Kennedy's POV:
"Have you told your mother yet?" Coach Sylvester asked at the end of practice.
She could tell my answer by the look on my face, so there was no real reason to answer her. she had given me an extension on the original week and now I was going to take my sweet time telling my mother. There was no way I wanted to start this war before I needed to.
"I'm working on it. I promise, but it's been a little difficult to talk to her with the whole Santana thing going down yesterday-"
"About that, I know that you two have your differences, but I need you to take care of her. She is strong headed and she won't ask for help, but we both know what sort of scum will come out of the woodwork to make her life a living hell now that this all has come to light, especially with the commercial about to run dragging her through the mud because of me." Sue said and I sighed.
"It's not your fault. This whole thing is just messed up and no one should have to go through something like this alone." I retorted and Sue smiled.
"Yeah well, just keep Santana safe and the rest will take care of itself. But do remember, time is ticking and I will tell your mother." Sue said and I nodded.
"I got it, all of it." I replied before grabbing my bag and heading towards the showers in order to get ready for the day.
Once showered, I changed into my Cheerios uniform and then went on my way to round up as many Cheerios as possible. It was going to take an army to keep Santana away from the people at this school who would want to cause her harm, plus the last thing we needed was for her to get suspended over this stupid stuff.
It took a minute to track down all of the girls, but once I did I made sure to explain everything that was going on. Most of them already knew about it but everyone agreed that we were going to do our best to take of Santana today. As much as a pain in the ass as she could be, on one occasion or another, she had been there for each and every one of us and now it was our turn.
With the team at my side we went in search of Santana. It didn't take too long to find her, she had just left Coach Sylvester's office when we spotted her. I knew that she was going to put up a fight about having people with her all day, but I also knew that in this school, she was going to need the assistance.
"God, please tell me Sylvester didn't assign you to be my guard dog." Santana huffed.
"Don't act so surprised. You are still one of her captains and she does care about you. Plus after last night I thought-"
"Oh, so Santana has expanded to all of the Cheerios, and here we thought you guys were reserved for the football team." Rick the Stick from the hockey team sneered.
"Shut up, do you realize how stupid you sound right now?" Quinn asked, stepping in front of Santana as soon as she saw the slushies gripped in the hockey teams hands.
"I didn't realize you were the one calling people out on their stupid decisions now. But I guess that is what happens when you invest in some cheap blonde hair dye." One of Rick's buddies joked coming to stand beside his team mate.
"Boys, I don't know what you are trying to accomplish her, however may I strongly suggest that if your plan involves Santana and those slushies, that you think again." I said coming to stand between the two groups.
"And what are you going to do if we don't?" Rick asked causing me to smirk.
"Oh Rick, let me tell you a few things that I've learned over the past few years. First, don't ever push me to find out what I am capable of, because you won't like the results. Second, if you so much as touch a hair on one of my team mates heads, not only will you deal with me, you will also be dealing with Coach Sue as well as her Glee coach and believe me, those are two people you do not want to end up dealing with. So walk away Rick, while you still can."
"Like I'm scared of her glee coach, Schuester is a living cabbage patch kid." Rick snorted while I just laughed. "What are you laughing at?" Rick questioned, completely puzzled.
"You think that Schuester is her glee coach, haven't you heard about the second glee club? God you are as out of touch as your haircut. Coach Corcoran is the coach of her glee club-"
"Wait as in history teacher Corcoran?" Rick asked taking a staggering step back.
"That's the one. Now I think it's time to make your choice, because standing here any longer is going to draw attention and honestly you don't want that do you?" I asked and Rick shook his head.
"No, I wouldn't want that." Rick said before motioning to his crew to disband.
"Wait a second, we wouldn't want those slushies to go to waste." I said, having made a plan of my own over the past few minutes.
"What do you want me to do with them?" Rick asked and I gave him a smug smile.
"I think you and I both know what you need to do with them, but if you need some direction I would be more than happy to show you." I said as I extended my hand for the frozen drink.
"You don't mean-" Rick said pausing in handing over the drink and I grinned.
"Oh I do. Now hand it over." I demanded and Rick handed over the drink. "Very good." I said just before I turned the cup over on his head.
"Let's go." I said as I turned and faced the group of shocked teenagers behind me.
"Damn and I thought I was a bitch." Santana said before stepping over Rick's puddle and continuing down the hallway.
"So that was a side of Kennedy I never want to see again." Quinn stated as we walked down the hall as I just tossed my high pony to the side.
"You do not mess with me without consequences, speaking of." I said as I saw my mother standing in the hall with her disapproving look.
"You don't think she saw you dump that drink on Rick's head do you?" Quinn asked and I cringed.
"I would say from the way her eyes glisten with the look of murder, she saw everything." I remarked as I excused myself from the group to make my way to where she was standing.
"What was that?" She asked, never looking away from the hallway that was in front of her.
"Coach Sylvester asked me to take care of Santana and that was what I did." I said, trying to plead my case.
"I see that, but if I ever see you engage in that sort of behavior ever again-"
"You won't, I promise." I relented, knowing how my mom felt about bullying.
"Good. Keep an eye on her, and them, and I will see you later." My mother said as she pivoted on her heel and moved back into her classroom.
"Well I now understand why Kennedy is so scary." Quinn said as I rejoined the group.
"Shut up. What class are you going to Santana?" I asked, just wanting to deliver Santana to her destination without any issues.
"Math, but like I said earlier, you don't have to do this shit. I can take care of myself. Not that you did a bad job at it Corcoran." Santana said with a smirk.
"I've had some practice. However, I cannot just leave you to deal with the jerks at this school all because of one stupid pig headed boy."
"Thank you, I have been nothing but I jerk to you and all you have done is repay me with kindness these past 24 hours." Santana said putting her head down.
"Yeah well, sometimes the biggest jerks can be the people who need kindness in their lives the most." I remarked as we walked towards her math class.
As we walked Quinn and Brittany went their separate ways, having their own classes to get to, leaving just Santana and I to walk the rest of the way to her math class.
"You know, you didn't have to come over last night, but I'm glad you did." She said as we reached her classroom door.
"I'm glad I did too. So someone will be here to walk with you when class is done, I don't know who yet. I do know Becky assigned herself to take care of you during lunch, so have fun with that." I joked and Santana smiled.
"Thanks, so ugh, if you aren't busy this afternoon we are having a glee club competition-"
"Let me stop you there," I interrupted, "I don't do the whole singing and dancing thing anymore." I finished seeing Santana's face fall for a quick second before she put her wall back up.
"It's fine, it was a stupid request." Santana remarked as she turned to head into her classroom.
"I'll make an exception for you. I'll see you at after school, text me a location." I said turning just in time to see her smirk.
Classes were dull and I was starting to remember why I liked skipping so much. Honestly it might not have been so bad if McKinley wasn't so far behind Carmel. I learned most of this information when I was a sophomore and I hated it then. I was just happy when my phone went off and I had a distraction for a bit.
We need to talk
Jesse
What about?
Kennedy
I want to hire you to work for Vocal Adrenaline.
- Jesse
Oh, that is going to be a hard pass. My mother and sister would literally kill me.
Kennedy
Yeah about that, you work for me, or I tell your mom everything.
Jesse
It was with that text that I asked to be excused from class. I took my pass from the teacher and headed to the bathroom to make a call. I had no idea what the hell Jesse was talking about but I was going to get to the bottom of it.
Shelby's POV:
After the morning had passed, it had been a rather mundane day. I made sure to give Rick and the other hockey players some hell when they came to my class. Yes, Kennedy did a good job of taking care of them this morning, but I couldn't miss out on all of the fun.
This afternoon was the Mash-off and I was just hoping that everything went smoothly and there was no drama. When we got to the stage, Finn and Santana faced off in rock paper scissors to see who went first. With Finn winning the game, New Directions were up first.
They had an interesting performance to say the least. It was not something that I would have picked to perform, but it was fun and quirky and it was very them. Of course the costumes made everyone look ridiculous but it just meant that the Trouble Tones had an even better shot at winning.
When they were done performing we exchanged good jobs before I took the girls back to change and get them ready for their performance. Mercedes was ready to go but Santana, not so much.
"Ms. C, I don't think I can do this." Santana said as she pulled me aside.
"Santana, you have rehearsed this a million times and you know the routine. You are going to go out there and kill it. Everybody out in the audience loves you and they want to see you succeed. But I also understand if you don't want to go out there and we won't make you." I said and Santana looked around before taking a deep breath.
"I think I can do it." Santana said.
"You better do it. I didn't skip out on an extra Cheerios practice to see you lose." Kennedy said as she walked through the door of the classroom.
"Why are you here?" Santana snapped and Kennedy shrugged.
"Well, I could say it was to support you, but in reality it's because my mother had my keys." Kennedy said and I gave her a look being as there was no way that I had her keys. She had driven herself and I hadn't seen her since.
"Oh, well we perform in live five minutes, so if you want to see us win, I would head to the auditorium, not that you apparently have a choice." Santana stated and I could see that she was happy to have a friend there.
"Then I guess I know where I am going." Kennedy said before turning and heading out of the room.
From that moment on, Santana was like an entirely different person. Apparently seeing Kennedy was all she needed to have that fire lit under her ass again.
I walked with the girls back to the auditorium and then I left them to take a seat between Kennedy and Will in the audience.
The girls absolutely killed their performance and I was so proud of them, well that was until Santana jumped off the stage at the end of the performance and slapped Finn.
Will completely lost his mind over the whole thing and decided to bring the entire situation up to Figgins who was still in his office.
With a two week suspension on the table and having Santana being pulled from Sectionals, Finn actually jumped up and claimed that the entire things had been a stage slap. It was a crazy turn of events and as I stood in the choir room with Will I couldn't wrap my head around what happened.
"So, what just happened?" I questioned and Will started laughing.
"I don't even know. I thought for sure that Finn would have been thrilled to have Santana suspended. I mean honestly, she has been down right mean to him over the past month. For him to claim that the entire thing was a stage slap was a little astonishing." Will commented and I nodded.
"To be honest, Santana hasn't just been brutal to Finn, she has been short with everyone." I explained.
"I do think a lot of it has stemmed from having to keep her love life a secret. Brittany and her are so good for each other and having to keep that a secret could take a toll on anyone. Hopefully her parents take it well. I can't imagine everything that she has to go through over the next couple days."
"I just wish that there was a way to show her how much we all support her." I stated and it was with those words that something clicked with Will.
"I think that we can do something. Would you be willing to give a couple days of your rehearsals for this. I know we coming up to sectionals but it's for Santana, it's for this family." Will said and I had to control my eye roll.
Shit like this would never fly at Carmel, but I was trying to remember that these were different kids and that this was a different school. I didn't want to give up time with my team, I had things that I needed to perfect and honestly even after seeing this Mash-up disaster, I was not confident that we would win. I didn't like this feeling but I also knew that this was bigger than me. These kids needed to heal and it was my job as their teacher to help them.
"Fine. But please know that I am not thrilled with losing rehearsal but I do think that this is a good thing." I said and Will's face filled with a giddy smile.
"You are not going to regret this. Now I just have to get Santana to agree to come, but this is going to be great." Will said and I couldn't help but grin.
"I think I can talk Santana into coming. However you may have to agree to having another visitor as well." I said and Will smirked.
"You mean Kennedy? I noticed that she crashed our competition this afternoon and I saw the way she stood up for Santana this morning. Your daughter is a really good friend to Santana." will remarked and I nodded.
"She is, which is strange being as I was sure that they hated each other, but this scandal seemed to have pushed them together. Now if I could just get Santana to convince her to join the Trouble Tones." I joked.
"Yeah, or if I could get Rachel to talk her into joining the New Directions." Will replied.
"Count the Trouble Tones in on rehearsals this week. We will talk details later but right now I have to get home to Beth." Will and I exchanged our goodbyes before I started out towards my car.
Once home, I decided that now would be a good time to talk with Kennedy. Lately, I had been spending most of my time with Beth and Rachel and not really getting to spend quality time with Kennedy. Don't get me wrong, we fought regularly, but we didn't spend the time we needed to together and that bothered me.
Hiram and Liam agreed to get Beth ready for bed and put her to sleep. Rachel was busy on the phone with Kurt going over last minute election details being as votes were being cast next week, leaving me with a wide open opportunity to talk to Kennedy.
I knocked on her door before opening it and walking over to her bed where she was laying. She was in the middle of completing her math homework, but happily paused her work when she saw me.
"Anything I can help you with?" Kennedy sassed, closing her book.
"No, not really. I just noticed that we haven't been spending a whole lot of quality time together recently." I said, opening back up her math book.
"So you're going to help me finish my math homework?" Kennedy questioned and I nodded.
"Sure," I shifted onto the bed next to her and took a look at the book, "How many problems do you have left?"
"I am working on the last one right now. Mom, we both know that math isn't your strong suit." Kennedy said and I sighed.
"No, you don't like it when I help you with math because I make you solve your own problems and don't just give you the answer." I corrected.
"Fine, I honestly don't need a whole lot of help, I just have to finish solving for x." Kennedy said as she made some quick calculations.
When she finished her homework, she closed her book and moved it off of the bed. With her math out of the way she moved a little close to where I was seated.
"So, I'm sure that you're in here for a reason." Kennedy said and I sighed.
"I really do want to spend more time with you. However-"
"There is always a catch, isn't there?" Kennedy moved to get off of the bed causing me to grab her hand to pull her back.
"Wait, you haven't even heard what I am asking." I said and she let out a sigh.
"Usually things that come out of these conversations are never good, and usually I don't have a choice about them." Kennedy replied and I nodded.
"That is true. Will Schuester and I have a favor to ask. We want to get the glee clubs together over this next week in support of Santana but we need her to agree to come. I know that glee isn't your thing anymore, but you and her seem to have hit it off and-"
"And you want me to convince her to go." Kennedy finished and I nodded.
"Of course that would probably mean that you join us, and we are okay with that. I mean you know that I would love for you to permanently join the Trouble Tones." I said and Kennedy paused for a moment.
"I don't really want to do this. It goes against everything I've been saying, however I also know that if Santana would like for me to be there, then I will go. Not that I would really have a choice, now would I?" Kennedy questioned hopping off of the bed and heading into her bathroom.
"Kennedy-" I called getting off of her bed myself and following her to see her pull down her high pony and start brushing out her hair.
Since she had joined the Cheerios, she never wore her hair down anymore and I hadn't realized how much I missed it. Sue was dictating everything about my daughter, who she hung out with, what she wore, and how her hair looked. As much as I respected Sue for what she had accomplished with her team, I wish my daughter had more choice in how she spent her senior year.
"You know I wouldn't force you to do something you don't want to do. I am asking you to ask Santana to join and if you would like to join as well, you are more than welcome. It's a favor Kennedy, not a task." I said taking the brush from her hands and pushing her back towards her bed.
"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to snap, I have just been under a lot of pressure lately and honestly this wouldn't be the first time that you asked me to do something that wasn't really an option." Kennedy said as I sat her on the bed and ran her brush through her hair.
"What's going on?" I questioned.
It had been so long since Kennedy and I actually talked that I guess I had missed the signs of her stress. I also knew with all of her history, stress was one of her triggers. It was something that I should be more aware of.
"It's silly, but coach is putting more pressure on us to really make this year's routine something to be remembered and between that and school it's been a lot. Plus I also have Jesse breathing down my neck and-" With those last words, I stopped brushing her hair and turned her to face me.
"What does he want?" I questioned, knowing that nothing good has ever been attached to that name.
"It's nothing really." Kennedy said trying to recover from her blunder.
"You have about thirty seconds to tell me or I will call Jesse to find out what is going on." I stated and Kennedy rolled her eyes.
"Why do you always have to do that. God, this is why I don't talk to you." Kennedy said starting to get defensive.
"Ten seconds." I said, not budging from my promise.
"Fine," Kennedy relented, "Jesse asked me to create some choreography for Vocal Adrenaline and then teach the team. He wants me to work for them." Kennedy admitted.
"Absolutely not." I said causing Kennedy to cross her arms in annoyance.
"I wasn't really asking. Hiram and Liam already approved it and you weren't suppose to know about it. I am going to their all day rehearsal on Saturday to teach them and the rest of the time I will check in via Skype. It's only for Regionals." Kennedy said and I pursed my lips.
"Kennedy, this is not up for discussion. I said no, now call Jesse and tell him that you are not doing this." I corrected, trying not to let this whole thing blow up into an argument.
"Mom you don't understand-"
"I understand plenty and I do not want you, nor will I allow you, to work for VA."
"This isn't your decision to make. It's my life and you're the one who wanted me to get involved with glee."
"And you said that you didn't want to be a part of glee, which I respected by the way. I don't want you back at Carmel. I don't care if you are still friends with the member of Vocal Adrenaline but I will not have you working for the other team."
"It's not a huge deal. Jesse had a choreographer for the team and none of this would be happening but the person he hired was also hired at three different schools and he taught them all the same routine. It's insane that you wouldn't want me to help the team that you built from the ground up. It's like you left VA and you just stopped caring about all of those kids who depended on you." Kennedy snapped and I paused for a moment.
I wasn't thrilled about the idea of Kennedy working with VA. It only made Jesse think that she would be able to help him through the rest of the season and I was hoping that once Regionals decided which glee club continued, Kennedy would join the winning team. On the other hand I didn't want VA to suffer because Jesse didn't do the proper checks on the people he hired. He was still green and honestly he needed some guidance. Maybe I could let her assist them this once. There would be terms and conditions of course and I would personally see to it that Jesse understood those conditions. I guess I was going to let Kennedy win this one.
"Fine. You can help them, but after regionals you join which ever McKinley team wins, no arguing. This is a one time deal and I am going to see to it that Jesse understands that. Understood?" I questioned and Kennedy nodded, in shock that I had agreed to let her do this.
I quickly leaned in and pressed a kiss to her forehead, before directing her into bed.
With Kennedy taken care of, I headed out of her room and pulled out my cell phone. I had a quick call to make to Jesse before I could end my night.
Jesse didn't answer his phone meaning that he was either in rehearsal or he was avoiding my calls. Honestly I didn't care which one it was. I left a detailed message about my terms and conditions about Kennedy as well as my sever disapproval of him not checking out the staff he hired before hiring them. If he was going to run my team, he had better run it right.
With my message complete, I made sure to get Rachel off the phone and into bed and then checked on Beth before I turned to get myself into bed.
I had just finished my shower and had gotten into bed when I saw that I had a text from Jesse that gave me a good laugh before I rolled over and went to sleep..
Got your message. Kennedy is a short term solution and I will make sure to vet any person who I hire in the future. This whole coaching thing is a lot harder than I thought.
- Jesse
A/n: Another day, another chapter. I am going to keep going until this is done! Can't wait to post the next chapter.