This is Me

Disclaimer: Don't own Glee, never will. Kora is the only one who is mine.

A/N: Sorry that I'm a little behind today. Had chores. They never stop even for adults. And apparently when there is a half day at school it's very hard to write. Sorry about the short chapter. I wouldn't quite call it filler, because it has some important points. It also helps to set the story up for where it needs to go for the remainder of the season. I hope at least. I hope you enjoy this chapter. Also if you have any comments, questions, or concerns please leave a review or PM me. I'd love to hear from you. Enjoy! Thank you, for reading, reviewing, and alerting. It's a wonderful bonus to the writing! -Medieval Wizard

Chapter Seven: It's Getting Cold Outside

I wanted it to be warm again, I really did. Kurt and the rest of New Directions seemed content walking around in jackets and jeans, and I felt like I was turning slowly into a Kora-cicle. After a weekend of extremely wonderful chaos it was Sunday night. My mom had been gone for a week, and it seemed that my dad now spent all his time either at the lawyers office or on the phone with him; my mom had bailed on us, but she was determined not to make this split easy on any of us. I had been doing some digging on the family computer; my mom was more technologically inclined than my dad, but as I found, she was terrible at covering her tracks. I printed out whatever I found and surreptitiously left it places where my dad would find. I think he knew I was helping him, but both of us did not want to talk about the things that I had been finding, so we just let the giant elephant in the room make itself comfortable.

The doorbell rang and I let Kurt into the house. It seemed like I had not seen him in days. He picked me up and dropped me back at home, but with the play taking up most of his time; we were like ships passing in the night.

"Hey, stranger. Nice to see you finally came back to ground!"

Kurt gave me a hug and followed me into the kitchen. My homework was already on the table and he added his to the pile. "I know, plays are wonderful, but so time consuming. Tonight is all about catching up with life, friends, and school."

I smiled and walked over to the the counter dished out two bowls of stew, brought those over to the table and went back for bread and butter. Two cups of tea capped off our meal, and I laughed as Kurt stared at me wide-eyed. "It's not fancy, but it tastes all right. I stopped at the kitchen store and picked up a few things, because my dad is determined to live on nothing but processed food now that Mom's out of the picture."

"I'd say you made a good call there," Kurt said. He took a bite of his stew and nodded. "Really good for a first try. I will give you a few tips for the next batch. I hadn't thought to recommend a crock pot. Where has my head been?"

"On the West Side, or with Blaine. Either scenario is highly likely."

Kurt chuckled and nodded. "The latter I must guiltily admit to. It has been a pretty insane week." We both pulled our math homework toward us. "Getting into NYDA is worth it to put up with this busy work, right?"

I nodded and pulled out my calculator. "That's if you and Blaine don't cause a scandal first!" Even I will admit that was one of the worst puns I had ever come up with, but I honestly had been waiting to say it all week!

Kurt nearly choked on his bread and a strangled noise escaped his throat. He struggled to swallow his food and stared at me. "That was unfair, you really should warn me before you say something like that!"

"Sorry, I don't really have control over stuff like that. You have given me something too good to pass up. You just passed into the realm of bad-boy all of a sudden. I am proud of you. I really am."

"Though thanks to Rachel and her ambition I am now without a roommate." He finished the problems he was working on, and turned the page in his math book. "We'll probably make up, but I don't trust Rachel not to have a Diva relapse. I thought we were in this NYADA race together."

"Rachel can't help, but be Rachel. I may not be going to NYADA, but has NYU become chopped liver? It was my first choice, but yeah. If you think it's slumming..."

Kurt blushed, "Oh my gosh, Kora! I really am losing it! I completely forgot that you had plans to go to NYU. Did you put in your application?" He walked back over to the front door and brought back chocolate pastries. "Will this help to make things better.

" Yes, I got my application in, just because you asked. Probably, I'll let you know when I finish, okay?" I smiled and gave him a hug. "It's good to have back Kurt. It seemed like we have been worlds apart for a while now."

"I know, Kora, and for that I am sorry. We should have more time now that the musical is over. We've got plenty of ahead of us now that the TroubleTones are gaining popularity."

"You've got that right, Kurt, but we can't let it get us down, because that won't help us have the best year ever!"

Kurt smiled and pointed out a mistake I made in the problem that I was working on. " Are you sure about that?"

I pushed him gently. "Thank you for that. Stupid mistake. I can't wait for this crappy work to be over. I'm hoping I never have to take math again for the rest of my life. It's not like everyday math is ever this complicated, and I have no desire to become any sort of Mathematician."

"I agree, but needs must," Kurt said. "Speaking of which. Hurry and finish up, I am taking you to the mall. I am sick of seeing you shivering. Ohio get's colder than Las Vegas, you know. We even get snow."

"Hush up, I don't even want to hear about that. I have never even seen snow...in my life. So, this will be something new." I said. "Okay, I'm done. Do you think it will be possible to stop shivering? I forget what warm feels like."

Kurt laughed. Grabbed my hand and dragged me next door to where his car waited. "You are too funny, Kora. When are we going to see this special project you have been working on?" He asked.

I smiled. "I want it to be perfect, and there hasn't been a good opportunity to use it yet. Mr. Shue has not given us the right assignment yet. We shall see what happens in the next few weeks; that is if I don't freeze first."

"You'll be fine," Kurt said. "I promise you won't freeze to death. That's why we are here."

"You are awesome, and I am so glad that I have you!"

Mashoff

"You have got to be kidding me, Finn, really? Has Santana gone insane to agree with you? I asked as we all stood in the hallway at lunch."Wasn't it supposed to be a friendly competition between the rival clubs? I didn't think that Dodgeball was exactly what they meant."

Puck looked over at me." Are you scared, Thumbelina? We have to defend our honor, and show the TroubleTones that they will never overtake New Directions."

I sighed and stood up as tall as I could manage to look over at him. "I'm not scared, Puckerman. I just think that it's petty and juvenile. I will get out there and mindlessly chuck balls at people I should still consider friends, I just don't think it will solve anything."

Kurt looked over at me. "Are you sure you should? I've seen what happens when you over exert yourself, and it's not pretty, and potentially hazardous."

"Thank you for that reminder, Kurt. But if Tumbelina doesn't show up and chuck rubber at the other team, Satan will rise and burn me alive." I said."Rachel, Tina, Quinn, and I are all that New Directions has got. You guys can spot me. As long as I can get to the bench and the car I won't injure myself or others. If we're going to be stupid we have to do it together."

"Well said, Kora, so we are going to do this thing?" Finn asked. " He looked over as Santana came walking down the hallway. Santana was not giving us long to decide since Finn had been silly enough to bring up the idea in the first place. "We're in Santana! Today after school, bring the TroubleTones! Dodgeball is on!"

I shook my head and walked down the hallway back into the choir room. Artie followed me. I hadn't admitted the truth to Puck, and Kurt was right, but I still had my pride, and if no one showed up for rehearsal, Mr. Shue would begin to wonder, and I was pretty sure that he would call a stop to the game if he knew

about it. That would only piss both clubs off, so I couldn't let that happen. I sat in my customary chair, and Artie came over to me. I hoped Mr. Shue would stop by the choir room on lunch, because I didn't feel like tracking him down before class started.

"We can stick together tomorrow, Kora. We're both at a disadvantage tonight." he said.

I smiled at him. "Thanks for that, Artie, but you know that Finn is going to use you as a steal clad missile. Don't tell anyone, but I'm intending to kamikaze as soon I can. having balls thrown at me is actually really terrifying to me. I just didn't want to say anything to the group, because we can't afford anymore division in this group."

Artie nodded in understanding. "I think you can pull that off, just stay out of the way of Santana, and you should be fine."

Mr. Shue came in a few minutes later. "Hey, Artie, Kora, what's up? We don't have rehearsal today."

"Oh, yeah, we had forgotten," I said. Good to know. I have been a little preoccupied lately. Well that's good. I don't have to bail on the movie I really want to see."

"Yep, I've got teacher things I have to do today. So we shall pick up where we left off tomorrow."

"Cool," I said. "I hope things go well for you, Mr. Shue."

Well that was settled, now Dodgeball armageddon could could commence without a hitch. It felt like my stomach was going to drop out. It hurt. I just hoped no one was going to get hurt from this show of bravado. I wasn't going to be able to stop the foolishness, so I might as well enjoy myself.

Everyone was in the gymnasium getting decked out in Dodgeball approved paraphernalia. I didn't do sports or PE, so I was lacking in that department, and apparently people of my frame and stature never had to borrow gym clothes for class, because I felt like my shorts were constantly heading south of the border, and my red WMHS shirt was a tent. Kurt was being hounded by Rachel and doing his best to ignore her, so he could offer me no assistance.

"Come here you!" Blaine said grabbing my hand and pulling me over to the side of the gym. "You're going to have an unfortunate wardrobe malfunction if we don't do something about that outfit."

"It's horrible isn't it? Do you think we could accomplish something with safety pins and a couple of hair ties? I have those in my bag."

"Go get them, and we'll see if we can keep you in those gym clothes."

I grabbed my bag of random odds and ends out of my bag and brought it over to Blaine. By the time he finished I think that I was rocking an eighties vibe, but at least my clothes were staying put. I was tying my shoes when the rest of the red clad New Directions came over.

Kurt spun me around and snickered. "Blaine Warbler, you turned Kora into a Cyndi Lauper wannabe."

"I'll take that over a Janet Jackson repeat, Kurt," I said. "Dodgeball naked would not be my preferred method."

"I could go for that!" Puck said. "Hey everyone, Kora wants the girls to get naked!"

Everyone turned to me with mixed expressions on their faces. "Noah Puckerman! If I didn't need you for you bomb-ass guitar skills, you would be dead right now! Blaine helped me so my clothes wouldn't fall off. I have no interest in getting anyone else naked, ever."

"Ever?" Kurt asked raising an eyebrow.

I shrugged, but Finn called the game to order before I could respond. I personally had not played the game since elementary school, so I had no idea how things were going to go down. Finn blew the whistle, the balls were placed in a line, and the teams gathered in huddles. Brittany switched on the boom box and it was on!

Finn took the lead on Hit Me With Your Best Shot. Santana came on with One way or another, and I think red rubber balls will haunt my dreams now. "Don't die" was a more than accurate description of the events. I lasted more rounds than I thought I would. Which was awesome and not at the same time.

Apparently, I wasn't on TroubleTone radar. Then I looked over as my vision was starting to get hazy and Santana's throw knocked me flat on my back. I was stunned, but crawled off to the side before I was crushed. I wish I could describe the feeling that I get when I exhaust myself. It's a cross between a paralytic feeling and that pins and needles feeling you get when a limb falls asleep. That plus a major case of the space-cadets, and you had me. So by this point I wasn't really able to focus on the game at all. Things lost their fun because, Santana was in major bitch mode and pelted Rory with balls. His nose was bloodied by the looks of it, and Kurt lost it. He was right. The Glee outcasts had to stick together.

I clapped weakly and resumed my glassy-eyed, teary stare at nothing in particular. I really should have listened to Kurt. I was a total and complete moron, and to top it all off, I think I was actually forgotten for a while. I don't have any real proof of this, but I know I was alone in the gym for a while, and suddenly there was the sound of pounding feet and I saw Finn frantically looking around. I tried to stand up and fell back against the wall. Thankfully the thud caught his attention.

"You look drunk," He said. He didn't bother fussing and just picked me up.

"Pretty much," I said. Normally I would have died of embarrassment at being carried, but I was really too out of it to care. "Kurt threaten you?"

"Yes. You should have sat out, Kora. You don't look good." He said. Kurt glared at him the whole time as he helped me settle into the back seat.

"I'll be fine, Finn. This is actually better than sitting out and feeling like a useless nobody." I said that last part loud enough for Kurt and Blaine to hear. None of us had been forced to play, so it wasn't really Finn's fault. It was still pretty fun, but I did need a nap, and frankly I was debating skipping school the next day. I really need to think things through better, I really did. Heads up the rivalry was still really heated, and Finn makes an oopsie.