SONG: Eye of the Tiger

BY: Survivor

Again I want to send thankies to my lovely beta, xxXAngelDreamerXxx; she's super awesome! We should form a club about loving her. ^-^

~*Matt *~

I sighed and pressed the 'on' button for the camera that Mr. Schue had given me for my summer glee assignment. It made some weird beeping noises before finally switching on and starting to record. I gave a half smile and nodded once into the camera before taking a sip of coffee from the mug in my hand. I blinked against the bitter taste and shook my head before beginning,

"Hey guys. It's about six in the morning and I'm getting ready to get on a bus." I turned the camera around to scan the area around me. All around were high school kids making sure they had everything packed for the trip in their bags. "Uh, yeah, I'm going to football camp for the summer. I'd be more excited if it weren't so early."

"Matt." I turned the camera to Mike. He smiled when he saw I had the camera out. When he got close enough, he grabbed it out of my hands and kissed the lens.

"Yeah...he's a morning person." I apologized for his weird hyper behavior, grabbing and wiping off the camera. "He's, unfortunately not going, just here to wish his best friend luck."

"Naw, my vid is going to be about dance class instead." Mike said, handing me my bag from off the ground. "I just drove him here."

"So instead of being at football camp with me like every past summer, he's going off to be Mr. Twinkle Toes." He rolled his eyes at me and did a small pop and lock move to show off. "Okay, I was wrong." I said lightly to get him to stop dancing. "How could we ever let all that talent go to waste?" I sneered at him sarcastically.

A few minutes later, there was a call for everyone to board the bus. I handed Mike my mug and we had a fist bump before I headed off to the bus, by myself for the first time. Sure, there were regulars that I was friends with still going this year, but none of them were as close to me as Mike was. But he wanted to dance, and I couldn't just let him give up on what he wants to do. I wouldn't be a good friend that way. I sat by myself on the bus, looking out the window as Mikey left me there to go home and probably watch TV in his sweats and eat bowl after bowl of cereal, 'cause that's what we always do on Saturdays. I slumped in my seat and began to play with the sleeve of my shirt when two familiar people sat down in the seats in front of me.

Risin' up, back on the street

Did my time, took my chances

Went the distance, now I'm back on my feet

Just a man and his will to survive

So many times, it happens too fast

You trade your passion for glory

Don't lose your grip on the dreams of the past

You must fight just to keep them alive

"Oh, look who it is." Karofsky smacked Azimio lightly on the arm and he turned to look back at me.

"Great, even outside of school we can't get away from them." He said turning back to face front.

The guys had never really bothered Mike and I. They more focused on people who would give them the satisfaction of becoming angry and having an outburst of rage at them. When they tried to do anything I would usually just ignore and let it go, meaning they got bored and would leave me alone, aside from the few snarky comments I'd get every once in a while and the occasional slushie. Their main targets were Rachel, Quinn, Puck, Kurt and especially Finn. If they found out about him and Kurt dating, I'm pretty sure that Finn would either melt into a pile of goo or be torn limb from limb from these two idiots. I rolled my eyes at the camera.

The bus ride was pretty normal, we made stops to pick up other kids from outside of Lima, and also to eat and make rest stops and stuff. At one point we made a sharp turn and all of the carry-on bags fell out of the over head compartments. One of the guys made the most girly scream ever, more girly than even Kurt could have probably made, and the entire bus teased him just about the rest of the way there. We'd constantly chant our football plays and talk about sports as well, making light conversation and avoiding anything too heavy. Everyone knew that here, if you messed up or embarrassed yourself in front of anyone; you'd never live it down. Poor wet pants kid.

Eventually we made it to the camp and were able to get into our rooms. I was the first to the room so I started to unpack.

"Wonder who my roommate is? Usually it's Mike, so I have no idea who it's going to be now." I told the camera, turning it to look at the other side of the room. Just then the door to the room opened. I moved the camera to face the door as my roommate came in. I think I remembered picking him up somewhere about four hours outside of Lima. He nodded at me and walked over to set his stuff down.

"Hey, uh, James." He offered his hand.

"Matt." I said as I took his hand in a strong grip. He eyed the camera wearily.

"What's with the camera?" He pointed at it and I shifted my stance. I usually got nervous when I tried to explain glee club to another guy.

"School assignment for summer." I explained shortly.

"What class?" He pressed, laughing a bit as he began to unpack.

"Club, actually. Glee club." I looked anywhere but at him as he turned back to me with a confused look.

"What's that?" He tossed a jersey onto his bed.

"It's a club where we you know, sing and dance and stuff." I looked up nervously. He looked at me blankly for a minute, and I thought I'd blown it. He'd probably rush off and ask for a less gay roommate. Not that there was anything wrong with gays, I just wasn't one of them.

"Cool." He shrugged and turned away when I told him. I just looked at him in shock. When he turned back to me I was frozen, just holding the camera at him. "What?"

"N-nothing. Just don't tell people from Lima you're cool with the whole glee club thing, not many people are cool with it from there." I said, finally coming out of shock. He nodded.

"Yeah I can understand that. Ohio's supposed to be the most close-minded place out there." I laughed and nodded. "So what's the assignment?"

"All twelve members are supposed to video tape a day of their vacation to share in the club when we get back." He nodded again and said he was going to change for practice. I smiled and turned the camera around.

It's the eye of the tiger, it's

the thrill of the fight

Rising up to the challenge of our rival

And the last known survivor

stalks his prey in the night

And he's watching us all with the eye of the tiger

Face to face, out in the heat

Hangin' tough, stayin' hungry

They stack the odds, still we take to the street

For the kill with the skill to survive

"Just goes to prove that life outside of Lima is a lot better than in Lima." He came out of the bathroom in full pads and a practice jersey. I handed him the camera and told him to entertain while I went and changed. When I came back I found him showing off the room some, and playing with a vase, which he had dropped and shattered and was now trying to pick up the pieces of.

When we got that cleaned up, we headed out to where we were all supposed to meet at the field. Everyone was gathering and being sorted into two teams. I set the camera down on the bench, and James and I took turns watching it while we went and did the warm ups and training techniques. When it came time to play the actual game I set the camera on the empty bench and let the camera role through the game.

"Nice game, dude." I picked up the camera and got a high five from one of the people I was playing with earlier. When I got back to the room James was just coming out of the bathroom with a towel around his waist. He took one look at me, blushed furiously, grabbed clothes and rushed back to the bathroom. I furrowed my eyebrows and went to go check my phone and saw a text from Mike. I hurried to call back, looking at the camera excitedly. And put the phone on speaker phone. I would put subtitles for the phone on the bottom of my video later on.

It's the eye of the tiger, it's

the thrill of the fight

Rising up to the challenge of our rival

And the last known survivor

stalks his prey in the night

And he's watching us all with the eye of the tiger

"Hey, Twinkle Toes, what's up, dude?" I asked when he answered.

"I'm doing good. How's the camp?" He asked, breathing heavily into the phone.

"Still standing. Where are you? You're breathing really badly into the phone." I smiled at the phone.

"Just went for a run dude, I have class tomorrow." I nodded and looked down at the bed. "So who'd you get as your roommate?" Mike snapped me back to reality.

"Uh, some guy named James." Just as I mentioned him, James came out of the bathroom still looking rather red in the face.

"Oh, never met him before. He nice?" Mike's voice breathed heavily. I glanced over to James as he sifted through his bag for something.

"Yeah. He's cool." He looked up at me, giving a small grin before heading back to the bathroom with a tooth brush and tooth paste.

"Okay, gotta go now. Have to rest up for tomorrow." I said my goodbyes to him and made my way to the bathroom when James was done so I could shower and change for bed.

James was sitting on the end of his bed with his legs crossed while he watched TV. He tore his gaze away from the TV when I came out and tried to make it look like he was doing something manly. I coughed awkwardly, set the camera on the night stand and sat down on my bed, resting my hands behind my head and watching whatever he had on. I looked over to him with an eyebrow cocked when the show announced 'and next on The Home and Garden channel'. He blushed brightly and turned on his side, flipping the channel to a sports game. I sat up and hung my legs over the side of the bed, facing his turned back.

Risin' up, straight to the top

Had the guts, got the glory

Went the distance, now I'm not gonna stop

Just a man and his will to survive

"U-um a-are you .you know?" I made a rolling hand gesture to try representing what I was talking about. He didn't turn.

"Uh-huh." The room was silent for a minute. "Do you have a problem with that?"

"No! No, not at all. One of my friends back home is gay." I blurted then thought about the camera still rolling on the night stand.

"Really?" He sat up. "I thought you said that no one was very understanding in Lima?"

"Well, he's in glee club with me. Everyone in glee club is a bit different than everyone else in the town; we actually use our brains." Then I turned to the camera "Uh, no offense meant to you Finn, if there was anything offensive in that conversation." I looked back to James, to see him lost in thoughts. Then the one small detail that I'd forgotten to mention hit me. "Yeah, he and his, uh, boyfriend are pretty happy." His eyes dropped.

"Cool. Uh, glad your cool with that then. I lost a roommate last year because of it." I sighed, glad the conversation was done and over with. It's not that I hate talking about stuff like that it just makes me feel kind of uncomfortable.

It's the eye of the tiger, it's

the thrill of the fight

Rising up to the challenge of our rival

And the last known survivor

stalks his prey in the night

And he's watching us all with the eye of the tiger

"Alrighty guys, uh, I hope you guys all had a good summer, can't wait for glee club to start again and to see your summer videos Oh! I still need a song." There was a chuckle from James.

"Eye of the Tiger." I looked over at him and nodded.

"Yeah, okay, Eye of the Tiger. Because I've learned it's good to be a bit weird." I waved slightly and turned off the camera, glad my summer assignment was over.

The eye of the tiger

The eye of the tiger

The eye of the tiger

Ect.

A/N:

Yep, cause it always has to come down to someone gay for some reason. Or maybe that's just my life? I'm going to try to be semi-gay-free in the next chapter: Mike.

Review and let me know what you think.