#Warbler's okay on the fact that she's a teen | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

ramblingaboutglee · 2 years

Text

Season 6 - What Glee Should Be

Okay hear me out, I have a point I swear

Glee was cancelled going into S6. A half-length season, everyone knew it was over. There was no need to hold back, no need to compromise - and what we got was a highly divisive season that nevertheless feels like it was what the writers wanted to be doing for the last five years.

Note the focus on teacher-roles, Rachel instructing the New New New Directions, and Will and Sue’s rivalry taking the fore in later episodes. Note how none of the students get any more than one episode arcs, where even romantic subplots are constrained to single episodes unless it’s drama surrounding the teachers. It’s reminiscent of Season 1 of Glee, before the show was re-geared to be about the kids rather than Will and Emma.

But now the original kids are the teachers having the romantic subplot, creating an interesting middle-ground. But all in all, this feels so much more like the show that Glee was intended to be, now that there were no consequences for unpopularity or low ratings. It’s easy to imagine that, had the fandom not focused so much on the students, this might have been what Glee would have always looked like.

Does this mean it was good? That’s always going to be down to personal taste. But certainly, it is interesting to see the thought process shift.

Let’s look at them side by side

But seriously. There’s no escaping the fact that a lot of the heyday of Glee, and a lot of the things the fandom loves, weren’t part of the show’s original conception. There were always character arcs with the kids, a dash of acknowledging some real-world topics, but it was through the lens of, well, Will Schuester as the main character. Which is a sentence that feels so weird to type, but watching the pilot, watching the first season (especially 1A), it’s undeniable.

The show is about a teacher who learns from his kids, and through doing so has their life improved and helps figure out what they want in life and in their relationships. It’s about the idea of wasting your youth, and trying to recapture that and live your dreams even after feeling like you let them pass you by. That’s Glee season 1, before they had any idea of the huge fanbase they had, and what that fanbase wanted.

And Glee season 6? Rachel returns to McKinley, unsure of her place in life, and as she figures it out she chooses to become a teacher. She goes from hitting a low point, at the start of the season, to sorting out her priorities, finding romance again, and finding joy in helping others get the spotlight rather than being in it herself. And in much the same way, Blaine gets a comparable journey, going from a relationship that gets an alarming amount of vitriol, to finding himself with the Warblers, the school he went to originally, and having that help spark his development. Both of them have left behind successful performances to, well, teach Glee after something in their life crashed.

Rachel, Blaine and Will all get the same story.

Plus, of course, the throwback to building the Glee club one member at the time.

Parallel lines, who meet

You could complain about repetition. I’d argue that’s the point. Going to S1 again, it’s all about the parallels - right from the Pilot, Will and Terri and Emma are paralleled with Rachel and Quinn and Finn. There are a dozen tiny examples threaded throughout, like Quinn and Puck naming Beth and the immediate next scene being Shelby asking Rachel why her dads named her that - Glee likes to lay adult and teenage life side by side, and look at similarities and differences.

We’d be here a while if we listed everything. In S1, 3 and 4 especially, the show loves to compare and contrast - so having the original teens live the same arc as the teacher, well, it’s not unexpected. (shout out to Final Countdown having Kurt and Rachel watch Will and Sue have their sing-off and “...We cannot end up like them.”)

The echoes are the point. And when Glee goes out, it goes for parallels between Will and the kids, just like it did when it began.

Ain’t we got fun?

I feel like humour is going to be one of the most divisive things about S6. For me, it was a breath of fresh air - S5 had definitely gotten a little stale with some of the jokes. It referenced for the sake of referencing sometimes, and had grand set pieces that were played up like they were funny, and... weren’t, so it just ended up feeling a little weird.

S6, at least, is different. Love or hate Sue’s terrifying shipper-robot, it’s certainly not just a rehash of an old joke. Sue as an adversary is nothing new, but the dynamic she has in S6 as the over-the-top principal is different. There is imagination to a lot of the new quips, whether or not they work for you.

Then we have The Final Countdown, which harkens back to Run Joey Run and Baby Got Back as an unabashedly comedic musical number. The season gets a couple of those, and while the genre seems despised by the fandom, the writers seem to enjoy them, so given the chance, they added more.

It’s interesting. I’d probably say that one of the biggest issues Glee ran into was how it started to feel samey, and I wonder if that was a result of the same thought process that governed the show after S1 - trying to just do the things that the fandom reacted to. And when it’s too late to get the fandom back, they have the freedom to go for different things. There is genuine effort to do different rather than just do more - which inevitably runs the risk of alienating fans, but they were cancelled anyway so...

Lending a shoulder

So let’s talk about the social awareness side. How does S6 fare?

Honestly, surprisingly well. It’s still Glee, so not perfect, but there were beats that I noticed while watching that genuinely felt like an apology.

So let’s talk about Beiste. There is nuance here. Coach Beiste comes out as a trans man this season - I’ve seen this criticised, and I understand the criticism, that it undercuts Beiste’s arc in previous seasons. Originally, the depiction of a cis woman who was not conventionally attractive nor conventionally feminine still wanting acknowledgement and respect was, in its way, radical - then again, Beiste has had very little to do for a while. If the alternative was nothing, then I’m content with mere continuity wonkiness.

So let’s talk about the quality of this depiction. Glee’s previous foray into trans issues is Unique, and right from her name you get that uncomfortable vibe that they were just writing a drag queen, and there is that distinct undercurrent to some of her appearances. There was some good, but there was also a lot of... well, just imagine a ‘you tried’ star here.

Then comes Sheldon Beiste. I think this was the first time the word ‘transgender’ was actually said on the show. He’s explicit, upfront, takes a name that isn’t just ‘Badass’ or some such, and is otherwise presented and treated as just a guy, with other characters treating him without the transphobia Unique faced. Plus there is the off-handed scene where he mentions that he’s always been attracted to guys, and that’s probably not going to change - a mainstream show acknowledging that not all trans people are straight in 2015 feels bizarrely radical, especially after Unique.

Then there was Becky getting an episode that pretty much just existed to call out how she’d been consistently infantilised in previous seasons. Honestly that was one I had to google after the episode was done because there are a lot of things I don’t know about Down’s - the fact Glee of all shows got that reaction is kinda impressive.

Certainly, there are bits that are handled with the usual lack of tact, but there is a surprising amount to admire here. Which then, again, makes for a season one comparison and makes me wonder - in S1, the major dynamics that went for commentary were Kurt’s relationship with his dad, and Quinn’s arc dealing with conservative-family expectation and pressures, and a lot of that is well-handled compared to what a lot of people might expect from Glee going forwards.

There’s a lot of potential speculation there, but if nothing else, it indicates the season wasn’t low-effort.

Being the kids, as well as the sitter

Glee is about growing up, and it’s about what that means. We have a season where the teacher takes centre stage, like was originally planned, only it’s teachers that more people care about - Rachel, Kurt and Blaine probably have more fans than Will.

But what of the kids?

Given that they only have half a season, they’re impressive. It helps that they’re well cast - most only really get one or two big songs, but they’re able to nail them (if you haven’t, go listen to Roderick’s Take Me To Church, thank you), and all of them feel distinct from previous archetypes. There are also fresh dynamics here - Roderick and Spencer’s neat friendship, Jane fitting in with Dalton is brand new, Mason and Madison offer a sibling dynamic we surprisingly haven’t seen before given how rarely Glee has siblings (Kurt and Finn didn’t really act it, and Puck and Jake had few interactions).

Again, there’s genuine effort and freshness put into them, but it’s effort with the understanding that they aren’t leads. They don’t get multi-episode focuses on any love triangles or romance plots, they’re unmistakable secondary characters but it’s in that role that they thrive.

Is season 6 the best season of the show? No. And it’s one it’s easy to imagine being hated, because it is a departure from previous seasons. I could list flaws - there’s a lack of focus, a desire to bring back characters that can give a very scattershot approach, and some dynamics do feel definitely underexplored. There’s no arc to compare to, say, Quinn’s development in S1.

But for a half-length season that’s also wrapping up past characters, it does about as well as it reasonably could.

It really feels like this was the show that they meant to make, though. You can feel the extra effort that goes into it - plus the music that was selected sticks out. A Burt Bacharach episode, a Carole King/Alanis Morisette episode, these are definitely from the era and genres that the writers showed a preference for earlier on. We get another Queen song, we get Styx as the finale - bands that have both appeared before. This is a victory lap. There are certainly more modern songs included, but it’s reminiscent of, again, Season 1 thriving on the back of Journey and showtunes and Queen, before a younger audience made them insert more contemporary music. It feels as though the songs they’re including are the songs that the writers like, rather than leaning on chart-toppers - the Bacharach theme episode is one of the lowest watched episodes in the show’s run, which is kind of shocking given how easily artist-focus episodes could get a bump in viewership. For some reason though, fans of a songwriter whose heyday was in the 1950s/60s don’t cross over massively with Glee.

And yet they went for it. Why? Because they wanted to, they liked the songs (Bacharach tends to be basically showtune-adjacent, you’ll find a wealth of musical singers who’ll do his songs for albums and concerts), as we can tell by S1 using his ‘I Say A Little Prayer.’ This is what the show would have been if there was no care about what the audience wanted.

For me, the biggest flaw with Glee was the fact that they had no bloody idea what they wanted the show to be, or who the target audience even was. It goes from edgy teenage comedy, to teachable-moment kids’ show, to shockingly nuanced adult drama.

Hence the title of this ramble - this is what Glee feels like it was meant to be, regardless of personal taste. How much a show should listen to its audience is a heck of a complex question, way too much to go into this far into an already too-long ramble, but it’s still interesting to see. When they aren’t trying to balance intent and audience, you get a fascinating lens through which to look at the show.

There is effort here, which raises the question - if this is the show that they wanted to make, as it seems to be with how effective it is as a redo of the original season and original intent of the show and thereby the interests of the writers, what does that say of past seasons? Where are the compromises, where are the decisions made to feed into what the fandom wanted? And are the departures from this vision strengths or weaknesses?

I feel like everyone’s going to have a different answer to that question, and I do wonder if that’s why Glee fandom often seems so divided. Functionally, there are two shows going on here - it just depends which you were tuning in to see.

#Glee #Glee Meta #Glee Season 6 #Rachel Berry #Roderick Meeks #Spencer Porter #Jane Hayward #Madison McCarthy #Mason McCarthy #Kurt Hummel #Will Schuester

20 notes · View notes

notyourdayrdream · 3 years

Text

Summer’s Almost Over (So Come Spend it with Me)

Day Twelve, Side A: Exacerbate

read it here on AO3!

Blaine Anderson’s never been lucky in love.

His first crush was in third grade on Jim Hawkins from Treasure Planet. Oh he’d almost burned the DVD out from watching it too much. His crush ended when his brother accidentally broke the disc and Blaine couldn’t watch the animated teen anymore. Plus, all of the other little boys were crushing on girls, ones that were real and not animated. Most importantly they were girls. So he put crushes on the backburner for a while.

His next crush was in seventh grade, on Joey Partmon. Joey was new from Texas, which may have well been a foreign country to him and the other private school kids Blaine went to school with. He was tanned under his school mandated uniform, with dark freckles and floppy red hair. Blaine loved his deep southern accent and the way he twirled his pencil around in his hand when he was bored. They weren’t close, Blaine wasn’t outgoing enough to say ‘hi,’ and Joey moved away that summer. But he did dream about kissing him on more than one occasion. That’s when he realized he was gay.

Freshman year’s candidate was Ryan Night.

He went to a public school then. He and Ryan were the only two boys in their choir, which already put a huge target on their backs, not to mention the fact they were both gay. Blaine still doesn’t know if it’s a blessing or a curse, but he was able to hide it. Ryan wasn’t as lucky. But it didn’t matter, they were friends, brought together by this horrible thing they had to deal with. The whole situation turned into something beautiful. So when Blaine asked Ryan to homecoming, he expected everything to go fine.

He’d be proved wrong, of course. So he took a break from crushing for a little while. In fact, he took a break on everything, for about a year.

Everything was different when he came to Dalton. The kids, the students, the zero tolerance bullying policy. It all kept him safe. So he joined the Warblers and became their leading man, not because he was gay or straight, but because he was good. They kind of idolized him, and he suddenly had this giant group of friends. That’s when he met Jeremiah.

Maybe it was because he was finally out and proud, but his crush on Jeremiah felt so different. It was almost like love. He was older and wiser than Blaine, and so so cute. And as the days ticked on and the boy was all he could think about, he decided he had to do something, and he had to do something big.

Safe to say that totally backfired. Blaine promised himself to never let a crush get that serious again, not until he was sure. And that plan had worked, until now. Because he met Kurt Hummel.

They actually met at NYADA, at a Midnight Madness competition.

Blaine had been dragged there by his friend Leslie, who wasn’t actually a singer but a dancer, she just liked drama. So he went, dressed in sweatpants and a Dalton hoodie, and sat in the back. The whole place was honestly just a giant fire hazard, and the heat from the candles was making him sweaty. They were waiting on someone apparently. Rachel Berry, the senior who had won last year. Blaine knew she had a reputation of being a diva, but good Lord she was taking forever. The crowd of theatre geeks was becoming antsy.

“Wait!” The door opened and shut in a swift motion, blowing out a few candles by the entrance. The young man’s chest heaved, like he had just run all this way. “Rachel’s out sick. But I’m here, I’ll do it in her place. The dim light blocked out most of his face, but Blaine could see the outline of him; slim and tall with a smile that lit up the room. Was it weird to be attracted to a shadow?

The moderator nodded. “That’s fine, Kurt, we just need someone to challenge you,” he said. Kurt stepped into the ring in the center of the room and took Blaine’s breath away.

It had to be illegal to look this good at twelve in the morning. Whereas everyone else was dressed in casual clothes and pajamas, Kurt wore tight jeans and a cream sweater so soft Blaine wanted to reach out and touch it. His pale skin was painted tan from the candlelight and his hair stood so high and perfectly coiffed on his head Blaine was sure it must have taken hours to fix.

“I’ll do it,” Blaine offered, cringing at himself when every pair of eyes turned to him. He could have smacked himself in the forehead. He didn’t come here to compete, he didn’t even come for the drama. He was going to horribly embarrass himself and be forced to switch careers. Slowly and on shaky legs, he made his way to the center of the room.

Kurt smirked and said, “You’re going down.” But his eyes were gleaming with mischief. Blaine almost smiled himself, but the moderator whispered that Kurt will go first and Blaine could sit back down. The song is announced, or whisper-yelled, to be “On My Own” from Les Mis.

The music started and Kurt took a moment to close his eyes, drinking in the silence before performing. And then he sings. He floated atop the song like a leaf across water, dipping in and swirling through the melody. He sounded like he might cry, and Blaine felt a tear threatening to slip out of his eye. That’s when he knew he wouldn't win. Emotional ballads had never been his thing. And when only fifteen people gathered on his side of the room and waved their hands in silent applause, he didn’t care.

“Hey, Blaine is it?” Kurt asked when Midnight Madness had ended and students poured out the doors and back home or to bars. Blaine’s eyes went wide. Leslie spotted his fear and left without him, blonde braids swishing behind her. He was going to kill here.

“Yeah,” he replied, breathily as he turned around and finally got a good look at Kurt’s eyes. Icy blue and gorgeous, Blaine felt stripped down under his gaze. “You were really amazing, I mean obviously since you won but…”

Kurt bit his lip to hide his smile, and Blaine guilty pocketed the moment for a later time. “Thanks, but you were great too. I couldn’t imagine being a freshman and being able to sing like that.”

“Ah, I’m actually in my third year,” Blaine said, rubbing at the back of his neck. It wasn’t his fault, he didn’t do too many extracurriculars at NYADA, not any he imagined Kurt would also be a part of.

“Oh! I’m so sorry,” Kurt apologized, face flushing pink. “Um, I was wondering if you wanted—”

“I should go,” Blaine interrupted, feeling more and more embarrassed as this whole ordeal went on. He honestly just wanted to go home and forget the whole thing even happened.

Kurt actually looked a bit upset for a brief second, but he caught himself quickly and went back to his bright smile. Props of being an actor. “Right, well, it was nice meeting you, Blaine.” He nodded and walked off and out of the glass double doors.

This time, Blaine did smack himself on the forehead. He was so stupid. Kurt was going to ask him out, wasn’t he? Or at least for coffee, everybody drinks coffee super late. He trudged out of the doors and down to the subway, trying his best to not think of himself as a total screw up when it came to love. But he did check Kurt’s Instagram on the ride home. Just to look.

“I’m going out! It’s my grandmother’s birthday and she misses me,” Leslie said even though Blaine already knew she was leaving. The red party dress he helped pick out popped against her dark skin.

He closed his journal and glanced at his roommate.“Tell her ‘happy birthday’ for me!” Leslie just kissed his cheek in response and shut the door behind her, leaving Blaine alone for another quiet evening.

It was finally summer, another year of college completed. Blaine had decided to stay in the city instead of going back home like a lot of students did. Not that he didn’t enjoy Ohio or his parents, he just didn’t feel like the cold small talk that would follow him the entire summer. The only thing he missed was the weather. It was a scorching summer this year in New York City, and Blaine had always preferred the cooler months. The whole city felt as though it had been placed in a boiling pot, and Blaine and Leslie spent most of their days inside at work or avoiding the heat. Their nights were spent partying on Leslie’s part, or curling up to watch a movie for Blaine.

If he were being honest with himself, he had no idea what he was going to do after college. Being a Broadway actor was no guarantee, if he would even make it there. He had heard of graduates from NYADA, bright eyed and filled with dreams, fizzle out like burning stars and end up in jobs that they didn’t even major in. Blaine couldn’t end up like that, he’d be proving his dad right.

So he had a moleskine journal filled with songs. The kind of music he sang in the shower. Poppy love ballads and short and brash breakup songs, even though he had never been broken up with before. The other people who had ever heard them were Leslie and Will, an ex-fling who he had mistakenly let get closer than he should have.

A set of sharp knocks at the door snapped him out of his thoughts.

“You have keys, Les!” Blaine yelled but got up anyway. She probably forgot her keys. The knocking didn’t stop until Blaine swung the door open, gaping at the sight.

“Hi,” Kurt gasped, looking just as surprised as Blaine probably did. His hair was dripping wet, and he had...shower shoes on?

“Are you okay?” Blaine asked. “How do you know where I live?” He ushered Kurt inside.

“I don’t, and I am,” Kurt said, running a hand through his hair. “I saw Leslie leave and asked if she could help me and she said her roommate was home? I didn’t know you two lived together…” He glanced around their living room.

“Oh, we’re not dating, I’m gay.” Kurt’s eyebrows knitted together, that wasn’t what he was asking at all. What was it about this guy that turned Blaine into a complete idiot?

“Um, what did you need help with?”

“My shower isn’t working, and I have a date in an hour,” Kurt groaned. Blaine tried to make his heart stop freaking out at the mention of a date. They hadn’t spoken beyond Midnight Madness, save a nod in the hallways on the off chance they passed each other. “Can I use yours, please?” He pouted and poked his lip out, as if Blaine wouldn’t have said yes before.

He gulped. “Yeah, yeah. Of course.” He squeaked despite his best efforts and led Kurt to his bathroom. At least he didn’t have to worry about it being dirty. Leslie was a bit flighty, but they both shared their germaphobe tendencies.

“You just turn the water on like this.” Blaine twisted the knob left then right until it clicked to get the water to the hottest setting. When he turned back around, Kurt had already taken his shirt off. Blaine’s mouth went dry. When his biceps flexed when he moved to unbutton his pants, Blaine covered his eyes and shut the door as fast as he could, not wanting to further exacerbate the situation.

He was almost at his room, ready to bury his head into his pillow and just scream, when Kurt knocked on the bathroom door and said, “Stay?” So soft and barely loud enough over the rushing water that Blane just had to stay.

“I’m here,” he smiled and slid down the other side of the door until he was sitting. “What’s up with your date?” he asked, trying not to sound so bitter.

Water splashes the ground and Kurt yells through the door, “Oh, some guy kept asking me out, for like months. And I eventually just said yes.” Blaine heard a groan from inside the bathroom, and ignored the way all the blood rushed to his face. And other places.

“Do you even want to go out with him?” He didn’t mean to be nosey, truly. But the way Kurt described him, the guy kind of sounded like a dick.

It was a moment before Kurt responded. “I guess. It’s been a while since I’ve been on a date, so…” There was a soft click and the water stopped pouring.

“I get that. I’ve actually never had a boyfriend before, so the only dates I’ve had are usually followed by a messy hookup,” Blaine said. He didn’t know what it was about the whole ordeal that made him want to spill all of his secrets out. His head eventually caught up to what he said though. “Sorry, that was inappropriate.”

“Come in here.”

Blaine shook his head from the narrow hallway. “No, no it’s, that’s–”

“Blaine. Come inside.” Kurt’s voice was deep and stern, but when the door opened, he was laughing softly. Blaine thanked God he was dressed, because he was totally prepared to faint if he wasn’t.

“I have a deal for you,” Kurt said, drying his hair with a towel. “If my date goes terrible, I’ll call you. If it goes well, I’ll still call you.” He grinned and handed Blaine his phone.

It was crazy how contagious his smile was. Blaine felt his lips tug upwards as he typed a smiley face next to his name. “What’s in it for you?”

Kurt rolled his eyes with that same smile on his face and took his phone back. “Getting to hear your voice, or course.” He squeezed past Blaine, who’s limbs had temporarily planted into the floor. “Thanks for the shower, Blaine.” He winked, freaking winked, and Blaine heard the door shut softly behind him.

He smiled alone to himself in his foggy bathroom and turned his ringer all the way up.

#spaceorphan’s sophisticated challenge: exacerbate #tan lines and tan hands #glee #blaine anderson #kurt hummel #two shot #klaine fanfiction #i’m back to writing oblivious blaine #my specialty

7 notes · View notes

multiblaine-blog · 5 years

Photo

Full Name. Blaine Devon Anderson

Date of Birth. April 16

Gender Identity & Pronouns. cis-male // he/him

Romantic & Sexual Orientation. homosexual homoromantic

Hometown. Ada, OH

family.

Mother. Pamela Anderson

Father. Christian Anderson

Siblings. Cooper Anderson (maternal half brother; twelve years older.)

Pets. Rooney (family dog), Marion Cotillard (”family” bird, even though Blaine is the only one who takes care of her.)

Other Family Members of Importance. N/a

Please describe your character’s family dynamics. The Andersons have never been a particularly close family. They all love each other, sure, but they have an odd, often times difficult, way of showing it. It’s the reason Blaine’s father is his mother’s third marriage and the reason why Blaine is convinced his father actually dislikes him. His mother tries her best when she’s around, as does his father. But really, Blaine has felt that they’ve all been walking on eggshells around each other (more than usual) ever since he came out — even more so since that night at Sadie Hawkins. Despite their age difference, Blaine is definitely closest with Cooper — and even that comes with it’s own set of problems.

personality.

Positive Traits. charming, compassionate, bright, ambitious, well-rounded

Negative Traits. impulsive, insecure, needy, dramatic, naïve

canon integration.

assault tw, hate crime tw, homophobia tw, mental illness tw. warnings apply for this portion as well as the biography.

Sadie Hawkins and transfer to Dalton Academy. After coming out during his freshman year, Blaine was severely bullied at his old public school. It all came to a head at the school’s Sadie Hawkins dance, where Blaine had asked the only other openly gay student at school to attend with him. The two were waiting for a ride home when three students assaulted them, putting both of them in the hospital. Blaine received multiple injuries including three broken ribs. He transferred to Dalton as soon as he was healed and finished his freshman year there. He’s currently in his sophomore year at the school.

Mental health. (canon with a lot of headcanon thrown in, I hope that’s okay.) Blaine struggles with his mental health, with it explicitly being mentioned that he suffers from depression in season six. When it is particularly bad, his work ethic and grades suffer. After coming out, the bullying he received from his peers and the later attack at Sadie Hawkins took a heavy toll on his mental health. That, in combination with the time he needed to take off to heal from said attack, caused his grades to slip. Luckily, Dalton’s advisory and guidance department far exceeds the one at his old public school. With their help and additional therapy, he’s on his way to returning back to his old self, academically and socially. *I also headcanon Blaine with borderline personality disorder, general anxiety disorder and mild PTSD. None of these are explicitly stated in canon, obviously, but I thought I would mention them here since I gleaned these headcanons based on what we were presented in the show.

biography.

Blaine did his best to grow up perfect. It wasn’t necessarily what was demanded of him, no. To be honest, neither of his parents demanded much from either him or his older brother. There was no pressure to be anything but themselves. Perhaps that was why they both tried so hard to excel at everything, to exceed expectations. If all that was asked of you was to be yourself, you might as well be the best self you could be, right?

By the time Blaine came around, Cooper already had a twelve-year head start on being his Best Self and Blaine had always felt like he was left behind, trying to play catch up in a race that no one ever told him he was running. From the beginning, Blaine had always felt the odds were stacked against him. He was the result of his mother’s third marriage, too Filipino to fit in with her side of the family — and too white to fit in with his father’s side. To be fair, his father’s side of the family didn’t care for Cooper (or his mother, for that matter) either. Still, somehow, Cooper seemed to have his dad’s approval more so than Blaine did — a fact which had confused Blaine since the moment he became old enough to truly notice it. Blaine supposed it was because his dad had known Cooper longer, had more time to fall in love with him, even though Blaine was his biologically.

Coming out at age fifteen was a triumph as much as it was a setback. A triumph, for him, in that he finally had a word for those feelings he had been feeling for so long about other boys. For the longest time, he didn’t even know he could like boys in that way, so convinced that he just really wanted to be their friend. ‘Gay’ is the answer to the question he had been asking himself for years. The word itself was liberation. It was powerful — in more ways than one.

The setback was that it was another strike against him in the race he’d been running since he was born.

Everything changed. His father, oddly enough, started spending more time with him. But it was forced, contrived and so obviously about changing him rather than getting to know him, that Blaine grew resentful. There were camping trips, and football games (which he, surprisingly, did actually like), and car building sessions (which he liked decidedly less). When she was home from her busy job, his mother would overcompensate, coddling him. His interactions with both of his parents became so stiff and stifling that he actually looked forward to the times when they were away on business — which, thankfully (depending on how you looked at it), happened often enough that the bullying at school went mostly unnoticed.

It all came to a head the night of his schools’ Sadie Hawkins dance. During the dance, he thought it was strange how the same people who had pushed and barreled into him in the hallways during the school year, gave him and his friend a wide berth throughout the night. He truly almost thought they would end the night incident free. It wasn’t until he was in the hospital, nursing three broken ribs, that he realized how stupid that thought had been. They waited until he and his friend were alone to act, attacking them while they waited for their ride home.

There was a headline written about them, news coverage that ran for a week or so until Ohio found something else to care about. “Gay Teens Assaulted After School Dance.” He had to admit, it was not what he’d initially thought his first claim to fame would be.

Blaine’s interactions with his parents changed yet again. His father went back to being distant — present in Blaine’s life the way he had always been, but the alone time they’d spent together when he’d first came out had become a thing of the past. He almost missed it. His mother still coddled him, only now she held him looser, like she was afraid he might break if she hugged him any tighter than she did. Sometimes, she looked at him and it was like she was about to cry.

Dalton was, surprisingly, his father’s idea and Blaine held onto the brochure like it was the only thing keeping him together.

Dalton is safe. Maybe a little boring, sure. But Dalton is also protection and acceptance. He knows he’s being sheltered there but maybe, right now, sheltered is what he needs. Shelter from the sneers and glares and violence of public school, but also shelter away from his mother’s welling eyes and his father’s awkward, stilted conversation at the dinner table. He’s slowly becoming his best self again at Dalton — but his motivations are different. This time, he’s doing it for him. He’s thriving at Dalton, making friends and doing well in his classes. Joining the Warblers and becoming their unofficial lead vocalist lends him a confidence that shines for everyone to see. Singing and performing has always been his passion but having a safe and encouraging environment to do it in does wonders for him.

#( biography. )

0 notes