Blood, Sweat, and Tears
Staring at the carnival sign gives Sam a headache, but he'll die before he asks his kid brother to read it out loud for him. Unlike Sam, Danny isn't dyslexic, and he likes to read. He's not even twelve, and he's making Sam feel stupider and stupider by the day. Danny hasn't quite caught on yet; he still thinks Sam's the greatest guy in the world, the guy that can do anything, and to Sam, that's the most precious thing in the world. It's a relief when Danny changed the subject.
"Sam, can I have blonde hair like you?" the small brunette asks.
"No, I think Mom would get mad."
"Oh." Danny's face falls.
"How about we get frozen lemonades?"
And it brightens again.
"Yeah! Yeah!"
"Right now or after the Ferris wheel?" Sam ruffles Danny's hair.
"After the ride, 'cause we can't take food on the ride."
"Do you wanna do the Ferris wheel first?" Sam asks. They only have a few hours and a handful of tickets each. Luckily, Sam's hands are a bit bigger than average.
As it turns out, Danny wants to do the Hall of Mirrors and the Haunted House first. They have fun banging into glass walls while a pair of girls behind them mark it with lipstick to get through. In the Haunted House, Danny screams no less than four times, and Sam swears his voice goes higher than Kurt's.
"Were you scared, Squirt?" Sam asks afterwards.
"No!"
"It's okay to be scared. You got through, didn't you?"
"Yeah." Danny smiles. He still hasn't let go of Sam's hand.
Sam's wallet is in his jacket pocket. They're messing around in the cart, rocking back and forth, trying to see if they can recognize the buildings. It's not until they're standing in front of the frozen lemonade stand that Sam realizes his wallet fell out during the ride.
"We'll just hike back over there. You know which cart we were in, right?"
"18."
"I'll buy it for you." That's a voice Sam isn't used to hearing. It's David Karofsky, and Sam hasn't seen him since school ended.
"Oh. Thanks, Dave."
"Do you go to McKinley?" Danny asks him.
"Yeah. I'm on the football team."
"Thank you."
Dave smiles.
"I'll pay you back," Sam tells him.
"No, we're cool."
He walks off after paying, giving them one more smile.
Sam tries to think that through when he exercises the next morning. There isn't any reason for Dave to not be nice, right? Except for when He shoved Dave into a locker, but that was months ago. Except for Sam being bi, but Dave doesn't know that. Plus he's sort of warmed up to the guys in Glee after football season was over.
Sam ends up exercising an hour longer just because he's thinking so much. It's not just about why Karofsky would do that, even if school is over and summer makes everyone nicer. It's also about what's going to happen next year because that's senior year, and after that, everything is really important. The whole world is going to be out there, and Sam's going to have to help himself because no one else will be able to help him like they can now. So he works off the stress because he turns eighteen in January, and even if that's six months away, it feels very, very close.
Once Sam's covered in sweat, muscles burning, he feels better. He feels amazing, actually. Exercise always makes him feel better; it gives him time to think if he needs to, or it distracts him from his thoughts. A cold shower washes all the stress and sweat off his body before he heads back to his room.
It's actually pretty clean for a teenage boy. There's the hamper in the corner, the sun bed against one wall, the book shelf filled with geeky stuff that he probably shouldn't show anyone on the football team: Lego Harry Potter scenes, Star Wars action figures, Doctor Who novels, steampunk pilot helmet and goggles, and a photo album of conventions and fan meetings he and his friends used to go to before he moved. Before he decided to live with his mom instead of at an all-boys school paid for by his dad.
A beagle is curled up at the foot of his bed. Sam's mom got him a dog when he decided to move to Ohio with her. She said he'd need a friend. He managed to make friends on his own of course, but he still loves that little dog.
"Hey, Tally." He named her after the main character in Scott Westerfeld's Uglies series. He puts his laptop on his pillow before picking the small dog up and pulling her into his lap. She gives a low whine. "Don't complain, Tally; we're going to watch Sherlock." She lays her head on his leg, and he pets her. It's time to watch "The Great Game."
Sam wonders if Sherlock's gay. In the first episode, he said girls weren't his thing, but when Watson asked if he had a boyfriend, Sherlock simply said he didn't. That would be cool, Sam decides. A lot of girls in the online community think Sherlock/Watson is a good ship. Sam can't see it because he can't get past Watson being straight. Not to mention the fact that Watson has a girlfriend. Still, it's nice to think about Sherlock having feelings for Watson in his own standoffish way. After all, getting crushes on straight guys happens a lot. Sam does it all the time. It's ironic that the one gay guy he met when he got here isn't even his type.
Not that it matters since Sam was so excited to be around girls again that he'd fallen for Quinn, the resident angel, right away. Now that all of his drama with Quinn and Santana is wrapped up, he's sort of tired of girls.
Which sucks since the only guys I know who would even swing that way are with each other. Sam doesn't resent Kurt and Blaine, though. They're obviously infatuated with each other, and their happy smiles give him hope when he stares up at his ceiling wondering if he can ever be that happy with someone. At least Kurt isn't into PDA – Sam's afraid of getting a boner if they ever make out in front of him.
That Sunday, Danny wants to go to the bookstore.
"Please, Mom?" he begs.
"It's been a long week, baby," she says. "Ask your father; see if he'll take you."
She's laid out on the chaise lounge, hair up in a bun while she catches up on Desperate Housewives. Sam's spread out on the couch, struggling through Leviathan by Scott Westerfeld.
"Dad, will you take me to the bookstore?" Danny asks from the kitchen.
"Jessica, did you say he could go?" Sam's step-dad calls out. Sam likes his step-dad. He respects Sam's father but is still involved with Sam's life.
"Yeah, Joel, I did."
"I'm kind of busy, but Sam can take the car."
Danny's fast footsteps pitter-patter over the linoleum floors.
"Sam, will you take me to the bookstore?" There's a lot of excitement in those gray eyes.
"Yeah, sure." Maybe he'll be able to find Leviathan in an audio book.
"You're the best!" Danny gushes, hugging his brother.
"Bring back some ice cream, Sammy," his mom says. "It's hot as hell out there."
"What kind?" Sam asks, running up to his room for his wallet.
"Mint!"
"Ice cream!" Danny shrieks. Sam smiles and starts thinking about which flavor he wants.