Free Glee: The Beginning by Sophia Lowell

awe as Quinn said a few words to the girls, who quickly stuffed their napkins into their almost-empty glasses and scooted out of the booth happil y, with smiles on their faces.
    Quinn slipped into the booth, wiped the table with a napkin, and then waved at Finn, pointedly looking past Kurt and Mercedes.
    ‘Oh no, she didn ’t.’ Me rcedes wiped a trickle of ice cream off the rim of her milk shake glass. She glanced around the 72
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    crowded restaurant. None of the other people looked even remotely interested in giving up their seats.
    ‘I’m, uh, sorry about that.’ Finn glanced nervously over his shoulder at Quinn, who was already leaning back in the booth talking to the soccer guys sitting behind her. A tiny strip of skin showed as her shirt crawled up her perfectly flat stomach. ‘Were you waiting for that table?’
    Kurt’s mout h opened , but no words came out. Finn. Hudson. Was talkin g to him . Sure, he wasn ’t the sharpes t knife in the drawe r, but Kurt wasn ’t intereste d in his mind . Finn was gorgeous . He was the only guy on the footbal l team who always offered to hold Kurt’s designer jacket before the players slamme d Kurt into the Dumpste r. Besides that , Finn’s hair was always perfectl y mussed . His cheekbone s looke d like they could cut ice, and his brow n eyes were like the pools of chocolate in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory . Kurt had admire d him from afar since tha t day freshma n year whe n Puck Puckerman and Jack Kurpatwinsk i had tried to thro w Kurt into a vat of grease in the cafeteri a kitche n after fried-chicke n day. Finn told them to knoc k it off, and they did. He was like Superman.
    ‘Yeah, we were,’ Me rcedes answered as she kicked Kurt in the foot. Why was he acting like such a tool in front of Finn Hudson? Just because Finn was popular didn ’t mean Kurt had to act like such a moron. It reminded her of their family ’s golden retrieve r, who would flop down on the ground and roll around on her back whenever a bigger dog showed up
    – ‘classic submissiv e behavior’ , her dad said. Kurt wasn ’t 73
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    exactly on his back but, man, he could show a little more backbone. ‘Don ’t worry about it. We’ll just stand here at the counte r. Who needs a seat?’ Mercedes said with a fake smile.
    ‘Cool.’ Finn ordered two root beer floats, missing the irony in Mercedes ’s voice. As he waited for the floats, he looked around the place and then turned back to Kurt and Mercedes.
    ‘Aren’t you two in that singing
    club?’
    Me rcedes and Kurt shared a glance. Kurt still couldn ’t talk. How was it possible that Finn Hudson knew something –
    anything – about him? Me rcedes had to answe r. ‘Yup, we are.’ She sipped her milk shake. ‘What’s it to you?’
    Finn stared at his shoes. He was grateful when the counter girl handed him his two root beer floats. It gave him some-thing else to look at. He was a little embarrassed that he’d been so moved by Rachel’s performance after school. ‘I, uh, saw Rachel. Singing after school. She said you were going to perform. At the recital.’
    Oh my God, Kurt thought. It was so adorable how Finn couldn ’t speak in complete sentences. ‘Friday,’ Kurt managed to croak out.
    Finn smiled at them. Even Mercedes felt her knees weaken. It felt good to have a popula r, gorgeous jock talking to them like they were human beings. ‘Well, good luck,’ Finn said.
    ‘I’d bette r, uh, get going with these.’
    ‘Finn.’ Quin n ran her tube of lip gloss across her lips and opened and closed them several times to distribut e the gloss evenl y. She watche d as Finn place d the diet root beer float 74
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    on the table in fron t of her. ‘Wha t were you doin g over there?’
    ‘What? Oh.’ Finn slid into the booth. One of the defensive ends walked by and held out his hand for a high five. Finn slapped it. ‘I was just