The Bitch of Gleeing

“You seemed real cosy singing that song with Mark,” Finn stated, catching up with Rachel as they exited the glee room.
“It’s from Spring Awakening Finn, it’s one of my favourite musicals. Did you even read the list I gave you?” Finn vaguely remembered a three page long list of random musicals that had ended up under his bed.
“Uh...”
“Look, I appreciate that you might feel threatened by Mark since he has the knowledge of musical theatre you so obviously lack, but I’m not going to leave you. I thought you knew that,” Rachel snapped, starting to get annoyed by the fact her boyfriend didn’t trust her. Finn sighed and ran a hand through his hair.
“I’m sorry,” he murmured, “I guess I’m just a bit insecure when it comes to these things. You’re into so many things I have no idea about...” She stopped him, reaching up to put a hand on his shoulder.
“It’s okay,” she assured him, pecking his cheek, “We’ve been over this. We both feel insecure because we both feel like we don’t deserve each other, though how you can feel like you don’t deserve me I’ll never know. The fact is, I love you Finn. Don’t ever forget that.”
“Okay,” Finn nodded, kissing her gently, “I love you too.” Rachel smiled up at him for a moment, before stepping out of his embrace.
“I’ll talk to you later Finn,” she said, before heading out of the school to go home.

“Rachel!” Rachel was in the middle of the car park when she heard her name called. She spun around to see Mark hurrying to catch up with her.
“Hey,” she greeted when he reached her.
“Hey,” he replied, smiling down at her, “I just wanted to say, you have an amazing voice.”
“Thank you. You’re not bad yourself. I really like your song choice.” 
“Well, Spring Awakening is one of my favourite musicals. I’ve always wanted to play Moritz.”
“I’ve always wanted to play Wendla!” Rachel exclaimed.
“Seriously? That’s awesome!” Mark grinned at her. “Hey, I know this is short notice, but some friends of mine are having a Spring Awakening sing-along thing tonight, would you like to come?”
“A Spring Awakening sing-along? That sounds fun,” Mercedes exclaimed, seemingly appearing out of nowhere.
“Mercedes, you know Spring Awakening?” Rachel asked, raising an eyebrow at her.
“Ch. Of course,” Mercedes stated, fiddling with the strap of her bag.
“Well, you can come too if you want Mercedes,” Mark smiled at her, “So what about it?” He turned to Rachel. She looked between Mark and Mercedes for a moment. On one hand, Finn might be mad if she spent too much time with Mark. On the other, she really did want to make new friends who appreciated theatre as much as she did, and Mercedes was going to be there so she didn’t really see any harm in it.
“Okay, I’ll come.”
“Sweet! Here’s the address, I’ll see you two at seven.” Mark handed Rachel a folded piece of paper and headed off, waving at them as he went.

“Okay, I don’t know what the deal is with you and Mark, but you have Finn and I think you need to back off,” Mercedes snapped once Mark was out of hearing range.
“Mercedes, nothing’s going on with me and Mark. Nothing’s ever going to happen with me and Mark. I’m with Finn.” Mercedes watched her with a raised eyebrow for a moment.
“You sure?”
“I’m sure. You’re free to like him without any interference from me,” Rachel smiled at her and a blush spread over her dark skin.
“I don’t...” Rachel just raised her eyebrow at her, “Okay, fine, so maybe I like him. But I don’t know what to do, I don’t know the first thing about Spring Awakening!”
“Well,” Rachel grinned, taking the girl’s arm, “I’ll have to teach you all about it before tonight.”

Mercedes had spent the entire afternoon in Rachel’s room, something she never imagined she would ever do. They watched Spring Awakening on YouTube and learnt the soundtrack, Mercedes had even put up with her fast-paced, usually self-centered rants since it meant getting closer to Mark.

They pulled up outside the house Mark had directed them to and stepped out of the car, Mercedes a little nervously. They could already hear music playing and Rachel smiled as she recognised Mark’s voice singing The Bitch of Living.

God, I dreamed there was an angel
Who could hear me through the wall
As I cried out-like, in Latin
"This is so not life at all
Help me out-out-of this nightmare"
Then I heard her silver call-
She said: "Just give it time, kid
I come to one and all"

Rachel froze half way down the hall as an all too familiar voice took over the second half of the verse:

She said: "Give me that hand, please
And the itch you can't control
Let me teach you how to handle
All the sadness in your soul
Oh, we'll work that silver magic
Then we'll aim it at the wall"
She said: "Love may make you blind kid-
But I wouldn't mind at all"

She practically ran the last few steps into the living room, it couldn’t be? Could it?
“Jesse?”