"Sorry, I can't hear you over the sound of my own awesomeness."
Will sighed beside Sugar and watched her dig through her locker.
"Look, Sugar-"
She slammed her locker shut abruptly and turned towards him, cutting him off with, "Obviously your ears are busted because I worked that song like a hooker pole. It's no biggie; I'll come in and I'll do it again."
"Sugar, I'm sorry… you can't sing. The answer is no. But I love your enthusiasm, and I'd be happy to work with you-"
Sugar shot him an offended look. "You know what? Who cares what you think? Hmm? Nobody! You're a washed-up Broadway wannabe who's stuck in Lima and has led the glee club to how many National wins? Oh, I'm sorry, zero! Not! Aspergers!"
She stormed off with her arms wrapped around her books, already muttering to herself. "Me? Not good enough? I'll show him. I'll find a coach even better and… and I'll get-"
She cut herself off as she passed Mercedes and Tina in the hall, hanging back when she overheard them say Santana's name and immediately trying to subtly listen in.
"You think she burned that piano on purpose?" Tina was asking nervously while Mercedes nodded her head.
"Girl, when does Santana ever do anything mean on accident? And Mr. Schue knows it, too. He'll probably kick her out of New Directions for it."
"No way. He's never kicked anyone out before."
"Yeah, well… nobody ever lit a piano on fire before, either. Then again, it's probably a blessing in disguise for her, anyway. Ain't like Santana or any of the rest of us are gonna get to sing anyway as long as Rachel's around."
Both girls sighed, and Sugar turned away, a smirk already forming on her lips. So her mom would probably be leaving New Directions anyway. She herself was wrongly robbed of her spot in the very same club. And from what she knew of her parents, they'd always been attached at the hip in high school, which meant that wherever Santana went, Brittany went.
Or in other words, whatever new glee club Santana joined, Brittany would join, too.
"I need a favor."
Al slid out from under his generator and looked up at her curiously, shifting slightly on the skateboard under his back. The wrench in his hand dripped oil onto his shirt and he winced. "Yes, Sugar?"
"I want money to start a second glee club. I need the start-up funds and money for a decent teacher, and I have the perfect one in mind: Shelby Corcoran. My par-… some kids at school told me she used to coach a rival club called Vocal Adrenaline and they were amazing. You stranded me here and you're rich anyway so you owe me. Plus you support the arts or whatever, so you should be glad I want to start another glee club, shouldn't you?"
Al considered this for a moment, then frowned. "Wait…what happened to New Directions? Why aren't you just joining them?"
Sugar's expression immediately went hard. "Their simple minds can't comprehend my flawlessness."
Al winced again, clearly seeing through her explanation. "Right. Well, you're correct; I do owe you. And I did say I wanted you to find something to get involved in, to pass the time until December. Very well; I'll give you however much money you need. I actually have a friend who knew Shelby Corcoran while she still coached Vocal Adrenaline, so I'll work on tracking her down for you, alright?"
"Thank you," Sugar replied stiffly, before abruptly turning on her heel and stalking out of the room.
Sugar finished up at her locker for the second time that day, sighing to herself as she turned away and looked up and down the hallway. Al had apparently had some luck tracking down Shelby, but she wouldn't be arriving at McKinley for another couple of days, and the wait was killing Sugar. She'd made no friends yet, lunch was awkward and the food was bad, and she still didn't have her own glee club. Even worse, as a result of not getting into New Directions, her own parents still had had no contact with her in the two weeks she'd been at McKinley. And even with her mom Santana having been kicked out of New Directions, as Mercedes had predicted, word hadn't spread of Shelby's impending return, and so Santana hadn't approached Sugar about joining. Sugar was practically waiting with baited breath for either of her parents to talk to her at this point.
"Hey!"
Sugar's eyes widened as out of nowhere Brittany appeared in front of her, a flier in her hand. "You're the girl who Mr. Schue totally unfairly didn't let into glee club, right?"
"Unfairly," Sugar mouthed silently in an awed echo, then recovered enough to nod abruptly. "Yeah, that's me."
"Yeah." Brittany frowned. "I don't know what he heard, but I loved it. You're totally a good singer."
Sugar felt her heart leap in her chest. This Brittany was nothing like her mom was in the future, but she already loved her anyway. "Really?"
"Of course," Brittany replied. "I haven't enjoyed listening to someone sing that much since Rachel's cover of "The Climb", and that was like two years ago. You were super awesome."
"Thanks," Sugar replied breathlessly. Brittany just smiled at her.
"Anyway, what was your name again?"
"Sugar."
Brittany lit up yet again. "Oh yeah! I totally wanna name my baby that now. My first choice was Drizzle but I think Rachel and Finn are taking that one, so. Anyway," she offered Sugar the flier, who took it mindlessly in a state of shock, "vote Kurt Hummel for president, alright? He's totally the unicorn."
"Britt!"
Sugar's eyes widened even more, if possible, as Santana came marching down the hallway, stopping once she arrived beside Brittany. She didn't even spare Sugar a glance as she informed Brittany, "One of Kurt's posters came down just around the corner and I need help putting it back up. I'm not tall enough."
"Okay," Brittany agreed with a nod. "I was just telling Sugar to vote for Kurt."
Santana looked to Sugar for the first time, and Sugar stood stock-still under the judging gaze of her future mother. She hoped her hair looked nice.
"Right," Santana said after a moment. "Yeah, vote for Kurt. He's awesome. Whatever." Her gaze went back to Brittany and she grabbed her by the wrist. Sugar's eyes jumped to the contact. "Anyway, let's go before everyone leaves shoeprints on his face." She tugged Brittany away, apathetically tossing, "Bye, Flour," over her shoulder at Sugar as she went. Brittany twisted around to offer Sugar a grin and a wave, which Sugar was still too stunned to return.
"They're awesome," she whispered under her breath, only to hear a soft sigh from just a few feet away. She turned so quickly she almost got whiplash to see Jacob Ben Israel leaning up against the lockers, watching them go.
"Agreed," he concurred with a shaky breath, and Sugar stared at him for a moment before hastily turning and walking away.
With Shelby's arrival and Al's funding finally came the start of a new glee club, and although Sugar was personally disappointed that Shelby's singing skills were so sub-par in comparison to her own, Shelby's name itself did bring in three new members in the form of three Cheerios Sugar decided to dub "One", "Two", and "Three". It wasn't like anyone needed to know their names anyway; Sugar was the only important member.
Unfortunately, she also discovered through word of mouth that her mother had rejoined New Directions, so Sugar set her sights on her next target: Mercedes Jones, the girl who she'd heard complaining about Rachel getting all the solos. Rachel and Mercedes were apparently the only two girls vying for the role of Maria in the school's upcoming production of West Side Story, which meant Sugar was in a prime position to sit back and watch the tension build. Mercedes already seemed jealous of Rachel anyway, so if this made their rivalry worse, Mercedes would be bound to see how much more awesome Sugar's club was and join it instead. And then, like a plague, the "leave New Directions" virus would spread, starting with the least loyal members of New Directions. Which, as Sugar already knew, would most likely be Santana, and by association, Brittany. It was only a matter of time.
Meanwhile, the presidential campaigns were really starting to take off, and while Sugar would've normally run herself, being the completely flawless human being that she was, she'd gotten wind of Brittany deciding to run and had already vowed to pledge her vote to her equally awesome mother. Especially since her mother's campaign was apparently being managed by her also equally awesome other mother.
Having gotten to know them in the short amount of time she'd arrived, partially through limited personal contact but mostly through word of mouth and through things she'd witnessed from afar, Sugar had quickly been able to put a label on her feelings for the high school versions of her parents. High school Brittany was super nice and just plain amazing, and had the best dance moves ever. Sugar had known through stories her parents had told her that Brittany had used to dance in her spare time, but her "Run the World" performance had been perfect.
And Santana… well, Sugar pretty much worshipped her now. She couldn't deny, the bitch was fierce. And while truthfully, she'd always gotten along better with Brittany as she'd grown up, solely because Brittany was kinder, now she found herself wanting to tag along with Santana wherever the older girl went. The only problem with that was that Santana didn't even know she existed beyond a couple brief conversations. She was even still calling her "Flour".
But it was only a matter of time, Sugar knew. She had planned it out, and, with her being flawless and all, her plans never failed. Mercedes would flip sides first, and then Santana and Brittany would come too. She would make sure of it.
"This is Mercedes Jones, and she'll be joining our club, girls."
"Hi, Mercedes," Sugar approached her with a smile, offering her hand palm-down for Mercedes to kiss and receiving a confused look in response. "As you'll recall, I'm Sugar, most robbed auditioner for anything ever of all time. Welcome to our club. We look forward to your minimal contributions as I repeatedly steal the spotlight."
Shelby stepped forward, forcing a smile as she put a hand on a frowning Mercedes' shoulder. "Now, girls, as I'm sure you're aware, Mercedes is an excellent singer. She has power in her voice that none of us can even begin to match-"
"Except me," Sugar input hastily. Shelby ignored her.
"-and she'll be a wonderful addition to our club. I want her to be treated with respect, alright?" She shot a look Sugar's way and the girl stared back innocently in response, before quickly beckoning Mercedes forward and hastily tugging her aside.
"Listen," Mercedes began defensively, "if you-"
"I have an idea, if you really want to win Sectionals against New Directions," Sugar informed her, cutting her off. Mercedes raised an eyebrow and Sugar knew she had her full attention. "We need to steal more members from them. No more playing clean, okay? Who do you think would be most likely to leave them, with a little convincing from us?"
Mercedes hesitated at that, holding back. "I don't know if that's-"
"Look, we're doing what we have to do to win," Sugar interrupted. "They didn't give you that role you rightfully deserved, they didn't let me into New Directions, and they keep giving all the solos to that girl with the big nose."
Mercedes raised an eyebrow at her, clearly a little offended on Rachel's part.
"Sorry, Aspergers. Anyway, this is our chance for revenge. Who's their weakest link?" She knew the answer already, but she needed Mercedes to say it aloud.
"I guess…it'd be Santana," Mercedes finally conceded. "I mean, she was already kicked out once, she can't stand Rachel… and I don't like the girl, but she's got an amazing voice."
"Plus she's got that friend of hers, right?" Sugar reminded her, trying to hide her own excitement at how well her plan was unfolding. "The one who can dance."
Mercedes looked to be buying it now. "Oh… that's right. Brittany and Santana are like a two-for-one deal."
"Right," Sugar confirmed solely. "If you can get Santana…"
"Then we get Brittany, too." Mercedes grinned and Sugar let herself smile back now. "Oh, we're definitely gonna crush them at Sectionals."
Sugar peered around the corner from inside one of the nearby classrooms as Mercedes approached Santana from the opposite direction while Santana finished putting her books in her locker.
"Hi Santana! How many solos did you get in glee club last year?"
"A few."
"One. Valerie. And I loved it."
"I was also the lips in Rocky Horror."
"Listen. If you and I were in Shelby's group we'd get all the solos and the duets."
Sugar went from practically bursting with joy, to pouting at Mercedes' choice of words there, but after a quick pause, she shrugged to herself and went back to listening. Whatever worked, she supposed would have to do. Santana didn't need to know yet that Sugar would obviously be getting most of the solos in the new club. That would come when it was too late for her to back out.
Mercedes and Santana were making their way down the hall now and Sugar had to struggle to hear them, especially with that lumbering brute from New Directions following them.
"You know, honestly I wish I could, but somebody's gotta look out for Brittany. I mean, that special place where she lives, yeah it's beautiful, but someone's gotta help her cross the street. I'd never just leave her."
Sugar grinned at that. Oh, they were so totally getting it on already. Done deal.
"Get her to come with you."
Hook, line, and sinker. Sugar had to remember to spare a solo for Mercedes sometime soon as thanks. Their club would have two new members in no time, now.
The next day, Sugar found herself listening in on yet another conversation involving her moms, as she tended to do lately. Having little to no chances to interact with them herself yet, she'd taken to a bit of a creepier approach to get closer to them. Normally she denounced stalking, but hey, she'd been in Brittany's womb before so she figured a little bit of unauthorized close proximity wouldn't be toxic or anything. Besides, she wanted to keep an eye on Creepy Leprechaun Guy who had suddenly came out of nowhere and tried to throw a wrench in her parents' whole "eternally in love" thing. Sugar honestly took it personally, as he was basically indirectly attempting to prevent her birth from occurring.
So as it was, yet again she found herself in another classroom the next day, peeking out into the hallway.
"Brittany, I was wondering if maybe you'd like to eat dinner tonight?"
Sugar barely silenced a gasp. She was about to step out there and show Mr. Leprechaun a piece of her own mind, but Brittany began to respond before Sugar could attack the little pregnancy-pooper.
"Aw, I can't. I have plans with a friend."
De-nied.
Brittany left and Sugar silently pointed and laughed at the leprechaun, before hastily dashing off to her next class.
Their club had another practice at the end of the day, and while Sugar and Mercedes were disappointed to see that Brittany and Santana hadn't shown up, they busied themselves practicing with One, Two, and Three while Shelby coached them through different choreographed numbers and they memorized the lyrics of their songs. Finally, they were done, and Sugar approached Mercedes as she was packing up all of her things.
"Hey, so I mentioned I was new to Lima, right?"
Mercedes shot her a confused look. "Uh… no?"
"Well, I am. So I need help. Let's say I had a date. Where would I go?"
Mercedes gave her a sly look then. "Why? Do you have a date?"
"No, this is purely hypothetical, although if I were you I would obviously assume someone had asked me out too."
"Right," Mercedes replied with a roll of her eyes. "Anyway, in a town as small as Lima, Breadstix is pretty much the place to go. If you're dating, you go there, and if you go there, chances are someone in your group is on a date."
"Thanks," Sugar said shortly, brushing past her and exiting the room.
If her hunch was right, her parents had a date tonight, and she was going to catch them in the act if it was the last thing she ever did.