Night of neglect

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"All right, we need $5,000 to pay for our trip to nationals in New York." Mr. Schue announced, as all the kids frowned, confused.

"What happened to the money that we got from the Cheerios?" Quinn asked.

"I guess Sue was hiding it in offshore accounts in the Cayman Islands and we're having some trouble accessing some of it." Mr. Schue said, as Winnie sighed. Of course. "Any of it. Anyway, this is saltwater taffy."

"I love saltwater." Brittany said, as Mr. Schue showed some of the taffy's packages in his hands.

"When I was a student here, we paid for our entire trip to Nationals selling this classroom to classroom, door to door." The teacher said, as he threw some taffy out to the students. "We pushed this stuff like crack. And so will we. So to make $5,000 at 25 cents apiece we need to sell 20,000 pieces of taffy."

"Wait. Do you honestly think that we can sell 20,000 anythings?" Santana asked. "We won Regionals for the first time since dinosaurs roamed the planet and I still got a freakin' cherry ICEE facial."

"Yeah, Santana's right." Quinn nodded. "Nobody cares about us."

That had seemed to strike a nerve in Mike and the boy stood up angrily.

"I can't listen to this." He said, sighing a bit, fully aware of what had prompted such a reaction from the usual very calm boy.

"Mike, are you okay?" Mr. Schue asked, as Mike stopped and turned to glare at the kids.

"No." He said. "You guys complain all the time about being mistreated but you have no idea what it's like to work your butt off for something and have everyone, even your friends, ignore you."

"I'm so trying to remember his name right now." Lauren said, as Winnie rolled her eyes, watching as Tina, Artie and Brittany stoop up to join Mike.

"Artie, Tina, Brittany and I are on the Brainiacs." The boy said.

"Isn't that the Academic Decathlon team?" Rachel frowned.

"We have one of those?" Finn asked.

"Yes, we do." Artie said. "And the four of us went on the Smarty Pants Show and beat Carmel High to go to the Academic Decathlon finals in Detroit next week."

"You guys were on TV?" Sam asked. "Why didn't you tell us about it?"

"We did." Tina said.

"You did?" Sam frowned.

"They did." Winnie said.

"Wait. I-I get the three of you being on the team..." Mr. Schue pointing at Mike, Tina and Artie.

"Is it because two of them are Asian and Artie wears glasses?" Puck asked.

"No." Mr. Schue said. "But Brittany?"

"Liz Schneider was our fourth, but she got rubella." Mike explained.

"Her parents are hippies who don't believe in vaccinations." Tina said.

"Brittany was the only person we could find on short notice." Artie said. "We bribed her with Dots. That Sunshine Corazon that Rachel sent to a crack house was on the other team. She was great. Luckily, we had our own secret weapon."

"Brittany answered all the questions about cat diseases." Tina smiled a bit. "Sadly, we can't afford to go to the finals, so we're gonna have to forfeit."

"Why don't you just have your parents pay for it?" Rachel asked, as Winnie rolled her eyes.

"Because we shouldn't have to." Tina argued. "We're a school club. The school should pay for it. It's a matter of pride."

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