“So, you’re coming to English today, right?” Tina asked.

She was looking right at me, so I figured I should answer. “I can ditch my English class to come to your English class?”

“She expects it,” Quinn declared. “The amount of decent students she loses every year is mind blowing.”

“But be prepared,” Kurt warned. “You’ll have to audition with her as soon as you get there. She doesn’t like squatters, as it were.”

I looked at my orange, about half peeled, and back up at Kurt.

“Yeah, about that,” I started. “I think I’ve figured out what I want to audition with, but I’m gonna need a partner. I mean, I can do it by myself, but I’d look really stupid.”

“You’re going to sing?” Tina inquired.

“Yeah. It’s a song called Romeo and Juliet from Reefer Madness. I’m gonna start off with emotional quips of children today and their complete lack of Shakespearean education and knowledge. It’s a great song.”

“I love that movie!” Kurt exclaimed from next to me. “It’s hilarious, inappropriate, and has a wonderful soundtrack.”

“You’ve seen it?” Kurt really didn’t seem the type to enjoy musicals about marijuana.

“Of course I have, I own it. You’ll discover a lot of things about me if you only ask, Anderson.” He shot me a sideways glance, and if I had been paying any less attention, I would have missed the wink.

Was Kurt flirting with me? No. No, absolutely not. He doesn’t like me. Not at all.

Oh, who am I kidding?

“Would you be willing to sing it with me?” I asked, as slyly as I knew how.

The table stopped laughing a little, and stopped to look at Kurt.

He looked a little hesitant, then pensive. Finally, he looked me straight in the eye and smiled.

“Of course.”

***

Spanish couldn’t have crawled by slower if it had tried. I could hardly distinguish the difference between ser and estar while my stomach was churning away as it was.

I am going to sing in front of a class of strangers. And friends. And a teacher. With Kurt.

Merde.

As soon as Spanish ended, I walked out the door, and right into Kurt.

“Oh, I’m so sorry! I didn’t see you there.”

“It’s okay,” Kurt responded. “I don’t usually stand outside of your Spanish class like a creeper. I just wanted to ask you a few questions about this duet of ours.”

Oh God. He doesn’t want to do it anymore. He’s thinking it’s insulting and stupid and doesn’t want to sing it with me, ohhhhh God.

Kurt looked at me and piqued his eyebrows.

“Blaine. Stop. I know that face.”

Apparently, my nerves had shot straight to my face and its subsequent expressions.

“I still want to do this with you. It’s really exciting. And besides,” he added with a smile, “the thought of you being in my English class is really, very wonderful.”

A huge smile burst onto my face.

“Oh good. Good good good.”

“Now, the questions,” Kurt continued. “Are you playing along an accompaniment on the guitar or something?”

“Nope,” I added. “CD. And if it doesn’t work, we can just do it acapella. Not the worst thing ever.”

“Right. Did you want to sing Jimmy or Mary Lane?”

I hadn’t even thought of that. Would he get offended if I wanted him to sing the girl part? Should I? Oh no, oh no, oh no.

“Calm down,” he said again. “How about I sing Mary Lane, just because I can hit the higher notes a little better than you.”

“Sounds great,” I added.

“There’s just one problem now, Blaine.”

Oh no.

“And what might that be?”

Kurt’s eyes slanted just a little, and his lips turned up at the corners.

“You’ll have to woo me, Jimmy Harper. Do you think you can do that?”

In that moment, I decided that Kurt Hummel may in fact be the cutest flirt in the entire world. His voice was soft and coy, his eyes all aflutter.

“Maybe,” I answered. “But I could use a little help. And a bigger vocabulary.”

He giggled, knowing where the reference was coming from, and led me into the English classroom. I saw Mercedes and Rachel sitting in the middle of the room when we walked in, and turned around to look at us.

“Well, look what the cat dragged in,” Rachel scoffed.

“Oh hush, Rachel,” Mercedes defended. “Blaine, I’m so glad you’re joining us. Got your audition all prepared?”

“Yes. Yes I do. I mean, we do. Or, well, yeah.”

Mercedes looked distinctly confused, but Rachel saved the day.

“Blaine’s auditioning with a duet, and Kurt’s singing it with him.”

“Oh,” Mercedes said shyly. It wasn’t often she had to be explained to by Rachel. “Any hints on what the song is?”

“If you weren’t there for the decision, you’ll just have to wait and see,” Kurt concluded. At that moment, the teacher came in through the door.

“Hey, Ms. O’Shea?” I heard Kurt call from beside me. She walked over to the group of us, and smiled brightly.

“Yes, Kurt?”

“My friend wants to enter into your English class.”

She looked over at me, and I smiled brightly.

“Your name?” she asked.

“Blaine Anderson, ma’am.”

“He’s my brother!” Rachel exclaimed from her chair.

Ms. O’Shea giggled, and I glared over at my sister.

“Thanks, Rach. Like I’m not nervous enough already.”

“No need to be nervous, Blaine. You have an audition ready? You know this class isn’t the easiest get.” Ms. O’Shea seemed to be in tune with my worst fears.

“Yes ma’am, I do. I mean, as long as I can have someone help me.”

“Help you?” she said, with reservation on her face. “You know, I don’t usually allow help, unless for a very specific reason. You’re supposed to get into this course all on your own.”

“Yes ma’am, but I’m requesting help because the song I’m intending on doing is a duet. If that’s not okay, please let me know, and I’ll come back tomorrow or next week with a different piece.”

“No,” she said with a small smile. “I suppose that would be alright. And whom, might I ask, would be singing with you?”

“That would be me,” Kurt piped up from next to me.

“Well then, I’m incredibly excited. Class starts in two minutes, you’d best get prepared!”

I gave Kurt the CD, and he went to the computer at the front of the room. I stood up, more nervous than I’d ever been, and began to pace.

“You’ll be fine, Blaine. Just fine.” Rachel was trying to console me as best as she knew how. Sometimes, I do better when she’s on my case about a performance, but this wasn’t one of those times, and I was simply thankful that she understood that.

The bell rang, and the class quieted down as Ms. O’Shea made her way to the front of the room.

“Hello class,” she started. “Today, we’ll go ahead and start off with our first audition of the semester! Please welcome to the front, Blaine Anderson.”

Oh God. This is happening. Ohhhhhh God oh God oh God.

I stumbled my way out of my chair next to my sister, and stood at the front of the class.

“Hi everyone,” I began. “My name is Blaine Anderson, and I suppose I should introduce myself. I’m Rachel Berry’s twin brother. Due to a most excellent bicycle accident our freshman year, I’m a year behind her in school. Our last names are different because we have two dads, and we each got one of their last names. Um, well, I guess that’s about it.”

“So, I suppose you’re wondering what I’m going to bore you with. I promise, I’ll try hard not to. I wanted to talk to you all about Shakespeare. I know you read Shakespeare in this class, but hardly anyone else teaches it. Kids are being raised without hearing of Hamlet, Oberon, or Romeo and Juliet, and are forced to deal with the bastardizations we create, like The Lion King, Tinkerbell, and Aladdin. Don’t get me wrong, I love Disney, but it’s no Shakespeare. I’m going to sing you a song today, with the help of a dear friend of mine, and it will illustrate the importance of a Shakespearean education, if for no other reason, than it will increase your vocabulary.”

With that, Rachel walked up to the computer and clicked the play button on the screen.

I swallowed my fear and put on my game face.

Show time.

I looked straight at Kurt for the first line, and knew that my emotions may get the better of me, but dammit, the character I was singing as was in love, and dammit, I probably was too.

“Forsooth, fair Juliet. Wouldst thou likest yon hot chocolet?”

“Oh Jimmy,” Kurt responded, with a very showy girl attitude. “Wherever did you learn to speak like that?”

“It’s fancy talk,” I spoke as I walked over to him, and sat on the desk. My next lines were supposed to stutter with nervousness, and I didn’t have to fake it. “From Romeo and Juliet. Cause when a guy wants to, woo a girl, he needs, y’know, the right language.” My nervous pauses were nervous for a reason, but one that the entire class hopefully couldn’t see.

“Are you trying to woo me, Jimmy Harper?” Kurt asked. He put on his best girl face, leaned forward and batted his eyelashes at me.

Yes. I thought. Maybe not yet, but yes, yes, y-e-s.

The music started on cue, and it was our turn to sing.

I need words to tell you ‘bout my pounding heart.
Four dollar words that make a guy sound smart.
Well, I guess that’s why they invented Shakespeare!
His articulations of a lover’s palpitations are so keen.

At this, I held out my hands to Kurt, to take him to the front of the room. He took my hands and followed my lead. I dropped him off at the front of the room, and grabbed a book from the desk with the computer on it. I flipped open to a random page, and held it out to Kurt. I sang as though reading from its pages.

My bounty is as boundless as the sea.

(At this point, Kurt “oh!”-ed at just the precise moment. It was obvious to me now that he had seen this film way too many times.)

My love as deep, the more I give to thee.

It was Kurt’s turn to sing, and I could already feel my blood going in polar opposite directions through my body.

Oh, you sound so dreamy when you talk like Shakespeare.
A big vocabulary should be customary when you fall in love.

You have no idea, I thought. Big vocabulary. Probably something I should have.

I started to sing again, and I leaned into him while ‘reading’ from my book.

La, la, la, la, la, la, you’re a snowy dove.

Kurt sang back to me, as though in a flirtatious, singing, seductive conversation written in the book.

La, la, la, la, la, la, prodigious birth of love.

As he finished the line, I took the book, closed it, and set it back on the table. I rushed back to him, and as soon as I got back to him, he cuddled up to me. My heart skipped three or four beats in my chest.

La, la, la, la, la, hip hooray for Shakespeare!
Sure as I am breathing, you can make Elizabethan language fun!

He un-cuddled himself from me and threw his hands up in the air and spun in a giant circle. Stole that choreography straight out of the film, so I followed suit and did the same. I wasn’t expecting him to follow the next piece of choreography, but was completely shocked when he did. He stopped spinning, looked straight at me, and grabbed both of my hands in his. As we sang the next few lines, he looked straight in my eyes, as though he was singing them to me and not just with me. I could have died, but that would have been seriously embarrassing. Not like I would have been alive to care, but still.

We are just like Romeo and Juliet.
We’re happy, young, and bubbling with love.

I can’t wait to read the ending, I sang to Kurt.

I can’t either!, he replied.
But I’m sure it turns out real swell.
I bet Romeo (as he squeezed my hands in his before letting go)
Marries his Juliet (as he held out his left hand, looking longingly at the empty ring finger).

The next few lines alternated between us, starting the conversation back up.

And they have a baby.

And make lots of friends!

Our voices joined back together, and I couldn’t help but admire how they actually worked together. It made me smile because it just made me like him just a little bit more.

That’s probably the way the play ends.

He got his big eyes back, and looked back at me, kind of shy, but affirmative.

You doth teach the torches how to burn real bright.

I decided to take a little chance on the next line.

Hanging like a jewel upon the cheek of night.

On the word ‘cheek’, I poked his nose with my pointer finger. His face squished together and he giggled. It felt like a good giggle, and my heart just about exploded. The last lines of the song we sung together, and with a little bit more ‘oomph’ than before, just because it was the end, and that’s what you do at the end of songs.

Hark what light through yonder window breaks here.
We’ll be future spouses.
Put a plague on both our houses if we’re wrong!
Shakespeare!

We finished the song with a strong line, his arm around my shoulder, my arm around his shoulder, and our free arms up in the air, in a nice cheerleader-esque pose. I was shocked we hadn’t actually choreographed that.

The whole class busted out in applause and cheers, and Kurt and I went back to our seats.

Ms. O’Shea was still giggling and clapping when she walked back to the front of the room. I had sat down between Kurt and Rachel, trying to shake off the adrenaline.

“Well, everyone, what do you say? Should we let him in?”

I couldn’t have cared less about their answer, because at that moment, Kurt looked over at me, placed his hand over mine, which was sitting on my thigh, squeezed my hand, and smiled at me.

I suppose this could work.