Magnolia walked into glee club with Mike. The two were arguing over who had the better taste in music. "You only like love songs." Mike told her as they entered the choir room.
Magnolia rolled her eyes. "And they're great!" She argued, as the two sat down.
Mike shook his head as Mr. Schue entered the classroom. "Hey, guys? Let's, uh...let's gather 'round." He instructed. Trailing behind them was Ms. Pilsbury. "Well...I have found my replacement. So, give it up for Ms. Pilsbury." They all clapped, a few seemed a bit upset still.
"She's the one they made me talk to when they found out I was keeping that bird in my locker." Brittany said.
As always, they ignored her comment. "So, do you even know anything about music?" Santana asked her.
Ms. Pilsbury was about to speak but Mr. Schue stepped in for her. "What's important is that she cares about you guys every bit as much as I do." He explained to them. "Now...I-I don't know what the future holds for me...and for us, but I know, Saturday, you're going to make me proud. You guys are gonna be great." He encouraged. "So...good-bye for now." He turned to leave.
"Wait. What about our set list?" Mercedes asked.
Mr. Schue turned back around. "I...I can't help you with that. You've got to figure that out for yourselves." He told them. "All right, guys." He left the choir room, leaving them with Ms. Pilsbury.
Quietly they watched as he left them to figure things out for themselves. "Well, we have to do Proud Mary in wheelchairs. That's in." Artie broke the silence.
"And Don't Stop Believing for sure." Finn added.
"What about the ballad?" Tina asked.
As always, Rachel stepped up. "I would be thrilled to contribute a ballad from my repertoire." She stood up and walked to the front of the choir room.
Mercedes stood up. "Ok, you know what miss bossy pants? Enough." She snapped. "I've worked just as hard as you, and I'm just as good as you. You know, you always end up stealing the spotlight." Mercedes made her way over to Rachel.
"Mercedes, do you honestly think you're as strong of a balladeer as I am?" She asked her.
Mercedes turned to the rest of the glee club with a bewildered look. "Okay, um, Rachel, why don't you let Mercedes give it a try?" Ms. Pilsbury asked.
Rachel nodded. "Thanks, Mrs. P." Mercedes said, still a bit annoyed at Rachel's attitude. Rachel and Ms. Pilsbury went to have a seat. "Do I even have to tell you what song?" Mercedes asked Brad. "Horns, stings, keep up." She ordered.
Mercedes sang And I'm Telling You. It was probably better than anything Rachel had sang all year, and Mercedes clearly gave her all for this song. The whole glee club was blown away by her performance.
"Thoughts?" Mercedes asked as everyone clapped excitedly for her.
Rachel walked up to her, smiling. "It's clear the room adores you." She let out a breathy laugh. "And, although it wouldn't be my first choice, well...I can't wait to see you sing that song at Sectionals." Mercedes gave her a small smile. "You're amazing, Mercedes, and you deserve it. I'm gonna hug you now." She told her. The two hugged as Rachel had said.
The part that Mercedes had deserved was hers, but sadly not for long.
• • •
Everyone in the glee club watched in horror as Finn repeatedly punched Puck in the face. He had found out about Puck being the real father of Quinn's baby.
Mr. Schue and Ms. Pilsbury rushed in and Mr. Schue grabbed Finn, pulling him off Puck. "Hey, come on, come on. Get off him!" He yelled as Mike, Matt; and Gavin also rushed over to hold Finn back.
"Tell the truth!" Finn yelled at Puck.
"Punk just walked in a sucker punched me." Puck explained.
"Don't play dumb-you're too freaking dumb to play dumb." Finn still tried to get at Puck.
"Who told you this, Finn?" Quinn asked through tears.
Everyone already knew who had done it. "Obviously, it was Rachel." Kurt stated.
"What? I didn't do anything." Rachel lied.
Finn seemed to have stopped trying to get at Puck. "Yeah, it was Rachel, but I want to hear it from you." He said. "I wanna hear it from both of you." He added.
"Finn, just calm down." Mr. Schue told him.
"No! They're both lying to me!" Finn shouted. "Is it true?" Finn asked Quinn. "Just tell me-is it true?" He repeated himself.
Quinn walked up to Finn, tears covering her face. "Yes. Puck is the father." She answered through sobs.
"So, all...all that stuff in the hot tub...you just made that up?" He asked her.
"You were stupid enough to buy it." Puck insulted.
Finn looked over at him and almost ran towards him, but Mr. Schue stopped him. "I am so sorry." Quinn apologized.
Finn removed himself from Mr. Schue's guard. "Screw this. I'm done with you." He pointed at Quinn. "I'm done with...I'm done with all of you!" He shouted. On his way out, he kicked over a chair and then left.
• • •
Magnolia scanned the halls for Quinn, but found Finn instead. Walking up to him she put a soft smile on. "Hey." She greeted.
Finn didn't look at her for a while and she stood beside him in silence. "Did you know?" He asked finally.
Magnolia sighed. "I did. But I couldn't tell you, it wasn't my place." She was working her way up to an apology but stopped when she saw the anger in Finn's face rising.
"You could've! Rachel did!" He started to get a bit louder. "I thought we were friends." He said a little quieter when a few heads turned.
Magnolia frowned. "We are! Rachel's selfish, she told you for her own benefit. Finn, I was trying to protect you!" She explained.
Finn finally looked at her, anger clear in his eyes. "I don't need your protection, Magnolia. If you really did care about me you would've told me." He told her.
Magnolia could feel tears forming in her eyes. "Finn, please." She begged, putting a hand on his arm. Finn looked like he was going to give in but instead shook her off and stormed away. Wiping the tears from her face, Magnolia walked in the opposite direction.
• • •
Finn didn't join the New Directions for Sectionals and they still would've had enough members but Gavin had caught a fever and his parents refused to let him go outside.
They had to use JBI as their substitute for the two missing boys. Magnolia refused to talk or listen to the people around her. She felt guilty for not telling Finn and although everyone knew, she blamed herself the most.
The New Directions were going last, and at first they were a bit optimistic about it but when they sat down to watch the other performances, they realized that their set list had been stolen as both teams performed their songs.
As the Haverbrook show choir performed, Rachel finally stood up. "Meeting in the green room in five minutes." She ordered.
Not being able to bear it any longer, they all did as they were told. "You leaked the set list, you don't want to be here. You were just Sue Sylvester's little moles." Kurt accused Brittany and Santana.
"I know for a fact that's true. Sue asked us to spy for her." Quinn spilled, making the two look even more suspicious.
Santana gasped at the accusation. "Look, we may still be Cheerios, but neither of us ever gave Sue the set list." Santana defended.
"Well... I-I did, but I didn't know what she was going to do with it." Brittany admitted.
They all groaned in disappointment. "Ok, look, believe what you want, but no one's forcing me to be here. And if you ever tell anyone this I'll deny it—but I like being in Glee Club. It's the best part of my day, ok? I wasn't gonna go and mess it up." Santana admitted and took a seat as none of them said anything.
"I believe you." Rachel told her. "Ok, look, guys, there's no point in us arguing anymore. We-we have to go on in an hour." She reminded them.
"And we have no songs." Tina pointed out.
"Perhaps I could improvise some of my Def Poetry Jams." Artie suggested.
"No." Rachel shot down quickly. "Look, we're gonna do this the right way. Let's start with the ballad." She instructed. "Mercedes, do you have anything else in your repertoire?" She asked.
"Yeah, but it's not as good as anything you're going to sing." Mercedes told her.
"No, we, we agreed..." Rachel reminds her.
"We agreed that I would sing And I'm Telling You, and that ain't happening." Mercedes argued, standing up and standing in front of Rachel. "Look, Rachel, the truth is you're the best singer that we've got." She stated.
"As much it hurts me to admit it—and it does—she's right." Kurt agreed. "Rachel's our star. If anyone's gonna go belt it in the fly it should be her." He said.
Rachel smiled. "Well, I do have something that I've been working on since I was four." She tells Mercedes.
Mercedes let out a small laugh. "Then I guess we have our ballad, and we can close with Somebody to Love. It's a real crowd-pleaser." Quinn said.
"Yeah, that and a can of soup will guarantee us third place." Puck commented. "We still need another song we can all sing together." He reminds them, wiping the smiles off their faces.
In walked Finn, they all watched as he walked to the front of the room. "I have one." He held up the sheet music in his hand. He sighed as none of them had said anything yet. "I found the sheet music online. I used the Cheerios' copier to make copies and then trashed the thing." He laid the sheet music on the table and they all went to grab it. "Mike, Matt, Brittany, Santana, you're our best dancers. Figure out something and we'll all follow your lead." He instructed them.
"It's gonna be choppy." Mike warned him.
"Good. We're best when we're loose." He told him. The four got up and went to discuss what to do for the dancing part of their performance. "Look, all we have going for us is that we believe in ourselves and what we're singing about. If we can show the judges that...we might have a shot at this thing." This inspired them all and they immediately got to work.
Finn looked over at JBI, who seemed extremely out of place. "You cool if I take my spot back?" Finn asked him.
"Quite." JBI told him. "I was just here because I was hoping to get into Rachel's pants." He admits.
After giving Rachel a pep talk, Finn walked up to Magnolia. "Hey." He greeted her.
She gave him a weak smile. "Hi." She greeted back.
"Can we be friends again? I miss you and it hasn't even been that long." He begged, smiling his usual half smile.
Magnolia sighed. "I wish I could stay mad at you." She said, making him smile even more.
• • •
Even after the other teams cheated, the New Directions had won their Sectionals competition. After showing Mr. Schue their success, they performed My Life Would Suck for Mr. Schue.
It included many references from past performances and it was probably the most fun Magnolia had all year.