'𝐂𝐈𝐆𝐀𝐑𝐄𝐓𝐓𝐄𝐒 𝐎𝐔𝐓 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐖𝐈𝐍𝐃𝐎𝐖' ᵍˡᵉᵉ

-𝒘𝒉𝒆𝒆𝒍𝒔

ROXANNE sat in the back of the choir room next to the two other cheerios, trying to tune out quinn and finn's arguing, again.

roxy felt she should tell finn the truth, that the baby wasn't his. he was her friend, after all. but the other part of her head reminded her that quinn was her best friend and roxanne shouldn't betray her.

still, though, seeing finn getting yelled at all the time made her feel guilty. and, although quinn's frustrations were justified, it was hypocritical of her to put that pressure on him when she knew the baby wasn't even his.

mr. schue walked in and started handing out sheet music, as he explained, "all right, guys. we're doing a new number for sectionals. I know that pop songs have sort of been our signature pieces, but I did a little research on past winners, and it turns out that the judges like songs that are more accessible. stuff they know. uh, standards, broadway."

"defying gravity? I have an ipod shuffle dedicated exclusively to selections from wicked. this is amazing,"
kurt exclaimed enthusiastically.

"think you can handle it, rachel?" mr. schue asked, and roxanne didn't miss the way kurt looked between the girl and their teacher, visibly upset that the song went straight to rachel.

"it's my go-to shower song. it's also my ringtone," rachel
answered.

"why do we have to go all vanilla on this song? see, what we need is my chocolate thunder," mercedes commented, and the others nodded in agreement.

"okay, we don't have time to rearrange a song for you, mercedes. rachel is singing it," mr. schue told her, "don't worry, we'll find something for you to dip in chocolate." He tried to joke. "on to item two. the school won't pay for the special bus we need to take artie and his wheelchair with us to sectionals."

"w-w-what?!" tina exclaimed.

"that's completely unfair," rachel said.

"so, we're going to have to raise money to pay for it ourselves. see, when I was in glee club, and we needed new silk cummerbunds for regionals, we held a bake sale," mr.
schue said. everyone looked at him, shaking their heads at the terrible idea.

"you're joking right?" santana asked, "I mean, bake sales are kind of bougie."

"so hip people stopped eating delicious sugary treats?" mr.
schue asked, tilting his head with crossed arms.

"it's not that," brittany spoke up from her seat between roxanne and santana. "it's most of us don't know how to bake. I find recipes confusing," the two latinas looked at brittany with furrowed brows.

"my family is fully committed to takeout," rachel said.

"yeah, mr. schue, kids are busier than when you went here. we've got homework and football and teen pregnancy... lunch," finn said.

"can't artie's dad just take him?" mercedes suggested.

"I can't believe how insensitive you're all being. are you a team?" mr. schue asked.

"of course. but artie understands, don't you, artie?" quinn replied, looking at the boy.

"oh..." artie trailed off, "of course. it's cool. anything that takes away our time from rehearsing doesn't serve the team," he was clearly hurt, and roxanne could sense it; she also felt an odd emergence of empathy. she was never one of the kids who made fun of him or help throw him in the dumpster with puck, but she never payed him any attention.

as the bell rang, roxanne purposely took her time in collecting her things until everyone walked out of the choir room. when she was done, she walked toward artie, who seemed to struggle with tying his shoes.