Glee Club // Hunter Clarington

{Chapter 46} 4 : 22

Rose's POV

"All right, guys. It's finally here. Regionals." Mr. Shue walks up to us after writing 'All or Nothing' on the whiteboard. Hunter moves closer to me before we all break into loud applause and cheers. "I just found out, because of safety concerns related to late-season tornados, Indianapolis has declined to host the competition. So! As defending champions, we're having Regionals here, in our auditorium." Mr. Shue announces and we all smile and clap. "Home court advantage, yo!" Artie whoops and I slap his back while laughing. "Now, because of a sexting scandal at Our Lady of Perpetual Loneliness, their Glee Club, the Nun-tounchables, has been excommunicated by the new pope." Mr. Shue tells us. 

I cover my mouth and laugh, as does Tina and we turn to each other, continuing to laugh. "They've been replaced by the world-famous boys of Ziegler Prep, the Waffle-Toots." Mr. Shue tells us. I furrow my eyebrows. "What?" I ask and Hunter shrugs his shoulders. "The Hoosierdaddies are still the odds-on favorite. I mean, their lead vocalist, Frida Romero, is a tiny juggernaut of talent. We are in for the fight of our lives." Mr. Shue claps his hands. "So... let's get real. There comes a moment in every performer's life that defines him or her, sometimes for the rest of their career. This is our moment. We've struggled, we've endured, and now we must triumph. And speaking of that, I want us all to take a moment to send some positive energy to one of our very own. She has her final callback for Funny Girl today. So, let's all give a big round of applause to Rachel, wherever she is." Mr. Shue requests and the applauding begins.

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"Six, seven, eight, nine..." Mr. Shue counts us as we come in. "Uh, are, are Joe and Sugar here?" Mr. Shue asks me. I point to Sugar and Joe as they walk in. "Present, Mr. Shue." Sugar smiles and waves to all of us. Sugar stops and gives me a quick hug before we all go to sit down. "Come on. Great. Okay." He shoos them to sit down. "Guys, I have finalized our set list. We are going with 'I Love It' by Icona Pop..." Mr. Shue reveals. "I love it!" Sugar exclaims. "Yes. 'Hall of Fame' by The Script and will.i.am." We begin to cheer as Mr. Shue announces the boy's song. 

"And Rose's original song 'All or Nothing'." Mr. Shue leans towards me and I smile. "Hey, Mr. Shue, what about my original song? Do you remember?" Brittany begins to sing and Artie joins her. "My cup, my cup, sayin' what's up. To my cup, my cup. More of a friend." We finish as Mr. Shue interrupts. "'My Cup' is one of a kind, but we're going with Rose's song." Mr. Shue walks to the piano. "Oh, come on, boo. Two thumbs down. The only way to polish that turd of a song is with my angelic alto voice. So I demand to sing it as a solo. And I demand to sing all the good songs as solos. Everyone can snap their fingers and march around behind me." Brittany states. 

I drop my jaw, offended. "Tina, please make an exact replica of Jennifer Lawrence's Oscar dress." Brittany points at Tina. "Um, no." Tina disagrees. "Um... yes. Let me break it down. No one in this musty choir room compares to my megawatt star power. Blaine, you're shorter than your average lawn gnome. Joe, you look like a Yucatan spider monkey. Tina is... you know, she's... Tina." Brittany begins, but Sam jumps off the piano and walks over to her. "Wait, baby. Baby, I love you, but you're really out of line here. And would you stop texting? I'm trying to talk to you, it's really rude." Sam complains. 

His phone rings. "Did you seriously just break up with me? By a text?" Sam asks. "Yeah. As fascinated as I am by your down-filled, pillow-soft lips that are ten times too big for your face, I really miss my sweet, sweet lady kisses. Sorry/not sorry." She bumps Sam and walks away from him. "Moving on, I repeat: I require all the solos. That's just the way it's gonna be." Brittany demands. "Brittany, why are you doing this?" Mr. Shue questions. "Well, I'm just living your lesson, Mr. Shue. It's all or nothing. All or nothing!" She exclaims while turning and walking into the hallway.

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"Okay, guys, listen up. Uh, first up, we're gonna tackle Icona Pop. It's got a unique beat, but not entirely different from..." Mr. Shue stops. "All right, look. I'm-I'm sorry. Excuse me, Mr. Shue, but I've got to say something." Ryder looks at Mr. Shue for permission. "Okay." He agrees. "Look, so I hate to pull a Brittany here, but the bottom line is, I'm not performing in Regionals until Catfish reveals themselves. This whole situation is out of hand and needs to end. Hey, look, I'm serious, okay? I can't take it anymore, it-it's tearing me apart. And someone in this room is playing games with me, and I want to know who!" Ryder raises his voice in frustration. 

"Somebody, just say who it is." Sugar says. "I don't think it's any of us." Tina looks at Ryder. "Pull out your phones! Everybody pull out your phones right now!" Ryder kicks the small table in the middle of our circle. "Ryder, relax, man." Blaine tries to calm him down. "Well, now nobody is going to admit it for fear of being murdered." Kitty whispers to me. "I've told this person everything, and I want to know who it is." Ryder tells us.

"I know you're upset..." Jake starts. "I want to know... No, you don't know. You don't know, okay? Who is it?" Ryder turns to face Hunter, Kitty and I, then start to spin in a circle to see everyone. "It's not me." Artie says. "All right, fine. If nobody's gonna say anything, pull out your phones. And I want to see all of your phones. All of your phones." Ryder states. "Are you serious?" Tina questions. "Pull our your texts. I'm serious! Texts!" Ryder kicks to table again. We all yell at him to calm down.

"Whoever it is, just say it." Tina speaks. "Who is it?" Ryder inquires. "It's me." Marley stands up. I furrow my eyebrows. "I'm Catfish." Marley admits. "What? What do you? No, I-I-I asked you. You swore to me." Ryder looks like he's getting upset. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean for this to happen." Marley apologizes. "Look, just take it easy, Ryder, okay? This was just a little joke. Things got out of hand." Jake continues.

"What, you're-you're defending her? Huh? Are you kidding me? What's wrong with you people?" Ryder scoffs and grabs his backpack. "Ryder." Mr. Shue sighs. "Marley, that's messed up." Joe says.

I can't believe Marley just did this