“Where the hell is Blaine?” Annie asked, stepping up beside Kurt as he distributed fresh notebooks and pens on the table in front of all four casting seats.

“He had to wait for the rest of the Warblers since he’s heading off their little caravan. He should be here soon.” Kurt said, glancing up at his cousin.

“Well he better be, because I don’t want to be the one to explain why we don’t have scripts for people to read.” Annie said, her fingers tightening on her stack of character descriptions.

“Relax. He’ll get here. And we all agreed to wait for the casting to assign the songs, so don’t worry about it.” Kurt said, taking four of her sheets of paper and putting them on top of the notebooks.

“Yes, but I haven’t met most of these people, and I don’t want to make a bad first impression, especially on your judges.” Annie said.

“They’ve seen stupider, they teach at McKinley. Exhibit A.” He said, as Finn bounded up the stairs on the stage and slid on his knees, air guitaring.

“Still.” Annie said, pouting.

“Hey, Kurt.” Mr. Shuester said, coming up the aisle behind where they stood. “Umm, hi. I’m Will Shuester, the choral director.” He said, addressing Annie, reaching his hand out to shake.

“Annie Shriver, Kurt’s cousin.” Annie said, shaking the proffered hand. Mr. Schuester nodded.

“Nice to meet you, Annie. Which one of these seats is mine?” He asked Kurt, who nodded at one of the two in the middle. “Awesome!” He said, sitting down in the seat. “This is a really neat project you guys came up with, hopefully you can raise most of the money we need for Nationals this year.”

Kurt’s phone beeped, and he opened it before looking at Annie.

“Blaine’s in the parking lot if you want to go berate him. Just don’t hit him or anything.” He said, and his cousin scampered off as Kurt saw Miss Pillsbury walk in and hurried away to get Finn off the stage, allowing them to be alone.

Blaine stepped out of his car, slinging his guitar case over his shoulder, as the other Warbler cars pulled into the parking lot. He looked up to see Annie, not Kurt, striding through the door and out to him.

“About freaking time.” She called out to him. Blaine groaned and walked up to her, apologizing for being late.

“Dude, who’s the girl who has Blaine in a kowtow?” He heard Wes ask.

“I dunno, but look at her, she looks like Kurt.” David answered.

“Hey Anderson! You don’t have your boyfriend in drag, do you?” Jeff called out, punctuated by an oof. Blaine turned to see that Nick had elbowed him in the stomach.

“This is Kurt’s cousin, Annie.” Blaine said, as Kurt walked out of the school behind her. Wes stepped forward, smiling at her.

“You don’t look like an orphan. What’s your full name, Annie?” He asked.

“Anna Elisa Shriver.” She said, raising her chin.

“Name like that and looks like those… are you German?” He said. Blaine looked confused, but she smirked.

“I don’t speak German, but I can if you like.”

“OW!” Kurt finished off the lyrics, pointing into the sky as he stepped forward. Blaine gave an appreciative laugh and Wes smirked.

“Nice to meet you, Anna Elisa Shriver. Wesley Michael Montgomery.” He said, holding his hand out for her to shake.

“Enough with your bullshit, Wes.” David said as Annie shook his hand. “What’s up, Kurt?” He said, pulling Kurt into a hug. Kurt greeted all the Warblers, who hadn’t seen him in over a month.

“Alright, everyone get one of these papers from Annie.” He directed. “Have you guys chosen how we’re going to repay you for taking part in this?”

“Yes, we have.” Blaine said with a smirk. Kurt raised his eyebrows.

“The Warblers,” Wes began with a smirk, “have elected that the New Directions pay for the cast party, which we will hold at Warbler Jeff’s house, since his parents are planning to be gone for the entire month of July.”

“Really?” Kurt asked, craning his neck. Jeff gave a little nod.

“So do the New Directions accept?” Wes said with a smirk.

“You’ll have to run it by Rachel and Finn since they’re captains, but I think there’s a high chance of approval.”

“Sweet.” Jeff said, taking a paper from Annie.

“Mark down your preferences in order and put your name on the paper. If you don’t want to be considered for one of the parts, don’t mark it. You’ll turn the paper in when you audition. If you want to be in the chorus, just write that down and give it to Kurt and you won’t have to audition.” Annie said, handing papers out to the Warblers. Kurt rolled his eyes when he found nine papers in his hands.

“I see nothing’s changed.” He said, sliding the papers back into his hands and crooking his head, leading them all inside. Rachel had assembled the New Directions in the rows in front of the judges, and Kurt gestured for the Warblers to join them.

“So who’s talking?” Kurt asked Rachel as he, Blaine and Annie reached her at the bottom of the auditorium. She shrugged.

“Blaine, do you and Annie want to speak, since you guys wrote it?” Kurt’s mouth dropped open at Rachel deflecting, and she didn’t miss his reaction. “I was thinking of auditioning first, to show how it’s done.”

“More like intimidate mercilessly.” Kurt said, examining his fingernails. Rachel put on a fake innocent look.

“Yeah, we’ll talk.” Blaine said. “If Annie’s up for it.” He said, looking down at Annie. Kurt could see in his expression that he was relishing the fact that he had someone other than Rachel around who was shorter than him.

“Game on, Anderson.” Annie said, raising her eyebrows. The two walked up to the stage and called the room to attention. Looking out, Blaine saw that the four adult judges were all seated, all talking amiably except that one lady who always wore tracksuits.

“Warblers, New Directions and judges, thank you all for coming today.” Blaine said, instantly regretting using ‘New Directions’ without an article. “Since I’m dating the common link between these two choirs, almost everyone in this room knows that I’m Blaine Anderson of the Dalton Academy Warblers. This is Annie Shriver, Kurt’s cousin.” He said, not even bothering to use a last name for Kurt, as he was known by literally every person in the room, whereas Blaine wasn’t on familiar terms with the adults.

“Hi.” Annie said, taking the mic. “Like Blaine said, I’m Annie. As you guys know, along with my cousin Kurt, Rachel Berry and Mercedes Jones, we’re here because some of us have put together a musical. And, no, we don’t really have a name for it yet.” She said, rolling her eyes. “But we are ready to cast the parts and really move forward. On the papers you should all have, you’ll see a list of the parts and a small description.”

“The script isn’t finalized,” Blaine said, as a way to cover up that the only thing they had was the list in front of everyone’s eyes. “We’ll be adjusting the parts around those who are casted.”

“So, in case you haven’t already, put numbers next to the parts you want, in order of most to least. If you don’t want a part, don’t mark it. You’ll hand it to one of us as you go up to audition, and it will be used in the casting process.” Annie continued.

“Also, write any experience you have in theater or choir.” He made a ‘duh’ face, “At the bottom of the sheet. We’ll confer over lunch and meet for callbacks and consultations in the choir room once we’re done conferring. The cast list will be posted at the end of the day, and the first read-through will be noon Friday at Rachel Berry’s house. Warblers, I’ll lead a caravan again.”

“Okay! So here’s the audition process. We’ve asked each of you to prepare a short monologue, and you’ll come up and perform it, followed by a song of your choice. Since this musical is going to be found-music, the more it fits the character you want, the better chance you have!”

“Rachel Berry, you’re up first!” Blaine said, putting Rachel’s pink sparkly microphone back in the mic stand and leading Annie off the stage. Kurt nodded his head toward the judging table and Blaine made a face and took a seat, writing down the information from Rachel’s seat. He smirked as he went ahead and copied in her little star next to her name.

Rachel Barbara Berry

Senior

Choices: Cinderella, Snow White, Beauty.

Experience: Holy shit, I’m not listing all of that. God damn, Rachel.

Song Choice:

Thoughts:

He waited to see what she would sing, pen bouncing on his finger as he waited.

“My name is Rachel Barbara Berry, and I will be reciting Scarlett O’Hara’s monologue at Tara from Gone With the Wind and singing ‘Don’t Rain on My Parade’.” Rachel said, a glint in her eye. At the monologue listing, Blaine whipped his head sideways, and saw that the choir teacher looked surprised as well. He turned around in his seat to look at Kurt, who shrugged and pushed Blaine to look back at the stage.

Rachel began the monologue, and Blaine was locked. He had never seen Rachel act before, and he had been drunk two of the four times he had seen Rachel sing (not to mention, she had been, too). The monologue was short, but Blaine was fairly certain that no one else he knew could pull it off so honestly. When she was done, he had only one thing to mark.

Thoughts: Rachel, please remember me when you’re famous.

He looked back up as she began to sing, and Kurt leaned forward in his seat so that he could whisper in Blaine’s ear.

“She sang this at Sectionals freshman year.” Kurt whispered, admiringly. “She saved the day.”

Blaine nodded, watching his friend perform. When she was done she smiled up at the judging table, thanked them, and left the stage. Blaine wrote down only one more thing on her page before closing the notebook and moving back to the back row.

#TeamRachel

Finn came up to them next, handing them his piece of paper, marked with all the male parts. Mercedes took the seat at the judging table, flipping the notebook open to a blank page.

“Hey, I’m Finn Hudson.” He said, not bothering to say more.

“I’d like to, I’d like to say a few words that I’ve prepared tonight.” He fumbled the words out, the pain of memorization contorting his face. “Hello. How about that ride in? I guess that’s why they call it Sin City. You guys might not know this, but I consider myself a bit of a loner.” He continued. Blaine, Kurt, Rachel and Annie looked at each other in horror.

“Is he really doing something from The Hangover?” Rachel asked, her face falling blank. Blaine put a hand on her shoulder. Finn finished and began to sing “Jack and Diane” by John Cougar Mellencamp.

“Rachel, are you okay, Sweetie?” Kurt asked hesitantly, leaning over Blaine to see her. Blaine was still awkwardly patting her back as she hid her face in her hands.

Finn finished singing and Rachel sat back up, trying to look like everything was fine. Finn shot her a big double thumbs-up that she returned with a smile that looked more like a grimace.

To Kurt’s further horror, the next person to get up to audition was Wes. He smoothly performed a monologue from A Streetcar Named Desire, followed by “You’re Beautiful” by James Blunt. It was professional, polished, captivating… everything that Finn’s audition hadn’t been.

Brittany followed up Wes, and was succeeded by Kurt, Sam, Annie, Puck, David, Tina and Jeff. Just as Artie was beginning to head for the ramp, the door of the auditorium opened. Blaine turned around to see an Asian girl he’d never seen before.

“Sorry I’m late, but Rachel I got your text.” The girl said, as the rest of the New Directions looked over at Rachel in shock. Rachel turned around in the judging chair and looked at the girl, a smile plastered on her face in attempt to mask clear reservations.

“Glad you could make it, Sunshine. Annie will explain the audition sheet to you.” She said, and Annie stood up and took Sunshine over to the side of the auditorium, explaining it to her.

“She’s on Vocal Adrenaline. She was a foreign exchange student here, but Rachel sent her to a crack house and she left and ended up on our rival club.” Kurt whispered in Blaine’s ear. Blaine frowned at Kurt’s words.

“Oh, for the love of God, Kurt.” Rachel said, turning around sharply. She turned to Blaine. “I wrote her a fake address. I didn’t know it was a crack house.” She said, guilt washing into the end of her words. Blaine’s eyebrows raised on their own accord as he tried not to laugh.

Artie went on to perform, and when he was done a few others performed.

“I’ll go next.” Blaine said, picking up his guitar case and walking to the stage.

“Like I’ve said, I’m Blaine Anderson, and I’ll be performing Willy Loman’s monologue from “Death of a Salesman” and singing “Falling For You” by Colbie Caillait.” He said, winking at Kurt.

He began to perform the monologue, and Rachel dropped her pen. When he finished with the monologue and started in on the song, he looked up to see Kurt sitting upright with a hand over his mouth in the way he always did when he was trying not to squeal.

He finished, and Rachel turned back to Kurt.

“Why didn’t he put Prince Charming as his first choice?” Rachel asked accusingly, pointing to a little “1” next to the listing for the bear prince.

“Because I’m going to be Snow White.” Kurt said, bouncing in his seat. Rachel scowled.

“I’d be a lot more comfortable playing against him than any of those other Warbler boys, now that Finn blew it.” She bit out. Kurt shrugged unapologetically.

“Mine. Make a new friend?” He suggested. Blaine came up and Kurt stood up with little claps, flinging his arms around Blaine’s shoulders and kissing his boyfriend’s smiling lips.

“I haven’t seen you play the guitar since I was at Dalton!” He said, and Blaine smiled.

“Honestly, I haven’t played it much since you were at Dalton.” He said, taking Kurt’s hand and starting to sit down. Right then a blonde figure charged into the room, stopping in front of the judging table.

“Give me one of those papers, Berry. And I want Kurt’s boyfriend to judge me.” Quinn said, sharply. Blaine had realized that she wasn’t with the other members of New Directions, but he thought it was a statement after what happened at the party. Maybe it still was.

Rachel handed her a paper, and Quinn quickly put her name on the paper and circled the part of Cinderella before basically throwing it back at Rachel and striding to the stage. Blaine and Rachel quickly traded places.

She started into a monologue delivered by Juliet in Romeo and Juliet, followed by “Tainted Love”. It was, overall, only mildly impressive.

It had nothing on Rachel’s audition.

Thoughts: I think she needs to consider a different part.

After Quinn left the stage and subsequently the building, Sunshine took the stage with a perplexed look on her face. Blaine judged her as well, though it wasn’t until halfway through her song that he remembered to take notes. Listening to her sing “Take My Breath Away”, Blaine could understand why Rachel felt threatened by her. He looked down at her sheet and saw that she had only circled the part of Wendy.

Sunshine finished and Blaine traded seats with Annie so she could be the one to score Mercedes. Halfway through Mercedes’ song, the door swung open again with a resounding crash.

“Hell to the no, you will respect me when I’m singing.” Mercedes yelled up to the silhouette in the doorway. Blaine turned around to see who was in the door and vaguely made out that it was the guy Kurt had been so mad Rachel took took to prom.

“Relax, Aretha, show goes on, remember?” The boy in the leather jacket said. Blaine looked at Kurt, who looked furious, and Rachel, who looked like she wanted to become invisible. Mercedes resumed singing, but the boy walked up to them.

“Rachel.” He said, stopping in front of her. She put a hand over her face like a shield, and Blaine saw Finn stand up at the front of the auditorium. This couldn’t be good.

“What are you doing here, Jesse?” Kurt asked viciously as Finn made his way up the aisle. Blaine could see that for their part, all five judges were intently continuing to take notes on Mercedes’ performance.

“I came to audition for your play, Girl Voice.” Jesse said, and Blaine glowered.

“Sorry, Jesse.” Finn said, reaching them. “It’s not an open audition.”

“Really, because that’s not what my friend Sunshine said.” Jesse said, waving at the Asian girl. Kurt, Blaine, Rachel and Finn all turned to her in shock.

“He said he’s a friend of Rachel’s and to let him know if I hang out with you guys.” She said, shrugging. Kurt facepalmed.

“No one wants you here, Jesse.” Finn said, crossing his arms.

“Too bad.” Jesse said, taking an audition sheet and filling it out. His list of experience was almost as long as Rachel’s, and Kurt bent forward, looking at it and frowning.

“If you flunked out of UCLA, why are you saying that you’re on their fall musical cast?” Kurt said, looking up at him sharply.

“Because I didn’t actually fail out, peewee.” Jesse said, taking a deep breath and handing the paper to Annie. Mercedes had finished, grumbling as she walked up to the small assembly behind the judging table. “I thought being a moron got you something around here.” He said, looking Finn up and down and walking up to the stage.

“My name is Jesse St. James, and I’ll be auditioning for the part of Prince Charming.”

“Thanks, Miss Pillsbury.” Rachel said as the last of the adult judges handed her the forms and walked away from the choir room. Rachel came and joined the rest of them on the floor, passing everyone their own play notebook. She then gave everyone one of the judging notebooks: Coach Beiste’s to Mercedes, Miss Pillsbury’s to Annie, Mr. Shuester’s to Blaine, Coach Sylvester’s to Kurt, and she kept their own.

Taking the notebook from Rachel’s hands, Annie cocked her head at the boys. Blaine was sitting in Kurt’s lap, both of them sitting with their legs crossed.

“I don’t know how much you two know about straight boys, but they don’t sit like that.” She said. Blaine made a shushing gesture with one finger and Kurt rolled his eyes and pressed a kiss on Blaine’s shoulder. Rachel and Mercedes looked at each other and back to the boys, confused.“We’re not practicing right now, Annie.” Kurt said, reaching up and making one of Blaine’s curls spring up and down as he pulled it straight and released it.

“Share with the class?” Mercedes asked.

“We’re having dinner at Blaine’s Sunday. So we kind of need to figure out how to look like we’re not dating, because it totally didn’t work with his little sister.” Kurt explained.

“Well, that’s definitely gonna take some practice to pull off.” Mercedes said with a laugh, but Rachel was looking intently at the boys.

“Blaine, why do you two have to act straight at your house?” She asked, frowning.

“My dad isn’t really big on the idea of me dating another guy.” Blaine said. “He knows I’m gay, I’m just forbidden to act on it.” He said, and Rachel’s frown fell into a sad look as she reached over and patted his hand.

“I see that worked out real well for your dad.” Mercedes observed, and Rachel shot her a look. Meanwhile Kurt settled for wrapping his arms tighter around Blaine, pulling him close.

“Nope, I’ve got him.” He said, snuggling his head into Blaine’s shoulder. Blaine gave a little smile.

“How about you guys practice at our meeting tomorrow and the pre-read-through meeting Friday?” Rachel asked. “We can point out things you might not realize.

“Actually, how about you practice all day tomorrow since you’re going to be over to help me write this?” Annie amended. “Because I bet you can get a lot more done without my cousin draped over you.

“But I like him draped over me.” Blaine pouted before adding a smile.

“Right answer.” Kurt said with a smile, holding him tighter still. “But yeah, we’ll practice tomorrow.”

“Okay, down to business.” Rachel said, beginning to write down who had auditioned for each part.

“Quinn only wrote down for Cinderella? Really?” Rachel asked, disbelief in her voice.

“You really expected anything else?” Kurt said. Rachel sighed.

“Well, the candidates for Cinderella are me, Quinn and Brittany.” She looked up at Mercedes, puzzled. “Why didn’t you mark down Cinderella? Or any of the main parts for that matter?”

“I’m kinda busy this summer. And if I’m directing, it’ll be easier on me to just have a little part.” Mercedes said, looking down. Kurt frowned, wondering where his best diva had gone.

“Hmm, well, let’s look at the notes for Cinderella. I guess I’m first.” Rachel said, flipping their judging notebook open to the first page and starting to read before giggling madly. Blaine grinned, knowingly.

“What’s so funny?” Annie asked.

“Blaine Anderson!” Rachel said, pouncing over and hugging Blaine, kissing him on the cheek. Kurt leaned away, reaching over and picking up the notebook off the floor. He read Blaine’s comments and rolled his eyes, hitting Blaine over the head with the notebook.

“Way to stay objective.” He said, and Blaine shrugged, turning around to grin at him.

“Like anyone was really able to be objective about you, either.” He said, reaching around and tickling Kurt at the waist. Kurt quickly restrained him, holding his boyfriend close against him.

“So are we just going to go ahead and okay Rachel for Cinderella?” Mercedes said, purposely trying to interrupt the byplay while Rachel and Annie rolled their eyes at the boys. The others agreed, and Rachel clapped her hands and wrote down her name on her official casting sheet in her notebook.

“So, about Prince Charming.” Mercedes said, looking up at Rachel.

“Well, we have… Finn, Blaine’s friends Wes and David, Sam, Artie, Puck and…Jesse.” She said, saying the last name quietly.

“Who apparently hasn’t flunked out of UCLA?” Mercedes asked. Rachel shrugged, not looking up.

“And we can take Finn off the board immediately.” Kurt said. “That was just embarrassing.”

“Artie, Sam and Puck were a little lackluster, too.” Mercedes said. “So that leaves the Warbler boys and Jesse.” Blaine could feel Kurt tense up and gently rubbed his boyfriend’s knee, trying to ease the tension.

“Wes did better than David.” Kurt said, and Blaine nodded. “But I’d kind of like to see Wes as Rumpelstiltskin.”

“Yeah, he does seem pretty weird.” Mercedes said. Rachel nodded.

“The only other person weird enough for Rumpelstiltskin is Sam, and he was a little blank on stage.” Rachel said quietly.

“Which leaves us Jesse and David for Prince Charming.” Mercedes said. Kurt was tensing up again, and Blaine took Kurt’s hand in his free one and rubbed the inside of his palm. Rachel looked up at Kurt.

“I don’t want him to get this part any more than you do.” She said quietly. Kurt rested his forehead on Blaine’s back.

“Fine, Jesse’s casted. But the second he does a single thing wrong, he’s off. David’s his understudy.” Kurt said, and they all nodded.

“So the only callback we’re doing is Quinn?” Rachel asked, and around the circle everyone nodded. “Well, I think that I probably shouldn’t be in the room.” Rachel said. Blaine smiled at her.

“Kurt, are you going to stay?” Mercedes asked, and Kurt nodded.

“The costume is one of the biggest draws here.” He said, trying to sink into Blaine’s back at the thought of facing Quinn after what he had said over the weekend.

“I’ll keep him quiet.” Blaine said, smirking.

“That will totally make things go easier.” Annie said, rolling her eyes as Blaine giggled.

“Hey, I didn’t say how. You filled those blanks in yourself.” He pointed out.

“I think I’ve been around you two long enough to figure out how it goes.” Annie said, another eyeroll delivered.

“What was your mothers’ maiden name?” He asked Annie and Kurt.

“Why?” They answered as one.

“I’m naming that eyeroll.” He said, and Kurt bucked a knee up to unsettle Blaine.

“Wagner.” Annie answered, and Blaine nodded.

“Wagner eyeroll. Got it.”

“It’s a special talent.” Kurt said, winking at Annie.

“So, anyway, we’re bringing Quinn in here?” Mercedes said, breaking up the chatter and pulling out her phone, dialing.

“I’ll be in the auditorium singing.” Rachel said, handing the notebooks over and standing up. “Text me when she’s gone.”

“Hey, Quinn? We need you to come back for a callback. … Yeah, choir room. … No, but you’ll see. … Okay, see you in a bit.” Mercedes said, and the four remaining set up a table and took their seats. Kurt sat on one of the ends to avoid being noticed.

Quinn entered the choir room about ten minutes later, her eyes scanning the room.

“Where’s Rachel?” She asked primly.

“She thought it would be best if she weren’t here.” Mercedes said. “Especially seeing as she’s been cast as Cinderella.”

“So why am I here? To pick another part?” She asked.

“Basically.” Mercedes said.

“Beauty.” Quinn said immediately. Annie rolled her lips together and looked down.

“Casted.” Mercedes said.

“Snow White.” Kurt raised his eyebrows and gave what was supposed to come off as a modest shrug.

“Casted.”

“So what is there?” Quinn said, crossing her arms. The four looked at each other, and it was Annie who decided to speak.

“We want to offer you the role of the evil stepmother.” She said, looking the blonde girl in the eyes. Quinn started to seethe.

“This is you!” She said, turning on Kurt. Kurt sighed, holding the bridge of his nose.

“Quinn, I…”

“You think it’s so funny. ‘Let’s cast the slut as evil! That’ll be fun.’ Unbelievable.”

“No, I don’t.” Kurt said, slamming his hands down. “Because, for one, I never called you a slut. I called you not perfect, which you aren’t. And yeah, I went for the easy target, but it’s not exactly the worst thing going on here.” Kurt said.

“Oh, really?” Quinn challenged, her hands on her hips.

“Yeah, Quinn. You’re a shallow, selfish, vindictive bitch who thinks you deserve everything more than anyone else.” Kurt said, his voice raising.

“Did you really just call me shallow?” Quinn said, stepping forward. Mercedes covered her eyes with one hand.

“Yeah, I did, Quinn. Because, you see, you dragged my step-brother around for months so you could be prom queen. Which, in case you haven’t noticed, means absolutely shit.”

“Easy for you to say.” Quinn said. Kurt stood up.

“This is exactly my point, Quinn! You keep blaming me for that. Well, guess what? It was kind of one of the worst things to ever happen to me. But you don’t give a damn, do you?” Kurt said. Blaine tried to catch one of Kurt’s hands, but Kurt shook him off.

“Yeah, you can go ahead calling me shallow when you ran away to prep school for a few months and came back once you had a rich, pretty boy boyfriend.” Quinn said, gesturing at Blaine. Already mad, Blaine stood up.

“HEY!”

“Leave Blaine out of this, Quinn.” Kurt said, deathly angry as he put an arm out in front of his boyfriend.

“Quinn, I think you need to leave.” Mercedes said quietly. Her voice seemed to pull Quinn back to normal, and she looked at her friend guiltily.

“No, let her stay Mercedes. She treats everyone like shit all the time, why should this time be any different?” Kurt asked. Blaine sat down.

“You are going to tell me that I treat people like shit?” Quinn asked, turning back to him. “After I’ve been so good about you and your boyfriend? That’s not exactly what I grew up being taught, you know.” Quinn said, the fury in her voice gone but a defensive tinge still remaining.

“Excuse me?”

“You know exactly what I’m talking about. I’ve been taught that it’s wrong. I’ve consciously put that away, Kurt.

“What, does that deserve a freaking award?” Kurt asked, but the anger in his voice had subsided.

“Kurt…” Blaine said, putting a hand on his arm. Kurt looked at him and sat down, looking back up at Quinn.

“We’re going for a glamorous evil queen. I will make you the most dramatically elegant costume you’ve ever seen, and you will provide a heavy counterbalance to all the pastels I’m putting the princesses in. The part is decently sized and has a poster billing.” Kurt said evenly. Quinn looked at him, taking steady breaths.

“Fine.”

“Our first read-through is at Rachel’s on Friday. You’ll receive the first draft of the script then. It’s kind of a living document at the moment.” Annie said. Quinn nodded and walked out of the classroom.

Once she was gone, Blaine turned to Kurt as Annie texted Rachel. Kurt sighed, turning toward him.

“Hey.” Blaine said, reaching out and brushing a lock of hair off of Kurt’s forehead tenderly.

“You know I’m not dating you because you’re a… ‘rich pretty boy,’ right?” Kurt asked quietly, looking at Blaine from under his eyelashes.

“Of course I wouldn’t think that.” Blaine said, tracing his fingers down the side of Kurt’s face and cupping his hand around his neck gently. “Don’t let what she said worry you.” He said, and Kurt gave him a little smile, taking Blaine’s free hand in both of his.

“So we’re finalized?” Rachel asked, bursting energetically through the door. She set about making the list, and the five admired it as she taped it to the auditorium door.

“Here we go, you guys.” She said, squeezing Kurt and Annie’s hands and bouncing. The five linked arms and walked out of the school, talking and laughing as they left the official casting list behind them.

Summer Musical Cast:

Cinderella: Rachel Berry

Prince Charming: Jesse St. James

Snow White: Kurt Hummel

Rose Red: Santana Lopez

Bear Prince: Blaine Anderson

Beauty: Anna Shriver

Beast: David Thompson

Rumpelstiltskin: Wesley Montgomery

Evil Stepmother: Quinn Fabray

Peter Pan: Artie Abrams

Wendy: Sunshine Corazon

Tiger Lily: Tina Cohen-Chang

Mother: Mercedes Jones

Little Red Riding Hood: Brittany Pearce

Woodcutter: Finn Hudson

Bear Prince’s Brother: Jeff Norther

All those not listed above will be part of the chorus. Thank you for your audition!