AN: Sorry for the wait! I had band camp and computer troubles and art stuff to do. This fic is always sort of lingering in the back of my mind- I REALLY REALLY want to actually finish a story for once, and I love this pairing- and I've been typing a little here and there for the past few weeks.
A lot more movement towards schueberry this chapter! Yay!
Glee with the cheerios was about almost as fun as Rachel had expected it to be. They had only had two practices since the unholy trinity joined, however, the cheerios had completely skipped the first. The second consisted entirely of Quinn hanging over Finn and impairing his already impaired dancing ability even further, while Santana and Brittany sat in the back of the room, refusing to dance or sing and looking like they hated their lives.
Quinn's behavior bothered Rachel even more than Santana and Brittany's. The blonde cheerleader made sure to make a huge show of glowering at Rachel while holding Finn's hand. (Rachel was pretty sure she heard Finn whisper, "Ow, Quinn, you're kind of breaking my hand.") Rachel knew the only reason Quinn was doing it was to get back at her. However, and although Rachel would never admit it to anyone else, she was just as mad at herself as she was at Quinn. She had never felt so stupid. She should have known Finn wasn't interested, and she shouldn't have let herself be interested. The phrase "he's just a stupid kid" became a religious mantra to Rachel for the next few days, and was blindly repeating it in an attempt to make herself feel better.
She started to believe herself after a while. It was nice. She hadn't felt this victorious in a while. She could get over that blockhead football player, no problem.
Of course, she took a wave of icy blue syrup to the face just after the pride set in, and the victorious feeling faded very quickly.
As she was carefully putting her wet, stained sweater into her locker (she always kept a spare on hand for these occasions), the cheerios approached her.
"Hello, Manhands," Quinn greeted cheerily. She eyed the wet sweater in Rachel's hands as she said, "Funny, I didn't know it was raining today."
"Won't talking to me get you guys shunned if you're seen?" Rachel asked, ignoring the snide remark. She shoved the sweater into a spare gym bag, shut her locker, and tried to escape the oncoming assault. Santana stood imposingly in her path. Rachel was surrounded, trapped against her locker by the unholy trinity. "Is that all you came to say?" She asked, crossing her arms.
"No need to be so cold," Quinn said, feigning dismay. "We're part of a team now, aren't we, Sweetie?"
"It's not like you actually do anything in Glee," Rachel grumbled.
"Well, do something for us, and maybe we'll actually join in your little happy friendship singing party. Okay?" Quinn gave Rachel a very halfhearted smile.
Rachel's eyebrows furrowed. "Why should I help you?" She asked incredulously. "You actually expect me to want to help you?"
"Because it effects you, too," Quinn said. "Don't do it for us, do it for yourself." Upon seeing that Rachel was in no way willing to comply, she said, "Just get Mr. Schue to throw out the choreography, okay? It sucks. There's no way I'm going to be caught dancing that crap, and there's no way we'd win with it anyway."
Rachel would have agreed had she not hated Quinn so violently. The club's choreography had always been awful, and it was proving even worse than expected the last few weeks. She didn't want to admit it just because doing so would mean taking Quinn's side. "It's not that bad. Besides, he's not going to change the choreography just because I ask," Rachel insisted. "Why don't you ask him yourself?" She tried to push past Santana ineffectively.
"Oh, come on, Manhands. Of course he'll change it for you." Quinn was looking at Rachel as if this was glaringly obvious. At Rachel's puzzled expression, Quinn said, "We all know you're his favorite."
Rachel was so taken aback, she wasn't sure she'd heard Quinn properly. "What? No, I'm not," Rachel denied. Even she knew Mr. Schue could barely stand her most of the time.
But then, there was last week. Mr. Schue didn't have to come and talk to her when she was crying on the stage. In fact, after the Push it ordeal, it was downright surprising.
"Who else would it be?" Quinn giggled. Rachel wasn't sure if Quinn was laughing at her or with her. "They always like the outspoken ones, you know."
Rachel didn't bother to point out how no one has ever liked her outspoken self, teacher or not. She was still so caught off guard. Strangely enough, it almost made sense. She was very talented, after all, so being her Glee instructor's favorite seemed right.
It was a strange feeling to Rachel. Besides her dads, when was the last time she'd felt like someone's favorite? She felt special. Wanted. That victorious feeling made a small appearance as a warm glow in her chest.
But it was Quinn who was telling her, Rachel thought, a bit depressed by the fact. It was too fishy to be real.
This didn't stop Rachel from saying, "I'll ask him to change the dance." The choreography was horrible, she reasoned. I'm not just doing this because Quinn told me to, or because Quinn said I'm Mr. Schue's favorite. I'm doing it because it needs to be done.
Though she had to admit, it was slightly because Quinn said she was Mr. Schue's favorite.
She probably should have dismissed it as a lie, she knew. She just really, really didn't want to. The idea of someone actually liking her was too exciting to let go of that fast. She decided to let herself go on believing it for the time being. No harm done.
The cheerios walked with Rachel to the choir room. As powerful as it made her feel, Rachel refused to let herself revel in that emotion. Placing to much emotional trust on the cheerios definitely felt like a bad idea. As they walked, Quinn went on, "tell him about Dakota Stanley. Worked with Vocal Adrenaline, he can make us win." Still wrapped in her thoughts, Rachel nodded, agreeing to the deal without thinking it through. Quinn smiled and brushed past into the choir room.
Rachel followed the trio inside. Will was standing by the piano, shuffling through stacks of sheet music. "Hope you all are ready to dance!" He exclaimed, triggering a disgruntled look from Quinn. Rachel walked up to him. I'm his favorite! "Mr. Schue?" She got his attention. She debated what to say for a moment, then bluntly said, "I don't think we can get to Nationals with your choreography."
The claim that she was his favorite had never felt as far away as when she saw the look in his eyes then. Rachel saw nothing but frustration. Frustration with her. He ran a hand through his hair, looking away and shaking his head slightly. He was just annoyed. Confidence waning quickly, she quickly went on, "You're a great vocal instructor, Mr. Schue, but you aren't a choreographer. We need someone who's trained." She paused, glancing at Quinn, who was watching her intently. "We need Dakota Stanley. He's the choreographer for Vocal Adrenaline. He can do it."
Will did not at all feel like putting up with Rachel's complaining. In the past weeks she had become more and more controlling about solos and choreography, and he was already stretched so thin with Terri's complaints. He was trying his hardest to be an attentive husband, as he always had, but lately he felt his wife slipping away from him. "We don't have the money to hire a private choreographer, Rachel," he said. "We barely have sheet music." Will couldn't help but notice the disappointment on her face, and said, "Look, there's nothing I can do. We're gonna have to make do with what we have." The comment about his choreography sort of stung. It's not that bad, is it?
Rachel mumbled, "okay," not wanting to argue further. She felt utterly defeated She turned and walked to an open chair towards the back of the room, giving Quinn a soft shake of the head as she passed. Quinn looked very falsely surprised to hear that Rachel had been shot down.
Quinn had completely tricked her. Quinn knew this would happen.
Rachel was completely dumbfounded that a girl would go so far out of her way to make someone feel so stupid. She never should have listened, she knew it. Blinking away tears she hadn't realized she was on the verge of, she turned her head away from the group of high school kids in front of her, hoping on one would notice her.
Not that anyone did, of course. They didn't even like her. And to think, Rachel had actually believed she was someone's favorite.
-x-
What bothered her the most was that she had no idea why she was so upset.
She'd never been anyone's favorite person, and she'd become okay with that. She knew that people didn't like her, and she embraced that. It's a lonely road to the top. It had been her motto in life since she was seven and her dads were telling her that the only reason those boys in her class pushed her down the stairs at school was that they were jealous of her talent.
But this wasn't jealous elementary school boys she was shot down by, it was Mr. Schuester. It changed things. That lonely road suddenly felt all too lonely. If the Glee coach can't even like me, who else is there? Her talent was all she had. She really did like Will, and she felt guilty for driving him away from the club. At least, she assumed it was her fault he left. Everyone else certainly did.
So she went to Will's spanish room early a few weeks later with cookies. She'd baked them herself, 7 star-shaped sugar cookies with the letters I-M-S-O-R-R-Y written in icing. She didn't know what else to do, now that several of the other Glee kids had already tried begging him to come back.
"Mr. Schuester?" She prompted after standing completely unnoticed by his door for several long seconds.
"Oh, hey, Rachel," Will said, looking up from his laptop. He was looking for songs for the Acafellas.
Had anyone told Will that during the last few weeks he would have a living room full of middle-aged men singing and dancing to acapella pop, he'd think they were insane. Yet, here he was, missing Glee rehearsals in favor of an all-guys acapella group.
It was a spur of the moment idea, pulled together in the teacher's lounge after his apparent loss choreography ability. He, Henri, Howard, and Ken made a good group, and god knew Will needed to get his mind off of everything else. Glee was taking time away from Terri, who was slipping away from him despite his best attempts to be a good husband. Terri was ruining Will's relationship with Emma, who had begun avoiding him (probably for the better, as Emma's new boyfriend was now singing with the Acafellas). Glee was headed for disaster with too few members to qualify for regionals and too little funding and attention to do much of anything about it.
So after a bit of planning, they made up the group and picked a random song to work with. They all knew This is How We Do It, so they went ahead and gave it a shot. It was nice, being able to just sing with a bunch of guys.
But he didn't have time for Glee as a result. He felt a little guilty, but hadn't felt as good about himself in a long time.
"I wanted to say I'm sorry for insulting your dancing." Rachel showed his the cookies. "We really need you, Mr. Schue. You haven't shown up for Glee in two weeks," she pointed out.
"Sorry, Rachel. I've been busy." The look on her face made him feel guilty. "Why don't you hire that Montana Stanley guy?"
"Dakota Stanley?"
"Yeah, him. Whatever." Will smiled. "I'll try to show up for rehearsal today, okay?"
Rachel could sense that this was the end of the conversation. "Okay," she said dejectedly, taking the barely noticed cookies with her as she left.
-x-
The Acafellas had been invited to be the opening act at a PTA meeting.
It was by no means glamorous, but it was a big event. Excited was an understatement for Will, who hadn't performed in front of a group for a long time.
He'd gotten Finn and Noah Puckerman in on the group after Howard and Henri quit. Finn's dancing was improving, and Puck was showing a lot of promise. He hoped he could convince Puck to join the Glee club.
Glee club. Last Will had heard, the club had hired Dakota Stanley for about ten minutes. Rachel had apparently managed to keep the club from completely breaking up, and was the one to fire Dakota. Finn had kept him up to date with the news.
Finn also mentioned how bad Rachel felt about wanting to hire Dakota in the first place. According to Finn, the club hadn't been very happy with her after Will left.
He felt guilty. He owed them a better explanation, and an apology. And a full-time glee coach.
He honestly liked Rachel, despite her overbearing attitude. She was talented and actually quite enjoyable when she wasn't being a pain. Finn had mentioned that the club blamed Rachel for Will's leaving.
He couldn't imagine how much trouble he'd caused.
AN: I'm ending this one a little early, sorry! I have such little motivation to work on this chapter, I've been trying to write it for so long. I'll make the next chapter twice as long to make up for it! I just really need to move on to the next episode and start fresh.
