🩰☁️
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ooo ୭̥ journey to regionals
episode twenty two
regionals was to be judged by celebrities this year. and somehow sue sylvester had been chosen as a judge.
despite only having a ten minute segment on the news and having won many cheer awards. hell romana was more of a celebrity than her but she had somehow managed to worm herself the position.
with the news of the clubs biggest supporter of a downfall and for it to be disbanded as a judge. all the members of glee had given up.
sue wanted glee gone so the cheerios could get a bigger budget for pointless things. so everyone but mr schue had accepted the fate of the new directions losing.
if they don't place or win it was over.
and with sue as a judge the glee club were guaranteed a third place ending.
no matter what they do.
🩰🪐
mr schue invited the group to his home, which romana was slightly creeped out by, for a 'setlist nomination party.'
everyone else seemed to think it was normal for a teacher to host a gathering of thirteen students all under eighteen at his house.
like what? it was as if it was a weird movie or acid trip.
they all sat in silence, unopened boxes of pizza stacked on the table in the middle of the room each staring at nothing.
romana sat, with her head on mike, which wasn't a surprise to anyone. all in the club had been seeing things in their friendship that made them all think it should and would be something more in the near future.
"no one wants any pizza? all right, uh, let's get started. thank you for coming to the first annual new directions' regionals' setlist nominations party. " mr schue said, but his enthusiasm seemed to diminish at the silence in the room.
"whats the point, mr schue?" artie asked, already sounding devastated, "coach sylvesters' one of the judges. she's gonna crush us."
"artie, you don't know that."
"yes, we do. she told us at cheerios practice," santana says.
"yeah, she said, 'i'm going to crush glee club" brittany said.
"a whole freaking year. all that hard work for nothing," puck sighed, slouching back on the couch.
romana's usual upbeat persona was no use. she knew that watching everyone in the room do the same.
this, glee club was the first time she began to be how she portrayed herself.
happy.
but now it was going to be ripped away because a grown ass woman wanted more money and to hurt teenagers.
romana looked around the room landing on tina, who had burst into tears. "i'm sorry," she apologised. "i just really love you guys. you know how many facebook friends i had before i joined glee club? two. my parents. rachel was right—being part of something special—it made me special. i just can't believe it's going to be over in a week."
as romana's eyes scanned the room, she realised all the girls were now crying also, all of them except her.
yeah she was sad. but she didn't want to cry anymore. she had cried all she needed to about glee club.
she has now came to accept the inevitable.
"wait, who says it's going to be over?" finn asks.
"please," mercedes rolled her eyes, still upset, "you think puck and santana are going to even acknowledge my existence once we're not in glee club together anymore?"
"she has a point."
romana hits the back of his head, instead of being sad at the thought of glee ending. she was angry, at sue, the show choir board, figgins, jesse still and even herself.
so rather than crying she had fallen into the habit of anger filled rants, and hitting people aswell as walls and lockers.
"mr schuester? do you think, instead of nominating songs, we can just all go around the room and talk about the things that we loved about glee club this year?" rachel asked, fighting back tears.
romana cleared her throat, "excuse me."
she got up and made her out the room. all in the room turned to look at her blonde hair go out the door.
the night was perfect, a slight breeze and the sky lit by millions of stars. she sat on the bench outside mr schue's building and just took it in.
she heard the door open, and footsteps approach. as she sat on the bench the person sat next to her.
the air filled with his cologne and romana felt peace immediately. looking at the ground she saw black converse.
and after a few seconds he reached for her hand.
she let out a content sigh, and felt his gaze on her. she went to move a piece of hair but he had done it before she got the chance.
she lent her head on his shoulder as he wrapped his arm around her. as her hand remained in his he ran his thumb over her knuckle and hand.
"i'm not okay," romana admitted, her voice hushed.
"i know your not baby girl." mike says.
"everything is about to change. but i don't want it too." romana says.
"what will change?"
"it will be like it was before. kurt being thrown into the dumpster because he likes boys instead of girls. rachel will get slushied, despite that never stopping. finn will go back to being another football player. tina will go back to hiding herself from everyone but artie. it is all about to change."
"what's going to change for you?"
"i'll lose you and matt, go back to pretending to be happy and drowning in my thoughts.
i don't want to lose you or matt."
"you're not going to, i won't allow it. did i tell you why i joined glee?" mike questions.
"no."
"i joined because i saw you, the real you."
"what do you mean?" romana questions.
"nine months ago, before you were in glee i saw you in the dance studio. singing and dancing. you were so caught up in the song you didn't notice me. but i noticed you, and have been ever since baby girl."
romana smiles and hides her face in mikes chest to hide her blush. after regaining herself she looked up at him.
"i saw how happy you were, and how beautiful you were and still are.
after i kept looking for you in the halls, in class and i found you. but you weren't happy, you appeared happy but i knew it wasn't real."
"no one had ever noticed that before." romana admits.
"so after the football team had to learn how to dance i had a excuse to join glee. me and matt both love dancing and it was easier to join then.
so that's what i did, i joined to dance but to also spend more time with you even if you never noticed me." mike says.
romana smiled at this and so did mike.
"i did notice you, even before. everyone else on the football team were horrible. but you were different, kind, sweet, shy. somebody i admired." romana admits with a shy smile.
"that makes me happy. that you did notice me."
at this both share a look of happiness.
"me and matt both knew we wanted to be your friends. whatever it took, and luckily you allowed us to become friends."
"i knew you both were different, and didn't just want to be my friend cause i had a following or because of the way i looked. you wanted to be my friend because you saw me, the real me."
"so i won't ever allow myself to hurt you or stop being your friend romana tula pierce. you are well and truly stuck with me." mike grins and pulls her into a long hug.
after the hug finished romana re positioned herself. laying her head on his lap and the two began making shapes out of the stars.
the two remained like that as the other members piled out of mr schue's apartment. everyone splitting of into there rides home.
matt joined the pair on the bench and the three sat with romana's legs over matt's lap and head rested in mike's lap.
no matter what happened, the three knew they wouldn't be giving this up for as long as possible.
🩰🪐
mr schue had chosen the perfect songs for the new directions to sing at regionals.
with sue sylvester as a judge, they knew they didn't have much of a chance at winning the competition, but still wanted to make the most of the journey there.
aural intensity performed first, while the new directions were getting ready backstage.
they listened through the speaker that was on the wall, that played through the music from the performers.
"a mash-up of olivia newton-john and josh groben. are you kidding me? someone tipped them off about the judges," puck complained as he walked across the room.
no matter how little she had sang in front of a audience, romana always got excited butterflies and not nauseous butterflies like many.
as finn and rachel tried to lift spirits in the green room, romana sat with mike and matt all being said falling on deaf ears as they kept doing goofy faces to each other.
despite this possibly being the last time romana will perform with these she still remained happy.
but this time genuinely happy.
no matter what happens she will have two idiots who she loves remain patient with her and not leave her.
she'd make a effort to keep a friendship with artie, tina and mercedes. she will always have brittany, and that comes with santana as a package deal.
she knows inevitably quinn will go back to her normal self, but if needed romana will be there for her. she knows puck won't go back to the way he used to be, and finn will stay as oblivious.
rachel and kurt are the only two romana never created a bond with. so losing them won't be difficult.
the lights flickered above them, meaning they were now supposed to be making their way to the stage.
while mr schue was giving his pep talk, the trio all had grown so accustomed to remained in there own world.
mike and matt got up first with mike picking romana up and twirling her around.
no matter where her life goes, as long as she has him she knows the journey will be amazing.
"you can do this baby girl." mike says as he puts her down.
"i love you." mike says to which romana replies.
"i love you more."
both knowing how real that sentence was.
🎙journey medley
THE NEW DIRECTIONS🎙
romana sang the 'anyway you want it/ lovin touchin squeezing' duet with finn instead of rachel.
after quinn's water broke, she was rushed to the hospital, finally bringing her baby girl into the world.
mercedes and puck went into the room with her, as the rest of the group waited outside, before they eventually had to leave to go back to the competition, to find out who won regionals.
mike, matt and romana decided to not attend the hospital knowing how romana felt about them. they decided immediately once they found out were everyone was going to remain at the competition.
rachel had stayed to watch vocal adrenaline perform, but remained confident at their chances of winning, even with sue being there.
romana, mike and matt weren't after watching vocal adrenaline's 'bohemian rhapsody'.
after vocal adrenaline had finished jesse made his way to the new directions green room. where he found romana with mike and matt.
when he walked in the three grew silent, anger laced all of there faces.
"roe, i wanted to tell you were amazing." jesse says, "can we talk, just us two?"
"what you want to say to me, tell them as well. the minute i would walk back in here i'd tell them anyway."
romana says as she remains seated, mike moves closer to her and grabs hold of her hand.
"i know you made it clear last time i said sorry, that you didn't care. so i'm not going to say that."
"what are you going to say?"
"just no matter how much you hate me, it wouldn't come close to how much i hate myself for hurting you."
"i don't hate you jesse."
"you don't?" he questions a small smile covers his face.
"i despise you, you knew how hurt i had been in the past. but yet you do something ten times worse to me."
at this his smile drops, and regret fills his face. he knows he's lost her for good.
"mike, matt don't hurt her."
"what like you did?" matt responds.
"yeah like i did."
"please leave before i lose it." mike says with anger and protection laced through his voice.
jesse nods and leaves, not without one last sorry.
the group was crushed to find that they placed third, and were sent home with nothing but an empty feeling inside them.
🩰🪐
"we have something we want to say to you." rachel starts.
"in the beginning of this year, i was just another football player."
"i had a stutter."
"i was a closeted diva."
"i used to be captain of the cheerios."
"i was afraid to dance outside my room."
"i hated everyone in this club."
"so did i, except for roma." to which brittany does a heart with her hands and points it to romana, to which she returns.
"i wasn't honest about who i was."
"i was tossing kids into dumpsters."
"i had never kissed a girl before."
"and i was getting slushied."
"i didn't-i didn't have a father. someone i could look up to. model myself after. someone who could show me what it really meant to be a man."
"i was pretending to be happy. constantly having dark thoughts and not dealing with my trauma of being dead for 14.3 seconds after being submerged in the river.
thinking if i began breathing sooner maybe my nana would still be alive. feeling guilty if i was happy because it felt wrong somehow." romana finishes with.
all look around the room in surprise that romana was the other person in the car.
mike instantly reaching for her hand.
rachel broke the eerie silence, "we don't care what the judges say. we won. because we had you as a teacher."
"and glee club will never end, mr schue because you are glee club. and you're in all of us now."
the club performed 'to sir, with love' to thank mr schue for the past nine months.
sometimes his teaching and lessons were weird but they were all perfect and needed at the time.
romana still found him sometimes over bearing but knew it was because he truly cares. unlike others in lima, ohio.
this time everyone cried, both because they were saying goodbye but also because of romana and what happened to her.
near the end of the performance romana saw sue in the corner, she looked genuine for once.
romana figures it out, sue wanted them to succeed. but will always remain and show that she hates them.
🩰🪐
"we've got another year." at this all in the room show confusion.
"come on, we got another year!"
at this all cheered, no matter how this happened it did.
and it gave them another year at least to sing together.
mike immediately picks romana up and spins her around.
all in the room noticing, everyone but one wanted them both to realise they are meant to be more than friends.
ooo.┊AUTHORS NOTE. . ﾟ✫. ₊˚.
and that is the end of season one, i am
really happy with how this turned out.
thank you for the support up until this
point. ✰
the first part of season two will be like
a round up of romana's summer break,
if that makes sense. ✰
won't be keeping all plots because few
are questionable to say the least. ✰
lots of love. ✰