𝐒𝐎𝐍𝐆𝐁𝐈𝐑𝐃, mike chang

045 - heads are spinning

elle laughed and gently nudged her brother in the ribs. "i dunno, i don't quite think i'm made for lacrosse." she admitted with a grin.

"well then, it's a good thing your new boyfriend is captain of the team, huh?" jeremiah teased.

"boyfriend?" elle laughed. "please j, i've been on a couple of dates with peter, i'd hardly go that far."

"and i've seen you sneaking him into your room after those dates, elle." he retorted, earning another nudge to his ribs. "what! mclaren isn't exactly light on his feet!"

"shut up." she mumbled before leaving the choir room and, ever so conveniently, bumping straight into peter, who greeted her with a quick kiss on the cheek.

"hey there, stranger," elle grinned, nestling herself under peter's arm and walking with him, not caring that he was going in the opposite direction to where she was meant to be going. "are you coming to the game?"

peter narrowed his eyes. "babe, you hate football," he noted, which wasn't completely untrue; sure, she had attended all of mike's games while they were dating, but that sure as hell didn't mean she understood it.

"that's true," she giggled. "but, due to unforeseen circumstances, i may or may not be playing?"

peter's jaw dropped for a moment before he started laughing. "you're something else, eleanor, you know that?"

the rest of the week leading up to the big game was packed full of strategies for how exactly the titans planned on winning with only six of their players actually playing the game.

elle, tina, mercedes and rachel walked confidently onto the field the night of the game, the four of them drowning in their uniforms and padding.

"you ready for this?" mike asked as the team all went around hyping each other up.

elle nodded, glancing around. "some how glee shows are a lot more nerve racking than this." she told him before tugging her helmet on and putting a gumshield in her mouth.

turns out, the girls confidence was all in vain as the titans quickly became several points behind their opponents. "is anyone else tired if lying down, i wanna play." tina huffed.

turns out, tina's wish would come true as during the next play, the ball tumbled out of one of the opposing player's grasp and landed right next to her, prompting the short girl to spring up and grab it.

"go tina!" elle bellowed following suit and running up the pitch not too far away from her before noticing that one of the other team's players was gaining on her. "tina!" she called waving her open arms, signalling for a pass.

elle caught the ball swiftly before she began full force sprinting for the end zone, and very nearly making it before she was tackled from behind and thrown to the floor.

as she lay face down in the dirt, her head spun and soon enough all of the sounds of the game became distant echoes that were fading into the dark before she was forcefully flipped over onto her back.

"is she breathing?" someone asked, the voice becoming too much of a distorted echo for it to be recognisable.

"songbird?" mike's voice was quiet and barely audible amongst the worried voices that were swirling in her head, but it was enough to make elle's eyes shoot open.

she reached into her helmet and pulled out her mouth gard. "did we win?" she asked, her eyes quickly finding mike who was kneeling beside her.

he chuckled before helping her to her feet and walking her to the sidelines where she could be properly inspected for injuries and assessed for a possible concussion.

once elle was deemed to be okay, beiste instructed her to sit out for the rest of the match, only for finn to come rushing over a moment later.

"ellie, i need your help!" he explained, taking her by the hand and leading her toward the school's parking lot.

"where are we going?" she asked, struggling to keep up with him despite his hold on her hand.

"we can't have a half time show without cheerleaders."

luckily, the cheerio's were still on school grounds, meaning elle and finn still had time to convince brittany, santana and quinn to stay for the halftime show.

"if we're not cheerio's, we're nothing." quinn reminded the two quickly.

"that's not true!" finn spat. "sure you joined the cheerio's to be popular, but you joined glee club because you loved it."

"sue doesn't care about you guys," elle spoke up. "she's fine with killing brittany!"

"tell me honestly, if you didn't think it would hurt your reputation, which would you chose?" finn asked them earnestly.

"glee club." brittany quickly replied, earning a wide smile from eleanor.

"i know you," finn spoke to quinn. "you don't think you are, but, you're strong enough to do this."

quinn smiled. "okay, i'll do it."

elle grinned and looked to santana. "tana?"

"screw her," santana replied with a wide smile. "she put me on the bottom of the pyramid." she quickly grabbed onto elle's hand and gave it a firm squeeze.

"alright," finn smiled. "let's go."

"no time for an orgy ladies, bus leaves in five!" sue called to then upon spying her three star cheerio's with finn and eleanor.

"we quit cheerio's." quinn told her with a satisfied smile.

"you can't quit cheerio's." sue argued. "it's blood in, blood out. now get yourselves on that bus."

"but we still quit." santana smirked.

"you're my stars! if you leave, i have no performance!" sue practically begged the girls as they walked away.

"sucks for you." brittany quipped.