the time with his Nana, sitting with her and helping her cook dinner and just talking with her. He wonders if it makes her feel better, especially now that his grandfather is gone. It makes him think about what Quinn would do if he were to just not be there one day, and it makes him more nervous the more he thinks about it. She already becomes slightly paranoid when he has to go up to his cabin on the weekends, and he's not even seeing other girls while he's there. She's protective, but that's just one of the side-effects that comes from dating Quinn Fabray. He's learned to live with and doesn't talk about it with others.

The movies somehow take his mind off of everything else in the world. His troubles and other things stressing him seem to circle a drain and he's more concerned about the plot in the movie than his own life's troubles.

And then there's Rachel Berry with her effervescent smile and doe eyes that make him feel like everything's going to be alright. He doesn't have to worry that school's going to be over in the next few days and he's going to have to start studying for finals or that college is only a few months away or about his girlfriend being protective or her and Kurt auditioning for the local musical. He sees her on TV and he feels like everything's going to be alright.

It frightens him that she's able to do something like that. She's a movie star. She's supposed to feel like some kind of supernatural force. But she doesn't. It might be because she's not really a movie star, or because she's got such a breathless charm about her that he feels like she's smiling at him when he sees her in movies.

He watches South Pacific one evening and sees her running around the background behind Nellie Forbush, giggling and running in the water with other girls that look to be her age.

And they're in bathing suits. Not the skimpy bikinis that Quinn and Santana and Brittany all wear to the pool each summer. Her two piece bathing suit makes her look like a lady, yet sexy all at the same time. It makes Finn wonder why he wasn't born earlier so he could live during the 1940's.

He doesn't understand how she's been in so many movies and yet never starred in one – and then he starts to wonder if she's even still around, or if she's like his Nana.

He does a Google search on her once more that night, to make sure.

She's been gone for a while now. The website he's looking at says that she died at age thirty five.

:.:.:

The Hudson-Hummel household sits down to breakfast one morning, Kurt unable to stop talking about his audition for the community production of West Side Story in the summer.

Finn tunes him out, however, and he wonders if they've ever heard of her. If Rachel Berry is a household name that he just hasn't known because he's been ignorant to everything that's happened since before he was born up until now. He chooses to interrupt Kurt's chatter about the musical to ask.

"Have any of you guys ever heard of Rachel Berry?"

The family pauses and Kurt looks at him with a hint of disgust, upset that he's been interrupted.

"No," Finn's mother says, looking down at her plate. "You shouldn't interrupt Kurt, Finn."

Burt just looks at Finn and sighs. "Me either. Remember your manners, Finn."

Finn feels like a six year old after being told to brush up on his table manners. Kurt doesn't even say anything to the reference of her name.

"Who is she?" Finn's mother asks, now somewhat intrigued. Finn shakes his head, quickly trying to think up some kind of response. He doesn't want to sound disgusting and weird and say that he's been doing all of this research on this unknown actress lately.

"No one," he says, looking down at his plate of uneaten eggs. "Just someone I heard was auditioning for the musical, that's all. She goes to Carmel or something."

Kurt looks up from his plate, arching an eyebrow. "Well, let's just hope that she isn't better than Quinn, hmm?"

"Yeah."

:.:.:

He's forgotten that he left the movie on the night before, and he knows how mad his mom gets when he leaves his TV on when he goes to bed. He's woken up by a push to his shoulder, unsure of what his mother wants him for. It's a weekend; it's not like he needs to get up to go to school.

"Hello?"

That voice doesn't belong to his mom.

Finn opens his eyes, shocked beyond belief. He sits up in his bed and pulls his sheets to himself, realizing that he's just in his boxers and she's, well, in a dress. And beautiful. And standing in his bedroom.

Rachel Berry is in his bedroom. Looking at him with the same doe eyes that he's become so enthralled with.

He doesn't know what to think.