𝐥𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐫 || glee

seventeen; born this way

They were all seated for glee club, whispers sounding out about Rachel's nose job and Santana's explosive speech about plastic surgery. Everyone was anticipating the assignment for the next glee club meeting. Writing 'acceptance' on the whiteboard, Miss Pillsbury stood next to Mr Schue as he began explaining the assignment.

"Now, this is the only club at school that is represented by just about every race, religion, sexual orientation and clique, but many of you are still having a hard time with acceptance," Mr Schue said to the room.

Mercedes and Vee looked at each other, confused. "That's crazy, Mr Schue. We love each other," Mercedes defended to overall agreement.

"No, I won't deny that you accept each other, but you don't accept yourselves. This week's assignment has two parts. I want all of you to sing songs about accepting yourself for who you are — the best and the worst parts," he explained.

"And the second part?" Vee questioned, eager for more.

"Well, we're going to do a group number by the queen of self-love — Gaga. We're going to perform her anthem to acceptance — 'Born This Way.'"

Cheers and claps erupted, especially from Mercedes and Vee. Kurt was majorly missing out, she knew he would love this lesson. She really wanted him back. At least he had Blaine.

"Wait, wait, I still don't know why Ms Pillsbury is here."

"I'm here to help you with your costumes for the big number," Miss Pillsbury replied. "Each of you will be issued a beautifully fitted white T-shirt. We will then use this letterpress to write a word or a phrase that best describes the thing about you that you're the most ashamed of or you'd like to change but you can't because you were born that way, which is super terrific."

"I want you to love those parts of you, you know, embrace them, wear them on your chest with pride," she said, tugging on her yellow jacket. Vee took note of it, it was alluring.

"Can you give an example?"

Miss Pillsbury unbuttoned her jacket, revealing her T-shirt. It read 'ginger.' Vee shot a glance at Tina, everyone knew this was not what she was ashamed of. Just like everyone else in that room, she was afraid and she hated herself. Mr Schue looked particularly surprised as he thought the same.

His voice was stoic. "Wow, Emma, I thought the whole purpose of you doing this was to write — "

"Being a ginger has plagued me my entire life," Miss Pillsbury explained, cutting Mr Schue off mid-sentence. "People say that I smell like copper, I can get a sunburn indoors at night, and according to recent legend, I have no soul."

Mercedes' eyes were wider than ever as Vee rested her head in her hand. Her eyebrows were furrowed as she listened on — she was intrigued by her speech.

"But I'm here to say that this very curse is what makes me unique. Children, I claim my gingerhood before you today. I was born this way. Hooray. Hooray!"

The shrill bell rang and Tina instantly made her way towards the two girls. All three of them shared a look as they walked out of the room. "That was ... interesting. Anyway, what are your shirts gonna be?" Mercedes asked.

"I'm thinking 'brown eyes' or something like that," Tina replied. "You?" she turned to Vee.

She froze.