songbird, chapter eighty five
— human nature
elle yawned after a long day of rehearsals for regionals, but plans had been made and she couldn't go home and nestle into her cocoon of blankets and pillows just yet.
she stood with the rest of the new directions, in a parking garage of all places, and watched as blaine and santana essentially threatened the warblers into giving up their plan to do michael jackson at regionals.
after what seemed like an eternity of arguing between the two teams, a flash of red hurtled by eleanor's head and splashed into the face of blaine, who stood beside her.
immediately, blaine was crying out in pain and dropped to the floor as the remnants of the slushy ominously melted around him.
"what did you do to him?" elle fumed, shoving sebastian so hard that he almost toppled over, but mike managed to grab her before she could do any more damage. "blaine? blaine!" she cried, dropping to her knee's beside kurt and santana.
"someone call 911!"
the following day at school, elle was still shuddering at the thought of her friend in such obvious agony.
"is he okay?" elle quickly questioned kurt as he glumly entered the choir room.
"it's his right eye; the doctor says that his cornea is deeply scratched and he has to have surgery." kurt explained, prompting elle to shrink back in her seat.
"in all my years as a teacher, and a student, i have never known a slushy to do that kind of damage." mr schue noted, making elle roll her eyes at his cluelessness.
"that's because it wasn't just a slushy, mr schue," she sighed. "there has to have been something in it! he wanted to hurt, blaine."
"well, unless you have proof that he tampered with the slushy the police aren't interested in getting involved." mr schue told her, making her roll her eyes again.
"so the twelve people in this room who have gotten slushied and not lost an eye isn't proof?" she questioned incredulously.
"sebastian is evil!" kurt agreed. "he needs to be expelled."
"figgins and i have talked to dalton's head master, and their opening an investigation," mr schue told the group. "so, guys, i'm telling you please let the system handle this one."
"sebastian's dad is the state's attourney, mr schue!" elle fumed. "there's no way sebastian's gonna get into any trouble with the help of daddy's money!"
"dalton's old school, mr schue. they're never gonna turn their back on one of their own- we need payback." artie nodded.
"an eye for an eye," mike added.
"no! i have a zero-tolerance policy for violence of any kind!" mr schue argued.
"what about when quinn and i got into a fight in the hallway?" elle quirked her brow. "or when i got into a fight with tina in the hallway? i never got into trouble."
"you got into a fight with tina?" mr schue questioned, momentarily distracted.
"well... more like tina slapped me unprovoked, but yeah!"
mr schue shook his head. "regardless, that's not how we do things!"
"no, we sing, and that's all we ever do." artie huffed.
"do you want to get disqualified from regionals?" mr schue suddenly asked him.
"we don't give a damn about regionals!" artie snapped. "we give a damn about blaine!"
"we're only human, mr schue!" elle added. "what do you expect from us?"
"to show a little compassion and resolve?"
"screw that!" artie fumed. "when's the rest of the world ever shown us that kind of mercy? when they tease us, and throw stuff at us and toss us in dumpsters?"
"is that what you call compassion, and resolve, mr schue?" mike asked, earning himself, elle and artie a disapproving look from their teacher.
"i get how upsetting this is for you guys-,"
"no you don't!" elle argued. "and don't give us any of that 'it get's better' crap!"
"quite frankly we're not interested in it getting any better, we want it to be better!" mike added.
"right now!"
mr schue looked at each of them in turn before sighing deeply. "artie, eleanor, mike, take a break," he told them. "we'll all be here when you get back."
when mike, elle and artie had (somewhat) cooled off, the new directions were treated to quinn's performance of 'never can say goodbye' as well as the amazing news that she'd been accepted into yale (and upon hearing said news, elle bombarded her friend with such a forceful hug it almost toppled the two girls over).
"hey, songbird?" mike questioned, wrapping his arm around the girl as they left the choir room. "can you meet me in the auditorium later? i have a surprise."
elle's brows shot up. "what is it?" she asked, earning a chuckle from him.
"it's a surprise, songbird!" he reminded her. "i'll see you there!"
as promised, elle met mike in the auditorium later that afternoon and upon seeing him standing in the middle of the stage, she felt a surge of butterflies in her stomach.
"what's this?" she questioned, climbing the stairs so she could meet him in the middle, where he was waiting with outstretched arms.
"we lost a lot of time last year, songbird." he told her, making her nod. "and now there's only four months until we graduate, and we've never done a duet!"
"we sang 'tonight' from west side story!" she defended, earning a dubious look from mike that made her giggle. "okay, we attempted!"
"and while it was a very good attempt on our part, i think i'd like to do something a little more... how do i put this?" he wondered aloud.
"listenable?" elle suggested, making mike laugh.
"yes!" he cheered. "listenable."
not a moment later, he gestured to the band who began to play 'human nature' which the pair proceeded to sing together, still having as much fun as they did last time they duetted, but thankfully sounding a lot more 'listenable'.
as the song drew to a close, elle and mike were face to face, allowing mike to dip down to peck elle's lips.
she smiled against his lips, and reached up to wrap her arms around his neck, prompting him to lace his around her waist. "so, we're doing this again, huh? me and you?" she asked.
mike nodded. "i guess we are," he smiled. "but this time, i'm not gonna make the mistake of hurting you and letting you get away from me."
———
i could cry, thank you SO MUCH for 100k reads on songbird!
i seriously cannot believe that this silly passion project that i started writing in 2019 while rewatching glee during a really tough time in my life has gained such an incredible following. i love ellie as a character and i'm so so glad that all of you love her as much as i do! i know updates have been few and far between lately but more updates are coming and i'm so excited for you to read them!
again, thank you thank you thank you for all the love on songbird and i hope you all continue to enjoy 💗💗
love, katie x