Author's note- thank you so much for the reviews everyone! I almost have 100 reviews! So should we try and get 100? ;) I'm sorry I haven't updated, and I'm sorry it's so short. I won't bore you with explanations, but I'm really into Sherlock at the moment, so if anyone likes that I have a couple of fan fictions on it already. Anyways... on with the show!

This chapter is very heavy on conversation, it needed to be done.

I'd like to say RIP to Cory Monteith who sadly passed away the other week. He was such a talent and it's such a shame to lose him.

Disclaimer- I own nothing believe it or not.

Chapter 24 (Will's p.o.v)

But much to my dismay, Santana was the first to speak up. And what she had to say made the kids gasp, and made me much more angrier than I had ever been with any of my students.

"Why the fuck should we even care?" Santana burst out, her bitchiness escalated to new extremes. "She did this to herself and clearly she didn't give a toss about how it would affect others so why should we care about what happens to her? Why should we show a shred of compassion when she never cared about us? What she has done is absolutely pathetic and selfish. So what if her parents are dead? That was months ago, she needs to get over herself. And to cut herself is just fucking stupid. Oh no, something bad has happened so let me go and cut up my own skin to make myself feel better! Freakishly weird. I always said she was a pathetic emo freak and here is the proof." She took a deep breath. The room was stunned into pure silence. "You know what? I don't give a shit. It's a bloody shame she didn't actually manage to kill herself cause that would have made things so much better for everyone." Looking at her faces she rolled her eyes, "Surely I'm not the only person who thinks this? After all, she is going to be parading around the school with a fucking gash on her neck. Might as well say it now in this room before you hear crap from everyone else. She is going to get so much shit. It would have been easier is she had killed herself, save her the humiliation." Another pause. The whole room stared disbelievingly at Santana. "Well? You all know I'm right. So I suggest..."

"Shut the fuck up Santana!" I suddenly cut her off, recovering from the sheer shock of her words. She visibly flinched at my furious tone, and I winced once I realised I had sworn at a student. But I didn't really care. Now it was her turn to be silent. "How dare you say those things? Don't you realise that it's people like you who drive others to do these things? She attempted suicide because she was so depressed it seemed like the only way of getting free of her problems. She didn't do it to be selfish. Who are you to question how she's feeling? Casey does care about all of you, but she's quiet- and what is there to expect from someone who has been through so much and struggles to cope?" I looked at everyone straight in the eye, doing my best to get them to understand; "Self harm is a serious addiction Santana. And it's far more common than most people realise. Once you start doing it regularly it's extremely hard to stop." I ran a hand through my hair, "And you know what? I'm downright ashamed Santana. Glee club is here as a place to shed the stereotypes, to be yourself in a safe place where no one will judge. Casey's never judged any of you. And I would bloody hope that you would return the same respect she's shown. And if any of you," I glared at Santana, "If any of you say one single thing, meant in a hurtful way, there is going to be serious trouble."

As I finished, I looked around the room at everyone. Santana was looking at the floor, Mercedes, Kurt and Blaine just looked sad, while everyone else didn't seem to know what to say or do. The silence was unbearable; not knowing what would happen when Casey returned was unbearable too; especially with the people and bullies in this school... But how could I stop bullying from happening? Truth is, I couldn't. But I would do my damned best to ensure that no-one in this room would so much as look at Casey in the wrong way.

"Mr Schue," Finn spoke tentatively, I gave him a nod and he continued: "None of us think badly of her. As you said, Glee club is a place of acceptance. And I don't think anyone here would say anything bad to her. If anything... I think it's helped to understand her." He seemed uncertain.

"Well, I'm not going to judge," Blaine said, "I've been judged before and it isn't nice. In fact, we've all been judged here."

"Yeah Mr Schue, we'll look after Casey," Kurt murmured. Numerous other statements joined in from around the room. A smile crept onto my face.

"Thanks guys," I spoke again, "Look, all I want is to make sure Casey will be okay. I know you aren't bad people," I deliberately ignored Santana at this statement, "And I trust that you'll be yourselves with her and not treat her too differently okay?" Murmurs of agreement chipped in. "Right, you lot can do whatever you wish now." I sighed, and through gritted teeth I said: "Santana, a word outside please."

The young Latina followed me into the deserted corridors of McKinley high school. It was still too early so no-one was in school yet, unless other clubs were on or kids wanted to go into the library before school started. Walking away from the choir room (so that no-one could hear) I turned sharply on my heel to face a rather worried looking Santana.

"Mr Schue I..." She started.

"I don't want to hear it Santana," I interrupted, "I don't want any excuses, because there are no excuses for the things you said. So listen to me now. What you said is downright horrible and unacceptable, I have no clue what was going through that head of yours- but whatever it is I want it gone. I do not want to hear you say anything like that ever again to anyone in Glee. Especially not to someone who has so many problems as Casey. Clearly it's from lack of understanding of her situation, and from lack of education on matters such as self harm, suicide and mental illness. So I think that one day soon, I might organise something for everyone to be able to understand it better." My voice had gone much softer, "Bullying is born a lot of the time out of ignorance Santana. Not from meanness. And you're not truly a mean person Santana. I refuse to believe that you are truly like this. I want your attitude to change. I won't punish you for this believe it or not. But all I ask is that you listen to what I've said and take it into account and act on it. Next time, I won't be as understanding." She looked up at me with disbelieving eyes, "Do you understand?"

"Yes Mr Schue," she said, her usually loud voice now quiet, "I'm sorry..." I nodded at her, an acknowledgement to her apology and gestured for us to return to Glee club.

Well, that went better than expected.