A/N: Okay, y'alls. I've been thinking long and hard about this. This is my ultimate. If Glee did RENT (you know, more than the one song they've already done) I would die of happiness.

I know I'm going to piss off some fans of the stage show, but I've never seen the stage show. I'm from a third-world country, don't judge me. Well, South Africa's not too bad, but it's still bloody expensive to go see a proper performance.

Because of this, this fic will be strongly based on the movie and soundtrack. As the characters are from Lima, I can find it easy to assume none of them have ever seen RENT on stage either, with the exception of Rachel, perhaps. Don't hate me! :)

So after that long-winded introduction, let us begin. Enjoy and review if you want :)

Will was at his wit's end. It was the last day before the summer vacation and he faced a dilemma. He wanted to work with the New Directions through the summer because he wanted to take them to new heights in what would be the final year at McKinley for many of them. He had, however, never seen them so disinterested in performing. Most of them seemed more interested the recent revelations of a few of their classmates. David and Santana had recently broken up and when they did, they both admitted that they were gay.

If he was honest with himself, he would say that he didn't see it coming, though it explained much of their aggression. He couldn't imagine how he would feel if he had to keep such a huge secret to himself. What he found disappointing about the whole situation was how the glee club was reacting to it. Bar Kurt, Rachel and Brittany, gossip flew between the kids as easily as if they were breathing - or so Brad had told him. That guy saw everything.

Will sighed. There had to be a way of dealing with the gossip problem and getting them into the feel of the summer glee sessions. He didn't want these practices to be like glee club. It was their summer vacation, after all. The last thing they needed was to be reminded of school.

So deep was Will in his thoughts, that he almost didn't hear someone knocking on his office door. He looked up and saw Kurt, looking concerned.

"Come in, Kurt," said Will, sitting up straighter behind his desk. He motioned to the seat in front of his desk and Kurt pulled it out and sat down. "What can I help you with?"

"Mr Schuester, you know I love the glee club. All of them. Even the ones I hate." Will nodded, a small smile on his face at Kurt's sense of humour. "Well, I'm just worried about the way they're gossiping about Santana and David. They took a huge step and well, now I'm just worried that it's going to make their lives miserable. Santana is supposed to feel safe in glee club and if David ever does decide to join, it needs to be safe for him then too."

"I know what you mean," replied Will. "I've been looking for a way to make summer rehearsals interesting, but also address the whisperers. I can't think of anything."

"If I may, Mr Schue, " Kurt interjected, "it sounds like we need a project. Not just like our weekly assignments – we need something big and distracting. We need to put on a musical."

Will pondered the thought for a moment. Musicals were a lot of work and he wondered if they could pull it off in less than two months. If they did commit fully to it, it would be an amazing distraction. Not to mention that it could be the perfect opportunity to raise some money for transport and costumes. Will liked the idea.

"I like it," smiled Will. "Did you have anything in mind?"

"Well, now that you mention it..."

...

'RENT' Will wrote in large letters across the board. He turned to see the reaction from his students. Rachel, Kurt and Tina appeared so excited, he thought they might explode, while the rest looked at him with confused expressions.

"Mr Schue, I know things have been tight with the glee budget, but you can't expect us to pay rent now. It's not right," said Finn, looking serious.

"Yeah, Mr S, that sucks," said Puck, frowning.

"As funny as it is to listen to your obvious worry and confusion, I simply must interject and say that I find it appalling that none of you have ever heard of RENT. It's only one of the biggest Broadway musicals ever," said Rachel, genuinely offended. Will had to fight not to laugh. She always took everything as a personal insult. He decided to intervene before she decided to draw blood.

"To prepare us for the year ahead, we are going to be putting on a production of the musical. It's an amazing story with a great message. Your assignment: hire the movie, get the soundtrack. Familiarise yourself with the story, characters and the music. I want everyone to prepare a song from the musical to audition with."

He dismissed them and they all began to buzz excitedly. All except Mike Chang, who made his way over to Will looking worried.

"Mr Schue, can I just not audition and help you with choreography or something?" he asked.

"That'd be great, Mike," smiled Will, "but I still expect you to watch the movie. If you're going to choreograph, you need to understand the characters and the music."

He noticed Brittany walking past holding hands with Santana.

"Brittany, can I have a word?" he asked and she stopped to listen. "Would you like to help Mike with the choreography?"

"Sorry, but I'm no good at painting," said Brittany miserably.

"He means making up the dances, Britt," explained Santana.

"Oh, yeah. That would be awesome," she said.

"Great," grinned Will. He already had choreographers. This was going better than he could have hoped. Now all he had to do was worry about how he was going to structure the auditions.

...

Rachel watched the movie for what she was sure was the millionth time. It was perfect. Finn would undoubtedly get the role of Rodger, the tormented rock star and she, Rachel Berry, would get the role of Mimi, the exotic dancer and love interest of Rodger. Excited at the prospect of it bringing them closer, she began to rehearse "Out Tonight" for the fiftieth time that day, but not before texting Finn to remind him of who he was auditioning for.

Finn liked Rodger. He was confused and he could relate to that. The actor in the movie had some insane vocals, though. He didn't know how he was going to measure up. Part of him considered opting for Mark instead, but after the millionth call from Rachel reminding him that he was going to be auditioning for the part of Rodger, Finn figured that he should get to work on his audition song. The last thing he wanted to do was deal with pissed off Rachel.

Santana would be damned if she was going to be playing Maureen. She was already getting enough flack for being out of the closet without adding a character to the mix. No, Santana wanted to play Mimi. She was kind of skanky, but only because she had baggage she was trying to hide. Santana felt an instant connection. She had no problems with playing sexy, but she also knew she could pull off vulnerable Mimi too. She sang her number over and over again until her mother told her to shut up and even then she hummed it. She was going to get that role.

Kurt knew he would be playing Angel, and that suited him perfectly. The character had been an inspiration to him when he was still in the closet and to play him would be a huge honour. He knew that no one else would be auditioning for the role and that his casting was pretty certain. All the same, he practised "Today 4 U" so many times that Burt had to come into his room and beg him to sing a different song. Any song, as long as it was a different song.

While Kurt was over the moon about the whole thing, he knew that none of the glee boys would audition for the role of Collins, Angel's love interest. This thought irritated him. He didn't know of any person who would consider taking the role – unless...

"David?" asked Kurt five minutes later on the phone.

"Oh, hey Kurt" replied Dave in a friendly tone."What's up?"

"Well," said Kurt, wondering how he was going to phrase this, "you know how you told me that RENT was one of your favourite movies?"

"Yeah?" replied Dave, sounding confused.

"Well, glee club is putting on a production of RENT over the vacation. I remember that you have an amazing voice and you act pretty well too. I was kind of hoping you would want to audition."

There was silence on Dave's side for a while and Kurt was about to ask if he was still there, when he said, "I really want to, Kurt..."

"But?" asked Kurt.

"I'm worried about stirring things even more than I already have."

"Please, Dave, please don't let what people say stop you from doing something that will make you happy," said Kurt softly.

"I'll think about it." There was silence on the line for a few moments. "Thanks for the call."

Kurt sighed. "You're welcome."

Dave hung up and the rhythmic beeping of the dial-off came back to him. Kurt sighed and lay back on his bed. He would call Blaine over and talk to him about it. He wanted him to hear his Angel anyway. If he couldn't convince David, he would make sure that he could get Blaine to play Collins. That role was going to be filled. And by someone who deserved it.

...

Dave sighed as he hung up. His heart had raced when Kurt had mentioned the stage production. Now that he was out, he could admit to himself that some of the things he had cut himself off from, would make him really happy and being in RENT would be one of those things. But he couldn't do it.

Could he?

A/N Kinda lame chapter, but it's the first, so hopefully it gets better.

Thank you for reading! Please review if you want. All creative criticism is welcome and appreciated. xx