Are You Questioning My Badassness?

Everyone trudged back onto the bus at 6:30 with sad faces and no trophy. I was absolutely devastated, but not as much as I was angry. So, instead of climbing aboard, I grabbed Jesse by the shirt and dragged him to the side of the building where we could talk in private.

“Excuse me, but what the hell is your problem?” I glared at him as he just stood there with a satisfied look on his face.

“I have no problem,” he shrugged. “My group won. You, on the other hand, are the one I feel bad for.”

My mouth dropped open and I couldn’t close it. “Are you fucking kidding?”

“Oh, no, honey. I don’t kid,” Jesse said with a smirk. “I’m very serious about my work.”

“You prick,” I said between clenched teeth and clenched fists. “How could you do that?”

“How could I not?” he snorted. “The opportunity was right in front of me.”

“But…why?” I wailed. “We worked so hard.”

“Apparently, not hard enough,” he shrugged again.

I lost it, right then and there. “THIS IS YOUR FAULT!” I screamed. “YOU TOLD US WHAT TO DO. YOU TOLD QUINN SHE SUCKED AND-“

“She does,” he told me, honestly. I put my hands down at my sides, took a deep breath, and tried to calm myself.

“No, she doesn’t! She has a beautiful voice, and you know what you are?”

“A jerk? Yeah, I think you’ve said that at least fifteen times already.”

“Not only that and a million other bad words, but you’re also a liar and a fucking cheater. You told us that what we’d originally planned was all wrong and that we should just listen to you.”

“Exactly,” he began. “You listened to me. The new guy. And who’s mistake was that?”

“You’re right,” I smiled, sarcastically. “Thanks for teaching me never to trust people like you.”

“People like me?” Jesse chuckled. “I’m one of a kind.”

“Fortunately,” I sighed. “Just stay away from us, okay? All of us.”

“Don’t worry. I got what I wanted. I’m done here.” He then looked apologetic. “I’m sorry it had to happen like this. Your group’s talented.”

“Whatever,” I rolled my eyes. I then circled around and began to make my way back to the bus.

“One more thing,” he spoke as I was about to turn the corner.

I spun back around. “What?” I snapped.

“Tell Ashlyn I’m sorry.”

-------------------------------------------------

The next day was brutal. Everyone in the New Directions trudged around like the world was ending. Rachel, Mason, and Kurt would not stop weeping. And since I was good friends with both Mason and Kurt, it wasn’t a pretty sight for me.

We all walked into Glee club at lunchtime because Mr. Schue wanted to discuss Sectionals with us. I walked in with Puck at my side. He’d been a really different person since we’d lost, and as much as I liked it, it scared me a little. He was being too nice and a little clingy.

Once everyone sat down in their seats and threw Mr. Schue an uninterested look, he began to speak. “So…”

“Can we not talk about this?” Rachel held up her hand with tears in her eyes.

“Rachel, we have to talk about this sometime,” he replied to her. “And now I think is the best time.”

She glared at him but stayed seated.

“According to the judges, we lost,” he said bluntly. “But guess what?”

We all looked up at him with hopeful eyes.

“According to how much applause we got compared to Vocal Adrenaline, and according to what I think, we won.”

“But you see,” Mason butt in. “That doesn’t matter if we don’t have a trophy to prove it.”

“Why doesn’t it matter?” Mr. Schue shrugged. “A trophy is just a stupid piece of metal. We all know that we won this competition in our hearts.”

“But we didn’t!” Rachel threw her hands up in frustration. “Do you know how awful third place is going to look when I become a Broadway star?”

“You’ll get through it,” he told her. “This is just one competition out of many. Plus, Glee club is not even about winning. I mean, it’s nice to win, but isn’t it all about fun?”

“Fun?” Rachel spat. “Because losing is the most fun feeling in the world! Glee club is not supposed to be fun. It’s all serious work for me. It’s what’s going to help me achieve my dreams, and the fact that nobody else takes this club seriously is not!”

“Rachel, you can leave,” Mr. Schue pointed to the door. “You’re not helping at all.”

“I might as well! We’re not getting anything done here anyway!” She stood up and stomped her way out of the room, still crying.

Mr. Schue looked around the room and stopped when he got to the empty seat next to Mike. “Where’s Jesse?”

“He went back to Vocal Adrenaline,” I said without thinking. I hadn’t told anyone about what he’d done until just then. I felt that it wasn’t necessary to make things worse than they already were, so I figured I’d tell everyone when things calmed down a little.

Everyone’s faces dropped and Mr. Schue widened his eyes at me. “What?”

Oh well, I thought to myself. It’s out in the open now anyway, might as well just tell them the truth.

“Yeah,” I told them. “He used us the whole time. He told us all these fake rules in show business, and bossed us around the whole time, just so we could ‘take a risk’ and lose. He just wanted another win for Vocal Adrenaline, and didn’t really care who he hurt in the process of getting it.”

“Are you serious?” Mr. Schue’s mouth gaped open.

I nodded.

“I’m going to contact Vocal Adrenaline’s coach after school about this,” he looked deep in thought. “In the meantime, you guys hang in there. I’m going to try to do something about this.”

“No point, Mr. Schue,” I shrugged. “He’ll just deny it and make up some lame excuse. He’s the kind of guy you don’t want to mess with.”

“I’m sure I can handle a high school student, Nova,” he replied. “I’m not going to let something like that go.”

“Well, good luck,” I told him.

The bell rang, and everyone exited the room and made their way to their lockers to get their books for their next class. I was on my way to my own locker, when I felt two hands tap me on the shoulder. I turned around, face to…well, chest with Mason, and Kurt stood next to him. They both looked pretty pissed.

“Hey, guys,” I smiled a little.

But Mason cut right to the chase. “How long did you know about Jesse using us?”

“Just yesterday after the competition,” I told him, honestly.

“And you didn’t think to tell us?” Kurt cut in.

“No,” I shook my head. “I didn’t want to cause any more fuss until everyone started to get over us losing.”

“You were going to wait that long?” Mason narrowed his eyebrows. “Why? Mr. Schuester might be able to do something about this.”

“I doubt it, Mase,” I shrugged. “Jesse’s powerful and conniving, as you can see. I don’t see why we can’t just put this behind us and move on. There’s always next year’s Sectionals, and since Vocal Adrenaline has moved on, we won’t be competing with them.”

“I hope she’s not serious,” Kurt’s face dropped completely as he shot Mason a “look”. He then looked back at me and saw the serious look on my face. “Oh my god, she is…”

“What the hell is wrong with you, Nova?” Mason asked me. “Do you know how great it would be if Mr. Schuester could fix this?”

“Yeah, Rachel would finally shut up,” I rolled my eyes.

“We could get a second and fair chance at this!” he corrected me. “And if you’d kept this in any longer, we’d probably just have to move on anyway.”

“I know…” I said, seeing the other side of things. “I’m sorry.”

“You know,” Kurt began. “I know you don’t really care about this club, but some of us depend on it.”

“Yeah,” Mason added. “So, think about something else but yourself for once, okay?”

I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. I was going to protest, to tell them that it wasn’t like that, but before I had the chance, they both spun around and walked the other way.