"Come on, Dude," Karofsky started, slushy in hand. "Don't be such a girl."
"I'm telling you, being on Glee Club doesn't make me a girl…"
"Well you and Sam switching over to the gay side isn't cool with us," Artie added.
"Glee Club is cool. I mean, it will be soon enough. Look at that senior, Jesse St. James; he's popular, yet Glee is pretty much his whole life."
Karofsky and Artie, along with Azimio, laughed at Finn's pathetic attempt at making singing and dancing on stage seem acceptable. "Even your gay brother is cooler than you," one of them explained. "We're meeting up with him by the slushy machine before we attack."
Finn rolled his eyes hopelessly; he knew trying to prove himself to his arrogant friends would end up with him getting a slushy thrown into his own face. But Kurt…when did his brother become such a moron? He's not even a football player, and he's going around harassing people.
When his fellow jocks left him alone at his locker, instead of going straight to rehearsal like he said, Finn aimlessly followed behind the others. It wasn't that he had any interest in becoming one of them, but he just wanted to see what an actual slushy attack looked like. Finn usually kept quiet about this to most of his football friends, but he had never actually given anyone a slushy facial. Finn was lucky- star quarterback, extremely popular, girls swooning over him in the hallways- and he could pretty much get away with anything in that school, but something about harassing others just didn't feel right. He knew his father was always watching down on him, and he would never want to do anything to disappoint his late father who had died fighting for the country.
Finn trailed behind for the whole show. The three jocks met Kurt by the slushy machine just as they said. Finn watched as they exchanged greetings with his brother and proceeded to find their latest victim. Within the next five minutes slushies were thrown, clothes were stained, and Bieste had the four boys in charge walking off to the principal's office. She too must have witnessed the whole ordeal, and went on some long rant about them spending more time working on football plays and less time bullying others. When Kurt piped up about not being a football player, Bieste went off into another tirade and sent them to Figgins.
Finn shook his head at the absurdity of the whole situation. If people could just be nice to everyone else they boys wouldn't be sent off to get even more detentions added to their records. If people could just mind their own business Finn wouldn't have to listen to Kurt get yelled at by his father later that night…
~x~
"You don't even know how lucky you are," Burt started later that night upon hearing about Kurt's detention and the reasoning behind it. "We live in a community where homosexuality is accepted and treated normally. How would you like it if somebody threw a slushy in your face just for being gay? I think you would feel as awful about yourself as this Noah kid must feel when he's being harassed by you guys every day."
Kurt shifted in his seat, refusing to look his father in the eyes. "Okay, Dad. I'll serve the detention during lunch tomorrow and even apologize to Puckerman. But you don't need to throw the fact that I'm gay into every situation…" Kurt was obviously feeling uncomfortable- the bullying had been going on for quite a while; this was just the first time a teacher caught on and acknowledged it.
"And you'd better make sure you're sincere about it when you apologize," Burt added in. He then turned his attention to Finn. "And where the hell were you when this was going on?"
Finn threw his hands in the air defensively. It was bad enough that the yelling and lecturing had been going on the same time Finn was trying to watch a football game innocently, but dragging him into the drama was over-stepping it. "I was at Glee rehearsal, where Kurt should have been," he replied. So maybe that wasn't entirely true, but the last thing Finn was looking for was drama.
"Oh, really?" Kurt asked sarcastically. "That's funny, because when I was in the office Schuester came in asking where you were. Are you sure you weren't hooking up with Brittany behind the bleachers?"
Finn sighed and gave Kurt and evil glare, accepting defeat. "Artie and Dave were trying to convince me to join in with you guys…" he said softly.
"Well maybe you two should try to be nicer to this Noah guy, rather than harassing him or ignoring him," Burt said, getting up from his seat. "Any try getting along better with each other, yeah?" He made his way up the stairs to watch the same football game on his television in the privacy of his own room.
Finn and Kurt did have their brotherly moments, but most of the time they found themselves arguing over something. Finn knew the majority of Kurt's loathing towards him was because he thought Finn was a homophobe, when, in reality, he wasn't. Finn's major concern with Kurt was that he was putting out a bad reputation for Glee Club, making it look like they're all bullies. Even later into the night Finn tried getting through to Kurt about his behavior, bringing up the fact that he shouldn't want to disappoint his dead mother. Kurt just replied with a snarky comment about loving his mother, but also being an atheist, therefore, not believing in having anyone 'watching over him'.
~x~
The next day in school, Finn decided to put his step-dad's advice to good use. He watched from afar as Kurt gave some pathetic apology to his prey from the day before.
Finn actually felt really bad for Noah Puckerman. Since freshman year he would always get terrorized for no reason. He never put himself out there and did stupid things, and he also wasn't some nerd with straight A's. Finn could never wrap his mind around a legitimate reason the jocks picked Noah to tease. When they first entered high school he even tried out for the football team, but failed to make it through tryouts. As of recent he even gave himself a mohawk, probably in an attempt to at least appear cooler. But no matter what he tried, the bullying never stopped, and that's what Finn hated the most about McKinley- everyone was so concerned with being popular and 'fitting in'. Finn was pretty much at the top of the social food chain, and honestly couldn't think of one good thing about it, besides the fact that he was obsessed with football.
When Kurt had finally left the poor kid alone, Finn decided to make his move.
"Hey Dude," Finn said, walking up to Noah at his locker.
The other boy froze, unsure of what was happening. "I'm sorry for whatever I did! Here, take my lunch money…!" He proceeded to pull out his wallet and actually hand Finn his money.
Finn shooed it away. "No, Dude, I'm not going to hurt you; I actually just wanted to talk."
"Talk?" Noah asked. "Just talk? Why would you want to do that?"
"Yeah, just talk. There's no reason for you to be afraid of me."
Noah spat and looked at Finn directly for the first time. "Please, that's easy for you to say. You're a football player; guys like you harass guys like me on a daily basis. I have every right to be shocked at the fact that you want to 'just talk'." He shut his locker and began walking off hurriedly, when Finn grabbed onto his shoulder and turned him back around. Noah's stone-cold expression that he usually wore gradually faded into a look of defeat and vulnerability. "I just don't get why everyone's so mean to me…"
Finn was practically dying inside at Noah's words. He wanted to help this kid. He didn't know why, but Noah was different from all of the other so-called 'losers'. "I don't get it either, and I want to stop it."
Noah looked almost appreciative of Finn for a moment, but then spat out, "You know what? No, you don't owe me shit. Thanks, but no thanks; I don't need your help, Finn Hudson." With that, the boy ran off to class.
Finn surprisingly wasn't upset with Noah's reaction. Well, he was taken aback, but he couldn't really blame him for responding the way he did. Finn knew this guy was probably going through a lot, and figured the only thing he needed to do was present himself in a calmer environment.
When Finn went to Noah's lunch table that afternoon for another discussion, he knew things would run much more smoothly. Noah wouldn't feel threatened, thus running away, again because he would be surrounded by people.
He sat at a lunch table with Blaine Anderson, Quinn Fabray, Rachel Berry, and Jesse St. James. None of them really had much in common, and the only one Noah really ever interacted with was Blaine.
Finn took a seat next to Noah nonchalantly, like it was the most casual thing in the world. He eyed Finn suspiciously and asked for an explanation for even acknowledging his existence.
"I think you should join Glee Club," Finn said simply.
At the mention of Glee Club, Jesse and Rachel's heads both shot up from their exclusive conversation.
"What the hell?" Noah asked suspiciously.
Rachel eyed Jesse before chiming in. "Well, yes. You've got yourself a pretty bad bullying problem, correct?"
Noah nodded.
"Well, we accept everyone in Glee Club equally."
"Plus, we still need one more person to qualify for competitions," Jesse added. He smiled at Rachel because, wow, they were gaining three new members in one week.
"I mean, you might get slushied even more," Finn said, thus receiving an evil glance from Jesse, who didn't want to spoil their chances of getting this Noah kid to join the club. "But you'll have friends to help you clean up the mess, and I think that's worth it."
Noah was taking all this new information in. He looked to Jesse and Rachel; they were both relatively popular, and they were utterly obsessed with show choir. He looked to Finn; he was a cool jock who didn't even care about singing a week prior, but joined simply because it seemed fun. But then he thought of Kurt Hummel, who would surely use Glee as yet another excuse to bully him, despite that fake apology. Removing any thoughts of Kurt from his mind, Noah smiled at the group. "I have a lot to consider, but I'll definitely think about it."
Jesse and Rachel high-fived each other, and Finn smiled. "That's great, I'll see you around, okay?"
"Hey, Finn?" he called out as Finn began to walk away. "Call me Puck."
A/N: Hey guys, I wanted to put my author's note at the end because I didn't want to give anything away before the first chapter. In this fic all of the characters' roles are reversed:
Puck: The kid who gets bullied/slushied all the time. Jocks such as Azimio, Karofsky, and Artie bully him. His is the main storyline of the fic.
Kurt is the popular non-jock, and is still gay (but maybe doesn't flaunt it as much as normal Kurt).
Jesse St. James is the Bryan Ryan of their generation. He is a senior at McKinley, and lead soloist for New Directions.
Rachel is the girl equivalent to Jesse, much like her normal self, except popular.
Blaine is the gay kid that nobody likes. He and Puck get along, only because they're both bullied, but they're not much of friends.
Quinn is a cheerleader and is pretty, but gets treated like she did back in her Lucy days.
Artie is a popular football player.
Tina is pretty much the same, but never went out with Artie; she's been with Mike the whole time we've known her.
Sam is a popular football player, but he's nice, unlike Artie and the others.
Finn is also pretty much the same; he's a popular football player who crosses over to Glee, but he's less popular than Artie.
Santana, Mercedes, and Brittany are all normal.
Pairings: Mike/Tina, Kurt/Blaine, Sam/Santana
Eventual pairings: Puck/Rachel, Jesse/Quinn, Finn/Brittany
This takes place in season one, but Kurt and Finn already live together, Sam is in it, and Bieste is the football coach.
Also, I don't own Glee or any characters/places mentioned. I also don't own the title, which comes from a Senses Fail song. I am, in no way, making a profit from this. It's all for entertainment purposes only.