Wednesday: Days Until Prom: 11
"Rachel, before you head to school..." Leroy pulled his daughter over to the table, where multiple sheets of paper were laid out.
"We were going to show you last night, but Jesse distracted us." Hiram explained. She glanced down, eyes widening as she read what was on the sheets.
With Love from the Pennsylvania PFLAG divisions
From Columbus, Ohio PFLAG to Lima, Ohio GLPL
West Virgina PFLAG organizations give thier signatures
PFLAG of Kentucky gives good luck
And it went on.
"Signatures." Rachel choked up a little bit, nearly coughing the words.
"Want to know how many?" Leroy asked warmly. Rachel nodded.
"7,572."
"You're going to love me." Rachel held the stack of papers behind her back as she danced up to Kurt and Blaine's lockers, bouncing on her tiptoes once she came to a stop. She felt energy flow through her.
"Why?" Kurt asked for them both, looking at her skeptically.
"Tell me how many signatures we needed." she demanded, knowing the answer.
"7-7-7-7." Blaine answered and Kurt snorted.
"What good luck. Three sevens." he stated sarcastically. Rachel shook her head, grinning.
"Sorry Kurt. But that's wrong. We actually need only..." she mimed the noise of a drum roll, pulling the papers from behind her back, "205!" she declared. Blaine took the papers from her, laughing joyously and flipping through them.
"Rachel that's amazing!" he exclaimed, leaning over and kissing her on the cheek.
"Yes, and it's also Lima's population." Kurt said dryly, and sighed, "It's great that you did this for us Rachel and I'm thankful, but there is really no use now." he slipped between them and started down the hall. Blaine handed Rachel the papers back, smiling weakly at her.
"I'll go try and cheer him up." he stated, walking after him.
It took a few minutes to actually find Kurt, but he managed. He just didn't like what he saw.
"What happened to the hope-filled Kurt Hummel I fell in love with?" Blaine questioned as he came to sit next to Kurt on the steps outside the cafeteria, ironically the same place they had confronted still in the closet Karofsky all those months ago. He knew they were technically skipping class, but none of the teachers here really cared, so it didn't matter.
"He's still hopeful," Kurt assured him, "Just not about prom anymore. Just about the future. A future were gay kids can go to school dances without resistance and without fear of being bullied or humiliated." Blaine leaned his head against his shoulder.
"Sounds like a good future." Blaine agreed and Kurt hummed, "You can't get discouraged Kurt." Blaine continued softly, "You're the leader of our little rag-tag group of gay kids." he laughed lightly, but continued seriously, "It's because of you that Santana, Brittany, Dave, Sam are all out and proud. They look up to you." Kurt snorted.
"Why? Because I was the first one to come out?" he asked. Blaine pulled away slightly, shaking his head.
"No, because you're strong, amazing, and so proud. You've known who you are and who you wanted to be since you were five. It's amazing. You're amazing." Blaine stood, pulling him to his feet and keeping a strong hold on his hands, "Seven months ago, a horrible, horrible spy appeared at Dalton Academy to watch the Warblers. I met this spy, and felt a connection with him. I didn't know it at the time, but he helped me see it when he sang the most beautiful rendition of Blackbird in the entire world. I loved him. I loved his looks, his wit, his fashion sense," Blaine tugged on the scarf Kurt was holding, "and I loved how he made me feel. Not just loved and in love, but proud and unafraid. He made me realize that I shouldn't put up a mask just so nobody is offended by who I am." Blaine held Kurt's face in the palm of his hand, eyes soft, "Kurt Hummel, if you give up on this, then you would be turning your back on who you truly are: a stubborn, proud, unafraid, gay teenager and I'm not about to let that happen." He leaned over and kissed him lightly. Kurt smiled.
"You should be a motivational speaker." Kurt laughed, and Blaine was glad to see the same fire he saw nineteen days ago, when this all started, burning in his eyes again.
"No. It's only you that I know well enough to motivate." he wrapped an arm around Kurt's waist, leading him away, "Now come on, we've already missed half a class period."
"Can I confide in you?" Rachel asked Jesse, appearing beside him in the music store. Their music store. He glanced up at her and nodded easily.
"Why would you ever think you couldn't?" he questioned rhetorically, turning towards her, attention captured. She simply shook her head, glancing around and pulling him away. He followed her down the street to a coffee shop. After they both had their drink of choice and sat primly across the table from one another, she spoke.
"Today was a bittersweet day. It has come to my attention that Kurt has be demotivated and hopelessness has taken over his drive to go to prom. Now, on the sweet side of bittersweet, my fathers have taken this prom thing as a call to action, and with their help, we only need 205 signatures left before all the homosexual teenagers can come to prom. I explained to you about the 10,000 signatures right?" she checked and Jesse nodded, she sighed, "I just don't know what else we can do. It took nearly three weeks for my Dads to send the requests for signatures out to the surrounding states, but we have little over a week to get enough..."
"Well, it's just a matter of finding people who have yet to sign." Jesse pointed out and Rachel rolled her eyes.
"Obviously, but the people who have yet to sign, are clearly homophobic." Rachel stated. Jesse raised an eyebrow, lips curling into a smirk.
"I have yet to sign." he pointed out and Rachel squeaked.
"I'm sorry! I forgot about you!" she brightened, "But wait! This means 204 signatures!" she cheered and Jesse laughed, gladly throwing ideas back and forth between them for the next few hours.
Bet Goliath the Teenage Giant couldn't do that.
Mercedes knew she had to tell Anthony today about the kiss. She had procrastinated long enough, and avoided Anthony long enough. He did deserve an explanation though.
So, she waited until she knew he was the last one in the locker room after football practice and when she went in the room, she had to wait until he was off the phone and didn't have his back turned to her to talk.
"I have no freaking clue Shelton!" Mercedes' brow furrowed. Shelton? As in the jackass tormentor? "I tried doing what you suggested and getting close to the whale of a fag hag Hummel has, but god she's so high maintenance! Plus Adams wants her for some reason, poor idiot. Obviously we'll see if they have enough signatures next week, if they show up to prom or not." Mercedes stepped up behind him, crossing her arms. "Listen Shelton, the fags will not be able to ruin prom for everyone. They need 10,000 signatures, and people are smart, they know better. Besides, what's it matter to you anyway, you don't get to go to prom." She had never heard the cold, taunting tone Anthony was using and it freaked her out, "Yeah, yeah...Oh no, dating this Jones chick is even worse than you can imagine. Every time I kiss her I want to barf. Plus, I have to deal with Azimio's angry looks and pouting all the time. Stupid, right?" Anthony finally turned around, Mercedes with tears now in her eyes, but arms still crossed behind him. His own eyes widened. "I have to go." he hissed, closing his phone, "Hi Merci...baby, I-"
She didn't even slap him this time.
She punched him.
R & R. By the way, check out my new fic, A New Direction. It's based off the NY spin-off rumors and has Klaine, Finchel, St. Berry, and Brittana in it! And Ronchel, Rark, and Ruttiany in it, but you'll have to read it to figure out what those pairings are...