A19 year-old Chris Colfer had just walked out the door of his final audition for a Fox pilot called "glee". He had gone in to read for the role of Artie, a boy in a wheelchair who joins the glee club, but something peculiar had happened. The shows creator, Ryan Murphy had taken an interest in Chris' appearance and rare vocal range, and was constantly writing notes on his paper throughout the callback. Chris was a bit concerned, but shook it off as he did for most auditions.
Three days later, Chris was sitting in his parents' house reading through a magazine when he got a phone call. As he rushed to answer it, he saw it was his agent, Josie.
"Hi Jo, any news?" he asked optimistically
"You got glee!" his agent said excitedly, and Chris was silent. He couldn't believe it. He was getting out of Clovis, hopefully, if this show got picked up. He was interrupted in his thoughts as Josie continued.
"but you didn't get Artie," Chris was confused.
"Ryan wrote a completely new character because he needed you in the show. He said you were too special to turn away"
Chris' heart stopped. A major television visionary saw potential in him and wrote an entire CHARACTER about him. How did this happen?
It took a while for Chris to realize that it was real. Nobody had ever thought he was special, especially being gay in conservative Clovis, California. He just hoped that glee would take off so he could get out of this town.
That was 2 years and 1 Emmy Nomination ago, and Christopher Colfer was on top of the world.
Glee had taken off like nobody could have imagined, and his character Kurt Hummel was becoming an icon for bullied gay teens everywhere. Chris' life was just about perfect. He had the perfect job, an apartment in Los Angeles and amazing friends. Best of all, he had become Clovis' hometown glory. He hated Clovis more than anything and was still bitter about the constant torment he was put through, but his life was finally changed for the better.
There was another Clovis hometown glory that seemed to be climbing the ladder of success and seemed to be on the verge of a breakout into superstardom. After some success online, television shows were becoming interested in him.
Darren Criss.
Darren Criss had been a senior when Chris was a sophomore, and Chris would be lying if he said he didn't have a tiny crush on Darren at one point in high school. He never acted on it, of course, because Darren was madly in love with the most talented girl in the musical theater department, Jennica Donnely.
Quite the musical prodigy himself, Darren played 9 instruments effortlessly and had the voice of an angel.
They only had one real meeting during their high school lives, and that was when Chris had decided to try out for the school musical.
Darren and Jennica were senior advisors and therefore ran the audition.
Chris had sung Mr. Cellophane from "Chicago" and after using his higher register, earned looks of respect from both upperclassmen. Chris found it hard to forget the sparkle in Darren's gold eyes and his toothy grin as Chris walked offstage after the audition.
Being only a sophomore, Chris was given a part in the ensemble, with Blaine and Jennica in the starring roles.
Once the musical ended, their paths never really crossed again.
Darren graduated and left for college in Michigan, and Chris stayed in Clovis before leaving for Los Angeles to do glee about a year later.
Now it was late September 2010 and Chris was walking around The Grove shopping center with Amber and Dianna, their usual Sunday activity after filming.
While walking around, Amber turned and faced someone playing music on an acoustic guitar.
The guy looked a bit older than them, with a mop of curly brunette hair, and triangular-shaped eyebrows peeking out of obnoxious hot-pink sunglasses. He had a little bit of stubble dusting his jaw and had a charming smile that Chris felt was familiar.
He was wearing a pink and black flannel button down, the color matching those of his sunnies. He wore dark jeans and sneakers, and he had merchandise around him, obviously trying to sell it.
Amber and Dianna looked fascinated, and Chris was interested, but it was nothing different than the other street singers that constantly filled the Grove.
"Come on, I wanna go listen!" Amber said smiling and Dianna quickly followed.
A small crowd of 10 had formed around the performer, a good number of them being teenage girls who wore matching sunglasses and called him "supermegafoxy-something or other", which sounded extremely familiar to Chris. EVERYTHIG about this guy seemed familiar to Chris, even the way that he held his guitar. He looked down and saw the name sprawled across the merchandise.
Darren Criss.
No Way, Chris thought to himself. It had been almost 4 years since he had seen Darren and he kicked himself for not realizing sooner. The performer finished his set before lifting up his sunglasses and Chris melted. Darren still had those gorgeous honey-golden eyes that were as breathtaking now as they were back then. His eyes were widened in disbelief and for a brief second, Chris could swear that Darren actually remembered him.
His thoughts were shot down as Darren cheekily cheered,
"No way! You guys are on glee! It's like, my favorite show. It's too cool to meet you guys, I've actually auditioned for the show a few times!" his eyes were shining as his vision flicked from Dianna to Amber and landed on Chris, where they lingered a little longer than the others, something different in his gaze.
"I know this is gonna sound really annoying, but can I have your autographs?" he said quietly but with ceaseless enthusiasm.
Amber laughed, "only if we can have yours first! You're really good! And I recognize you from the Harry Potter musical online. Funny stuff"
Dianna nodded "we're all pretty big fans on set. Chris actually showed it to us"
Darren laughed as he noticed Chris blush and still remain quiet.
"Wow! That's so awesome! Thanks for your support, it means a lot actually. Ok, so do u mind signing this?" he said energetically as he grabbed a sheet of paper with the set list printed on it.
The three signed it with a laugh and they picked up copies of Darren's EP for the artist to sign.
He wrote quick messages on each before signing his name. He smiled as he gave the CDs back to the respective person and smiled sweetly at the group, but eyes locking with Chris'.
"I hope I see you guys again sometime" he said sweetly before waving goodbye and turning back to his guitar.
As the three walked to dinner talking about what had just happened, the two girls kept sneaking knowing glances to their smiling friend.
"He seemed...friendly" Amber said sweetly. Dianna nodded.
"Very friendly...and cute too" Chris blushed as he pulled out a chair and sat down.
He pulled the CDs out of a bag and handed them to the girls so they could read the notes that Darren Criss had left them.
"Dear Amber, in awe of your talent and beauty, you blow me away every song. Best regards, Darren Criss. Aww that's so sweet!" Amber gushed.
"Dear Dianna, you really are more stunning in person. Convince Ryan Murphy to let you sing more, you're one of my favorites! Love, Darren Criss. Wow, that's so sweet! I love this guy" Dianna said adoringly, staring at the message.
Chris looked down at his, and saw the girls expecting him to read it. He had to read it over a few times himself just to make sure it was real.
"Of course I remember you Chris Colfer. Clovis High class of '08, one of the best countertenors I'd ever heard. I'd love to catch up soon. Call me!" and under his signature was the 7 digits of his phone number.
Wow. Darren Criss, senior dreamboat of Clovis high, just gave him his number and complemented his voice.
Chris was speechless. Still, he couldn't get his hopes too high, he was almost positive that Darren was straight, plus, it wasn't even a date. He wanted to catch up. Calm down Chris, pull yourself together.
But Amber and Dianna were not helping.
"OHMiGOD Chris that's so amazing he gave you his number! Are you gonna call him? Is he even gay?"
"Thats so sweet he complemented your voice! That's cool you went to high school together! Were you friends?"
Chris answered all of their questions and went home that night and listened to Darren's EP on repeat until he fell asleep, a huge smile still plastered across his face.