From her spot in the cafeteria, Marjorie watched as Adalynn kept stealing french fries from Quinn's lunch tray, the younger girl sending the blonde a teasing smile every time she managed to take one without her hand being slapped away.
"What's up, Jori?" Artie asked as he wheeled up to their lunch table with Mercedes. He looked between the brunette and Adalynn and frowned. "Um, no. Don't even think about it."
"Don't even think about what?" Jori asked, looking away from Adalynn and taking a bite of her salad.
"Quinn is very... possessive over Adalynn," Mercedes said as she ate a tater tot. "The last thing you want is to get between them. You won't believe the things she's threatened to do to Santana."
"I'm not afraid of blondie," the brunette said, rolling her eyes.
"You should be," said Artie. "She's very protective of Adalynn, so you better stay away, especially if she knows anything about your past with her."
"I don't have a past with her. We went to middle school together, and that's it."
"Tina said you watched as your best friends bullied her," the brunette boy said, looking suspiciously at Jori. "You're lucky Quinn has no idea who you are, or else she'd have your head. You're lucky Kurt has no idea you're even here. He's extremely protective of her as well, and she's already been through so much."
"Mistakes were made," Jori nodded. "I should have done more, and I didn't. But I have a chance to make things right. Besides, it's not like I was the one bullying her."
"You better be careful, girl," said Mercedes. "We're telling you, stay away from Adalynn. It's for the better if you have nothing to do with her."
On the other side of the cafeteria, Adalynn squealed as Quinn took one of her french braids and playfully hit her with it.
"Quinnie, stop it!" Adalynn laughed, trying to pull her hair out of her girlfriend's hand.
"Only if you stop stealing from a cripple," Quinn said, using the younger girl's braid to tap her nose.
"Never," Adalynn said, stealing another french fry from the blonde's lunch tray.
"You guys," Brittany said as she approached the lunch table. "I just went to my first student council meeting, and I found out that we have another prom this year. So, as president, I need to come up with a theme, and I'm thinking if we do alien abductions, we could set up cornfields and probing booths."
"Oh, hell," Santana said as Coach Beiste passed their lunch table. "Looks like Mr. Beiste went all Chris Brown on Mrs. Beiste. What happened, Coach? Cooter put the smack down on you cause you wouldn't let him be on top?"
The group of girls laughed, unaware of the teacher that overheard them standing a few feet back.
"What did you just say?"
"Nothing, it was a joke," Santana said, rolling her eyes as Roz Washington approached their lunch table.
"So men hitting women is funny to you?" Roz asked.
"Oh, please," Adalynn scoffed. "We obviously don't think Coach Beiste was hit by anybody."
"I mean, look at her," Santana said, motioning to the other side of the cafeteria where the football coach was standing. "She's like a wall."
"Let me tell you something," the swim coach said. "I'm Coach Roz Washington. I'm an Olympic champion, and I do not suffer fools, especially fools who think domestic violence is funny. I want your names. Shannon!"
Coach Beiste turned from where she was talking to one of her football players and walked over to the table where Santana, Brittany, Quinn, Sugar, Tina, Adalynn, and Bailey were sitting.
"Write these names down as placeholders. Hatrack. Asian Horror Movie. Frizzy Blonde Curls. Rojo Caliente. Salsa Caliente. Little Miss Peroxide. Suicidal Gothy Teen."
"How does she know that?" Adalynn asked Quinn in a whisper.
"You're on my list now, girls," said Roz. "You just watch what happens next."
The seven friends exchanged confused looks as the swim coach walked away, and Adalynn stole another fry from Quinn's tray when she saw she was distracted.
"Someone stole your fries, Lucy," the younger girl said with an innocent smile when the blonde turned to her.
"You're lucky you're cute," Quinn sighed with a smile.
****
Bailey, Adalynn, Quinn, Santana, Brittany, Tina, and Sugar all sat in the choir room as Sue Sylvester stood at the front lecturing them with Roz Washington and Shannon Beiste.
"Now, I realize this room is America's number one destination for cheap, sappy moralizing, but your insensitive behavior is about to subject you to a whole new level of preachiness," said Sue.
"Is this about the comment Santana made in the cafeteria earlier?" Bailey asked.
"You bet your perfectly round ass it is," said Roz.
"Coach Sylvester, I hardly think you're one to preach on what we can and cannot joke about," Sugar said as Santana nodded in agreement.
"Yeah, you make fun of us all the time," the Latina said.
"Sandbags, I admit I can be a bit abrasive," said Sue. "And, yes, I've fantasized about slapping each and every one of you across the face with a sturdy, wet fish... yes, Bailey, even you," she said when she saw the younger Peirce's eyes widen. "But that doesn't mean you deserve it. No one deserves to get hit."
"Coach Sylvester, we already know that," said Quinn.
"Yeah, and none of our partners would ever do anything like that," Tina added as Bailey nodded in agreement.
"And if they did, we'd just get out," the blonde said.
"I don't think the gravity of this is landing with you girls," said Coach Beiste.
"I think that not one of you understands what violence in a home really feels like," said Roz. "When I was growing up, my aunt married a man that was nice to everybody. Used to bring us presents when he came to visit, and never had an unkind word to say to anybody. But at home, he had a temper. And that man started beating her. She'd lie. She'd make a joke out of it. She said she'd done this or that wrong. She'd tell my mama he was a good man, and she had it coming. It took my aunt five years and a trip to ICU to stop making excuses for that man and get a divorce."
"Ladies, the American songbook is chock-full of songs making light of men hitting women," said Sue. "And since the only way to get anything into your thick, dopey heads is to force you to sing about it, for this week's assignment, I want you to turn those songs into songs of empowerment that say, 'You lay a hand on me, it's over.'"
****
Bailey sat with Ava in her lap as she wrote a song for Sue's assignment. The baby hugged her teddy bear close to her chest and leaned back into her mom, smiling up at her as she worked.
"Mama, Tati," Ava said, showing the bear to Bailey. "Tati say hi."
"Well, hello to you too, Tati," Bailey said, tapping the little hat that Kurt had put on the bear to make it more stylish.
"Mama, no," Ava said, holding the bear away from her mom. "My Tati. No touchy."
Bailey chuckled lightly as she went back to writing. There was a knock on her bedroom door, and Tina came in with Maya.
"Titi!" Ava exclaimed, crawling out of Bailey's lap and over to Tina as she sat down on the bed. "Hi, Titi."
"Awa, Titi be bad," Maya said to her twin. "Titi an gurls bad."
"What happened?" Bailey asked as she closed her notebook.
"Well, we sang Cell Block Tango for Coach Beiste, and then Coach Sylvester and Coach Roz scolded us for singing a song about killing our men for chewing gum," Tina explained.
"Wait, are you serious?" Bailey asked with a chuckle. "Why would you sing that song? There are a million other songs you could have chosen."
"Titi oopid," Ava teased.
"Ava, be nice," the young mother said. "It's not nice to call people stupid. Be nice, okay, sweetie?"
"No," the youngest twin said, hugging her teddy bear close to her. "Me no nicey."
"Awa, nicey," Maya told her sister, gently patting her arm.
"No."
"Lord, help me with this one," Bailey sighed, chuckling when Ava turned to her with scrunched brows. "So, what are you guys gonna do now?" she asked Tina. "You know, about the song for Coach Beiste?"
"I think Adalynn found a song for us to sing instead, but I don't know," the brunette shrugged. She looked at Bailey's notebook, which she recognized as the one where she writes all her songs. "Bailey, are you writing a song for Coach Beiste?"
"N-no," the blonde said, face flushing when Tina smiled knowingly at her. "Maybe...?"
"Mama es geenis," Ava said, smiling at Bailey. "Mama song es pwetty."
"Oh, so now you're being sweet?" Bailey jokingly asked.
"Mama, bing," Maya said, crawling over to the notebook and tapping it. "Bing it."
"You want me to sing it for you?"
"Yah!"
"Mama bing it!" Ava clapped. "Song, Mama, song."
"I don't know..."
"Please, for me?" Tina asked, smiling when Bailey sighed and got up off her bed to get her guitar.
The twins babbled in excitement as their mom began singing the song for them. Tina smiled, loving that Bailey was comfortable enough to share her talent with them, and maybe one day she'd share it with the rest of the world.
****
Adalynn heard from Kurt that Rachel choked at her NYADA audition. Even though she's had issues with the diva in the past, she couldn't help but feel bad for her. She knew how much that audition meant to her, and she wished there was more that she could do to help her feel better.
Yet, here she was in the choir room with the three coaches, who were most likely about to lecture them again on their insensitive song choice instead of being with her step-brother as he comforted her soon-to-be sister in law.
"Girls, I have a confession to make," Coach Beiste sighed. "It's a really hard thing to talk about, but I feel like I owe it to you. I didn't get hit by a punching bag. I got hit by my husband."
"Oh my god," Adalynn gasped, exchanging a look with Quinn.
"Are you serious?" Tina asked as Bailey placed a hand over her mouth, eyes wide.
"Did he break his hand?" Brittany asked.
"I'm sorry I lied to you about it," Coach Beiste apologized. "But nobody tells you what you're supposed to do when something like this happens. I was shocked. I was ashamed. So I made excuses for myself to make it okay. And I heard you girls say that you thought your partners would never do anything to you like that, and a week ago, I would have said exactly the same thing. And I was wrong."
"But... Cooter always seemed like such a nice guy," said Santana.
"Yeah, I always thought he was just a big, smiley doofus," said Adalynn.
"He is, most of the time," Coach Beiste said with tears in her eyes. "But nobody knows what goes on behind closed doors."
"Are you considering pressing charges?" Quinn asked, taking Adalynn's hand and giving it a reassuring squeeze to let her know that she would never hurt her.
"Yeah," the football coach nodded. "And more than that, I got out of there, and I moved in with my sister, and that feels really good. But you girls? You not only opened my eyes to this, you maybe even saved my life. Thank you."
Coach Beiste lowered her gaze, tears falling down her face. Tina nudged Bailey and nodded to where her guitar was sitting with the rest of the instruments. The blonde chewed her lip before getting up to grab it. She twisted the knobs to tune it before walking over to the football coach.
"Um, Coach?" the blonde spoke up, getting her attention.
"Yeah?"
"Um... I, uh, wrote this song, and I'd like to sing it for you, if that's okay."
"Is it about killing your man for chewing gum?" Roz asked, narrowing her eyes at Bailey.
"No, it's not," the blonde chuckled. "And, I, uh, don't have a man, so..."
"Go ahead, Bailey," Sue nodded.
You, with your words like knives
And swords and weapons that you use against me
You have knocked me off my feet again
Got me feeling like I'm nothing
You, with your voice like nails on a chalkboard
Calling me out when I'm wounded
You, pickin' on the weaker man
Well, you can take me down
With just one single blow
But you don't know what you don't know
Someday, I'll be livin' in a big old city
And all you're ever gonna be is mean
Someday, I'll be big enough so you can't hit me
And all you're ever gonna be is mean
Why you gotta be so mean?
You, with your switching sides
And your wildfire lies and your humiliation
You have pointed out my flaws again
As if I don't already see them
I walk with my head down, trying to block you out
'Cause I'll never impress you
I just wanna feel okay again
I bet you got pushed around
Somebody made you cold
But the cycle ends right now
'Cause you can't lead me down that road
And you don't know what you don't know
Someday, I'll be livin' in a big old city
And all you're ever gonna be is mean
Someday, I'll be big enough so you can't hit me
And all you're ever gonna be is mean
Why you gotta be so mean?
And I can see you years from now in a bar
Talking over a football game
With that same big, loud opinion
But nobody's listening
Washed up and ranting about the same old bitter things
Drunk and grumblin' on about how I can't sing
But all you are is mean
All you are is mean
And a liar, and pathetic
And alone in life, and mean
And mean, and mean, and mean
But someday, I'll be livin' in a big old city
And all you're ever gonna be is mean
Yeah, someday, I'll be big enough so you can't hit me
And all you're ever gonna be is mean
Why you gotta be so mean?
Someday, I'll be livin' in a big old city
And all you're ever gonna be is mean
Someday, I'll be big enough so you can't hit me
And all you're ever gonna be is mean
Why you gotta be so mean?
Coach Beiste smiled softly as the song ended, and Bailey leaned down to give her a hug.
"Thank you, pumpkin."
****
The next day, the girls sat in the choir room as they waited for Coach Beiste to meet them. Ava sat in Adalynn's lap as she taught her a few notes on the piano, and Maya sat with Brittany and Santana as the two seniors gave her a baby-safe makeover with some dress-up make-up.
"You girls wanted to see me?" Coach Beiste asked as she came into the choir room.
"We wanted the chance to say that we're sorry, and we had no idea," said Tina.
"No idea that this was really happening to someone that we care so much about," Quinn added.
"How we're really proud of you for sticking up for yourself and getting out," Santana chimed in, sending the football coach a small smile. "And we owe you a song."