As the Cheerios jumped around the gym with jump ropes in hand, their sneakers squeaking against the shiny floor, Sally sat in the bleachers, musing quietly in the back of her head about how excited she had been when she heard there was going to be a jump rope routine and how she wouldn't be able to do it.
"You shouldn't do this to yourself," Ralph said quietly. She hadn't even noticed him walking in and sitting next to her.
"Do what?" Sally asked blankly, staring out into the crowd of cheerleaders.
"I know how much it hurts to be off the team," Ralph began, his voice empathetic. "You're just torturing yourself watching."
"I need a good distraction," Sally explained, shaking her head weakly as she watched Ryan pace back and forth, yelling corrections at the jump roping cheerleaders.
"From what?" Ralph inquired as sensitively as he could. Sally heaved a heavy sigh, reached into the white purse at her side, pulling out a slip of paper, handing it to her boyfriend, whose eyes grew wide once he scanned his eyes across it. "Six-hundred and eighty-five dollars?"
"That's how much a sonogram costs," Sally said, moving her eyes away from the cheerleading routine and to a very shocked Ralph. "This is just the beginning, there's gonna be more doctor's visits, vitamins... new clothes for when I explode…"
"What are we gonna do?" Ralph asked, already feeling panicky.
"What are you gonna do?" Sally spat. She was a pregnant woman; she couldn't get a job without explaining to her parents why she would have to go on maternity leave.
"Well, I'm looking for a job... nobody's hiring," Ralph frowned regretfully. "I almost got in at Olive Garden, but they said I was too tall to be a bus boy."
Sally gathered every ounce of power she had and used it to keep a level head. She thanked her pregnancy hormones for the moment of calm. "Somewhere in that pea brain of yours is a man," she said. "Access him and tell him to prove to me I chose the right guy to have a baby with."
"I will! I'll get a job, you can count on me, I swear," Ralph said urgently as Sally stood up, grabbing her purse and hauling it over her shoulder. She turned to face him and nodded uncertainly. "Where are you going?"
"You're right," Sally mumbled. "This does hurt too much."
She walked across the bleachers as to not have to face Ryan, who was being interviewed by Tinker.
"My blog has lit up with comments suggesting you don't have a chance at nationals since you lost Sally Albright," he said after he peered back at the very girl he was talking about. He then pointed his microphone at Ryan.
"No, the Cheerios are stronger than ever," Ryan corrected. "We're gonna take nationals with this routine."
One of the male cheerleaders did several back flips with his jump rope still in his hands, landing straight on his feet and doing several more jumps before the routine ended. "Mediocre!" Ryan screeched into his megaphone. "Hit the showers!"
Tinker continued to hound Ryan with questions as he left the gym. "I have several sources reporting that Sally didn't want to leave, but you kicked her out due to the pregnancy scandal," he suggested as they left the large room.
"Well, Tinker, this is Ohio, and in order to win, my Cheerios need to appeal to that panel of judges. So, if I have a pregnant girl doing hand-spring a double layout, the judges aren't going to be admiring her impeccable form, they're going to be wondering weather the centrifugal force is going to make the baby's head start crowning. Oh, and by the way? All of this?" he grabbed Tinker's microphone as they walked down the hallway, and Tinker gasped. "Off the record, probably should've told you that earlier."
But Paul walked down the same hallway with Lassiter with a very different issue on his mind.
"This is not fair," he grumbled.
"Is it fair that I had to stop providing the baseball team with protective cups?" Lassiter asked rhetorically. "I only get a certain amount of dollars per year to spend, Paul."
"Yeah but the club-"
"Is used to overcoming challenges," Lassiter said as they walked down the hall and into his office. "Some of your kids can drive; most of them have parents who can drive them. We have budget cuts, Paul, major budget cuts. I can't afford to pay for your transportation to sectionals."
"Oh, but there's enough money to fly the Cheerios all over the country for their competitions?" Paul challenged.
"Ryan Sylvester has boosters that write fat checks," Lassiter explained as he sat at his desk. "None of her travel expenses come out of the school budget."
"Look, when I was in the glee club, the best part of the competitions was the bus ride to the event," Paul began sincerely, his voice softening. "It was about comradery and supporting each other."
"You think I feel good about this?" Lassiter asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Well, my students won't stand for it,"
"That's very moving, but my hands are tied, Paul," Lassiter explained. "If you want that bus, you're going to have to find a way to pay for it yourself."
Paul stared at Lassiter in disbelief, but he knew he could find some way to provide the funds. He just had to think of something…
~L~
"What about Target?" Sally asked desperately as she sat next to Ralph on one of the many chairs in the choir room.
"Tried," Ralph explained. "Not hiring."
"Another doctor's bill came to my parents' house last night, Ralph," Sally said, panic clearly rising in her voice. "We're lucky that I'm clever and I intercepted it, but we have to start paying these doctor's bills or else they're gonna go to a collection agency, and they're gonna find out that I'm with child... your child!"
Neither Sally nor Ralph noticed that Derek was eavesdropping, looking at Sally guiltily, but also sadly. That baby was his responsibility, and he did want to take care of it, but that would mean the secret getting out, and he wasn't sure if Sally would let that happen.
"Alright, guys, we're doing a new number for sectionals," Paul called cheerily as he walked into the choir room with sheets of paper, passing them out to the students. "I know that pop pieces have sort of been our signature pieces, but I did some research on past winners, and it turns out that judges like stuff that's more accessible, stuff they know, uh, standards, Broadway."
"Defying Gravity?" Sheldon gasped, his eyes wide as saucers as he sat next to Emily, squeezing her hand what may have been a little too tightly. "I have an entire iPod shuffle dedicated to selections from Wicked... this is amazing!"
Paul smiled, but turned to Casey quickly, asking if her if she could handle it. Sheldon looked at Paul disappointedly, but the teacher was too wrapped up in the excitement of the new number to notice.
"It's my go-to shower song," Casey grinned. "It's also my ringtone."
"Great," Paul grinned. "Onto item two… she school won't pay the expenses we need to travel to sectionals together."
"What?" Sam asked in disbelief.
"That's completely unfair," Casey agreed.
"So, we're gonna have to raise money to pay for it ourselves," Paul said. "See, when I was in glee club, and we needed new silk cummerbunds for regionals, we held a bake sale."
The students peered at their teacher uncertainly and began to giggle collectively.
"Wait, you're kidding, right?" Kendra asked, her arms crossed. "I mean bake sales are kind of bourgie."
"So, hip people stopped eating delicious sugary treats?" Paul asked sarcastically with his arms crossed.
"It's not that, it's just, most of us don't know how to bake," Amy said from her seat next to Kendra. "I find recipes confusing."
"My family's fully committed to take out," Derek said passively.
"Yeah, Paul, kids are busier now than they were when you went to school," Ralph tried to explain. "We've got homework, football, teen pregnancy... lunch."
"Can't we just drive there ourselves?" Emily asked, tilting her head to the side. "Or get our parents to drive us?"
"I can't believe you guys," Paul began, shaking his head. "You're a team; don't you want to act like a team? Be a team?"
"I don't see what riding in a bus together has to do with being a team," Casey spoke, and the rest of the students nodded in agreement, with the acceptation of Noel, who sat in the corner quietly.
"Anything that takes away time from rehearsal isn't serving the team," Sheldon added logically.
The bell rang, and Paul looked away from the glee clubbers in disappointment, but he tried not to show it. The students poured out of the room, but Noel walked up to him before leaving, his backpack slung over only one shoulder.
"For the record, I don't agree with them," He began. "And um, do you think I could maybe use the auditorium this afternoon to rehearse? Some of the band equipment is in there."
"Sure," Paul smiled. "Thanks for agreeing with me."
~L~
Noel stood on the stage of the auditorium with an acoustic guitar in his hands, an instrument that he had played since he was eleven. He strummed the first few notes of a personal favorite song, and then began to sing.
"On the floor of Tokyo, or down in London town to go, go," he sang, moving his shoulders with the music. "With the record selection and the mirror's reflection, I'm dancing with myself."
"When there's no one else in sight in a crowded lonely night, well I waited so long for my love vibration, and I'm dancing with myself," his voice was sweet and calm, having a bit of a bluesy feel to it. "Oh, dancing with myself, dancing with myself, well there's nothing to lose, and there's nothing to prove, I'll be dancing with my self."
"If I looked all over the world, and there's every type of girl, but your empty eyes seem to pass me by and leave me dancing with myself," he walked around the stage with his guitar in his arms as he sang, and absent mindedly thought of Sandra. They had talked a few times, and he couldn't help but feel himself maybe… beginning to like her. But there is an unspoken knowledge between guys of how they act when they're into a girl, and it usually consists of staring googly-eyed stares towards that girl, and Sam and noticed Noel noticing Sandra. He also would not stop poking fun at him. "So let's sink another drink 'cause it'll give me time to think, if I had the chance, I'd ask the world to dance, and I'll be dancing with myself."
"Oh, dancing with myself, dancing with myself, well there's nothing to lose and there's nothing to prove so I'll be dancing with myself," he sang with a light smile on his face in spite of everything, staring out into the empty seats of the auditorium. "Oh, dancing with myself, dancing with myself, well there's nothing to lose and there's nothing to prove so I'll be dancing with myself."
Paul approached one of the wings of the stage and looked at Noel, and felt proud of him because he cared so much.
~L~
"I have something I'd like to say," Sheldon announced as he raised his hand. When Paul gave him the go-ahead, he stood up. "I wanna audition for the Wicked solo."
The rest of the students whooped and 'ooh'ed collectively, but Casey snapped her vision towards Paul in worry.
"Sheldon, there's a high F in it," Paul said skeptically.
"That's well within my range," Sheldon assured him saucily, and beside him, Emily giggled.
"Well, I think Casey's gonna be fine for the female lead. But I'm happy to have you try out for something else, Sheldon, and we'll make sure it's got a killer high note," Paul tried to close the situation, but Sheldon assured himself that this was not over with a glare in his teacher's direction. "Anyway, I wanted to say something to you guys. I was a little disappointed how you were all so willing to not even try to build up the funds for the bus. It's not about going together; it's about being together and supporting each other. Don't you guys want to support each other?"
"I'm sorry to be blunt, Paul," Casey started. "But nobody really cares."
"I care," Noel said with a slight glare in Casey's direction. "Stop speaking for everybody."
"Why are you taking this personally?" Casey questioned, reeling back.
"You're irritating," Noel said, and Casey's eyebrows furrowed, and the rest of the club members looked back and forth like it was a tennis match. "Oh, sorry, did you take that personally?"
"Alright guys, that's enough. The point is that we're going to sectionals together, or we're not going at all. And to pay for the bus? We're having a bake sale," Paul turned and walked over to the piano where there was a box of brightly colored pieces of cloth. "Now, to prove to you just how much you all need each other, for the next three days, all of you are going to be leading someone and be led around in the school in between classes… blindfolded."
They all looked at him blankly.
"Seriously?" Kendra spluttered. "We're going to look ridiculous – not even I can pull that off."
"When I call off two names, you're going to walk up here and get two blindfolds," Paul explained. "Casey and Noel!"
The two exchanged a quick look and both grumbled in their heads, but stood up nonetheless. Casey grabbed a pink blindfold and Noel picked up a green one.
"Ralph and Emily," the two walked up, Emily grabbing a purple blindfold and Ralph picking up a dark blue one.
"Derek and Sam," the two lamented audibly, and Derek grabbed a black blindfold while Sam picked up a yellow one.
"Sheldon and Sally," Sheldon picked up a maroon blindfold and Sally grabbed a light blue one, and they acknowledged each other with a slight smile.
"Kendra and Sandra," Paul called.
"Ugh," Kendra grumbled, narrowing her eyes. "But she's unpopular. I have a reputation to protect!"
"Kendra, be nice," Sally commanded, and Kendra rolled her eyes, walking up to Paul and grabbing a bright red blindfold that matched her outfit, and Sandra picked up a violet one.
"Max and Amy," Paul said, and Max was a little less than enthusiastic when the last colors available were cyan and hot pink. Amy snatched up the hot pink one, leaving Max with an obnoxious color of blue.
"Well," Paul began with a grin. "I hope you all have fun."
"Loads," Derek cringed.
~L~
"Left," Noel said as he held Casey's wrist, guiding her down the hallway as he walked backwards.
"Left? But my next class is to the right," Casey said frustratedly. "Aren't you in that class, too?"
"My left," Noel sighed, rolling his eyes. "And yes."
"Well, you should've specified," Casey bit, and she heard a few snickers from some people around her. "Who was that?"
"Kendra. No, no, no, don't run into the locker!" Noel exclaimed, and they moved over a step or two. "She's ditching the blindfold thing unless she sees Paul around."
"Oh,"
"Hey, look, uh," Noel cleared his throat nervously as he guided her to her next class. "I'm sorry about calling you irritating and everything."
"It's fine," Casey waved it off, and she accidentally brushed up against what she thought was a guitar case. "I get that a lot."
"Yeah, you might want to work on that," Noel suggested, and the bell rang as they approached their English class. "Right on time."
~L~
"I didn't even know we had a Home Ec room," Derek commented as he walked into a small, homey room where Sally stood at a counter with plastic bowls and boxed items scattered around her. "What's all this?"
"Ingredients for cupcakes for the stupid bake sale," Sally explained nonchalantly.
Derek pulled something out of his pocket before grabbing Sally's hand and slipping it into her palm. "What's this?" She asked.
"It's what I have left over from my pool cleaning money," Derek said, leaning against the counter. "After I bought nacho dip and numchucks, I was getting that you kind of need money... for our kid."
"For my kid," Sally corrected, and he looked down at the floor. "Eighteen dollars?"
"How much has Ralph given you?" Derek asked with a very clear challenge in his voice.
"Just stop," Sally said, turning away from her ingredients for a moment. "I told you before, I don't care if that baby comes out with shaggy hair, I will go to my grave swearing that it's Ralph's."
She put the money back in his hand, but he leaned in and whispered in her ear, "It'd be pretty awesome if it had shaggy hair,"
"You are such an egghead," Sally whispered with a laugh.
"I'm not," Derek said softly, but before Sally could get too caught up in his brown eyes, she turned to the counter and reached for an egg. She held the soft, cold egg in her hand before splattering it onto his head and laughing, biting her lower lip, and her face read, 'You are now'.
Derek grinned and reached for some flower, flicking it in her face, and Sally returned with fistfuls of coco powder, but Derek poured sugar all over the top of her head.
"Hey," Sally squealed as Derek tossed baking powder at her. "That was perfectly measured!"
Sally threw a good three or four eggs at him, and Derek yelped in surprise, but he advanced on her after she quit a giggle fit, and she looked up at him.
"Thanks, Emily," Ralph said as he took off his blindfold, feeling somewhat dizzy. The two heard a light 'you're welcome' before Ralph fully walked in the room and saw two teenagers covered in baking ingredients. "What the hell?"
"We're baking," Sally giggled with a bounce.
"I can see that," Ralph said, dumbstruck as he scanned the two. He'd sort of baked with his grandma before, and he was pretty sure that never happened.
"I'm gonna go get changed," Derek said as he peered down at his egg-covered black collared shirt.
~L~
Sheldon sat with Emily at lunch, but while Emily spoke, she noticed that he wasn't acting quite himself. "Are you okay, honey?" she asked, placing a hand on his arm.
"Hmm?" he asked, slipping out of his daze.
"You," Emily began. "You're really out of it. What's going on?"
"Defying Gravity," Sheldon replied, picking at his food quietly. "I don't get why Paul won't even give me a chanceto sing it just because it's traditionally sung by a girl."
"I don't get it either, you sing like a girl," Emily exclaimed, but when Sheldon cast an odd look in her direction, she backtracked. "In a good way. I mean, come on, there's more crossover everywhere now. …Like that girl who joined the wrestling team."
"But her parents had to sue the school," Sheldon said, and he propped his head up on his hands, staring across the room.
"This is really getting you down, isn't it, babe?" Emily said with a frown.
"I'm full of ennui," Sheldon confirmed, but Emily eyed him confusedly. He noticed, and so he clarified. "It's really getting me down."
~L~
Emily knocked on the door to Paul's office, and he called out for her to come in.
"Oh, hello Emily," Paul said. "What's going on?"
"I'd like to speak with you," Emily said seriously as she shut the door. Paul's eyebrows furrowed, but he motioned for her to sit down. "I am here on behalf of Sheldon Shlepper. You cannot discriminate against the aforementioned because of his sex, religion, political affiliation or financial situation, and neither I nor he will stand for it."
"Excuse me?" Paul asked with a slight, confused laugh.
"Sheldon wants only the chance to be considered for the lead in the upcoming number, Defying Gravity, that you have selected for New Directions to perform and you have not given him that chance, and when he requested to audition for the part very reasonably, you rejected his requisition immediately," Emily accused. "You put on a blindfold and listen to my boyfriend sing, and you will swear you're hearing Ronnie Spector."
"Wait-"
"Don't try to backpannel on this," Emily held up her hand to stop him, but Paul held up his own hands in surrender.
"I was just going to agree with you," he admitted, and Emily's face seemed to grow very pleased with herself. "Now, I can't just give him the part, that would be just as wrong, but I can let him audition."
"That seems fair," Emily agreed, placing her folded hands in her lap. "But how do I know that you aren't already fixated on just giving Casey the part despite Sheldon's audition just to appeal to the judges?"
"I think I can come up with a reasonable solution,"
~L~
"I know this is going to be hard on you, Casey," Paul began as he prepared for a rehearsal. "But I can't in good conscience preach about becoming a team and then reject Kurt's request out of hand."
"So you're giving him my part?" Casey asked disappointedly with her blindfold pushed up to her forehead.
"No," Paul shook his head. "This is just an audition."
"This is totally unfair!" Casey exclaimed, only a few moments of rage away from stamping her foot like a frustrated five year old. "You gave me the part."
"And I will give it to you again if you can sing the song better than Sheldon," Paul promised. "Please go sit down, Casey."
Casey turned on her heel and sat next to Max as the seats were all arranged in a half-circle, and Paul began to explain the situation. Sheldon had been beaming ever since Emily told him that she had arranged a deal with Paul, and his face still held an ear-to-ear grin.
"Now, all of you are gonna judge," Paul explained, and everyone looked at each other. "And in the spirit of full access, each of you is gonna get a vote, whatever singer gets the most votes gets the part."
"This isn't going to be about talent, Paul," Casey said loudly, bitterness coating her voice. "This is going to be a popularity contest."
"Stop right there. Paul, if I may?" Sheldon said, and Paul moved aside as Sheldon walked up to the center of the room. "We all know I'm more popular than Casey. But, I want you to promise me you're going to vote for whoever sings the song better. Raise your right hand."
Ten hands shot up, but Amy mistook her right for her left.
"Your right hand, Amy," Sheldon corrected wearily.
"It's this one," Kendra whispered, tapping her right hand, and Amy exchanged that hand for the other.
"Repeat after me; I promise to vote for whoever sings the song better,"
"I promise to vote for whoever sings the song better," nine voices rang, but Emily's voice was caught up in the mix saying,
"I promise to vote, of course, for you!"
Sheldon smiled, but cast a look in Casey's direction that she wasn't particularly fond of, but the bell rang before she had the chance to dwell on it. As the students gathered their things and their blindfolds, Casey stopped before leaving the room, looking up at Paul as Noel stood by the door, waiting for her.
"Maybe one of these days," she began bitterly. "You'll find a way to create teaching moments without ruining my life."
She pointedly turned towards the door, slipped the blindfold over her eyes and let Noel lead her out, but she ran into the wall.
~L~
"Why am I in here?" Ryan questioned impatiently as he sat in Lassiter's office. "I have a Cheerios routine to polish that's gonna clench us nationals."
"Because I wanted to talk to you about the Cheerios," the principal replied, "Now, as you may know, Paul is trying to get funding for transportation to sectionals, and it got me thinking about the club. Do you remember how Paul held open auditions?"
"Yeah, and everyone got in," Ryan snarled.
"Well," Lassiter continued. "I am insisting you do the same with your Cheerios."
"I beg your pardon?"
"Cheerios is non-accessible, Ryan," Lassiter tried to reason with the seventeen year old, and he rolled his eyes. "It's by invitation only! I want to see a squad that reflects our community's diversity."
"This is absurd!" Ryan exclaimed, his eyes growing wide.
"Now that Sally Albright is off the squad, you will hold open auditions to fill her slot," Lassiter instructed, refusing to take no for an answer.
"Okay, let me break this down for you," Ryan began from his spot on the chair across from Lassiter. "There comes a point when you've gotta stop seeing people for what they look like, and ask them to show you what they can do. And as soon as a cheerleader rolls herself out onto the field in a wheelchair, she becomes decidedly less affective at cheering people up – it's just a fact!"
"No, Ryan, the fact is you've never given other students the fair share that they deserve," Lassiter pressed. "I'm asking you to try it, what do you have to lose? Maybe somebody at this school will surprise you."
~L~
"Cupcake?" Ralph called, holding one of the poorly iced cupcakes as someone in the cafeteria walked by, yet they ignored him. "These cupcakes suck, that's why we're not selling any."
"It's not the cupcakes, it's us," Sally corrected frustrated. You couldn't blame her for being angry, really… she was pregnant, she was being forced to sell cupcakes and walk around with a blindfold on. "Nobody wants to buy from losers, we're in glee club and we've been leading each other around in blindfolds!"
"She has a point," Derek agreed, slumped over in his chair. "Six months ago, I could've sold fifty of these from fear alone."
"Oh my God," Sally started as she saw Amy walking up to the stand with Becky, one of the Cognitively Challenged girls in the school on her arm, and no blindfold. "What is she doing?!"
"I actually think they're kind of friends," Ralph replied, gesturing towards the two.
"Amy's always cheating off of her test papers in math class," Derek deadpanned.
"Look at how many there are," Amy said as she walked up to the stand. "And look at how pretty they Becky!"
"Wow," Becky said happily.
"Amy, where's Max?" Kendra asked, eyeing her fellow cheerleader. "Where's your blindfold?"
"I lost mine," Amy lied.
"Are you a cheerleader?" Becky questioned, looking at Kendra who nodded and smiled lightly. "You're so cool!"
"So is buying a cupcake, that's really cool," Amy tried as she placed an arm around Becky's shoulders.
"But I don't have any money," Becky replied sadly.
"That's okay," Amy assured the girl; she dug through her backpack for her wallet and pulled out a dollar, handing it to Becky, who gave it to Kendra, who passed it down the line to Ralph. Amy picked up one of the cupcakes and handed it to her.
"Thanks!" Becky said kindly before walking away, but Amy stuck around.
"So, how much do we have now?" she asked.
"Well, with this one dollar," Ralph began, putting the dollar in the small, metal box. "We now have one dollar."
"This is ridiculous," Sally said as she shook her head.
"Maybe if we put a jelly bean on top or something we'd sell more," Ralph mused as he examined the cupcakes.
"Are you an idiot?" Sally asked, anger flaring. "How can I trust you with our baby when you can't even figure out how to sell a damn cupcake?"
The students looked back and forth between their friends. They had been dealing with these arguments for weeks now.
"Stop attacking me," Ralph's voice raised. "I'm sick of it."
"Get a job," Sally said cruelly.
"I'm trying," Ralph yelled, and he stood up from his seat and kicked it aside before leaving the cafeteria. Sally stood up and ran after him, even though she felt like things would just be better if she stayed where she was.
~L~
"I don't even know what I'm supposed to be doing here," Ryan hissed as Kendra and Amy sat next to him. Lassiter had requested that the two observed the auditions to keep Ryan in line.
"Just call a name, they come in and try out," Kendra explained. "Just give them a chance to express themselves or whatever."
"I'm about to projectile express myself all over your hush puppies," Ryan hissed towards the girl, who let out a light chuckle.
"Emily Davis!" Ryan called, and Emily ran in enthusiastically.
"McKinley, hey, hey, McKinley!" She sang as she clapped and stomped, and Ryan sneered at her.
"No," He said, chewing on the end of a pencil. Next, he called in Sheldon Shlepper, who twirled a baton around between his fingers, but as soon as he tossed it into the air, it whirled through the room straight towards the bleachers.
"No!" He hissed, growing more impatient as the auditions that included a rather large, tall girl in converse boots and the most terrifying, flexible person he had ever seen, and Tinker Tomlin, with pom-poms and all.
"Okay, I've been at this for an hour," Ryan complained, and Kendra rolled her eyes. "That's all I promised.
"Ryan," Kendra tried to reason with him. "There's just one more person on the list. How awful could she possibly be?"
"Becky Johnson!" Ryan called as he peered at the list.
"Jackson," Amy said meekly.
"Jackson!" Ryan corrected himself, and that small girl who had bought a cupcake the previous day ran up with a jump rope.
"Be nice, Ryan," Amy said from behind a clipboard. "She's my friend."
"I heard you're doing a routine with jump ropes," Becky said with a hopeful, cheery smile on her face. "I wanted to show you what I can do."
The girl began to jump rope, stumbling occasionally, and the cheerleaders at Ryan's side looked at him nervously, worried of what he might say to the girl.
"Becky, I'm gonna stop you right there," Ryan called to the girl, and she stopped, holding the rope in her hands. "You're in. Be at practice tomorrow at four PM. Congratulations."
Kendra and Amy looked at their coach in shock, but they quickly looked back to the girl, who was beaming happily, grinning and showing her braces. She ran out of the room, and Kendra looked at her coach.
"Well, look at that," she said with a slight smile. "You do have a heart."
~L~
"Turn right," Amy said as he led Max around the busy, crowded hallways the following day.
"Ouch!" Max yelped as he ran into a locker, and Amy grabbed his arm, moving him to the left.
"Sorry, I meant left," Amy smiled guiltily as she absent mindedly clasped her hand around his, he tried not to smile. He didn't know why he found her stupidity charming, but she always meant well… when she wasn't accidentally leading you into cold, metal lockers.
"It's okay," Max laughed, and someone shouted something crude and he felt a baseball bat colliding with his gut. "Ow!"
"Hey," Amy shrieked at the offender, an alarmingly tall 17 known for bullying. "Watch it, punk! You okay?"
"I might be able to breathe in a few seconds," Max joked, but he was winded, coughing slightly. "I do not get why we have to do this. Nothing good has come out of this."
"I can think of one thing," Amy said coyly as she narrowly avoided running into a locker herself.
"Oh really," Max scoffed. "What's that?"
"We got to hang out," Amy smiled, batting her eyelashes in spite of the fact that he couldn't see her.
"You've got a point," Max agreed.
~L~
"I'm just saying, she has a point," Derek said as they walked down the hallway, both having ditched their blindfold buddies (aptly nicknamed by none other than a certain Paul Greeby) for a moment. "You are kind of an idiot."
"Nice support, dude," Ralph snorted sarcastically at the insult. "Whatever happened to bros before hos?"
"You've got a baby on the way, bro," Derek began, hoping that somehow, he may put things in perspective for his thick-headed best friend. "And you haven't done spit to take care of it."
"Like you'd do any different?" Ralph asked, and Derek felt himself losing his patience with his numbskull of a friend.
"Damn straight!" he affirmed.
"How? Nobody's hiring,"
"Sell your XBOX, rob a bank, go all Robin Hood on this joint... whatever it takes," Derek said, his voice growing a little too loud. Can it, Venturi, he thought to himself. He couldn't risk all of this getting out; he couldn't risk Sally shutting him out of his future child's life. "All I ever hear is you whining and crying about how hard this is on you. What about her?"
"Dude, you are so outta line," Ralph yelled, stopping in the middle of the hallway. "You don't know what I'm dealing with!"
"All I know is that you're a punk that needs to take better care of his girlfriend!" Derek yelled, pointing a finger in Ralph's face, who shoved him backwards.
"You're a punk," he retorted, and Derek took a cheap shot at his jaw, sending him flying across the floor.
The other students in the area stopped and stared at the two teenage boys, throwing punches, kicking and kneeing. Paul had heard yelling outside his office, and so he ran into the hallway, moving in between the two in an effort to stop the fight.
"Hey, hey," the two didn't even acknowledge the voice until hands were on their shoulders, yanking them to their feet and pushing them apart. "Break it up! Break it up! Hey, come on!"
"He started it," Derek yelled childishly, pointing accusatorily.
"I don't care," Paul yelled with a hand on each of their shoulders. "Now... you guys are best friends. What's going on?"
"I'm just really stressed about the bake sale," Derek lied. Paul made a face at him and Ralph looked at him with a face that read, 'you liar'. "I want to go to sectionals together, okay?!"
~L~
"Ouch," Sam groaned as he tripped over a stair. Derek didn't even bother fighting back a loud, snorting laugh. "Why didn't you tell me there was a stair there, you jerk?"
"I wanted to see your face," Derek wheezed, laughing loudly. "It was so worth it."
"You're just great, you know that?" Sam grumbled sarcastically. The hallway was mostly empty, so Derek resorted to running his ex-best friend into objects on purpose to get his jollies. His earlier fight with Ralph hadn't helped improve his mood, so he needed a clumsy, blindfolded gopher (in a beanie) to amuse him. "Starting rumors, getting into fights, leading people into inanimate objects? Someone should give you a Nobel Peace Award."
"Ugh, you're still hung up over that?" Derek asked, his nose turning up. "We were in sixth grade, dude, let it go."
"Well, it was a jerkish thing to do," Sam said as they reached the top of the stairs. "What was the point of that?"
"You liked that girl," Derek shrugged. "I wanted to embarrass you. Plus, there was that overly flamboyant kid in our class who kept winking at you every day until he moved to Florida."
Derek's laughter continued after he remembered that, and Sam blindly reached out to smack him, but he sufficiently dodged his attempts. Derek fondly reminded him that he had a blindfold on, and Sam made a point of making a note to self reminding him to glare at Paul the next time he saw him.
"I heard you fought with Ralph earlier," Sam commented briefly, and Derek rolled his eyes.
"Yeah," he confirmed as he moved Sam out of the way of a small, brunette, freshman girl with her face buried in a book. "Paul had to break it up."
"What happened?" Sam asked, and Derek kept up his lie about being stressed about the bake sale. "Oh, please, Derek. I figured out how to tell when you were lying when I was five. Just because I can't see your face doesn't mean I still can't tell."
"How about this, then," Derek began. "I don't want to talk about it."
"Well, I didn't want to be known as the kid in the closest when I'm straight as a board," Sam quipped, and Derek led him straight into a locker as punishment. "Ow! Eugh, Derek, just get out with it. What is it?"
"Shut up," Derek grumbled, and he walked behind Sam and started to push him faster down the hallway. "You walk about as fast as a slug crawls."
When Derek got him to his class, he bolted down the hallway. Sam was going to figure out what was going on, weather it meant he was going to have to pry or not.
~L~
Sheldon stood in the choir room and placed pieces of tape on each key, identifying what note it was. He tapped on each key and hit each note, all the way up to the high F.
But on the other side of the school, leaning against her locker, Emily answered her cell phone to what she didn't know to be Ryan's voice saying through the phone, "We're gonna break your faggot of a fake boyfriend,"
As the phone clicked on the other end, she slowly closed the phone shut and blew out a shaky breath.
"I hit it, I hit the high F!" Sheldon enthused at lunch that day as he sat next to Emily with his food. "The magical note I need for Defying Gravity!"
"That's great," Emily said with the most excitement she could muster.
"I hit it, it means I'm gonna win!" Sheldon pressed, and Emily smiled weakly with a slow blink and a worried look in her eyes. "What's wrong?"
"I got a phone call this morning - the anonymous kind," Emily explained in a voice just a little louder than a whisper. It was some dude telling me that they're going to 'break' my fag of a fake boyfriend."
"Oh, well, that's not a big deal," Sheldon consoled her, grabbing her hand. "I get that all the time."
"Sheldon," Emily began, her voice cracking. "They threatened you. I don't care that they called you something you're not, but if they meant it, you could be in danger! And, I mean, what if this has something to do with the fact that you're in glee? Sheldon, I don't want you to get hurt…"
"So, you don't want me to audition for the solo," Sheldon guessed, but it wasn't a question.
"No, I didn't say that, you shouldn't let people push you around," Emily said, and she wiped at the side of her eye with the sleeve of her shirt. "But just please, be careful… I don't know what I'd do if something happened to you."
Silence passed between them, and Sheldon nodded as he analyzed the situation in his mind. Emily congratulated him on hitting the note as she started to pick at her food, but he barely heard her.
~L~
"There you go," Ralph said as he shut Casey's locker. "The lock was just jammed."
"Thanks, Ralph," Casey said with a light hearted smile. "You were the only one willing to help me. …I'm really nervous about the diva-off tomorrow."
"Don't be," Ralph reassured her. She was one of the most talented people he knew.
"I don't want to win out of charity," Casey said sincerely as she leaned against her locker. "I want to win because it's right for the club. I really think that the judges will find a female version of Defying Gravity much more accessible. But I don't think that's gonna happen, people just don't like me."
"Yeah, you might wanna work on that," Ralph said honestly, and Casey thought in the back of her mind that she should keep a tally of how many times people said that to her. "I like you."
Casey smiled and they locked eyes, but before she could say anything more, a very frustrated girlfriend in a yellow blouse stomped up to Ralph. "We need to talk!" Sally yelled.
"I'll get out of your way," Casey said quickly, beginning to shuffle away, but Sally made terrifying eye contact with her.
"No, you stay, I need a witness," Sally spat, and Casey stayed frozen in her place as Sally handed a piece of paper to Ralph. "Do you know what this is?"
"Oh, this is a Past Due notice," Ralph answered. "My grandma gets 'em all the time."
"Right, but if this doesn't get paid it's not your phone that's gonna get cut off - you will get cut off," Sally threatened, poking a finger into his chest. "You need to help me with this, Ralph, or else we're gonna go our separate ways."
Sally turned on her heel sharply and stamped out of his presence, leaving Ralph staring helplessly at the piece of paper. "I'm screwed," he said.
"Not necessarily…" Casey said, and she smiled at Ralph.
~L~
Somewhere deep inside a jungle of unbelievably hungry people surrounding a small area in the cafeteria was a cupcake stand.
As Paul navigated through said jungle of hungry teenagers (oh, the horror!), he saw clearer and clearer that the cupcake stand had almost no cupcakes and tons of money.
"Guys," Paul gasped. "This is great!"
"Derek found his Aunt Madge's old recipe," Kendra said as she licked the red icing off of her fingers. She held the cupcake up to Paul. "They're addictive, you wanna try one?"
"No, no thanks," Paul said, reeling back from the cupcake. "Wouldn't wanna take one away from a paying customer."
"Sure," Kendra muttered acceptingly, continuing her work on the cupcake.
"Nice work, buddy," Paul said approvingly at Derek, fist-bumping him as he counted the money feverishly.
But Derek was the only one who knew that it wasn't his Aunt Madge's old recipe; she couldn't bake at all, not to mention she was diabetic, so the only sweets she had in her house were gross dried fruits. Derek knew he needed to do something to help Sally out with their baby. He don't know what kind of stuff you need for a baby that's still in your stomach... bottles, diapers, that kind of thing, I guess. But his baby mama was gonna get it all. To make sure that happened, he used the two things he knew the most about; lying and crime. He had found a sling from his father when he was in a car accident, mustered up some tears and found Sandy the pot dealer. He offered him some of what he needed for free, and, you know, he didn't put enough in there to get his customers hallucinating, just enough to give them all a wicked case of the munchies. That's why they kept coming back for more.
Derek knew he'd make a great dad!
~L~
"Sorry, sorry," Casey pleaded as she had accidentally rammed Noel into the bathroom door when someone opened it at the wrong time.
"Ow, ow, ow, ow," Noel hissed, cringing. "I have a bruise there… and everywhere else. You're an awful guide, no offence."
"Well, it'll make a good story to tell to your grandkids," Casey said as he again bumped into a locker. "Hey, kids, when I was your age, I got my butt kicked by a door."
The two laughed, despite the fact that Noel thought he had bruised more than a couple of his ribs in the past two days.
"You excited about the diva-off later?" Noel asked, and Casey groaned.
"Don't remind me," she said. "I know I'm not going to win."
"Hey," Noel said, playfully smacking her arm, but he overshot and wound up batting at her ear. "Don't tell anybody, but I'm definitely voting for you."
"You're secret's safe with me," Casey promised, and batted his ear, mocking him.
"Well, you know, I'm sort of blindfolded," Noel pointed out.
~L~
As Casey walked into the choir room that afternoon, Ralph rushed up to her side. "Good luck," he whispered. "I'm rooting for you…"
Casey beamed sweetly after him as he ran back to his seat next to Sally, who had certainly noticed the interaction. She had tried to refocus her attention of Ralph after the beautiful disaster that was her and Derek, but it just never seemed to work out between her and anyone… either her mom and their dad are getting married, or they have a pregnant girlfriend.
"Alright, welcome to the glee club's first official diva-off!" Paul enthused, and the rest of the clubbers whooped playfully. "Let's get this party started!"
Tinkles began to play the notes of the song and Sheldon took his place in the center of the room, giving one last look at his supporting girlfriend across the room.
"Something has changed within me, something is not the same," he sang, his voice pitched higher than usual, but he pulled it off effortlessly. "I'm through with playing by the rules of someone else's game. Too late for second guessing, to late to go back to sleep, it's time to trust my instincts, close my eyes and leap."
When Casey sang, she forgot about the competition… all she knew is that she wanted to be there.
"It's time to try defying gravity," she sang, looking above and beyond her small audience. "I think I'll try defying gravity,"
But she couldn't help but think for a moment when he sang,
"Kiss me goodbye I'm defying gravity, and you won't bring me down," Sheldon looked at Casey, who averted her gaze.
"I'm through accepting limits, 'cause someone says they're so," Sheldon's voice rang, and he casted a look in Paul's direction.
Despite their differences, the two were somewhat the same.
"Some things I cannot change," Casey sang once it was her turn, imagining a life out of this town, instead thinking of a life she wanted. Ralph looked at her, dumbstruck by her voice. "But 'till I try, I'll never know!"
They both wanted to do something with their lives – they wanted to be known.
"Too long I've been afraid of losing love, I guess I've lost," Sheldon sang with a look at Emily, and he thought of how hurt she was. ""Well, if that's love, it comes at much too high a cost! I'd sooner buy defying gravity…"
Even the students who had planned to vote for Sheldon just to irritate Casey could no longer decide who was going to win.
"Kiss me goodbye," Casey sang, and she lost herself in the song. "I'm defyinggravity!"
They were both amazing as their voices belted out the lines to the song.
"I think I'll try defying gravity, and you won't bring me down!" They both sang the song, but while Sheldon sang, he decided that this wasn't worth it. "I'd sooner buy defying gravity…"
They filled the room with the cadence of their voices.
"Kiss me goodbye," Casey had sang, preparing herself for a high note. "I'm defying gravity!"
Sheldon made a choice… "I think I'll try defying gravity," When his moment to shine came, he turned it down. His voice cracked. "And you won't bring me down…"
"Bring me down!" Casey trilled the note, and both times, the room lit up with claps, but it was clear who had one that round.
~L~
The three day blindfolded challenge was over, and Sally could not be happier. She had actually been worried about the baby for a moment when she rammed into a wall.
"Hey, wait up," a voice called behind her. She turned to see Derek walking up behind her, pulling money out from under his jacket. "I cracked open the piggy bank, it's for you... well, it's for it."
"It is a she," Sally said quietly.
"Cool," Derek said, staring at her and then his eyes moving to her stomach, dumbstruck. "I told you I wasn't a deadbeat."
"Look, Derek, this is really sweet, but-"
"I can get more," Derek rushed, and it was going to be a struggle to try to say everything he had planned in his head, but he went for it. "People call me a screw up because I think school is for suckers, but I got ambition. I'll get us a house, stuff... furniture. We could be a family."
"Ralph is your best friend," Sally tried to reason.
"He'd be pissed for a while," Derek admitted. "But once he realized he didn't have to deal with all this, he'd bake me a damn cake."
"Derek, we both know you don't want to play house with me… it's so sweet that you want to do the right thing, and I really, really appreciate it, but I can't do that to you, not when you have your whole life ahead of you," Sally said regrettably. And then something dawned on her as Derek looked guiltily at the floor. "You stole from the cupcake fund."
"No I didn't," Derek lied, but she artfully arched an eyebrow, and he rolled his eyes. "Fine, I did. I made all those cupcakes! I'm all about being a team player, but my family comes first."
"I get it, and I'm sorry. I should've never called you a London Loser, you're not. You're special and romantic and," she trailed off, and tried to get onto another subject. Just because she wanted to live with him and be with him didn't mean he wanted to. "A good enough friend to realize we are not gonna take money from the club."
"Hey!" the two heard a voice from behind him, and Derek hid the money.
"Here," Ralph said as he walked up to Sally, holding an envelope.
"What's this?"
"I got a job," Ralph beamed, his face lighting up like a Christmas tree. "Casey asked Paul to help me find a job, and so now I'm working at this really cool bookstore and, well, my hours are kind of crazy… but screw it, it's worth it."
Sally threw a delighted glance towards Ralph and leaned in to hug him, and they walked off to rehearsal together, but Sally sent one last look back at Derek that he couldn't read. But as they left, he decided to skip rehearsal that day.
~L~
"Don't push me off the edge of the stage," Sandra warned, and Noel laughed. "I'll bash your knees in, I swear."
"You're lucky you didn't have to use this thing all week," Noel said, walking Sandra around the stage as he stood behind her, hands on her shoulders. "I've got bruises in places I didn't even know could have bruises."
"What do you know," Sandra said, grinning wildly. "Kendra being shallow payed off for once."
"It's a sign of the apocalypse, I'm sure," Noel assured her, and he twirled her as he continued to lead her around the stage blindly. "Just like a bake sale making twelve hundred bucks in a school this small is."
Sandra's sneakers got stuck on the floor, and Noel tripped over her, both landing on the floor laughing. "Oh my god," they giggled.
"I want to take this thing off," Sandra chortled.
"Why?"
"Because," Sandra explained as she sat up half way. "I want to see your face when I do this…"
She leaned down and pressed her lips briefly against his, and her cheeks turned red as she pulled back. They smiled at each other and Noel grabbed her hand.
"That was nicer than what would've happened if I pushed you off the stage," he commented, and she laughed.
~L~
Emily had been doing homework when Sheldon showed up at her house, knocking on her already open door. "Hey," she said happily at the surprise of seeing him.
"Hey," Sheldon said with a smile. "What're you doing?"
"I'm making biscuits," Emily said sarcastically as he sat down next to her on her bed. "What does it look like I'm doing?"
The two smiled at each other, but Sheldon remained mostly quiet. "I'm sorry they gave the part to Casey," Emily commented sullenly.
"It's okay," Sheldon shrugged it off. "I threw the note."
"…What?" Emily gasped.
"Thank you for sticking up for me, Em," Sheldon said, kissing the top of her head and grabbing her hand. "But I'm used to what I go through… I'm different, and if that gives people the wrong impression, I'm okay with that. It makes me stronger, and at the end of the day, that's what's gonna get me out of this town. I plan to stay in this club, and you have to understand that there's going to be more phone calls like that and more people being crude. But the one thing that isn't going to help is me getting up on a stage in front of thousands of people singing a girl's song. When I saw you right after you got the call and you were so hurt, and so upset... it just killed me. I'm not saying that I'm going to change to please people, I'm saying you're way more important to me than what I do."
Emily replied with a soft hug and comforting words, not caring about her homework anymore.
~L~
Each with black blindfolds around their eyes, the twelve glee clubbers stood on the stage in the auditorium in yellow outfits as they all slowly sang, "Rollin', rollin', rollin' on a river…"
"Left a good job in the city," Emily sang as she untied her blindfold and held it in her hand as she entered from the right upstage wing.
"Down in the city," Noel sang as he untied his and held it as he walked in from the left upstage wing.
"Workin' for the man every night and day," the two sang, walking down to the line of their fellow glee clubbers, all still in their blindfolds. "And I never lost one minute of sleep, and I was worrying about the way things might have been… big wheel, keep on turnin'…"
"Oh, the proud Mary keep on burnin'," the girls sang, keeping their blindfolds on and leaving Noel and Emily to lead them.
"And we're rollin'," Emily sang, and the guys echoed her as they walked downstage, also keeping their blindfolds. "Rollin', yeah!"
"Rolling on a river…"
The music picked up and Paul grinned as he watched the kids execute the campy choreography, and when the song ended, they tossed their blindfolds into the audience.