Back to the Start Chapter 20: Rough Patch, a glee fanfic

One thing that was really going was the confidence of the Glee club. They seemed to be ready for Regionals that was just a week away. I wasn't sure how we would do. If it went like it did before, we would still lose but we definitely had a different group of misfits than we did before. I didn't know if that would change anyway. The other thing was the fact that Quinn was about to give birth and I was still very concerned with that. I was pretty sure nothing would go wrong, but I was still nervous since the two of us were a lot closer than we were before. People were also talking about how we had Sadie now. I was a bit surprised they didn't know.

"Yeah about that." Rachel remarked. "You guys need to come to the auditorium.

We went to the auditorium and there was Sadie with the rest of Vocal Adrenaline. They were wearing their blue and black. I couldn't believe that I hadn't noticed those were their school colors, but I supposed that I had never paid attention to it before. She still looked pretty good, even if she didn't look happy.

"Sadie, what are you doing up there?" I asked. I wasn't sure if she was really mad at me or if she was just acting that way to seem tough. I was still a little hurt about her joining her old team, but Vocal Adrenaline was not the team that I was most concerned about.

"I've transferred back to Carmel High, Faith." She told me. "I'm sorry, but New Directions doesn't appreciate my talent. I've also heard the rumors that Vocal Adrenaline was dead. Now let me give you a quote from the greatest writer of all time: Mark Twain. The report of our death was an exaggeration."

She then began to sing and I had never heard that song like that before. It sounded kind of haunting when sung as a ballad. It was like she was the ghost of an ex-lover who wanted revenge on the girl who had wronged her, even though the breakup was both of our faults.

Load up on guns and bring your friends
It's fun to lose and to pretend
She's overboard and self-assured
Oh no I know a dirty word

Hello, hello, hello how low
Hello, hello, hello how low

With the lights out, it's less dangerous
Here we are now entertain us
I feel stupid and contagious
Here we are now entertain us
A mulatto, an albino
A mosquito my libido

And I forgot just why I taste
Oh yeah I guess it makes me smile
I found it hard, it's hard to find
Oh well whatever never mind

Hello, hello, hello how low
Hello, hello, hello how low

With the lights out, it's less dangerous
Here we are now entertain us
I feel stupid and contagious
Here we are now entertain us
A denial, a denial
A denial, a denial
A denial, a denial

I wasn't going to deny that they were very good. I was also pretty sure a lot of our group's confidence would be shot by the fact that Sadie had left us. I had known it was coming, so I was prepared for it.

On top of that, they had also TP'ed our choir room just like they had done before. It looked like some things would never change. I would just have to live with the fact that Sadie had made her choice, but I was still pretty concerned about the game. If there was anything that could throw me off of my game, it would be seeing my ex on the other side of the field.

"What are we going to do about this?" Rachel asked. "We need to get them back and retaliate and show them that we're not going to be messed with."

I knew that I shouldn't have been surprised by that coming from Rachel, but I still was. I was also pretty sure that I should be mad at her for sleeping with my girlfriend. In all of my heartbreak, I hadn't even considered that part since I was too focused on Sadie and I breaking up with each other.

"We'll get them back by beating them." Mr. Schue declared. I didn't know if we would be able to do that. Shelby was probably the best coach there was and I was pretty sure that the only reason we had beaten her was she was distracted by the fact that she was having a relationship with a student. Even though it had just been a ploy to get her baby back, Quinn probably was right about the fact that she needed to be arrested. That was something that I had learned just wasn't okay.

"How are we going to do that?" Adonis asked. I was pretty sure that he was speaking for most of us.

"Well we do have something that they don't have." Ben stated. "None of their singers are anywhere as good as Faith is."

"We can't make our whole performance all about me." I told him. I didn't want that kind of responsibility and also I didn't think that it would be fair to everyone else.

"You are our best chance to win." Quinn agreed.

"I don't want to win like that." I pointed out. "I am not lead singer of this group. We all need to contribute and I think that we're stronger together."

On top of that, I probably couldn't put all of my attention into the competition considering that I had something bigger that I needed to focus on. This game that I was about to play would have a lot of impact on my future. I had heard that there would be college scouts at the game. I had also heard that could even be some international scouts. There had been a women's soccer league that started after I finished high school and it was possible that I could end up joining for its inaugural season.

"Faith is right. We need to showcase all of you." Mr. Schue replied. "We can beat them our way."

After rehearsal was done, I saw that Rachel was following me.

"What do you want?" I asked.

"It looks like you're single now." She declared. Was she really doing this?

"Are you serious?" I questioned in disbelief. I knew that Rachel could be pretty manipulative, but I didn't think that she would do something like this. "The reason that I am single is because you slept with my girlfriend."

"Well if the two of you had been right for each other, she wouldn't have done it." Rachel argued.

"You know I never thought that I would say this…" I declared. I really didn't think that I would ever say something so hurtful to the girl that I once loved. "But go fuck yourself Rachel."

"I'd rather you do it.." She stated with a smirk. I groaned and figured that it would probably be best to walk away because I knew that if I stuck around any longer, I would probably hit her and I did not want to get suspended for fighting right before the finals.

I headed out to the field and the first thing that happened was Coach Tweedy came over to me.

"Faith, how are you feeling?" She asked me.

"Well I'm a little angry and I could really use a ball to kick right now." I admitted. I knew that it was probably a better way to let out my aggression than anything else.

"You shouldn't be mad at Sadie," Coach Tweedy remarked. "It's not healthy and you can't let it affect your play."

"I'm not mad at Sadie. I'm mad at Rachel for sleeping with Sadie and thinking have the guts to think that I would be willing to date her." I explained. "I know that Sadie has chosen her side and I need to accept it. This isn't something that you've dealt with it, is it?"

"No I can't say that I've ever had an ex on the opposite side of the field." She answered. "But you have to be ready for the possibility that she might try to get inside of your head. You can't let her manipulate you on the field. I need you to do your best to avoid her until after the game."

I did think about the possibility that Sadie might try to reconcile with me and even though I didn't think that she would manipulate me, it was probably best to not take that chance. I wanted to win. In all honesty, we probably hadn't deserved to win that football championship. This was something where I couldn't allow my play to suffer. I knew that if I managed to play to the best of my ability, there was no way that we could lose.

Quinn was outside of the locker room when I got done. I wasn't surprised to see her there considering that she had to ride home with Chrissy and I.

"So are you nervous about having to compete against your ex?" She asked me.

"I'm not even really thinking about Regionals this week." I declared. "I know it's important but I have to worry about the championship game."

"Well regardless of whether or not you win or lose, I know that you're going to win the MVP again." Quinn remarked. "You know no one has ever won MVP in their freshman and sophomore years before?"

"I know I'm gonna win that, but to answer your question, I am nervous. I have to play against Sadie on the biggest stage in the state." I explained. "You are going to be there, aren't you?"

"Yeah, Frannie is going to try to return to school next semester. She was taking all of her classes online because she thought that it would help. She's still going to work part-time." She explained.

"I know that your sister really wants to help you with your baby, but I do think that my mom and Burt are willing to help too." I responded. "Frannie should focus on getting her degree because I know that's important to her."

"I'm not going to tell her what to do." Quinn stated. "I'm going to let her live her life however she wants because for the first time, she's able to do that."

I couldn't imagine what it would be like to be controlled for all of your life and I supposed that she did have a point, but I also didn't think that it would be wise to throw away her education. She did seem like she would be an amazing aunt though.

I did feel like maybe I wasn't focusing as much on Glee club as I should, but I couldn't give them all of my attention. However, that night I was doing something that was not related to either Glee club or football and that was trying to get ready for the move. I was shopping with Chrissy. We still had the $300 that Burt had given us.

"So do you think that Quinn's mom will let her come back?" I asked.

"I don't know. I don't think that is something that we should count on." She answered. "You know it's too bad that you're too young to play professionally because we could really use the bigger house.

"Are you better with the idea of moving in with Burt and Katie now?" I asked.

"Yeah, but still concerned about how things are going to work." She remarked. "So how are things going with Rachel."

"I'm pretty sure that's not going to happen." I stated. "She slept with my girlfriend. Sure, I kissed Quinn but that was in the heat of the moment. There was no way that Rachel was so happy at the revelation that Shelby was her mom that her first thought was that I need to screw this girl right in front of me."

"Wait. You kissed Quinn?" She asked. I forgot that I didn't tell her that. "How was it?"

"It was in the heat of the moment. We were just talking about how she had a great life already." I explained.

"But did you like it?" She inquired.

"It made me feel really guilty after what I realized what I had done. Chrissy, I know that you don't like me and Sadie together, but the thing is I still like her a lot and I don't think that I can just give up on her. I should probably try to move on and realize that I need to focus on facing her in the championship and at Regionals." I remarked.

"So are you excited about winning the championship?" She asked.

"I haven't won it yet. I still have to go through my toughest challenge yet in order to do that. But it does feel different than when I won the championship before." I replied. "You know I also want to say that I really like having you as a sister. It's a little weird at times, but I definitely prefer you being in my life to not. I do wonder why you chose to be a girl though."

"I felt that if you were going to have to learn how to be a girl, then I should have to as well." She responded. That was sweet…I think.

"Do you think that we can actual win Regionals?" I asked.

"I don't even know anymore." She admitted. "I would like to experience the joy of winning something like this, but I don't know if we'll be able to pull it off."

"What about Cheerleading Nationals?" I replied.

"Okay that does like it will be pretty cool. Did you know that since the competition is at Universal Studios, we get to be some of the first was to go the Wizarding World of Harry Potter?" She remarked with a smile. "I just hope that I will be able to go on a plane without my PTSD coming back."

"Do you think that will happen? Has it happened?" I questioned in concern.

"So far the only really instances of it have been because of my intense fear of you dying." She answered. "It turns out that even dying doesn't get rid of your mental illness, but I'm pretty sure that I'm okay."

"Have you tried to talk to a therapist about it?" I asked her.

"What am I supposed to say? That I'm a former Army reject in the body of a teenage girl? No one is going to believe that and it would just get me put on a different kind of medicine."

Yeah that did have to suck. I probably needed to talk a therapist myself, but like her, I couldn't talk about any of the things that were bothering me. I supposed besides the game, the thing that I was most worried about was being able to help Quinn take care of the baby. I was pretty sure even if she did move back in with her mom, I would need to help with that unless she suddenly changed her mind about adoption.

"How about we just focusing on getting things for a room for us. Is there anything that you want to get?" I asked.

"I kind of want to get the newest Nintendo. The Wii I think it is." She answered.

"That would eat up the majority of our budget." I pointed out. "I was thinking that maybe we could get some sort of privacy curtain so we can at least have a little bit of our own space. We should probably also get some things for the bathroom."

"Yeah I guess we can do that." She agreed.

"So we can finish shopping and then we can go and get some dinner at Pizza Hut." I offered.

So we did that and we paid for our stuff with the money that Burt had given us. We did still have some left over to get our dinner. I was pretty sure that Pizza Hut had been pizza than Breadstix did, but Breadstix was supposed to be fancier. However, as soon as I walked into the restaurant, we ran into a problem.

"What are you doing here?" Sadie asked me.

"I'm having dinner with my sister." I answered. "What are you doing here?"

"I'm having dinner with my brother." She responded. I looked over and saw…Jesse. Wait what? "He just got back from school. Maybe we should sit together?"

"Sadie, I don't think that it's a good idea for us to be fraternizing before the game. If you want to talk some more after it, we can, but I think for right now, we should just stick to being rivals." I declared.

"I guess I'm just going to have to take you down the field." She retorted.

I was a bit surprised. I thought that Sadie was a female version of Jesse, but apparently she was always just his younger sister. Did Jesse have a sister before? That really changed my perception of this world. We got a table far enough away from them that they couldn't hear us talk.

"So I guess I was wrong." Chrissy remarked. "Okay I really didn't see that coming."

I was a bit confused by the whole situation but I really didn't understand the multiverse, so it probably wasn't best to question it.

On Saturday night, it was the big night. I was at Ohio State for the state championship. I was lucky that I didn't have to drive there. I was wearing my uniform and we were under the bright lights. I didn't know why they had to do it at night. Maybe they thought it was more dramatic or something. All I knew was that I was going to be facing Sadie on the field for the first time. I had also had my whole perception of her changed by a simple meeting.

"Alright, girls, huddle up." Coach Tweedy told us. "This is it. This is what we've worked for. In 90 minutes, we'll know if we're going to be repeating as champions. We're going to give it all that we've got. Now for the last time, let's go out there and kick some arse!"

The game started simple. It would involve the captains going out to the center for the drop. That was where I saw Sadie.

"Good luck." She told me.

I was pretty sure that I was hallucinating us singing while we played because it would be pretty weird if it happened.

It's getting late, I haven't seen my date so tell me when the boys get here
It's 7:00 and I wanna rock wanna get a belly full of beer
My old man's drunker than a bar full of winos and my old lady she don't care
My sister's looking cute in her braces and her boots and a handful of grease in her hair

Don't give us none of your aggravation, we've had it with your discipline
Saturday night's alright for fighting, get a little action in
Get about as oiled as a diesel train, gonna set this town alight
Cause Saturday's night the night I like Saturday night's alright, alright, alright

I was the first one to score. It wasn't even that close because I got a pretty easy breakaway. After that Sadie got the ball and started to head towards the goal.

Packed pretty tight in here tonight
I'm looking for a woman to see me right
I could use a little muscle to get what I need
I'll drink a little Jack and scream out "She's with me"
A couple sounds that I really like
Are the sounds of a switchblade and a motorbike
I'm a juvenile product of the working class
Whose best floats from the bottom of a glass

It got to the point where both of us had scored two goals and the time was almost out. Both of our teams also seemed to be pretty good at defense. I couldn't help but wonder what it was like for someone to watch this. I had heard a lot of people say that football was more fun to play than it was to watch. I hadn't actually watched much, so I didn't know how true that was. I was having a lot of fun playing though.

Saturday, Saturday, Saturday, Saturday, Saturday, Saturday
Saturday night's alright
Saturday, Saturday, Saturday, Saturday, Saturday, Saturday
Saturday night's alright
Saturday, Saturday, Saturday, Saturday, Saturday, Saturday
Saturday night's alright

I went towards the goal with Sadie and several other girls defending me. It was then that I noticed something. Jasmine was open. I passed the ball to her and she kicked it in the net for winning goal. She threw her arms up in the air and I went over to hug her. We had won. We did it. They gave me the trophy and I held it up.

After everything was over, I was the last one to leave the field as everyone went to the locker room to celebrate. I shouldn't have been surprised with who came to talk to me.

"Congratulations." Sadie told me. "I'm kind of surprised that you didn't score the winning goal."

"Well football is a team sport." I stated. "I'm sorry that you didn't win."

"I still have something else to look forward to." She stated. "You may have won this, but we are going to kick your ass at Regionals. I'm sorry."

"I'm sorry too." I remarked. "I guess I will see you around."

"Yeah." She agreed before she walked off. That was when I realized something. Even though we were broken up, there were still feelings between us.

Of course, there was still one more thing that we had to do. On Monday, Mr. Schue decided that we would do something. We called Vocal Adrenaline back to our school to see us perform and show them that we weren't going to stoop to their level…or something.

I could be mean, I could be angry,
You know I could be just like you
I could be weak, I could be senseless
You know I could be just like you

All I own cause I can't take living with you
I'm alone, so I won't turn out like you want me to

You thought you were sitting beside me, you were only in my way
You're wrong if you think I'll be just like you
You thought you were there to guide me, you were only in my way
You're wrong if you think I'll be just like you
You thought you were there to guide me, you were only in my way
You're wrong if you think I'll be just like you

I could be mean, I could be angry
You know I could be just like you

All I knew was that next Saturday, we would know whether or not we would be moving on to Nationals. It kind of felt like were near the end, but I couldn't even tell anymore. I didn't know if we would be able to beat them as long as Sadie was there. Even though she wasn't the female version of Jesse, she was still a very good singer and Shelby was also a very good coach. We would have to give it all our all and that might still not be enough.

So one of the biggest revelations is that Jesse does still exist in this world, but he's not part of Vocal Adrenaline. Also Faith defeated her at the soccer championship, but will she be able to do so at Regionals. The songs are "Smells Like Teen Spirit" by Malia J, "Saturday Night's Alright for Fighting" by Elton John and "Just Like You" by Three Days Grace. Please don't forget to review.