The Music In Me
A Glee AU Fan Fiction
Chapter 1
A/N: Links for outfits will be on my polyvore. Link is on my profile. This story was inspired from my love of Rachel having a guy best friend, besides Kurt, and my love of a female, gay best friend and straight male best friend friendships. They are the absolute best, in my opinion and I really wish I had a friendship like that. While talking with my best guy friend about one of my ideas for a Glee-spin-off, this idea came up and we both thought it would have been an amazing idea to have had in Season 1, if the plot line for the show was just a little bit different.
On the very first day of pre school, Rachel Berry became best friends with Kurt Hummel.
Their friendship began when they realized they shared a love of musical theater and both had big dreams to someday make it on Broadway, even at four years old. They bonded over their obsessions with Barbra Streisand and Patti Lupone.
They were able to tell one another everything, and they felt like they were the same person. They liked to joke around that the only reason they hadn't been born as siblings was because no parents, no matter how wonderful Kurt's father was or how amazing Rachel's two fathers were, would have been able to handle raising them together.
Whenever Rachel was upset, she'd call up Kurt and he would show up with a large collection of Streisand movies and karaoke versions of musical soundtracks, bags full of cartons of vegan-ice cream in his hands. If Kurt was in a lousy mood, Rachel would show up at his house with one of her fathers' credit cards in her wallet, submitting herself to a Kurt-Hummel-Makeover-Extravaganza before spending the night watching Rent, Wicked, and A Chorus Line on repeat while he devoured the Teen Vogue magazines she would show up with.
If Rachel landed a part in a musical, Kurt was the first person to know, and it wasn't just because he had to check the same cast list to see his own role in the same production. If she got an excellent grade or found out something exciting, she would tell Kurt before she'd tell her fathers, because it just seemed right to tell Kurt everything. And when he came out of the closet and finally admitted to everyone that he was gay-not that anybody had ever doubted it, of course, with how flamboyant he was-Rachel was the first one told so that she could be there to hold his hand when he came out to his father.
But, somewhere along the line, their duo became a trio when Rachel saw Sam Evans being bullied.
He started attending Lima Elementary when Kurt and Rachel were in the third grade, and had tried to befriend the other boys. When Rachel found him, he was surrounded by a large group of snickering males who were laughing at Sam for his impressions, because he wasn't very good at making them.
Rachel despised seeing people bullied, though, and had immediately started to laugh hysterically, informing the group that she found his jokes to be hilarious. Of course, that only branded Sam as a loser for the rest of his life, but the blonde boy didn't mind. He became Rachel's guard dog, in a sense, and refused to leave her side. He decided that since Rachel had stood up for him and offered him friendship in his new school, he was going to return the favor by offering her protection.
Of course, the transition from Kurt and Rachel to their trio wasn't all fun and games and it most definitely wasn't easy, because Kurt had never handled change very well. He didn't like it when things changed and he was known to throw tantrums because of changes made to his every day life. The tantrum thrown when Sam entered the picture was his biggest one yet.
When Rachel first introduced Sam as her new best friend, Kurt had informed the blonde that he was stealing Rachel from him and that Sam should go and find a new best friend, because she had been Kurt's best friend first. He had insisted to Sam that everybody was only allowed one best friend in life, and that was all. He was Rachel's so Sam would just have to deal with the facts and move on.
Instead of picking sides, Rachel had told the boys they needed to get along or all three of them would be on their own for the rest of their careers at school, and since nobody wanted that, the boys immediately bonded over the only thing they had in common-their love for Rachel-and the trio became a success, the type of friendship everybody was jealous of, even though they were officially the three biggest losers in the entire school.
Being a trio worked well for them, though, and they were only infiltrated one time, upon all of their approval of their newest member.
When they transferred from McKinley to Presidential Academy-a private boarding school located in New York City, right outside of the actual city on what was actually an island, they were in sixth grade and just starting middle school. And Rachel had craved a female influence in her life, which the boys' had been going crazy to provide for her.
In Lima, they were each practically a member of one another's family. Rachel would show up at Sam's house and play with his little brother and sister when Sam was at work. If Rachel was out at rehearsal for a musical and Kurt's role wasn't required to be there that day, he would show up at Rachel's and talk to her fathers about his sexuality. And Sam was known to show up at Kurt's father's garage-where he worked-on days when Kurt and Rachel had rehearsal and he wasn't working just to help Burt out with the cars every now and then.
So, while Rachel hadn't had an actual mother-figure in her life, she did have Sam's mother who was there for her every single time she needed a woman in her life rather than one of the many men she was surrounded with.
Unfortunately, when she got it in her head to transfer schools because Presidential Academy would look much better to colleges and give her more experiences, they all knew that the biggest problem-even bigger than trying to get Sam and Kurt into the school with her-would be that she would lose that solid female influential from her life.
Of course, they had all thought the solution to their problem was absolutely perfect when they had picked Rachel's first roommate at the school. She got along with Rachel and the girls had similar dreams. Rachel calmed down the anger management issues her new best friend had and the Latino girl was known to make changes that made Rachel just a little bit more bearable to be around. They became even closer than Kurt and Rachel were, which pushed Kurt and Sam to become better friends, something they actually came to appreciate. But they ended up regretting the decision by the time their freshman year was over.
In order to help Rachel heal and help Sam avoid dealing with a crying sixteen year old girl, the boys had decided that the girl's name was off limits and was never to be mentioned again-ever-because Rachel had been completely broken when she had walked out of their lives and told them she wasn't going to come back, so they shouldn't hold their breath and expect any form of communication. She was turning her back on them and she was leaving them behind.
Still, the boys were going to do everything in their power to make sure their girl was happy again, as happy as she had been before the stupid Latino that was Santana Lopez had walked out of their life and broken their diva's heart.
"SAMMY!" Rachel Berry exclaimed, jumping to her feet and racing across the light hard wood floor of her dorm room, directly into the arms of Sam Evans, who barely had time to drop the three large boxes he'd been carrying onto the floor before she was throwing her arms around his neck and he was wrapping his arms around her waist, lifting her up off the ground and spinning her around.
"Hey, there, short-stop," He teased, whispering against her dark chocolate colored curls as he set her back on the ground. "Cover yourself up-this is a co-ed dorm and I don't need to get into trouble for fighting on my first day back," Sam winked at her, shaking his head at her outfit.
Sam was like an over-protective big brother and he was constantly yelling at Rachel about dressing more appropriately. He even had a habit of draping his sweatshirt over her shoulders as they walked if he thought too many guys were staring at her. And he was always threatening guys who made inappropriate comments towards her or stared at her for just a little bit longer than his liking. He'd only gotten into one fight before and that had been with her asshole of an ex-boyfriend, but that was only because Rachel was an expert at calming him down when he was angry.
Her outfit of the day consisted of a pair of faded denim shorts, rolled at the hems to appear just a tad shorter than they really were. Around her neck were the two necklaces she never took off-her pink-sprinkled-popsicle best-friends-forever necklace and her silver heart-shaped locket. She had a silver and pink sparkly cuff bracelet on with a large pink star on the center and pink rose-bud earrings in her ears. Her pink tank top had black script that read BRUNETTES DO IT BETTER and revealed her pink and black heart shaped belly button ring just enough to remind Sam that she had a piercing there.
The one thing that Santana's friendship had done was gotten the tiny brunette out of her pleated, plaid mini skirts and her animal sweaters and into clothes that a typical teenage girl might wear, which had made Kurt's entire day, until he saw that Rachel still refused to spend a ton of money on designer clothing, no matter how much money her dads had. Still, non-designer jeans and a non-designer tank top were better than school-girl skirts, knee high socks, baggy sweaters and Mary Janes.
"Oh, I get it, the straight guy in the room gets all the Rachel-loving?" Kurt teased as he dropped his load of her boxes onto her bed, turning around to face the pair with a teasing smile on his face.
"KURTY" Rachel exclaimed excitedly, fleeing from Sam and wrapping Kurt in a hug.
She acted as if she hadn't seen them in years, when she had just seen them the previous day when they'd arrived back at school. This morning, while Rachel had been unpacking from her pink, sparkly suitcases to put her clothes away, the boys had worked on setting up their own dorm room before heading down to the main office and getting the boxes Rachel's fathers had just shipped to her. They were just bringing them to her now, and with their joint strength, it had only taken them one load. Which meant a new record-whether it was for how strong they were, or how much Rachel had packed for this year, they really weren't sure.
"Please tell me you know exactly where the iHome is, because I can't handle an unpacking montage without any music. It would absolutely ruin my life and I would have to cry," Kurt sighed, falling onto Rachel's bed over dramatically besides her boxes.
"Oh, shut up," Rachel rolled her eyes.
She opened the box on top of the pile Kurt had placed at the foot of her bed as Sam moved the rest of her boxes inside of her room, placing them on her bed. She pulled out her pink iHome slash alarm clock and carried it towards her black nightstand, placing it on top and plugging it in, placing her iTouch into the doc and hitting play on her karaoke playlist.
"We have to sing while we work?" Sam whined as the all too familiar Broadway playlist began to fill the room.
"It's the best part of working with Rachel!" Kurt shot upright, shooting daggers at the blonde haired boy.
Sam sighed, shaking his head as he opened up the box on the top of his own pile, removing the picture frame that was inside and walking towards the wall, looking for the hook where he always hung it from. Once he found it, he hung it up and smiled at the pictures inside with content.
There were too many shots too count inside the black frame and all of them consisted of either Rachel, Kurt or Sam-or all three of them-doing something stupid. There were pictures of Rachel kissing them each on the cheek, pictures of them kissing Rachel on the cheek with her in the middle. Pictures of Sam carrying Rachel around and Kurt and Rachel in costumes.
There were about four pictures of just Sam and Kurt, because Rachel was the glue that had held them together until a few years back. In those pictures, it was a makeshift arm-wrestling match, a picture of them flexing on the beach and one from that disastrous year right before Kurt had come out to his father when he had played football. The final one of the two together was Rachel's favorite one of them, though, and Sam knew it, because it showed how at ease Sam was of being friends and roommates with Kurt, when their sexualities were so different. It was them standing in their room and Sam had just surprised Kurt with a joking kiss on the cheek that had caused a goofy smile and a wide blush to fill his entire face.
"Sammy, remember when you were proud to wear the popsicle friendship necklace?" Rachel teased, sticking her tongue out as she carried her pink frame towards her dresser, placing it on top.
In the frame was a shot of the three of them, Rachel in the middle, as they held up their friendship necklaces to be admired. It was when they were in fifth grade, right before they had left Lima for the boarding school Kurt and Sam had had to work their asses off to get into while Rachel's parents had paid the tuition without even thinking about her attempting to get a scholarship, which she could have gotten without any effort involved.
It was an expensive school, but athletes, artists and musicians could get free-rides if they were good enough. Kurt had been considered one of the elite in the performing arts department and after months of extensive workouts and extra practices, Sam had gotten a football scholarship. With Rachel's voice, she could have easily gotten a free ride, but her father's were wealthy enough that it didn't even matter. They gave her whatever she wanted, no questions asked. Sam was sometimes a little jealous, but he usually forget that there was even a class difference between the two of them, because Rachel rarely liked to broadcast just how much money her fathers made a year. She was probably the least spoiled Jewish American Princess he had ever met in his entire life.
"I still wear it, Rach, it's just under my shirt," he rolled his eyes, patting the pendant that was lying underneath his tee shirt. "I'm your best friend and everybody knows that, but do we need to remind everybody how lucky I am all the time?" He teased her.
As the music played, the group set to work on setting up Rachel's room in their usual habit.
Sam moved anything that was heavy for them and hung everything up because he was the tallest. Kurt, because he was OCD, would organize her CD-racks and DVD-racks so that she could easily find whatever she was looking for when needed. And Rachel would get her desk in order, her custom made Wicked macbook having a spot right at the center of the desk, open just enough.
She had gone out one year for Christmas-when the group was in eighth grade-and bought Sam and Kurt each their own custom-made macbook, against their protests. Sam's had Mario on the front while Kurt's had a New York City skyline across the bottom.
While Rachel could easily afford whatever she wanted and while Kurt lived quite comfortably, being as they were both only children and Kurt's father ran the only garage in their small town, while Rachel's fathers were successful lawyers and doctors, Sam had two hard working parents-his mother was a real estate agent and his dad had come corporate job. He was the oldest in a family of three and he wanted his siblings to be able to get whatever they needed whenever. So, he gave up a lot of things that he wanted.
Rachel knew that, and she respected Sam's decision, and while she knew he would hate to take her charity, she always bought him expensive birthday and Christmas presents, even though she didn't celebrate the holiday. It was just another reason that Sam loved her, because she went out of her way to make him happy, and he had never had a friend like Rachel before. She was something special.
"Finally," Rachel exclaimed, falling back onto her bedspread with a sigh.
Her room was finished, about an hour later, and she was lying on her back, on the bed. Kurt and Sam shared a look-they had become very good at non-verbal communication by this point in their friendship-and Kurt fell on top of Rachel before Sam jumped onto their pile with a laugh.
"Get off of me, you fat asses! I'm tiny," Rachel giggled as she tried to squirm her way from underneath them. "And to think I was going to treat you losers to lunch and Pinkberry's today as a reward for helping me," She pouted, giving up on her struggle, because after their many years of friendship, she knew it was a hopeless battle. They were too strong and too much bigger than her. She wasn't going to win so she might as well just let it happen.
Of course, the prospect of food had Sam jumping off of Rachel and onto a sitting position besides her, acting as if he hadn't been doing anything wrong. And while Kurt wasn't a typical teenage boy, the prospect of getting a free lunch and dessert from Rachel was too good to pass up, because it was food. So, he rolled off of her and into a sitting position on the other side of her.
Rachel raised herself into a sitting position and rolled her eyes at them.
"I'm just going to brush my hair since you guys ruined it and we can go, okay?" She said, pressing her palms against the bed to push her onto her feet. For an active girl, Rachel was the laziest person either of them had ever met. If she could, she would have Sam carry her everywhere, no matter where they were going.
"Don't you want to stay and wait to meet your new roommate?" Sam asked, tilting his head to the side in confusion.
"I don't know if I have one. They never sent me any information about getting a new one, after all, and normally they send a letter for who your roommate is each year. Even you two get them, and you've been roommates since sixth grade when that homophobic loser David Karofsky refused to room with Kurt because he was gay," Rachel shrugged, making her way towards her desk that was also to be used as a vanity, grabbing her hairbrush and running it through her dark chocolate colored curls a couple of times.
"Then I guess that means the sleepovers can be moved to your room, since you'll have the most space?" Kurt wondered, reaching over to turn off her music.
"You have the pull-out bed!" Rachel stomped her foot in protest.
"Rachel, I sleep with you about ninety five percent of the time when we have sleepovers at home because you refuse to sleep with Kurt because he thrashes around in his sleep too much and I don't like explaining to my parents why I always come home from our sleepovers covered in bruises so I don't want to sleep with him," Sam reminded her with an eye roll.
"Yeah, but you like sleeping with me a little too much. I can feel it," Rachel stuck her tongue out, tossing her brush back onto the desk. "Hand me my purse so we can-wait are you guys staring at?" She cut herself off as she turned around to follow their gaze.
Standing in the doorway was a blonde haired girl and a mohawk-ed boy who looked around their age. The blonde was wheeling two matching Vera Bradley suitcases with a matching weekend bag slung over her arm and yet another matching book bag swung over her other shoulder. She had a Coach bag on the crook of her arm and her matching Coach wallet and make-up bag could be seen from the fact that it wasn't zipped. The boy behind her was obviously her muscle mass and was carrying four boxes, stacked up on top of one another, his face leaning around them so he could see where he was going.
"Brittany, will you just knock it off and let me carry those god damn bags for you? Seriously, I can make more than one trip," The guy was saying, following the blonde into the room completely, not appearing to notice the other people in the room.
"You were carrying those boxes and I am more than capable of carrying my clothes, make-up and hair stuff, Puck! Just put my boxes down and go set up your own room or something." The blonde said, dropping her bags onto her bed and the floor around it, turning towards the male with her arms crossed over her chest.
"Are you done being such a feminist? Seriously, it's a little ridiculous that you have to do everything yourself. Sometimes, it's okay to ask for help, even when you're asking a guy for help because something's too heavy for you or you don't have enough hands or whatever. That's not putting the Women's Right's Movement back, you know," He rolled his eyes, and in doing so, he finally seemed to realize the three teenagers on the other side of the room.
"What are you-"Brittany turned on her heel, following his gaze that hadn't returned to her after his rant was over and her blue eyes filled with shock as they grew wide.
"Hey, I'm Rachel Berry-apparently I'm your roommate, even though the school didn't think to let me know anything about you," Rachel said pleasantly, walking over towards the blonde. "And the blonde Trouty Mouth behind me is Sam Evans-his roommate is the flamboyant looking teen gay, Kurt Hummel who is probably glaring at me right now for being so open about his sexuality, despite the fact that he is wearing a form-fitting sweater that ends at the knee," Rachel explained, getting Kurt's reaction perfectly without even turning around to look at him.
"Brittany Pierce," the blonde said with a small smile on her face. "And the neanderthal who carried in my boxes is my obnoxious step-brother, Noah Puckerman."
"Is he going to be going to school here as well?" Kurt asked, eyes locked on the broad-shouldered, six foot tall male standing at the foot of Brittany's bed with deep hazel eyes and what would be thick, dark chocolate colored curls if he didn't have his head shaved into a mohawk, with an olive complexion and even more muscle mass than Sam.
"Um, yeah, that's why she told him to go set up his dorm," Rachel rolled her eyes at him before turning her attention back to Brittany. "We were going to go grab some lunch-you want anything?" Rachel wondered.
"We're good," Brittany said quickly, shooting her brother a warning glance as soon as she saw him start to open his mouth.
"Alright-we'll be back later and we can have some roommate bonding," Rachel flashed a sweet smile at her as she grabbed her purse, pulling Sam to his feet and dragging him towards the door.
Kurt was lagging behind and the pair knew it wasn't going to be good news, whatever it was he had to say.
"I like your outfit," Kurt said, and Rachel released a sigh of relief.
The girl turned down to smile at her light colored, floral print, belted-ruffle skirt with a smile, adjusting the way her nude-colored, fitted tank top rested at the hem and Rachel could catch a glimpse of a nude-colored cross belly button ring. Her wedges were the same color as her top with a peak toe and her buttery blonde curls fell right past her shoulders.
"But, if you're going to be using a faux-Coach bag...well, I wouldn't even use a Coach bag, because most people assume it's fake, based on how many knock-offs there are. But, that one is definitely fake, so it doesn't matter," Kurt shrugged as he turned around, making his way towards the door to meet an appalled looking Rachel and a snickering Sam, who always found it so funny when Kurt so rudely gave his opinion.
"It's real," Brittany said coldly, all warmth leaving her eyes as she narrowed them at the boy.
Before he could offer a response, Rachel was gripping his arm and pulling him from the room, using her other arm to drag Sam behind her.
"Don't you dare even think about it," Brittany said, whirling around to face her brother.
"Think about what?" He asked innocently.
"About going after Rachel! She's my roommate and I would appreciate her not hating me or having an extremely awkward relationship with her," she crossed her arms over her chest as she glared at him.
"Don't take your anger out on me because that guy recognized a knock-off, Britt," He rolled his eyes. "And who said I'm going to go after Rachel?" He asked with a smirk.
"Because you go after everybody, Puck. And I know as well as you do that it's not only going to be a challenge to get Rachel, but you're going to have to deal with that blonde guy, which just makes it even more fun for you! So, just do me this one favor and don't go after her, alright?" She glared at him.
"Whatever, yeah, sure-I won't date your roommate," Puck rolled his eyes, holding his hands up in surrender as he made his way out of her room.
"Good," she nodded.
"But I didn't say I wouldn't hook up with her," he winked over his shoulder before he walked out and down the hallway.
Kurt lived to play match maker. It was his favorite thing to do in the entire world. He loved knowing that he could take two people and put them in a relationship that would make them happier than they had ever been in his entire life. He couldn't get enough of that feeling and he was known for his relationship advice and the way people constantly came to him when they were looking for love.
But, it was completely humiliating that his two best friends were not only completely single without any form of love, but it was clear to everybody that Sam was head over heels in love with Rachel, yet he was still single.
And the worst part was that he was always trying to push the two of them together.
Take their lunch date that day when they had gone to the nearest Johnny Rockets and Kurt had slid into the booth across from Rachel, immediately spreading himself out and saying he needed space from Sam if he was supposed to be living with him once again. So, Sam had slid into the seat besides Rachel, and like always, his arm found its way around Rachel's shoulder, the way it always did when they were near one another.
After that, Kurt hadn't had to work anymore of his magic because Sam was just a natural flirt, at least when it came to Rachel.
Once their drinks came-Sam's chocolate milkshake, Kurt's strawberry milkshake and Rachel's water, as she was going to true to be a strict vegan for that school year, something she promised herself every year-Sam took to teasing Rachel, trying to convince her to take a sip of his milkshake, because he knew she really wanted to take a sip, or drink the entire thing.
When their meals came-Sam's cheeseburger with bacon, Kurt's hot-dog and Rachel's salad-Sam was teasing her with a piece of bacon, tossing little pieces of the long strips into her salad and trying to dodge her as she threw them back at him, going on about how she was kosher and couldn't eat pork if she was supposed to be a good Jew.
On the way back to Kurt's car, his precious baby, Sam picked Rachel up and slid her onto his back, running towards the car while carrying her piggy-back style. Kurt drove to Pinkberry where Rachel went inside and came back out with all of their favorites and their usual orders. They had worked on eating them as Kurt drove back to campus, parking in his spot near their newest dorm.
"I still can't believe you defended that Fraud-a girl about her faux-Coach bag! I mean, seriously Rachel, I taught you better than to recognize a knock-off. And you know how I get when I see one," Kurt was rambling as they walked away from his Hummer.
"I still can't believe you chose to out her about the bag being a fake within the first five minutes of meeting her. She doesn't seem like the type to laugh it off the way that I would, you know, and I'd be pretty scared of her brother if I were a scrawny teenage boy," Rachel replied as they entered the building, Sam tossing his chocolate yogurt with the all-chocolate toppings into the trash, having just taken his last bite.
"I still can't believe you you guys are still talking about this. Would you mind talking about something a little more my style? Just for a little while? Hell, I'd even be happy with you talking about Broadway and musicals, because at least I can follow that shit!" Sam complained as they approached the elevator, his arm wound around Rachel's shoulders.
"He was rude," Rachel insisted.
"Rachel, she was trying to pass a faux off as real. All I did was give her a lesson on knock-offs. I mean, nobody would ever mistake your Dooney and Bourke bag as a fake, because of the quality and the fact that nobody makes them. It's common knock-off knowledge," Kurt rolled his eyes as they stepped onto the elevator.
"Apparently my opinion is invalid," Sam sighed, shaking his head as he hit the button for their floor.
"Has it ever been valid?" Rachel teased, spooning a spoon-full of pomegranate flavored frozen yogurt with blueberries on top into her mouth, ducking out from under the noogie that Sam was aiming her way.
She fell against Kurt, causing him to spill his grapefruit fro-yo with the grapefruit topping and caramelized almonds onto his designer sweater-Rachel had been exaggerating about it being a knee length sweater, as he was no longer in that phase anymore, but had gone through a three-year period where that was all he wore-He swore under his breath as he flicked an almond at her as she ducked once more, allowing the nut to hit Sam right in the chest.
And before the elevator doors opened back up, the trio were laughing hysterically, their previous disagreement completely forgotten. Because that was just how it worked between the three of them. No fight could ever last too long.