(Cedes) Cedes opened her locker, eyes darting to a locker a few down. Where was Chloe? She hadn't seen her all day! She shut her locker, holding her books, unsure of whether she should wait or go to class. She turned back to look at the locker, hoping that Chloe had snuck behind her and gotten to her locker. To her surprise, she saw a boy.
He was twisting open a locker- his locker apparently, since it opened and he began selecting a few notebooks. He had light brown hair and intelligent grey eyes. "What's new Mercedes?" He said, glancing at Cedes.
Lastly named furrowed her brow. She didn't remember this kid. At all. This was unusual, because she and Chloe knew everyone at McKinley. "Excuse me? Are you new?" she asked.
"What's wrong with you Mercedes?" he laughed and looped his arm around hers, guiding her to class. Where was Chloe?
Cedes was really, really worried. Was Chloe sick or something? She had tried texting her BFF, but that kid- Carter or Kurt or something had just told her to stop texting him. How did he even get her number? As the last bell of the day rang, Cede was ready to scream in frustration. She quickly grabbed her things from her locker, and nearly sprinted to the door. "Mercedes? Are you ok?" Fuck. Her attempted escape didn't go unnoticed by a certain Kurt.
"Yah, I'm just ready to go home." She spun to face the boy, who turned out to be a pretty interesting person. He knew all the gossip in school, and had this tendency to use an 'Ice Queen' mask to drive bullies away. But he was no Chloe.
"I wish we could go home," Kurt said, "but I'm afraid we have Glee today. I would like nothing more than to go shopping with you, but I'm afraid we must endure an hour of our resident star, Rachel Berry mauling her solos that should've gone to us." He rolled his eyes and grabbed Cedes' arm. "Now come, my dear Mercedes, or we shall be late."
Cedes was having trouble processing this information. What the hell would she do in Glee Club? "But," she protested, trying to break from Kurt's grasp. "Glee's for losers."
"I would say that description fits us perfectly." Kurt said dryly, letting the diva free.
Suddenly, Cedes was angry. All her frustration leaked out into a single, malice filled sentence. "No." she whispered. "That describes you perfectly." With that, Cedes spun on heel and stalked off, leaving a very confused male soprano in her wake.
"Hey, Chloe? It's Cedes. I'm just wondering where you are. You haven't been answering my calls and you weren't in school or anything… so just… call me back or something. K? So… bye I guess."
Cede sighed and hung up her cell. She gazed around the hallway, wishing for something to take her mind off of her M.I.A. friend. Nothing ever happened at school. There was a teacher, Mr. Shoes or something, talking to the germaphobe Guidance Counselor Ms. Pillsbury. Those two were so in love. A gaggle of Cheerleaders. A couple holding hands. A jock with a slushy. Puckerman kissing/removing the skirt of a Cheerio. A short geek in a plaid skirt.
SPLAT
Cedes watched- half in horror, half in amazement as the geek was doused with a slushy. "Poor Rachel." A sympathetic/sarcastic voice murmured. Cede whirled around to find Kurt. The boy was fixing his hair, half looking at the scene. "I would care more if not for the fact that blue corn syrup was an improvement to her outfit."
"Does that happen to her a lot?" Cedes wondered out loud, watching as Finn Hudson- quarterback- and Mr. Shuster- Spanish teacher- attempted to be knights in shining armor. Apparently, that was an unusual question from the reaction Kurt gave her.
"Does it happen a lot?" he parroted in disbelief. "Mercedes, we've ALL been Slushied at one point or another! That question is just unnecessary."
Cedes snorted. "Chloe and I have never been 'Slushied'." She made air quotes around the term.
"Who's Chloe?"
"How can you not know who Chloe Hummel is?" Cedes asked- for she was certain by now that Kurt wasn't new.
Said named boy furrowed his eyebrows in a look of total bewilderment. "Its not April fools is it?"
"No."
"Than what's with the jokes Mercedes! I don't think I have any relatives named Chloe, let alone a Chloe that goes to our school."
Now it was Cede's turn to be confused. "Relatives…?"
Kurt sighed. He stuck out his hand in mock greeting. "Hi. I'm Kurt Hummel, pleasure to meet you." He said with little enthusiasm and politeness that was verging on the edge of being false. Which it was. The bell rang, ushering stragglers to their classes. "And now I'm late." He cast Cedes one last worried glance, and then rushed to class.
Kurt… Hummel?
(End of the Day)
"Rachel's going to be pissed if you miss another Glee practice."
Cedes glance up from her phone- still nothing from Chloe. "I can't sing- or dance for that matter." She protested. And Glee is social suicide. She added silently.
"Of course you can sing- not that you'll get the chance. Honestly Mercedes! I don't know what's with you lately. It's like you're a different person or something." He stared intently at Cedes, as if his uncomfortable grey eyes (which made her only that much more homesick for Chloe) would give him all the answers.
Cedes sighed. "What's the worst that could happen?"
Kurt and Cede were the last ones to arrive in the Choir Room. Cedes surveyed her new- or old- classmates. She recognized the bright red cheerio uniforms on Santana, Brittney and Quinn as the girls mingled in the back of the room. The letterman jackets on Finn, Puck, Matt and Mike were scattered about the seating arrangement. 'Wheels' as Chloe had so eloquently dubbed him, was sitting off to the side, chatting with the stuttering Goth chick. That girl who had been slushied- Rachel, was looking at a piece of paper with musical note on it.
"Hey guys!" Kurt said as he said down gracefully in a chair next to the nerds talking. He crossed his legs before asking, "What's new on the gossip grape vine?"
Goth girl shrugged. "Not much, I'm afraid." Huh. She didn't stutter as much as she did in class. Weird.
Wheels shifted his torso to look at Cedes. "Where were you Mercedes? We needed your diva powers to help defend ourselves against Rachel!"
"What?" Cedes was confused. "Are you speaking English?"
Kurt laughed. "No, he was speaking a dead dialect known commonly as 'Nerd Speak'."
Wheels blushed. "Shut it Kurt!" he snapped, but quickly smiled as to show that his anger was misdirected.
"So where were you anyway?" G.G. asked.
"Mercedes didn't feel like going to Glee, Tina." Kurt said quickly. Oh right, that was the girls name.
"Why not?"
Cedes shrugged. "I just didn't."
Wheels chuckled. "Be glad you weren't here. Rachel somehow managed to annoy me even more than usual. I swear one day I'm going to kill her!"
Kurt sighed dramatically and patted the handicapped boy on his back. "All in good time, Artie. All in good time."
The quartet laughed quietly at the joke, and Cedes was feeling almost natural. Until Kurt opened his big grey eyes and looked at her.
Chloe.
Suddenly, the world seamed a lot sadder.
Cedes was sick of math. She had other things on her mind, like where Chloe could've gone. Did she transfer? Move? Vacation? It seemed that this guy, Kurt, was trying to take her place. She was tired of him. Chloe had nothing in common with the Hummel boy, save the last name.
A ringtone shook her out of her thoughts. Cedes picked up the phone, checking caller id before answering.
Kurt H. It read.
Sighing, she flipped it open. "Look, Kurt, I thought I told you-"
"Cedes?" came a scared voice.
"That's my name."
"Cedes it's me, Chloe. I need you to come over, like right now. And don't freak out please! It's really important."
"Chloe? You here?" Cedes called when she entered Chloe's room. The walls were different than she last remembered them. Someone had painted them white. The furniture had changed too.
"Cedes? K, don't freak but..." aaannnd Kurt stepped from his bathroom.
"Oh." Cedes felt her heart plummet. "It's just you."
"Cedes! Don't you recognize me?"
"Yah. You're Kurt."
"NO! I'm Chloe! Honest! Who else would know that you hate raspberries or that you've never been scared of the dark or heights but are terrified of daddy long legs or the fact that you hate school but love science class. Or"
"CHLOE!"