When Rachel finally exited the auditorium, she walked right into Puck. "Hey, Noah," she greeted him absent-mindedly. "Are you – is football practice over?"

"Yeah," he replied, frowning a little. "What are you still doing here, though? Finn said your audition was like half an hour ago."

Had she really stayed in the auditorium for so long? Then again, it had been quite a bombshell Blaine had dropped on her earlier. "Finn left already?" she asked, and Puck shrugged.

"He said something about meeting you at his car? I don't really know. Anyway, I need to… do something before I go."

As Puck ran off in the opposite direction, Rachel stalked towards the parking lot, once more contemplating what Blaine had said. She almost couldn't imagine that her baby brother had a crush on her best friend. Alright – their best friend. But still.

By now, she'd reached Finn, who gave her a confused look. "Where were you?" he asked. "I thought your audition was ages ago. What's wrong?"

"Nothing," she replied, smiling up at her boyfriend. "I'm fine. I decided to stay behind to rehearse a little. You know, to show the directors that they made the right choice once the cast list goes up."

Finn grinned. "So the audition went well?" he asked as he got into his car.

Rachel hastily opened the passenger door. She was so used to catching a ride with Blaine or Kurt (or both), who usually held the door open for her – and each other, now that she thought about it – that she always forgot that her boyfriend wasn't as sophisticated. But she loved him regardless, of course. "It went even better than we thought it would go," she responded. "It was perfect. I feel bad for Mercedes."

"So you think you've got the parts?" Finn asked. "Kurt will be bummed." He frowned. "That means we'll only be having rabbit food all week. I should really warn Burt."

Feeling slightly uncomfortable now, Rachel said, "I'm sure I've got the part of Maria. If Blaine knows what's good for him, though, he'll let Kurt have to part of Tony." Finn shot her another confused glance. "There's no way I'm kissing my brother, Finn." Even though Blaine was, to be fair, her half-brother as most – their birthdays were only four months apart, it honestly hadn't been that hard to figure out – they'd grown up together as siblings.

"Yeah," Finn said. After a couple of seconds, he asked, "But… didn't you already know that you'd have to kiss each other before you auditioned?"

"We got too caught up in perfecting our audition piece to realise that," Rachel replied stiffly. "I can't believe our dads never asked us about it, though. We've performed that song for them half a dozen times, at least."

Finn nodded slightly, and Rachel was relieved that, just like she'd expected, Finn didn't raise any problems he had with Rachel potentially kissing his stepbrother. Wait. That was strange as well. Blaine, Rachel's brother, was in love with Rachel's boyfriend's stepbrother. Was that even legal? Rachel pondered this matter the rest of the ride home.

When they arrived at the Berry house, Rachel turned to Finn with a brilliant smile. "Thanks for the ride, Finn," she said.

Before she could go on, he asked, "Wait… weren't we going to – "

"I really need to rehearse my lines a bit better," Rachel replied, patting his hand. "Maybe tomorrow?"

He looked almost like a kicked puppy, and Rachel would've surely given in if she hadn't become immune to that look by now – one simply had to when living in the same house as her brother Blaine, who had that kicked puppy look down to an art. She did kiss Finn goodbye for longer than was strictly necessary, but then, she headed towards the house and went inside.

As she entered, she immediately knew that Blaine wasn't home yet. He usually did his homework in the kitchen, with music playing, but the entire house sounded empty now. She shouldn't have expected anything different, she figured, as she placed her bag on one of the kitchen chairs and poured herself some water. Her brother nearly always went for coffee with Kurt after school.

She frowned. Kurt had said earlier today that he might have to help his dad out at the shop, since Finn had football practice. She heaved a sigh when she realised that Blaine must've called some of his other friends, then. Well – their other friends, both Blaine's and Kurt's. Why on earth they'd befriended some of the Warblers was beyond Rachel. She didn't trust those private school boys, no matter how nice they appeared to be on the outside. They must be up to something, and charming two of the most bullied students – the only two openly gay kids – at McKinley with their tales of what sounded like a gay utopia was only the first step in their plan to world domination. Which, in Rachel's mind, currently equalled advancing to and winning Nationals.

It didn't matter that it had been Kurt and Blaine who had approached them – not the other way around – last year at Sectionals. They'd only wanted to ask a few questions about Dalton, but had somehow become good friends with some of the boys. Rachel was well aware of the fact that most of the guys in New Directions had initially been very reluctant of the two gay boys, but hadn't they gotten much better by now? Clearly, that wasn't the case, so Blaine and Kurt had gone elsewhere. That didn't stop Rachel from distrusting the Warblers, though.

She walked from the kitchen to her bedroom, intending to quickly get her homework out of the way before focusing on rehearsing her parts. After all, if she couldn't keep up with her schoolwork before being officially cast, she would never be able to do her schoolwork once rehearsals began. Or worse – maybe they'd ban her from being in the play if she started falling behind.

Rachel had just finished her homework when the front door opened and closed, and she was out of her room in an instant. Blaine seemed to be in a better mood than he had been when he'd left her on the stage. Thinking back to earlier outbursts (no matter how small) of his, Rachel suddenly came to a realisation.

Blaine must've seen Kurt, or spoken to him, in between leaving the school and now.

It was actually kind of adorable.

"What are you smiling at?" Oh. He'd noticed her staring down at him from the top of the stairs, then.

"Just – " she started. "I thought Kurt had to work today."

Blaine shook his head, smiling, before frowning. "His dad allowed him to leave early. How did you know?"

Rachel skipped down the stairs. "Your face. I can't believe I didn't notice earlier that you're completely head over heels for him. It's all over your face, Blaine."

"It's that obvious?" Blaine asked, sounding kind of alarmed. "Do you think he knows? Oh, God, he probably knows, and he's probably trying to figure out how to get rid of me – he's probably going to apply to colleges all over the country and we'll never find out where he really went – "

"Blaine," Rachel interrupted him. "You know just as well as I do that Kurt wants to go to New York. And I doubt he'll want to get away from you."

Blaine sighed heavily before walking into the kitchen, Rachel following suit. "It's just… sometimes I wonder. We've known each other for over two years now. If he liked me… why hasn't he said or done anything yet?"

"Maybe for the same reason why you've never said or done anything?" Rachel suggested, sitting down opposite Blaine.

"I just don't want to ruin our friendship," Blaine muttered. "Whether he rejects me immediately or something goes wrong further down the road… our friendship will never be the same again."

"Perhaps it'll just… make your friendship that much stronger," Rachel countered. "You've known each other for two years. That could be a good foundation for a romantic relationship."

"I first thought I just liked him because he was the only other gay guy of our age that I knew," Blaine said quietly. "Then we met the Warblers, and through them some other people, too. A few of them were gay. None of them compared to Kurt, though. They still don't." A few seconds passed before Blaine continued speaking. "I want to tell him, and I really want him to like me back. But even if that all happened… next year, you're going to New York, and long distance… I'm not sure if that works."

"Hey, you don't know until you've tried, right?" Rachel smiled at him. "Seriously, Blaine… I think you should just tell him. Or should I talk to him? I'll talk to him first, see if he'll give me any clues. I do expect to be the maid of honour at your wedding in exchange, though. Then again, I'm your only sister and Kurt's other best friend, so I suppose that title would be mine regardless. But knowing you two, neither of you will every make a move at this rate and there will never be a wedding, so I'll have to step up and help you out if I ever want that wedding to take place."

Blaine stared at her as if she was crazy for a few seconds. "I just told you that I like him a couple of hours ago, and you're planning our wedding already? Rachel – "

"No, not planning your wedding," Rachel denied. "I'm sure Kurt will want to do that himself. Oh! Do you want me to sneak into his room next time I'm at their house and check his wedding scrap book for any signs of him wanting you to be the lucky guy?"

Blaine just looked a little scared, now. In the end, he found his ability to speak again. "So I take it you're okay with this?"

"Of course!" Rachel exclaimed. "Just think of how fun family gatherings will be! And we can go on double dates all the time!" Growing serious, she added, "And I can't think of anyone better for my baby brother than my best friend, and the other way around. Yes, I expect you to not steal Kurt away from me any further, but I'm sure we can reach a compromise for that later. Now, we first have to set you two up. You clearly want to get together with him before I'll inevitably have to kiss him for West Side Story, so we've only got a few weeks, seeing as there'll probably be some kissing during rehearsals as well. What did you have in mind?" However, Rachel ploughed on without letting Blaine actually suggest something. "I'll talk to him tomorrow, okay? See if there's anyone he's got his eye on. If that doesn't lead to him confessing that he's in love with you too, I'll try to gently steer him towards that realisation."

"Knowing you, that means you'll flat out tell him that he should date me," Blaine muttered.

Rachel pressed her lips together. "I'll try to be more considerate than that," she promised. If Blaine hadn't said anything, that would've been her strategy indeed. "Maybe I could ask Finn to help out…," she mused.

"You mean your boyfriend who has even less of a filter than you have?" Blaine asked, and Rachel scoffed.

"Oh, that's rich, coming from you."

"At least I'm working on it!" Blaine exclaimed. "Just – don't ask Finn to help, okay? I'm sure he means well, but he'd just… I don't know, try to ask Kurt if he likes me over dinner, be completely obvious about it."

"Fine," Rachel said, sulking a bit. At least she hadn't mentioned anything to Finn earlier. "I'll just talk to him tomorrow. We've got our second period together, after all."