Disclaimer: I do not own Glee! I just love it. My friend who normally fixes any mistakes I've missed is away and I'm too impatient. I've read through it a couple of times but please tell me if you find any glaringly bad mistakes and I will fix them. :D
Summary: While looking for a new idol within McKinley's history, Rachel finds out more about a fellow Glee member than she had originally aimed for.
"Ladies and gentlemen, I have found myself a new idol." Rachel Berry, queen of the dramatic, raced into the room as only she could do; torso bent forward slightly in an attempt to gain speed where she lacked basic slushie dodging skills.
Mercedes, Tina, Artie, and Finn had gathered in the choir room during their free period before Glee. Mercedes and Tina were gossiping over various fashion and celebrity magazines that they had spread out over the flat surface of the piano; Artie was sat close by, lightly strumming his guitar in a bid to evade boredom; and Finn and Puck, with their rekindled friendship still strained, were fighting over a battered DS.
As Rachel had bashed her way into the room (her hands too full to operate the standard door handle), they had all looked up from their respective activities. She had gathered another large stack of McKinley year books that she had borrowed from the school's library.
"Doesn't our library have a book limit?" Artie piped up, looking warily at the heap of books she had dumped on the piano. They were squashing the glossy magazines and leant slightly towards him, so he carefully wheeled himself slightly back, mindful of Tina's feet.
"My dads donated a considerable amount of money towards McKinley's learning supplies when I entered middle school – to ensure my good grades of course – so I'm sure I'm allowed to take out a few more books occasionally."
"A few?" Finn piped up as he moved towards his frenzied girlfriend. He took a few brief seconds to admire the length of her skirt before deciding to pay attention lest Rachel's craziness increased.
"Shh, Finn, this is important."
Mr Schue sighed from his small elected work area at the back of the room: he certainly wouldn't be finishing the stack of marking anytime soon. Instead, he chose to see what Rachel had found, and curiosity piqued when he noticed the date on one of the books: William McKinley High School, 1984.
"Hey, I was in elementary in 1984. What's so interesting about back then?" he queried as Rachel hurriedly flicked through the glossy pages of the largest book.
"What are you even looking for?" Mercedes looked bored already, rolling her eyes as Rachel just flicked faster.
"Here," she said, lifting up the book and pointing at a photo of a young girl. "Sarah Parker. She's a senior in this photo, but guys get this: she is me."
"Excuse me?"
"She is! She... she was in so many clubs, even Glee and... and dance! And I have the same GPA as she had back then. I mean, I know April Rhodes became the big singer in Glee several years later, but I think this Sarah girl proves that it's possible to escape Lima."
"How do you know this chick did?" Puck finally stood up from his place sprawled across a couple of seats at the back of the room and glanced at the photo. "She's hot – I'll give her that. Maybe she grew into one of my cougars." He gave a lecherous smirk and plonked himself back into a plastic chair.
"Sarah Parker." Mr Schue smiled at the name. "I used to have a crush on her."
"Eh!"
"What happened to her?"
"I don't know." He shrugged his shoulders. "She was my baby sitter when I was in Elementary School." He paused to think. "If she were around today then she would be about 40. She was amazing, though; I can tell you that. Glee was popular back then and my parents would take me to the school's concerts. She also did community theatre before it shut down. She did ballet. All I know is that she married her childhood sweetheart, who had graduated a couple of years before she did."
This news seemed to deflate Rachel's balloon of enthusiasm. She had hoped to find proof of someone who had actually managed to leave the small town they lived in. Sarah Parker wasn't a name she was familiar with, but if she had gotten married it meant that she would never know.
"Wait, I recognise her from somewhere," Mercedes piped up, snatching the book away from Rachel and staring down at the image.
"Me too," Tina said, handing another copy of the book to Artie.
"The face is familiar." He straightened his glasses on his nose and watched as Mercedes began digging around in her school bag.
"That's Mrs Hummel." Finn had used his superior height to look over his fellow Glee clubbers at the books, and ignoring the overdramatic gasp from Rachel, he continued, "Kurt keeps a photograph of her by his bed."
"And in his wallet," Mercedes pointed out, now holding a brown designer wallet in her hands. "I had to borrow lunch money and told him that I'd give it back in Glee... but, anyways, look." From the wallet, she produced a small photo and placed it next to the one in the book.
"Sarah Parker!" Rachel squealed.
"Sarah Hummel more like."
"Still hot."
Will quickly snatched the photo away from Rachel's hands before she could crumple it any further in her excitement. It was indeed the Sarah from his younger years, but she was older and in her arms held a toddler who wore an identical smile.
"Wow. Kurt's mother was amazing." Rachel said in awe.
"You can't have her, Berry," drawled a new voice. Kurt quickly entered the room from where he had been standing in the doorway. He plucked the wallet from Mercedes's fingers. "I saw Rachel rushing through the corridors and had to know what kind of crazy was about to befall us this time." Stepping up to his teacher and holding out his hand, he commanded, "My mother, please?"
Mr Schue blushed, realising he was still holding on to the worn photograph and quickly passed it back to his student.
"I find it quite disturbing that you had a crush on her. Thank god you didn't act on it. While my mom thankfully was always into older guys, the thought of being Kurt Schuester is very scary." This caused a resounding chuckle from his classmates.
"Kurt, you have got to tell me more about your mother." Rachel strode up to the male diva, dangerously invading his personal space to the point where she could see his eyes resisting to urge to cringe and his body twitching to take a step back.
"There's not much to tell, I'm afraid. She married Dad when she graduated, helped Dad with the set up of his garage, had me at 24, and died at 32." He set her in place with his patented Hummel stare. "Sorry to disappoint, Rachel, but I'm going to be the first Hummel to get out of Lima."
"Oh." And with that the subject was dropped for the rest of the day. Kurt almost thought he had been forgotten completely, apart from a few rather creepy looks from Schuester, as he obviously tried to see his babysitter within the soprano.
The weekend had come around faster than Kurt had expected and he had decided to spend his Saturday working at his dad's garage. He had spent the previous three weekends at Ms Sylvester's Cheerio boot camp, and thought he should put in some mechanic work to make up for not seeing his dad that often.
Unfortunately for Kurt, his peaceful day at work was not meant to be, and he found himself rolling himself out from underneath a beaten pickup truck as his iPod speakers were cut off. He quickly looked up to glare at the culprit, expecting to see his father, but instead he was greeted with the sight of Rachel Berry holding a large box, which was threatening to slip from her hands onto Kurt's head.
"Do you mind?" he hissed, gesturing for her to step back so he could stand up.
"My dads suggested a tit-for-tat method to find out information about your mother." She jumped straight to the point as ever. "So, despite the fact I am no longer in regular contact with my birth mother, I have brought around various things from my childhood and about my two dads."
"Rachel, I'm a little busy..."
But she had already turned and walked towards the small backroom which acted as Burt's office. A few seconds later, a befuddled Burt was pushed from the room by a business-like Rachel, who politely stated that she needed the office and someone had to work on the pickup while Kurt was busy. She snatched the dirty wrench from Kurt's hand, quickly dropping it in his father's palm, before dragging Kurt from the main garage by the wrist.
"I figured we could compare theatrical influences on our lifestyles. So, in order for this to work, I dropped by your house and got Finn pull things from your attic and..."
"You did what! Rachel, that's private!" He quickly snatched the box away from Rachel and began separating his mother and father's belongings from the few bits and bobs which were obviously Rachel's (the large amount of gold stars sparkling everywhere was dead giveaway).
"Ooh, we have matching baby books." She held up the two corresponding silver books, obviously ignoring his initial outrage. His book was peppered with stickers of musical notes and hers with stars. She handed her own book to Kurt while she flicked through his. After glancing over various pictures of a heavily pregnant Sarah, she cooed as she found a newborn Kurt.
"Aww, look how little you were! Aww! A bath time photo!" she squealed.
"RACHEL!" Kurt quickly slammed his hands over the incriminating photo, his cheeks bright red in colour. She quickly batted his hands away from the glossy pages and returned to flicking through the various embarrassing pictures. Kurt's mother, unfortunately, while being a snappy dresser herself, had obviously loved to dress up Kurt in different outfits. When Kurt had finally come around to the idea of the book swap and was looking through Rachel's own book, Rachel secretly slipped a picture of Kurt in a blue and white sailor suit into her purse to show Mercedes and Tina on Monday.
"It's a shame." Rachel looked up at her sort-of-friend's comment. "The outfits up to the point where you could obviously dress yourself are lovely. After the age of five, it's a trend of mismatched colours and a scary about of purple, green, and gold."
"Like you can talk." Rachel allowed herself a smirk as she held up a small photo of a six-year-old Kurt, who was wearing bright red shorts and a green Barney the dinosaur t-shirt. "Not a designer brand in sight. And green and red?"
"Shut up!" He pouted, snatching the photo and stashing it in his overall pocket.
But he allowed himself a small smile as he and Rachel began competing to find the most embarrassing photographs they could. It wasn't until Rachel returned home that she realised she had learnt more about Kurt than she had about his mother, but decided this had definitely had a better outcome. Taking the photo that she had craftily taken out of her purse, she stared at it briefly before scanning it and emailing it to the girls of Glee, and she giggled at the replies she received. It was totally worth the glare she received on Monday morning.