“Rachel Barbara Berry, what in the hell are we here for?” Kurt asked the brunette girl opened the door. Rachel pursed her lips jokingly, rolling her eyes.

“So nice you could join us, Kurt. Hi, Blaine.” As snarkily as she greeted Kurt, she was a little awkward in saying hello to Blaine. She couldn’t help but remember the slightly embarrassing implications of the last time he had stood on her doorstep.

“Hi, Rachel.” Blaine said with a small smile. It was awkward for Blaine, too, but he tried to keep it in good humor. Besides, Rachel had Finn, however much Blaine doubted the practicality of the relationship.

“Come on in, guys. We’re set up in the living room. Did you two have lunch?” She asked, escorting them into the house. Kurt was once again horribly frightened by the oil painting of Rachel and her fathers hanging on the wall.

“We grabbed some Subway at a small town on the way.” Blaine supplied, hoping that by not shying away from conversation, he and Rachel could get over their awkwardness. As absolutely crazy as he believed the girl to be, he couldn’t help but like her- as a friend. He admired her tenacity and dedication, and through Kurt’s descriptions he had a glance at the softer side of Rachel Berry.

“Okay. Well, we have some hummus and crackers on the coffee table, and there’s soda, water and tea in the cooler next to it.” Kurt’s eyebrows furrowed.

“And the reason for all the elaborate setup?” Kurt asked as they reached the living room, where Mercedes waved at them from the sofa, helping herself to some of the hummus. Rachel clapped her hands together, her face lighting up in a way that usually harkened either a stroke of genius or a total disaster.

It was funny how little difference there was between the two when it came to Rachel Berry.

“We’re going to plan a musical.” She said, her eyes bright. Kurt raised his eyebrows.

“Continue.”

“Well, Mr. Shue’s ex-wife ran off to Florida, so we’re probably not going to be blessed with tickets to nationals again. Mercedes and I were brainstorming fundraising ideas last night, and we thought of a musical.” She turned to Blaine. “You don’t have to help us if you don’t want to, but I thought you might think it was fun. And if you get the other Warblers involved we could always split profits.” Blaine smiled at her.

“I’ll bring it up at our weekly meeting Monday. I have a feeling they’ll want to help, if for nothing else but to have something to do. Besides, we won’t be in your region or section this year, so I’m pretty sure they’d be up for a little friendly competition at Nationals.”

“Or just up for the idea of having an in with a school with girls.” Kurt said, rolling his eyes. Blaine laughed.

“True. But, trust me, Rachel, we don’t need the money. There are hundreds of thousands of dollars in our booster account. It’s gross.”

“Well, we’ll work something out if they do it. But will you, regardless?” She asked, a winning smile spreading across her face. It barely took Blaine a second to know what his answer was. A musical would be a way not only to perform this summer, but also to be close to Kurt. Besides, Nationals was in New York again the coming year. He hadn’t told Kurt yet, but he hoped to go to Fordham for college. He knew Kurt wanted to go to NYU. It’d be nice to get a chance to go together before they moved there.

“Of course.” Blaine replied with a smile. Rachel clapped her hands again and gestured them to the sofa.

“Well look who left the love shack.” Mercedes said as Kurt sat down next to her. He swatted at her, but smiled. Blaine sat down on Kurt’s other side, taking his hand.

“Great! Okay. The four of us are going to manage this project, because out of the group, we’re the four most talented.” Rachel said unabashedly. Kurt rolled his eyes.

“Umm, Rachel? We need to pick a musical.” Mercedes said. “Weren’t you, like, composing one, Kurt?” She asked. It took Blaine all he had not to laugh. If anything, this just proved how much Mercedes had wanted to get away from them at the coffee shop.

“Pip Pip Hooray!” Kurt gushed. “I have to admit, I don’t have a single song written, or really a plot. But I do have several costumes for the lead that would almost put…”

“It’s about Pippa Middleton.” Blaine clarified for Rachel. She facepalmed. Mercedes still looked confused. “The maid of honor from the royal wedding. The bride’s younger sister.”

“Overlooked!” Kurt cried dramatically. “To think, the emotional turmoil of knowing your older sister gets to be a princess, and all you get is smacked around in the tabloids for dancing around in a bra! And then she meets eyes with Harry, but Harry has a slutty girlfriend, but there’s no way she could help but feel…”

“Kurt, I don’t think that would really work for what we’re trying to do.” Rachel interrupted. “It’s a lovely idea, and I’m sure the costumes would look great…”

“But I don’t think we really have the cast.” Mercedes backed her up.

“Oh, fine.” Kurt said, not really disappointed. Blaine had a creeping feeling that Kurt had lost a lot of his momentum with this particular project.

“So what musical do you suggest we do? It’d be kind of hard for us to get rights.” Mercedes said.

“Then go without them.” Blaine said, causing all three of the others to look at him. Kurt’s mouth fell open; couldn’t help but think how by-the-book Blaine was and how he always insisted on the Warblers buying full every member a copy of sheet music instead of making photocopies. “We can do what Kurt was going to do with the princess musical: write our own."

“Yeah, but my idea sucked.” Kurt said, causing Blaine to smile. Rachel and Mercedes exchanged looks of mutual disbelief at the show of humility.

“Well we’ll go with another one. And we’ll all play to our strengths.” He reasoned. “You can design the clothes,” Kurt grinned at Blaine’s suggestion, “Rachel can write or pick the songs,” Rachel’s face lit up at the display of faith. “Mercedes can direct.” Blaine went on with a nod in her direction. Mercedes grinned, showing all of her teeth in delight. “I don’t know what I can do, but…”

“Well, you’ll write the script.” Kurt said, flailing his hands. He turned from Blaine to the girls. “Blaine won Dalton’s school-wide creative writing contest this year.”

“Whoa.” Both girls said at once.

“It was nothing.” Blaine said modestly, blushing. Kurt rolled his eyes.

“Right. It just won you a thousand-dollar scholarship and was mandatory for every student in the school.” Kurt said, smirking. Blaine sighed.

“So we’re going to do this?” Mercedes asked, looking up to Rachel.

“Hell yes we are.” Rachel said, her eyes lighting up and her fists clenched at her sides as she walked over to the floor on the other side of the coffee table, her knees tucked up at her side because of her skirt. She pulled four notebooks with pens hooked to the spirals out from under the table and handed them to each person in the room. Blaine could tell they were color coded, as hers was red, Kurt’s was pale yellow, Mercedes’ was purple and his own was dark blue. He looked down to the cover where his name was written in sparkling gold sharpie and a gold star sticker dotted I in his name. He glanced at Kurt’s. His sticker was after his name.

“Okay. Before we write on the first page,” Rachel began, “we need a name for our musical. Personally, I think we need something with a lot of punch and distinction. You never know what other choirs will be putting on musicals this summer.”

“Shouldn’t we figure out what the musical is going to be about before we name it?” Mercedes asked.

“Most major works have a working title but rename after the project is complete.” Blaine said, testing out his pen discretely. It was blue gel ink.

“Well, let’s pick a working title, then, and write in on the first line. We’ll leave space for the official title above it.”

“Why does it matter how we make our notebooks?” Kurt asked, his eyelids lowered.

“So when this is a smash hit it will look good in the museum!” Rachel said exasperatedly. Kurt rolled his eyes.

“Pretending these will end up in a museum, isn’t the appeal of things like this to see the quirks and the process within them?” He asked.

If you want to look like a disorganized fool, be my guest.” She said. “So what do we want the play to be about?”

“What genre are we shooting for here?” Blaine asked, flipping his pen back and forth in his fingers.

“Nothing too serious. I get enough drama out of the people in this club as it is.” Mercedes said, leaning back.

“Well, I’m not exactly a highly comedic writer,” Blaine admitted.

“What are you talking about? Your story was hilarious. Holden Caulfield and Bella Swan having a deep conversation was probably the funniest thing I’ve ever read.” Kurt said, looking at Blaine.

“What?” Mercedes asked.

“Yeah, but it wasn’t like, overtly funny. It was only funny if you got it.” Blaine explained.

“So we make it something everyone can understand.” Kurt said.

“Unlike Holden Coolfield.” Mercedes asserted.

“Caulfield. It’s from The Catcher in the Rye.” Kurt said dismissively. Mercedes looked at him like he grew another head.

“Since when do you read?” She asked.

“I did go to a prep school for half the year, you know. Besides, I’ve always liked to read. It’s why I’m not on the internet as much as the rest of you.” He said.

“So what’s something everyone knows?” Rachel said, dragging them back to the topic at hand.

“Well, there’s children’s stories.” Blaine said.

“Children’s stories? Like what, Harry Potter?” Rachel asked, looking up.

“No! As much as I love it, what type of weirdo makes a musical about Harry Potter?” Blaine said, making a face. “I meant like fairy tales.”

“Because that’s any less weird.” Mercedes said, her voice full of ennui as she tossed her pen up in the air and caught it.

“No, I think he has a point.” Rachel said, putting a hand up. “If we do a musical about fairy tales, it will draw a lot more people than something not a lot of people know. I mean, look at Disney.”

“But if we make a musical about fairy tales with original music it will be too stupid to handle.” Kurt said, sitting up a little. His mind was starting to fill with princess dresses.

“We’ll use outside music, then.” Rachel said. “Maybe write one or two of the songs, but mostly use songs like we’d do in Glee club.”

“Is that legal?” Mercedes asked, her eyebrows rising.

“Is anything we do legal?” Kurt asked under his breath. “If we buy sheet music we should be alright. We don’t even do that half the time in glee club.”

“Really?” Blaine asked, looking disgusted.

“We’re not exactly a rich school, prep school boy.” Mercedes said.

“So what’s our working title?” Kurt asked Rachel and Blaine. Rachel thought for a minute, biting her red pen.

“Fantastic.” Rachel said with a wide smile. Blaine returned it.

“Fantastic.” He repeated.

“Okay. Everyone move down to the floor and write it on the table so it isn’t sloppy.” Rachel said. The three moved down: Blaine did so obediently with a smile still on his face, Kurt rolled his eyes, and Mercedes let out a loud sigh. They all moved to write the working title on the first line of the paper.

“Rachel,” Kurt said, his voice low, “I can’t read my writing in yellow pen.” He said evenly. Blaine had to bite back a laugh.

“Oh.” Rachel said, sounding disappointed. “Well, I guess I can go get you my gold pen. Be right back…” She stood up and went off to her room. Kurt banged his forehead down on his notebook.

“I thought this was your idea, too?” He asked Mercedes. She shrugged.

“She told her idea to me. I wasn’t really involved. I’m fine with whatever as long as she stays off my back and lets me direct.” Mercedes said.

“Well she’s going to be a nightmare. Color-coded notebooks. And she’s really expecting us to stay through dinner?” Kurt asked, rolling his head to face her, his cheek brushing against the cool paper of the notebook.

“Yeah, I’m not staying. So she or Blaine is going to have to drop you off at your car.” Mercedes said.

“Why aren’t you staying?” Kurt asked, his eyes widening in anger at the thought of the abandonment.

“It’s Saturday.” She said, turning away.

“So?” Kurt asked, confused. Mercedes blinked a few times, biting her tongue.

“So, she has a date with Sam.” Blaine said, grinning. Kurt’s face lit up.

“How did you…” She asked, turning sharply to the dark-headed boy.

“We saw you guys holding hands at the coffee shop. You two make a cute couple.” He said, taking a chip and dipping it in the hummus.

“No, we don’t.” Mercedes said quietly. Kurt looked at her sharply.

“What in the hell do you-“

“Here!” Rachel called, reentering the room and cutting him off, gold pen in hand. “This will match your notebook and be more legible.” She said. She took her seat, and the four of them returned to plotting their project.

“Rach, we’re home!” Came a man’s voice after a door opened a few hours later.

“We’re in here, Daddy!” Rachel called back. Blaine looked up as two men entered the room. One had the strong appearance of Jewish features like Rachel’s, and the other was black. He recognized them from Rachel’s frightening family portrait as her dads.

“Hi, Kurt, Mercedes.” The black one said. “And who’s this?” He asked kindly, settling his eyes on Blaine.

“This is Blaine, Kurt’s boyfriend.” Rachel said, turning to her fathers and back to Blaine. “Blaine, these are my dads- Hiram,” she said, gesturing to the Jewish man, who nodded, “and Leroy.” The black man waved.

“Nice to meet you, Blaine. We’ve heard a lot about you from these two.” Hiram said, smiling at Blaine. Blaine blushed, wondering what they knew about his short experiment at dating Rachel.

“Nice to meet you, too. Both of you.” He said, nodding at them politely. He looked over at Kurt, who was beaming.

“No Finn?” Hiram asked Rachel after looking around the room.

“No, Dad, this time it’s just the four of us. We’re planning a musical.” She said proudly. Her dads both smiled.

“Can’t wait for it, Princess.” Leroy said. “We’re going to head up to our room to watch Maddow from last night. We’ll start dinner in an hour. Blaine, make yourself at home.”

“Thank you, er… Sir.” Blaine said, and the men smiled at him and started upstairs.

“Rachel, are both of your dads Mr. Berry?” Blaine asked after they left. Rachel nodded.

“They married in Massachusetts and Dad took Daddy’s name.” Rachel said. Blaine thought she meant Hiram took Leroy’s name, but he wasn’t quite sure.

An hour later, Hiram reemerged and went into the kitchen, telling the kids that he was going to make pasta.

“’I’m actually about to leave, Hiram.” Mercedes said, and Hiram nodded.

“Where are you going?” Rachel asked Mercedes before turning back to jotting down song ideas for Cinderella.

“My parents want to go bowling.” Mercedes said, pretending to write something in her notebook as well, but shooting the boys threatening looks. Both sucked in their lips and looked down innocently.

“Oh. Well, that’s cool I guess.” Rachel said. “Here, give me your notebook.” She said, holding out her hand. Mercedes closed it and handed it to the Jewish girl.

“I’ll see you guys later.” Mercedes said, standing up and smiling threateningly at the boyfriends before leaving the room.

“She’s acting weird today.” Rachel said, continuing to scribble away. Kurt and Blaine both shrugged.