WE KNOW WE'RE THE COOL ONES HERE REALLY!

{tw: this chapter talks about eating disorders. please, please let me know if im not portraying this topic correctly and i will re-educate myself further and rewrite <3}

AT THE END OF THE PERFORMANCE OF GANGNAM STYLE, MARLEY HAD FAINTED ON THE STAGE. Acting immediately out of fear and worry, the New Directions had carefully picked Marley up from the stage and carried her straight to the choir room, leaving the audience and everyone in it filled with worry and confusion for the small girl.

Tessa had been cursing at herself since it had happened. She knew that she should've known better. She knew that she should've noticed the signs, the same signs that she gave off when she was Marley's age. As everyone else ran round in full panic, sitting Marley down in a chair, Jake supporting her, Tessa stood at the front, biting down hard on the insides of her cheeks, reaching for Sam's hand next to her.

Noticing Tessa slip her hand into his, Sam's attention wavered onto her, reading her expressions carefully and simply giving her hand a tight squeeze, rubbing his thumb gently across the top of her hand.

"Does anyone have anything she can eat?" Jake asked from besides Marley, keeping an arm securely around her shoulders to keep her upright.

Jumping into action as Tina offered up some Halloween candy from her locker, Sam had pulled away from besides Tessa and was rummaging around in his backpack, "I always carry some sort of candy bar with me, just in case of emergencies." He stated, grabbing two from his backpack and holding them out for Marley to take.

"And I have a juice box!" Blaine added on, rushing back into the choir room with it in his hand.

Pushing away the two items of food being offered to her with a faint shake of her head, Marley was quick to insist, "no, I'm fine."

"Drink the damn juice!" Kitty yelled, the guilt she had already found herself feeling mounting up every time she looked over at Marley.

When Marley still rejected the food, Tessa let out a sigh and she instantly knew that she had to help with any of the experiences she'd had. She remembered sitting in the back of the library with Finn or Santana, struggling with the thought of having to eat lunch and them holding her hand, helping her through every bite. She wanted to do the same for Marley. Stepping forwards, Tessa took one of the candy bars for herself and brought a chair round so she was sat facing Marley before handing the other one to her with an encouraging smile. Slipping her hand into hers, she tried to ignore the deafeningly loud silence and her own shaking hands as she whispered, "I know this is hard. We'll eat a bit together, okay? We'll do it together. And you'll start to feel a little bit better."

Turning the attention away from the two of them as Jake confessed that Marley had been skipping lunch to the group, Santana turned to Kitty, glaring daggers at her, "is that because you've been telling her to? You trying to turn her into a damn rexy?"

Shocked by the instant accusation, Kitty was taken aback, becoming flustered, "what? No... why would I-why would I want that?"

"Because you're a crazy, evil bitch." Santana spat, angrily, the only thing holding her back from going all Lima Heights on Kitty being Mike's hand resting, ready on her shoulder.

Speeding into the room, Mr Schue made it clear pretty quickly that he wanted to check up on Marley, becoming the adult presence in the choir room once again. Sensing he was planning on moving Tessa aside to take the spot opposite Marley for himself, Sam shook his head at him, silently gesturing to how Tessa had managed to gently persuade her to have a bit of food. Nodding in understanding, Mr Schue took a step back, "Marley are you alright?" He asked, before turning to the rest of the group with an urgent expression, "Santana, Mike, Puck, you stay here with Marley. The rest of you guys get back up there, Tessa, you sing Marley's part. Leaving the stage mid-competition for any reason is risking immediate disqualification."

"What? That's a rule?" Finn exclaimed, furrowing his eyebrows deeply, the panic beginning to sink in further.

"Yeah it's a rule." Coach Sylvester announced, waltzing into the choir room with a devilish smirk on her face.

"It's a stupid rule then." Tessa spat under her breathe, standing up and crossing her arms over her chest.

More delighted that she'd remembered being in quite a while, Sue was making it her mission to rub the glee club's misfortunes in their faces, feeling especially victorious to be winding up Mr Schue upon his return to Mckinley for the competition, "a bylaw actually. As you were all spiralling into a self-created K-hole of crazy, the judges — by unanimous vote — have declared the Warblers victorious." She announced, her wicked smile only widening as she saw everyone's faces fall, "hey, congratulations Finn Hudson! For the first time in its charmed, yet pitiful existence, the New Directions have lost Sectionals. But here's the good news, Christmas came early for Sue Sylvester."

Obviously only wanting to cause as much chaos and destruction as possible for the glee club, with them all looking shattered, sharing completely heartbroken looks and Marley throwing her head into her hands, feeling more guilty than ever, Sue had felt her job complete, with one last smirk before turning on her heels and strolling out of the choir room in the same smug manner than she had entered in.

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THE NEW DIRECTIONS SEEMED TO HAVE MOVED ON ALMOST IMMEDIATELY. With no competitions to work towards, most of the group — especially the seniors — had decided that it was worth finding another group where they could compete and potentially win something in their final year of high school. From rollerblading to basketball to the Cheerios everyone now had something to replace the massive hole that not competing with glee club would leave.

Tessa wasn't sure if she could just leave glee club the same way the others had. It broke her heart to watch Coach Sylvester tear up the choir room but by being a Head Cheerio, she managed to sneak as much sheet music and little bits of the choir room to safety as she physically could without being caught and having a girl called Bree snitch on her. Glee club had always been different for Tessa and it was the place where she'd grown and where she'd learnt to build her confidence and make the best friends she could ask for. And she had the Cheerios as well anyway, she didn't think that she needed anything else.

Coming together on the auditorium stage all lined up in their new and extravagant costumes, all that was left to do for the glee club was break the news to Finn. Seeing this, Finn could already tell that he would have a very difficult job persuading them all to stay and was growing frustrated with how quickly the members of the glee club had given up on it, "I can't believe it's been like, what, two days, and you've all already gone in completely separate and totally insane directions."

Most actively annoyed out of everyone, Tina throw her arms across her chest, prepared to defend herself and her decision fully. With a glare to Marley, she wanted to make her feelings crystal clear, "we lost Sectionals. Our season is over. You can't be upset that we've moved on, it's the healthy thing to do."

"Is it really? Is it really the healthy thing to do to take orders from Sue Sylvester for the rest of the year?" Finn challenged, folding his arms over his chest.

Throwing her hands up in the air, his comment only seemed to annoy Tina further, "Tess's done it for two years and you've never given her this crap."

"Well, Tina, I'm not giving people crap for things that aren't their fault." Tessa fought back without another thought, breaking out a glaring battle between the two of them, Tessa still mad at Tina for the way she'd immediately gone for Marley after she'd fainted at Sectionals. Putting a hand on her shoulder, Sam gave her a sympathetic look and a small shake of his head before an actual fight could break out.

Also trying to move away from the obvious tension in the room, Finn directed his arm over to Artie next, "and Artie, man, you practically dragged me out of the tire shop telling me that this club was part of my destiny somehow. What did you even join? Your costume is ridiculous, it looks like a peacock died on your head."

"It's called a plume." Artie mumbled.

"Whatever!" Finn shouted out, squeezing his eyes shut and waving his arms about. Shaking his head, he let out a deep breathe to calm himself down before opening his eyes once again to talk to them, "okay, look. I'm not gonna waste all six minutes I was able to book the auditorium for yelling at you guys."

Furrowing his eyebrows, Sam wondered if he had heard correctly, "six minutes?" He questioned.

Nodding in reply, Finn tried not to show how horribly frustrated he was at the whole thing, "yeah. Emperor Sylvester swooped in and carved the reservation hours into tenths so the only other time I was able to get was nine fifty-four Friday night. And I'll be there ready to rehearse and I hope you will too cause if you don't, I think you're going to regret missing this opportunity for the rest of your lives."

Throwing her hand into the air, Marley was keen to show off her support, "I'll definitely be there."

"Yeah, well we'd all be here if you hadn't face planted at Sectionals." Tina spat back, bitterly.

"I'm gonna lose it with you in a minute Tina, this is in no way Marley's fault so shut the hell up before I make you. In fact, that goes out to anything who says another word against her." Tessa snapped through gritted teeth, feeling herself becoming overwhelmed with the anger she was feeling by the way Marley was being either glared at behind her back or in plain sight for something Tessa saw as a thing she couldn't possibly control. She'd been there herself, "I'll be there. I'll even set an alarm to make sure I don't fall asleep."

Huffing loudly, Tina seemed to have had enough as well as an awkward silence rang out across the stage whilst the group made their choice. Nobody had wanted to be the first to make a move except Tina, who had snatched up her brand new Cheerios jacket and stomped off the stage. More guiltily, others like Artie began to leave one by one.

Heart sinking as more people began to trail off stage, Tessa reached out for Sam's hand, "are you gonna stay?" She whispered, hand faltering for fear that she'd pressure him to stay when he didn't want to.

Reaching back out for it, Sam held her hand tightly and proudly in his, giving her a smile and a wink, "duh! We know we're the cool ones here really."

Watching the smiles break out across their faces, Blaine Anderson wanted nothing more than to run over and join them, linking hands with his best friends but was also desperate to have a win under his belt for his senior year. When they turned to face him with pleading eyes, he had to avoid eye contact with them as he slowly turned on his heels and walked off the stage, following after Kitty, who was feeling more guilty than the more Marley had been picked on and Unique who was almost as desperate to stay as Blaine was.

Budging up towards Marley, Tessa wrapped an arm around her shoulders, giving her a reassuring squeeze as she clocked on to how awful she was clearly feeling for the glee club going down to just three members in a space of a minute. Stepping forward, Finn let out a small sigh but a hint of a smile came to his lips none the less that he even had three willing to stay.

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NOTHING SEEMED TO BE GETTING MUCH EASIER FOR MARLEY ROSE. With the burden on her mind that most of the glee club believed their loss at Sectionals to be her fault entirely coming as well as her developing eating disorder, Tessa thought that she needed to know that she had her right by her side, always.

Inviting her to the auditorium, Tessa sat on the edge of the stage with her legs dangling over the edge, swinging them back and forth absentmindedly as she waited for Marley to arrive. Peeping her head round the wings, Marley felt her heart beating as she made her way across the stage as quietly as she possibly could but Tessa heard her footsteps and turned round to face her, offering her a warm smile and patting the space besides her.

After hearing from Jake how easily she could beat her up and seeing for herself first hand what damages Tessa could do with a textbook or a lunch tray, Marley quickly wanted to get one thing straight, "you're not mad at me, are you?" She whispered, "I mean you have a right to be and I'm —"

"Don't you dare try to apologise to me Marley Rose," Tessa warned, raising her eyebrows at her and pointing a finger her way, "I promise you this isn't your fault and no... I'm definitely not mad at you." She assured her with a lightly amused chuckle, "I just wanted to talk to you about what's been going on... make sure you know you've got a friend in me and that I'm always here to listen to whatever's going on."

Smiling back at her, Marley knew that if anyone were to listen to her and understand what she was feeling, it would be Tessa, "thank you." She muttered, fiddling with her fingers, "I feel so horrible. Everyone hates me."

"No they don't." Tessa assured her immediately, "I don't, Sam doesn't, Unique doesn't, Finn doesn't. Nobody can blame you for fainting, you physically can't control it. Believe me, if you could control fainting then I wouldn't have fainted in the gym class changing rooms or in the middle of Walmart. I know the feeling. I've been there, so you're not alone." She told her gently, offering her a soft smile as Marley took a moment to take in what she was saying, "what you're going through is hard, I know it is and I'm gonna help you every step of the way, I promise. We're not gonna ignore this because this is a sign telling you that you need some help."

Swallowing a lump in her throat, Marley nodded her head trying to hold back the tears, "I don't know how to get better though."

Slipping her hand into hers, Tessa gave it a tight squeeze, "I completely understand. I didn't know either. And 'getting better' is different for everyone and it's not a straight line. You'll have good days, great days, but sometimes still have bad days. I know I do. But what I also know is that it felt a lot easier to deal with once I realised that I wasn't alone. I talked to the people I trusted, which at the time was my grandad, my mom and my brothers and we earned some money got me some professional help. That began to make things easier to deal with. Finn was the first person I trusted enough to tell about my eating disorder at school. And it was the simple things that made such a huge difference, he immediately wrapped me in a hug and told me he'd always be there for me and every lunch time since then, he would sit besides me and gently encourage me to eat whatever I felt comfortable with." Tessa told her story, Marley listening closely to every word, feeling less and less alone, "From my experiences, I think you should talk about how you're feeling with someone you trust, it could be your mom, it could be Unique, it could be Sam, or me. Any one of us would be more than happy to listen to you tell us what's going on and we would listen and help in any way we can."

"Do you think you'd maybe like to come round mine one day and we can talk about it?" Marley asked, shyly, feeling the need to open up after how much Tessa had said that it had helped her.

Nodding her head immediately, Tessa felt a wave of relief that Marley was willing to try and help herself get better, "of course. Thank you for trusting me enough to talk to me about this. I know how hard it can be to talk about it."

"Thank you for opening up to me." Marley replied, "I'm glad I've got you. I feel like I can talk to you about this because you do understand."

Offering her another smile in return, Tessa gave Marley's hand another tight squeeze, clearing her throat and glancing around the stage to assure herself that they were alone, "another thing, um- recently I've uh had to start going to see my therapist more recently again." She admitted, making Marley frown, "and you don't have to if you don't want to or if you don't feel comfortable but if you want, you could come with me to one of my sessions. You know, you could bring your mom and you could talk to someone professional about it all. The offers there if you ever want to take up on it."

"Thanks Tess. I'll think about it. But are you okay though?"

Pushing a smile onto her face, Tessa nodded lightly, "I'm fine. We can talk about it at yours one day maybe." Nodding back, Marley dried the few stray tears that had fallen down her cheeks and took hold of Tessa's hands to pull her up from the edge of the stage, "remember, I'm always here for you, yeah?"

"I know." Marley smiled, "same here."

Pulling her in for a warm hug, Tessa held Marley closely to her and squeezed her eyes shut for a moment to think about everything. Melting into the hug, Marley couldn't hide the smile that had crept onto her face as she felt the loneliness that she had thought was following her after Sectionals slowly disappearing. Holding her at arms length, Tessa furrowed her eyebrows lightly, "if you don't mind me asking, what made you feel the way you did about yourself to start all of this? You don't have to answer if you're not comfortable."

Thinking about it for a moment, Marley shrugged her shoulders, "I guess it kinda started when people would make comments about me getting my mom's genes because of her weight. But when my Grease costume didn't fit, I thought they were finally kicking in." She explained, "Kitty suggested that I made myself throw up after I ate to keep myself skinny."

Tessa immediately felt her heart drop. Widening her eyes, she felt a wave of anger take over her body, holding out her hands in outrage, "hold up... Kitty told you to do that? As in Kitty Kitty?"

Nodding her head shyly, Marley wasn't really sure what to say, "I don't think she meant any harm." She mumbled, "she was upset about it when I spoke to her in the bathroom."

"That doesn't make it any less messed up!" Tessa exclaimed, shaking her head, "she's gotta know how damaging what she did to you was. And even more than that, you deserve a proper, sincere apology, has she given you that?"

"Kind of, yeah."

"Kind of isn't good enough." Tessa insisted, "she needs to learn that what she's done is so wrong." She clenched her jaw, furious, "I knew I should've trusted Santana's Mexican Third Eye." She cursed herself under her breath, pacing back and forth for a moment, "would you be okay if I spoke to her about it? Kitty needs to know what she's done wrong or she's just gonna get away with pushing you into an eating disorder."

Shrugging her shoulders, Marley eventually modded, "if you really think it's necessary. I don't really think I'm worth all your worry though. I lost Sectionals for us, nobody cares if I'm alright or if someone's done something to me."

Shaking her head, Tessa shook Marley's shoulder gently, looking her right in the eyes to show the sincerity of her tone, "all I care about is that you're alright, Marley. That you didn't hurt yourself even more. That you're gonna be okay. And if they had any sense, everyone else who was in glee club would feel the same. I'd happily lose any competition, as long as my friends are alright, okay?"

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TESSA WAS STILL FURIOUS WITH KITTY AND HER LOCKER AFTER SCHOOL SEEMED THE PERFECT TIME TO CONFRONT HER. As Kitty shut her locker door and turned to spot her, the smile that had come to her face at the sight of Tessa quickly disappeared when she felt a harsh slap come in contact with her left cheek.

Clutching onto her cheek, Kitty frowned, furrowing her eyebrows defensively, "ow! What the hell was that for?"

"You know what the hell that was for." Tessa replied through gritted teeth, keeping a stern face and trying not to show the fact that her heart was beating at a million miles per hour.

Licking her lips slowly, Kitty shut the door of her locker with a bang and let out a long sigh as she turned round so her back was leant against the lockers besides hers. There was a tense silence between the two of them as Kitty tried to carefully select the right words whilst Tessa stood back with her arms folded across her chest and an eyebrow raised skeptically, "Marley was never meant to get hurt." She admitted in almost a whisper, "I never wanted to hurt her, I swear."

Furrowing her eyebrows, Tessa was still skeptical, "well what were you expecting to happen? What even was the point then?"

"I'll admit it. I was jealous. Everyone loved and admired someone and it wasn't me." Kitty told her bluntly, looking between the floor and the ceiling to avoid eye contact at any point, "and yes, before you say it, I know how stupid that is."

"I hope you recognise how serious what you did was." Tessa scolded her, showing a deadly serious side that didn't come out often, "do you even know how an eating disorder can affect someone's life?"

Opening and closing her mouth as she tried to figure out what to say in return, Kitty let out another sigh, "not really. I wasn't thinking. Obviously I know of what can happen but —"

"Then why did you do it?" Tessa challenged, raising her voice slightly and taking a step forward, "why did you put Marley through this when you knew of potential the risks to her health, to her mental well-being? You let your jealousy make this girl feel horrible about herself and her body just so you could feel better about yourself, do you know how awful that makes you? We're girls, we're supposed to support each other, help each other feel beautiful in our bodies."

"And I'll do that from now on, I swear to you. I made a mistake and I'm willing to work to fix it or at least make sure I can prevent it happening to others." Kitty promised her sincerely, scrunching up her face slightly as if preparing to be yelled at once again.

Searching her eyes for any hint of sarcasm or dishonesty in a moment of silence between the two of them, Tessa began to nod slowly, "well good. Because you need to know how wrong what you've done was so you actually have a chance of growing into a genuinely nice person." Tessa stated, folding her arms across her chest, "you need to give Marley a sincere apology, that's the absolute least she deserves." She thought for another second as Kitty nodded her head in agreement, "and maybe consider coming back to glee club. It might make her feel better knowing that there'll be at least three people who understand that it's not her fault."

Without another word shared between the two of them, Tessa gave her a tight lipped smile before turning right round on her heels and walking back down the hallway with a long sigh and a frustrated shake of her head. Watching her walk away, Kitty bit down on her lip, feeling more guilty than ever but now she was more eager to admit to her wrongdoings and at least properly take accountability for her actions whilst apologising. That was the absolute least she could do, she thought to herself before shutting her locker door and leaving to find out the best way to make things right.

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IT HAD BEEN TWO DAYS SINCE TESSA'S ENCOUNTER WITH KITTY. Admittedly, since she'd been tense. She was still frustrated with her because she knew what it was like to be in Marley's position. She knew how draining it was and wouldn't wish it upon anyone in the world, especially not someone as lovely as Marley Rose.

With their first glee club meeting again that night, Tessa was using time in the dance studio to cool herself down. Dancing was the main reason she was attracted to join the glee club in the first place and it was always something that had helped clear her head. She loved that she could just put on whatever song spoke to her or whatever song she'd had stuck rushing round her head and dance around to it, as perfectly or as messily as she felt like. She could just relax.

Dancing had helped her connect with people. She'd never forget when she found out that Mike could dance and the long hours they'd spend perfecting a routine in the studio together or just improvising a quick routine to their favourite songs. She loved making up fast paced and complicated choreography with Mike and Matt and Brittany where they could each show off their expertise. But she also loved those almost too late nights or too early mornings dancing lazily round the kitchen with Sam when he'd stay over at hers. When he'd twirl her under his arm and they'd just sway in each other's arms, laughing along to the music playing in the background.

Tessa could just lose herself when she danced and she loved that.

That was what happened today when she was dancing with one of her favourite songs blaring through the speakers. She didn't notice someone walk in until the music abruptly stopped. Whipping her head round, Tessa's eyebrows furrowed when she saw Bree and two other Cheerios looking back at her with a smirk on each of their faces, "what do you want?" Tessa breathed out, scratching the back of her neck, catching her breath.

Pouting exaggeratively, Bree took false offence, holding her hand up to her heart, "Is it so wrong that we want to talk to our favourite Head Cheerio?"

"Yeah, I was kind of in the middle of something." Tessa blurted out, her whole irritation at the week coming out at once as Bree just kept up her usual antics that irritated her anyway.

"You were dancing?" Bree asked before letting out a dramatic laugh, "god, I thought you were doing another one of your stupid impressions of that tall guy who's running your even littler glee club now."

Forcing a smile onto her face, Tessa pushed past them all to turn her music back on then faced away from them and onto the mirror to try and block them out, like usual, "you're hilarious." She muttered, sarcastically.

Immediately, one of the other two girls switched the music back off as Bree stepped forward and put both hands on Tessa's shoulders, looking at her in the mirror herself, "you know I meant it the other day. Maybe you should consider moving to the bottom of the pyramid. I mean, poor little me was struggling not to collapse the whole thing with your weight on my back. Either that or ask Kitty for some tips to lose weight. I've heard she knows a few that work."

Shrugging her hands off her shoulders, Tessa bit her bottom lip harshly, "you're a horrible person, you know that? I'm not gonna let you manipulate me again."

"It wasn't so hard getting you shoving your fingers down your throat the first time. You know you're getting fat again and I'm only trying to help you because I like you so much." Bree insisted, reminding Tessa of the first time she'd spoken to her all those years ago causing her to take in a sharp intake of air. Her expression getting fiercer, Bree continued on, "and do I look like I care about what you think of me? No. What are you gonna do? Go crying to Coach Sue because I'm being a meanie? Unlike her I don't give a flying fart that you're Santana Lopez's bestie because quite frankly that's all you are and all you're ever going to be."

Pursing her lips, Tessa broke away her intense glare with Bree, snatching her water up from the floor and moving herself to crouch besides her backpack, shoving it inside, "I'm not going to listen to you this time. I know better now. I know you're just a bitch that can't handle the fact that she's not on top for once."

"And we all know that you're really just a nobody. The one that will bring the team down if you don't swap places with me on the pyramid."

"Whatever." Tessa mumbled back, slinging her backpack over her shoulder and going to leave in an even worse mood than she already was in.

Exchanging sly smirks, Bree stopped her in her tracks by saying, "oh and by the way... if you tell anyone about this, I'll make sure Coach Sylvester hears of your little talk with Kitty and that you slapped her across the face and insist that she kicks you off the Cheerios." Tutting, Bree crossed her arms over her chest, "and you call me an awful person."

Turning around slowly, Tessa fiddled with her bag strap, "how do you know about that?"

"I just happened to be passing by." She shrugged, "it was really convenient."

"Freaking typical." Tessa muttered under her breath before leaving and slamming the door behind her, ignoring the taunts and loud laughter that could be heard from Bree and her two friends down the hall.

Coming out into the car park, Tessa scanned the area for Sam's familiar car. Catching sight of him stood leaning against his car waiting for her, Tessa visibly relaxed and her face lit up, making her way over towards him.

Beaming at the sight of her, Sam opened his arms for her to fall into, not knowing that Tessa needed a hug more than ever.

Wrapping her arms around his waist, Tessa felt safe, leaning her head on his chest and letting out a deep breath she let herself feel the familiar comfort of being in his arms for a few more moments as he kissed the top of her head gently before they broke apart.

"You alright?" Sam smiled lightly.

"Yeah, I'm fine." Tessa replied with a gentle nod of her head and a soft smile.

"Good. Come on, there's just about enough time for us to watch a movie before glee club and there's one I've been wanting to watch with you so I can show you some of my newest impressions." Sam beamed, full of excitement, only fuelled with Tessa grinned in agreement, already jumping into the passenger seat and turning the music on.