A/N: Well, I know I said that Mash-Off would be in two parts... but now it looks like it's going to be three. So sorry about that. :( Anyway, thank you to everyone who has added me to their story alerts and to their favorites, you all are my inspiration.
Disclaimers: I don't own Glee...
"Coach?" Santana asked, knocking on Sue's office door. It was still dark out, and it was at least 30 minutes until Cheerio's practice began, but she wanted to get this out of the way.
"Come in, Sandbags." Sue said, opening her door, and waving her inside. "You're here early… and where's your shadow? Isn't Tweedle-Dumb usually behind you?"
"Will you please stop calling her that?" Santana yelled suddenly, causing Sue to look at her in surprise for a moment, before a mask of indifference returned to her face.
"Do you have a death wish, Sandbags? You know how much I hate having people yell at me… sit down!" Santana did, sorry for her outburst. She knew that Sue didn't really mean it the way that it sounded, and that they all had their hated nicknames… she did detest Sandbags after all, but after the night that she had (spent tossing and turning dreaming about a slushy covered Brittany being haunted by hockey players, and the glee kids), she just didn't have the patience to deal with it. "Now tell me what brings you here so early, and use your normal voice. I would hate to have it wear it out before practice even starts; you know how much the freshman would miss your yelling."
Sighing Santana reached into her gym bag and pulled out Brittany's uniform, the slushy stains stood out vibrantly against the white fabric. Sue let out a grunt at the sight. "Who would dare to slushy you Santana?" Sue asked, grabbing it from her.
"Not me, Brittany… and it was Rick and his goons. They are trying to scare her, because she's running against them to be class president."
"I know about the election, Boobs McGee, I was just telling Kurt yesterday that you can't win an election without flinging a little poo, but this was not what I meant." Sue said, sitting down in her desk chair, examining the uniform. After a moment, she looked up at her Co-Head Cheerio, who looked like she was fighting an urge to cry or to hit something. Inwardly Sue sighed… Santana was always difficult to deal with, because she was so good at hiding her emotions by hiding behind insults. But lately, Santana just seemed out of it.
"Santana…" Sue said, causing the Cheerio to look up at her funny. Coach rarely ever used her real name. "I know that I've been busy with stuff lately, and that I haven't really been around to practice to notice what's been going on with you, but I've been meaning to tell you what a great job you've been doing running the squad." Sue finished, being nice for once.
"Thank you, but Becky and Brittany have helped too. Becky's awesome at cheer writing, and Britt's obviously wonderful at choreography, all I do is fix mistakes and make sure that they don't kill each other." Santana said, uncomfortable with the praise. Sue sensed it, and back off of the topic.
"Well, whatever you are doing keep it up…" She paused. "Santana, if there is something going on outside of school that you would like to talk about, I am here to listen. I may be gruff and tough with everyone student and teachers alike, and I know that I may not seem like the most trustworthy person, but I promise that I won't share what you tell me with anyone else."
Santana shrugged, not really wanting to talk about what was really bothering her with Sue. Sure she liked the Coach, and she actually did trust her; despite her evil schemes to end the glee club, Sue was actually a good teacher even if her methods were a little harsh sometimes. And she couldn't think of anybody else that she would be comfortable talking about with this with… but one thing prevented her from opening her mouth, and that was Sue's blackmail attempt. Sue had threatened her with telling everyone in school that she liked Brittany, if she didn't do everything in her power to destroy the purple pianos.
"Is this about you and Brittany?" Sue suddenly said, using that weird mind-reading power that the Cheerios swore that she had. "I'm sorry that I ever tried to use what you too have together against you, of all the mean tricks and evil schemes that I have come up with and used to mess with other people's life, that one I consider the worst. I am truly sorry." Sue said her voice gentling into genuine remorse.
"It's reactions like that that scare me the most… people talking about me to my face I can deal with, but it's what people say behind my back that truly haunts me. And I've been called every mean name in the book, Bitch, Whore, Slut…. But Dyke is the word that I fear the most." Santana's words rushed out like word vomit, unlocked by Sue's apology. "But even all of that doesn't scare me as much as Brittany being slushied did for me yesterday. And all she got slushied for was because she was running against some jerk. All I can think about is what it would be like for her, for us, if it came out that we are dating… a slushy would probably be best thing that somebody could throw at us." Santana shivered at the thought. Sue moved out of her desk and sat down next to her, looking directly into her eyes.
"That could be… and I won't lie to you, it will be one of the toughest things will probably face in your life. But you are Santana Lopez, the HBIC of McKinley High School, and I know that if and when you decide to come out to everyone, that you will be able to face what they will throw at you head-on, and with the evil glare that you should have patented, and use as a weapon of mass destruction. " She paused let that sink in. She patted Santana's back in an awkward gesture, before returning to her desk chair. "Now, Sandbags…" Sue said, the use of the nickname signaling that her moment of niceness was over. "I'll make sure that Brittany's uniform gets cleaned and that this little matter is taken care off. Thank you for bring it to my attention, now go wash your face, and get some make up on those dark circles I can still see. You look like one of your relatives who work in a sweatshop down in Mexico, making useless toys for whining children."
Santana nodded, standing up from her chair and headed for the door. She had just got her hand on the doorknob, when Sue stopped her again. "Oh, and Sandbags…. If I ever catch you and your girlfriend defiling my locker room, not only will I humiliate you in front of the squad, I will change your locker assignment from an A to a B. Do you understand me?" Santana nodded her head furiously. An A numbered locker was in the girl's locker room, and a B number locker room was in the boys.
Sue watched her Co-Head Cheerio go, and then smiled to herself knowing that she had gotten her threat across, even though both of them knew that she would never actually do it.
x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x
"Let's Roadhouse!" Finn yelled after blowing his whistle.
"Oh, it's on, Pillsbury Dough Turd!" Santana replied walking up to him from behind. She was excited by this, the HBIC of Mckinley was roaring for a fight, eager for revenge.
"Excuse Me… I've never heard of this game of dodging balls before." Rory said. "What's the rules?"
"Don't Die." Puck answered, having to smile a little when Rory gulped. They both looked over at their opponents who even Puck had to admit that they looked kind of scary. Brittany glared at the menacingly, before leaning down to turn on the music. It was a mash-up of 'Hit Me with Your Best Shot and One Way or Another', which Brittany thought was perfect for the occasion.
As the game progressed, Brittany realized that it was way more fun to play with Glee Club, than it was in Gym, because for one everyone seemed to be really good players, and two only the Glee Club would have allowed the crazy acrobatics that both sides pulled. The game was crazy and lasted longer than Brittany had figured that it would, but finally it was down to one person on both sides; Finn for the New Directions, and Santana for the Troubletones. She watched almost in slow motion as Santana flung her ball, and the ball hit Finn directly in the face. Normally that would have been a disqualification, but both sides had called a death match, which mean that any hits, anywhere on the body counted.
Brittany wasn't surprised when Santana won, as everyone else seemed to be, because she knew that her girlfriend had played it a lot with the neighborhood boys, and heard many stories about how the smallest girl on the block could take out boys twice her size. It made her wish that she had been there to see it. She broke from her thoughts, when the Troubletones cheered all around her, and with a laugh she joined in.
"Okay. Good game." Finn said, acknowledging Santana and the Troubletones' victory.
"Boy, oh, Boy, that was a cracker!" Rory said, running up to stand beside Finn, and suddenly Santana saw her chance for revenge, the anger talking over once more as in her mind's eye she saw Brittany covered in slushy once more. Grabbing a ball from a nearby girl, she threw it at the Irish boy, and most of the Troubletone's followed her lead, each one of them laughing as they did so. Rory fell to his knees trying to protect his head, but one of the balls hit him square in the nose, he felt blood start to pour.
"Stop it! Stop it! For God's sakes he's bleeding!" Kurt said rushing over to Rory, surprised that Finn was doing nothing but stand there. "Maybe that's how the others treat us around here, but we don't do this to each other! We're better than this!"
"God, calm down, Grandma." Santana said, smugly in her HBIC voice.
"The game's over!" Kurt said, helping Rory up, and started leading him in the direction of the nurse's office. Santana just rolled her eyes at them.
"We still won!" Santana heard Sugar yell as she turned around to head to her gym back, but paused when she saw both Mercedes and Brittany looking at her with sad and disappointed faces. They melted the anger a little, but she wasn't in the mood to deal with them right now, so she shrugged and walked right past them, grabbing her back and headed for the locker room, hoping that a shower would distract her from the guilt that she was now feeling.
x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x
They were right in the middle of doing some silly but actually effective vocal warm-ups, when Mercedes came busting in a few moments late, because she had stayed to Artie and Tina put the dodgeballs away.
"Ladies, vocal warm-ups can wait." Mercedes said, taking off her backpack and moved closer to the choir, "Now, I was up half the night thinking about our mash-up for the mash-off, and it came to me… Adele."
The Troubletones gasped excitedly. "I sound just like her." Sugar exclaimed excitedly.
"Dude, I love her. She sounds like what banana cream pie sounds like when it sings." Brittany said, causing Santana to smile in her direction.
"I think it's a great idea, Mercedes." Shelby said. "I think that we could really kill with that stuff."
"Agreed. And now with that decision out of the way, I can stay focused on my one-sided battle of wits with the Knuckle-Dragger."
"Santana, the dodgeball thing was fun, until the end, but enough." Mercedes said, nicely but firmly.
"No, honey, I'm just getting started."
"I'm the leader of this group and I'm telling you lay off those guys." Mercedes said, taking leadership. But she could see fire ignite behind those chocolate orbs, and she wondered for a moment if she had made a huge mistake, when Santana moved out from behind the piano and started towards her.
"I'm sorry. The leader?" Santana's voice was hard. "Who died and made you queen, Aretha?" Brittany looked down at the piano, really not wanting to see her two friends fight.
"I brought you guys in and I came up with the idea for our mash-up, while you were wasting time trying to figure out how to make Finn Hudson cry. So I nominate myself as President of the Troubletones. All in favor?" Everyone but Brittany and Santana raised their hands. As much as Brittany thought that it was a good idea for Mercedes to be the leader, she knew she needed to have her girlfriend's back right now.
"I'm not impressed by your campaign. You didn't put any poster's up." She said, knowing that Santana and Mercedes at least would get the point. In return, she got a small smile from both of them.
"Four in favor means Mercedes gets elected. " Shelby decided, putting an end to the discussion. "And she's right. We should all be focusing on winning because we're better, not meaner. Mr. Shue and I both agreed on the ground rules. We play fair."
"I just don't have time for this kind of thinking." Santana said, returning to her spot behind the piano. Even though a part of her knew that Mercedes and Shelby were right, the other part of her just couldn't let it go.
"Well, make time." Mercedes said her voice gentling. "Because you are a star member of this group and you need to represent."
"Stop the violence…" Brittany sing-songed into Santana's ear, which followed by those blue puppy dog eyes, made Santana seriously consider trying. "Come on."
"Okay. God, okay." Santana could feel herself blushing, and wondered if anyone else noticed. It was sad sometimes how incredibly whipped she was when it came to her girl. "Look, I'll play fair. From now on, I will be so nice, that cotton candy won't melt in my mouth. That's really nice. That's really nice." She said earning a big smile from Mercedes. And she meant it too, or at least at that moment she did.
x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x
Santana could never really say or even understand why she went back on her word to Brittany, Mercedes and the rest of the Troubletones. All she knew was that when she saw Finn high five Rory in the hallway, all of that anger came rushing back.
"Hey, Tubs, can I talk to you for a second?" Santana said walking toward them, her voice echoing despite the noise of the hallway.
"Hey, listen here. You can't make fun of Finn anymore." Rory said, moving to stand in front of her, blocking her way toward Finn. Santana had to admit that despite her dislike for the boy, he had more balls than Finn did, and made a better friend than Finn had done for him so far.
"Shut your potato hole. I'm here to apologize." She said to Rory, before turning back to Finn. "Rachel's right. I haven't been fair to you. You're not fat. I should know; I slept with you." The words tasted like acid in her mouth, and the memories that her words stirred up did nothing but fuel the fire. "I mean, at some point, I must have like that you look like a taco addict, who's had one too-many back-alley liposuctions."
"Whoa." Rory said interrupting her rant.
"Please stick a sock in it or ship yourself back to Scotland. I'm trying to apologize to Lumps the Clown." She paused again turning back to Finn. "I am sorry, Finn. I mean, really, I'm-I'm sorry that the New Directions are going to get crushed by the Troubletones. I'm also sorry that you have no talent. I'm sorry that you sing like you're getting your prostate checked and you dance like you've been asleep for years and someone just woke you up. Having fun riding on Rachel's coattails for the rest of your life. Although, you know what, I would just watch out for her come holiday time, if I were him, because if I were her, I'd stick a stent in one of those boobs and let the Finn blubber light the Hanukkah lamp for eight magical nights." She waved her hands on the word magical, and then walked away from them, a smirk on her face.
"Hey, Santana." Finn said suddenly. "Why don't you just come out of the closet?" His voice was unnatural loud in the hallway, and she froze. Around her a couple people paused and turned to look at them strangely, before walking away. And it was then that she realized it was all over… her secret was out. "You know, I think I know why you're so good at tearing everybody else down. It's because you're constantly tearing yourself down, because you can't admit to everybody that you're in love with Brittany and she might not love you back. That must hurt to not be able to admit to everyone how you really feel. "With each word his voice grew stronger, and with each word he took a step towards her, until he was two feet from her. Santana was frozen, her feet felt like they were nailed to the floor. She wanted to yell, to scream, to turn around and hit him; she needed to do anything to stop him from talking, but she couldn't move. Her breath caught in her throat, and a tiny tear traveled from her tear duct, tracing a path from her eye to the ground. "You know what I think you are? A coward." His words stung, and cut her heart into a thousand pieces. "See you at the mash-off."
And then he just turned and walked away, leaving her standing there in the hallway. The worst part about the whole thing was the eerie way he knew where to hit her at, where she was most vulnerable. And in a way, she realized that Finn was a bigger bitch than she was, because every insult that she had said to him over the past couple of weeks was just talk. Finn was not fat, he knew and she knew and all it was just talk. But this… this wasn't just talk, this was her life, her secret… the thing that she feared the most, and he had just blurted in out in the hallway. There were so many other things that he could have attacked her with… her parents, her eating disorder, her drunkenness, or her 'whorish and bitchy ways'. But yet he had picked the one that both scared her and yet mattered the most to her.
The bell rang signaling the start of the next class, and around her the noise started to lessen, but she still couldn't move. It wasn't until Ms. Hagberg yelled at her to get to class, that her feet finally responded to her brain. She walked into Physics and mumbled an apology to the teacher about being late. He didn't say anything, but passed her a paper, and pointed to the lab tables. Santana noticed that everyone was broken into lab partners, and her eyes search from Brittany hoping that her teacher had assigned them together. Her heart fell, when she realized that Brittany and Artie were partnered together. They were laughing about something, their faces and bodies close together as the hunched over the table looking at whatever it was that they were experimenting with.
You can't admit to everybody that you're in love with Brittany and she might not love you back… Finn's words echoed in her head, and every insecurity that she had about their relationship came to the surface. That must hurt to not be able to admit to everyone how you really feel. In that moment, She wanted to go over to Artie and yell at him for make a move on her girl, and she wanted to hold Brittany tight, and never let her go, finding comfort in the only person who would give it to her. But all she could do was stare. She saw Artie's hand move to rest on Brittany's arm, his thumb moving across her skin in a subtle caress. You know what I think you are? A coward. Sighing, she turned her head, and headed over to the table where the teacher had pointed, knowing that Finn was right…
A/N: I really liked writing this chapter, especially the scene with Sue. But please review and tell me your thoughts on this chapter. And I wanted to give a big thank you to the anonymous Addicted Reader who left me a review... I wish that had Sue's mind-reading powers to figure out who you are! Anyway, if you are reading this thank you! :)
