Mercedes's POV
"Mercedes, you can stop lying now. I saw you pick out that exact shirt for my birthday gift at the mall last week, and you know it," Kurt was holding up a blue and green crosshatched plaid dress shirt that he'd been fawning over on one of our mall trips. I was leaning against the locker next to his, trying to keep a straight face. His expression was like a little kid's on Christmas morning, but his tone of voice was accusingly annoyed. The giant teddy bear that had been left in front of his locker earlier sat by his feet, but he hadn't said anything about that yet. Okay, so maybe it was a bad idea, but tomorrow's gift would make up for that.
"Kurt, I swear, I am NOT your secret admirer! But obviously he has good taste…" I took the shirt from Kurt's hands and hung it carefully on the closet rod he'd installed in his locker. "Great," I added for good measure, "Now I'm going to have to get you a new birthday gift!"
Actually, the shirt was the one I'd bought for Kurt last week, but I'd given it to Finn because I figure love is harder to come by than a good present.
"Mercedes, don't kid yourself. I am the only guy in this whole school with a morsel of fashion sense. How would he have known what kind of things I like? I think you know more than you're letting on, 'Cedes…"
"Kurt, you've got to believe me! I don't know a thing, and do you really think I could resist telling you if I did?"
Kurt turned a corner of his lips up and brought a hand up to his chin thoughtfully. "True…," he contemplated, "but I still think its Karofsky or one of those footballers. I have a feeling that at the end of this whole thing I'm going to end up in a dumpster covered in yesterday's leftovers. I should just leave a note telling him to buzz off. Right?"
"Kurt," I urged, standing up straight to give him this piece of business, "if I thought it was one of the jocks I would totally support that idea, but I don't know. So what if someone out there really likes you? What if he just wants to be with you and he's standing right around the corner listening to you criticize all of his gifts and give credit to some hockey player with an IQ of 0.5?"
Kurt's eyes widened, and he took off down the hall, peeked around the corner and ran back.
"Nope. No one there."
"Kurt, it was a figure of speech."
"Mercedes, who, I beg of you, would be in love with me in William McKinley High School in Lima, Ohio?"
I waggled my eyebrows and prepared for a perfectly constructed exit. "Maybe someone you'd never expect?" I strutted off down the hall towards the choir room, a good place to take cover for a while until Kurt was gone and Finn came to find me. I'd just work on my runs or something. The door was unlocked (Mr. Schuster had papered over the window after the whole hairography fiasco) so I turned the handle and entered, and instantly shrieked. Well, I guess we all shoulda seen that one coming.
Tina was sitting on Artie's lap, her arms draped around his shoulder, and the two were attached by the mouth. It looked like there was some serious tongue action going on there… that is, until my outlandish shriek reached their ears and they broke apart, blushing furiously.
"We, uh… w-we…" Artie stuttered, making Tina giggle and stand back up.
"I'll just… be going…" I said, walking backwards, smiling at them like a fool until I shut the door behind me. I was glad for them… they deserved each other. Just one more happy ending taken care of. I swear, sometimes I feel like the matchmaker around this place! But as far as I'm concerned, I've only got one couple left: Finn and Kurt. And in this case my work is pretty much cut out for me. All I needed to do was pitch in a few bucks, complain of headaches to my teachers so I could sneak out of class and leave the stuff in Kurt's locker, and keep the whole thing a big secret. That, and make sure that Finn's letters were properly proofread. But like I said: easy-peasy. But since Tina and Artie were still… uh… occupying the choir room, I had nowhere to go to give a progress report to Finn. Thinking fast, I ducked into the abandoned girls washroom across from the choir room and waited until I heard Finn's footsteps passing by. Before he could interrupt Artie and Tina again, I swung the door open and dragged him in by the back of his lapel.
"What the…?"
"Calm down, it's just me," I whispered. "The choir room is being… um, used, so I had nowhere else to go."
"Ew, Mercedes! The girl's washroom? Couldn't we go somewhere else?" Finn pleaded, a visible panic washing over his whole body.
"Nobody's in here, don't worry. Do you want your update or not?"
Finn glanced sheepishly at his feat. "Yeah, I guess."
"Okay, good. Kurt loves the shirt," Finn grinned at this, "but he still thinks it's one of the stupid football players…"
"Hey! I'm a football player!"
"Yeah, I know. Anyway, I still think we should carry on with our plan. Finish out today, and have the grand finale tomorrow. You got the notes?"
Finn dug several things out of his pocket (I didn't even want to know what half of that stuff was) before finding the folded white paper and handing it to me. I opened it and scanned it over.
"Finn, nighttime is not spelt with a K in front of it."
"It isn't?"
Luckily, I had prepared for this. I fished a bottle of whiteout out of my purse and deleted the K in 'knighttime.'
"There. Perfect. Now, you, Santana, and Brittany are going to the flower shop at lunch tomorrow, and we're all skipping fifth to set it all up, okay?"
"And the other thing…?"
"Got 'em."
Finn sighed with relief. "All of them?" I could tell the QB was still a little wary of the last phase of our plan. But seriously, with Mercedes Jones at the wheel, nothing would go wrong. Provided Kurt actually figured it out in time, which the chances of were starting to look bleak.
"Well, I gotta go. Thanks a lot, Mercedes." Finn gave me his charmer smile (I still don't know what Kurt saw in him, anyway,) and got out of the bathroom as fast as his two mile tall legs could carry him. Which was pretty fast, considering it was a girl's washroom he was running out of.
As soon as he was gone I was reminded of one happy ending that hadn't been granted yet: mine. Things had been so busy since Glee started, and now with Kurt and midterms and Regionals to worry about, I barely had time for myself. I still had never had a boyfriend. I was still first kiss-less. Santana and Brittany could have any boy (or girl) they set their sights on, Quinn had Puck wrapped around her little finger, Other Asian had a girlfriend on the Cheerios, Artie had Tina, Kurt and Finn were in love (even though they might not know it yet,) and even Mr. Schu and the doe-eyed ginger guidance counselor were probably dating by now. The only other girl who was in the same boat as me was Rachel, and come on… it's Rachel. Duh. Of course I had a crush… but it was pretty much impossible. Matt usually had Santana wrapped around him when she was on the off cycle of her on-again-off-again with Puck. Of course, there had been that one conversation the other day… and we were paired for the duet assignment.
"Hey, Mercedes."
"Oh… uh, hi Matt."
"So? Got any ideas for our duet?"
"Um… uh… not, erm, really."
"You okay?"
"Yeah… yeah, I'm fine."
"Well, I kind of had an idea…"
"Yeah?"
Matt held out one of his iPod headphones and let me listen.
"See her, heavy make up and cut t-shirt,
Every girl 'live wants to be her,
But they look the same already, why adjust?
Reading the magazine secrets,
Forgettin' the topical regrets,
'Cause if she comes home all alone the night's a bust
It's a must, swiveling her hips and the look she gives
It's all her trust, if only in the mornin' she knew where she lived.
'Cause if she wanna rock, she rocks,
If she wanna roll, she rolls
Se can roll with the punches
Long as she feels like she's in control
If she wanna stay, she stays
If she wanna go, she goes
She doesn't care how she gets there
Long as she gets somewhere she knows.
And in a wink they're on the brink
From drink to drink
And at the bar with cash to blow,
Shot to shot, it's gettin' hot,
Advance the plot, see how far it's gonna go
It all depends, so ditch the friends
And grab a cab,
Another chance at cheap romance
Doesn't count cause the room is spinnin'
Nothing to lose and tonight both are winnin'
And they fall in love, as they fall in love…"
He paused it there, and I removed the headphone and handed it back bashfully.
"It sounds good to me," I mumbled, not wanting to meet his eyes. My stomach was flip-flopping, I'm sure if I could blush like Kurt did when he was nervous, I would be.
"So, whaddya say we practice on Thursday, after Glee?" he suggested.
I tried to dial down the smile that had exploded onto my face, but failed hopelessly.
"That sounds good. My place? My parents don't get home until late, so we wouldn't bug them with all the music," I said. And we'd have some privacy, I thought wickedly.
"Awesome. Five o'clock?"
I nodded, and then Kurt came up to ask if I wanted a ride home, and Matt went over to talk to Mike.
I regarded myself in the mirror critically. I had straightened my hair this morning, but it had chosen to spring back up, making slight waves that only fell to my shoulders. Other than that, I think I looked fine. I hadn't told Kurt about my date… oops, I mean practice… with Matt because he had a lot going on already, but I think I'd dressed myself rather reasonably, because Kurt hadn't called me a technicolor zebra yet today. I hurriedly reapplied my fading lipstick and left the school, not wanting Matt to reach my house before I did.
When I got there, I got out some drinks tidied the living room, glad that my older brother Dante wasn't coming to visit until Christmas and my younger (aka annoying) brother Leon was sleeping over at his friend's house.
I nearly tripped over my own feet to get to the door when Matt's knock came. I looked at myself in the mirror in the foyer, doing a quick once over before opening the door. Matt was poised there, smiling, holding our sheet music.
So maybe things wouldn't work out, I reminded myself.
But maybe they would.