Kurt Hummel was gifted.
That was for sure. Yes, the rest of his school seemed to think he was a little strange, but that was just his personality. His clothing choices were a little interesting, obviously a little eccentric, but Kurt didn't care. He was happy with who he was.
Kurt hated how the jocks at his school judged him. Sure, he may be gay, and sure, he may be re-enforcing the stereotype by dressing how he wants, but Kurt was most certainly not a girly kind of boy. Not at all. Kurt was probably one of the strongest people at his school. There was a lot people didn't know about him, and Kurt harboured secrets that not even his closest friends knew about. He just wished people would stop judging him and actually get to know him for once. Yes, Kurt Hummel would be a total bitch to you if you deserved it. But be friendly and say hello, he'll gladly say hello back without having to use anything against you.
Kurt was in the choir room an hour after school with his friends, Rachel Berry, Tina Cohen-Chang and Mercedes Jones. He loved the guys of New Directions, but sometimes he really just needed some time with the girls. They seemed to understand him more. Plus, he was rehearsing for the spring musical with Rachel and Mercedes. They had landed three of the major roles in the play that had written. Usually, the glee club would have teased of for always trying to hard to be artistic, but they all had to agree, the play that had written was...well, brilliant. And the whole glee club was going to participate in it, even when Santana and Puck rolled their eyes and said they "didn't do musicals." Eventually, convinced them to join, as well as the rest of the group. Kurt couldn't be more excited.
The play was set in the 1900's. It was basically about a blind piano player who is in charge of some cabaret called "The Stone Cage" (Which was the name of the musical, by the way.) And the blind manager named Henry Arthur is all bitter and cold hearted because he's never seen beauty before, and that's why he can't ever fall in love. But one night, he discovers that two of his cabaret dancers and the bartender who works at the cabaret are actually three ghosts who try to teach Henry Arthur what true beauty is. If Henry can truly learn what the correct perception of beauty is, the ghosts will give him the ability to see for the first time and grant him the love of his life. If not, he'll live a life of darkness and isolation. Also, the title of the play was supposed to be some sort of metaphor on how Henry always feels trapped in his own kind of darkness, blah blah blah. It sounded a little like "A Christmas Carol", but when the glee kids first read it, they thought it was really good.
"This is awesome, ," said Finn, setting down the script, "But who's gonna play who?"
"Yeah, and don't we need more people?" asked Tina.
"Don't worry guys," reassured. "You will all get to be in the musical, but to decide what parts to play, we'll hold auditions next week after glee rehearsal. If there are still roles that need to be filled, we can get other people to audition for the leftover roles."
"Are you kidding?" interrupted Quinn. "Nobody's going to want to be in the musical, let alone with the glee club."
was about to speak when Puck spoke.
"She's right," he said, crossing his arms, "I may be on the football team and I can probably intimidate some random geeks to sway in the background, but other than that, we're not going to get anyone useful. We're hopeless."
sighed. "Alright guys, we'll talk about this later. Class dismissed."
Two weeks later, the whole glee club had auditioned to be in The Stone Cage. The auditions were similar to the glee club auditions: stand on the stage and sing a verse or two while Brad the piano man accompanied in the background and also, read a few lines and act out a scene from the play.
was impressed with everyone's auditions. He posted the list on the bulletin board outside the choir room a day before, his messy writing scrawled across the paper. The glee club crowded around the tiny area and read the list together.
THE STONE CAGE CAST
Rachel- Violet (Ghost #1)
Tina- Mabel (Ghost #2)
Kurt- Felix (Ghost #3)
Finn- Orville (Assistant manager of the stone cage)
Noah- Adam (Brother of Henry)
Artie, Sam, Mike- Jake, Irvin, Dennis (Workers)
Mercedes, Santana, Brittany- Allie, Hannah, Flossie (Cabaret workers)
Quinn- Rebecca (Wife of Henry)
Henry-
Extras-
After reading the list, some people cheered and squealed with delight, one of them being Rachel.
"Oh my goodness! This is the role that I've wanted all along! I need to start preparing, STAT. Maybe I could even plan the choreography! Oh, I have to convince to feature me on lead vocals."
While other complained, like Santana.
"What? This is ridiculous. I needz to be the lead pronto. I can't believe it! Ugh, this cabaret dancer chick or whatever better have a lot of lines, or else Imma have to murder the hell out of Berry for that role."
And some were just plain confused, such as Brittany.
"My characters name is Flossie? But that's what I use on my teeth before I go to sleep."
But over all, everyone was quite happy with their roles, considering promised everyone with plenty of lines and songs.
"Hey guys, wait a minute," said Artie, rolling back to the list in his wheelchair. He pointed up at the list. "No one is cast for Henry, and he's like, the lead guy."
"He's right," said Sam, moving his face closer to the list.
"What's the deal, ?" asked Santana, crossing her arms and glaring at her teacher just as he emerged from the classroom.
"You could have easily made Finn or one of the New Directions boys Henry," Rachel said, linking her arm around Finn's.
"Now guys, don't get me wrong," began, "All of you had incredible auditions and I was actually considering one of the guys to play Henry, I really was. But I think we should showcase some more talent outside of our club, you know, to get everyone out of their boxes."
"Did tell you that?" Mercedes rolled her eyes.
paused. "Guys- that's not the point. The point is is that we need to get more people involved in the arts program."
"Oh my gosh, , do I need to tell you again?" Quinn huffed. "We. Are. Losers. Nobody's going to want to be in this play. It sounds brilliant and everything, but like I said before..."
"Don't worry, guys," , once again, reassured. "I guarantee something incredible will come up."
Kurt was barely even listening. His eyes were still fixed on the piece of paper that had his name written on it, next to a leading role. A lead. Kurt never ever got lead roles in anything. He was both so excited and nervous he could barely even contain his emotions. Every day, he woke up more and more excited to start rehearsing.
And now, a week later, Kurt, Tina, Rachel and Mercedes stood in the choir room after school, going through lines and singing together. It was really fun, and the more they read into the play, the more they became obsessed with nailing their parts.
" is a good writer," Tina said. "This is almost too good for high school."
"Nonsense." Rachel said, flipping her hair as she walked across the room, trying to figure out how a ghost would walk. Mercedes snorted.
"Alright," Rachel announced, her hands on her hips, "Kurt, lets start with your line."
Kurt flipped through the pages of his script. "Uh, where?"
"Page eleven, Kurt."
Kurt cleared his throat and began reading his line a sort of hushed whispery voice, but still clear. "Henry Arthur, you poor soul, lost forever in a world of darkness."
"I am not in the darkness," Rachel spoke back to him, reading the line of Henry in a man-like voice that kind of sounded like a coughing bear.
Kurt fell off of the chair he was standing on, laughing to the point where his ribs began to hurt and his face turned bright red. Soon, Tina and Mercedes joined in. Rachel stomped her foot playfully.
"Hummel, are you making fun of my male-voice?" asked Rachel, swatting him with the script.
"That is not a male, that is Finn when he wakes up in the morning," Kurt sat up, wiping away his tears.
They all laughed. After a couple more minutes of going through lines, Kurt stood on the chair again; ready to sing the one solo he had in the show. Felix, the character Kurt played, had many singing parts; however he only had one song where he got to sing entirely on his own.
The song was called "Only Hope" and the first time played it on piano to help Kurt get used to it, he immediately fell in love with the song. It was exactly the right pace, nothing to difficult and nothing too simple. Plus, it was a high song, so Kurt could finally belt this song and reach the highest notes.
Meanwhile, wandering the hallway was a certain Blaine Anderson. He had to stay in after school to help clean the classroom of his algebra teacher after trying to cut class. All Blaine wanted to do was miss a couple minutes of class just to finish a song he was writing- but he eventually got caught.
Blaine walked down the hall towards the exit, the late, sunny afternoon pouring in through the window and spilling onto the linoleum floor.
All Blaine wanted to do was go home, maybe play some tunes on his guitar or call up his friends, Wes and David.
Instead, Blaine froze dead in his tracks when he heard the most beautiful sound ever emerging from the end of the hall.
Sing to me the song of the stars, of Your galaxy dancing and laughing and laughing again
Blaine soon realized that it was a voice. A very high pitched, soft voice that sounded like something gliding across ice. Smooth sounding.
Blaine remained frozen for a while longer and as he began to pay more attention, he could hear piano in the background, accompanying the voice.
So I lay my head back down, and I lift my hands and pray
Blaine turned around and followed the voice. He ended up standing in the door frame to the choir room. The very first thing he saw was...
Kurt Hummel?
Kurt Hummel, standing on a chair in the middle of the room. It took Blaine a minute to realize that the voice was coming out of Kurt's mouth. He then looked over to the piano, where a girl he knew as Tina Something was sitting, playing the notes gracefully.
Blaine couldn't believe it. He knew Kurt could sing, and he knew that he was active in the arts programs at McKinley. But never in his life did he think Kurt was this good.
Blaine's eyes were wide as he watched Kurt standing on the chair, facing two girls who sat in the stands, watching Kurt like they were studying his every move.
Kurt had an abnormally high voice for a boy, but he made it sound good. Angelic, almost. Blaine was completely in awe of how amazing it sounded when Kurt shaped hips mouth around the words, letting them roll off of his tongue, straightening his back whenever he was hitting a higher note.
At the top of my lungs I'm givi-
Just as Kurt was about to hit the highest note of the song, he was cut off as he twisted around on the chair he was standing on. He noticed Blaine, standing there as if he'd just witnessed a miracle occurring.
Tina stopped playing the piano and raised an eyebrow at Kurt.
Kurt was looking right at Blaine, eyes locking.
"Hi," Kurt said, slightly smiling, his eyes still wide from singing. Now, everyone who was in the choir room was staring at Blaine.
"Can we help you?" asked Kurt.
Blaine blinked a few times before clearing his throat. "No. No thank you. I, uh, sorry for interrupting."
Blaine turned around and sped out of the hallway as fast as he could. He was slightly embarrassed for interrupting the most unique and magnificent voice he'd ever heard. Blaine rubbed his forehead with the back on his hand and exited the school, walking home. He did not hear the song start up again.
What the hell was that? Blaine thought.
Only hope is a really beautiful song, and it was featured in the movie. And if you're wondering, yes. I did make up that whole Stone Cage play thing by myself. I know it sounds really stupid, but it's just for the fic.