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Chapter 21
I.
Allie knocks on the Dean's door at 4:53pm on Friday. She's had one of the busiest days of the academic year so far. A group of prospective graduate students from all across the United Kingdom had gotten stranded in Chicago due to a snowstorm that had canceled their connecting flight. The entire day's worth of programming that she had planned for them had to be postponed, other arrangements for them made, and she had spent the entire day on the phone with American Airlines trying to get the group to New York. Yes, she does realize that Chicago is further from Europe than New York is. That fact has just added to the stress of her day and the hilarity of the situation.
Thankfully, she had done most of her research on the Rachel Berry situation yesterday. Kylie Bilson had spent about five minutes in her office before she had spilled the whole story. Allie had actually felt sorry for Rachel and how much she had misplaced her confidence in the girl. Kylie had confirmed that Rachel had spent all three nights with Jesse in his room and that Rachel had asked Kylie to say otherwise. It had been too easy to corroborate her story with the front desk staff in Jesse's dorm, many of whom had seen Rachel exit and enter with Jesse various times during their 8am – 11pm shifts.
She had felt torn as to what to do with the information. She feels like she owes Jesse and Rachel each a warning that the Dean intends to call her parents. They have done nothing wrong, and normally the university wouldn't care, so she feels like they are being unfairly singled out for something.
For all anyone knows, one of them could have spent all three nights on the air mattress that the front desk staff said that Jesse checked out for the entire duration of her stay. Allie allows herself to believe this for about ten seconds before she picture's Jesse's curls and remembers his confidence and the obvious tension between the two teens. Rachel must be the most honorable young girl in the world if she made it through the entire weekend without compromising her virtue in anyway.
But, she realizes that making the Dean happy and keeping her job is the most important thing right now. She knocks on the Dean's door and she can tell that he's on his way out of the office. She apologizes for missing her 12pm deadline, but reassures him that the Socrates group is now on a flight to La Guardia and that all their programming has been rescheduled. He doesn't say anything, but she can tell that he is intently listening. Allie confirms that Rachel Berry spent all three nights with Jesse St. James in his dorm room.
She tells him about the air mattress and the possibility that their visit was extremely innocent. He looks up from where he is gathering papers to look her in the eye, and he chuckles, shaking his head to himself. She's never felt more foolish and she starts to retreat from his office. He thanks her for her hard work, tells her to enjoy her weekend.
"I'll talk to her parents first thing on Monday," he says.
II.
After school on Friday, Rachel is changing out of her interview clothes while Kurt is looking through her closet. Jesse had been right, Troy had hired on her on the spot. She starts tomorrow, and will work Sunday too, but she will be able to change around her schedule for the weekends that Jesse is in town. It's the best job that she can imagine. She gets to give music suggestions for a living, and when the store is slow she can do her homework.
"Why the sudden need for a job?" Kurt asks, as he tries on one of her tu-tus from a middle school dance recital over his skinny jeans.
"Just saving up for NYU," Rachel answers. She tosses him the angel wings that had also been a part of her costume, laughing as he clambers for it.
"You have a pure costume wardrobe," he criticizes, "Nothing in here should be worn on a normal school day. It's either over the top or just plain ugly."
"Tell me how you really feel," Rachel says, laughing, "I like how I dress."
"You would." She looks at him with an exasperated glance. It's an insult that falls far short of his usual ones.
"Forget it," Kurt says. He's finding it harder to be genuinely mean to her. She can tell.
He reaches for the t-shirt that had caused such a scene in glee club yesterday, removes it from its hanger. "And where, pray tell, did you get this mastermind of a shirt?"
She hesitates. "Does our bubble of secrecy extend to this conversation?" she asks. She wants to test her boundaries with him.
"Since you now have to tell me the answer to that question," he stresses, "I will promise you anything," Kurt finishes eagerly. "Finn will never hear of this conversation."
It's an easy thing for him to promise. Finn has no idea where he is and doesn't know that he has developed this friendship with Rachel. He thinks that with the stress of the wedding and the move to the new house, what Finn doesn't know can't hurt him.
"Jesse gave it to me."
The full implication of her words doesn't escape him. "That was nice of him," Kurt tries lamely.
Rachel looks at him like she can't believe that he just said that with a straight face and without any hint of sarcasm.
"Go easy on me. You caught me off guard. You really let him get into your pants?" Kurt asks with genuine wonder.
Rachel rolls her eyes and counters with her own question; asks it with a raised eyebrow. "How long before you allow Blaine into your pants?"
Kurt is so pale that his blush actually turns him tomato red. "We've only kissed once. Well, more than once but it was that one time."
"Fair enough," Rachel answers. It's Kurt's turn to look at her with a raised eyebrow. He's about to ask her more probing questions when one of Rachel's dads calls up the stairs that Finn is here and is coming up to talk to her.
As Finn's thuds sound up the stairs, Rachel curses her dads' mantra that she fight her own battles. Sometimes she thinks that if she had a mother, she would have gone on the defensive on Rachel's behalf and not allowed Finn, the persistent ex-boyfriend, up to her room. She watches, amused, as Kurt takes off the tu-tu and leaps off of her bed into the less comfortable chair in the corner.
Finn enters the room, carrying a garment bag at shoulder level. He looks over at Kurt in the chair, smiles at him. He obviously thinks that Kurt is there to forward his agenda of getting back together with Rachel.
"Hey, Rachel. I came to drop this off," Finn says happily, while signaling to the garment bag with his free hand.
"What's in the bag?" Rachel asks.
"Your dress for the wedding," Finn says, looking over at Kurt for support. At about the same time, Kurt realizes that he hasn't told Rachel one important piece of information.
"Did I forget to mention that?" Kurt says with a false high-pitched laugh, "Carole decided to have the whole glee club perform at the wedding so she ordered dresses for everyone. Mr. Shue made the announcement during Glee yesterday. You were, um, indisposed."
Rachel shoots him a glare from across the room. Kurt shrugs his shoulders, takes that as his cue to leave.
"See you at home, Finn." He mouths the word 'Sorry' to Rachel, behind Finn's back, before he turns to leave the room.
"Kurt could have brought it," Rachel finally says. "I have to work that day. It will only be my second week on the job and I don't know if my boss will allow me to have the time off."
"You work now?"
Rachel nods. "I got a job at the music store on Columbus Drive. I'm trying to save money for NYU," she explains, telling him the same lie that she told to Kurt.
"What's gotten into you Rachel?" Finn asks suddenly, angrily. "You spend one weekend at NYU and suddenly you feel like you're better than everyone else? Better than me? I never thought you could be this stuck up."
"I never said that Finn," Rachel says, deciding to ignore the accusation that she's stuck up.
"You didn't have to," Finn says, "It's obvious."
Rachel folds her arms, wishes that she could leave her room and her house altogether.
Finn's not done. "Everyone thinks that you act like a diva and I've always loved you in spite of that. I don't know why that's suddenly not enough for you."
"I apologize for making it so hard for you to like me," Rachel says, "It's a good thing that we're not together anymore then."
Finn looks perplexed as to how she turned his words against him. When did Rachel get so hostile? She had always been the first one to back down from one of their fights. He decides to leave it there, for now.
"Mom wants you to tell me if the dress fits before I leave." He holds the garment bag out to her as he speaks.
"I'm not sure I'll be able to make it," she says challengingly.
"Try to," he says, "I want you to be there, even if it is as just a friend."
She grabs the bag from him and retreats to her bathroom to try it on. She hurriedly pulls the dress on, determines that it's fine, if a bit long on her. She calls to him through the door that it fits fine and that he should tell Carole thank you.
"Aren't you going to show it to me?" he asks, shocked that she hasn't reentered her bedroom.
He hears her exhale then she walks out of the bathroom with her arms folded against her chest.
"There. It fits."
He seems a bit stunned. His mouth drops open. "You look really pretty, Rachel."
"Your mom picked the dress," she says automatically. She softens, reconsiders her anger. "Thank you."
There is awkward silence for about two minutes before he makes up some wedding-related excuse to leave. She doesn't even walk him down the stairs.
Hiram comes up to check on her when Finn leaves. She's still in her dress, lying back on her bed with her hands in her lap.
"You okay, sweetie?"
She wishes everything was out in the open. She can't even remember why she's keeping all these secrets in the first place.
"I hope so," she answers her daddy. She's not wholly convinced.
III.
She calls Kurt after Hiram leaves her room. "Thanks for abandoning me," she states.
"I have a way to make it up to you," Kurt promises.
"Does it involve you in a tu-tu?" Rachel says with as straight a tone as she can manage.
"It involves a date," Kurt says excitedly, "Tomorrow night. His name is Malcolm and he is in the Warblers with me."
"You're setting me up on a date with the enemy?" She wants to tell him that its not a good idea, for a variety of reasons, some of which she won't mention, but he interrupts her.
"I want to ease into dating Blaine with a double date. He and Malcolm are really close. Mal is really cute and he has a great personality, and he sings." Kurt sounds like he's pleading with her and demanding that she do it at the same time.
"Kurt. I'm not really up to dating anyone right now."
"I'm not asking you to sleep with him, Rachel," he says exasperatedly. "It's pizza, on a Saturday night with a bunch of friends. It's not like you have anything better to do."
She thinks he's probably right. It would be nice to go out and do something rather than stay home and miss Jesse. She's also more than a little curious to meet Blaine.
"Fine. But don't expect anything from me. I'm there to be the fourth wheel and to support you. Malcolm is collateral damage."
"Fair enough," he answers her, using the same tone that she used earlier when she said the same thing to him. "You still have to finish the story you were telling me," he says. "You're telling me the whole thing when I come over tomorrow to get ready for our date."
Great, she thinks, she can't wait to explain this to Jesse.
IV.
She hangs up with Kurt when her phone tells her that she has a call waiting. She doesn't know when she got this popular. It's a number that she doesn't recognize but it's a local area code.
It's Santana. This morning, she had approached Santana in the girls' locker room and handed over her bounty: books about applying to college, books on writing personal statements specifically, books on taking the SATs, a student agenda with important deadlines marked in them, and a personal calendar that had dates that Santana had to turn in stuff to Rachel to proof-read and/or comment on.
Santana had looked at her like she was crazy.
In response to her look of disbelief Rachel had replied: "Whenever I do something, I do it well."
"That's what Jesse said," Santana had retorted with a smirk.
Santana is on the phone to get Rachel's recommendations on additional colleges to apply to so she can talk to her parents about them. Sarah Lawrence is still her first choice, but Rachel's information had alerted her to the fact that there might be other schools that she could be interested in.
They have a perfectly civil conversation, and at the end of it, Rachel saves Santana's number to her phone.
V.
She's that sort of obvious pretty that Europeans are famous for: eyeliner but no eye shadow, layers with no bulk, accent with no misinterpretation, and she wants him.
He's been in this type of situation multiple times before. Well, maybe not this exact situation, but the context is familiar.
She's an Italian in the French graduate program, which means that she speaks French with an Italian accent. It's cute.
He talks to her in his broken French for about 15-minutes, practices the vocabulary that he's learned in the first few weeks of the semester. At the end of their session, she signs the slip that gives him credit for their time together and, in one fluid motion, tears a piece of paper out of her Moleskine notebook and writes her number and address on it.
"We're having a wine and cheese party tomorrow night at my place," she says, resting her hand on his arm, way closer to him than she should be.
"We miss home," she explains with an exaggerated movement of her hands. "You should come."
Jesse nods, slips her note into his pocket, turns to leave.
"I'm Claire," she says, even her plain name sounding more enticing than it should with her accent.
He turns back. "Jesse," he says.
Don't hate me.