CHAPTER 14

As Marcus stepped out onto the field, he could immediately feel every eye in his gym class on him. The clothes he was wearing were so small it was comical. The shirt rode up so high that everyone could see everything from above his belly button downwards. The shorts were even worse - they were meant to be short and tight on Quinn, let alone someone much bigger, so he could feel his ass practically hanging out of the pants. His face was crimson in embarrassment, but he forced himself to keep his head up as he walked over to Coach Beiste, the Phys Ed teacher. If he let them see how humiliated he felt then they automatically won. It was easier said than done though, as there was no hiding that he was fire-engine red in humiliation and anger.

The walk over to Coach Beiste felt like it lasted an eternity. The entire gym class, who were finishing up warmups, saw him before Beiste did as her back was to him. They all sniggered and laughed at him as he walked by, the other Glee guys looking on with a bit more sympathy, but Marcus ignored all of them until he reached Coach Beiste. He didn't play football so he didn't know Coach Beiste that well, but she had been their phys ed teacher for the past three weeks

"Sorry I'm late, coach." He murmured. Turning around, Coach Beiste had to do a double take as she saw him in his horrific getup.

"The hell are you wearing?" Coach Beiste snapped. Marcus's eyes flitted over Beiste's shoulder, and he saw Azimio and Karofsky practically rolling around on the ground in laughter, and he flushed darker in humiliation.

"Some idiot spilled their drink all over me and this was the only spare clothing I could find." Marcus explained, still looking at the bullies who were standing a little bit away. Coach Beiste followed his gaze and her look momentarily softened as she saw the jocks and realized what had happened, but she quickly disguised it.

"Well you're 15 minutes late! That means 15 laps of the field! Get going!"

Marcus groaned silently to himself and turned around, jogging to the edge of the field and began to run all the way around. Little did he know, as he ran, he was being watched by more than just his own entertained Phys Ed class. The girls' P.E class was on the other side of the field, and Santana and Quinn were standing side by side, watching the brunette boy, Santana failing to hide her amusement.

"What the hell is he doing?!" Santana exclaimed, doubled over in laughter.

"He got slushied by Karofsky and he didn't have any more clothes to change into so I gave him my spare set."

"He looks like such an idiot!" Santana remarked. "Wait… You did something nice for someone else?"

Quinn's eyes narrowed slightly as she looked at her friend.

"Why is that so hard to believe?" Quinn snapped, defensively. That's when it dawned on Santana…

"Oh… you like him!" She declared.

"W-w-what? No I don't!" Quinn quickly responded, though the blush appearing on her cheeks said otherwise. "I mean he's nice! We worked on the duet project together. We're friends. But like him like him? No!"

As Santana listened to her friend spluttering and stammering to defend herself, Santana's smile surreptitiously grew. She hadn't seen her friend show this much interest in a guy… well, ever. Especially from someone Quinn just met 2 weeks ago. Quinn continued to waffle for a few more moments, before Santana eventually interrupted her.

"You deserve to be happy, you know?" Santana told her.

"Huh?" Quinn murmured quietly.

"I know you, Quinn. I know you think you don't. Not after what you did to Finn and Puck. But you do. And you think that happiness is going to come with him, then you should at least try."

Quinn glanced at her friend for a moment, a thoughtful look in her jade eyes. This unrequited crush she had on the new kid… it was all a completely new feeling to her. All of her prior exes had all made the first move, shown their interest in her, saved Quinn from having to take a leap of faith and risk being shot down.

"But… how do I know if he even likes me?" Quinn asked, quietly. Santana laughed.

"Well… you don't. You take the risk, and if he doesn't like you, that sucks but at least you'll know."

Quinn nodded, but didn't say anything, still deep in thought as she watched the retreating figure of Marcus James continue to run around the field. She didn't know what it was, but there was just something about him. It was ineffable. She couldn't quite tell what it was, but whatever it was, it was making her determined to get to know him better…

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Meanwhile, Marcus finally finished running his 15 laps, and he rejoined the rest of his Phys Ed class, just as the rest of them had finished warming up. They were playing football in their PE class, so after the group had all warmed up, they moved onto a couple of basic football drills, nothing too strenuous as not all of them played on the football team, and nothing with any contact. After they finished that, they separated into 4 teams and split into playing 2 touch football games. That was when Marcus finally rejoined the group, and he was immediately put in the same team as the other Glee guys.

He walked over to his team - consisting of Finn, Sam, Artie, Mike, Puck, Blaine and much to his disappointment that he had to play, Kurt - and as he did, his friends couldn't help but laugh.

"Nice legs." Puck remarked sarcastically as Marcus's shorts rode up so high that the bottom of his boxers were practically showing. "With those legs, from a distance, I thought you were Heidi Klum."

"Yeah, keep making jokes. See what happens." Marcus snapped, through gritted teeth.

"What even happened to you?!" Kurt asked, using every ounce of effort he had to hold himself back from laughing.

"Karofsky and Azimio happened." Marcus muttered. Immediately, everyone understood, and they all turned around to see Karofsky, Azimio and the rest of the group of jocks standing on the other end of the field.

Of course. Of course the team that Beiste had pitted the Glee guys against was the team consisting of Karofsky, Azimio and the other jocks. The Glee guys' faces all knitted into almost identical scowls, and some of the guys even clenched their fists, ready for a fight.

"I swear to God, I'm about 5 seconds away from going full Godzilla on all of their asses, and don't any of you stop me." Puck snarled, beginning to prowl towards Karofsky and Azimio, who stood at the front of their team. However, he was quickly held back by Marcus, who had an equally furious look on his face, but shook his head.

"It's not worth it. Let's just play." Marcus said. After a few moments of fierce internal debate, Puck eventually nodded, and they walked towards the middle of the field to begin the game…

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It was a friendly Phys Ed game, no-contact touch football at that, but it became instantly clear from the first play of the game that there was no love lost between them. The Glee guys vs. the Football jocks… it was a war that had been fought for the past 2 years, a year Marcus had just been thrown head-first into. It didn't matter that Finn was the quarterback. It didn't matter that Puck and Mike were the star receivers. All that mattered was that they were Glee, so they were the enemy. And the only thing to do with an enemy was crush it like a gnat.

Despite the no contact rules, every time a Glee guy and a football player came into contact, there was an obscene amount of pushing, shoving and grabbing shirts. Kurt made the wise decision to stay the hell away from all of it, but all of the other guys were right in the thick of it. Even Artie was used as a human battering ram, spearing into the side of Karofsky and knocking him over. Marcus, however, couldn't do that much either. Not for a lack of trying though. It was just every time he even so much as lifted his arms over his head, it felt like both his t-shirt and shorts were about to split in two. The jocks noticed it too, and didn't fail to comment on it any time he came near them, causing him to get more and more frustrated with every passing minute. He was like a wind-up toy, each jock who shoved him or made a mocking, scathing comment at him just cranked him up further and further until he was threatening to explode.

It reached a boiling point about halfway into the game. Marcus was the makeshift running back of the team, and Finn had just handed him the ball. He immediately looked up and looked for any kind of gap or space for him to run into. His instincts kicked in. With the ball in his hands, it didn't feel much different at all to all those years playing Rugby, so in a matter of a few split seconds, Marcus had spotted the chink in the defense's armor, the weakest link that he could exploit. Karofsky was bearing down on him like a bull to a matador, but Marcus spotted behind him a large gap with no defender present. He made the decision to try and make it there, but that was easier said than done. Karofsky was pretty close now, so close that Marcus could practically see the bloodlust in his eyes, the foam dripping from his mouth. So close that Marcus only really had two options: run forwards and take the hit head-on, or run sideways and take the hit to his unprotected sides. Because he knew one thing for sure - Karofsky wasn't just going to tag him and be done. If Marcus let him get to him, he was going to be taken to the ground HARD and it wasn't going to be pretty.

Marcus didn't choose option 1 or option 2 however. He chose a third option, one that only a decade of Rugby allowed him to master. He allowed Karofsky to get closer and closer, ignoring the warning shouts and cries of his teammates, until Karofsky had pretty much made it over to him. As Marcus expected, Karofsky looked like he was preparing to tackle him, so Marcus watched as the teenager shifted his weight from the bottom to top of his body, and Marcus waited for the very final moment to finally move. And when he did, less than a few inches away from Karofsky now, he didn't move forward or sideways. No, instead he took a step backwards, not telegraphing it at all and lunging into the space behind him, his eyes still locked on Karofsky. Karofsky did not see it coming at all, so there was nothing he could do but lose his balance and fall as Marcus dodged his outstretched arms. Then all it took from there was for Marcus to take off and accelerate towards the end zone, a small smile beginning to form on his face as he managed to leave the bully lying face-down in the grass. He even slowed down just before the endzone to celebrate.

Big mistake.

Almost as soon as he did so, Marcus felt himself get absolutely clattered into by a colossal force behind him, sending him clattering to the ground in a heap. He groaned in pain, and when he opened his eyes, he saw Karofsky standing over him, any prior mocking grin on the bully's face now gone and replaced by a white-hot wrath.

"Oops. Must've tripped over. Sorry, man." He remarked. Not wanting Karofsky to have the satisfaction of seeing him in pain, Marcus rolled away from him and stumbled to his feet. Just as time too, as he was barely able to catch Puck, who was flying towards Karofsky like an enraged falcon on a hunt. He grabbed onto Puck and it took all of his depleted energy after the hit to keep the boy from trying to swing at Karofsky.

"James, move the fuck out the way!" Puck bellowed, trying to shove past Marcus and make it over to the bigger bully.

"Puck, stop." Marcus growled, his own eyes now blazing with anger.

"No! I don't care! Nobody does that shit to us and gets away with it!" Puck snarled, spitting venom. Marcus grabbed his friend and pulled him closer so only Puck could hear him.

"No. Stop it, because he's mine." Marcus snapped. He had finally lost his temper with the bullies. All the teasing, all the humiliation had all festered inside him, bubbled up like molten lava inside Vesuvius and it was finally ready to rain down on Pompeii.

The menace in Marcus's voice caused Puck to stop struggling in Marcus's grasp and nod slightly, stepping backwards and shooting a silent look to the brunette that said "good luck". Marcus nodded back, and leaned down to pick up the discarded football, tossing it to Karofsky.

"Here. I fumbled it. Your ball." Marcus told him, rubbing his hands together already in anticipation of what was to come. Karofsky smirked at him and nodded, his team setting up their offense and the Glee guys lining up on defense. It was honestly a miracle that Beiste hadn't stopped the game yet. In fact, she hadn't even noticed what was going on. On any other day, she probably would have, but today she was so intent with scouting, looking for talent that she could add to her football team. She was watching the other game that was going on concurrently, and her head only turned back to face the Glee vs. Jocks game just as Azimio snapped the ball to Karofsky.

As soon as the ball left the boy's hands, Marcus shot off like a bullet. He was a barrel of aggression, barging past the makeshift linemen that were helping block for Karofsky, taking them all by surprise. A missile locked onto its target, it wasn't long until Marcus finally made it over to Karofsky, who was holding the ball. But he didn't stop there. He didn't even slow down. If anything, Marcus sped up, and he threw himself at Karofsky with all his might. Karofsky had barely any time to react once the play started before he had Marcus bearing down on him, picking him up like he weighed less than a feather, and dumping him to the ground as hard as he could, right on the back of his neck.

For a moment, Marcus felt temporary satisfaction. Adrenaline was coursing through him. He was so amped up that he didn't notice the rest of Karofsky's team sprinting towards him and lunging at him. Beiste's whistles that rang through the air meant nothing, as the Glee kids and the jocks came together like two armies prepped for battle. However, before anyone could throw another punch, Marcus felt himself being dragged to his feet, and found himself standing face to face with Coach Beiste, her nostrils flaring she was so livid. She grabbed him and dragged him towards her office, swearing and yelling at the top of her lungs, dismissing the rest of the class immediately. The last thing Marcus saw before he was pushed roughly into the school was Karofsky grinning widely at him, waving as he knew the verbal lashing and possible suspension the boy was about to get at the hands of the football coach.

This was not good. Not good at all…