Disclaimer: I do not own Glee or any of the recognizable characters. I do however own Angel... Fox has yet to buy her from me.
"Wake up, Sweetheart," someone whispered the next morning, gently shaking Angel's shoulder, "Come on."
"I told you not to call me that," Angel muttered, rolling over with a frown and swatting her hand at the hands reaching out to run their fingers through her hair, "And what are you doing here? Brad will kill you."
"Brad was the one that let me in, Baby," the voice whispered again.
Angel's eyes snapped open, it was a woman's voice, "Go away," she snapped, sitting up in her bed to glare at the woman sitting on her bed next to her, "I thought I made it clear that I don't want to see you."
"I'm your mother," Shelby Cochran said with a sad sigh, "You should want to see me. You should love me."
"You should have thought about that before you abandoned me," Angel growled, moving away from her mother and forcibly pushing her hands away.
"What do you want me to say?" Shelby asked, moving closer to her daughter, "I can only apologize so many times, what more do you want from me?"
"That's the thing, Shelby," Angel growled, "I don't want anything from you besides you leaving me alone. I don't want to see you ever again."
"You changed your hair," Shelby said softly with a rueful twist of her lips as she reached up and brushed some hair out of Angel's eyes, "I'm not sure if I like it."
Angel glared at the woman sitting in front of her. She had lost the right to have any say in anything that had to do with Angel's life when she walked out of it twelve years ago. It made Angel angry to know that the woman thought that what she wanted still had any bearing on Angel's decisions, "I'm not sure if I really care," she muttered, swatting her mother's hand away from her hair again, "What's it matter that I changed my hair anyway?"
"It was the only thing you got from me," Shelby sighed with a shrug, "Without the long, wavy brown hair you don't even look like my daughter."
"Maybe that's why I did it," Angel muttered, "And you're wrong by the way," she added as she climbed out of her bed and started to walk toward her bathroom.
"What do you mean?" Shelby asked, watching her daughter walk across the room. Angel moved like her father, there was nothing of Shelby in any of her movements. It bothered her that the only daughter she had any claim to was so opposite from her.
"My hair wasn't the only thing I got from you," Angel specified, "I also got your voice and your moves," she added, doing a simple Fouetté jeté in midair to demonstrate, "And they are the only two things I will ever thank you for, because without them I wouldn't have gotten into New Directions."
"I wanted to talk to you about that," Shelby said slowly, glancing up at her daughter.
"And I want to take a shower," Angel said with a would-be sweet smile, "You're welcome to wait around for me to come out, but I would appreciate it more if you would just leave. You know where the door is."
"Angela," Shelby snapped, losing her temper for the first time that morning.
"Don't call me that!" Angel snapped before turning around and walking into her bathroom, slamming the door behind her. Angel leaned her back against the door after she slammed it. She angrily wiped at the tears that were sliding down her cheeks, it bothered her that her mother was still able to get to her like that, "This is stupid," she growled as she started the shower, "That woman never wanted you, she shouldn't matter this much."
Angel took as long in the shower as she possibly could, hoping that Shelby would get tired of waiting for her and just leave, she should have known that that was just wishful thinking. She had never been that lucky.
"You're still here... Great," she muttered as she walked out of the bathroom an hour and a half later after blowdrying her hair, "What are you doing?" she added, glancing at the book that lay open on her mother's lap.
"Is this your best friend?" Shelby asked, pointing at a picture of Mike with his arms wrapped around Angel's shoulders in the cafeteria, "Mike Chang, yes it is, Brad has told me about him."
"Why are you looking at my year book?" Angel asked, glaring at her mother and quickly walking forward and snatching it out of her hands, "And why does it matter who my best friend is?"
"He'll miss you of course," Shelby said with a nod, "But the two of you can still see each other on the weekends."
"What are you talking about?" Angel growled, glaring at her mother, "What the fuck are you talking about?"
"Language!" Shelby snapped, glaring at her daughter before softening the look, "And I'm talking about you coming to join Vocal Adrenaline with me."
"Like hell that will happen!" Angel snapped, walking over to her door and throwing it open, "I think it's time for you to go now. And tell Brad the next time he lets you in my room without my permission will be the last time that he sees me."
"Angela," Shelby sighed, moving closer to Angel and reaching her hand out to, do what? She didn't know, she just longed for comfort with her daughter.
"Leave. Now." Angel growled, not even looking at her mother.
Shelby sighed and left the bedroom before she could make things any worse. "How'd it go?" Brad whispered when Shelby finally made it down to the first story of the house.
"I doubt she'll even consider it," Shelby sighed as she made her way to the front door.
"Well can you blame her?" Brad asked with a snort.
"You've forgiven me," Shelby pointed out, "Where did I go wrong with her?"
"That's easy," Brad said with a shrug, "I'm a boy. I didn't need you when I went through puberty, I didn't need you to teach me how to put on make-up and what clothes to wear, you didn't need to fix any of my broken hearts, or explain boys and love to me. I don't need your help when prom comes around, I don't need my mom to take me wedding dress shopping. You abandoned us both, but you did it in two very different ways. She needed you so much more than I did and you virtually told her that you didn't care."
Shelby stared at her son, and wondered where she had been when he grew up, "When did you grow up on me?" she whispered, wondering when the man in front of her had replaced her little boy.
"When Dad went all depressed because you left," Brad said with a shrug, "Someone had to take care of Angel. Her childhood didn't have to be stolen from her too."
Shelby reached out to cup her son's cheek in her hand, she opened her mouth to find someway to apologize, but nothing came out. Brad smiled ruefully, "It's fine," he muttered before stepping away and out of his mother's grasp. "There's the door," he said with a curt nod before turning and walking up the stairs to check on Angel.
"Ang?" he called, knocking on the door, "Come on, open up, she's gone. And I'm sorry! I will never let her in your room again without your permission. Angel?" he asked again when he got nothing in response, "Okay, I'm coming in, I hope your dressed." But he didn't need to worry about the last part, when the door swung open in front of him Angel was no where to be seen. The only clue as to where she had gone was the rope ladder hanging over her rain-soaked window sill.
~.~.~.~.~
"Angel?" Mike asked, surprised when he opened his front door to see Angel, soaking wet and standing on his front steps, "What's wrong, Babe?" he asked as he stepped out on to the porch, getting wet himself so that he could wrap his arms around Angel's shoulders.
"Can we talk, Mikey?" Angel managed to gasp out between her chattering teeth, "I'm sorry, you're probably busy, it's just that I really need to talk and I have no where else to go. I have no idea who to go to. I just need to talk and you're my best friend I'm sorry."
Mike laughed, "Angel you never have to apologize to me, Come on in and we'll talk, just let me get you some clothes to wear first, you're shivering like crazy."
"I'll be fine," Angel muttered, her teeth chattering worse than before.
"No you won't, come on," Mike chuckled, leading her into the house and shutting the front door behind them before pulling her up the stairs to his bedroom. "Here you go," he said softly, pulling out a pair of sweatpants and an off shoulder sweatshirt that Angel had left at his house over a year ago.
"Don't look," Angel whispered, her teeth slowing their chattering, "Or I'll have to beat you up," she threatened.
"I wouldn't doubt that," Mike said with a laugh as he turned around to face her.
Angel changed quickly and then climbed onto Mike's bed, "How are you?" she asked as he sat down next to her, "It feels like I haven't talked to you in ages."
"I'm fine," Mike said with a smile, "But I feel like that's not why you ran across town in the rain to talk to me. What's wrong, Ang?"
"What makes you think anything is wrong?" Angel muttered, focusing her attention on pulling a tangle out of her wet hair.
"Because I know you," Mike said, craning his neck so that he could look Angel in her eyes, "Now tell me what's going on."
Angel sighed and then before she could stop herself everything came pouring out. She told Mike what she had told Puck only four days ago, about how her mother left her when she was five and then she hadn't heard from her until they moved to Lima, she told him what it felt like to know that no one wanted you, she told him how much it hurt her everyday even though she knew that it shouldn't, and then finally she told him who her mother really was.
"Wait a minute!" Mike exclaimed when she got to that part, "Your mother is Shelby Cochran? The coach for Vocal Adrenaline?"
"Yes," Angel said with a nod, "What's wrong?" she asked, suddenly catching the look of worry that was spreading across Mike's face, "Mike?" she asked when he didn't answer right away, "What's wrong?"
"Have you talked to Rachel about this?" Mike asked, remember how the year before they had found out that Ms. Cochran was Rachel's real mother.
"No, why?" Angel asked slowly, wondering why Mike was acting so weird.
"Berry is just really competitive about Glee," Mike said, quickly pulling an explanation out of thin air, "She might try to get you cut from Glee Club if she knew about your connection to a rival team."
"My connection?" Angel asked, honestly surprised, "What about when she dated that Jesse guy? I feel like that's worse than hating the fact that you're related to the coach."
"She could trust herself not to reveal Glee secrets," Mike said with a shrug, "She wouldn't be able to trust that you could do the same."
"But she's my friend, I mean, I know it's only been a month or so, but I almost feel like we're so close that we could be sisters."
"Oh you have no idea," Mike muttered under his breath.
"What?" Angel asked.
"You have no idea how competitive she can get," Mike said, quickly saving himself, "Winning comes before friendship every time."
"So I shouldn't tell her?" Angel asked, quickly catching on to the unsaid warning on Mike's mind.
"Definitely not," Mike said before taking a deep breath and looking back at his friend, this was the first time he had really looked at her and it was hard to miss the tears that were trickling out of her eyes, "You okay?" he asked, reaching down to wipe away some of her tears.
"Yeah," Angel said with a nod, "It feels good to finally get that off my chest. I thought not talking about her was the best way to deal with how much she has hurt me throughout my life, but I was wrong."
"I'm always here," Mike whispered, giving her shoulders a tight squeeze.
"I know," Angel said with a laugh as she reached down onto his floor and threw a Nintendo controller at him, "And I will always be able to beat you at Mario Kart."
"Oh it's on!" Mike yelled as he started the game.
"On like Donkey Kong?" Angel asked in a teasing tone.
"He's mine!" Mike yelled, quickly selecting the ape to be his driver, "Touch him a die, girl, I don't care how well you sing!"
Angel laughed, "Thanks Mike," she whispered, bumping her shoulder against his.
"Anytime," Mike said with a smile in return, "I mean that."
~.~.~.~.~
When Angel arrived at school on Monday she felt better than she ever had before. It was hard to believe that she had spent so much time bottling her feelings about her mother in. All that had done was made it worse.
Now that she had finally talked to someone, even if it was just Mike she felt so much better. She finally felt comfortable in her skin and she couldn't wait to show the rest of the Glee Club.
"How are you feeling?" Mike asked as he sped up to catch up with his small friend, "How was the rest of your weekend?"
"Really good actually," Angel said with a nod as she stopped in front of her locker so that she could get her books, "Brad and I talked it out. I yelled at him for letting the bitch in my room. And then we hugged it out. It felt good. And he promised that he would never spring her on me anymore."
"That's really good," Mike said with a nod, "And is it wrong for me to tell you thank you?"
"What?" Angel asked, turning around to stare at him, "Why would you be thanking me? I didn't do anything for you."
"You confided in me," Mike said with a shrug, stuffing his hands into his pockets, "I mean, you've done that before, but not about anything so serious. Thank you for trusting me."
Angel smiled, "I do tend to play things close to the chest, huh?"
"Too close," Mike murmered before wrapping his arm around the girl, "But if we keep talking about this we're going to be late for the Glee Club meeting, let's go."
Angel laughed and followed Mike down the hallway to the Glee classroom. The two slipped into seats right before Will walked into the room, "Hey Tina," Angel said with a smile as she sat down between the asian girl and Mike, "How was your weekend?"
"Boring," Tina admitted, "And dramatic."
"Contradiction alert!" Mike said with a laugh before turning around in his seat so that he could talk to Matt.
"Why dramatic?" Angel whispered as Will walked into the room.
"Artie and I broke up," Tina said with a shrug.
"What?" Angel gasped, but Tina held her hand up to silence the girl, we'll talk about it later, she mouthed.
"Okay," Will said with a smile, "You guys have two assignments this week. First of all you have to perform a number during school hours that will make people want to join Glee Club. We really need new members. And the second assignment is that I want you to pick a song that means something to you and dedicate it to someone and sing it for us on Thursday. Got it?"
"Sounds lame," Puck muttered under his breath.
"Shut up!" Angel hissed, swiping at the back of his head with her hand, "I think it's a great idea, Mr. Shue."
"I knew you would," Will said with a laugh, "Now I want you guys to split up into smaller groups for the songs that you're going to sing at school. Try to pick different genres, too. We want to get as many people interested as possible. See you on Thursday."
"Do you want to sing a song together?" Rachel asked making a beeline for Angel on her way out of the classroom.
"Sure," Angel said with a smile, "You should ask Quinn and Santana too. I have an idea."
"Santana?" Rachel asked with a groan, "Why?"
"Don't question me," Angel said with a laugh, "Just do as I say, minion!"
"Fine," Rachel muttered before turning around to go find Quinn.
"So why did you break up with Artie?" Angel asked, running to catch up with Tina and looping her arm through her friends, "I thought that you really liked him."
"It's all your fault," Tina admitted, a giggle stopping her statement from sounding too harsh, "It really is."
"What did I do?" Angel asked, honestly surprised.
"I didn't think that I would ever be interested in Mike until I saw the way that he acted with you," Tina said with a smile, "That showed me a new side of him that I had never seen before. And I liked it."
Angel couldn't help the giggle and squeal that escaped her lips, "You like Mike?" she hissed, trying to keep her voice down, "I love that! We need to plan our offensive! You guys will be dating by the Halloween dance... trust me!"
Tina laughed, "Angel, stop!" she gasped, "I don't want you to plan an offensive. If Mike likes me something will happen. Let it happen on its own."
"But -" Angel started before Tina cut her off.
"I said leave it be," she said with a smile.
~.~.~.~.~
"I can't believe that you convinced me to do this," Rachel hissed to Angel as they, Quinn, and Santana walked into the cafiteria wearing matching black trench coats.
"If this doesn't get people's attention then I don't know what will," Santana said with a smile, "And I love these costumes. Where did you get them?"
Angel smiled, "When you do dance every year since age five you accumulate a lot of dance costumes."
"Let's do this," Quinn said with a smile, nodding to the corner of the cafiteria where Kurt was setting up a boombox for them.
"Any chance I can back out of this?" Rachel asked, looking nervous, "This isn't something that I usually do."
"Chill," Angel said with a reassuring smile, "These are dance costumes, there's nothing wrong or against the rules about wearing them to class. Let's go."
The four girls quickly took off the trench coats and revealed the four can-can girl inspired dance costumes they had been wearing underneath.
"Good luck!" Angel whispered as they started making their ways to their respective tables as the opening notes to "Lady Marmalade" began to play from the back corner of the cafiteria.
"[S]: Where's all my soul sistas
Lemme hear ya'll flow sistas
[A]: Hey sista, go sista, soul sista, flow sista
Hey sista, go sista, soul sista, go sista
[Q]: He met Maramalade down in old Moulin Rouge
Struttin' her stuff on the street
She said, "Hello, hey Jo, wanna give it a go?" Oh! uh huh
[All]: Giuchie, giuchie, ya ya dada (hey hey hey)
Giuchie, giuchie ya ya here (here)
Mocha chocolata ya ya (oh yeah)
Creole Lady Marmalade
[S]: What what, what, what
[A]: Ooh oh
[All]: Voulez vous cocher avec moi ce soir
Voulez vous cocher avec moi
[S]: yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah
[R]: He sat in her boudoir while she freshened up
Boy drank all that Magnolia wine
All her black satin sheets, suede's, dark greens
yeah
[All]: Giuchie, giuchie, ya ya dada (hey hey hey)
Giuchie, giuchie ya ya here (here)
Mocha chocolata ya ya (oh yeah)
Creole Lady Marmalade
Voulez vous cocher avec moi ce soir (ce soir, what what what)
Voulez vous cocher avec moi
[S]: He came through with the money and the garter bags
I let him know we bout that cake straight up the gate
We independent women, some mistake us for whores
[A]: I'm sayin' why spend mine when I can spend yours
[S]: Disagree? Well that's you and I'm sorry
Imma keep playing these cats out like Atari
Wear ideal shoes, get love from the dudes
Four bad ass chicks from the Moulin Rouge
[A]: hey Hey Hey!
Touch of her skin feeling silky smoth
Color of cafe au lait alright
Made the savage beast inside roar until he cried
More-more-more
[R]: Now he's back home doin' 9 - 5
[Q]: Sleeping the grey flannel life
[A]: But when he turns off to sleep memories creep,
More-more-more
[All]: Giuchie, giuchie, ya ya dada (hey hey hey)
Giuchie, giuchie ya ya here (here)
Mocha chocolata ya ya (oh yeah)
Creole Lady Marmalade
Voulez vous cocher avec moi ce soir (ce soir, what what what)
Voulez vous cocher avec moi"
After the song ended the four girls climbed off of their tables and stared at the people in the cafiteria who had all been staring at them in complete silence.
Sure, people had clapped and cheered while the girls were singing, but now that it was done no one seemed to know what to say. "Not what I expected," Angel whispered to Quinn. But she had barely gotten her whisper out before the cafiteria burst out in applause.
"There we go," Santana said with a smile before grabbing her trench coat, "Now let's get out of here before Principal Figgins comes in here and sends us to detention."
"I'm with you there," Rachel giggled before grabbing Angel's hand and pulling her out of the cafiteria.
~.~.~.~.~
Puck could not believe what he had just seen. All the girls had looked great, but Angel had surprised him. There had been something different about her when she performed. She had been free up there.
He had liked it.
Coincidentally, he had also been the first one to start cheering once the song was done. Most of the guys in the school had been too busy staring at thegirls who were practically wearing lingerie to cheer and the two that weren't (Mike and Brad) had been shielding their eyes.
He tried to approach the girls after they climbed off the table, bu Rachel rushed them off pretty fast. So he followed them out of the cafiteria and was now standing outside the girl's bathroom waiting for the girls to come out.
"Hey Puck," Angel giggled as she followed the other three girls out of the bathroom, "What are you up to?"
"Waiting for you to be honest," Puck said with one of his most attractive smiles, "Any chance we can talk before you go to your next class?"
"Sure," Angel said with a shrug as she followed him toward his locker, "What's up?"
"You were amazing," Puck said with a smile as he reached up and wrapped his hands around her forearms, "I've never seen you look so free about... well anything."
Angel laughed, "Thanks, but you could have said that in front of the others, you know."
"That's not what I wanted to talk to you about," Puck said shaking his head, "I was just wondering if you wanted to go on a date... like a real date, one that I don't have to buy from you?"
Angel couldn't help the smile that spread across her face, "Really?" she asked, "A real one?"
"Yes," Puck said with a chuckle, he couldn't help enjoying the way Angel was obviously happy about the fact that they were going on a real date, "A real date."
"Okay," Angel said with a smile, "Pick me up at 8?"
"Tomorrow?" Puck asked, not believing that he was actually looking forward to a date that probably wouldn't end in sex.
"It's a date," Angel said with a laugh before walking toward her class.
Author's Note:
I am so sorry that it took me so long to get this out for you guys!
School and work have been kicking my butt this semester!
But that's all winding down now so it should be easier now!
For those of you that stuck around through my hiatus!
I LOVE YOU!
Thanks for your patience and support!
And I really hope that you liked this chapter!
Review to let me know.
Thanks again!
Until next time, happy reading!
xoxo,
Brook