CHAPTER 14

"Ugh, man, my shoulder is absolutely killing me from last night." Puck grumbled as the Glee guys walked to the locker room together, not for school football practice, but for phys ed class, in which they were ironically also doing the football unit.

"You're hurting? You weren't the one who was sacked like 50 times in the first half alone." Finn shot back. "I woke up this morning and I couldn't feel my own neck!"

"I must say, that's one part of football I don't miss." Theo remarked. "It's also why I always preferred playing Defense. You get to actually make the tackles. Not get absolutely laid out every few minutes."

"I still don't know why you don't join us and play." Mike said to him. Theo shrugged, before chuckling.

"Don't really want to play football anymore." Theo replied. "And to be honest, based on yesterday, maybe it's a good thing I wasn't there. I was never the best loser and I don't think I would have handled yesterday's game very well. What was the final score? 50-0 or something?"

"Shut up, Theo." Puck muttered.

"Mike's right, Theo." Artie encouraged him. "Even if you're not a huge football fan, if you play, you'll quickly become one of the most popular guys in the school."

Theo shrugged.

"That's not really a good thing for me. I like being by myself or with just close friends. It's more peaceful that way. I don't want to walk down the corridor and immediately be surrounded by people who, the day I graduate, will completely forget I exist."

"It's really not that deep, man. It's just a fun sport to get involved in." Sam laughed. At this point, the group had finally made it to the locker room, and they changed into their Phys Ed clothes. Each one of them finished changing and preparing for class pretty quickly, and Theo was soon the last person left in the room. Everyone had left the locker room in a clatter of cleats against the floor, but it was taking Theo longer than usual to get ready. He needed to put on his shoulder brace - too many falls on that arm in his years of football meant that he needed to wear it now, even to just throw and catch a ball safely.

After putting all of that on, he was finally ready to join the rest of his class. Theo looked at his watch. He was only like 2 minutes late, so he was okay. Suddenly, he heard the slam of lockers behind him, and he spun around to see the smirking faces of Karofsky and Azimio right in front of him.

"What's up, new kid. We heard that you joined Homo Explosion." Karofsky remarked. "Kind of surprised you aren't in the girls' locker room like the rest of the losers."

"What do you want?" Theo grumbled. Something didn't bode well with him right now. His hair was standing up on its end like a cat, sensing danger was near. The pair of jocks seemed like they were up to something. He just didn't know what. Were they going to try and beat him up or something? Because an empty locker room would be the perfect location for it.

"Let's get something through your head, newbie, in case your new butt buddies haven't mentioned it to you already." Azimio said. "We make it our mission to make sure every single member of the Glee club is slushied at least once a week."

Theo remembered that all too well from his first day. Apparently, the way of bullying at this school wasn't so much physical altercations, but was instead dumping iced slushies on the nerds' heads.

"It got us thinking… because you just joined, you're the only member of the club we haven't slushied for joining yet. And that's just not right. You know what we're saying?" Karofsky remarked. "We have a tradition to uphold."

All of a sudden, he felt a tsunami of freezing liquid come crashing down onto his head. Theo froze in shock, his vision turning blue as the sticky liquid trickled over his eyes. When he wiped the liquid away from his eyes and he was finally able to see again

"WHAT THE HELL, GUYS?!" Theo snarled, trying to lunge at them but immediately almost losing his balance and slipping over. He had to catch himself the lockers to prevent himself from wiping out completely. The liquid slushie had begun to pool by his feet, his now sopping wet clothes dripping and collecting on the ground. The two jocks weren't fazed one bit though by his outburst. They merely guffawed and jeered at him as he tried to wipe the slushie off him as best he could.

"See you in gym class, bitch." Karofsky snickered at him. They left the locker room moments later, leaving Theo alone once more. As soon as they had left, Theo came to a horrible realisation… these were his only gym clothes! He needed to change into a spare set of clothing, but he hadn't moved his stuff into a locker yet so didn't have a spare set of clothing with him. He obviously couldn't go to gym class looking like this, covered in a sticky blueberry drink. But what other choice did he have? He had nothing else to wear.

Theo' frustration bubbled up inside him, festering and taking over like a plague, and before he knew it, it was erupting.

"Fuck! Fuck! FUCK!" Theo yelled, beating his fists against a nearby locker over and over again. He HATED being bullied. He was a pretty big, athletic guy, but his isolated and quiet nature still made him a target. Bullying had always made him feel so helpless. So small. Every fibre of his being wanted to fight back, get even, but he used every ounce of energy he had to quash those feelings. He didn't want to even attempt to fight back because he knew that here in Lima, nobody knew about his past situation. He wouldn't be able to use the "trauma" as his 'get out of jail free' card.

So Theo instead let out his anger out on the lockers opposite him, feeling his knuckles begin to throb in pain. He didn't dare stop though, not until he heard heavy footsteps of someone running into the room.

"Hey, is everything okay in he-" Quinn began, but her voice trailed off when she saw him. She was late for class and had been hurrying to class when she heard banging sounds coming from inside the boys' locker room. Quickly running inside to investigate what was going on, when she saw Theo there, shivering from the cold of the dripping blueberry slushie from the tips of his dark hair to the bottom of his blue cleats, she couldn't help but stifle a laugh. Theo noticed, however, and his eyes narrowed angrily.

"Something funny?" Theo muttered shortly, his eyes screaming at her to shut up. Quinn wasn't intimidated though in the slightest, and if anything, her smile and laughter increased.

"That's a… bold look you're going for there." She commented. "You look like Frosty the Snowman when springtime comes around."

"Haha." Theo responded, sarcastically, zero traces of a smile on his face as he glared at her and began to turn away.

"Come on! That was funny!" She exclaimed, trying so hard not to laugh. It was clearly Theo' second of the many he was going to get at McKinley this year, and his shock and anger about it was adorable. For her, it had been years so she had grown to accept them, but he hadn't just yet.

"Glad you're enjoying yourself, Quinn." He grumbled, trying to mop himself as best as he could with a towel. "Doesn't change the fact that I'm going to have to go to phys ed class like this because I don't have any other clothes."

Quinn could see the embarrassment written on his face and she began to feel bad. She knew how hard it was to adjust to the cold-hearted prison that McKinley could be, with the jocks like coyotes hunting for prey, so she thought for a moment about how she could possibly help him. They hadn't known each other long at all but Theo had given her something priceless: he had brought Quinn Fabray back from the pits of hell, so she owed it to him to help him with this as much as she could.

"I mean… I have some spare McKinley Phys Ed clothes you can borrow if you want." Quinn suggested. It was Theo' turn to laugh, and he raised an eyebrow.

"It's hilarious that you think we wear even close to the same size." Theo commented. He wasn't wrong. Standing at around half a foot taller than her and around 80 pounds heavier, there was no chance whatever clothes Quinn had would even come close to fitting him.

"You don't want them? Fine. Enjoy doing Phys Ed looking like the genie from Aladdin." Quinn replied, before turning her back to him and beginning to walk out of the room. She walked slowly though, as she knew that any second now, she would be hearing…

"Wait!" Theo called after her. Quinn smiled to herself, before turning back around to face him. "If I could have those clothes, that would be great."

Quinn nodded.

"Sure. I'll go get them now."

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As Theo 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 Theo 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. Theo'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." Theo 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!"

Theo 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 Theo Martin 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, Theo 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 Theo 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 Theo'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." Theo 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." Theo 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 King Kong 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 Theo, who had an equally furious look on his face, but shook his head.

"It's not worth it. Let's just play." Theo 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 Theo 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. Theo, 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.

"You know what? Fuck this."

It reached a boiling point about halfway into the game. Theo had had enough. He was sick of it. Sick of the comments. Sick of the feeling of helplessness. He had lived like that for years. No more. He wasn't going to let himself just stand around and play punching bag for the bullies of the school without at least hitting back.

Team Glee had the ball, and they were preparing to play when Theo walked over to Finn.

"Hey, can I throw the ball this time? Please?" Theo asked him. Slightly confused, Finn eventually nodded, handing the ball to him.

Feeling a football in his hands for the first time in almost a year, Theo's hands gently shook. Despite everything, it felt good to be holding one again. It felt right. He had been the leader of his team's offense AND defense back in Florida, so Football was definitely a strength of his. He was able to make magic where no one else could, both with his throws and with his tackles. After all, he was meant to be the next big thing. The next college star. The next NFL player. All of that was gone now. All that was left was Theo standing there, on the McKinley High football field, nothing but revenge on his mind…

The game continued, and as the ball was snapped to Theo, immediately Karofsky converged on him. The bully was bearing down on him like a bull to a matador, but Theo remained completely calm. He held his nerve, and held the ball in his grasp, despite his teammates yelling at him to pass it before it was too late. Karofsky was pretty close now, so close that Theo could practically see the bloodlust in his eyes, the foam dripping from his mouth. That's when Theo finally made his move.

Cocking his hand back, Theo unleashed the ball as hard as he could, and it connected beautifully with his target. Theo had always had a powerful arm, and today was no different. It was a clean, powerful throw, right to the crown jewels of the bully opposite him. Karofsky's face paled as he clutched his groin, falling to the ground in a heap. Theo stood over him, staring into Karofsky's pain-filled eyes as he convulsed on the ground in agony.

"Oops. My bad, man." Theo muttered bluntly, reaching down beside Karofsky and picking up the discarded ball, spinning it in his hands, before walking back over to his friends, who were all keeled over in laughter.

Theo proceeded to do this again. And again. And again. 4 downs, 4 throws, 4 bullies hit dead in the balls with sharpshooter accuracy, not even an inch off the mark. One of high school football's brightest prospects, now rendered to throwing shots at bullies' groins… Theo couldn't have cared less. All he cared about was getting his revenge, and he had successfully done so.

After 4 incomplete throws, the Glee guys had turned the ball over to the other team, but none of them cared in the slightest. They had gotten their payback on the bullies who had tormented them, so they were in the highest of spirits. Theo walked over to pick up the football, ready to hand it over to the other team so they could keep playing.

Big mistake.

Almost as soon as he did so, Theo 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, Theo rolled away from him and stumbled to his feet. Just in 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.

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

"Puck, stop." Theo 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. Theo grabbed his friend and pulled him closer so only Puck could hear him.

"No. Stop it, because he's mine." Theo snapped. He had 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 Theo's voice caused Puck to stop struggling in Theo's grasp and nod slightly, stepping backwards and shooting a silent look to the brunette that said "good luck". Theo nodded back, and leaned down to pick up the discarded football, tossing it to Karofsky.

"Here. Your ball." Theo 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, Theo shot off like a bullet. Years and years placed on the defensive line because of his size, Theo 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 Theo 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, Theo 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 Theo 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, Theo 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, Theo 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 Theo 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…