Chapter 3 – Don't Stop
Sure enough when Puck tries to convince his football buddies to join glee club, he predictably finds himself in the dumpster. Puck stays quiet and still, lying in a pile of old cafeteria lunch and god knows what else. He was feeling an unfamiliar low as he assesses his current situation. He closes his eyes as he thinks of the upcoming torture that he was going to receive throughout his high school years because of this stupid club.
It was hard to imagine how fast your life changes.
Just yesterday he was the one throwing kids in the dumpster and stealing their lunch money and now he feels their pain.
Fifteen minutes have past when he hears a knocking on the metal dumpster. Thinking that the guys were back for more, he tries to quickly bury himself in the trash, hoping to go unnoticed.
"Hey can you find my glasses in there, I can't see. If I don't find them there's no way I can get around campus without it."
Puck hears a voice from the other side of the trash bin. He brightens up a little as he doesn't recognize the voice, so it wasn't any of his so called friends coming back for more.
"Is anyone still out there?" Puck questions the stranger.
"No, the first bell rang five minutes ago. Everyone should be in class."
At that, Puck stands up and jumps out the dumpster and was met with a kid in wheelchair looking up at him.
"Sorry dude, I didn't see any glasses in there. They were probably broken anyway." Puck tells Artie, even though he didn't really look for any glasses. He brushes himself off with his hands and starts heading towards the guy's locker for a shower.
"Great." Artie says sarcastically.
His day was just starting out horribly.
Puck looks down at Artie feeling sorry for the guy. He watches as Artie starts rolling his wheelchair away, without his glasses. And continues to watch as he bumps his chair into a pole, steps and even a fire hydrate. Not to mention he was going the opposite way of the building.
Maybe being in that dumpster or the awful smell of someone's old lunch, made him think about changing his ways and helping this random kid out. Or it might be that he was going to have a guilty conscience after witnessing the poor kid wheeling himself into ongoing traffic.
Oh my god!
His eyes went wide and he sprints to Artie as fast as he can before a car hit the kid.
"Hey stop." Puck yells across the parking lot, still running and trying to save this hopeless soul.
"I hear cars, oh crap." Artie starts to freak out. Clueless on where to go to avoid getting hit, he starts yell as loud as he can hoping someone would come to his aid. "Help! Help! I don't want to die!"
He closes his eyes, preparing himself for a big impact, but there wasn't any. Instead he starts to feel himself being wheeled away for the sound of car's honking.
Puck got to him before there was any damage.
"You okay?" Puck asks slightly out of breath.
"Thank you, I think I just saw my life flash in eyes." Artie says trying to get his breathing back in control.
"Don't mention it." Puck continues to wheel Artie towards the front entrance of the building.
"I guess I'm not that familiar with the school to find my way without my glasses." Artie states sardonically.
"You almost got yourself killed, kid. Look I think I may have a pair of glasses I stole from some freshman the other day. Maybe you could use his for the rest of the day."
"Those are probably mine you took from yesterday when you called me Robo-nerd." Artie points out.
Puck frowns. "Oh right, sorry man."
"Why were you in the dumpster?" Arties queries.
Pucks sighs. "I am trying to get another member for glee."
Artie's eyebrow shoots up. "You joined the glee club?"
"Yeah so." Puck grumbles weakly.
Artie just looks at him in disbelief.
"What chicks digs singers." He defends.
"I'm just shocked that you would risk your reputation for it."
"Fine. I'm doing has a favor for Santana, she also told me to get another member." Puck admits.
"I'll join." Artie quickly jumps at the opportunity.
"Dude no offense but you're in a wheelchair." Puck points out as he continues to push his wheelchair in the hallway.
"So? I can sing and I can do some cool tricks in the wheelchair to compensate for the dancing."
"You almost got run over. How did you end up in a wheelchair anyways?" Puck asks curiously.
"I can't see without my glasses." Artie defends himself before answering his second question. "And I was in a car accident. Are we at your locker yet?"
Puck opens up his locker and throws Artie all the glasses he had in there.
"I'm pretty sure one of these are mine." Artie tries them all until he was able to see clearly.
Pucks quietly watches him stifles through his collection, before coming to his decision.
"Yeah, alright you can join, rehearsal's are after school today."
"Really? Cool." Artie says delighted.
"Let me wheel you to class."
"You smell like shit." Artie crinkles his nose in distaste by the awful odor.
Puck smells himself. "Do you think someone took a dump in the dumpster?"
"Wouldn't be the first time." Artie replies.
"Savages." Puck curses.
"Santana, I have made a list of song that I should perform at Sectionals." Rachel hands the sheet that she pulls out of her bedazzled binder to her new captain as she was chasing the cheerleader out in the halls after their shared class.
Rachel continues on before Santana could stop her.
"I really think we should get a move on with the set list because we actually already behind. It would be in the club's best interest to give me the solo, considering I'm the only one with proper training and—"
"—I'm getting the solos at Sectionals, Regional's, and Nationals because I am the captain." Santana strongly emphasizes as she finds her locker. "There is no way I'm singing backup for you."
"I'm sure you are a fantastic singer Santana, I'm just saying that to win Sectionals, we don't have a lot of time to prepare and I'm trying to make it easier on the club—"
Rachel stops mid sentence when she sees Quinn arriving at her locker that was right beside Santana's.
Rachel's heart jumps at the sight of the blonde who has invading dreams lately.
"I'm…I guess we can discuss this during glee." She turns around and walks away.
Santana looks confused at Rachel's abrupt exit and wonders what Quinn has done to the annoying gnome that has her scared off so easily.
"What was that?" Santana questions her blonde friend.
"I don't know." Quinn shrugs her shoulder while she was getting her books for the next class.
Santana shakes her head not caring at moment what issues Rachel has against Quinn.
"Hey I got us free dinner at Breadstixs, you in?" Santana changes the subject.
"Sure, I can definitely go a night without my mother." Quinn says.
"Awesome."
"But please don't bail on me and start making out with Britt—" Quinn was cut by a familiar voice that makes both their eyes shoot up simultaneously.
"Christian Barbie and Boobs McGee! In my office now!"
They completely forgot about about their psychotic coach and how she was going to react to three of her top Cheerios joining the Glee Club.
"You got a cover?" Quinn asks Santana as they make their way to Sue's office.
They both drags their feet to give themselves more time to come up with an excuse.
"You're the captain." Santana points out not wanting the responsibility.
"It was your fault we even had to join." Quinn argues back.
"We'll come up with something." Santana whispers harshly as they pass the entry way taking a seat in front of Coach Sylvester's desk.
"Do you want to explain to me why the captain of my Cheerios and her second in command are foiling the chain of command I had meticulously set in this school's hierarchy. Are you trying to make me look bad?" She says raising her eyebrow intimidatingly waiting for an explanation.
"No Coach, we just figured it wouldn't hurt to have another extra curricular activity on our record for colleges. I know we're only sophomores but we definitely want to get in the best school we can." Quinn replies sweetly the first thing that came to her.
"And we figure we should think offense with the glee club, if anything were to go down we got the inside scoop and we report back to you." Santana adds.
Sue Sylvester was silent for a moment, thinking it over her in her head as she eyes her two best Cheerios suspiciously. She made sure the girls were squirming a little before coming to her decision.
"I knew I did right when I made you captain, Quinn Fabray. But don't you dare disappoint me. Report any suspicious activity to me immediately."
The two cheerios sighs in relief.
"Now get the hell out of my office."
They both quickly jump out of their seats and walk out as fast as they can.
Sue calls out to them before the left, "Oh 20 extra laps at practice today. Next time tell me ahead of time of what you're up to."
They both nodded their heads, thankful for the lenient sentence.
It could have been worse.
The Unholy Trinity were the first to arrive to glee rehearsals. Santana was talking to Miss. Del Monico at the piano while Brittany and Quinn sat next to each other on the risers. Quinn was trying to explain to Brittany, how to do her algebra but instead of using x's and y's, she was using ducks and chicks. And somehow Brittany understood them better.
As everyone was slowly starting to filter in, she caught the sight of a tall, stupid looking Finn entering the choir room with Rachel by his side.
Utterly confused by his appearance, she strides down the steps to were Santana and Miss Del Monico were talking, to get some answers.
"What is the giant doing here?" Quinn interrupts them was a very displeased look on her face.
"Yeah, Santana I told you to get the popular kids to join. I don't want to be known as the teacher with a much of delinquents." Miss Del Monico adds as she finally looks around the room.
"Look I got twelve kids alright. Not everyone is willing to join. And you wanted the dwarf to join, unfortunately that means her dopey boyfriend is attached to her." Santana defends herself.
"You don't have twelve kids. We're missing one." Quinn corrects her as she finishes counting the room.
Santana looks around the room and also starts her own counting. She realized that Quinn was right. Her eyes finds Puck and was about to talk to him when another student walks into the room last minute. He was one of the football players. He took a sit next to Puck as they shook hands.
The Latina turns back around to face Miss Del Monico and Quinn.
"There we go. We got twelve. Matt Rutherford, and he's part of the football team." Santana smiles pleased with herself.
"I'm still pissed. Thanks to you I'm going to be subjected to watching the T-Rex and TinkerBell sing love songs to each other." Quinn went back to take her seat next to Brittany and reached in her bag to pull out a book to read.
Even though these weren't the kids she was hoping for, she at least had the twelve she needed to keep her job.
"Good job Santana." Miss Del Monico breathes out grateful for her efforts as Santana also went to take her seat on the other side of Brittany.
"Alright, everyone welcome to the Glee Club. I'm Miss. Del Monico and I'll be your Glee Director." Terri writes her name on the white board while the kids where whispering behind her with confusion.
"Aren't you the school nurse?" Artie asks in a scared voice.
"Not anymore." Terri simply answers. "Now, I think we have a chance of winning Sectionals if we split up and form groups. Just like 'N sync and Spice Girls. I took notes while watching X-factor last night. I want to be just like Simon. And dirty kid with the mohawk, we should shave your head so you can pass as Robbie Williams."
Everyone in the choir room was looking at her with unbelievable looks on their faces. Except Puck whose was glaring at her for suggesting him to lose his Mohawk and Brittany who was bouncing with joy.
"This is going to be awesome. I want to be Britney Spears." Brittany says.
"I think we should all have a chance to come up with ideas for Sectionals." Rachel says obviously disagreeing with Miss Del Monico's approach.
"I can do a kick ass Amy Winehouse that can definitely lead us to victory." Santana brags.
"That's a great idea Santana. We'll work on that, while the rest of you can just sway in the background." Terri says.
Never lifting her head from her book, Quinn shakes her head as Terri immediately agree with Santana. You can already tell who her favorite is.
"That's not fair." Kurt frowns. "I think we all should have a chance to audition."
"Shut it, rainbow bright. I'm the team captain so I should get the first solo." Santana shuts him down.
"Miss Del Monico?" Rachel didn't wait for her to answer. "I would like you to reconsider your choice for captain of the glee club. It's not fair that others did not have an opportunity to tryout for the position. I would like to challenge Santana to have a sing off. Best singer wins voted by our peers."
"Stop trying to take over, dwarf. My first responsibility was to get twelve people to join so we can compete, I'm pretty sure you couldn't do that. I bet I can even get someone to replace your ass if you don't shut the hell up." Santana replies agitated.
"As mean as Santana is I rather have her a leader than you Rachel." Kurt chimes in.
"Yeah you just want all the solos, that's not going to happen." Mercedes says jumping into the conversation.
"I can assure you that's not going to be the case Mercedes. I feel I have more experience than—"
"Sit down, Rachel. Santana is our captain and I'm not changing my mind. So if I were you I wouldn't want to make her mad." Terri tells her.
"But-" Rachel whines.
Terri cut her off. "I said sit."
Rachel pouts and return to her seat next to Finn who immediately puts his arm around her.
Quinn was trying to ignore everything as she buries her head deeper into her book, but she couldn't help feeling bad for Rachel. She immediately was ganged up on just for being passionate about singing.
"Well can we at least hear Santana sing?" Artie asks.
Santana snaps her head at Artie. "I don't have anything prepared. This is not a free show."
"I for one can tell you Santana's an awesome singer, she made my cat cry." Brittany jumps in to defend the brunette.
"Rachel's an awesome singer too." Finn finally adds to the conversation. "I think we can do a duet."
"Gross, you guys would look so awkward on stage. It would be like the Godzilla dancing with Frodo." Quinn ends her silence.
"God, why are you so awful." Finn says staring intensely at her.
"Why do you have man-boobies?" Santana asks smiling cheekily at him.
He looks at her incredulously at her childish antics. He didn't know how to respond to that.
Quinn smiles.
Santana would always have her back.
Rachel pulls at a bedazzled pink notebook from her bag for the second time today. "I've prepared a bunch of sheet music that we can go through. There must be one in here that we all can agree on."
"Hell no." Santana rejects her. "We are doing Amy Winehouse. Because I didn't start smoking cigars for no reason. You can shove that notebook up your…."
"Hey..." Finn stands up getting angry.
"Oh shut it Frankenteen, this club is already going get crap from this school, especially if we have the jewish gnome starring in it." Santana says not intimidated by his size at all.
"We can agree on something together, why do you have to—" Finn gets cut off.
"Finn and Rachel, should never sing together. We will look like a wannabe high school musical." Kurt interjects.
"I agree." Mercedes nods her head. "But Santana can't just do whatever she wants."
Artie pipes in. "Mercede's right. We should all perform a number this week, so we can see the—"
"—I did you all a favor letting you guys join glee." Santana voice booms over his, annoyed that the others were trying to undermine her.
"You did the whole school a favor when you spread—"
Finn didn't get to finished because Santana was spouting out angry words in Spanish. His eyes go wide when she approaches closer to him, ready to attack.
Puck and Matt jump up from their seats instantly to hold her back.
And just like that the whole Glee club was a disaster.
Everyone was fighting.
Terri watches in astonishment at what a mess this was. She sighs heavily.
This wasn't going to be easy.
With all the chaos going on the choir room, Terri fails to notice someone peeking through the door's clear glass window.
After getting everyone calm down, Terri dismisses the group.
Quinn was last to leave.
Her eyes were lingering the piano during the entirety of rehearsals. She decides to play around while she waits for Brittany and Santana to grab their things from their lockers.
As she was playing a couple notes, Rachel came back into the choir. Her fingers immediately stops playing when she spots the brunette.
"Hey." Rachel was the first one to speak. As always. "Sorry, I didn't mean to interrupt. I think I misplaced my binder."
"Whatever." Quinn rolls her eyes in attempt to hide her embarrassment as she play random notes.
"I'm glad you change your mind. I can't wait when everyone hears what an amazing voice you have." Rachel walks towards the blonde.
"I'm just going to be swaying in the background. I joined as a favor for Santana. I don't have interest in singing in front of anyone." Quinn dryly replies.
"Well that's a shame. You're really talented Quinn."
Quinn finds herself not able to come up with a witty retort when Rachel compliments her like this. She instead gets lost in the brunettes's soft brown eyes.
"Q, Is Man-hands giving advice on how to attract perverted old Japanese business men?"
Rachel rolls her eyes at the jab. Ignoring the Latina, she moves away from Quinn and continues to search for her notebook.
"She's looking for her notebook, S." Quinn simply informs her.
"Whatever. Are you ready to go? I want me some Breadstixs," Santana asks.
"Yeah." Quinn gets up and walks out with Santana but not without stealing one last glance at Rachel.
"Oh my god, these breadsticks are so good. This is the best thing that has come out from being in the Glee club." Santana dips her breadstick in the remaining Alfredo sauce on her plate.
"Rehearsal was kind of like watching Jersey Shore. It was awesome," Brittany says.
"Well, if Santana continues being so stubborn on song choices, we'll never make it to Sectionals." Quinn says playing with her salad.
"I thought you didn't care about Glee?" Santana retorts mockingly.
"I'm just saying maybe you should be a little more open minded to their suggestions. Give them a chance." Quinn suggests.
"We don't have time for that. I can take us to Sectionals. Guarantee." Santana replies confidently.
"You're not going to get everyone to cooperate, if you don't at least give them hope."
"What are you talking about?" Santana rolls her eyes.
"Look, I know I'm hard on the squad and everyone thinks I'm an HBIC, but at the end of the day they trust in me to win us Nationals. I can't do the cheers all by myself. I need my squad. You have to earn their respect and show them you can be a leader as much as you don't want to. Trust me it will be a lot easier in the long run." Quinn elaborates.
"You should let Rachel sing. She has amazing voice, but don't her sing with Finn." Brittany says. "And don't let her sing any Britney Spears song."
"B, not you too." Santana groans. "Rachel going to make us all go deaf with all her Streisand music. I'm looking out for you guys"
"Just think about S." Quinn asks.
"Yeah, whatever."
After dropping off Quinn, Santana takes the long way route to Brittany's house. Trying to get in some more time with her favorite blonde.
As Santana was pulling out of the parking lot, her hand unconsciously reaches over towards Brittany's lap, to intertwine their hands together.
Brittany smiles softly and gives her hand a little squeeze. "I like when we're like this, S."
Santana takes her eyes off the road for a second to look at the dancer and returns her smile.
"Me too, B."
Comfortable silence takes over the car, as the girls just enjoy these few quiet moments like this.
"A hockey player asked me out today." Brittany says breaking the silence.
Santana shouldn't really be surprised, the blonde was the hottest girl in school.
"What did you tell him?" Santana manages to ask without losing face.
She was not angry that someone found Brittany attractive, she was angry at herself for not being brave enough to come out. Situation like these were going get harder and harder until the day she does.
"I told him that I had to talk to you about it and he asked me why. And then I said I don't know. He laughed at me and said he guess I was really that dumb if I couldn't make my own decisions."
Now Santana was angry.
"Hey, don't listen to that jerk okay. You are not dumb. What was his name, I'm going to ruin his scum bag life." Santana threatens.
"S, that didn't bother me. I know I'm smart and people just don't understand the way I think. What bother me is why we have to hide. I want to touch and kiss you whenever and not hold back."
Santana heartaches at the blonde's distress. She would do anything for this girl. She pulls her hand away from the blonde's and ran it through her hair. She always tries to avoid these talks.
"I told you Britt, not everyone is going to be okay with us."
"Who cares about what people think."
"I just can't. Just not right now. I'm sorry."
Brittany wasn't going to give up on the Latina.
"The last time I had it was in glee. I am absolutely positive that Santana stole my notebook. She's trying to take all my ideas. This is a nightmare." Rachel vents to Finn while going through her locker for the tenth time.
"It sounds like something she would do. I told you joining this club was going to give Santana free reigns to humiliate us and make our lives a living hell. We should just quit or have her removed." Finn attempts to discourage her.
"No Finn, I know she's going to be hard to work with but we can't let Santana terrorize us. I want to have a place where we can express ourselves in this school."
"Yeah I guess you're right." Finn sighs.
"I've got to get my notebook back. I worked so hard organizing those sheet music."
"Um, Rach. I think we are the first in line for a slushie attack for joining the glee club." Finn warns her as he spots his teammates walking down the hallway towards them with a Big Gulp slushie in their hands. "We should run."
"No, its okay. We shouldn't let them know we fear them." Rachel closes her eyes as she anticipated the ice cold beverage on her face.
After a minute, her face was still dry.
Surprisingly when she opens her eyes, she witnesses the jocks walking right past her towards a couple lockers down where their target was one of the hockey players.
Gasps filled the hallway. All the students looked shocked as well as the hockey player himself, not knowing why he deserved this.
"Wow that was unexpected." Rachel tells Finn only to find that he was already gone. She frowns in confusion. Maybe he had to go, because surely he wouldn't leave her like that.
"That's ridiculous. Did you make him spy on me Figgins?" Terri asks with a look of betrayal on her face.
"No. Absolutely not." Figgins denies strongly.
"Look, I stayed over because I wanted to finish grading some papers, when I hear a much of ruckus down the hall."
"Miss Del Monico, If you can't control the children then maybe—"
"—Figgins, It was our first rehearsal. The kids are just very passionate. I will get a hold of them." She promises.
"She doesn't even know anything about music. She's not qualified." Will argues.
"What is your problem? You can't have my job. And I promise you we are going to win Sectionals."
"There's wasn't an actual fight, so there's nothing I can do Mr. Shue." Figgins says. "Miss Del Monico, please let's try to hear more singing and less yelling in that choir room."
"No problem, Mr. Figgins." She smiles gratefully.
"That's it?" Will turns to Figgins with an incredulous look on his face.
"Yeah, that's it."
Terri walks out and Will looks frustrated at Figgin's negligence on the matter before following her out.
"You're not going to make it." Will tells Terri as they were out of Figgin's sight and walking down the hallway.
"What is it with you and this Glee Club? Why do you want it so bad?"
"I believe I can inspire these kids. They're all underdogs like I was. You can never relate to that." Will answers while trying to keep up with her stride.
"Well I consider myself an underdog at this school. The teachers here don't think I'm a real teacher so I have no one to sit with at lunch." She retorts back.
"You're not a real teacher, you're the school nurse." Will argues.
"And I think that you were such a loser when you were in high school, and you were in the glee club and weren't able to reach your dreams and you didn't go anywhere except back in school teaching Spanish. I'm right aren't I?" Terri asks stopping to look at Will in the eyes.
Will doesn't deny her theory.
"You failed at your dreams and that's all they're going to see." Terri didn't wait for an answer and starts walking away.
Will stood alone in the hallway pondering. He hates to admit that she had figured him out.
"What was going on with that hockey player getting slushie today? Who put the hit on him? Not like he doesn't deserved it, he's an ass." Quinn wonders as she sat down with her lunch across from Santana and Brittany in the cafeteria.
"Who knows, who cares." Santana shrugs. "Maybe someone was just bored. Or he pissed off the wrong person."
"Okay." Quinn is now getting a good idea of who was behind the attack. Knowing her best friend there was probably a good reason.
"Hey, I think I got a good idea for the glee. We should split into groups—"
Rachel stomps over to the Cheerio's table and interrupts the Latina.
"Santana I know you stole my notebook, now where is it? It's not funny, I put a lot of time in that."
"I don't know what you're talking about midget, why would I want to steal your notebook that is probably filled with list on what is the best booster seat for you so you don't look like an ant compare to your giant boyfriend. Now can you please leave, you were rudely interrupting our conversation." Santana snaps.
Rachel huffs with her hands on her hips.
"I don't understand why you have to be so mean. We all trying to work together in glee, and your negative attitude isn't getting us anywhere."
"You've just accused me of stealing your stupid notebook. I told you I didn't take it." Santana bites back.
"You're lying," Rachel says standing her ground.
"Now you are accusing me of lying," Santana gets up from her seat getting up in Rachel's face.
"Okay guys everyone starring over here. Calm down." Quinn decides to involve herself as she started noticing the cafeteria getting quiet and all eyes were on them.
"Alright, yesterday was not cool. We have to learn to work together. So… since deciding on set list was a hard task, let's start somewhere small first." Terri addresses the Glee club and starts writing on the white board.
Now that she had someone wanting her job and watching every little step she does, she was trying to take this serious.
"We need a name for our Glee Club. And no fighting today."
"I had a list of potential names for the Glee club in my notebook, which I'm pretty sure Santana stole from me." Rachel grumbles.
"I didn't steal your note—"
"No, no, no fighting," Terri stops Santana. "We'll go around the room and take everyone's suggestion and put them on the whiteboard and try to all agree on one okay? Let's start with wheels." She points at Artie.
Terri went through each member but nothing sounded right. Everyone was thinking to themselves, brainstorming for a name.
Quinn was drawing in her notebook, half listening to Miss. Del Monico. A name for a bunch of loser is hard to come up with. She couldn't help but think this wasn't how she picture her sophomore year of high school was going to be. Everything was going to change now that they were part of the Glee Club, whether they like it or not. Maybe it wouldn't be that bad. Everything else was changing in her life. She no longer lived under her dad's strict rules and she spending more time with her sober mom. She didn't feel she needed to act a certain way. Ever since her dad left, it was like she was finally able to breathe for the first time.
She was even being civil around Rachel.
This was all new.
A New Direction.
Her head pops up from her notebook. She looks around the room and sees everyone talking amongst themselves and Miss Del Monico was still looking at the white board with blank look on her face.
"New Directions." She said out loud.
Everyone turn their heads towards the head cheerleader.
"Wanky." Santana smirks.
Quinn rolls her eyes at her friend's immaturity.
Rachel gives her a friendly smile. Finally Quinn was participating in something.
Quinn walks down the steps gracefully and stands in front of the choir room.
"Whatever reason we have that made us decide to join this club, it brought an unusual group together. Some of us get along, some of us don't. But this is all new to us all and I believe it's the start of something special."
"I like it," Rachel said agreeing with Quinn.
Quinn returns her smile, grateful for her support.
"I guess it's better than Streisand Sucks," Santana shrugs.
"It's sound like Nude….," Santana covers Brittany's mouth before she could finish.
Everyone else murmurs their agreement and decides it did actually fit the group of outcast.
"Miss Del Monico, can I have the floor now?" Santana walks up as Quinn was making her way back to her seat.
"Sure, Santana." Terri moves aside for her.
"Since we couldn't agree on anything about the set list for Sectionals, I thought we can split up in four groups of three and have each group perform whatever they want. This way we can get a better assessment on everyone's talent."
"That's a great idea." Tina is the first one to jump on board.
"Thanks."
Brittany looks proud that Santana was able to compromise with the group.
Quinn was also so proud she able to talk sense into her friend.
"I agree." Terri takes back over. "Let's spend the rest of rehearsal finding our groups."
Everyone immediately starts talking loudly. It wasn't hard to find groups as everyone had their own clique.
First group was, of course, Santana, Brittany and Quinn. Second group was Rachel, Finn and Puck. Third Group was Kurt, Mercedes, and Artie. And the Fourth group was Mike, Tina, and Matt.
Rachel elliptical broke, so until her Dads buys her a replacement—she has been running the small path around town.
After her run, she stops by the Lima Bean to grab a light refresher. As she waits for her order, she notices a familiar blonde at the back corner table. She contemplates for a moment whether her not to speak to Quinn. She was so confused why every time she sees Quinn her heart starts flutters uncontrollably.
It was so confusing.
This girl use to bully her.
But ever since she saw Quinn in the auditorium and had accidentally discovered a different side of her, she no longer saw a girl who bullied her. And to the cheerleader's defense, she hasn't been doing any bullying lately.
When she does, there was a certain bite that was missing. Like she didn't mean it. She had an overwhelming feeling to want to get to know more of the new Quinn Fabray.
As her order was ready, she made a snap decision to walk over and say hi to Quinn.
"Withering Heights never would a guess you were a romantic."
"I full of secrets. Are you stalking me?" Quinn dryly responds.
"No, I was out for a run and I was thirsty."
"Well looks like you got your drink, now be on your way." Quinn tells her wanting to be left alone.
Rachel ignores her and occupies the seat across form her.
Quinn exhales and closes her book.
Apparently Rachel couldn't just say hi and leave.
"Are you reading for a class?"
"No, for pleasure can you go now." Quinns asks obvious annoyed.
"I wouldn't peg you for a bookworm." Rachel continues ignoring the blonde's request.
"I'm a straight A student, why wouldn't I like to read."
"I know you're smart I wasn't trying to insult you but you have that HBIC persona at school."
"So you are stereotyping me, the head cheerleader must be a ditz." Quinn mocks.
Rachel shakes her head vehemently, not wanting to offend Quinn.
"No, no not at all. This is coming out all wrong. What I'm trying to say is—"
"I'm just joking with you calm down." Quinn smiles taking pity on Rachel when she notice how fluster she became.
"Oh, you normally don't joke with me." Rachel shyly points out.
"As opposed to making jokes about you?" Quinn smirks.
"I supposed."
"I don't have the energy lately, but don't misconstrue my behavior in thinking that I like you." Quinn's tone was playful.
Rachel smiled at how easily the fell into a playful banter.
Finn was always confused when she would talk.
"I almost didn't recognize you. I didn't know you wore glasses?" Rachel says as she took in the blonde's appearance.
Her hair was in a messy bun, no cheerio outfit, and she was wearing glasses.
The blonde still looked beautiful.
Rachel found herself growing more attractive to the blonde.
"You really now how to rile Santana up, don't you?" Quinn stirs the conversation to something other than her.
She watched as Rachel huffed in frustration at hearing the Latina's name.
"I don't know what her problem is. It's like she there to ruin me and of all of my dreams. I tried so hard on getting Mr. Ryerson fired because he only allowed boys to joined glee. And I succeeded, only now I'm getting nowhere with Miss. Del Monico and Santana leading our group. It's almost like nobody sees how good I am. I didn't think Figgins with going to get Miss. Del Monico as our glee director. I thought it was going to be someone like Mr. Shuester." Rachel rants rapidly.
Quinn grimaces at the thought as Mr. Shuester as director, that would've been horrible
"I know Santana can be difficult…she's…" Quinn starts.
"She's Satan." Rachel finishes.
Quinn has seen how talented Rachel is. Sure she talks too much and can be slightly annoying, persistent, and overzealous but underneath all of that she is unbelievable passionate about singing and performing. It was refreshing and inspiring to Quinn to see someone that knows exactly what they want in life. Though she would never admit it to anyone.
"Don't ever stop being yourself, Rachel. Prove everyone wrong. Forget about all those people who put you down, including me. I know you going get out of this stupid town and make something of yourself while the rest of us are going to be stuck here. They're just jealous. I was."
Rachel looks at the blonde in awe. She breaks eye contact with the blonde and looked down at the table and feeling a blush creeping up her face.
"Why are you being nice to me? Santana is your best friend."
"I don't know. I don't want to be that girl that everyone wants be to be, you know. The pretty, blonde headed, vapid cheerleader. And as for Santana, she'll get over it."
"If you say so." Rachel was still not convinced even though she did feel a little better.
"We are going to kick ass at the glee club rehearsal. "Say a little prayer?" That so genius Quinn." Santana excitedly says at Quinn's locker.
"Yeah, I think we'll be great. Thanks to B's choreography. "
"Thanks, Quinn." The taller blonde smiles while playing with Santana hair.
"My girl kick ass."
"I still don't know why I have to sing lead." Quinn complains.
"You said if I wanted to start earning these loser's respect, maybe showing them I didn't take the lead will make them willing to listen to me in the future."
"I guess." Quinn frowns as she realizes sometimes her advice bites her back in the ass.
"You'll be great Q." Brittany encourages.
"Thanks B."
"I can always showcase my voice another time."
Santana saw Finn and Rachel on the opposite side of Quinn's locker.
"How did we get stuck with lockers across from the Tweedle Dweeb and Tweedle dumb?"
"Finn still cheats off my test and puts my name where his is supposed to go." Brittany tells them.
"What an idiot." The brunette shakes her head.
Quinn looks at Santana with a serious look on her face. "Honestly, did you take her notebook?"
Santana turns to the blonde, confused. "Why do you care?"
"She is a member of glee, so play nice if you want them to work with you." Quinn says getting her answer.
"I will never be nice to her or her oaf boyfriend."
"I don't care about Finn, he's an idiot."
"Then why did you date him the beginning of freshman year?"
"I don't know it was expected, I guess. He was a shoo in for quarterback and I was a guarantee head cheerleader when I became a sophomore. I ended as soon as I heard him talk. There was no way he was going to keep up with me."
Santana nods in understanding.
"Let's go guys before we are late for glee." Brittany drags both of them to the choir room.
She was very excited to perform for everyone.
Everyone had just finished their number and Terri was shockingly impressed. They weren't where they needed to be but it was a good start. She could work with this. But it still didn't solve what songs they were going to sing at Sectionals.
They were all good but not good enough.
"So what do you think Miss Del Monico?" Santana asks as her group finishes.
"You guys were amazing. The cheerios was the best group. I think they should choose what song we sing at Sectionals." Terri announces as she stands in front of the whole class.
"What? That's not fair. You're playing favorites. Of course you're going to pick the cheerleaders." Rachel accuses.
"We kicked your ass and you know it." Santana retorts.
"We did an amazing rendition of Lady Antebellum." Rachel shoots back at the Latina.
"You guys were horrible." Britt comments dryly.
"Hey, we should do Bruno Mars, who doesn't like Bruno mars?" Artie propose.
"Our Katy Perry number was popping." Mike Chang adds.
"Alright guys, we don't have a lot of time to take in everyone suggestions. Santana is our captain and she'll pick out a number for us to do. Sectionals are in two months. Then if we get past that we can all have a turn on the next set list." Terri says only to stop the arguing.
"Great, there goes our shot. We're never going to win Sectionals if she doesn't cooperate with any us. She won't showcase our best singers, she'll be upfront with her friends and the rest of us will sway in the background." Rachel was really getting tired of Santana.
"Shut it, Man Hands, I know how to take a team into victory." Santana tells her.
She was also tired that none of theses people were taking her seriously.
"Rachel's right." Kurt says.
Santana inhales sharply and rolls her eyes. It was totally her fault she let these loser in this club.
"Rachel voice is amazing. She deserves a shot."
Santana butts in.
"No, I'm captain okay. Get that in your head. I'm choosing the set list. And if you've got ideas then bring them up to me, but I get the final say. Rehearsal's are over. Come on Britt." She grabs her stuff and walks out with Brittany hot on her tails.
"Um I guess everyone is dismissed." Miss Del Monico said.
The next day at school, none of the gleeks were happy about yesterday rehearsals.
Rachel and Finn were in class whispering back and forth to each other.
"Miss Del Monico is ruining glee. She's letting Santana do whatever she wants."
"I told you it wasn't a good idea. The cheerio's have control of Glee. I don't know about you but have you seen what the make the other cheerios do? It's torture. They are train leaders by Sue Sylvester and she is the devil. We should get out now before it gets worse."
"It can't get worse. Can it?" Rachel asks.
"Maybe we can get someone to replace Miss Del Monico? She's the one giving Santana all her powers."
"I've already got rid of one teacher. I can't do that to another one. I'm not going be that person in beauty pageants that sabotages, just so I can win. I think we have to play nice with Santana." Rachel says reluctantly.
"That was kind of crazy how you got Mr. Ryerson fired."
A couple of desk behind them, Santana and Quinn were also whispering to each other.
"What was up with yesterday? I thought you were trying to get the glee clubs respect?"
"There is only so much I can take, Q." Santana replies. "It's hard when they all gang up me. And what's up with you? You should have my back yesterday."
"Then it would have looked like the popular girls were taking over."
"Whatever, I don't know why the midget thinks she can talk to me that way."
"We'll figure something out. We can't function like a group. It would be the end of glee club."
"Maybe it's for the best." Santana shrugs tired of it all.
When the bell rings the girls grab their stuff and heads towards the hallway still talking about glee.
"Maybe this whole glee thing was a bad idea." Santana regretting her choices.
"Yeah maybe it was." A man voice looms over them.
Santana and Quinn turns around at the same time and finds Karosky and Azimo, each with a slushies in their hands.
"I've always wanted to do this." Azimo snickers at them.
"You throw those slushies at us and I will ends you." Santana threaten.
A group of students starts gathering around to watch the scene unfold.
"If you get our uniform dirty, coach will murder you guys. I would think twice about what you're doing." Quinn adds getting into HBIC mode.
"The two most powerful students have joined glee club, do you really think you would still be slushie free. We can't have the school hierarchy mess with. We have to show this school how lame glee club is. And it will be a big message with you guys as our targets. And I never like you guys." Karosky says with an evil smirk.
"You think you guys are going to get away with this. Karosky don't make me tell the whole school about your dirty secret. And Azimo, your family have found themselves in some legal trouble haven't they Now me and my girl are going to walk away, and you guys can go back being dickheads to someone else. Come on, Q."
Santana and Quinn starts to walk away.
They knew that Karosky was furious.
They got away this time but they know it won't be that easy the next time. As they were about to get to their lockers, they heard a splash.
Guess Karosky found another target.
Quinn closes her eyes feeling bad for whoever was the receiving end of the slushie after they made him angry.
This was not good.
She opens her eyes and looks down the hall to see who it was.
The slushies was covering their face but she can recognize that person anywhere. This had to stop. As angry as she was at the moment, she knew she had to control herself from attacking Karosky on the spot.
That had to wait for another day.
She looks at Rachel again and she could almost see tears.
She also notices that Finn was nowhere to be seen.
"That guy is such a douche. Even Man hands didn't deserve that." Santana breaks Quinn out of her thoughts.
"We'll get him back." Quinn promises.
Instead of heading to class, Quinn gives Santana a lame excuse that she forgot something in her locker but really she went searching for Rachel. She tries the closest girl's restroom, thinking Rachel ran quickly to the nearest restroom she can find. When she walks in she didn't see anyone until she hears a soft sob coming from one of the stalls. She bends down to find the one Rachel was hiding in and gently knocks on the stall. She honestly doesn't know what she's doing here. But she needed to make sure Rachel was okay.
"Please go away." Rachel barely gets out.
"It's Quinn. Come on, open the door." Quinn softly says.
"I just want to be left alone."
"You've got to change out of those clothes or you're going to get sick."
"I was so preoccupied was glee, I forgot to bring any extra clothes today." Rachel finally opens the door.
Rachel looks horrible. Quinn wordlessly grabs her hand and starts dragging out of the girl's restroom.
"Quinn, where are we going?" Rachel asks scared not wanting to leave the restroom in her state.
"Everyone's in class so no one will see you. I'm taking you to the Cheerio's locker room for a shower. And I've got some extra clothes for you." Quinn explains.
"Thanks, but that's not really necessary. I was just going to call my dads."
"It's fine, really. Now come on."
Quinn was still holding Rachel's hand, leading the way towards the locker rooms. Once they were there, Quinn finds some clothes and directs Rachel to the showers. She was going to get in so much trouble if Sue Sylvester ever found out that she let Rachel in here, but she felt she had to do something.
She should have taken the slushie instead Rachel. So if she gets punish, she deserves it.
She waits patiently until Rachel was done with her shower. Ten minutes later the small brunette comes back out in just a towel in front of her. Her breath gets caught in her throat. Rachel really did have amazing legs. Maybe this wasn't a good idea after all. Averting her eyes, she hands Rachel the clothes she had.
"Those should work even though they're not argyle." The blonde jokes.
Rachel accepts the clothing and accidentally brushes her fingers with Quinn's.
They both jumped back shocked at the contact.
"Thanks."
"Sure, I'll just turn around."
Rachel nods her thanks and starts getting dressed.
Quinn had a hard time thinking about anything else than Rachel's naked body that was only a few feet away for her.
"You can turn around now."
Quinn looks at Rachel. Quinn was in awe. Rachel looks really hot wearing Quinn's clothes. That was something she could get use to.
"I'll have these back to you tomorrow." Rachel shyly says as she pulls nervously at her shirt.
"No problem." Quinns sputters. "Um..we should go. We already miss one class today."
"Sure." Rachel said making her way to the exit. She didn't know what to say to Quinn. She wasn't use to the blonde being so nice to her.
Quinn stands still allowing Rachel pass her. She wanted to stay something.
"Wait." Quinn starts and waits for Rachel turn around.
"What is it Quinn?"
Quinn takes a few more steps towards Rachel, so she was right in front of her.
"I'm sorry that this happen to you. It should have been Santana and I."
"It's okay. I'm not mad at you. I was actually expected one ever since we join glee."
"No, it's not okay. I'm going to try to stop them. Karosky is such a jerk. He's going to get what's coming to him. And I'm sorry that I ever did this to you. I was such an idiot." Quinn looks ashamed talking about her past actions.
Rachel watches Quinn in awe. She can see the regret and anger in Quinn's face. She could see that the blonde was going to beat herself up over this. She didn't know what possesses her but all she was think was she wanted to wash away that guilt that Quinn had on her face.
She slowly reaches up with one hand and softly touches Quinn's cheek.
Quinn features immediately soften as she feels Rachel soft palm against her face. She stares into Rachel's eyes. She watches as the brunette's eyes moved down to her lips. She unconsciously licks her lips in anticipation. She knew what Rachel was thinking and she wanted it too. She knew she should stop this. Even though Rachel's boyfriend was a complete douche bag, she didn't want whatever was going on between her and Rachel to start like this.
As Rachel lean in to capture her lips, Quinn makes a quick decision and turns her head so Rachel would get her cheek.
Rachel pulls back and snaps back into reality and realizes what she almost did.
She had a boyfriend.
She can't believe she almost kissed Quinn.
"Oh my god. I'm so sorry, Quinn." Rachel pulls away immediately and starts to run out the door.
"Wait Rachel."
But it was too late. She was already out the door. Quinn touches the cheek that Rachel had kissed and can feel it still tingled.
"I'm sorry, Rachel. If I knew those jerk were going to slushie you, I would have came as soon has I heard. Coach Beiste wanted me to stay over and work on the playbook." Finn caught up to Rachel at her locker before their last class.
"It's alright, Finn. I'm fine." Rachel opens her locker to switch out her books for her last class.
"I'm going to kick their asses."
"You know I don't like violence." Rachel was half listening to Finn.
His apologizes were always the same. She was still thinking about what happened in the locker room with Quinn.
What was going on with her?
Of course Quinn would never return her feelings for her. She was so stupid. Not only that, she herself had a boyfriend.
She wasn't a cheater.
As Finn was still going on with his rant of beating up his teammates, Rachel's eyes caught something in her locker. She smiles a little as her pink bedazzled notebook full of her sheet music she was looking for was neatly resting on top of her books. She knows it wasn't there before. Someone returned it for her and she has a strong feeling who it was. She grabs the notebook to find a post-it note on the front.
"Hope you don't mind, I added a few of my own music sheets. By the way keep the clothes, they look good on you."
Rachel smiles brightly fills her face.
She opens the binder to the first page and found that Quinn did indeed add something to her notebook.
It was perfect.
She closes her locker and interrupts Finn.
"I think we got a song. Come on, Finn."
Terri waits restlessly in the choir room for the glee club but no one showed up.
Well that was that.
Did she really think she could win a singing competition when she had no idea about any of this stuff? Guess that fur ball was right. She was going to fail. She couldn't even control her class. They were fighting all the time about everything.
She sighs heavily and she gives up waiting for her members. She starts packing her things up, locks the door, and turns off the lights.
She was walking down the hallway, towards the exit when she hears some music coming from the auditorium. She make her way towards the music into the auditorium to find the glee club sing "Don't Stop Believing."
She almost cries tears of joy.
They didn't give up on her. They were amazing together. Everyone sounds great. They actually got together and agreed on something.
This can work.
She wasn't going to give up on them.
Next Chapter: New Direction's Competition.