THE NEW directions were purposefully slacking when it came to glee rehearsal. After their successful night that was the Invitationals, their confidence had shot up an immense amount. They knew that they had Sectionals in the bag, and so they simply stopped trying.

Mr Schuester wasn't too impressed with Kurt watching vines during rehearsal, or Violet and Artie sending each other memes, and he certainly didn't appreciate the lack of effort in the dance routines.

He turned to the guidance counsellor, Emma Pilsbury, for help with his students. After that failed, he took advice from Sue Sylvester. He was going to pit his students against each other, and get them motivated.

Everyone was gathered in the choir room, staring tiredly back up at their teacher. He was stood in front of the white board, sticking up reference photos for his upcoming planned monologue.

"Competition." Mr Schuester smiled. "Everyone of these people or elements, was a champion in their own rights — but they use competing with each other to make themselves even better." He explained.

Kurt crossed his arms over his chest, and pursed his lips. "I don't understand how lightening is in competition with an above ground swimming pool."

Mr Schuester shook his head, and waved him off. "Just go with it." He sighed. He moved closer to his students, placing his hands on his hips.

"You guys have become complacent. You were great at the Invitationals, but you've gotta up your game if you wanna get through Sectionals."

Finn yawned, causing Violet to mirror him, and yawn too. Quinn frowned at both of them, and gave Violet a light elbow to get her to focus.

"Alright, split up. Guys on the left side, girls on the right side." He instructed, but no one moved— not until he repeated himself.

They slothfully done as they were told, their long faces looking back at Mr Schue. "Here's the deal. Two teams—boys versus girls. One week from today, you will each perform a mash up of your choice."

Puck pondered it for a moment, scratching his head in confusion. "What's a mash up?" He wondered.

Violet threw her head back. "I'm gonna take a guess and say it's mashing up two songs together." She sarcastically remarked. Puck simply rolled his eyes back at her, and looked to his teacher.

"That's right, Violet." Mr Schuester confirmed.

"I knew it." She muttered under her breath. Tina smiled at her, whilst shaking her head.

"Boys will perform on Tuesday, girls the next day." He continued to lay out the rules. "I want you to go all out, okay?—costumes, choreography. Whoever wins the competition gets to choose the number that we do for Sectionals."

Rachel slightly raised her hand. "Wait, who's going to be the judge? Your gender makes you biased."

She was right. Mr Schuester had a tendency to pick and choose his favourites—and although Rachel was one of them, he clearly favoured Finn over them all.

He thought about it momentarily, and clasped his hands together. "Ahh, there is going to be a celebrity judge." He circled the two groups. "You're gonna have to show up to find out who."

Mercedes scoffed, throwing an arm around both Tina and Violet—who was holding onto Rachels arm. "Pfft, we've got this in the bag."

"Totally." Violet mused.

♫

Violet was slouched at her kitchen table—choosing comfort over posture was a daily occurrence. She was scoffing down a bowl of pasta, while mumbling about her day to her mother. Elizabeth couldn't really understand much of what she was saying, the food in her mouth pretty much muffling her words.

"Violet, honey, slow down." Her mother softly spoke.

She done as she was told, and took a few seconds to tell her about this weeks glee assignment. "Mom, it's a mash off!" She was ecstatic. "How cool is that?"

Elizebeth nodded. She was so glad that her daughter was finally fitting in somewhere—and even happier to know that Violet was finally happy at school. She was constantly blabbering about all these new people, and how amazing they were. This is what she wanted.

"You should invite all your girl friends over." She suggested with a wide grin. "Have a little girls night, gossip, watch movies—you know, a sleepover."

Violet cringed at the idea. She didn't know how to have a sleepover with girls. Finn had been her only friend literally ever, since she was born—so any party experience she had, was with him.

She figured that the girls probably wouldn't want to watch Ice Age over and over, or fight about the best Marvel superhero's—they definitely wouldn't want to listen to how 'call of duty: black ops'  zombies are the most terrifying things to ever exist.

"I don't know, mom..." She hesitated. "I'm really only close with Tina. The others are pretty intimidating."

Elizebeth sighed. "Maybe if you tried to talk to the others more, you'd like them—and they'd like you."

Violet hummed, crossing her ankles. "I just don't want to say something stupid and scare them all off." She pushed the last of her food around the plate with the fork, a prominent frown taking over her face.

"Well." Her mother leaned back in her seat. "You've been friends with Finn sixteen years, and he hasn't run off yet." She shrugged.

Violet raised her eyebrows—in slight judgment of her attempts at making her feel better. "Finns more stupid than i am. If anything, it's a shocker that i haven't left him yet. N-not that i could—then i'd have no friends."

Speaking of the devil—a phrase that Violet didn't really understand, Finn swung open the front door to the Peters household, and frolicked into the kitchen.

His eyes were pulsing out of his head, he was smiling like a crazy person, and he seemed to be much more energetic than he was earlier that day. "Hey." He took a seat on the counter, and clasped his hands together.

Elizebeth looked at her daughter with puzzlement. Her head was tilted to the side, and her mouth was ever so slightly agape—she then shook her head, and placed a gentle hand on her daughters.

"Just give them a chance. Talk to one of them." She softly spoke. She stood up from her chair, and made her way toward the kitchen door. Before she left, she gave Finns leg a smack, and ushered him off of her counter tops. "We have chairs for a reason."

He put his hands up in defence, and blew out a puff of air from his nose. "Sorry mom." He wasn't sarcastic. She was practically a second mother to him his whole life—as was Carole to Violet.

"What is up with you?" Violet queried. Finn always seemed like a puppy reincarnated, but she had never seen him this lively before. "Why are you—" Violet wasn't sure what word to use to describe it, so instead she just gestured her hands over his entire figure.

"I feel great!" He spirited.

She looked at him dubiously. "You seem high."

Finn shook his head copiously, and laughed at what he thought was a joke. "I done homework today!" There really was something so off about his behaviour. Finn doing homework? There's no way.

He could tell she wasn't convinced, so he whipped out a sheet of paper from his jacket pocket. "Look! It's my Spanish paper! I take Spanish!"

"Uh huh—why was it in your pocket..?" Violets face once again held judgement. Who puts their homework in their jacket pocket and not their school bag?

Finn's ecstatic grin never once faltered. He glanced between his handy work, and his best friend. "So, i can show everyone that i done homework."

"Okay, thats kind of adorable." She muttered.

♫

The glee girls decided to meet up in the dance studio, in preparation for their competition. Rachel and Violet were the only ones that seemed riveted by the whole mash off thing—whereas everyone else was doing their own thing, not bothered to even rehearse.

Violet was awkwardly stood next to Brittany, swaying back and forth on her heals. The blonde cheerleader was doing some warm ups, and stretching her legs out —and tuning everyone else out.

Just talk to one of them.

She took in a courageous breath, and lifted her leg up onto the ballet bar. "Do you like stretching?"

Brittany slowly turned her head towards the brunette. Her face held a very obvious quizzical expression, and so she gave her a pitiful smile. "Mhm."

"Yeah..." Violet pulled her leg down—with a struggle as she was quite short. She gave Brittany two thumbs up, and made her way to Santana.

Second times the charm — right?

Santana was in her own world, standing very close to the large mirror. She was using her time to pluck her eyebrows, needing them to be perfect at all times.

"Does that hurt?" Violet wondered, leaning a bit too close to the cheerio. "Like..have you ever jabbed your eye by mistake?" Her curiosity was genuine.

Santana sighed, and shut her eyes for a quick moment. "Have you never used tweezers before?"

Violet straightened out her smile, and shook her head with slight embarrassment. "I don't really do well with pain...so." She quietly responded.

Santana couldn't help but crack a smile. There was something about this girl that she just couldn't find it in herself to hate—and she hated everyone.

She brought her hands down from her own face, and instead took a hold of Violets face. She propped her head upwards with a tight grasp.

"What are you doing?" Violet loudly spoke, with her  hands by her side. "Please don't take my eyebrows."

"I'm just tidying them up." Her voice was soft— which was a nice change from her usual bitchy tone.

"Okay, girls we need to get started." Rachel suggested once she finally made her way to the rehearsal. After a quick glance around the dance studio, she frowned. "Where's Quinn?"

Brittany snickered. "Probably at the mall looking for elastic waist pants." Her comment seemed to make everyone— bar Violet, laugh.

Violet lowered her head. "Not funny, didn't laugh."

"Mr Schuester's right, you guys." Rachel spoke. "We can't get complacent."

Mercedes waved her off, and continued to paint Tina's nails. "Chill out. I already picked the song—we're doing a mash up of Halo and Walking on Sunshine."

Rachel shook her head in disbelief. Violet seemed utterly confused. "Yeah, that was Rachel's idea."

"Whatever." Mercedes blatantly said. "I say we just wing it." She shrugged.

"Oh no." Violet profusely shook her hands out in front of her. "I don't just wing dancing." Rachel nodded in agreement, with raised eyes brows.

Mercedes refused to look at either girls, and chose to keep her eyes on Tina. "All those in favour of winging it—all those opposed." No one raised a hand at either question, other than the two brunettes who were set on rehearsing their dance.

Violet huffed, and spun around on her heals—with Rachel right behind her.

"This is ridiculous." She muttered, shoving by Violet.

♫

Violet found herself feeling very misplaced outside of the Fabray household—it was very large, and she was not. The air was nippy, making Violet shiver under her thin cardigan. She felt quite nervous. Her and Quinn had never had a one on one conversation, or even a relatively friendly conversation—yet she was eager to make sure the blonde felt included.

She left a harsh knock on the front door, and rubbed her sore knuckles right after. Hurry up. She thought.

"Oh, don't you get up, i'm your wife!" The voice was muffled through the thick door, but it was easy to assume that the voice belonged to Quinns mother

The door slowly cracked open, revealing a middle aged blonde woman. Her smile was thin as she took in the presence of the young brunette. "Can i help you?" She kindly asked.

Violet bounced up on her tippy toes, and bit her inner gum. "Uh—i'm looking for Quinn."

The older lady hummed. "Oh, we haven't met." She observed. "Are you a cheerleader, too?"

Violet shook her head. "Oh, no." She couldn't help but laugh at the question. "I actually suck. I'm really not even close to popular. Everyone hates me. It's cool."

"Oh..."

The two women shared an uncomfortable silence for thirty seconds, before Violet spoke up. "Could I please talk to Quinn?" She queried, politely.

Judy stepped to the side, and let Violet in. She closed the door behind her, then retreated back to the living room where her husband was berating her for another drink. Eugh!

"I'll..find her myself." Violet very quietly muttered after her, sending her a thumbs up. She made her way up the stairs, peaking through every door she passed until she found Quinns room.

She left a gentle knock on the door, and waited for Quinn to let her in—or tell her to go away, whichever came first.

The sound of hesitant trudging could easily be heard behind the door—up until she reached the entrance to her bedroom. The blonde opened her door with an annoyed stance, which softened at the brunette.

"Hi?" Quinn was confused. They weren't exactly friends, yet here she was in her house. Violet just gave her tight lipped smile, and waved awkwardly.

Quinn pursed her lips, and welcomed the brunette into her bedroom. Her room was clean, and very pretty. There were textbooks scattered all over her bed, and what seemed to be „pregnancy books" sitting on her bedside locker—with a shirt thrown over them.

"Why are you here?" She wondered. She wasn't being rude with her question, she was genuinely just a bit curious. "Did Finn send you? Trying to get us to be the best of friends—again?" She mocked.

"No." Violet mumbled. "I just wanted to check up on you, Quinn." She meant it. "You're going through a lot right now, and i think you could use a little support."

"Oh." Quinn quietly sighed. "That's really sweet of you, Violet—thank you."

"I know we're not really friends, but i do like you." Violet admitted with a shrug. Quinn smiled at her words, and sat down on her bed. "I want to help you in any way that i can—if that's what you'd want."

Quinn gnawed on her gum, and frowned. She couldn't believe that Violet truly wanted to be there for her— especially considering that Quinns never really been kind to her. "I'd really like that."

"And, uhm—" Violet began, taking a seat on the desk chair near the window. "This whole mash of thing is really fun, you know. You should come to our next rehearsal...or 'rehearsal'." She corrected herself with dramatic air quotes, and slumped down in her seat.

Quinn knitted her eyebrows together, and straightened her posture. "Why'd you put that in air quotes?"

"Rachel and i are the only ones who actually seem to care about this whole thing, the others just want to wing it." She shrugged. "We could really use you."

Quinn hummed. "I'll be there."

♫

The glee girls were all sat in the choir room, all with a glum look covering their features. The boys had their performance the day before—and they killed it. It was a weird feeling, feeling inferior to Finn in performing. She couldn't deny that he was brilliant, but she really wanted to win this.

"I told you guys!" Rachel piqued.

Santana rolled her eyes, and scoffed. "We know, you've been berating us for the better part of an hour."

"I don't get it." Violet sighed. She ran her hands over her face and sunk in her seat. "Finn has never put that much effort into anything ever!" She explained.

Quinn looked around the room, and frowned. "Were they really that good?" She wondered.

Violet nodded profusely, while Rachel resented the boys' number. "They were Quinn." She confirmed. "Look, I was fine with arranging, choreographing and directing this number free of charge—" She ranted.

"Free of charge?" Violet muttered to herself. "Duh."

"—and i will be humiliated!" Rachel continued.

Mercedes shrugged her shoulders. "How were we supposed to know they'd rock the house down?—they've never been good."

"How did they d-do it?" Tina queried.

"The real question is—what where they on?" Kurt corrected, standing menacingly in the doorway, with his hands interlaced below his stomach. "Though, i've been grouped with the boys, my allegiance lies with you ladies." He spoke.

Everyone stared at him in silence, waiting for him to finish his initial thought. "We all took something."

"I want some of whatever it was." Violet laughed with a sincerity in her tone—they looked like they were having the time of their lives, why wouldn't she want to experience that?

Quinn turned to look at her, and shook her head with a tight lipped, forehead crinkling smile. "No, Violet, you don't want that."

"Fine." She huffed. After half a second of giving Quinn the cold shoulder—for telling her no, Violet jumped up from her chair. "I'm confronting Finn."

"Me too." Rachel acceded.

Both brunettes were unhappy. Rachel was storming down the corridor, practically having steam coming out of her ears with rage. Violet was just bummed out with her best friends antics.

"Cheater!" Rachel yelled out, pointing at Finn. They both made their way to the boy, who was clueless.

He puckered his brows, and turned on his heals. "I have no idea what you're talking about."

Violet caught up to him, and aligned her pace with his giant steps. "You're a cheater and a liar, w-who cheats and lies!" She whisper yelled, smacking his arm.

"Yeah!" Rachel aggressively cheered on. "You took performance enhancers before your mash up. Kurt told us! Its deplorable, contemptible, and it's just plain wrong. It's also cheating." She elucidated.

Finn didn't seem too bothered with the whole situation, so he simply shrugged.

Violet just nodded along to whatever Rachel was blabbering about—not entirely sure of what she was talking about . "If I knew what any of those words meant, I'd probably agree with her."

"Look, guys." Finn stopped in his tracks, and turned to face the two extremely short girls. "You don't know what it's like for me—the kind of pressure i'm under."

Violet frowned in understanding. "Yeah, i guess you're right, i'm sorry...for overreacting. You guys were just really great, I got a little jealous." She let out a little laugh at the end of her apology, letting him know she truly meant it. Finn smiled down at her, and mouthed a thank you.

Rachel, on the other hand, scoffed. "Oh, please." She placed both hand on her hips. "We all have pressure. You want to know how I deal with it? The natural way —with a rigorous diet, and exercise routine."

"Rachel, it's a completely different pre—"

"I'm up at six AM every day, i have my protein shake with banana and flaxseed oil, and by six—ten i'm on the elliptical. You know how i motivate myself? Not with anything artificial, i set a goal, and i won't rest until i reach it." She continued to rant.

"Well, that's personal pressure." Finn muttered. "If you don't meet your goal, you're the only one who loses. I have to be to e quarterback, the male lead, and deal with a pregnant girlfriend who yells at me about ice cream all the time." He tried to defend his actions, but she just couldn't get it.

Rachel glared at him—a glare that made Violet feel quite uncomfortable. "I'm—uh." Violet began. She pointed her finger in a different direction and just walked off. She made her mends with the fiasco at hand, so she really didn't need to be there for what was next to come out of Rachel's mouth.

♫

The truth about the Vitamin D catastrophe had come out to Mr Schuester—to say he was disappointed was a complete understatement. He gathered up the entire glee club in the choir room. They were all spread out in their selective cliques, standing like statues while staring blankly at their teacher.

"We're really sorry, Mr Schue." Finn apologised for everyone in the room, a small frown evidently tugging at his lips.

Violet pursed her lips, swaying side to side beside Tina. "I'm not that sorry, it was fun." She whispered.

"We didn't mean to get you into trouble." Rachel was quiet when she spoke—clearly annoyed that she let herself stoop to this level.

"I'm really disappointed in you guys." Will breathed. "Glee is supposed to be about what's inside your heart, not what's coursing through the veins."

Violet struck her hand up, feeling as though she pulled something in her shoulder in the process. "I thought glee was about opening yourself up to joy? Because, that's what the old lady sign says." She pointed to the plaque of Lilian Adler, and Mr Schuester sighed.

"It means both, Violet." He was clearly tired.

"I think I speak for everyone here when I say—" Rachel inaugurated, but got cut off by Violet. "She probably doesn't."

"—when i say, we'd be happy to move forward and put this episode behind us."

Violet opened her mouth slightly, and let out a little breath. "Oh, she does speak for us." She nodded.

Mr Schuester ran a hand over his face. "Well, it's not that simple—because of this debacle, it's been decided that i'm no longer fit to run glee club by myself."

Confused, everyone glanced around the room. "Please don't bring Mr Sandy Ryerson back, he's a very scary man." Violet shuddered as the thought of him gave her a huge jump scare.

"Hey, kids." The eerie voice of the cheerleading coach clawed it's way into the room. "I gotta tell ya, i'm just thrilled to be coming on board to co captain your little show biz cruise. I can't wait to be singing and dancing and maybe even putting on the Ritz a little bit."

"Oh, we're all gonna die." Violet croaked.