We finished our routine, standing in front of Coach Sue. I stood next to Quinn in a blue wig and a modified Cheerios uniform.
"I'm bored. Ladies, I am at a loss. Brittany, please remind me of how I single-handedly our cheerleading on the map." Coach instructs.
"In 1979, you directed a made-for-TV movie about the Dallas cowboy cheerleaders called The Dallas Cowboy Cheerleaders." Brittany informs the team.
"That is correct. And in the meantime, what's changed?" Coach asks.
"Personal grooming habits?" I ask.
"What's changed is I have completely lost interest. And ladies, I blame you. Becky- more silicone falsies." Coach instructs Becky.
"Got it, Coach." Becky heads over to us with a bucket.
"You will each enhance your busy with an additional pair of chicken cutlets, in an attempt to add some jiggle to what is the most boring routine i have ever witnessed." Coach says distressed.
"Coach. This is the most elaborate routine the Cheerios have ever done. We're shoo-ins ya regionals next week, and we're the favorites to win at nationals." I defend.
"And yet I am still very bored." Coach says into the microphone.
"Even things I used to think were hilarious... case in point. Sandbags, slap yourself with a chicken cutlet." Coach says. Santana does it.
"Now slap Brittany." Coach says next. Santana does it.
"See? Not even a chuckle." Coach says.
"The problem is you keep trying to make a bigger and bigger spectacle. No matter how hard we try, we can't make a routine work unless you find a way to make it interesting for you." Quinn says.
"You have to find a way to top yourself." I add.
"Q, Dani, you may just have a point. But to be sure, Dani, slap Quinn with a chicken cutlet." Coach says.
After school Quinn, Santana, Brittany, and I stand on the sidelines, cheering for the team. I watch in confusion as Finn almost immediately drops the ball, the other team taking it and getting a touch down.
The next day I'm walking through the halls when I see at least half of the football team dumping slushees onto Artie. I rush to them.
"Don't you dare!" I shout. The team freezes. I look to see only three cups full out of all the team members. Dammit, I wasn't quick enough.
"Get out of here now before I whoop all ya asses!" I yell out through the hall, other students rushing by me in fear. The football team hesitates.
"Did I stutter?!" I scream. They all drop their cups and rush off, laughing. I sigh and bend down to Arties height. I start trying to wipe off as much slush as I can. I sigh looking at the mess.
"I'm so sorry Artie. I was sure they would never go after you." I say softly. He shrugs, also trying to wipe some off. I carefully take off his glasses and for the first time I can clearly see his surprisingly bright blue eyes. I clear my throat and start cleaning off his glasses.
"I was hoping they wouldn't... you've never been slusheed have you?" He asks. I hand him back his glasses laughing lightly.
"No. They're all too scared of what I would do if they did." I say trying to lighten the mood. I purse my lips seeing as there's nothing else I can really wipe off without it getting weird.
"But they go after Santana." Artie points out, looking up as me as I've now stood to my full 5'5 height. I shrug.
"Santana is mostly bark. I have a longer history of violence then her. And when violence doesn't work, calling their mothers usually does the trick." I explain as I move to push Artie towards the choir room. The explanation gets a laugh out of him if only for a moment.
We soon walk into the choir room. Tina's the first to notice.
"Oh my god- Artie." She gasps. Brittany instantly heads to us. I frown and move away from them.
"It was awful." Artie sighs. I move to squeeze his shoulder and head over to Santana.
"That's it! Screw rehearsal! This ends here and now." Finn yells.
"We're gonna go all thunderdome in those guys." Noah shouts in rage.
"So this is what the ladies lounge looks like on the inside." One of the football players says.
"So that's what a bench player looks like?" I yell back. He squares up, trying to look tough which results in a hard scoff from me.
"This is the choir room. Now, put up your fists because you and I are gonna do some dancing." Sam says, also trying to be tough. I stifle a laugh.
"No, I got this, Sam." Finn holds Sam back.
"Coach Beiste told us to come. Where is she?" Karofsky asks.
"Watch it. Everyone, have a seat." Coach Beiste tells the football players.
"You too, guys." Mr. Shue says.
"All right, new directions, let's give a warm welcome to the newest members of glee club." Mr. Shue announces. We all start yelling angrily.
"Mr. Shue, are you serious? These are the guys that made Kurt transfer." Finn states.
"And there's no way that I'm sharing the choir room with a known homophobe." Rachel shames. I glare at Karofsky while he just looks at the floor.
"I don't disagree with you guys. But I talked to Coach Beiste about it, and she and I both agreed that the kind of bullying that David does is born out of ignorance." Mr. Shue starts.
"And jealousy?" I mouth over to Karofsky as I catch him looking at us. His eyes widen in slight panic. I raise an eyebrow that makes him scoff and look away back to Coach Beiste.
"Having him in here, as difficult as it may be for us, is an opportunity to show him and the rest of the guys that being in glee club is kind cool- find some common ground." Mr. Shue suggests.
'All of you are going to be in this glee club for one week, no exceptions." Coach Beiste demands.
"She's bluffing- next week is the championship game. Without us, she has no team." Karofsky argues looking at his team mates.
"With you I have no team! You guys have gotta find a way to come together or we're going to get our asses kicked from here until Tuesday finds a saddlebag full of buckwheat." Coach yells. I look to see if anyone got that but everyone just looks confused.
"If I have to stay, I'm not singing no show tunes. That is the music of my oppressors." Azimio says.
"Don't worry about it. You don't have the range." I seeth.
"Do you even have any idea what we do in here?" Finn asks.
"No. None of them do. We have to show them. Rachel, puck, haven't you guys been working on something? Why don't you give it a whirl?" Mr. Shue suggests. My gaze snaps to Finn who looks shocked at them as do I.
"Fine. As offended as I am by their presence here, I won't let anything get in the way of a performance." Rachel says glaring at them. I continuously look back at Finns shocked state. I try not to laugh as 'need you now' begins to play.
I glare at some of the football players who dare to scoff, effectively stopping their movements.
It's extremely weird to see Rachel and Noah singing together. Especially after what Rachel did to Finn. But I can't help but think about how amazing their voices harmonize. When they finish we all clap and cheer.
"The girl with the Mohawk had a really nice voice." Azimio comments.
"Funny. Yeah, man. That's good." Noah comments and I start getting up as soon as he starts to remove the guitar. As estimated Noah starts towards Azimio with the guitar in hand. Everybody stands up, some moving away, some going to help fight. Coach Beiste pushes Noah back and Mr. Shue keeps the football players at bay. I step in front of Noah.
"Noah! Noah! Calm down!" I shout. He looks down at me.
"Deep breaths." He doesn't listen. I force him to look at only me.
"Please." I whisper. He soon listens to me. Soon everyone else soon follows, calming down as well.
We stand outside in our Cheerios jackets over our uniforms and sweatpants under our skirts to keep us warm from the still cool weather. I gape up at the canon in front of us.
"Ladies, my Sue-clear weapon. Becky." She orders silently making Becky smash a bottle on the canon.
"Brittany... climb on up. Congratulations. You're doing this stunt for the big competition." Sue announces with a smile.
"I don't want to die yet. At least not until one tree hill gets cancelled." Brittany comments.
"Fine. To put your toddler, fist-sized mind at east, we'll do one final gets run." Coach says. We watch as she stuffs a Brittany sized replica into the canon. She presses the button and we watch with wide eyes as the doll blows into tiny bits.
"Any of you take German? I may have to read the owners manual." Coach says and walks off. I stand next to Santana and we all watch as she picks up her replicas head.
"Don't worry, I'll talk to Mr. Shue and take care of this." Quinn assures Brittany.
The next day in glee club I sit back and listen to whatever's going on.
"No frickin' way!" Karofsky yells.
"We don't have a choice. Sue pulled the Cheerios from the game, so if we don't do it, there's no halftime show." Mr. Shue states.
"And this is a problem because?" Lauren asks.
"It's not a problem. It's an opportunity." Coach Beiste expresses.
"Opportunity to humiliate ourselves." A football player says.
"Hey! The whole point of this week was to bring you guys together; to bring the school together." Coach Beiste says encouragingly.
"Wait- So you want us to play the first half change into some sequeen ball gowns and then go out and do the halftime show at our own championship game?" Azimio asks in bewilderment.
"Yes." Coach Beiste says bluntly.
"It's the championship game! This is a crazy town." Azimio yells.
"What about the Cheerios in glee club?" Finn asks. Making me perk my ears to pay more attention.
"They have a choice. Us, or the Cheerios competition" mr. Shue says. Dammit.
"Well, obviously, Quinn is gonna choose the Cheerios I mean..." Rachel starts.
"Well that's not fair. You don't know what she's gonna do." Finn defends her. I look at Finn heavily confused.
"I think the cheerleading competition is gonna be a lot of fun, but if you go, you're gonna miss out on us doing the most iconic song of all time. The super bowl of pop anthems- thriller." Mr. Shue says with excitement.
"Yeah, remember a few years ago. When the Philippine prison did that mega performance of thriller and put it on YouTube? In the four months it took to rehearse the number, prisoner-on-prisoner crime dropped eighty percent. Doing that, together, as a team, created a unity within the prison. And that's what I'm looking to do here." Mr. Shue said trying to encourage everyone.
"I mean, don't get me wrong, you know- I'm big on Michael and everything but isn't that kind of what they're expecting us to do?" Mercedes asks.
"Which is why we're gonna mash it together with the yeah yeah yeahs equally spooky single 'heads will roll'." Mr. Shue announces. We all nod in agreement.
"Who's Yeah Yeah Yeah?" Azimio asks.
"All right, new directions, Titans, we're going to zombie camp." Coach Beiste says. I smirk at all the players, looking at them one on on.
"Prepare to bleed." I sneer.
In the auditorium I stand and watch as everyone tries to dance the correct choreography.
"Okay Guys, it's good, but let's... put a little life into it." Mr. Shue suggests.
"But we're dead." Karofsky replies. I shrug, he isn't wrong.
"Then put some afterlife into it. Get out of your heads and get into your characters, all right?" Mr. Shue says and we try again.
"Five, six, seven, eight." Mr. Shue shouts out. I stand behind people so I can look at them to see I'm doing it right. I'm not exactly the strongest dancer.
"All right! Nice progress, guys. Now let's take a breather, and I'll see you in the choir room in five minutes, for a lesson in zombie make up." Mr. Shue instructs.
"Makeup?! No, no, no, no, no, no, no." Azimio complains.
"Yes, yes, yes, yes." Coach Beiste argues.
I sit at a mirror with Azimio. Instructing him, giving him some tips. Of course he argues but I guess that's why I was put with him, to keep him straight.
After we're done all the girls gather in the bathroom to wipe it off.
"Zombie camp was funner than I expected. And the glee club together with the football team- it's like a double rainbow. A zombie double rainbow." Brittany comments.
"Yeah, well not everything is all sunshine and rainbows, Brit. Like the whole competition thing." I mutter.
"What the hell are we gonna do? If we go to our cheerleading competition, then we miss the halftime show and we're out of glee club. I'm torn." Quinn says.
"Oh, I'm not." Santana says.
"I'm Brittany." Brittany adds. I stay silent.
"Couldn't help but overhear your conversation." Coach Sylvester walks out from the stall.
"What were you doing in there?" Quinn asks.
"Enjoying the eavesdropping afforded me by the swiss-timepiece regularity and utter silence of my two PM ninja poops. Well I typed these up for you ladies, requiring your signature, tendering your resignation from the glee club. Oh and Brittany, here's a note for you, handwritten and in crayon from the human canon, saying how much he misses you." Coach Sylvester explains.
"Coach, that cannon is going to get Brittany killed. Is that really worth it just to win a stupid national championship?" Quinn asks.
"Seventh consecutive stupid national championship." Sue argues.
"This is ridiculous." Quinn says.
"You had quite a year last year, Q. And as I recall, you didn't have such a good time out of that Cheerios uniform. Ladies, I am giving you the chance, right now, to choose once and for all where your true loyalties lie. Choose the Cheerios, or choose the glee club." Sue finishes and storms out of the bathroom.
We all immediately walk into Mr. Shue's office and hand him out letter of resignation. We start to walk out.
"Danielle! Can I talk to you for a moment?" Mr. Shue asks. I nod and sit down.
"How could you do this? You were apart of the original glee club. The first Cheerio who dared to join." He asks disappointedly. I try and keep the tears in bay.
"I'm sorry Mr. Shue. I love glee club so much but I can't take off my Cheerios uniform. It means too much to me to let go. The team means to much to let go." I say, quickly standing up to leave.
"Well what about our team?!" Mr. Shue asks as I reach the door. I look back and let the tears fall.
"I'm sorry, Mr. Shue." I say sincerely and run out of his office.
The next few days are bleak without glee in it and soon the day of the competition is upon us. Quinn, Santana, and I walk to stand next to Brit.
"I'm gonna die." Brittany says.
"It'll be worth it." Santana says unconvincingly.
"I'll say something nice at your funeral." I add. Brittany gives me a small smile.
"Hey!" Finn yells form behind us.
"What're you doing here?" Quinn asks.
"Stopping you from going to sues regional competition. You guys got to come to the game with me." Finn begs.
"Haven't you been paying attention? If we're not Cheerios we're nothing." Quinn rebuttals.
"You think that, but it's not true. You joined Cheerios to be popular, but you joined glee club because you love it. Sue doesn't care about you guys! She's fine killing Brittany. Tell me honestly. If you didn't think it would hurt your reputation, which would you choose?" Finn asks.
"Glee club." Brittany's the first to speak up.
"I know you, and you don't think you are, but your strong enough to do this." Finn said to Quinn. He looked at me.
"And frankly Dani, I was expecting more from you. Your loyal and fierce! And I'm asking you to do this for our friends." Finn says quietly. I hesitate. Finn takes a step over to me.
"You're still going to be fierce and unattainable without your Cheerios uniform." He says softly. I chuckle.
"How'd you know?" I ask gazing up at him. He shrugs with a smirk.
"I've known you forever, what can I say?" He says. I nod.
"Of course I'll come." I say.
"Okay." Quinn responds. Now Finn looks shocked.
"Okay?" He asks. She nods as well.
"Okay." She smiles as he does too.
"What about you Santana?" Finn asks.
"Screw her- she put me on the bottom of the pyramid." Santana says looking at me with a smirk.
"Come on, we've only got a few minutes." Finn says. We all turn to start heading over when Sue yells.
"No time for a fivesome, Ladies. Bus leaves in five." Sue says.
"We quit Cheerios!" Quinn says softly.
"You can't quit Cheerios. It's blood in, blood out. Now get your sweet little cans on that bus." She responds.
"Watch us. Sue." I say.
"But you're my stars. If you leave, I have no performance!" Sue yells as we walk away.
"Sucks for you." Brittany says. We start running back to the field and hurriedly get into costumes and makeup. I smile seeing some of the football guys.
As I run to the field I feel a hand on my shoulder. I turn to see Mr. Shue.
"Thanks for coming back." He says sincerely. I smile.
"I'm loyal to my team Mr. Shue. I was just confused about which team I should be loyal to." I say with a smirk. He nods and pushes me to the field.
"Good luck!" He shouts.
During the show I look through the crowd and smile at how excited the people in the stands seem to be. I smile even wider as I watch Karofsky run into the field to join us; and as we finish the cheer and claps become louder and we run off the field.
We cheer we the guys come back on the field with their makeup still on. All of us, including the rest of the glee girls grab Pom poms and cheer for the team. We cheer at each touchdown they score.
The boys start yelling brains and we follow their lead. Soon the whole crowd is yelling brains. We cheer in victory as they score the winning touchdown. We all run to the field and I jump into Noah's arms as he spins us around the field, laughing in triumph.
The next morning I look for my uniform until I realize that I don't have it anymore. I sigh and suck in a breath. I put on a crop top and ripped jeans, I tie my high tops tightly and walk out the door without talking to anyway. As I walk through the halls people turn to look at me in shock. I've been on the Cheerios since freshman year and I've never been seen in anything but my uniform to them.
I walk to the hall where most of the football players hang out.
"Listen up!" I shout. The hall silences and everyone looks at me.
"As you can see, I am not a cheerio anymore! Now, that doesn't change anything...! If I get called a nasty word, get talked about behind my back, or worst of all get one single slushee in the face, this whole school will be facing my wrath, I will stop at nothing to destroy every single one of you! Do you understand me?!" I yell. I see most of the kids nod.
"DO. YOU. UNDERSTAND. ME?!" I scream. This time everyone, including the football players shout yes In almost perfect unison. I nod.
"Good. Now spread word." I say the threat lingering on my tongue. Students rush around me, going to tell all they can. Finn walks from over the corner with a grin.
"See. Just as fierce." He says in passing. I smirk and walk off to class.