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eiirisworkshop · 2 years ago

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One More Notch

A Glee fanfiction Complete fic available to read on Ao3 here.

So here's what you missed on Glee:

Blaine got drunk and made out with Rachel so he thought he might be bi.

In Rachel's basement, she and Blaine kiss sloppily, surrounded by the rest of the glee kids.

Kurt didn't take that too well since he doesn't seem to think bisexuals are real.

Across a coffee shop table, Kurt gives Blaine a scathing look. "Bi is just what people call themselves when they're scared to admit they're gay."

Blaine got really fed up with Kurt so he dumped him.

"You're being so narrow minded and dismissive!" Blaine shouts across the choir room. "I'm sick of it! I'm done."

Then he went out with Rachel, but they had no chemistry so they called it off and Blaine's sure he really is gay. Kurt was really upset over getting dumped so he and Blaine just kinda didn't get back together. They're mostly over it but things are still a little weird.

At the end of a musical number, hugs and high fives are going around. Kurt and Blaine shake hands stiffly.

And that's what you missed on Glee.

~*~

"Again, winning Sectionals has done absolutely nothing for our cred," Mercedes lamented as she set her lunch tray down and dropped into her seat.

Kurt brushed his hair off his forehead with a sigh. "Let's face it, it's going to take a bigger win to earn us the respect we deserve."

"Yeah." Tina stared listlessly at her chicken nuggets. "On a less depressing note," she ate a nugget, "have either of you seen the new transfer kid?"

"Yeah." Mercedes made a face. "What kinda kid changes schools in November ?"

"Bargain store cowboys with no-name jeans and a ridiculously thick accent."

The two girls stared at Kurt. He shrugged. "He's in my math class."

"Oh," both girls said, nodding.

"He's kinda cute, though, in a pickup truck commercial kinda way," Mercedes said casually.

Tina and Kurt considered her, looked to each other, then nodded.

Meanwhile, a knock at his office doorframe startled Mr. Schuester into looking up from the stack of quizzes he was grading. A tall boy in a faded buttonfront, worn jeans, and scuffed boots was standing in the doorway under a thatch of sun-blonded hair, hands crammed in his pockets, shoulders hunched. "Mr. Schuester? I was in your Spanish One class this mornin'."

"Yeah, yeah." Mr. Schuester set the quizzes aside. "It's Joel, right?"

"Yessir. Joel Henry."

"Come in, sit. What can I do for you?"

Joel folded himself into the chair across from Mr. Schuester—quite a feat given the kid was at least as tall as Finn. He shook his head despairingly and met Mr. Schuester's gaze. "I don't know what I'm doin' in your class. I don't speak a word a Spanish. I been takin' German the past two years."

"We don't have a German program here," Mr. Schuester said carefully. "Shouldn't you be eating lunch right now?"

"I wasn't talkin' to nobody, didn't take long to eat." Joel sighed. "I'm gonna fail your class; I can't speak Spanish."

"It's an intro class, Joel."

"That I'm three months behind in! And I'm not good with languages."

"Okay." Mr. Schuester nodded. "Can you stay after school or do you have to catch a bus?"

"No, I drive."

"Great. Then right after school let's you and me go talk to Principal Figgins about moving you out of Spanish."

"Thank you, sir," Joel said. "But why couldn't we go talk to him during afternoon free period in a couple hours?"

Mr. Schuester held up his palms apologetically. "I coach the school's glee club and we meet during afternoon free period."

"Oh. Alright. Well, thank you, sir." Joel got to his feet. "Uh, before I go though, can you tell me how to get to the physics rooms? This school is a lot bigger than my old one."

~*~

After physics and history when afternoon free period came around, Joel found himself at loose ends just like he had at morning free period. So, just like that morning, he wandered the halls, trying to learn his way around. The handful of other kids not occupied with clubs, making out in corners, or smoking pot in the bathroom mercifully ignored him. He turned down another hall—the hall Mr. Schuester's office was on—and he heard music.

Oh yeah, glee club.

He lingered by the half-open door, watching as about a dozen kids danced around singing some pop song he didn't know. He recognized a few of the kids though—one of them, the kid who looked like the creepy Austrian ceramic dolls Joel's grandma collected, was definitely in his math class. The kid was hard to miss. Then there was the Latina cheerleader who'd blatantly offered him sex that morning. She scared him. And she'd noticed him. She'd stopped dancing to stare through the door at him, one eyebrow arched. Another of the girls—the short one in a cat sweater—noticed the scary Latina staring and followed her gaze. Joel gave them a pleading look and put a finger to his lips. The two girls shared a look, then resumed dancing, ignoring him.

The next morning, with his schedule fixed—home ec in place of Spanish, not great, but workable—Joel settled into his seat in the back of his first period math class. Suddenly, an argyle-clad butt perched itself on the edge of the table in front of him. He looked up to find the owner of the butt smiling down at him: creepy Austrian doll kid. "Hi, I'm Kurt Hummel."

Joel blinked. "Your last name is actually Hummel?"

Kurt frowned. "Yes, is that a problem?"

"No." Joel shook his head slowly. "The universe just has one hell of a sense a humor."

"I'm going to assume for your sake that that wasn't offensive. Anyway." Kurt leaned in, smile re-plastering itself across his rosy-cheeked face. "A little bird told me that you were spying on our glee club yesterday."

Joel gave him an unimpressed look. "Was it the sexy bird or the short one?"

"Both of them but that's beside the point." Kurt brushed away the question with a wave of his hand. "The point is, you should join."

Joel slid his math book and notebook between himself and Kurt. "I don't know, I don't really sing."

"Well, if you change your mind, we meet during free period every afternoon and on Monday mornings and after school on Thursdays. Sometimes after school on Fridays, too, but don't count on that one—it's on an as needed basis. Bring a song." Kurt's smile had turned fake. He patted Joel's shoulder and sashayed off to his own seat. Joel watched him go. He had no idea where the hell somebody would get purple argyle skinny jeans in suburban Ohio. He also had no idea why anyone would want to.

After that, class was uneventful. Trigonometry couldn't only be so exciting. Joel's next class, though, was unexpectedly awesome. It was home ec, and they'd been told to pair up to make no-bake cheesecake. A pretty blond girl in a cheerleading uniform walked right up to him, decidedly within Joel's personal space, and looked at him with intense, shiny blue eyes. "Santana told me that if I saw you I should seduce you into joining glee club so I think we should totally make cake out of cheese together." She leaned in to whisper, "What kind of cheese do you want?"

"Uh." Joel took a step back. "I already told your buddy Kurt I don't really sing." He handed her a block of cream cheese. "You really don't need to seduce me, either. Santana is the scary, sexy, Latina one, right?"

"Yeah, she's super hot."

"Well, I already told her I'm not really on the market."

"On the market for what?" The girl cocked her head to the side like a puppy.

Joel stared at her for a second then shook his head. "Nevermind. What's your name?"

"Brittany."

"I'm Joel."

Brittany's eyes widen and she whispered in awe. "You're a famous singer, we were just singing that song of yours about not being an arsonist."

Joel stared at her again. "That's Billy Joel. I'm not related to him."

"Oh...." She looked down at the cream cheese disappointedly.

He chewed his tongue briefly, then leaned toward her to confide, "But I'm a cowboy."

She immediately lit up with excitement. "A real one?"

"Mhm." He grinned.

"That's so cool."

At the end of home ec, Brittany handed Joel their cheesecake, then pulled him out of the room, ignoring his protests. She dragged him to the choir room where, despite the lack of an official club meeting, most of the club was hanging out—well, arguing.

"I think we should go caroling," the short one was saying. Her sweater had an owl today.

An Asian girl who looked like some kind of Victorian heiress who'd sold her soul to a demon butler gave the short one an incredulous look. "Do you remember how badly that went last year? We got a shoe thrown at us. By a teacher ."

"Hey, everyone," Brittany said pleasantly. "So it turns out he's not a famous singer like I thought when he said his name, but I brought the new guy and I didn't even have to seduce him." She grinned at Santana, who looked both impressed and disappointed.

"I was brought here against my will," Joel said. "But I have cheesecake if anyone wants some," he offered feebly.

"I will take some cheesecake," a curvy black girl with big heart-shaped earrings said. Joel handed her the pie pan he was holding.

"I'm glad you decided to join us," the short one said brightly, stepping forward to give him a salesman's smile. "I'm Rachel, I essentially run this—"

"I have not decided to join you," Joel said firmly. "Why are you all hounding me outta nowhere like this? I been at this school less than two days."

"We're pretty much always hoping for new members," Kurt said, lounging across two chairs next to the black girl. "You showed interest. And you're here now, so you might as well show us what you've got."

"I told you, I don't really sing." Joel shook his head and looked around the room. There was Kurt, the hip hop princess eating cheesecake, Rachel the American Girl doll, Asian vampire chick, a super nerdy kid in a wheelchair, a total of three cheerleaders, a guy with a mohawk, a guy in a sweatervest and bowtie, a blond Bieber-type, and three more dudes in letterman jackets. "Do you realize that most of you look more like cartoon characters than real people?"

Rachel huffed haughtily, Kurt and the girl next to him both frowned. The blond cheerleader who wasn't Brittany leaned on her elbows. "He's not wrong, though."

The guy in the sweatervest held his hands out and shrugged. "Yeah, pretty much everyone in this club is crazy."

"But, we're the most fun people in this whole damn school." The black girl stood up. "Look—what's your name?"

"Joel."

"Heya, Joel. I'm Mercedes. You gave me cheesecake, as far as I'm concerned that makes us friends. This is your second day here, so I figure you don't have too many friends yet."

"Not really, no." Joel admitted.

"Uh huh." Mercedes settled her weight into her hip. "And how many people not in this room have actually talked to you?"

"A guy with a jewfro shoved a microphone in my face...."

"Jacob doesn't count," sweatervest guy interjected. "He's a gossip blogger and you're the new kid, he'll harass you for a few weeks. I'm sorry. I transferred in last year, I never did find a way to avoid him entirely. Puck chasing him off is a good temporary measure though." He gestured at the guy with the mohawk.

"And," one of the letterman jacket guys said, "I don't really sing, either." He shrugged. "I used to sway in the background but now I dance."

Joel scrubbed a hand through his hair. "I'll think about it." He looked at sweatervest guy. "But you're right, you're all crazy." He walked out.

At lunch two classes later, Mercedes came up to Joel in the line. "Hey, Joel." She smiled and got a serving of tots. "You wanna sit with us?"

"Who's us?" He grabbed the least bruised apple available.

"Me, Tina, and Kurt."

"Uh," Joel hesitated.

Mercedes glared at him. "Kurt doesn't bite, you know."

"I know." Joel let out a breath and glanced over to the table where Kurt and Asian vampire chick were sitting. She must've been Tina. Joel shrugged. "I've just never met anyone like him before in my life. He's...a little overwhelming."

"I'll admit that he—and Rachel, and sometimes me and Santana—have a flare for the dramatic and it can get a little over the top." She shrugged. "Occupational hazard of showbiz."

Joel sighed.

"Who you gonna sit with if not us?"

"You got a point," Joel admitted. He followed her to the table and carefully sat between her and Tina the vampire. She and Kurt smiled at him. He nodded to them and focused on his food.

Brittany and Santana joined the table a minute later, paying zero attention to anyone else sitting there while they chit-chatted. After that, sweatervest bowtie guy came over carrying a tray. He and Kurt looked directly at each other, Kurt busied himself with his phone, and sweatervest pulled up a chair between Joel and Mercedes. Joel glanced between him and Kurt a couple times. “Well, absolutely no one can tell the two of you used to date.”

Both boys grimaced and glanced at each other.

“Is the awkward that obvious?” sweatervest guy asked.

Joel nodded and gestured between them. “There's laser beams of awkward.”

“Good God, he said what we've all been thinking,” Santana said in astonishment. “At least, I think he did. I'm only sure of every other word. Where the hell are you from, cowboy?”

“Wyoming,” Joel said flatly.

Santana blinked and tilted her head. “See, there's a problem with that: I'm pretty sure Wyoming really doesn't exist.”

Joel rolled his eyes. “I promise you it does.”

Santana shook her head. “I don't believe y—”

“Where in Wyoming?” Kurt interrupted.

Joel poked at his food. “Trust me, you've never heard of it.” He paused and took a moment to study Kurt. “But I'm gonna go way out on a limb and say you've seen Brokeback Mountain.”

Kurt nodded. “Everyone at this table has, even if only because I made them.”

Joel couldn't help but snicker. “Okay, so in Brokeback, Ennis—the blond one, Heath Ledger—and his wife live in Riverton. I'm from Crowheart, 'bout an hour northwest a Riverton.”

Everyone exchanged looks and nodded or shrugged.

“Well, I still don't think we have any idea where that is,” sweatervest guy said, “but that's a pretty good frame of reference.”

“Why did you move here in the middle of the semester?” Tina asked.

“My folks split,” Joel said quickly. “Me an' my mama an' my sister moved in with my mama's sister. Sorry, who're you?” He looked at sweatervest guy. “Never got yer name.”

“Oh, I'm sorry. I'm Blaine.”

“Pleased to meetcha.” Joel went back to eating.

End of chapter! Read the rest on Ao3 here.

#eiiri made this #fanfiction #glee #i still can't believe i wrote a glee fic but i did

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