Dorothea swayed in the background, singing beside Tina who was probably paying more attention to her than the actual song, they'd done Don't Stop Believing before.

Well, until Quinn Fabray joined in. Her voice filled in the bits perfectly, and adjacent to Finn was perfect like always.

Everything was going smoothly and of course, Quinn and Finn had everything timed perfectly for once, that was until Quinn sprinted out, high pony swishing every way in as her shoes echoed down the deserted hallways.

"I uhm... think she just ate a bad breakfast burrito." Finn said, shuffling on his feet obviously just thought of on the spot. Dorothea rolled her eyes as Kurt started on something.

"Can we talk about the giant elephant in the room?"

"Your sexuality?" Santana snickered as Kurt sent daggers her way.

"Rachel, we can't do it without her," Kurt complained, as he peered around at all of the members.

"We have Mercedes and we have Tina we don't need Rachel." Dorothea sneered at the boy. "You're obviously tone-deaf."

"Be quiet," Kurt snapped back against her as she grinned sarcastically at the boy.

"That's not true," Mr Schuester sighed, making his way over to lean on the piano. "We may have to layer Santana or Mercedes over Quinn's solo, but we'll be fine."

"Maybe for the invitationals, not for the sectionals, and certainly not for the regionals." Artie scoffed as Puck nodded from the back of the room.

"Wheelchair kid's right." Puck shrugged, "Anyways, that Rachel chick makes me wanna light myself on fire, but she can sing."

"She still makes me wanna jump in front of a ten-ton truck, though," Dorothea added boredly to Tina, who snickered and looked over at her.

"Rachel left, guys, she's gone." Schuester sighed as if they were immature children who weren't aware of this already, "now if we're gonna make this thing work, we can't look back. Take five, guys."

Finn approached Mr Schuester, the girl was unable to hear a single word they said as her ears were overridden by Tina chattering. Quinn soon came back in,, her face trying to mask uncomfortable emotions as she wrapped herself in a hug, sitting between Santana and Brittany.

As the academic day ended, Dorothea made her way through the hallways to the bus stop with Artie and Tina. "We have twelve members. That qualifies for all competitions," Dorothea said to Artie as they both walked out of the school, waving goodbye to Tina in the process who was leaving down the other doors.

"It's Rachels's undeniable talent. It's why we want her back, Dorothy." Artie sighed, looking up at the girl. "I wanna be a director... I'm like a director already, y'know? Underrated. I can tell talent, Rachels overbearing."

"Yeah... no shit. Incredibly overbearing," The brunette girl scoffed as they left through the main entrance, with only a few people loitering the hallways.

"She's not coming back, wheels. We all have to cope." The girl broke the incredibly awkward silence as they parted ways, digging through her jacket pocket to grab her coin purse.

***

She heard the clock ticking despite the music taking over her earphones, the Lana Del Rey music played as she swarmed her English notes in annotations. Her text notification took her out of her text-filled haze.

The burning sensation at the bottom of her stomach was enough to distract her from her work (though, it was more work to even see the dumb-downed and simple poem now).

Shoving it aside for the first time in her life, Dorothea looked up at her vanity mirror. The faint blush on her cheeks and the burning pink tip of her nose, the lopsided grin.

She was such a fucking mess.

***

"All right guys! I'd like to introduce you to someone special," Schuester announced, as he motioned for a blonde woman with slightly heat-damaged hair who looked triple the amount of brain cells the football team has (though maybe that observation wasn't high enough). "This is April Rhodes. She's our newest member!"

"Wait so old people can join Glee club now?" Finn asked, channelling most of the club's thoughts at once.

"Does she even have teeth to sing with anymore?" Dorothea questioned as Schuester gave her a harsh glare, as she raised her hands in a mock defeat.

"Old, huh?" April said, her voice raising higher though seeming virtually impossible. "You guys look like the world's worst Benetton ad!"

Artie breathed in deeply, turning to Mr Schue. "Mr Schuester, this seems like a terrible idea."

With a flick of the wrist, Schuester rolled Artie's concerns off. "April is a great singer. And, she never graduated."

Mercedes frowned, "we appreciate what you're trying to do, but she's no Rachel,"

"Who's Rachel?" April inquired, raising a thin blonde eyebrow.

"Sh-she's kinda our star."

"Your star, eh? Well, where is she?" April scoffed, looking around her, probably judging all of the members in her head.

"She left, to be the lead in Cabaret," Kurt answered, placing his crossed hands over his legs.

Dorothea could see April smirk, why was she trying to compete with teenagers? She thought as she made eye contact with a confused Artie. She shrugged, and he just shook his head.

"Hey, Tinkles," April confidently said, turning to Brad as she flattered her eyelashes slightly. "Give me Maybe This Time in B-Flat. And don't let me catch you snoozing."

Dorothea was surprised as she heard the woman belt out the song perfectly, hitting every note though sometimes raising an octave slightly. As she finished, holding a belt consistently never falling flat.

"Stick that in your pipe and smoke it," April cockily said, once more, trying to intimidate teenagers.

"Glinda is quaking." Kurt leant over to Dorothea, as she nodded solemnly.

***

Dorothea was still slightly panicking as she left her History class (which was totally boring and America-centered). At least it was her last class, as she stood by her locker, shoving the over-priced, glossy textbooks into the locker.

A higher tone started speaking beside her, Dorothea was confused as April held items out. "Here. Consider it thanks for me being in the club."

The items were some copy of Pride & Prejudice and Emma by Jane Austen and some fancy French wine she had definitely seen her mom drinking before.

"You need to drink it, sweetheart. You need to calm down, always seeing you carry books around, take the old ones." Dorothea took the items, shoving the wine and books quickly into her bag.

Before she could thank or question April, she had walked away, winking at some hockey player. Disgusting.

Dorothea sighed, taking the sheet music for Don't Stop Believing and placing them beside the bottle of wine in her bag. Dorothea swung her bag over her shoulder, also with her swimming bag.

***

Her hair was still slightly damp, but she ran quickly out of the swim room.

Dorothea was in the choir room by sixteen minutes past four. Quinn Fabray was already there, playing a few chords on the piano.

"Hi," Dorothea said softly, as she sat beside Quinn on the small space on the piano bench.

The blonde looked over at her as she stood up. "Sing Finn's part will you?"

"Of course," Dorothea said, placing her fingers on the proper notes as she counted Quinn's in.

Quinn's voice was soft and elegant, maybe she was biased. And maybe she had slight favouritism, but she felt as if her voice worked better with Quinn's than Finn's did the day previously.

"Can you help me with the choreography? Finn's not the best dancer."

The choreography wasn't even that difficult, quite simple movements and usually just raising your hand and walking.

Dorothea ran over the number with Quinn, though, as it ended Quinn was directly in front of her. Before Dorothea knew it, Quinn's perfectly plump lips softly grazed her own. The blonde leaned up slightly as Quinn's elegant hands cupped her cheek pulling her head more comfortably towards her. Dorothea's senses were swapped with some instinct that wasn't her own that she knew, placing a firm hand on Quinn's waist, pulling the other girl closer towards her, as the kiss deepened.

The brunette wasn't aware how long it went on, as Dorothea pulled back. Her cheeks are more flustered than Quinn's cheerios uniform. The feeling of butterflies was overwhelming as if she was on a spinning Ferris wheel. She always imagined what her first would be like but with Quinn Fabray, it was more.

She hadn't entirely pulled back, but as Dorothea looked into Quinn's eyes, the glistening green was alluring, as Quinn just looked up at her through her eyelashes.

"I should go," Quinn admitted as she stepped out of the other girl's touch. Dorothea's arms just didn't know what to do as they fell back to her side, as she nodded.

"I– uhm.. yeah." Dorothea spluttered out as she looked over to the desolate piano. Quinn left quickly, a quiet goodbye.

Dorothea robotically grabbed her sheet music and placed it back into her bag. Dorothea made her way out of the school, her mind swirling.

She could make a list in her head. She just had her first kiss. With Quinn Fabray. Quinn Fabray who is pregnant with Finn Hudson's child. And Quinn Fabray kissed her, and she kissed Quinn back. Quinn just cheated on Finn Hudson.

***

Dorothea was in her bedroom, sitting criss-cross on her bed. Grabbing out her phone as she rang her mom's contact.

Her mother, Collette, answered despite the time in Paris.

"Hello, Darling." Her mother spoke, as Dorothea leant her head back onto the headboard.

"Hi, mom... I need advice from you for once in my life."

Dorothea heard her mom hum an mhm and sip her drink — probably something similar to what April Rhodes gave her.

"It's quite embarrassing right but so. I kissed this... person. But they kissed me and honestly I enjoyed it but listen," Dorothea said, as the words wouldn't stop tumbling out, spilling everything to her mom for once. "They're with someone. And uhm they're going through something."

"I love teenage drama. Your brother tells me nothing. Darling, speak to him. Talk it through with him. I believe you can do it." Collette said as if it was the calmest thing ever.

"Yeah well, they're like hea— the quarterback. I can't necessarily."

"Dorothy, try your best. Believe me. It's why your asshole of a father and I never worked out. Listen, darling, I'll speak to you soon, love you, sweetheart."

Dorothea groaned, flopping onto the pillow beside her and the phone hung up. Dorothea considered pulling out the wine from earlier, but genuinely she couldn't bring herself to.

***

The Invitational was on Friday night. It was Thursday. How were they supposed to learn everything & have Finn memorise it astounded her?

As Jacob Ben Isreal followed her viciously with an obnoxiously expensive camera, she tried to shove him away despite his attempts. "Miss Smythe! Confirm or deny, Quinn Fabray is pregnant?"

Dorothea stopped in her tracks, turning to the boy. "I deny these rumours. Now can you actually fuck off?"

It was lunchtime, and Dorothea opted to miss out on gossiping with Mercedes to track down Quinn. The blonde was nowhere. Well to also get away from the nasty ginger.

Dorothea reached her breaking point as she had to check under the dingy bleachers the skanks stunk up. The brunette grumbled as she looked, as she quite definitely saw two mice scouring past her.

She did something she dreaded as she found Santana sitting with Brittany outside. Brittany was playing with what she assumed were matching bracelets she and Santana had, with a fond expression adorning her face.

Dorothea cleared her throat, "Santana." She spoke as the Latina quickly took her to look away from Brittany, as she looked Dorothea up & down slowly, as she applied a sinful smirk to her face. "Do you know where Quinn is?" Dorothea apprehensively asked.

"Bitch, why are you asking me? As you can obviously tell, the overrated Barbie isn't here." Santana quipped back, shooing Dorothea away, turning her full attention back to the babbling blonde.

Dorothea rolled her eyes, "could've said she wasn't here and left it at that."

Dorothea walked away, muttering curses under her breath.

***

On Friday night, after missing dress rehearsals, Quinn showed up. She stuck by Finn as she finished styling his hair for him.

"The house is packed!" Schuester beamed, as he stepped into the choir room, gathering everyone's attention. "Your first performance in front of a real audience. You guys are gonna love it!" He encouraged, looking fondly around at his students as a questioning gaze came upon him. "Where's April?"

The door slammed open, a reverse of what Rachel would do, "Yee-haw!" April cheered as she walked into the room. "Right on cue as usual! Hey, roller boy," she slurred, ruffling Artie's hair as she moved on to her next victim. As she went to Finn, Quinn grabbed the boy's hand protectively. "Handsome. Ooh, I like that colour." She said to the pair. "Have you been working on the moves we talked about- You've got something on," She moved to Puck as she grabbed the minor boy by the face and grabbed him closer to kiss him. "Honk!" She jeered at Kurt, forcefully grabbing his nose as he looked offended grabbing his extra moisturizer from his bag.

"Are you drunk?" Schuester grabbed April's hand, attempting though failing to whisper to the intoxicated woman. "You promised you'd stay sober up for this."

"When? Last night?" She slurred. "Well, I was drunk, you can't hold me to that."

Dorothea bit her lip, she leaned over to Artie, whispering, "it's kinda funny I'm so, so, so sorry."

Artie looked back up to her and nodded nonchalantly agreeing.

Schuester shook his head as he walked over to be the centre of attention for once in his life, "All right guys... it's showtime!"

***

The glee club performed Last Name and she had to admit, as she danced with Noah fucking Puckerman of all people. April didn't even seem slightly intoxicated. They hit all of the choreography as perfectly as they could.

They got a standing ovation from the audience.

***

As Dorothea stood in the wings, waiting for Quinn to walk off.

Quinn finally did, as she stood in front of the brunette. "We need to talk," Dorothea whispered to Quinn as the blonde exhaled and nodded unenthusiastically.

Dorothea led Quinn by the hand over to the bare hallway, checking repeatedly for any people whatsoever.

"Quinn, you can't kiss me then fucking ghost me for two days." Dorothea deadpanned.

"I think I like you, Dorothea. You know my situation, I can't do anything. I don't know how I'm feeling. You know what I'm going through, you don't understand. You never will."

"Quinn Fabray don't try to guilt trip me here, I like you. I like you, Q. More than Finn Hudson ever will." Dorothea scoffed, as Quinn kissed her roughly, a firm hand onto her waist.

Quinn let her go as distant footsteps were down the hallway. The blonde grabbed Dorothea's hand, "Talk about this later. Please?"

Dorothea sighed, disappointedly, as Quinn led her to the choir room, running. Though, before they entered to be the last ones to get their costumes for the second act.

As Dorothea changed, leaving her act one costume back onto the rail, the brunette raised her eyebrow at April's act two outfit still hanging there. Weird.

As Mr Schuester walked back into the room, disappointedly. "They loved us! We're a hit!" Artie cheered.

"Mr Schue, where's April? Her costume's still on the rail?" Dorothea questioned, adding an extra highlighter on her nose & the inner corner of her eyes.

"You were right, Mr Schue. She'd massacre Mariah in a diva-off." Kurt proudly admitted.

Dorothea whispered to Kurt, "Mercedes still would massacre them all."

"April is amazing, but she's not in the glee club anymore." Schuester sighed.

The club shared a look as Tina spoke up. "W-w-why not?"

"I, uh... screwed up bringing her here. It was about me, and Glee club is supposed to be about you guys." Schuester motioned to them all. "You don't need her to be great."

"But we need her for the second act..?" Mercedes protested, as most of the club looked at each other in misfortune.

"Hey, you guys, you were great! Don't worry. There will be other performances." Schue tried to comfort them as Rachel entered quietly, for once.

"Excuse me? I think I might have a solution. In show business, when a star can't perform, her understudy steps in. I'd be happy to go on for April if you'd let me."

The club was crickets, as Dorothea broke it. "Mercedes should fill in for April. Rachel should help duet the notes 'Cedes would've been doing."

Mercedes grinned as she looked at the girl, and nodded. Rachel seemed disappointed as she acknowledged it. "Okay."

"Wait, when were you even willing to be an understudy?" Mercedes mentioned as Rachel shuffled slightly.

"Since I quit the play," Rachel admitted.

"Really, why?" Kurt asked.

"I realized being a star didn't make me feel as special as being your friend. If I'd let you down when you needed me most, I'd never forgive myself." As Rachel looked over to the original members specifically, smiling weakly at Dorothea. "I know all the words to the song."

Quinn scoffed, "you don't know the choreography."

"I'll try and help her." Matt Rutherford enthusiastically offered, smiling at her.

"Go get into your costume." Schuester patted her on the back.

It was time to leave the choir room as they were due to go on in less than five minutes. "Dorothea, wait," Quinn called as she approached the leaving brunette. Quinn brushed her bangs away from her face, the brunette blushing underneath the cheerleader's touch. "There."

***

Mercedes killed the performance. Somebody To Love couldn't have been covered better. Mercedes killed every note and achieved higher than April most likely could.

As the song ended, Dorothea made eye contact with Quinn before the curtain dropped, who smiled gently at her.

## OH EM GEE they pulled their heads out of their asses and kissed. be proud. would like to say that using Mercedes for somebody to love is the best decision i would ever make in my entire life, Mercedes jones I'm blonde consider me sam evans, hmu girlie yknow yknow..????

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