I saw Finn walking in the hall and called to him, "Hey!" He kept walking, "Hey, Finn!" Finally, he turned around, his deep brown eyes bored into mine.

"Yeah?" He questioned and walked closer.

"I forgot to ask yesterday, what parts do you want to sing in Fallin' for You?" The question had been bugging me all night. I didn't want to screw up my first performance in glee.

"I'll just follow your lead, okay? Just let everyone know how awesome your voice is."

I felt the color rush to my cheeks.

"It's true," He smiled at me.

"Finn!" A snappy voice made me wince.

"What?" A hand landed on his arm. Quinn peered around him, cheerios uniform and hair perfectly in place.

"We have to go to class. Didn't you hear the bell?"

"It rang?"

She rolled her eyes and pulled him away, managing to twist her head around and glare at me before they disappeared into the sea of students rushing to class. I just stood there in the middle of the hallway wondering how anyone could be so mean.

Before I pushed open the door to the choir room I felt a hand on my shoulder.

"Hi Cori."

"Oh, Finn. What's up?"

"I just wanted to say I'm really sorry for Quinn's actions this morning," He looked down.

"It's fine. She doesn't like me. She's made that quite clear."

His head shot up, "What? What'd she do?"

"Nothing."

He gave me a look and I knew he didn't believe me. From the rumors I'd heard about how "dumb" he was, he actually seemed to really understand people.

"We just… had an encounter on my first day."

"Oh. What'd she say?"

I didn't want to tell him, so I tried to dodge it, "Come on. We're going to be late." I pushed the door open and took a seat next to Kurt. Finn took his usual spot next to Quinn in the back.

Rachel offered for her and Matt to go first. Mike and Artie followed. As the number of couples went I started getting more and more nervous. Finn and I hadn't even rehearsed our second song. What was I thinking not rehearsing that? …Oh yeah, Kurt, with his bright eyes and inviting smile.

"Cori," I looked up. "I think it's your and Finn's turn," Mr. Shue smiled.

"Oh," I took a deep breath. "Okay."

"It'll be fine Cori," Finn whispered in my ear. "Your voice is amazing, remember?"

"Right, thanks." I nodded, still unsure of myself.

After the first few measures of Finn's song, I immediately felt better. No one yelled at us to stop. Actually, a few people started singing along.

There was a quick round of applause when we finished. Then we sang Fallin' for You.

When everyone started clapping like mad, except for that Rachel girl, but I guess that was to be expected after what Finn told me about her. After a second, I finally peeked a look at Kurt. He looked stunned more than anything. I didn't know if that was a good thing or a bad thing. I sat down next to him. He barely glanced at me when he said, "You have an amazing voice."

"Thanks, so do you. We'd probably do really well at a duet together, eh?" I nudged him, trying to loosen him up.

"Yeah." Suddenly, he looked at me, the shocked look was gone and he seemed back to normal. "Let's get you into the cheerios."

I smiled, "Yeah! Let's go!"

As we walked towards the gym, Finn caught up with us. "That was awesome Cori! I think we did great. You too Kurt."

"Thanks Finn, I thought you did great as well," Kurt said. I smiled and nodded.

"You going with Kurt to practice?"

"Yes, I'm going to—" Kurt clamped his hand over my mouth. Finn looked at us funny.

"Watch. She's just going to watch practice," Kurt finished for me and took his hand from my mouth.

"Oh, well, it's pretty cool to watch sometimes; at least when Ms. Sylvester doesn't yell at me," Finn said. "I better be going then, see you guys tomorrow."

"Bye," Kurt and I said in unison.

When Finn was gone I looked to Kurt. "What was that about?"

"I didn't want him to know you were trying out."

"Why?"

He paused. "Quinn," He states finally.

"She's going to find out anyway. The minute we step in the gym she'll see me."

"Right, I just," He paused again. "I didn't want him at practice."

"It's not like he would've come anyway."

"He would have, trust me."

I looked at him skeptically.

"It just makes me nervous when he shows up. I didn't want to give him another reason to watch practice."

"Right, I understand," I said, but truthfully, I wasn't so sure I did. It seemed more like there was another reason he didn't want Finn to know.

We walked into the gym. All of the other cheerios were already standing in the middle of the gym warming up. Ms. Sylvester, I'm guessing, was sitting on the bottom step of the bleachers. A clipboard in her lap and a megaphone placed next to her.

Kurt and I walked up to her, she stood at our presence. "What's she doing here?" She snarled.

"She—"

"This is a CLOSED practice, Kurt. Do you want to get cut from the team?"

Kurt wasn't kidding about her being mean. "Ms. Sylvester, I simply wanted to try out," I spoke up.

"So sorry," sarcasm drowned her words. "Tryouts were three weeks ago. You'll have to wait until next year."

"Ms. Sylvester. Please, just let her try out. We've been having trouble with some of the girls anyway," Kurt reasoned. "She can sing, too."

She sighed. "One of Shue's kids, huh? Well, she does have good proportions. Let's see you do a flip, or two."

I briefly thought of telling her there was no mat, but I figured that would be a bad idea.

I walked a little ways from them and took a deep breath. I ran a few feet for momentum and vaulted myself forward. I pushed my feet off the floor and did a hand spring before doing a couple more challenging things. When I landed I opened my eyes and looked at Kurt and Ms. Sylvester, only Ms. Sylvester was walking away.

"Hey! Ms. Sylvester?" I called, feeling defeated.

"Cori," I looked at Kurt. "She said to have you meet her in her office after practice."

"That cannot be good."

"You never know with her." We stared at each other. "I, um, need to go now," He said.

"Right, sorry. I'll be in the auditorium."

He nodded.

I went back though the doors and headed exactly where I said I would go. Being around Kurt was almost getting unbearable. The only way for me to feel better was to play piano.

I sat down at the bench, admiring the loveliness of the old wood and keys. I placed my fingers on the keys and found myself playing Animal by Neon Trees. The song made perfect sense for my situation with Kurt. How I wanted to be more than friends, but I'm afraid I'll get hurt because he's gay and how I can barely stand being near him because it's so hard not to do something.

I took a deep breath and ran my fingers over random keys. I left the auditorium afterwards and sat down outside the gym. I busied myself with homework until Kurt came out.

"Hey," He said. For just being in practice, he barely had a single drop of sweat on him.

"Hi, I guess it's time to see Ms. Sylvester, eh?"

"Yes."

I pulled myself off the floor and we walked down the hall to her office. Her door was open when we go there.

"Come in."

Kurt and I both walked forward. "No, just her."

He turned, closing the door as he left.

"Name?"

"Huh? Oh, Cori Nichole."

"Congrats, you're on the squad," She said without looking up from a stack of paperwork.

My jaw dropped.

She looked up then. "Don't look so shocked. Here's your uniform." She passed a red and white shirt and skirt across her desk.

"Thank you so much." I was ecstatic.

"Yeah, yeah."

I went out into the hall. Kurt was waiting right by the door.

"I made it!" I squealed.

"That's awesome, Cori!" He threw his arms around me. I couldn't have been happier as I hugged him back. When we pulled away we were still less than five inches away from each other. He looked me right in the eye. My breath was taken away. I'd never been close enough to see the complete color of his eyes. They were a light blue, with so many flecks of green; they could almost be mistaken for that color with the light that was streaming in from the windows. I felt like I was looking into a never ending ocean. The waves pulling me in like a rough storm. His eyes were simply beautiful.

"So," Kurt said suddenly. I jumped, but I don't think he noticed. "How about a shopping spree to celebrate?"

"T-tonight?" I stuttered trying to regain my composer from the swirling waters I was just in.

He nodded.

"S-sounds great," I gave him a little smile. If just looking into his eyes made my knees weak what would happen if we kissed? I mentally slapped myself at the thought. That wasn't going to happen, I had to face it. But being so close to him like that almost gave me hope. Ugh. Why did he have to do that? I needed to pull myself back together. Maybe shopping would do that. I checked with my mom on the way to his car.

"She says it's okay," I told him.

"Alright! Let's go to the mall."

I had no idea how shopping with Kurt would go, but I knew it definitely would be interesting.

Author's Note:

There's a small amount of development, right? :D

As always, please review.