Beiste closed the door to the conference room, and looked at her team. They had needed to get a few more chairs in here, but the hotel staff had gone above and beyond for them. It probably didn't hurt that they were staying at a 4-star hotel, which had been paid for by the Fabray's. Sure there were students who could have easily afforded this week long trip to New York. She was worried about their influence, but Lawrence had shown up and wrote them a rather generous check, and handed it to her before he had gone to dote on his grandkids. It had certainly helped out Jake Puckerman and Sam Evans, who wouldn't have been able to afford to go on the trip otherwise.

"Students, I am so proud of everything you've accomplished," Figgins announced to the students, trying to keep the pleased grin off his face. It was a foregone conclusion that the budget would increase exponentially and they would have a massive new influx of students who were powerful after the display at nationals, they had the talent and with their new facilities that were going to be built McKinley would soon be a regular at nationals. "You have represented the school and our community well, and I'm not supposed to say but the community is planning a parade for when you win."

"Let's not get ahead of ourselves," Beiste interjects immediately, she shoots Figgins a look and takes a look at the team, "While I found it amusing and it showed how much you've grown you have to know that you managed to piss off—" Beiste paused and looked around the room her eyes landing on Russell Fabray who was standing at the back flicking through his phone. "Mr. Fabray, where is your daughter?"

Russell didn't look up from his phone, "Which daughter—oh, you mean Charlie. She asked me for some money, mentioned hot dogs and pretzels and took off when I gave her some cash. She'll show up when she's not hungry anymore," he said dismissively.

"Well, we're not going to see Charlie till later tonight then," Santana rolled her eyes as a few members of the team snorted in amusement.

Beiste looked to the heavens, she had thought that having a member of Charlie's family around meant that it would be easier to control Charlie, but Russell seemed extremely permissive of Charlie's bad habits, and seemed to enjoy spoiling her. "I'm sure that I informed her that there would be a meeting the moment we got back to the hotel."

Before Russell can say anything to defend his decision the door to the conference opens and Charlie arrives carrying a stack of pizza's that were floating in the air. "Charlie, please tell me that some of that is to share."

Charlie flicked her eyes at her father and then back at the fifteen large pizza's that she'd gotten, "How much do you think I—" she shakes her head, before turning to the team. "Rachel the top is a vegan pizza, I got a vegetarian for you Kitty, a few popular flavors, basic pepperoni, cheese, dairy and gluten free—" Charlie says as she reads off the list of pizzas she'd gotten. She had tried to remember everyone's order but she was certain she'd forgotten a few. "The front desk is sending up some room service for water and napkins and stuff. We need to fuel up guys. We've got a few hours before lights out, and we really should talk about strategy."

Santana and Blaine are up to help Charlie pass out the pizzas as the team chatters excitedly. Beiste smiles, and shakes her head. "Since I have you here, just a quick reminder of the rules. Light's out at 10. Boys aren't allowed in girl's rooms and vice versa, and for anyone dating on the team, please remember why you're here. Charlie, I know you have your own room, but I need you to remain focused on the task at hand."

Charlie rolled her eyes, there wasn't any time for that, they still had so much work to do, "Do we have the video of everyone else's performances we can learn from it and figure out what we're working against. I don't think the commission is going to make this easy for us," Charlie stated as she popped open the top of a pizza box and stuffed her face with it.

"Right I'm sure we got some good footage to work with," Blaine agrees, turning to the projector that had been set up.

"Do we have any of those white board markers, we can write on the glass screen over there," Tina added.

Beiste stared at the team, before looking at the rest of the adults, McKinley had this. She nods at the chaperone's and makes her exit. She'd certainly check on them every half an hour and see if there was anything she could help with but it seemed that for once that everyone was on the same page.

~ O ~

"Brittany is nineteen Quinn, she's a legal adult and you and Charlie are not. Brittany is also paying for her own room, so she can have Mike here. I'm trying my hardest not to say anything, since your aunt Cassandra has said that I am far too involved in your lives to be healthy, but I am standing by this. It's not my job to make it easy for you to have sex Quinn, I'm not saying that you shouldn't be having it or that it's gross or disgusting. I'm saying that I'm not going to look the other way so you and Marley can spend the week together."

"Do you honestly think that Charlie and Santana aren't going to have sex? They're literally on the same floor! And Charlie has a room to herself and a king size bed, how is that fair?"

"Your father is chaperoning them—" Judy pinched the bridge of her nose when Quinn shot her an incredulous look. "I know your father isn't the most attentive, and is incredibly permissive of all your bad behavior, but Charlie asked him to be the chaperone and he said yes."

"So I should just ask dad then?" Quinn questions.

Judy looked at her mother who was biting her lip to not laugh out loud, "Quinn. I've been patient and I understand that Marley means a lot to you but I have to believe that you understand what an opportunity this is for Marley and how busy she's going to be for the rest of the week. Not to mention that Beiste was extremely clear with the rules."

Quinn clenched her fists, her mother didn't really get it. This wasn't about sex, that's not why she was begging her mom to let Marley room with her, but the idea of Marley and Rachel sharing a room together filled her with an ice cold dread. "You don't get it!"

"Probably not, but there has to be another solution than me allowing you and Marley to share a room." Judy sighed as Quinn stormed off. "I'm not wrong am I?"

"I imagine there is more going on but you aren't wrong about the assessment," Lawrence said with a shrug.

Judy sighs, "Maybe I should have insisted on chaperoning the team."

"Russell is there, and I imagine he'll call you when things ultimately go wrong," Artemis reminded her.

Judy groaned, she wasn't quite sure why she had thought that having more kids would help her marriage, and they had only planned for one more child, and they had gotten two. "Maybe I should go check—"

"Judy," Lawrence sighed. "Everything will be fine, they're focused on competition. This is probably the only time you don't have to worry about what Charlie is getting up to."

Judy nodded, she knew he was right but that didn't put her heart at ease.

~ O ~

"Do you mind if I get the desk? I have a bunch of work to do before tomorrow. I'll try and keep it down."

Rachel bit her lip and looked over at where Marley had her bag on the bed closest to the desk. She imagined that this was Santana's sick attempt at paying her back for the last time they got into it, but she wasn't going to let it bother her. "Of course. Whatever you need!" Rachel said, trying to remain upbeat. Even if this made her incredibly uncomfortable, she was going to try and be the best roommate that Marley had ever had.

Marley turned to look at Rachel, her brow furrowing as she stared at the girl who had tried to steal her girlfriend. "We're not friends, and we aren't cool. I would rather not be sharing a room with you but no one really wanted to trade with me. Santana actually laughed in my face."

"That does sound like something Santana would do," Rachel admits swallowing, had her position on the team fallen so much that even Kurt, who had only been a part of the team for two days, was far more valued than she was?

Marley had simply planned to ignore Rachel for the entirety of the trip, but she could hear and feel Rachel's thoughts and nothing pissed her off more. "Rachel. You kissed my girlfriend. You somehow convinced the team to do something detrimental to their growth so you could be noticed, and Charlie punished the team rather harshly because of you and you still got away with it scott free because Charlie either has a soft spot for you or simply doesn't care. And my bet is on the latter, and I have zero idea why you can't just date Finn or someone, he has a crush on you."

Rachel wrinkled her nose, "Finn's nice but I'm not interested."

"Well that's not my problem, and it wasn't my problem when you rejected Quinn."

"I never actually rejected Quinn, her feelings caught me off guard and before I could figure out my own feelings she was dating you. Like my words didn't even matter, she still has feelings for me, and I have sorted out my feelings and I have feelings for her."

Marley clenched her fist, despite knowing that there was nothing that she could do about Rachel's declaration. She was a nil, and recently Rachel had shown a certain ruthlessness when it came to using her abilities, "So what?"

"Excuse me?"

"Who cares if you have feelings for Quinn. Seriously. Quinn is in a relationship, and I don't appreciate the fact that you're constantly flirting with her, constantly co-opting the little time that we have together because she, like everyone else on the team, feels sorry for you."

Rachel flinches, she had suspected that there was pity there, "I—"

"Right now Quinn and I are together, and I'm working on things with Quinn after her betrayal, and she is actually listening to me and staying away from you. There is no room in our relationship for a third person, so go date Finn, or someone who actually likes you. I mean I would suggest staying away from Charlie, Santana might actually murder you if you try something."

"Charlie and I broke up once she found out that I was vegan," Rachel muttered closing her eyes and taking a seat on the bed.

Marley blinked twice, "That actually sounds like something Charlie would do. You probably dodged a bullet, but I do like Santana and Charlie together. They make each other—better." Marley swallows, suddenly feeling a bit guilty for lashing out. "Look, you'll find someone who likes you for you but Quinn is my girlfriend and I really do like her. She's doing everything she can so we can spend the summer together in LA, I think we might end up staying with her dad."

Rachel nods wordlessly, her shoulders slumping she wasn't sure what she had hoped to accomplish here, but

~ O ~

"Look, the kid didn't give me an answer on whether she would play ball or not, and join us in an alliance. Honestly I don't think she has the power to unilaterally make a decision like that, but I do believe that if you don't fuck with McKinley they'll leave you alone," Cassandra informed Vocal Adrenaline. "Unless you're absolutely forced to go head to head against McKinley, retreat."

Lauren frowned, "Are you fucking with me."

"Lauren," Shelby snapped hoping to reign in her temper before she did something stupid like piss Cassandra off.

Cassandra sighed, "Lauren, I think my niece is an annoying piece of shit most of the time. Her voice grates on my senses, and she has this smug superiority about her. But she's way out of your league, she's not even the same universe as you Lauren. And she already left her mark on you, and she wasn't even fully aware."

"You think I can't hurt her?"

Cassandra rolled her eyes hard, "I'm sure you can figure out some way to get under her skin, I imagine you can even find a pinch point, I just don't know why you'd want to? Even if you do hurt her, what do you think Charlie will do to you? The goal is to get noticed by a firm or a recruiter, who the fuck cares what Charlie gets up to. You want to make it to the big leagues, then focus on making yourselves look good, and more importantly focus on racking up those points. That's how you're going to compete with McKinley as long as you don't get eliminated you can still win."

Shelby tried to keep her face straight, they didn't need to win, they needed to place in the top three. If they could do that then her future was secure, and she could write a ticket to any of private schools in New York, or perhaps get a job teaching like Cassandra, occasionally did when she was in the mood for it.

~ O ~

"Does anyone here have plans to just let McKinley have their way?" Dani questioned her team, her hands behind her back.

"No."

Dani nodded, "Good. I don't plan on letting McKinley just cruise their way to a national championship win. If we stick to our game plan we can win this, and if there is any and I do mean any opportunity to take out McKinley without engaging Charlie, then take it."

"And what are you going to do?" Elliot questioned.

Dani waved her hand dismissively, "I know Charlie intimately, we grew up together, we trained together, and more importantly we dated for two years. I know how to get under Charlie's skin, I know how she thinks. I know I can outthink her. At the very least I know a weakness which we can exploit and throw her off her game." Dani informs the team, it was a gamble. It really could go either way with Charlie when it came to Santana, they wanted her distracted not pissed. It was such a fine line, if they pissed off Charlie they were in for a world of hurt but she knew that she could thread the needle.