Enjoy!

Blaine turned the corner as he walked home from school. It had been another long and exhausting week at school and Blaine was just looking forward to taking the weekend to relax and to not worry about bullying and school work.

When Blaine rounded the corner, he looked up toward his house. He wasn't exactly close with his parents, but they tolerated him. At least when he was at home, he had a lot less to worry about than when he was at school. So even though his family wasn't exactly close, his house sort of felt like a safe haven. There, Blaine was able to go about his business in peace.

But as Blaine looked out toward his house, he stopped dead in his tracks. There was an unfamiliar car parked in the driveway. He knew that it wasn't his grandparents or any extended family. They only visited on holidays, which was definitely enough. Blaine knew that it certainly was not a holiday, which could only mean one thing: his older brother had decided to come home and visit for the weekend. Blaine racked his brains trying to think if his parents had mentioned that his brother was coming. Even as he thought about it, he couldn't think of any time that his parents had mentioned Cooper was coming.

Suddenly, Blaine's plans for a relaxing weekend were crushed. With Cooper home, he would have to deal with the constant comparisons to how he should be more like his older brother. Blaine probably wouldn't have minded it if he hadn't heard the exact same things every time Cooper came to visit. To make matters worse, Blaine had heard these things even when Cooper wasn't there.

"Why can't you be more like your brother?"

"Cooper never had any of these problems when he was your age."

"Did you hear about what Cooper did the other week? Just think, Blaine, you could be just as successful as him if you actually tried."

Letting out a frustrated sigh, Blaine forced himself to pick up his feet and finish his walk home, knowing full well that he'd have to face it sooner or later. The distance between his house and the street corner seemed to be shorter than usual because in almost no time at all, Blaine was walking up the front steps to his house.

"Blaine?" he heard his mother call.

"Yes?" Blaine called back.

"We're in the kitchen. Come here."

Despite what he wanted to do, Blaine headed over to the kitchen. Cooper was seated on one of the stools by the island in the kitchen.

"Your brother came home to visit for the weekend. Isn't that great?"

"Uh yeah, how are you, Cooper?" Blaine asked politely.

"I'm doing good. I was just telling mom about this new commercial series they want me to do. You are looking at the new face of Free Credit Rating," Cooper explained.

"That's fantastic, isn't Blaine?" his mother said.

"Yeah, it's great. I'm really happy for you."

"Just think, Blaine. If you applied yourself and really focused, you could be just like Cooper someday."

And the fun starts already, Blaine thought. "Mmhmm." After hearing the same thing for the past several years, Blaine had quickly learned that there really was no good to respond to statements like that.

"Blaine, mom's right. Someday you could be the face for a big brand, just like your older brother."

"I'll keep that in mind," Blaine replied. Although he wasn't sure what he exactly wanted to do with his life, he was sure that he didn't want to follow in Cooper's footsteps and be an actor for cheesy TV commercials.

"Think about it, Blaine," Cooper said seriously.

"I'm going to go put my stuff away," Blaine said. In all reality though, he just wanted to get away from this conversation.

As soon as he was out of the room, Blaine heard his mother say, "I don't understand why he doesn't try harder."

Blaine stopped dead in his tracks. He knew that listening to this conversation would probably not be the best for him in the long run, but his curiosity got the better of him. He quietly backed up and leaned against the wall, hoping that this position would let him hear all of their conversation in the clearest way.

"One day he'll figure out that we only want what's best for him," Cooper responded.

Blaine heard his mother sigh. "I hope so. I'm just worried about him."

Did I hear that right? Blaine thought. Since when did his mother worry about him? Usually she just pretended that he didn't exist.

"Why?"

"When you were his age, you had it all figured out. You didn't have to deal with all of this extra stuff. You had good grades in school, you had friends, the other kids liked you. Blaine doesn't have any of that."

"I can't change it, but Blaine'll figure it out. One day he'll realize that if he actually puts in the effort—"

Blaine couldn't take any more of it. He hurried away from his spot along the wall and ran upstairs to his room and shut the door behind him. He threw his backpack down on the floor and angrily kicked the dresser. He grabbed his head, unsure of what to do. Tears were starting to form in his eyes. In the end, he backed up against the wall and slid down it to the floor. He brought his knees up to his chest, wrapped his arms around his legs and rested his forehead on his knees.

His mother and brother, and probably his father too, didn't think he even tried. That couldn't have been farther from the truth. Blaine knew he tried as hard as he could, but with his classmates being as cruel as they were, it was hard to actually focus on school. By the time Blaine was actually home for the day, he just needed to recharge and find ways to keep himself motivated to keep going through each day. And sometimes because of that, homework got neglected.

More than anything, Blaine just wished there was a way to make his family understand. He didn't choose to be this way, it was just who he was. They had always told him to be himself, but now he was doing just that and being criticized for it. He could understand that the kids at school didn't like him, but he always hoped that his family would understand him and still appreciate him even if he was different. Apparently, though, in the Anderson household, being yourself meant conforming to everyone else.

Blaine leaned his head back against the wall and tried to figure out what he should do. Obviously what he had been doing was not working, so maybe he needed to try something else.

In the end, Blaine decided that maybe he should try to be more like the rest of his family, then maybe they would accept him again.