CHAPTER THREE

The next day was fairly uneventful. Until glee, that is.

Damian and Marissa walked into the choir room to find most of the group standing in a circle around Lindsay and McKynleigh, who were shouting words at each other that Damian had a feeling his mother wouldn't have approved of.

Most of the club was clueless as to why the usually calm girls were fighting in the first place, until McKynleigh spoke up.

"I can't believe you called me a slut just for your stupid campaign for class president!"

Cameron flinched at the word.

"Well at least I'm not sleeping my way to the top! Or should I say, having my brother do it for me," Lindsay answered, venomously, "I'm only being honest. That's politics. If you can't take the heat, get-"

Lindsay was cut off as McKynleigh launched herself at the shrieking girl.

Marissa didn't think that this battle would be over very soon, so she made her way over to a seat near the back of the choir room. She watched as Cameron tried (and failed) to break the two girls apart and noticed Damian making his way towards the chair next to her.

"Do they always fight like this?"

"Usually they do. I would've thought that they have matured by now; they've been doing this since kindergarten. But usually with less profanities," she answered. "So you live with Cameron, huh? You like it here in America? It must be way different from Ireland."

"Yeah, it's pretty different from back home, but I love it here. Cameron is like my brother, so I guess that's part of why I'm having a great time. He told me about you two the other night. I just thought I should let you know."

"Well we hadn't exactly ended our friendship on a very good note before I left. But maybe that's a good thing. Maybe we needed some time away from each other to realize how lucky we were to have each other. Last week, when I first saw him, it's like something inside of me snapped. I hadn't realized how miserable I had been without him. I guess that's why it was so easy to forgive him."

Just then, a furious looking Will Schuester ran into the room. He pulled the two girls apart; they hadn't suffered any real damage, only a few scratch marks and pulled hair.

"EVERYONE SIT DOWN!" An enraged Mr. Schuester shouted. "I've already had to break up two fights between members of this club since rehearsal yesterday! Glee club is a family. I want you guys to start treating each other like family. That's why every Friday night you guys will meet at my house for a family dinner until I see an improvement. Starting tomorrow at six o'clock."

"Excuse me, but some of us already have plans for our Friday nights," Bryce said.

"You will cancel them. These family dinners are mandatory. Either you come or you're out of the club."

Mr. Schuester spent the rest of glee club discussing music theory while no one paid attention.

"So this week for your very first glee club assignment will be songs by the classic European pop band, ABBA. If you want to do a duet or a group number then that's fine, but you can do a solo if you would like to. See you tomorrow night."

The group quickly dispersed, already thinking of songs to sing and groups to perform in.

Damian turned to Marissa. "I sang an ABBA song for my audition, so I don't really want to do another solo. Do you want to be partners?"

"Yeah, I'd love to. That sounds like fun!" She answered; unaware of the pair of jealous eyes watching them.

Cameron gave Damian one last envious glance before choosing his partner.

Two hours later, Marissa was practicing with Damian in the room that he was sharing with Cameron. It was obvious which side belonged to Damian. It was very clean and organized with a framed picture of his friends and family in Ireland.

Cameron's half, however, was just as messy, if not worse than it was when Marissa left two years ago. Posters had been slapped onto the wall and the bed looked like it hadn't been made in weeks. The one thing that stood out was among the disaster zone was a framed picture sitting on his bedside table.

Marissa remembered the day the photo had been taken. She had dragged him to the mall with her to go shopping for a dress to wear to the eighth grade end of the year dance. That was only two weeks before their friendship had ended abruptly.

Damian's voice broke her out of her thoughts, "Marissa, Cameron's mom wanted to know if you wanted to stay for dinner."

"Oh, I don't think so. I should be getting home soon anyway."

Damian walked her to her car. "So… umm… that was fun," he said awkwardly.

"Yeah, it was. I'll see you tomorrow, Damian."

Dinner that night went by in an awkward blur at the Mitchell house. Cameron was glaring at Damian and he had no idea why. That is, until they were going to bed.

"So you and Marissa. What happened to Lindsay?" Cameron asked, anger clear in his voice.

"Oh, is that what this is about? I didn't mean to 'steal your girl' or whatever, so calm down. The two of you are the only people I actually know here and I thought you said you were over her!" Damian shouted back. "Besides, why are you acting so weird about this? You're not jealous, are you, Cameron?" Damian smirked.

"Of course not," Cameron lied, "I have a great partner already. And our duet is going to be amazing."

"Really? Who is it?"

"Lindsay."

The next day passed by pretty quickly for Cameron. It wasn't until he was approached by Lindsay during study hall that he realized the day was almost over.

"What is with you?" she broke through his daydreams about a certain redhead.

"What do you mean?"

"We've had the same classes every year since preschool, and you've never made an effort to talk to me. Now all of a sudden you want to be duet partners." Cameron cringed when he realized how quickly his plan was falling apart. "You like her, don't you? Marissa. You have for a while, now. I see you staring at her. And you're jealous that she chose Damian as her partner, so you're trying to make her jealous, too."

"Is it that obvious?"

She nodded.

"Wait, if you know all of this, then why did you say yes?"

"The same reason you asked in the first place. To make Damian jealous," she stated, bluntly. "Now I have a fantastic ABBA song to express our feelings for our respective romantic interests…"

"Wait, wait. So he's partners with Lindsay Pearce just so he can get back at you? This is too great!" Marissa laughed.

"How is this a good thing? At least I know you don't have feelings for me. What if Lindsay falls for Cameron and his quirky style and boyish charms?" Damian asked, frantically.

"Don't worry about it. Lindsay is very professional with her music. Plus, Cameron gets really funny when he's jealous," she said.

"Yeah, I do have to admit, it was pretty hilarious when he was shouting and his voice got all high pitched."

"Exactly. And I have the perfect idea for a song that we can do for our assignment. I can assure you that it will be very entertaining." she smiled mischievously.

Damian listened intently while she explained their plan, his eyes lighting up with every detail.

This was going to be good.

Lindsay was the first to arrive at Mr. Schue's apartment. As she sat on his couch, waiting for the others to arrive, she reflected the day's events, as she always did before dinner, although this usually took place in her bedroom, not a grown man's living room. She was very excited to perform with Cameron the next week. She had a feeling their voices would compliment each other very well. She also thought about Damian.

He had stopped by her locker at the end of the day to make sure he got Mr. Schue's address right. Sure, it wasn't like he had asked her to homecoming or anything, but he could've asked anyone in the entire glee club, and he asked her. That had to mean something, right?

She pushed the thought aside as she heard a knock on the front door. Mr. Schuester ran to the door to reveal, not one of the students, but a very angry looking blond woman.

Mr. Schuester's grin vanished when he saw her. But the woman wasn't looking at him.

She was staring directly at Lindsay.

AUTHOR'S NOTE: I am SO sorry! I had no intention of waiting this long to update this story. I had severe writer's block. Then Harry Potter came out and I was an emotional wreck for about a week. And then Marissa and Cameron left, which made me sad. And I still had writer's block. Then I signed up for Pottermore, and then I had some more writer's block. Which brings us to today, when I forced myself to finish this chapter, which I had been writing bits and pieces of for the past 3 weeks. So it's a bit choppy, but I tried really hard.

Again, I'm sorry.

But what did you think of it? Besides the horribley awkward choppiness.

Anything you'd like to see happen in this story? Glee assignments? Pairings? General events? I WILL NOT take so long for the next chapter, I promise! Let me know what you thought, though. Reviews are always appreciated and help motivate me!