Summer Break

by Sophia Lowell

  A tall kid wearing a letterman’s jacket bumped into her, knocking her off balance. Kurt grabbed her by the arm so she didn’t topple over.

  “What—are you reverting now?” he said. “Do I need to start dressing you in horrid ballet flats again till you learn to walk like a big girl? Perhaps some neon-green Crocs?”

  Rachel shuddered. Those foam atrocities should so not be allowed to exist. She might not know much about fashion, but she knew that.

  “Shut up,” Rachel told him, straightening her posture. “You shouldn’t talk to your boss like that.”

  Kurt scoffed. He had been getting used to the new, nicer Rachel since they’d arrived in Lima. Guess that act was over.

  Rachel watched as a tiny blond freshman girl in glasses walked up to her old locker, twisting the knob around, matching the numbers of the combination. The girl struggled with the metal slide in the exact same way Rachel used to. The locker had a tendency to stick. Suddenly, Rachel was overcome with jealousy. Watching someone else open her locker felt akin to witnessing a boyfriend cheat on her.

  Almost involuntarily, Rachel ran toward the locker. “Hey—don’t close that!” she yelled at the poor girl, who froze with her hand on the metal door, staring at Rachel like a deer in headlights.

  “Sorry. It’s just that this used to be my locker, and I kind of miss it. Would you mind letting me visit with it for a minute?” Rachel asked, aware that her bizarre question sounded more like something Brittany might say than the request of a polished Broadway star.

  The girl nodded, pushing her glasses higher on her nose and looking obviously confused as she turned to leave.

  “Oh, Rachel…” Kurt said, shaking his head.

  Rachel caught a glimpse of red inside the locker. The girl had left her copy of the Thunderclap right there! Rachel couldn’t help herself. She scanned the area, looking over each shoulder. Once the coast seemed clear enough, she quickly snatched the yearbook and slammed the locker door shut.

  “Did you seriously just do that?” Kurt asked in disbelief. Rachel’s antics never failed to appall and surprise her sidekick. “You are out of control.”

  “What? I’ll totally put it back. I do know the combination, after all.” Rachel smoothed her hands over the thick, bound Thunderclap. Maybe it had some of the answers she was looking for.

  nine

  Hallway outside choir room, Tuesday afternoon

  The hallways at William McKinley High hadn’t really changed much, even though Rachel’s life had. It still smelled slightly like overcooked cafeteria food. Homemade posters announcing school-sponsored events still hung on the walls between the rows of tan lockers. And this week—being the very last one of the school year—the kids still buzzed with the excitement of the approaching summer. They walked around the hallways sporting smiles instead of the usual frowns that took residence on their faces during the rest of the school year.

  And the choir room was still in the very same spot, too. Not that Rachel had expected it to have moved or anything. But she was starting to think anything was possible after having just seen head Cheerio Mercedes in action. She stood outside the familiar door with the little glass cutout, waiting for Kurt. She resisted the urge to peek in, though. She was afraid someone would see her, and it would totally ruin the surprise.

  It sounded like they were right in the middle of practice. She could hear muffled notes being played on the piano. It was probably Brad, who usually accompanied them. She had totally forgotten about him, but now that she’d thought of it, she sort of missed Brad. He always accommodated her last-minute requests and was an impeccable sight-reader. How strange. It was weird how you could miss something when you had never really given it much thought before.

  Rachel tried to guess what song they were working on right now, but it was impossible to tell what it was. Whatever it was sounded off.

  Rachel was getting antsy. Kurt had told her that he’d be right back, but she had absolutely no idea where he’d gone. He kept doing that. Some employee he was. Constantly ditching her to fulfill mysterious tasks elsewhere. She made a mental note to tell him he wasn’t allowed do that anymore. Rachel was supposed to be the one in charge. So far, she’d felt like just a puppet. The kind with those strings on its hands. Kurt was the one who looked like Pinocchio in the ridiculous shorts-and-suspenders getup he was wearing today.

  Rachel could hear Brittany’s voice inside. Suddenly, all of the time she had spent in that particular room came rushing back to her. She recalled the amazing solos she’d sung. All the fights she’d fought with the other members of New Directions or Mr. Schuester. All the days she’d sat wishing she would be in the very position she was in now—a big star coming back for a visit.

  She really was excited to make this surprise appearance at Glee Club practice, but the thought of seeing everyone again simultaneously made her stomach churn and her heart beat faster. It was like an audition.

  But as nervous as she was, it amused Rachel that she could get so jittery over an entrance as small as this. She must have performed for hundreds (maybe even thousands) of people every night—not to mention all the red carpet events where she was probably a guest of honor. This was just a little midwestern high school.

  Smoothing down her red belted shirtdress, Rachel wondered if she looked any more grown-up than she used to. The cut of the outfit was quite flattering on her and made her figure appear as if it were a little bit hourglass-shaped, as opposed to the straight-as-a-board body she actually had. And if she could manage to walk in the shoes without falling over, everyone was bound to be a little impressed with the physical transformation. She should have listened to more of Kurt’s fashion advice back when they were in school. Maybe then things might have worked out between her and Finn. Just wait until he saw her today.

  Rachel couldn’t believe Finn kept creeping into her thoughts. Must be just the fact that she was back here. It was unavoidable. Every corner of McKinley High stirred up some old memory, and most of them involved either Finn or Glee. Or both.

  She began to pace, partially because she was restless but mainly to practice walking. Falling wasn’t exactly the entrance she wanted to make. Rachel had just finally begun to create her own hair-wind (another Kurt trick), when a high-pitched voice at the other end of the hallway startled her.

  “Do my eyes deceive me?” it squealed in disbelief.

  A short, bespectacled nerd with an unmistakable mess of curly hair excitedly shuffled toward her. It was none other than J-Fro, the school’s resident gossip and number-one Rachel Berry fan. His crush on Rachel had always bordered on unhealthy obsession, but his presence made Rachel feel like she should have been experiencing a little more of this adoration from her former classmates now that she was back in town.

  As J-Fro got closer, Rachel thought she could see little streams of tears rolling down his cheeks. “Are you… crying?” Rachel had seen old footage of Beatles fans crying hysterically when they would catch a glimpse of Ringo Starr or Paul McCartney.

  “Is it really you? My goddess—the Rachel Berry?” J-Fro began panting like a dog. “Has the queen of McKinley finally returned to the kingdom to reclaim her rightful throne of epic hotness?” he said in all seriousness, dabbing his eyes with a dirty hanky. “I have waited for so long for this day to come.” J-Fro pulled out his cell phone and began snapping pictures, a mere three inches from Rachel’s face.

  “Jacob!” Rachel held up her right hand in protest. “What did I tell you about doing that?”

  “Oh, sorry, I forgot your four-inch personal-space rule.” He wiped a large glob of drool from the corner of his mouth. He took a step backward, panting.

  “No, the other rule.” Rachel tossed her hair over her shoulder and struck a pose. “About only getting shots of my good side.” This was something she had discovered through many hours of posing in her bedroom mirror, as well as taking pictures on her webcam. Her right side was definitely better. She smiled wide.

  “Sweet heaven
s,” J-Fro said as he frantically searched his backpack. He located a larger camera and popped off the lens cap. He began snapping away, a camera in each hand. “I’m so glad I visited that witch doctor and had him bring you back to me again. Never leave.” His body was practically vibrating with excitement.

  Now this was more like it. Rachel kissed the palm of her hand and blew it toward J-Fro’s cameras. Across the hall, Puck leaned against the lockers, watching the whole scene play out. Rachel had been focusing so hard on sucking in her cheekbones that she hadn’t even noticed him there. He caught her attention when he casually put his hand up to “catch” her kiss and pretended to put it in a front pocket of his dark-wash jeans. Ah, good old Puck. The devious smirk. The sexy swagger. It looked like he still had that bad-boy-charm thing down. And it looked like he was checking her out.

  Rachel and Puck had a weird romantic history. It mostly consisted of using each other from time to time to get back at others. Or rather, Rachel had just used him to make Finn jealous. And Puck couldn’t really help himself if presented with the opportunity to make out with a hot chick. He’d pretty much already hooked up with every single girl in Glee Club, maybe the whole school. Even Lauren Zizes. He had pissed a lot of them off, too. That much was evident by how often the fights that broke out in the girls’ bathroom at lunch could be traced back to one name: Puck.

  “Don’t hate the Puckster—hate the game” was usually his response when asked what he had to say for himself. At least he was honest.

  Puck took out his own cell and snapped a few candid shots of Rachel. Wow, Rachel thought. Even Puck is one of my fans now. He winked at her before continuing his stroll down the hallway to who knows where. Wait—where was he going? Shouldn’t he be in Glee practice with the others right now?

  “Puck! Wait!” He spun around to face her.

  “Oooh, yes. Hold that face, it’s working for me. That sort of surprised-worried-shy look. Oh, yes.” J-Fro’s eyes fluttered, and he began to emit a noise that frightened Rachel. Maybe that was enough pictures for now.

  Rachel ran up to Puck. “It’s so good to look at you—I mean, see you.”

  A slow smile spread over his tanned face. He’d probably already started his summer ritual of working as a pool boy to the local cougars. Puck didn’t discriminate against older women.

  “You, too, sweet cheeks. There’s no one nearly as annoying around here anymore. I sorta missed you bossing me around….” He patted her on the shoulder.

  Puck looked kind of different. Maybe it was just weird to look at everything from so much higher up in these crazy shoes. It felt like she was practically looking him in the eye. Or at least not looking up his nose like before. Rachel had seen up a lot of noses in her time. It was one of the disadvantages of being the size of a Smurf. There were many advantages of it, though, like being comfortable in coach on flights. Not that she had to worry about that anymore.

  “Why aren’t you in Glee practice? It’s going on in there right now.” Rachel motioned to the door. She ignored J-Fro whimpering helplessly in the background. Rachel’s eyes narrowed. “You didn’t quit or something, did you?” That would be so like him to just up and leave the minute she wasn’t there to hold the club together anymore. He’d probably taken up pro wrestling or started an escort service since she’d seen him last.

  Puck didn’t miss a beat. “Look, hot stuff—I’d love to, but I can’t stay and chat. I’ve got things to see and people to do.”

  What a pig, Rachel thought.

  And with that, Puck rushed off. Why did everyone keep doing that? Puck was definitely up to no good. At least some things don’t change, Rachel thought as visions of the new, scary Mercedes flashed through her mind.

  “If you are quite finished with your little nostalgic flirting session, may I suggest we go inside before practice is over? Or are we trying to build suspense?” Kurt crossed his arms over his purple shirt and cocked his eyebrow at her. Rachel hadn’t even seen him come back.

  Of course she was ready. She was the one who had been waiting for him in the first place! “Lead the way, Hummel,” Rachel said as she combed her fingers through her hair. This was it. The big entrance.

  She briefly considered going in with a song, like that time at regionals. She’d entered through the back of the auditorium singing “Don’t Rain on My Parade.” But she didn’t have anything good prepared at the present moment. Better stick with a plain old grand entrance.

  Kurt took a deep breath and pushed the door open. They stepped through together.

  “Oh, hey, guys,” Brittany said casually, as if not a single day had gone by since she’d last seen the two of them. “Are you guys, like, rejoining Glee Club? You’re late for practice, but it’s okay.”

  Rachel just stared blankly at her. She was too shocked by what she saw in front of her to respond.

  Rather than a room full of familiar faces (that were overjoyed to see her), she and Kurt were greeted by the sight of about a dozen prepubescent strangers. Brittany stood at the head of the classroom, sans Cheerios uniform, waving her arms around like a cartoon conductor. She was wearing a really short denim skirt and a camisole that revealed even more than her uniform used to.

  The kids—who must have been freshmen—looked like they were the runtiest, geekiest picks of the new litter. They wore expressions that ranged from wonder to complete terror. A small blond girl in the back looked like a scared rodent. She bit her nails nervously. However, the most peculiar part was what they were all wearing. Each kid was sporting a red cone-shaped party hat.

  It reminded Rachel of her sixth birthday party. It was the year that her dads had invited a bunch of kids from her kindergarten class to their house. They’d made pretty invitations that said a star is born below a picture of Judy Garland. She had recently seen the movie and had become obsessed with it. Rachel was so excited for the big day. Sadly, not a single kid ended up coming to the party. She had never really been popular, even then. Probably because Rachel was always trying to upstage everyone during circle time. She’d hit her first F note while singing the alphabet song, even though it wasn’t part of the tune. She liked to improvise.

  In an attempt to save the shindig, Rachel’s dads invited over all their community-theater friends and coworkers instead. It ended up being a huge group of adults, all sitting around drinking wine and wearing children’s party hats. Then they all watched the movie together. Six-year-old Rachel performed “The Man That Got Away” to a standing ovation in the living room. She’d thought it was the best birthday ever.

  With the exception of the hats, this was nothing like that.

  A skinny redheaded boy in green suspenders bumped into Rachel carelessly as he began passing out what appeared to be fake white beards to the rest of the kids. Rachel wanted to ask why on earth they were dressing like Santa Claus in the middle of June (everyone knew how much Brittany loved the guy), but she couldn’t even speak. There was no way this was Glee Club.

  Kurt was able to form a sentence first. “Britt, where is everyone?” He stood frozen, his mouth agape.

  Brittany looked around the room, surveying the motley crew that was present. She was like Little Bo Peep presiding over her little flock (right before she lost them and everything).

  Brittany was majorly confused. “We’re totally all here. Even cardboard Bieber.” She pointed to the back row, and sure enough, a life-size cutout of Justin Bieber stood, also wearing a red party hat.

  “You can’t be serious! Brittany, think. Who is missing?” Rachel gasped for air. This couldn’t be happening. She didn’t know any of these people. There was no Tina, Artie, or Sam present. No Mike Chang. No Finn. And worst of all, no Mr. Schuester. What was the world coming to?

  “Oh, do you mean Jessica? I forgot she told me she couldn’t come anymore because she has to run her hamster day-care center,” Brittany said in her vacant, calm voice. A few of the kids groaned. Jessica must have been a big asset to the club. But that was beside the point.
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br />   “Are you… in charge here?” Kurt squeaked. He looked shaken for the first time today.

  “Are rainbows made of Skittles?” Brittany giggled. “Duh, of course! You guys are totally lucky that you came back on Gnome Day, too. I have extra hats and beards.” The redheaded kid held out a few sets of the strange accessories to Rachel and Kurt. They didn’t take them.

  Brittany then pulled out a tub of Vaseline and started passing it around to the group. Each student took a little bit from the container and rubbed it onto their elbows before passing it along. “You guys want some?” she said to Rachel and Kurt, who stood nearby, still in a state of complete shock.

  “What… is… that?” Kurt asked, still horrified by the turn of events.

  “It’s elbow grease. My dad said it helps when you are trying to work on something. I always make my club use it. We get so much further with a little bit of it.” She smiled and nodded knowingly.

  “That’s… so not right.” Kurt grabbed Brittany’s arm and pulled her to the side of the room. She winced in pain. “We need to talk to you.”

  Rachel felt weird with all these little freshmen staring at her with their beady eyes. “Um, go back to practicing,” she said to the group, secretly wondering if they were any good.

  A few moments later, they began singing “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough” by Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell, only the words were a little off. It sounded like the group had replaced every no in the song with the word gnome. Is that what Brittany had meant by Gnome Day? Rachel shook her head in defeat.

  “Where is Mr. Schuester?” Rachel demanded, kicking her shoes off her feet. There was no point in making a good impression now. This room was full of losers. Rachel’s toes throbbed.

  “Oh, he left.” Brittany shrugged. “He found a baby unicorn when he was hiking and captured it. I think he’s touring the world, showing it in all its magical glory.” Brittany always spoke in an awed, hushed tone. “I hope I get to see it.” She was completely serious.