This is a shift day [see above]. There was another upload this morning: You'll Find Wonder, chapter 11.

"Mystery Takeover"

2. Under New Management

After Kurt had transferred, the keys he'd been given as per their agreement with Mr. Schuester and the school had been given back to the Glee Club director. When Rachel had told him of their plan though, he had gladly handed them over to her. In mid-afternoon she had driven over to Mercedes' house to pick her up, with her part of the supplies. They would meet Tina at the school, as she was coming in with Mike, who would help them set up. The way they saw it, they had two rooms to set up, plus dinner to finalize, so they should be fine with the four of them.

They reached the school to find Mike and Tina already waiting there. "Give me a hand with these?" Rachel called to Mike, pointing to a box on the backseat. He came walking up.

"What's in there?" he asked when he felt the weight.

"You'll see," she smiled. They got all the supplies into the school, and there Rachel paused and looked to the other three. "Right, I'll go and take care of dinner," she started, reaching in her bag and producing four walkie-talkies, handing one each to the others as she went on. "Tina, you have the boys' camp things, Mercedes you have the girls' camp, and Mike you're helping on both sides, yes?" she nodded.

"Oh, good, you put yourself in charge," Mercedes frowned.

"What, it's a good plan," she shrugged.

"Right," Mercedes headed into the choir room, designated as the site for the girls' camp. Tina and Mike took their things to the gym for the boys' camp, while Rachel took the food to the home economics' kitchen. Her heavy 'surprise' box was left for a moment before she remembered it and had to stop, trying to decide how to go about things. Maybe she could nudge it along with her feet as she went, or…

"Need a hand?" She turned back, almost dropping her containers.

"Kurt, what are you doing here, it's too early!" she shook her head. He came up and picked up the box.

"I know, but you're already doing all this, and I wanted to help." She smiled at him.

"Fine, but you're with me. No peeking at the other rooms yet," she squinted.

"Yes, ma'am," he told her, rebalancing the box. "What's…"

"You'll see, not yet." They went into the kitchen, where he helped her start prepping the dinner. "I wasn't sure what to make, I wrote like a dozen menus, but finally I took a cue from your past dinners. You always came up with the perfect things."

"I wrote dozens of menus, too," he promised. They'd been working for some time when he suddenly stopped and looked up. "T-shirts!" he blurted out, and she looked to him. "That's what's in the box, you wrote in the instructions that one part of our costume would be presented to us here. It's t-shirts." He could see her trying to hold it in, but finally she breathed out and nodded.

"I had them made as soon as you'd said yes, I think they came out great."

"How'd you get all the sizes?" he asked, pointing to the box as though to ask if he could look and she nodded.

"That was easy, I remembered the measurements from our costumes from Sectionals, Regionals…" He pulled out two of them, one from each camp. Each shirt had a name pinned to it, which he guessed would be removed before they started the game, as they were their real names and not their character names. "And when it's done we can keep them."

"Rachel, this is too much," he shook his head, touched.

"No, but I wanted to," she smiled. "Tina and Mercedes pitched in, too." Just then her walkie-talkie came to life and they heard Tina's voice.

"Boys' camp is all set, so we're going to help Mercedes," she informed Rachel.

"Great, we're almost ready, too."

"We?" she asked.

"Yeah, Kurt's here."

"Oh, hi, Kurt!"

"Hi, Tina," he laughed. "We better get done before they get here."

"Here," she reached in the box and found both of their shirts. "Put yours on, bring the box and you can hand them out to their owners. Just take out the pins first."

Kurt put on his shirt and then went off with the box. As he neared the choir room, he whistled in without looking and Tina's head popped out. "Hi!"

"Hey, take yours? Rachel wants me to go and wait to hand them out." Tina nodded, reaching in and pulling out hers, Mike's, and Mercedes' shirts, and then disappeared back in the room, shutting the door. "Don't forget the pins!" he shouted after her, then moved to stand near the doors. Putting the box down, he paused and looked around. He missed this place, he did… every day. He never thought he would, but he did. Sure, he was glad to be away from the terror he'd been feeling, but he had never wanted to be away from his friends.

"Kurt!" He barely had time to turn that he was nearly tackled by Brittany.

"Woah, hey, hello!" he staggered, but she had him. When she pulled back, he saw her hair had been pulled into pig tails, and the rest of her outfit was revealed as she was already pulling her jacket off, along with the pants that covered her shorts. He guessed once she had her camp shirt on, she'd be perfect. This would probably be the situation for all of them, even him. "Here, this is for you," he crouched and pulled her shirt – getting the pin off – as well as Artie's, as he was pulling up behind her.

"Awesome," she smiled. As they had gone about changing into their shirts and the likes – they had one classroom as their 'coat room/changing room' – more of them began to arrive. With each of them it was a lot of the same, all of them thrilled to be reunited with him. It wasn't like they hadn't seen each other since he had transferred, but it wasn't the same. This was something, beyond Glee Club, that was also all theirs, and still was now. Kurt handed out the shirts, and soon it was easier to see each camp's crowd forming itself. Whether they intended it that way or not, they would start to gravitate toward those wearing the same colors. The four girls wearing Weatherbee colors soon became six as Mercedes and Tina, along with Mike in Arrowhead colors, rejoined them.

"When is this starting?" Lauren asked, seeing they were all accounted for, if they counted Rachel off in the kitchen.

"I'll go check," Mercedes went that way, only to stop and return when she saw Rachel coming. She signalled for her and Tina, her fellow game makers, to join her as she addressed the group.

"Hello, everyone, welcome," she smiled. "Thank you for coming for this first game of the new year, in honor of our usual game master, Kurt," she looked to him, getting a few happy cheers from the others. "The rules are all the same here…"

"Yeah, right…" Brittany frowned, still not over her non-death. Rachel cleared her throat. "Sorry."

"As I was saying, the rules are the same, so you know what to do. I'd also like to say welcome to our newest member, Lauren. If she needs help, guys, please help her."

"I'm fine," Lauren sneered.

"Right… well, good, alright. The girls will be in the choir room, and the boys in the gym. You have your instructions, now off you go." The boys started down the hall, waving to the girls, as they headed toward the choir room. As soon as they passed the doors, the game would begin.

TO BE CONTINUED (TOMORROW)