Hello everyone! Sorry that it has been so long, my end of year exams came up and my birthday was on Friday and ugh, I've just been super busy. Nonetheless, I am here now on my week break from school (though it's almost over, sniff sniff) with the newest chapter!
Disclaimer: dude, no.
All she had to do was stay quiet - that was all. She just needed to stay out of any trouble and she would be fine; she would survive, at least. The only question was how she would do so.
The event had stirred Marley Rose. From a sarcastic, outgoing girl, the brunette had transformed into a shy and lonely character. Once the pinnacle of the students, she was now isolated from the fellow people of McKinley.
As Marley shuffled along the hallways of her high school, dragging her feet behind her with more effort than is to be expected, she cast her empty blue eyes along the faces glancing at her as they whispered. She had long since handed in her beloved Cheerios uniform, and people had long since stopped sharing conversation with the girl - cut glares were all she received from her peers. It had been a month since the news first came out, and she was becoming desperate for something, or someone, to hold on to.
Today, instead of her previous cheerleading attire, Marley fashioned skinny jeans and converse with ankle socks that had white lace around the top, along with a three-quarter length, summery sweater with purple colours. Her makeup was now simple, except any attempts to conceal the last of the fading scars and the black eye she still had were poor and did nothing. The girl herself clutched her books over her chest bashfully, looking around her with wide, soulless eyes and occasionally looking at the floor.
"Hey, loser. Kiss any more toads since the last time?" A jock's blunt, insulting joke echoed to Marley's ears. The man himself was standing in front of her, his letterman jacket draped over him as is anticipated at the school.
Marley squeezed her eyes shut before opening them and speaking through gritted teeth. "What do you want now?"
"I wanted to see what your new clothes would look like with a splash of red." Teased the jock as he smirked before (unsurprisingly) drenching the brunette with a large dose of red coloured slushie.
Marley stood in awe as she looked around (once her vision had cleared slightly). She was standing in a pool of red gloop and the ice cold concoction stung her eyes as it dripped down her clothes and her face. Like so many times before, she attempted to regain her composure; nevertheless, she snapped. Blurting out a string of curses to the boy as he chuckled and left, she ignored the stares of others. It was when she felt a grip on her hand dragging her further away from the spot she was previously on when she even made an attempt on moving.
Opening her eyes to her surroundings, she was soon greeted by a blinding whiteness and a curious smell up her nostrils. She finally concluded that she was in the girl's bathroom. Struggling to keep her eyes open was something that had become evident due to the immense stinging, and she soon began squinting instead as she inspected the place more.
"Here, these will help get it off your face – I'm not sure about the clothes, though." Came a voice as the mystery person pressed some damp paper towels into Marley's hand. The brunette's eyes wandered upwards to see the concerned face of someone she expected least of all to see.
"K-Katie?" Marley stuttered.
"That's me." The beautiful blonde girl spoke simply in reply a she began wetting more paper towels.
"Why are you helping me?" Marley said bemusedly.
"I had a gut-feeling. You know what I mean by that, right?"
"Yeah, I know." Marley chuckled humourlessly. "A 'gut-feeling' is what got me into this mess in the first place."
"Oh…" Katie bit her lip awkwardly as she wrung out the paper towels and handed them to the brunette.
"I'm sorry about that, by the way." Marley winced as she began to clean her face, using the mirror. "Gut-feelings aside, you should hate me. You saw, right?"
"No offence, but how could I not see the video?" Katie giggled, but soon turned more serious. "Yeah, I saw. And I guess I was sad at first, but it wasn't really his fault…"
"…It was mine." Marley finished the sentence with a knowing look.
"Well, no…" Katie trailed off, but was answered by a questioning eyebrow raise from Marley. "Okay, maybe it was your fault, but I'm not- I don't-… I've forgiven him. And I've seen what happened to you clear enough, so I thought the least I could do is cut you a bit of slack and forgive you too." Katie sighed.
"You're way too nice. I mean, you're supposed to be the one that hates me the most! I kissed your boyfriend, for crying out loud!" Marley exclaimed.
"Well, I don't think people deserve to be bullied because they like someone. That's just stupid." The blonde girl stated simply. "And hey, I consider myself really lucky. I'm one of the only girls that you haven't picked on before." Katie joked, causing a small giggle between Marley's lips.
"I'm sorry about kissing him, Katie. I just had all of these bottled up emotions and, stupidly, I waited until he had actually moved on from our mad relationship to tell him them. I hope…" Marley shut her eyes and hung her head, debating whether or not she should say the words. "I hope you guys are really happy together."
"Thanks." Katie beamed. "So, um, are you all cleared up now?"
"Yeah, I think so." The brunette inspected her complexion in the mirror to see that, apart from a few red streaks here and there, the red slushie that had previously coated her face had now vanished. Her clothes, however, were still drenched in the stuff. "I think my clothes are ruined, though." Marley explained that she would just have to wear her gym clothes for the rest of the day.
"Thanks again for being so nice… and not hating me." Marley joked.
"No problem." Katie smiled. "Bye, Marley. Come drop by Glee Club some time, maybe."
"Wait," Marley pivoted from her spot just behind the exit, "you're in Glee Club?"
"Yeah. Some of the members dropped out a few weeks ago so I joined for Ryder. We're still one short for the next competition season… maybe you should think about joining." Katie suggested, smirking.
"Thanks, but no thanks." Marley refused thoughtfully. "I'm not as naïve as I was a few months ago – I don't really think I need the extra teasing at the moment, and plus, I think 99% of that club still hate me for all the bad things I did to them and they probably don't want me singing in their sad little club. But I'll let you know if I change my mind." Marley stated. "See you 'round."
Spinning on her heel, Marley took soggy steps to her locker, where her change of clothes was kept. The girl found it bizarre that she was actually considering the Glee Club offer. But, then again, she couldn't attend the club. Like she had previously explained, Marley would be offering more of herself for the jocks to tease at, and the clubbers themselves most certainly did not want her there. Besides, even if the members allowed her participation, she would most likely bring the club down again from their recent lack of teasing. There were no good consequences, and yet, it seemed all the more intriguing.
Marley slumped down onto the covered lavatory seat, her lunch tray slamming down on her knees as she did so. Facing the cafeteria was possibly one of her least favourite consequences to the entire fiasco – people tripped her up on purpose, there was nowhere to sit, and no one even wanted to sit with her. Therefore, the brunette often ended up eating lunch in the girl's bathroom or missing the meal altogether.
"See, if I joined Glee Club then I would at least have people to sit with at lunch-" Marley mumbled to herself internally, before stopping in her tracks. Why was she legitimately considering this as a possibility? Joining the Glee Club seemed like an all-cons and no-pros idea. Like she had already noted, the girl definitely didn't need the extra bullying for joining the unpopular club. 'But it might give you some friends; some people might actually be on your side' a voice countered. That particular argument aside, Marley didn't even know if she could sing. Sure, she would sing at home, but it wasn't something she would look into professionally – although she secretly believed she was fairly good, who knows what she actually sounded like. 'But it will give you something to do; it could be a way to let out your anger and actually be passionate about something. Besides, you could at least give it a shot'. The optimistic voice persisted with her reasoning, and Marley found it all the more tempting to take up the offer. Finally, the brunette groaned out loud and gripped her forehead in her palm. This was the worst decision of her life, and she knew it, but like the voice said – at least she could give it a shot. What's the worst that could happen?
Marley began planning her entire life back up. She constructed and synthesised ideas, the concepts weaving together in her mind. She would get back on track and, although she most certainly would never be the most popular girl in school, she would attempt to regain some popularity back at least. And, funnily enough, the dorkiest club in the entire school would help her.
"No, Tina Cohen-Chang. For the last time, we are not doing ballad week again." Unique Adams' voice pierced through the currently tense air of the choir room. The Glee Club were quarrelling about their upcoming week assignment and what it should be. Several of the members were conflicted, aside from the peacemakers in the room (Mr Schue, Ryder and Katie) who were clawing at the last shreds of serenity in the atmosphere before one of the clubbers would, inevitably, throw a chair or a music stand. Or, at least, that was what usually happened. The group were about to reach their boiling point when a knock at the door silenced them of every word rising from their throats.
Marley took a deep breath and examined the faces around her, each and every pair of eyes in the room looking only at her small figure in the hallway. She felt smaller than ever in these few moments. What was a girl like her doing, standing in the doorway of the choir room?
"Hi." She started awkwardly. "Sorry to interrupt your discussion. Can I come in?" Resorting to her previous, vivacious personality, Marley invited herself in without bothering to hear the answers of her gawking witnesses. She took the liberty of standing in the centre of the room, facing the chairs. She could tell that snarky remarks were just waiting to spill out of their mouths, so she rolled her eyes and crossed her arms, cutting right to the chase.
"Look, I'm just going to get right to it. I know there are several of you in this room who don't like me and, to be frank, I sure as hell am not going to attempt to like you either, but I'm not here to insult you guys. Heck, I'm not even here to call Bieber out on anything, despite our… obvious… connections." Marley's eyes drifted briefly to the chestnut-haired boy in question, who was at his usual spot in the back of the room, holding hands with Katie. "I'm here to apologise to you guys. I know I haven't been nice to you all, and I bet you're all damn pleased now that I'm getting a taste of my own medicine, but I want to say that you dorks actually didn't deserve all the crap I gave you… on some levels. And I know you already knew I was there, because I was confessing my desperate, undying love for Four-Eyes and the whole freaking school saw it, but… you guys rocked Nationals. It was awesome. So… this was a pathetic attempt at undoing my "wrongs"," Marley used air-quotes, "But I hope you can find it in your clogged-up, ballad-loving hearts to forgive me." Marley sighed, feeling a weight lifting off her chest, however, that weight slammed back down when the people before her did nothing more than blink at the girl.
"Th-Thank you, Miss Rose." Mr Schue eventually acknowledged the girl. "It's very nice of you to say that to us. Isn't that right, guys?" Crickets. Marley swear she heard crickets chirping. Everyone just continued to glare at her.
"You're still a conniving bitch, Marley Rose." Tina finally scoffed after an unbearable silence.
"Excuse me?" Marley couldn't believe her ears. Here she was, pouring out as much of her icy heart as she could muster, and they still had the nerve to insult her.
"Tina's right. One apology isn't enough to forget all the stuff you pulled on us." Artie crossed his arms.
"Wow. When's the last time you got an apology from someone like me, huh?" Marley retorted.
"Well, we don't know. We haven't ever received an apology from some slut who's even lower on the popularity scale than us." Tina smirked and replied with fake innocence, the words rolling off her tongue effortlessly.
"Guys-" Mr Schuester tried to reason with them. It was to no avail as, once again, all hell broke loose – Katie, Ryder and the teacher himself were the only people attempting to end it.
After a while, Marley found herself silencing them before swallowing the ever-growing lump in her throat. "In case you haven't noticed, I don't really have any friends…" Some Glee-goers scoffed and muttered sarcastic things under their breaths at her statement. Marley composed herself by taking a long, deep breath. She continued. "And it's left me in a pretty dumb position. Now, I'm not saying you guys have to be my friends, or that I even want you to be my friends, but I just want you to grow to accept me at least. I hope to see a lot more of you, I guess." As the people of the room exchanged confused looks, Marley shut her eyes – were these words really about to arise from her mouth? She unfastened her arms from across her chest and instead rubbed her left forearm with a clammy hand nervously. "If you would all have me, and I completely understand if you don't… I-I… I want to join Glee Club."
"What?" Blaine was the first to speak. Everyone else followed, exclaiming their opinions and protests on the event. Marley rubbed her temples in frustration. "Oh my God, oh my God, oh my God." She mumbled to herself quietly, before shouting at them to be quiet. "I'm not the best singer, but… could I… audition, for you at least?" Marley spoke timidly. As objections slurred across the room, Mr Schue finally convinced them to listen to her and hear what she wanted to do, intrigued about the idea himself.
"Sorry, Rose, we don't do any of that club music nonsense in this group." Unique grumbled, leaning back in her chair.
"Woah, great assumption, Tina Stomach-Turner. Then I guess you'll be delighted to know that I hate that trash as well. Contrary to what you people think, I despise chart music and anything too mainstream or too ear-pounding. Every dub on those things people call songs is another dagger into my brain. I like my music taste to be a little more… alternative." Marley smirked and whipped around to the awaiting band members, whispering in their ears, asking sweetly if they knew the song she wanted to play. With surprised looks, the band members nodded and prepared themselves for the song.
Marley sighed and looked down at her feet as she heard the mumbles of people before her, asking others and wondering to themselves if the brunette would be good enough to even be considered for a spot in their club. She loved this song, and she only hoped she would kill it like she would sometimes do in the comfort of her own home.
The guitar part began, and along with it, somewhat confused expressions. Soon enough, the drums rolled in, and everyone reacted rapidly. Marley smirked as the introduction ended and, taking a final breath, she began singing the first verse with actions and expressions of fake innocence.
If I'm a bad person, you don't like me
Well I guess I'll make my own way
It's a circle
A mean cycle
I can't excite you anymore
Where's your gavel? Your jury?
What's my offense this time?
You're not a judge but if you're gonna judge me
Well sentence me to another life
Don't wanna hear your sad songs
I don't wanna feel your pain
When you swear it's all my fault
Cause you know we're not the same (no)
We're not the same (no)
Oh we're not the same
Yeah the friends who stuck together
We wrote our names in blood
But I guess you can't accept that the change is good (hey)
It's good (hey)
It's good
Marley braced herself for the high notes of the song, and, consequently, what could be considered the highlighting and key part of the melody.
Well you treat me just like another stranger
Well it's nice to meet you sir
I guess I'll go
I best be on my way out
You treat me just like another stranger
Well it's nice to meet you sir
I guess I'll go
I best be on my way out
Ignorance is your new best friend
Ignorance is your new best friend
Before launching into the next verse, she took a nanosecond to view the faces watching her intently. Eyes stuck out of heads, ogling at her; mouths were ajar as they watched her performance. She smirked and continued, stepping back so she was soon leaning against the piano.
This is the best thing that could've happened
Any longer and I wouldn't have made it
It's not a war, no, it's not a rapture
I'm just a person but you can't take it
The same tricks that, that once fooled me
They won't get you anywhere
I'm not the same kid from your memory
Well now I can fend for myself
Don't wanna hear your sad songs
I don't wanna feel your pain
When you swear it's all my fault
Cause you know we're not the same (no)
We're not the same (no)
Oh we're not the same
Yeah we used to stick together
We wrote our names in blood
But I guess you can't accept that the change is good (hey)
It's good (hey)
It's good
Well you treat me just like another stranger
Well it's nice to meet you sir
I guess I'll go
I best be on my way out
You treat me just like another stranger
Well it's nice to meet you sir
I guess I'll go
I best be on my way out
Ignorance is your new best friend
Ignorance is your new best friend
Ignorance is your new best friend
Ignorance is your new best friend
As the guitar launched into the intense instrumental bridge of the song, Marley raked a hand through her hair, revelling in the moment of being confident for the first time in several weeks. She bit her lip, grinning at the faces watching her as if she was a Cheerio again; as if nothing had ever changed. All the negative energy that had been writhing under her skin was now being let out in a sudden burst of poise. She prepared herself for the climax of the song and the ending.
Well you treat me just like another stranger
Well it's nice to meet you sir
I guess I'll go
I best be on my way out
You treat me just like another stranger
Well it's nice to meet you sir
I guess I'll go
I best be on my way out
Marley breathed heavily, now emotionally drained from the amount of effort she put into the song. After catching her bated breath, she sighed. "So…?"
Silence. Same as before, it haunted Marley's senses again until it was practically screaming in her ears, deafening her. A single, slow clap erupted through the room – of course, anyone who had a brain could guess who the source was: Mr Schue.
"Wow, Marley, that was… incredible. You're definitely worthy of a spot in Glee Club-"
"What the hell, Mr Schue?" Tina guffawed. "You can't just let her in!"
"Yeah, that girl is bad news." Unique exclaimed, looking menacingly at Marley, who couldn't quite believe her ears.
"Guys, this club is about accepting one another. But, more importantly, it's about singing." Mr Schuester sighed. "We need to focus on Marley's talent before we judge her on her past experiences-"
"You've seen the stuff she's done to us, Mr Schue!" Sam Evans voice boomed through the room, cutting his teacher off once again. "She can't just come in here with a sappy little apology and a song once her popularity's gone and her cheerleading uniform's been taken from her, and expect us to make friends with her."
"I'm sorry, what? I thought you guys, of all people, would understand." Marley's voice broke through the dense air. "Yeah, I cheated you guys. Yeah, I teased you and all that. But I though you could try and level with me because I have now been through what you guys have."
"You got slushied once, that's it!" Unique ridiculed, though many people knew that it was a lie.
Marley was taken aback by her sly words before she continued, the words she spoke just like knives. "Make that five times, Wade "Unique". And triple that to get the number of times I've been shoved into the lockers within the space of a week. You might think I'm still the stuck-up bitch I was merely months ago, but I have changed more than just physically. I have seen both sides of this school. I know what it's like to be the height of the school, but I also know clear as day what it's like for people to treat you like you have the plague. So don't you dare say I'm not experienced enough in the areas of being a victim of this school, because I swear to God, I will show you every physical and mental bruise I have, alright?" Marley muttered, sending a chilling vibe through everyone's spinal cord.
"Oh well," Marley breathed with false nonchalance. "It was worth a shot. I can't even be accepted in the place that takes pride over saying that everyone is welcome here; that everyone is family. And that hard-core sucks, but I'm sure I'll get over it. You guys obviously weren't the people I thought you were, and I underestimated your abilities. Isn't this the club that everyone kind of marvels at because they don't judge anyone on past experiences? Isn't it here where you claim that you can truly be who you are? Think about it, and then see if you can consider me again." Marley spat with a menacing glare, impaling everyone with her piercing blue eyes. As the moment sunk in, not a single word was muttered. As the lump in her throat reappeared and it became harder and harder to remain her snarky self, Marley hoarsely spoke the last few words before storming out. "Thanks for letting me sing to you guys."
That's right, folks – Marley auditioned for the Glee Club. Question is, though, will they let her in? I think it's pretty predictable what the answer is, but oh well. Also, badass Marley is back! I suck at writing snarky comments, though, so please excuse me for that.
The song was one of my all-time favourites from one of my all-time favourite albums and one of my all-time favourite bands: Ignorance by Paramore. You guys should give it a listen if you aren't familiar with it already – I thought it spelled out Marley's situation and anger that she's been bottling up inside her. So Marley isn't the stereotypical chart-loving, club-singing girl that the Glee Club thought she was!
Hopefully I'll update soon and there will be more Ryder in the next instalment. What did you guys think of Katie in this chapter? What do you think will happen next? Let me know in a review – it only takes a few seconds ;-)
Until next time,
Beth :-)