"The Mistaken M. Jones"
38. Attention, Class
March 2012 – Lima, Ohio
It was nearly lunch time, but Mercedes wasn't thinking about that. She was in Gemma's class again, and like the last time, she kept finding herself staring at her. There were these things she knew, from her own adventure, and things she'd found out through Quinn, but the woman who was meant to be a teacher but clearly couldn't have been remained… a mystery.
And then, with only five minutes left, she had almost abruptly stopped. She'd turned to face the class and smiled.
"Alright, I think that's just about it. There's only a few minutes left, but that'll be all for today, so…" The class had already turned into a chorus of chairs scratching on the ground, people shuffling to pick up their things and leave. Mercedes was doing the same, but then… "Mercedes?" Gemma spoke, and she turned to her.
"Yes?"
"I need you to come with me," she tipped her head, pulling her bag on to her shoulder.
"Why, I…"
Gemma just ushered her out of the classroom and into the hall. She stopped for a moment as though she was trying to remember something, but then she turned the other way and walked on. Mercedes could only follow her.
They went up to another classroom, an occupied one by the sound of it. Gemma only opened the door enough to poke her head in.
"Sorry to interrupt, I need to borrow a couple of your students." The teacher must have given a silent approval, Mercedes never heard a reply. "Quinn, Brittany?" A few seconds later, the girls emerged. When they saw Mercedes standing there, they looked at her questioningly. Mercedes could only shrug. "This way, girls," Gemma went on. They followed.
They made another stop, which got them Puck, another for Santana, and finally Artie and Sugar. It didn't take them long, looking amongst themselves, to figure what this might be about. With who she'd gathered, this could have been something to do with Glee Club, but then there was something else that connected them all, the very thing that involved her, too. If this was about Glee Club, they would be very surprised.
She took them into the empty choir room, which might have been the cue for surprise, but once they sat down, she went and shut the doors and she came back to stand before them. For a while, none of them spoke, and they heard the bell that indicated classes were letting out for lunch. It almost felt like she was baiting them, waiting to see if anyone would say what she knew they were dying to say. It was almost to none of their surprise that Santana was the first to speak.
"So, where did you go to school? What qualifications does one need to be a substitute teacher?" she asked, presenting herself 'highly interested,' poised to receive her answer. Gemma smirked at her, then shrugged.
"I wouldn't know, would I? But then you know all about that. You know exactly who I am." As eager as they'd all been to know, to get the chance to talk openly with her, when she did 'reveal' herself, they were as taken aback as Artie had been when she'd done it for him. "Right about here you're about to start talking all at once, please don't do that," she raised her hand, and they stayed quiet. Brittany raised her hand. "I… Yes, Brittany," she pointed at her like they were in class.
"Are you really the Doctor's companion?"
"I am, yes," Gemma smiled. "Though it's been a few months since I've seen her… obviously."
"So he… she can really just change like that?" Sugar blinked. Gemma looked at her, and her warning was discreet: be careful. She might have been revealing who she was, but Sugar couldn't; Padra couldn't.
"Why are you telling us this now?" Puck asked.
"Well, I was going to wait until you broke into my home, but what do you know, I was all out of tea. You wouldn't want to make me look like a bad host, would you?" Gemma stared at him, and few were the women who could make Noah Puckerman come to heel, but he didn't reply after that.
"Something's changed, hasn't it?" Quinn guessed.
"In a way," Gemma nodded.
"Are there more of us?" Artie asked. Already so many of them were here, all of them from the Glee Club, so who knew?
"I'd try to deny it, but this is not what this meeting is about, so all I'll say is yes. I can't tell you how many, or who they are. They couldn't even tell you. You have all met the Doctor. They will meet the Doctor, but they haven't done it yet, which means this next part will be… trickier."
"So then what is this 'meeting' about?" Santana asked. "Are you finally going to tell us what the hell you're doing here?"
"I can't tell you 'what the hell I'm doing here,' not yet, not in that way, but soon enough all will become clear. All I can tell you for now is that, when the moment does come, you will need to work together, and that's why we're here. I let you come to figure some things out on your own, so that you might get stronger together, but when I saw things were starting to degenerate…" They at least looked a little bit sorry for this. "… I reached out to the Doctor, and she agreed it was time we stopped working our own angles. So here we are, all of us, in one room. You've shared something, and that's important." They looked to one another. Mercedes in particular had had no idea there were so many of them, but now she knew. "You don't have to stay. If you do leave however, you'll have to keep keeping that secret all to yourselves. But if you stay… If you stay, then I need you."
THE END
A/N: The next story in the series, "Instrumental Glory," begins tomorrow.