Kurt could hear footsteps plodding toward the door. It swung open dramatically to reveal Rachel wrapped in a fluffy pink bathroom and green goo plastered on her face.

“Darling, come in.” Rachel grabbed his wrist and pulled him through the threshold.

“I brought popcorn!” He sing-songed, holding up the unpopped bag and waggling it around slightly.

“Wonderful, because I have the perfect entertainment for our girl’s-night-in marathon.” They made their way to the kitchen, where Rachel placed the popcorn bag in the microwave and turned it on.

Kurt helped himself to a glass of water. “Pray tell - are we doing Judy or Barbra tonight?”

“Neither.”

Kurt raised his eyebrows and cocked his head while Rachel continued, “I was searching eBay for lesser known musicals to add to my extensive collection, and I discovered a rare DVD set that I just had to purchase. It’s practically about us …but in the 1950s!”

Kurt’s look of incredulity spurred her explanation onward.

“No, seriously. It’s literally about the members of a high school glee club in a small town in Ohio.”

The microwave beep cut her off and she opened the door, releasing the powerful aroma of imitation butter. “Anyway… let’s just see what it’s like. If it’s boring, we’ll just watch ‘Funny Girl’ instead.”
Kurt grasped her shoulder and ducked his head to look deeply into her eyes. “Honestly, Rachel, I didn’t think I would ever say this, but I might be a little sick of ‘Funny Girl’.”

-

“Oh, look! That one’s wearing a bowtie!” Rachel sat up suddenly from where she was lounging beside Kurt on the bed and pointed toward the screen excitedly. “And he’s cute, too!”

Kurt leaned forward, squinting intently at the figures on the screen. They were singing a perfectly bland ditty that Kurt didn’t recognize while standing stiffly on bleachers in the center of a stage.

“Rachel, he looks like a grainy gray blob. Maybe we’d get a close up if he got some solo lines, but unfortunately those two are in the lead all the time.” Kurt waved his hand dismissively at the screen where a tall boy and a slight, dark-haired girl stood together front and center. “They’re worse than you with the limelight hogging.”

“Well, she is the best singer in the group; it’s only natural that she should have more screentime.”

“Yeah, whatever. Not even you could save this boring song.”

As the tune ended, the scene shifted to the boy and girl walking together down the school’s corridor. They passed another boy standing at his locker, where they stopped to talk to him.

“Wait, did they just say ‘Kurt’? I think that character has your name!”

“Oh, I think my namesake was another one of the blobs in the back of the bleachers.”

The three continued to converse about the number they had just rehearsed, and how well they thought it would go over with the patients in the hospital ward they would be performing at later that week. The scene ended with the two boys agreeing to see each other at home for dinner and then cut to the tall boy practicing with the school basketball team.

“I like that boy,” Rachel said, gesturing to the screen where the boy was sinking a basket with her handful of popcorn.

“You would; he’s just like Finn.” Kurt rolled his eyes.

-

Rachel fell asleep in the middle of the third episode, slumped slightly to the side but still propped against the headboard, but Kurt continued the marathon without her. Something about the show was oddly alluring, despite its faults. The songs they performed were all rather staid or heavy with religious undertones, but the parallels to his own glee club experiences kept him watching.

The idea of this alternate, simpler version of his life captivated him. Everyone in the club was well-liked by classmates and adults alike, and the faculty and other students actually appreciated the glee club performances. Sure, it was all very cheerful and wholesome, but Kurt was enamored with the idea of a high school existence that rewarded hard work and talent, and lacked the preoccupation with sex that seemed to engross every other kid at McKinley High.

With applause ringing in his ears and visions of jukeboxes and bobby socks dancing in his head, Kurt himself drifted off deep in the fourth hour of the marathon.