Disclaimer: I do not own Glee – If I did, Tina and Mike would break up :P


Chapter Nine: Confidence Pills

"You lot have all been slacking off ever since you found out who our competition was for Regionals." Mr Schuster said clapping his hands "Just because you think the other schools aren't worthy opponents doesn't mean you shouldn't give your all." He ignored all the groans of complaints from his students. "So to get your fire back, we're going to have our own competition." Heads rose at this curiously "It's going to be a Boys vs Girls mash-up. And the prize is it being one of our performances for regionals."

"Wait. What's a mash-up?" asked Puck from the back of the room. Mr Schuster smiled at finally receiving the teenagers attention.

"A mash-up is when you get two songs and mix them together." Mr Schuster explained with enthusiasm. "So come on, get to work!" The girls gathered around each other and started whispering song ideas. Kurt approached them in expectation of being able to work with them.

"Kurt!" Mr Schuster warned, and Kurt sulked back to the boys.

"Girls, I think we should do a mash-up of Walking on Sunshine and Halo. If we start working on it right now, we may have a chance of beating them!" Rachel said excitedly, clapping her hands.

"Yeah whatever, we'll work on it later." Mercedes replied, shrugging. "I'm going to the cafeteria. Anyone coming with?" All the girls except for Rachel grinned and nodded their heads.

"Mercedes! We need to start rehearsing now if we want to win!" Rachel exclaimed

"Oh please Man Hands. It's not like the boys are going to try. We've got this in the bag. I say, we wing it." Santana smirked at the horrified look on Rachel's face.

"Wing it? WING IT?! You're saying you want to wing it!" Rachel screeched in fury

"Yes Rachel, wing it." Santana replied with a bored tone. "Lets go girls" The rest of the girls followed Santana's lead, leaving Rachel alone gobsmacked, she looked over at the boys, and seemed relieved that they were only mucking around.


Bella stared into the bathroom mirror, perfecting her eye makeup. She was concentrating so hard on not screwing up her perfect lines that she didn't notice she was being watched. Quinn stared at the back of her sister's head, and had to hold herself back from flinging her arms around her. Bella was still furious with Quinn, and wouldn't speak to her if she could help it, and when she did speak it was full of harsh words. Quinn missed her sister, they were best friends, told each other everything. But Quinn knew she had destroyed that, and as much as her heart begged her to try and make it up with her sister, she knew nothing would happen unless Bella was ready for it. Bella packed away her cosmetics, and spun around to leave the bathroom, but when she did she came face to face with Quinn. Bella's smile quickly disappeared off her face.

"What are you doing here?" Bella snarled, Quinn flinched at the harshness in her voice.

"It's a bathroom, what do you think I came here to do?" Quinn asked, trying to keep her voice steady.

"Puke your guts out I guess, Preggers." Bella smirked, Quinn's eye's widened and placed a hand on Bella's mouth.

"shut up!" Quinn screeched "You promised you wouldn't tell!"

"Don't touch me!" Bella snapped, slapping the hand away from her mouth, disgusted.

"You promised!" Quinn whined desperately

"Oh relax!" Bella scoffed "There's no one here. Your secret is safe until that bump is too big for the uniform."

"What am I going to do when people find out?" Quinn mumbled quietly, placing her hand over her stomach.

"I honestly don't care. Just stay away from me." Bella snapped, storming out of the room to get as far away from her sister as she could.


Bella took her seat in the audience. The boys were getting ready to perform their mash-up, and Bella didn't have high hopes for them. Finn has been exhausted lately, and the rest of the boys were just plain lazy. Bella felt sorry for Kurt, if only Mr Schue hadn't of said anything, he could have been performing with them. The music for the mash-up of songs It's my Life and Confessions Part II started, and Bella was surprised at how upbeat the tempo was. The boys were full of energy, practically bouncing off the walls. But it worked for the song, so she didn't think anything else of it. Bella started trying to do anything but focus on Mike during the performance. Mike had this new confidence, and it was attractive, heck it was sexy. But it was Mike, nothing could happen with him, he was just Mike. And the fact that Bella knew he was in love with her only made it worse, because Bella knew she didn't feel the same way. And doing anything now would be taking advantage of him, it would break his heart for Bella to ditch him after showing an interest. It would only be a rebound relationship. Bella was so absorbed in her own thoughts that she didn't realise the boys had finished until the eruption of applause happened. Bella smiled faintly, and clapped along with the rest of the girls. Thankfully the bell rang before Bella had to deal with Rachel's lecture on how irresponsible they were for not listening to her and for deciding to wing it. Bella tried to escape from the room without Mike noticing, but she wasn't that lucky. Mike bounded up to her and took her books from her hands.

"Come on Bee, I'll walk you to class!" Mike grinned, he grabbing Bella's arm. Bella looked up at him in confusion, but allowed herself to be lead from the room. Mike started talking the hind legs off a donkey. Bella was having a hard time to keep up. This so called confidence wasn't Mike, sure it had been believable during the performance. But now, he wasn't his usual self. He was loud and even more annoying as usual.

"- and he was like bang! And I was like ARGH! DUDE, WE'RE ON THE SAME TEAM!" Mike rambled.

"Mike" Bella said, trying to shut him up.

"And then he was like yeah, well you were pissing me off, so I said-" Mike continued

"Mike!" Bella tried again

"But he didn't listen to me, so I shot him back, I blew up his head. IT WAS FREAKING AWESOME!"

"Mike!" Bella groaned, he just wouldn't shut up!

"But of course when he regenerated he was really pissed, and when I say really, I mean really. So-"

"MIKE! WILL YOU SHUT THE HELL UP?!" Bella screamed. Mike closed his mouth looking confused.

"What?" He asked simply, Bella sighed in annoyance.

"What is wrong with you? You haven't stopped talking since we left Glee." Bella questioned.

"I don't know what you're talking about. I'm perfectly fine." Mike replied quickly

"You're not fine. You don't ever talk this much, not even around me." Bella said, narrowing her eyes.

"Um, I just…had a lot of sugar?" Mike said nervously. It was obvious that he was trying to hide something.

"Mike Chang, you are a horrible liar!" Bella snapped "Now tell me the truth. Did you take anything?"

"…maybe…" Mike said quietly, inching away from her.

"what did you take?" Bella asked, taking a step closer to the boy who was moving away from her. "Was it illegal?" Bella said quietly

"NO! It wasn't, at least Finn said it wasn't!" Mike cried, taking another step back.

"FINN?! Are you saying that Finn gave you something? He gave all of you boys something didn't he? That's why you had so much energy on stage!" Bella said, her eyes brightening at the discovery.

"I'm sorry Bee!" Mike whimpered. "…Please don't tell my Mummy." Bella rolled her eyes, and grabbed the boy's arm.

"You're pathetic!" Bella laughed. "Come on!" She started pulling him behind her.

"Where are we going?" Mike asked, willingly following the girl.

"To tell the rest of the girls of course!" Bella grinned


"So they took Pseudoephedrine?" Rachel asked Mike. Mike only nodded in response, he was looking at the floor, obviously feeling ashamed.

"Right, well I say we take some as well." Santana said. "We need to even the playing field."

"What?! I am not taking drugs!" Rachel screeched "That is simply horrendous!"

"Oh, shut up Rachel!" Mercedes snapped "If you don't like it, then don't take it!"

"But…But it's drugs" Rachel whined

"Do you want to win or not Rachel?" Bella asked. Rachel bit her lip, but nodded.

"Who did you get it from, Mike?" Mercedes asked, Mike didn't answer, he was too busy studying the floor. Bella nudged him in the rips, causing him to jump.

"Sorry, what?" he asked quietly.

"Wh-who gave you the d-drugs?" Tina repeated.

"…Mrs Schuster," Mike mumbled

"Well lets go then!" Santana grinned, she flipped her hair over her shoulder and started walking away from the group.

"What do you guys think?" Bella asked the others. She wasn't sure if she wanted to take the drug or not. She was afraid of what she'd act like on the tablet. What if she got addicted? What if she accidently spilled Quinn's secret? At least it was over the counter, so it must be safe.

"I think we should do it." Quinn said, shrugging. "It's safe, and the boys would have an unfair advantage if we didn't." Bella looked at her sister in surprise, she hadn't expected that Quinn would for the idea. And as the queen bee had approved the idea, everyone else decided they should do it as well.


The glee girls all lined up in front of Mrs Schuster. Bella still wasn't sure about the idea, but she didn't want to be the only one not taking them. When the tablets were placed in her hand she had to make a conscious decision. Was winning a singing competition worth it? Would she get expelled if someone found out? What would her parents say? But then Bella remembered, Mrs Schuster was a nurse, she knew what she was doing. Bella could trust her. So Bella let all of her thoughts go, she put the pill in her mouth and brought the cup of water up to her lips. It was done, she'd done it. There was no going back now, all she could do was hope that she wasn't going to regret her decision.


Bella could feel her body reacting to the drug, it was making herself feel different. She felt more upbeat, more happy, more confident. Bella liked this feeling, why hadn't she ever tried drugs before? It felt marvellous, like she could do anything and would succeed. She felt like going up to Christian and making him pay, she felt like standing up to Jade for being a horrible friend. She felt –

"Girls, you're up! Show us what you're made of!" Mr Schue grinned, clapping his hands. Bella and the rest of the girls walked into their positions. Bella could practically feel the energy radiating off them. The performance happened so fast, that Bella's memory of it was a blur. All she could remember was standing in her position next to Tina waiting to start, and the next thing she knew she was doing the splits at the end of the performance. Bella was surprised, she didn't feel tired one bit!

"Woah, this is going to be one tough decision!" Mr Schuster said, smiling. There was a sense of pride in his eyes that made Bella's heart shrivel with shame. She felt awful, there he was feeling so proud of them when their whole performance was a lie. Bella turned to Rachel and by the look on her face, she felt the exact same way. Bella knew it wasn't going to be long before Rachel confessed, either that or forfeited.


The next day, Bella was still feeling incredibly guilty. She entered the school with intention of telling Mr Schuster. She couldn't bear to see him mad at her, but she knew that it was the right thing to do. As she was about to pass the principal's office she heard raised voices. Despite knowing that it was wrong to eavesdrop, she decided to listen. Mr and Mrs Schuster were in a heightened meeting with Principal Figgins. By catching a few words she knew that they had found out about the Pseudoephedrine tablets. It must have been Rachel, Bella felt relieved. Now she wasn't going to get blamed for tattling on her other glee club members. She also felt proud of Rachel though, it wasn't going to be easy for her. Speaking of the devil, Bella spied the Brunette just a few feet from her.

"You told him, didn't you?" Bella asked, catching up to Rachel in the hallway.

"Yes, I did. It was horrendous what we did, and we should all be ashamed of ourselves!" Rachel cried, not even bothering to look behind her to look at Bella.

"I know. I feel awful." Bella mumbled. Rachel stopped in her tracks, almost causing Bella to crash into her, she slowly turned around to face Bella.

"You do?" Rachel asked, a tone of surprise in her voice.

"Well yeah, he looked so proud of us. And we were all lying to him. I am human you know, I have a conscience. I'm not as awful as most of the cheerios here." Bella replied with a small smile.

"Oh really? Then how come you've never stood up for the glee kids before you became one?" Rachel snapped, staring at Bella with a look of annoyance. " You were there every single time I got slushied, yet you never said a word. You never tried to stop them, you just went along with it. I even saw you laughing once." Bella opened and closed her mouth like a fish, she didn't know what to say. It was true, she never had tried to stop Karofsky, Puck and Christian from slushying people. It was because she was scared, she didn't want them to turn on her. She didn't want to end up with a face full of coloured ice. But she knew now that it was wrong, it had happened to her and she knew what it felt like. It felt awful, it was humiliating, it stung for hours, and it made you feel helpless.

"I know, and I'm really sorry Rachel!" Bella cried, finally finding her voice again. Rachel just rolled her eyes and continued on walking. Bella reached out, grabbed her arm and turned her back around to face her again. 'I'm sorry Rachel! You have to believe that. I was scared and stupid and I'm sorry. I know I can't fully make up for my actions, but please let me at least try." Bella couldn't help but get a little bit teary, she felt stupid. She shouldn't cry, she had no reason to. But instead the salty tears disobeyed her, and started to run down her face. Rachel's eyes softened a little at the sight, but then returned to her usual posture.

"Well…okay then. We'd better head to Glee Rehearsal." Rachel said with a small smile. Bella returned the smile and followed after her. It wasn't much, but it was a start.


Bella could practically feel the tension in the room, it was as though someone could slice a knife through it. Mr Schuster was standing in front of the whiteboard tapping his foot impatiently, staring at the glee kids who were already sitting in their seats. Bella slid in next to Mike and whispered into his ear, "Mike…I'm worried." He turned his head to face her, and tilted his head in confusion. "He's not saying anything." Bella explained, looking back towards Mr Schuster, "Why isn't he saying anything?" It was true, Mr Schuster hadn't said a word since any of the kids sat down, it seemed he was waiting for everyone to arrive before he started going into it. As usual, Puck was the one to arrive last, he looked sweaty and his hair was all ruffled. Mr Schuster waited until Puck had taken his seat next to Santana before clearing his throat.

"I know what happened." Mr Schuester said slowly, it was clear in his voice that he was disappointed. Most of the glee kids looked down at their feet in shame, they knew they were in massive trouble. "What were you thinking? Drugs is never the answer to your problems. If you were nervous about the performance you should have just told me and we would have sorted it out.

"I don't see what the big deal is." Santana said simply, shrugging. "It was over the counter, which means it's perfectly safe. Plus it was your wife who gave it to us." Bella nudged Santana in the ribs, glaring at her. She was only making things worse for them.

"That's not the point Santana." Mr Schuester replied with a sigh. "You should know better than to take something that's not prescribed to you."

"We know Mr Schue, and we'll never do anything like that again." Rachel said, the rest of the Glee Club nodded their heads in agreement.

"I'm afraid it's not that simple Rachel." Mr Schuster sighed, shaking his head sadly. "Because of this incident I have been seen unfit to teach Glee Club on my own." The room was filled with gasps and shocked faces.

"Mr Schue!" Bella cried.

"Who's the new director?" Finn asked. Just as the words came out of his mouth the door to the choir room swung open.

"No!" Rachel cried.