Chapter 5

Getting into the school had been fairly easy. Robin hacked into the main computer and entered in all the necessary information, Roy flashed his most charming smile, and the others did their best not to stand out too much. The registration system never had a chance, and before they knew it, bam, and they were McKinley High's newest students.

Getting past the Glee club was a totally different matter.

"Dude, my boy Mike here saw you totally kicking monkey ass," Puck said, arms crossed, "And you're saying you're just regular, normal students?" He snorted derisively, "We ain't stupid, you know."

"He hit his head pretty hard," Robin said calmly, "Everything he says really shouldn't be taken as absolute truth."

"What about me?" Tina demanded. The goth girl had Mike's head in her lap and was gently moving her fingers over the scrape on his temple. "I didn't hit my head, and I saw them." Mike flinched, and her fingers stopped and started winding through his hair.

"Maybe you saw something, uh, different?" Wally cut in, "Like, um, angry squirrels?" He withered under Raven's glare, "Sorry, just trying to help."

Raven closed her eyes and gave a small moan of frustration before massaging the corners of her head. When she looked up, her eyes were only a degree away from ice. "Listen," she said, her soft voice cutting through the arguing, "It'll be best if you just take our word for it. We're new, transfer students from California. Ever been there? People are different there than in Ohio. Now, drop it." Puck opened his mouth and her eyes fixed on him.

"Hey, babe, whatever you want," Puck said finally, raising his hands and giving a slightly less cocky smile than he normally would have.

Raven's head dropped between her knees. "Don't call me 'babe,'" she muttered, voice muffled, "And I need an aspirin."

"Sorry, sweetie, we're not allowed to prescribe actual medicine," the new voice caused everyone's eyes to turn. A slim, ginger-haired woman was stepping delicately into the room, followed by three cheerleaders—one of whom was currently in a sling—and a man in his early thirties.

"Yeah, they're actual pretty fuckin' useless," the injured girl snapped, "Couldn't even give me a damn painkiller."

"Santana," one of the blonde girls said reprovingly, "It's not nice to swear. You'll kill the little fairies of nice words."

"I don't give a—" Santana sighed in frustration and stomped over to the chairs, where she plopped down next to Wally. Placing a hand on his knee, she looked up through her lashes and spoke with what could only , "Hey cutie, want to make me feel better?"

Wally blinked. "Uh…"

"He's taken," Jinx snapped, "Back off." They locked gazes, and Jinx was unpleasantly reminded of the time she'd had a spat out with Karen—back before the girl turned hero.

"Ooh, catfight," Puck ruined the moment, and Jinx turned on him with a snarl. The unpleasant feeling turned downright creepy as she realized Santana had done the same thing. "Listen, asshole," the other girl snarled, "I've had a really bad day, so if you don't shut up—"

"Oh, the irony," Jinx interrupted, aware she was being snide but really not caring, "You don't even know the meaning of a bad day."

"Let's all just calm down here, ladies, unless you're really going to fight. Then, by all means, carry on."

"Will you all just shut up?" Raven felt the pounding in her head growing worse. This couldn't be normal. Either she was having a mental breakdown due to the fact that her demonic side was suddenly nonexistent—or someone was showing up on her psychic radar. Someone powerful enough to seriously mess with her mind, even in its mostly human state.

Evidently, Robin came to the same conclusion, because his voice was suddenly in her ear. "Do you need to get out of the building?" she shivered as his warm breath ghosted over her skin, but shook her head. It persisted. "Then, are you up for pinpointing exactly where the disturbance is coming from?"

Speedy was frowning at him. "Raven? It's ok to get out of here if you can't—"

"No, I want to find out who's splitting my head open, and then I want to cut them up into a million tiny pieces." Raven forced herself to her feet, pretending that she wasn't leaning on Robin's hand at her elbow. "Let's go," she growled, and stumbled forward. This time, when the boys steadied her, she didn't even pretend not to lean on their arms.

"Uh, ok?" she heard Jinx calling, "What're we supposed to do?" but the door slammed shut before she could holler back a reply and she really didn't have the energy to think of a decent answer anyway, so she kept walking.

Luckily, the halls were deserted except for the occasional junkie and/or couple, and in both cases they were pretty much dead to the world. The trio managed to make their way down the hallway without attracting too much attention, despite the fact that Raven was depending more and more on the arms supporting her.

"I probably look like I'm drunk," she grumbled as she stumbled, nearly tripping over thin air, "I probably look like I'm stoned. I'm probably look like a kid on a merry-go-freakin' round whose about to get sick all over herself."

"Calm down," Robin said, "Agitation isn't going to help your head."

"Neither is intentionally walking towards the source of the pain," Speedy said pointedly, "Raven, if it's too much we can stop. I'm sure Mr. or Ms. Whoever can wait to be discovered," he glanced over her head at Robin, "Right, Dick? Wouldn't want to live up to your namesake."

Robin placed a hand on her shoulder. "Of course. But I trust your instincts, Rae. If you think you're up for it, then—"

"Both of you shut up," Raven gritted out, "My head just officially split open—ow." She stopped, turning to face the open door to an office. "That's strange."

"What?" the question wasn't exactly in unison, but close. Raven turned to face the two boys, brow creased.

"The pain just stopped."

XXXXXXXXXX

Jinx counted herself as a pretty honest person. Ok, so she used to be a badass thief, but she'd been honestly good at it. Just like she was honestly wondering if she'd be able to take on Raven in their current unpowered forms. She was certainly sure she was mad enough to give herself an edge, but Raven always seemed to have a trick up her sleeve, and she wasn't sure she wanted to be on the half-demoness' bad side when they got their powers back.

Still, she was contemplating taking the risk anyway—it would be a nice, calming way to take out her anger with Raven, the situation, the world.

The moment the trio had decided to up and run had been the moment when Rachel Berry decided that they were potential members and started lobbying for them to join. And by everything that was holy the girl could talk. Jinx was never one to sit and listen when she wanted to talk, but with the other girl going so fast she felt like any movement on her part would have the same result as her walking into the path of a speeding bus.

Splat.

Wally didn't help either. Instead of reading that she was totally not interested and deducing the fact that Raven would kill him if he got her signed up for Glee club, of all things, he was actually trying to look as if he was listening. It was Uncle Barry's good boy coming out in him, Jinx thought grudgingly, and while she had to admit it was cute, it wasn't getting them anywhere.

Somewhere between, "background vocalists," and "good for your future," Rachel Berry finally took a breath, and Jinx took that opportunity to paste what she hoped was a believable smile on her face and insert a quick, "Thanks, we'll consider it." Her eyes narrowed as Rachel Berry opened her mouth again. If one word comes out of that mouth—

"Give it a rest, Manhands," Santana drawled, "It's obvious cutie and his—girlfriend, aren't interested."

"I'm about to wipe that smirk off your face with my right hook," Jinx muttered, and Wally put an arm around her comfortingly, "But I don't want to get my fist dirty." And murder would probably put me back in the "bad guys" list. Darn my new superhero persona.

She settled for leaning into Wally's side and letting her head rest on his shoulder, enjoying the look of frustration in the Latina's eyes. Bet you're not the kind of girlfriend who gets to do the cuddling act very often.

"I'm sorry if music isn't your interest," Mr. Schuester—the man with the tight curly hair—said, "but I really hope that you can give Glee club a chance. We could really use new members."

Jinx blinked. How was it that one sentence from the teacher and she was half ready to agree to what could possibly be the worst decision of her life? One look at the teacher's face gave her the answer. Shoot, he's a nice guy.

It seeped through the genuine smile and friendly eyes—the guy was practically begging for the world to stomp on him and his idealistic look on life. Then again, a certain speedster carried the same look, and she'd fallen in love with him. Not to mention turned her back on her evil-doing ways—which in her experience was much harder.

In her world, truly nice people were few and far between, and despite all her efforts she felt herself feeling sorry for him. From what she had grasped from the body language and Rachel's monologue, the Glee Club wasn't exactly popular in McKinley High. This man obviously loved New Directions with everything he was, and was equally obviously close to losing the club due to lack of members. And yet, optimism was written all over his face.

"I just wanted to let you know, you wouldn't even have to really sing, if you're not comfortable," Mr. Schue continued, "Rachel's right, you could be more of a background vocalist. It could be fun. Change your perspective a little on the world of showtunes." The little flair he made with his hands at the last three words did nothing to hide the fact that he was grasping at straws.

"A club is a mandatory extracurricular activity, in case the academic benefits are an added incentive," Rachel added, seemingly unaware of Jinx's wince at the word. The clubs at H.I.V.E. had consisted of two types—the kind that included torture of some kind that the kind that meant being tortured. Really, compared to that, is lip-synching and swaying a little so bad?

Plus, it's not like she had to volunteer herself, right? The thought of Raven twirling to "I've Got the Time of My Life," made her bite back a grin.

Who knew payback could be so sweet?