"Hello, fellow Glee clubbers. We need to talk."
Kurt shut the door to the choir room behind him, and placed himself in front of the others. Rachel, Puck, Finn and mr Schue were all missing, which was exactly what Kurt wanted.
"As we all know, there's this weird Rachel drama going on in this group. I can't begin to imagine what they all see in her, but that's..."
"Excuse me", Mercedes interrupted, "do we really need to discuss this again? I feel like the only thing we ever do is talk about Rachel and her boyfriends."
"Second that", Santana said. "It's like, who hasn't slept with mr Schue?"
The rest of the group turned their heads so quickly that they all began to rub their necks.
"Uh, Santana, I don't think you should've told them in that way..." Kurt began to look a bit nervous about the direction this had taken.
"What?!" Artie said. "She's fucking mr Schue? Are we still talking about Rachel? Berry?"
Santana sighed. "Don't tell me you hadn't noticed."
"I hadn't! This is... Oh my god! Did any of you know about this?"
The others shook their heads.
"I think Santana told me, but I can't remember..." Brittany frowned, and whispered loudly to Tina: "We were making out in the Cheerios locker room".
Puck cleared his throat. "That's what I wanted to discuss, anyway. I don't think they're a couple anymore. Mr Schue's looking really depressed." He thought for a moment. "Although if I was dating Rachel, I'd look depressed, as well."
"So", Mercedes said. "Rachel's ditched mr Schue, and Finn doesn't seem to be of interest anymore. What's that got to do with us?"
"Obviously, this is affecting the group!" Quinn burst out. "I'm not sad because Rachel took the father of my child from me - he wasn't very loyal, anyway - but I'm sad because we're not performing the way we used to."
Just as she had finished, Rachel and Puck entered the room. "I'm so sorry we're late, but we got held up", Rachel giggled. "And oh, we met Finn just outside here, and he seemed to be kind of angry. Have you been fighting again?", she asked Puck, who shook his head.
"Okay, so, what's up? Got any new songs to shine with, Mercedes?" Rachel seemed unaffected by the weird atmosphere in the room. "No? Oh, it doesn't matter, I have one! Attention, please!"
For the first time in ages, Rachel spent a night by herself. Puck had to be present at a family dinner, and Rachel wasn't invited because the hosts weren't so accepting towards her gay dads. Puck had told her that he could easily beat the couple up if she wanted him to, but she'd declined.
It wasn't so bad, actually, being alone for a change. Sure, she missed her boyfriend, but she could handle it. At least, that was what she thought.
She'd fallen into a half-sleep when her cell phone rang. She picked it up, and answered with a drowsy "Hello?"
"Uh, hi, Rach, it's Finn." His uncertain voice immediately woke her up. What does he want?
"Hi, Finn!", she said. "What's up?"
"I've been sitting here, wanting to call you, for about three hours now. That's what's up."
"Oh!" She frowned. "Well, then, what do you want from me?"
"Have you had sex with mr Schue?"
It felt as if her stomach had just turned into a giant stone. For a while, she just sat in silence. Her head was empty.
"Hello?"
"What kind of a question is that?" She couldn't come up with anything else to say.
"The other Glee members talked about it, I heard them through the choir room door. Kurt seemed to know all about it."
"The other... Wait, what? How can you even say that?"
"You can just tell me, you know." Strangely enough, he didn't sound very mad.
"Is that why you were so angry, today, in the corridor?"
"Uh, yeah. But I... I kinda got over it."
"Well, I... I don't know what to say. I feel like I've already given myself away, so... Yeah. I have."
"Okay. I just wanted to hear it from you. The others were pretty upset about it. Just thought I'd let you know."
"Well... Thanks, Finn. I'm not very happy that you all know, but thanks."
"No problem. Okay, I'm going to hang up now."
"Right. Bye, Finn." She'd almost clicked the red button, when she heard his voice again.
"Wait, wait!" he shouted. She raised the phone again.
"Are you two still together?" he said.
"No. Definitely not."
"Okay, that's good." He hung up before she could say goodbye.
The next morning, Rachel had to talk to two people: Will and Puck. She decided to start with the hardest one.
She knocked at his office door, which was made of glass, and she hated the look on his face when he saw who it was. He looked happy, as if she'd come to tell him she wanted him back.
She entered. "Hi, Will. Don't get any ideas." The look on his face disappeared, but he asked her to sit down.
"I need to tell you something."
He frowned. "What?"
"The Glee Club knows about us."
She'd bet anything that he felt the same way as when Finn had told her last night. For a long time, he just sat and gaped.
"What?" he finally said.
"I don't know what to do. Finn told me, and I'm just so confused! I mean, I have no idea if they'll tell anyone else..." She had told herself she wasn't going to cry, and therefore shut her mouth and concentrated on that.
"But... How?" Will still seemed to be in chock.
"Apparently, Kurt knew." Her urge to cry had gone away, and as Will didn't seem to be able to do anything, she had to.
"Look, even if we're not a couple anymore, it'll be hell if this comes out. You'll get fired, and god knows what'll happen to me... We have to make sure the others won't tell anyone. Come on, let's go, you'll have to gather them. I need to talk to Puck. See you in choir room in, say, 15 minutes?"
Will nodded, and got out of his chair. Rachel had already left the room, and he felt a bit dizzy, as if this was all a bad dream. How could this have happened?