Protective

Chapter 14

Isabella's POV

I was walking down the hallway with Brittany and Santana when we see Finn and Rory talking. "Hey there, orca" She says as we walk through the middle of them. "Hey, Santana" we pause and turn to him "you look like an ass-less J.Lo" we turn to each other and laugh. "You're skinny like all the crops failed on your family's farm." Brittany and I share confused glances. "That is the lamest thing I didn't understand a word of" I laugh "not one word" Brittany nods. "Is that really all that you can come up with? You seriously think that you can out-insult me? I'm from Lima Heights. I was raised on insults. It's how mi abuela put us to sleep at night, and she is not a nice lady. You know, she tried to sell me once?" I nod "I cried that night" Brittany turns to me and pouts taking my hand and Santana continues "And it wasn't till I got to kindergarten that I learned my name wasn't "Garbage Face"" I laughed at that "she called me it too" he turns to Rory and then back to us "Then we'll have to settle this another way. Uh, today, after school. Bring your Trouble Tones." Santana and I look at each other "are you suggesting what I think you are?" She asks smirking "yeah, I am. Dodgeball" I look at Brittany and nod as we walk away.

I was in an empty classroom after school, looking at some old songs I had written before I stopped writing, waiting for dodgeball to start. As I had just finished looking at the last one I wrote, Brittany pokes her head in "there you are, I've been looking for you everywhere, it's time to start. We're gonna be late" she grabs my arm, pulling me. I just wish I would have picked up my song book before we left.

We get to the gym, already changed into our clothes to see everyone stretching. I look at Puck and smirk "you're goin down, bud" he looks at me smirking "why would you think that, I'm pretty sure I can take you" I feel an arm wrap around my shoulder and look to see it was Mercedes "because my girl can throw. Hard." He gulps as my sister and Brittany high five me. "Let's do this" I hear Brittany say as she turns on some music.

Brittany slings one at Quinn as I look at her "damn Britt, that was good" she smiles at me as I throw one hard at Puck, effectively hitting him square on the face "bullseye!" He pouts before sitting out. This goes on for another 15 minutes before the Troubletones win.

All of the Troubletones, besides Mercedes, were doing vocal warmups when Mercedes walks in. "Ladies, vocal warmups can-" she gets interrupted by Principal Figgins walking in "Isabella Lopez, I'm afraid you might want to come with me" I look at him confused before looking at my sister "you might want to come for this too, Santana" she grabs both of our bags before we walk out into the hallway to see people surrounding my locker taking picture "what the hell?" People make a way for me, taking pictures as I walk. As I see what's taped to my locker, and what's spray painted under it, my whole face goes pale. I hastily rip down the page and run to the auditorium with my sister behind me "Is, what happened?" She comes and sits beside me as I ball my eyes out, handing her the paper. "Oh, oh god" she takes me into her arms as she tried to get me to stop crying "they know, San, everyone in this entire school knows" she nods "I know, Is, I know" I shake my head "I hadn't even fully excepted myself yet" she holds me tighter "I know, god, I'm so sorry this happened" she kisses the top of my head "if you don't want to do the performance, you can sit out. Shelby will understand" I get up walking to the piano "I mean, what makes a person do this? That was my safe place, you know?" I turn towards her "where I could write down what I was feeling, and no one would judge me for it" she nods "I know, hey, how about we go out there, get your stuff and before the performance we go sit in the gym. I'll even get Britt" I nod as we walk out, me clinging to her arm as I see my locker still surrounded by people. I shove them out of my way, grab my stuff out of my locker and look at the word spray painted there. I start scrubbing the word, hoping it will come off as I start to cry again. "Hey, Is, it's okay. Let's just go" I shake my head, scrubbing harder as people start laughing at me and calling me names "Isabella, you're going to hurt yourself. It's okay, we'll get someone to clean it up" I slowly start to stop as I feel someone take my hand and guide me into Shelby's classroom. Everyone looks to the door "is everything okay?" Britt asks slowly. I shake my head and run into her arms. She holds me tight "Hey, it's gonna be okay. You're okay" I shake my head as I start to sob. I hear San tell them what happened as Britt sits me down in her lap and holds me. "Why did this happen? I mean, am I just that bad of a person?" Britt turns my face towards her "you are the best person I know, besides your sister. People are just jerks. You don't deserve that" I nod as they all sit around me "Isabella, you can sit out this performance if you want to. Everyone will understand. Your mental health is more important" I shake my head getting off of Brittany's lap. "I'll be in the auditorium" I go in there and sit on the piano bench, waiting for everyone to come in.

As everyone comes in, I have people come up to me and hugging me. Kurt comes up to me and hugs me, Puck gives me a kiss on the forehead, and Mike and Tina tell me to call them if I need them. I nod as my sister comes in late. I walk up to her "hey, are you okay?" She shakes her head as she starts to tear up. I open my arms as she hugs me "we're in this together" she nods and tells me what happened in Coach Sue's office as we're both crying "well this has been one of the shittiest days of my life" she nods as she kisses my head "agreed. Let's go out there and try to forget about for a little bit" I nod as we change and get into position. As we get towards the end of the song, Santana gets off the stage and walks to Finn with me close behind her. "What did you just say to her?" She asks him pointing to Rachel. "I said I thought you were great" he says confused. She shakes her head "you're lying" she says starting to cry as I get closer to her. "No, he literally just said that" Rachel says. Santana shakes her head "you tell her too?" She asks glaring. Mr. Schue gets out of his seat "Santana" she keeps going. "Everyone's gonna know now. Because of you" she points at him. He shakes his head "the whole school already knows, and you know what? They don't care" he says to her. She shakes her head "not just the school, you idiot. Everyone" he looks at her confused "what are you talking-" he gets cut off by a slap to the face. Everyone looks at her, their mouths gaped open.