When Rachel quit Glee Club to act and sing in the lead role of the school's musical, Cabaret, it was like the entire club lost their mojo. They kept saying over and over again that they wouldn't get anywhere without her. As much as Blair was Rachel's friend, she was getting sick and tired of this. It was at the most recent rehearsal – right after Quinn ran out of the room sick – that Blair kinda lost it because once again they were back to saying they couldn't do it without Rachel.
"For the love of the deity of your choosing – she quit! Why is everyone in here acting like no one else has any talent? Yes, Rachel is amazing but for the love – she's not the only one. The world doesn't revolve around her and the second someone pointed that out to her she bailed. Instead of being all pouty and whiny that she isn't here anymore why don't we actually put in the work to make ourselves better?" Blair looked around the room, but it seemed like her little outburst there fell upon deaf ears.
It didn't take Blair long to realize this, so she threw up her hands saying, "I'm out. Let me know when this stops being the Rachel show. And to think I thought it'd stop being that when she quit."
Mr Schue quickly stepped in there. "You can't leave, Blair. We need you as much as anyone else."
"But apparently not as much as Rachel." Blair rolled her eyes with a scoff and left the choir room.
Mr Schue sighed heavily then looked over to Puck because he knew that Puck and Blair had been dating for the past few weeks. "Do you think you could go talk to her?"
"Right now?" Puck laughed in a 'no way' manner. "I'll wait until the chance of me getting decked is lower."
Mr Schue was about to retort to this but found he couldn't. "Fair enough. Okay, let's run the chorus again."
Blair found Rachel in an empty classroom after school and went right in to have a word with her. "You're selfish."
Rachel scoffed at those words. "We've hardly spoken in two weeks and the first thing you do is insult me? And I'm not selfish."
"Yes, you are," Blair shot back. "You can't stand not being in the spotlight. If everyone doesn't bow down to you then you think they're not worth your time. Real life isn't like what you think it is in that stuck-up head of yours. People are going to not like you and you aren't always going to get your way. Happily ever afters don't always happen and real life can suck. The sooner you realize that the better."
Rachel was a bit stunned by her words. "How can you be so cruel?"
"I'm not being cruel, Rach. I'm being honest – I'm being your friend. I'm trying to prepare you for a massive reality check that's going to hit you in the head one of these days." Blair stepped forward with crossed arms. "So, yeah, like I said – you're selfish. You abandoned a whole group of people that were depending on you. But hey, come back, don't come back. It's your call. I just had to say all this and now I'm out."
Rachel took a deep, slightly fuming breath, as Blair walked off. "And what about what I have to say, huh? You think I'm selfish? Look at you – you're one of the most selfish people I know. You think the world owes you something because your parents died, well guess what – it doesn't!"
Blair turned back around and stormed over to Rachel. "I never said I expect the world to repay me for what I lost. Nothing will ever fill the void I have! Everything I do – everything I am is just duct tape and chewing gum to try and keep me together! I don't drag people into my shit. I don't make the world all about me and you have the audacity to call me selfish because I called you out?" She scoffed and stepped back with her hands up in an 'I'm out' fashion. "That doesn't even make sense."
Rachel opened her mouth to speak again but Blair stormed out of the classroom without another word. Perhaps that was for the best because Rachel had no idea what she intended to say.
Blair went to the library after she went off on Rachel because the Auditorium was in use thanks to the drama production. She hoped she wouldn't run into anyone there, but she did. When a hand shot out onto the book she was reading on the table, Blair looked up from her seat and saw Puck standing there. "This is the last place I ever expected to see you."
"I take that as a compliment." Puck slid into the seat across from her, crossed his arms on the table and leaned forward. "What's going on? Are you okay?"
Blair groaned a bit in frustration. "Just because I'm pissed, doesn't mean I'm going to…"
Puck took her hand in his to cut her sentence short. "I know that, but it doesn't stop me from worrying about you. You know what happened to my cousin."
"I'm not your cousin," Blair emphasized. She needed him to understand that his cousin's story wasn't her own.
Puck had to lighten the conversation, so he said, "We'd be in a really weird relationship if you were. I know this is Ohio, but still."
Blair shook her head and laughed a bit because, of course his mind went there. She still hadn't figured out how she went from hating his guts to truly caring about him.
"That's the smile I was looking for." Puck smirked and got to his feet. "Come on, let's get out of here."
Blair closed the book with a sigh and took his hand. "How did you know I was here anyway?"
"I didn't. It just happened to be the first place I looked." Puck draped his arm around her shoulders and walked out with her.
Blair held onto the hand draped over her shoulder. "Lucky guess."
Puck looked at her with a bit of pride. "What can I say? I'm a lucky guy."
Blair woke up the next morning feeling sick and weird and itchy. In all her blah-ness she made her way into the bathroom and turned on the light. As soon as Blair looked at her reflection, she screamed. There were blisters-like-things-maybe all over her face, arms, and other places she didn't want to think about.
Sue burst into the bathroom with a phone in one hand and towels in the other because she thought Blair had done something to herself and was prepared. Upon seeing what the issue was, she set the things on the counter. "Well, well, well. Looks like you've got the chickenpox."
"Chickenpox?!" Blair squeaked because she wasn't expecting to hear that. "Don't kids usually get that?"
"Well, poxie, did you have them when you were a kid?" Sue got her answer when Blair didn't. "And there you go. Now finish up in here and get back to bed. You are not going to school today."
There was a part of Blair that wanted to put up a fight about that but stopped herself when she realized just how bad she was feeling.
Sue had a tray of things all prepared for Blair by the time she got back to her room. "Okay we got a bowl of chicken soup, gloves to keep you from scratching, Tylenol if you've got a fever, and an antihistamine for the itching. Two brands of Calamine lotion and do not take any aspirin, Ibuprofen, or any other NSAID. Got it?"
"Uh huh." Blair climbed into bed and looked at the tray in awe. "Where did you get all this stuff?"
"I have emergency kits for everything." Sue made sure Blair put the gloves on before saying, "You are to stay in bed the entire day, understood? The wastebasket is there in case of vomiting and the phone is close by. If your fever gets too high call 911 and I'll meet you at the hospital."
Blair waved as Sue left her room to get to school. "Bye." She was not in the mood for eating so she fell onto her pillows and snuggled in for the day.
When Blair woke up a few hours later it was because her phone was ringing. "Hello?" she groaned upon answering.
"Where are you?" Kurt answered in reply. "Mr Schue has lost his mind. He's recruited some ancient alcoholic woman to be part of the Glee Club to replace Rachel. We need you and your bluntness here STAT!"
Blair only caught half of that. "I'm sick – Chickenpox. Won't be going to school until it's over."
"Oh, wow, I thought everyone got that when they were kids." Kurt started to sound concerned. "And you're there alone? I saw Sue in the hall earlier."
"I've survived worse," Blair muttered, wanting to just go back to sleep. "Good luck with the ancient lady." On that note, she hung up the phone and went back to sleep.
Two weeks later, after many visits from members of the Glee Club when Sue wasn't home, Blair was given the clearance to go back to school. Unfortunately she was out for too long and Mr Schue didn't think she should participate in the Invitationals performance that evening. Blair was bummed beyond words but accepted it. Even if she did know the lyrics, she didn't want to bring anyone down by screwing up the footwork.
So, instead of being on stage with the rest of the club that night, Blair sat in the audience and waited with everyone else. Blair looked at her watch to find the performance was almost ten minutes late. This made her worry, so she went to see if she could find out anything. Blair found everyone in the choir room. "What's going on? Everyone's pretty antsy out there."
"April is puking her guts out. Something about one too many mimosas with expired orange juice," Mercedes answered. "She was supposed to be the lead and now we've got nobody. Mr Schue only taught it to her."
Puck spoke right up. "Blair, you should do it. You know all the words."
"And none of the choreography," Blair pointed out. "I'd ruin it up there."
"Not if we did the song we were originally going to do before April came into the picture," Mr Schue countered as he walked into the room. "If we do that one instead of 'Last Name' you should have no problem."
"None of us are dressed for that one, Mr Schue," Quinn pointed out, referring to all their Western themed costumes.
"Everyone quickly change your shirts into whatever you wore when you got here. If we're doing this then we better do it fast." Mr Schue looked at Blair. "You up for this?"
Blair didn't feel like she had much of a choice, but that didn't change the fact she was so excited about it. "Okay, yeah. Let's do this."
A few minutes later, Mr Schue went on stage to apologize for the wait and explained that their lead singer had gotten sick and they had to change the arrangement. With all that said, and an additional apology later, Mr Schue introduced the New Directions.
The curtains opened and Blair stood in front of the rest of the group with Puck not too far away from her. The music began and they all started the choreography before Blair started singing the opening lyrics to 'Best Song Ever'. "Maybe it's the way he walked. Straight into my heart and stole it!" Blair and Puck started making their way towards each other as she continued to sing her part then broke out into the familiar dance routine.
After the chorus, Blair sang her tweaked lyrics. "Said his name was Noah Puck. And he was in New Directions. Said he had a dirty mouth."
"Yeah, I got a dirty mouth," Puck sang back as he slid up close to her.
"But I kissed him like I meant it!" Blair gave him a quick peck on the cheek with a lyrical, "Ha!" before continuing on.
When the song came to its end, Blair stood there catching her breath and looking at Puck with laughter as the crowd rose to their feet and cheered. The New Directions received a standing ovation!
The Glee Club ran off the stage to get ready for the next act. As they made the changes to their costumes, none of them stopped talking about how awesome that was. Well, all except for Liam. He didn't say a word and just focused on the costume change.
Santana looked around the group asking, "Uh, has anyone figured out who's singing second lead in the next act? Blair may know the lyrics but doesn't know the choreography."
"We'll just have to help her out with that." Finn nudged his friend with a grin.
"I have complete faith in you guys," Mr Schue proudly interjected. "You guys were amazing."
At that moment, Rachel walked into the room. "Congratulations, everyone. I wanted to tell you all that I quit the play. I guess you could say I got hit with a reality check and realized being in the play didn't mean more to me than being your friend. And – And I would like to come back to Glee, but I don't expect to be the star. I just hope to be one of the stars in the constellation." Rachel looked at Blair before saying to the group, "It kinda boggles me a bit that you all were so worried about me coming back and being the star when you already had one that shined just as bright as I did."
Blair went over to Rachel and hugged her without a word. She didn't intend on saying anything either. When things really hit her hard – the good and the bad – that's when she didn't say a word.
Rachel hugged her back and smiled. As they pulled apart, she asked the group, "Does this mean I'm back in?"
No one objected, so Mr Schue said, "Absolutely. If you know the lyrics you're welcome to get changed and perform with us."
"Oh, great," Santana scoffed. "Now we got two people who don't know the choreography."
"Don't worry," Finn said to the group. "We got this."
Indeed they did, with the subtle cues given to Blair and Rachel on stage as they sang 'Somebody to Love' they were able to get the gist of the choreography and stood off to the side with an arm in the air while the others did the more elaborate steps. At the end of Mercedes' epic finale, once again the crowd was brought to their feet and cheered. Another standing ovation for the New Directions!
Blair honestly couldn't believe they pulled it off, but hey, maybe something resembling a happily ever after can happen after all…
End Season 1 Episode 5