MY QUEST FOR FREEDOM ON THE SCHOOL GROUND
Mister Shuester is handing down papers after he has bored them all for two hours with music coming straight from his thirties' iPod, except that he probably never had one. He likes black and white old movies, drives antique cars and he's still sure they want to sing Lady Gaga at Nationals, which they definitely don't. But he doesn't want to listen to them about the set list anyway, so they probably will have to. A lot of her songs are in their repertoire and they are good for last minute changes – which happen a lot more than it would be healthy – but they would like to do something else every now and then, just not to look like they've been paid by madame Germanotta herself. The fact is, Shuester has no idea whatsoever of what's cool right now and his mind is stuck in a time when their parents where young, which is even harder for Leo since his father was actually one of his students.

“William McKinley High School,” Leo reads as soon as the paper reaches him. “Wow, that's headed.”

“Yes, the principal is going the whole hog this time, because we are going...” Shuester runs to his whiteboard of doom and writes on it as if just telling them the words weren't enough. “To Nationals!”

Actually, Nationals is in three days and they all know quiet well they're going to go to New York for that, so there is no real need for him to say it again. Mister Shuester tends to be uselessly overexcited sometimes. Luckily, they know how to bear with him.

“And what do we have to do with this?” Leo asks, running quickly through the paper. It's a form with name and address and all kind of stuff to fill, so he supposes that it must be brought back.

Mister Shuester turns towards him, still overexcited. “You bring it home and make one of your parents sign it. I need it back for tomorrow's last rehearsal. It's the permission request to take you all to New York.”

Leo frowns. Since Blaine is gonna be one of the judges at Nationals, he has invited him over in New York two days before the competition. Leo is taking the first flight after school, Blaine is picking him up at the airport and they are going to spend most of the time locked up in his apartment until Leo will have to meet his team members on Monday. Leo is really looking forward to that, so he won't give up because of a stupid permission. “I won't be there tomorrow, because I'm leaving for New York in four hours, you knew that,” he says. “Can I bring it to you there?”

“No,” mister Shuester shakes his head. “I need it before we actually leave.”

“But I'm not leaving with you!”

Harper instantly stands up and her perfectly red flats click together like Dorothy's in the Wizard of Oz. She has been beaming just one moment before because she had just received her solo and now she looks at Leo like she's ready to kill him. “Wait, you can't bail on us. You're the male lead!”

Leo rolls his eyes, she really can be overly dramatic sometimes. “I'm not bailing on you. I will be there for the competition, only I won't travel with you.”

“And what about the team spirit?”

Leo looks puzzled. “What?”

Harper sighs, in a very paternalistic way and takes a couple of steps forward. Her fair skin and perfectly combed hair make her look creepy, like one of those old porcelain dolls in an old crazy lady's house. “Experiencing everything together as a group is extremely important for a show choir, it helps coordination and gives the group a sense of unity. Do you think it's responsible of you to skip the last rehearsal and make the trip on your own?”

“I'm visiting relatives,” he lies.

“What am I gonna do tomorrow? Who's gonna practice with me for our duet, Leo?”

Leo hates her. Or at least, he hates her when she opens her mouth and speaks, which happens too often for him to say that he doesn't at least dislike her very much. According to his father Kurt, Harper Eichelbaum is a living clone of Rachel Berry, sharing with Leo's aunt a perpetual annoying behavior associated with an astonishing talent. Harper being a Jew too makes the similarity even bigger. Leo couldn't agree more and fears the moment the two women will be in the same room. For now, he has always managed to avoid Harper's entreaties to meet her idol, but he can't run forever. Someday Harper will get what she wants, because she always does.

“I'm sure one of the guys can help you with that,” Leo says, combing his curls with his fingers. “You will have to choose one of them anyway after you'll bore me to death.”

“Mister Shuester!” She squeaks, turning toward the teacher. “Did you hear that? How am I supposed to work like this? I need a strong male lead, someone I can count on. Leonard, you're really good but clearly you are not as committed as I am. No offense.”

Leo gestures at her, nonchalantly. “None taken,” he says. “Besides, almost the entirety of what you say is offensive for one reason or another, so I just ignore you anyway.”
He has never wanted to be male lead for the glee club. He likes to sing and he's pretty good at it, but it's not like he wants to be a singer when he grows up. Two great Broadway stars in the family are enough, let alone Blaine. “Now, mister Shue about my permission...”

“It's not my call Leonard. It's like this or not at all,” Shuester says. “Find another way to bring me back that permission in time. Doesn't your father work today? You can go to ask him now.”

Leo sighs and slowly gets up, taking his backpack with him. Harper follows him to the door of the choir room, begging him to come back before practice is over and he really considers the idea of spending the rest of the day on the field with his dad, just not to see her face again before Nationals.

*

Leo's dad has become coach of the McKinley Football team four or five years after he graduated, just around the time he and Kurt were adopting him. Actually that part of his parents' life has been extremely quick, as if they wanted to make up for the time they had lost, even if they were just kids back then. They has gotten together and married in a couple of years and they have decided to adopt him right after that, when Kurt was just having his moment on Broadway and was constantly going back and forth from Lima.

Having his dad working in his school is both a good thing and a damnation. It's useful when something like this happens and he really needs him, but his constant presence on school ground stops him from playing hooky because Dave would always know. Since he started high school, he has never missed a single day of school unless he was really sick. Also, his dad being able to show up anywhere and anytime has proved to be really embarrassing sometimes, let alone that Dave is a teacher, which means Leo has to bear all the bitter comments that athletes and other students say when they are upset with him. Obviously Leo doesn't get mad at those people because he says mean things about teachers too, but sometimes it just sucks.

It's almost four o'clock. At this time, the football team is practicing on the field. He knows that because his best friend Adam is the quarterback and they know each other week schedule. Adam's is really easy, though. He isn't in any club and he has football practice every day till five o'clock. That's why they always end up arranging to meet after that. Leo and Annie often go to the field to watch the team practice while they are waiting for Adam. Also, they are both into jocks, so they like the occasional eye-candy.

He takes a peek at the locker room, just standing on the doorstep. Some of the guys are inside, taking a shower or just coming out of it. One of them – Leo thinks his name is Patrick – is drying his blonde hair right in front of Leo's eyes, giving him something to look at. His intense staring section is abruptly cut off by his best friend, storming out from behind the lockers and wearing only a towel.

“What are you doing here?” He asks sternly as he stands in front of him to cover the view.

Leo happily moves his eyes on him. Adam's bare six pack is equally appealing to him. “I have to ask my father to sign some papers for Nationals,” he explains, showing him the two pages form he still has to fill in.

“Coach Karofsky is on the field,” Adam says.

“I see, and you can't call him Dave with me as you do at my house, can you?”
Adam would blush if blushing were his thing. Instead, he gets on the defensive. “Here it's different. He is my coach. That's what the team call him: coach Karofsky.”

Leo gives him the best pity look he can come up with. “I see,” he says slowly. “Anyway, it's shorter through the locker room.”

“And you expect me to believe that?” Adam asks, crossing his arms to his chest. He keeps giving Leo the eye.

“I actually wasn't expecting anything from you,” Leo smirks. “I didn't even know you were going to be here.”

“And where should I have been according to you?”

Leo shrugs, and walks around him, smiling when he finds out the cute enough Patrick has been replaced by the freaking hot whatever his name is. “I don't know, on the field with my dad. Practicing or whatever you do out there.”

“Hi Leo! What's up, man?” A guy calls, waving at him after fixing the towel around his hips. He is tall, with black hair and wide shoulders. His name is Paul and if he remembers something of the night he went out with Adam and his friends, Paul is a guard or something. And he's also really hot.

“Hi, man! I saw the match last week. Good job!” Leo smiles.

“Thanks. See you around.”

Adam literally makes him turn around, grabbing him by his shoulder. “What are you doing?”

Leo shakes his head. “Nothing. I was just talking.”

“I know you. That wasn't talking,” Adam says and then he lowers his voice. “That was trying to get in my friend's pants. You were flirting.”

“Don't say that like I was trying to smuggle human organs.”

“So you really were flirting!” Adam says outraged.

Leo rolls eyes. “No, I wasn't. I was just talking with a cute guy who happened to be half naked and thank God for that.”

Adam points at him, his mouth wide open. “I know that look, you were thinking about it. Oh my God, you were! Don't you think about anything else in the world?”

“Come on, Adam! I wasn't doing anything wrong. He was there, he is cute, I just looked at him. He didn't mind, so why do you?”

Adam dries his hair nervously with a tower. “Because this is the boys locker room.”

“Yes, so what?”

“So, it is not fair of you to sneak in here because you like boys!”

Leo looks at him with a raised eyebrow. If it were anyone else, he would get mad. But Adam's mindset is weird and he has learned to live with it through the years. “Adam, I like girls too. Does it mean I'm not allowed in any locker room?”

“I don't know how it works for you bi-people, but...” he stammers. “You know, you are my best friend and I know you and stuff. So I don't have a problem with that. But dudes are, like, you know, they like they're privacy.”

Leo sighs. “Latest news, Adam. I am a dude too. That's why I can enter in here while I get suspended if I enter the girls locker room, because we're all the same under the towel, no matter what.”

“I don't know about that,” someone says, chuckling. “Adam might have some problems down there.”

“Fuck you,” Adam says, but he chuckles. He throws the towel he used for his hair to his teammate and starts dressing, removing the towel around his hips only at the end. “Shut up!”

“I bet he knows Adam's junk by heart,” someone else says, his voice sounds mocking. When Leo turns around, he sees it's Zack. They had sex once, two years ago and it caused a lot of drama because Zack didn't use a condom and for the longest two weeks of his life, Leo has been scared to death. Apparently, the closeted jock is still closeted.

Adam steps forward, just in case. But Leo is fine. “Do you?” He asks, smirking. “'Cause it seems to me that staying here every day you see him naked more than I do. Maybe you like him.”

Zack rages and stands up quickly. Leo tenses because he knows that if Zack actually decides to hit him, he can't do much to avoid that since fighting is not his thing. Luckily for him, Adam makes him move. “Okay, that's enough,” he says, pushing him through the locker room to the field's entrance. “Zack, you can sit back down. Nobody likes homophobes, so you better stop acting like one. While you find your brain back, I take away this pain in the ass here.”

“I'm not a pain in the ass,” Leo protests.

“Consider yourself lucky, I was being polite,” Adam snorts. Then he drags him to the field. “I should have let him beat you to death.”

“He started it!”

“And you fueled it,” Adam scolds him. “You are an impossible prick, and one of this day someone will kick the living shit out of you because I won't be there to save your ass.”

Leo chuckles. “As if every time you turn your back, something bad happens.”

“It actually does!” Adam says, glaring at him. “Last time I wasn't watching, you got with that old man.”

Leo smirks. “You wanted to watch?”

Adam growls and pushes him on the field. “Go to your father, I'll wait here,” he says. “Then we're going back without passing through the locker room.”
Leo just chuckles, but he does as he says.

*

When Leo reaches his father, he is yelling at some poor jock covered in sweat who grimaces every time his father yells a word. By the look of it, it seems like the jock has killed somebody or something. Leo stands a few feet from them and waits for the storm to pass. His father never yells at them like this at home, but that's probably because they don't need to score a try. Also, Kurt screams hysterically enough for the four of them, so his father would rather stay quiet.

“Twenty laps. Now!” Dave screams, pointing in the vague direction of the field. The jock nods once and then starts to run right away. “And if I see you slacking, you do forty! Then sixty in multiply of two, so you will learn math, finally!”

Leo coughs. “What did he do? Got the head cheerleader pregnant?”

“God, I hope not. Last thing we need is...” Dave realizes he is talking to someone whom he didn't know was there and turns around. “Leo? What are you doing on the field? Who let you in?”

“Actually, dad, the field is open to everyone and I could have let myself in anytime, but for your information I've been escorted here by the quarterback himself. He's nice. We should definitely invite him over for dinner one of these days.”

“Walker spends more time with us that with his own family,” he snorts.

“Walker? Oh, I get it. We are on the field, so you both pretend you don't know each other so well, as if Adam never slept over when he was five and you got him to the bathroom 'cause he had problems with his jeans zipper.”

“I don't want the other guys to think I play favorites to him.”

“But you do. You love Adam,” Leo chuckles. “He's the son you've never had!”

Dave frowns because in seventeen years he has never learned this is a joke from Leo. “Now, what does this even mean? You know I love you and I don't care if you don't like playing football. But since he does, what's wrong in playing with him now and then when he comes visiting?”

Leo smiles. “I was messing with you, dad. Again.”

Dave blushes maybe a little and then coughs to cover it up. “Go on and make fun of your old man, kiddo. I should have spanked you when it still meant something, but your father was strongly against what he calls barbaric methods of education.”

“Now, we don't want to talk about spanking, do we?” Leo says, raising an eyebrow. “I don't know if I'm ready to tackle this argument with you.”

It takes Dave an entire minute to get the pun and then he just looks at his son with wide open eyes. “Let's pretend you never said that, okay? Let's start this over. I'm your father, you're not in class. Is someone dead?”

Leo chuckles. “Nope. I just need you to sign something.”

Dave takes the papers his son gives him, frowning. “What did you do this time?”

“Nothing! It's not a reprimand note,” he says, outraged. “It's a permission request. Mister Shuester needs that signed to get us all to Nationals. But I have to give it back to him today, because I leave in four hours.”

Dave reads it quickly. “That would be a good reason not to. I mean, you could leave with the other kids of the Glee club. It would be fun.”

“I don't doubt that. But I haven't seen Blaine in three weeks, and two days alone in New York with him are definitely more fun than a week with my glee club.”

“I bet they are,” Dave hisses.

“Dad, you can't take your promise back,” Leo says. “You told me I had to take at least two As, one of them in math, and four Bs to go. And as a matter of fact, I took three As and five Bs, so...”

“So I could still tell you I don't like that man and you shouldn't be allowed to see him in New York alone just because you can.”

Leo doesn't say anything. He just sighs. They've had this conversation countless times and he knows that if he doesn't reply at all, his father can't get really mad and ground him. So he shuts up and waits for him to finish to disparage Blaine for whatever reason he can find. His age is always a constant, but Dave always adds some other thing, like his job, his lifestyle, the way he parks his car or something. Apparently, this time is that Blaine invited Leo over for the weekend.

“He is one of the judges,” Dave is saying. “He shouldn't have contact with any of the contestants.”

“But I am his boyfriend.”

“It's even worse,” Dave frowns. “He shouldn't have accepted to be the judge in the first place.”

Leo can't help but smirk. “So he could be with me without being an inappropriate judge? I can agree with that.”

Dave glares at him. “You know what I meant.”

“Maybe,” Leo smirks again. “Can I have my signed papers, now?”

Dave can't do anything but sign. “Fine. Do you need me to take you to the airport?”

Leo shakes his head. “Adam drives me there after school.”

Dave nods. “Then take this damn permission and get out of here,” Dave growls, but he grabs him by his wrist before he can move. “But call me as soon as you land. Does he pick you up?”

“Yes. And yes.”

“Fine. Then call me when you land, when you get to his home and every day too.”

Leo chuckles. “I'll do what I can to let you know I'm alive every two seconds,” he says. Then he hugs his father and kisses him on the cheek. “Goodbye.”

“Goodbye. Be a good kid. Now, get lost.”

Leo chuckles and watches his father walk to the center of the field and start yelling to the kid who has just finished running his laps. Then he turns around and leaves.

*

When Leo lands at Laguardia Airport, Blaine is already there, shining in his brand new black Armani suit. People are staring at him as he waits for Leo outside Arrivals because he probably looks familiar to a lot of them and, if not, he still looks like some famous artist's bodyguard with those sunglasses on.

Leo chuckles spotting him instantly in the crowd. He can't kiss him in front of people, so he drags his trolley with him and stop right in front of him, looking up. “Do you know you look like an hitter? I would say you probably hide a gun somewhere, but then you would say that you will show your gun to me later, so I will cut the raunchy puns here and I let you drive me to the nearest McDonald because I'm starving.”

“God, how much I'd like to kiss you so you would shut up. You just arrived and you didn't even catch your breath.”

Leo smirks. “But you can't.”

Blaine sighs but smiles. After all he brought Leo's madness on himself. “So, how come you didn't eat on the plane? You traveled in first class, all-inclusive.”

“Yes, but the all-inclusive didn't include a burger, so I passed,” Leo shrugs.

Blaine chuckles. “You are so spoiled, kid. I swear,” he says. “Anyway, it's better if nobody sees me with you, so what if we go back to my place and order from there? If they haven't already taken all possible photos of the two of us together.”

“Fine by me.”

Blaine escorts him to the car and puts his suitcase in the trunk while Leo gets in the car. “So, was it hard to get here two days before the competition?” He asks, getting in the car too and turning the engine on.

“Don't make me even start,” Leo sighs, rolling his eyes and placing his feet on the dashboard, even though he knows very well he shouldn't. “First I had to defeat the Evil Witch of the North, who wanted to chain me to herself and kept me like a little bird to sing with her forever, then I reached the forest of the young, stud centaurs. I had to pass through it but it was hard because the centaurs were distracting me with their beauty and I just wanted to lie there forever and let them take care of me. But a prince in shining armor came to save me and brought me safely out the forest. But it wasn't over! There the terrible ogre was waiting for me, but I managed to get his precious mark on my travel warrant scroll and here I am!”

Blaine chuckles. “Let me guess: Harper, the football team locker room, Adam of course and your father?”

“Bingo,” Leo says.

“God, you're good at this,” Blaine says, honestly impressed. “You should consider a career as a novelist, you know? You could write children books or something.”

Leo leans back against the headrest and looks at him, sighing languidly. He waits for Blaine to stop at a red light and then grabs him by his shirt and pulls him closer to kiss him. “We'll see,” he says eventually. “For now, my job is to bring my club to win Nationals.”

“And you are sure about that.”

Leo smirks. “Of course I am,” he says. “I know one of the judges.”

Blaine chuckles. “Dream on, kid,” he says and keeps going as the streetlight turns green.
There is no way he will let Leo's team win if they are not good, but Leo will be the death of him anyway.
By sex or everything else he doesn't really know yet.