new directions | glee

19. WHAT A FEELING ☑️

CHAPTER NINETEEN |
what a feeling

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NATIONALS WAS NEXT week and everyone was starting to feel the pressure, but none more than Tina who was sitting next to Kayla with her eye twitching as Mr. Schuester announced their set list. "If there is anyone here who is not up for trying and working their butts off, you can get up and leave now." Kayla's head dropped when Tina started getting out of her chair and she knew then that all hell was about to break loose.

"Whoa, whoa, Tina. Where are you going?" Finn muttered in confusion while Tina turned around with her arms across her chest.

"You guys don't need me. Carry on." she answered stiffly, making everyone in the room physically tense while Rachel went on about how she needed Tina to come back, so she could redeem herself in front of Carmen Tibideaux at Nationals. It was times like these that she sometimes hated being Rachel's best friend.

Kayla could see Tina's anger. She understood where she was coming from. In all three years that they had been in this choir room, not once had they gotten the respect they deserved. In that way, she and Tina were a lot alike and she was reminded of those first few months that they became friends because of it. Kayla was the first person she told about her stutter and they had always understood each other. She missed it and she hated that Tina couldn't see how amazing she was. Mr. Schuester was belittling her, reminding her that she was in charge of costumes and Kayla's blood began to boil just as Tina bit back at him.

"Take a lap and cool down, Asian Number One." Sue said and Tina glared.

"My name is Tina! Tina Cohen-Chang!" With that, she stormed off and Kayla watched Rachel and Mike chase after her.

"What the hell was that?" Mr. Schuester muttered when Tina left the room.

Kayla rolled her eyes. "Oh my God, Slut. Just shut the fuck up."

"Excuse me?"

She repeated. "I said, shut up. She has every right to be upset. I'm upset too. You know how many times in three years I've had a competition solo? Two—our first Sectionals because Rachel gave me permission to join her and this year's Sectionals because she was suspended. You think if she wasn't suspended that Tina and I would have had a solo at all? No because your favoritism runs deep. I love Rachel. She is my best friend, but this is not the Rachel Berry show! You talk a great deal about how we are all so special and talented and you never show it. Tina didn't join glee to make costumes. I didn't join glee to sway in the background. We joined because we love to sing and you've never shown us the respect that we deserve, so shut up. You have no idea how talented Tina is because you've never even tried to make her feel included."

She didn't let him get in another word before she was storming out the door too. He was long overdue for a wake up call anyway.

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Kayla was sitting with Kurt and Blaine in the mall, eating an ice cream cone to chill her madness at their last glee practice. She still wasn't talking to Mr. Schuester. He'd attempted to talk to her multiple times the day after her outburst, but she wouldn't let him in and for good reason. There was nothing he could say that would make things better. Kurt and Blaine had dragged her out of the house to try to distract her, but she was on her phone, texting back and forth with Tina who was telling her that she was fighting with Mike because of her rant. Usually Kayla loved Mike, but he was being kind of rude not sticking up for his girlfriend.

He just told me that Rachel is a star and I'm being unreasonable.

Kayla nearly gasped when she read the text and was just about to reply when Blaine said that he saw Tina coming down the escalator and in what seemed like two seconds, she was tipping over into the fountain and hitting her head, taking the fabric she was carrying down into the water with her and Kayla's fight or flight reflexes kicked in. She ran over to the fountain with Kurt and Blaine trailing behind her as she attempted to get Tina out of the fountain.