Started my daily ficlets to make the hiatus pass, then decided to keep going with a 2nd cycle, and then a 3rd, 4th, etc through 38th cycle. Now cycle 39!
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"It's a Real Circus"
Kurt & Co, Sam
1. The Case of the Big Top
After the last time, which had served as a going away party for Matt, Kurt hadn't gotten around to planning another of his murder mysteries throughout the summer and the start of the new school year. But then there were circumstances, the kind that might make a guy start plotting "murder…" Halloween was coming, and they had a new guy… There would still be eleven of them, with Puck in juvie, but they'd manage fine. If anything, this would distract him from all this business with Karofsky…
He'd had a few unused games in mind, and he chose one that might best suit the circumstances. It could get tricky, what with the various skills to portray or at least look like they could portray. It started with a list of names and a list of roles. Slowly but surely lines were drawn from one column to the other, until finally he had his cast list. So envelopes were prepared, and the next day he would make his rounds.
The first he ran into were Mike and Tina, perpetually near one another these days. "Hey, can we talk?" he asked.
"You're doing another murder mystery?" Tina beamed, seeing the envelopes. Kurt pulled out two envelopes.
"I'll take that as your saying you're in?" he asked and got two nods. "Right, so it's murder under the Big Top. Mike, you're playing Fitz the contortionist," he gave the envelope.
"Cool, I can do that," Mike smiled. Even as Kurt was turning to Tina, the future contortionist was twisting his arms, testing his bounds.
"What about me?" Tina was looking at her boyfriend as she spoke, distracted.
"Eyes here," Kurt drew her focus. "You're one half of a pair of clowns and your name is Cherub." Tina smiled, like she was already thinking about what her costume would look like. When Kurt left them, she was telling Mike about needing to find wings.
The next people he found were Finn and Rachel, and he didn't need much time to figure out, like in times past, that the word had already begun to travel. Rachel tapped at Finn's arm and grabbed it to drag him along. "So who are we playing this time? Are we a couple? Am I dying? Is he dying?" her questions stepped on one another as they were spoken.
"Okay, take a breath," Kurt instructed. "Neither of you is dying… Don't give me that look," he held his finger up when Rachel came to speak. "You're one of two mimes, part of a duo called Light and Shadow, you're Light." Like Tina before, this bit of information was enough to get her mind to start turning; they'd lost her. Kurt handed both envelopes to Finn, deciding there was no point interrupting. "So you'll be Luigi, the sword swallower."
"I…" Finn's eyebrows raised, trying to imagine this. "I'm not actually going to have to…"
"I wouldn't recommend it, no," Kurt shook his head cautiously. "Also, props? Plastic, not the real deal."
"Got it," Finn nodded slowly. Just as he was moving away from the pair, Kurt felt his phone vibrate. It was a message – a summons, really – for him to meet Santana and Brittany at their lockers. Before he could get to them though, he was waved over by Artie and Mercedes.
"So I guess you heard," he reached for the two envelopes with their names, almost dropping the stack. "Here," he gave Mercedes hers. "You'll be Swift, the knife thrower. Fake knives," he pointed.
"Definitely."
"And Artie, you're Kissinger, the… former… unicyclist," he looked down.
"Fantastic," Artie bowed his head. "I…"
"Hey, don't you check your messages?" The three looked up to find they were being approached by Santana, Brittany following behind.
"I'll see you later," Kurt nodded to Artie and Mercedes before moving off to meet the two Cheerios.
"Hey, Kurt, am I dying again?" Brittany asked, sounding much more optimistic about the possibility than she used to. She'd embraced the role now, the fact that her characters always died in these dinners having become more tradition than coincidence.
"As always," Kurt confirmed. Santana patted the blonde's arm in something like comfort, but Brittany was smiling. "The two of you are going to be a trapeze act." Brittany's smile increased, looking to Santana. "Maribelle, and Serafina," he held out the envelopes to Santana and Brittany respectively.
"I didn't kill her, did I?" Santana asked.
"You'll have to wait until Saturday," Kurt shook his head, getting a glare from Santana.
"Who are you playing?" Brittany asked.
"I'll be Oswald, the ring leader," his head bowed.
"Figures," Santana smirked. She looked to the two envelopes left in his hand. "Going to try and recruit the new guy?" she guessed. "Tell you that guy's got some lips on him…"
"Let's try not to scare him away, alright? We're not exactly in a guys surplus," Kurt insisted.
"You say that like it's a bad thing," Santana shrugged. "Come on, Britt," she started off. Brittany gave a silent wave to Kurt before following.
He looked to the two envelopes in his hands. One was for Quinn, and the other was for Sam. He knew Quinn wouldn't be a problem. She was turning out to be a star player, with a sometimes worrisome knack for playing the… off-kilter set of characters. But then there was Sam. Kurt couldn't imagine jumping into their group, already together for a year, was the easiest thing, especially since he wasn't just new to the club but new to Lima and McKinley as a whole. It could be that this would be too soon, or it could be just what he would need to make him feel welcomed and made part of their unit.
He found Quinn first, and his course of action became clear. As much as he'd thought he had it all figured out when it came to Sam Evans, he knew if there was one person to use as bait to get him into this dinner it wasn't going to be Kurt himself, it would be the blonde in the Cheerios uniform. "Good morning," he fell in step with her.
"Wow, subtlety is not your thing, is it?" she frowned and smirked.
"Very rarely," he didn't skip a beat. "I assume you already know why I'm here."
"I do," she nodded. "So who am I playing?"
"A mime," Kurt revealed. "One half of Light & Shadow. You play Shadow," he handed her envelope over. She looked at it with a nod to herself. "Listen if you're not busy, I could use your help with something." Quinn looked at him. "I've got one more player to inform," he waved the final envelope. "I think it might be… easier, if I had a familiar face nearby."
"What, for Sam?" she guessed, and Kurt nodded. She seemed to hesitate.
"Please, Quinn, we need him." She looked back to him.
"Fine, fine, alright," she agreed. So she followed him and they found Sam coming out of class. "You do the talking," Quinn insisted.
"Of course I do," he shook his head, like he would have had it any other way. "Sam, hello," they stepped up to him. When he looked up, he first saw Kurt, surprised by his being there, but then he saw Quinn and everything else went out of his mind except her… until Kurt brought him back to attention. "So the reason I'm here right now is to invite you to take part in something of a Glee Club special event."
"Okay?" he asked, unsure where this was going.
"Well, every so often at my house we have what are called murder mystery dinners. Everyone comes over, we dress up and we play characters, then someone is "killed,"" he air-quoted, and we try to figure out who did it. And then at some point we do have dinner. Anyway I understand you're still very new to us, but we would love it if you would take part in this latest dinner, this weekend, right here in the choir room. We used to have it at my house, but with more people it just became easier to do it elsewhere, and so…" he gestured around to indicate 'now we do it here.' "So what do you think? Interested?"
"I… sure," Sam hesitated, but then smiled and nodded. "I guess I can try."
"Good, excellent. Here's the information about your character. You play Chuckles, one of two clowns. If any of this is giving you trouble, I'm sure the others will be… more than happy to help you," he made a pointed turn toward Quinn, who startled and put on a smile for them. "See?"
"That'd be great," Sam nodded, smiling back.
"Excellent, well then I'll leave you two kids to it, and I'll see you on Saturday."
TO BE CONTINUED (TOMORROW)