Glee S5 AU
Episode 14
Disposition
Storylines:
Joe and Ryder: The two find a way to make Aylin more open with the club
Aylin: She struggles with the decision to be vulnerable for once
Marley
Sweet disposition
Never too soon
Jake
Oh, reckless abandon
Like no one's watching you
Joe
A moment
Sugar
Of love
Unique
A dream
Kitty
A laugh
Jake
A kiss
Aylin
A cry
Ryder
Our rights
Marley
Our wrongs
Blaine
A moment of love
Tina, Artie and Sam
A dream
A laugh
Blaine
A moment of love
Tina, Artie and Sam
A dream
A laugh
Sam
So stay there
"Stop," Blaine's voice echoed through the air, "stop, stop, stop."
"Blaine, what's wrong?" asked a puzzled Finn.
"It's the song, it just doesn't seem to have that," Blaine snapped his fingers, trying to get a word.
"Wow factor?" Artie butted in.
Blaine pointed at him and nodded. "Wow factor."
"That's just because you don't have a solo verse in it, right?" Unique scoffed, and a few heads nodded in agreement with him.
"No," Blaine chuckled, waving the comment off.
"Bitch, please." Kitty shook her head and wandered off. "If we're not going to use this song as our forth, I might as well just go home now."
Finn sighed and dismissed the club, praising them for their good work today. He then called for Blaine and Artie to see him.
"I'll meet you later," Artie whispered to Kitty before leaving her side.
And as if to take his place, Joe appeared right up beside her.
"What?"
"I was just wondering," Joe muttered, "Do you know anything about Aylin?"
"Why, are you having a crush on her?"
"No. She acted weirdly during the duets competition and I thought, as a club, we can help her."
Kitty seemed to have ignored the whole of his second sentence, saying "You know, usually people get flustered when I accuse them of liking someone."
Joe looked at her, confused. He felt that he didn't have any reason to be embarrassed so he didn't understand what Kitty was implying.
"You really need to get out more." Concluded Kitty, before adding "poor, weird soul" sympathetically under her breath.
She told Joe to go find Ryder, since he's been glued to Aylin ever since she came into the club and then took her leave. Joe politely thanked her before searching for Ryder.
"Ryder!" Joe called out as he ran towards the McKinley's new back liner.
"What is it, man?"
"I was wondering if Aylin is okay," Joe explained, "You're really close to her, right?"
"Don't worry about Aylin," Ryder smiled and patted Joe on the back. "I'll make sure she's alright."
"But, we're a club. New Directions always help each other when one is in need."
Ryder looked towards Joe, who looked uncharacteristically determined.
"So, you want to find out why she cried during our duet?"
Joe nodded.
"You're not the first to ask," Ryder chuckled.
"Do you know what troubles she might be facing? As a devoted member of New Directions, I think we should try our best to make her feel more welcomed and open."
"It sounds like you have a crush on her," Ryder teased.
"I don't" Joe replied with no emotion at all. His face was so blank that it gave Ryder the creeps.
Ryder slowly nodded and begin to wonder if he should tell Joe all he knew. He didn't know much, but anything would be useful. He wants to help Aylin too. Besides, Joe had helped convince Sugar to stay in New Directions when she was planning to leave. Heck, the guy even managed to rope the whole of the glee club to do that.
"Okay," Ryder groaned, "I'll tell you, but you can't tell anybody else unless she permits it, alright?"
"Did she tell you not to tell anybody else?"
"No. I made this call, it'll be horrible if everyone tried to help her at once. But, I only know a little bit and I guess it's safe to say," commented Ryder.
The two then walked down the hallway with Ryder telling Joe everything he could.
Glee
Aylin held her books tight against her chest as her legs rushed ahead. She flung her left arm forwards, shaking it to get the face of her watch in her sights.
"Damn it," she muttered as she zigzagged her way to the auditorium.
"Sorry, I was in the bathroom," Aylin announced as she pushed the doors open. But in there, all she saw was a huge circular bench with every member of New Directions present. "Is this for a new routine?"
"No," Ryder patted down on a space beside him, "Why don't you take a seat first?"
"Where'd you guys get this? It looks sick," Aylin beamed as she headed to where Ryder was.
All eyes were on her, but she didn't seem to even notice.
"You didn't tell her why she was here?" Marley whispered to Joe, who just shook his head.
Joe had told everyone to meet in the auditorium early to help Aylin out with her problem but it was Ryder who posted it in the New Directions Whatsapp group to get Aylin there. Without a phone, Joe was in the dark about what Aylin has been told.
"Well, are you going to tell her now?" urged Marley.
Jake chuckled nearby, "Give it a little time, I want to see her expression when she finds out something's wrong."
But before Joe could even consider that, Sugar piped up, "She doesn't even look sad, what are we doing this for?"
"Sugar!" Ryder snapped, shutting her up.
Aylin finally got the chance to look about, confused about what's going on. Every face she looked at reflected a rather sympathetic or downcast expression.
"This isn't an intervention is it?" Aylin laughed, trying to raise the spirits in the room. "I mean, this is all for me?"
She could feel her happy-go-lucky self slipping away as everyone's piercing stares locked onto her face.
"How can you not tell her?" scoffed Blaine, who was at the front seat shaking his head.
Aylin clenched her fists on the bench, which looked familiar to everyone but her. New Directions had used it in their performance of "Say" before and they thought it would be perfect to use for any future discussions.
Ryder leaned in to fill Aylin in on what was going on. With each word her jaw was dropping down lower and lower from her face.
"Look, Aylin, you don't have to be ashamed of your problems," Tina reassured her, "We've all got some baggage, but they disappear after a while."
"Just to be clear, we're not forcing you to share," Artie chuckled, trying to make Aylin feel at ease. "We just thought we should share some of our stories so you know you're not alone in this."
"Who is up first?" Ryder looked around the room as Marley raised up her hand.
Marley stood up from where she was standing and took a deep breath.
"In my last school, I didn't make any friends. It's not that I didn't try, of course. It's just that no one wants to be friends with the daughter of the big monstrous canteen lady. They didn't bother getting to know me, or my Mom. All they did was assume. And I was the laughing stalk of my whole school for the one year I was there. I was bullied, made fun of, called names and only during this year did I get a wet cold Slushie on my face,"
Most of the Glee club nodded in agreement. Everyone could empathise with the horrors of the ice.
"But I guess that's just culture shock. Every school has a different way to treat the outcast, right? No one wants to be seen with the girl who needs her Mom to knit her sweaters, who needs coupons for the canteen because she can't afford her own food."
With that, Marley sat down and Sugar rose up.
"Hi, I'm Sugar,"
She paused for a reply, but no one answer.
Ryder hissed at her, "Sugar, this isn't a support group."
"Is there a difference? Anyway, it's my turn for a stupid sob story that'll make you want to tell yours."
"Sugar!"
"Ryder, you're supposed to add 'hi' before that. Okay, moving on, to Sugar's spectacular story! When I was 7 and my mother left me, I felt that she didn't want me anymore. My Dad was always working so he barely had time to spend with me, his own daughter. Day after day, I felt completely alone in my mansion and I couldn't stand it anymore so one day, I just decided that I wanted to end it all."
Sugar paused and took out an apple from her bag. She held it tight and whispered something to it before looking up and staring at all of them with serious eyes.
"I tried to kill myself."
"What?" Aylin gasped, "How?"
"I threw myself in my ball pit and tried to suffocate myself."
By this time, most of the New Direction members had already turned away in embarrassment.
"Is that... possible?" Aylin turned towards Joe.
"I don't even know what a ball pit is."
Aylin looked around at the other members for answers and the suppressed emotions they hung on their face were obvious signs.
"Okay, who's next?" Ryder chimed.
One after another, the members of New Direction shared their story, except Sam, who felt that he was very lucky that he had nothing to share. And in the midst, Joe and Ryder sung a lovely rendition of "I See Fire" by Ed Sheeran, much to Aylin's urging. She already knew they had a song prepared and she had wanted to get it over with. But by the time the last member had shared their story, the bell had rung and many of them had to go for class.
Aylin thanked them on their way out and stood alone in the auditorium. She walked towards the edge and gently sat down, reviewing and recalling the stories of her new friends.
"This is new," Aylin murmured to herself. It was the first time anyone really showed much real interest in her. Not in a romantic way like when she tries to get guys to, but in a friendly way. She never had real friends before, much like Marley and Joe. She had been a loner. But now when she has friends, she had been thinking of pushing them away.
Aylin
No, I don't remember
What brought us to this
What places we blindly passed
What turns we missed
What Aylin didn't realise was that Ryder, Joe, Unique and Blaine had stayed back. They did not have any classes but have decided to move to the sidelines to see what Aylin would do.
Aylin
'Cause I dont remember
Love needles and the hay
The life I knew by heart
And lived every day
The secret codes and signs
You and I eye to eye
Wake me up, hurt me, you have to
I forgot how to cry
"Then let us teach you," Unique urged, coming out of the shadows.
"It's okay to be a little bit sensitive," Blaine explained, stepping out with the others.
"Sensitive?" Aylin chocked on her laugh. "Sensitive got me bullied, Blaine."
"What exactly did they do?" Joe asked innocently. His face full of curiosity and sympathy.
"This," Aylin pointed directly to them, "is what I didn't want."
She wiped her eyes and stormed out of the auditorium. "Save me your pity," she croaked as she ran past Ryder.
Glee
"We need to find a way to bring her back," Ryder explained to Joe. It wasn't something Joe didn't know. But they had no idea how. Aylin is pissed, maybe they just need to leave her alone for a while.
"You two," Kitty walked up towards Ryder and Joe. "What did you do to Aylin?"
"Yeah, she's been crying in the toilet for an hour," Marley said, suddenly appearing behind Kitty.
Ryder had his mouth agape, but Joe simply replied, "You just left her there?"
"No, we're not so stupid and useless as friends," Kitty scolded, "Sam and Jake are with her now."
"In the girl's washroom?" Joe asked, shocked.
"Yes, 19th Century, that happens every time in this day and era."
"We should go help," exclaimed Ryder.
Kitty stopped him, telling him to back off since it was his fault that Aylin was upset in the first place.
"Kitty, stop," Aylin cried out from behind the girls.
Aylin walked up towards the quartet, with Sam and Jake trailing behind.
"I'm sorry, it was my fault," Aylin groaned, her usual confident demeanour completely gone. "I overreacted."
Joe and Ryder tried to comfort her, telling her that it wasn't.
"Guys," Sam called out, "Just hear her out, okay?"
Marley wrapped an arm around Aylin to comfort her.
"Look," Aylin sighed, "I'm just used to this. It's a different sort of attention I've been getting over the years."
"And," she continued, "I know you're all still wondering what my big problem is. Some of you might have already guessed that because I'm Muslim, I get a lot of shit from people. That's true, but that's not a big problem I have in my life. That's stopped, that's gone and I'm over it."
Joe and Ryder pressed in their lips and looked at each other.
"So, what I'm trying to say is that I'm this way not because people discriminated against my religion. That happens but I don't care. I rub it off like it's nothing because those people aren't worth it. But my Dad took it to heart, all the insults and all the pain."
"Your Dad?" Jake blurted out in shock.
"Yes, my Dad. My whole family kept telling him that it didn't matter but he got fired from his job because of it. Every day, he would tell us how miserable his day was. One day, I think he just couldn't take it anymore, so he..."
She didn't have to say anything for everyone to realise what happened. The group was met with an air of uncomfortable silence for a while before Aylin apologised for weighting them with her burdens and tried to walk away.
"No, don't," Joe stepped in front of her. "That's what we all are here for, we're here for you. And we know you're here for us too. That's how Glee club works."
"We've all got our baggage, but that doesn't mean we can't seek help to carry it," Kitty nudged Aylin playfully.
"Let us help you move on, we're your friends after all," Ryder smiled, warming up Aylin's heart.
She let out a small giggle and agreed, getting a hug from the group.
Glee
Blaine
Ooooo! I'll believe when the sky is burning
Jake
I'll believe when I see the view
Ryder
I believe that I heard them say
Tina
"David won't you stop dreaming now?"
Artie
And everybody clap your hands and shout
Kitty
And everybody clap your hands and shout
Unique and Joe
We are young, we are one
Let us shine for what it's worth
Kitty and Sam
To your place, place, place
We're on our way, way, way
We're on our way, way, way
We're on our way
Marley and Ryder
Hold me close
We're losing time
Hold me close
We're falling to the ground
"Oh wow, guys!" Finn exclaimed, "That was amazing."
The whole New Directions started cheering and laughing.
"Okay, so what do you guys think about using this song for Nationals?"
Aylin perked her hand up and answered, "I think we should use it as a closing number."
Everyone nodded in agreement.
"It's not dance heavy or vocally impressive like all the other songs," Aylin continued explaining, "But it'll show everyone, and the judges, just how close we all are."
With that, she grabbed the arms of Joe and Ryder, who were standing beside her. And soon, everyone was joining hands and giggling.
"Hang on, I'm going to take a picture of this," Finn laughed, taking his phone out and asking them to pose handsomely.
Author's Comments: Sorry, this took forever! I've been way too busy to care about this but I'll write when I have time :)
Songs:
Sweet Disposition by The Temper Trap sung by Blaine, Artie, Sam, Tina, Sugar, Joe, Jake, Ryder, Marley, Kitty, Unique and Aylin
I See Fire by Ed Sheeran sung by Joe and Ryder
No, I Don't Remember by Anna Ternheim sung by Aylin
On Our Way by The Royal Concept sung by Blaine, Artie, Sam, Tina, Joe, Jake, Ryder, Marley, Kitty and Unique