Rachel and Kurt Berry strutted the crowded halls of William McKinley High School, intertwined by their locking arms. So far they'd been shoved into lockers, pushed past and tripped, but it didn't deter them or wipe the mega-watt smiles off their pale faces.
"Ohh, Kurtsie!" Rachel grinned, stopping in front of her twin, her argyle skirt swishing around her thighs. She pushed a lock of wavy brown hair away from her face and put on her best puppy-dog eyes, pouting out her lower lip.
"What Ray?" He asked warily, although he knew anything his sister wanted, he was going to give it to her.
"I see a Glee club sign-up sheet!" She beamed.
"Oh, no. No way." Okay, anything but that. His piercing blue eyes drilled into Rachel's brown ones. "Can we just try to lay low this year? We're freshman not to mention we just moved."
"So?" She shrugged, obviously unaware that her talents would hardly be appreciated here.
"From New York." He reminded her.
"All the more reason to give this run-down school out musical talents." She turned to face the sign-up sheet again, fishing around in her Prada purse for a pen. The one she extracted from the seemingly endless purse was pink inked with a pink powder-puff on the top and a light-up gold star. Engraved on it were the initials RBB, her initials. Before giving Kurt any warning, she sprinted to the sheet, noticing not one name on it.
"Rachel Barbara Berry!" Kurt called, hoping to grab his sister before she caused any colossal damage to themselves on their first day in Ohio.
Rachel wasn't listening. "Now that just won't do." She pressed her lips together before adding her name to the list as well as her brother's. She pressed a gold sticker after both of their names, smiling proudly.
Kurt groaned and looked at Rachel in dismay. "Why Ray?"
"The deed is done, Kurtsie. The stickers are on. Once the stickers are on, it is final." She giggled and grabbed her brother's hand, tugging him along as she skipped ahead. Kurt let her drag him, already aware they were being appraised.
"Ray, stop for a second." Kurt pulled her to a halt and glanced in the mirror before doing a quick finger-comb through his flawless hair, checking his skin for imperfections and fixing his bowtie. It all went to waste the second he turned around, though.
A grape slushie flung by the hand of a football player found its way onto Kurt's perfect outfit, consisting of red skinny jeans, a black vest and a white button down, staining everything. The jock threw the cup at him, too. "Fag." He muttered, shoving by him.
"What the crap?" Rachel shouted after the football player. The junior glared at her and made a hand-signal to somebody behind her. She turned around to get a cherry slushie all over her gray and pink argyle skirt, snug white tee-shirt with a gray fluffy jacket, unzipped, and managed to drip down to her knee high socks with matching argyle patterns. The cup landed on her head. The football players bumped fists, snickered and left.
Rachel hissed. "Ouch, this hurts." She rubbed at her eyes, wincing at the stinging.
"Tell me about it." Kurt agreed before his eyes widened and glanced at Rachel. "Oh my GaGa!" He stepped in front of his sister and bent down to whisper in her ear. "You're shirt is see-through!" He whispered.
Rachel groaned. Of course she had to wear her plaid bra today. "Fantastic."
"Do you have the back-up clothes?"
"No. Mom said I wouldn't need them." She wanted to pound her head against the ugly metal lockers. The number one rule of New York? Bring spare clothing everywhere.
Footsteps sounded and stopped in front of them. The twins raised their hands in protective positions, Rachel shielding her face and Kurt shielding his clothes. They both snapped their eye shut and waited for the cold to get them. Nothing happened except a slightly amused chuckle. They hesitantly opened their eyes to see three guys standing in front of them, one was black, the other was Asian and the last was a normal white boy. All three of them were watching the freshman with undisguised concern.
"Freshman?" The Asian one asked.
Rachel and Kurt nodded in minor terror.
"And you're names are on the sign-up list for Glee club?" The black one said.
The twins nodded again.
"While walking around dressed like that.-" The last one raised an eyebrow at Kurt's outfit.
"Hey!"
"-You must be suicidal." He continued. "I'm Blaine." He extended a hand to Kurt with a polite smile at Rachel, who took one look at the guy and turned to glance at her brother. His blue eyes were gazing at their savior in awe, shaking his hand lightly. "These are my friends, Wes," He gestured to the Asian one, "And David." He pointed to the black one.
"Rachel Berry." She beamed at them. "And my brother, Kurt."
"Right now you're eyes are stinging, right?" Wes asked.
Rachel grimaced a 'yes' for both herself and Kurt.
"First time getting slushied?" Blaine inquired.
"Oh GaGa! You mean they do it more than once here?" Kurt looked terrified.
"Unfortunately." David agreed. "But if you want, we can raid the drama closet, get you two some new, un-slushied clothes?"
"Please." Rachel felt a clump of colored ice go sliding down her stomach. "Now-ish would be nice."
"I'll show you two to the locker rooms so you can get showered and rinse off the slushie." Wes volunteered.
"Well go find outfits for you." Blaine flashed a charming smile at Kurt.
Rachel opened her mouth to object but was cut off with a 'Shut the hell up' glare from her brother. "That'd be great!" He gushed. Blaine and David left off in what the twins assumed was the direction of the drama closet.
Wes nodded the twins forward, falling instep beside them. "So, you new to Ohio?"
"Yes." Kurt shrugged out of his vest, holding in carefully between his pointer finger and his thumb.
"Where'd you move from?"
"New York." Rachel said casually, trying to ignore the ice in her bra.
"And you're signed up for Glee?"
They raised their eyebrows in an unpracticed identical movement.
"Are you any good?"
Kurt's hand clamped over his teeny sister's mouth. "Don't get her started or you will regret it." Rachel's eyes darkened and she punched her brother's side. Kurt still didn't move his hand, afraid of the raving that would come out of her mouth. "Eww, Ray!" He shrieked, removing his hand off her mouth. She apparently licked him.
"You taste good, Kurtsie." She smirked at him.
Wes shook his head at the twins' antics and stopped in front of the locker rooms. "Rachel, here's yours." Rachel shot him a grateful smile before running into the locker rooms to take a shower. "And Kurt." He gestured the boy into the locker room. Kurt practically jumped for joy and headed for the showers.
-x-
Rachel stepped out of the showers squeaky clean and grinned at the sight of clothes on the ledge in a neat little pile, along with two towels and a hair tie. It was an adorable yellow sundress, a white cardigan, black leggings and flats and, to her dismay, a pair of undergarments, plain, thank God! She dried off her body and hair, pulled on the outfit and put her hair half up.
-x-
Kurt sighed at the pile of clothing and towel dried his hair and body before pulling on the boxers left for him as well as a pair of blue skinny jeans, a comfortably low v neck tee-shirt and a greaser jacket, as well as a pair of socks and black high top Converse. He felt so out of his comfort zone. He felt…normal. He practically shuddered at the thought.
-x-
The twins met up outside the locker rooms and did a double take at each other. Neither had expected the result their twin was wearing. At least they hadn't been slushied again yet.
"Damn, Ray! The drama department apparently doesn't suck too badly." He whistled. Rachel giggled and spun a full circle, the borrowed dress floating lightly.
A wolf whistle sounded from behind Rachel and Kurt stepped in front of her protectively. The whistler just laughed and carried on.
"Relax. They're all just asses here." Blaine's voice from behind Rachel made them both jump. "Sorry about that. I forgot people tend to be a little jumpy after their first slushying."
"You've been slushied?" Kurt asked incredulously.
"I'm openly gay and in the Glee club, so yeah, I've been slushied."
"You're in Glee club?" Rachel raised an eyebrow at him. He didn't look like the singing type. Or the gay type, for that matter.
"Wes and David are in Glee, too. There's a couple others, a guy named Thad, a guy named Aaron, but they're the back round types. They don't really talk much."
"What about you, then?" Rachel demanded
"Me?" Blaine blew out a soft laugh. "I'm the lead soloist."
Rachel's eyes narrowed, almost an unspoken breath. 'Not for long.'
-x-
The rest of the school day was rather uneventful but most people didn't even look their way twice, seeing as they were dressed normal now. Now, it was the challenge of the fittest: Lunch. The twins pulled their money from where ever they had stored it, grabbed a tray and got on the lunch line. For Rachel, she grabbed a salad with Caesar dressing, an apple and a bottle of water. For Kurt, he pulled an orange from the fruit cooler and a water bottle.
"You really should eat more, Kurt."
"God, no, all the food here would wreck my complexion."
They paid for their lunch and then came the difficult part: Where too sit. They spotted an empty table in the corner of the cafeteria and at their lunch in silence. They hadn't separated the whole day except when their schedules required them to and for bathroom breaks. So now they just ate in peace, hoping to be ignored by their schoolmates. Until three trays clattered down onto the table in front of them, they just stared at their lunches.
"Schue must me insane if he thinks we actually understand this!" Wes exclaimed, looking over his Spanish review packet.
"Okay, scare the living crap out of us; we weren't slushied or anything today." Kurt muttered, returning to his barely picked at orange.
"Sorry." Blaine flashed an apologetic, but amazing, smile at the twins, but Rachel had a feeling it was mostly for Kurt.
"So, who's Schue?"
"He's the Spanish teacher and he's also the Glee club director." David answered, biting into his own apple.
"Ah." Rachel said, dabbing her mouth with a napkin.
"H-h-h-hi, g-g-guys, c-c-can w-we s-s-sit with y-you?" A stuttering voice made them all jump and look up to see two girls, one Asian with black hair and blue streaks in it and the other black with a gold necklace with an 'M' on it.
"Sure." Wes beamed a smile at them and swept his arm open, inviting them to the many open seats.
"Thanks!" The black one said. "I'm Mercedes, and this is my girl, Tina." Tina gave a shy wave to them all before pulling a sandwich out of a brown paper bag.
"So, are you guys going to auditions later?" Blaine asked.
Kurt opened his mouth to agree or disagree, Rachel didn't know, so she stepped on his foot-hard- and smiled. "You will most definitely see us there."
"Auditions for what?" The girl called Mercedes asked.
"Glee club." Kurt responded, looking at his orange, then at Mercedes.
"G-g-glee club?" Tina stuttered out.
Rachel nodded, watching them both with careful interest. She'd be damned if she let either of them take her solos. "Do you sing?"
"Hell yeah!" Mercedes smiled, taking a sip of her Pepsi.
"What about you, Tina?" David asked, craning his head around Blaine to get a better look at her.
"Y-y-yeah."
"Are you gonna audition?" Kurt inquired, quirking an eyebrow.
"M-maybe. C-c-can I b-b-bring my friend A-Artie?"
"Sure! The more the merrier!" Blaine grinned.
Wes and David looked behind Blaine at each other. "Dude! We might have enough people to make it to Sectionals this year!" Wes exclaimed.
"Hell yes!" The bumped fists and beamed at each other.
No one noticed one thing. Rachel was glaring at the table, her eyes set in a mixture of cold finality and competition. No one was going to steal her spotlight. Not this time.