Something - Quinn Fabray

Chapter 2

Ryan woke up every day at six in the morning. He always took a jog before anything else, since it kept him physically fit while clearing his mind at the same time. After that he returned home and took a shower. He then went downstairs for breakfast to see if it was one those rare mornings when one of his gay dads had made breakfast. Today was not one of those days, so he made himself a bowl of cereal and sat down, thinking about the events of the past few days.

It had been two days since Sectionals. They'd won of course, and they were moving on to Regionals. A smile came to his face as he thought about the trophy that now resided in their choir room.

He'd ended up with the solo after all, even after that little spat with Mercedes. And of course, that diva-off with Kurt when they sang Defying Gravity. Thinking back on it, he still wasn't sure how they had ended up doing that song. Kurt had ended up throwing the contest after someone had made a hate phone call to his dad. That was the only reason Ryan had won, he knew that even if he'd been good enough to sing it to a full house in the Gershwin Theatre, he still wouldn't have won the contest if not for Kurt's purposely-cracked high note. He knew that it was a popularity contest and not a singing contest, and everyone liked Kurt better than they liked him. He wasn't stupid, he knew he had an obsessive need to be right all the time, he wanted all the solos, and he was very blunt in his critiques of his teammates.

That didn't mean it didn't hurt though.

And he was trying to rein it in. He'd even given Mercedes the solo for Sectionals! Granted, he had gotten it anyway, but that had to count for something. And he couldn't really help being blunt with his critiques. He didn't tell Finn that he cracked on the high notes, or tell Mike that he couldn't even hear his voice most of the time. But at some point, they needed to know, otherwise how were they supposed to improve?

Ryan finished up his breakfast, washed the bowl and returned to his room. His dads hadn't showed up at Sectionals. Of course, not all the parents of the other kids had shown up, so it wasn't a big deal. Still it would have been nice if they'd support him. He knew neither of his dads were interested in music and show choirs. They hadn't really talked in a while, and he suspected they didn't quite know how to talk to him. He knew he didn't know how to talk to them, they had pretty much nothing in common.

Plus they were rarely in the house at the same time. Leroy and Hiram were often out on business trips. Neither of them had been home when he arrived after Sectionals, and he'd been alone in the house until his papa Leroy had gotten in a bit after 10. Ryan had been asleep when Hiram had got in. At least he assumed he'd been asleep, sometimes one or the other of his parents didn't come home. Never at the same time though, and Ryan supposed it was better than nothing.

Checking his watch, Ryan decided to start his walk to school. He arrived about 15 minutes later, only to be greeted by a cherry slushy right to the face. Back to normal, then.

"Nice one Karofsky!"

"What a loser!"

Ryan sighed and wiped some of the crushed ice out of his eyes, making sure to keep his head high and his back straight. He made his way to his locker and pulled out the extra clothes he kept there and proceeded to the nearest bathroom.

School dragged by, painfully slow, before the bell rang and he could leave. Thankfully he'd managed to get through the day without another slushy attack. And he'd been able to sit next to Quinn at lunch. Ok, so he had a bit of a crush on the girl, he couldn't help it. Put it down to teenage hormones. Mr. Schuester had told them there wouldn't be a glee meeting today, so Ryan made his way to Burt Hummel's auto shop.

He'd always been fascinated by engines, and when he was 12 he'd been partnered with Kurt for a history project. They'd ended up working in the office of the auto shop after school one day, and he'd met Burt, who had been happy to answer the small boy's questions, and eventually teach him a few tricks. Last summer Ryan had spent so much time at the shop that Burt had finally offered him a part-time job, which he jumped at. His dads had been out on so many business trips that he'd hardly seen them, and he didn't really have a lot of friends. He'd become pretty close with Burt over the years, which had caused some tension with Kurt. Kurt didn't have anything to worry about though, Ryan knew Burt loved his son a lot. Ryan and Burt's relationship consisted of bonding over engine work and lube jobs.