A/N: A huge shout-out to everyone who's still reading. Thanks so much for sticking with it! 2 chapters left after this!

Disclaimer: I humbly acknowledge that I don't own Glee and I do own Alex.

Chapter 25: Courage

Alex was right. Compared to McKinley, East Lima really did suck. McKinley won the game five goals to two and Alex herself scored the game winner. On the bus ride back from East Lima, the boys were exhausted but they were not acting it. In fact, they were very boisterous.

"Hey Ben," Tyler called over the seats. "Is it true?"

"Is what true Ty?" Ben asked.

"Did you really join the dork club?" The boys laughed but Ben was lucky enough to have Blaine as a mentor.

"I don't know what you're talking about," he said. "McKinley doesn't have a 'dork club'." Alex gave him a smile.

"Sure we do," Tyler said. "Isn't it called the 'Nude Erections' or some shit like that?"

"Yeah," piped up Marcus. "And it's run by that Lima loser teacher that used to teach Spanish."

"Ringing any bells?" asked Tyler.

Ben clenched his mouth shut. Sure he had been warned that the Glee club wasn't cool, but he was supposed to be one of those guys that made uncool things be cool. He didn't know what to do. He wished Blaine was there. It's not like Alex could get involved – oh shit, she already was.

"So this club," she asked the boys. "Why do you care if Ben's in it?"

"Because it's for dorks and Lima losers," answered Tyler.

"And Ben's supposed to be cool," added Marcus. "And being around those Nude Erections might turn him into a singing, dancing dork."

"Yeah and we can't have his game suffer because of it," Tyler finished.

"Yet…you don't seem to have a problem with me being in the New Directions," said Alex. "Why?"

Shit Alex, thought Ben. Why did you bring that up?

"Wait, you're in it too?" asked Tyler. "Fuck man…"

Alex rolled her eyes. Oblivious boys. "And, personally, I thought Ben was entirely on top of his game today," she continued. "How many shots did he block? Five? That's more than you Ty."

Ben remembered the one word Blaine had left him with. Courage. "And Marcus, how many shots did you get?" he asked. "Two? I'm pretty sure Alex had six and she scored the game winner. So don't go saying that Glee will knock us off our game. We all know who's the best around here. Don't forget it."

Alex looked at Ben with wide eyes. She couldn't believe he'd just done that. Tyler and Marcus looked at each other sheepishly and then back at Ben.

"Dude, we're really sorry," said Marcus.

"I swear, we didn't think of any of it on our own," added Tyler.

"It's just the stuff that floats around the school all the time," Marcus finished.

Ben looked at his teammates. "I'll forgive you this once," he said. "But no more of this Glee bashing, okay?" Tyler and Marcus nodded quickly. "Now that we've dealt with that issue, there is still one that needs to be mentioned."

Alex looked sharply at Ben. Oh, nononono, she thought. Oh please don't. This is a terrible time for this, please don't say it.

"I want you guys to know that absolutely nothing has changed, okay?" said Ben. He took a deep breath and looked his teammates in their eyes. "I'm gay," he said.

A/N: I have this great idea for the next chapter but I'm really tired so I'm just gonna write the idea down. Let me know what you think!