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Something was up with Dave Karofsky.
No, scratch that - something had been up with him all summer. He hadn't been to any of the preseason football practices, even though Finn saw him at the 7-11 all the time, so it wasn't like he was on vacation like some of the guys. He went to Coach Beiste about it, but she just shrugged and said that preseason practices were technically optional, so there wasn't anything she could do until August.
But the first mandatory practice came and went with Dave not there. And that was weird. Dave used to be a bully and a jock, sure, but not being one didn't mean he couldn't be the other. After their championship victory last year, this season was sure to get scouts looking at their school. Dave would have to be crazy to give up a shot at college ball. Maybe that was it. Maybe Dave had gone crazy when Finn wasn't looking.
Or maybe he'd lost interest in football. Finn wasn't sure which was the most likely explanation, but either way something was up.
But, as the first day of school showed, not coming to football practice was just the start of the strangeness with Dave Karofsky during their senior year.
They had an unofficial first meeting of Glee for the year after the first day of school, all the returning members showing up in the choir room without being asked, even Mr. Shue. Rachel immediately wanted to plan a recruitment drive, as almost the entire Glee club was seniors this year, and that would not stand.
"Our legacy has to be more than just two trips to Nationals, guys," she declared fervently. (Kurt used that word to describe Rachel once, and Finn looked it up; he's decided that it's almost always true.) "We need to bring more students into the club, especially younger ones, so that when we graduate there's still a glee club left."
Mr. Shue looked kind of touched; the rest of the club looked bored. That happened a lot, when Rachel got fervent.
"What do you suggest, another spontaneous concert like last year?" Tina asked.
"Exactly," Rachel said, smiling.
"I don't know," Mercedes said slowly. "Last time we did that, we only got two new members, and you sent one of them to a crackhouse."
"Yes, well, I won't be doing that this time. There's no point in professional jealousy when I'll be moving on to a college stage." Finn smiled. That was nice of Rachel. "And besides, we'll need someone with as good a voice as me to carry this club once I'm gone." Finn's smile stayed in place. That was typical of Rachel.
"Okay," Finn said. "So, we'll do a couple standard songs outside during lunch?"
He got a few grumbles of agreement in response.
"Alright, cool. How about we meet tomorrow to figure out which songs we want to do, maybe come up with some other recruitment ideas?"
More grumbled agreement. Well, what could he expect on the first day of class of senior year? Frankly, Finn was surprised he was paying this much attention. Taking his sentence as an announcement of the end of the meeting, most of New Directions wandered out of the choir room.
"See you guys tomorrow, then," Finn said to the empty room.
Well, not completely empty. Mr. Shue was still there, and Kurt was waiting for him, since they'd shared a car this morning. And there, standing in the doorway, was Dave.
Finn grinned. "Hey, man," he said, slapping Dave on the back. "I haven't seen you since May, what's up?"
Dave shrugged. "Not much, I guess," he said. "You?"
"Dude. Senior year, I'm captain of the football team that won the championships last year, and co-chair of the glee club that ranked at nationals. I am awesome."
Dave kind of looked away when Finn brought up football. Probably felt bad for skipping practice; Finn got that. "Right," Dave muttered. He looked past Finn's shoulder and nodded. "Hey, Kurt."
"David," Kurt said, smiling politely. Finn didn't know all the details there, but from what he could tell his stepbrother had sort of become friends with his former bully. Which was great - it meant Finn could be friends with Dave without feeling bad about it, along with some other stuff - but it was kind of weird at the same time? They really didn't have anything in common. Except having both been on the football team, sort of. And Dave had been in glee for a week, but he didn't think that counted.
Stepping back from Finn, Dave turned his eyes on Mr. Shue, who didn't look all that surprised to see Dave here. "I was actually hoping to talk to you," he said.
"Of course, Dave," Mr. Shue said. "You know I'm always available if you need someone to talk to."
Dave shifted where he stood, and kind of looked at Finn and Kurt weird. Finn frowned, and stared back - it was habit! he couldn't resist a staring contest, intentional or not - and after a minute Kurt sighed and grabbed him by the arm.
"Come on, Finn," he said, tugging him out of the room. "Dave clearly wants this to be a private conversation."
Looking back on it, Finn kind of thought that maybe they should have stayed, because whatever happened in that room led to Dave being introduced as their newest member at the meeting the next day.
Reactions were... mixed.
Finn didn't know why Mr. Shue was expecting anything less than the outrage he got from most of New Directions. The last two times Dave had been in the choir room, he'd gotten the same response: anger, disbelief, and distrust. Sure, there had been less of that the second time, but had he really expected the protests to drop to zero?
Apparently, based on the disappointed look on his face.
"Guys," he said, frustrated, "this glee club is about giving second chances. Don't you think Dave deserves one?"
"I think he's gotten one too many as it is," Puck said bitterly. "After what he did to Kurt - "
"Leave me out of it," Kurt said, hand raised. "I've made my peace with Dave."
"You've 'made your peace'?" Puck repeated, sounding appalled.
"You heard me." Kurt crossed his legs and looked Dave in the eye. "I have no problem with him joining."
Dave smiled, ever so slightly.
Finn frowned, realizing he'd never seen Dave smile so honestly since... ever? No, wait, he'd seen that smile before. When Dave told the hockey team how awesome their performance was going to be, right before the ringleader said he'd been turned gay.
"I'm cool with it too," he said, and when Dave smiled more he knew he'd made the right decision.
Without Kurt to use as a reason, and the bullying Karofsky had done to them seeming petty in comparison, most of the other complaints fell flat. Until Lauren brought up the obvious problem:
"Can he even sing?"
Flushing a little, Dave averted his eyes. "Yeah," he admitted after a moment. "I can sing."
"You don't sound so sure. Prove it."
Dave sighed and shrugged. "Alright. You guys have a guitar around here anywhere?" Puck had brought his to school, and after a few minutes of hushed conversation with his girlfriend was convinced to let Dave borrow it.
Dave strummed the guitar, getting used to its shape and size, and sat down on a stool. He strummed the opening chords, breathed in and out a few times, and sang. He was a pretty good guitar player, Finn thought as he listened to the bridge. Even though this part of the song was supposed to be more keyboard and drums, he could tell where Dave was.
And he was a pretty good singer, too.
The final chords faded out, and Finn was glad to see he wasn't the only one applauding. Mr. Shue grinned, and shook Dave by the shoulder.
"That was fantastic, Dave," he said. "I knew you had it in you."
Dave smiled a crooked little half-smile and ducked his head. "Thanks." When he looked up again, his face was much more serious. "But I didn't come here just because I can sing."
"Dave?" Mr. Shue looked confused, and he wasn't the only one. Though, now that Finn looked around, he noticed that Santana looked upset, if anything, and Kurt looked like he was going into shock, hand on his heart and everything. Finn nudged his stepbrother with a concerned elbow and was elbowed back, shushed, and waved off by a flap of Kurt's hand. Kurt didn't take his eyes off Dave once.
Maybe he was reading Kurt's face wrong. Or maybe it was one of Kurt's weird moods.
"I just..." Dave sighed. "I'm tired of pretending. Of hiding myself. I don't actually like football all that much; I joined because it would make me more popular. But I'm done with that. I'm going to join hockey again if I can, and glee club if you'll let me. Because you guys are about being true to yourself, or something sappy like that. And that's who I really am - I like hockey, and I like singing, and..." He swallowed nervously.
"Come on," Kurt muttered under his breath. "You can do it. Say it, just say it."
Say what? Finn glanced at his stepbrother, then back up at Dave. What did Kurt know about Dave that they didn't?
"And... I like guys."
Kurt kind of... did a fistpump. A little one, like he was trying not to but couldn't resist. The quietly hissed "yes" made it less subtle though.
Rachel stared at Dave blankly. "What."
"You heard me," Dave said, red-faced.
That seemed to set them off. People shot questions at Dave from all sides, more than a few about Santana and Kurt. Finn watched carefully as Mercedes leaned in and whispered, "Did you know about this?" to Kurt, who had pulled on a poker face after his fistpump of... excitement? victory? of something, anyway.
Kurt didn't say anything. But when Dave looked up at him with a giant question mark on his face, Kurt smiled and nodded.
Finn was going to have to keep his eye on them, he decided. He knew what had been up with Karofsky now, but now he had to figure out what was up with Kurt and Karofsky.