Puck and Rachel

Puck was headed towards the choir room. He remembered that he left his letterman jacket there after football practice and didn't want to leave school without it and risk some punk touching it. He reached the choir room and heard a girl singing in there.

'Wait a minute,' he thought to himself. 'That's not a girl, that's Hummel.'

Not wanting to interrupt the boy and hear him bitch and complain at him, Puck just decided to wait it out and to let Kurt leave before he retrieved his jacket. Puck would rather die than admit it but he actually enjoyed listening to Kurt sing. Kurt's voice was so soothing and unique and Puck was disappointed when he had messed up the high note during the diva off. Puck was rooting for him and was planning on voting for him until he had shrieked at the end.

He continued listening to Kurt's singing and eventually recognized the song as the "Defying Gravity" song that he and Rachel had sung to see who would get the song at Sectionals. Puck rolled his eyes.

'Why is he teasing himself?' He asked himself. 'It's kind of pathetic. He blew the note so he obviously can't sing the song. Why not just accept defeat?'

Puck didn't want to be around to hear Kurt blow the note again and was about to just say fuck it to his ajcket and leave when he felt someone tap him on the shoulder. He turned around and at first didn't see anyone but then the person cleared their throat and he looked down to see that it was Rachel.

"What are you doing sneaking around here, Noah?" She asked him, hands on her hips.

"I could ask you the same," He snarked back at her but then saw the look in her eyes and decided to answer her question. "Princess Hummel is trying to sing that song again. I came back here to get my jacket but I don't want him to scratch me with his nails."

"I hardly doubt Kurt would want to touch you, Noah," Rachel informed him and then walked up to the door and pressed her ear against it even though Kurt could be perfectly heard from where she had been previously standing. "I don't know why he's still trying. He just doesn't have my talent. It takes years to get this good, I worked hard and now the solo's mine. We can't all be stars. Besides, even if he could sing the song I'm obviously the better singer."

Puck didn't like Kurt. He was just a prissy, faggy, diva to him and even though they had started getting along better didn't mean that they were friends and that Puck was suddenly going to be nice to him. But Puck didn't like Rachel even more than he didn't like Kurt. Sure there was that time where they had dated for like… a day but that had nothing to do with an attraction to her. And he didn't show it like the rest of the glee club did but he also thought that she was selfish and arrogant.

Rachel snapped him out of his thoughts and said, "Here, he's about to try the high F again. Oh, I can't wait to rub it in his face when he misses it again."

Rachel and Puck both returned their attention back towards the other boy and then dropped their jaws when they heard him belt out the note.

Kurt had done it! He had hit the note! They couldn't believe it.

"Damn," was all Puck could say at first. "I don't know the first thing about those high notes but that was way cooler than yours." He said to Rachel who still had her mouth open like a fish.

"Don't be ridiculous, Noah," She scolded him. "I can't believe this." She said, throwing her hands up in the air. "He has a lot of ex-" she started to say but Puck shushed her because the song had ended and he didn't want to be caught by Kurt.

Rachel looked back in the room to see why Puck wanted her to be quiet and her expression softened. Kurt had sat down in one of the chairs with his head in his hands, rubbing his eyes "He looks upset," She said.

"Yeah", Puck said. "He just realized he could sing the song but he blew his chance. If I cared, I'd be upset too."

"He's always been able to sing the note, Noah," Rachel said quietly, still looking sadly at Kurt through the window. "People don't just magically learn how to hit a high F in just a couple of days. No, he threw the note on purpose."

"Why would he do something stupid like that?' Puck asked, actually wanting to know. As far as he could tell, Kurt was just as dedicated to the glee club as Rachel was and he was the one who asked to audition for the song in the first place. That didn't make any sense.

"I don't know," Rachel said, answering his question. They turned their attention back to Kurt who now had his head up and was crying, looking straight ahead at the piano. He hadn't seemed to notice that Rachel and Puck were watching him and if he had then he wasn't letting on. Both Puck and Rachel continued watching him as he kept sobbing.

"Well now I feel bad for the dude," Puck said, throwing his hands up in the air like it was the worst thing in the world for him to feel some sympathy for another being. He hated when other people made him feel emotions.

"Me too," Rachel agreed with him. "Do you think we should go in there and see what's wrong?"

"No way, Berry," Puck shouted at her, trying his best to stay quiet. "First off, he would know we were watching him and something about all this seems really private. And second of all, he hates the both of us. Do you really think that he's going to tell us what's wrong if we ask him?"

"I don't think Kurt hates me Noah," Rachel defended herself but then Puck gave her a look that said something along the lines of 'He does so and you know it.' and she dropped the idea of Kurt liking her from her head. "But I guess you're right, he wouldn't tell us. I just…" Her voice trailed off and for once in her life, she didn't have anything to say.

"Look," Puck said, making her look him in the eyes. "Let's just pretend like we never saw any of this. If he wants us to know then he'll tell us. I mean, he doesn't have a problem telling us off about the clothes we wear." He could see that Rachel still looked hesitant though. "I don't want to go in there and comfort him anyway, I just wanted to get my jacket but looks like I'll just get it tomorrow."

Rachel looked back through the window on the door and saw that Kurt had stopped crying now and was looking in his compact mirror, wiping his tears. Puck was afraid that she was about to go in there and blow their cover but was relieved when Rachel just shook her head and turned away to go home.

Puck stood at the choir room door for one more moment before doing the same as Rachel and walking off behind her.

Kurt

He couldn't believe himself. He had actually thrown the High F, not only blowing his chance at a solo for sectionals but also giving Rachel Berry the idea that she was better than him. As if, he could hit that note in his sleep.

He knew that there had to have been a better way to go about the situation. He could've sang the song perfectly and won and then declined the solo, still proving that he was too good for Ms. Berry. But who was he kidding, if he had won the Diva-Off then he would've admittedly accepted the solo, not thinking about the consequences that would've come.

Bullies. Phone Calls. His dad. He shuddered.

He was disappointed in himself for letting his tormentors control his life and get the best of him. He had never done that before so what was so different now?

'Oh,' He thought to himself. 'That's right, dad."

He loved his dad more than anything in the world and he didn't want him to go through any drama because his son sang a song meant for a girl in front of half of Lima. Sure his dad was fine with him being gay but obviously no one else was.

And nonetheless, Kurt was still a man. If he was heard singing "Defying Gravity" then all anyone would see him as would be a girl. He already kind dressed like one) even though to him, fashion had no gender) and he sure did sound like one. No, he had done the right thing. There would be other opportunities for him, right? Wrong.

Kurt was different. No one, including himself, knew where he fitted it or belonged. Yes he was a boy but he was more comfortable around girls and it's not like many boys liked him anyways/ This made both genders uncomfortable around him.

He could never and would never win. It was too risky for him to sing that song. He reminded himself once again that he had done the right thing. He was doing it because he loved his dad and he didn't want to put him through anything just because he was being selfish and sang a girl song in front of a bunch of homophobic people.

He burst into tears. He just wanted to prove himself to everyone. He wanted to show them that he was more than the small, gay kid that got thrown into dumpsters, wore designer clothing and never stood up for himself because there was so much more to him. Show them that he was brave, talented and special. The good kind of special, not the freaky kind.

He looked up and saw that Puck and Rachel were standing outside the choir room door, talking to each other.

'Of course, just great,' Kurt thought to himself. The gossipy bitch and the homophobic asshole had just seen that he could hit the note. It wouldn't be long now before the entire glee club knew about the "scandal".

He sighed and took out his compact mirror, looking and wiping any stray tears before shaking his head and standing up, grabbing his bag. He decided to avoid the two confronting him by leaving through the door in Mr. Schue's office.

He could feel a headache coming and all he wanted to do was go home, crawl into bed, put Grey's Anatomy on in the background and pretend he didn't exist while crying himself to sleep. Sometimes he thought that it was better that way.