Author's note: I couldn't resist (for those of you that know me you'll know when you get to it). Also I realized I made a HUGE error in the continuity of this story. If anyone can point it out I'll go back and fix it, if not, I'll assume you care as little as I do. (For the record it has zero effect on the story).

CHAPTER FIVE

Dave reads the message with wide eyes. He immediately looks for the 'add friend' button, but it's missing and he frowns. He's never seen that before. He doesn't care about the whole reputation thing. Not that much anyway. He opens his e-mail instead and opens a new message;

Hey. Anytime man. I mean that. I don't know exactly what happened, but I can take a guess. So not cool. I'd offer to beat the fuck out of him, but I'm trying to avoid that type of shit now you know? Doesn't mean I don't want to though. I kind of got the impression you didn't want to talk about it, but you probably should. If you want to that is. To a professional I mean. Not me. But you can talk to me if you want, I just don't think I can be any help.

On a completely different note I came out to my dad today. He already knew.

D

He rereads the message and groans, he sounds like a complete idiot. Not that he believes Kurt thinks him much above idiot level, even taking last night into account, but he doesn't exactly want to hammer the image home. He selects all the text and his finger moves to the delete button but he's interrupted.

"Dave? Could I get your help?"

His eyes shoot to the door where Claire, his stepmom, is standing with a baby in her arms. Looking back quickly at his screen he decides 'what the hell' and clicks send before getting up to take his baby sister from her. He needs to stop caring about what Kurt Hummel thinks of him.

"Thanks. I'll just go get the other one."

He nods and heads to the nursery, making stupid burbling sounds while leaning his head back to avoid Lily shoving her fingers up his nose. Or in his eyes. Or mouth. He puts her on the floor and immediately sits down with her. He doesn't usually, but he hasn't seen them for two days, and he's kind of missed them. A bit. Maybe.

His stepmom enters with Adam and puts him on the floor beside him where he pulls himself up to standing and promptly tries to push Lily off his knee.

"Can you keep them occupied while I unpack the car?"

"Sure. Was it a good trip?"

"Apart from the fact that my mother still drives me insane? Yes. I'll be back in a second."

He entertains his brother and sister the best he knows how, which is to continue making silly sounds and pulling faces. He's clearly hilarious, because Adam starts laughing hysterically which has a chain effect, making Lily start laughing and he can't help but chuckle. Claire makes several trips in and out of the room, carrying things, and Dave's pretty sure he could have carried everything himself in one trip, but he says nothing.

Claire has only been his stepmom for three years, but he likes her. She's never talked down to him, and she's closer to his age than his dad's, something which he only mentioned once, to which she replied with 'nothing beats an older more experienced man David', which had equally horrified and intrigued his thirteen year-old-self. She's always taken it in her stride when she gets mistaken as his older sister, doesn't bother her that she's been the subject of gossip. She loves his dad, and that's all he cares about.

She's unpacking bags, although her method of unpacking is pretty much emptying the entire bag directly into the laundry hamper. He knows she hasn't seen his dad yet, because she's home earlier than planned and his dad has gone to the office, and he wants to tell her, because he knows his dad will tell her anyway.

"I'm gay."

She stops and turns, mouth falling open and then snapping shut, hand coming up to cover her mouth and then she's beside him, arms wrapping around him tightly.

"Oh…that's…have you told your dad?"

"Yeah. This morning. I just…kinda wanted to tell you myself."

"Oh David. Thank you. This is probably that thing which your dad has been hiding from me. He already knew didn't he…"

"Yeah," Dave replies, and the fact that she knows that just tells him how perfect she is for his dad.

"Well, I just thought maybe you were a late bloomer, but… you okay with it?"

"Getting there. Slowly. And I think I'm still pretty much a late bloomer."

She ruffles his hair and kisses his forehead, making him feel the same age as his siblings, before getting up and going back to what she was doing. They talk about her trip to her parents in Cincinnati, his school work, what to have for dinner and he feels buoyant, the earlier feeling from this morning returning. It feels good.

The next morning as he walks through the halls of Carmel High he doesn't know if it's just a habit now, but he keeps an eye out for the younger kids, the kids that are a bit different. The bullying here is still present, but it's different. It's not physical, except for the occasional knocking of books to the floor. There's anonymous notes slipped into lockers though, name calling, which is just as bad. He knows how hurtful it can be, so he takes his time to help a young freshman kid pick up his books after they're knocked from his hands.

He's noticed one kid who always sits in his car, waiting until he sees Dave pull up; he then shadows Dave as he enters the school building. The kid tries to be covert, but he sucks at it. Dave's tried to be encouraging, nodding and smiling at him the few times he's caught his eye. He's pretty sure that if the kid was caught alone he'd get picked on. There're no dumpsters out the front of Carmel, but he's sure the other jocks could get creative. He's been surer of himself with them, doesn't have a history with them like he did at McKinley.

He plays both hockey and football at Carmel, straddling two social groups easily enough. He's not looking for close friends, having teammates that respect him and his skill is enough. He still worries about the whole being out in school, but he has no plans on coming out in high school. He's in no rush to find a boyfriend. He has his whole life ahead of him to find a relationship and screw it up.

He only sits with the hockey team for lunch once a week. Same for the football team. The other days he mixes it up, just walking up to a random table and asking if it's okay to sit. He's sat with the math-club people, and when he'd managed to contribute to the conversation the shock on their faces had him laughing out loud. He's sat with the drama group, and the Goths and also with the cheerleaders. He keeps it random, and occasionally he's waved over as soon as he turns from getting his food. It's nice to have everyone look at him without fear. And okay, some of them look at him like he's slightly crazy, but he doesn't care, he'll take crazy over scary any day of the week.

The only group he hasn't sat with, or wanted to sit with, is Vocal Adrenaline, and he's not sure why he's avoided them, but he can't help but feel a sense of loyalty to New Direction, because he's starting to suspect that they're just his type of crazy as well.