After a weekend of recovery, Tina returns to school. She feels like she's been gone much longer than just a few days. Most of her classes are overwhelming. Its been so long since she was completely able to pay attention to her teachers. She's completely lost in chemistry. Math, never her best subject, is confusing as well. As far as Tina is concerned, a log is something you find in the woods. In English, the Goth wonders when they started reading Shakespeare. They don't read a play in a week, her teacher likes to go through and outline each act. Tina's overwhelmed by the information she's missed, and the make up work she's accumulated by the time lunch arrives. But, nothing has prepared her for what meets her at the midday meal.
Rachel Berry smooths her skirt, and pats her hair. Nine members of new directions are gathered before her. Only Tina and Artie are missing. "My fellow Glee Clubbers," She says, the authority of her co-captaincy behind her words, "Today is the day we stage out intervention. The plan begins at twelve, noon. Mercedes, Kurt, you're responsible for bringing Tina here."
"If I may, Rachel?" Kurt interjects, "Asking us to bring Tina here makes me feel like a kidnapper. These," he motions to his outfit, "Are not the appropriate clothes for an extraction. For that, I think trench coats would be in order."
Rachel ignores the flamboyant boy's interruption. "Santana, Brittany, will you set up the chairs?" The Hispanic girl gives Rachel a look of pure venom last seen directed toward Mercedes, but Rachel just ignores her. "They should be in a circle, so we can talk like equals."
"We can only talk if you shut up," mutters Puck.
Rachel is only somewhat more subdued. She suggests the boys work on a song. Because, of course, an intervention is the perfect avenue for a song. She sends Finn off to search for the perfect thing, because he's her co-captain. He's also kind of distracting her. His eyes are so brown, and he's giving her that perfect puppy dog look. The one where he looks totally confused… because he is.
Finn looks for lyrics, and Kurt and Mercedes, accompanied by silent Matt as a bodyguard, go to look for Tina. Rachel sets the rest of the Glee club to write down what they will say when Tina arrives. She thinks its an excellent plan. This way, everyone will be able to say everything they want. Rachel jots her list on the clean sheet of notebook paper in front of her. Everyone else in the room is writing, even Brittany. Everyone, that is, but Quinn.
Finn gets sidetracked in the library. He knows he's supposed to be looking for a song and lyrics, but there are so many other things to see. Since his discovery that the school had a library, and you could check out books, he's been kind of secretly obsessed. Finn finds the new Sports Illustrated in the stack of magazines in the corner. He knows that the librarian has been hiding it, but Finn is really tall, so he can see the top of the rack, unlike everyone else. Finn settles in to read, conveniently ignoring the computers.
Its probably a good thing he doesn't try to access them, looking for songs. If he had, Jacob Ben Israel might have waylaid him. That would have been bad, because Jacob is updating his gossip blog right now, accusing Tina Cohen-Chang of being a drug user. After all, she's been getting really skinny lately. And, he saw a small orange syringe fall out of her bag earlier.
Mercedes and Kurt arrive at the lunch room, Matt silently tailing them. He's a menacing presence. He still doesn't talk much, but they're happy to have him. At least he's no longer involved in slushieing. Kurt is eternally grateful. Artie is sitting alone at their usual table. He has a lunch sack open in front of him. There is a squished peanut butter sandwich. The red jelly leaking onto the wheat bread looks like blood, Matt thinks. Kurt admires the color, thinking that it would make an excellent shade of shirt. A sort of deep pinky-red.
"Where's Hot Mama, Wheels?" 'Cedes asks.
Artie shrugs, and pulls a bag of carrot sticks for his bag. He knows she's in the nurse's office. Figgins insists that his hands are tied, and Tina has to go to the nurse every time she needs a shot. Syringes are drug paraphernalia, and McKinley High cannot allow its students, even students who rely on the medication delivered by the needles to stay alive, to carry or use them openly.
Just then, Tina walks into the cafeteria, clutching her own sack lunch. Her mom had made it that morning. Tina can't remember the last time her mom made her lunch. Her first day of sixth grade, maybe, after Grandpa died. That afternoon, Tina's mother told her that she could buy what ever she wanted for lunch making at the grocery store, as long as it passed certain nutritional standards and she put it together herself. But, when Tina woke up that morning, her mother had been standing at the island in their kitchen, spreading mustard on a two pieces of bread. Tina had frowned, and reminded her mother that (1) she is lactose intolerant, and (2) she hates mayo. There are two store bought cookies in the bag, an apple and some water. A note accompanies everything, with a number carefully written in her mother's handwriting. Sixty grams.
Mercedes grab's Tina's wrist before her friend can escape. She marvels at how skinny her bestie has gotten. She leads her friend to the choir room, letting Kurt and Matt convince Artie to come along. Mercedes knows, from personal experience, that when you're struggling with dieting the last thing you want to do is have a bunch of people tell you not to eat. She remembers how nice Quinn had been when she fainted in the cafeteria. Even though she won't admit it, Artie had made damn cute cake.
"Girl, I know what you're going through," Mercedes says by way of preface. She wants to lessen the blow. Rachel's idea suddenly seems stupid. "When I joined the Cheerios,"
"No, you don't!" Tina says, vehemently. "I doubt that you have any idea."
"I do, I do." Mercedes reassures her. She thinks that Tina must be in denial. She hurries to the choir room.