Chapter two
The halls of McKinley High were brighter shades of red and yellow as the excitement coursed through Kurt's veins. Theatricality was what Kurt lived for, he didn't even have to consciously think about it; he breathed it. Lady Gaga was an absolute icon, and a personal one at that. Kurt had thought that nothing would top the week when they focussed on Madonna, but this was it; this assignment was just what he needed to pick himself up.
He and the girls had decided that they should focus on Gaga's 'Bad Romance' as their group number. The boys weren't exactly contributing so Kurt and Rachel had taken the reigns. Through Kurt's insistence there had been a meeting between all of the girls and Kurt during lunch to discuss which Gaga look each of them should rock; he simply could not risk two of them picking the same one. They were only in the very early stages of planning but Kurt already felt lighter and bouncier than he had in a long time and only a couple of days later, the first aim of the assignment was complete: Tina had found herself a fabulous new look.
"I love wearing champagne bubbles! I get to express a whole different side of myself," she gushed.
Kurt was glowing as he strode next to her, basking in Tina's new found joy that only Lady Gaga could have provided. He held his head high as he strutted down the hallway in the signature Armadillo's and sparkly outfit from Gaga's 'Bad Romance' video itself; the one that made Gaga look like a glittering crustacean of some kind. The only thing that kept the walk down the hallway from being absolutely perfect was the oafs Karofsky and Azimio pushing them into the lockers. As always, the bullying terrified Kurt as a bolt of trepidation shot up his spine, although he would never dream of showing them his fear. It was hard not to be scared; the football players were so much bigger than him, and always seemed to come in pairs. Usually he could brush off the abuse quite easily when it was just two of the generic morons, but there was just something about the ferocious way that Karofsky looked at him that chilled Kurt to the bone. It felt like Karofsky wanted to rip him apart.
"Excuse me, were you dropped on your heads?" Kurt exploded, on the defence.
"Don't push me Hummel!," Azimio threatened as he wheeled around.
But Kurt could see the hurt on Tina's face and he was not going to let it slide; no one pushes the Hummel's around. His father's words seemed like little comfort as the two gorillas bore down on him.
"I'm just saying, pick on me that's fine, but don't throw around a girl," Kurt reasoned in a quivering tone.
"Well you dress all freaky, and then you rub it in everyone's faces. I don't wanna look at it all day. It makes my eyes tired," Karofsky sneered menacingly.
"Its called being theatrical, we're showing off who we are. It's the same thing that you do when you come to school with your football uniforms on, your expressing yourself and we have every right to do the same." Kurt's tone became stronger as he accustomed to the trapped space between the lockers and the thugs. He tried to disguise a scared step away from Karofsky as a brave advance on Azimio, praying that Karofsky wouldn't notice. He shouldn't have worried; Karofsky wasn't ever the brightest of sparks, and even less acutely tuned to subtlety.
"Well don't be shocked if my fist feels like expressing itself against your chin!" Azimio shouted, blasting his knuckles against the metal. For a second that hung in the air like a dark cloud, the four of them stood there, simply staring at each other, refusing to break eye contact. Eventually though, Karofsky and Azimio turned on their heels and rounded the corner.
After the confrontation had died down Kurt could think more clearly, and although he was infuriated, he breathed deeply, trying to regain his good mood. He would be damned if any aspect of this assignment was going to be ruined by those idiots. He smiled at Tina as he realised that although it frustrated him that the Glee club faced this daily adversity, it meant that they and their theatrical efforts were being noticed, which he supposed was the point after all.
"Are you alright, Tina?" he asked, as brightly as he could manage.
"Thank you Kurt, I know he scares you," she smiled, and with a nod of camaraderie, they shuffled their way to Glee club with their composure renewed.
-Caught in a Bad Romance-
Kurt found that whilst swaying slowly to the enchanting melodies of Gaga's 'Speechless', it was just too hard to be annoyed that one of his Armadillo's was damaged earlier by his confrontation with Karofsky. In fact, sat in his calming basement bedroom, with Mother Monster's delicious accent pouring emotion into every syllable she sang, he found the opportunity to work even more on his costume to be a welcome break. He had to admit, he definitely needed the relaxation, what with Finn sat at the mirror across the room. He was removing his Kiss makeup, which is what the boys had decided to do for their theatricality project. Kurt thought that it was weird that they refused to sing Gaga, but they were willing to slather themselves with makeup. Still, he had to admit that Finn looked very sweet fumbling with a paper towel; then he realised that he had been staring for a bit too long.
"Do you think you could have a word with Azimio and Karofsky about harassing me without damaging my Gaga outfit?" Kurt quipped, annoyed for letting himself return to reality.
"Are you kidding?" Finn spluttered incredulously, staring at Kurt's reflection in the mirror, "Don't you know how hard it is with those guys; they already think we're boyfriends."
In spite of himself, Kurt could not stop his heart from fluttering at the mention of that word, despite the slightly venomous tone that Finn muttered it in. He hastily pulled himself together, trying to refocus on his shoe.
"Let them think what they want, they're Neanderthals. In three years they'll be cleaning my sceptic tank," Kurt sighed whilst replacing a rogue sequin to its rightful place, trying to hide the shaking of his hands in the delicate work. Finn spun around in the chair, a look of annoyance spreading through his face.
"Don't you get it! It's not just them dude, it's this place, it's Ohio. People here just don't….get guys like you. And that's not cool, it's not, but I don't know why you always have to make such a spectacle of yourself," he stressed, gesturing towards Kurt with a throwaway hand, "why can't you just try harder at blending in?"
Kurt stiffened and glared at Finn as he returned to scrubbing his face. Kurt slowly placed his shoe on his desk, crossed his legs defiantly and waited for the silence, broken only by his jagged breathing, to do its work. Finn sighed, his shoulders dropping as though he had been deflated, and as he dropped yet another paper towel into the bin, he turned to face Kurt once more.
"Kurt, I'm sor-"
"I'm sure that would be easier for you," Kurt interrupted bitterly, undeterred by the apology stirring behind Finn's eyes. He was too occupied with keeping the tears from escaping his own. Finn bristled, and any trace of the apology was lost behind the steely expression he shot towards Kurt.
"You know what? It would," Finn said coldly, and with that, they each sat with no idea what to say next. Kurt could feel that he was going to break first, his face was going to betray him and there was no way he was going to let Finn see how much his simple words had hurt him. Kurt rose, deliberately pacing himself so that it didn't look like he was running away anymore than it did already.
As Kurt ascended the stairs, Finn could already feel the guilt swirling around his body. He hated fighting with people and being bitchy, it wasn't who he was. In fact, that was one of the main reasons why he agreed to join Glee club at the start of the year, so that he could escape from the cliquey cheerleaders and pig-headed football players and actually give his friendship to people who deserved it, like Kurt. He liked Kurt and always had done. At first, Kurt had weirded him out a bit with his brand of mould-breaking fashion and his seemingly undying love for Patti LuPone, but those are the qualities that Finn had come to cherish about Kurt, and he couldn't work out where along the way he had lost sight of that.
After all, Kurt had been absolutely amazing over the past few months. Finn watched Kurt disappear further up the staircase whilst he remembered all of the support that Kurt had given him over the 'Quinn-and-the-baby' fiasco; all of the heart to heart talks and late night phone calls when he was struggling to cope. For some reason that Finn could not quite pin-point, ever since their parents had started dating he had forgotten all of that and just become angry.
At first Finn had thought that the idea of moving out of his house, or Burt trying to take his Mom away was the reason for his anger, but those feelings had soon been resolved as he and Burt bonded over sports and their love of his Mom. So that could not be it.
Then he thought that the reason why he was so angry was that he did not want to be any closer to Kurt. Finn knew that he was not the cleverest of people, but he wasn't stupid. He knew that Kurt had a thing for him, he could see it in all of the sneaky glances that Kurt gave him or how Kurt would talk to him about things like football when Finn knew that he couldn't care less. Finn had thought that his anger was stemming from the fact that he was growing ever closer to Kurt; that the situation was slipping out of his control and he was becoming uncomfortable with it, as well as being harassed for it by the guys at school, but as he watched Kurt's heels vanish at the top of the stairs, all he felt was remorse over their altercation. Besides, he had always harboured a secret feeling of flattery at being Kurt's choice. Finn could tell that he was running around in mental circles, muddling himself up and he resolved that at that moment, all he should be worrying about was losing a friend.
Finn furrowed his brow in confusion as he spun back to face the mirror; he would have to work out what was going on, what he was feeling, because he didn't like being this way. It worried him.
"Finn…," he heard Kurt call in a small voice from the peak of the stairs.
"Yes Kurt?" he answered back in relief; at least it seemed like he hadn't burned too many bridges.
"You'll need to use moist towelettes if you want that makeup off before next year," Kurt mused, with a dash of his trademark sarcasm returning to his voice. Somehow that made Finn feel worse; he could be a childish moron and Kurt still wouldn't hold a grudge.
"Thank you, Kurt," Finn replied, flooding as much apology into his voice as he could muster. He heard the basement door quietly click shut, and Finn allowed himself a tiny smile as he spotted the moist towelettes.