A/N: Hello everyone, this chapter's longer than usual, it was actually two chapters but I decided to merge them instead. More notes at the bottom :)
The next morning, Ryan walked down the stairs for breakfast after his jog. He found his dad Hiram sitting at the table eating some toast and reading the paper. He looked up when Ryan came in. "Good morning," Hiram said absently.
"Hi," Ryan answered vaguely, pulling out some cereal and a bowl.
Hiram put down the paper and looked at his son. "Who brought you home last night?"
Ryan froze. Shelby had dropped him off last night after dinner at Breadstix. He hadn't thought that his father might have been watching. He still hadn't told either of his dads about meeting Shelby because he didn't know how they would react. He silently debated with himself. Did he want to get into this right now? After a few more moments of dithering, he made his decision. Might as well get it over with now, while his dad was interested. Hiram had always been the calmer one of his two parents and it would likely be easier to talk to him first.
"It was Shelby Corcoran. She's the coach of Vocal Adrenaline," he said guardedly. "Do you know her?" Ryan watched his dad closely, wanting to see if Hiram would deny it. To his surprise, Hiram simply looked right back at him, blue eyes meeting brown.
"I think you know the answer to that," Hiram sighed tiredly. He'd been dreading this since their meeting with Shelby several weeks ago. "Did she tell you?"
Ryan bristled. He was still very upset at his parents for keeping this secret from him. "No. I looked at my adoption records in your study," he boldly admitted. "You should have told me."
"You never asked."
"You didn't think I'd want to know who my birth mother was?" Ryan countered angrily. "And I did ask! You two just said she was a surrogate and that was that! You wouldn't even tell me her name! If you don't want me around, didn't you think that maybe you could have pointed me in her direction? At least she likes having me around, and she lives just half an hour away, for goodness' sakes!"
Hiram blinked, surprised at the intensity of his son's reaction. He suddenly realized that he didn't know what to expect from his son, because he didn't know his son. He'd become so engrossed with his job and other things that he hadn't been paying attention. Now that he thought about it he couldn't remember when he'd last had a real conversation with Ryan. There was one point in his son's rant that he thought could address though.
"What do you mean we don't want you around, of course we want you around!"
Ryan laughed disbelievingly. All of the frustration he'd felt toward his parents and their lack of attention for the past three years or more was now rising to the top, and he just couldn't keep it all in anymore. "Really, dad? Really? You're never home, you're always out at work or whatever it is you do. And when you are home, you never talk to me! I could talk and talk forever but I don't think you listen, you don't even try! I told you yesterday at breakfast that I had something coming up in a week. Do you even remember what it was?"
Hiram guiltily racked his brain trying to remember what had happened at breakfast. He'd been watching the news…he remembered Ryan had said something about one of his school activities…more guilt flooded into him as he realized that he didn't know exactly what activities Ryan was into. He knew it was arts related; drama club, choir, something that involved performing.
Ryan sighed, knowing his dad had no clue what he was talking about. "Shelby told me about the contract. She said she tried to get out of it but you wouldn't let her."
Hiram shook his head. "We told her when she contacted us that she could have contact with you as long as she didn't tell you who she was."
Ryan gaped at him. "What are you talking about? She said the contract included a part that said she couldn't contact me until I was 18, or unless I found her," he said distractedly. "Wait, what do you mean she called you?"
Hiram's face took on a confused expression. "She called two or three weeks ago, setting up a meeting. She told us she'd seen you at the garage where you work, she wanted to tell you who she was. Your papa didn't want to let her see you again, but we decided she could talk to you if she promised she wouldn't tell you who she was." Hiram paused. "Didn't she tell you that?"
Ryan shook his head. "Why would you do that? I was so upset with her when I found out, I thought she didn't want me," he said in a betrayed tone. Then he shook himself slightly, straightening his posture. "You know what, never mind. You haven't cared about what's been going on in my life for a long time now, maybe it should just stay that way." He turned his back on Hiram and stormed up the stairs and into his room to get ready for school.
Hiram stood in the living room, rooted to the ground in shock. He needed to talk to Leroy.
Kurt and Mercedes walked to the choir room early that morning. Mercedes couldn't wait to share what they'd seen at Burt's garage yesterday with the rest of the glee club. Kurt wasn't so sure though. He knew what it was like to not have a mom, and if he could have a chance to get to talk to her again he wouldn't want everyone questioning him and getting all up in his business. Unfortunately he knew Mercedes was one of the school's biggest gossips and the secret wasn't probably going to stay a secret for long.
They entered the choir room, finding that almost everyone in the glee club was already there. The students were still in a funk from Vocal Adrenaline, though, and the atmosphere was very depressing. The two latecomers sat down just as Mr. Schue entered the room, immediately going up to the whiteboard and writing down a single word.
"Funk." Mr. Schue underlined it. "This is how we're going to beat Vocal Adrenaline. They've never once done a funk number. They're a collective, synthesized, soulless machine. Funk's power is in its passion, its emotion, and Vocal Adrenaline doesn't perform with any. So that's your assignment, you're going to turn McKinley High into funkytown!" He riffed the last word as the students laughed.
Mercedes spoke up smugly. "Don't worry about it, I've got this one covered."
"Cool," Mr. Schue smiled. "But if anyone's wants to come up and prepare a funk number, go right ahead."
Then Quinn said, "Has anyone seen Ryan? He isn't here."
"Hey, you're right," Puck agreed. "But it's just because nobody's said anything obnoxious in over five minutes."
Mercedes decided that this was the perfect time to spread the gossip. "Kurt and I heard some big news yesterday outside his dad's auto shop," she said conspiratorially. "Ryan works there, right? We saw him yesterday. You all ready?" she paused. "Ms. Corcoran, their coach? She's Ryan's mom."
"Are you serious?" Will asked in shock. Mercedes nodded, as well as Kurt, albeit a bit reluctantly.
"We're screwed," Puck said. "He's going to jump ship to Vocal Adrenaline."
Quinn scoffed irritably. "You don't know that." Maybe he was right. But Ryan had put a lot of time and effort into improving the New Directions, she didn't think he'd leave just like that.
Due to his argument with his dad that morning, Ryan had subsequently been late for class. He'd talked to Quinn at one of their shared classes and had discovered that there had been a glee club meeting that morning that he'd missed. He decided not to worry about it though. Funk was really more of Mercedes' style, or even Kurt's because of his quirkiness. He'd leave this one to them.
During rehearsal everyone had been sneaking glances at Ryan. When the rehearsal had ended, and Mr. Schue had left, Ryan looked around at the other kids. "Why are you all looking at me? Is there something on my face? Did someone stick a note on my back again?" He reached around and felt for anything stuck on his back.
"Is it true that the coach of Vocal Adrenaline is your mom?" Tina asked. Kurt facepalmed. Way to lead into it, Tina.
Ryan froze. "What – How did you find out about that?"
Everyone turned toward Kurt and Mercedes.
Santana rolled her eyes. "Mercedes said she and Lady Hummel saw you and Ms. Corcoran at the garage shop yesterday," she explained sassily as Ryan glanced at the two with an upset expression on his face. "We actually thought you'd be over at Figgins' office by now, finishing up your transfer to Carmel and VA. Let's face it, Midget, we all know you want to win, and that you're probably gonna leave us all hanging if it meant you'd come out on top."
Ryan almost growled. He'd been shoved against the lockers in the hallways twice already and had barely managed to avoid being slushied on the way in here. He'd had a pretty bad day all in all, and he really didn't think he could take much more right now. "First of all, you can't call me Midget anymore, I'm taller than you now," he said glaring at Santana. "It worked two years ago, but not anymore. Secondly, just because you'd dump us like one of your used boytoys doesn't mean I will. My loyalty is to the New Directions. Of course I'm not leaving, I'm the one who puts the most effort into making this team better, I'm the one who has the most to lose if glee club gets cut!" he seethed.
He calmed himself with some difficulty before he could say something he'd regret. "And for your information, the identity of my mother is none of your business." He turned to Kurt and Mercedes. "I'm very disappointed that you chose to gossip what you overheard about me. I know you don't like me but I'm still entitled to my privacy. If the places were reversed I wouldn't have done that to you." He shot everyone a withering glare and proceeded to execute a perfect storm-out, leaving eleven kids shooting slightly guilty looks at each other.
Ryan marched straight down the hallways of McKinley, still upset. How could they think he'd just abandon them like that? Didn't they know him at all? After more than six months together in the glee club they should know how invested he was in the New Directions. He'd poured so much of his time and energy into every performance.
He shook his head, trying to clear it. He'd told Shelby yesterday he'd meet her at Carmel High. They had decided that it would be easier to transport the tires to Carmel rather than towing 26 flat-tired Range Rovers back to the garage. He exited the school building and cut across the parking lot. In his preoccupation, he didn't notice the dozen or so round projectiles that started flying at him from behind the dumpsters.
About an hour earlier, Jesse St. James had called together a meeting of the senior Vocal Adrenaline members in the Carmel choir room. Shelby had ended their afternoon rehearsal at about three in the afternoon, but had told them to stay, because they were all going to have to pitch in to replace the one hundred plus tires.
But all twenty-six members were still furious at the damage done to their vehicles. Shelby had already told them that the McKinley glee club would be paying for repairs, but that didn't change the fact that they had no transportation until their tires were fixed. And of course it was a matter of pride. They couldn't just take it lying down. Those New Directions were just a bunch of upstarts, and they needed to know they couldn't get away with messing with Vocal Adrenaline. If they wanted to escalate, then VA would fight back.
That was why nine senior members of Vocal Adrenaline were now waiting behind the dumpsters in the McKinley parking lot with a few trays of eggs, ready to ambush the first member of New Directions who was unfortunate enough to pass by.
"Hey, someone's coming," Andrea Cohen whispered, spotting a lone figure walking quickly across the parking lot. "Everyone get ready!"
Jesse carefully peeked out from behind the dumpster to take a look at their target. His stomach dropped as he saw who it was. Shelby was going to kill them if they hurt her kid. "Guys, wait –"
He was too late.
Ryan stopped cold as he felt something small smash into him. Turning around, he found several more projectiles coming toward him. Recognizing them as eggs, he instinctively shut his eyes and raised his arms in an attempt to keep them from hitting him. When eggs finally stopped flying, he opened his eyes and saw several members of VA surrounding him, including their lead singer Jesse St. James standing at the front of the group. A couple of the other kids were holding now-empty egg cartons. Jesse was the only one left holding an egg. Jesse looked at Ryan and hesitated.
"Come on, Jesse," urged Andrea, Vocal Adrenaline's female lead. Jesse looked at her and glanced back at Ryan, who glared back at him defiantly. Jesse gave in. The others were watching him, and he couldn't appear weak in front of the other VA seniors. He smashed the egg hard on the boy's head. Putting on his most arrogant air, he folded his arms across his chest. "You can go tell the rest of your little glee club that you mess with Vocal Adrenaline, you're going to find out why our school statue is a three-ton great white eating a seal pup."
Ryan couldn't see clearly anymore, and it wasn't just because of the egg that was dripping down his face. Snarling, he quickly stepped forward shoved Jesse hard in the chest. "What is your problem?!" he bellowed. Ryan glared at the older boy, unmindful of the small height difference. "Didn't you already do enough damage?! Just leave us alone!"
Jesse was taken by surprise, but he quickly shoved the younger boy back. "You're the ones who slashed all our tires!" he said angrily.
"Only two members of our glee club did that, and they've already promised to pay for the damages they've caused," Ryan yelled at Jesse, shoving him again. In the back of his mind he knew it was a bad idea, but he'd had it with everyone today, and he just couldn't stop himself. "You just can't handle that we're going to beat you, you're about to lose your title and now you're just using every tactic you can to scare us because you know we're better than you! You are pathetic!" He turned his back on Jesse and started moving back in the direction of the school.
Who the hell did this kid think he was? Jesse thought angrily. He looked around at the other VA members, who also looked really mad at the telling-off they'd received from the sophomore. One of them, a tall blond guy named Tyler Carter, had a particularly furious look in his eye. Before any of them could react, he had grabbed Ryan's shoulder and decked the smaller boy in the face, knocking him to the ground.
"Oh my god!" one of the female seniors exclaimed. "Tyler, what the hell!"
Uh-oh. Jesse thought quickly. This was spinning out of control. Shelby was going to murder them and dance on their graves. The other kids' expressions had instantly turned from angry to panicked. And they didn't even know exactly what they'd done, or who they'd done it to. Some of them were getting ready to run. Oh shit, someone was coming out of the school.
"Hey!"
It was two of the members from McKinley's glee club. Jesse saw one of them go back inside, presumably to get a teacher. Time to leave. "Let's go," Jesse said urgently. "We have to go!" Everyone scrambled off, just as the other New Directions member, the pregnant blonde girl, reached Ryan, who was just getting up.
Owww… Ryan's face hurt. He put his hand on his face as he sat up, feeling for any damage. Nose was fine, jaw working… ouch. He touched his left eye gingerly, wincing.
He saw Quinn leaning over him. Perfect, now she'd think he was a total loser again. "Are you ok? Mercedes went to go get the others."
Ryan blinked a few times and looked up at her. "My face hurts," he said childishly. Quinn held out a hand to help him up.
"What are you covered in? Are those eggshells?" she asked, wiping off her had on her jeans.
"Yes," Ryan sighed as they walked back into the school building. His previous fury had subsided and was now replaced by resignation. "It was Jesse St. James and some of the other VA members. They said it was payback for that tire-slashing Puck and Finn pulled." He started to head for his locker before remembering that he hadn't been able to bring extra clothes this morning because he'd been distracted by his dad. He sighed. Now he'd have to go all the way home to change.
Just then some of the other glee kids came down the hall. "What happened?" Finn asked, taking in Ryan's appearance. Ryan guessed he didn't exactly look great, he still had eggshells stuck everywhere and he was relatively sure that his eye was swelling up.
"Some of the seniors from Vocal Adrenaline decided that the tire-slashing incident was too much for their honor to bear," he said ironically. "Jesse St. James also said, and I quote, 'You mess with Vocal Adrenaline, you're going find out why our school statue is a three-ton great white eating a seal pup.'" He snorted. "So I shoved him, and then he shoved me back, and then I shoved him back. Then I yelled at him and this other kid up and punched me in the face when I tried to leave," he finished blandly. "Then they ran."
"You need to get cleaned up," Quinn said.
Ryan sighed. "No, it's fine, I'll get cleaned up at home."
"I can get you some stuff," Puck volunteered. "There's some extra clothes in the guys' locker room, you could clean up there too."
Ryan hesitated for a moment before agreeing. "Okay."
A few minutes later, after a quick shower, Ryan was dressed in the spare clothes Puck had found for him. Puck had even found him a baseball cap so he could hide the black eye that was starting to form. He exited the boys' locker room and headed to the choir room, where he found the rest of the New Directions waiting for him. Ryan raised an eyebrow, waiting for whatever they wanted to say.
Finn stepped forward. "Look, we just wanted to say we were really sorry for what happened in the choir room."
"Yeah," Mercedes continued. "It was wrong of us to get all in your business. It's none of ours who your mom is or what her job is or if you want to see her."
Kurt nodded, "That goes for me too."
"Even if she's really scary when she's mad," Finn added, while Puck nodded in agreement, remembering what had happened in Figgins' office the other day. He'd never admit it but Shelby Corcoran was pretty intimidating.
Now Santana spoke. "Yeah, I'm sorry too. I shouldn't have said all that stuff about you dropping us to join VA, and whatever."
Ryan put on his best poker face. "Thank you," he said. "Apology accepted. I'm sorry I didn't tell you, but I was still processing, I guess. I just figured out who she was a week ago, and it's still pretty new. And I need you to know that I'm not leaving McKinley unless I have to. Sure, we may not always get along but, where would you be without me? We all know I'm your star," he said jokingly. In all honesty he knew they'd get right back to their old standby of taking him for granted within a week. But he couldn't help it. He had some kind of pathological need to be accepted, and this was the closest he'd probably ever get.
The other kids smiled in relief when he accepted their apology. They wouldn't admit it, but he was their star, and they knew he was the one who kept New Directions together. They needed him, though they'd deny it to the grave.
"Now we need to figure out a way to get back at those punks," Puck said viciously.
Just then Mr. Schue entered the room. While Ryan was in the locker room Artie had told him what had just happened in the parking lot. "None of you are going anywhere," he interrupted. "That's exactly how we got into this mess in the first place."
"But Mr. Schue, we can't just let them get away with that!" Finn argued.
Kurt nodded. "He's right. Ryan's annoying but he's ours and only we get to mess with him."
And they were back to talking about him as if he wasn't there. Did they even think about what they were saying? Ryan rolled his eyes.
Mr. Schue looked at Kurt strangely but continued. "You're right, we can't let them off just like that. I've thought about it, and here's what we're going to do…"
In Carmel High, Shelby checked her watch one more time. 4:10. Ryan had said he'd meet her in her office at around 3:30, and she was starting to worry. She looked up when she heard her phone chime, signaling a text message.
Shelby, change of plans. I can't make it this afternoon, but I'll be there tomorrow morning, whatever time you want. Sorry. –Ryan
She sighed. It wasn't really a problem, but she wished he'd told her earlier. She almost felt like she'd been stood up. She smiled wryly at the thought.
She was just about to get up to the choir room to tell her students to go home when her office phone rang. Picking it up, she answered. "Hello, Shelby Corcoran speaking."
"Miss Corcoran? It's Will Schuester, from McKinley High?"
Well, that was a surprise. "Yes, I remember who you are. What can I do for you?" Maybe he'd finally realized that his students weren't going to earn the $20,000 they needed to pay for the tires in a month.
"There's been a bit of an incident here at McKinley." That got her attention. "It seems that a few of your Vocal Adrenaline students came over here and egged one of mine. Then there was apparently a bit of a fist fight."
What? Her students were supposed to be in the auditorium. Then she had a really bad feeling. "Which of your students was it?"
She heard Will sigh over the phone. "It was Ryan Berry."
Shit. So that was why he wasn't coming today. "Is he okay?" she asked numbly.
"He's says he's fine, but he's probably going to have a nice shiner soon, one of your kids got him pretty good. He didn't know all the names of your students, but he said there were maybe eight or nine, including Jesse St. James." Will hesitated. "I know about your relationship to Ryan," he said gently.
That woke Shelby up. "What?"
"Some of my glee kids saw the two of you in Burt Hummel's garage yesterday. They overheard a few things."
"I see. Well, thank you for your call. Do you know where Ryan is now?" She needed to go see him, reassure herself that he was okay. Make sure that he wasn't angry with her.
"I think he said he was heading to the garage."
"Thank you, Mr. Schuester. Don't worry, I'll deal with the students involved." She hung up. Her team was so dead. She sent out a mass text informing them that they all needed to be at the auditorium at 6pm sharp. No exceptions.
But first she needed to see her son.
Ryan was fiddling with the engine of an old sedan when he heard Burt shut down one of the noisy machines he was working with. "Miss Corcoran, what can I do for you?" he heard Burt ask.
Wonderful. Even though he'd automatically put up his show face in front of the rest of New Directions after the incident, his pride had taken a big hit today with the egging, and his funk was back in grand style. He knew his teammates were feeling guilty over ambushing him about his mother's identity. He also knew that it wouldn't stick. They always talked about him as if he wasn't there; the only reason they put up with him was because of his voice. But he had still accepted their apology. He was pathetic.
Now his mother was going to see what a loser he was. It apparently wasn't enough that the rest of the glee club saw how he couldn't defend himself, now his mom was going to see. She'd probably turn right around and never want to his useless self again.
"Hello, Mr. Hummel, I just came to see Ryan. He was supposed to come to Carmel earlier to get started on the tires but then he changed his mind. I just wanted to arrange a new meeting time with him for tomorrow."
Couldn't she just have texted?
Burt frowned. "Oh, okay then. Why don't you go into the office, it'll be quieter. Ryan!" he called his assistant. "Miss Corcoran needs to talk to you in the office."
Ryan sighed. Wiping off his hands, he pulled down his baseball cap over his eyes and followed his mother to the office. "Hi Shelby," he said, not meeting her eyes.
"Are you okay?" Shelby asked. "Will Schuester gave me a call this afternoon. He said some of my students had pulled another prank."
Crap, she knew. Ryan became defensive. "It's nothing, all right? I'm fine." He tried turning away but Shelby managed to catch his arm. She used her other hand to tip the baseball cap up. Ryan heard her suck in a breath as she took in his brand-new black eye.
"That doesn't look fine," she said sternly. "What happened?"
"Nothing happened! I'm fine!" Ryan was getting agitated. Why was she asking all these questions?
Shelby for her part was taken aback. "Look, I'm just trying to help –"
"I don't need your help!" Ryan couldn't take it anymore. He was so frustrated with everything that was going on right now, and something had to give. "I just need you to back off, okay? Why do you even care? You left me behind before! I've been fine before you came back here, just leave me alone!"
Shelby's face immediately took on a neutral expression, show face coming up instinctively to hide her hurt. "All right," she said numbly. "I'm going back to Carmel, since you don't need me right now. Don't worry about the tires, you don't need to come tomorrow morning if you don't want to. Put some ice on that eye." She stood stiffly and walked out of the office.
As soon as she was gone Ryan deflated. What had he done? He didn't know what had just happened, but he did know he'd messed up. Big time. And Shelby had left him.
He'd just ruined everything.
Shelby drove back to Carmel High in a bit of a daze. Returning to her office she sat down. What had just happened? She went through the conversation in her mind, but she couldn't figure out what she had said to set Ryan off. She just knew she needed to fix it. You left me behind before. I don't need your help. She folded her arms on her desk at buried her face in them, closing her eyes.
She'd been right. He didn't need her anymore. And it hurt. She'd thought she had built up a thick skin over the years, taking rejection after rejection after rejection in New York, coming back home to Ohio with nothing to show for it. But Ryan's words had cut straight to the heart of all her fears and regrets. Her child didn't need her anymore…She had thought of her baby every day for the past fifteen years. But now that she'd finally found him it seemed it was too late.
Half an hour later Shelby made her way the auditorium after her mini pity party. Now, she was in full Angry Coach Mode. It wasn't difficult to slip into character. Not only had her students disobeyed her orders to leave the McKinley glee club alone, they had gone and hurt her kid! Okay, so they didn't know he was her kid, but still! And Jesse didn't even have that excuse. Her students had to know that it wasn't right to go over to another school and start beating up other students, this wasn't West Side Story after all. This had gone way too far.
When she got to the auditorium she found her twenty-six students on the stage. They all fell silent when they saw her come in, watching warily as she came up onto the stage. They all knew that the quieter and calmer their coach became, the more precarious their situation was. Shelby glared at them hard, noting with satisfaction how they all shrank back.
"I seem to recall that I asked you all to stay here this afternoon," she said ponderingly, as she paced slowly across the stage. "Do any of you remember that?" She saw several tentative nods from some of the students. "Hmmm. That's good. So I assume you all stayed here this afternoon, then." She caught the fleeting guilty looks from several of the senior members of the team. Gotcha.
"So would anyone like to explain the call I got from the coach of New Directions? He is under the impression that some of my students went over to their school and ganged up on his lead singer."
No one spoke. Silence rang throughout the auditorium, thick and heavy in the atmosphere. Shelby fixed her gaze on Jesse, who stared back at her with a perfect poker face. His eyes shone with apprehension though; he wasn't good of an actor to hide that just yet.
Shelby stopped moving and folded her arms. "What made you think you could get away with this? I explicitly told you that you would take no further action against the McKinley glee club. And yet you thought it was all right for you to go and throw eggs at them? And as if that wasn't enough, you decided to throw fists around?"
She paused to glare at them. "One more notice. Yesterday I was able to secure the delivery of the replacement tires for all of you. They're in the parking lot right now. Unfortunately, the mechanic can't get around to fitting them onto your cars until this weekend. I was able to get his assistant to agree to assist us today, that's why I told you all to stay. However, as someone assaulted him with several trays of eggs, he was not able to make it here." She stopped as she saw looks of realization cross her students' faces.
The students seemed to grow smaller and smaller with each word that escaped their coach. While only nine members of the team had actually gone to McKinley, all of them had known about it, and they knew that their coach deemed them all equally culpable. If there was one thing their teacher never stood for, it was defiance of her orders, and though no one knew exactly why, she seemed extra pissed this time. They watched Shelby in fear, dread growing with every second. They knew this was going to be bad.
They weren't disappointed. "Since it seems that you can't really seem to follow my orders, I have decided that to improve our performances, I will be hiring back Dakota Stanley to polish up all three of our routines." She bit back an evil grin at the gasps and whimpers she heard from her students. She may have hated Dakota but her students hated him even more. "And since you obviously don't want or need any help, and you have loads of spare time, I have decided that there will be no need to have the mechanic replace your tires. Instead of spending your time throwing things at people, you can all go ahead and change your tires yourselves." One more glare to silence any complaints. Aside from a few mutinous looks, there were none. "Lastly, I know exactly which of you were behind this whole egging incident, as you neglected to remember that our parking lot has CCTV monitoring which caught you leaving the premises. So step forward now."
Reluctantly the nine senior students including Jesse stepped forward, looking like they wanted nothing more than for the stage to swallow them up. Shelby stared at them impassively. She'd actually been bluffing with the CCTV footage, she hadn't even thought of it until about five minutes ago, but it had worked. "Everyone else, leave. Make sure you're here for rehearsal tomorrow, you know Mr. Stanley doesn't like to be kept waiting," she clipped out. The uninvolved students all but ran from her stage.
Turning to the students remaining on the stage, she looked at them grimly for a moment. "Since you're all seniors, and with us being so close to Regionals, I'm not going to kick you off the team." She saw them relax slightly. "But words cannot express how disappointed in you I am right now. I have been your coach for over three years, I know how ruthless this team is because I'm the same. But I didn't think you would go so far as to assault another student nine on one."
She paused, taking in the guilty, fearful expressions on all bar one of her students. "I will be holding any letters of recommendation I have written for you, as your coach I have that prerogative. I will be watching you very closely over the rest of the year. You mess up again and you can kiss those letters goodbye." She looked at the now shocked faces. "Now leave. Except for you, Jesse."
Jesse stayed standing on the stage, expression still schooled to one of neutrality. He couldn't quite meet Shelby's eyes, though.
Shelby leveled him with a hard glare. "How could you do that?" she said, voice cold as ice. "You knew who he was, you knew how important he is to me. I would have thought you respected me enough to leave him alone, but apparently I was wrong. I know you were the one who headed the whole thing, you're the only one the others would have followed. Do you have anything to say for yourself?"
Jesse shook his head slightly. It was all he could do to keep himself from running away in terror and shame from the furious woman in front of him. He knew he'd screwed up royally. He shouldn't have disobeyed Shelby's orders, he shouldn't have bowed to the peer pressure, he should have tried to stop the others somehow.
Shelby shook her head. "Didn't think so. You had better watch yourself around me. Now get out of my sight."
Jesse quickly made his escape, more than eager to put as much space as possible between them.
As soon as he was gone Shelby made her way to the piano on the stage and sat down tiredly. There, all done. Her kids would think twice before crossing her again anytime soon.
If only things with Ryan were so simple.
A/N: Yeah, you probably expected some of that already. Hopefully you're not too mad. That said, I can't really have a story without any conflict, it would get really sappy and boring. Not to worry though, the next chapter's halfway done, and it should be up in a couple of days at most. Reviews and constructive criticism is welcome, flames are not.