Falling-Prequel

Bad Reputation

S1X17~BAD REPUTATION
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Haley and Quinn sat in Haley's bedroom working on homework together. Quinn had been kicked out of her house a few weeks before, and she was staying with Mercedes, however, she'd come over a fair majority of time to hang with Haley.

"Are you finished?" Haley asked. She frowned when she saw Quinn's fingers flying across the keyboard.

"I've been finished for half an hour." Quinn answered, not removing her gaze from her screen.

"What are you so urgently typing?" Haley asked, walking over to see what Quinn was working on.

"Oh, well...I'm trying to work on getting my reputation back." Quinn admitted. "I may not be able to for the rest of this year, but it's a slow start...For now, I'm making sure you keep your reputation up."

"We can't guarantee I can." Haley sighed. "With the whole sexual assault, I get a slushy to the face everyday, and I get mocked, and many of the jocks think they can throw themselves on me. Hell no." She shook her head. "That's not happening. It's already been a struggle to heal through the trauma."

"What about Cheerios status?" Quinn asked. "After what happened with Mercedes last week."

"I'm still on Sue's good side, thank god. It doesn't guarantee my captain spot on the Cheerios, but I'm not sure about joining again." Haley pondered aloud.

"You have to join again, Sue will love having you again. We have to hold our reputation up. Keep our status up, and keep our place in the food chain.... That's why I'm making this." Quinn gestured to her screen.

"The Glist..." Haley read quietly.

"Are you on board?" Quinn asked, looking up at her. "I want to make sure you keep your reputation despite all your struggles. You know you want to. You want to try to regain your status after the trauma."

"Quinn..." Haley began, about to protest. Although, part of her really wanted to remain popular. Sure, she had been through a lot, she was healing, but she wanted to be seen. "Fine. I'm in."

"Perfect." Quinn smiled, as Haley moved her chair closer to her, as they began typing the names on the Glist. "
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The Glist
Quinn + 45

Haley +44

Santana +43

Puck +38

Brittany +35

Jesse +29

Finn +19

Mike +11

Matt +5

Rachel -5

"Who did it?" Mr. Schue demanded, holding up a copy of the glist in his hands. "This is serious." He continued when no one moved or said anything. "Principal Figgins is threatening to disband the club."

"Why are we playing the game." An unamused Santana spoke up. "We all know it was Puck."

"Back off. I didn't do it." Puck shook his head.

"Then why is your girlfriend first on the Glist?" Santana spat back at his retort.

"And why am I last?" Rachel asked, as Haley discreetly chuckled. "Aside from the fact that I refused to put out for you." She was offended with being the last and only one with negative points.

"Okay, enough! No one is accusing anyone of anything." Mr. Schue said. "Puck, seriously, did you do it?" He asked, turning to Puck.

"I said no." Puck answered. "I'm a delinquent, sure. I like setting stuff on fire and beating up people I don't know. I own that. But I'm not a liar."

"Alright, here's the important point..." Mr. Schue sighed, turning to look at the group. "Between this and posting Coach Sylvester's personal video on YouTube you guys are getting a pretty bad reputation."

"Why is that a bad thing?" Artie spoke up. "Maybe if we seem more dangerous, people would stop flushing my glasses down the toilet."

"Look, things are hard right one. I get it. You're under a lot of pressure with Regionals coming up. I know that winning Sectionals hasn't had the positive effect on your popularity that a lot of you thought it would. But becoming what you despise is not the answer." Mr. Schue said, as he began distributing sheet music.

"Man, this song is wack." Finn muttered, speaking everyone's thoughts.

"No, it's not. It's a terrific song on a long list of top hits that, because of time or some bad press, has become a joke. And like you guys, it's time to start rehabilitating its bad reputation. The assignment for the week is for all of you to find songs like this, mine them for what works and make them great again and then, hopefully you can apply this musical lesson to your own lives."

"This song should be arrested for the crime of sucking." Jesse rolled his eyes.

"You wanna bet?" Mr. Schue challenged.

"Oh, no, he didn't." Artie exclaimed jokingly.

"Hit it!"

{ICE ICE BABY-SUNG BY WILL SCHUESTER & THE NEW DIRECTIONS}

"This song is officially praroled!" Mr. Schue said, after they had finished. He turned to Jesse. "This song has officially been handed to the taste of today! You're okay, Jesse?"

"Ok yeah, I admit defeat on this one!" Jesse responded.
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Haley wanted to sink into the floor at that moment. She sat across from Mr. Schue who stood looking at her. She felt like this was an interrogation out of a crime show.

"You did it. Don't deny it." Mr. Schue accused, as Haley scoffed.

"I did not." She rolled her eyes, annoyed with his accusations.

"I know you did." He argued again.

"I don't know why you think it was me. It obviously could've been someone lower in status." Haley protested.

"Look, after talking to everyone, the pieces all connect." Mr. Schue began, as Haley interjected.

"So, you're coming after me instead of the other Cheerios? Kurt? Mercedes? Santana? Quinn? Brittany?" Haley exclaimed exasperated. "You're going way too far into this. It's a stupid list. You just assume the blame on everyone except, Finn, Rachel, and Jesse. They're exceptions, they're your favorites." Haley mocked, as Mr. Schue sighed.

"Haley. You were sexually assaulted, and you're constantly slushied everyday, and mocked with sexist comments by the jocks, who are throwing themselves at you. I mean, it connects. You want to regain your status, and increase it so you can become more popular again, like you were before everything happened.  Plus, you're not even into Glee club every week that much. It all makes sense, you're trying to win back your reputation."

"How bold of you to assume and place the blame on me. That's so rich." Haley retorted, with a sarcastic laugh. "You can't always try to blame me over everyone else. Geez, take Berry into consideration, or Finn and Jesse. Also, I do genuinely care about Glee Club, if you weren't directing your fucking attention to Berry 24/7, you'd see that I'm in fact enthused every session. Also, just because I was the victim of a traumatic assault, and that boys are throwing themselves at me, even though I push them away, you're wrong. I've barely received any support for my healing, and yes, I've been to Ms. Pilsbury and she was no help. So, let me reiterate." Haley said, sending him a glare. "Before you go blaming me, consider all the other factors, and all the students, before making assumptions." She got up and left his office, in a rather unimpressed mood.
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"Alright, guys, listen up." Mr. Schue said. "Another week has almost passed. If a list goes up again later today, this issue is out of my hands and it becomes Principal Figgins' jurisdiction."

"Seriously, Mr. Schue, whoever made that list is not gonna come forward. We might as well bend over and take whatever's coming." Kurt spoke up with a sigh.

"It's way better than blaming one person." Haley commented with a roll of her eyes.

"Fine." Mr. Schue said, disappointment evident in his voice. "Okay. Well, then, hum, let's get to it. "Rachel, how 'bout you show us your bad reputation project?"

"I'd like to say a few words first." Rachel said, as she stood in front of a big screen. "Though I understand that a motion picture should stand on its own. I do realize that some of you are not well-versed in the complex vocabulary of the filmic arts."

"My audacity to slap you is increasing." Haley commented. "I do know my vocabulary, Berry, and I think I speak for a fair majority of us when I say, we ain't dumb. You're insinuating that you believe you're the only genius. Wow. Bravo...Thank god you're at the bottom of the glist. Whoever put you there was smart." Haley sarcastically stated as she clapped, while Quinn and Santana snickered.

"I expect that this video will go over some of the heads of our less-cultured teammates. So let me just say I hope you enjoy my bad reputation. Lights. Okay, go." Rachel smiled as the lights dimmed.

As the video played, Haley could see that Puck, Finn and Jesse looked unimpressed. From what information she'd managed to get, Rachel misled each of them into thinking that they'd be the star of the music video. All three were very offended. Everyone else exchanged surprised looks. Haley thought it was horrible, but that was her opinion that she would keep to herself till she died. Everyone clapped, rather unenthusiastically after the video was over. Rachel stood up awkwardly, walking to the front.

"Well, why don't we just, um, take a moment to really absorb what we've just watched?" She asked, sensing that the boys were unimpressed.

"This is garbage!" Finn spoke up.

"Finn!" Mr. Schue said, trying to reprimand the boy.

"No, he's right. I need to trust my instincts more because I had a feeling when we were shooting that, that it was not gonna be good." Puck agreed.

"Wh didn't you tell me they were in this too?" Jesse demanded as Rachel frowned. "I thought you and I were going out. Being triple cast with two other guys to play opposite your girlfriend...It's mortifying."

"It was an artistic statement." Rachel attempted to defend herself.

"Berry trying too hard." Haley mumbled.

"No, it wasn't!" Finn said, shaking his head. "It was you trying to look like you had a bunch of guys fighting over you so you could stop looking like some kind of outcast and be seen as some hot, slutty girl singer! How could you do this to me, to all of us guys? Is your stupid reputation more important than your relationships?" He stormed out of the room, Puck behind him as Jesse stood up to follow the guys.

"Jesse, wait." Rachel called, but Jesse only shook his head and left the room. Everyone sat there staring at Rachel as she slumped down in her seat.

"I for one have had enough secondhand embarrassment for the day, so I'm leaving." Haley said, as she walked out of the room, Brittany, Quinn and Santana not too far behind her.
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"I know you two are behind the Glist." Mr. Schue said to Haley and Quinn. His suspicions were right all along, and he knew what he needed to do, even though he felt horrible for doing it. He had sat them down in the choir room, so he could talk to them.

"You have no proof." Quinn pointed out with a scoff.

"I can't believe that you're gonna pin this on us. We'll be expelled." Haley rolled her eyes.

"I mean, it makes sense. Everything else has been taken from me-my popularity, my body. Might as well throw away my education." Quinn scoffed once again.

"I mean, guys are throwing themselves at me, because they think I want to have sex with them. Hell no, I don't want that repeated. The trauma is enough. The sexist and misogynistic comments are prolonged, the slushy facials...my popularity is also decreasing, I need that status to be seen. I need people to know that I exist." Haley added.

"You know when I realized that you two did it? The moment I felt what it was like to walk in your shoes. I mean, it takes years to build a good reputation... but only seconds to destroy it. Couple bad choices,
and you go from the top to the bottom. You have lost so much, Quinn... Haley, you had popularity, and it was exciting, you still have it...but it's being taken advantage of. Not just the reputation, but yourself. You went through something traumatic, you've been faithful to Quinn, helping her through her pregnancy. Both of your girl's credibility has decreased. You've lost a lot, which means you had the most to gain from the Glist.

"We never meant to hurt anybody." Haley stated quietly.

"I know."

"I was captain of the cheerleading squad, president of the Celibacy Club. I had Finn. People would part like the Red Sea when I walked down the hallway, and they would with Haley too.  Now I'm invisible."

"And you think being seen as a cheap tramp is better?" Mr. Schue asked as both girls shrugged.

"A bad reputation is better than no reputation at all. Look, I know that high school feels like your whole life right now...but it's going to end. You're gonna give that baby to a family who really wants it, who's gonna love it... and then you are gonna go on to do amazing things, Quinn. You will too, Haley. I know it." Mr. Schue said.

"You really think that we can get it all back one day?" Quinn asked.

"No. I think you can get something even better.  I mean, come on! You're Quinn Fabray, and Haley Aldrin right? Those people didn't part when you walked down the halls, you girls moved them with your attitude."

"Thanks, Mr. Schue." Haley sniffled through her tears, as Quinn, who was also crying, grabbed her hand.

"You're a really good teacher...even if everybody is calling you a man-whore." Quinn added.

"You wanted to see me, William? I trust you have come up with the perpetrators of the Glist." Principal Figgins asked, stepping into the room. Haley and Quinn stood behind their teacher, hugging each other for comfort, as they awaited bad news.

I, um-I grilled every single one of my students...and, uh, no one...no one copped to making the Glist. They all closed ranks and wouldn't rat out who did it." Mr. Schue said, as he lied so the girls wouldn't be expelled.

"That's poppycock, Will. I will not let this school be held hostage by juvenile shenanigans." Principal Figgins argued.

"I know, but I mean, your point has been made. The Glists have stopped. I think we should just call this a victory and move on." Mr. Schue said.

"Fine. I'm still praying for you, Will." Principal Figgins gave in, before leaving.

Haley and Quinn let out a breath of relief, before mouthing silent thank you's to their teacher, and left the room.
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