Jesse was working on the piano, making notations on a piece of sheet music in front of him, when Rachel entered the studio.
She had been having a great day - it was Valentine's Day, after all - and Rachel smiled brightly at the curly-haired boy at the piano as she joined him in the room. She playfully ruffled his hair, which she suddenly noticed was growing out of its Tyrone Power cut. "Hi, Jesse!"
He glanced at her, took note of her vibrant mood, and smiled back. "You're in a chipper mood."
"It's Valentine's Day!"
"Of course it is." Jesse handed her some sheet music, and turned back to the piece he was working on.
Rachel glanced down at the music in her hands. Maggie May. She read the first line before she declared, "I don't know this song."
"It's Rod Stewart, I can't say I'm surprised." Jesse replied. He folded up the music he had been working on, and tucked it into his bag.
"What were you working on?" Rachel queried, taking a seat on one of the chairs in the room.
"It's nothing," Jesse shook his head as he dismissed her query. He smiled as he turned to look at her, the smile a cunning diversion from the cutting words he said next. "Your song choices on your videos left much to be desired."
"I diversified." Rachel denied.
"True," Jesse acknowledged, "but they all fell under the realm of pop-rock, and I thought I made it clear that I don't want you wasting your time on sub-par arrangements."
"Just be grateful it wasn't Katy Perry." Rachel reminded, which they both couldn't help but smile about.
Jesse laughed. "Rachel, your voice is spectacular. It's tear-down-the-rafters good. But you can't keep singing songs that don't help you."
Rachel gave a soft sigh of disagreement, but imagined that he probably had a point.
Once he was sure that Rachel wasn't going to start ranting and raving about how she was totally capable of making her own song selection - which he had no doubt that she could, he just hadn't been impressed with her choices: her songs from three years ago were far more impressive than the past three days' worth of pop songs - Jesse declared, "I have homework for you."
"More than this?" Rachel asked warily, holding up the music he had given her. Suddenly she wasn't so enthused about seeing him again, if he was just going to keep giving her work.
Jesse nodded. "It's Bo Rhap-related."
"Oh?" Rachel asked, slightly more interested.
"I have some questions." Jesse had been a little surprised (shocked) when Rachel had told him of her goal for their sessions last Saturday, and he hadn't been able to form a coherent train of thought related to it afterwards, opting instead to change the subject while he gathered his thoughts.
His thoughts had gathered the day after, when he realized he had questions regarding the song choice: Did Rachel know it was beyond her normal abilities? Did she know she couldn't belt Bohemian Rhapsody out? Did Rachel intend to sing it to somebody in particular? Did she want to sing it as a response to his performance at Regionals three years ago? He wasn't even sure if she understood the value of Bohemian Rhapsody: the old Rachel he knew, probably, but this version sang a Christmas hymn at NYADA's Winter Showcase so all bets were off.
Bohemian Rhapsody was not an easy song to sing. It's big, it's grand, it's epic in every sense of the word. People don't simply choose to sing Bohemian Rhapsody, they earned the right to do so. It went from ballad to rock to opera, and there were many ways to screw it up and very few ways to get right. Rearranging Bohemian Rhapsody to suit Rachel's normal strengths was out of the question, and he suspected that the reason she wanted to sing was exactly because it was not within her usual range. She was talented enough, if she really wanted to accomplish the task. And Jesse was determined to shove her out of her complacency, making Bohemian Rhapsody a good place to start.
Her background in Queen was a little (a lot) lacking, however. He'd seen the video of her Glee Club's performance of Somebody to Love, and he found it adequate, if he discounted the fact that it was a Queen song. It was not as easy to forgive or overlook in the case of Bohemian Rhapsody.
"Let's start by making the mutual agreement that you can't sing Queen." Jesse began.
Rachel straightened. "I will do no such thing!"
"Rachel."
"I will have you know that New Directions sang We Are The Champions perfectly well." Rachel said defensively.
Jesse shook his head. "No."
"No?" Rachel repeated incredulously.
Jesse nodded. "No."
"You weren't there."
"I don't have to be." Jesse replied. "That's your first mistake: nobody sings Queen well."
Rachel frowned, as this was a foreign concept to her: not sing something well? What was the point? And what did Jesse even mean, his rendition with Vocal Adrenaline had been wonderful.
"No." Jesse's voice interrupted her thoughts. "Whatever it is you're thinking. Accept that basic fact first: nobody sings Queen well. They can sing it, and it might even sound good, but only Queen can sing Queen. Only Freddie Mercury can sing Queen. Others can perform it well, but it's only a fraction of what the original can accomplish."
"But-"
"No, Rachel, New Directions can't sing Queen." Jesse corrected her unfinished assumption.
"I think we've done OK," Rachel countered. "Somebody to Love was a crowd-pleaser."
Jesse shook his head. "You turned a song questioning love and God into a saccharine pop song. No."
Rachel's frown got more pronounced. "Another One Bites The Dust?"
Jesse smiled, because she got him to his next point without forcing a suitable segue. "Songs tell a story. And unless you understand the story, you can't sing a song properly, no matter what Will Schuester likes to tell his students otherwise."
"What story did you want to tell with your one-two punch of Queen songs?" Rachel asked bluntly.
Jesse's smile grew wan. "That's a long story."
"I'd like to hear it."
Jesse took a deep breath, and exhaled. "And I'll tell you. Someday. But you told me yesterday you have plans for tonight and I also have somewhere else to be, so we can't delay."
"Promise?"
"I promise." Jesse swore.
Rachel studied his face for a moment, gauging his sincerity, before she nodded. "I'm holding you to that."
Jesse nodded.
Rachel glanced down briefly, and held up her music. "Why this song?"
"I want you to sing it."
"I figured as much, but why?"
Jesse shrugged. "Because you can't pull off Janis Joplin."
"What does that have to do with..."
"You want to sing Queen, you need to learn vocal complexities." Jesse explained. "I already know you can sing Funny Girl, but one of our new goals is to ensure you can sing more than just Broadway. And classic rock, when done correctly, is just as grand and epic as any show stopper."
"And your answer to that is Rod Stewart?" Rachel asked incredulously.
Jesse laughed. "Says the girl that thinks Bon Jovi qualifies as hard rock."
Rachel hesitated. "He isn't?"
"Bon Jovi is a band. Jon Bon Jovi is the well-coiffed front man of said band. Neither are acceptable examples of rock." Jesse explained.
"Finn said they're good."
Jesse scoffed so hard he imagined he cleared out his respiratory system. "He also thinks he can sing" - and is worthy of being with Rachel Berry - "and I assure you: he is very wrong."
"I don't know why you insist on attacking his vocal abilities: he did a good job in Paradise by the Dashboard Light."
He could have sworn his eyes rolled so hard they just rolled back into place. "You pretty much just insulted everyone capable of singing by describing that grating noise as a good job."
"Jesse, stop."
"If you want me to stop insulting your precious giant troll, you can stop bringing him up." Jesse instructed.
"Fine!" Rachel exclaimed.
"Fine." Jesse enunciated, his tone declaring the matter closed. Of course, they both knew it was only going to be a matter of time, since Rachel's life still seemed to be entwined with he-who-must-not-be-named, and Jesse found invoking his name to be the easiest way to bait Rachel.
"Can I ask you a question?" Rachel queried, after a moment.
"You can ask," Jesse acquiesced.
"Did you always believe in all that you just said, about Queen and music?" Rachel asked.
"Yes." Jesse nodded. "I believe that music needs to be understood before you can try performing it yourself. You either understand it, or you feel it; better if you can accomplish both."
"And that's how you felt about Bohemian Rhapsody?" Rachel asked.
Jesse smiled wryly. "That performance is what it is because of how I felt about Bohemian Rhapsody."
"Does it compare to Queen?" Rachel pressed.
"Rachel." Jesse paused, before he continued. "One can only aspire to be a fraction of how good Queen can deliver a song. Regionals, three years ago? We aspired."
"I don't understand."
"I know." Jesse smiled at her. "That's why we have to study the rock classics and study Bohemian Rhapsody before you try."
Rachel contemplated that point, and nodded, figuring Jesse probably did have a better understanding and reason for the approach. "Is that what Shelby told you to convince you to sing Bohemian Rhapsody?"
Jesse scoffed lightly at the mention of his former show choir director. "Shelby doesn't convince anyone to do anything. She says it, you do it." He turned and retrieved his iPod from his bag. After a while, once he had found Maggie May on his player, he handed it to Rachel. "Listen."
Rachel took the device, and after putting in the earbuds, pressed play.
Their session was shorter than usual, but one hour later Rachel felt like her vocal cords needed a break, since the song went against what she knew about singing. The upside was that when he wanted her to sing a certain way, Jesse sang the line himself to demonstrate, and hearing Jesse St. James was always a good thing. (Except for Another One Bites the Dust: That was not pleasant at all, although Rachel did appreciate the theatricality of being broken up with through song.)
Rachel stuck the sheet music in her bag, and drank from a bottle of water while she waited for Jesse to finish packing. "Do you have plans for Valentine's Day?"
"I have plans for tonight," Jesse answered, his attention to packing his things disallowing him from seeing Rachel's disappointment at that piece of information. "Yourself?"
"Brody's picking me up from the loft later." Rachel told him.
"That's nice." Jesse noted. "By the way, have you and that girl in your dance class finalize on a schedule?"
Rachel had told him about Claire Beaumont the previous night via text message, and had even forwarded him a copy of her dance background before she printed it out to give to Claire. She hadn't seen the dancer at all today, but they had agreed to meet at Rachel's Dance 102 class the next day. "She wants to see how much help I need before she commits to a schedule."
"How many people who got accepted to Joffrey choose NYADA?" Jesse wondered aloud, picking up his bag. "I mean, I understand why you chose NYADA instead of applying to Tisch or Juilliard, but NYADA's not the dance institute the Joffrey is."
"She wouldn't tell me," Rachel admitted, smiling gratefully when Jesse took her bag. "But which would you pick?"
Jesse laughed. "Senior year high school me, or present-day me?"
"Present day."
"I'd go to Tisch." Jesse admitted. "It has a film department that you can mess around with, so you get to have options."
"And what about high school you?" Rachel asked.
Jesse grinned. "I went to UCLA for a reason, Rachel. It was not academic."
Rachel smiled back. "Maybe if you'd gone to a performing arts conservatory you wouldn't have flunked your academic classes."
"Well, I know that now," Jesse quipped. Once they were out on the street, he turned to her. "Do you mind if we stop by somewhere first? I have to pick something up."
"Sure." Rachel nodded easily. She wasn't in any hurry, and she'd missed talking to Jesse these past four days. She had been tempted to call him last night to talk about Claire, but Kurt and Santana were already on her case because Finn had started texting Kurt when she hadn't answered his messages, and Brody had called their landline phone in case Rachel hadn't gotten his messages, much to Santana's annoyance. They both knew she and her dads had a Sunday night phone check, and that her NYADA acquaintances called her and not the other way around, so she'd had to stave off the temptation. This was a nice reprieve.
"Which reminds me," Jesse said suddenly, interrupting Rachel's thoughts. "What are you doing next Friday?"
"Nothing, I think." Rachel admitted. "Why?"
"There's a screening of a recording of Julie Andrews in My Fair Lady, I was wondering if you'd like to go." Jesse told her.
Rachel smiled. "You and Julie Andrews..."
Jesse grinned back, acquiescing to her point of his appreciation for the famed actress. "Well?"
"Like on a date?"
Jesse's smile faded, and replaced with a confused frown. "Aren't you dating that guy, the dancer?"
Rachel paused, and glanced at him. "Well, yeah, but it's an open relationship. It's OK."
Jesse took a beat. "You're in an open relationship."
Rachel nodded.
"No," Jesse shook his head with dull incredulity. "You. In an open relationship. Really?"
"I can be sexually liberated." She said defensively.
"That's not the problem." Jesse replied. He let out a scoff of bemusement. "The girl who never learned to share is suddenly agreeing to an open relationship. That's just..." He shook his head.
"What?" Rachel demanded.
"Nothing." Jesse intoned. "I just find it hard to imagine, that's all. But, whatever floats your boat, I guess."
"We weren't ready for a serious relationship." Rachel explained. "With my history, and commitment scares him after this thing with his ex-girlfriend..."
"Rachel, you don't need to explain." Jesse assured her. "I'm not judging you. I just didn't ever imagine you'd be in one. That's on me."
"Oh. Okay." Rachel relented.
"But to answer your question, no. It won't be a date. I just thought since you're so critical of Audrey Hepburn's version because she didn't sing, you would like to see how Julie Andrews would've done it."
"I don't know what next Friday will be like." Rachel admitted. "Remind me next week."
"Sure." Jesse nodded. He motioned to the shop to their left. "Here."
Rachel turned, and smiled when she saw where they had stopped. "It's a flower shop."
"How can you tell?" Jesse asked dryly, although his sarcasm lost most of its edge considering the shop was almost empty, save for a few non-flowering plants and some last few blooms in their steel buckets. He made his way to the counter, and spoke with the owner.
Rachel trailed after him. "You should know better than to try and get flowers this late in the day, Jesse. It's Valentine's Day: everyone's buying flowers."
"I do know better." Jesse said simply, as the shop owner returned to the counter with a bouquet of red roses. He had called in a reservation the previous day to ensure he got what he wanted. He examined the flowers, checked his phone, and requested for an extra rose. Once it was added to the bouquet, Jesse nodded his approval as he pulled out his wallet. He looked up at the owner. "Oh, I ordered another one...?"
Rachel studied the dozen (plus one) long-stemmed red roses, and marvelled at the beauty of it. She had gotten elaborate bouquets before, in the past: growing up with two gay men as fathers meant growing up with an appreciation for flower arrangements, and her Daddy was friends with one of the local florists so they always had beautiful flowers on special occasions. She had often dreamed of receiving a bouquet of long-stemmed red roses, especially after a stellar onstage performance, but those things weren't cheap, and Finn wasn't exactly rich.
"Here."
Rachel blinked, and looked up to see Jesse holding out to her a bouquet of roses. She counted: one dozen. Long-stemmed.
Pink and white blooms.
She looked up at Jesse, confused. Pink and white? She couldn't help but allow her gaze to flicker to the blood-red roses on the counter top.
Hesitantly, and with plenty of reluctance, she took the offered bouquet. "Thanks."
"You didn't think I'd forget, did you?" Jesse gave her an easy smile. He had obviously finished his transaction, and picked up the red roses as they turned to leave.
Rachel dumbly followed him back out to the street, hardly paying attention to where she was going as her thoughts were still on the two different flower bouquets.
It... hurt. She could be honest, if only to herself: it hurt to realize that Jesse had plans for Valentine's Day, with someone else, and that person got to receive a dozen (plus one) red roses from Jesse St. James.
Yes, she had her own plans for Valentine's, and Brody was a sweet guy, but much like Finn, he couldn't afford a dozen red roses, especially on Valentine's Day, when prices for flowers indubitably went up.
And Jesse had bought said flowers while he was with her, and gave her the decidedly less romantic pink-and-white flower arrangement...
Rachel glanced beside her, at the confident young man, and realized that there was a distinct possibility (obvious fact) that he had moved on. He attacked Finn, and made fun of Brody, but he recognized the fact that they existed, and in Brody's case, she was dating him. Jesse recognized and accepted that Rachel was dating somebody else.
So what was all of this, then?
Had she been friend-zoned? Never mind that she hated that term, but had she? Had their recent string of interactions tipped him off that she didn't strike him as a romantic interest anymore? Did he now find her lacking, in any way?
Rachel glanced at her roses. Pink meant friendship, right? And white was purity and innocence?
Oh God. Had he been trying to tell her something by making her sing Maggie May?
"Rachel."
Rachel, startled, looked up at Jesse, who had spoken. "What?"
Jesse motioned with his head, indicating the subway station.
"Oh." Rachel smiled sheepishly, and took her bag from him. "Thanks."
"No problem." Jesse replied. "Have a good night, Rachel."
"You too." Rachel assented. "Happy Valentine's Day, Jesse."
Jesse grinned, and waved her off.
And to top it all off she now had to come up with an explanation on why she had a bouquet of flowers not from Brody.