AN: Thank you so much for the review. I appreciate every single one of them. And Thank you for everybody has favorited this story. I am flabbergasted at the amount. 400. Wow. Thank you.
Chapter 21: Revenge
With blind determination, Rachel walked out of her office carrying her bullhorn. Two out of three of her friends watch in fear as she walked out. Santana wanted to follow, but she didn't want to leave Quinn's side. She motioned to Brittany to follow.
Rachel through opened the door to the locker room, scaring half the student body. She walked into the center of the hall calmly, and raised her bull-horn to her lips. Half the hall watch Rachel in fear. She was wearing a look that nobody had ever seen before, and they all had the good sense to be afraid of what was going to happen.
She turned the bull-horn on, purposely making the machine screech loudly, before speaking. "All Cheerios are to report to gym immediately. Anybody who is not in the gym in ten minutes is no longer on the team. Pass it along. Everybody else had one minute to clear this hallway or you will be begging Coach Sylvester to save your asses." Her words were spoken eerily calmly, with an obvious 'don't fuck with me tone.' When nobody moved she raised the bullhorn again and bellowed, "Now," through it with a scariness that rivaled Sue. The student body seemed to awaken at once and started tripping over each other to get to where they were supposed to be.
Rachel was heading back to the locker rooms when Mercedes, Kurt, Tina, Sam, and Artie approached her and Brittany. They all had fists full of flyers, some of which seemed different than the ones hanging next to them. "Not here," Rachel commanded, and retreated into the locker room.
The group followed her quickly, and nearly collided with each other when the tiny brunette stopped just inside the room. The door slammed shut behind then, making the silence in the room seem more deafening.
Extending her hand out, Rachel calmly said, "Let me see them."
Mercedes looked at the girl unsure of how to react. Rachel seemed different, almost unhinged, and most definitely scary. "Maybe you shouldn't see them," she suggested.
"I said let me see them," Rachel snapped slightly. "If I didn't want to see them, then I wouldn't be asking for them. So let me see the damn papers."
"Damn girl," Mercedes said, and then handed her papers over. "You need to chill girl."
"If I wanted to chill I would. However right now I am far to pist off to chill, so back off."
"Okay girl," Mercedes said throwing her hands in the air.
"Somebody found her backbone," Artie commented and passed his pile of flyers to the girl. "The Unholy Trinity seems to be good for you."
"Speak for yourself," Kurt said, and then joked, "Now she's going to be an even bigger diva."
Rachel wasn't really paying attention to them, as her sole focus was the new presented flyers. Dread sunk to her stomach. She was looking a naked picture of Santana, except that her skin wasn't as flawless as it was supposed to be. Every inch of skin that was normally covered by her cheerleading uniform was covered in fresh and scabbed cuts, burn marks, and scars. It looked as if she had been tortured for years.
Underneath the picture was a small description to go with the photo. "Average everyday Christian American Family hiding deep dark secrets right here in our own back yard. I guess this is what happens when you choose to be a Lesbian."
Brittany let out a sob from behind Rachel. She looked up to see her girlfriend holding a flyer in her hands. Rachel quickly snatched the paper out of Brittany's hands. "Britt, don't look at that. It's not really Santana."
"But it really is her," Tina said.
Rachel looked at Tina and then looked at the flyer in panic. Sure enough it was a different flyer. This one picturing a much younger Brittany standing with her mother and father. The caption above the photo read 'Stupid runs in the Family'
Underneath the photo read, "We all know Brittany S. Pierce is the stupidest person in this school, but who knew the stupid ran in the family. Of course her father must have had some smart in him. After all he offed himself to escape the disappointment of having Brittany as a daughter. Who could blame him?"
Rachel gasped. How the hell could three people be this cruel? She dropped the flyers onto the bench next to her and then wrapped her arms around Brittany. "It's okay sweetie. It's not true. You aren't stupid, and you daddy loved you. He would never think of you as a disappointment."
"Uncle Jake does," Brittany cried. "How do I know that daddy didn't feel the same way? I don't know what to believe."
Rachel growled violently.
"Holy shit Tiny," Santana commented. She had come out to see what the commotion was. "What happened?"
Rachel motioned toward the abandoned pile of flyers. She watched as Santana picked up the flyers and read through them. Brittany was still crying in her arms, and from the look on Santana's face she need to be hugged too.
Neither of which she was going to be able to do any longer. She had a gym full of Cheerios to make an example of. "Britt. I have to go take care of the Cheerios. I need you to be strong. Okay? Just for a little while. I need you to go and sit with Quinn, and make sure that she is okay. Can you do that for me? Just for a few minutes."
Brittany wiped her eyes and nodded her head. "I can do that," Brittany said, unconvincingly. Rachel knew she only had a small window before Brittany broke down completely.
"Good," Rachel smiled. She didn't drop the smile until Brittany was safely in her office with Quinn. Rachel turned to Santana and silently asked how she was. Santana shook her head indicating not well, and then schooled her features. She was ready to do what she had to.
Rachel turned to her 'friends'. "Congratulations. You just got recruited," She said to them in a tone which left no room for arguments. "Artie, go find Becky and tell her to get a hold of Coach Sylvester. Tell her to go straight to my office."
Artie didn't argue or question the order. He just turned and rolled out of the locker room.
"Sam, please go find Coach Beiste and ask her to join me in here." Once again she gained no resistance, just compliance.
"You two get to be my enforcers," Rachel said evilly.
"I like the sound of that," Mercedes said.
"Then you're going to enjoy this," said Rachel. She peeked into her office to make sure the girls were alright. They were cuddled on the couch crying heavily. They would be alright until they got back, but not for long. "Come on."
The five of them enter the gym to find the entire squad sitting on the bleachers. Rachel immediately raised her bullhorn to her lips and bellowed, "Why are you just sitting there. Get your asses on the floor and start running." Half the squad jumped to action before Rachel had finished her sentence. The rest of them jumped to it when Rachel bellow 'now' at them.
"Grab weights," She yelled. She watched as the squad ran five laps before calling them back over. "I'm giving you one chance to give me the name of the person or persons responsible for today's stunt." She was met with silence. "Nobody wants to cough up a name?" Again nothing. "Fine. Suit yourself. Nobody is leaving this gym until the person responsibly is named or takes reasonability. Run!"
This time the whole squad moved. "Nobody stop running unless instructed to. Anybody who stops running without permission is off the squad. This can end as soon as you decide it too. And not a second more. Tina, Kurt, and Mercedes are in charge. You do what they say, when they say it, or you can get the hell out of my gym. Is that clear?"
Half the squad said yes. "I can't hear you." The rest joined in this time. "That's better."
Rachel turned to the Gleeks and handed Mercedes her bullhorn. "Have fun," she said, and the strolled out of the gym with Santana following closely behind. She had barely gotten through the double doors when she collapsed and let out a strangled sob.
Santana kneeled down and wrapped her arms around her friend as she cried. "I should be comforting you, not the other way around. You're the one who was attacked, not me."
"Crying comes after anger. Remember?" Santana asked.
"Yeah," Rachel said. She took a couple of deep breath to rein in her emotions. "Are you okay?"
"No," Santana sighed, and then sat next to Rachel on the floor. "I'm angry mostly. Not so much because of what they did to me, but to Quinn and Brittany, and to my family. I've already lived through one of my worst fears. This is nothing compared to being outed. I am afraid of what's going on in Quinn's head, and Britts."
"Me too," Rachel sighed. "I'm here for you."
Santana smiled softly at the tender offer. "Thanks Rach. That means a lot to me." She stood up and offered her hand to Rachel. "We should go check on them. I don't want to leave them alone for too long."
Rachel accepted the hand. "You go ahead," She said, brushing off her track pants. "There is something that I need to take care of first."
Santana knew the look on Rachel's face. It was Rachel's scheming face. "What are you planning?"
"Nothing," Rachel said un-convincingly.
"Yeah, I bet," Santana said.
"Go make sure our girls are okay. I have to take care of this myself," Rachel said.
"Okay. I'll chill," Santana said. "Be careful."
"Always," Rachel said, and then slipped out of the locker room and into the hall way. As she expected, the halls were clear of students and faculty. Why would there be any teachers out here cleaning up the latest residence of the schools bulling problem? Figgins didn't give a damn, and neither did half the faculty. Al they cared about was their agenda and damn whoever got in their way.
She could hear Coach Beiste approaching the gym, yelling at a stampede of student. Rachel assumed it was the football team. She hid behind an open classroom door and waited until they entered the gym. Once they had all disappeared again, she made her way to the boy's locker room.
She had to be quick or the plan wouldn't work. She snuck into Coach Beiste's office and searched for her locker log. It took her a few minutes, but finally found it in the bottom of the woman's desk. She quickly found Dave and Finn's locker number and combo's, and then searched up a few well deserving boys locker info. If the plan was going to work without her getting into trouble then there had to be a few casualties.
Once she had the information she needed, she moved towards the lockers. She had to do the next part as quickly as she could. She opened each of the boy's lockers, and found their shampoo. She reached into her varsity jacket and pulled out a medium sized bottle, and proceeded to add some of it to the boy's shampoo. Repeating the process, until all her names were checked off.
She snuck back out of the locker room and made her way back to the Cheerio's locker room. The next part of the plan was tricky. Nikki was the only Cheerio who was deserving of this act of revenge. At least that she knew of. Most of the Cheerios were drones following orders. She couldn't do it to just Nikki and no one else because they would know right away that it was Rachel. So Santana compiled a list of less risky people to do it too. Girls who washed the tips of their hair first instead of starting at the top.
Rachel filled Nikki's bottle up, and then moved toward the next locker when she stopped. She couldn't hurt somebody who didn't deserve it. The other boys that were chosen deserved to get a little payback. They were the ones throwing the slushies at them. None of the Cheerios on the list were chosen for bad reasons. They were chosen because of their grooming habits. That wasn't fair to Rachel.
She wiped her prints off of the bottle and then threw it away. She would sacrifice herself if it came down to it. She just hoped this would work and get them to back off. After she was down she went back into the hallway to clean up the flyers. Mostly because she wanted them down, but also as an alibi for where she had been.
x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-
An hour later Rachel walked into the gym to check on the progress. Coach Beiste and Coach Sylvester were both there watching, not only the cheerios but the football players, running sprints. She walked up to Sue and stood there.
Sue handed Rachel's bullhorn to her. "I sent the gleeks to help Santana with Quinn and Brittany. Where have you been?"
"Taking down the flyers, and trying to do some damage control," Rachel replied smoothly.
"Any success?"
"All the flyers are down and destroyed except for the handful I save as evidence," Rachel replied.
"And your damage control?"
"Yet to be seen," Rachel said. "How are we here?"
"Down two cheerios and five football players. Babies. Nobody has caved yet," said Sue.
Rachel raised her bullhorn. "Hit the showers," She bellowed. "And be back here at five o'clock tomorrow morning."
While the two groups had stopped running they weren't moving toward the locker rooms. Instead they were staring at their perspective coaches wondering if they were to listen or not.
"You heard her," Beiste yelled. "Hit the showers, and be back here at five.
The groups shuffled out all equally exhausted.
"I hope you know what you are doing Streisand," Sue said quietly.
"I do," Rachel said.
"Sure hope so kid," Beiste said. "I'm behind you one hundred percent."
"Thanks Coach," Rachel said.
"I'm gonna go make sure no of them are killing each other," Beiste said, and then exited.
"Figgins is refusing to look into this," Sue spat. "No way to prove who did it."
Rachel looked at Sue angrily. "How does he still have a job here? His blatant disregard of this school's bulling is absurd."
"Figgins is a puppet," Sue said.
"If he's a puppet, who is pulling his strings?"
"Not sure yet, but I won't stop until I figure out who it is," Sue declared.
"What about going to the police? This has to break some kind of a law," Rachel suggested.
"The police have proved to be just as useless as Figgins. Unless there is a threat to the student body they really can't do anything."
"Even if I wanted to press charges for the attack last week?"
"We would need solid proof of who did what, and when, and where."
"Great. So we will just have to deal with this ourselves," Rachel said. She was one hundred percent sure that she did the right thing now. She had to protect Brittany at all cost, as well as her new friends. She wasn't about ready to lose them before the shock of having friends wore off.
"You're doing a good job Rachel," Sue said.
Rachel looked at the coach in shock. She could have sworn she heard an honest complement come from the older woman. "I… I am never going to get used to you being nice."
"Don't get used to it," Sue stated.
Loud screams erupted from both sides of the gym, reminding Rachel what she had did. Fear settled in her stomach as she ran to the locker rooms with Sue. Girls were standing at their lockers looking fearfully at the showers, while others were in the showers. "What's going on in here?" Sue bellowed over the commotion.
"It's Nikki, Coach," one of the Cheerios yelled.
"Her hands are stuck in her hair," another yelled frantically.
"It's like they're glued," another same rather calmly.
Sue looked at Rachel in shock, and for a brief second Rachel knew she was busted.
"Glued huh," somebody whispered in Rachel's ear. Santana had come out of Rachel's office to see what was going on. Rachel turned around to face Santana with a smirk. Rachel jumped when she heard Sue bellowing for her from the showers. "You better go, Badass," Santana said quietly.
Rachel smile internally as she walked into the showers, and then froze. Sue was standing at the entrance to the first stall looking angry. Rachel could see Nikki in the stall, kneeling on the floor, stark naked, with both of her hands raised above her head entangled in her hair. The girl was sobbing uncontrollably, clear distraught about was happening to her.
As Rachel looked Nikki over she was overcome with the strong feeling a guilt. When she and Santana were planning this she had envisioned seeing it happen to Nikki, and it had been nothing like this. This was real, and gut wrenching. She momentarily wished she hadn't of did it. That was until Sue started to talk to her.
"Clear everybody out, and then take Brittany home. I'll take care of this."
At the mention of Brittany the guilt faded, replaced with the anger she had been previously feeling. Anger and the overwhelming urge to protect Brittany at any cost. "Sure thing Coach."
Rachel turned around made her way back to Santana, yelling orders at her squad to get out. Most of the girl's followed the order quickly, but a few of Nikki's friends were a little more reluctant to go. They stayed behind until Rachel threatened to kick of the team if they didn't leave.
Once everybody had cleared out Rachel walked into her office. Brittany was sitting on the couch holding a much calmer Quinn in her arms. Santana was sitting across from them on the coffee table. "How are you Quinn?"
Quinn just shrugged her shoulders.
Rachel sat down next to Santana, and grab a hand from Quinn and Brittany. She quietly said, "Never again will I let them hurt you. None of you."
"You can't stop everything that they might do," Quinn said. Her voice sounded gravelly and strained.
"After today they won't dare true something again."
Quinn looked out the office window and then back to Rachel quickly. She knew something had happened but Santana hadn't said what it was. She knew Rachel and Santana had been scheming something. "What did you two do?"
"Not here," Rachel said, and stood up. "Coach wants us to take Brittany home. We can talk about it there."
The short drive to Brittany's house was silent except for a few sniffles here and there. Once they entered the house though Quinn was anything but silent.
"I knew that you two were planning something," Quinn said accusingly.
"We had several something planned," Santana said, and then walked past Quinn into Sue's living room. The three other's follow suit, and sat down. Rachel was pulled into Brittany's lap as the tall blonde sat in the arm chair, while Santana and Quinn sat down in the loveseat across from them. "Tiny here skipped a few phases though."
"What did you do Rae?" Brittany asked.
Rachel shrugged her shoulders and looked sheepishly over her shoulder. "I put super glue in their shampoo."
Quinn and Brittany's jaws dropped in shock. "Their?" Quinn question. "As in more than one?"
"I put it in Nikki's, Finn's, Dave's, and a few of the football team to throw off suspicion," Rachel said.
"What about the Cheerios, Tiny?" Santana asked.
Rachel looked a little guilty. "I couldn't do it to the girls. They didn't really do anything to deserve it. The boys we chose were at least guilty."
"I can't believe you actually did it," Santana said in amazement.
"They hurt you," said Rachel. "I couldn't stand by and watch you hurt like that and not do anything."
"There gonna know you did it though," Quinn said. "We could get in trouble for it."
"No. You won't get in any trouble. They can't prove that it was us for certain, and if they do try to punish us I am going to tell them that I did it, and acted alone. Which I did."
Quinn opened her mouth to say something, and then closed it again.
"It's okay Q, Rae-Rae will be fine. We'll make sure of it. Won't we S?"
"Sure thing B. We won't let anything happen to Tiny."
"I have a bad feeling about this, but I trust you," Quinn said, and then looked at Rachel. "Thank you. It means a lot that you risked everything for us."
"There is no need to thank me," Rachel said. "I will do anything for the people I care for."
Quinn smiled. For the first time she saw that flyer she felt like it would be okay. She knew better than anyone that you could recover from the very worst. She had her mom who loved and accepted her, friends who cared, and a loving girlfriend to help her through it.
'Funny Girl' started playing from Rachel's brand new iPhone. She answered it, and almost immediately regretted.
She held the receiver away from her ear. "Rachel Barbara Berry, what have you done? I know it was you. You better get home this instant," Hiram yelled through the phone.
"What are you talking about Dad," Rachel tentatively asked.
"You know exactly what you did. Get home right now," Hiram said and then hung up.
Rachel stared at her phone in shock for a minute, before looking at her friends and lover and asking, "How do they know?"
Before anyone could answer both of Quinn and Santana's started go off too. They both looked at each other a little scared by who was calling. "Is it the A stalker again," Brittany quipped.
Santana pulled out her phone and groaned. "No. It's my Ma." She answered it at the same time Quinn answered hers. Unlike Rachel, they answered the phone to concerned mothers. Both Maribel and Judy want Quinn and Santana to come home as well.
"At least you're not going home to face the firing squad," Rachel said.
"Don't be so sure of that. Mami don't let me know if she's mad at me over the phone. She knows I won't come home right away if I about to get in trouble."
"I wonder how they found out," Quinn wondered aloud.
"Don't know. I guess we will find out when we get home," Santana said. "Come on Tiny. We will drop you off before we head home."
The three said their goodbyes to Brittany, with Rachel doing so incredibly slowly. She just knew that it was going to be a very long time until they could spend any time outside of school.