"Mom, I have a question." Ryan sat down at the counter just as Shelby popped some toast out of the toaster the next morning.
"That sounds serious," she said lightly, pulling some jam out of the refrigerator. "What is it?"
"I thought maybe you could come with me to get my student permit sometime soon," Ryan said hopefully. "You know, for my driver's license."
"Oh."
"Now, I know you might not want to, but I'm sure it won't take that long," Ryan continued. "As you know, I'm turning sixteen in December, and I've actually been eligible to get a permit for a couple of months now. I've been reading all the manuals and pamphlets they give out at school, and I'm confident that I can pass the written exam. I –"
"Okay, okay," Shelby stopped his ramble, smiling slightly. "Calm down." She took a bite out of her breakfast. "Are you sure you can pass the written?"
"Of course, I've been studying for a while now. And you know I know cars, I can actually operate most motor vehicles quite well."
Shelby looked at him for a minute. She knew Ryan probably knew a lot more about cars than she did, and she had seen the driver's manual in his room a few times. She hesitated though, not exactly thrilled with the idea of her kid driving a thousand-pound hunk of metal around by himself. It was irrational, she did it every day, but then she wasn't always completely rational where Ryan was concerned. "Okay. I'll take you."
"Yes!" Ryan rushed around the counter to give his mom an impulsive hug. "When? We could go next weekend. Or sooner. Or –"
Shelby poked a slice of toast in his mouth, effectively stopping his excited ramble. "Shush."
Ryan gave her a reproachful look as he took a bite of the toast, pulling the slice away from his mouth. He swallowed. "That was completely unnecessary." He wasn't mad, though.
"Was it?" Shelby asked innocently. "And we can't go next weekend, Josh's wedding is on Saturday and the DMV's closed on Sunday. If we're going anytime soon, we're going today."
"Today?"
Shelby nodded. "Your dad's coming tomorrow, in case you forgot, and it's probably going to take us a few hours to get the permit so we can't do it on a weekday. So if you want to get it anytime soon, you go get dressed, and we'll leave in thirty minutes."
He could hardly keep in his excitement. "I'll be ready in five."
..
Almost five hours later, Shelby and Ryan exited Lima's DMV building, Ryan now the proud holder of a new student's permit. "Thanks, mom!" He grinned at Shelby, who couldn't help but smile back. "Can I drive?"
That wiped the smile off. "Uh…"
"Please?"
Damn. "Fine," Shelby relented, handing over the keys. "But if I say stop, you better stop, got it? Otherwise this is going to be the first and last time I let you drive my car."
"Got it." Ryan scrambled into the driver's seat of Shelby's Range Rover wearing a huge grin. Shelby got into the passenger seat more sedately.
"Seat belt?"
"Check." Ryan carefully adjusted the mirrors and got comfortable in the seat. "Okay?"
Shelby sent up a quick prayer, and steeling her nerves, nodded at her son. "Okay." The car was soon moving, and she started to relax marginally, though she kept her eyes peeled for other cars and any insane pedestrians who might suddenly jump out onto the road.
"You can relax, you know." Ryan spared a glance at his mom.
"I am relaxed," she retorted. "Eyes on the road, please."
"There's no one else on the road." He looked over at Shelby again. "I –"
"Stop!" The car stopped along with Ryan's heart as he slammed on the brakes suddenly at Shelby's outburst. He looked up to see a mailman who had inexplicably crossed the street in front of the car. Both driver and passenger took a second to calm down before Ryan recovered first.
"Eyes on the road, check."
..
Later that afternoon, Ryan showed up at Quinn's house. "Hey, Quinn," he greeted, smiling. "You busy?"
"I didn't know you were coming over," Quinn said.
"Oh, I can leave, if you want," Ryan teased.
"Just get in here, you weirdo." Quinn pulled him into the house.
"Is your mom here?"
"No, she's went out on an errand." Quinn led him into the living room.
"Ah." Ryan sat down on the couch, Quinn settling next to him. "How was your dinner with Sam last night?"
"Oh, it was fine. He's sort of fun, but he's really nerdy. He makes all these movie references."
"Yes, I've been on the receiving end of a few," Ryan said, smiling. "I understood the Star Wars ones, but not the Lord of the Rings."
Quinn chuckled. "He was speaking Na'vi at one point, from Avatar."
"That's an actual language?"
"It's made up, like Klingon from Star Trek or Elvish from Lord of the Rings."
"Do you speak any of those?" Ryan asked.
Quinn raised her eyebrows at him. "I can barely pass Spanish, I think the only reason anyone passes is because Mr. Schue can't speak it any better than we can."
"Really?"
"Yeah, I asked Santana once, and she says all his syntax is wrong and his accent sounds like he swallowed a kazoo," Quinn said dryly. "Anyways, how was your day?"
Ryan grinned broadly. "I got my student driver permit," he said happily. "Mom and I spent five hours at the DMV, but it was completely worth it. Mom let me drive home, and yeah, I almost hit a mailman, but it was great! Not the hitting-the-mailman part, that was kind of scary," he amended. "But the driving part was fun."
"You almost hit a mailman?"
"Okay, okay, laugh it up," Ryan grumbled. "In my defense, he just crossed without warning."
Quinn smirked at him. "Hang on, I need to go get something in my room."
"Okay." Ryan watched with a smile as she went upstairs to her room. He started looking around the living room, smirking slightly when he remembered that Quinn wasn't particularly enamored with the house's ostentatious décor. He went over to the mantelpiece, observing the knickknacks that were positioned there, along with a few photos. He smiled at the one that showed a small version of his girlfriend, maybe four or five years old, with another older girl. Maybe her sister, he knew Quinn had an older sister. He turned around when he heard movement behind him. He grinned at his girlfriend. "You looked cute as a five-year-old."
"Four, actually, and does that mean I'm not cute now?" Quinn arched an eyebrow playfully.
"You're perfectly amazing now. Very cute, and very hot, as the situation demands." He leaned in, meaning to kiss her on the cheek, but she turned her head at the last minute, catching his lips with hers. He smiled happily into the kiss, his hands coming up to her waist.
"What am I now?" she whispered into his ear, her hot breath making him shiver in anticipation. Then he gulped as his girlfriend put her hands on his chest, slowly pushing him down onto the sofa.
"Uhhh…I…" Ryan couldn't manage to get his words into order. It was hard to have a coherent thought when there was a girl pressing onto him, pushing her tongue into his mouth. His skin felt like it was scorching wherever she touched him, his head was spinning so fast. He shook his head slightly, trying to clear it. He could never quite believe how this girl could turn him on just like that.
"Come on Ryan, how do you think I look now?" Quinn whispered in his ear, smiling as she felt him squirming under her touch. She slid her hand under his shirt, running her fingers over his stomach.
"Quinn, you look amazingly hot right now, just like you do every other day," Ryan breathed out. He reached up to pull her down to him again, their lips meeting once more. He coaxed her mouth open, dominating the kiss this time around, and he heard her moan into their kiss. "You're amazing."
Quinn shuddered as he moved his lips to her neck. She loved feeling him do this to her, she wanted more. She'd never felt like this with anyone else, and it had been easy to keep herself from giving it up to Finn, but with Ryan she just needed more and more. She grabbed his hand, putting it at the edge of her blouse, silently asking. Ryan froze for a second. He broke off their kiss. "Are you sure this is okay?"
"Yes," she breathed. "I want you to." She was ready to go further with him. Not all the way, but further than they'd been going. "Please."
Ryan didn't need any more encouragement as he gently moved his hand up under her blouse. "You need to tell me if you want me to stop."
Quinn nodded, biting her lip to keep herself from telling him to go faster. She wanted him to be comfortable too. She held back a gasp as his hand started to move faster, her skin burning everywhere he touched. Oh god, how had she not let him do this before? She pulled him forward by his collar, catching his mouth in a kiss again, her other hand moving against his stomach, lower and lower. She was suddenly filled with a burning desire to be holding him in her hand, to be touching him as intimately as possible. And she wanted him to be touching her.
It almost scared her, how much she wanted him.
"You okay?" Ryan mumbled into her neck, not breaking contact with her.
"I'm great." Unable to stop herself, Quinn moved so she was straddling his lap, his hardness pressing deliciously against her own arousal.
"Quinn –" He cut himself off with a gasp as Quinn ground down on to him. She inhaled sharply at the heat the movement caused. She looked deep into his eyes, completely blown by now. He was so hot. She could feel how aroused he was under her. She pressed their lips together again, their kiss growing deeper and deeper until –
Click.
Oh shit. Quinn sprang away from Ryan immediately. "My mom's here," she hissed urgently, frantically straightening her top. She did not want her mom to catch them doing anything. Ryan's eyes widened as it hit him, and he immediately sat up. Quinn looked at him, inwardly groaning when she saw his hair was a mess and realized that hers was probably worse. She quickly smoothed her hair down, and Ryan quickly did the same. Thank god she wasn't wearing lipstick, it probably would have been all over their faces by now.
Exactly two seconds after Quinn rapidly straightened Ryan's collar, Judy Fabray walked into the room. "Hi Quinnie. Oh," she said suddenly, noticing Ryan. "Hello. Ryan, right?"
Ryan gave her his best performance-worthy smile. "That's me. Hi Mrs. Fabray." He gave her a short wave, discreetly holding a pillow to hide his rapidly deflating erection. He took a deep breath, trying to calm his still racing heartbeat. "Nice to see you again."
"You too," Mrs. Fabray smiled, looking between the two teenagers. "I'm glad you decided to come over, Quinn's been moping alone all day. Quinn I'll just be upstairs if you two need anything," she continued. Quinn nodded, flopping down on the sofa beside Ryan as her mom went upstairs.
"That was…unexpected," Ryan remarked. His eyes were still a little glazed over from their earlier activities.
"Yeah." Quinn blew out a breath. "Talk about bad timing."
"Don't worry about it," Ryan assured her, giving her a kiss. "We should probably talk though."
"About?"
"About what just happened. Not that I didn't like it," Ryan said quickly. "I liked it a lot. Well, not the part where your mom came home. The part before that." Quinn raised an eyebrow at him, smirking at his ramble. "Okay look, the point is, are you sure you're comfortable with what we did?" he asked.
Quinn nodded. "Yeah. I am." She smiled at him. "I trust you."
Ryan smiled warmly at her. "Good. I trust you too." He interlaced their fingers. "What was that your mom said, about you moping around all day?"
"Nothing, just a mood swing," Quinn said dismissively. "It's nothing." It was sort of true, she hadn't been feeling too great that day. It had been happening on and off for a while now, there were days where she just didn't care about anything. Ryan had quickly changed her mood though.
"Okay," Ryan said slowly. "If you're sure." He stood up. "I should get going, I'm supposed to have dinner with my mom. My dad's coming tomorrow," he said happily. "For good this time. We're helping him move tomorrow, so I probably won't be able to see you. So I'll see you at school on Monday." He gave her a lingering kiss.
"Okay. See you on Monday."
The next day Shelby was back in the driver's seat as she and Ryan drove to the apartment building James had found with Shelby's help the last time he'd been in Lima. James was finally moving to Lima permanently and Shelby had deemed Ryan too excited to drive safely at the moment. Ryan spotted a large SUV with boxes in the back parked in front of the building. "That must be his," he commented, excited to see James again.
"Probably is," Shelby nodded. A young man in a baseball cap came out of the building just as the two of them were getting out of the Range Rover. He walked to the SUV and pulled out a few more boxes before he spotted Shelby and Ryan. His face lit up when he saw Shelby.
"Hey, I recognize you," he said excitedly. "You're Shelby Corcoran, right?"
Shelby raised an eyebrow. "Yes, and you are…?"
"Oh, I'm sorry." The young man snapped to attention. "Corporal Franklin Gehring, Ma'am. Sgt. Walker showed us some pictures of the two of you." He turned to Ryan. "You must be Ryan."
"Yeah," Ryan smiled. Just then James himself came down the steps.
"Oh, you're here!" He beamed widely at Shelby and Ryan, giving Shelby a hug. "Hey buddy." He gently ruffled the boy's hair.
"Hi Dad," the teenager answered happily.
"Yes, hello," Shelby agreed. "We met your friend here."
"I have another one upstairs, they volunteered to help move my stuff," James explained, tugging another two boxes out of the SUV.
"Want some help?" Ryan offered.
"Sure, can you take these?" James handed the boxes over to Ryan, before getting the last two himself. "Come on, let's go inside." Shelby held the door open to let them in, before following them up the stairs. "You know, you're just in time, I just ordered the pizza."
"Goody," Shelby said amusedly as they entered the apartment. Boxes were scattered around the living room, and as James had said, there was another man inside. This one was about James' and Shelby's age, dark-skinned, with the standard military buzz cut.
"Hey Walker, anything else left downstairs?" he asked.
"Nope, this is the last of it." James set down his boxes in an empty spot, gesturing at Ryan to do the same. "Shelby, Ryan, this is Sergeant Simon Dupont, also known as Sim. We've in the same unit for five years now. Sim, this is Shelby Corcoran, and our kid, Ryan."
"Nice to finally meet you," Sim said, smiling. "We've heard quite a bit."
"Is that so?" Shelby asked, quirking an eyebrow with a smile, shaking the man's hand. "I wonder what."
"All good things, of course."
"You must be a good wingman to cover for James like that," Shelby returned dryly.
"Oh, he's the very best," James said sarcastically. "Remember I told you about my last date? The one where her drink ended up in my face? Yeah, his fault."
"I'm sure you deserved it."
Sim laughed. "Oh, you are the perfect match for Walker over here." He looked over at Ryan, who was watching in amusement. "Hey kid, good luck with these two as parents."
"Oh, I'm perfectly aware of my luck," Ryan smiled. It seemed to be at an all-time high recently.
..
An hour later, lunch had been eaten by the whole group in the apartment, and Shelby and Sim went into the kitchen to dump some of the trash, leaving Ryan with James and Frank, who were telling him all sorts of insane stories about their mishaps in the army.
"He really likes you, you know."
Shelby looked up in surprise at the tall man. "Excuse me?"
"Walker. We've been in the same unit for five years, but we've known each other longer."
"You must be pretty close, then."
Sim nodded. "Yeah. He's my best buddy. And you're really important to him, I can tell. I knew there was always someone back home for him. He's dated, sure, but he never really got into anyone." He stuffed a box into the trash can. "And I'm glad he's got you. You'll take care of him, right?"
Shelby nodded, meeting Sim's gaze. "Yes, I will."
"Good," Sim nodded. "He needs someone, and like I said, I think you're perfect for him. He really cares about your kid too."
"I know," Shelby smiled. "Don't worry, we'll take very good care of James. He's important to us too." The two of them looked at each other in understanding, before nodding and returning to the living room.
"Frank, we better be going if we want to make it back to Pennsylvania tonight," Sim said. Frank nodded, and he and James stood up, followed quickly by Ryan.
"Okay," James nodded and the whole group went downstairs to the car. The group stopped at the doorway, and Shelby and Ryan hung back to let James say goodbye to his two friends. "Take care of yourselves, got it?" he said to the other two.
"We love you too," Sim said sarcastically, before smiling and shaking James' hand. "Don't worry, I'll take care of this one," he jerked his head towards Frank, who rolled his eyes before grabbing James' hand in a handshake.
"You take care too, Sarge."
"I will."
Shelby and Ryan watched as the Sim and Frank straightened up, giving James one last salute. He quickly gave them one of his own. "Sergeant, Corporal."
Sim nodded. "Don't be a stranger, man." He looked at Shelby and Ryan. "You guys take care." James nodded back as the two got into their car and drove off, and Shelby went over to him.
"Hey."
James smiled at her, wrapping an arm around her. "Hey." Ryan joined them, smiling, and James pulled him in with his other arm. "I missed you guys."
"We missed you too," Ryan agreed.
"Now for the fun part: unpacking."
"Morning ladies," Will greeted Emma and Shelby in the teacher's lounge that Monday, sitting down at their table.
"Hey Will," Shelby said easily.
"Good morning," Emma answered, looking up at him from her sandwich.
"What's with your crusts this morning?" Will questioned Emma. "You usually cut them off."
Both women looked at the sandwich. "I must have forgotten this morning," Emma said in surprise. "Carl and I had a great weekend. We hit the revival theater downtown for the midnight showing of Rocky Horror."
Will made a disbelieving noise. "You're kidding, isn't that theater a total dive?"
"Oh, it's disgusting," Emma said. "It barely has a clean surface so you'd think it would be horrible for me, but I guess I just had so much fun I didn't even notice."
Will gave a forced laugh. Shelby glanced at him in amusement. It was so obvious he wasn't over the redhead. "Well, I think that's great," she said. "It's good to let loose once in a while. And Rocky Horror can be very entertaining."
"Have you been?" Emma asked curiously.
"A few times in New York," Shelby nodded. Not really her taste, but it was okay. "It's probably even crazier there than it is here."
"It probably is. And get this. You know how I've always been against Halloween, because I'm opposed to eating candy anyone else has touched? Well, this year, Carl and I are actually going trick-or-treating!" Emma said excitedly.
Suddenly Will spoke up. "Oh, it's so weird that you brought up Rocky Horror, because last weekend I decided to have the glee club perform Rocky Horror for the school musical."
Shelby almost choked on her coffee. The two other teachers looked at her. "Sorry, went down the wrong pipe. Go on." She did so want to see how this conversation would pan out. It was obvious Will was trying to get on Emma's good side.
"Oh. Wow," Emma said in surprise, and slight discomfort as Shelby noticed. Will was oblivious though.
"Yeah, I mean, who knew Rocky Horror was so important to both of us?" he continued, smiling. Shelby decided to try to be the voice of reason.
"Isn't that play a little inappropriate for a high school? You're probably going to have to edit the heck out of it so you can do it in school."
"Well, yeah," Will conceded. "But it's worth it to expose the kids to one of my favorite musicals of all time. Love that show."
"I think you're going to have to edit the whole thing out, if you're going to get Sue and Figgins to sign off on it," Emma commented. She laughed nervously. "But yeah, wow, really exciting." She stood up and started to leave the table.
"Yeah. Let's go, Rocky Horror!" Will held out his hand for a high-five, which Emma returned awkwardly as she left. That left Will and Shelby sitting at the table. Shelby sipped her coffee, pointedly staying quiet.
"Okay, what do you want to say?" Will asked in exasperation.
"You're playing a dangerous game here, Will," Shelby warned him. "Carmel used to have a five-person committee monitoring all the song decisions and the plays that were performed by the students. Obviously we don't have that here, but you know Rocky Horror is going to be controversial."
"It'll be fine," Will said. "I'll fix the script."
"If you say so."
..
"This week's lesson isn't really a lesson. It's a musical," Mr. Schue announced to the glee club at the meeting that afternoon.
Ryan was immediately all ears, mind racing with the possibilities of the musical roles he could play.
"We're going to be doing Rocky Horror." The room quickly burst into excited chatter.
Ryan spoke up. "Mr. Schue, while I admire your choice of the groundbreaking 70's musical, aren't you worried that some of the adult themes might be controversial?"
"Seriously," Kurt added. "A school in Texas couldn't even do RENT. It caused an outrage and the production had to be shut down." Ryan nodded. For once someone agreed with him.
"But isn't that what art's all about? Pushing the boundaries of self-expression?" Mr. Schue shook his head. "I've got it all figured out. I've cut out some of the more risqué sections, and I'm handing out permission slips for your parents to sign. And we're going to charge admission, and use the proceeds to help fund out trip to Nationals in New York," he said, smiling broadly. "Now, let's talk about casting."
"Oh, I'll be playing Brad Majors," Ryan immediately volunteered. He glanced at Quinn, a bit unsure if she'd want the female lead. Sure enough, she shook her head slightly. Ryan had noticed she'd been a bit quiet all day, but he hadn't had the chance to talk to her about it.
"I guess I'll be playing the guy in the wheelchair," Artie said.
"That's what I was thinking," Mr. Schue answered. "And Kurt could play the role of Frank N. Furter."
"Oh no," Kurt said flatly. "No way I'm playing a transvestite in high heels, and fishnets, and lipstick."
"Why, 'cause that look was so last season?" Santana mocked.
"I'll do it," Mike said suddenly, surprising everyone including Ryan.
Tina looked at him, both curious and impressed. "Are you sure? That's like the male lead."
"Yeah, I know," Mike nodded. "But I've been feeling a lot more confident about my singing since the duets project." He smiled at Ryan, who smiled back.
"We're a little short on roles, actually, so we might have to double up," Mr. Schue said.
Ryan nodded. "It's standard practice on Broadway, it'll preserve your voices."
"I'd like to preserve you. In a jar. In my basement." Mercedes' comment drew a laugh from most of the group. Ryan just rolled his eyes.
"Ryan, I was actually thinking you and Finn could double up on Brad Majors."
"But I –" Ryan stopped short as he remembered what Shelby had told him about learning to share the solos. He knew she was right, he wasn't always going to get the leads. And he already knew Mr. Schue was sort of biased towards Finn. He wasn't going to get anywhere arguing. "Fine."
About half the club looked at him in surprise, Mr. Schue included. They hadn't expected him to split the lead so easily. "Okay," Mr. Schue nodded. "Now, Sam, I want you to play the creature."
"From the Black Lagoon?" The blonde boy asked, confused.
"Rocky. He's like Frankenstein, but hotter," Mercedes explained, from her seat besides Sam, who, Ryan just noticed, had his arm around her. When did that happen?
"Better start working on those abs," Santana added.
"You kidding me? These babies could cut glass," Sam bragged. "I got no problem showing off my bod."
Mercedes spoke again. "Mr. Schue, who's going to be playing Janet?"
"Well, the only female roles we have are Janet, Magenta, and Columbia, and there are six of you girls. So you'll have to rotate, unless one of you wants to play Janet full time." Mercedes and Tina raised their hands at the same time. "Okay then, you two can split the lead, and the others can alternate Magentas and Columbias."
After the meeting Quinn found Ryan in the auditorium. "What are you doing?"
"Looking over Mr. Schue's edit of Rocky Horror," Ryan explained. "I thought I'd get familiar with my lines. I wanted to run them with Tina or Mercedes, since they're playing Janet, but they were busy. Speaking of Mercedes, what's up with her and Sam?"
"What?"
"They seemed pretty close today in the choir room."
"Oh. I didn't notice." Quinn sat down on the piano bench. "I can help you, if you want."
Ryan smiled at her happily. "Thanks." He handed over a copy of the script, and the two began running through the first scene. "You know, you would've been a good Janet."
"Not really into the whole dancing-in-our-underwear parts," Quinn said dryly.
"Touche, that's why I didn't volunteer you for the part. I know you're conservative. I think you'd play Janet really well, though," Ryan said sincerely. He sat down next to her. "Are you okay? You seemed sort of quiet today. Is something wrong?"
"I'm fine." Quinn abruptly stood up. "I need to go, I've got Cheerios."
Ryan watched her go, slightly confused. He'd noticed Quinn had been quiet all day, and now that he thought about it, there were days when she seemed to be more introverted. He hoped it wasn't anything serious, and hopefully it wasn't anything he'd done. He couldn't think of anything he might have done to upset her lately, but came up blank. Unless he'd done something wrong that weekend. He pensively gathered up his stuff and left the auditorium.
"S'up, Loser?" Karofsky smirked as he knocked Ryan's papers out of his grip, sending them scattering in the corridor. Then he pushed Ryan into the wall of lockers as he passed. Ryan hit the doors hard, barely managing to keep upright. He glared angrily at the larger boy as he swaggered off. He looked the other way and spotted Mr. Schue talking to another student. Typical. The man never did anything to stop the bullies.
..
"I'm not entirely sure how I feel about you guys doing Rocky Horror," Shelby said dubiously after dinner that night at James' apartment. She'd seen the movie and while she did appreciate the musical, she still wasn't convinced that this was a good performance for a high school glee club. She flipped through the edited version of the script.
"Come on, Mom, didn't you play any risqué roles when you were young? Younger?" Ryan hastily corrected.
Shelby kept her face straight. "Yes, but I wasn't a minor…"
James laughed. "She played Sandy in Grease in junior year. Looked like a hooker at one point." He received a hard hit on the arm. "Ow! Just saying! And I know you played Velma Kelly at the community theater that one time…"
"See? Even you played those roles. And besides, Rocky Horror is still an art form," Ryan said. "As an artist, it's important to be…open to anything. Push boundaries."
"I know that, I just think Rocky Horror is a bit too explicit for teenagers." She glanced at the permission slip Ryan had handed to her. "At least you're not playing Frank N. Furter," she quipped. Finally she picked up a pen and scrawled her signature onto the slip. "Here."
"Thank you."
"Now, never mind that, I asked you two here to help me fix my stuff," James informed Shelby and Ryan. Ryan looked around at the randomly scattered boxes before sighing theatrically.
"I knew that free dinner was too good to be true…"
"Har har," James said sarcastically. "C'mon, I can't do this all by myself."
"Actually, I'm a little surprised that this is it," Shelby admitted. "I was expecting more. But then I guess you didn't really collect a lot of stuff since you moved around a lot."
"Right."
The three of them spent two hours unpacking boxes and putting things away, with Shelby commandeering the organization. Just before Shelby and Ryan left for the night, James pulled Shelby aside. "Hey," he smiled at her. "Listen, I was thinking, do you have plans on Friday night? I thought maybe we could go out, just us."
Shelby smiled back, pretending to think about it. "Hmmm, I'll have to check. Yeah, I'm free."
"Great." He gave her a quick kiss that started to deepen before Shelby pulled back.
"We should go, it's a school night." She smirked at James' slightly put-out expression. "Night, James."
"Goodnight, Shelby."
The next few days of rehearsal turned out to be slightly bizarre. First Sue had turned up demanding to be involved in the Rocky Horror production. Then Mike Chang had told them that his parents weren't going to allow him to play Frank N. Furter. Then Miss Pillsbury's dentist boyfriend had shown up, and was now playing Eddie, who had actually already been written out. Then Mercedes had volunteered to play Frank N. Furter.
"It's absolutely chaotic," Ryan complained to Shelby on Thursday as they sat in her office at McKinley during his free period. He watched her grade a few papers. "I'm not sure how this production is going to work out at all. Mr. Schue doesn't seem to know what he's doing, he pays more attention to Miss Pillsbury than to what's happening. And Dr. Howell is sort of distracting."
"Why aren't you at rehearsal, anyways?" Shelby asked, not looking up. She was sort of torn between interfering in the glee club and leaving Will to figure it out. On the one hand, she'd told him she wasn't going to interfere, but on the other, someone had to do something about this train-wreck of a production.
"It's Finn's turn," he said irately. "And besides, I already know all my lines. We're doing a dress rehearsal later. I haven't even told you the latest development yet."
"This should be good."
"Mr. Schue's going to be playing Rocky."
That got Shelby's attention. "What?" That was probably the most insane move Will Schuester could make. Getting Emma's boyfriend to play Eddie had already been pushing it, but a teacher performing in those gold briefs was not going to fly with anyone with a brain. Although she was starting to think Figgins was a little lacking in that department, what with all the shenanigans that went on in this school.
"Yes. He said the role was a little too adult for a teenager to play." Shelby thought he was right. An adult playing the role with teenagers was a little too much, though. The warning bell rang.
"You should get going," Shelby told him. "You need a ride later?"
"I don't know," he admitted. "I'm not sure when the rehearsal is going to end."
Shelby nodded. She was planning on going over to watch, anyways. Maybe try to talk some sense into Will. She had no idea how he'd managed to get New Directions to Regionals last year if he'd been this flaky. Then she looked up when she heard a knock on her door. "Come in." She looked up to see Quinn coming into her office. "Hello, Quinn, what can I do for you?"
The blonde teenager sat down. "You said I could talk to you, right?"
"Of course. What's this about?"
Quinn was quiet for a second. "I don't know. I think there's something wrong with me."
"Can you elaborate?" Shelby put down her pen, watching Quinn carefully. This seemed pretty serious.
"I don't know, I'm just, I'm having these mood swings. Sometimes I'm fine, and one sometimes I'm really, really depressed. I'm having a hard time with schoolwork, when I never did before. Sometimes, I don't even want to go to glee. And I don't know why," Quinn said desperately. She had been perfectly fine last weekend, she had been happy with Ryan. Now she almost couldn't remember how it had felt.
"Have you talked to anyone else about this? Like your mom?" Shelby asked.
Quinn shook her head. "She's really busy. She isn't really around much, she works a lot." And she still didn't know how to talk to her mom. Things hadn't improved as much as she'd hoped. She didn't have any other adult to talk to besides Shelby and Coach Sylvester, and she'd decided that Shelby was probably the better choice.
"How long have your mood swings been going on?"
"I don't know. A while. No one's really noticed. And I've been trying to fix it." That's why she had joined the Cheerios, while staying with the glee club and throwing herself into her schoolwork. She needed to keep busy. "I thought if I did a lot of things, maybe…But it's getting too hard," she said in frustration. "Ryan's starting to notice. It's getting worse." She paused, looking down. "I found out I was pregnant around this time last year."
Shelby nodded. She had sort of suspected this. "Did you talk to anyone after you had your baby?" she asked the girl gently, coming around to the front of the desk to sit nearer to Quinn. "A psychiatrist or a therapist?" Quinn shook her head. "I really think you should talk to someone."
"No. I don't want to talk to a shrink. This was a mistake –" She started to stand up but Shelby pulled her back down.
"Wait, just hear me out. When I had Ryan, I told you I had a hard time. That was an understatement." Shelby took a breath. "I was really messed up, at one point I went to a bar and ended up drinking myself blind. I spent months in Akron depressed. My parents finally got me to talk to someone and I was diagnosed with postpartum depression." Quinn looked at her intently the whole time she was talking. "I don't know if you've got it quite as bad as I did, but I do think you need to talk to somebody."
Quinn shook her head in denial. "I don't have – that." A voice that sounded suspiciously like her fathers was telling her that only whiny crybabies who couldn't handle life needed to talk to shrinks.
Shelby sighed at her stubbornness, but she understood it. "Maybe not. Maybe I'm wrong, and it's just teenage hormones. But I want you to humor me. Look, I'll even go with you, I can ask around for a good therapist."
Quinn looked at her, and away again. Then she nodded. "Fine."
"Good. I'll find someone, set an appointment for some time next week after school, if that's okay with you." Quinn nodded again. "Quinn, it's okay to be having those feelings. You gave up your child, she was a part of you for nine months, and she's going to be a part of you forever. You need to tell yourself that what you did, you did for her. Because it was the best you could do for her at the time. Understand?"
Quinn nodded one more time. "Yes."
"And I think you should try talking to your mom. She should know."
"Okay." Quinn hesitated. "Thanks, Miss Corcoran."
"It's just Shelby outside the classroom."
"Okay."
..
As it turned out, Shelby didn't get around to doing seeing the dress rehearsal in the auditorium. In her defense, she made it halfway to the auditorium from her office before she was waylaid by a small commotion going on in the hallways. After going over to see what was going on, she found herself in Figgins' office fifteen minutes later, waiting for Will to arrive. He came in a few minutes later. "What's going on?"
"Mr. Figgins is suspending Finn here," Shelby informed him.
"Suspended? Why?" Will asked in disbelief.
Finn fidgeted uncomfortably. "I, uh, sorta came to school in my Rocky Horror costume."
Shelby nodded. "I found him wandering around the hall in his underwear. Apparently he flashed the whole school. There were several rather surprised students." That was an understatement. The two most popular reactions she'd found had been screaming and people stunned into horrified silence. She'd gone for the latter before her brain kicked in and she'd taken him to the locker rooms to change while she waited outside. That was where Figgins had found them.
Will closed his eyes briefly. "Why would you do that?"
"I was trying to get comfortable in my costume, okay?" Finn explained himself. "You don't understand how hard it is for us guys to be exposed like that." He shrugged uncomfortably. "I thought maybe it could make me feel hot enough to get onstage and sing in my underwear."
"I'm recommending one month suspension and summer school to make up for any lost class time," Figgins stated.
Will ran his hands through is hair in exasperation before turning to Finn. "Can we have a moment?" he said, gesturing to the teenager to leave the room, which he did, eagerly.
Shelby glanced at Will, before getting up to leave too. She didn't really need to be a part of this conversation. She went and joined Finn in the small room outside of Figgins' office. "You okay?"
"No," Finn answered dejectedly. "I know it was stupid, but I really needed to get more confident to sing in Rocky horror, you know?"
"Well, if it's any comfort, I don't think the suspension's going to stick," Shelby told him, just as Will came out of the office. "Well?"
"You've just got a warning," Will told Finn, who sagged in relief. "You should get back to the auditorium." He watched as Finn left, before turning to Shelby. "Thanks. I can't imagine what drama would have happened if Sue had been the one to find him."
Shelby nodded. She could just imagine. "I think we need to talk."
"Figgins already gave me the speech –"
"Good. I don't think you've really thought this through. Figgins might not know why you're doing this, but I'm pretty sure I do. And you're not impressing anyone by pushing the kids to perform this musical. It's very risky, Will, and the fallout could be enormous, especially if you're planning on playing Rocky yourself like I've heard. I get that you're trying to push boundaries, but sometimes you need to know where to stop." She gave him a look, before turning around to go back to her office.
"Did you talk to Mr. Schue about Rocky Horror?" Ryan asked Shelby curiously day as they rode home together the next day. Shelby had let him drive.
"I may have told him to think carefully about the consequences of putting on Rocky Horror if something went wrong. Why, what's up?" Shelby asked.
"The performance has been cancelled," Ryan informed her. "And while I'm slightly disappointed that there won't be a school musical this year, which incidentally is the second year in a row after Sandy Ryerson's failed production of Chicago, it may have been the right decision."
"Oh." Shelby hadn't had the chance to talk to Will that day, and she hadn't known about his decision to cancel Rocky Horror. Ryan was right though, that was probably the right call to make.
"Yeah. We're still going to be performing it though, just not for public consumption. We'll just be doing it for ourselves." He paused thoughtfully. "Mr. Schue said Rocky Horror wasn't about pushing boundaries, or making an audience accept a rebellious point of view. It was sort of for outcasts who were searching for someplace to belong, and that's why it's the perfect musical for us."
"That's good, at least all that practice time won't be wasted. And it'll give you more time to prepare for Sectionals."
Ryan huffed. "We probably won't have a set list until like three days before the date. Mr. Schue talks a good talk about getting ready for Sectionals, but somehow we always end up brainstorming for song choices the week before the competition."
Shelby glanced at him, amused. She'd heard his complaints a few times already, and while she agreed that they should get down to picking their set lists a little earlier, it seemed to work for them. They'd gotten to Regionals that way at least. But they'd probably be able to get further if they practiced more. And it was also a matter of who they were pitted against at Sectionals.
"Maybe you could talk to Mr. Schue again, suggest that we get moving a little?" Ryan asked her.
"Okay, you do realize I'm not completely stupid, right?" Shelby said, with a slight smile. "I know what you're doing, you're trying to slowly get me involved with the glee club. Soon you're going to be asking me to pick songs for you guys, and then to coach a number or two, and sooner or later you're going to be asking me to be co-directors with Mr. Schue."
"Well I – of course not!" Ryan sputtered unconvincingly.
"Ryan, you need to let Mr. Schue make the decisions for the club, he's your teacher," Shelby said sternly. "We've talked about this before, you can't just go around undermining him."
"I know that, but we need to get to Nationals this year, they're in New York, Mom, New York!"
"I'm well aware."
"And besides, you're the best," Ryan said sweetly, trying to butter her up. "You could help get us there, you wouldn't want us to lose, would you?"
"I told you, I'm not really looking into getting back into show choir, kid. And besides, I'm not exactly sure my teaching and Will's teaching would mesh quite well." She smirked. "And no offense, but I don't know if your team could take my rehearsals either."
"Well, maybe not," Ryan conceded. His teammates weren't quite as driven as he was, and Shelby could be very…exacting. "But we need help."
Shelby hid a smile. She sort of agreed. "Well, we'll see, okay?"
"Fine."
"Good. Now, are you staying home tonight? Your dad and I are going out," Shelby reminded him.
"I thought I'd go over to Quinn's, maybe take her out if she's free," Ryan answered. "Can't have my parents having all the fun."
"Very funny."
..
Later that evening, Quinn was all by herself in her house again. Her mom had some sort of club thing that night, and Quinn had resigned herself to another night alone and had ordered a pizza. She still didn't know what to feel about what Shelby had suggested that week. She wished Ryan were here, but he was probably busy with his own family. She was happy for him, now that James had moved to Lima, her boyfriend seemed so excited about it. She heard the doorbell ring, and she got up to open the door.
To her surprise, she found her boyfriend standing on the porch, holding a pizza box. He smiled charmingly at her. "One bacon and cheese pizza, for Miss Quinn Fabray?"
She couldn't help but laugh. "What are you doing, you dork?"
"Delivering your pizza, of course." Ryan stepped up to give her a quick peck on the cheek. "I got here at the same time as the pizza guy, so I said I'd give it to you."
"He gave it to you just like that?" Quinn asked skeptically.
"Well obviously I had to pay him first, but yes, he didn't exactly care who got the pizza as long as someone paid for it."
Quinn nodded. She handed him a twenty to pay for the pizza, but he waved her off. "Don't bother, it's fine. But an invitation to help you eat the pizza wouldn't go amiss," he said cheekily, making her laugh again.
"Come on, get in here." She stepped aside to let him into the house.
"Your mom home?"
"Nope."
"Same here," Ryan nodded. "My parents are having a date night or something. I didn't really ask. But I'm very happy for both of them, they suit each other very well." Quinn agreed with him, from what she'd seen of Shelby Corcoran and James Walker, they seemed to match. He set the pizza box down on the coffee table, glancing at the TV. "Titanic?"
Quinn blushed slightly. "Yeah. I know, it's cheesy."
"Don't worry, I'm not judging you," Ryan assured her. "It's a great movie, the romance of it all resonates with audiences everywhere. And Leonardo di Caprio and Kate Winslet are amazing. I just object to that part where Jack didn't get onto the flotsam with Rose. The two of them would have totally fit on the board."
"I know." Quinn opened the pizza box, pulled out a piece, and started eating it. "Help yourself."
"Thanks." Ryan picked up his own piece. The pair munched contentedly as they watched the movie play out on the TV screen. Several minutes later, Quinn found herself snuggled up against Ryan on one end of the sofa. She sighed contentedly. It had been a pretty good day. Not like the rest of the week, she'd been increasingly depressed since Monday, that was why she'd finally gone to Shelby. But today, today was good. She'd had fun singing as Magenta in the glee club's performance of Time Warp. And now she was cuddled up against her boyfriend watching what was regarded as one of the most romantic movies ever.
"You okay?" Ryan asked, leaning his head on hers. Quinn felt a rush of affection for him at his concern. She knew he was starting to suspect something was up with her. She'd tell him after she talked with the shrink, tonight she just wanted to enjoy being with him.
"Yeah. I'm good. This is great." She squeezed his hand, happy that they were comfortable enough to just stay here quietly together. "Thank you."
"For what?"
"Oh, nothing in particular."
Hello everyone, new update! I've got a four-day weekend, which equals time to write. I'm happy everyone enjoyed the last update even if it took a while. I hope you guys like this one too. We've reached 200k words, and this story has 200 followers as of two hours ago. Thanks to everyone who's reading :)
On that note though, are the chapters getting too long? I've noticed they're getting regularly long, I remember starting out with just 2000 words per chapter, and now I think I'm averaging 7000 to 8000. Tell me if it's getting longwinded or anything.