Cheerio Rumble

The Glee clubbers stared in horror as they watched the Cheerios enter the room followed by Glee's four shellshocked looking footballers. Quinn had the beginnings of a black eye, strands of hair hung over her face where it had escaped from her regulation ponytail and she was limping. Santana had a thick lip and scratches across her face, her hair was completely pony tail free and she was nursing her right fist. They both carried the air of the walking wounded and both their uniforms were ripped and stretched. Brittany, ever the pacifist, walked behind them without a hair out of place but was visibly upset about something, tears streaks evident on her cheeks.

"What happened?" gasped Mercedes.

"Have you two been fighting again?" demanded Kurt in hushed tones.

Santana stomped to her seat at the back of the room, her jaw clenched and said nothing, the scowl on her face daring anyone to question her. Brittany followed and sat down next to her as close as possible to the smaller girl without actually sitting in her lap. Quinn sat gingerly on the first row and winced as she settled down, obviously feeling pain somewhere the rest couldn't see.

"Are you going to tell us what happened?" Asked Rachel, her concern apparent. "Did someone beat you up?"

"Of course not," snapped Santana. "We totally won." She groaned and put her hand to her cheek. "Stop talking to me, my jaw hurts."

"Finn?" Rachel asked.

"It was horrible," he muttered, looking pale. "I've never seen anything like it."

"It was hot!" clarified Puck.

The door slammed open so hard it hit the wall with a bang and the handle smashed a hole in the wall behind. In the doorway was a very irate Cheerios coach.

"Cheerios," she barked. "My office, now."

"Wait a minute. You cant just take students out of my class on a whim," protested Will, who hurried in behind her. He had started running towards the choir room as soon as he saw Sue marching at the door.

"One, this is not a class and perhaps if you spent more time focused on your actual teaching job and less time on murdering any tune you can get your hands on then you wouldn't have so many students flunking Spanish."

Will opened his mouth to object but was silence by a snarl and and a hand to his face.

"Two, I will not under any circumstances permit any of my Cheerios to use violence against other students even ones from rival schools. Three Cheerios, well probably just the one but they can all be made an example of, instigated a full scale riot against the visiting cheerleaders from Carmel High school, and I will know why." Her tone demanded absolute obedience.

Silence descended on the room as all attention focused on the Cheerios. Brittany grabbed hold of Santana's hand in fear and gripped it tightly.

"Fabray. As Head Cheerio, I expect you to start talking or you are off the squad effective immediately."

Kurt and Mercedes gasped simultaneously, not only was that the worst threat Sue could use against these girls it was all so very melodramatic and they were loving every second of it.

"I don't know," she said desperately in a high pitched voice. "I saw a group of them pile on Santana and I went to help her and the other Cheerios followed me and then the rest of their squad joined in and everyone was fighting."

"Pierce. Why is it you don't have a speck of dirt of you while the rest of the squad look like they've come back from the trenches?"

"I don't like fighting," Brittany said in a small voice.

"I see." She glared up at the top row, things clicking in to place in her devious mind. "Santana, that leaves only you. Tell me what happened or you're off the squad."

She sat there in stubborn silence.

"Let me be clear, I will not have disobedience from my Cheerios. I'm going to go through you one by one until I find out what happened or I will have no choice but to suspend you all from the squad. CCTV confirms you threw the first punch and provided a suspicion as to why you threw it." Her eyes narrowed and she flicked her eyes to Brittany. "So you're going to have to choose between your loyalty to Brittany or your loyalty to the Cheerios."

The entire Glee club had one collective thought between them, was that ever the wrong choice of words to use. What a stupid ultimatum. Santana stood without hesitation and pulled off her Cheerios top leaving her long sleeved, white, winter top underneath. She threw the top over the heads of a wide eyed Finn and a pervy, grinning Puck and it landed on the floor at Sue's feet.

"No!" cried Quinn.

"You cant do that, it was my fault! I'll quit, I quit, I did it!" shouted Brittany, jumping out of her seat with her insistence.

"No it wasn't," said Santana, jumping to Brittany's defence and pulling her back into her seat. "I started it. I... I'll talk."

Sue smirked, her threats never failed. "I'll leave you to your little sing-song, William. Lopez, my office, now."

Santana unwrapped Brittany's fingers one by one where they were tightly gripping her hand, winking at her before she turned and walked down past the Coach and flounced out of the room. She made her way to Sue's office and sat at her desk waiting nervously for her interrogation.

"Santana. I am not a stupid as you appear to think I am. There are two reasons why Brittany doesn't have a hair out of place. One, the reason she gave. Or two, you fought on her behalf. Now while I appreciate you standing by your fellow team mate I do not expect the full compliment of two football teams to have to come and physically separate a screaming brawl of cheerleaders ever again. Am I clear?"

Santana nodded.

"I didn't hear you."

"Yes, Coach."

"Now, you tell me what happened or you will not only be off the Cheerios but so will both your co-conspirators. And for good measure I will see to it you are at the very least suspended for violent conduct. What happened?"

Santana swallowed nervously and managed to speak through her clenched jaw. "One of those bitches shoved Brittany."

"I see. And that was it? Someone shoves Brittany and World War three breaks out?"

Santana said nothing but looked down at her aching fist cradled on her torn Cheerio's skirt. She raised her eyes to her Coach who was watching her with a knowing gleam in her eye. She tapped a pencil on the desktop well aware of the torturous effect it was having on girl in front of her. Sue wasn't above a bit of torture every now and then.

"Well then. If they started it then I see no reason to punish you. Cheerio expulsion revoked. Get out of my office and make sure it doesn't happen again." Santana stood, feeling slightly dazed. "And Santana, you're going to have to pay for new uniforms for every squad member whose outfit was ruined by your ridiculously over the top jealous antics. One more thing. Did you win?"

"Huh?"

"You need to start cleaning your ears out every moring from now on. I said. The fight? Did you win?"

If the pain in her hand was anything to go by the other girl's jaw was probably broken. "Of course we won. We're Cheerios."

Santana didn't wait to hear any more and ran out down the hallway. She could have sworn Coach smirked at that last comment and hang on, did she say jealous? She ran back to the choir room where Brittany and Quinn were waiting anxiously for her to return. She grabbed her Cheerio top from Brittany's hand and with a smile at the tear stained face pulled it back on over her head. She was rewarded with a bleary smile as Brittany realised what was happening and then a scream and double bone crushing hugs as Quinn and Brittany hugged her in relief.

"What did you tell her?" asked Brittany, as the three girls walked through the empty hallway together with their arms linked, unaware of Sue's eyes on their backs.

"That I saw one of them shove you. I don't think she would have been so lenient if I told her I saw one of them hitting on you."

"Next time, how about you just let Brittany give them the brush off instead of charging in like a torpedo?" asked Quinn.

"Hmphh. Where's the fun in that?"