Thanks for everyone who took interest in this story, I am glad you like it. Who do you think Barry should end up with. Either Caitlin or Eddie. Please review and tell me what you think, and what you think of the chapter itself.
After an exiting if not bone shaking 4 hour plane ride Kurt, Blaine, Santana and Brittany stepped out of the airport and out into the Central City sunshine pulling their luggage along with them. They had decided to make the trip sort of a holiday and booked a hotel near Jitters for 4 nights. Blaine hired a car for the duration of their stay so they could move around easier. They found the car and asked the guy behind the counter for directions to the hotel which he gladly gave. They al wild into the car and set off with Kurt in the passenger side giving the directions to Blaine who was driving while the two girls were in the backseat staring out of the window watching all the sights go past.
40 minutes and two wrong turns later they pull into the hotel parking lot and unload the car of themselves and their luggage. They decided they would drop their luggage in their rooms then go and find somewhere to have a coffee and plan out the rest of their holiday/ reunion trip. Jitters was the closest cafe to the hotel and they had heard that it sold the best coffee in town plus they wanted to check it out and see where it was before the reunion. Santana and Brittany went to get a table while the two boys went to order the coffee and cakes.
"Could I have a non fat latte a caramel ice coffee and two normal coffee's please. Oh and 4 brownies" Kurt said as he rattled his order to the girl behind the counter.
"Sure, you guys new in town I've not seen you here before, well that and you have a tour guide brochure" said the woman as she pointed to the leaflet in Blaine's hand.
"Yea we are here for the Dalton Academy reunion and thought we would make it a long weekend trip" Blaine explained as he grabbed the two plates with the brownies on and took them back to the table then coming back to the counter to help carry the drinks.
"My best friend used to go to that school, he is going to the reunion too. In fact he should be here… well 10 minutes ago but he is always late oh here he is. Barry!" she exclaimed as she checked her watch and walked over to the guy coming in through the door. He looked at Iris then his gaze landed on Kurt and Blaine, his eyes widened and he turned on his heel to walk back out of the cafe but Iris grabbed his arm before he had chance and pulled him back. Blaine couldn't make out his features all he saw was Iris point towards them and the guy shake his head, she whacked him on the arm and pushed him in our direction but he dug his heels into the ground and refused to move. She walked in front of him and grabbed his arm to pull him forward. Surprisingly he did not refuse this time, just allowed himself to be pulled along by the girl. As he got closer they started to realise who it was.
"Sebastian, Hi didn't expect to see you here" Blaine said while Kurt stood back and crossed his arms over his chest and eyed Sebastian suspiciously.
"Hi Blaine, Kurt yea I live here, this is where I was before I only moved to Ohio for high school and It's Barry here. When I moved to Ohio I went by a different name to get away from everything here, kind of a new start I guess" Barry explained casually leaning against the counter while Iris gave him his coffee he has every day.
"Well well well if it isn't the gay meerkat I thought I got rid of you" all heads whipped round to see Santana approaching having seen Barry talking with Kurt and Blaine.
"Hello to you too Santana, I actually live here and you know there is no getting rid of me that easy" he smirked in her direction and Iris just looked at him confused.
"Your right your like a stubborn rash, no matter how much you want it to go away it just keeps coming back" she smirked back and Barry could already feel himself slipping back into the role of Sebastian Smythe.
"Oh wow Shequeera your insults are getting worse, you going soft on me?" Barry said putting his coffee back onto the counter and crossing his arms over his chest while raising his eyebrows.
"Never gonna happen chipmunk I have 7 years of insults to catch up on, just wait… watch your back meerkat" with that she returned back to the table and waited for the guys to bring her food and drinks back.
"Barry what was that? and who is she?" Iris asked as she turned to face him not liking how he acted to Santana.
"That was Santana Lopez, my enemy through my time at Dalton and she is pretty much like that to everyone she doesn't like. And what do you mean what was that?" he explained and asked at the same time not understanding what she was taking about.
"That, your attitude, it's like you were a completely different person just then" he sighed and licked his lips nervously, a habit he had picked up in the past few months.
"That is who I was while I was away, I told you Iris I was a completely different person then and I am not proud of most of the things I did ok" he explained as Iris raised an eyebrow at him.
"You mean like almost blinding Blaine with that rock salt slushie?" Kurt piped up from at the side of him. He jumped a little because he had completely forgotten that Kurt and Blaine were there.
"You what?! You nearly blind him, what were you thinking, I'm guessing they did not press charges or me and my dad would have known about it, do you know how much trouble you could have been in. How much trouble you are going to be in when I tell my dad about this" Barry held his hands up in surrender as Iris started quietly yelling at him and hit him on the back of the head twice as hard as she did with his arm.
"Ow I told you I wasn't proud of it and I did apologise, a lot" Iris huffed and ignored him while she smiled at the other two boys and gave them their coffee's to take to the table.
"Hey do you two want to come to dinner at my dads tomorrow give you and Barry a chance to catch up a little before the reunion" Iris suggested, she went from being angry to happy in seconds, she did it all the time and Barry thought he would have been used to it by now but not so much.
"Ok we are not doing anything, you sound like you have changed and it would be cool to get to know Barry Allen" Kurt said as he turned back around to smile at Barry a little wary at first but the smile got bigger as Barry smiled back, not a sarcastic smile or a smirk. A sincere smile. Barry thanked Iris for the coffee and said goodbye to the boys then walked out of the cafe toward the CCPD to start work. It was just a day of paperwork so it was quite straight forward, using his speed to get the work done faster. What should have taken him at least 4 hours only took him 20 minutes so he sat around for a while and worked on his board that had his mothers murder still in place until an hour had passed. He left the lab and made his way to his other job as the speedy superhero in red.
He got to S.T.A.R Labs and got changed to start his warmup on the treadmill when Cisco came in.
"Hey dude looking forward to your reunion this weekend?" he asked sitting on the floor opposite the running machine.
"I don't know, I have already seen two of the people I used to go to school with and one of the students from the rival school and it was slightly awkward to say the least at least seeing Kurt and Blaine anyway. Seeing Santana was kind of a flashback to high school" Barry explained sitting on the edge of the treadmill.
"I thought you went to an all boys school" Cisco exclaimed furrowing his brows in confusion.
"Santana is the student from the rival school, well technically they all are. Blaine was originally at Dalton and Kurt and Santana were at Mckinley then Kurt transferred to Dalton because of the bullying but moved back to Mckinley later on in the year and Blaine followed him the year after" Barry explained the drama of the school and the rival school.
"So what was it like in Ohio, was it a lot different from here?" he asked wanting to know all about Barry's high school life out of town.
"Well it was smaller and less busy so that took some getting used to, it's a really nice place and I loved Dalton, made some good friends and was actually quite popular there. But they know me as Sebastian Smythe the cool, smooth and very sarcastic guy. I'm a little nervous about meeting them all again, not sure if they are going to like the new me since they got so used to the mean me" Cisco just waved his hand in Barry's direction and gave him a smile.
"I'm sure you will be fine I mean you are a better person now, sure you may have different demeanours but you are still the same guy" he said and Barry just lifted a hand to scratch the back of his neck.
"Maybe, just please don't judge me, I did a lot of things I am not proud of. At the time I thought it was cool but now I wish I had never done them" Barry looked up at Cisco and gave him a small smile standing up and offering a hand to the other man who gladly took it and was hurled onto his feet. Cisco left the room and Barry once again started the treadmill up and began his speed training. An hour later he stepped off the treadmill with sweat dripping off his face and hair but proud of himself having reached 900 mph. He took a shower and got back changed into his normal clothes, putting his workout clothes into a bag to take home and wash. He stayed around S.T.A.R Labs for a couple more hours helping Caitlin do some computer stuff and put all their information on metahumans and himself from the computer and onto paper. That was if anyone hacked their system they wouldn't be able to get all the secret information. When it was time for them to leave Barry walked Caitlin to her car as she insisted she could take herself home refusing to let Barry speed her to her apartment.
"Thanks for agreeing to come with me to the reunion this weekend" Barry said as they approached her car.
"No problem it will be nice to get to know more about your life outside Central City. I heard you talking to Cisco earlier and you said you were a different person in Ohio and you did some things you regret, what did you mean?" she asked leaning her back against her car and looking at him.
"Not only was I a different person with a different name but I had a different personality, different attitude everything. I was cocky and mean and pretty horrible to a lot of people. I almost blinded a guy with a slushie that had rock salt in it. It was meant for his boyfriend because I was jealous of him, I wanted Blaine but he was taken so I took it out on Blaine's boyfriend instead. I photoshopped a picture of Kurt's brother naked and threatened to post it online if he and his partner sang at a show choir competition because we wanted to win. The only two good things I every did were raise money for a charity and help Blaine propose to Kurt" Caitlin could see the regret on Barry's face as he explained the bad things he had done but his face brightened up when he said the last two obviously remembering them. Caitlin smiled at the last too glad to know he had done something good and not just all bad.
"But you have changed now. You have changed Barry, you help save the city and the people in it if thats not good i don't know what is. I'm sure they will forgive you. They would be crazy not to get to know the person you are now because that person is pretty amazing if you ask me" she reassured him and put her hand on his cheek and he closed his eyes breathing deep. He leant his head against her hand and opened his eyes.
"Thanks I know I have changed it's just nice to hear from someone who isn't myself sometimes" she dropped her hand and he leant forward and kissed her cheek.
"Goodnight Caitlin" he said opening the car door for her.
"Goodnight Barry" she answered getting in her car and drove away. Once Barry could no longer see her car he ran home and got changed into his pyjamas then sat and watched TV until Joe came back from work.
"Hey how was your day at S.T.A.R Labs?" Joe asked coming through the door and hanging his coat up before sitting next to Barry on the couch.
"Good, pretty boring because there was no metahumans but I reached 900 mph on the treadmill. A new personal best" Joe's eyes widened before he let out a smile and clapped Barry on the back.
"Wow 900 never thought I would be hearing that outside of a movie. I'm proud of you son. Iris mentioned that we were having guests over tomorrow?" Joe asked as they both settle back into the couch.
"Yes two of my friends from school we want to catch up before the reunion. I hope that's ok, Iris invited them over" Barry asked looking at his foster dad for permission.
"Of course it's ok. You never talk about your Ohio high school days or the people you met there it will be nice to know what you got up to over there" Barry smiled when he heard that Joe was ok with Kurt and Blaine for dinner but was not thrilled when Joe said he wanted to know what Barry got up to while he was at high school. It's not that Barry didn't want to tell Joe all the great stuff that he did over there he just didn't want him to know all the bad stuff that happened in fear that he would be mad or disappointed in him for what he had done in the past.
"I did some bad stuff while I was there ok. That's why I never talk about it. I didn't do drugs or get into fights or anything like that I was just really mean to a lot of people. I regret it now but then I thought it was cool" Barry looked down ashamed that he had done those things but slightly glad that he told Joe before Kurt and Blaine told him the next day over dinner.
"It's ok it's in the past I'm sure they forgive you. I am not thrilled that you went from being bullied to doing the bullying but at least you told me and you know it's wrong" Joe placed a hand on Barry's shoulder and left t there while he talked to him then used it to push himself off the couch to retreat upstairs to bed.
It felt like only a few seconds had passed since Barry closed his eyes when he opened them and found sunlight streaming through the crack in his curtains. He sat up and rubbed his eyes before stretching and looking a his clock. 7:15 it read. That's what time he normally got up to go to work and his body was so used to it that even on his days off his internal alarm clock would go off. He flopped back down onto the bed only to slam his head d into his headboard on the way down. Rolling over with his face into his pillow and groaned in pain still half asleep. He put a hand on the back on his head where he could feel it throbbing. Joe opened the door and looked round the room, he found Barry half under the covers holding the back on his head and a crack into the wooden headboard. Joe just chuckled and close the door, it was not the first time it had happened but it was still funny every time.
Barry grumbled to himself while he rolled out of bed and his feet hit the ground wit a soft thud. He put on his slippers then retreated downstairs where Joe already had his breakfast waiting for him as usual. Well they took it in turns. Joe does breakfast one day then Barry does the next day. It had been like that since he came back from Ohio.
The morning went pretty fast with Barry tidying up the house and picking out what to wear to dinner while Joe went to the station to finish off the little bit of paperwork he had. Once that was all done and Joe was home getting a start on dinner, Barry text Blaine and told him they would meet at Jitters so that he could take them back to the house for dinner.
Once they arrived and got out of the car Barry lead them up to the house and opened the door for them to go inside.
"Nice place" Blaine said as he walked over the threshold and into the West family home.
"Thanks. I basically grew up here with Joe and Iris" Barry explained as he led them to the couch and told hem to get comfortable.
"You guys want anything. Iris brings Jitters style coffee and tea home every week so we have plenty" he smiled looking at Kurt and Blaine.
"Coffee please milk and 2 sugars for the both of us" Kurt replied kind of stunned that Sebastian was actually nice to them and offering to get things for them. He did say he had changed and had followed through with it so far but Kurt was still a little sceptical while Blaine believed it all the way. The boys sat back on the couch as they waited for their coffee when suddenly the door opened and Iris along with two people Kurt and Blaine had never seen before stepped through. Iris kicked off her shoes and dumped her bag on the floor while the other two neatly placed theirs in the corner. The two strangers walked over to the couch and chair and placed themselves onto it after introducing themselves.
"Hey I'm Cisco and that's Caitlin, we are going to the reunion with Barry" they not held out their hand to shake which both men did not wanting to seem rude but hand shaking wasn't really their thing.
"I'm Blaine, this is Kurt. We went to school with Sebastian, Sorry Barry. Still getting used to calling him that since he went by Sebastian when we knew him. But I have to say Barry is a better name than Sebastian" Blaine said while Kurt at the side of him agreed.
"You will think it's better until you hear his full name. Barry is a shortened down version" Caitlin exclaimed and both kurt and Blaine furrowed their eyebrows as they tried to figure out what Barry could be short for.
"His full name is Bartholomew but he hates it so everyone calls him Barry" Cisco explained as Caitlin hit him on the arm and Cisco sent a glare her way and moved his arm out of her reach. Iris came back out of the kitchen with two drinks in her hand and Barry came next with two drinks. Iris gave hers to Cisco and Caitlin while barry gave his to Kurt and Blaine. It was a little cramped in the living room until dinner was served, with Kurt, Blaine and Caitlin on the couch, Cisco on the floor where he put himself and Barry sat in the chair with Iris sat sideways on his lap where she had just plonked herself when she saw there were no seats available.
10 minutes and a lot of talking later they were all seated at the table with Joe at the head of the table, Caitlin and Cisco next to him, Kurt and Blaine next to them and Iris and Barry on the end with the table legs.
"So how come you chose to move all the way to Ohio in the middle of high school and why did you go by a different name?" Kurt asked curious to why he hadn't stayed in Central City.
"I was getting bullied a lot here, it started off small like taunts and mocking then people started to throw things at me then they started hitting me and throwing my stuff in the trash as well as me sometimes. Then came the death threats and warnings. I knew they would have done it so I transferred to Dalton to live with my aunt and uncle. I went by a different name and changed my last name to Smythe to kind of get a new start. A life separate from Central City and I guess that made me a whole different person" Barry explained while looking at everyone on the table mostly Kurt and Blaine to show them that he really had changed and that is not who he always was.
"I did the same remember, transferring from Mckinley to Dalton because of the same thing. I get how hard it is and also how easy it is to become a different person when you have the chance. To change parts of your life that you don't like" Kurt said and Blaine gripped his hand under the table knowing it was still hard for him to talk about his past experiences with bullies.
"I went from being bullied to bullying someone else. That wasn't what I wanted to do but I guess I got caught up in the whole being a different person. I just want to say that I'm sorry for the things I did. If I could go back and change it I would" Barry explained gaining a little cough and smile from Joe, Caitlin and Cisco and confused look from the rest of the table.
"Ok we have established that Barry was a big jerk in high school but do you have any funny or embarrassing stories of him?" Iris asked as everyone else nodded in agreement as they wanted to hear the funny things that had happened.
"No I cant think of any. The only thing I can think of is Barry used to flirt with me every chance he got and then tormented Kurt with it. He had the worst pick up lines ever and that is saying something since I have heard all of Kurt's" Blaine explained as he looked at Barry who had hid his face in his hands, shaking his head muttering Oh My God over and over. Everyone could tell there was a bright red blush on his face from where his ears had gone red. Everyone laughed at his embarrassment and couldn't help laughing even harder when they finally saw his face. As red as a tomato that brought out the almost invisible freckles on his face.
"He eventually came to his senses and started trying to be nice to us when we confronted him after one of friends did something stupid. He tried to make us not use our best singers for a show choir competition just because they wanted to win. They photoshopped a picture of Finn, one of our main singers and threatened to post it online if they sang. He eventually destroyed all the pictures and said he wanted them to win fair and square" Kurt said and Barry knew that all everyone was going to pick out of that explanation was show choir, and he was right.
"Show choir, you sing?" Caitlin asked all three former Warblers.
"Yes we do. I'm guessing you didn't know Barry sings, or used to anyway" Blaine said to Joe and the rest of the table.
"No we did not know. Why didn't you tell us that you can sing?" Iris asked as she shot a look at Barry.
"You never asked and I'm not that good" Barry replied once again turning red as all eyes were on him.
"Not that good, we are talking about the same person right. You led two songs at regionals and killed them. Then you were voted captain of the Warblers. You don't get the position for nothing. In fact we have a video we can show you" Kurt pulled out his phone and loaded the video. He passed it to Joe and everyone that had not already seen it gathered round the phone. Barry had a feeling he knew which song it was going to be and his suspicions were correct when he heard Glad you came blasting through the phone's speakers. Barry found himself humming along to the tune as it all came back to him. He kind of missed being on stage and singing for an audience. When the video had finished Joe gave the hone back and everyone looked at Barry shocked.
"That was amazing why did you not tell me?" Iris asked hitting Barry on the arm.
"It never came up" he shrugged and Iris glared at him. They looked at the clock and saw that it was well past 7 so Kurt and Blaine helped tidy the dishes up which Joe said they didn't have to but they insisted. After that they said thank you and goodbye to everyone, even surprising Barry with a hug.
"It was really nice catching up Barry and it was nice to meet you all. See you at the weekend" they waved before walking to the car Santana and Brittany had waiting for them at the bottom of the drive. They decided to do the dishes in the morning as they were all feeling pretty tired. They all said goodnight to each other and making their way into their respective rooms to get some rest for the next day.
Well that's it for this chapter. I know I have quite a few spelling and grammar mistakes. Some are from my fingers slipping on the keys and some is just all me. Anyway please review and tell me what you think.
