Damaged Goods

Chapter 2

"Shalom blogosphere! Jacob Ben Israel here at McKinley High. Sudden death - big stakes senior year. Who will succeed and who will fail?"

Jacob Ben Israel, like a greedy puppy looking for a bone, strided down the hallways of McKinley High. It was the first day of senior year, the beginning of the final stretch of their seemingly endless high school experience. They had 9 months. 9 months and everything they knew would be ending. There would be no more slushies. No more being tossed in dumpsters. No more being bullied for being nerds. Or being Glee losers. Or looking different. However despite all of this, it would be a lie to say that any of them were 100% happy to be leaving. This place, dingey and decrepit as it had become, was their home, and nobody in the school felt that way more than those in the New Directions.

As Jacob scoured the corridors for someone he could interview without being punched in the face, he eventually came to his first subject. Or rather, his first victim.

"Finn Hudson. Mediocre quarterback. Mediocre Glee Club lead. What do you want to be when you grow up?"

As Finn closed his locker, he was taken aback by the question. He had just come from one of the best summers of his life. It had been nothing more than spending time with Rachel, spending time with Kurt and the family, and spending time with the rest of the New Directions. Burt had even given him a part time job at the tire shop so he had been able to start saving for college. Finn was extremely excited to get back to school for senior year, not only because it would be his final opportunity to win Nationals with the Glee club, or defend their Conference Championship for football. He was looking forward to having one more year in this shelter that they called high school, before he would be well and truly thrown out into the cold. Because the truth was he didn't have a clue what he was doing after high school. At least not yet. While everyone around him seemed to be making their plans, he was, quite frankly, lost. But it was a long year, he told himself, and he'd have time to figure out all of that stuff later.

"I'm really excited about this year. It's going to be a good one." Finn managed to stammer out, before turning around and walking away down the hallway. Jacob then proceeded to walk off and search for more people to interview. It didn't take him long to find some more either. As he made it to the choir room, he saw that there were already two people there.

"Rachel Berry and Kurt Hummel. The hottest girl in school and last year's Prom Queen. What do you two have planned for next year?" Jacob asked, not exactly looking Rachel in the eye, and his cameraman following suit.

Unlike Finn, however, Rachel and Kurt did indeed have a plan. It was a plan they had been working on the entire summer, structured almost to the very minute. They needed to do several extra-curricular events both in and outside of school, as well as send in applications to all of the colleges they had decided to apply to together. Both aspired to be on Broadway, and neither would be willing to rest until that dream became a reality.

"I'm glad you asked." Rachel said. "Kurt and I will both be applying to a New York based performing arts school.

"NYADA." Kurt finished his friend's sentence. "Also known as the New York Academy of the Dramatic Arts."

"We'll get an eclectic little apartment on the lower east side..." Rachel said.

"Think Bette and Barbara Hershey in Beaches, pre-cardiomyopathy..." Kurt continued.

"I'll originate a role in the new Sondheim musical, Tony by 25..." Rachel added.

"Married by 30, legally!" Kurt piped up.

"Broadway, Lincoln Center, West End, a tasteful HBO miniseries. It's all right here in my planner, you see?" Rachel finished, with every sentence edging closer to Jacob, brandishing her planner in the air. She continued to list out everything she was going to do over the course of her senior year with fortune-teller like certainty, and it took Jacob and his cameraman making a mad dash out of the room for her to finally draw to a halt.