Author's Note: Just a short drabble, meant to take place shortly before 'Furt.' I realized the other day Glee never gave a proper explanation as to why Kurt was off of the Cheerios as of Season 2, and I thought I'd try my own take on the matter.

Enjoy!

Sue ground her teeth together.

"I don't suppose I'm going to get a decent explanation for this?" She asked tersely, with just a note of disgust.

It had started out as such a nice morning. On her way to work, she hit two squirrels, a pigeon, and toppled a large stack of papers Jeremiah was bringing down the hallway. She had just settled down to her diary to start plotting her latest scheme, when an impeccably folded male Cheerios uniform was placed her desk.

Kurt Hummel was leaving the squad.

Benedict Fabulous sat across from her, his hands gripped tightly in his lap. He too was staring down at his uniform, eyes wide and just a bit cloudy. It didn't take a genius to see that something was wrong. But if Lady Face was going to be a baby about it, Sue wasn't about to try and coddle the problem out of him.

"I'll have you know I spent a good portion of my vacation in Pyongyang scripting choreography for the cheerios, three of which involving generous homage to that baby pageant voice of yours. " Kurt didn't move, he didn't even flinch. It only made Sue's kidneys grind together with anger. She prided herself on grooming Cheerios who could take a good verbal whipping. Kurt was a good one. He didn't squirm or try to insert half-hearted explanations. And he had the audacity to walk away?

Sue leaned forward, determined to squeeze a response out of him.

"The Cheerios are prepping for their seventh consecutive national title. This goes beyond you and your little diva quirks. Even with my inexhaustible resource of talent, you expect me to rewrite half of the Cheerios routine in time for our first competition?" Her voice was rising dangerously now. Kurt gripped his shoulder nervously, rubbing his arm with his thumb.

"And what exactly are you quitting for? I can only imagine that you've finally been tempted back to the football team, since at least there you got your pick of meatheads trotting around in tight spandex, and some decent recognition for those fancy legs of yours." She grinned savagely, gripping the ends of her desk. "Because I know, I know that you aren't about to give me some half-assed excuse about wanting more time to focus on Scheuster's farce. It takes even less skill to twit around in the background singing backup vocals he had you on than it does to sleep through his lousy taco-sombrero class.

"God dammit Kurt!" This time he actually jumped. The boy was not accustomed to being addressed by his real name by Sue Sylvester. Despite himself, he finally met her eyes. "I put my neck out for you! I gave you the kind of solos and spotlight that Scheuster would even consider you for! This is how you repay me? Leaving me high and dry?" Her nostrils flared as she leaned over. Kurt was gripping his shoulder quite tightly now, he on the verge of breaking. She could see those pink lips quivering so slightly now.

"I expected that Jones wouldn't be able to handle it. I had been hoping your hide was a bit... thicker." Her voice dropped to a lethal hush. She turned away, waving him off with a dismissive flick of her hand.

"Get out of my office."

What made it worse was that tearing down Lady didn't make Sue feel better at all. Funny, because yelling at students always made her feel better. It was one of her favorite pastimes. During the course of the morning, she determined that the reason why it was getting to her was because it just didn't add up.

Kurt loved being a Cheerio. It wasn't like he was unwanted or shunned there. The girls followed Quinn and Brittany's lead and fawned over him like he was some sort of dewey-eyed baby gazelle during practice. Sure, they ignored him during school hours but he did the same to them. Could it be the intensity of the rehearsals? Impossible. The boy went in and out of that auditorium smiling his dopy, weird-toothed smile the entire time. On the few occasions Sue stepped out of her own inner monologue, she could hear Kurt humming his Cheerio solos aloud in the hallway to practice. She would never admit this sort of thing aloud, but the kid was a champ.

Unseen from across the hallway, Sue watched Kurt trudge to his locker. He had certainly lost that aggravatingly confident stride to his step. The way he gripped the strap of his bag, it was like he expected to be pulled down into some sort of hellish pit if he let go. He glanced up and down the hallway in each direction before he stopped and began fiddling with his lock. The way he carried on, you'd think he had been told there was a mountain lion roaming the halls (Sue tucked away the idea for later... that was a juicy one.)

But what was wrong with the kid? From what her sources had told her, (Sue kept close tabs on all of her Cheerios) Kurt Hummel had willingly taken a slushie to the face just last year. Sure, the kid probably quailed at the idea of getting corn syrup stained on those criminally tight pants, but he never let a little bullying get him down before.

Kurt put his bag away, and shrugged off his jacket. And there it was, the last piece of the puzzle.

A splash of ruddy purple stained his arm, running from the shoulder nearly all the way to the elbow. Splotched with black and navy, she imagined the bruise had just finally piqued at full color. If he was asked, the kid would probably say that he fell, or something equally ridiculous. Sue knew that Porcelain bruised like a peach in May, but that sort of thing didn't happen unintentionally. By the way Kurt had already slammed his locker shut and darted off before Goth Asian could get close enough to ask him what was wrong... he knew it was no accident either. Without his Cheerios uniform on, it was harder for Sue to follow him as he ducked into the crowd and skirted away. Perhaps Kurt too had realized that it was easier to blend in and hide without the familiar patter of white and red to give him away.

Sue sighed sharply out of her nose, glaring down the hallway.

It was time to move into phase two of getting Higgens out of the principal's office. The sooner she had this school under her control, the sooner she could properly get to the bottom of this.