"Rachel, that's too many lights. You'll blow a fuse." Artie's soft but clear voice called to the small brunette bending over the power outlet.
"It's fine! I need these lights!" Rachel snapped back. Artie fell silent, bowing his head. Tina came over and put her hand lovingly on his shoulder.
"I agree, besides all those light are shining on you."
Kurt chimed in, "Shouldn't a star be able to shine on her own" Rachel turned and scowled at the glee club.
"I know that this club is not as important to you guys as it…"
"Whoa, okay Rachel lets just do the number. We can argue about lights later." Mr. Schuster was playing the peacekeeper again. They made it through the number mostly uneventfully, until Finn messed up on the dance moves resulting in Artie's chair being knocked over.
"Really, sorry dude." Finn said as he helped Artie back in.
"It's okay Finn. Really," he said, rubbing his side, "It was my fault. My chair is always in the way. I really should just quit."
"Artie you know that's not true" Tina said, and the rest of the team nodded.
"Yeah. Come on man, you know we can't win without you" Mercedes said smiling.
"Well, actually we probably could." Rachel commented, looking thoughtful. The rest of the club glared at her. Artie hung his head dejectedly and rolled away. Tina and Mercedes scoffed at Rachel as they grabbed their bags and left. The rest of the club dispersed, most shot Rachel a dirty look before they left. Soon it was only Rachel and Finn left in the auditorium. Finn grabbed his bag and turned. Rachel was standing there crying.
"Hey, Rach. You okay?" he said as he walked over to her. Rachel gave a tremendous sniff, shook back her hair and said, "Everybody hates me."
"Hey, it's okay." Finn said, wrapping his arms around her, "They don't hate you. They were just mad about what you said to Artie."
"I don't try to be mean, it just sort of comes out." Rachel's voice was muffled. She buried her head deeper into Finn's chest and cried. Finn held her, rubbing his hands up and down her back. Then he stopped.
"Rach do you smell that?"
"What?"
"It smells really weird in here." Rachel broke away from Finn and suddenly the overloaded power outlet exploded, setting off a deadly chain reaction that was causing fire to travel in between the walls, up throughout the higher floors of the building. But Rachel and Finn didn't know that. All they knew was suddenly the auditorium was on fire. Raging fire.
"GO!" Finn cried pulling Rachel with him, but the fire was waiting on the other side of the door. Rachel screamed when she saw it.
"Come on we'll make it through!" Finn yelled over the screams that were coming from the classrooms now engulfed in flames. He took Rachel's hand and plunged through the fire in front of them.
Artie was not in a very good mood when he left the auditorium. He rolled his way down the hall trying not to be hit in the head with bags. This was fairly unsuccessful. To make things worse, someone slushied him before he was halfway there. He sighed and rolled into the bathroom to get cleaned up. After getting most of it out of his hair and lamenting about his ruined sweater-vest, he rolled back out. It was then that he realized something was wrong. All the students were running the same way. Then he saw it. The fire. It was so close; he could feel the heat making him sweat. His heart was pounding in his ears. He took a deep breath and rolled into the stampede. He was going as fast as he could, but there were so many people running. He was boxed in, unable to turn. All he could do was go with the rush of people and hope he got out alive. He didn't know who did it. All he knew was that somewhere in the confusion his chair tipped. Artie felt his nose break as he hit the floor. Ignoring the blood he tried to get back to where his chair was. Artie pushed himself onto his elbows only to be kicked in the back of the head. He groaned as his glasses went flying. He could feel the students' feet trampling him. He screamed as someone stepped on his back. It had always been sensitive, but now, after being kicked and trampled, it killed! Then everything started to go quiet. Artie opened his eyes. The stampede was over, but the flames were still coming. The heat was scorching his throat with every breath. Artie started pulling himself along the floor. His hand brushed something. Another hand. He turned his head. Who was it? Tina? He hoped not. He hoped she was safe outside. He couldn't bring himself to think the alternative. Artie squinted through the smoke and was able to make out a large figure. He grabbed at the hand and pulled. The body slumped toward him. Artie saw its face and screamed.