Author's Note: How was everyone's holiday? Great? I had a very satisfying Christmas holiday, if I do say so myself. I got to see my cousins, whom I haven't seen in a decent while, I got a lot of money and some other gifts for Christmas, and we had a white Christmas in our town (well, it wasn't all white; the grass could still be seen). Regardless, I hope the rest of my winter break goes well, as do you guys', as well. The new year is rolling around the corner, and I hope we can make positive memories next year. And without further ado, I hereby present chapter twenty-one of Many Colors. Happy reading, all!
Featured Pairings: Rampton (Samantha/Adriana), implied!Wildechester (Kitty/Anthony), flirtatious!Samanthony (Samantha/Anthony), minor!Klaine (Kurt/Blaine), Cohart (Tina/Joe), Quoe (Quinn/Joe), implied!Wildehart (Kitty/Joe)
Disclaimer: I don't own anything related to Glee. All of the rights to the show go to Ryan Murphy and Co., and Twentieth Century Fox.
Many Colors
Chapter Twenty-One
"Now we're fucking screwed." Adriana told Samantha as the two Cheerios strolled down the hallway with their red, white, and black Cheerios backpacks on. "To think about a week or so ago, when we got that wannabe Quinn Fabray bitch to join that new glee club, we thought we would actually have the chance to ruin her life. Now we're the ones that end up in this tub of lard for the rest of the school year."
"It's only until those wannabe New Directions people get taken down," Samantha assured her, placing a hand on her shoulder. "Trust me, when Coach Sylvester finds out that we've done the deed and wiped those ass faces clean, she would literally beg the both of us to be promoted to head cheerleaders next year. It's a win-win." Adriana shrugged. Maybe the blonde was right. Had Adriana and Samantha not become as ruthless as Sue imagined them to be now, and Kitty Wilde would end up being head cheerleader, which both girls prayed to every God there was that it wouldn't happen.
As the duo turned a corner, they took notice of most of the Forsaken Harmonics members (minus Joe and Artie) having a conversation by Tina's locker. Even their newest member, Anthony Winchester, was standing there, leaning against the locker set and eyeing Kitty uncomfortably as she took notice of his ridiculously red lips. Adriana's eyebrows furrowed at the sight of the rather charming junior boy. "Is he supposed to be new here?" she questioned.
Samantha placed her hands on her hips and shook her head. "You don't expect those kinds of enthusiastic-looking people to take part in any damn glee club in this school," she told her best friend. "Perhaps he's a foreign exchange student from Scotland or something…"
Adriana nodded in agreement, and then turned back to him. He was listening to a conversation Sam started about a video he randomly spotted on YouTube, which made Anthony genuinely laugh. Tina and Sugar joined in on the joke, while Kitty leaned on one leg, looking at the Louis High student as if he was some kind of lunatic. Something seems odd about him, Adriana thought, but I can't put my finger on it. "Is he supposed to be gay?" she asked aloud. After all, the odds of him being gay are out there, to the black-haired Cheerio.
Samantha turned her head from Adriana to Anthony, rolling her eyes carelessly. If one person was to find out who (or what) he was, then it might as well be her. The blonde Cheerio placed her bag on the floor beside Adriana's feet, and made her way towards the Forsaken Harmonics group. She gave her best, lip gloss-coated smile to the group, and folded her arms, gazing around at the members (mostly Anthony). "Well then, since we're making new friends over here, it's might as well time for me to step in," she spoke up, enthusiastically. Kitty, however, wasn't having her pettiness.
"I'm sorry, Carrie Underwood," Kitty spoke up, holding up the index finger on her right hand, "but what the hell do you think you're doing here? Only members of the neglected-folk glee club are allowed to be talking with each other. Why don't you head back on down to your corner, along with your pet horse, Bronco, and start making cash off of your ponytails and derrieres?"
"That was…kind of mean…" Anthony randomly spoke up. He noticed Tina shaking her head beside him, and had the assumption that she knew very well what kind of person Kitty was.
Samantha turned her head towards the Louis High junior. "Ain't she, darlin'?" she asked, shaking her head. "Whatever's gotten into her, I say she needs some happiness in her life. I was in the Girl Scouts at one point, and we got this young eight-year-old boy to play with his other school friends after finding out that people like his older brother and his father didn't want a damn thing to do with him." Kitty rolled her eyes, not believing a word she was saying. "The world gets better with a little help at a time, is what I always say…"
"My ass." Kitty muttered under her breath, earning a nudge in the arm from Sugar.
Ignoring Kitty's under-her-breath comments, Samantha turned back to Anthony, running a finger down his upper chest, which had nothing but a gold necklace sitting on it. "I'm single, by the way," she states before walking off. As Samantha walked away, Kitty started to storm away. Tina tugged onto Sam's arm, beckoning him to follow the freshman Cheerio. Sugar and Anthony followed them.
"Well, she's…interesting," Anthony told them.
"Who is she anyway?" Sugar asked, confused.
"Some cunt you don't want in the way." Kitty rudely replied.
"Kitty!" Sam and Tina both exclaimed.
"I'm serious." The freshman girl stopped in her tracks, and faced the Forsaken Harmonics members before her. "That girl that you just encountered was Samantha Reese: junior in McKinley High, one of Coach Sylvester's ruthless Cheerios, and more importantly, the biggest bitch that's ever come into my life, next to her overly-perky best friend, Adriana." Kitty stated, rolling her eyes again and folding her arms.
Anthony shrugged, turning his head to the direction Samantha had walked in. "I don't know, Kitty," he told the ninth-grade cheerleader, "she seems pretty nice."
"Yeah, now," Kitty pointed out, "but I'm not gonna save your ass once she has you tied up for her little puppet master act, Rosy Lips." Anthony frowned at Kitty's statement, and brought his hand up to his lips, pinching the bottom lip with his thumb and index finger, and stretching it out a bit to see what Kitty saw. Surprisingly, he believed that it was true.
Tina pinched the bridge of her nose, trying to clear the headache she was receiving after hearing Kitty bitch about Samantha for the past few minutes. "You know what? We can get back to this later, Kitty. I honestly find the whole situation petty of you to even criticize her like that." Kitty's jaw dropped, frowning furiously at the Asian beauty. Tina turned in Sam's direction. "Sam, I need you and Artie to check and see if you can get any hold of Joe."
"I'm telling you, Tai Domo the Dragon Tamer," Kitty responded, "we should just replace him. I mean, he's already missed three meetings so far, and we need new members anyways –"
"For the ten millionth time," Tina argued, "we're not replacing anyone in this group, especially if they want to be a part in making a difference. Besides…" At that moment, Tina started to slow down, her head sinking so her eyes were facing her black boots. Her demeanor grew a bit sadder than seconds ago, which had Sam and Anthony feeling nervous for her. "This…well, it's kind of a serious matter."
Anthony folded his arms in front of his chest. "What do you mean?" he questioned.
Tina gripped onto her backpack strap and took a deep breath before opening her eyes to her fellow Harmonics. "I tried calling Joe's mother the other day while you guys were coming up with song ideas, and…" Tina suddenly stopped again.
"And what?" Sam asked, placing a hand on Tina's shoulder. The Asian beauty's bottom lip and chin quivered as she gazed at the people surrounding her. The moment she told the other members what happened, the world stopped turning for everyone.
"Spies!" an overprotective Rachel Berry called as Sam and Tina entered the choir room later that day. Finn and Puck glanced up to see their fellow McKinley Titans member enter the room, and Mike took notice of his (somewhat) girlfriend entering beside him, growing suspicious.
"Rachel, we're not here for a feud," Sam told the short Broadway-bound diva, "we're here for Quinn and Mercedes." As their names were being announced, New Directions' resident diva and the petite former Cheerio gazed up at the blonde football player standing in the center of the room, confused and concerned.
"Why? So you can take them away from us, too?" Kurt asked, steaming up to see Tina and Sam in the choir room for the first time in a while. Blaine grabbed onto his boyfriend's arm, trying to calm him down.
Quinn stood up from where she sat, and strode on over to Sam, with concern growing on her face. "Sam, what is going on?" she whispered. "We haven't seen you in a while. What do you need us for?" At that moment, Mercedes came over by her side.
"Is something wrong, Sam?" Mercedes asked, looking at the faces before her.
"It's something to do with Joe," Sam explained. He couldn't say anything further, being that Tina was close to breaking down from her numb state, and the other New Directions members in the room were angered by Sam and Tina's presence. "Meet us in the God Squad's room. We need an intervention."
Behind the huddle, they all could hear Santana call from her seat. "Are you done making out with your two girlfriends, Calvin Klein?" she asked, unimpressed with what's going on. "The smell of your sweat and failure is rubbing on us, and we sure as hell don't want that for rehearsals today." Frowning in Santana's direction, he led Tina, Mercedes, and Quinn in the hallway and to the God Squad's reserved classroom.
The good news was, in fact, Joe returned to school that day. He had to stay home for most of the day since he and his mother were still trying to recover from the sudden incident that happened the previous day. However, Joe's mother wasn't comfortable with letting her son go back to being publicly schooled after the things she's heard from her son; so she occasionally home-schools him, and he comes to McKinley when there are glee club meetings or God Squad meetings. Today, Mrs. Hart made sure Joe showed up so Tina and the gang could help him with the problem he was having. Mrs. Hart prayed that everything would work out in the end.
Teen Jesus showed up to school a few minutes after Sam and Tina called Quinn and Mercedes to the God Squad room. He had gone to his locker to retrieve some of his homework that he left inside when he noticed a note that stuck in his locker. It seemed to be Sam's handwriting; he had seen it before. On the note, it told Joe to head on to the God Squad room. Joe remembered that he and Sam had missed out on a couple of meetings the past couple of days. It was something that Joe needed.
Closing his locker and grabbing his homework, the dreadlocked boy walked down the hallways until he found the classroom door with the hand-drawn cross on it that Mercedes made. He noticed it when he first came to the God Squad, and was amazed at how artistic she was. He took hold of the door knob, and breathed for a moment. He knew what this was about, so he had to prepare himself for the many things that he might get asked by some of his fellow God Squad members.
He stepped into the classroom and closed the door behind him, taking notice of Quinn, Mercedes, and Sam seated at the other side of the big table in the center of the room. Surprisingly, Tina was sitting closest to the door, her body facing Joe with a melancholy facial expression.
"Hey, Joe," Mercedes greeted as softly and sweetly as possible. Her tone sounded sweet and charming to the Christian teen; however, the sad look on her face told other stories.
"We missed you, buddy." Quinn told the dreadlocked teen. Joe had to admit that he felt ashamed to see Quinn again after their last encounter. The last time the two talked, Joe was breaking down after finding out that Quinn wanted Joe to choose someone for him that wouldn't necessarily "break his heart" or whatever that meant to Teen Jesus. He still didn't understand, though, because he felt as if Quinn wouldn't hurt anyone, being that she was a very nice and mature teenager compared to many other students in McKinley High. It made Joe feel upset to hear those words come out of her mouth, especially since he's been crushing on her for the longest time.
Joe slowly took a seat in the empty chair beside Tina, not looking anyone directly in their faces, and sunk his head so his eyes gazed at the woodwork done on the tables. Tina turned her body a bit so she was facing Joe again, and started breaking the silence once more. "Joe, I…um…" Tina began, not really sure on where to start off with the conversation. "I think you know why we called you here, right?" she asked. Joe didn't respond; he just sat there, numb.
"Just so you'll know, Joe," Mercedes added, "we've heard a bit about what you're going through. I mean…the people here in McKinley can be really rough, at times, and I know how much of a hard road this is –"
"I'm okay." Joe finally spoke, although a bit quietly. He took the glances towards him as a sign that they didn't seem to agree with what he was saying. So he added, "Well…I am now…"
"We don't think you fully are." Quinn replied, scooting up in her seat and folding her hands on the table. "Look, we overheard some of the things Santana has been saying around you, and she's even told us some things that we thought were inappropriate of her –"
"Quinn." Joe began to speak again, sounding a bit frustrated and making fists with both of his hands. "I just told you that I was fine." It took Quinn aback to hear Joe's tone. He never behaved this way before.
"We're just trying to help you, dude." Sam said, strolling around the table until he met up with Tina and Joe on the other side. The dreadlocked teen didn't say anything else. On the outside, he didn't seem to need any help (though people like Quinn, Tina, and Mercedes say otherwise). On the inside, he felt like he had no one, and needed someone to lean on to. Joe never relied on self-harming for anything before, and this one time basically changed everything. However, he knew that he could handle it.
To everyone else, though, it was a situation that needed fixing.
Tina glanced from Joe's eyes to his hands placed on his lap underneath the table. After hearing his mother cry and explain to her what all happened once she got home, Tina felt the need for other people to see what bullies in McKinley were doing to him. "Joe…" she spoke up, clearing her throat, "can I…" She paused for a moment to breathe. "Can I see your hands?"
Joe furrowed his eyebrows, confused. "Why?"
"I just –" Tina gulped down the lump that was sitting in her throat. "Joe, give me your hand. Please."
It took a couple of moments of thinking, but Joe slowly extended his right hand in Tina's direction, still holding it out under the table. She took a hold of Joe's big yet soft hand, her thumb pressing down on the top of it. Joe felt Tina comforting him a bit, almost. It was sweet of Tina to do something like that. Even though he had his mother to lean on when students in McKinley didn't, Tina was something new and different he was experiencing when it came to coping with life problems.
It wasn't until Tina brought Joe's hand up on the surface of the table that Joe started to tug back a bit. Tina took a firm grip of his hand, trying not to struggle with him. "W – wait, Joe. I just…"
"Tina, what are you doing?" Joe asked, still confused.
What Tina and Joe didn't know was that Quinn and Mercedes, still on the other side of the table, had noticed something white wrapped around Joe's wrist under the sleeve of his tan cardigan. Mercedes leaned in Quinn's direction and started to whisper. "Quinn," she spoke, "do you see what I see?"
Quinn had to squint her eyes a bit to see what Mercedes was talking about, but then her vision became clear. "They look like…bandages…" Mercedes nearly gasped when the word bandages came out of Quinn's mouth. It immediately brought Sam, Tina, and Joe's attention; so Joe decided to bring his hand back under the table and onto his lap. Sam's head sunk a bit, and Tina was nearly biting her bottom lip. Is this true? Mercedes thought, but almost didn't ask. Had Joe really been cutting himself? Neither of the girls would expect it; after all, Joe was a very pure and happy-go-lucky type of person who wouldn't look to harm for any situation.
Neither Quinn nor Mercedes said anything at first, but then Quinn addressed the Christian teen before her. "Joe…" she spoke up, making Joe lift his head up slightly, "have you been…um…"
"Quinn, I didn't think it would be right to tell you and Mercedes just yet without any proof." Tina admitted, folded her hands on top of the table.
A shocked Joe Hart turned towards Tina with a frown on his face. "Tina, you were going to tell?"
"Well, Joe, I had to," Tina explained, grabbing onto the hem of her blouse, "you were in pain, and your mother was reaching out for help. I had to step in. Besides, you were gone for a while, and we were worried about you. I told the other members of our group that I didn't want you to be replaced because you're a valuable member of our group, and this is the moment to make everything equally right."
"You shouldn't hide something as important and serious as this, Joe." Mercedes explained wholeheartedly. "We're a family, even though you, Sam, and Tina had left New Directions, and we all still want to help you. If you're feeling upset and alone, we're supposed to step in and assist you."
"But…I'm not upset." Joe told Mercedes, which she found a bit hard to believe.
"Then what are you feeling?" Quinn asked, getting up from her seat and walking over to Joe. "Look, I'm going to admit that I feel bad for you after telling you about how I was feeling about our relationship. But there's something more to all of this, and we want to know what it is." Joe didn't respond with anything. "Just tell us, Joe. We're here for you."
Joe looked at the people surrounding him, and suddenly grew nervous on the inside. Truthfully, he did want to express his feelings to his peers. However, he didn't know how he was going to do it. He was scared, and felt that no one was going to be there for him. Like Santana had told him one day while going to class, no one would bother to give a single shit about his feelings and behavior, because he's just going to vanish within the many people at McKinley High.
"You guys…" Joe began, his fingers gripping onto the sleeves of his cardigan, "I appreciate what you're trying to do for me…" He paused as he shook his head. "But I don't want to talk about it anymore. Maybe I will, eventually; but I want to sit out on this for a while." A moment of silence came, and Joe started to get up from his seat and walk slowly into the hallway. Tina, however, didn't want to give up on him just yet. As soon as he opened the door to walk out, the Asian beauty followed after him.
"Joe, wait!" Tina called the moment she spotted Joe speed-walking away. She ran to catch up with the dread-headed Christian, who stopped slowly and faced the junior girl before him. She grabbed onto his hands once again, and trained his eyes to hers. "Look, I know you don't want to talk about this now," she began, "but…I want you to come with me to visit the other Harmonics for a bit. We planned a little number for you, and we wanted to know if it will help you a bit with your situation."
Teen Jesus didn't really respond. As much as he wanted his fellow glee club members to help him out, he felt the need to isolate himself some more until he can calm down a tad from the constant torture he was receiving. Tina wasn't going to have it, though. "Please, Joe?" she asked him again. Joe knew that Tina was trying really hard, and he really appreciated her for that. Besides, his mother was waiting outside in her car, and she wanted to make sure that Joe made it to both the God Squad members and the Forsaken Harmonics members.
It took a while for Joe to make up his mind. Before he did, though, he noticed Sam walk out of the God Squad room, holding an acoustic guitar in his hands. He strummed the instrument for a bit, playing a familiar tune, and led the way down the hallway. Tina and Joe began to follow.
Sam
Take all of your wasted honor
Every little past frustration
Take all of your so-called problems
Better put 'em in quotations
Sam with Tina
Say what you need to say
Say what you need to say
Say what you need to say
Say what you need to say
The song sounded a bit sad to Joe, in a sense; however, it wasn't supposed to be a sad song. Whoever wrote the song, in his mind, was supposed to be encouraging him to let his emotions out to other people. Joe didn't feel safe confessing things to other people, due to the fact that so many cruel people in the world would take advantage of his words. He remembered a while ago when Tina assured to him that he could tell her anything, no matter how good or bad it was. She seemed very trustworthy, and Joe felt he could abide in her. However, he wasn't sure about everyone else.
Sam, Tina, and Joe made it to the classroom where Forsaken Harmonics met, and took sight of the members inside, along with Holly Holliday playing her guitar along with Sam. An unfamiliar face, to Joe, glances over at him and starts to sing. As he sang, he got up to shake hands with the Christian teen, inviting him to sit in one of the empty chairs beside him.
Anthony
Walking like a one man army
Fighting with the shadows in your head
Living out the same old moment
Knowing you'd be better off instead, if you could only
Sam with Tina
Say what you need to say
Say what you need to say
Say what you need to say
Say what you need to say
Joe looked around at the faces that were glancing back at him. People like Holly and Sugar were smiling in a friendly matter, letting him know that they had his back. Artie, Tina, Kitty, and Anthony sung in the background, watching Joe with sympathetic facial expressions. It was overwhelming, in Joe's eyes. Everyone in this room, even Kitty Wilde, who tended to slam him with vicious words one time or another, was offering their helping hands to him, and it made Joe feel a bit happy.
Holly, Kitty, and Tina
Have no fear for giving in
Have no fear for giving over
Artie
You'd better know that in the end
It's better to say too much
Then never say what you need to say again
Sam with Anthony
Even if your hands are shaking
And your faith is broken
Even as the eyes are closing
Do it with a heart wide open (Anthony: Wide heart!)
Sam with Tina
Say what you need to say
Say what you need to say
Say what you need to say
Say what you need to say
Say what you need to say
Say what you need to say
Say what you need to
Say what you need to
Sam and Tina with Anthony and Kitty
Say what you need to say (Anthony and Kitty: Oh say what)
Say what you need to say (Anthony and Kitty: Oh say what)
Say what you need to say (Anthony and Kitty: Oh say what)
Say what you need to say (Anthony and Kitty: Oh say what)
Say what you need to say (Anthony and Kitty: Oh say what)
Say what you need to say (Anthony and Kitty: Oh say what)
Say what you need to say (Anthony and Kitty: Oh say what)
Say what you need to say (Anthony and Kitty: Oh say)
Say what you need to say (Anthony and Kitty: Oh say what)
Say what you need to say (Anthony and Kitty: Oh say what)
Say what you need to say (Anthony and Kitty: Oh say what)
Sam with Forsaken Harmonics
Say what you need to say
After the last strums on Holly and Sam's guitars, silence had grown in the room. Joe hadn't said anything in the past couple of seconds, for he was deep in thought and admiration of the new glee club's performance. The moment was very surreal, and Joe felt like crying. Something in him told him to hold the tears. He wasn't usually seen as the emo person who cries a lot; he had more happiness and enthusiasm. A lot of things changed ever since he attended public school.
"So, Joe," Holly spoke, interrupting the silence, "how are you feeling right now?" She had a bit of concern in her voice. "I started getting worried about you when Tina told me about this emergency gathering."
Joe, silent for the next three seconds, started to slowly nod. "I…I can see why," Joe explained, looking down at his lap at the bandaged wrists under his cardigan. People around him started gazing upon his injured arms, not making one comment about why he decided to do it or how the turn of events came to be. Kitty caught herself staring at the white paper wrapped on his wrists, stuck to his skin. As a Cheerio, one would expect her to laugh and not really care about what his reactions would be. Her heart was beating a bit fast, and her throat started to hurt after the emotional essence in the room. She really wanted to care.
"Joe, we're a family now, and we'll always be," Tina spoke up, clearing her throat and looking him in the eyes. "No one outside of Forsaken Harmonics is going to know what you're made of." She paused as a breathless chuckle came out of her mouth. "It's like how I always think about when I'm looking through a pack of crayons or something filled with an array of colors. People see you as a gray, but you have the ability to be a yellow or a green, you know?" She shrugged and shook her head, smiling just a tad. "It sounds pretty weird, I know –"
"No, Tina. I get it." Joe replied, looking at her and smiling warm-heartedly. It was a bit of a saddened smile, but still a smile. "I want to thank you for helping me. I want to thank all of you, actually. I…I'm still going through some stuff here, but…when I'm with you guys, I finally have a safe haven when I run in with someone that is against me." He took a moment to think. "I don't know if I'm ready to tell everything to you guys, because I'm still emotional; but I can come to you when there's available time…if you guys want…"
"Of course, we want you to come," Sugar spoke up. "You're our friend, and you deserve all of the good things in the world. Heck, you're probably the nicest person in this school." Tina and Sam nodded in agreement. The Asian beauty had gotten up from her seat, extending her arms towards Joe for a hug, and Teen Jesus embraced it. Sam and Sugar also joined in, followed by Artie, Anthony, and Holly.
Kitty was the only one sitting down, watching the scene before her. She was too emotionally torn to give her feedback on anything the group just discussed. She felt herself travel around in her own little world, feeling remorseful for Joe and wanting to put a curse on all of his bullies at the same time.
Author's Note: See, guys? That was sweet of them, wasn't it? But don't get the assumption that the bullying for Joe is all over. Nope, it kind of still continues. What did you think about the chapter? What do you think Kitty might say or do later on in the story? And for all of those wondering why Venus or the mystery Cheerio (between Adriana and Samantha) didn't sing with Forsaken Harmonics…well, they haven't joined yet. Don't worry, they'll make their entrances into the group soon. Well, thank you guys for reading. Reviews are appreciated, and stay tuned for chapter twenty-two of Many Colors. Don't go away; we'll be right back. *wink, wink*
Featured Songs:
"Say" by John Mayer. Sung by Anthony, Artie, Holly, Kitty, Sam, and Tina.