"All right, we need $5,000 to pay for our trip to nationals in New York." Mr. Schue announced as soon as he entered the choir room.
"What happened to the money that we got from the Cheerios?" Quinn asked.
"I guess Sue was hiding it in offshore accounts in the Cayman Islands and we're having some trouble accessing some of it." Mr. Schue responded, to which Emily rolled her eyes at. "Any of it."
Well, that made more sense.
"This is saltwater taffy." The teacher continued his rant as he turned from the students and toward the piano where a few boxes sat, filled to the brim with small packages of candy like the ones he was holding up to show everyone.
"I love saltwater." Brittany whispered, as Emily shook her head with a fond smile.
"When I was a student here, we paid for our entire trip to nationals selling this classroom to classroom, door to door." Mr. Schue said, as he threw a few of the taffies around. Brittany raised her arms in the air as she tried to get the teacher to throw her some. "We pushed this stuff like crack. And so will we. So to make $5,000 at 25 cents apiece we need to sell 20,000 pieces of taffy."
"Wait. Do you honestly think that we can sell 20,000 anythings?" Santana asked. "We won regionals for the first time since dinosaurs roamed the planet and I still got a freakin' cherry ICEE facial."
"Yeah, Santana's right. Nobody cares about us." Quinn agreed.
"I can't listen to this." Mike rolled his eyes as he got up from his chair.
"Mike, are you okay?" Mr. Schue frowned, stopping the young man from leaving.
"No." He shook his head, as Emily looked down at her lap, already knowing what was coming next. "You guys complain all the time about being mistreated but you have no idea what it's like to work your butt off for something and have everyone, even your friends, ignore you."
"I'm so trying to remember his name right now." Lauren whispered over at Puck, causing Emily to scoff as she got up to move closer to her Decathlon team as they reunited in front of the piano.
"Artie, Emily, Tina, Brittany and I are on the Brainiacs." Mike continued once everyone was gathered around him.
"Isn't that the Academic Decathlon team?" Rachel asked, as Finn frowned.
"We have one of those?" He asked, his mouth full of candy.
"Yes, we do." Artie sighed, crossing his arms over his chest. "And the five of us went on the Smarty Pants Show and beat Carmel High to go to the Academic Decathlon finals in Detroit next week."
"Wait, you guys were on TV?" Sam asked. "Why didn't you tell us about it?"
"We did." Emily glared at him, pushing herself to sit up on the piano as Sam coughed awkwardly.
Sorry, he mouthed over at her, as she simply rolled her eyes.
"Wait. I-I get the four of you being on the team." Mr Schue said, pointing at everyone but Brittany.
"Is it because two of them are Asian and two of them wear glasses?" Puck asked, as Emily widened her eyes at him. "Yes, four eyes, I know your secret."
Emily scoffed, playfully rolling her eyes at Puck. How he knew she wore glasses, she wasn't sure, considering she only wore them at home, opting for lenses at school due to the constant bouncing around she did in the Cheerios, but that didn't really matter in that moment, so she just decided to let it go.
"No." Mr. Schue finally answered Puck's question. "But Brittany?"
"Liz Schneider was our fifth, but she got rubella." Mike explained.
"Her parents are hippies who don't believe in vaccinations." Tina added.
"Brittany was the only person we could find on short notice." Artie continued. "We bribed her with Dots. That Sunshine Corazon that Rachel sent to a crack house was on the other team."
"She was very, very good." Emily kept going with Artie's story before sending Brittany a proud smile. "Luckily, we had our own secret weapon."
"I answered a few questions about cat diseases." She shrugged, as everyone frowned, not expecting that at all.
"A few?" Emily scoffed. "She killed it. Basically lead us to victory on her own."
"Sadly, we can't afford to go to the finals, so we're gonna have to forfeit." Artie concluded.
"Why don't you just have your parents pay for it?" Rachel asked, as Emily rolled her eyes.
"Why don't you have your dads pay for our trip to Nationals, Stubbles?" She countered as Quinn snickered just barely under her breath.
"We don't because we shouldn't have to." Tina answered Rachel in a less aggressive way. "We're a school club. The school should pay for it. It's a matter of pride."
"You guys are absolutely right." Mr. Schue nodded. "How much do you need to make the trip?"
"With gas and motels, if we only ate Funyuns, uh, $250." Tina shrugged, looking at Emily for confirmation and receiving a nod from her in response.
"Which means..." Mr. Schue said, as he walked toward the board and redid the calculations he had done earlier to add the 250 bucks for the brainiacs. "We just need to sell more taffy."
***
"Okay, guys, so since you didn't like the taffies idea too much, I came up with another plan to raise money for Nationals." Mr. Schue said as everyone smiled at him, excited to hear what he had to say. "A benefit. A Night of Neglect, where whoever wants to perform will be able to so we can sell tickets, raise money for our trip and train for Nationals all at once. And you know the best part? We're only gonna do songs by neglected artists."
Mr. Schue stopped talking a bit when he noticed everyone frowning at him or tilting their head in clear confusion.
"Because it's a night of neglect."
"Can you define what you mean by neglected artists?" Rachel asked.
"Um, someone whose brilliance isn't always appreciated."
"Oh, so you mean like me?" She said, causing Emily to roll her eyes.
"I mean like all of us." Mr. Schue corrected. "All right, everyone, next Saturday night in our auditorium McKinley High's First Annual Night of Neglect fund-raiser benefit is officially a go."
***
Later that day, some of the kids from Glee Club were walking down the hallways as they discussed what songs they were planning on doing for the benefit.
"I'm totally doing Lykke Li." Tina said. "She's Björk meets Florence and the Machine, and a promising new talent. What about you, Mike?"
"Mike Chang, Dance Dance Revolution." Mike told them with an undertone of mockery in his smirk as they all laughed. "I'm tired of my dancing being overshadowed by all of you guys' singing. It's gonna be just me and my sweet moves on that stage. And you, Em?"
"I'm thinking about doing Leona Lewis." She told them. "She does have an incredible voice and no recognition at all, so I think it fits."
Besides, she has a great song that sums up my feelings perfectly, she wanted to say, but she wasn't about to admit it.
"You're forgetting about the most neglected artist this Glee Club's ever seen: Aretha Franklin." Mercedes spoke up, as everyone turned to look at her, confused.
"Neglected?" Lauren asked. "She's, like, the Queen of Soul."
"I auditioned for this club singing Respect and she's got none since, so I'm doing Aretha."
"Awesome, Mercedes. Awesome, all of you guys." Rachel said, as she stopped walking for a second and turned to them with one of her smiles that usually meant Emily would end up wanting to punch her, somehow. "Those songs are great appetizers to my main course. Celine Dion's My Heart Will Go On. It's gonna be our finale."
And there it was. Thankfully, she wasn't the one who spoke up first this time, because Mike raised his hand in confusion as Emily giggled at him.
"That's, like, the biggest song of all time." Tina noted, as Rachel shook her head.
"No, you don't understand. Celine isn't the neglected artist. I am."
"I was kind of hoping to do the closing number." Mercedes spoke up then, but before anyone could say anything else, Finn appeared by them.
"Hey, you guys remember Sunshine Corazon?" He asked.
"Yeah, why?" Emily asked.
"She's in the auditorium, wanting to talk to the Glee Club."
"Sunshine's here?" Tina frowned, as Finn nodded.
"Yes, and you guys are the only ones missing, so come on."
Following Finn, the six of them made their way to the auditorium where everyone else was already drilling Sunshine with questions as to why she was there. Before she could even defend herself properly, Rachel already jumped into conclusions.
"You are a terrible spy." She accused.
"Seriously, with your size, you easily could have stayed in the air ducts for days." Artie agreed.
"Right." Brittany nodded.
"I'm not a spy. I heard about your benefit concert on Facebook, and I wanted to perform." She said. "I know what it feels like to be in Academic Decathlon. No one pays attention to you. No one cares. It's not right. We study so hard."
At that, Emily looked over at Mike and Tina and shrugged. She did have a point.
"But you're in Vocal Adrenaline." Quinn said. "How do we know we can trust you?"
"Because I have nothing against any of you." Sunshine said. "I have 600 Twitter followers. I can get all of them to come."
"How many tickets have we sold so far?" Finn asked.
"Four." Puck scoffed. "No one's interested. It's just sad."
"Please, just let me show you what I can do." Sunshine pleaded. "I would like to sing the perfect song about neglect All By Myself. I'm such a better singer than everyone else, so I know how it feels. I'm all alone at the top. Also I'm really short. So even when I'm in a group of people it feels like I'm wandering alone through a forest."
Emily's nose scrunched up at that. So much better than everyone else? Someone needed to calm down a bit.
"There's no way that she's singing in our auditorium." Rachel protested. "She's the enemy."
"I say we give her a chance." Puck spoke up. "You owe her, Rachel. You sent her to a frickin' crack house."
Rachel didn't seem too happy about it, but when she noticed everyone else nodding, she didn't really have much of a choice. Despite her bad attitude, Emily couldn't deny she did enjoy Sunshine's performance and was cheering loudly by the end of it.
"So, can I perform with you guys?" She asked as soon as the song was over and the clapping stopped.
Before anyone could say anything, Rachel spoke up.
"W-We'll be in touch." She said. "Thank you, Sunshine."
And as soon as she was out, everyone followed her close behind toward the choir room, knowing they would need to have a conversation about having Sunshine in their benefit or not.
"Absolutely not." It was the first thing she said as soon as everyone was in the room. "She's just trying to get on our good side so she can spy on us."
"That's rich coming from you." Emily rolled her eyes as she sat on one of the chairs. "We told you the same thing about Jesse St. James last year."
"And you were right." Rachel pointed out.
"This whole thing isn't about us. It's about helping the Brainiacs." Finn argued.
"We need Sunshine's Twitter followers to come and pay for tickets or there's no point in having a benefit at all." Puck agreed.
Rachel sighed, turning to look at the Brainiacs, and relenting when she saw them all nod at her.
"Fine." She relented. "Mercedes, you're okay with being bumped to the decidedly less glamorous middle spot, right?"
"Um, sure, I guess." She said, sounding very unsure. One look at her friends, however, and she too nodded. "Absolutely."
***
"Hold up, this just in." Santana announced as she walked into the choir room with her cellphone in hand, interrupting the vocal warm ups they were doing. "According to Sunshine's Twitter, she's not coming - and neither are any of her followers."
"I told you. She's evil." Rachel spoke up.
"I was just in the auditorium. There's, like, six people in there." Puck said, as he too walked into the choir room. "I say we blow this whole thing off and hit the arcade."
"No. No. Screw that." Finn shook his head as he got up from his place beside a very upset Quinn. "These people paid to see us sing. What's that saying? The show's gotta go all over the place or something."
"You mean, The show must go on." Rachel corrected. "Yeah. Finn's right, you guys. Whether there's six or 6,000 people out there, we still have to give it our all."
At that, everyone gave her a small nod. Rachel then turned to Tina and smiled.
"Okay, Tina, you're up first."
And as she left, everyone cheered for her, but when she returned having run off the stage as soon as her song had ended, sobbing and crying as she ran straight to Mike, the whole atmosphere seemed to shift.
"This is the worst I've ever felt in my entire life." Tina sobbed into Mike's shoulder.
"I didn't think it was possible for people to hate us even more." Artie said, as Mike tried to calm his girlfriend down. "We're calling this off."
"Guys, I hate to say it, but I think we have to buck up." Mr. Schue spoke up, causing everyone to look at him with frowns on their faces. "Tina, I'm sorry you had to go through that... But it's actually a really good lesson for us. That's a part of show business, guys. Sometimes people can be really mean. Think about what's gonna happen if we have an unfriendly crowd at nationals in New York. And I'm sure there's gonna be some Vocal Adrenaline hecklers there too. We need to find some strength and barrel through this, right?"
Everyone exchanged unsure glances in the choir room. Sure there was some true to what he was saying, but being heckled and verbally abused like that? Was anyone strong enough to go through that? Emily wasn't sure she was, but she apparently didn't have a choice because Mr. Schue seemed dead set on continuing with the show. Even though no one actually came — except for Kurt and Blaine, bless them — and they were nowhere near close to getting the money they needed for Nationals.
"Okay, Emily, you're up." Mr. Schue said, clapping his hands once.
Emily nodded, but looked at Tina as she kept crying in Mike's shoulder and gulped. Noticing her nerves, Quinn quickly got up from her place by Finn and walked toward her best friend.
"Don't worry, Em. You'll be fine." She assured, as Emily sighed. "Don't worry about the heckling. You're great. You're always great."
"I'm just... Scared, I guess." She admitted as Quinn nodded in understanding. "Will you go out there and watch me?"
"You bet I will." She smiled as Emily did as well. "But I gotta do something first, okay? You go out there and kill it, huh?"
"Alright." Emily nodded, taking a deep breath as she jumped off the counter she was sat on. "Alright. I'm ready."
"Break a leg, Emmy." Quinn told her gently, causing everyone to start cheering as well as she left the choir room.
"You ready, then?" Sam asked her as the two of them walked down the hallway toward the auditorium since he was the one announcing the acts. He smiled a bit when he noticed the way she kept on picking her nails. Reaching over to her, he placed his hands over hers. "You'll be fantastic, Em. Quinn is right. You always are. Besides, I'll wait for you by the curtains. I'll watch you perform and if it gets too much, I'll be there to take you back to the choir room."
"Thanks, Sam." She smiled a bit up at him, her hands — and cheeks — heating up under his touch. "That means the world to me."
For a second, the two of them stood in front of the auditorium's door, staring at each other's eyes. As Emily looked up at Sam, she felt her heart jump in her chest and, for a split of a second she thought his did too because he seemed as hypnotized by her as she was by him. It was a short lived moment, though, since soon enough, Sam was pushing open the door that would give them access to the side stage for them.
"Is that what you wanted to show me?" Santana asked as soon as Sam and Emily were out of sight. She sighed as she looked up at Quinn, standing in the hallway with her friend as per her request. "Emily and Sam have always been close."
"You're blind." Quinn rolled her eyes, grabbing Santana by the arm and practically dragging her toward the auditorium. "Just sit and watch."
"Why are you doing this, Quinn?" Santana asked, trying to leave, but being unable as Quinn sat down in a chair and pulled Santana back down.
Just in time as well, because as soon as the Latina girl was sat, Sam had walked out of the stage to announce Emily's number.
"And now, to sing us her own rendition of Leona Lewis' biggest hit, please, give it up to Emily Marshall."
As soon as Sam walked out of the stage — not without sending Emily one last encouraging smile — the lights deemed and Quinn, Kurt and Blaine tried to cheer louder than the people who were booing as Emily walked toward the microphone stand. She looked great, Quinn thought, and about half of it was on her, since she was the one who convinced her to wear that golden dress that she had bought for her best friend in a spur of a moment type of buy. But that wasn't the reason why she was there and that definitely wasn't the reason why she had dragged Santana along with her. Quinn could see her friend was growing restless but as soon as the first words of Bleeding Love came out of Emily's mouth, even cold-hearted Santana had to spare her a second glance.
Closed off from love, I didn't need the pain
Once or twice was enough, but it was all in vain
Time starts to pass, before you know it, you're frozen
But something happened, for the very first time with you
My heart melts into the ground, found something true
And everyone's looking round, thinking I'm going crazy
Becky, Jacob Israel, Azimio Adams and that weird teacher that used to teach in the Glee Club — Mr. Ryerson, Quinn thought he was called — kept on booing and yelling out insults, but Emily seemed so into the song she didn't even notice. She kept on singing, her eyes closed, her hands gripping the microphone and her hips swaying just slightly. Quinn smiled at the way Santana stared at her, realization finally dawning on her as she watched her friend pour out her heart for everyone to see, but for few people to understand.
Trying hard not to hear, but they talk so loud
Their piercing sounds fill my ears, try to fill me with doubt
Yet I know that the goal, is to keep me from falling
But nothings greater, than the rush that comes with your embrace
And in this world of loneliness, I see your face
Yet everyone around me, thinks that I'm going crazy, maybe, maybe
Quinn's smile only grew when she caught a glimpse of Sam, standing by the curtains, his eyes glued to her and a fond smile on his face. The ex-head cheerleader knew Santana had seen it too and judging by the way her eyes widened suddenly, she knew her friend had finally got why she had dragged her out there.
"She's in love with him, isn't she?" She whispered, not even needing to say their names out loud to be understood. "I mean, I knew she was attracted to him, but when I found out she kissed him, I thought it was a petty thing, you know? Like we usually do. But holy shit..."
And it's draining all of me
Oh they find it hard to believe
I'll be wearing these scars, for everyone to see
I don't care what they say, I'm in love with you
They try to pull me away, but they don't know the truth
My heart's crippled by the vein, that I keep on closing
You cut me open and I
"Emily's absolutely smitten with Sam." Quinn agreed, as Santana turned to her with raised eyebrows. "Has been since they've met."
"How do you know?" She asked, as Quinn shrugged.
"She told me."
"How is she talking to you?" Santana frowned. "I thought she was mad at us."
"She was." Quinn nodded. "But I apologized to her at Rachel's party and we're good now. She told me she was trying to make a move on him when he joined Glee Club, but then Kurt asked him to duet with him, but he backed out and then, for some weird reason, Rachel convinced me to sing with him and he charmed his way into a relationship with me. So, because Emily is so fucking nice, she didn't say anything and let me date him. When we broke up, she was trying to get him to notice her but you kept getting in the way."
"Right." Santana raised an eyebrow as she turned to Quinn. She waited for her friend to cheer after a particularly good high note from Emily before she turned back to look at her instead. "And you're telling me this because..."
"Because I want you to stop chasing after Sam so Emily can have him."
"What?" Santana scoffed, as Quinn rolled her eyes at her. "No."
"Come on, Santana, we both know this thing you have for Sam is fake. I mean, all you do is flirt and make fun of him and you don't even like his impressions."
"It's not fake." Santana argued, rather weakly if she was being honest.
"Yes, it is." Quinn scoffed. "It's not him you're in love with."
"I-I don't know what you're talking about." Santana stammered and Quinn sighed, placing a gentle hand on her friend's arm.
"Yes you do. And I do. And Emily does too." She said, as Santana's breathes started to come out quicker and shorter. Before she could freak out, however, Quinn spoke up again. "And frankly, Santana. Neither of us cares, okay? And, no. No one else knows."
"Then how..."
"Because despite our differences, the four of us are still best friends."
Keep bleeding, keep, keep bleeding love
I keep bleeding, I keep, keep bleeding love
Keep bleeding, keep, keep bleeding love
Oh, you cut me open
Quinn cheered and clapped when Emily finished her song. Santana followed her lead and so did Kurt and Blaine a few rows back. Emily smiled at them, bowing slightly before rushing off the stage and all but ignoring Sam's praises as she rushed to the choir room. Quinn sighed, getting up from her place and looking down at Santana one last time before stepping around her so she could go and give her best friend some proper congratulations backstage.
"We fight. We argue. We slap each other and we throw each other against the lockers. We back stab one another and steal each other's boyfriends. But, look... You, Emily and Brittany are quite literally the only people I actually care about in this school. And I know it is the same for you. I know you want Emily to be happy and you just saw it yourself. The one way to make it happen, is for you to step down and away from Sam."
Santana stood there, motionless as she watched Quinn go. As her words echoed in her mind, Santana knew she was right. Sure the four of them had had their fair shares of fights, but Quinn had a point. The rest of the school could be damned. If the four of them were alright, it wasn't like she would actually care. And after watching Emily's performance that night, she knew her friend was far from alright and Sam Evans was the answer to her hurt — for whatever reason because, as far as she was concerned, Emily Marshall could literally have any guy she wanted from that school.
And Santana wanted to help, she really did. For once, she wished she could do the right thing, but she wasn't alright either. She was in love with Brittany and if Quinn and Emily figured it out — even if they were closer to her and they did know her better than anyone else — it meant she wasn't as discreet with it as she thought she was being and she wasn't ready to not be discreet at all. So she needed Sam. Rather, she needed a beard, but Sam was apparently the easiest target at the time so she couldn't let him go. At least not yet.
And as she walked out of the auditorium and toward the choir room, not even sparing Sam a glance as he passed her by with Mike Chang for their next act, she couldn't help but hate herself for it.
***
After Rachel had somehow managed to convince a very Diva-ish Mercedes to perform her flawless rendition of Ain't no way and had decided to step down her own number to let Mercedes have the closing act — don't even ask her why, Emily had no clue how any of that had happened, really — everyone was reunited in the choir room. As they all went around taking turns praising each other and celebrating their performances, they almost forgot about the fact that they had made close to no money with that benefit. That was, until a very unexpected person stepped inside the room.
"Okay, I give up. I'll pay for your trip." The bald teacher said, as he stumbled inside the room, on the verge of tears. "How much do you need?"
"Hum... 250 bucks?" Mike answered, quite unsure.
"Why do I remember him?" Emily whispered over at Tina, as the girl just shrugged.
"Wasn't he the old glee club teacher, or something?"
"Oh..." Emily nodded. "Yeah, that might be it."
"Sandy." Mr. Schue said, as he stepped through the door, frowning at the man, clearly confused. "What are you doing in here?"
"I tried to be a hater, but I just couldn't do it." Sandy-guy told Will. "That song and the weed I smoked immediately prior... It gave me a change of heart."
"Mr. Ryerson offered to pay for our trip." Artie smiled, as him and the rest of the Brainiacs cheered with their secret handshake of sorts.
"It's drug money, but, you know... It's actually a fantastic way to launder it." Sandy said, before moving to leave the room. "Good-bye, William. I miss the arts. I really do."
Everyone then turned to look at Mr. Schue, but the man seemed as confused as the rest of them. It only got worse when Sandy stopped midway toward the door and turned to them again.
"You just got poked." He said, as Emily raised an eyebrow causing Quinn to laugh. "Poked by the Dagger."
Mr. Schue shook his head in disbelief, but before anyone could say anything else, the Brainiacs were already cheering, Mike reaching over to shake Emily by the shoulders playfully as she laughed.
"Whoo! Detroit! Detroit! Detroit! Detroit! Detroit! Detroit!" They all screamed as the rest of the Glee club smiled at them, already preparing to leave.
Before Emily could get up from her chair, however, Sam stood in front of her with a smile, offering her a hand.
"Congratulations, you did it." He praised, as Emily rolled her eyes at him.
"I didn't do much, actually." She said, taking his hand and using it as support as she started to pull out her high heels from her feet. "But we did get the money, so that's good, I guess."
"That's great." He smiled. "Now, you only have to tell me when you'll be on TV next so I can watch you."
"Promise you won't forget this time?" She mocked as he shook his head.
"Never again."
And as Emily laughed with Sam, Quinn sent them a fond smile before walking over to Santana as she stood off to the side, her own eyes already watching the pair.
"You know what to do, Santana." Quinn whispered, as she passed by her friend with a basket filled with the few taffies that were left after the intermission. "You just have to be brave enough to do it."