A/N: This is a AnderBerry fic inspired by the gifs made by http:/ tirpse. tumblr. com/. They're pretty cool, you should check 'em out.

Human, Like You

Chapter 1: Close Up, Camera 1

Shelby Anderson smiled happily down at the dishes in her sink. Normally, chores like these (especially after a big dinner of steak and vegan-supplement steak) made her at least sigh, but not tonight. No, she was very calm tonight. It was very peaceful in the Anderson household. She could hear her daughter humming quietly from the kitchen table as she sewed a bow t her headband; her husband gently playing the piano in the garage; and her son thumping around in his closet upstairs. Yes, tonight the dishes didn't bother her, because today was a good day to do the dishes.

She turned the faucet on and started to scrub at the white, blue rimmed plates. She listened closely to the noises her family continued to make, comforted by their sounds, and she hoped her sounds did the same.

It was about ten minutes before her daughter spoke up from the dining table located in room right in front of the kitchen.

"Mom?"

Shelby turned the faucet off and turned around to see what her daughter was calling her for. "Yes Rachel?" she asked.

"Can I pick up Mercedes to take to school tomorrow?" she asked, still doing her best to sew on a little plaid bow (sewing was not her daughter's forte).

Shelby smiled. "Of course honey, you still have to take your brother though. It's his first day after all," she reminded, and went to drying the dishes she had already washed.

Rachel let out an unnecessary, and very sarcastic, dramatic sigh. "Oh mom, do I have to?"

"Don't you get me started Rachel Barbra," Shelby chuckled.

Again, it was quiet, for about two minutes. This time, the interruption came after a series of foot steps down the stairs and into the dining/kitchen room.

"Mom?"

Shelby stopped her actions again and turned around, this time, to face her son. "Yes Blaine?" she asked.

"Does this look good? I mean, for school tomorrow?" He held open his arms and looked down at his attire. Shelby approached her son and examined him herself, with Rachel in quick tow.

He was dressed cutely. A black button up t-shirt, red skinny jean and a white belt. It was simple and cute. But something was missing.

"What about a bow tie?" she asked, knowing that was her son's trademark "thing". "I buy you five hundred bow and you're not gonna wear one?"

Blaine gave a small smile and chuckled. "No, I just, I'm not sure. I haven't gone to a public school in like, two years. Are bow ties cool?" he directed this question, to Rachel.

"YES," she said in a duh kind of tone that made Shelby roll her eyes. "Bow ties are definitely cool. And you have to trust me, because I'm you're older sister and I know everything." She smiled.

Blaine rolled his eyes. "Yeah, that stopped working when I was twelve Rachel." He shook his head and went to go sit at the counter.

Shelby shook her head at her children and walked back over to the sink. "Are you guys excited for the first day of school tomorrow?" she asked with her back to her kids.

"Yeah," they both responded at the same time.

"FIRST!" Rachel quickly called, claiming that she would get to speak first since they both had spoke at the same time. A running tradition since they were little.

"Dammit," Blaine mumbled, but Shelby's mother ears caught it quickly.

"Blaine Joel Anderson," she quickly snapped.

"Sorry," he mumbled, disgruntled.

"Anyways," Rachel interrupted, clearly wanting her attention back. "I am very much excited for school tomorrow since this will be my senior year."

"Oh, don't remind me," Shelby said. "I might end up crying." She could practically hear her kids roll their eyes. "What about you Blaine?" she asked.

"Well, let's see: first day as a junior, first day at school, and first day at a completely separate high school. Excited." There was sarcasm in his voice, she could hear it.

She walked over to her son and placed a hand on his shoulder. "I'm sorry honey. I know you didn't want to leave Dalton, but-."

"I know Mom," he interrupted, patting her hand on his shoulder. "Too much money, I know." He gave a sad smile.

"We've had a hard year," she continued, nodding her head. "We've all made sacrifices. You're leaving Dalton, you're father and I had to sell our time share, and your sister—." She quickly stopped her sentence and turned a worried look to her daughter, and instantly felt regret. Rachel's happy smile had faded into a sadder look, a look of a girl who's lost. "Oh, honey, I'm sorry," she went over and hugged Rachel tightly. "I'm so sorry."

"It's okay Mom," she assured, though her voice sounded lost. "It's okay. It's not your fault NYADA's not giving out scholarships to girls this year."

Shelby barely chuckled. "Honestly, we're so lucky. You're able to apply to college the one year the scholarship board has decided that NYADA was being unfair to gender in the scholarship give aways."

Blaine chuckled and gave his sister's shoulder a reassuring squeeze. "That's fate for ya."

Rachel threw him a thank-you smile. She looked back at her Mom. "I'm gonna go get ready for bed. Love you," she stood off the stool and let Shelby give her a small peck on the forehead before running off to escape to her room.

Shelby watched after her daughter, then directed her gaze to her son, who looked at her with melancholy smile.

"Go talk with your sister," she ordered, and he complied by kissing her on the cheek and dashing after his sister.

!&!

Rachel was in the process of smiling dramatically when she heard the knock on her door.

"Come in," she called, not bothering to stand up from her desk, where she was staring at her "Bulletin Board of Dreams".

She didn't even have to look to know it was Blaine. He would be the only person to follow her up after a quiet exit like she had. Still, she didn't turn to look at him. She was in the process of being dramatic after all.

"Hey sis," he said.

"Hey," she sighed, still opting for a more theatrical tone.

Blaine rolled his eyes at his older sister's antics before walking up behind her and squatting down next to her chair. "What are sadly gazing at?" he asked.

She lifted her hand and pointed to a to the middle of the board, where a big picture of a large college and the words "NEW YORK ACADEMY of the DRAMTIC ARTS" was pinned.

"Ah," Blaine noised.

"I keep meaning to take it down," she tells. "I just don't know what I would replace that space with."

Blaine looked away from Rachel's precious bulletin board, and to her. "You're gonna be great no matter what Rach," he told. "You don't NYADA like most people, you're always gonna be fabulous."

Rachel turned to look at her brother and smiled. "Thanks."

"Seriously," Blaine continued. "Just think about how great you're gonna feel when you go to audition for the next big Broadway hit, and you beat out all the little NYADA graduates. It's gonna feel awesome," he assured and smiled wider. "You're gonna be great Rach."

Rachel nodded and wiped a small tear that had collected in her eyelid away. "You're a good brother, Blaine," she told.

"I know," he replied, and then leaned up to give Rachel a big hug. When they broke apart he stood up, as did she, and he said, "How about, you and I watch a movie. Hm, perhaps…. Funny Girl?"

Rachel squealed. "YES! Into our jammies, then some Barbra! I love it!"

Both laughed and hugged again.

!&!

The house of the Anderson's was quiet the next morning, until five. Because at five, four separate alarm clocks rang to wake up each of the family members.

Rachel awoke happily, only lightly tapping the "off" button on her fuzzy bunny clock. She sat up on her bed and stretched and yawned, feeling very ready for the day ahead.

She got up and put on her Workout playlist before quickly changing into her 80's styled workout sweats. She jumped on the elliptical and quickly got to work on her thirty meant sweat time.

Today would be good.

!&!

Blaine, on the other hand, woke up a little more…. Slowly. His alarm clock went off on time, yes, but it just kept…. Beeping. Over and over again. Beep, beep, beep. It took him a good two minutes to get annoyed with it and slam on the off button.

He didn't really get up though; he just laid in bed and stared at his ceiling. His boring, white spackled ceiling. He kind of wanted a skylight right there. He'd like to wake up, look up and see clouds and the sky every morning and stars before he fell asleep. That would be nice.

Then, he heard the low sound of music bumping through his walls. He knew this tune, ah but from where? Where was it from?

"What's the time? Well it's gotta be close to midnight!"

Rent, that right. He hadn't seen that musical in awhile, he'd have to watch it later. That was possibly his favourite musical of all time after all.

After a verse and a chorus, he could hear Rachel start up her elliptical machine. These were the downfalls of having a "morning person" sister only one joint bathroom away. He didn't mind too much though, it simply inspired him to finally get up.

He got out his own iPod and placed it on the "Work It Out" playlist, just loud enough to where he could drown out the never-ending Broadway and Celine Dionne that poured from his sister's room. He got dressed in simple shorts and t-shirt for his morning workout. He stretched out his still tired muscles, then laid on the floor and preceded to do some crunches.

!&!

Thirty minutes and two showers later, the two were mostly ready for school.

The house had been custom built to the Anderson family's needs. At age 11 and 12, Blaine and Rachel convinced their parents that their needs involved a jointed bathroom. At that age, they were convinced that a jointed bathroom meant they were adults, like the twins in Sister, Sister. The concept was blurry to the two now, but they were glad to have convinced their Mom and Dad to follow through on their childish request.

Now, the bathroom they shared was quite original. It was only their bathroom, as to say the only doors that led to it came from their separate bedrooms. When you entered, you saw to one side: a big counter that had one sink and plenty of space that was covered with makeup and hair care supplies. A big mirror sat in front of it that was surrounded with light bulbs, like any proper future stars should have. To the other side: a shower right in the middle between two doors that led to separate toilets (they were two separate genders after all). It may sound like the cause of several murder scenes, but the bathroom was the only place where the two had never really fought.

They both entered after being dressed in their clothes and smiled at each other.

"Morning Blainey," Rachel said and sat down at a stool placed in front of the counter.

"Morning Rachy," Blaine replied and sat down on a stool at the other end.

Then, they proceeded to get ready. Rachel started on lightly curly her mostly straight hair. Blaine started on gelling down every little spring poodle-poof lock he was forced to call his hair.

They sat in silence for a few minutes, until Rachel looked over and noticed that Blaine looked very focused on his task, but also…. A little saddened.

"What wrong?" she asked.

He bit his bottom lip before answering, "Do you think it's weird we share a bathroom?"

She let out a loud chuckle and threw her head back at his dumb question. "No, of course not! You're my brother, and you're gay so it's not weird at—."

"Shh!" He stopped his gelling and turned to face her with a look of alarm and half a head of curly hair. "Rachel, shut up! Mom or Dad might hear you!"

He turned to look back through the door and to his room, as if one of his parents was just about to storm in and ask all sorts of questions.

"Oh, calm down Blaine," she told, rolling her eyes. "By now Mom is cooking breakfast and Dad is in the garage retuning his guitar. They're not gonna hear me." She watched him sigh in relief and nod his head, clearly settled by this knowledge. "I don't know why you don't just tell them, Blaine," she said. "It's Mom and Dad were talking about here. Some of Mom's best friends are gay, and Dad works with homosexuals all the time."

"I know," he sighed, going back to his work. "I just… What if it turns out they're the kind of people that are okay with gays, but don't want one in the family? Or—."

"You're being paranoid Blaine," Rachel interrupted. "Were you looking up traumatic stories on Experience Project again?"

He made no reply.

"I promise you Blaine, Mom and Dad won't be anything but happy that you're being honest with them. They love you."

"I know," he sighed again. "Just…. Give me time, okay?" he pleaded.

She smiled over to him and nodded. "Okay." They stayed quiet for only another thirty seconds before Rachel thought to ask: "Are you going to be out at school? I know you were at Dalton, but what about here?"

He hesitated, clearly thinking about this more than necessary. "I think I'll just be one of those guys who stand in front of the closet, you know? Like I'm not gonna burst out with sparklers and Brittney Spears playing, but if someone asks, I won't deny it. You know?"

"Yeah, that sounds like a good idea," she agreed nodding her head.

"Are there other gay kids at McKinley?"

"Yes," she said in her usual "duh" tone. "You remember my friend Kurt?"

Blaine paused and thought as hard as he could. "Kurt… Kurt… Have I met him?"

"Only once, and it was just in passing, but I talk about him all the time," she told. "He's the one who snuck me into the Wicked theatre when we went to New York for Nationals."

"Oh, that's Kurt. Okay. Yeah, I remember him a little." He nodded his head, getting a blurry picture image of him saying "Hi" but not much more. "So, he's gay? How come you've never really introduced us?"

"Well, every time he's been over you were out doing some sort of Warbler thing, so I just could never get the timing down," she told. "You'll definitely get to meet-meet him today though. He's in New Directions which you will be auditioning for, by the way."

Blaine rolled his brown eyes dramatically. "Yes, Rachel, I know."

"Do you have your audition song picked out?"

"Yeah, I've got one."

"What is it?"

"It's a surprise." He smirked evilly and it was Rachel's turn to roll her brown eyes at him. "So, is he the only gay kid at McKinley?" he continued, still curious about his new school.

"The only out one. Well, there is this girl, Santana, and she's like…" Rachel paused, stopping her motions and thinking hard about how to word what she wanted to say. "She's like standing in the closet with the door wide open. Everyone can see her and knows why she's in there, but she refuses to come out."

"Ah," Blaine noised, then started to spray his hair down.

"I still think you should tell Mom and Dad," Rachel said after he finished and she stopped coughing.

"Rach," he groaned.

"Well!" she started to protest. "What if you meet the love of your life this year? You'll have to tell them then."

Blaine rolled his eyes. "I'm not gonna find the 'love of my life' this year Rachel. My 'Finn Hudson' is not in Lima, Ohio. I swear."

And Rachel rolled her eyes once more.

To Be Continued…