Be Free, Be You

During Glee Club practice I mostly just went over the Cheerio routine in my head because it seemed that today was a day for kids to just sing their problems to everyone and I obviously didn’t care about that. I had my own problems. I had already had a little talk with Mr. Schue and although he made it quite clear he wanted me to sing more than one solo he let me have my security of not having to sing any.

Now I sat beside Artie as Rachel sang a slow song I hadn’t heard before, and didn’t really care to listen to. I was too busy fiddling with the ends of my skirt uniform and peaking out of the corner of my eye to see Puckerman putting as much space between him and Steph without making it obvious to her.

He was caving and I couldn’t be happier. Artie’s little talk must have worked if he was beginning to back off of Steph. I clapped half heartedly as she finished and took her seat beside Finn. Mr. Schue asked if anyone else had anything to sing, no one did, so he then dismissed us for the day. I didn’t look to see if Steph followed Artie and I out, mostly because I wasn’t giving her a ride home.

I kissed Artie good bye, got in my car, saw Steph run to catch up, then pulled out of the lot and headed home. I knew I was being overly bitchy, but I needed to show Steph that I was totally serious about her and nasty, rude Puckerman. I did feel a little bit bad leaving her, but then again, I didn’t feel bad because she brought all of this on herself.

Sigh. Being an older sister was honestly such hard work. I only put this much effort in keeping my grades up, being on Cheerios and not throwing up because Artie had asked me to. And that was the hardest thing I had to do.

But so far it was weeks of no purging and weeks of feeling kind of okay about it. Of course, I made my diet even more strict and I refused to have pizza and movie nights with Artie because I couldn’t eat that stuff anymore. He wasn’t happy about that, but he was happy to know I was at least trying to get better.

It had been a month of fighting with Steph and I was so tired of it. I wanted my sister back, but there was no way I could have her while she was with nasty-ass Puckerman. Artie was starting to get really excited about going to regionals or whatever, but I honestly wasn’t worried about that. Cheerios was taking the cheerleading world by storm, as usual. We had a ticket to Nationals and eventually, Worlds. Our stunts were getting harder, the music faster, everything was going great.

My seat as captain next year was no longer in jeopardy.

Oh, and I’d come really, really close to losing my virginity to Artie like... four times.

Each time it was getting really heated and one of us got a hold of ourselves before the other. I think three of the four times Artie called red before I did. I was honestly so in love with the kid it was a little scary. He was perfect, his smile was radiant, his hair was incredibly soft and when it fell in his eyes when he gave me his Look, oh my gosh. It was no wonder why I had trouble controlling myself. He’d met Mom and Dad and though they were a bit confused in terms of how to react to the chair, they liked him. Artie’s parents liked me too, they invited me to celebrate his mom’s birthday at Breadstix, though I declined because I had a late Cheerios practice.

Things, other than the situation with Stephanie, were going great. Santana, Quinn, Britt and I became closer than ever, I found out Jenna tried to sleep with Artie because she was jealous I was spending so much time with him, so her and were done. However that was fine because apparently she wasn't a true friend anyway. I sighed and pulled into the driveway to see my dad standing there at the front door with his Angry Face on.

I turned the car off and stepped out, “Hey Dad.”

“Where’s Steph?” I inwardly groaned but tried my best to play it off.

“Still at school, I think she said something about tutoring some kid.” I tried to sidestep him to get into the house but he was like a brick wall.

He faltered a bit, and I managed to slip around him and almost got up the to steps but he took my elbow and lead me to the sofa where Mom was waiting too.“Really? Because she just called your mother and said you left her there on purpose.”

“Honey, what’s going on? We’ve noticed some tension between the two of you, did something happen with Artie?” Mom asked as she patted the spot beside her. I plopped down my cheer bag and backpack before collapsing on the sofa beside her. Dad took a seat in his recliner by the TV but kept his attention on me.

“She didn’t tell you anything?” I looked at the both of them in disbelief. They shook their heads, and waited for me to continue. “Mom, Dad she’s dating the guy that made my life Hell.”

“Hey,” my mom interrupted softly, “Language.”

I couldn’t help but roll my eyes at her but Dad quickly interrupted my retort. “Wait, that Puckerman kid?” I slowly nodded my head and I saw a flare spark in Dad’s eyes. “Are you kidding?”

“Nope. Totally serious.” I sucked in a breath and motioned outside. “He’s probably going to give her a ride home.”

“Well then we’ll have to talk to her about that when she gets here.” My mom said softly as she squeezed my hand. “Until then I’ll get started on dinner.”

With that Mom got up and went off to the kitchen while Dad and I waited for Steph to come in.