A/N: I don't own Glee (Ryan Murphy and Fox do) or anything else you might recognize here (like Disney!) but use them here with love.
For my dear friend Stine
"Congratulations, Kurt, you're going to be a Cast Member!"
Kurt studied her employee name tag a moment before answering, thinking I can just hear the superfluous capital letters. "Thanks, Gina."
She beamed back at him. "Well, right this way for your fittings, now that all the paperwork is done, and we get to the fun part!"
He bobbed his head, then narrowed his eyes as he asked her, "Fittings? Plural?"
She turned around, pausing from the fast walk she had initiated. "Of course! There's the face and the fur fittings, silly. Just about the same, but Wardrobe is very picky. Come on!"
He allowed himself a tiny eye roll as he followed her and wondered if he should kill Rachel tonight or take her out to dinner. True, she'd pointed him towards this gig, but really? This was Florida in summertime, and he was no fan of hot, sticky weather. He frowned as he wondered if the high SPF sunscreens could really protect him from the daily sun exposure, and would they work under character makeup? That, and everyone seemed way too happy. All the time. For (and he looked down at one of the papers he was clutching) a wage no higher than he could make back home in Lima. He found himself nearly jogging as he hurried to keep up with the perky Gina, as she led him through the labyrinth of the building. She was tiny but fast, darting around like a small bird, he mused. He watched as she lifted her left wrist to check the time on a large vintage-looking Minnie Mouse watch.
"We're making good time," she assured him, looking back at him for a moment without slackening her pace.
"Good," he answered, adding quickly, "wouldn't want to keep them waiting."
Gina deposited him in the fittings area of Wardrobe, and he helped himself at the water cooler. He thought back to the phone call he'd gotten just two weeks ago.
"Kurt, how's your dad doing?"
That tone, he'd thought. The one full of concern, pity, hoping for good news, that he'd heard way too much of in the last couple of days. "Carole was right, thank God. I mean yes, it was a heart attack, but it was a minor one, and he went in right away, and got a stent practically minutes after arriving in the ER, and he's okay. The docs say he's going to be all right, and Carole swears she agrees with them."
"Are you still sure about the fall?"
He'd sighed, then answered her. "Yeah. I mean, NYADA's really expensive, and Carmen Thibodeaux was really good about it, promising that if I chose to come back within a year I could still do that. A little time at home in the state college system, maybe some community theater, wouldn't kill me. And while I'm making up my mind, it's less of a burden to dad."
"I might be joining you in Ohio," she said, "but first how about a summer working together?"
Her tone had sounded excited, but was it the kind of excitement that led to something good, or the crazy, Lucy Ricardo lets-do-a-crazy-thing-and-pretend-it's-brilliant excitement? He remembered being intrigued. "Spill. What do you have in mind?"
Rachel had insisted doing Disney characters could lead to a big break, and that it would be fun. The fact that she'd never known anyone who had done the Disney summer college student program, and couldn't name anyone who'd gotten a big break off of playing Snow White or whoever hadn't slowed her down. But she'd pleaded, begging him to do it with her, promising that if worst came to worst, it would be just a summer, and they'd probably have wacky stories about all their adventures as Cast Members enough to last their lives. How someone so demented had convinced him to do this, he had no idea. Carole and his dad had both encouraged him to go for it, though, promising to keep him updated.
I'm done. And I need an iced mocha latte. STAT.
He only had moments to wait for her return text. I'll meet you at the fountain in the lobby.
Kurt nodded and headed for their rendezvous point, trying to return all the smiles people sent his way.
"Kurt! I'm so excited! Did they fit you for face characters?" She handed him an icy cold drink.
"How many coffees have you had, Rachel Berry?" he teased, and tasted it. "Thank you, this is really good. And yes," he smiled at her, "but they also fit me for furs."
"Well, you know, they say they do that for everyone who gets in, but maybe you won't have to do furs at all."
Kurt took a long drink of his iced coffee. "That's not what Gina, my orientation leader, said. But, hmm... I don't know... donning a weird larger than life 'fur' costume – I'll have you know I tried on Tigger – versus tights and polyester, complete with wool hat and the possibility of getting sunburned as a 'face'. How did I let you talk me into this?"
"Kurt! We are the lucky ones! We get to perform, and as faces we may even get to be well-known characters! This could be really great!" She was all but bouncing, careful however not to spill her own drink.
"All right, settle down," Kurt relented. "I promise, I'm happy. So, go ahead and guess what 'faces' I could do."
Rachel smiled, happy now that Kurt's grumpiness from before had vanished. "You did get it, right?"
His grin was wide now. "What do you think?"
"You would totally be the best Peter Pan ever! See, I told you! Who else?" She noticed he looked a little off when she said that.
He pointed to his neck and grimaced. "My voice. They told me I'd be perfect for Peter Pan, and I could still do parade work as a face for lots of the princes, or the toy soldiers and stuff like that. On the other hand," he shrugged, "the 'furs' people were very happy; my height is good for a lot of roles, they won't have trouble squeezing me into the cartoon costumes, and all that training at NYADA really helped my dance audition. What about you?"
"Esmerelda," he nodded his agreement, "and Jasmine." He waited for a moment before asking.
"Wait, that's it? That's unbelievable!" he protested, then went on in at a lower volume, "I mean, okay, maybe not Sleeping Beauty, but what about Snow White, or Belle, or Cinderella?"
She smiled ruefully and copied his gesture, only this time pointing at her nose. "This. I mean, face it, I'm no Grace Kelly, and all the talent in the world isn't going to change that." She stepped closer to him to grab his free hand. "But those are both good roles, not to mention the fairies I could do. Did you know Tinkerbell has like, tons of friends now? And they said I'd be perfect as Minnie Mouse, or Chip and Dale (one of them at a time of course), and even Pinocchio." She checked her watch and looked up at him. "We only have like half an hour before we're supposed to meet our mentor."
"Do you think we're supposed to go to dinner with him?" Kurt asked, aware that lunch had been a long time ago, with only water and coffees since then.
"I think so. I heard they try to team up people from the college summer programs with someone from the same part of the country you're from," she told him.
"Great. I go all the way to Florida for my summer job just to hang out with people from Ohio. Sounds like a blast," Kurt snarked.
