Shelby Corcoran was not having a good day.

Going into this year's Inter-High, she had been forced to temper expectations. A difficult task, given Carmel's recent success over the past four years. It was to be expected, before Jesse, Carmel had only made it to Sectionals a few times, and had a few regional titles to their name. Jesse St. James had managed to catapult Vocal Adrenaline onto the national stage, and this was supposed to be the year that they swept the competition.

A regional title, a sectional title, and a national title, would make Carmel High the first school in the history of the event to win all three in a single year. They had been close last year, but a school from LA had managed to beat them by a few points. It was disheartening, but she had been sure that this year would be the year. A feat such as that would allow Carmel to use it to recruit promising new recruits, it would allow them to fundraise for newer training facilities, and it would be an almost storybook ending to Jesse, and she was certain that it would make Summit reconsider his admission.

It had never once crossed her mind at the beginning of the school year that Carmel might not make it past regionals, or that she would be hoping that Carmel wouldn't draw McKinley in a head-to-head competition. She had actually clapped her hands in excitement when Carmel had been paired off with the Hoosierdaddies, she had been expecting an easy win.

Except Vocal Adrenaline was currently losing, and she didn't think that this was Jesse's attempt at making the competition interesting to drive eyes onto the rest of the team. The Hoosierdaddies had currently managed to capture Giselle, Shoshandra and Andrea, and their freshman captain, Frida Romero, had seemingly managed to shut down Jesse. Even on the screen, she could see the frustration written on Jesse's face.

"I know how difficult it is to attempt to cultivate trash, and attempt to turn them into passable heroes. The difference though, is that I don't think I could deal with the shitty teenage angst."

Shelby's body goes rigid, she would remember that haughty voice anywhere, and she slowly turns around, tearing her eyes away from the screens that depicted her team losing. "Cassie?"

Cassandra scowled at Shelby's old nickname for her, and opened up her jacket to pull out a flask that she had managed to sneak inside. "You know I always hated when you called me that."

Shelby rolled her eyes, she was pretty sure that Cassandra had never hated the name, so long as she was the one calling her that. Her eyes sweep over Cassandra for a moment, the blonde hair— the overwhelming power— "Your daughter is ruining all my perfectly laid plans."

"Daughter?" Cassandra asks blinking, unsure of what Shelby was talking about.

"Charlie—"

"Look at this body, Shelby. Do you think this body has ever been pregnant?" When Shelby raises a brow at her, Cassandra makes a face, and shrugs her shoulders. "My sister is the breeder, has a whole brood of weird children. Charlie is Judy's dumbass kid. The youngest, the only one of the bunch that wants to be a hero." Cassandra spits the word and shakes her head.

Shelby takes a breath and turns back to the screen, hoping that her team had managed to turn things around. They hadn't, Frida was still managing to keep Jesse on the defensive. They were running out of time, and she was sure that if Jesse failed she would be out of a job. It would be one thing if they lost to McKinley, it was another thing entirely to lose to some team from Indiana. "Why are you here Cassie?"

Cassandra takes a deep drink from the flask, "My mother made me come."

Shelby shook her head, it seemed that nothing had really changed at all. "I'm not talking about why you came to the competition, I heard you got a job teaching at NYU after your little meltdown cost you everything. I'm asking you why are you here? Why did you come and find me? We haven't spoken in years, and last I heard you were still up in New York, teaching shitty young adults how to be heroes."

"Curiosity mostly," Cassandra admits, leaning against the doorframe. "One of Judy's brood, mentioned that your bright star is stalking Rachel Berry," a lazy predatory smile graced Cassandra's face as she watches as Shelby goes rigid when she mentions Rachel's name. "She's the daughter you got rid of isn't she? The one that cost you everything?"

Shelby turned to look at Cassandra, "I can't believe they let you mold the next generation of heroes."

"I was a fucking fantastic hero."

"You were an alcoholic sadist, who was constantly drunk while on the job," Shelby corrected. "You were going to be the hero Cassie and you threw it all away. You pissed a lot of things away back then if I remember correctly, and your mother would have to come and clean up your messes." Her words find their mark and even from where she is standing, she can feel the pulsating heat that's being emitted as energy wraps around Cassandra's body. She had definitely hit a sore spot. "I was in grief. The hormones, the grief, the job, it was all too much for me at the time. I was in no position—I wasn't in the right headspace to be making any life-altering decisions. I should never have given her up for adoption. I don't know if Rachel is my daughter, but looking at her—" Shelby swallows.

Cassandra glances at her flask and screws the cap back on and slips it back into her jacket pocket. "She does sort of look a little like him and you had a kid. Even if you didn't raise her, she's got your eagerness and perfection down. Not your power though," Cassandra commented watching as Shelby turned to face her once again.

For once Shelby was at a loss, she desperately wanted to ask Cassandra questions, but her attention gets drawn back to the screen where things were happening quickly. She had missed, which one of her students had managed to free Gisele and the rest of the captured targets, but things were finally turning around for Carmel. "It took ages to get my power to where it was, it was a lot of trial and error. There was no one there to teach me how to use my abilities. I can give her that. They don't know what to do with her at McKinley."

"Do you want me to make the introduction?" Cassandra asked. "It beats relying on a shitty teenager who probably wants to fuck your daughter."

Shelby froze, "Why?"

Cassandra studies Shelby's back for a moment, before she shrugs her shoulder, "You know why," she responds in a rather indifferent tone.

Shelby hesitates for a moment and glances at Cassandra, there was no haughtiness on her features, "You want to sow mayhem and discord and piss off your mother."

"You still know me," Cassandra says with a grin.

Shelby bit her lip, she wanted to believe that Cassandra had changed. It had been years since they'd seen each other, and if she had matured and grown she could only hope that Cassandra wasn't the same person who had gotten freaked out about commitment, gotten drunk and then slept with someone else. "I think—I'd like that. To meet her—to meet Rachel."

~ O ~

Rod Remington studied the remaining teams that had gathered back on the field, which was already shifting into another environment for the next event. This time there wouldn't be multiple zones, or any fancy fields. It was just a simple concrete ring. He could already hear the buzz from the students, they knew what was coming and it really was everyone's favorite event.

Still, he can't help but look at all the teams that managed to get through the second round. This year's Inter-high had been unpredictable, and he wanted to see what the ratings would be once it was all said and done. Hopefully they had beaten out all the other regional competitions in the ratings and perhaps he'd be asked to host sectionals—or even better nationals. There were some teams that he had expected to make, it had been a close call for Vocal Adrenaline, but they had managed to win by a hair.

There had been some surprises, no one had expected Dalton Academy to have fallen in the second round. The incident that surrounded their captain Sebastian, had ensured that drug testing would become a regular occurrence.

And then there had been the story of the underdogs, a ragtag team of misfits, that were now the favorites to win, even if their point total didn't reflect how well they were doing. It was McKinley's competition to lose, and Rod suspected that the other teams would attempt to work together to crush McKinley.

"This has been a competition, hasn't it folks?" Rod asks the crowd who cheers at his words. "Just one more event is left. The winner of this event will be going home with the regional Inter-high banner, and they would have booked a one way ticket to sectionals. But as I stated before point total is important the top 4 teams will also be going on to compete in sectionals."

Rod waits for the chatter to cease before he flashes a smile. "The next event is by far the most popular event. Of course I'm talking about the battle royal. Each team will field 8 combatants, with a time limit of an hour, you will be tasked in making sure your team is the last one standing. The rules are simple, no lethal use of your abilities and no flying. A fighter is eliminated only when they are forced out of bounds, the person that eliminated them would earn 50 points for their team. Once you have been eliminated you can't interfere with competition, you must return back to your team's waiting area. The team with the most survivors at the end of the battle will be considered the winners. However the true goal of this competition is to be the last one standing, do whatever you want with that information. You have five minutes to determine who your team will consist of."

Before the first buzzer can sound to start the five minute countdown, there is a flash of lightning and Charlie appears in the middle of the ring, and immediately begins to stretch. She looks absolutely ridiculous as she begins to stretch out her hamstrings before working on her back muscles and finally her arms. She finally finishes and looks at the rest of the students. She flashes a smile at the rest of the teams and makes a beckoning motion with her hands, daring them to come and get her. There was an immediate buzz in the air from the rest of the students.

Santana blinked and then let out a sigh, Charlie was provoking everyone. "Seriously?" She quickly pulls away from the rest of McKinley so she can attempt to keep Charlie from pissing everyone off. "I said you shouldn't put yourself in a box, to make them feel big. I never said be a dick," she informs Charlie, shaking her head.

Charlie grins, "How about I put myself in a box, and then still kick their ass?"

Santana froze, she was certain that Charlie's voice had carried to the other students. She turns and notices the rather murderous glare that several of the other teams were sending her. Charlie was provoking them, on purpose. She rolls her eyes after a second, and immediately clears her throat to prevent from shooting her an amused smile. "Want to make a wager?"

Charlie tears her eyes away from all the people who want to kill her, and looks at Santana. "You already said that when my breath—"

Santana flushes and holds up her hands, to stop Charlie from blabbing their business on national television. Even if her parents weren't here, she would like to think that they would at least tune in somehow. "If I eliminate more people than you, and we're the last two people standing at the end of this, then you need to promise me that you won't hold back."

Charlie raises a brow, "And what happens if I win?"

"Lunch and dinner for a week."

"You make me dinner already Santana, and if I don't eat my mom's cooking—I'm sure she'll be devastated. I'm her biggest fan," Charlie mused loudly, and turns to where her family is seated and waves at her mother who slowly sinks into her seat.

Santana rolls her eyes, "Then what do you want?"

"I don't know," Charlie admits with a frown. Santana was already feeding her, and after today she was pretty sure she was going to be able to kiss Santana, which would lead to sex, she was an amazing seductress. And once they had sex, she was sure that Santana would come back for more because she really was amazing at it. "But since I don't know, how about a rain check until I figure what it is I want."

"As long as it's within reason." Santana said, narrowing her eyes at Charlie, who smirks at her. Almost immediately she knows she's probably going to regret giving Charlie this, but she had no intention of losing. Charlie had a massive target on her back. "If you get eliminated before the final ten people, then I also get a raincheck favor."

Charlie rolls her eyes, Santana was being greedy. She waves her hand dismissively, she wasn't going to get her ass kicked. "Fine," she agrees as she pulls out her earbuds, and pulls out her phone and turns on the music. She exhales slowly and relaxes her body, this was their best chance to beat her. This was their moment to make a name for themselves, but she would be damned if any of them succeeded. Her family was watching. And she secretly hoped that the world was watching. This was her debut on the world stage, and she planned to make a giant splash.

Santana shook her head and turned to the rest of McKinley, and motions for those that Charlie had chosen to join them in the ring. Charlie probably didn't have a pep talk at the ready, but she could at least say a few encouraging things as Charlie flipped her phone up in the air and it began to float, as she went back to stretching. "Keep it simple guys the goal is to get the other team out. Don't panic, I want us to earn as many points as possible. Lauren—if you want a chance to beat Charlie and overshadow her now is your chance. You're not going to beat Charlie in a straight up fight, and I know you heard what Rod said. Attacking Charlie before we know that McKinley is in the clear won't help your reputation. After we're the last ones standing if you want to punch Charlie in the face, then go ahead."

Sam blinked and looked over at Charlie, who seemed unaware that they were all basically talking about betraying their team captain. "Shouldn't we stick together? Aren't we a team?"

"Yes, and we will. We work as a team to ensure that McKinley gets to sectionals, once that's assured, it's everyone for themselves." Santana turns to glance at Charlie who is now doing a one-handed handstand. "No, we'll work together to eliminate Charlie, and then it's everyone for themselves."

"I like the way you think Lopez," Lauren smirked. "She won't see it coming."

"I can hear you," Charlie informs them as she hops back to her feet. Her music hadn't been that loud. "But whatever, go ahead. If you can all make it to the final eight, I'll actually take this whole thing seriously."

~ O ~

Lawrence laughed boisterously, "That's my granddaughter!" He says in a loud proud tone looking around. Trust Charlie to infuriate everyone and force them to target her. He turns to his wife. "At least she's making it interesting!"

"Interesting? She just pissed off 150 students who want to eliminate her. Of course this is going to be interesting," Leroy said, staring as other schools start to join McKinley in the ring.

"As if Charlie couldn't eliminate them in a few seconds," Frannie scoffed and shook her head. She was certain that Charlie could generate EMPs that could knock out a human nervous system, but it was a risk. If Charlie truly wanted to she could literally push everyone out of the ring with her control over magnetism.

"She must be in the mood to punch people," Brittany adds dryly.

"She's being kind," Artemis corrects.

"She's being an idiot," Cassandra mutters under her breath. This was a waste of time, but under the harsh glare from her mother, Cassandra rolls her eyes. "It's not kind to give these kids a false hope. It's cruel. Charlie's far more powerful than she lets on, and if this isn't over in thirty seconds then Charlie's being cruel, whether her heart is in the right place or not. If you want to take someone out, then do it, don't toy with them. Don't give them a chance to get in a lucky blow, overwhelming power to win. Do not give your opponent a chance to fight back. She needs to learn that."

"These aren't villains, they're just teenagers," Judy protests, frowning slightly at her younger sister. Perhaps her father was right and Charlie shouldn't be participating. Charlie enjoyed fighting perhaps to a rather disturbing degree, even if Charlie was going to give them a chance, physically Charlie was physically stronger than most people. Her muscles were far denser, she blamed both her mother and Brittany for that. Even if Charlie didn't wipe everyone out with her powers, depending on how Charlie was feeling it would still be a bloody painful affair for the other teens. "What do you think Quinn?" Judy asked, nudging Quinn who was busy moping in her seat.

"Go McKinley," Quinn mutters under her breath, making a circular motion with her finger.

Judy frowned ever so slightly, her heart ached for her daughter. She would need to find someway to cheer Quinn up and get her to try again with someone else. All she wanted was for her children to be happy, and for Charlie to not have a black hole for a stomach.