Thank you SO much for all of the wonderful reviews! I cannot believe we've broken the 200 barrier! I am screaming in delight! You guys are AMAZING!
I really hope you all like this new chapter. This is the first chapter that I ever started without a clear ending. It's also the first chapter that I wrote out an entire climax only to completely change it in the final draft. But, I am VERY happy with the way it turned out, especially considering I've been at the beach for the last three days!
I hope you're happy with it too and will send me your comments one way or the other! :)
Enjoy!
Finn got himself back on the football team.
It took some time and a lot of convincing, but after they lost their first two preliminary games without their quarterback, well, I think Beiste just kind of caved. Puck and the asshole who messed with Blaine got back on the team too, but all three of them were told about a hundred times that if it happened again, they'd be cut for good.
So, Finn could be there for Kurt and Blaine... he just couldn't use his fists.
It had to be good enough for me.
However, Finn being Finn made things a bit more difficult. He was back on the team, and he was truly ecstatic about it, I'll give him that. The real issue came with his attitude.
I'd never seen a kid so cocky.
All he could talk about was football, all day, everyday, and he started leaving his sweaty gear all over the house, which infuriated Carole to no end. More importantly, though, he just about alienated every person who wasn't either on the football team or Rachel.
Kurt hated the smells and the mess, but Blaine hated the...
"Hey, what's going on, guys? Madden 2010?"
"Oh, uh, yeah. Sorry, dude... only three controllers."
"Oh, yeah. Yeah, right. Well... I guess I'll just see you guys later, then."
That happened too much... and he never really did see them later. It was like they suddenly had nothing in common anymore, because Blaine wasn't on the football team.
He never said anything about it, but I knew how much it hurt his feelings, and that was a whole lot more than he was letting on.
But I think the worst thing about it was that it wasn't all the guys. Puck, Sam, Mike, and Artie were just as friendly and sociable with Kurt and Blaine as they always had been. But Finn was practically on a mission to leave everybody else in the dust.
I like to think that attitude was a huge factor in what turned out to be one of the more ridiculous arguments those guys got themselves into.
I guess it all really started with the glee club.
Kurt's always been competitive. Of course he has, and he always will be. I don't think he'd be Kurt if he wasn't always pushing himself for something that rivaled what someone else wanted.
So, having Blaine with him at McKinley opened a few more doors to all of the things he could accomplish, particularly in the glee club.
I guess the trouble really started with Mr. Schuester's reaction to Blaine's "audition."
"Wow! You know, we've heard you with the Warblers, of course, but that was really something else. Let's welcome our newest member, Blaine Anderson, and congratulations! You might want to hold onto your hat, Finn, you've got some competition right here."
A light immediately went off in Kurt's head.
Competition.
It was like gold to him. Of course it was the perfect opportunity to bring down Finn and Rachel from whatever glee club pedestal they'd found themselves on. Of course it was finally Kurt's chance to beat Rachel at her own game. And of course it was Blaine who was the perfect candidate to help him do it.
Kurt convinced Mr. Schuester to have what he deemed a male diva off between Finn and Blaine, but Blaine wasn't really sure about the idea at first.
The two of them were sitting on the couch when Kurt brought up the plan.
"Kurt, I really don't want to do anything that's going to piss people off. Finn and Rachel are... well, they're great together. I don't want to kill our chances at sectionals!"
"Sectionals? Blaine, of course we're going to win sectionals. That's not even a question. I'm thinking nationals here. Let's think back... whose fault was it that McKinley lost nationals this year?"
"Kurt -"
"Oh, right! It was Finn and Rachel."
"I thought you didn't care about that."
Kurt sighed.
"All I'm saying is that we shouldn't make the same mistakes again! Glee club has been all Finn and Rachel for the last two years. What we need is a new strategy, a new power couple."
"You mean you and me?"
"Exactly."
"I don't know how receptive Ohio glee club judges are going to be about two guys serenading each other on stage, Kurt. I mean, Finn and Rachel beat us at regionals."
"They had original songs, Blaine! With you and I singing original songs, we'd blow them out of the water!"
Blaine nodded but stayed silent.
"Come on, think about how awful Finn has been recently."
"Wait, is that what this is about?"
"No! Of course not! I mean... would it help if that was what it was about?"
"Kurt."
Kurt put his hands up in protest.
"I'm sorry, but you've got to admit, he's bothering you."
"Of course he is, but that doesn't mean I'm going to ruin glee club because he's being a jerk."
Kurt took a deep breath and grabbed Blaine's hand.
"Look, how about you just sing against Finn, and let the glee club vote. That way, whatever happens is really for the best. And whatever the glee club says, that's how it will be, and I promise I will never bring it up again."
He considered it very carefully.
"I don't know, Kurt."
"Please? Do it for me?"
He sighed.
"Okay, alright, I'll do it. For you."
"Ah, yes! Thank you!"
Kurt kissed him on the cheek and ran upstairs to begin planning.
Finn was just sort of uncomfortable about the idea when Mr. Schuester announced it. He didn't want to be pushed off his high horse in the glee club, but he was still on top of the world at that school. He didn't see Blaine as any kind of threat to that power. He knew that he was better than Blaine, and he didn't see anything to worry about.
Until Rachel got involved.
Rachel knew the second she heard the idea that it was much more about her than it was about Finn. And she was determined to protect her star power and her own ambitions above anything else. To her, Blaine was an imminent threat, for sure.
So, Rachel started spending a lot more time around our house. Whenever she was there, she'd make sure Finn was as far away from Kurt and Blaine as possible so that he could practice without...
"Spy!"
"Rachel, chill. I'm just getting something to drink. I do live here, you know."
She scoffed.
"We will be outside, Blaine. You can have your drink."
And she'd pull Finn by the arm to the backyard for more vocal warm-ups.
I figured that once they sung, it'd be over. There was no use in me getting involved, because it'd be solved before it ever really started.
But... according to Kurt, Blaine blew it out of the water. And according to Rachel, Finn won without any shadow of a doubt.
The problem was that, according to the glee club, it was a tie.
So, they had to sing again, and Schuester would pick the winner, the one who would get the solo at sectionals.
It was the lead up to that second sing-off that got Finn and Blaine into playing the game even more than their counterparts. Once it got physical, Kurt and Rachel sort of stepped out of the picture to let it get personal. Finn and Blaine realized that winning was bigger than being the best individually... they realized they had to sabotage each other instead.
Finn started it.
It was very simple, at first. He stole all of Blaine's socks.
There were a lot of locked doors with pounding fists and loud laughter from within.
"Finn, come on! Open the door! I know this was you! Your sock ransom note had Dorito cheese all over it!"
But then Blaine filled all of Finn's pillowcases with Jello. And then Finn covered Blaine's entire car with petroleum jelly. Only for Blaine to rewire all of Finn's electronics to do the opposite of whatever Finn actually wanted them to do.
"N-n-n-no. It deleted... it deleted the game. No, wait, save. It was supposed to... oh my God."
He ran from his room and began to try to break down Blaine's bedroom door.
"Blaine, I swear to God, I will -"
That last one was sort of the final straw for me.
"Guys, hey, knock it off," I said as I pulled Finn away from Blaine's door.
"Burt, he messed with my Xbox!"
I gently knocked on the door.
"Blaine, open up."
He opened it, and I had to physically restrain Finn from mauling him.
"Alright, you two, that's it. The pranks are done. Finn, return his socks, and Blaine, for the love of God, fix his Xbox and whatever else you might have messed with. Keep the school problems at school, and we'll just... deal with home problems here, alright?"
"Yeah, sorry."
"Yes, sir, won't happen again."
And they each, without looking at each other, walked away to do as they'd been told.
All of the pranking, all of the passive aggressiveness... I guess it all sort of built up to the day they had the actual competition.
Mr. Schuester was the one who told me the entire story when he called me in for a conference.
Apparently, Blaine "accidentally" bumped into Finn in the middle of the song.
Well, somehow that one bump turned into a brawl. Kurt and Rachel did their best to break it up, realizing they'd taken their game a step too far, but instead they just got sucked into the fight themselves. And then the entire glee club got in on it. They were all screaming and tearing each other apart to the point of pure chaos.
So, I got the call at the end of the school day and drove down there, only to find three scowling boys sitting on a bench outside of Mr. Schuester's office.
"Guys."
They grunted back at me. I sighed.
"Anything you might like to say before I go in there?"
Kurt looked to Blaine, and Finn kept his eyes on his knees.
"Well, he -" Kurt started.
"Mr. Hummel?"
Will Schuester peeked his head out of the door. I looked back at the boys.
"Work it out, alright?"
I went into the office and sat down. I'd been briefed over the phone, but I had no idea why I needed to actually take off work and come down to the school to talk to the man.
"Thank you for coming, Mr. Hummel."
"Please, call me Burt."
He smiled.
"Burt."
"So," I sighed, "what's going on exactly? They started a fight?"
"Well, I wouldn't really call it a fight. It was... I guess I don't even really know how to describe it. I just wanted to talk to you face-to-face about the three of them. Um, first off, how are you?"
How was I? Had I actually been called down there to talk about my feelings? Sure, I'd been asking that question to all three of those boys a lot over the past few months. Did it feel good to have someone ask me about how I was doing? Yeah, you know, yeah, it did, actually. But that couldn't be why I was there.
"Excuse me?"
"I just mean... you're the legal guardian of half of the guys in my glee club. I know that can't be easy for you, and especially with Blaine's whole... situation."
He paused.
"I also know that the kind of thing that happened today, well, that's bigger than school. And I deal with it here, but you deal with it at home, all the time."
I nodded.
I wasn't sure what he was trying to get at, but I was curious to see where the conversation was headed.
"Look, they're angry. They're teenagers."
He smiled.
"And with three wildly different personalities under one roof, that's got to be... well, it's got to be completely insane, quite frankly. But what happened today... that just can't happen again. Not with me and certainly not with you either."
He took a deep breath.
"I know those three guys care about each other and would do absolutely anything to protect each other."
"But...?"
"I don't think they respect each other enough to work together to actually achieve something. I'm afraid that they're all a little bit too focused on how brightly their own stars could shine alone instead of how brightly they could all shine together."
I was so confused. Had it really gotten that bad? I knew they were all striving for something huge with the glee club, sure, but I had no idea it was actually affecting their relationships.
"With all due respect, Mr. Schuester -"
"Please, Will."
"With all due respect, Will, I don't think they've really gotten out of control. Yeah, they want to be the lead singer in the glee club, and they're arguing about it, but -"
"Burt, I apologize for cutting you off, but did Blaine tell you what happened yesterday?"
All of the blood rushed to my head.
"No, no he didn't."
"He yelled at me. Like, really, really yelled at me. Just completely snapped in front of everyone and stormed out. I'd just announced that I'd made a mistake with the votes, because Brittany actually wrote Finn's name on one side of a piece of paper and Blaine's on the other. So, with her vote out of the mix, he lost, fair and square. We only even had the sing-off today because he was so upset."
I couldn't believe it. How could I miss something that huge?
"But he wasn't even really in on this whole thing in the first place! I thought it was all Kurt's idea so he could beat out Rachel or whatever."
"Beat out Rachel? Burt, I think that's the point I'm trying to make. That's not what we do here. That's not what this glee club is about. And as for Blaine, I think he was in on this a lot more than you think. All three of them have some sort of... leading man complex. They want to be the best. They want to win. I'm just trying to teach them that there are more important things than that."
I was silent. I didn't know what to say. I had so many questions. How much of this was my fault? Why didn't I stop them sooner? I knew exactly what was going on, and all I did was tell them to keep it at school instead of bring their problems home.
That was the moment I realized that keeping their school problems at school was never even mildly realistic. School problems had to come home with them, and the fact that the three of them had both the same school and the same home came with having them.
I guess I was just lucky that I learned that as early on as I did.
"Look, I care about these kids, Burt, and I just want to make sure that they're okay. And I just want to know that you and I are on the same page here."
I nodded.
"Yeah, we are. I don't know how I feel about you telling me how to raise my kids, but we're on the same page. I'll talk to them."
He smiled.
"Thank you, Burt. You know, you're doing a great job. I don't know how you handle it all."
"I guess I should be asking myself the same thing."
I shook his hand and walked out of the office to find the three of them exactly where I'd left them. I wondered if they'd even said a single word to each other while I was gone.
"Kurt, your car's outside?"
He nodded.
"Alright, you and Finn ride together. Blaine, you're coming with me."
We didn't say a single word to each other the entire ride home. I couldn't think of any, and his body language was so hostile that I don't think they would have done any good, even if I could have.
He only spoke once we pulled into the driveway.
"I think I'm turning into a maniac," he said very softly.
"You are not a maniac, Blaine."
"You don't know that for sure. I've heard these things are hereditary."
I got very still and looked him right in the eyes, which were almost spilling over with tears.
"You are not your father, Blaine. Do you understand me?"
He nodded.
"Come on, let's go inside."
Once everyone was home, I sat all three of them down on the couch.
We were working it out, once and for all. No more personal attacks. No more holier than thou attitudes. No more manipulations.
"I want to apologize to you guys."
They all looked up at me, completely stunned.
"I'm sorry, what now?" Kurt said.
"I want to apologize for a couple of things. I knew what you guys were doing, and I knew it was wrong. But I still let you do it. Really, I just told you that it was fine to do it as long as I wasn't around to see it. And that was really wrong."
"It's not your-"
"Let me finish, Finn."
He nodded.
"You guys are too good for this crap, alright? You're too talented to be petty and selfish. And you care too much about one other to not respect each other enough to understand when it's time to let something go."
I looked to Blaine.
"What I'm trying to say is, I know that you guys are all very... ambitious. All of you want the very best out of life, and of course, that's all I want for you as well. You just can't risk each other for some kind of greater self power."
"We're really sorry, Burt. We never meant to drag you into this," Blaine said.
"Well, I guess that's really what I'm trying to say. I have to be dragged into this. I'm the dad, and your problems are my problems. Look, I'm not stupid. Of course you're going to fight. Of course arguments like this are going to happen again, but the point is..."
I took a deep breath.
"School or home, we have to talk about these things and eliminate them while they're still festering. I just don't want you guys to destroy each other over a glee club, alright?"
They nodded and smiled, finally realizing just how dumb the whole thing had really been.
"All three of you have played a part in this, and all three of you have messed up with each other. I think it's time for some major attitude adjustments. Less me, a little more we, right?"
"Oh, Dad... wow. Really?"
"What, that wasn't good?"
"A little bit too cheesy."
"I'm great at cheesy!"
"We know," they all groaned at the exact same time.
That was when they finally realized that they had something in common that was so much bigger than football and spotlights. They lived with the same parents who no one else could really understand like they could. They were united by the roof over their heads, and nothing was worth giving up that bond.
"Alright, I see how it is! Fine, then, go upstairs. You're all grounded."
"What?"
"Oh, look who's cheesy now!"
They all pouted and walked up the stairs, but I only heard one door close.
Knowing that they were all in one room together, I smiled in victory. I knew that grounding all three of them at the same time could only bring them closer together. Let them be mad at me for a few days, let them be sitting upstairs plotting some way to get out of it or back at me.
They were working together, and even though the common enemy was me, I didn't mind it one bit.
And neither did the truck I made them clean that night, until they all came inside, soaking wet, laughing their asses off.
"Did you get any water onto the car?"
"We did, I promise. Towels?" Kurt said.
"In the laundry room."
They all dried off in the kitchen, still laughing, not even caring about their sopping wet clothes or askew hair.
I smiled. It was already working.
I only learned the next morning that although they had actually washed the entire truck... they had later covered it entirely with petroleum jelly.
Yep, they were brothers alright.
Thanks for reading!