AN: I had to divide this one, it was getting too big. I already have half of the next chapter so I hope I can upload it really soon.

Chapter 7: Retaliation

Rachel knew she had overreacted. It wasn't Shelby's fault that Jesse had left and maybe she did care about how she felt, but it was too much for her. She really needed her and she had just left her, just like Jesse. No one who cared about you would do that.

She went to school the next day even though she barely had the energy to walk. Puck was being especially annoying and she really didn't care about the Funk assignment or what Mercedes though of Quinn. Mr. Schue asked her to see her in his office at the end which was not rare since the whole team depended on her. Maybe he wanted to give her a special assignment. She didn't have the energy to do it but she went in anyway.

"You seem to be taking this Jesse thing pretty hard."

That's the understatement of the decade "I want him to be eaten by a lion." Will sat at his desk and sighed.

"Jesse cared about you" He was pretty sure that was true.

"Our entire relationship was just some diabolical plan. They knew that if they broke my heart close enough to the competition that I'd lose my will to live and then New Directions would have no chance at winning regionals" She is just as dramatic as her mother.

"It's text book, you destroy the heart of the team's heart and you destroy the team." Maybe this whole thing with Shelby was meant to break my heart too. What if she never even considered being part of my life and she just did it to win at regionals?

Rachel didn't want to think that her mom would be capable of doing that but some people would do anything to win. She would get over Jesse's betrayal eventually but if her mom did do that to her, she didn't know how she was going to move on.

"This isn't just about Jesse, is it?" Will waited for Rachel to say something but she just sat there, looking at her shoes. "I talked to her yesterday" He didn't have to say who he was talking about. Rachel looked up at him. "Well, we didn't actually talk much. She mostly cried."

She cried? Why would she cry? Shelby Corcoran didn't look like the kind of person who would just cry. "Why?"

"She loves you Rachel and you said some pretty harsh things to her yesterday. I get that you were angry at her but, how can you think she doesn't care about you?" Will didn't want her to feel bad about it but he had to tell her.

"She said that? She loves me?" Will couldn't believe she doubted that Shelby loved her. He passed her the tissue box.

"More than anything. Listen, from what she told me about what happened between the two of you, it seems like she made all of those decisions by herself, albeit she thought it was for your own good, but you never actually got to tell her how you felt about her and about what you wanted from her. I mean, it's your life, don't you think you should get a say in who is and isn't in it?" Rachel thought about it. He was right, no one had ever asked her if she wanted her mom in her life, which she did. Her dads decided for her 16 years ago and now Shelby decided, all of them thinking it was for her own good but they never asked for her opinion.

"You're right Mr. Schue. I will give it some thought. Thanks" She smiled for the first time in days and walked out of his office. She needed to think what she was going to say to her.

Shelby had a talk with her kids about what had happened with McKinley. She assured them that they will get paid for the tires and that she would not tolerate any further retaliation from their part.

Jesse was walking out of the auditorium when one of the girls called him. He walked over to her and saw about 8 kids from Vocal Adrenaline huddled up behind the auditorium. "What's going on?"

"We're planning what we're going to do to those New Directions idiots; we can't just stand here and do nothing after what they did to our tires." Jesse didn't like this.

"But Ms. Corcoran said…" he was cut off by one of the boys. "Ms. Corcoran is biased by the fact her daughter is one of them. And besides, what is she gonna do? Regionals are next week. So are you in St. James, or are you going back to them and watch us beat you losers?"

Jesse knew he couldn't go back, the thing with Rachel was done ever since that "Run, Joey, Run" debacle. He had to help them or they wouldn't trust him. "What's the plan?"

Rachel got a call from Jesse as she was walking to class. Maybe he changed his mind and wanted to come back. "Meet me out in the parking lot."

Rachel hung up and walked out of the school. He was standing there with a huge smile on his face and he waved her over. Rachel started to run towards him and stopped a few yards from him. She didn't see the guy come out from behind a car but she felt something hit the back of her head. Suddenly she saw, and felt, a bunch of eggs hit her. She looked at Jesse, at least he wasn't laughing at her. Then that horrible girl said something about her being a vegan and turned to Jesse.

"Do it Jesse." Jesse looked at the egg in his hand. "Are you with us or not?" he had to do it.

He walked over to where Rachel was standing. "Do it, break it like you broke my heart" Jesse remembered how she broke his heart first.

"I loved you." he raised the egg and smashed it on her forehead. They all walked away and she was left standing there in the middle of the parking lot, all covered in egg yolk and feeling worse than before.

She was going to kill them. Hang them all from the flag pole starting by Jesse. Ever since she got that call from Will about them egging Rachel, she couldn't stop thinking of ways she could make them suffer. She was going to kill them and she didn't care if she ended up in jail, no one did that to her baby and got away with it. She told them not to do anything but they went and did it anyway, and to her daughter of all people! They knew Rachel was her daughter and they still did it. Well she wasn't gonna take such a shameless form of insubordination. They wanted to provoke her, well they succeeded and now they were going to pay for it.

They walked into the auditorium with a straight face, as if they hadn't done anything. They got in a line as they always did at the beginning of practice to receive instructions. Shelby started pacing from one side to the other without saying anything. She just looked at them with a really angry look on her face. Some of them turned to look at each other guiltily; others just stared at the floor.

"Whoever went to McKinley today take a step forward" no one moved. She looked at their faces, there was fire coming out of her eyes. "I know who did it, but if you come forward by yourselves it will be easier for everyone"

Jesse stepped forward first, they all turned to him with dumbfounded looks on their faces but the other 8 who went with him stepped forward too.

"The rest of you can go home, there will be rehearsal tomorrow so I expect you to be punctual" they all scurried away relieved they wouldn't get to be on the receiving end of Shelby Corcoran's wrath. She waited until they were gone and turned to look at the remaining students. Some of them looked like they might cry, Jesse was staring at the floor, but a few of them still had smug looks on their faces. She would wipe those off in no time.

"What the hell is wrong with you? I told you not to do anything to those kids. Have you no respect for me?" she looked at them, nobody answered. Well, if they thought she cared more about Regionals than making them respect her, they had another thing coming.

"You are suspended from the team until further notice" she saw all of them look at her; their smugness gone now.

"That's not fair! You're only doing this because it was your daughter!" she couldn't believe that girl just said that. She walked closer to her and she could see she her regret the words as soon as she gave her a deadly glare.

"I'm doing this because you disobeyed a direct order from me and hurt someone, regardless of their relationship to me." She walked back to stand at the center of the stage. "You can come back Monday and maybe I'll reconsider taking you back. I'm very disappointed in you guys, you don't need to do this to win. Your talent is your best weapon." She turned away from them

They started walk away but she wasn't done. "Also, you are not getting the money back for your tires." They groaned and she turned to look at the girl who protested earlier "Now that is for my daughter."