Hey all, I just wanted to let you in on two small details about this story that have nothing to do with the actual story. Wow, that sounded confusing. Anyway...
1. I will post a new chapter every other day. I've already written the two chapters after this one and I'm trying to keep on top of things so I don't fall into the usual 'oh crap that's the last chapter I wrote' trap. If there will be a longer gap between posting, I will let you know.
2. The order of the characters doesn't matter. I'm doing them in alphabetical order by first name, with the exception of Kurt. He's last. So from now on, you'll know who's next.
Enjoy!
Matt wasn't participating in Day of Silence.
He never talked, so going a day without talking wasn't going to make anyone look twice. It was all good for someone like Rachel, who didn't know how to keep her mouth shut most of the time, but for Matt it would just be a normal day.
He liked listening to people and hearing what they had to say, probably a little too much. He never raised his hand in class and only spoke when teachers called on him. Normally people came up and started talking to him, knowing that he wouldn't interrupt them halfway through. That was probably why he had friends. Well, that and football. Normally the quiet kids didn't have any friends.
No, today Matt was going to talk. He was going to speak his mind and not care what people said to him.
And to be honest, he was scared shitless. He never rocked the boat, and this was pretty much the equivalent of the Titanic sinking. No, scratch that, this was pretty much what would have happened if Noah's Ark hadn't been watertight. He was Matt Rutherford, sports star and that-kid-that-never-opened-his-mouth, and he was about to let the whole of McKinley have it.
It was a lot easier than he thought it was going to be.
First he told off Karofsky and his little brother when they were about to dump Jacob Ben Israel into the dumpster. Admittedly it had nothing to do with the purpose of Day of Silence, but it had always bugged him. He had never helped toss anyone in and the times he had been around, he had just looked away and pretended not to notice.
The pair of Karofskys gave him a weird look, but they put Jacob down and left him alone.
Matt spotted Kurt in the hallway and made a beeline for the smaller boy. He wanted Kurt to know that he wasn't not doing Day of Silence, he was just doing it... the opposite way.
"Hey Kurt, I just wanted to let you know that I'm gonna talk today. Not because I don't want to do the Day of Silence thing, because I do, it's just that I never talk at all. Like, ever. So I thought that instead I could start talking."
Kurt didn't say anything. Obviously. But he raised an eyebrow, showing he was intrigued.
"I just told Karofsky not to throw people in the dumpster anymore," Matt continued. "I mean, who knows if he'll actually listen, but it saved Jacob Ben Israel a change of clothes. And I'm gonna say something if people say the Day of Silence is weird or stupid and I'll tell people to lay off if anyone starts messing with you."
Kurt was nodding, obviously liking the sound of having someone who could actually speak on their behalf. Then he smiled and gave Matt the thumbs up.
So Matt went into his first class with a smile on his face and about fifteen different things he'd like to say to fifteen different people in the room. But he held back. No, he wasn't just going to talk to talk. He was going to talk to stand up for the rest of the glee kids who didn't have voices today.
Rachel was in his first period class and, no surprise, she showed up with duct tape over her mouth. While the sight was pretty funny, he didn't laugh. He knew Rachel well enough to know that she never did anything halfway. If she wasn't going to talk, she would make absolutely certain that not a peep would escape her lips.
"Thanks for doing us all a favor, Berry," someone shouted from across the room. Matt watched Rachel's brow furrow, obviously wanting to say something back. So Matt went over to stand next to Rachel, putting an arm around her shoulders and frowning at the person who had spoken.
"Hey, lay off," his voice was gentle, but his expression told the room that he meant business. "Today's Day of Silence. You idiots probably don't know about it, but today people aren't talking because of all the people who didn't have a voice because of their sexuality."
"Rutherford talks!" someone else joked.
"Yeah, I do," Matt retorted. "And I'm sick of being quiet when the rest of you pick on good people for no reason. Rachel's standing up for something she believes in. You all should be impressed. So can it, or I'll make you."
The combined effect of the threat and the shock of him talking shut everyone up. Rachel gave him a grateful look as they took their seats. He smiled back at her.
Matt ended up glaring at anyone who looked at Rachel for the rest of the period, daring them to try him. It was kind of fun.
During the four minutes between first and second period, Matt yelled at Karofsky for trying to stuff Kurt in a locker.
He had second period with Santana and Brittany, who were having a pretty easy time with things so far. Brittany kept whispering to Santana, who would make a shushing motion. Apparently Brittany didn't think it counted if you were quiet enough. Their teacher, who had obviously had someone in glee club the period before, asked if anyone know why some people weren't speaking and Matt answered. Because it was a psychology class and their teacher jumped at any opportunity to talk about anything controversial, they spent the rest of the period talking about homosexuality. Matt talked a lot, contradicting anyone who claimed it was "a mental disorder" or "a disease" or "yicky."
His teacher pulled him aside at the end of class and thanked him for playing the devil's advocate, because it had led to quite the discussion. Matt frowned.
"No," he shook his head. "No, that's not what I was doing at all. I believe everything I said in class today and most of them needed to hear it. You did too, if you're that close-minded." He left after that, ignoring his teacher's stammering.
The rest of the day passed similarly. Matt told off anyone who so much as looked funny at anyone in glee. He explained what was going on to a couple teachers. He got into a heated discussion with another guy on the football team during his free period that almost ended with Matt punching the other guy out. During lunch he sat with the rest of the glee club, yelling comebacks when people taunted them.
And when Kurt realized that Finn was missing and panicked, it was Matt who calmed him down. Kurt and Puck, who normally couldn't so much as look at each other, then sprinted off to find Finn, the same look of worry on both their faces.
Matt had a class with Finn later in the day and he automatically looked around the classroom for the taller boy the second he entered. He spotted Finn, with a yellow band-aid on his chin that definitely had not been there before, sitting in his usual seat. He looked as if someone had taken away every good thing in his life. Matt wanted to ask Finn what was wrong, switch roles back and become the listening ear again, but it was still Day of Silence. Finn was going to keep quiet, he could tell.
He found out what had happened later in the day when he overheard the Karofsky brothers bragging about it.
Matt knew he should tell someone. He should tell Mr. Schuester or Coach Tanaka or Principal Figgins. He should tell Finn that it was okay, that they would make sure nothing like that ever happened again. He should convince Finn that he didn't have to keep quiet, that he should tell them what had happened so they could do something.
But he found Puck and told him instead. Puck slammed a fist into the nearest locker, obviously wanting to spout off a string of curses. But there was still a glint in Puck's eye that told him that this wasn't over. They were going to do something about it and they weren't going to have to talk to do it.