storypaint (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
storypaint) wrote2009-12-20 08:06 pm
storypaint) wrote2009-12-20 08:06 pm
Entry tags:
This Is Hard (Sue gen)
Title: This Is Hard
Fandom: Glee
Length: 556 words
Prompt: Glee Fic!Battle: Sue, Her childhood, Any
Pairing: Sue gen
Other: PG for child abuse (nothing really worse than in the show).
Excerpt: It's Sue's earliest memory, running laps in the steady drizzle because a B+ isn't enough. Her legs are short and her hair is long and blonde. She's beautiful, because winners are beautiful, and she's going to be a winner. She's a Sylvester, after all.
"You think this is hard? You think this is hard?"
It's Sue's earliest memory, running laps in the steady drizzle because a B+ isn't enough. Her legs are short and her hair is long and blonde. She's beautiful, because winners are beautiful, and she's going to be a winner. She's a Sylvester, after all.
And she's six years old.
"You think this is hard? Try raising a daughter on your own, that's hard!!"
*
Sue is ten when she goes to National competition for the spelling bee. She flubs "exhilarate," a word she's certain she can spell in her sleep, and her mother doesn't speak to her for two weeks. She's sitting in front of the television with a microwaved dinner when her mother stalks into the room and changes the channel without asking.
It's something boring, it's a rebroadcast of an old competition, but both Sue and her mother lean forward when a little blonde girl shows on the screen, biting her lip fiercely and leaving out the H in exhilarate. Sue is fascinated; she's never seen herself on video before. It is like an out-of-body experience.
Now, now, she thinks, she can see all the flaws. The flowery dress is insufficiently intimidating, her hair is too long, and she doesn't look confident at all whatsoever.
"You think this is hard?" she growls at the screen. Her mother leans forward and puts a hand on top of her head. They sit like that for exactly thirty-five seconds before Sue gets up and storms off to find the dictionary.
She wants to know all of them for next year.
*
Sue's dad comes back when Sue is fifteen. She's never seen him except in a few half-shredded pictures, but she feels like she would recognize him anywhere. He has an awful smirk.
"Sue--" he says, tenderly and drunkenly, "Sue, Sue, Susie, you've grown so big--"
And that is the first time that Sue Sylvester is arrested for assault.
*
When Sue graduates from teaching college, she has eighteen offers to sort through, seventeen high schools that want her to coach their cheerleading teams and one that wants her to teach English Medieval-Era Honors Literature (which is technically her degree). She's been coaching on the side since she graduated high school, and she knows exactly what she wants. She picks the high school with the most pliant principal and settles in, picking through the mediocrity for the shine underneath.
The second year, they go to Nationals, and they're all kicked off the team when they don't win, but Sue Sylvester is in the newspaper and on the television and this time she's Ajax, mighty Greek warrior, with the perfect scowl and the sharpest stance. She'd bring a spear to her appearances but it's always difficult to fit the damn thing in her car.
"You think this is hard!" she screams at her new crew. "My mom just died, that's hard!"
No one believes her and Nicole Neider starts crying because her mom was weak and passed away three days ago. It throws off the pyramid and Sue makes them all run laps to make up for Nicole's failure.
"You have to want it more than anything in the world," she growls at them when she finally lets them stumble to the shower.
And that is how Sue sees it.
Fandom: Glee
Length: 556 words
Prompt: Glee Fic!Battle: Sue, Her childhood, Any
Pairing: Sue gen
Other: PG for child abuse (nothing really worse than in the show).
Excerpt: It's Sue's earliest memory, running laps in the steady drizzle because a B+ isn't enough. Her legs are short and her hair is long and blonde. She's beautiful, because winners are beautiful, and she's going to be a winner. She's a Sylvester, after all.
"You think this is hard? You think this is hard?"
It's Sue's earliest memory, running laps in the steady drizzle because a B+ isn't enough. Her legs are short and her hair is long and blonde. She's beautiful, because winners are beautiful, and she's going to be a winner. She's a Sylvester, after all.
And she's six years old.
"You think this is hard? Try raising a daughter on your own, that's hard!!"
*
Sue is ten when she goes to National competition for the spelling bee. She flubs "exhilarate," a word she's certain she can spell in her sleep, and her mother doesn't speak to her for two weeks. She's sitting in front of the television with a microwaved dinner when her mother stalks into the room and changes the channel without asking.
It's something boring, it's a rebroadcast of an old competition, but both Sue and her mother lean forward when a little blonde girl shows on the screen, biting her lip fiercely and leaving out the H in exhilarate. Sue is fascinated; she's never seen herself on video before. It is like an out-of-body experience.
Now, now, she thinks, she can see all the flaws. The flowery dress is insufficiently intimidating, her hair is too long, and she doesn't look confident at all whatsoever.
"You think this is hard?" she growls at the screen. Her mother leans forward and puts a hand on top of her head. They sit like that for exactly thirty-five seconds before Sue gets up and storms off to find the dictionary.
She wants to know all of them for next year.
*
Sue's dad comes back when Sue is fifteen. She's never seen him except in a few half-shredded pictures, but she feels like she would recognize him anywhere. He has an awful smirk.
"Sue--" he says, tenderly and drunkenly, "Sue, Sue, Susie, you've grown so big--"
And that is the first time that Sue Sylvester is arrested for assault.
*
When Sue graduates from teaching college, she has eighteen offers to sort through, seventeen high schools that want her to coach their cheerleading teams and one that wants her to teach English Medieval-Era Honors Literature (which is technically her degree). She's been coaching on the side since she graduated high school, and she knows exactly what she wants. She picks the high school with the most pliant principal and settles in, picking through the mediocrity for the shine underneath.
The second year, they go to Nationals, and they're all kicked off the team when they don't win, but Sue Sylvester is in the newspaper and on the television and this time she's Ajax, mighty Greek warrior, with the perfect scowl and the sharpest stance. She'd bring a spear to her appearances but it's always difficult to fit the damn thing in her car.
"You think this is hard!" she screams at her new crew. "My mom just died, that's hard!"
No one believes her and Nicole Neider starts crying because her mom was weak and passed away three days ago. It throws off the pyramid and Sue makes them all run laps to make up for Nicole's failure.
"You have to want it more than anything in the world," she growls at them when she finally lets them stumble to the shower.
And that is how Sue sees it.
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