SEVEN
Kurt received his first piece of mail the first Monday in December. Four envelopes had been pushed through the mail slot in the door each bearing the name of one of the boys living in the suite. He was fussing over a strand of hair that refused to lay right when Jeff appeared in his doorway waving around the manila envelope.
"Delivery for you."
Kurt threw up his hands in frustration and turned away from the mirror. Jeff handed over the envelope and waited while Kurt unwound the string holding it closed. He pulled out a stack of vouchers.
"But I haven't made myself very useful this past month," Kurt objected.
"Doesn't matter. You're in the registry, so you get vouchers. Besides, a little lack of productivity is expected your first few weeks. They make you see a shrink if you're too consumed with work right away."
Kurt eyed the stack of vouchers skeptically, but there was no giving them back now. He would make it up by actually accomplishing something in December. He added the paper slips to his wallet where he'd stored the blue Dagny had given him.
"Keep the envelope for when you need to send mail. Cross out your name, and write the address below. Bring your greens downstairs."
Kurt slung his messenger bag over his shoulder and followed Jeff out of the apartment. They dropped their greens into a collection basket on the counter in the dining room.
Blaine and Nick had gone down to breakfast earlier. There was a mocha waiting for Kurt when he took his usual seat at the new, bigger table by the window facing the brick wall.
"I'm worried you're not eating enough," Kurt snarked.
He lifted an eyebrow at the pile of scrambled eggs, fried potatoes, and sausage links on Blaine's plate as he peeled the banana he'd taken from the fruit bowl on the counter. His eyes flew open in surprise when he took the first bite.
"Oh my God! This banana is delicious!"
His friends had a hearty laugh at his expense.
"Never had a fresh picked banana before, have you?" Jeff asked. "I, too, was very happy when Marco started growing tropical fruits in his greenhouse. He even has some feijoas there."
Kurt eyed the fruit bowl and finally gave into the temptation to go back for a couple more bananas. He patently ignored his friends' ribbing the entire walk to school.
Although going to school at this point was somewhat pointless, Kurt went anyway. He had missed too many classes to be able to do his assignments well, so he was taking Incompletes and registering for the same classes next semester.
The weather had turned cold over the weekend. A sheet of ice covered the grass every morning, and a frigid wind blew from the west, but it hadn't snowed yet. The citizens of Here had abandoned their jackets for winter coats and scarves.
Kurt had been thrilled to find at the warehouse a genuine Burberry wool trenchcoat in burnt orange with geometric fastenings, and he was ecstatic that he could actually wear it now. He paired it with a fantastic black check cashmere scarf and a faux fur hat that he had, perhaps, found on the women's side of the warehouse.
"How is it that I look like a marshmallow in my winter coat," Hana began, "and Kurt looks courter?"
"Couture," Jeff corrected gently.
"That's not English," the girl argued.
"You look like a marshmallow because you picked a puffy white coat and you're tiny," Kurt said. "Come shopping with me, and I'll pick you out a fabulous, fashionable winter coat."
"I can't. I'm saving all my vouchers for presents. I don't celebrate Christmas, but all my friends do. You guys buy me things and give me unholy amounts of candy, and then I feel terribly. I'm not letting that happen this year."
They had reached the College Quad where they all attended classes to find a scrum at the door. Normally, students lingered in the courtyard, but with the biting wind everyone wanted inside immediately.
"The coat is my Christmas gift to you," Jeff said.
He handed Kurt one of his blues, and then ducked his head and kissed his girlfriend for so long Nick, Blaine, and Kurt rolled their eyes at the spectacle. With warning, two pairs of hands sent Kurt and Blaine flying. Nick grabbed and managed to keep Kurt on his feet, but Blaine went sprawling onto the concrete. Kurt crouched down to see if Blaine was all right.
"Back the hell off, Parrish!" Nick shouted, shoving the Southern boy back.
"Make me, Yankee."
Nick rolled his eyes. "Are you that obtuse that you don't realize you just gave me the perfect in to call you a Redneck?"
Kurt turned and cocked an appreciative eyebrow at Nick. Blaine's hand using his shoulder as leverage brought him back the important matter, whether Blaine was injured or not. He, apparently, was just fine except for a bruised ego.
"And that gives me the perfect in to call these two fairies."
"No, it doesn't," Nick said very slowly, as if speaking to a child. "But your lack of understanding does provide a wonderful example for why individuals with an immediate common ancestor shouldn't be allowed to have children."
Jeff didn't even try to hold back his laughter, and neither did anyone else in hearing distance. Red blossomed on Parrish's cheeks, and he shoved his way to the front of the line and through the doors.
"You all right?"
Blaine nodded at Nick as he brushed at the back of his pants. Their friends turned to Kurt, but the pale boy didn't say anything. He was staring at Nick like he'd never seen anything like him before. And he hadn't. No one had ever defended Kurt against his bullies before. He'd always had to stand up to Karofsky and Azimio alone because Finn's shame had faded and the girls couldn't take on football players and he was too proud to ask anyone else for help.
"Kurt?"
"Yeah. Yeah, I'm fine."
Blaine held Kurt back when the others went through the doors, but from the corner of his eye, he saw Nick and Jeff hovering on the other side of the glass, as if prepared to come charging back outside if Parrish and his crony came back for seconds.
"I'm fine, Blaine. Really. I didn't even fall. Are you sure you're okay?"
The curly-haired boy watched him closely for a few seconds, and Kurt put on his bravest face. He wouldn't turn this into a pity party and whine about how no one had ever defended him before. At last, Blaine nodded, and they went into class.
o o o
Despite having performed in a show choir for a year and a half and singing in the privacy of his bedroom for much longer, Kurt couldn't help but be incredibly nervous about his audition for The Wonderland Company. It may not be the "real" Broadway, but it was the only Broadway he would ever get to perform on.
The Wonderland Company accepted all types of performing artists, and Kurt was invited to showcase all his talents, although he only needed one to make it into the company. He considered combining singing, acting, and dancing with a song like Some People, but Jeff strongly advised against that. Some of the less congenial members might not like the idea of a young, handsome triple threat coming in to steal their thunder.
So maybe The Wonderland Company was a little more like New Directions than he'd thought.
Kurt hardly ate anything at dinner he was so nervous. He had been singing in his head during all the classes he didn't actually have to attend and practicing alone for the last hour. He was too apprehensive to actually let his friends hear him sing, which they all thought was silly, which only made him dig his heels in more.
Kurt had finally discovered the purpose of the brick wall he stared at during every meal. The building next door had started as a storage area for set pieces and had been converted into a practice area over the years. At seven o'clock, the entire company gathered in the practice theater. Cillian and Ciara sat at a table amid a mismatched collection of chairs containing actors, singers, dancers, and musicians.
Kurt took a breath and strode onto the stage like he owned it. In the front row, his friends gave him encouraging smiles and surreptitious thumbs up.
"Good evening," Cillian said, smiling warmly. "You all probably recognize Kurt from meals. He's been living with our students for almost a month now. But seeing someone and knowing them are two different things, so if you don't mind, Kurt, we'll start by getting to you know you a bit."
"Hello, I'm Kurt Hummel, and I'll be auditioning to join The Carrollers. I'm seventeen. I'm from a small town in Ohio. I've been a member of glee club since September of last year, and I just recently played Riff Raff in a stage production of Rocky Horror. You might also have seen me backstage at your shows a couple times furiously mending hemlines and BeDazzling everything in sight." He paused to allow for laughter. "Being on Broadway is my dream. It has been ever since I was a little boy, and I am so honored to be singing for you tonight."
Cillian nodded, and a pretty middle-aged Korean woman climbed on stage to take his sheet music. He knew her name was Yunjin, but he'd never spoken to her before. She was nothing at all like Brad, who plodded over to the piano and gave baleful looks at the singers. Yunjin smiled warmly and had bright, laughing brown eyes. When Kurt gave her the signal, she began playing the opening notes of Celine Dion's My Heart Will Go On.
"Every night in my dreams
I see you, I feel you
That is how I know you go on"
The company took in a collective breath. This song was one they had all sang at some point to feel connected to the loved ones they'd left on the other side. Those who had been in Here when the first copy of Titanic had arrived remembered openly sobbing over this song, and not because of Jack and Rose's story.
Blaine hardly heard the words. He had spent a lot of time imagining what Kurt's voice sounded like. Blaine could hear in his modal voice that he was a countertenor with a lyrical style. But his imagination couldn't prepare him for such a glorious voice. He sat in awe as Kurt's voice soared and held the high notes. He never wanted the song to end, but it had to eventually.
When it did, and Kurt left the auditorium for the company to deliberate, Blaine's eyes followed his retreat.
Jeff elbowed him hard in the ribs to get his attention. Cillian was speaking, opening the floor for opinions. Blaine didn't understand how anyone could find any faults with Kurt's performance. His voice was flawless … angelic … beautiful. He was beautiful.
"Judging by the little hearts coming out of his eyes, I think Blaine votes yes," Dagny quipped.
The boy in question blushed pale pink when he realized half the company looked at him expectantly. Ciara had asked him a question. Little ripples of laughter erupted around the room.
"Now, now," Ciara scolded. "I asked you, Blaine, why you didn't tell us before he had such a voice."
"He didn't know," Hana answered. "None of us did. Kurt wasn't in the mood to be singing until a few days ago, and then he was too stubborn to let us hear."
In hindsight, Hana realized she shouldn't have said that. The more crotchety members of the company leapt on Kurt's tenacity and independence as reasons he shouldn't be allowed in. The outrage from the teenagers nearly sparked another tangential argument over "kids these days," but Ciara shushed everyone effectively.
"Just because your voice has been quavering for the last twenty years don't mean you get to crush the dreams of a talented young man, Caroline! For shame! You play your fiddle and shut your gob," Cillian called over his wife's more mellow entireties.
"It's a violin, you Irish yokel!" Caroline shouted back.
Normally, the younger members found these arguments humorous and endearing. The older members had been friends so long they could scream abuse at each other without damaging their friendships at all. But today, Kurt was waiting outside to hear if his dreams of being a professional performer were going to come true.
"Turn up your hearing aids!" Dagny hollered. "Ciara said we're voting."
The older set turned their ire on Dagny, but cast their vote when Ciara demanded it for a second time.
Out in the hallway, Kurt waited nervously on a bench across from the practice theater's double doors. He knew the company could get boisterous from common meals, but it sounded like they were shouting at each other, albeit about violins and hearing aids, but shouting all the same. That didn't bode well for his chances. They could decide he was a divisive influence and reject him. His mind was spinning into worse and worse scenarios when the doors open.
Blaine crossed the lobby with a blank look on his face. Kurt took a deep breath and forced himself to assume a neutral expression. Several tense seconds passed.
"Kurt … Congratulations."
The taller boy jumped up from the bench and clasped his hands together in front of his mouth. He bounced around on the balls of his feet and grinned toothily.
"You jerk!" he laughed, shoving Blaine's shoulder.
"I'm sorry. I couldn't help myself. Kurt. You blew me away in there. Your voice … I've never heard anything like it."
The sudden arrival of Nick, Jeff, and Dagny with fierce hugs saved Kurt the embarrassment of finding an appropriate response to such high praise. He smiled at Blaine through the tangle of arms.
"Stop jumping on Kurt! You're going to hurt him," Hana demanded. She gave Kurt a more controlled hug when they backed off. "We have a tradition whenever someone our age joins the company. I'll go get your coat."
While Hana ran off to fetch Kurt's winter wear from the coat room, the rest of The Wonderland Company filed out of the auditorium to congratulate and welcome Kurt. He guessed some of them hadn't voted in his favor, considering the yelling, but everyone was perfectly friendly to him now that he was one of them.
"We'll talk about rehearsal schedules and all that later," Ciara said, patting his cheek. "I'm sure your friends are going to drag you off for their little tradition now." She sighed wistfully and gave him a precious smile. "I'm so happy you're one of my mine now, Kurt. Oh, I know you're a man, and you don't need a soppy old woman like me coddling you, but I have grown ever so fond of you."
"We've hardly spoken," Kurt sputtered.
She patted his cheek again. "Oh, dearie. It doesn't take soul-searching conversation to know you're in the company of someone you'll come to care for a great deal. These things, you just know them."
Jeff and Dagny intruded on the moment by trying to thrust Kurt's arms into his Burberry coat. He snapped at them and took the coat away.
"I am perfectly capable of putting on my own coat! You two are a dangerous combination, especially to my coat. Do you know how much this coat costs?"
"A blue voucher," Hana deadpanned.
"Almost three thousand dollars. I know that doesn't mean much to an Aussie, but you should understand its value, Dagny."
"Aussies are from Australia," Jeff said, throwing an arm around Kurt's shoulders. "Kiwis are from New Zealand."
"So are Hobbits."
"Hana's on a roll with the sarcasm tonight," Nick laughed.
Kurt let himself be guided out into the freezing nighttime. The sun had set long ago, leaving the sky dotted with hundreds of stars. Steady yellow light spilled onto the cobblestone walkways from wind-powered light bulbs in old fashion lampposts. Kurt had never really noticed them before, always being inside at night. There was no way that many lampposts and light bulbs had been lost. Someone had cast the metal poles and re-invented the incandescent light bulb.
"So what's this tradition?"
All his friends would tell him was, "You'll see" as they dragged him into a part of Here he'd never seen before. The cold wind made their faces numb and bright red. By the time they stumbled into an old fashioned storefront, clinging together for warmth and still shivering, they looked like children who had been playing in the snow all day.
Kurt's eyes flicked around the small shop for a moment before he burst into laughter. They had brought him to an ice cream parlor. A few small tables overlooked Boulevard through the frosted plate glass windows, and a small waiting area separated the seating from the counter. Behind a display case, buckets of ice cream sat in a freezer. Through a large window in the wall, he saw a bakery and candy shop in the next building.
"You are all insane. It's freezing outside, literally, and you bring me for ice cream?"
A plump middle-aged woman with wavy red hair came out of the back drying her hands on a dish towel. Her whole face lit up when she saw the teenagers shivering in her ice cream shop. She leaned to the left to get a clear view of Kurt.
"Would this be the newest addition to The Wonderland Company?" she asked in a vaguely Eastern European accent.
"That's right. This is Kurt Hummel. Kurt, this is Amalie Kokinos. She's Andreas's sister-in-law," Blaine introduced.
Kurt pulled off his warm glove to shake her hand over the counter. Her warm, dry skin felt wonderful after the freezing cold that had numbed his digits.
"Congratulations, Kurt. What flavor can I get for you?"
The menu chalkboard behind the counter listed six basic flavors of hand-churned ice cream. Before Kurt could object that he didn't have any greens to spend on food (and neither did his friends), Blaine handed Amalie a yellow.
"I'm pretty sure this guy will have a scoop of mocha. And you know what the rest of us like."
Kurt tried not to smile too widely at the accurate order. Amalie dipped a metal ice cream scoop in water and set to filling six bowls with one, heaping scoop each. Kurt accepted the bowl of mocha ice cream with a thank you. He shivered just feeling the cold dessert in the palm of his hands.
They pulled chairs from other tables and all crowded around a single round table meant to seat two so that their thighs and shoulders brushed while they huddled into their coats and scarves to stay warm while eating their ice cream.
"We definitely need to do an ensemble for mid-winter," Dagny announced. "I don't know if someone can dance because he declined to dance at all for his audition after we so generously offered to help him, but I have an amazing idea for a hip hop Christmas routine."
"No way," Jeff laughed, while Nick and Blaine groaned. "Every time we try to do anything hip hop or R&B, Blaine ends up jumping on the furniture and getting us in trouble with Ciara. Does no one else remember Bills, Bills, Bills or When I Get You Alone?"
Kurt choked on a mouthful of ice cream.
"Fine. What about a tap routine?"
The other boys seemed much more amenable to that idea, but Kurt shifted nervously in his seat. He'd never tap danced before in his life, and it hadn't looked like the easiest thing to do when he'd watched Tina and Mike do it. He raised his hand off the table to object, but it wasn't noticed or was purposefully ignored.
"Awesome! I'll tell Yunjin to add us to the lineup and start choreography tomorrow. We should start rehearsing by the middle of this week if we want to get in any good performances. What size do you wear, Kurt? We'll have to find you some tap shoes."
Hana and Dagny lost themselves in the details of all the wonderful songs they could tap dance to without even waiting to hear Kurt's shoe size. The whole performance was feit accompli.
"I can't tap dance," Kurt muttered to no one in particular.
"Don't worry. Dagny always does Broadway tap with us and saves the jazz tap for the actual dancers," Jeff said around a mouthful of chocolate ice cream.
He looked like he wanted to say more, but his girlfriend tugged on his sleeve, drawing him into the conversation about the perfect winter songs for their set.
"This is going to be a disaster."
"Hey," Blaine said, nudging his shoulder, "It'll be fine. This is something you'd have to learn for musicals anyway. Dagny will teach you. But if you're really that nervous, we can do extra practices together."
"Really? You're not too busy?"
Blaine shook his head. "I mean, December is a really busy, but … I'll make time for you."
Kurt sucked in a deep breath and smiled in way he hoped wasn't too obvious. His eyes lingered on Blaine's handsome face after Dagny kicked the curly-headed boy under the table and demanded his attention.
December, Kurt thought, was going to be wonderful.
Credits: Lyrics from "My Heart Will Go On" by Celine Dion.