scribbled a word onto the board. BALLAD. "Ballad! From middle English, balade. Who knows what this word means?"

"It's a male duck," Brittany confidently said as Schuester looked away for any other people's answers. Kurt shook his head.

"A Ballad is a love song."

Schuester tilted his head, Sometimes, but they don't always express love. Ballads are stories set to music—which is why they're the perfect storm of self-expression." He wrote down a few key words onto the board. "Stories and music are the way we express feelings that we can't get out any other way. Okay, now, sectionals are in a few weeks and there's a new rule this year– we have to perform... a ballad."

Dorothea wrapped her arms around herself. "Well that's an awful theme. Shouldn't they be something like Western or space or something like that?"

"No!" Rachel gasped, her eyes twinkling, brightening up her face. "This proves that my weekly letter to the Ohio showboard committee paid off!" She delightfully said.

Schuester chuckled at her antics. Schuester put half of the names of the club into a hat. "Okay. So here's our assignment for the week: I'm going to pair you off, and I want you to pick a ballad to sing to your partner. Look them right in the eye, find the emotion you want to express, and make them feel it."

"I pick Quinn." Finn said, as Quinn lay with her head on his shoulder as if she hadn't been complaining about his incompetence a week prior. Dorothea never wanted to run out of a room more, her mood deflating almost instantly.

Mr Schuester tutted, "No, no, no. Too easy. Your partners will be chosen by fate. Ooh, yeah. I put all your names in this hat. Whoever you choose is your partner. I chose half of your names here, and the other half will get to pick a name out."

Brittany mumbled something in the background, "I bet the duck's in the hat."

"Um... okay, Brittany. So, I had to put my name in there, just to make sure that we had an even amount, so, who's up first?"

The glee club went up to the hat, pulling out a name, most of them displeased, though Santana turned quickly ecstatic once she got Brittany. Dorothea looked at the remaining people, Mercedes, Matt, Puck, Kurt, Finn, Rachel and fucking Mr Schuester. She crossed her fingers so hard that they might as well have turned blue for Mercedes or Kurt.

Shuffling around in the bowl, she pulled out a name. Puck. "Mr Schue. I'm not working with him," She scoffed as she glared at Puck.

"It's fate, Dorothea. Go sit down now." Schuester said, before calling the next person up.

When she got back to her seat, Kurt put a hand on her shoulder. "I'm so sorry." He said to her, she just huffed in response to him.

Towards the end, everything was narrowed down to just Rachel who looked creepily happy with her witchy-like smile despite Schuester being the only name in there. "Looks like I got you, Mr Schue."

Schuester looked to the choir room, setting the hat on the floor beside the piano. "Maybe we can have a trio instead—"

"No, Schuester. No, no, no. If I don't get to dump Puckerman, you don't get to dump Berry. Do your ballad." Dorothea snapped at the man.

"Exactly! I have an example ballad we can sing, Endless Love." Rachel enthusiastically said, as Schuester inhaled dramatically, disappointment being shadowed in his face.

As Rachel began singing to Mr Schuester, who's face just screamed wildly uncomfortable, Dorothea leaned over to Puck. "Don't think I'm going to be nice to you, dickhead." She whispered to him. He flipped her off, resulting in her kicking the back on his chair.

***

Doreen was back in the house, chatting animatedly with her dad. Dorothea was sulking in the armchair closest to the fireplace, texting her mom quick little snipits of complaints.

The girl heard the couple on the couch go quiet, as she looked up from her phone. "Hi?" She asked, as the woman repeated her question.

"Who's that girl on the wall? Is it you?" Doreen asked, though her dad could have simply answered. Doreen pointed off towards a photo of a little girl with freckles galore & dirty brown hair. Dorothea was obviously standing on her left.

"That's my little sister. Lillian. She hardly looks like me." Dorothea shrugged, looking at her mom's reply, encouraging her to be nice, but not too nice.

"Well," Doreen cleared her throat, "She's very pretty."

"I know." As her phone rang quietly, Dorothea muttered, Quinn's name popping up. "I'm away." She said, rushing up to her room, answering the phone when she was halfway up the stairs.

"You okay?" Dorothea answered, attempting to not sound as like she didn't just run up a flight of stairs.

"No," The girl over the phone sniffled, "they're getting suspicious and it's fucking ruining everything."

Dorothea sat criss-cross on her bed, "Tell me, Quinn. Tell me why."

"I've been getting fat because of this bitch growing inside of me and uhm... when my mom was helping me put on my Chastity Ball's dress she noticed that I've uh— put on weight." Quinn sniffled through tears.

Dorothea rested her head against the headboard, "I'm not sure how to help you loads here... but Quinn, they're going to catch on eventually, I don't think you'll want to hear that. But I care about you. You can't hide that you're pregnant forever—"

"I know that, Thea! I just... I don't want it." Quinn snapped, furiously, her voice choking.

"Quinn Fabray. I know for a fact you are the strongest person I know. You may not want this but it is happening and I will support you through this no matter what."

Quinn fell after that, Dorothea could still tell she was on the other end by shuffling in the background.

"They're going to have Finn over for dinner on Saturday." Quinn broke the silence finally.

Dorothea wrapped her arms tightly around her legs, "Quinn I don't have experience on what you're going through, but I'm always here for you, no matter what. Just because they're having Finn over doesn't mean anything."

"Thank you." Quinn said, quietly, "I want to dump Finn."

Dorothea spelt a spark of hope rising in her chest, inhaling as quietly as she could. "If you're thinking about it... then, you should."

"I gotta go. Thank you."

Dorothea whispered a fast goodbye, as Quinn hung up on her. Dorothea swerved around and flopped on her back onto her bed

***

Dorothea watched with Tina, Artie, Mercedes, Kurt and Rachel as Quinn berated Finn. "You told your mom?! Who else do you wanna tell, huh?! The whole school already knows! How about the whole state next, you'd like that, Finn?!"

Finn clutched his bag straps, "She's going to tell anyone!"

Quinn took a step back as she snapped at Finn once more, "I'm right, you're wrong! I'm smart, you're dumb!"

Tina clutched Dorothea's arm, "All this baby drama is making my rosacea act up." Tina sighed.

"I feel bad for them. They have to go through this all on their own." Mercedes said.

"I'll go talk to Finn. I'll report back later." Kurt said, confidently making his way over to Finn, giving him heart eyes, Quinn glared angrily at Finn before passing by Dorothea, Mercedes, Rachel, Artie and Tina muttering curses towards Finn.

"She doesnt talk to other moms!" Finn called to Quinn as she walked away angrily. Dorothea muttered an apology to Tina, Mercedes, Artie and Rachel as she rushed off after Quinn

Mercedes turned to where Dorothea was chasing after Quinn, raising an eyebrow at the sudden change in her mood.

"Quinn Fabray!" Dorothea rushed towards her as she came to a sudden stop in an empty English classroom.

"Finn fucking Hudson doesnt realise what I'm going through here!" Quinn snapped sitting on a table and shoving her head into her hand.

Dorothea slowly walked over to Quinn and sat beside her on the grotty table. "He doesnt, Quinn. He's a man, never mind, he's a boy. They don't get anything. They're immature and frankly horrible."

"Why am I even with him?! He's not even the father." Quinn looked back up at her.

Dorothea felt as if everything froze, Quinn's explanations or justifications for tricking Finn and berating him for his every move for a child that he had no legal or biological explanation for. Dorothea covered her hand with her mouth. "Quinn." She interrupted her. "So this isn't Finns. At all?"

Quinn nodded through tears, falling into the girl's shoulder. "It's Pucks."

***

Dorothea felt like shoving Puck's greasy mohawked head into the piano as she walked into the choir room.

He slept with his best friend's girlfriend and knocked her up.

She was though, a hypocrite, she was somewhat with Quinn as well.

Fuck Finn Hudson.

"Took you long enough." Puckerman huffed as she sat down. Before she could berate him worse than Quinn did to Finn earlier on, Mercedes walked in.

"We all discussed it earlier, but, instead of a ballad, we're all going to work coherently and support Quinn and Finn. No objections." Mercedes boasted as Puck looked offended at the least.

"Why is Finn getting all the sympathy?!" The boy snapped as Mercedes looked him judgementally up and down. "He gets to be quarterback, he gets to be star of this shitty club, he gets sympathy, he gets the girl-"

"Why are you so pressed?" Dorothea asked, acting as if she knew absolutely fuck all, shobing back the aggression towards him, pretending to know nothing at all.

Mercedes snapped her head to Puck, "What?" Mercedes scoffed, "All right, look. You need to get something through your Mohawk real quick. You're the baby's daddy. It takes a hell of a lot more to be a father, and that role's already been cast. Because Quinn chose Finn," Dorothea felt as if Mercedes looked at her for a split second, "And you need to accept that and move on 'cause you have no business messing up that girl's life any more than you already have. You need to back off. You owe her at least that much."

Mercedes ignores anything else anyone could say at that moment, storming out, whipping out her phone in the process.

Puck fell into a chair. "I love Quinn." He said.

"You should listen to Mercedes," Dorothea muttered, sitting beside Puck.

"Yeah, and sure you should back off of Quinn too. I see how you look at her."

***

Dorothea was "assigned" to take Quinn to the choir room whilst Kurt, Rachel and Mercedes manhandled Finn there.

"Open your eyes! I didn't tell you to close them," Mercedes laughed as Finn opened his eyes, looking around the room.

"Is there cake?" Finn asked sweetly.

"No there's no cake," Kurt answered, deadpanning.

"Oh..." Finn disappointedly replied as Mercedes guided him to a seat.

"Go sit down and be quiet," Mercedes said.

Finn placed an arm gently around Quinn, turning around to her. "Hi, Quinn," He greeted her softly, "Do you know what's going on?"

"Your fellow Glee Club members want to sing a song for you guys to let them know how they feel about you," Schuester explained, stepping in front of the Club to resume an actual proper role as a music teacher.

"The song says everything," Dorothea said afterwords, lying straight through her teeth. The song did not explain the gnawing feeling inside of her stomach, to be so possessive over Quinn, whose relationship together wasn't even stable.

The Glee Club performed Lean On Me by Bill Withers, with the usual unappreciated people like Artie and Mercedes vocals being showcased. The club was in sync. Coming together as one for their unwanted circumstances. In the performance, Quinn started tearing up as Mercedes and Kurt dragged Finn and Quinn up to dance. Dorothea felt horrible for what she was doing with Quinn as Finn spun her around goofily.

They all shared a group hug as the number ended.

Dorothea looked over to the other side of the people, she caught Puck's eye, who just smiled disheartened and nodded in Quinn's direction.

Without any verbal contact, she just knew what the idiotic boy meant.

soz it took me this long to post this,,, i got focused on school and my other stories that are in the works xx

ALSO in the future I may skip a few episodes sorry !!

@quinnsbitxh love u x