Back-Up Plan - Book 3 - S.E.

All or nothing

"Well, I'm just living your lesson, Mr. Schue." She shrugged. "It's all or nothing."

***

Brittany was still M.I.A., but with Regionals so close to happening, the rest of the glee club had no other option but to keep on practicing. So, there they were, all of the reunited in a circle in the choir room to discuss their performance.

"Okay, guys, listen up." Mr. Schue said. "First up, we're gonna tackle Icona Pop. It's got a unique beat, but not entirely different from..."

"All right, look..." Ryder interrupted the teacher, out of the sudden, standing up from his seat, causing everyone to stop and turn to look at him. "I'm-I'm sorry. Excuse me, Mr. Schue, but I've got to say something."

"Okay."

"Look, so I hate to pull a Brittany here, but the bottom line is, I'm not performing in Regionals until Catfish reveals themselves." He said, causing Winnie to frown, confused. Catfish? She wasn't even aware there was a Catfish situation to begin with. Apparently, though, Ryder seemed to think someone in that room did know about it and he seemed deadset in finding out who, even though no one seemed too keen in sharing anything. "This whole situation is out of hand and needs to end. Hey, look, I'm serious, okay? I can't take it anymore, it-it's tearing me apart. And someone in this room is playing games with me, and I want to know who!"

"Somebody, just say who it is..." Sugar mumbled.

"I don't think it's any of us." Tina said.

"Pull out your phones!" Ryder demanded, clearly growing stressed with each passing second. "Everybody pull out your phones right now!"

"Ryder, relax, man." Jake said, clearly trying to calm down his friend.

"I know this is upsetting, but..."

Blaine's sentence got interrupted, however, when Ryder kicked down a chair, causing everyone to jump a little in surprise as Winnie flinched a little.

"Well, now nobody is going to admit it for fear of being murdered." Kitty whispered.

"I've told this person everything, and I want to know who it is." Ryder continued to ramble on.

"I know you're upset..."

"No, you don't know. You don't know, okay? Who is it?" Ryder insisted, ignoring Jake's input, before sighing when no one said a thing. "All right, fine. If nobody's gonna say anything, pull out your phones. And I want to see all of your phones."

"Are you serious?"

"All of your phones. Pull out your texts." Ryder yelled. "I'm serious! Texts!"

"Whoever it is, just say it." Sugar pleaded again, over the sounds of all the mumbles and groans from everyone else in the room.

"Who is it?" Ryder demanded again and, just before the whole thing could escalate again, Marley Rose, of all people, stood up.

"It's me." She admitted, silence falling in the room as everyone turned to look at the girl, never having expecting that to be the outcome of any of this. "I'm Catfish."

"What? What do you...? No, I-I-I asked you." Ryder shook his head, in disbelief. "You swore to me."

"I'm sorry." She said, as Winnie watched her with furrowed eyebrows. "I didn't mean for this to happen."

"Look, just take it easy, Ryder, okay?" Jake was quick to stand up in front of his girlfriend, as Ryder just stood there, clearly in shock. "This was just a little joke. Things got out of hand."