Protective

Chapter 23

Isabella's POV

All the alumni are on break for thanksgiving, which means I'm trying to avoid Quinn for as long as I can. I was in the auditorium, playing piano, trying to get my mind off of her. I'm excited to see all of my friends, we all had gotten close during their senior year, and I can happily say I talk to them almost every day. I had just got done playing piano when I hear someone walk in "there's my girl!" I hear a familiar voice say. I turn around and smile widely, running to them. "I missed you so much!" I say to her as she hugs me tight "I missed you too, boo" I smile as we pull back "should've came back sooner, Cedes. It isn't the same without you" she chuckles and nods "I would've if I could" I smile at her. "Where's Quinn?" I ask hesitantly. She smiles sadly "in the choir room, which is exactly why I came to get you. It's time for glee club" I nod, excited to see everyone else. She grabs my hand as we head to the choir room.

As soon as I walk through the door, I'm tackled and spun around "Puck!" I yell excitedly as he hugs me tight "never leave for that long again" I whisper to him as we hug for a few minutes. "Okay, if you're done, I'd like to see my sister, too" I hear Santana say as she walks up to us. She hugs me tight before pulling back and cupping my face, looking at me "you look so grown up!" I chuckle rolling me eyes, "I look the same as I did the last time you saw me, San" she shakes her head "no! You've grown a few inches and you look leaner!" I chuckle as I hug her again before I feel someone grab me and pull me into a hug "Mike!" He chuckles as we pull back and he does a handshake with me "how're you, little one?" I nod "good!" He chuckles as he let's go of me. I hesitantly look over at Quinn to see her already looking at me "Hey, Is" I hear her say quietly. I nod at her "good to see you, Quinn" she chuckles "come here" she pulls me into a hug "I missed you" she whispers. I chuckle "you wouldn't have to if you hadn't broken up with me" I say harshly. "There it is" I hear Santana say. I feel someone grab my arm and look to see Britt "calm down. Let's go sit" I look at the rest of them and see them nod as she takes me to sit in between her and Marley. "All right, do you realize, standing before you are legends? Any single one of these guys could be President of the United States one day." Finn says sitting down as the alumni stand in front of us. Puck looks at me, winking. I chuckle "maybe not Puck" everyone laughs with me "love you, though, bro" I say winking back at him. He smiles. "And lucky for us, they've agreed to help us" he continued "Hang with the new chumps and see if some of our sheer awesomeness doesn't rub off on you." Puck says smugly. "When you hear your name, pair up." Finn says looking at his piece of paper "Puck, you're with your brother. Mike, you're with Ryder. Marley, you're with Santana. Kitty, you're with Quinn. Oh! Wade, Mercedes. And Isabella, since I know you'll be with her anyways, you're with your sister" I smirk and walk up to her and Marley "howdy" everyone laughs "since when do you say howdy?" Mercedes asks, still laughing. I shrug "I don't know, since now" I sit on the piano behind where my sister is standing as she leans against me legs. I kick Marley gently. She turns around as I wiggle my eyebrows at her, smirking. "Oh! Finn!" He looks at me "I'm sorry, but I'm gonna have to steal Britt. We're kind of a package deal" I say looking at him, he sighs "you know if you don't, they'll still end up together. Just let them" Tina says. I wink at her as she smirks at me. Finn nods. I cheer, getting up as she runs towards me and picks me up before we sit on the piano.

As I hear them talk, I get a text from this girl that I met in one of my classes, Maya. We really started to hit it off. She's been flirting with me, she makes me feel happy again. Not that I'm ready for a relationship just yet. But, I'm glad to have someone like her. She texts me a joke that I can't help, but laugh at. I hurriedly slap a hand over my mouth and look up to see everyone staring at me. Brittany looks at my phone and smirks, reading over my shoulder. She pokes me in the stomach as I look at Finn "continue" he shakes his head as he continues talking "Marley and Blaine will handle our duet, and for the showstopper we're doing Gangnam Style." He says nodding happily. Santana snorts "Okay, lumps, let me just say out loud what everyone here is thinking: You finally got an okay haircut, you're not doing that annoying half smirk as much as you used to, but you're still a idiot. No one in this room can tackle a massive dance number except for Brit and Is. That includes your little "Hand-Jive" that, to me, looked more like a-" she gets interrupted by Joe while I kept talking "hand job" she smiles at me, high-fiving me. "We can and we will succeed! We need an ambitious number with a strong dance element. That's the Warbler's calling card, and we need to blow them out of the water. And Mike said he could easily show one of our guys how to do the dance number." Mike looks confused "I did?" Finn blanks "crap, I kinda forgot to ask you about that. But one of our guys is gonna have to take the lead. So who's it gonna be?" We all get up as I walk by my sister "will you be here for lunch?" She smiles at me "wouldn't miss it for the world. Now" she slaps my butt as I glare at her "get to class" she kisses my head before pushing me into my classroom.

As I get out of my last before lunch I see Riley, Maya's best friend, in the hallway. I walk up to her "hey, Riles" she turns to me "Bella!" She hugs me. "Have you seen Maya?" She shakes her head "not since my last class" I nod "alright, I'll see you later" she nods hugging me before she walks down the hallway. As I walk outside to a table, I see Maya. I walk up to her, sitting my things down before I sit next to her. "Hey" She looks at me and smiles "hey, Is, I haven't seen you today" I nod "I know, I'm sorry. My sister and best friends are back for thanksgiving and I've been spending time with them" she shakes her "it's fine, I just wanted to see if you'd want to hang out this weekend? Riley and I were gonna go see a movie and I wanted to see if you wanted to go with us?" I smile at her "that'd be great" we continue talking until I realize I have to get to my sister. "I'm supposed to meet my sister for lunch, but I'll see you this weekend?" She nods, hugging me, "definitely, I'll text you later though" I nod and walk towards the school and into the choir room "you're late" I hear Tina say "when do I ever care about being on time?" She laughs "you've got a point" she bumps her hip with mine "where's San, I was supposed to meet her for lunch?" I ask sitting next to Marley "she should be here soon, she had to go get Quinn and Brittany" I sigh "guess we aren't getting lunch then" Marley wraps an arm around me. The three girls come in and stand in front of us "Along with being beautiful, the three of us are National Showchoir Championship goddesses." Brittany says. I nod and whistle "yeah, you are" I say jokingly to her. She laughs, winking at me. "We are winners. Which is why Finn has asked us to come and shower you with the inspiration that is the Unholy Trinity." I nod "Santana, Brittany and I knew each other so well that I could tell by the slightest quiver in Santana's upper lip which way we were gonna move. Whether our hips are gonna shake or shimmy." Quinn says. I nod "they were always in sync" they smile at me "You girls have to be tight up there, okay? The judges love the feminine quality, and the Warblers just don't have it." Santana says, leaning against my legs "It's about being individuals. You know, we're all different. But it's also about synchronicity." Quinn says, Marley perks up "Can you give us an example?" They smirk looking at each other "It's been a few months, but I'm the three of us could put together something on the fly."

In the middle of the song, I look towards Marley and notice her looking uneasy. "You okay, Mar?" She nods as I wrap and arm around her. When they get done I see Santana look at Marley, noticing the same thing "Hey, are you feeling okay? You look like you're gonna hurl." Marley nods, smiling slightly "Um, I think I'm just really tired from all the rehearsing." I rub her back.

Santana and I walk into the choir room as Kitty's leaving. "Hola" she says to Santana and I as we enter. I shake my head as we keep walking and see Quinn at the piano "that bitch is pure evil" I nod "couldn't say it better myself" I lean against the piano beside her. "I think she's sweet" I look at Quinn in disbelief "then why is she giving our girl laxatives?" Santana says leaning forward. "Your pretty little liar gave them to her. I can sense it thanks to my psychic Mexican third eye" I nod turning to Quinn "which actually works, by the way" Santana chuckles at me. "See, this is what my psych professor calls projecting. You're projecting Kitty onto me. Santana, we've graduated. It's really time to get over this." Santana and I look at each other, confused. "Get over what?" She crosses her arms. "you being jealous of me" Santana looks at her in disbelief "And why would I be jealous of you? And please don't tell me its because you're in some lame secret Nazi sorority." She shakes her head. "Look, Homecoming weekend, I went to Jodie Foster's clambake, and that professor that I was talking about, well, he's 35, smokes a pipe. Well, he's divorcing his wife who hasn't touched him for three years. I'm dating him." She says smiling. I look at her crossing my arms. she sighs as Santana continues talking "Wow, Twitter update! Quinn is all excited about another guy defining her life." Quinn smirks "And what are you excited about? Shaking pom-poms in Kentucky? I mean, you want everybody to think that you're such a badass, but really you're just a scared little girl with low self-esteem who's too frightened to chase her dreams." I start to go over to her when Santana grabs my hand "Did Professor Patches teach you that one in between quickies on his office couch? Does he get so turned on by teen moms who barely visit their kid?" Quinn goes to slap her when I grab her hand "I wouldn't do that if I were you, you don't want to be on my bad side, Quinn" I glare at her. We continue to stare at each other as Brittany steps into the room "what are you doing?" She demands. Quinn looks at both of us one more time before replying "nothing" she walks out of the room "nothing at all" Brittany walks into the room "Thanks, Is" Santana says. I laugh, hugging her "don't mention it. Always happy to oblige" she chuckles as Brittany comes over hugging us both. "Good job catching her hand, Is" I chuckle "well, I do play softball" they laugh as we all walk out of the room.