It's a very well-known fact that it is impossible to go through high school without facing some kind of conflict. While many are internal, there are also clashes on a wider scale; the ones that stretch for as long as a piece of string, but become a tangle of conflicted interests and a clash of the colours of egos.
In essence, high school is a battleground. And no wars were more fevered than those between the football team and the glee club.
There's no better way to describe it than by saying that, if you were a member of the club, the corridors were a minefield just waiting for you to put one foot out of line. You would turn the corner and be greeted by a cold slap to the face. You'd close your locker, only to be greeted by Karl Flynn or one of his many associates.
Even bridging the divide, being on both sides, didn't grant you immunity. And, in some cases, it even made the teasing worse. For while the other members were physically punished, Matthew, Tom, Jack and Mark were taunted with slurs, and the more frequent these became, the more often they glared in neon lighting on the backs of their retinas. Even the later additions to the team were subject to this as well.
Although all who split their time between the two interests would like to think that it was a merge, a bringing-together of both teams, it was more a dissonance, a tug-of-war. Concordi Discordia, you could call it.
Both cliques have their advantages; much like the cheerleading squad, the football team place you in an unauthorised position of power and authority over the school. It allows you to command respect and to get it. However, being in Glee means that your lives are woven amongst a tapestry of all the other group members. Some threads run short, others long. Some, like Mark and Jack's fade to muted colours, beautiful in their own right. Others, like Roxanne's distress-flare red and Tom's orange spark seem to glow together at first, then the jagged line of contrast hits against them at a second glance. Then you have Barbra Addison, a lightning-struck gold. All the threads merging into one familiar picture – a sunset, a landscape, a portrait of an unknown.
But, though some may not admit it, they love the disadvantaged outcasts just as much as their fellow, more-revered teammates.