I'm walking with Kurt and Blaine as some of the former Troubletones are talking about how they should've won, as they walk in front of us.
"It's only because Tickles the clown was high as a kite" Santana says and Kurt steps in.
"Come on, that was weeks ago. Get over it" He says earning the girls' attention. "And I mean, we did do Michael, who's obviously the best of the best" Kurt shrugs.
I see Mr. Schue ahead of us, walking out of his classroom and Mercedes stops him, telling the teacher that she wishes they could all do Michael Jackson since the Troubletones missed out the first time at Sectionals.
"ya know, I've been thinking about maybe doing some of his songs for Regionals." Mr. Schue says in response, he then walks away and Blaine turns to all of us.
"I know the perfect way to kick off Michael week" He says. We all break out into Wanna Be Startin' Something.
After we stop dancing around the school, I see Finn, who I got engaged to a week ago...
"Hey" I walk up to him at his locker and peck his lips.
"Hey Jess" He kisses me back.
I still haven't told anyone else about the engagement because I know how everyone's gonna react, Quinn of course will be supportive, whereas Santana is gonna tell me how stupid we are, Kurt's gonna freak out and tell Carole and Burt, Carole and Burt are gonna tell my mom, and then I'll be grounded for life.
"Earth to Jessie" Finn waves his hand in my face as I get lost in my train of thought. "We still on for dinner tonight?" He asks.
"yea, of course" I smile and hug my books close to my chest and walk away. I think to myself, how's this marriage gonna work if I'm going to be in college and Finn's gonna be playing football for one of the best college football teams in America. This makes me pivot on the back of my heel and go back to the locker.
"Oh hey again" Finn chuckles
"I need to ask you something."
"What?" He asks nervously
"How are we gonna get married when you're going to be in Ohio playing football and I have no idea where I'll be, studying to become a teacher." I say, looking down at my feet.
"Listen, no matter where we are, I'll always be with you-"
"But aren't married people supposed to live together? Start their life together?" I question.
"Yea, but what if you go to Ohio State too?" Finn looks at me longingly.
"But you'll have your football and I'll be doing who knows what. I'm just scared that my dreams are gonna have to be given up for yours. I just have no idea right now. All I know is that I love you and I want to marry you, but if we're going to be apart and too busy for each other... is it worth it?" I ask and Finn can't make eye contact with me.
"I- I just want you to know how much I love you, and I love you more than football. You come first, then football, but this might be my career- playing football." He puts his hands on my shoulder. "If I play football all throughout college and get drafted, you wouldn't even have to work! We'd be set for life." Finn tries to make me feel better.
"But-"
"I know that maybe we shouldn't get married until after college but we'll be engaged all throughout it. We can do this together. It's up to you when you want to get married. Honestly, I would do it right here right now if I could, but I don't want you to get pressured into marrying me and then resenting me for it."
"That would never happen" I say.
"I just want you to be happy, and if marrying me makes you happy, then I'm ecstatic. But if waiting makes you happier, then I'll be waiting until graduation day, or whatever day, until you're ready to marry me." Finn says as he wipes one of the tears from my eyes.
"I have to head to class now" I say, pointing to the other side of the hallway.
"I love you" He says and pulls me into a hug.
"I love you too Finny" I smile as he kisses my head.
The next day in glee club, everyone's in a panic. Apparently, the Warblers stole our idea to do Michael at Regionals.
"It was probably Blaine" Santana points out
"Once a Warbler, always a Warbler" Finn sneers, causing me to slap his arm gently.
"It wasn't me"Blaine raises his hands up in defense.
"is there a show choir committee board we can complain to?" Tina asks.
Puck chimes in "I don't feel comfortable around Blaine, he's a modern day Eggs Benedict"
Finn decides to calm everyone down and stand up "Guys, we need to stop worrying about the Warblers, and start thinking about how to beat them instead"
He sits back down and I have to say, leader Finn is pretty sexy when he gets all authoritative. I snake my arm through his and lean my head on his shoulder.
Mr. Schue takes his infamous marker and writes on the board: WWMJD?
"What would Michael Jackson do" Mr. Schuester says as he walks away from the board and back to the group.
"He'd fight back, and Regionals and MJ is ours" Finn smiles as he gets everyone riled up.
Blaine joins in "He'd take it to the streets"
I decide to drive with Finn to the parking garage where we're meeting the Warblers.
"Don't you think this is a little sketchy?" I ask Finn, as I sit with Blaine in the backseat and Kurt in the passenger seat.
"No, they're harmless" Blaine assures me. They don't seem harmless.
We get out of the car, in matching leather jackets -which I have no idea where they came from, Kurt gave me mine- and join everyone else, before we strut down to the main level where the Warblers are.
Santana and Blaine go down to the first level where they start talking to the Warblers. We can hear the conversation, it's a little muffled but it's still easy to hear. The plan is to wait up here, for the element of surprise when they see the rest of New Directions form behind Santana and Blaine.
"We want to have a Jackson-off" Santana says harshly to the prep school boys.
Sebastian scoffs, as he's the leader of the Warblers since Blaine left.
"Winner gets to sing Michael at Regionals" Blaine pipes in.
"there are only two of you, against my group." Sebastian says.
"No there's not" Santana smirks cuing us all to strut down in formation.
Everyone stops strutting towards the boys and the Warblers break out into song, Bad, which makes perfect sense in the situation. The song really did make me feel like a badass, now I know why Puck is the way he is. It's fun.
The whole entire song and dance is like straight out of a movie, it's a turf war of MJ, in a parking lot. Pretty weird.
I'm singing and dancing when the song is about to finish and Sebastian gets handed a red slushie.
Sebastian throws it, and it looks that it's meant for Kurt but Blaine got in the way.
"Ah, my eye!" Blaine falls to the floor, crying and holding his eye.
The Warblers run away while the rest of us take care of Blaine. Finn and Puck pick him up and put him in Mike Chang's car. I head home because I'm exhausted as Finn, Kurt, Mike, and Puck head to the hospital with Blaine.
The next day at school feels really weird without seeing a bowtie clad, hairgel wearing, bushy eyebrowed, boy.
Later, in the choir room Kurt walks in late, all of our eyes shifting to the door.
"How's Blaine?" Rachel stands up and we all stare on.
"His right cornea is deeply scratched and has to have surgery" Kurt tells us.
Mr. Schuester looks pretty confused "I just don't understand how a slushie can do that much damage"
"There was definitely something in there" I join in.
"Yea there's no way that was a normal slushie, Sebastian purposely wanted to do some damage, he's got to have put something in there" Finn says.
Mr. Schuester tells everyone to settle down "There's no evidence, so there's nothing to police could do about it. We have to let the headmaster of Dalton take care of this"
"No, I'm sick and tired of standing back and letting these things happen, being treated like trash, I wanna fight back, make sure these people feel the same pain they give us." Artie says.
"Violence is not the answer. That's not how we solve things here." Mr. Schue replies.
Artie starts shouting and Mr. Schue asks him to take a break, which I totally get because it's really frustrating being treated like crap and being forced just to take it.
I head to the bathroom to check my makeup and I run into Quinn.
"Oh hey" I smile as I take out my compact mirror and apply some powder. "I'm glad you're here." I shut the compact and look at Quinn "I need my best friend"
"Is it Finn?" She asks giving me a disapproving look and I nod. "You're not pregnant are you?"
I try not to laugh but I shake my head no, instead of saying anything, I reach my hand out to show her my little diamond ring.
"Oh my god" Quinn says. "You're not actually gonna marry him right?"
I take a step back and look at my confident.
"You can't marry Finn" She says.
"Why- why not?"
"You have your whole future, studies are showing that women are discovering themselves at 30. Listen, you don't know what you want now, and you won't know what you want in another 15 years. I just think that you're making a mistake." Quinn looks at me and then scrambles into her purse. She pulls out a letter and I unfold it.
"No way" I gasp "You got in!" I hug her.
"It's my ticket out of here" Quinn shrugs. "My point is, I've dated Finn, Puck, and now Sam I even thought I loved them. But the truth is, by next year, when the snow falls in New Haven, I won't know why."
"Are you going to break up with Sam? Are you saying Finn and I should?" I panic at how crazy my friend's asking.
"I'm all for you and Finn spending the next few months together but I would never want to bring baggage from my past into my future. Your life is great, Jessie, everything you've ever wanted in life will be there as long as your not with Finn. You two make a lovely couple, but if you want to be happy, you have to say goodbye" Quinn then walks out of the bathroom and I head back into the choir room.
I walk back in and see that Quinn's already there, waiting for me to sit down so she can sing Never Can Say Goodbye by Jackson 5.
"Tell them your good news" Mr. Schue says.
"I got into Yale!" Quinn smiles and everyone in the classroom goes crazy, whooping and clapping. "It would've never happened without you guys loving, and supporting me throughout everything, all my stupid mistakes, I'm the only one who was stopping me from being where I wanted to be." Quinn then makes eye contact with me, and talks as if I'm the only one in the room, "You can't change your past, but you can let go and start your future."
Glee ends, and I see Santana and Kurt talking about Dalton and how she wants to get revenge, but Kurt says that even though he wanted to hurt Sebastian, he can't.
"What's the plan" I walk up to them and ask.
"You and me, we're taking a trip to the academy" Santana sneers.
"Sounds cool" I smile, excited for the undercover trip to expose the enemy.
I know that Finn won't miss me because him and Kurt are visiting Blaine tonight and giving him a taste of Michael week.
Santana picks me up, and we're both wearing fedoras. She's wearing a black coat with black boots and I'm wearing a trench coat that I borrowed from my mom's closet.
"So, you're gonna tape this to your underboob and leave it on the whole time that we're at Dalton tonight okay?" She says handing me the mini cassette tape as we pull into the school parking lot. "I have one too just in case." She winks as we both climb out the door of her sedan.
We get into the school and walk until we start to hear an a Capella men's group in the distance. Walking in high heeled boots and trying to be silent is wicked hard, but we get into the choir room and surprise all the boys in their matching blue blazers.
"Oh, look what we have here" Sebastian turns around and looks at Santana and I. "McKinley's little Private Investigators" He acts like we're little kids.
"What you did to Blaine was not okay" I say sternly.
"I don't know what you're talking about" Sebastian decides to play dumb.
"Oh yes you do" Santana butts in. "That slushie you tossed at Blaine? Yea now he has to go into surgery and might lose his eye"
"Is he gonna be okay?" Trent asks.
Sebastian puts his hand up at the Warbler "I got this" He says like the cocky little meerkat he is. "It's such a pity that he got in the way of a slushie that was meant for Kurt"
"What did you put in it?" I ask and the rest of the Warblers file out, leaving Santana, Sebastian, me and two random cello players.
"Are you questioning my honor?" He asks me.
"Yea, we are" Santana says.
The next thing I know, the cellos start to play and Santana and Sebastian are in another Jackson-off of Smooth Criminal.
"She was better" I stand up from one of the chairs.
"I would remind you that I was way better, but I don't want to make a girl cry" Sebastian says to Santana.
"What did you put in the slushie!?" Santana asks for the final time.
"Rock salt. But don't worry about it" he tells Santana.
She looks at him in shock as more Warblers walk in "I just told you Blaine has to have surgery because of that. How am I not supposed to 'worry about it'"
"Because, there's non in this one" Sebastian grabs the big gulp from one of the Warblers and slushies her.
"Let's go" She flicks some of the ice off of her face and I take her hand and lead her out to the car.
"come on, let's go, let's go" I say as I direct the New Directions into the choir room.
"Brittany lock the door" Santana instructs.
Brittany runs over "I don't know how to do that"
"Um, what's going on?" Rachel asks.
Santana locks the door and flips her ponytail "We've got the Warblers right where we want them. And because he's the smoothest criminal I know, Artie was able to find a spy store that sells top secret surveillance equipment."
"Not top secret. I just got a tape recorder from Office Max" Artie interrupts.
"Okay okay, whatever" Santana goes back to being controlling once again "Anyways, Jessie and I taped them to our underboob when we went to Dalton and I got Sebastian on tape admitting there was rock salt in that slushie that blinded Blaine. Now all we have to do is send this tape to the PoPo and that little bitch is headed to Juvie." Santana smiles, knowing we did a great job finding evidence.
She plays the tape to everyone in the choir room.
"no, no we're not doing that" Kurt says.
"Why?" Santana stares at him in shock. "Kurt this isn't violent, it's clever, we taped it to our underboobs." I nod along with Santana and Finn keeps staring at me somewhere that isn't eye contact level.
"So, he gets kicked out of school, the Warblers still do Michael and they still beat us. Look I wanna see Sebastian's head turning on a spit but I've realized that you can't go looking for payback everytime the world wrongs you. If Michael went after all the haters, he would've never had any time to do all that amazing music" Kurt says, standing next to Santana. "So we're not gonna punish the Warblers, we're gonna teach them a lesson. And I think I know how. I reserved the auditorium, so if you all just, follow me"
"Wait, if Kurt were to tape this to his junk, I would've never heard the end of it. We would've had a whole week of songs about it" Santana says as everyone follows Kurt.
"True" Brittany says, causing me and Finn to laugh.
"Can you stay behind a minute?" Finn asks me.
"Yea, sure" I smile and Finn takes my hand and leads me to a stool. "Something about us with stools and romance, am I right?" I laugh which makes Finn laugh as well.
"Look, I know that you were a little upset earlier and I'm really sorry. I just want you to know that I love you so much, and I support you no matter what, even if it does mean that we're not together. I get it's a big decision, but the way I asked you, I kinda left out the most important part."
I look behind Finn and Brad and basically a whole entire orchestra comes filing in.
"Just listen okay?" He kisses my head and I can't help but smile at how cute and romantic he is. "I always feel like you hear me better when I'm not talking."
He starts singing Michael Jackson's I Just Can't Stop Loving You, and I join in.
"It felt a lot like uh-" Finn says but I cut him off.
"You are the love of my life" I start welling up with tears.
"Really? You really mean it?" Finn smiles, tears forming in his eyes too.
"I don't know what I was thinking earlier, I was just still in shock, but I love you so fricken much Finn. Like the song says, I can't live my life without you" I say and Finn gently lifts my chin and kisses me softly.
After a few minutes of just holding each other, Kurt knocks on the door, signalling us that it's time to go to the auditorium.
We get on stage and the Warblers enter.
"nice of you to show" Artie says as he wheels on the stage.
"Is, whatever this is, gonna take long?" Sebastian asks. "I can't stand the stench of public schools"
"It won't take long, and all you have to do is sit, and listen" Quinn says with her hand on her hip.
They all take their seats
"We're not doing Michael for Regionals" Artie says with his arms crossed.
"I didn't think you'd surrender that easily." Sebastian makes another stupid remark.
"We're tired of the fighting and the backstabbing. We're show choirs, we're supposed to be supportive of each other." Kurt says.
"This is what we call, taking the high road. Which I was shocked has nothing to do with Marijuana." Puck adds, making me and Quinn smile.
"Just because you're doing Michael, doesn't mean you understand Michael" Artie says.
"And you do?" Sebastian says, interrupting for the millionth time since I met him.
"Yes, and if you would just shut up and let us sing instead of being an annoying little pest-" I say before Finn comes over and picks me up and holds me back before I go as Santana says 'all Lima Heights'.
"What she means is, yes, we do, and we're about to show you" Mercedes says, giving me a low high five after Finn releases me.
The music starts, the New Directions start singing Black or White together.
Towards the end of the song, Trent decides to get up and sing, causing the rest of the Warblers to follow. We let them sing with us but Sebastian is the only one still sitting as the song finishes.
"Listen, I could call the cops or your headmaster or whatever, have you kicked out of school, or even arrested, for what you did to Blaine" Santana says as she pulls out the little cassette tape to show to Sebastian.
She hands it over to Kurt who tosses it to Sebastian. "Not being at Regionals will ruin the joy of beating you" Kurt smiles and then Artie yells at him to get out.
I get home and run to the mailbox to see if any of my acceptance letters came yet, like Quinn's did.
I open the white box and see a few big envelopes. I then run inside and sit on the couch with the 7 envelopes in my hands. I spread them out and look at the names, of course I only applied to 7 schools but I just wanted to check. I look down at the different sized envelopes that I've decided to organize from smallest to biggest. In order, I see Harvard, Brown, Penn, Boston College- then come a few bigger ones, University of Michigan, Penn State, Ohio State and Yale. Common knowledge is usually that the bigger envelopes are the acceptances but, it just doesn't make sense. I open the smaller envelopes to see that of course, Harvard rejected me, Brown waitlisted me, Penn rejected me, Boston College waitlisted. Then I move on to the other envelopes, Michigan accepted me which is pretty cool, always liked it there, Penn State accepted me. Now it's time for Ohio State and Yale. If I get accepted into Ohio State, I'll be with my boyfriend but in the slight chance that I get into Yale, I'll be with my best friend.
I decide to open the Ohio State letter first, I open the white tab and see just a letter and brochure. I skip a few lines and then read Status: Waitlisted.
The school I wanted to get into so bad, waitlisted me. I thought Ohio State would be the school I definitely got into.
The last letter I open, is from Yale. I'm too scared to open it, but I force myself to do it anyways. I know that this isn't an acceptance letter of any means, or if it is, I know it won't say Jessica Peters on the header inside the blue and white envelope. I pry the package open, and to my surprise I see bold letters that distract me from reading anything else.
Status: Accepted
How am I gonna tell Finn?