Kennedy's POV:
I was pissed. The last thing I actually wanted to be doing on a Saturday was going to help Jesse, but there was nothing I could do about it. He had leverage against me and I wanted to live to see my 18th birthday.
I pulled my Range Rover next to the line of identical cars. How easy it was to fit in here. I didn't even have to try, I was the queen of this domain. McKinley was just a living nightmare that I was trying to survive. It wasn't that I wanted to be a Cheerio or to distance myself from glee, I just wanted to make it through the day without standing out.
"It's about time you showed up. God your mother said that you left an hour ago, it's a forty-five minute drive." Jesse barked as he ripped open the driver's side door.
"Fuck off. I'm here so if I were you I would just back the fuck up." I snapped, agitated at being up so early and by being here in general.
"Did you bring what I asked you for?" Jesse asked and I nodded.
"It's in the back. Also just in general, how dare you sleep with me and then go around and use that as fucking blackmail against me. Also I need to make sure you deleted those pictures. I swear Jesse, if my mom find out I will end you." I threatened, not forgetting about the phone call from a few days ago.
"Here, delete them yourself. I swear if there were any other way I wouldn't have blackmailed you." Jesse said as he handed me his phone.
I quickly went about deleting any evidence of our latest fling and then deleted them out of his deleted folder. The last thing I wanted was a repeat of this event.
"Please note that in the future a simple please would do the trick. Honestly you are just lucky that I didn't want my mother to find out, because if she found out you took pictures, you sir would be dead." I said as I hopped out of the car, returned his phone, and then headed to my backseat to grab the three inch binder I had stashed under the seat.
I handed the thing to Jesse and then turned to walk to the auditorium. It was just too damn cold to be standing outside in my workout clothes. I was here to do a job and then go home and the sooner I started, the sooner I was back in my bed.
"Wait up!" Jesse called as he took up a quick jog to catch up with me.
"What?" I asked, turning on my heel to face him again.
"You sure this is everything?" He asked holding the binder up and I nodded.
"Yes, I took it out of my mother's room this morning. By the way, you can copy it, but I need that to leave with me tonight. If she notices that it is missing, I'm dead. Rachel doesn't know about the binder which means I am the only suspect. Plus the fact that I am seeing you today would not be in either yours or my favor." I stated and Jesse nodded.
"Got it. So the team should be here soon, you do have a routine to teach them right? I mean I get that you don't actually do this for a living, but you're the only shot I have at even coming close to winning."
"I've got a routine that will blow your competition out of the water. You better talk to the principal and secure your job based off of this Regionals win though. Your little stunt cost me my freedom from glee and I am going to make sure that whatever club I end up on, we kick your team's ass." I said with a smirk.
"You have not changed a bit and that is what is so wonderful about you." Jesse said as he led me into the auditorium.
I set up my things on the director's table. It wasn't so long ago that this was my mother's rightful spot and now it just felt weird. This whole auditorium felt different without her and to be honest it wasn't okay. This was never how I imagined my life being, I didn't want to become my mother, but it seemed like that was exactly what I was becoming.
I let out an aggravated sigh before heading over to the stage. I needed to warm-up before the team got here and I needed to get the lay out of the stage. It had been a while and I needed to remember every square inch I had to work with if I wanted to make sure this routine was flawless.
"Well look what the cat dragged in." Greta said as she ran over and gave me a hug.
"Yeah, the cat, an asshole, what's the difference." I joked as Greta let me go.
"Jesse has a way with getting what he wants, I just can't believe your mother went along with it." Greta said starting with her own stretches.
"My mother had a long list of demands that went along with me being here today, one of which was me joining a glee club at McKinley after Regionals." I said and Greta groaned.
"That means that Jesse is going to put us on a contact freeze again. I mean that is if your mother doesn't do that first. This is no fair, we barely get to see each other, now you're here to boss us around, and then I won't be able to talk to you any more. This is killing me." Greta whined.
"You're telling me." I said before turning to see others from the team filing in.
I left the stage to let them all warm-up. Jesse was going to be back in a minute to start rehearsal and that was where I would come in. I was just hoping that Jesse had this team under control because I had no patients to deal with assholes.
When Jesse returned, he introduced me to the team causing a few new faces to roll their eyes. Ignoring those ignorant few, I plastered a smile on my face and got ready to cause some hell. I was a Corcoran through and through so there was no way that I was going to go easy on these kids, even if a few of them were my friends.
I started out easy enough, working my way up to the tumbling and lifting that was required in order to wow the judges. I kept the breaks few and short in order to make sure I had enough time to finish and perfect.
It was during one of these short breaks that I overheard some of the teams newcomers talking about me.
"God, she is such a bitch. It's not like she is better than we are. What is she like fifteen?" The blonde asked, tossing her hair from side to side as she spoke.
"Tell me about it. I remember her mom from last year and that girl is literally the spawn of satan, what did you expect?" The short redhead said back to the blonde and I rolled my eyes.
I now knew exactly how my mother must have felt teaching ungrateful teenagers all of those years. You are strict in order to have a productive rehearsal and all of a sudden you are called a bitch. Well the nice thing about not being a teacher was that I wasn't going to just grin and bear it, I was going to deal with these ass clowns once and for all.
"You know, as a classically trained musician I have impeccable hearing. By the way, while my mother is a difficult personality she took this team from nothing, to every single national title that this team has ever earned. Can she be a bitch, sure, but this team would be nothing without all of the hard work and hours she put in. Now that I'm trying to help this team continue winning, I'm the bitch. I'll take it, but you could at least stay on count while we are going through this routine. PLACES!" I yelled before plastering a smile on my face as I watched those two girls groan and return to the stage.
After that, I made the breaks that I did give even shorter, just enough to get water and get back to the stage. Jesse seemed pleased with the progress and he honestly was getting a kick out of how hard I was working his team. He had all the meals brought in for the team, which was smart knowing how much trouble we always got in on breaks. It made things run smoothly and kept me on schedule. My mother was going to be pleased that I made it home by my ten pm curfew.
"I need the binder." I said to Jesse as the team executed my routine near flawlessly on stage.
"Here, I made copies of what I needed. I just can't believe you did all of this in one day. Your mother would be so proud. Isn't this great? I mean being on the team is one thing but seeing all of this come together, it's just thrilling!" Jesse beamed, watching his team like a father would watch his own children.
"Yeah well I wouldn't say this was pleasant for me. Being blackmailed into coming here, having to bring my mother's most prized possession without her knowing it, and finally being forced to join a glee club when all the dust settles, this isn't my idea of thrilling." I countered earning a sigh from Jesse.
"Again, I am sorry about all of that. You do need to get going though if you want to make it back. Your mother would literally kill me if you show up late." Jesse said and I rolled my eyes.
"I don't think she would literally kill you, but she would end your career. Again I would lock this job in though. You never know what is going to happen and I want to make sure that you leave when you are ready to leave. You enjoy working with these kids and I don't want to see you throw that away because you didn't negotiate correctly." I said and Jesse nodded.
"I will talk to the principal on Monday and get it all squared away. Seriously though, get going." Jesse said and I nodded as I clutched the binder to my chest and headed out to my car.
Now all I had to do was to make it home, sneak this binder back to it's rightful spot, and get to bed. That all would be easier said than done, it all depended on where my mother was when I got home and how all the moving parts were going to play out in the end.
When I pulled into the driveway I could see that lights were still on in the house meaning that it was going to be hard to get this binder back into place without being noticed.
I could hear the television on when I walked through the front door. I tucked the binder even further into my bag just to be safe before walking into the living room.
"Hey, you made it on time. I'm sure that your mother is going to be thrilled." Liam said from his spot on the couch.
"Yeah, where is my mom?" I asked, noting her absence in the living room.
"I think she and Rachel are upstairs. They didn't come back down after Beth went to sleep." Hiram said and I nodded.
"Well, it's been a long day. I think I am going to go take a shower and then head to bed myself. Night." I said before I turned and sped up the stairs.
There were no lights on upstairs which could either be really good or really bad. Hopefully everyone was asleep in their rooms which meant that I was holding on to the binder until tomorrow morning but it could also mean that Shelby already knew about the binder and she was just waiting for me to try to sneak it back into her room.
The first thing I did was head into my room. I knew for sure that my mom wouldn't be in there and I knew that I could stash the binder in there until I was able to assess the situation upstairs.
With the binder tucked under my bed for safe keeping, I headed into the shower to wash off before snooping. I was going to need an alibi for searching the upstairs and looking for a hair dryer was the perfect excuse to get me access to my mom's room to see what was going on.
With dripping hair, I crept into my mother's room to find that it lay vacant. That was great news for the binder but I was also curious as to where my mother could possibly be.
I returned to my room, grabbed the binder and hurried back to my mother's room. I went into the closet and pulled down her college sweaters. I neatly tucked the binder inside the third sweater, and then stacked them back on the shelf. I was just hoping that I put everything back correctly because the last thing I needed was to get caught.
With the binder back in place, I turned my attention to finding my mother. It wasn't that I really cared about where she was, I was just curious as to why she wasn't in her room.
I checked Beth's room first. That was the last place that Liam and Hiram knew she was so it should be the first place I checked.
I could see the small blonde sleeping in her crib. Soon enough Beth was going to be too big for her current bed and my mother was going to have to get her a toddler bed. That was going to be a conversation for another time though.
Seeing that my mother was not in the room, I closed Beth's door again and moved further down the hall. The only room left to check upstairs was Rachel's room.
I paused at the door for a moment. I knew what I was going to find behind the door and I had to admit I felt a slight twinge of jealousy knowing that my mom was cuddled next to Rachel, something she would only attempt with me if I was sick. Honestly I didn't like being cuddled, detested it in fact, but she didn't even offer to cuddle with me.
I refrained from entering the bedroom and went back to my own room. I climbed into my bed and pulled the covers up to my chin.
In the morning, I heard their voice coming from down the hall, trying not to wake anyone. As quick as I could I slipped out of my bed and headed to the hall where Shelby and Rachel were coming out of Shelby's room, both dressed in running clothes.
"Kennedy, you're up." My mom said looking surprised as they came to a sudden stop in front of my door frame.
"Yeah, I was just heading down to get something to eat." I said coming up with my cover story.
"Oh, well if you want to put that off you are more than welcome to join us." Shelby said causing Rachel to roll her eyes.
"Just hurry, we are already behind schedule because someone wanted to sleep for ten more minutes." Rachel chided, casting a look to our mother.
"I think I'll pass. You two have fun though." I said as I plastered on a fake smile, letting them pass me to head out on their run.
I knew it was stupid to be jealous of Rachel. She was just trying to spend as much time with our mom as possible before college, but I couldn't shake this feeling. It just sucked seeing that Rachel and Shelby were effortlessly so close. I had to fight for that sort of relationship with our mom while Rachel and her just seemed to fit. Things would have just been easier if Rachel was her's to begin with.
Once I was in the kitchen, I got myself a bowl of cereal and sat at the counter. I could hear Liam working in the office while Hiram sat in the living room reading the paper.
When breakfast was finished I headed up to my room and laid back on my bed. Maybe I should have joined Rachel and Shelby on their run. At least that would have given me something to do rather than sit in my room on my phone.
I was in the middle of playing a new game on my phone when I was rudely interrupted by a phone call from Santana. Swiping to the right, I put the phone up to my ear.
"What?" I snapped, irritated that she had ruined my high score.
"Cheerios practice in an hour and a half." Santana said and I felt my entire mood drop.
Why the hell did Sue want to practice on a Sunday? We only got two days off from her tyrannical rulings, why did she have to ruin our break?
"Why?" I asked and I could hear Santana laugh.
"You're seriously asking why? You can't tell me that Vocal Adrenaline didn't rehearse on the weekends. Cheerios is the same sort of deal, especially heading into competition season." Santana said and I sighed.
"Fine, I guess I have to get dressed then." I said rolling off the side of my bed and onto the floor.
"Great. I'll pick you up in an hour." Santana said before I could protest.
With Santana now on her way, I made my way over to my dresser and grabbed some workout clothes. I could hear that Shelby and Rachel had just gotten back to the house and I knew that they would both be heading to go and shower which left me with the perfect opportunity to slip out of the house unnoticed.
I just wanted a stress free morning. I already knew that coach Sylvester was going to give us hell during rehearsal so not getting into any fights and wasting energy was key. However, Rachel seemed to have different plans.
I had just finished pulling my hair back into the regulation Cheerios high pony, when I exited my bathroom to find Rachel in front of my bedroom mirror checking herself out in my jeans. What the hell did she think that she was doing?
"Are those mine?" I questioned, as if I didn't already know the answer.
"Yeah, what do you think?" Rachel asked and I crossed my arms.
"I think that you should take those off before I lose my shit." I said, shifting from foot to foot.
"It's not like you are wearing them." Rachel replied, looking at her ass in the mirror again.
"Take them off." I snarled, taking a step closer to Rachel who responded in backing towards the door.
"No. You aren't using them and mom and I are going out and these are perfect." Rachel said, still backing towards the hallway.
"I don't care if I am not using them, they are mine. Take them off and give them back!" I said finally giving chase to Rachel who had turned and taken off down the hall.
There were no more words coming from our lips, instead all that could be heard were Rachel's screams as she took off towards our mom's room. It didn't even register to me that heading to our mother's room meant heading towards our mother, that was until I felt her arms snake through mine and yank me away from Rachel who had backed herself into a corner.
"What the hell is going on?" Shelby asked, holding me tight to her chest.
"Kennedy started chasing me and I ran in here-"
"Tell her the whole truth Rachel." I snapped, still trying to pull away from Shelby as she gripped me tighter.
"I don't care who tells me what is going on but someone needs to tell me, and now!" Shelby snapped.
"Rachel took my jeans and she won't take them off." I said, starting to settle now that I knew there was no way my mom was going to let me go.
"But she isn't wearing them, plus I don't really have pants and you keep telling me that I shouldn't be wearing skirts and dresses being as the weather is turning." Rachel said, giving her best puppy dog eyes to our mother.
"You can't just take her clothes Rachel, you have to ask permission. And Kennedy, I don't care what your sister did, you are not allowed to chase her throughout the house." Shelby said, still keeping her arms around me.
"So are you going to tell her to take them off?" I asked, just wanting to get on with the rest of my morning.
"I'm going to let her wear them for today." Shelby said and I could feel the fight surge through my body again as I ripped away from Shelby as I turned to face her.
"What?" I seethed.
"Rachel and I are going shopping today, I will make sure that she gets her own pair of jeans, but she is already dressed and-"
"Fine, whatever." I said as I turned and stormed out of Shelby's room.
I quickly grabbed my phone off my bed and rushed to get out of the house. I knew that after my storm out I was on borrowed time before Shelby was going to be after my ass.
Luckily for me, Santana was waiting in the driveway as I ran out of the house. I quickly climbed into the backseat, being as Brittany already perched in the front passenger seat.
"Drive." I said as I threw on my seatbelt.
Santana did not wait for an explanation to pull out of the driveway. I could see as we drove off that my mother had made her way outside in time to see us drive away. There was going to be hell to pay when I got home tonight, but for now I could at least focus on practice.
After speeding away from my house, we made one more stop to grab Quinn. With the four of us now in the car, Santana decided to dig for answers.
"So what in the world was going on that we had to fast and furious it out of your driveway Kennedy?" Santana asked and I sighed.
"Rachel took my jeans this morning so we got into it, which then of course our mom got involved. Needless to say I stormed out of the house rather than listen to my mother tell me I have to share my shit with Rachel. I am just so over having a sister. It's literally the worst." I said and the three other girls in the car nodded in agreement.
"Sisters are awful, it's like living with your arch nemesis." Brittany said and I nodded.
"The worst part is that your parents don't get it. Like how can they not remember how much their siblings drove them nuts?" Santana added.
"Believe me, I don't understand it. It's honestly like Frannie walks on water and she can do no wrong. It is nice to know that I am not the only one who has these sort of issues. Santana, not to break up this moment, but where the fuck are we going?" Quinn said drawing our attention to the windows to finally see that we were not heading in the direction of the school at all.
"So, Sue decided that it was paintball time again." Santana said earning a cheer from Brittany and Quinn.
"What is paintball time?" I asked and Quinn smirked.
"You're going to love it. Sue makes the entire team basically engage in a death match of paintball based off of year in school." Quinn said.
"Yeah, and you happen to be on a team that has not lost since we were freshmen." Santana said with pride.
"So let me get this straight, we are going to go shoot each other with paintballs?" I asked and Brittany nodded.
"Yeah, it's a pretty friendly game though. Sue is pretty tough in enforcing the rules, but stick with us and you'll make it out okay." Brittany said as Santana pulled into the parking lot of the paintball course.
I had to admit, I was a bit skeptical about this whole event, but it was a lot more fun than I anticipated. Sue was sure to call out anyone who got shot, or anyone who was not following the rules. Of course, true to their words, the senior class won.
With the class competition out of the way we played a few rounds of capture the flag as well as last man standing. It was a great way to blow off steam and somehow, it actually seemed to make us closer as a team.
Of course the day coming to a close meant that I had to go back and deal with Shelby, something I was not looking forward to.
When we pulled into the driveway I could see that Shelby was home and I was dreading getting out of the car. It wasn't like I could waste a whole bunch of time in the car either, that would only piss Shelby off more and lead to her literally dragging me inside from the car.
I quickly said my goodbyes before heading into the house. Liam and Hiram were huddled over their laptops, probably booking another work trip. I didn't even bother with asking them where anyone was. It wasn't like they would know anyway.
I checked the kitchen before I headed upstairs only to find my dinner plate waiting. I quickly reheated the plate and ate it before moving on to check the rest of the downstairs rooms. When I saw that they were empty, I made my way up the steps. Having ruled out the bottom floor, that only meant that by climbing the stairs, I was getting that much closer to having my ass chewed out.
I could see that the light was on in my mother's room meaning I knew exactly where she was and I knew exactly where I should avoid. Which would have worked except she must have heard me come home and make it up the stairs. I had barely made it to my door way when I heard her voice travel down the hall.
"Kennedy, I'm in here." Shelby said, not really to let me know where she was, but rather to let me know that she wanted to see me.
With a sigh, I pivoted back towards her room and made the twenty steps down the hall to her room.
"Hey mom." I said leaning on the door frame as I watched her bookmark a page in the book she was reading on her bed.
"Come sit." Shelby said as she placed her book to the side and patted the bed next to her.
It was strange how calm she was. I was not used to this side of my mother and honestly whenever this side came out, bad things tended to follow.
"So, about earlier-"
"Kennedy, you need to know that storming out is never okay. I am trying to drive that home with both you and Rachel and I swear if you learn nothing else before going out into the world on your own, please at least learn that. In addition, the next time you have a friend picking you up from the house, you need to tell me." Shelby said with a stern look and I nodded.
"I know and I intended to do so. Sue called a practice and Santana told me she was picking me up and I just didn't get a chance." I said trying to get all the words out in one breath.
"That's fine. Though I do have some questions about what sort of practice you were having being as you are covered in paint. Please tell me Sue did not shoot you all with paint balls while you were practicing, although I can see how effective that would be." My mom said and I rolled my eyes.
"You would, but no she had us do a team building activity. It was really fun which I did not expect."
"I'm glad you had fun. Kennedy, I know that things have been difficult moving in here with the Berry's and Rachel. I also know that you are used to being the only child and this whole sharing thing is completely new. You are having to share not only your things but your time with me as well. I know that with Beth it was a huge adjustment and I know that we are adjusting again with Rachel. I just want you to be able to talk to me when things are bothering you. I can tell that we aren't quite right and we haven't been for a while. If nothing else I want you to be able to be open with me about how you are feeling. Can we do that?" Shelby asked and I shrugged.
"I can try. Honestly I'm not sure I know how I am feeling a lot of the time. I know that I am jealous of you and Rachel at times but I don't know how to express it. I don't want to be jealous because I know that Rachel is just trying to get as much time with you as possible but at the same time you and Rachel just click in a way we never did." I confessed.
"Kennedy, you and I click. Rachel and I have been spending a lot of time together and we do have a lot of the same interest and likes but that does not diminish what you and I have." Shelby said reaching over and pulling me so I moved into her side.
"I just don't want to get in the way of your relationship with Rachel. I had my time with you-"
"You still have time with me, believe me, you are not going to get rid of me any time soon. Now, I want you to go and take a shower and then you Rachel and I are going to have a movie night." Shelby said before pressing a kiss to the top of my head.
"Okay, but please no Funny Girl." I said and Shelby smiled.
"I'm not going to make any promises but I will keep that in mind." Shelby said before pushing me off the bed towards my room.
I took a shower to rinse all the paint off of my body and out of my hair. While I was washing Shelby came in and grabbed my clothes from me to put them in their own wash cycle.
Being clean, I got dressed in my pajamas and headed to my mom's room where Rachel, Beth, and Shelby were already waiting. I climbed onto the bed next to our mom who was situated in the middled. In order to appease everyone, our mother put on Mary Poppins in order to have a musical, child appropriate, and at least somewhat interesting movie.
I was sure that our mom was going to get up to put Beth to bed after she fell asleep, but she never moved. In fact when the movie finished, she tucked Beth beside her as Rachel went to put in another movie.
Of course with it being Rachel's choice, we were stuck watching a musical. That in itself was fine though, after running around all day I just wanted to go to bed. I went to get out of the bed when Shelby wrapped her arm around me and pulled me tighter into her.
"Mom, I just want to go to bed." I whined into her neck and I could feel her chuckle.
"The point of tonight was to have all of my girls with me. Please stay." Shelby pleaded and I sighed.
"But it's so crowded and Beth and Rachel kick in their sleep." I said and Shelby sighed as she took Beth into her arms.
"Stay, I will be right back." Shelby said as she got out of bed and took Beth into her own room.
With Shelby gone, I took over part of her spot on the bed and made myself comfortable. I could hear her complain when she got back and I could feel her move me a bit so she could get back into her position.
"Kennedy, me putting Beth in bed was not me giving you permission to take my spot." Shelby said in a huff.
"I wanted to go to bed, you wanted me to stay here, that sounded like permission to me." I said with a smirk.
"Will you two sort this out? I am trying to watch the movie." Rachel whined.
"Oh I'm sorry, are we disturbing you?" Shelby asked giving Rachel a look that I knew was leading to one thing and one thing only.
"Yes you are, now will you knock it off?" Rachel said, not knowing that she was about to unleash a monster.
"Oh I'll knock it off." Shelby said as she wrapped her arms around Rachel's waist.
"What the-" Rachel said before she exploded in laughter as Shelby tickled her sides.
I moved to try to get away but I was not fast enough as Shelby took one of her arms away from Rachel and grabbed me pulling to place me next to Rachel so she could tickle the both of us at the same time.
She was unrelenting for a few moments until Rachel and I both begged for her to stop. Once she was finished, she flopped down on the bed between us pulling us into her sides.
"I think you both will be a bit more agreeable now that we have that out of our systems." Shelby said causing Rachel and I to exchange a look.
"Oh really?" Rachel asked as she shifted, her eyes telling me everything that I needed to know.
"Yes. You both know what will happen if you aren't." Shelby said focusing her attention to the movie and not on us.
"I guess you're right." I said as my moves mimicked Rachel's.
It was a second later that Rachel and I pounced on Shelby, seeking revenge for her earlier tickle assault.
Shelby did not take lightly to our plan and once she freed herself she picked up a pillow and added that to our fight. It was fun and we were enjoying ourselves until we were all just too tired to carry on.
We all crashed on the bed, the movie long forgotten. Rachel and I both snuggled into our mom's sides and she took her hands and ran them through our hair. Any resolve I had to stay awake was long gone as Shelby continued to massage our heads. Darn our mother and her parenting tricks.
Right before we drifted off to sleep, Shelby leaned down and placed a kiss to our temples.
"I love you. Good night my girls."
A/n: The next chapter hopefully will be all Rachel and all trouble...And hopefully be up in the next week or so.