It was Thursday afternoon, glee rehearsal. The whole glee club sat in the choir room, waiting for Mr Schue to announce the assignment for the week.
Mr Schue had just finished writing 'Expression' on the whiteboard where he clapped his hands together once and turned towards the glee club.
"Expression" Mr Schue repeated "Does anyone want to tell me what artistic expression means?"
"Flaming guitars?" Finn suggested
"A painting?" Brittany said
"Close guys. Artistic expression is putting yourself into the music. Something that vocal adrenaline can't quite master. You see with artistic expression, you can practice and practice for hours but not get it. You need to capture the feelings in your heart and put them into the music. That's what's going to get us through regionals. Showing the judges what we really feel the music"
"Ughh" scoffed Santana, "Could this be any gayer? Like seriously, you're going to make us sing all these songs we don't even know from Broadway or whatever (Rachel looks utterly offended) and pretend that we actually feel something?"
Matt actually had to agree with this, he was more hip-hop and didn't really get a lot of the songs they did in the glee club.
"Ahhh, but that's where you are wrong Santana" replied Mr Shue "The thing is with this assignment, I can't give you the music. You're going to have to do it yourselves. The expression comes from you, not me. So you can choose to work alone, groups whatever. You can pick your own music. All I want is to see some soul."
"I got this Mr Shue! I can do soul in my sleep!" Mercedes said, clicking her fingers.
"Okay, okay, we have plenty of time to share our performances at the end and through the week. But for now, I think we need to work on our choreography for regionals. Mike, Britt, Matt, come up the front and show us what you've been working on"
Matt hopped up and went up the front to consolidate with Brittany and Mike.
"Okay, so we got Britt's little part first, then mine and yours (Mike looks at Matt), then all together, step ball change, flip and done?" Asked Mike
"Got it" Replied Matt
"1…2….1 2 3 and!" Brittany cried, and they all began their routine. Matt was going fine all through the number, until the 2 minute mark where he needed to do a head spin. His head still ached terribly from the night before where his father shoved him so as he was about to spin he fell to the floor, clutching his head. The music stopped and Mike and Mr Shue ran over.
"You okay buddy? Matt?" Mr Shue asked?
"Yeah I'm good. Just need to work on that one Mr Shue. Haven't practiced it enough" Matt quickly replied
My Shue looked suspicious and concerned, but didn't press the issue.
"Tough break man, want to practice after school?" asked Mike
"Sounds great, see you then" agreed Matt.
At lunch Matt decided to go into the restroom. It'd been an exhausting morning. Ever since glee practice 2 hours earlier his head was killing him, but he'd managed to continue on. He had just screwed up his English speech as well. He didn't know how, one minute he was fine and the next he literally forgot the rest of the speech. His teacher looked bored and just crossed out his name, didn't care at all. He thought about what his mom would say. Probably something like "Matt, you're such a bright kid, why do you do this to yourself?".
In anger, he kicked the door open and locked himself into the disabled cubicle where he paced around for a while. Then, he took out his blade. So cold against his skin, yet so safe. So desirable. He pushed it into his dark skin until blood rushed out. 1 line. 2. 3. 4. Suddenly he started to feel dizzy, and knew that it wasn't good. He quickly opened his backpack and found his jacket, which he put on one sleeve. It was tight, as he hadn't received any new clothes since his mom died. But right now that tightness was a good thing, as it managed to stop the bleeding. He just sat there, in the cubicle, until the world was straight again where he left to go the canteen. He knew that Mr Schue was the canteen supervisor that day, and if he didn't show up then he'd ask questions, which was the last thing Matt wanted right now.
Little did Matt know that in the cafeteria, Mr Schue was watching him. He saw the pain in his eyes and the light blood stain on his jacket sleeve. He saw a bruise on the left side of his head. He knew that something was wrong, but what he didn't know was how to help.