Will hadn't looked that hard for the kids the afternoon before when they abandoned him. He figured they needed time to cool down before he talked to them. They had all been so angry, and the charged emotional state of his club had made it impossible for him to explain himself well.

When he walked into the school the next day, Will had no plan for what he would do when he saw his glee kids that afternoon. Hopefully they had become more rational after they thought about what he really said. He hadn't told them that he disliked the gay members; he just didn't want to be around them when they were being physical with each other. He felt like some of the guys of the club could probably sympathize with him.

Will wished that he had his Glee Club students in his classes. The few who had taken Spanish with him had already gone on to upper level Spanish classed taught by the other Spanish teacher or opted out of continuing with the language. In the halls his students always seemed out of reach, and he didn't see them at their usual tables at lunch. He would just have to wait until Glee Club practice to talk to them.

Will walked to the choir room with a stack of sheet music in his hands. It was finally 3:30, time for Glee Club to begin. He almost expected for the room to be empty when he arrived, but every student had come. Will took this as a good sign. He placed the sheet music on the piano and then went up to the front of the room. Looking at their faces, many of them still looked upset and angry. He hoped that he could reassure them.

"I'm glad to see that cooler heads have prevailed, and you've all come back today. I feel like I need to explain what I meant yesterday." He glanced over to Kurt and Blaine. Will noticed that their seats were further apart than normal and they each had their arms folded in front of them. Good, they had taken his suggestions to heart. The icy glare that Kurt sent him still showed a bad attitude, though. "I'm sorry that I phrased my reprimand the way I did, and that you guys became so offended. I just feel uncomfortable around you boys when you're being so open with your public displays of affection. I hope that we can-"

"Mr. Shue," Rachel interrupted him. She didn't sound like her overeager self. Really, her voice was strangely bitter.

"You can talk later, Rachel. I really need to say that-"

"We voted today at lunch for the duets competition." She began walking up to him, carrying little white slips of paper. She shoved them into his hand. "You should count them." She sat back down in the front row. He looked at the paper.

The first sheet had 'Kurt and Blaine' written in large letters, with a star over the "i" in Blaine's name. Well, of course Rachel would vote for Kurt. They had gotten close lately. He flipped to the next paper, 'Blaine and Kurt' written in Puck's boxy, large handwriting. He shuffled through a few more, seeing the same names on each slip. Finally he found Kurt's curvy handwriting with "Santana and Brittany" written on the slip, and a handwriting that he didn't recognize also voted for the two girls. Well, he had said there would be no self voting. By the time that he got finished counting, there was a clear winning pair. Kurt and Blaine had won twelve votes, every vote except their own.

Will felt like this was an attack on him. The kids were just trying to make him look worse. "Guys, seriously? I know you like them, but they didn't even finish their song."

"Well, whose fault was that?" Puck asked from the back row.

"Yeah! Kurt and Blaine were great. You just didn't notice," Finn added.

The kids started whisper amongst themselves, without Will picking up anything in particular. He tried to direct attention back to the front, but they were obviously still reacting to yesterday. In annoyance, he started walking toward the door. "You know what? I just apologized. I can't do anything else. When you guys can put this behind you then feel free to come to my office and get me."

Will sat down in his office in a huff. The kids were just being petty now. He pulled out a stack of worksheets and began grading them. He wasn't surprised that Rachel came into his office a few minutes later. She was always the most devoted to the club.

She sat down in the seat in front of Will's desk and took a deep breath before starting to speak. "Mr. Shue, if my two gay dads sued you on Kurt and Blaine's behalf for what you said yesterday we would probably win." She seemed to be focusing on the name plate on his desk instead of his face. Her voice was determined, but still very bitter. "You called your gay students disgusting, perverted freaks. At the very least you're going to get fired if we bring this up to the proper school authorities." She paused while Will thought about what she was saying. His blood ran cold. He had been so angry that day. Kurt had antagonized him, and he had fallen into the trap. Those words were something he said in the heat of the moment; it didn't mean anything.

Before he could collect himself enough to respond, Rachel was continuing. "So, Kurt and I talked to Ms. Pillsbury about how tired and scatter-brained you've seemed lately. She said that in the event that you were too busy to coach New Directions, she would be willing to be our facility sponsor. At Blaine's old school they have a student-led Glee Club with an adult who just oversees proceedings every now and then. I think we could accomplish that here. Of course, you would need to step down first." Rachel glanced quickly into Will's eyes before looking down again. She seemed a little guilty.

Will was stunned. "Rachel, are you threatening to get me fired if I don't quiet the glee club?"

"I'm just presenting options," Rachel stood up and walked out of the door before Will could stop her. As the door swung closed, he could see Santana at Rachel side with a plotting smile on her face.

The kids didn't show up to Glee Practice after that. Any time he tried to approach them in the halls, they would either close ranks against him or allow themselves to get lost in the crowds. At one point he managed to catch Brittany walking alone after cheer practice, but she just shook her head and hurried away from him.

After four days he resigned his position as Glee Club leader, citing a need to concentrate more on his Spanish classes.

Emma took over the club very shortly afterward. Will wasn't sure what the kids told Emma and Shannon about him, but neither woman really spent much time with him anymore. Emma didn't talk to him as openly as she had before, and Shannon suddenly had too many tasks to get done for her to ever return his invitations to spend time together. Even Sue seemed aware that something had transpired, but she had only responded by walking into his office and informing him that he was now too pathetic to be considered a worthy adversary anymore. With a bullhorn.

A few weeks later he became aware that rumors were spreading throughout the student body about him: a wide range of stories from using hard drugs in his car in the parking lot to having a fetish for dead-body porn that he indulged during his free period. Students didn't visit him after class as much as they use to, and he got more pitying stares. He was sure that Santana or Puck must have been behind the vicious rumors, but neither teenager would get close enough for him to ask. He also heard rumors that the Glee Club is excelling, and that they might actually win nationals this year. Those rumors hurt too.

One day he sees Rachel alone in the hallway putting up posters. He walks by her, not expecting her to say anything. She suddenly speaks. "It was really your apology that was the last straw. Of course we were hurt before, but if you had admitted to having latent homophobic feelings that you were trying to work though we might have helped you. Instead you apologized that we misunderstood what you were saying. You apologized to us because you used the wrong words to describe your repulsive feelings toward gay couples. You apologized for the wrong reasons." She pauses, and he can hear her grab some tape as she plasters a bright 'Class of 2012' poster on the wall. She hasn't looked up from her work since she began talking. "More than a third of the club is part of the LBGT community, Mr. Shue. We couldn't have a teacher who thought they were perverted and disgusting." She walks away.

Will is left cursing the drama and fickleness of teenagers.

A/N: And thus ends my first fill for the Glee Angst Meme. I'm pretty happy with it; I think I want to try filling other prompts there eventually. Thank you for reading.