✔︎⏐ 𝐥𝐮𝐜𝐤𝐲 ; glee ¹

night of neglect

I sat in the back of the choir room, reading a book as Mr Shue talked, "All right, we need $5,000 to pay
for our trip to nationals in New York."

"What happened to the money that we got from the Cheerios?" I looked up and asked curiously.

"I guess Sue was hiding it in offshore accounts in the Cayman Islands...and we're having some trouble
accessing some of it. Any of it." I roll my eyes and sigh.

Mr Shue grabs a box of something, "This is saltwater taffy." My eyes widen, I love taffy.

"I love saltwater." Brittany states, I laugh.

"When I was a student here, we paid for our entire trip to nationals selling this...classroom to classroom, door to door. We pushed this stuff like crack. And so will we." Mr Shue threw some pieces to people, and luckily, I got some.

"So to make $5,000 at 25 cents apiece...we need to sell 20,000 pieces of taffy." I scoff at Mr Shue's words.

"Wait. Do you honestly think we can sell 20,000 of anything? We won regionals for the first time since dinosaurs roamed the planet...and I still got a freakin' cherry ice facial." Santana adds, crossing her arms.

"Yeah, Santana's right. Nobody cares about us." Quinn scoffs.

"I can't listen to this." Mike mutters, as he stands up

"Mike, are you okay?" Mr Shue questions worried, "No. You guys complain all the time about being mistreated... but you have no idea what it's like
to work your butt off for something... and have everyone, even your friends, ignore you." Mike states.

"I'm so trying to remember his name right now." Lauren mutters, I scoff.

"Artie, Tina, Brittany, Abby and I are on the Brainiacs." We stand up and join Mike, crossing our arms.

"Isn't that the Academic Decathlon team?" Rachel questions, "We have one of those?" Finn asks muffled, mouth filled with taffy.

"Yes, we do. And the five of us went on the Smarty Pants Show... and beat Carmel High to go to the Academic Decathlon finals in Detroit next week." Artie informs them, as I nod my head along.

"You guys were on TV? Why didn't you tell us about it?" Sam questions, "We did." We all day at the same time.

"Wait. I- I get the four of you being on the team." Mr Shue stutters, "Is it because two of them are Asian, one's a mega nerd and Artie wears glasses?" Puck points out, I look at him offended.

"No. But Brittany?" Mr Shue questions confused.

"Liz Schneider was our fifth, but she got rubella.
Her parents are hippies who don't believe in vaccinations." I inform them, shrugging.

"Brittany was the only person we could find on short notice. We bribed her with Dots." Artie adds, "That Sunshine Corazon that Rachel sent to a crack house...was on the other team." I tell them also.

"Luckily, we had our own secret weapon." Artie says, pointing to Brittany.

"Sadly, we can't afford to go to the finals, so we're gonna have to forfeit." Artie sighed.

"Why don't you just have your parents pay for it?" I scoff at Rachel's question, "Because we shouldn't have to. We're a school club. The school should pay for it. It's a matter of pride." I tell her matter of factly.

"You guys are absolutely right. How much do you need to make the trip?" Mr Shue asked, "With gas and motels, if we only ate Funyuns, uh, $250." Tina calculates.

"Which means...we just need to sell more taffy." I sigh a Mr Shue, this is not gonna work.

⊱ ────── {.⋅ ♫ ⋅.} ───── ⊰