Standard disclaimer, I do not own Glee or any of its characters. Here it is, chapter 5 and I hope you enjoy.
s
It was early morning, 5:30, and Quinn and Santana were jogging slightly behind Brittany talking quietly between themselves. Every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday the three girls got together and did their morning workouts. They were halfway through their run and Quinn and Santana were no closer to thinking of a way out of Sylvester's plan to destroy glee club, than they were yesterday.
Yesterday the two girls had been called into her office and told in no uncertain terms that if they didn't help destroy the glee club they were off the cheerio's. Now normally it wouldn't be an issue, they would do what was asked of them and be done with it. The problem was Brittany, she loved the club, and they both knew that if they actually succeeded in destroying it that it would hurt the blond.
"So what are we going to do?" Santana whispers to her. "I've been up all night trying to think of what to do or a way out of this and I've got nothing. I mean I don't want to be kicked off the cheerios, but you've seen how much B loves glee."
"I'm not sure, I was up all night looking up the different show choir rules, and we're still three people short of being able to compete, and it doesn't look like anyone else with be joining anytime soon, so really we don't have to do anything. But we both know that that won't be good enough for coach. I've got nothing-"
"Hey you two, hurry up slowpokes." Brittany shouts at them.
"We'll worry about it later." Quinn tells the other girl as she speeds up to catch up with Brittany, Santana following close behind.
"So Quinn, Rachel and I came up with this really cool Taylor Swift medley, and I got Rachel to give you the lead part! You might have to do a duet with her, but it should be awesome."
Quinn looks at Brittany in shock. "That's great B, you didn't have to do that, and what about you? You worked on it so you should sing it."
"Oh I've got some cool back up parts and I did most of the choreography so I'm good, Rachel did most of the music stuff, besides you asked me to so you wouldn't be mad at me for hanging out with her, remember?"
"B, I was kidding about that, you can be friends with whoever you want, you're my bestie no matter what."
"Really?"
"Really, I could never be seriously mad at you, at least never so mad that I would stop being friends with you."
"So you wouldn't hate me if I started being friends with Rachel too?" Brittany asks her hopefully.
"I told you B, you can be friends with whoever you want. I can't promise that I'll ever like her, but your friendship with her won't affect ours, okay." Quinn tells the other blond, a smile on her face.
"Good, I'm glad, cause I really like her but I wouldn't want you to be mad at me." Brittany gives her an appraising look before grinning, "You're still getting the solo part."
Quinn laughs. "You don't have to give it to me Britts, but thanks anyway."
"No seriously, I had Rachel write it in your vocal range and everything, you usually just kind of sway in the background and I know it kind of annoys you at times so I want this for you. Besides you stood up to Mr. Schue for me and I also really love your voice, so please say you'll do it."
"Sure B, and thanks, I appreciate it and I can't wait to hear it."
Brittany affectionately bumps Quinn's shoulder.
"Hey what about me?" Santana grumbles from behind them. "I'm not exactly thrilled you're hanging out with the midget either."
Brittany turns and runs backwards while smirking playfully at the Latina, "I know that, but if you'll remember I thanked you last night for being so cool about it, over and over again if you recall."
Santana chokes and stumbles while blushing and Brittany turns and sprints away for the last stretch of their run, while giggling. Santana manages to recover and glares at a smirking Quinn and growls at her. "Not a word." She then sprints past Quinn and the blond lets her keep the lead so she can save her pride.
Quinn catches herself admiring her friends attributes as she is running, the way her legs seem to go on forever before they disappear into her entirely too short, black shorts, absentmindedly staring at the sight of the toned legs and the rest of her physique. Santana really has a great body. She shakes her head to clear it, ignoring once again, the strange sensation of jealousy and longing that sometimes creeps up when the subject of Santana and Brittany comes up. They're her friends and she's just jealous that she doesn't have what they have, that's all there is to it, she tells herself.
s
xXx-Scene Break-xXx
s
It was almost time to go home for the day and Quinn and Santana were both worried. They hadn't seen hide or hair of Brittany since they had gotten school. They had both sent her multiple texts and calls and hadn't heard anything from the blonde. They were both really worried and if this is what Quinn had put them through a couple weeks ago then she hadn't done nearly enough apologizing. Quinn was checking the girl's usual haunts, she was currently at the bleachers in the gymnasium. Santana was hunting down Berry, hoping the blond was with her.
Quinn dials Brittany's number again and once again gets her answering machine. "Hey B, where are you, are you okay? Please contact me or San as soon as you-" Quinn stops speaking when she hears some sniffling.
She hangs up and listens carefully, hearing the sound again and as she looks around she sees her friend sitting under the bleachers, hiding away. She's sitting on the floor and leaning against the wall, her head in her knees. She's probably been there all day.
Quinn quickly sends a text to Santana and then goes and sits next to the girl. She pulls her into a hug and the girl grabs onto her. She doesn't sob, Brittany rarely ever does no matter how sad she gets, but she rests her head on Quinn's shoulder and continues to quietly sniffle.
Quinn gives her friend a few minutes before talking. "Hey B, I've been worried about you, what happened sweetie?"
"Mr. Schuester didn't like our medley. Me and Rachel went and showed him what we came up with this morning and he got really angry. He said that we were being selfish and disruptive and that it wasn't fair to the others that we keep interrupting him and trying to change what he was setting up. That if we couldn't be team players we should quit."
Brittany quietly whimpers. "I just want to make this club really awesome, cause I love it so much, and so does Rachel, we're just trying to help. We didn't take any of the solos for ourselves, it was going to be you and Finn, but he didn't care. We're not being selfish are we?" Brittany looks at her imploringly.
Quinn feels a white hot rage flow through her, yeah if that guy, who was already doing such a bang up job of destroying his own club, was going to hurt her friend then maybe she should assist him. She had definitely found her motivation to help Sylvester. However she schools her features into sympathetic ones so that Brittany doesn't see how angry she is. "Of course not B, it's like you said, you were just trying to help. He's just being stupid, you guys didn't do anything wrong. And I'm so sorry he made you sad. He's an idiot who's trying to relive his glory days through this club and he needs a wake-up call that this club is for us, the students, not him. I'll go talk to him-"
"No." Brittany says quietly, "I don't want him to be angry at you too, maybe he's right. I'll just show up and do what he says, it's no big deal."
Quinn resists the urge to roll her eyes at the thought of Mr. Schuester being mad at her. She deals with Sylvester and her parents every day. You want scary angry, look at them. Mr. Schuester scored about a -3 in comparison, in her opinion. Still Brittany hates it when people are mad at her and so even someone like Mr. Schue being mad at her would bother the girl. "But B-"
"It's okay, really." The blonde says getting up. "I think that I'm just going to go home, I kind of want to be alone right now. I'm sorry to have worried you guys, please tell Santana to not be angry with me and I'll see you guys tomorrow morning."
"B wait!" Quinn said jumping up but the blond ignores her and keeps going.
Quinn was standing there fuming when Santana finally arrived.
"I couldn't find Streisand, you found B though?" Santana asks worriedly, noting how angry Quinn was.
"Oh I found her alright." Quinn then goes onto explain what Brittany had told her.
Santana was red with rage, "I'm gonna fucking cut him, the hell'z he gets ta talk to B like that! I'm g'nna go all Lima Height's on his ass!"
"No." Quinn tells her coldly.
"The fuck you just say to me!?" Santana asks her incredulously.
"I said no, you're not going to go talk to him, I am. You are going to go and be with Brittany, she said she wanted to be alone, well you are going to go be alone with her."
"Why don't you go, she loves you like you're her sister or something."
"I know and I do too, but she doesn't need me right now, she needs you. She'll just tell me she wants to be alone, she will however let you stay."
"What, why me?"
"Because no matter what, you are her exception. She always wants you and you her." Saying this makes Quinn's heart constrict slightly.
"Me, I don't know what you're-"
"No, no bullshitting me, not about this, not today. I know okay, and you know I know. I don't care and you know that too and you know I won't ever say anything until you are ready, but today, for B, you need to know I know and that I don't care and right now she needs you. So go be with her, tomorrow we can go back to pretending that you guys are some big secret from me, but today, for B, no secrets. So go be with her, and for today don't be ashamed or embarrassed that you have someone in your life who is special to you and needs you, no matter what the circumstances are. I'll handle Schue, you go be with her."
Santana looks down ashamed and then looks up at Quinn gratefully. "Thanks." She mumbles softly. "What are you going to do?"
"I'm going to go tear him a new one, and then I'm going to find a way to destroy his damn club. Before this I was against it for B's sake, but I've just found my motivation. I know she loves it, but if he and his club are going to treat her like this then I don't care, and she can be mad at me all she wants, but anything that hurts her or you is something that needs to be destroyed. I don't care. You and B are the most important people in my life and I will always fight for you guys no matter what, and I'm Quinn Fabray, I always win. Before today I was indifferent to this club, now it's my enemy."
Santana gives her an impressed look. "Dramatic much?" She teases, though she is grateful for Quinn taking this up. She is torn between wanting to go and hold her girl in her arms and comfort her and going and hurting the person who hurt her, so Quinn taking care of things here is a great weight off her mind. And Santana knows that while she may be fire, she's flashy and direct and capable of damage, she's also not so subtle, that you can rebuild the damage from a fire. Quinn is ice, she's cold calculating and subtle, you don't notice she's there and what she's doing until it's too late. With Quinn motivated there is no way that the club will survive.
Quinn scoffs, "Oh you haven't seen anything yet. Now go, I'll see you tomorrow."
Santana nods her head and then turns to leave. "Oh and Q, call me when you have a plan, I'm in as well."
s
xXx-Scene Break-xXx
s
Quinn found Mr. Schuester in the teacher's lounge. Coach Tanaka, Ms. Pilsberry, and surprisingly coach Sylvester are there as well. Which was actually a lucky break for her, it might get dicey doing what she was about to do without an adult there who would back her, but coach would see this as the first play in destroying glee club so she would go with it. It was actually a completely separate issue to that, and it may actually hurt her chances of doing that, but B came first and for two weeks now he had been snubbing her friend. Today was the last straw.
"Q, this is the teacher's lounge, what are you doing here?" Coach Sylvester asks her suspiciously.
"Excuse me coach but this doesn't concern you." Quinn says dismissively, and secretly enjoys the look of shock on the woman's face. However she needs to move quickly before the woman blows her top.
She looks at Mr. Schuester and levels him with her fiercest glare. "I don't know what the hell your problem is but you need to get over it."
All four adults in the room looked at her in wide eyed shock. "Seriously, I get that you're the teacher in charge of the club, but it's pathetic the way that you try and relive your glory days through us. Because guess what, these clubs are for us, the students and the fact that you treat it as your second shot at performing or whatever, is just sad."
"Miss Fabray! You can't just come in here and talk to a teach-" Ms. Pilsberry tries to speak up.
"Excuse you, but I don't believe this concerns you." Quinn says glaring the timid woman into submission. She may only be a student but there was a reason that she ruled this school and it had nothing to do with a sunny disposition.
"Since day one, Brittany has committed to try and make this club the best she can. She absolutely loves it, but you keep shooting her down because it doesn't mesh with this perfect little eighties or nineties or whenever the hell you went to school, image of what the club should be. And it's not just her, you don't listen to anyone in the club. And quite frankly it's getting ridiculous. Guess what you need twelve people to compete or this little club of yours is over. Nobody is lining up to join, and you're alientating the people you do have. Maybe if people actually had fun during this club, if people actually felt like they got to contribute then other people would join. But no, you sit there and yell at and discourage your students for wanting to do something that doesn't coincide with what you want to do. Get this, these clubs, these after school activities, they're for us, the students."
"Not you." She glares at Mr. Schuester.
"Not you." Turning to coach Tanaka, who holds his hands up in surrender, a fearful look in his eyes.
"And not even you." She finishes up with coach Sylvester. She then turns back to Mr. Schuester. "I don't know what your problems are or why this club is so important to you and I really don't care. Get your crap together and remember why you're here." Quinn sneers in disgust, "I'm done here."
She's glad that none of the adults in the room can see her face, because she is supposed to be pissed, but she can't help the smirk that's formed on her face. She just walked into a room full of teachers and told one off and as she leaves the teacher's lounge her smirk becomes a grin, she actually got away with it.
s
xXx-Scene Break-xXx
s
It was dead silent in the teacher's lounge, all of the adults staring at each other unsure if what just actually happened. Suddenly Sylvester couldn't hold it in anymore. "Bwa ha ha ha ha ha ha ha, oh my God, I knew I made her captain of the cheerios for a reason. That girl has got fire. I don't know what you did to piss her off Schuester but damn! I'll uh, I'll check you later. Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!"
As she leaves the room she takes a second to enjoy the still stricken look on Will's face and considers what her next move is. She really should go tell Q off for talking to a teacher like that, but damn if that didn't take some balls. If nothing else she needed to find the girl so that she could be caught up with what the she had planned.
She found Quinn in front of her locker a smirk on her face. So the girl was up to something. She silently pulls up behind her. "So that was quite a performance you put on in there." Quinn knew better than anyone how to keep her composure but Sylvester's keen eyes didn't miss the slight, startled, jump from the cheerio when she had spoken.
Quinn slightly turns and faces her. "I have no idea what you are talking about coach. He hurt one of my friends and I called him on it. But even if I did have something planned why would it be any concern of yours?" Quinn closes her locker and faces her. She then puts on the most innocently inquisitive face that Sue had ever seen. This girl, though she would never admit it out loud, was already better than her at getting what she wanted.
"Oh no concern at all, I'm just wondering what you're going to do now that you're out glee club that's all?" This is what she really wants to know. How is she going to get her budget back to full, if her lead mole is out of the club.
"Out of glee club? Even after I go to him tomorrow and say," Quinn schools her features into such a sorrowful and contrite state that even she wouldn't be able to tell the difference. "I am so sorry Mr. Schuester, I was completely out of line and it was totally inappropriate of me to talk to you like that, please forgive me." The younger blondes' eyes actually have tears in them and Sue stares at her impressed.
Quinn quickly drops the remorseful act. "You'll have your budget back in no time, this was just stage one, have a pleasant day coach." Quinn then turns and leaves and Sue watches her go.
A few steps away Quinn pauses and glances back, "Thank you for telling me how inappropriate it was to talk to a teacher like that and of course I'll go apologize to the man tomorrow."
Sue nods her head, letting the younger woman know that she got the message loud and clear. Stay out of it and if necessary play along. Damn, did she make the right choice for her cheerio captain or what? She was already thinking of plans for the extra money that would be rightfully returned to her once Q was finished.
Quinn fights the urge to sigh in relief now that she has coach out of the way. Tomorrow would be the hard part, whether or not he actually forgave her for talking to him like that was irrelevant. That was more to pay him back for making B sad than anything else. If he accepts her apology tomorrow then it will be business as usual. She'll go to the club, pretend to be a happy loyal member and then work to destroy it from the inside. If not, well a couple well placed slushy threats and nobody will want to join, easiest case scenario for her to get the job done, but Brittany would be mad at her so, she hopes that he does.
Now it's time to head home and do some research. She basically has 24 hours to become an expert in high school national show choir rules and etiquette, she needs to find any loop holes or rules or big names, something, anything that she can use and exploit. She considers calling and checking up on B and also updating Santana but decides against it, figuring that her two friends are busy right now and she doesn't want to disturb them if she is making Brittany feel better. Besides if they needed her they would call her. She can just fill San in tomorrow.
s
xXx-Scene Break-xXx
s
As Quinn enters her home she pauses for a second as she hears her parents screaming at each other. It sounds like they're in the kitchen so she quickly and quietly opens the door and slips in. She looks around wearily as she creeps towards the stairs and jumps when she reaches them, hearing the sound of glass shattering. She looks up startled when her father comes storming into the room and spots her.
"WHERE THE HELL HAVE YOU BEEN!?"
Quinn swallows nervously. "I was at school daddy."
He marches towards her and grabs her arm tightly and yanks her close, she winces in pain, the smell of alcohol on his breath is unmistakable. "DON'T LIE TO ME!"
"I'm not daddy, I swear."
He squeezes her arm even tighter and growls, "You don't have cheerleader practice today, so you have no reason to be this late, NOW TELL THE TRUTH!"
"I… I had a glee club thing, I'm sorry daddy I should have told you."
"Glee club? THAT HOMO PARADE!? WHAT THE HELL WERE YOU DOING THERE!?"
"It's… it's an art program. It'll look good on… on a college transcript… you know, cheerio's for athletics and glee club for arts, diversity… please you're hurting me."
He quickly lets go and takes a step back, a look on his face like he's shocked at his actions, but as soon as it's there it's gone and he's glaring at her again. "Don't do anything to embarrass me, and stay out of my sight." Her father then storms away, and Quinn doesn't move until she hears the door to his study slam.
She looks over and sees her mother standing in the kitchen doorway looking at her in disappointment. "You should know better than to get in his way when he's like this." She slurs before turning away and heading back into the kitchen.
Quinn shakily gets to her feet and chokes back her tears, she won't cry over her parents and besides she has things more important to worry about than them. She knows the drill, stay out of their way when they get like this and everything will be fine. She only has three more years to go, she can last three more years. She looks at her bicep and frowns, it's already starting to bruise, looks like she'll be wearing one of her long sleeve uniforms tomorrow.
She goes to her room and sends a quick text to Santana asking how things are, before changing out of her cheerio's uniform and getting on her laptop. She has a bunch of research to do and she needs to keep her mind off what just happened. Her phone buzzes and she sees it's a text from Santana.
From: Santana- Yeah, B's good, we're watching some movies and she's doing better, she'll be fine, B's tougher than we give her credit for. Everything cool on your end?
Quinn smiles sadly.
From: Quinn- Yeah, I'll fill you in tomorrow, take care of B, tell her I love her and I'll see you guys tomorrow.
From: Santana- Will do, see you tomorrow.
s
A.N. So yeah that was chapter 5, I hope you enjoyed it. Next chapter will be up next Friday.