Little Red and the Big Bad Wolf

The following Monday, Kurt met me in the hallway, smiling brightly. He looked around me at Puck, who was totally oblivious to what was going on.

“Puck,” I stopped him by putting a hand out in front of his torso, “I’ll meet you later, okay?”

“Um…okay…” He looked confused as he walked away, but he didn’t say anything else. At least he didn’t start asking questions.

“Did you hear what happened to Callie?” Kurt asked as we walked down the hallway, his hand firmly on the strap of his bag.

My stomach tightened at the sound of her name. “What?” I asked, pretending that I didn’t know anything about her problems.

“I heard that she has an eating disorder and got sent away to Cincinnati to be in some treatment program in a rehab place.”

“Really? I never would have guessed that she had anything wrong with her.” I coughed a little bit, hoping that it would cover up how bad my lie was. “Anyway, what are you so happy about on a Monday morning?”

“What?” He wiped the smile off his face. “I’m not happy.”

“Yes, you are. I saw that grin.” I smirked, nudging him in the side. “What happened over the weekend?”

Kurt checked around us to make sure that no one was eavesdropping as we stopped at my locker. Then, he leaned in and whispered, “I met someone this weekend.”

“And by ‘someone’, I’m assuming you mean a ‘boy’.” I said boy suggestively, the smile on my face growing by the second.

He didn’t answer me, so I slammed my locker shut and turned to face him. “I’m waaaaiting!”

“Okay, he might be a…boy.” He couldn’t help but smile. “And he might be gay.”

Right there in the middle of the hallway, I squealed. Okay, so not one of my brighter moments. I threw my arms around Kurt and was quickly pushed off. “God, Ellie, why don’t you draw attention to us?”

“Sorry. I’m just SO EXCITED.” I was downright giddy by then. “So what’s his name? Does he go here? Is he cute?”

“Blaine. No, he goes to Dalton Academy. And of course he’s cute.” Kurt ran his hand across his bangs, making sure that they were falling perfectly. “I was wondering if, maybe, after Glee Club today…you might want to meet him? We’re going to the Lima Bean for some coffee.”

Another scream, but this one was quieter and more contained. “Of course I want to meet him!”

Kurt rolled his eyes. “Great. So we’ll go after Glee Club. Sure you can take some time away from Puck?”

“Duh.” It was my turn to roll my eyes.

I got a weird look from Kurt that I didn’t have time to decipher, since the bell rang shrilly.

“Shit,” I muttered. “Talk to you later, Kurt!” He didn’t even have time to answer before I took off at full speed down the hallway, thankfully making it into my classroom before the teacher.

* * *

At lunch, Puck sat next to me with his tray, which was filled with some kind of mud-looking grossness. “Ew,” I commented, not even bothering to say hello to him. “I don’t know how you think you’re going to be able to ingest that.”

“I don’t know what that means…but if you’re trying to say how I’ll eat it, then I can say that I just like a challenge, babe.” With that, he picked up a fork and took a bite.

Closing my eyes to settle my suddenly-churning stomach, I told him, “I swear to God, if you finish that and immediately puke on me, I will not go out with you anymore.”

He shrugged. It seemed to me that he was being a little too confident, but he could do whatever he wanted. As long as it didn’t involve any vomit on me.

“Oh, so are we hanging out after school?” Puck questioned, still chewing some of the slop from his tray.

“Um, not if you throw up on me.” He gave me a look, so I laughed. “Actually, no. I’m hanging out with Kurt. He’s going to introduce me to a new friend that he met over the weekend.”

“You’re going to hang out with Kurt and his boyfriend?” There was something slightly condescending to his words, but it wasn’t obvious enough for me to call him on it. “Wouldn’t that make you, like, a third wheel?”

“He’s not Kurt’s boyfriend. So no, it wouldn’t.” I stuck my tongue out at him before taking a bite of my very edible sandwich.

“Is he a straight guy?”

“Why do you care? Threatened?” I let out a laugh and rubbed Puck’s shoulder. Leaning close to his ear, I whispered, “No. And I’m not going to cheat on you. So relax, okay?”

He let out a grunt, which I had no idea how to interpret.

After a few minutes of silence, Puck pushed his tray out of the way. “I think if I take another bite, I’m going to barf everywhere.”

“Don’t you hate it when I’m right?” I cocked an eyebrow at him before turning back to my lunch, praying that Puck wouldn’t lose his in my presence.

* * *

In Glee Club, I was actually surprised to find that I couldn’t wait to leave. There were a thousand ideas running through my head of what Kurt’s new crush (and I knew it was a crush-a girl can just tell these things) looked and acted like. I knew he had to be sweet, since Kurt wasn’t the kind to fall for jerks.

Mr. Schue was five minutes late, which seemed like an eternity in my rush. “Anyone have any performances to share with the group?” he asked right off the bat, an innocent smile on his face.

“Do you not have an idea for our assignment this week, Mr. Schue?” Rachel spoke up. “If you would allow me to, I would love to suggest-”

“Sit down, Berry,” Santana snapped. “You’re being more annoying than Ellie.”

My head snapped up at the sound of my name, but it took a second for the context to settle into my head. “Hey!”

“Settle down,” Mr. Schue intervened, sighing. “Alright, so I don’t really have an idea for an assignment this week.”

“We could just do something simple like breakup songs,” Artie suggested.

“We just did songs of betrayal. It’s kind of the same thing,” Quinn reminded him.

“Right,” he mumbled.

“Why don’t we do Beatles songs?” Finn spoke up. “There are, like, a million of them, right?”

“I second Finn,” Puck agreed. “Which is weird.”

“Then I guess it’s decided,” Mr. Schue smiled as he looked around the room. “Beatles songs it is.”

“Woo!” I cheered. “Are we free to go now?”

“Yeah, I guess so. I’ll see you guys tomorrow. Artie, Tina, and Brittany, you guys go tomorrow.”

“But I don’t think I can learn a song in a night…” Brittany mumbled, but she was ignored by everyone.