Royal Losers
AN: Based on spoilers from RM at Paleyfest 2011 saying that Kurt would have difficulties around attending Prom in a storyline that is ripped right out of the headlines, and his earlier comments that he would like to see Kurt & his boyfriend be able to be crowned King & King at their Prom.
For people who track Glee episode parallels, and assuming the Prom episode is Ep. 20, it will parallel "Theatricality" from the first season, the Lady Gaga episode when Kurt and the Glee kids were bullied for staying true to who they are.
Nothing belongs to me and I have no connection to the show Glee or anything or anyone connected with it whatsoever; I'm just an avid and appreciative viewer.
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"I'm sorry, Schue, it's out of my hands; the Board has decided."
"But Figgins," Will said again, not yet giving up on a battle he feared was lost.
The principal spoke again. "The Board has the final say in these matters, Schue; you know that. Personally, I don't see why a boy shouldn't be allowed to bring a friend instead of a date to the Prom, but some people in the community have been very vocal about it in the past. In previous years, people lobbied the school board members, and the Board said no. Some of these are the people who rent out space in our building and bring in income; we can't afford to anger them. There's nothing I can do. Tell Mr. Hummel I'm sorry, but the answer is no."
Will looked at Figgins, defeat and disbelief mixed on his face. The disbelief came from once again being faced with the man's seemingly willing blindness to the realities of the lives of McKinley High students. He thought the problem was with Kurt being refused the ability to purchase tickets to bring a friend who happened to be a boy, rather than his boyfriend, to the Prom? Only Figgins could be that obtuse.
He never would have believed it possible for the next thought to enter his brain, but for a moment, Will found himself wishing Sue was principal again. For all of her immense and intense flaws, she had been nothing but sympathetic and proactive when Kurt was being bullied last fall; he thought she might be an ally on this issue, if only out of fondness for her 'Sweet Porcelain.' But then Will remembered the one thing that was able to override Sue the last time after she had expelled Dave Karofsky: the decision of the school board to readmit him. Not even Sue Sylvester had been able to overcome the Board's power; it looked like Kurt would not be able to bring Blaine to the Prom after all.
Giving Figgins a disappointed look, Will left the principal's glass-walled office and walked toward the faces of the two glee club members anxiously waiting to hear the outcome of his attempted intervention. As he emerged, they could read the principal's answer on his face, and their faces transitioned from anxiety to anger. Before they could ask a question, Will put a hand on the shoulder of each girl and moved them down the hall toward the choir room, saying heavily, "Come on, we need to go tell Kurt."
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Rachel was furious, furious with a righteous anger, and a furious Rachel Berry was something before which ordinary mortals should move in fear and trembling. This couldn't be the final answer; it just wasn't fair! Sure, she was learning, slowly and painfully, that life isn't always fair, but this was different—it was pure prejudice, and it could not be allowed to prevail. Looking over at the expression on Mercedes' face, Rachel saw the same outrage. Mr. Schuester had been wearing his hopeless face when he gave them the news, but, as Rachel had always believed, just because her glee club director thought a matter was settled didn't mean it was over, and Mercedes agreed with her that they couldn't let this one rest.
Of course they'd known that there would be some problems to overcome when Kurt decided to return to McKinley with no official school policies on anti-bullying or discrimination having changed. They anticipated trouble with Karofsky (Kurt wouldn't tell Rachel and Mercedes what he had done to get Karofsky to leave him alone; she suspected Santana had helped out in some way, but neither of them would admit to anything, saying only that it was taken care of and not to worry about it.) But it had never occurred to them that something as innocent as going up to the sales table to buy their Junior Prom tickets for the dance in three weeks would hand Kurt such a metaphorical punch to the gut. They were taken totally by surprise when the class officer in charge told them people could only bring dates of the opposite gender to Prom and stuck to that, in the face of all of Rachel's (very vocal) protests, saying it was the policy of the school district.
Kurt's face was nearly impossible to look at, because it brought back memories of those horrible weeks before he transferred to Dalton and left them behind. It was true that incredibly good things had happened because of his time with the Warblers, and Rachel was over-the-top thrilled that Kurt's romance with Blaine had blossomed into a real relationship. Even suffering from her own shattered heart, she couldn't help feeling uplifted and happy every time she saw them together. They were still caught up in the roseate haze and daze of new and first love, and if anyone deserved to be fully enjoying that blissful state it was Kurt, who for so long had been far lonelier than even she had been when it came to romance.
What thrilled her even more, though, about Kurt's time away from McKinley was the friendship that had grown so quickly and become so deep between her and Kurt. Over the course of the past three months, he had become her closest confidante and best friend—the kind of friend she had always dreamed of having and, before him, had never found.
Her friendship, or whatever it was now, with Finn was a different type of relationship altogether, suffused always, it seemed, whether dating or not, with love and longing. Or, at least, that's how it inevitably had been for her. That's how, before an earth-splitting sound of silence in the nurse's office on Valentine's Day had changed everything, she had thought it was for him, too. Maybe she had been wrong about all of that. Maybe, because she had longed so much to find somebody to love, she had constructed a fiction that she was loved in return. Maybe, for him, it had only ever been about admiring her talent and about having someone around so he wouldn't be alone. Even the first time they kissed, he had run away from her and back to Quinn; maybe it had always been about them—the quarterback and the cheerleader, the pair everyone expected, the couple who seemed to make sense. Maybe she and Finn had never had it going on, and she had only imagined there was something real in the present that was creating a foundation for the future.
Since Finn and Quinn started openly dating, Rachel wasn't sure if there was anything at all left between them. She was being scrupulously careful about keeping out of the new (or should that be old?) couple's way, trying to limit her interactions with Finn to official glee business, conscious at all times to act solely as a co-captain and nothing more. Her songs, she knew now, she could write on her own; she'd found (or had forced on her) the key to accessing her pain. And as much as a part of her desired to keep fighting with the full-on intensity of Rachel Berry when wanting something (everything) too much, she made up her mind to try to break out of the self-destructive carousel on which she kept riding around, to give up trying to snatch the brass ring that was Finn Hudson and the dream of happy-ever-after. She missed him; she really missed him. But she had Nationals to focus on, and other friendships (finally) to maintain, so she tried to let those fill the Finn-shaped hole in her life; much of the time, she thought she was doing a pretty good job of it. And Kurt was a huge part of the success of her efforts to move forward.
With Kurt, Rachel felt like she'd finally found the BFF/girlfriend type of friendship she'd seen and envied so much in others but couldn't ever seem to be a part of herself. They could talk about anything. They had epic verbal battles when they tried to prove that one of their idol's (Barbra for her) interpretations of a Broadway standard was more stunning than the rendition of the other's idol (Patti for him). And while Rachel knew it was crazy, she couldn't keep from wondering if Kurt had somehow, some way had a role in persuading Stephen Sondheim to put the kibosh on Barbra Streisand's remake of "Gypsy", lest Barbra's superior talent wipe the admittedly excellent, but still not Barbraesque, portrayal of Mama Rose by Patti LuPone out of human memory.
He was still snarky and insulted her wardrobe on at least a tri-daily basis, but Rachel was learning to hold her own in verbal exchanges; rather than letting the insults get her down or cause her to retreat into false perkiness, she developed a panoply of her own insults to hurl back, always starting with variations on the theme of why she would even dream of trusting the fashion sense of the creator of the Sad Clown Hooker look. When he'd complain to her that she was too self-absorbed and too much of a drama queen, Rachel would merely reply with an overly sweet smile that it took one to know one.
And Rachel and Kurt both dreamed big dreams; they'd talk for hours, eagerly planning out a fabulous and fantastic future when they would descend upon New York City and make it their town. They had already arranged to go around together during any free time they had when in New York for Nationals to check out colleges: Julliard (at Rachel's insistence), Parsons (at Kurt's insistence), NYU's Tisch School of the Performing Arts, and Columbia. They had even tentatively mentioned, once or twice, the possibility of sharing an apartment together during college if (when) they both made it to the city.
It was possible that they'd have become close friends even if Kurt had stayed at McKinley; when they sang their duet together last autumn, they had already been taking the first tentative steps forward into friendship. Becoming Kurt's friend had been one of Rachel's goals back then—partly because she knew he was important to Finn and she recognized how likely it was that the two boys would end up being brothers. If Kurt was going to be a big part of Finn's life, well, then, Rachel thought he would also end up being a big part of her life—her step-brother-in-law, she had dreamed. Very quickly, however, she had come to relish being Kurt's friend for Kurt's sake, and the friendship's sake, alone. Rachel knew she had been right in what she told Kurt when inviting him to sing Barbra & Judy's masterpiece mash-up duet: they were a lot more similar that either had initially been willing to admit.
So maybe they'd have become friends with each other anyway, even if he'd stayed at McKinley the whole time. In what she fully recognized as an amazing self-development, Rachel actually seemed to be getting the hang of this "how to be friends with people" thing that she'd tried to figure out for so long. But there was no denying that Kurt's departure for Dalton, and the consequent cessation always competing for solos had helped to speed things along. When she learned Kurt was coming back to McKinley, Rachel was filled with elation tinged with only one fear—that she and Kurt would slip back into their roles as rivals and the friendship would be lost.
Being mindful not to let this happen dovetailed with Rachel's new resolve to keep her focus on the good of all the glee members and of the team itself; she had figured out that one of the major keys to being, and keeping, a friend was to squash her instinctive drive to always push herself forward. She was astounded that it had taken her so long to figure this out, and just as astounded to realize that, once she stopped insisting on being in the spotlight all the time, her teammates were more likely to suggest that she be the one to occupy it, and to even seem to like seeing her there. (And she did still love to be there, so maybe this was another one of those things that she was doing both to be a better person and to get what she wanted? Whatever; it was working, so why knock it!)
She was shocked and overwhelmed when they chose her, unanimously, as the Regionals MVP;so shocked that, for the first time ever, she let down her guard before them and told them how much being one of them mattered to her. She'd hardly let herself hope that the times they'd done stuff together outside of school—going to hear Kurt at Breadstix, the party at her house—meant that she was being accepted as part of the group, because she'd fooled herself that way so many times before. But now, even though the award was partly given for her talent, they also chose her because she was a player who had helped the team, whose contributions and presence were valuable to the group. She could let herself believe they wanted her, at least partly, just for being herself; they chose her, and she knew, absolutely, that she was a part of something special. The sting of Santana's "we all just pretend to like you" in the Sectional's greenroom (and of Noah's "we weren't friends before," and of Kurt's cutting response "what made you think that?" when she said she thought he wouldn't set her up because they were friends) was easing away.
Far from slipping back into their oppositional roles, Kurt and Rachel became closer than ever once he was back in the New Directions. He and she did still compete for solos in glee (along with Mercedes, and Santana, and Brittany when she remembered that she was Brittany S. Pierce), but now they knew that the competition was grounded in solid respect for each others' talent. After all, they'd survived what turned out to be a sort of solo-off at Regionals (Kurt in "Candles" v. Rachel in "Get it Right"), and they found that they could survive being back in New Directions together. The entire glee club was overjoyed to have Kurt back, both because they had missed him and his acerbic wit and because they knew how much stronger they were going into Nationals with his voice on the team.
Mercedes, Kurt, and Rachel now sat as a unit in glee, the contra-tenor binding the two girls even closer in their burgeoning friendship. One day when an argument between them about the rival epic-ness of Whitney, Barbra, and Patti erupted into a diva-off threesome, Santana complained about the stage-stealing tactics of the "3Ds" and the name stuck. Sam, Artie, and Mike began to regularly call out to Rachel, "Hey, little D" and "Yo, mini-D" and "Hi, tiny D" when they saw her in the halls or cafeteria at school. They were the first non-insult nicknames Rachel had ever been given by someone other than her dads. While plenty of "Yentls" and "Hobbits" kept coming her way from Santana, there, too, she'd learned to give back as good as she got, and realized that her sometime-nemesis respected her more for fighting insult with insult.
Beyond happy to feel so included, both as one of the 3Ds and in the glee club at large, Rachel knew that being friends with Kurt was a huge factor in what made her a part of something special. It was as if, she thought, drawing on Broadway musical parlance for a life-metaphor, she and Kurt had, indeed, successfully defied the gravity of their old rivalry and animosity, with both refusing to let anything hold their friendship down. And watching the ways he stayed true to himself while still managing to get along with others became a model for her own social interactions with her peers.
Seeing the bleak, frozen expression on Kurt's face was killing Rachel. She hated to see him hurting, and she didn't want him to start regretting his decision to return to them, to think about going back to Dalton again. And, beyond the immediate damage this was doing to her friend, she was determined that it was way past time for someone to start addressing the issue of homophobia at McKinley High School; what Dave Karofsky had been allowed to do to Kurt could never be allowed to happen to him, or anyone, again. Even if Kurt was the only out kid at the school, Rachel knew there were others (Santana was one of those others, if what Rachel heard and saw when the ex-Cheerio sang 'Landslide' was real; and more than anything, Rachel knew how to understand and interpret the underlying messages conveyed in song), and a public school should not be allowed to look the other way as its students were intimidated and bullied.
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Rachel insisted that Kurt and Mercedes come to her house that night for a sleepover so they could make plans for Operation Prom: KGB (KurtGoW/Blaine). She decided they would start by asking her dads for ACLU-related advice on what legal measures (or threats) were possible to use to get the school board to change its mind, but she was not prepared for her dads' response. Threatening action by the ACLU had always worked, as long as Rachel could remember, so she had a hard time believing that her dads didn't think it would work this time.
"Sure, kids, you can go that route," her dad told them, after he and her daddy carefully listened to their story. "But I have to tell you, I don't think it will accomplish your objective. Just last year a similar case was filed against a school district in Mississippi that told a young woman named Constance she was banned from bringing her girlfriend to the Prom . . ."
Rachel's daddy then picked up the tale; the two Mr. Berrys frequently spoke as one, starting and finishing each others' sentences. When they were excited about something, they'd speak as quickly as Rachel in full-on rant mode, never losing a beat or a word as they tossed the conversation back and forth between them. But right now, their pace was slower, more ponderous and deliberate.
"The school also told Constance she had to wear women's clothing to the Prom if she went, because the school supposedly had a Prom dress code forbidding girls to wear tuxedos. And while the court held that these bans were unconstitutional because they violated the student's First Amendment freedom of expression . . . ."
Excitedly interrupting, Rachel exclaimed, "Well, that's it, right? We'll threaten to sue, tell them about this Mississippi Prom case, and that will force them to change the policy! Victory!" she caroled, pumping her fist in the air.
"It's not that simple, baby," her daddy sadly replied. "Constance was suing because the school's way of dealing with her request to bring her girlfriend and wear a tuxedo was to cancel the Prom altogether that year, saying the controversy was too disruptive and was interfering with the educational process and administration of the school. With the ACLU's help, she sued to try to force the school both to hold the Prom at all and to allow her to come on her own terms. So while the judge agreed that banning certain types of dates and clothes violated the Constitution . . . "
The other Mr. Berry finished, "He also said that school had every right to cancel the event altogether, because if no one could go, then Constance wasn't being singled out for discriminatory treatment. And the school successfully argued that there's no constitutional right to attend a Prom. If one is held, everyone has to be treated fairly, but it's OK for a school not to hold one if everyone is equally deprived of the event."
Mercedes asked, "So, there wasn't any Prom for the kids that year? The school decided to ruin it for everyone just to avoid treating Constance right? I bet the students loved that."
"Did they take it out on her, Mr. Berry and Mr. Berry?" Kurt inquired, with Rachel's question layering his, "What happened to Constance, daddy? Dad?"
"It was really hard on her, kids," said Rachel's daddy. "Students, parents, and townspeople in general were angry that the issue was raised in the first place and many were furious that Prom was being taken away from the kids. Someone started up a Facebook page to personally attack her for supposedly "throwing her classmates under the bus" because she "ruined" prom. I'm sure she knew that kind of reaction would occur; she must be a very brave and strong young lady to knowingly take on a fight like this. And," he said, looking at Kurt, "while I know how strong you are, you have to think about whether this is a fight you want to take on, because it could get ugly."
"Yeah," said Mercedes, "I can just imagine how people here would react if Prom was cancelled. They'd skip the Slushee's altogether and just force us to take up permanent residence in the port-a-johns."
"So that was it?" Rachel persisted. "The school cancelled the dance, people were mean and got away with it, end of story? Didn't anyone keep fighting to make the school do the right thing?"
"There was more to it, sweetheart," answered her dad. "After the court heard the case but before the judge ruled, the school district announced that some parents of Constance's classmates were going to sponsor a private Prom at a local country club, saying this Prom would be open to all kids. Part of the judge's decision said that the private dance would serve the same purpose as a school one, and that trying to force to school to hold a dance when plans for a substitute Prom were already underway would just be too confusing to those who might want to attend. And then . . ."
Kurt quietly said, "Let me guess: Cinderella wasn't allowed to go to the ball with her princess and live happily ever after?"
"Not exactly," said Mr. Berry. "Constance—in her tuxedo—and her girlfriend did attend the privately sponsored Prom, and it was chaperoned by school officials. They were there, along with about seven other students from the school. Two of the other attendees were special needs students at the high school. It turned out that this was a "decoy" dance; just a dance to make it look like the parents and school were keeping their word. Meanwhile, most of the rest of the school's students attended another private dance, a Prom that was kept secret from Constance so that she wouldn't be there."
In the face of three identical gasps and dropped jaws, the other Mr. Berry concluded the story. "The school district eventually offered Constance $35,000 to settle the issue and agreed to follow a non-discrimination policy in the future. But Constance felt so uncomfortable in the aftermath, and suffered so much harassment from the community, that she transferred to another school to finish out the year."
Mercedes' and Rachel's eyes flew to each other and their hands instinctively reached out toward Kurt, as if to grab him and hold him in place, as the adult continued.
"In press statements, Constance said she felt like she came away with a victory, because her case led to the district being the first in Mississippi to actually adopt and agree to enforce a non-discrimination and non-harassment policy based on sexual orientation and gender identity. Prom didn't work out the way she wanted, and she suffered a social price, but she was glad to have made a difference and to have inspired people in other places to press these issues as well."
Rachel's daddy said very seriously, "Kurt, if that's what you want to do, we'll do everything in our power to help. We just want you to be fully aware of the possible—and likely—repercussions. It's something you'll want to talk to your dad about, too, and we'll be happy to answer any questions he may have about the legal issues. It's your call. And there's always a possibility that the school board here might react differently and agree to rescind their policy. If you say the word, we'll get right on the phone to the ACLU of Ohio to start things in motion."
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The 3Ds were dejectedly sprawled on Rachel's bed, the gloom on their faces seeming to cast a shadow across the brightly colored room. After saying he needed some time to think about what he wanted to do, Kurt thanked Mr. Berry and Mr. Berry, and, politely declining their invitation to play a round of competition karaoke, the three teens made their way upstairs and got into their pajamas in near silence. The notebooks, pens, markers, poster-board and other supplies Rachel had gathered in anticipation of preparing a protest demonstration were stacked in a corner, untouched. They talked for a while about the Mississippi case, with all three of them having a hard time believing that parents would fake a girl out like that and hurt her so badly. Mercedes said that maybe Coach Sylvester wasn't so unusually awful as they had believed. Rachel commented that it wasn't a surprise to have so many bullies in a school when parents acted this way. If prejudice and discrimination were just as rooted in adults, who were supposed to know better, what could possibly be done to change things? Two hours passed, and they were no nearer to coming up with a plan of action.
Finally Mercedes said, "There is another option, Kurt. You could be my date, and Rachel could go with Blaine . . ."
"Or Blaine could go with Mercedes and you could go with me," Rachel quickly interrupted, "if Blaine accompanying me would be awkward for you after he and I had our brief liaison earlier this year."
Rolling her eyes at Rachel, Mercedes finished her initial sentence. "And then, at the dance, you two could be together. We could take our pictures in a group and you could PhotoShop me and Rachel out of the picture later. If we spent most of the night all dancing together, Rachel and I could keep our eyes open for incoming chaperones and bullies when you and Blaine wanted to share a slow dance. Some of the other glee members would want to help, I know; Lauren and Puck on their own should be able to intimidate any troublemakers. It wouldn't be perfect, but at least you two would both be there, and you'd know you were there as each other's date."
While Mercedes was speaking, Kurt moved up off of the pillows to sit up, ending with his back stiff and straight. Enunciating precisely and emphatically, he said, "Mercedes, while I thank you for the idea and the offer, just being in the room with Blaine at Prom is not the point. I want to be able to attend my Junior Prom at my school with a date of my own choosing. I want to be able to attend and to be proud of the person on my arm, not having to hide him or pretend I'm not with him. I want to be able to slow dance with him, and to kiss him. I know high school, in the full scheme of things, is just a purgatorial blip in the stream of a long, full life, but while I'm stuck in it, I want to be able to experience it like everyone else. I mean, Blaine and I should have the same opportunity as any other couple to run for Prom King and King."
"Technically, I think the winners have to both be McKinley students, so until you convince Blaine to transfer—and get on that, Kurt, because we could really use his voice in competitions and we don't want to have to go up against him next year—he wouldn't be able to run for Prom King." Kurt glaring at her, Rachel went on, "But I fully appreciate and agree with the principle of what you're saying. So, should I tell my dads . . ." Kurt cut her off.
"That's the problem; I just don't know. I'm not sure this is the battle I want to fight now. I've already tried the "go away to another school" thing and I don't really feel like becoming the guy who keeps hopping from school to school. And even though I'll be getting out of this town in another year, my dad is going to be in Lima for the rest of his life. He has a business here, and that means he depends on the good will of the community. Last year, he was getting abusive phone calls from anonymous filth just because I stopped hiding that I'm gay; I don't want to think about what might happen to him and his work if Lima tags Burt Hummel as the father of the kid who killed Prom. It's not that I don't want to push the issue and make a difference, but . . ."
"Kurt, we get it. You need to make the best decisions for everyone; of course you want to protect your dad," Rachel assured him.
Kurt looked his thanks, remembering the moment at the concession stand before the Sectionals competition when she told him not to feel guilty about transferring to Dalton since he wasn't safe at McKinley. "I can't say that the Board's policy comes as a total surprise, and I know I shouldn't let it bother me that much. After all, there is a huge, fabulous life awaiting me after high school, and it's coming closer every day. It's like you wrote in your Regionals song—and have I thanked you for deliberately including me in the performance that way?—one day, the cretins who would go ballistic merely because I attended Prom with my boyfriend will be working for me and washing my car. Or cars—I expect to have quite a few to match my various moods and outfits."
Laughing, Mercedes noted, "That was Puck. He remembered how you always told him, in the middle of being thrown in the dumpster, that you'd be his boss in the future. He said that if we used the line, it would be like having a part of you up there on stage singing with us." She went on. "It's the kids who think high school is the end-all and be-all of life—the best days they'll ever know—who'd have the hardest time losing Prom. The ones who resent that some of us know high school is just a step on the way to something more, not it. And we know how they—and how people in general—would react if Prom were to be cancelled. And hell, can you just imagine how Quinn would react if Prom were taken away?"
Her words hung in the air as the atmosphere of the room became laden with a new tension. With guilty eyes, Mercedes looked at Kurt, meeting his admonitory gaze and almost imperceptible head shake. They had made a private pact to keep from mentioning the "Q" word around Rachel, feeling that the best way they could help their fellow diva was to spare her the necessity of commenting on or thinking about the school's new power couple.
The fresh silence was broken by Rachel, who, after steeling her face and slightly throwing back her shoulders, stated, "You're totally right, Mercedes. The Junior Prom is a major event for many people, including many of our fellow glee clubbers. In addition to all the flack Kurt would face from the school and the town of Lima, we could overset things in glee at the precise moment when we need to stay absolutely focused on preparing for Nationals. It's hard enough mediating the politics between Qu-Quinn and Finn, Lauren and Puck, and Santana as they all run for royalty; all glee equilibrium would be destroyed if they learned their campaign efforts had been for nothing. For Quinn and Fi . . .—for some of them, this is just as important, or more so, as winning a singing competition is for any one of us. I hate backing down from a fight on this, but since you, Kurt, don't want to take it on, concerns about the stability of New Directions also seem to point to not taking action that could make McKinley preemptively cancel Prom. "
"Not to mention the abuse that would be piled on the entire glee club, because you can be sure the school would find a way to hold all of New Directions accountable for cancelling Prom," Mercedes added with relief, glad to see Rachel rallying so well. "Coach Sylvester would say it was all Mr. Schue's fault and use it to . . ." and all of the friends joined together in exaggeratedly growling "DESTROY THE GLEE CLUB!"
They burst into laughter, and when it subsided, Mercedes spoke again. "So, we've decided we aren't going to do something that might lead the Board to cancel Prom, and Kurt doesn't want himself and Blaine to be the escorts of the two finest divas who'll be attending the ball. Where does that leave us?"
Suddenly, Rachel sprang up from the foot of the bed, leaping to the floor to stand in front of her two friends. In her eyes was a gleam—her maniacal gleam, Kurt thought to himself—that was all too familiar to both him and Mercedes. It was the patented Rachel Berry "I know how to save the day" look—a look that had just as often led the glee club into disaster as it had actually saved them.
Rachel launched into talking, full speed ahead. "Kurt wants to go to the Prom with Blaine as his date. The school won't allow Kurt to bring Blaine as his date. Kurt doesn't want to cause the school board to do something that will incite the town of Lima to storm his house—or his dad's tire shop—with pitchforks and torches in the dead of night. All true, right?"
"Yes, Rachel, that's right," Kurt responded, sarcastically adding, "it's only what we've been saying for the past several hours; good to know you're following. Although the part about pitchforks and torches in the dead of night is all you. No doubt," he muttered under his breath "born of a subconscious desire for someone to hold the Frankenteen residing in my home to account for his behavior . . . ."
"What's that, Kurt?" Rachel asked.
"Nothing. Unless the citizens of Lima have reverted to total medieval behavior, we'd probably get off with harassing phone calls and a boycott of Hummel's Tire Shop. Which I don't want to have happen," Kurt responded.
"Then let's follow the fine example of the townspeople of Mississippi!"
"Huh?" Mercedes and Kurt both looked at her, faces confused. "You think we should copy the jerks in that town?"
Rachel looked at them brightly, clearly proud of herself. "We should take preemptive action of our own. We can hold our own Prom; a privately sponsored, non-school related event that anyone can attend."
As the faces of the other two in the room remained confused, Rachel tried to explain further. "An alternative Prom, held off of school property, open to all. I could talk to my dads about finding community sponsors to help cover the costs—maybe we could make it a free dance, or just accept whatever donations people can afford to give at the door. That might help some of the students whose parents are struggling to make ends meet in this economy and make it possible for some who otherwise couldn't afford Prom to come."
Seeing that Mercedes and Kurt still weren't convinced, Rachel's voice faltered slightly. "Look, I know it's not ideal, but it would be something we could do—a way to show that if the school won't take action to be fair, students can organize on their own to do the right thing. And you could come with Blaine, Kurt—you'd get to attend your Prom with the date of your own choosing on your arm. And, if we can pull it off, we can use it as solid evidence that an open event can work out, and next year we can try to convince the Board to change its policy before our Senior Prom."
In the face of their continued silence and stares, Rachel pulled out her final argument. "Just think, guys, what kind of event we can have if the three of us have total artistic control. None of us are on the Prom committee at school—it's made up of only one group of kids, those who always run things—and it is just going to be the same generic, bland, cookie-cutter rebooted school dance with some sort of enchanted princess-y theme and all generic pop-type music. But with us doing the planning, decorating, and song selections, we could create something that will stand out, something people would remember forever!"
Mercedes looked at Kurt. Kurt looked at Mercedes. After a few moments of staring at each other, they nodded and Kurt turned to Rachel. "OK, here are the ground rules. You can help with the music, entertainment, sponsorship, and promotion. Mercedes and I have absolute decision-making discretion over decorations. And I am supervising your wardrobe, period, because, if we're going to be seen as co-hosts of a function, I need to control your look. You wear what I tell you to wear. Agreed?"
"No cat suits or clown hookers?" Rachel inquired with a grin.
"Total class, all the way; I promise on my vintage vinyl copy of Madonna's Material Girl."
"Then you've got a deal, Hummel." Rachel's smile beamed as she held out her hand to seal the bargain.
"Wait a minute, wait up now," Mercedes interjected. "Three things. First of all, there are only three weeks until Prom; how are we going to find the time to pull together an event like this while we're getting ready for Nationals and dealing with end of the school-year class work? And second, do you think people will really attend a dance put on by the three of us? That people will want to go to a glee sponsored event instead of to the biggest social event of the school year? We may as well just hang out at one of our homes with Blaine and watch classic prom movies, because the four of us are likely to be the only ones there. We can dress up to hang out, I suppose, but . . ."
"Mercedes, please, do you know nothing about me?" Kurt indignantly asked his friend. "Who pulled together the wedding of the season on a few weeks' notice? I said back then what I'll say now—I've planned out enough parties in my lifetime to make Blair Waldorf look like a total slacker. All I've been waiting for is the opportunity to stage them."
"And you may be right about a low attendance," Rachel chimed in, "but I spent some time before school ended gathering statistics on past years' Junior Prom attendance rates compared to the population of the Junior class as a whole. There are always a significant number of students who don't go to Prom. If we present this the right way, maybe they'll feel like it's something being done for them. It won't be a glee sponsored event, because glee is an official school organization and this has to be independent from the school; I mean, they'll probably associate it with glee, but technically it will be just a private party. And hey—how about inviting the Warblers to perform, Kurt? Having a bunch of super-cute guys who sing so well ought to draw some students at least."
Nodding, Kurt said he'd contact the Warbler High Council and broach the idea. After he had convinced them to get out of the gilded cage of the Academy walls and perform in public a few times, his former teammates had become increasingly excited about extending their audience base.
"OK. It sounds like a plan, and I'm mostly on board. But just one more thing," Mercedes said. "You said that we can't disturb the dynamic in glee. How do you think some people will react to the idea of a dance we put on competing with the school Prom? Don't you think this might blow up in our faces right before Nationals?"
Rachel looked squarely at Mercedes and responded to what her friend was really saying. "Honestly? I don't think it will even appear on Quinn's radar screen. If Prom was cancelled—well, I can't even imagine what she'd do. But something like this, as you said yourself, won't be big enough to detract from the school dance; that's what she's focused on—being elected queen of the official McKinley High Junior Prom. As long as it doesn't pull votes from her, I doubt she'll care, and since ballots can be cast during the school week before Prom as well as at the dance that night, anyone attending our dance could still vote for her. I know I'm planning to; it means so much to her, and if she comes away from Prom happy it will only enhance her participation at Nationals, making us that much more competitive."
Looking right back at Rachel, Mercedes pushed her. "And what about Finn? How's he going to feel about having to choose between the two dances?"
Rachel quickly replied, "There's no choosing involved. He's with Quinn; he's running for Prom King; of course he's going to the school dance. They'll be so busy with last minute campaigning I doubt they'll even notice we aren't there."
Right on top of Rachel, Kurt added, "He probably won't even realize there is another dance; he only knows what's going on with the regular Prom because Quinn sends him a constant stream of text messages telling him what he needs to do next and where he needs to be at every moment of the day. She's keeping him so busy that he hasn't had time to explode a single zombie for two weeks; the frustration of video game withdrawal is probably what's causing him to periodically kick and punch his wall and any furniture that inconsiderately strays in his way at home."
Noting Rachel's downcast eyes and silence—a stark contrast to how she would have, just short time ago, taken his words as an invitation to try to find out more about what was bothering Finn and to say how she could make it better if they were together—Kurt kept talking.
"Actually, I think it would be best if we did what we could to keep this from coming to Finn's attention. And I'll be constructing a cone of silence regarding Prom around my dad and Carole, too; I'll let them all just think I'm going to the school event, and they'll never know the difference."
"What? Kurt, your dad's going to want to know what's going on," Rachel insisted, closely followed by Mercedes: "Yeah, Kurt, I can't imagine your dad being OK with not knowing about this; he doesn't like it when anyone tries to hold you down."
"That's just it. He's super-protective of me, and I know he'd march right to Principal Figgins' office, first, and then to the next school board meeting. I don't want him getting involved; he would threaten to do something, and now that he knows your dads, Rachel, he'd probably be on the phone to them to get all the information about filing a legal challenge that we just learned. But he wouldn't hold back from suing, or threatening to sue, and then all the stuff we're trying to prevent would happen. It would be bad for him and for New Directions." The two girls were slowly nodding their heads as Kurt went on. "Even if I could talk him out of doing all that, I wouldn't want him to know that Finn was going to the school Prom when I'm not. He'd blame Finn for not taking my side, and things would be awkward and uncomfortable at home. I don't want the house to feel like it's full of landmines with my dad ready to explode all over Finn at any moment."
Mercedes tried one last time. "And you guys don't think that Finn might choose the alternative Prom? After everything he said at the wedding reception?"
Kurt shook his head, while Rachel remained still. "I don't see how. This-Prom Queen and King-means everything to Quinn; Finn doesn't really have a choice to make. What's he going to do—abandon Quinn and turn away from the status he's worked so hard to get and hold on to this year, throwing away his already-in-the-bag crown? You guys sang about being losers and made it seem like a badge of honor, but does anyone really want to embrace the title when it isn't forced on them? Not likely, and I don't feel like pushing it just for the sake of seeing what would happen. Let's leave Finn out of it."
Rachel, without commenting on the Finn/Burt dynamic, merely said, "Like you said, Kurt, he probably won't realize it is happening. Since it's not an official school event, we can't put up posters in school or use any of the school's information systems to advertise. We'll have to spread things by word of mouth and social media—maybe Facebook and Tumblr pages, and a Twitter hash tag. Finn doesn't go looking for information on those, and he rarely checks his own Facebook page. To be safe, we can block his name and Quinn's from seeing the sites, and as long as we keep our mouths shut, they probably won't hear about the dance. It's not like either one of them spends a lot of time these days outside of glee talking to our target attendee audience of 'losers.'" She knew her final words came out with a slighlyt bitter twist, and was gratefull to Mercedes for not commenting and just moving on.
"OK; sounds like we have a party to plan. Although I still think a night of watching classic prom movies would be perfectly fine." Mercedes was about to ask Rachel what they should tackle first when she saw that the tiny girl had another one of those looks on her face.
"Mercedes, you're a genius!" Rachel whispered.
"Not arguing, but what particular aspect of my brilliance finally convinced you?"
"A night of classic prom movies—that's our theme. We'll project classic movies featuring high school proms and dances on a wall—and maybe set some up for viewing, too, in a separate room for people who want to rest or don't want to dance. Everything from Carrie to Pretty in Pink to She's All That. We can decorate—Kurt, move your hand and let me talk!" she insisted as Kurt lunged to cover her mouth, hissing "total control over the decorations; you promised!" at her. "We can pull on themes from the films to decorate, and throughout the night we can project dance scenes from the movies and teach everyone the dances in them. That'll get some of the kids who don't feel comfortable dancing on their own out on the floor in a big group. The Warblers can add some of those songs to their repertoire, and for others we'll just have somebody DJ."
"That is genius; glad I thought of it!" Mercedes chortled.
"It'll make the event distinct, unique, special, and will be a hook for spreading the word. And Kurt—we can embrace the losers theme. The best of all of those movies—the ones people watch over and over—are about kids who feel like they're losers, even if they hide it really well. Everyone can relate to that; it's why the same theme keeps being used. We can call it the Losers' Ball and encourage people to come and be themselves, whoever that might be."
"Rachel Berry," said Kurt, "I do believe you've got it! But I still get final say on the decorations and total control over your wardrobe."
"YES!" Rachel shouted, punching her fist in the air. "Hand me a notebook and one of my pens. We've got to get to work. Who wants to ask Lauren and Artie about getting help from the AV club . . . ."
G L E E G L E E G L E E G L E E G L E E G L E E G L E E G L E E G L E E G L E E G L E E G L E E
AN again: Ryan Murphy has said in interviews that he wants to address the issue of Kurt going to the prom with a story 'ripped right from the headlines.' The real life story of Constance occurred in 2010, and it may well be the story to which Murphy is referring; that was the inspiration for me to start wondering how this might play out on Glee.
For those wanting to learn more about the actual case in Mississippi that the Berry dads talk about, following are some links to news and opinion stories. The young woman's name is Constance McMillen, and she was attending school in Itawamba County, MS at Itawamba Agricultural High School when this occurred. The ACLU did aid Constance in her case, as they have done with similar challenges around the country. Once the news about the decoy prom and the secret dance emerged, the ACLU pressed forward on these issues and Constance was eventually offered a settlement by the school district, where she was awarded $35,000 and where the school district had to agree to "adopt a comprehensive nondiscrimination and nonharassment policy that covers sexual orientation and gender identity and expression, which is the first such policy in any public school in Mississippi ." Constance used the money toward her college expenses after graduating from another high school. She also did advocacy on non-discrimination issues nation wide, including meeting with President Obama at the White House to talk about bullying and student safety issues and lobbying members of Congress to support the Student Non-Discrimination Act. She spoke briefly at the April 17, 2010 GLAAD awards, the same event where Glee was given an award for "Outstanding Comedy" and Ryan Murphy, in his acceptance speech, said Kurt would attend prom and he and his date would be elected Prom King & King. Constance was invited to and served as the Grand Marshal of New York City's 2010 Gay Pride Parade and this past year was named one of Glamour magazine's 2010 Women of the Year.
Constance on the Ellen show while the case was going on, but before it was decided and the "decoy prom" and the secret prom had occurred: at the world wide website youtube, add the following extension: .com/watch?v=uYrO99QgEDo
ABC news story early in the case: at the world wide website abcnews , add the following extension: /Health/TheLaw/aclu-files-lawsuit-school-cancels-prom-lesbians-request/story?id=10076018&page=1
CBS news story after the information about the "fake prom" and "secret prom" was made public: at the world wide website cbsnews , add the following extension: .com/8301-504083_
Great op-ed piece discussing discrimination and bullying in this and other cases: at the world wide website huffingtonpost, add the following extention: .com/candace-gingrich/prom-shocker-constance-mc_b_
One of several ACLU articles talking about the case, Constance McMillen v. Itawamba County School District , et al., and discussing the additional charges brought after the "decoy" and "secret" proms where held. At the world wide website aclu, add the following extention: .org/lgbt-rights/aclu-complaint-takes-decoy-prom-mississippi-lesbian-student .
This next link discusses the outcome of the case, where the school board settled by giving Constance monetary damages and, most importantly to Constance, agreed to adopt a non-discriminatory school policy. at the world wide website aclu, add the following extension: .org/blog/lgbt-rights/victory-constance-mcmillen
