Back to the Start Chapter 16: Coming Home, a glee fanfic

It was morning and I was once again going to school with Chrissy and Quinn. It felt like it had been so long since I had been there, even though only a weekend had passed. We were supposed to be gearing up for Regionals. Part of me wondered if I would do something that would cause Sadie to go back to Vocal Adrenaline. Jesse had left not because he was a spy, but because he was genuinely heartbroken by Rachel's act of selfishness. I never really liked him, but I did respect him more when I figured that out. Nevertheless, I wanted to see Sadie and make out with her some more.

We were making out in the auditorium. It was a little weird that I really seemed to like being affectionate with her because that was something that I was really only comfortable doing with Quinn. Being with Sadie was definitely different than any relationship that I had ever been in before, but to be fair, I had only ever been in two relationships. It felt weird having a girlfriend, but it was weird in a good way. After I got over the initial weirdness of it, I really liked the way she made me feel.

"It feels like we should be rehearsing." I told her in between kisses.

"I don't think either of us really needs to do that." She remarked as she kissed my neck. At that point, the bell rang and I realized that we only had a few minutes to get to class.

"Sadie, we need to go now. I'm trying really hard to get good grades and I don't want to mess that up by being late." I stated. I felt like a nerd for saying that, but that didn't make it any less true.

"Okay, fine. We can do this some more later." She agreed. She gave me a light grope as we walked to class. I couldn't help but wonder why I was falling so hard for her. It wasn't like me.

One thing that I remembered was it around the time that we had been locked out of the auditorium, but that obviously didn't seem to be a problem with Sue not around anymore. I actually couldn't help but wonder how things were going to be with Sue not around to bully us anymore. We were still being bullied by other people at school, so it meant that we were still outcasts without her around.

"So this week I want us to get used to performing out of our comfort zone, so we won't be rehearsing in the auditorium." Mr. Schue remarked. I suppose that was one way to get us out of the auditorium. "I haven't yet determined where will be rehearsing yet, but in the meantime, I want you to find some sorts that have the word home in the title."

I wasn't sure what song I wanted to sing. I knew that I wouldn't have the most time to do something like that. I usually figured out a good song to sing, but at the exact moment.

"Hey, Faith, there's something that I wanted to talk to you about." Katie remarked. "I'm going to be redecorating my room and I was hoping that you could help me with it."

"No offense, Katie, but I'm a tomboy." I remarked. It felt kind of hearing those weirds come out of my mouth, but it was for the most part true. I also didn't know what her sexuality was. She didn't have a crush on me, did she? And if not, had she still set up our parents? Would she do it just because she wanted her dad to be happy with zero ulterior motive? "Interior design really isn't my thing. I guess I like that one, though."

"You have more style than you think you do." Katie remarked before I walked away.

Quinn had a doctor's appointment and Frannie was helping her, meaning Chrissy and I went home by ourselves. I supposed that I shouldn't have been surprised when I saw her selling some of the furniture, but I still was. Some men were taking their old bed away. This part had to feel really awkward for Chrissy.

"You know we're keeping both of your beds." Mom stated.

"Shouldn't you feel more sentimental about that?" I asked. "We were conceived on that."

"You two were conceived on a pool table." She retorted. I couldn't help but notice that Chrissy blushed even though I was pretty sure that she had originally said pinball machine. At least a pool table was flat.

"So I believe that's everything." This black replied as he came back inside. I wasn't sure why we needed to sell all of this stuff. "Wait. I think you mentioned something about a recliner"

At that point, I couldn't help but think of it. How I had felt so attached to it. Now that I was next to my former father, it felt kind of weird. I didn't know what to say.

"It's not for sale." Chrissy interrupted before the man walked away. "This is Dad's chair. We don't have a lot to remember him by and I want to keep it. I think we should keep it."

"It's a chair, Sweetie. It's not him." Mom retorted.

"No, I think she's right." I stated. "Can we please just keep it? Also don't think we haven't noticed that you have been acting different lately. You've gotten new clothes and you have a new hairstyle and you seem to be going out more. Can you please tell us what's going on?"

"Fine. I've started seeing someone." She admitted. I just hoped that it was still Burt. It wouldn't be anyone else, would it? "I think I might even be in love."

"Who is it?" Chrissy asked. I was pretty sure that she was hoping that it was Burt as well. "Do we know him…or her? Is it a guy?"

"It's your friend Katie's dad." She explained. I breathed a sigh of relief that it wasn't anyone else. Even though having a stepdad was kind of weird at first, I got to used it and I really did like Burt.

At that moment, I went to my room to find that all of my stuff was still there. I had grown quite attached to it and I didn't know what I would do whenever we had to move. I knew that having two incomes would be good for us, but there were still a lot of things that would need to be done. There was also an issue that wasn't around before and we would definitely have to work that out. I then noticed that Chrissy was singing in her room.

I couldn't tell you why she felt that way,
She felt it every day
And I couldn't help her,
I just watched her make the same mistakes again

What's wrong, what's wrong now?
Too many, too many problems
Don't know where she belongs, where she belongs
She wants to go home, but nobody's home
That's where she lies
Broken inside
With no place to go
No place to go to dry her eyes
Broken inside

She wants to go home, but nobody's home
It's where she lies, broken inside
With no place to go, no place to go to dry her eyes
Broken inside

Her feelings she hides, her dreams she can't find,
She's losing her mind, she's fallen behind,
She can't find her place, she's losing her faith,
She's fallen from grace, she's all over the place...

She wants to go home, but nobody's home
That's where she lies, broken inside
With no place to go, no place to go to dry her eyes
Broken inside

She's lost inside, lost inside... Oh, oh, oh
She's lost inside, lost inside... Oh, oh oh yeah

I kind of felt like I should talk to someone about it. I knew that I would probably be best talking to an adult about it, so I decided that it would be easiest if I talked to my go-to confidante.

"So I'm having a bit of an issue." I told her.

"I figured that. I do wish that you would come by some times to ask me how I'm doing though." Coach Tweedy remarked.

"Well how are you doing?" I inquired. "How are things with Coach Kiernan?"

"They still haven't really gone anywhere." She admitted. "So what did you want to talk about?"

"Well my mom has started seeing a guy and I don't really know how I feel about it. I mean she's dated guys before, but this feels different because she says that she's in love and I haven't even met him yet." I explained.

"Well maybe you should first give this bloke a chance before you try to denounce him." She offered. "How does your sister feel about it?"

"I don't think she's having the easiest time either." I answered. You know I never really asked her how she felt about Burt. I was pretty sure that she didn't hold any resentment towards him because it wasn't like Mom was cheating on her or anything. Still it couldn't have been easy watching the woman that you loved fall in love with someone else.

"I'm sure that your mom won't do anything serious if the two of you don't like the guy." She replied.

After that was done, I decided to finally talk to Katie about it. I needed to find out if she had any sort of motive in this. I wanted them to be together, but not if they were just going to be pawns in her game.

"Katie. I need to talk to you. Did you know that our parents are together now?" I asked.

"It was parent-teacher conference night about a month ago." Katie explained. "They two of them instantly connected."

"Did you set the two of them up?" I questioned.

"I might have." She answered sheepishly.

"Do you mind if I ask why?" I inquired.

"It's because I want my dad to be happy…and the fact that she's a nurse means I might be able to start hormones quicker." She muttered. Okay, she did have an ulterior motive, but it definitely not the one that I thought it was.

"Katie, I don't think that it works like that." I replied. "Also, how did she manage to keep it from us for a whole month? How could she be in love after only a month?"

"People our parents' age don't wait around for love to bloom. You just need to accept things the way that they are." She replied.

"Katie, I'm sure that your dad is a great guy, but I don't think I can accept something when neither of us has even met him." I pointed out.

"You need to give in to the inevitable." She told me.

"You need to stop trying to force this." I argued. I had to keep myself from losing my cool because I knew that it could cause me a lot of problems. "I like my house and we're not getting rid of the chair."

I decided the best thing to do was to just walk away so I didn't say something that I would regret.

I was found by my girlfriend. It was probably a good thing because I needed someone to talk to.

"So what were you and Katie talking about that got you so riled up?" She asked.

"My mom is dating her dad and I think that things are moving pretty fast." I explained.

"Well it can be hard for your parents to start dating again. My mom got divorced a few years ago, and I still don't know if I'm ready for her date. So have you met Katie's dad at all?" She asked.

"No." I answered.

"Well just give him a chance and if you have issues, you can bring them up with your mom." She suggested. "Now we should get to Glee."

Once we got there, we found out that we would be performing. It seemed like the response was less than thrilled to say the least.

"Weren't those outlawed for being super lame?" Santana asked.

"Come on guys, where's your sense of adventure?" Mr. Schue asked. "The space is great and April is giving us to practice in for free."

"Wait, why are taking space from her?" Ben asked. I could see that the general consensus around the club was that we still didn't like her. I was pretty sure that Mr. Schue was the only one who still did and that was because he used to have a crush on her. You know I was surprised that the two of them never got together.

That night, we were all at Breadstix. I was a little bit awkward to say the least. I was pretty much okay with Burt being around after all of the years that I knew him, but I was pretty sure that Chrissy was feeling things. I couldn't help but wonder if she was feeling a little bit like she was being replaced. I knew it was something that no one but me would understand. Also, Quinn was there.

"I'd like to make a toast." Katie declared as she clanged her mocktail. "Tonight is a momentous occasion. It marks the first real connection between the Hummel and the Hudson clans. So let me raise my glass to our new little family."

"We're not a family." Chrissy muttered. Yeah, she seemed like she was jealous.

"Chrissy." Mom chided. Well she really wasn't wrong.

"No, it's cool." Burt told her. "You're right. Your mom and I are just enjoying each other's companies right now. Let's just enjoy dinner right. I mean I'm buying right. So I hear that you're a cheerleader. Do you like watching sports too?"

"Yeah." Chrissy answered. "I'm just not as good at them as Faith."

"Hey, I'm not good at volleyball." I argued.

"Well I'm not the biggest soccer fan, but I hear that people think you could go pro." Burt commented. He then looked at Quinn. "Are you okay over there? You haven't said anything all night."

"I'm really just surprised that you wanted me here." She admitted. "I don't belong here."

"Well if Carole is okay with being around, so am I." Burt declared. "I don't know what kind of parent can just abandon their child like that. So have any of you ever seen LeBron play?"

"Hey, have you seen the new jeans that I got Carole?" Katie asked. I could tell that she was a little out of her element with us talking about sports.

"We would love to." I remarked. I knew that Chrissy could use some time to bond with Burt and I also wanted Quinn to have the chance to do something fun outside of school. "You know for a place called Breadstix, they really aren't doing a very good job of making me want to eat them."

Everyone seemed to laugh at my joke, except Katie. It was nice when you told a joke and it landed.

One thing that I previously learned that I hadn't before was that Kurt didn't like how Burt and I were talking about sports. I wouldn't be surprised if Katie felt the same way. I knew that Burt probably didn't understand her, but that didn't mean that he didn't love her. He was someone who would do anything for his kids and that was why it was so good to have him as a stepdad. However, I knew that I should still talk to Chrissy once the two of us got a chance to be alone.

Before I was able to do that though, Quinn took us to our room.

"So I want you to be honest about something with me." She told me. "Would you be upset if I went to move in with Frannie?"

"Do you want to want to move in with your sister?" I responded.

"Can you please answer the question?" She requested. "I want you to not think about how I feel at the moment and just think about how you. Would you be upset if I moved in with Frannie?"

I tried to think of it in the right way. I didn't know if she wanted me to say yes or not. I was pretty sure that she wanted me to be honest.

"Yes." I admitted. "I like you living here, but if you want to live with your sister, you should do that. You deserve to have a home."

"I don't need to go anywhere in order to do that." She told me.

I'm staring out into the night trying to hide the pain
I'm going to the place where love and feeling good doesn't ever cost a thing
And the pain you feel is a different kind of pain

Well I'm going home back to the place where I belong
Where your love has always been enough for me
I'm not running from and no I think you got me all wrong
I don't regret this life I chose for me
But these places and these faces are getting old
So I'm going home

Be careful what you wish for because you just might get it all
You just might get it all and then some you don't want
Be careful what you wish for
Cause you just might get it all, you just might get it all yeah

Oh well I'm going home back to the place where I belong
Where your love has always been enough for me
I'm not running from and no I think you got me all wrong
I don't regret this life I chose for me
But these places and these faces are getting old
I said these places and these faces are getting old
So I'm going home
I'm going home

She then hugged me and I could tell that she was happy and I was happy that she was happy.

"So I need to go and talk to Chrissy." I told her before I went to my sister's room. I knocked on her door. "Hey."

"Hi." She reciprocated.

"So can I ask you how you feel about Burt?" I asked. I wanted to know how she really felt about him.

"I know that this is something that's supposed to happen, but I didn't really think that it would hurt as much as it does." She stated. Yeah, she was feeling jealous. "Just watching her fall in love with someone makes me feel weird."

"It's okay to feel jealous about it and I know it must be hard to not be able to talk to anyone else about it except me." I declared. "But this really doesn't need to happen if you don't want it, though I think that you could at least give Burt a chance because I think that you'll really like him if you get to know him."

"Sometimes I wish that I could just be your sister and I didn't have to remember that I'm not." She stated. I knew it would be easier if I didn't remember who I used to be either.

"I know, but we need to remember who we used to be. We just need to a little more focused on living in the now and not thinking so much about the future. Well there is one thing that I need to ask you. Do you know how to skate?"

The following day, we went to the skating rink to rehearse. We really weren't doing as much singing as we were just skating, but I was having some fun skating with Sadie. I was wearing a red long-sleeved dress. I really liked holding her hand as we moved across the floor.

Later at school, Katie came up to me and Chrissy. She looked like she wanted to do something drastic.

"We need to break our parents up." She stated. Yeah, that was pretty drastic.

"Look, I know that I may not be the most comfortable with my mom dating your dad, but I don't want to interfere with their happiness because of my own feelings." Chrissy remarked. You know when you thought about it, her and Katie's feelings were a little bit similar. "Just because your dad found someone that he can talk about sports with doesn't mean that he doesn't love you and neither Faith nor I would ever replace you as his daughter."

"I think the only thing that we need to do right now is tell them that we're not ready to move in together." I remarked. There was also the issue of what we were going to do with Quinn because she would probably need a nursery for the baby. I didn't know what how we were going to resolve that presently, but maybe we would be able to figure something out…or maybe she would just move back in with her mom and we wouldn't need to.

There was still something that I needed to do. I needed to look around the house. Even though I had been living there for the past few months, I couldn't help but feel like I was taking it for granted since before that it had been years since I lived there. I didn't know if we were going to move again. It would probably make more sense to live with Burt because it would definitely save money. Maybe there would even be a new house in the future. I had a lot of memories of this place.

I know they say that you can't go home again
I just had to come back one last time
Ma'am I know that you don't know me from Adam
But these handprints on the front steps are mine

Up those stairs in that little back bedroom
Is where I did my homework and learned to play guitar
And I bet you didn't know that under that live oak
My favorite dog is buried in the yard

I thought if I could touch this place oh feel it
This brokenness inside me might start healing
Out here it's like I'm someone else
I thought maybe I could find myself
If I could just come in I swear I'll leave
Won't take nothing but a memory from the house that built me

You leave home, you move on and you do the best you can
I got lost in this old world and forgot who I am

I knew that this stuff about being home wasn't just about my physical home. It was about the world that I had come from. I still missed it a lot even though I knew that I could never go back. The thing was that I was with people who loved me. I still had my family, including one more person that I had before. I never thought that I would get a real chance to get to know my dad, especially under the circumstances that I had now.

On top of that, I had a best friend that I really felt that I could count on. Being with Quinn like this really made me miss her, but I didn't need to miss her because she was right there. And I had a girlfriend. She may have not been the person that I thought that I would be with, but I was happy with her. I had Coach Tweedy, who was more than just a coach or a mentor to me. She was a friend. The point was that I didn't need to go home, because I was already here.

So I know that it's been a long time since I updated this but I got the inspiration to do it again. I realized that Chrissy might not take Burt dating Carole the best, so I made sure to incorporate that. And also Faith had a major breakthrough. The songs are "Nobody's Home" by Avril, "Home" by Daughtry, and "The House That Built Me" by Miranda Lambert. Please don't forget to review.