AN: To Glee, With Love: A series of short one-shots from the point of view of each Glee Club member as they think about what they should say about how Glee has changed them. Obviously, based around the line they each say before they sing "To Sir, With Love" in Journey. So, spoilers for the finale!

I hope you enjoy these - and please review!

Matt crossed his room and pressed the play button on his iPod, cranking the volume way up to drown out the noise of his two older brothers yelling at the football game on TV.

The strumming at the beginning of Lulu's "To Sir, With Love" came over his speakers and Matt closed his eyes, humming along. He had been skeptical when Rachel first played the song for them, and her prattling hadn't helped. She gabbed on and on over the music about how they should come together and do one last thing for Mr. Schuester – considering all he'd done for Glee and for them – and how this song was perfect because it was from this super-old movie about a really awesome teacher who turned a bunch of hooligans and slutty girls into good students – not that she was slutty or anything.

He could not have been more grateful when Puck interrupted her monologue with a well-put "Shut your pie-hole Berry, and let us listen to the damned song."

And when they had finally been given the peace and quiet to just absorb the lyrics of the song – they were unanimous – maybe the first time ever they'd been unanimous in a decision. This was the perfect song, and the one they should sing for the last time as a Glee club.

It was a testament to just how united they were that Puck didn't even make fun of Finn or call him a girl's name when Finn suggested that they all say one thing about how Glee club, and Mr. Schue, changed them for the better, before they sang.

Oh, Matt remembered what life was like before Glee and just how much his life had changed after he joined. He was quiet, but popular enough because of football. Nobody at McKinley really messes with you if you're on the football team – even if you don't join in on some of the more…rowdy…activities. He had friends – his buddies on the football team, but especially Mike. They'd listen to music together. Sometimes he'd catch Mike tapping and moving his feet along to the beat and he'd do the same thing, but neither really made a big deal about it. It was fine to listen to music, but not so cool to actually move to it. Two dudes in a room dancing? That would be it for his rep if anyone ever found out, and Matt used to pray fervently that no one would – especially his brothers.

Matt had always grown up in the shadow of his two older brothers. They were a year apart in age, but Matt was 7 years younger than his eldest brother, Eric. Which gave them license to team up and rough him up or taunt him mercilessly. They were big, tough, dudes and good at sports. Really good. Both were in college on sports scholarships, and though their grades sucked, their colleges had no problem holding them back from graduating and giving them more free money – so long as they could keep carrying their teams to the finals every year. And though Matt had followed the family plan and become a football player, he was nowhere near as gifted in sports as his older brothers and they never let him forget it. He wasn't the quarterback, and he wasn't the star. He was Matt Rutherford, team player in the shadow of everyone else.

For the most part, Matt was OK with this. He wanted to be more than just a football player, stuck in Lima. He wanted to be more than his brothers, who, though they were in college still came home every weekend to empty the fridge of its contents and have mom do their laundry. Though his parents expected no more from Matt except to be like a normal, red-blooded American male and good at football, Matt always wanted to be good at more. But until Coach Tanaka agreed to have Mr. Schue teach the football team to dance, Matt didn't know what else he was good at.

Turns out, he's not a half-bad dancer or a half-bad singer. True, he's no Rachel Berry or even Artie Abrams when it comes to singing. And true, he's no Mike Chang when it comes to dancing. But he's not half-bad, and though Matt is yet again, not a star and only a team player, he likes this team a whole lot more. It gives him more of a sense of community somehow, and definitely more of a sense of accomplishment. He never wanted to work harder at standing out in football, but he wants to work harder and practice more if it means he'll stand out more in Glee.

Matt doesn't even care that his parents don't really get it, and that his dad falls asleep during their performances. He doesn't even care when his brothers make fun of him and call him a pansy, a sissy, or worse. Matt just flips them the bird, and plugs his iPod in, listening to whatever they're singing for Glee on repeat until he knows every chord, every line, by heart. Sometimes he'll lock himself in his room and think about what dance steps he might pair with the song, in case Mr. Schue asks for his input.

Matt's happiest when he's at Glee. Just like Santana's happiest when she's at Glee. She even admitted it once, and when she glanced at him after she said that he smiled at her, as if to say "I get it. I totally get it."

But it's over now. Glee is over because even though they tried so damned hard and sung their goddamned hearts out, they just couldn't beat whatever sick game Coach Sylvester was playing.

Matt put his head in his hands. He thought about Tina crying, the other day, in Mr. Schue's living room and what she'd said. "Being a part of something special, makes you special." For the better part of a year, Matt had been special too. Special because he was more than a football player, special because he no longer cared what anyone thought about his dancin', singin' self. Special because he had something that made him stand out from his brothers' shadow.

"In the beginning of the year, I was just another football player."