♪breathe♪

♪out♪

"happy birthday."

cass turns quickly on her heel, seeing her biological mother behind her with a small box, "thanks, i'm surprised i made it to 18."

"can't believe my baby's 18," she sighed, examining her daughter.

cass looked down at her phone, reading a new text message she'd received.
new message: samuel evans
to: cass schuester
hey cassie, i know you haven't wanted to talk to me but i just wanted to say happy birthday and i miss you! tell the glee club i said hi....please.

"i'm not your baby. you're my teacher," she told her, slamming her locker before storming away.

"woah, where you going angry girl? should you be a little happier, it's your birthday," finn asks, catching her as she stomps past the choir room as though she were skipping glee.

she looks up at the giant towering over her, regretting ever telling him, "i'm going home. i am happy, see this is my happy face."

she forced a smile, it almost resembled a dog bearing it's teeth at him. "no, that's your "i'm-gonna-kill-someone-or-myself" face. i haven't seen your happy face since s-"

he stopped himself, realizing that could have been the problem. cass knew exactly what he was gonna say and she honestly wished that it wasn't the case, but it was amongst many other things. "i'm just frustrated with the new french teacher. i'm fine, i'm okay. hey let's get to glee."

"how is that new teacher? what's her name, mrs. b-b," finn stuttered, trying to make conversation about a subject he doesn't even take.

"blake. her name is mrs. blake," she told him as they walked in to see both the new directions and the troubletones sitting in the choir room, "can someone tell us what's going on, please?"

finn took mr. schue's typical spot in the front of the room, focusing on santana, "this week, the troubletones and new directions! will both be singing music created by ladies and for ladies."

"oh, hell no."

finn sighed at santana's objection, "next week, all of us will be going to sectionals, and one of us is probably gonna win. but, santana, we're worried about you."

"worry about yourself, fetus face," she snapped at him.

"glee's about learning how to accept yourself for who you are, no matter what other people think. and that's what this music is all about."

santana turned exasperately at the two adults, "so, wait, i don't even get a say in this? not cool."

"everybody in this room knows about you and brittany," finn disclosed kindly. "and we don't judge you for it. we celebrate it because it's who you are. look, i know not everybody outside of this room is as accepting and cool, but we're doing this assignment this week so that you know in this rotten, stinking mean world that you at least have a group of people who will support your choice to be whoever you want to be. that's it. that's what we're doing here. blaine? kurt?"

the couple swapped places with finn hudson, blaine speaking on behalf of both of them, "santana, kurt and i have a song we like to sing to each other in the car. and we want to sing that for you right now."

"while there's nothing i'd love more than having two pretty ponies serenade me, i think we'd get further staging a "gel-ervention" for blaine than singing lady music."

blaine took a deep breath, still becoming accustomed to santana's way of dealing with her problem which is to attack everyone else, "i know it's hard. it was hard for me, too. but you can get through this. if you could just stop being so defensive."