For the longest time, there's been a headcannon floating around that April Rhodes of Ryan Murphy's Glee is the long lost, abandoning mother of Goldie from Ryan Murphy's The New Normal. Since these two worlds seem to connect via the fact they're both opened in Ohio, I've decided to take this headcannon and run with it, resulting in the following fanfic.
Basically, April Rhodes is Jane Forrest's incredibly short daughter, her last name is Rhodes because she took the last name of her father when her parents divorced. Sue Sylvester is her aunt, Jane's twin and the only character I could not come up with an explanation for her different last name.
I made Jane and Sue twin sisters anyways because 1) Jane and Sue are basically the same person, only one is a cheerleading coach and the other is a realtor, 2) twins run in families and skip generations, so if Jane had a twin then April would have twins, thus continuing thecanon fact that April had twins, and 3) it's Sue. Come on. I had to use her somewhere.
(NOTE: This is probably not one of my best works, I wrote it between midnight and two AM on my sleepless nights during winter break.)
April stared at the little pink plus, her hands trembling and her breath catching in her throat. Maybe it was wrong, this was only the first one after all.
Three more later. All four of them now scattered across the floor, each one containing the dreaded symbol. The blonde couldn't breathe. She couldn't move. Her heart was pounding in her chest and she felt like she was going to be sick.
This wasn't happening. It couldn't be. She'd been warned about this over and over by her mother. She'd been careful. Obviously not careful enough.
What was she going to do? Tell her mother? Probably not. She'd just get another of her (many) lectures about how it was never going to work out and he'll be gay or something. Like her father. With Jane, everything came back to her father.
"How could you be so stupid?" the tall woman shouted. "Haven't you learned anything from what I've told you? He's going to leave you and you're going to have to deal with this by yourself. He'll probably turn out to gay like your father, too."
April shouldn't have told her mother. Actually, she didn't exactly tell her either. Jane had received a call from the clinic her daughter had secretly scheduled a visit to. She sat silently on the couch as the older woman continued until finally the blonde looked up at her.
"I'm not keeping it."
"What?" Jane snapped, her voice low and cold.
"I'm not keeping it," the tiny blonde repeated, standing her ground. "I don't want it."
"You're keeping it," the tall blonde stated sternly. "Doing that isn't right and I won't have it in this family."
"You keep telling me I'm going to waste my life yet you won't let me change it!"
"None of that back talk April! You're going through with it and that's final!"
"What?"
"It's yours," April added softly, staring at the ground.
"You're lying," he said, backing away.
"I'm not!" She glared up at her boyfriend. "You're the only one I've been with the whole time we've been together."
"I don't care, April! And frankly, I don't believe you," he snapped back. "And even if you were telling the truth, I don't want anything to do with this."
April watched as he walked away, feeling as if her entire life was crumbling before her. First her plans, then her relationship, what next? What else could she possibly have to lose? All she could do now was hope that her aunt Sue didn't get wind of the news.
April awkwardly scooted her chair closer to the large wooden desk Sue sat behind menacingly.What did she want? Why was she called here?
"I knew this would happen," her aunt continued, halfway through some kind of monologue, as usual.
Of course she knew. It was inevitable, seeing as she was attending the same school in which her aunt taught. Not to mention Jane had probably complained to her about it on several occasions. The two were as thick as thieves, they were twins after all.
"…you knew?" April asked hesitantly, shifting her weight in the uncomfortable chair opposite her aunt.
"Of course I did. You've had that Lima loser look about you since the day you were born!" Sue exclaimed, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.
"Thanks," the pint sized blonde replied sarcastically, leaning back in her seat. "It's nice to know you always liked me so much."
As soon as April stepped out of that office, her face was greeted with a freezing cold cupful of slushy. She shivered as the wet, sticky drink ran down her and the sound of laughs and jeers consumed her. Quickly she turned and ran for the nearest bathroom, the sounds of Sue yelling at the students for getting the sticky beverage on her office door behind her. All April could think was that it couldn't get any easier from here.
April's wide green eyes blinked, unable to process the information she'd just been given.
"T-twins?" she stuttered, her bright eyes now wide as she stared at her mother's doctor.
"They tend to run in families," she added as she put the equipment away. "This was to be expected, since they skip a generation."
April's mind wouldn't stop racing as she slowly walked. Two. In other words, not one. It was bad enough she had to do this, but now it was twice as bad. Everything would be doubled. She'd have to take care of twice the amount of child, which meant twice the amount of food, twice the number of diapers and twice the sleep deprivation. How was she going to survive this?
As the small blonde entered her room, she slowly plopped down on her bed, staring at the wall in front of her. She wished she could take it all back. She wished this had never happened. She lost everything. It seemed like she was going to be staying in Lima forever now, she was never going to get out. She'd already dropped out of school. The news had spread like wildfire and everyone was laughing at her now. It seemed like she'd been receiving a slushy facial at least five times a day, more or less. Things really couldn't get any worse now.
It wasn't until the next day when she came around did she notice that one of them was missing. What happened next became a blur, her only memory being the moment of frenzy, yelling at the nearest nurse or doctor to explain what had happened, where the other one had gone.
"There was nothing we could've done."
The poor thing didn't make it through the night. The trauma had been too much for the small child, and it had passed away within the next few hours. April had expected two but found herself with only one, Goldina Jessica Forrest.
Things hadn't gotten any better since she'd gotten home. Her sweet little Goldie had grown loud and irritable, seemingly unable to be consoled. April had become tired and unable to do much more than the necessary functions while Jane refused to help. Instead, she simply sat at the sidelines, commentating on her daughter's every action with the child. She never offered a word of advice.
She still couldn't stop thinking about the other one. They'd sent her home with a child in one arm, a bottle of ashes in the other. She spread them through her mother's flower bed, much to Jane's dismay, and flowers never grew there again. There is still a dead patch in the cluster of flowers to this day.
"Hey."
"Leave me alone."
April refused to look at him. She couldn't look at him. Not after everything she'd been through—without him. She'd come this far alone and she would have to move on.
"I'm sorry." April looked up, turning almost to look at him. He was sorry? "I shouldn't have just walked out on you when you needed me most. I probably shouldn't have stayed away either, but I didn't know what to do. I still don't want to do… whatever you've been doing, but maybe we should take another chance."
"Where are you taking this, Vinnie?"
"Come with me to Broadway."
It was a mistake. The small blonde knew it, yet here she was. Hitchhiking her way to New York. She wished she was home. Despite everything, she wished she was there. At home, there was no uncertainty. No prospect of failure, because she already was. At home, her sweet little girl waited for her return, which would never come.
It was a hard decision for April, leaving or staying. She loved her Goldie, no doubt about that, but she couldn't take it anymore. Any of it. Jane's constant criticism, Sue's similar ways of putting her down, Goldie's loud, need-induced cries, the empty patch of the flower bed where plants never grew from under the ashes.
Eventually it became too much. She couldn't live with it anymore. The criticism, the memories. She needed to escape. The first time he asked her to come, she told him to shove it. The second time he asked her to come, she only asked what time.
She regretted every second starting when she took her first step out the door.
Her mother was right, was all she could think as she ran down the sidewalk. It was all she could do, run with no place to go. Jane was right. April saw it. He was just like her father.
The only question left now was, where could she go? She couldn't go home, not after walking out like that. She couldn't go to New York, it was far too far away. She could find another apartment, but first she'd need a job. She was trapped and there was no way out.
As she slowed her pace to a slow trudge, April's eyes stopped on a building. It was brightly lit, busy, and loudly playing music within. She wandered inside, taking a seat at the front counter.
"What can I get ya?"
"How about some wine?"