I've heard a lot about 'the old days', the days when Rachel and Finn and Artie and Kurt and everyone were in high school. Things weren't as easy then as they are now, that's what they always say to me. The whole school hated the glee kids back then; they'd get slushies thrown at them almost every day; they'd get bullied for being different; the only friends they had were each other. But now, on the back of several national titles people actually think that glee is cool. Things are better for the glee kids now, and that's true. There's just one thing that all the old glee members forget when they're telling me all this: I'm not in Glee Club.
I know right, it's shocking! I'm Nicholas Schuester – Will Schuester's son – I must be in glee club! Well no, I can't actually sing. I wish I could though, because things are a lot better for the glee kids now. I can tell that just by looking across the cafeteria at their table, they're all laughing and talking, they look like they're having a great time. The glee kids are popular now. Unfortunately it's only glee that has been projected into coolness – the same definitely cannot be said for marching band or the math team, the two clubs that I'm a part of.
A couple of minutes must have passed before I suddenly realised just how long I'd be staring across at their table. I sighed to myself, before returning to my own group of friends – well, the rest of the math team anyway. Someone's brought in a couple of Rubik's cubes, and so everyone's messing around with them, trying to work out how to solve them without memorising some algorithms from the internet. Yup, that's how we roll over on the math team table. That's why I sometimes find it hard to call these guys my friends. They're great people, but we just hardly ever talk about anything but math. Even I find it a bit dull sometimes, and I'm a pretty big fan of math. Yeah, I'm a nerd alright. As if my bright ginger, curly hair and glasses weren't bad enough – I really don't help myself.
Usually I'd join in with them, but I just don't feel like it today, and so it isn't long until I get distracted and look back up across the cafeteria again. This time it's my Dad who catches my attention, walking through the room and turning the heads of half the girls, even though he's over 50 now (seriously, why didn't I get any of those genes?!). Of course he stops to talk to the glee kids, even laughs at one of their jokes. He doesn't come over and say hello to me. He never does.
I can't help but sigh again, and it must have been loud as Gus, a fellow mathlete and probably my closest friend, actually looks up from the cubes at me.
"Are you alright, Nick?" he asks, his eyebrows actually furrowing into a look of concern.
"Yeah just, thinking…" I replied, lifting a hand to brush my fringe out of my eyes.
"Thinking about what?" Gus continued.
"Just my parents." As I answered I watched my Dad walk back across the cafeteria. I don't know if he just never saw me, after all we did always sit at a table right in the corner of the room, or whether he just didn't want talk to me in school. Either way, it always bothered me a little bit that he never came and spoke to me. Mom always did if she was around.
"Well watch out," Gus replied, smirking slightly at something behind me.
"What are you on about?!" I frowned, before twisting around to see what he thought was so funny. Oh, right… speak of the devil.
"Hi Nicholas," my mother smiled sweetly as she stopped just behind my chair. I nodded in reply before she turned her attention towards my friends, "Are you all having a good lunch?" A couple of the guys gave a few awkward nods, but most just carried on examining the Rubik's cube. Mom hardly seemed to notice though, she just looked back down at me to say, "Can I speak to you for a minute, honey?"
Of course the end of that sentence made Gus snigger again, I glared at him as I stood up but didn't bother saying anything. He was only teasing, and to be honest I would've said the same thing to him. So I just ignored him, got up and followed Mom out into the hall. I guess that she didn't want to 'embarrass' me by talking to me in the cafeteria. As if her calling me honey in front of the rest of the team wasn't embarrassing enough.
We stopped in the corridor just outside the cafeteria. I pushed my hands into my pockets, looking up at Mom expectantly. She played with her hands awkwardly, before asking, "So, how's your day been?"
"Fine," I answered, frowning slightly.
"No-one's... done anything? Or said anything today?"
I rolled my eyes slightly, "No Mom. It's been fine. What did you want to talk to me about?"
"Okay, I'm just checking that you're alright," she sighed and then paused slightly, "I just thought that I should warn you that Dad's invited some of his old glee club students around for dinner."
"Again?" I groaned. This is one of the main things that annoys me about Dad, not only is he really close to his current students, but he can't let go of his old ones either. Apparently he's even referred to glee club as his 'family' before... it's ridiculous. I don't understand why Mom is never bothered by it - it always annoys me.
"Who is it this time?" I asked, my displeasure obvious by the tone of my voice.
"Rachel and Finn, I thought you liked them?"
"It's not that I don't like them..." I muttered, my voice trailing off into almost a whisper before I suddenly exclaimed, "I'm not staying in tonight though! I have a math team meeting!"
"Nicholas..." Mom sighed, "It really would be nice if you stayed. Rachel and Finn have traveled a long way..."
"Yeah, to see Dad," I interrupted, "Not to see me! We have a competition on Friday, I have to go!"
"Well you can to your meeting after we've had dinner," Mom stated, arching one of her eyebrows in a way that made it clear that she wasn't going to change her mind.
"Fine," I replied bluntly, folding my arms across my chest and looking down the corridor. Well, looking anywhere but at Mom basically.
She sighed, and instantly I felt terrible. "I'll see you later then, okay?" she asked, moving her head so that she could look at me properly.
"Okay," I answered quietly. She paused for a moment and I wasn't sure if she'd heard me, but then she finally turned and walked back down the corridor and to her office. I exhaled slowly and leaned back against the wall. I didn't mean to snap at her like that, after all it was Dad that I was annoyed at really. It seemed like we were having his old students around every week...
"Hey, Schuester!" a voice suddenly broke me away from my thoughts. I turned around to look at who it was, which of course was the ultimate mistake.
I'd hardly turned at all before I felt the icy slush land on the bridge of my nose, before spreading out across the rest of my face. It stuck to my glasses, meaning that I could no longer see anything. The only way of identifying my tormentor was the awful laugh that echoed down the corridor.
At this point I could feel the slush moving slowly down my face, threatening to droop onto my clothes. This was the advantage of wearing glasses though, the slush never got into my eyes. I removed my glasses to wipe them off, so that I could find my way to the rest room. However, someone must have realised what an advantage my glasses were, because as soon as I took them off someone else threw a slushy straight into my eyes.