"The only job you're going to have is working on a pole." Everyone waited for the Latina to respond with her usual snarky comment. All eyes went to waiting to see her explode with rage but instead they were greeted by the sight of tears in her eyes with a never before seen defeated posture: shoulders slumped and head slightly bowed but not enough to hide her face. They could all the pain in her eyes behind the tears.
"Fine." She responded in a broken and barely audible voice. "Fine, if you want me to leave I'll leave. And I'll never come back but not before I say something."
"I thought that glee club was supposed to be the place where everyone was accepted, where everyone is family. I think of you guys as my family because I don't have one to go home to. No-one at home that cares for me. Knowing that hurts me so much but I thought that you all cared for me, like a family that we supposedly are. I know that I can be a bitch, but if any of you actually took the time to get to know me you would see that I'm not always like that. That I'm capable of being nice. All the insults I say to you, at least I know those things about you. At least I take the time to listen to you. I bet that no-one other than Brittany would be able to say when my birthday was. I know when all of your birthdays are and I sent each of you a card even if you didn't know it was from me. Usually we all sing happy birthday to people but on mine the only people to congratulate me were Britt and Mr Schue and he only knows because it's on my record. Not even my parents, I woke up to a card and new shoes. " She took a pause here to look at the expressions on everyone's face. Most were surprised and a few were starting to look guilty but she carried on.
"I suppose a lot of you wonder why I'm still in the glee club. Part of it is for Brittany but mostly it's because I thought I was welcomed here. I know I have flaws but everyone has flaws. I thought that being here meant that I belonged here and that I was actually wanted somewhere but I guess that's not the case is it? If you didn't want me here, why didn't any of you ever tell me? Even when I try to be nice to all of you I get insulted. I have feelings too, you know? Actually no, you don't know because you never bothered to see if I did. When someone insults you the whole club is there for you. If someone insults me, who do I have? No-one, that's who I have. None of you know half of the things that I go through every day because I don't spend every session bitching about how horribly the school has underestimated my talent like half of you lot do."
"When I joined glee club Rachel and Schue used to always go on about how 'Being part of something special make you special' and for a while I believed that. Glee club used to be the best part of my day. I looked forward to having my ideas ignored and people around me who hated me because it's all I ever get. Home, school, everywhere. It's all I know. Now I know that your little phrase is a lie because none of you think I'm special and none of you really want me to be here anyway. So I guess I'm finally doing what you want me to and I'm leaving. Mr Schue, I quit. Bye" and with that she turned to leave but stopped when she reached the door and said "Yesterday by the way, my birthday was yesterday. Happy birthday to me." Then she left finally breaking down as she left the school, went to her house to wait for her parents to eventually return home so she could propose an idea to them.
The next day at school everyone expected to see Santana back in HBIC mode and were all slightly relieved that they didn't see her. When glee club came round many were surprised that the Latina hadn't shown up. It was Tina that spoke up though "Brittany, where's Santana?" all eyes turned to the blonde,
"She left, she told you she was going to. I got a call from her mom this morning telling me that she had talked to them and convinced them to allow her to move in with her aunt. Knowing Santana, she was probably already half packed, even before the mess that was yesterday." The whole room was in stunned silence.
"She was serious? We all thought she was joking."
"Why would she be joking, she talked about leaving all the time. Usually I'm there to talk her out of it but she wouldn't let me come over. Something about her needing to do this. I don't know."
Everyone felt guilty for what they had done to Santana without even realising that extent of the damage they had caused. And of course Rachel was the one to break the silence "But what about the competition. Now we need to find a new member which will be extremely difficult at this time-" she was cut off by Quinn slapping her in the back of the head and saying
"What have we done?"