Something - Quinn Fabray

Chapter 8

Later that week, Kurt entered the McKinley choir room announcing that they were screwed. He'd been shopping for fabric for costumes and had found that the fabric store was out of red Chantilly lace. Further investigations (namely bribing Jacob Ben Israel) showed that eighteen empty boxes of Christmas lights were found in the dumpsters behind Carmel High.

"Wait, what?" asked Mr. Schuester in confusion.

"They're doing Gaga," Kurt explained.

"That's it, it's over," Mercedes sighed.

"They're going to pull out theatricality. They know it's the easiest way to beat us," Kurt worried. "Damn them."

"What's up with this Gaga dude?" Puck asked. "He just, like, dresses weird, right? Like Bowie?"

"Lady Gaga is a woman," Kurt snapped back. "She's only the biggest pop act to come around in decades. She's boundary-pushing, most theatrical performer of our generation! And she changes her look faster than Britt changes sexual partners."

"It's true," Brittney nodded.

Soon Mr. Schuester had decided that this week's assignment would be Gaga. Half the room – consisting of the girls and Kurt – exploded into excitement, while the other boys rolled their eyes and grumbled under their breaths.

Ryan however, wasn't really into the discussion. He liked Lady Gaga fine, although it looked like the other glee guys had something to say about it. But that wasn't what had him so out of it.

**Flashback**

The previous day

After deciding that he was going to find his mother Ryan had finally made a serious effort. He'd looked through boxes full of his baby things that his dads had stored in the basement, but had come up empty. He knew all the important records, including his birth certificate and his adoption records, were kept in a box in his parents' study. He'd even looked for the ad his fathers had placed in the newspaper and looked online if he could somehow get a copy of his adoption records. Unfortunately it would take about a month and submission of identification.

After trawling through all possible options without success for the past week, he'd debated between asking his fathers straight out or trying to get his adoption papers from the study. He decided on the latter, because he didn't want to upset either of his fathers and also because he didn't think they'd give him a straight answer.

Ryan entered his parents' study as soon as he got home from school. He'd told Burt that he wouldn't be at the shop since he had a project to take care of. He was absolutely certain that he wouldn't be caught if he did it at the right time, because his dads were never home in the afternoon. He had one problem though: he had no idea where the papers were kept. He also knew he had to keep everything in place, otherwise he'd be busted and he'd probably get yelled at and have his computer, phone, and iPod taken away.

After about half an hour of searching, Ryan finally hit the jackpot – a manila envelope containing his parents' marriage license, their own birth certificates, the deed to the house and... his adoption records. Checking his watch, he saw it was nearing 4:00, and the later it got the more likely it was that one of his fathers would arrive home. Sure enough, as soon as he thought it, he heard the front door open. Damn.

He hurriedly pulled out his phone and used a scanning app to take pictures of the papers he needed, listening all the while for any warning that someone was coming to the study. After returning the papers to the envelope and then the envelope to the drawer it had come from, he listened carefully at the door, trying to hear where his dad was. Thankfully, he heard the sink in the bathroom running. Sending up a word of thanks for his finely-tuned hearing skills, Ryan exited the study and made his way to his room. Flopping down on the bed, he pulled out his phone and opened it.