Disclaimer: I don't own Glee. I would like to though.
Author's Note: Sorry for this being late, but like I said earlier, I had exams and study. It was worth it though, because I've gotten some really good marks this semester. But at least you got a slightly long chapter, and I think it's pretty funny.
Author's Note 2: I've also been re-editing my previous chapters. Not changing much except grammar and sentence structure. The only thing plot wise that I've changed is that now Santana is actually in Schuester's Spanish class, she just almost never goes to class.
Author's Note 3: Things should be speeding up plot wise now, so if there's anything in the series you'd like me to spend a little time on, tell me. :)
Chapter Nine
The first 'new' Troubletones meeting had been awkward to say the least. Rachel was still clearly upset with Finn (Shelby was silently cheering at that because Rachel deserved so much better) and Quinn was still ignoring pretty much everyone. After the warm ups not much else was done, so Shelby had been forced to end the meeting early on the stipulation that they have a quick meeting as soon as possible. Everyone eagerly left, agreeing to meet at lunch the next day.
Shelby started the meeting as soon as everyone arrived after eating their lunch. Shelby explained the request Sue had made for the Troubletones to sing at the homeless shelter. There had been the obvious questions about why the Cheerios didn't do it (Shelby had heard more and more about the image the Cheerios portrayed over the past weeks, the Cheerios were the default topic of conversation when Sue talked at Shelby) and what Sue wanted from them as well as a few conditions (one of which was 'no cannons', and Shelby didn't even bother asking) but eventually the Troubletones agreed.
Everyone was starting to get ready to leave.
"There's one more thing." Shelby said loudly to cut over a few conversations. "Because of the new additions to our team, and past rivalries, to facilitate a smooth transition everyone will be participating in a team building weekend these holidays."
"Miss C, you can't do that!"
"We do things over the weekends."
"What if we already have plans?"
"Oh, hell no! You're not interrupting my 'me' time."
"Yay! Can it be in the first week? Daddy has to fly to Chicago for work and I hate our housekeeper."
"Cheerios practice on Saturdays even in the holidays."
"So we have to?"
Shelby held up a hand to stop and protests. "Yes, it is compulsory, but I promise it's not going to be one of those workshops where you fall back and people catch you. I've also already organized this with your parents, so I know you're not busy. Don't try to come up with any excuses. Coach Sylvester has moved the weekend practice to later in the week. This is happening, so stop complaining. Also, Sugar it is the weekend your father is gone, we'll be meeting at your house. I've already cleared it with Mr. Motta."
"You're really planned this out, haven't you?" Asked Santana sarcastically.
"I led a choir to Nationals four years in a row. I picked up a few things along the way."
Santana rolled her eyes, but smiled. "Whatever. I guess you'll see us during the holidays. It'll give you something to look forward to."
/-/-/-/-/
Helping out at the homeless shelter had been surprisingly fun, though there had been a slight hiccup when one of the homeless men kept hitting on Brittany, which then led to Santana going 'all Lima Heights'. No one got kicked out because it was Christmas, but it was a close thing. Sue didn't do much in the way of helping; instead she gave herself the role of 'supervisor' and watched everyone else do the work, but everyone had expected that.
What Shelby hadn't expected was the card containing a photo of the original Troubletones and the small silver musical note on a chain she was given at the end of the night. She could have cried, but settled instead for hugging all the girls. She put the necklace on straight away, and decided then and there that she was never taking it off.
/-/-/-/-/
Shelby arrived at Mr. Motta's house a few minutes before he was due to leave for the airport. He greeted her briefly before having the housemaid give her the grand tour. By the time it was finished, Mr. Motta had left, and Sugar was waiting excitedly in the lounge.
"I've never had a sleepover before. We always use to move around too much for me to make proper friends to invite to a sleepover. I can't wait."
Sugar squealed and ran up stairs, yelling something about doing her hair. The rest of the Troubletones would arrive in an hour, but part of Shelby's deal with Mr. Motta to use his house included Shelby coming over earlier so that someone could keep Sugar company before the Troubletones arrived. It suited Shelby fine, and it meant that everything could be set up on time. A few minutes later Shelby answered a knock on the door.
"Hey, Holly. Come in."
"If this is your house, I think I might become a vocal coach."
Shelby chuckled and picked up a few of the bags Holly had brought with her.
"No, I wish this was my house. I don't earn nearly enough. This is Mr. Motta's house."
"The one who hired you? He's got a daughter, right?"
"Yeah, her name is Sugar. She's upstairs doing … something. I don't always know with her. Come on, I'll show you to the lounge and your room. The girls can all sleep in the lounge, but Mr. Motta had a spare room made up for you."
"I've got some ice cream for the freezer."
"Freezer first, then."
Holly grinned and followed Shelby. "Didn't want Brittany and Santana to have a room to escape to?"
"Basically. I don't think it will stop them, but it looks more responsible."
Shelby pushed the ice cream deep into the freezer and headed towards the lounge. Holly dropped her stuff on the floor of the lounge and laughed.
"Oh, I don't think anything would stop those two, particularly considering that they're now officially together. I can't tell you how many times I walked in on the two of them when I subbed at McKinley. And I wasn't even there that long."
Shelby dropped the bags she was carrying and sat down.
"I know what you mean. I'm just glad that I made my office off-limits early on. That and I keep the door locked unless I'm inside."
"Good idea."
"Thank you." Shelby pulled Holly onto the couch next to her. "It's nice to have you around, I've missed seeing you."
"I doubt you've missed being thrown out of bars because of me."
"Holly, I haven't been in a bar for years. Now, let's get you settled into your room, and then we can go over the schedule for the weekend."
Shelby led Holly upstairs with her bags and to the spare room the house keeper had pointed out.
"Damn." Holly said in awe. "This room is huge. I might as well be at the Ritz. What does Mr. Motta even do?"
"I actually have no idea."
Shelby helped Holly sort through her bags, separating things for the teamwork exercises from Holly's personal possessions. They re-bagged everything Holly said she'd need for that afternoon, and moved back downstairs. Sugar was still upstairs, blasting music from her room which echoed through the whole second floor.
"So, you're starting with the mascot bear?"
"Yeah, I worked out a deal with the company to make a bunch of smaller replicas of whatever bear they make."
"That reminds me. " Shelby said, taking her wallet out of her pocket. "I got this in the mail a few days ago from Mr. Motta." She handed a credit card over. "For expenses and stuff."
"That guy is loaded."
"Yeah. The girls will be here soon, you ready?"
"Of course. I was born ready."
"Did you have to say that? Now I know something is going to go wrong."
Holly hit Shelby lightly. "Lies. Stop tarnishing my good name."
/-/-/-/-/
Thankfully nothing particularly bad happened on the first day. Everyone arrived almost at once. The Cheerios came in two different cars, while Tina, Mercedes, Rachel and Mike all came together. Quinn arrived on her own and Santana and Brittany were the last to arrive. Brittany had greeted Holly with a hug, and all those that had been in New Directions seemed genuinely happy to see her again, and were very excited to find out that she would be running their teamwork weekend. They hadn't been nearly as enthused when Holly insisted they play name games for a good half an hour so she could get to know all the girls she hadn't met yet.
Brittany and Sugar had been overjoyed when they realized that they were heading out to Build-A-Bear to make a Troubletones mascot. Santana had been more excited to find out that Shelby would pick up dinner from Breadstix on the way home. They ordered before they left, and Shelby was pretty sure that she heard someone groan at Santana's voice when she started yelling about breadsticks. They planned to have an early dinner, so that everyone would have room for sundae making. Holly swore on ice cream for bonding.
Everyone piled into one of two cars (Holly had hired a mini van) except for Shelby. Shelby took her own car home to check on Beth before meeting the Troubletones at the mall. The whole weekend was meant to be run by Holly, not Shelby, so Shelby would be going home quite a bit over the weekend. Walking into the Build-A-Bear shop, Shelby let out a groan.
Brittany, Mercedes and Sugar were arguing over something to do with the mascot, while Santana was hiding in another part of the shop with Tina and Rachel, apparently debating which bear accessory they preferred if their pointing was any indication. Mike stood near them, looking through the little leather jackets and showing one to Tina every now and again when he found one that he particularly liked. Quinn and the rest of the Cheerios were scattered around the shop looking at different things. Holly was waiting at the counter, grinning madly.
"Holly, what is going on?"
"Well, everyone agreed on the basic clothing ideas really quickly, after everyone brought back their preferences. Then Sugar, Brittany and Mercedes started arguing about which bow the mascot should wear."
Brittany was waving a bright green bow around, Mercedes was shoving a leopard print in both Brittany's and Sugar's faces while Sugar pouted, her hot pink bow thrust out in front of her.
"I understand why the rest of them ran away, but I don't see why you haven't intervened."
"Well, it's kind of funny to watch, but I'm waiting for them to reach some sort of agreement on their own."
"You realize that Mercedes is one of the most stubborn people in the world, Sugar is incredibly entitled and thinks everything she decides is the best, and that Brittany is …"
Shelby looked closely at Brittany. There was a slightly smile across her lips.
"Brittany is pretending to be annoyed." Holly cut in.
"I was going to say that Brittany thinks she's the most fashionable teenager in existence, and that she can often get stuck on an idea, but you're right."
"She is incredibly fashionable."
"Agreed. Apparently she was in a magazine for it or something."
"Oh, look!" Holly said excitedly. "They've decided to look at other bows. Time for me to step in."
Holly approached the three girls and presented a shiny lime green and pink bow with leopard spots."
"Sugar squealed and grabbed the bow, sticking it on the bear's head.
"Perfect!"
"I think we're done here. Let me just pay and we'll go back to the mansion that Sugar calls a house. Could you girls round up everyone else?"
Holly carried the large bear back to the counter and sat it next to Shelby.
"Do you like it?"
The bear was quite big, probably coming up to Shelby's knee and light brown in colour. It wore the bow Holly had found and a simple black t-shirt with a light turquoise jacket. It had several studs in the shape of musical notes pressed though its ears and a matching bracelet around one wrist. The back of the jacket had been embroidered with 'The Troubletones' in black lettering, thanks to the shop having brought an embroidery machine a few months ago. Plain denim overalls were half hidden under the jacket, and Shelby suspected that they had been Santana's preferred item of clothing. She was certainly the only Troubletone that Shelby had seen in overalls. It looked some what mismatched, but everyone had agreed on it, so Shelby wasn't going to complain.
Holly paid for their mascot, and made an order for sixteen smaller bears to be delivered to everyone's house by the time they got back from the teamwork weekend. The cashier took a quick photo of the front and back of the bear at Holly's insistence for accuracy.
Once everyone was ready to go, Sugar proudly grabbed the bear and carried it out to the cars. Everyone piled back into the cars to head back to Sugar's house. Shelby followed behind them, taking a quick detour at Breadstix to pick up their dinner order. She made sure to grab the credit card off of Holly before she left though. She wasn't going to pay for that mountain of food herself. God bless rich sponsors.
The restaurant was busy. It had started to get more customers after they started taking phone orders. According to Santana (Shelby had found out a lot of things about Breadstix from Santana) a new manager had been hired with a lot of big ideas to make more money. Deliveries, takeaways and phone orders were just part of that.
Shelby had walked up to the pick up area before she noticed that Will was standing next to the front desk, reserving a table for two at eight for Mr. Hudson (so Shelby was eavesdropping, who didn't?) . A waiter tapped her shoulder.
"You're order is ready, Miss."
"Thank you. Do you think I could have some help carrying it?"
"Sure."
The waiter picked up several of the bags, and Shelby managed with the rest. She unlocked her car and loaded all the food in.
"You've got quite a bit of food their, Miss. Catering for a few people?"
"You have no idea. Try sixteen teenagers and two adults. Was there an order of breadsticks in there?"
The waiter scratched his head, his brow furrowed in thought. "I don't think so. We don't normally serve breadsticks with our takeaway meals."
Shelby sighed and locked her car. "Well, I better get some. I'm pretty sure I'd be murdered if I went back without any."
"I guess one of your guests really likes breadsticks?"
"You're new, aren't you?"
The waiter blushed. "Yeah, I started a few days ago. How did you know?"
"Because you wouldn't be asking that question if you had served Santana Lopez."
"She's real? I thought that was just a story they made up to scare the new guy. Did she really get a manager fired?"
Shelby shrugged and held the door open for the waiter. "Probably. I've never actually been here while she was, but I've seen her get protective about her breadsticks when she brought the leftovers to school the next day."
The waiter nodded and rushed off to find some breadsticks. Will was just leaving as he returned.
"I got two extra orders of breadsticks for you."
"Thank you. I hope you have a good night." Shelby said distractedly.
"You too."
Shelby followed Will out, and listened as he pulled out his phone.
"Hey, Finn. Something came up for Emma and I and we had to cancel on our date at Breadstix this evening. I was wondering if you wanted the reservation. You can take Rachel, or something. I know they have some team thing on, but I'm sure she'd rather go out with you. Who cares about it? Sweet. It's at eight. I'll call them up and change the reservation to be under your name. Have a good holiday Finn."
Will stood outside his car, and Shelby could have shot herself. They were parked next to each other. She unlocked her car, and dropped the breadsticks in the back with all the other food. Will still hadn't noticed Shelby when she spoke up.
"I don't get it, Will. Why are you trying to sabotage the Troubletones' teambuilding weekend?"
"Shelby? Fancy seeing you hear. But I have no idea what you're going on about."
Shelby sighed. "You know what? Forget it. I've got a show choir to get back to. They need practice if they're ever going to win Regionals. Too bad New Directions don't have that chance."
Shelby got in her car, slamming the door and driving off before Will could respond. The bastard was trying to segregate her team with the only tool he seemed to have; Finn. Screw them.
Shelby Corcoran – 7
William Schuester – 7
Shelby arrived at Sugar's and was met by a few of the Cheerios. They helped Shelby carry the bags inside and lay everything out on the dining table. Santana was there a second later, searching for breadsticks. Everyone else filed into the dining room and grabbed their meals.
"Shelby, can I talk to you for a second?" Rachel asked quietly.
Shelby nodded and followed Rachel into the lounge.
"What do you want to talk about?"
"I know that this weekend is compulsory, but do you think I could leave for a few hours?"
"Rachel, take a seat."
They sat down on opposite sides of the couch.
"The Troubletones are a different sort of show choir than you're use to dealing with. I am the coach and teacher supervision for the Troubletones, and I do have some sort of authority because I have more experience with show choirs than, well, everyone at McKinley to be honest, but I'm not the leader. My point is that you don't have to ask me if you want to have a few hours away. You need to go back in that room and ask your team members. You're a Troubletone now, Rachel. That means we'll look out for you, but you need to do the same. So, go ask."
Rachel nodded, and joined the rest of the Troubletones in the dining room.
"If I could have your attention, please. I would like your permission to excuse myself for a few hours from our team building weekend this evening. I …"
"Really, Berry? You're going to blow us off for the Green Giant?" Santana snapped. "Not cool. There are a million places I'd rather be than here, but what do you know? Here I am, along with every other member of this team."
"Santana's right." Mercedes said. "We're a team. That's the point of this weekend, and you want to leave, to what? Go out with Finn?"
"I'd put money on that." Brittany said quickly.
Santana snorted. "I would too. Rachel, what you need to realize is that there is more to life than Finn. Be independent for once. Tell him that, no, you can't go to dinner, because you're busy and have had this planned for weeks."
"I am independent."
Brittany shook her head. "No you're … Finndependent. Did I do that right?"
Santana grinned proudly at Brittany. "Yeah, babe. That was awesome."
"Brittany!" Rachel said loudly.
"But, whatever Berry." Santana said, interrupting Rachel. "At the end of the day, it's your choice. Mercedes is right though. If you leave, I think you've missed the whole idea of teamwork."
Rachel opened her mouth for a second before storming out. Shelby chewed her lip nervously. The rest of the Troubletones were silent.
"Should someone go after her?" Holly asked in a stage whisper.
Quinn shook her head "No. Rachel just needs to think and come to a decision."
Half an hour later, after pretty much everyone else had finished eating; Rachel came back into the dining room.
"I'm sorry for before. This is a Troubletones weekend, and it's going to stay that way. I guess I just need to learn what a Troubletone is."
Sugar smiled. "It's awesome, pure awesome."
Shelby Corcoran – 8
William Schuester – 7
Will could try all her wanted to separate the Troubletones, but he'd fail. Because even their newest members realized that they had something good.
/-/-/-/-/
Rtarara– Strangely, Finn annoys me more than Artie does now days. I think it's because Artie had done nothing in the whole of season three. Finn's face irks me too.
OTHangels – I'm glad. :D
mixtapesandcellmates– I miss single Rachel too. She was scary focused on everything. I hope this chapter made you feel good then. Not a break up, but not a happy romance either. Also, You're my first 100th review. Yay! :D
manatees-have-thick-skin – I really like Mr. Motta. I have this whole back story in my head about his and Sugar's life that I should really put into the story.
LuvtheJEm – Angles? I think that's probably what it would take to get Finn a detention on Glee. *le sigh* As you can see, Schuester can't keep his nose out of anything. Silly man. Shelby is so much cooler than him.
Luthiem Vardamir – I hate Finn's chosen one status too. Speaking of Nationals, I'm actually watching that episode tonight, as New Zealand is slow in TV land. Should be interesting… or something. I'm leaning towards 'something'. I really would have adored seeing Shelby again, but I was looking forward to seeing Anne Hathaway too.
PS – I love all you reviewers. I can't believe I have over 100 reviews. I want to hug all of you guys!
