"Okay, everyone, settle down," Mr. Schue called. "I've got some bad news. Puck drove his mom's Volvo through the front of a convenience store, and drove off with the ATM. He's in juvie."
The room suddenly broke out into chatter. "It was only a matter of time," said Tina.
"When is he getting out?" Ryan questioned.
"Unknown."
"He's the dumbest person on this planet and that's coming from me," Brittney said, giggling.
"Guys!" Mr. Schue said sternly. "Let's have some sympathy? We can't look at this as a crisis! We should look at this as an opportunity!"
"For what? Further embarrassment and humiliation?" Quinn asked sarcastically. They'd been getting continuously slushied ever since classes had started, no one in their right mind was going to join them.
Mr. Schue smiled. "To welcome in our newest member, Sam Evans!"
All eyes turned toward the blonde boy who jogged into the room, smiling. "Hey everybody, I'm Sam. Sam I am. And I don't like green eggs and ham."
"Oh wow, he has no game," Santana smirked to Brittney.
"Okay, this is gonna be great," Finn said loudly, standing up. "You're not gonna regret joining." He gestured Sam over to a seat, and Sam sat down beside Ryan as everyone clapped.
Ryan smiled. "Nice of you to join us." He got a smile back in return.
"Now," Mr. Schue said. "Question for the group. What's a duet?"
Ryan raised his hand, but Brittney beat him to it. "A blanket." Ryan rolled his eyes while Finn nodded with a smile.
"A duet is a when two voices combine to become one. Great duets are like a great marriage," Mr. Schue explained. Ryan put his hand down, sighing resignedly. Why did he ask if he didn't want anyone to answer? But then, Mr. Schue didn't really listen to what he had to say much anyways.
"The singers complement each other, push each other to be better," Mr. Schue continued. "The point of the duet is to combine the best parts about your voices and use them to make the performance better than it would be if a single person sang by himself. So this week, I want you to pair up and sing a duet. And," he added, "since you all seemed to enjoy the diva-off last year, I'm making this into a competition."
"What's the winner get?" Mike asked interestedly.
Mr. Schue smiled. "Dinner for two, on me, at Breadstix." The room exploded into excited chatter again, with everyone suddenly getting competitive. Ryan and Quinn glanced at each other, smiling. They had this.
..
After the meeting Quinn and Ryan were walking to class. They turned around when the heard Kurt and Sam talking behind them.
"I don't dye my hair, dude," Sam said.
"Yeah you do."
"I'm gonna go, 'cause you're kinda freaking me out," Sam said slowly.
"Okay, wait, wait. Maybe my instincts were a little off," Kurt hurried. "Let me make it up to you. Team up with me for the duet competition. Let's face it, unless you team up with him," he nodded at Ryan, "you're not going to win."
"Thanks," Ryan called over dryly.
"I'm your best bet," Kurt continued.
"Aren't duets supposed to be between a girl and a guy?" Sam wondered.
"Gene Kelley and Donald O'Connor would protest," Kurt said. "Make 'Em Laugh? Singing in the Rain? 1952? Maybe you are straight," he muttered at Sam's look of confusion. Ryan hid a smirk.
"What?"
"Never mind. Look, rent it, then look up the menu at Breadstix and call me. 'Cause we are going to win this." Kurt walked off, and Sam left with a wave at Ryan and Quinn.
"What was that?" Quinn wondered.
"Looks like Kurt has a crush on Sam," Ryan chuckled. "Too bad Sam's not gay."
"Really?" Quinn asked skeptically. "That dye job is pretty obvious…"
"Quinn, I lived with two gay men for fifteen years. I've met assorted gays and lesbians who were friends with Hiram and Leroy. Trust me, my gaydar is great. And I am 90% sure that Sam is not gay."
"Is anyone else at this school gay?" Quinn asked curiously.
Ryan hesitated. "Well, you'd be surprised, actually. But no, I can't tell you that. It's not really our business."
"Right."
..
That lunch hour Shelby found herself sitting with Will Schuester again. He'd been coming over to sit with her a lot for a while now, ever since apologizing last week. Now she was listening as he enthusiastically told her all about the duets competition he'd planned for the glee club.
"That's an interesting idea," she smiled as she ate her lunch. She hadn't really done that with Vocal Adrenaline, instead preferring to make their competition set list early to get as much practice in as possible. But to each their own, she supposed. And maybe his methods did help them improve.
"Maybe you'd like to watch," Will suggested. "Give them some critiques on the side."
Shelby's eyes went up a little before she smiled. "I'd be honored." Far cry from the guy who'd chewed her out for giving a suggestion a couple of weeks ago.
"Great," Will smiled. "And I was thinking, maybe we could give a demo, show the kids what a real duet is supposed to be like."
"Yeah, no problem," Shelby answered.
Will nodded. "Great. How about tomorrow after class? I'll meet you in the choir room."
"Sounds great."
The next day, Ryan went into the choir room during his free morning period to find Mike Chang already there. "Hi, Mike."
"Oh, hey Ryan. I didn't think anyone was going to be in here yet."
"I was just going over some songs, I'm still not sure what I'm going to sing for the duets competition," Ryan said absently. "How about you? Are you and Tina singing together?"
"We're still working that out," Mike said ruefully. "Kinda having some problems on the couple front."
"Oh." Ryan glanced at the Asian football player. "Are you two okay?"
"Yeah, it's just all the Asian stuff getting to her, I guess. But yeah, we're singing together. I just don't really feel confident with my singing voice," Mike admitted. "I'm kind of hoping she'll sing and then just let me dance around her."
Ryan smiled. "If you'd like, I can help you there. I am one of the glee club's best singers, and I think I could help bring your voice out. I think you do have a good voice just waiting to come out." He sort of liked the dancer. He was a bit on the quiet side, but he was always ready with a smile. And he'd never participated in the bullying the rest of the football team did.
"You'd do that?" Mike asked in surprise. He hadn't really paid very much attention to the other boy before, mostly just ignoring his antics. He did feel bad when everyone ganged up on Ryan sometimes, but he never said anything.
"Yes, of course. It would be remiss of me not to try to push everyone in the glee club to their full potential, right? Tell you what, Quinn are I are going to be rehearsing during lunch, but I can meet you here tomorrow, I'll give you a few tips about singing." Ryan cocked his head. "Do you know what you and Tina are going to sing yet?" Mike shook his head. "Well, if you haven't decided by tomorrow, I can give you a few recommendations too if you'd like."
"That would be cool," Mike smiled. "Thanks."
..
During lunch period in the choir room, Ryan and Quinn were practicing their duet. After their third run, Ryan sat down somberly. "What?" Quinn asked almost exasperatedly. After scarfing down their lunches, they'd spent most of their lunch hour practicing. Needlessly, she thought, since Ryan's voice was virtually flawless. The rest of the club may find him annoying, but her boyfriend could sing.
"I'm being really selfish," he said.
"What?" Quinn stared at him.
"We need to throw the competition."
"What?" She was really getting sick of asking that. "Why would we do that?" She was a really competitive person, obviously, and so was Ryan. Plus it was free dinner at Breadstix. And Breadstix was, well, Breadstix.
Ryan sat down somberly on one of the chairs. "I'm not really a nice person, Quinn. I don't do things unless there's something in it for me. I mean, just look at last week. Don't tell me you haven't noticed me acting like a jerk."
Quinn sat down beside him. "Well, yeah, you were. But that doesn't mean you aren't a nice person, and besides, you already apologized for that."
"I'm sorry."
"Yeah, you said that already."
"No, I'm really sorry. I know you were just trying to stand up for me with Karofsky, and I was wrong to snap at you. And about…that time in the classroom," Ryan said awkwardly. "I shouldn't have done that. I know you had a hard time last year, and it wasn't right for me to push for more when I know you might have issues with it." He'd been feeling really bad about it all weekend. "I just really need you to know that I do respect you, and I promise I won't do it again."
"I know you won't." Quinn watched him carefully the whole time he was talking. "Why did you push in the first place?"
Ryan looked away. "It's stupid."
"Okay…"
He sighed. "I told you it was because it's been two months, and I wanted to go a bit further, but that's not completely true. I liked how we were in the summer."
"So did I," Quinn said, giving him a small smile. Then it faded. "What happened to us?" she wondered. "It's like when we went back to school everything changed."
"I thought maybe you wanted me to be…I don't know…someone more popular, cooler," he admitted. "I hear what everyone says, you know." He looked away. "They all think you should be with someone else. Besides, I know your popularity is important to you, that's why you joined the Cheerios, right?"
"Yeah, I guess so."
"It's not really helping your popularity that everyone thinks I'm a gay loser," he sighed. "I think I might have been overcompensating a little." He'd thought about it a lot last night before figuring it out. In some twisted way he was trying to be someone else, someone who wouldn't be bullied all the time, someone who wouldn't be given away by his parents. But he'd gone about it wrong. Instead of trying to change himself he'd lashed out at his girlfriend, tried to push her into something she wasn't comfortable with. Although in his defense, he'd thought she would be okay with it, they way she'd been teasing him a couple of weeks ago. "I guess I was trying to match up to Finn or Puck, since everyone likes them so much."
Quinn glanced at him. "You're right, that is stupid." An amused look came to her face as she put her hand in his. "I like you because you're different from all those other morons. I don't want you to try to be someone else."
A small smile appeared on Ryan's face. He could almost feel a huge pressure lifting off of him. "Okay." He squeezed her hand, looking at her affectionately. "How about this. We won't put up any fronts with each other. When we're together, we'll just be us. Quinn and Ryan. Not the cheerleader, not the loser, not the perfect ice queen or the overcompensating idiot. We can be like we were before, when we just talked to each other about everything. You tell me when I'm doing something you don't agree with, and I'll do the same with you. I want you to feel safe and happy with me, Quinn, and I'm really, truly sorry about how I've been acting."
"It's okay," Quinn answered, gazing into those adorable brown eyes. "And yes. You've got a deal. No more fronts."
Ryan smiled. "Good." He put his arm around her shoulders, and she snuggled into him happily.
"I should probably tell you something. About that classroom thing last week."
"What?"
Quinn smiled a bit mischievously. "I didn't really mind. Actually I was kind of trying to push you into it before."
"So I was right!" Ryan exclaimed. "I thought I was imagining things. There goes the stereotype of just boys pushing for more." He stopped, confused. "So why did you stop me last week?"
"Wrong timing. I was on my cycle, and I was sort of having cramps."
"What –" Ryan blushed as the penny dropped, his biology and health classes coming back to mind. "Oh."
"Yeah."
"You could have told me," Ryan said with a touch of exasperation in his voice.
Quinn patted him on the chest, smirking. "Where's the fun in that?"
"For the record, I wasn't trying to – you know, have sex with you," he lowered his voice. "I don't think I'm ready for that, and you probably aren't either. If, and when, we get that far I want it to be special, not some quick rendezvous in a random classroom."
"Good." Quinn kissed him on the cheek before sitting up straighter. "Okay, that doesn't answer the first question. Why do we have to throw the competition again?"
"Right. We need Sam to stay on the glee club, and for that to happen, he needs to feel like part of the team, and the team needs to believe in him," Ryan explained. "That means he needs to win this competition, which means we have to throw the contest."
"Who said Sam was leaving the glee club?"
"No one, but just watch, he'll take a slushy from one of those morons on the football team and he'll be right out," Ryan said. "No, we need him to feel like he belongs here, so he needs to win."
"Wow, I never thought I'd see the day you wanted to throw a competition. It's kind of impressive. At least if you didn't have another angle."
"Angle?" Ryan asked innocently.
"Ry, I was here all last year. I know you'd do whatever it takes to win, so you must be getting something out of this. And we need Sam to get to the twelve-member quota for Sectionals, which means we need Sam to stay on the team."
"Okay, Oh Wise One, you know what, let's just pretend there's no angle, and we just need to figure out a way for me to lose a singing contest so Sam sticks around."
"Well, we could always just mess up the song, crack a few notes, go off-pitch in some parts," Quinn suggested. Ryan gave her a scandalized look. "Hey, you're the one who suggested throwing the contest."
"I can't sing off-tune, it's literally impossible, and everyone would see through it in a minute. We have to do something else." He thought some more. "Maybe I could sing with him," he thought out loud. "That way he'd be sure to win."
"Okay, egocentric-much? And what about me? Who am I supposed to sing with?" Quinn said irritably. "Why don't you just let him sing with whoever he wants?"
"Kurt asked him, and Finn says if Sam sings with Kurt, the rest of the football guys are going to come down hard on him. And while I don't think Finn is the brightest crayon in the box, I suspect he's right on this. This isn't exactly the most tolerant of schools." Ryan said wryly. Then his eyes lit up. "Or, you could sing with him."
"What?"
"You're a great singer, and you know, I think your voices would really complement each other's," Ryan said. "Not as well ours do, of course, but well enough to maybe win this thing, especially if I'm trying to lose. And, you're head cheerleader, singing with you would boost his own popularity." He grew more enthusiastic the more he thought about his seemingly great plan.
Quinn raised an eyebrow. "And who would you sing with?"
"It doesn't matter, I'll figure something out so that we lose," Ryan shrugged. "It's perfect!"
..
"Midget."
Ryan looked at Santana from his locker with a raised eyebrow. "What?" he asked suspiciously. She seemed to be in a bad mood today.
"I just thought you might know where Wheezy is."
"Mercedes is upstairs, I just saw her in the cafeteria." He pushed some of his stuff aside, trying to look for his history book, which had just up and vanished. Just then Brittney walked by, not even glancing at Santana. "What's up with Brittney?" Ryan asked curiously. "Did you two have a fight?"
"We're not an old married couple," Santana grumbled. She was still irritated at what had happened last night with Brittney. It was just sex, that was all, no stupid feelings involved. She couldn't sing with Britt, that would mess things up.
"Could have fooled me," Ryan muttered, digging for the elusive history book.
"What's that supposed to mean?"
"I just thought you were a thing already, I mean you're always together," he said absently. "I mean, you're in a bad mood, and she's in a bad mood, it makes sense…There you are!" He finally got his hands on the book, only to drop it immediately as Santana dragged him into an empty classroom. "What are you doing?"
"How did you know about me and B?" Santana demanded.
Ryan looked at her in confusion. "Well, no one told me," he said. "But I've seen the two of you, I know you two like each other."
Santana gaped at him for a moment, and Ryan was almost amused. "Who else knows about this? Did you tell anyone?" she hissed.
"No, of course not." Now Ryan was almost offended. He'd never out anyone without their permission. He'd seen the way Hiram and Leroy were treated in Lima, and he'd met some of their friends who were still in the closet. Not to mention Kurt and how much crap he took from the bigots here in this very school.
"Good. You're not telling anyone, okay?" Santana said menacingly. "Like I told Britt, I'm just making out with her because Puck's in the slammer. This does not mean I'm in love with her or whatever."
Ryan glanced at her. He'd suspected she was at least bisexual, but she always seemed happier when Britt was around. She never smiled with Puck the way she did with Brittney. But hey, if she wasn't sure yet, he wasn't going to push. "Okay. Whatever you say."
"If anyone finds out about this, you are going to get hit with so much shaved ice it's gonna make the penguins freeze, you got it?"
"Relax, you don't need your over-the-top threats, your secret's safe with me." Ryan would have smiled if he didn't think Santana would murder him right there if she thought he was laughing at her. He wouldn't put it past her.
"Good."
"But you know, I still think you should sing with Brittney. I know you're happier when you're with her, and besides, no one's going to mind two girls singing together. There are a lot of great duets involving two girls."
"God, you sound like such a girl," Santana complained. Inside, though, she was quickly changing her mind about the whole Brittney situation. Maybe she should sing with her. If she still wanted to. Crap, she couldn't believe she'd hurt Britt's feelings like that! "I gotta find B." She dragged Ryan back out of the classroom, only to run into Quinn.
"What are you doing?" Quinn asked suspiciously, looking between the two.
Santana smiled deviously. "This and that. Your boy's a good kisser, Quinnie. See you later, Corcoran," she winked flirtatiously at Ryan, almost laughing at the horrified look on his face before she left to find Brittney.
Quinn turned to her boyfriend, eyebrow raised. Ryan hurried to explain himself. "It's not like that at all! We didn't kiss! I promise! She just dragged me into the classroom all of a sudden –" He groaned as Quinn continued to glare icily at him. Fantastic. He was going to have words with Santana later.
..
Two hours later
"Okay, when are you going to quit glaring at me?" Ryan asked Quinn as they made their way to the choir room. "It's getting old."
"How about when you stop going into classrooms alone with other girls?" Quinn wasn't really mad at him, she believed him when he said he hadn't done anything with Santana. And besides, she knew Santana was still sore at her. Still, she was pretty sure she was allowed to not like her boyfriend going into empty rooms with random girls. And it was fun to make him sweat a little.
"For the last time, nothing happened!" Ryan said exasperatedly. "Someone's using the choir room."
"Isn't that Mr. Schue?" Quinn said, recognizing the voice. She opened the door, and, surprisingly, found Mr. Schue and Shelby laughing over a set of sheet music.
"Mom?" Ryan looked between his mother and his teacher confusedly.
"Oh, hi Ryan, Quinn," Shelby smiled at the pair. "Will, that should be good, I'll see you tomorrow?"
"Yeah," Mr. Schue agreed. "See you. Bye guys."
Ryan hardly glanced at the teacher as he left. "What were you two doing?" he asked his mom.
"Mr. Schue invited me to help out with your duets competition," Shelby explained. "He thought we'd give you guys a demo of a duet."
"Oh. Okay." Ryan wasn't really sure how he felt about that. It was weird. Turning to his girlfriend, he asked, "See you tomorrow?"
"Yeah." She gave him a kiss on the cheek. "Bye Miss Corcoran."
As she was walking back to her locker, she passed by a person dripping with red slushy. "Sam?"
"Yeah." Sam attempted to wipe the icy liquid off his face without much success.
Quinn watched him for a moment, before sighing. "Come on." She led him to the boy's bathroom. There wasn't anybody around, so she went in with him, helping him get the sticky liquid out of his hair. "The blueberry flavor is the worst," she commiserated. "Especially if it gets down your pants. It looks like a creature from Avatar down there when it does."
Sam looked up at her from the sink. "I saw Avatar like six times," he smiled.
Quinn looked at him for a moment. "Oh." Santana was right. He had no game. "Anyway, you'll get used to it." She handed him a towel.
"You're the head cheerleader. Why do you even bother? You don't need glee club."
That made Quinn stop. "I like to sing, and fact is, those guys were pretty cool to me last year, when I wasn't on top." She wiped at Sam's face with the towel. "What's the point of being popular if you can't do what you want?" An unintelligible stream of words came from Sam, making Quinn blink at him. Was she having a stroke? See, this was what being nice got her…
"It means you have pretty eyes," Sam said. Quinn's mouth fell slightly open. "It's Na'vi? The Avatar language?" Sam said with a shy chuckle.
Quinn couldn't think of anything to say to that. "Oh." Was he making a move? "Thanks," she said slowly, before making her way out of the bathroom. What the hell was that? She turned around when she realized Sam had followed her out. "What?"
"Nothing, just wanted to say thanks," Sam smiled.
"Okay." Quinn turned away, before finally deciding. She turned back to face him again. "Listen, do you have a partner for the duets competition yet?"
The next day, Ryan pulled his books out of his locker, then went to find Quinn, only to stop short when he found Finn talking to her at her locker.
"I told you I'd be the quarterback again soon," he was saying. "So, what do you say? We'd sound great in a duet together. And we'd be great in other ways too."
"Finn –"
"Excuse me," Ryan walked up to the tall football player, who had the decency to look slightly abashed when he realized that Ryan had heard them. Ryan fixed him with a hard glare. He was done with Finn making moves on Quinn. "I'm pretty sure she's already told you to back off, Finn. She's with me now. And I'll thank you to leave us both alone."
"She was my girlfriend first –"
"With 'was' being the operative word," Ryan cut him off, stepping closer to Finn to look him in the eye, unmindful of the height difference. "And she chose to break it off with you. She's a person, not a piece of meat we're fighting over, and she told you to back off. You might want to respect that." The two stared at each other for a moment before Finn backed down.
"Fine." He glanced at Quinn. "Just think about it."
Ryan watched him walk down the hallway, then turned to Quinn. "Was that okay? I know you can handle him yourself."
"That was fine. Kinda hot, actually," Quinn smiled, giving him a kiss. He smiled as well.
"I realized I should start sticking up for myself, and not just take it." He glanced at her shyly. "You inspired me. I love how confident you are, and I just want to be the best I can. For you."
Quinn blinked. No one had ever said that to her before. "That's really sweet." She smiled, turning back to her locker. Ryan wrapped his arms around her waist and rested his chin on her head happily. "He's been bugging me for a while now, and it's probably going to get worse now that he's quarterback again. Don't worry," she said quickly, sensing the concern in her boyfriend. "He's not that bright, but he's harmless."
"If you say so," Ryan said dubiously, before his face cleared. "You've gotten Sam as your partner for the duet, right? He just told me. That's great!
"Yeah…" Quinn answered. "You know, I really don't think you should just let him – us – win."
"Why not? If it keeps him with the New Directions –"
"It's kind of patronizing, and besides, isn't it going to be unfair on whoever you're singing with? And besides, Sam doesn't really look like the type who'll give up because of a few slushies."
Ryan thought about it for a moment. "Well, yes, maybe," he conceded. He hadn't really thought about that. He was coming to find that a lot of his ideas weren't very well thought out. He'd just never had anyone to second-guess him before. "Okay. Fine." He straightened up, a playful glint in his eye. "Then you two had better watch out, Miss Fabray, because my partner and I will be competing to our full capacity."
As soon as he found one.
..
Later that afternoon Quinn followed Sam a bit reluctantly into an empty classroom, watching as he started inspecting a model solar system. She didn't exactly feel like rehearsing right now but they needed to get cracking if they wanted to win the competition. Her moods had been all over the place more and more lately.
"I love astronomy," Sam commented. "Something about space makes all my problems seem kinda small." He pointed at one of the models. "That one's Venus. Planet of love."
"Actually that's Mars, planet of war," Quinn said dryly, glancing at the red Styrofoam ball he was pointing at.
"Which one are we now?"
Seriously? "Earth. So why don't you come back to it and talk to me about duets." Okay, maybe she was being a bit short with him. Calm down, Q.
"Ok. So singing will be easy, so it's all gonna be about the choreography. So I'll just start playing," Sam smiled, grabbing a guitar and strumming a beat out. Quinn had to smile, he was pretty cute in a dorky way. Sort of like Ryan. "Now get behind me." She gave him a look, but he just smiled back at her. "Come on." She rolled her eyes before complying. "Now grab my hips."
She let out an incredulous laugh at that one. "And start swaying." He started to move back and forth, but Quinn just gave him a dry smile, putting a hand on his shoulder. Wait, what was she doing?
"Now here's the cool part. Give me your hand." He took her hand and positioned it on the guitar's neck. "Do you know how to play?"
She shook her head. "No." He was really close…
"It's easy. Just put that finger there," he guided her hand into the correct position. "Just like that. Now do it fast, back and forth." He started strumming out a beat. Quinn obliged, surprised when actual music started coming out. "There you go." She glanced back at him. His face was really close…
"Whoa. Okay. I'm gonna stop you right there. What exactly do you think you're doing?" Quinn asked frostily, stepping away from Sam with a slight glare, the music turning discordant as she let go of the guitar.
"I…"
"Don't think I don't know what you're doing. May I remind you, I've got a boyfriend. So I think we need to stop before you do something we're both going to regret." This had happened last year, and she was not going to let it happen again. No way in hell. Especially not after that conversation she'd had with Ryan the other day. He was starting to act like himself again, and standing up for himself with Finn.
Sam stared at her for a moment before shaking his head. "Yeah. Yeah, you're right. I don't know what I was thinking."
"You're a really nice guy, Sam, but I really don't think we should sing together. I'll try to help you find a new partner, but I can't be it."
Sam nodded dejectedly. "I think everybody's paired up already, though."
Quinn closed her eyes briefly. Dammit. She couldn't just leave him high and dry, it was already Wednesday and she was pretty sure everyone was partnered up except Ryan. She knew if she decided to partner with Ryan now he'd be able to figure something out, but that would leave Sam out. "You're right." She sighed. "Fine, we can sing together. But this is strictly platonic, you got that? I can't do this again. Not after last year."
"Got it. Just friends. Promise," Sam swore. He felt really bad now. Ryan was a really nice guy, and he'd forgotten for a second there that Quinn was his girlfriend. "What happened last year?" he ventured.
"I just made some really bad decisions that I'd rather not repeat," Quinn answered, in a tone that ensured he wouldn't ask any more.
"Okay."
..
Meanwhile, Ryan went into the choir room and found Mike practicing a few dance moves. He stayed in the doorway for a moment, watching, before the other boy noticed him. "Oh, hi Ryan."
"Hello, Mike," Ryan smiled. "You're really good. You know, I used to take dancing lessons when I was younger, but I stopped a few years ago. I couldn't do that, though," he said, indicating what Mike had been doing.
Mike smiled. "Well, maybe I could teach you sometime."
Ryan's face lit up at the prospect. He missed his dance classes, and he'd always found Mike's popping and locking fascinating. "That would be great!"
"Okay," Mike said. He looked down. "I don't think I really need those vocal lessons though."
"Why not?" Ryan asked, confused.
Mike sighed. "Tina asked Artie to sing with her. I don't have a partner."
"Oh…" Ryan said in surprise. He'd thought 'Chang-squared' was pretty strong. And no, he wasn't being racist, they really seemed like they complemented each other. He had an idea. "Hey, how about we sing together? I don't have a partner either, Quinn's singing with Sam."
"Really?" Mike asked, surprised. He hesitated. "You know I'm not really good, I wouldn't want to sabotage your chances at winning."
Ryan waved his hand. "I'm sure. Besides, you're not bad, I've heard you in the chorus. I'm sure with a little work you'll sound fantastic."
"Okay," Mike smiled. "Thanks."
By the time they were supposed to go back to class, Mike's voice had improved a lot with Ryan's help. He actually had a pretty good voice, Ryan thought. Mike would sing in the chorus, but he didn't have the confidence to sing by himself, and that was what they were working on. He was confident Mike would surprise everyone when the two of them sang tomorrow. "Hmmm, now we just need a song…" He thought for a moment. He wanted something that would showcase his and Mike's voices, and maybe have something for Mike to dance to. He smiled suddenly, remembering an overheard conversation from the other day. "Have you watched Singing in the Rain?"
Mike's face lit up as he nodded. "Yeah, the dancing was great."
"Perfect. We're going to be doing Make 'Em Laugh," Ryan said enthusiastically. "I know it's not really a duet, but I can fix that. And since you're one of our best dancers, I though you could think up a dance routine for the two of us, and we can work on it tomorrow and perform on Friday."
"Awesome," Mike grinned. "I'll figure something out this afternoon. Thanks. For the lesson, I mean."
"Not a problem." Just then Quinn came into the room. "Hey, Quinn," he smiled, before turning back to Mike. "See you later?"
"Yeah. Thanks again."
Ryan left the room, grabbing Quinn's hand. "You're helping Mike?" asked Quinn.
"Yes, he's actually got a pretty good voice once he starts singing, but he's been lip-syncing or just singing really softly so far."
"That's nice of you."
"Thank you. He's now my duet partner, since Tina's singing with Artie. How was your rehearsal with Sam?" he asked as they walked out of the school.
"Oh, it was fine," Quinn said dismissively. Once Sam had figured out he didn't have a chance with her he was actually pretty fun to work with.
"Just fine? What are you singing?"
"Oh no," Quinn smirked. "This is a contest, and we are totally winning that dinner at Breadstix, Corcoran."
Ryan was the first one in the choir room the next day, shuffling through his arrangement of Make 'Em Laugh that he and Mike were going to do tomorrow. A couple of minutes later Finn and Sam came in together. "Hello, Finn, Sam," Ryan greeted.
"Hey," Finn said a bit flatly. He was still upset at Ryan since he was with Quinn. He'd almost thought he'd broken them up when he'd prayed to Grilled Cheesus about it, but then they'd worked it out. Sam sat down a couple of seats away from Ryan. "Hey, dude."
Tina and Mike entered a few minutes later, then Santana and Brittney came in, pinkies linked. To everyone's surprise, Brittney went over and hugged Ryan. "Thanks, Ry," she smiled happily.
"For what?"
"You know what," Santana interjected, rolling her eyes. Ryan nodded as Quinn came in and sat down beside him.
"Okay…" Ryan said. "Are you two singing together now?"
"You bet we are, so ya'll better get ready to lose," the Latina said cockily.
The rest of the glee club trickled into the room in twos and threes, and finally, Mr. Schuester came in. "Hey everyone, settle down. So guys, since it seems like some people are a little confused about the meaning of a duet –" he looked pointedly at Brittney and Finn "– I thought I'd invite a guest to give you an idea of what it's all about. So, please give a hand for Miss Shelby Corcoran!" Everyone clapped when the woman came in, the room buzzing excitedly since they all knew her to be the coach of the team that had won Nationals four times in a row. A few furtive looks were thrown at Ryan too, but he didn't pay attention, instead exchanging a smile with his mom.
"Now, before we get to the actual competition, I got the impression that some of you were still a little fuzzy on the concept of a duet," Mr. Schue explained. "So, I decided to ask Miss Corcoran to help me show you guys what a duet should look like." He nodded at Brad, who immediately began playing the introduction to Diana Ross and Lionel Richie's Endless Love.
Ryan thought it was an impressive rendition, but he wasn't quite thrilled with his mom singing that duet with another guy. He could appreciate the vocals though, and applauded with the rest of the glee club as they ended. Shelby sat down in a chair that Mr. Schue pulled out for her, smiling at him in thanks. Mr. Schue then sat down beside her, unaware of the woman's son watching his every move like a hawk. "Okay, so anyone ready with their duet yet?"
"That would be me and Britts," Santana said quickly, standing up with the blonde.
"Okay, let's see what you've got," Mr. Schue smiled. The introduction to Come to My Window started up. Ryan watched critically as Brittney and Santana sang. He wanted Sam to win so he'd be sure to stay, but he wanted his friends(?) to do well too. Fortunately, the performance went off without a hitch, and he clapped along with everyone else.
"That was amazing, you guys," Mr. Schue congratulated them.
"Yes, that was very good," Shelby said, smiling. "Good choice of song, it really suited both of you. Your chemistry wasn't bad, either."
"Yeah, well, it was Britt's idea," Santana said offhandedly, trying to hide her pleasure at the compliment. Not to mention Shelby Corcoran was hot. Okay, so maybe she had a bit of a crush on the dwarf's mom. That wasn't weird at all. "You should all know, I've already had custom bibs made," she informed the rest of the club. "'Cuz we be going to Breadstix!" She and Britt high-fived, before going to sit back down.
Mr. Schue laughed. "You hear that guys? You got your work cut out for you!"
..
A few minutes later, Will let the kids go practice their duets, and he and Shelby left the choir room. "Hey, Shelby?"
"Hmmm?" Shelby turned to face him.
"Thanks for coming today, the kids really respect your opinion."
"As well they should," she quipped. "Your kids are pretty good, they just need more practice." Mercedes Jones and Sunshine Corazon had teamed up to sing a Whitney Houston song, and Kurt Hummel had, strangely, ended up singing a solo version of Le Jazz Hot from Victor/Victoria. And the last pair, Tina Cohen-Chang and Artie Abrams, had sung a jazz song too. The kids all had potential, they just needed a lot of coaching if they wanted to beat Vocal Adrenaline.
"Yeah." Will smiled nervously. "I was thinking, maybe if you're free this weekend, maybe you'd like to have dinner?" he asked hopefully.
Shelby quirked a look at him. "Are you asking me out?"
"Would you say yes?"
She looked at him, smiling slightly. "Will, you know, with that hair, that dimple, that clunker you drive to school – you're one of the cutest things I've ever seen." He smiled. "But to be honest, I think you're still hung up on Emma. I think you need to take some time before you start dating again. And besides," she added. "I'm seeing somebody." James was moving to Lima this weekend, and they'd already agreed they'd give themselves another shot.
"Oh," Will said disappointedly. Damn, he just couldn't catch a break. Of the two women he was interested in, both of them were already taken. "Oh. I understand." He sighed. "And I guess maybe you're right," he admitted. "I just don't know what to do about Emma."
"Listen, I can't tell you how to live your life –"
"Be my guest," Will interjected wryly.
"Just take some time for yourself," Shelby advised, before smiling gently. "Figure out yourself first, before trying something with someone else."
Will nodded. "Okay."
"Hey everybody, settle down," Will called as he and Shelby came into the choir room late the next afternoon. "So, this is the last day of the duets competition. Who's up first?"
Shelby smirked as Ryan immediately raised his hand. Of course he'd want to go first. "That would be us," he called out, gesturing at Mike, and the two of them stood up. They went up to the middle of the room.
"Wow, this is a surprise," Mr. Schue commented. "I wouldn't have thought of you two as a duet." Shelby agreed, he'd been strangely tight-lipped about his entry in the competition, and she had thought that he'd be singing with Quinn.
"I know, but we think that our unconventional pairing will be one of the highlights of the duet competition, especially with my vocals and Mike's dancing," Ryan explained. Mike just nodded, smiling.
"Okay, guys, whenever you're ready."
Ryan nodded at Brad the piano guy, and he immediately launched into their song's introductory soliloquy. Shelby watched, impressed at the two boys' delivery of the song from the 1952 classic. Ryan's vocals were spot on, as usual, but Mike's voice was pretty good too, and his dancing was impeccable. She clapped along with everyone else as the song came to an end with the pair flopping down dramatically on the ground.
"That was great, guys," Will said happily as the boys stood up, grinning broadly. "Thank you for finally letting us hear your wonderful voice, Mike, and the dancing was incredible." Shelby thought she saw Ryan's smile dim a bit when Will didn't give him any comments, but she might have imagined it, as his smile was back full-force a split-second later.
She nodded. "Really nice job, boys, who did the rearrangement and the choreography?"
"I did the rearrangement," Ryan said proudly. "And Mike did the choreography."
"Very good job incorporating both of your voices," Shelby complimented. "And I liked the dancing too. Excellent performance."
The two boys beamed at the compliment before sitting back down to another round of applause. "Okay, who's next?" Will asked. Shelby looked around, surprised to find that there were three students who hadn't performed yet – Quinn, Sam Evans, and Finn Hudson. That sort of made sense, since Kurt had sung solo, leaving one student out.
Quinn and Sam stood up and took center stage. Shelby's eyes rose a little at the pairing. "Okay," Sam said as he picked up a guitar. "I just want to say that I'm really excited, and I couldn't have asked for a better partner." He smiled at Quinn, who smiled back. The pair launched into a rendition of Jason Mraz's Lucky, and Shelby thought it was a pretty good performance too. The touch with the guitar trick was pretty fun too, and all in all the pair was quite cute. She noticed Quinn seemed to be singing to Ryan though, her eyes flicking toward him with every other line. Ryan's eyes seemed to be glued to his girlfriend, too.
Fifteen minutes later Will had called for all the kids to vote on whose duet they had liked the best, and was tallying the votes from a black top hat, his face getting more irritated with each vote. Shelby smiled in amusement, guessing what was going on. Her hunch was confirmed a moment later.
"Well. Even though it looks like pretty much everyone here voted for themselves, including those who didn't perform," he glanced at Finn, "we have a winner." He turned around, picking up the Breadstix gift certificate. "And the winner, by one vote…Sam and Quinn!"
"What?!" Santana yelped. "What? Screw that, I want my Stix!" She jumped up, but Brittney tugged her back down as Sam and Quinn got up to collect their prize. Shelby glanced at Ryan, who had a disappointed look on his face, but she could tell it wasn't real. He was good, she had to admit, his act wasn't noticeable unless you looked closely.
"Very good performances today," she complimented Ryan as the two of them walked out of the choir room after the meeting. "A little rough, but good, considering that you had less than a week to practice."
"Thank you," Ryan smiled happily. "We only had two days to rehearse, actually, since we only finalized our partnership on Wednesday afternoon. It's still disappointing that we didn't win, though."
Shelby looked sideways at her son. "You were the tie-breaker, weren't you?"
"Hmmm?" Ryan asked innocently. "I don't know what you're talking about, why would I throw a competition?"
"Oh, don't try that with me, I know it was you. What I don't know is why," Shelby said playfully. "Trying to win brownie points with Quinn? And on that note, why didn't you sing with her?"
Ryan looked at her for a second. "I have absolutely no idea what you're talking about. But if I did, then the idea would have been to let Sam win the competition so that he'd stay with the glee club, which would be more likely if he sang with someone as popular as Quinn."
Shelby shook her head. "How do you come up with these ideas?"
"Maybe I'm trying to make up for that crack house incident."
"If you are, then you might be overcompensating a little."
"Well, doesn't matter now," Ryan said breezily. Then he remembered what he wanted to ask his mom. "What's up with you and Mr. Schue?" he asked as they walked out of the school.
"What?" Shelby asked, confused.
"I just noticed you two seem to be friendlier lately," he said casually.
"We're friends," his mom replied. "Well, he did ask me out on a date the other day –"
"What?!" Ryan yelped. "Oh my god! You cannot go out with Mr. Schue!"
"Ryan –"
"No, no way in hell! I mean, he's an okay teacher and everything, but no!" he exclaimed in horror. "And what about Dad, I thought you two were –"
"Ryan!" Shelby grabbed him by the shoulders to get him to shut up. "I'm not going out with Mr. Schue, okay? I turned him down."
"Oh." Ryan tried to get some of his dignity back after his outburst. "Well, good." He ran his hand through his hair. "That would have been weird on so many levels. I can't even begin to describe how wrong that would have been."
Shelby smirked at her son's overreaction. She'd heard of kids finding it strange when their parents started dating. She supposed it was a good thing she hadn't really been in the dating game when he found her. And now she was sort of with James, who was his dad, so she guessed it mitigated the squickiness factor. She couldn't resist though. "Well, maybe if the situations were different, we –"
"Okay, you need to stop right there, I don't need to hear what you might have done with my glee club teacher. And you sang Endless Love with him on Wednesday!" Ryan shuddered.
"It's a perfectly good duet," Shelby teased. "And I did tell him he was cute –"
"Dear god, ugh! Just stop!" Ryan clapped his hands over his ears. "I do not want to hear about who you think is cute. You're my mom!"
Shelby ruffled his hair in amusement. "You're cute."
"That's completely different."
Hello everyone, it's been a while. You would not believe how busy the past week has been. It's like the week that wouldn't end. I have had literally negative free time. But anyways, I thought I'd get this chapter out. Hope you guys liked it. I thought having Sam break them up was going to be too obvious, although I did write a version of this chapter where the kiss actually happened. But after what happened with Puck I don't think Quinn would cheat that easily, especially since she and Ryan are pretty good right now. On that note, people waiting for smut should know it might be a while. I will probably work that in later on, but realistically I don't think they're going to jump in just like that. Besides, I have zero experience writing that sort of thing. On the conflict side of things, we'll see how things go, although I'm setting up for something.
That's it for now, leave reviews everyone, I find it really helps me to try to improve my writing as well as the storyline. No promises on when the next chapter is coming out, I've got maybe half of it written out but I'm supposed to be studying how embryos develop right now. See you!