Things that happen in this chapter: Charlie's a hothead, Glee Club gets a new member, and somebody's lying. Enjoy.
Charlie's POV
I stormed into the school. Sure, my mom was going to be pissed that I'd skipped school again today, but this was important. I even wore all black, and everyone knew if I was strutting down McKinley High hallways in all black with the look of vengeance that I was out for blood. Or at least Quinn knew that when she intercepted me and grabbed me by the collar, yanking me around the corner behind her.
"What do you think you're doing?" Quinn asked pushing me back against the locker behind me. "No let me rephrase that, what the fuck do you think you're doing?" I knew she would be pissed if I came here, which was why I was purposefully trying to avoid her. Clearly, that plan failed.
"Okay look I'm not trying to ruin your life by showing my awful face here." I started sarcastically. "But Brittany told me that Finn Hudson joined Glee Club yesterday and I wanted to talk to Mr. Shuester about it."
"What are you going to say? We already tried to get him to leave, but Mr. Shuester has like a serious hard-on for that asshole." Quinn said putting her hand on her hip. "I even tried to use my popularity to get what I want and it didn't work…it's a tragedy."
"Okay, well then just let me try." I was about to walk away when Quinn grabbed my arm and yanked me back.
"Not if you want to continue breathing." Quinn warned. "Wait, why were you talking to Brittany?" Quinn asked as if that was the important thing in this conversation.
"What? Why can't I talk to Brittany?" I asked suddenly feeling defensive.
"Because you can't. She's my friend, not yours…wait you're not trying to like get with her or anything? Because if you are-."
"I'm not." I snapped. "Look I'm going to find Mr. Shuester now." I pulled my arm out of Quinn's grip and rounded the corner to begin my search. There were a lot more people at McKinley than at my school, but I was getting less stares than I normally did at my school. Finding Mr. Shuester shouldn't be hard, he was a Spanish teacher, therefore he should probably be in the Spanish classroom or the teacher's lounge right now.
I saw Rachel talking to Puck near the water fountain and I walked over towards them. "Hey Puckzilla, long time no see." I said nudging him in the shoulder. We weren't the hugging types of friends, but ever since our earlier encounter this year we've been hanging out a little more. Puck stopped midsentence and engulfed me in a bone crushing hug.
"Charlie I missed you." He said as he pulled back. "Wait, what are you doing here? Are you back?"
"You can't exactly come back after getting kicked out of school. I'm actually looking for Mr. Shuester." I explained.
"Why are you looking for Mr. Shuester Charlotte?" I had to do a double take when I heard Rachel call me Charlotte. Puck tried not to laugh, but failed and I looked at Rachel like she was crazy.
"Why'd you just call me that?"
"I like to use people's proper name, that's why I use Noah instead of Puck and now I'll use Charlotte instead of Charlie." Rachel explained with a smile.
"B-but…you know what do whatever you want Rachel." I said figuring this wasn't an argument I wanted to get into. "Also Puck if you're thinking what I know you're thinking about you know what, you'd better back off." We used to be best friends so he understood what I was implying right away.
"Whoa, no one said I was thinking what you think I was thinking." Puck defended quickly.
"All I know was that Santana would not be happy if you were thinking that and neither would Quinn." I assured him.
"How do you know that?" Puck asked me.
"Because I was thinking about it yesterday and Santana ripped me a new one." I said referring back to when Santana bitched me out just for checking out Rachel. There was no way she'd be happy if Puck was trying to get with her.
"Wow Charlie you've got decent tastes, but like I said before to Santana, it's not like that." It was in this moment that Rachel finally decided to interrupt our conversation.
"Okay, I'm going to go now, but Charlotte I can show you where Mr. Shuester is if you want." I waved goodbye and followed Rachel through the hallway. She was walking so quickly that I had to walk twice as fast as I normally do just to keep up.
We were about to walk up the steps when a group of football jocks brushed past us. Finn stuck out like a sore thumb, he was tossing a football between his hands, and he had that stupid smug grin on his face. Just like I remember him.
"Hey Finn." I said. He looked at me, like the gears in his brain were working for once in his life. The rest of his jock friends continued walking leaving just us, with Rachel close at my side.
"Quinn? I like the pink hair." He said smiling and examining my hair close up.
"I'm not Quinn you fucktard, I'm Charlie." I said. "And you and I, we're not on god terms." I informed me.
"But why not? I haven't done anything to you." He said.
"Charlie, let's go find Mr. Shuester." Rachel said wrapping her hands around my arm and trying to get me to continue up the stairs. I didn't budge.
"Maybe not, but you caused one of my friends to feel so bad about himself that he attempted suicide. Dave, remember him?" Rachel tried to tug harder but I pulled away quickly. He opened his mouth to say something, probably to give me a weak apology but I wasn't having it. "You don't have to say anything. You don't have to give me one of your bullshit apologies. Why don't you just come to St. Mary's tomorrow and write dyke on my locker?"
There were a few people watching us from the top of the stairs, but no one got any closer. They really thought I was Quinn, and they seemed terrified by my anger.
I shoved Finn back and watched him slam into the lockers behind him. He was about to come charging back at me when Santana jumped between us and grabbed me by the shirt.
"Charlie what are you doing?" She wasn't looking for an answer, she just wanted me to call down.
"Watch your back Charlie." Finn threatened. Santana turned to him, calmly, but with anger filling her eyes.
"You don't get to speak, okay? Shut your mouth Hudson, pretend that nothing happened because I'll protect my friend over you any day, and you don't want to make an enemy out of me. You're the one who needs to watch their back, but right now you need to leave." She didn't have to yell to terrify him, she just had this look in her eyes like they were on fire. Finn did a double take before putting his head down and walking away.
"That's right you'd better walk away asshole." I called after him.
"Charlie I'm going to tell you once, get out of here." She enunciated each word clearly while keeping direct eye contact with me.
"What are they gonna do? Expel me?" I joked bitterly.
"Walk away because I'm not getting in the middle of this, you want to fuck up your life go ahead, but you're not taking me down with you-."
"Jesus Santana, overreacting much." She had this look on her face, the one she always had when she wanted to smoke with me just to forget something. The one she wore after a rough night at home.
"Don't tell me I'm overreacting when you're coming in here picking a fight with Finn. That's impulsive behavior Charlie, and it's stupid." She grabbed my arm and pulled me closer to her, effectively creating a little distance between Rachel and us. She whispered in my ear, "Seriously Char I don't want to deal with this, just go."
"Okay." I said not wanting to make myself a burden to her. "I'll go." I didn't bother waving goodbye to Rachel or Santana as I turned around and walked out of the school. I went there trying to straighten things out, but now I think I might have done more harm than good.
…
Quinn's POV
"I, for one, was unaware that we live in a monarchy, I thought it was a democracy. Majority wins and all. I'm ready to pack up and move to Canada where at least they have free health insurance, who's in?" I was still pissed that we couldn't just vote Finn out of Glee Club and I wasn't about to hide my opinion just because he was sitting right there.
"I'm with you girl, it might be colder up there, but at least I won't have to deal with a certain giant bigot." Mercedes said eyeing Finn sideways.
"Um guys I'm sitting right here I can hear you talking about me." Finn said glaring back at us.
"Yes, we're aware, kinda hard to miss you there bud." Mike snipped getting a high five and a laugh from me.
"Hey T-Rex why don't you sing something for us? We're waiting for your audition." Santana said crossing her arms over her chest. "Mr. Shuester is obviously eye fucking Pillsbury, and we don't have all year, so go ahead."
"Yeah everyone has to sing to join, so come on." Artie urged Finn.
"Don't be a bitch Finn, all you do is talk shit, so open your mouth and sing something now." Puck said. Finn finally had enough and stood up and stood in front of us like he was really going to do it. Just then Mr. Shuester came into the room with a blonde hair boy walking behind him. The boy was even blonder than I was, with blue eyes, and he was toned just like Puck which made me automatically think he was a jock.
"Hi guys…um Finn, could you sit down for a moment." Mr. Shuester asked. Finn gladly returned to his seat, probably ecstatic that all the attention was now on this new kid. "Glee Club I'd like you to meet a new student at McKinley High, he's just moved here from Tennessee, and after he saw your performance he wanted to join." I raised an eyebrow at him.
"Bro you've got massive lips." Puck said cocking his head to the side.
"Thanks?" The boy said squinting his eyes. "Anyway, my name is Sam…Sam I am, and I do not like green eggs and ham." I giggled but quickly covered my mouth when Brittany turned and looked at me.
"Oh wow this kid has no game." Santana said with a smile.
"Where's your accent, did you lose it?" Brittany asked.
"No it's just not that prevalent." Sam said before looking over at Mr. Shuester. "Can I just sit anywhere?" Mr. Shuester nodded and Sam opted to take a seat between Artie and Tina.
"So guys I thought of something really fun that we could do." Mr. Shuester said with that annoyingly boyish smile of his.
"Paintball?" Puck asked.
"Roller derby?" Tina questioned.
"No." Mr. Shue said shutting them both down. "How about a boys verses girls competition?"
"Like a fight to the death gladiator style thing? Because if so I'm totally in." I said with a shrug.
"No, more like a mash up competition." Mr. Shuester explained.
"What's a mash up? Does it have anything to do with mash potatoes?" Brittany asked seriously. "Where are we going to get the gravy?" She whispered in Santana's ear.
"A mash up is when you arrange two songs together and mash them up as one. Brittany, we did a mash up in the assembly." Brittany nodded at Rachel and smiled when she finally understood what was going on. "And I think a competition would be excellent, getting the competitive juices flowing will be good for the group especially if we're that much closer to having the numbers we need to actually compete." I rolled my eyes because not all of us needed the explanation, only Brittany did, and Berry was super annoying when she was being a know-it-all.
"Exactly, and since we have two new members for the boys, I thought maybe they'd sing lead for their group number, but as for the girls, you all can do whatever you want." Mr. Shuester said.
"Yeah fantastic," Santana started sarcastically, "but we all know you're gonna let the boys win, how are we supposed to expect a unbiased vote from you if you're a dude?" She had a point there.
"Because I'll have a guest judge who is a woman." The answer seemed sufficient enough for us and Mr. Shuester told us that he needed to arrange for us to have the auditorium next week and we should start thinking about song options. The boys decided to leave and go to the Spanish classroom so we wouldn't eavesdrop and all the girls stayed in the choir room.
"Okay so any ideas on songs ladies?" Rachel asked.
"Not now Berry we need to talk about that ball of cuteness who just walk up in here. Can you say damn?" Mercedes said waving her hand in front of her face like it was a fan.
"Dude had massive lips like a fucking trout." Santana said rolling her eyes.
"He was cute cause he has blonde hair and blue eyes like me." Brittany said with a smile.
"I t-think he s-seems nice." Tina added.
"This seems like more of a conversation for social hour, but right now we really should be getting prepared for a musical number." Rachel interjected.
"Stop being a Debbie downer." I told Rachel.
"She's just passionate about music; it's not a big deal. Rachel, what do you have in mind?" Santana said making sure that we all listened to Rachel.
"I was thinking about-."
"Literally if the next two words that come out of your mouth are Barbra Streisand I will cut you." Mercedes threatened.
"Okay fine, what are your ideas? How about everyone goes around and says one artist that we'd like to perform." Rachel suggested.
"Sounds good." Mercedes said. "I for one would like to do a song by Whitney Houston."
"I want to do a Madonna song." I said.
"I totally want to do a Katy Perry song." Brittany said.
"Evanescence f-for me." Tina sputtered out. I held back on a goth joke for the sake of team moral. A bunch of girls in a group was already dangerous, adding animosity would be a bad idea.
"Joan Jett." Santana said with a shrug.
"Okay well that didn't help at all." Rachel said with a frustrated sigh. I didn't have to turn and check the clock, with the way we were all sitting here, hoping our ideas would make it, I already knew this was going to be a long day.
…
Rachel's POV
I was rarely at the hospital on Wednesdays, actually I don't remember a time when I ever was. Sundays were my usual days, but today was different. My father wanted to take me out to dinner in honor of daddy's new art exhibit that is opening next month.
For once, I didn't have to clean, or change sheets, or do anything really. That didn't stop me from sitting in an empty room, putting on my headphones, and getting lost in the music. I closed my eyes and relaxed, waiting for my father to finish work and come in to get me.
When I felt the hands on my shoulders, I panicked immediately, but then I relaxed because it was my father's patented move to scare me. It wasn't until the hands began massaging my shoulders that I realized how soft they were. I turned around quickly, ready to attack if necessary, but it ended up just being Santana standing there with an amused smirk on her face.
I watched as her mouth began moving but I couldn't hear a thing. God she was such an amazing beauty. She's the type of girl that you notice right away, but she dreads being noticed by anyone. Even now she looked amazing, and she was wearing ripped up jeans and a plain long sleeved shirt. I was so mesmerized that I couldn't even hear her, I was such a weirdo.
She raised her hand towards me, and took the ear buds out for me with a smile. "You might be able to hear better without these." My face flushed red with embarrassment and Santana just chuckled.
"Okay I'm embarrassed now, please walk away so I can crawl in a hole and die." I joked as I covered my face. Santana removed my hands and held them for a second before plopping down on the bed and letting her legs dangle above the ground. She placed her duffle bag next to her and laughed at me.
"Don't be embarrassed, you made me laugh…I needed a good laugh." Santana said looking down at her hands. "Are you okay? You look sort of on edge." Of course, I was on edge. This was the first time we'd talked since our encounter in her car. Every single time I looked at her I thought about the way she'd bitten down on my lip, and every time she fidgeted with her hands, I thought about how she'd moved her hand all the way up my skirt and almost pulled my panties down. It wasn't something easily forgotten for a girl like me.
"Me? Yeah I'm fine." I said all too quickly.
"Okay clearly something is on your mind. Should I go? Is this like a personal thing?" She questioned.
"No, more like this is about what happened in your car a few days ago."
"Oh." She said placed her hands a little behind her body and leaning back. "I figured we'd probably have to talk about that eventually."
"Truthfully, I don't know what to think about it." I said moving closer to her.
"It's a scary day when Rachel Berry doesn't have a long speech as a response." Santana said running her hand through her hair. "I don't know what I was thinking really." She said shyly.
"Well I know what I was thinking." I started. "I was thinking wow this feels amazing." It was Santana's turn to blush. I was now standing between Santana's legs, with each of my hands placed on her thighs.
"I-." Santana's phone buzzed in her pocket and she reached to take it out. Once she saw the caller I.D. she furrowed her eyebrows and gave me a quick look before getting on the bed. "Let me just take this call, I'll be right back." She rushed out of the room and I heard her footsteps get about halfway down the hallway before they stopped. Clearly she didn't want me to hear any part of the conversation.
Privacy had always been important to me so why should I be bothered if Santana needs some?
I took Santana's seat on the bed and idly waited for her. I thought it was kind of strange that Santana always had this duffle bag with her. I wonder what's in it? It's probably just nothing.
Or it's something.
I threw all of my moral standards out the window as I quickly unzipped the bag halfway and peaking in. What I saw was nothing short of shocking. There were stacks of money just sitting there, more stacks then I'd ever seen at one time in my life. What was going on?
I didn't have much time to contemplate and theorize because I heard footsteps approaching and the only thing I could do was zip up the bag and sit there trying to look innocent. "Who was it?" I asked.
"It was my mom; I was surprised she even knows my phone number." Santana said resentfully.
"Why would that surprise you?"
"We don't talk often. We're sort like puppets at home, just nodding and keeping our mouths shut." Santana finally noticed that we'd switched positions and she easily lifted me up and got her seat back on the bed.
"Your duffle bag, I've seen you carry it in the hospital every single time you're here. What's in it?" I was hoping for an explanation that would make me slam my hand against my head and laugh like an idiot because I was the one being an idiot. My mind already went to the bad stuff. Drugs, gambling, or even that Santana might be selling her schoolwork for money.
"Oh it's just a change of clothes." She said with that charming smile of hers. I can safely say that I wasn't expecting a lie.
What really scared me was that lying it seemed to come easy for her. She didn't even blink. I wondered what else she was lying about. "I actually should go find my father now. I'll see you tomorrow at school." I was about to dart out of the room when Santana grabbed my wrist.
"You don't have to lie to me, if you didn't want to see me or talk to me then it's fine." She let go of my hand and I continued on my way. I didn't have the heart to tell her that she was the one hurting me, not the other way around. Santana clearly had things going on, things she didn't want my help with, eventually we'd meet each other half way, but until then we'll just have to see.
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