Hello all!
Sorry for the lack of Klaine in this chapter. I know that's one of the reasons you're all reading this... but I'm actually trying to create a physical story here, so the romance won't always be around. Hope the chapter after this will be a little better, and the one after that will renew your reasons to read this little fic. Now, onwards into Kurt's thought processes on the matter of New Directions vs. the Warblers.
Please enjoy this chapter and reviews would be totally awesome.
I don't own Glee or How To Train Your Dragon. It just wouldn't be the same.
Chapter Six: The Handbook
Kurt wondered why he had suddenly wandered into Will's office the next day. He knew the Spanish teacher's health was getting worse. It was just before Glee practice, and both Kurt and Will seemed out of it. "What can I help you with, Kurt?" Will yawned.
"I'm… not quite sure," Kurt replied, slumping dramatically into one of Mr. Schuester's chairs. He watched as the older male looked over some printed out papers. "Uhmm… what are those?"
"The original emails and hate mail concerning the rivalry between the Warblers and New Directions. Set up in the mid-eighties when I was a sophomore," he said, "Now it seems sort of… silly…"
Will remembered that one of the actual glee club members was in the room and visibly winced, "Not that I don't think we should at least spook 'em before Regionals," he added quickly.
Kurt didn't call him out for being as insane as Kurt was or for being quite reasonable in covering up the fact that Mr. Schuester was as insane as Kurt was. He was staring at the stack of papers. "Has… has everyone read those emails?"
Will looked at them, "Well… they were sent to all members, and I think Mr. Takashi read them aloud to everyone every year…"
Mr. Schuester was just placed as Mr. Takashi's replacement last year… and that's when I joined… Kurt thought. "So… the new incarnation of New Directions doesn't… know the origins of this rivalry?"
Will shook his head, "I was just reading them to wrap my head around it all, that's all. It's perfectly healthy for us to be rivals of the Warblers," he stood up, "We should get to practice."
"But… you're not well," Kurt said, standing up with him.
Mr. Schuester paused in his rifling through papers and looked at his pupil. "Half day, then."
Kurt nodded, "Uhm… can I have that pile of correspondence?" he asked suddenly.
Will looked at him, "Uhm… even Sue knows the rivalry between us and the Warblers… you must have some idea about why all this competition came about…"
Kurt shook his head, "I just want to get the straight facts. You know Rachel embellishes things, and Finn can't give a straight answer… I want to know… know the real reasons why Mr. Takashi and that Warblers' council actually started all this," Kurt replied.
Will blinked, realizing he had found an ally. "You know, Kurt, since starting this work alongside Aleksey and Burt… this Warbler/New Directions thing just seems so silly. That Aleksey kid is really a smart cookie for being a freshman. He and you share some similarities," he said, biffing Kurt lightly under the chin (since he knew Kurt hated to have his hair ruffled). "You both know what you want, you both strive to get it… and you both have an attraction to the same sex."
That might have been crossing the line, but it actually made Kurt feel a bit better. Especially when Mr. Schuester handed him the thick stack of papers. "It might take a while to get through, but skimming a large part of them will lighten the load and get the point across. I hope you don't have too much homework to do tonight?"
Kurt looked up at Mr. Schuester for a quick moment before looking back down at the papers, "Nothing I couldn't finish in class or during study hall," he said proudly. "Even studying for that AP English test in a couple of days."
Will smiled, "Aleksey's deliriously intelligent and plays the piano perfectly, as well, you know," he said.
"Trying to set me up?" Kurt asked, grinning slightly.
Will was taken aback by this playful side to Kurt Hummel. "N-No! I just thought… you two could be friends…"
Kurt sighed and returned to his slight scowl, "There are other boys from Dalton who have… caught my interest, Mr. Schuester… But I'll take Mr. Skarlova into account."
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Will was true to his word, and glee was let out early. They had voted on Sam singing at the next song-off, and Will checked his email from Kurt's phone and figured out that Pavel Tsarevna was to be his rival this week.
"Damn. It'll be like going up against Kurt… only he'll be in a really tacky uniform and he can't hit a high F," Sam said, smiling warmly at the aforementioned countertenor. It made Kurt's heart drop and then break when the blond squeezed Quinn's hand in between the chairs.
Rachel asked to stay after and use the auditorium, and Will obliged. Finn and Kurt went home together, as they usually did. When they got home, however, Carole and Burt were just getting ready to leave on an impromptu dinner date. Kurt promised they wouldn't eat too unhealthy of food, but since he was already knee deep in the rivalry 'handbook' with a thumb in his mouth, he allowed Finn to order them two pizzas: one with veggies. The other one, he knew, would be the meat-lovers. They would also have to hide the pizza from Burt when he and Carole got home.
Dear Mr. Takashi,
Though we are very sorry about your past with the Warblers, the only thing we can do is let your kids compete against us in Sectionals, as I'm sure they will be doing anyway.
It was odd to read the letters that had started it all. The jist of each email that caught Kurt's eyes was the seething tone Mr. Takashi had, and the calm tones the Warblers' council had in retort. Mr. Takashi really was expelled from the Warblers when he was in school, and had such a grudge that he only took the job as director of New Directions to get back at him.
The Warblers, in contrast, were only annoyed at Mr. Takashi and wished for him to see his place. So the rivalry, really, should have died when Mr. Takashi stepped down and the last council graduated, making room for Wes, David, and Kyle.
Finn poked his head in Kurt's room when the pizza came, handing Kurt the vegetarian. "I thought you finished all your homework, Kurt," he said.
"This is… extra credit," Kurt said, flipping over one of the last emails in the correspondence. "Something Mr. Schue wanted me to read for Glee…"
"A solo or something, buddy?" Finn asked. He would have dared to come in to Kurt's room (the Hudson-Hummels had finally moved into a bigger house where Kurt and Finn had their own rooms), but he decided it was best to give his stepbrother some room.
"Something like that," Kurt replied, obviously in his own world as he finished skimming the last email (guess technology had changed the correspondence in the last ten years). "Hey, did you ever wonder why New Directions and the Warblers never got along?"
Finn tried to say anything that would maybe seem smart. Really he just flapped his lips and then shook his head. "I just heard over the years that Dalton and William McKinley were rivals in the glee club department. It's like football team rivalries, though… I just never asked why."
Kurt shook his head and set the stack down on the floor for a minute. He realized that was a bad place and got up off his bed to his desk. "If you asked me, we should have really asked."
Finn wasn't about to argue. He loved his stepbrother (as just that), and honored his opinions. But something just wasn't right… "Whatever, man. My pizza's getting cold, and I got loads of homework tonight."
"Good luck," Kurt replied, picking up the stack again and rooting through it, reading over some minor details:
I will not have you talking down to me! I will crush every last one of you if it the last thing I do. I will not be moved until I have brought you down for the last time and am going not only to Regionals, but to Nationals as well!
Mr. Takashi was bloodthirsty, and that made his kids bloodthirsty as well. Mr. Schuester… was not bloodthirsty, and yet his kids remained so. Except the Warblers respected New Directions, and Kurt was all ready wondering what it would be like to befriend the Warblers. Could he actually go through with all this?
Preview For The Next 'Scene': It isn't easy when you're harboring a deathly secret that could have you thrown from the ranks of the one thing that actually keeps you going. Only... now you have another thing that keeps you going, so maybe it wouldn't be too bad. But you still don't want to because your scared of the consequences and... wow. When you have a lot of things on your mind, other people just notice and yell at you. Maybe you could just... leave? But where would you go?