Nonviolent Payback pt. 2
Rachel walked into school Monday morning to find all you haters be jealous of berry's fine ass spray painted across her locker in bright red. As she stared at it in disbelief, she didn't know if she was insulted or flattered. She decided to be insulted at the grammar and capitalization, and flattered at the sentiment. Trying not to grin, and knowing exactly who the culprit was, she opened her locker and grabbed her books for first period.
Unsurprisingly, she didn't stay in English that long. It only took Figgins fifteen minutes to call her out of class.
"Miss Berry, I assume you know what this is about?" he asked sternly.
Rachel noted that Mr. Schuester was there as well, but had said nothing as of yet. Ever the actress, she frowned and said, "I'm guessing it's about that offensive reference to my body."
"Yes," Figgins said. "And that's not the only offensive reference to body parts we found this morning. There were four more, calling out the boys who shot you for things like erectile dysfunction and gonorrhea."
It took all of Rachel's will power not to laugh. "Well it certainly wasn't me! I stopped by Coach Beiste and Coach Sylvester's offices to thank them for standing up for me last week. You can—"
"We don't think it was you, Rachel," Will said. "We think it was Santana. Everyone knows how protective she is of you—"
"Wasn't her," Rachel said calmly. "While I do not argue the fact that she is incredibly protective of me, to the point of being reckless, there's no way she could have done this."
"Why is that, Miss Berry?" Figgins asked.
"Well, as some of my fellow glee members can attest to, I'm incredibly clingy on the best of days. The neediness intensifies due to stress, sickness and injury—the last of which was experienced last Friday. Thus, Santana took it upon herself to stay with me this weekend and make sure I felt better. She's been with me the entire time. You can call and ask either of my dads."
"This morning?" Figgins asked.
"Yes, sir," she said. "I was craving vegan pancakes, and as Santana refuses to cook anything vegan, but was still hell bent on spoiling me, she was forced to do a quick stop by the Veggie Shack. This threw our morning routine off a bit, and we were running late. She had to go home to get clothes, so there's no way she would have been able to do all that and end up here."
Will and Figgins glanced at each other.
"If you say so, Rachel," Will said, nodding.
"We'll be painting your locker this afternoon," Figgins informed her.
"Thank you, Principal Figgins."
On Tuesday, over a hastily applied coat of white paint, the message appeared again in black.
Rachel really did laugh this time.
"Glad you're amused," Santana said, walking up. "I got interrogated by Figgins and Schuester. Can you believe the nerve of them? Accusing me! I'm the dictionary's definition of innocence."
"Just please don't get caught," Rachel said in an undertone. "And why would you spray their lockers? They're not even here to see it."
"Please…with Facebook and YouTube? They probably saw it before Figgins did."
Wednesday was blue.
Thursday was gold, a big gold star added for effect.
On Friday, Rachel's smile fell when there was only the white paint. Even hearing that Santana had been mysteriously suspended that morning didn't do anything to affect her disheartened mood. With a sigh, she went over to her locker and opened it.
A shower of gold confetti stars fell out on her.
Finn and Mike were walking by at that moment. Both laughed hysterically.
"Normally, I hate her," Finn told Rachel. "But I have to admit she has style. Hey, I think she left you something," he said, pointing to her locker.
Rachel spotted the small bag. Inside were vegan chocolate kisses. Her phone buzzed.
They nabbed me. 2 bad, cuz I hadz some great things planned for when those idiots got back to school. U no how many things u can rig a locker 2 do? Those Looney Tunes r on 2 something. Managed 2 rig the spray paint in all three lockers & load urs w/ gld strs b4 they caught me… See? Nonviolent payback…
She smiled and shook her head.
Once again, she was pulled into Figgins's office. This time, both Mr. Schue and Miss Pillsbury were there.
"I thought you said it wasn't Santana," Figgins said.
"I didn't think it was," Rachel said. "I'm still trying to work out how she did it on Monday…."
"Tagging is pretty serious, Rachel," Will said. "She's lucky she didn't get arrested."
"Not that I don't agree with you, but why am I here?" Rachel asked. "You caught her. What do you need me for?"
"We're worried about how protective she is of you," Emma said gently. "She's willing to do some pretty…stupid things to defend your honor."
"I know that. Which is part of the reason we're both transferring at the end of this grading period."
"WHAT?" all three adults yelled.
"It's been decided, and you can't change our minds…mostly because you'd also have to change our parents' minds."
"Rachel, where is this coming from?" Will said, sitting next to her.
Her mouth dropped open. "Are you serious, Mr. Schue? I know you're pretty invested in glee club, but you cannot be that blind. This school isn't safe for kids like me. It took a death threat for you guys to do anything about the Karofsky v. Kurt situation, and then he was still allowed back to school. Kurt left, and nothing changed. It wasn't the wakeup call that all of us were expecting. It didn't make the staff do anything to even slightly stop the malicious behavior of our peers. Sure, glee gives the kids who can sing and dance a little reprieve, but it's not enough. It hasn't been enough for a while. And I tried to tough it out, but…." She trailed off, shaking her head. "The last three years were put into essay form and sent to the School for Creative and Performing Arts. They offered me a scholarship. Santana's still discussing it with her parents."
"Don't you think you're overreacting?" Will asked.
"Over—he thinks I'm overreacting!" Rachel repeated to no one in particular. "And when will I not be overreacting, Mr. Schue? When I get raped?"
"Rachel!"
"No. I've been tossed in dumpsters, slammed into lockers, had horrible rumors spread and rather skilled, yet offensive, comics drawn about me…. I've been slushied exactly 845 times, and now paintballed into a black and blue mess. But you think I'm overreacting?"
"I told you he'd take it this way," a voice said from the doorway.
Everyone looked up to find Santana standing there.
"Miss Lopez, I believe I suspended you," Figgins said.
"You did. But there's something I need to discuss with my girlfriend and it couldn't wait. So I had my mom drive me back. She jacked my car for the week since I got suspended," she explained. "Anyway, it looks like I arrived at the right part of the conversation. Rachel, my parents agreed with your parents about me being an uncontrollable wreck once you left, so it looks like I'm going to Cincinnati too." She grinned as Rachel jumped up and hugged her. "Really, we should just move the entire glee club. They'll be useless without us here," she teased.
"I'm not in the mood, Santana," Mr. Schue grumbled.
"Why? Because you've just realized that you've based most of the glee club's reputation on one person, and that you simultaneously failed to protect that one person in any way, shape or form from the rest of the school? Or is this mood swing coming from the sudden realization that everything Rachel just told you is true, and that you're going to have to work ten times harder to keep this from happening again?"
"That's not fair, Santana."
"I'm sure you think it isn't. Come on, Rachel. I'll walk you to class."
Rachel stood and followed Santana out, leaving the three adults to hurl accusations at each other in privacy. "You're really coming too? Wait…how did you do that so fast? I had to wait a week for my answer."
"My dad knows a guy," Santana said, smiling. "And yes."
"We should tell the rest of the glee club together."
"On the exact same page as you, Berry. I'll hide out in the choir room until glee. See you later."
Rachel kissed her and walked into her biology class. As the teacher called roll, she watched through the window as Santana spray painted a large gold star on the nearest locker.
