METANOIA. glee.

7. "throwdown"

"i cannot believe this! she has crossed the line." kurt says angrily as we stand at his locker. mercedes walks confidently to us and smiles. "good morning girls. what's with the sour face kurt?" i sigh as he goes off on her outfit. apparently the outfit proportions are off or something like that. i'm not really listening as i watch finn walk by. he looks over at me and waves. i meekly wave back. "oh my god ivy. can you just admit you like him?" kurt shakes me out of my daydreaming and i frown. "i do not like him!..i think." mercedes and kurt look at each other and back at me. "don't give us the puppy look. it's ok." mercedes says as we walk away from kurt's locker. "she's growing up. i'm so proud." kurt says happily. 

"boys are stupid. so stupid." i mumble. kurt pats my back. "glad you're learning that now." we walk into glee club, as we do almost every day.

i give a dirty look to sue who doesn't notice as we sit down. today, mr. schue and sue will decide who will choreograph the first number in sectionals. "i h-have a bad f-feeling about this." tina mumbles nervously as mr. schue flips a coin. sue picked heads, and of course it lands on heads. "all right, the following students have been selected to be in a special group called "sue's kids". sue says. mr. schue turns to her. "hold on, we agreed not to split the group." "oh, come on will. give me a chance to do things the sue sylvester way. maybe with my proven leadership abilities, i can lead this pathetic group of mouth breathers place at sectionals." she says confidently. how is she allowed to teach? she's so rude. "we can't even compete in sectionals if we divide up the club, sue. it's against the rules." sue throws mr. schue a book. "really? you need to crack open a book, william. here, i have. show choir rule book, page 24." basically, it says we need 12 people in our group, but not everyone has to preform in each number. mr. schue raises his hands in defeat.

"fine. take all the football players and the cheerios." he sits down. i can't believe he isn't trying harder against sue. she ends up taking santana, artie, kurt, tina, mike, mercedes and matt. she basically took all my closest friends. she makes a comment about how she doesn't ignore minority students and i scoff. "i would take miss hula dancer with me but we don't get along very well." she makes eye contact with me. "you've got to be kidding me." mr. schue stands up to face sue. "oh i wouldn't kid about his will, and maybe that's your problem. bigotry is no laughing matter." santana makes a c with her hand and recites sue's catchphrase, "and that's how sue sees it."

"sue is the worst!" i yell out as i wheel artie out of leave glee club. it's been a few days since we started being in two different groups, and it isn't the same anymore. mecredes, tina and kurt walk with us. "she has plan, i know it. she pulls these elaborate acts all the time and no one bats an eye at it." i grumble. "cool down vee. it'll be ok." mercedes says kindly. "i wish i was with you guys. being with rachel is a nightmare. she keeps trying to give me vocal lessons." they laugh. "don't worry, we miss you." tina says and smiles.

we all decide we should meet up before glee rehearsal to see the other group. we're all singing and dancing, having fun. i pull mike out of his seat and he spins me around. "this is so fun!" i say while the rest of the group sings "ride wit me". he smiles fondly. "it really is." he pulls me out then back into his chest. while he does that i say "how is your group doing?".
we walk back to the group and start dancing with them. "strange for sure." i hear him say over our friends voices. we keep singing and grooving. it's so refreshing to see everyone as a group. i have barely talked to kurt or mercedes since we were split up. we finish and all sit down. "

i miss us all being together." rachel says sadly. "i hope we don't get in trouble for covert our jam session." artie adds on and we laugh. "if sue catches us mingling, we're cooked. she told me if i even talked to one of mr. schue's kids, she would shave my head." kurt says. "and i just can't rock that look." he adds on. "well, we have to go guys. miss sylvester is expecting us in ten minutes in the dance studio." mercedes and the rest of the group start to leave, and i grab her and give her a huge hug. "love you, now get out of here." i say sadly.

mr. schue walks in, happy to see sue's kids. "what are you guys doing here?" he asks. "j-just stopping by." tina stutters out. mr. schue seems to be upset as the group says their goodbyes and leaves. he turns to the rest of us and smiles. "ok guys, i brought the band with me and i think we have our number for sectionals." rachel looks at us and i nod encouragingly. "mr. schue, we don't like what this has become." we all talked about how to convince mr. schue to talk to sue. we need the others back.

"that is how sue wants you to feel. giving up doesn't help anyone but her. look, if it were up to me i'd have us all preform together at sectionals, but it's not up to me anymore, ok? sue's going to do her song, and we are gonna do ours." mr. schue says. he starts handing out the sheet music. "sue's kids are singing about hate, literally. so i thought we could take a kinder approach. all right, finn and rachel. you're going to take the leads." i look at finn, and smile. as per usual, rachel and finn get the lead. "i love this song. come on, follow my lead." rachel says happily. "so much for togetherness." quinn says, annoyed. "you guys need to practice this day and night." mr. schue says, ignoring quinn. "hit it." finn says.

"no air" preformed by rachel, finn, and the rest of mr. schue's club

we continue practicing this number every day. quinn and i get more and more pissed off every time rachel opens her mouth. there's no point even singing anymore. mr. schue doesn't even notice. they finish singing and mr. schue praises them. "excuse me. what about us?" quinn finally goes off on mr. schue. "you expect us to just sway back here like props?" she adds on. "she's right, mr. schue. we don't want to be in the shadows every single performance." i say. "ok guys. um, rehearsal is over." he says and we leave the stage. "ivy." i turn to see finn looking at me. "we do this a lot, don't we?" i say as i keep walking away. "can you please give rachel a chance? she's told me how much she likes you and she wants to be closer." he desperately tries to convince me. "i'm sorry. fine. but tell her to be less dramatic, please?"

it's time for both groups to preform, and i find our puck and brittany left. so now it's just rachel, finn, quinn and i. rachel steps up to the mic. "we would just like to say that although we find ourselves on opposite sides, we hop you enjoy our number, and we look forward to seeing yours-" "get on with it! enough with the jibba jabba, just sing something." sue says impatiently. "sue, you can't talk to kids that way." mr. schue sighs, annoyed. rachel starts to sing but sue gets up and tries to get everybody to leave. "i'm sorry, is there a fire?" finn asks, and i sigh. "no, and that's the point. there is no fire. you know, it's sad enough that my "sue's kids" are living in squalor and probably on food stamps. but for you to drag them in here and bore them to death, i won't stand for it. come on kids, we're leaving."

"all right that's it!" mr. schue throws down his book in anger. mr. schue and sue get into a heated conversation, insulting and ridiculing each other. they're in each others faces when finn yells out "enough!" we all look to him, surprised. "i'm sorry mr. schue and miss sylvester, but if we wanted to hear mom and dad fight, those of us to still have two parents would just stay home on payday." he adds on.

"i agree. glee club is supposed to be fun. and furthermore, i don't like this minority business. i may be a strong, proud, black woman, but i'm a lot more than that. i'm out." mercedes says as she leaves. i run off the stage and follow her. "you guys are acting more like kids then we are." i say to mr. schue and sue as i link arms with mercedes. the rest of the glee club follows suit and we walk out. we're all together again!

mercedes and i walk ahead of the group and finally get to talk for the the first time in so long. "i've missed you so much. miss sylvester walked me to class one day to make sure i didn't talk to you." she says. "i'm so happy that stupid feud might finally be over. and thank god that performance was stopped. finn and rachel got to sing a duet, again. i'm so sick of it." i say to mercedes. "that makes two of us." quinn says, suddenly beside me. "i missed this." mecedes says.

"you are in the glee club." mr. schue says as we all sit together, a group again. "now there are only twelve of you, and all you have is each other. so it doesn't matter that rachel is jewish, or that finn is.." mr, schue continues. "unable to tell my rights from my lefts." finn finishes the sentence for him and we all laugh. "sure. or that santana is latina, or ivy is hawaiian, or that quinn is-" "pregnant." miss sylvester finishes the sentence for mr. schue, but it's not very funny this time. "now everyone knows, including me." she says coldly as she leaves the room. an awkward tone is set over us as we look at quinn. i squeeze her shoulder as she tries to speak. what are we going to do?