After everything that had happened between him and Zane, and especially everything that had happened with Ivy, Joey decided it would probably be for the best if he asked Darcy to come over to the choir room - of course he didn’t know how this was going to end up, but he just wanted to talk. It wouldn’t hurt to talk with her, plus, being at McKinley had its’ perks and Joey knew that Canaries wouldn’t come out of nowhere to pelt him with tennis balls like they did with Ivy. He was sitting in one of the chairs, scrolling on his phone as he waited for Darcy to arrive - of course the band was there, but for Joey, the band was always there, so it didn’t bother him that they were going to see the two of them talk. It was like they were part of the furniture. Once he heard the door open and Joey saw Darcy walk in, he immediately stood up as he looked at the other. “Good, I’m glad you decided to show up! I was starting to get worried that you weren’t going to come.” He said with a small smile, as he looked over at Darcy, crossing his arms over his chest as he waited for her to fully come inside the choir room before he spoke again. “I think we need to talk about this whole war that’s going on between the Canaries and the New Directions - you need to leave us alone. And most importantly, I think you need to leave Ivy alone.” He said, nodding his head slowly, thinking about if he should bring Zane into this conversation. “And you need to leave Zane alone too... He doesn’t like you anymore, so it’s time to get over it.” He said, clearing his throat a little.
Mr. Darcy had known the Blakeney family as acquaintances for quite some time; they owned a lodge that abutted Pemberley, though Darcy knew Sir Blakeney and his wife did not often make the journey up to Derbyshire. However, now that Mr. and Mrs. Darcy were in London for a few months, it seemed they were destined to run into all sorts of acquaintances at one point or another. The endless parade of niceties did nothing but wear Darcy out, especially during times when Elizabeth could not accompany him.
But even though he wanted nothing more than to be at home, in solitude, he bowed to Sir Blakeney as the man approached him. A vain hope whispered that maybe that would be enough, even as his more practical mind knew there was likely another conversation ahead.
WHO: @dumbofassjoey & @darcyclarington ( + @austinelsons & klaine & huntbastian )
WHERE: wmhs // principal remington’s office
WHEN: friday, november 13th
WHAT: Joey gets called into the principal’s office and has to deal with the consequences of slushing Darcy (spoiler alert: he gets suspended)
JOEY: Joey didn’t even think about what was about to go down in the principal’s office. His head had been so distracted lately by the thought of Darcy finding out that Joey was the one behind the slushie incident that he didn’t even consider why he had been called in the first place – he just thought it had something to do with the bird he kept in his locker or something about his grades, but he didn’t expect to find this scenario. As he walked into the principal’s office, a place where had been before, he felt like he was going to die. They figured it out. The office was pretty much full now, with not only his dads in there but also what he assumed were Darcy’s dads and of course – Darcy herself. “Have a seat, Joseph.” He heard Brock’s voice coming from behind his desk and as he looked over at his dads for a while, he knew that they were mad at him – not mad actually, disappointed. It hurt Joey to see them like this, especially when he hadn’t done something of the sort of all of his years in high school – he had always heard his dads say to be the better person and to not slushie people, so of course his dads would be disappointed at him. As he took a seat in the only empty chair in the room, Joey looked around the room for a few moments before he was looking at Brock again, as he finally decided to say something. “What’s going on?” He asked, not sure what else to say – he knew exactly what was going on, but maybe he was wrong. Maybe, just maybe, this wasn’t what he thought it was.
DARCY: It had felt like weeks waiting for some update about the investigation. Darcy heard the news that there was a break through in the middle of class via text from her father, informing her that they were outside her homeroom waiting to take her straight to McKinley. She glanced toward the exit and through the window, locking eyes with both parents giving her as they have a nod. There was going to be hell to pay. She immediately had been pulled out of school before first period in a race to the public school. The whole car ride over was full of anticipation as she mumbled to herself all the ways she was going to ruin the life of Ivy St.James or whoever the fuck it as soon as she walked through the doors, while her fathers reminding her that they would take care of it all and she was not, in fact, allowed to scalp anyone.
Hunter and Sebastian on either side of her as they stomped through the hallways with briefcases in hand, ready to strike the person who did this to her with the hand of god. They stepped into the principle’s office and immediately the two sets of parents stared at each other and sighed in unison as they realized they were once again holding a disciplinary hearing for their children in one semester. “Well, are we even surprised?” Sebastian chimed in breaking the silence. “Looks like Lucy and Desi can’t seem keep little Ricky under control, hm?” Hunter shot his husband a look, which simply caused Sebastian to adjust his stance as they waited in on the other’s son. Darcy was simply confused at seeing the Hummel-Anderson’s standing in the room already there for them. Tracy was formally Warblers captain…but he wasn’t even in glee club at all at McKinley. He wouldn’t have any reason to betray her like this. She didn’t even have time to fully process the situation when Joey walked into the room to meet them. The boy was not who she had expected, her face visibly perplexed as she glanced around the room. “Um, I think you have the wrong person here. I’m pretty sure Joey can barely tie his shoes, let alone orchestrate a plan like this.” She turned to look at the boy, softening her voice as she spoke slowly and condescendingly , “Joey, sweetie, is there anything you want to tell us about what you saw at the fair?”
JOEY: Joey could feel all his eyes landing on him the moment he had walked in the room and it hadn’t changed all the time as he made his way to sit on the chair. He could hear both of their dads talking behind him, but he wasn’t processing it at all. It felt like he had been sitting there for hours, before he heard Darcy talking to him. As he turned his head to look at the other, Joey shook his head slowly as he cleared his throat, but not daring to say anything to the other. He knew he was in trouble – his attention was caught once he heard Principal Brock speaking again. “Miss Clarington-Smythe, please.” He said, almost as a warning before he was turning to Joey, while glancing occasionally to look over to Kurt and Blaine. “We have reason to believe that Joseph was involved in the slushie incident that happened at the carnival a few weeks ago. One of our students came forward and admitted that Joseph paid him to slushie Darcy.” When he heard those words coming out of Brock’s mouth, Joey felt like he was going to throw up – Austin had told Brock. There was no way it could have been anyone else. “Well, who was this student? He could have been lying to try and get Joey in trouble, Joey would never do anything like that. We’ve been clear about slushies, he wouldn’t do something like that.” Joey heard Kurt talk to Brock, but he felt like he couldn’t do this anymore. If he kept lying to his dads and to the principal, it only seemed like he was going to get in more trouble. As he cleared his throat, he could feel his eyes watering even if it wasn’t that much. He had been caught and now that he was in this situation, he saw that Julien was right all along. Had it been worth it? “I-I did it… It’s true. I’m the one behind all of this.” He said, not daring to look up from his hands. He couldn’t bare looking at his dads or at anyone in that room at that moment.
DARCY: The Principal’s warning garnered a sharp glare from the blonde, he really had no authority over her but the look coming from her own father was enough to remind her to play nice. Taking a breath, Darcy straightened her posture but as soon as the news hit hear ear, it felt like her brain was buffering to compute the information. She stared dumbly at the boy. Her first thought was Huh, that bitch. Who knew he had it in him?’ quickly followed by That bitch…I should kill him. “You sneaky little shit!!!” Darcy yelled popping out of her seat and staring down the Joey in his seat next to her. If he hadn’t shaved his head only 2 weeks ago she would have ripped the hair out of his empty headed scalp. She must have been smoking out of her ears because felt the gentle hand of Hunter taping her shoulder for her to sit down. “Honey, I got this.” He told her as he stepped toward Principal Remington’s desk and turning on lawyer mode. “Considering the pattern of the behavior and animosity the Hummel-Anderson children have shown to ours, we have reason to believe our family will only continue to be a target if Joseph Hummel-Anderson is to remain a student at this school. Because of this we’re asking you to consider the highest penalty – expulsion.” Hunter spoke clearly as he ignored the intense stares coming from the other set of parents and continued, “We believe this is only fair considering the premeditated attack with a weapon.” Sure, weapon was a strong word but Hunter was here to win. “If it pleases the court, we’d like to bring in Austin Nelson to the stand to testify to the extent of the crime and you can see for yourselves.”
JOEY: He should have expected a reaction like that coming from Darcy – after all, she had been the one that been humiliated in front of everyone and in that moment, Joey was just thankful that there were other people in the room so he was sure that Darcy wouldn’t be able to kill him in front of everyone else. As he heard what one of Darcy’s dads had to say, he decided it would be for the best if he kept quiet. It was sort of inevitable whatever was going to happen to him. However, when he heard Hunter mentioning his expulsion, Joey couldn’t help but to frown – was he really about to be expelled from school just because of a slushie? Before he could speak up about it, Kurt cut him off. “Oh please, you’re not really considering expelling Joseph just because of a slushie? He shouldn’t have done it, but him getting expelled over it is too much! Sebastian, did you really forget that you could have been expelled from what you did to Blaine with that slushie all those years ago? I’m asking you to think this through! What Joseph did had no excuse, but he doesn’t deserve to be expelled over it.” Kurt finished talking, before he was looking over at Principal Remington. Everyone seemed like they were waiting for him to say something. It was clear that he didn’t want to be there, Joey could see it in his face and everyone else in the room could too. “Just bring the Nelson kid in… But I have to agree slushies can’t be considered a weapon, tons of kids do it to those glee kids all the time.”
DARCY: Sebastian was just about to pipe up to defend his own teenage mistakes until Hunter spoke on behalf of his husband (and apparent client). “I’m sorry, but we resent that implication unless you have evidence to back up that up at this time. Besides, the statute of limitations has clearly passed.” he said motioning to the fact they were all now adults. It was petty but he wasn’t going to let their shared history with Kurt and Blaine to affect the current issue at hand. However, when the principal seemed to side with the Hummel-Anderson’s on the matter of the weapon, even Hunter was taken aback. “He disfigured our daughter’s face!” He finally snapped before taking a breath, reminding himself that he was supposed to be the professional in this. Clearly, they weren’t going to get anywhere without first proving the extent of the crime. “Fine. Bring him in.” He agreed as they called the boy from the waiting area. Once they brought in Austin, Darcy was fuming in her seat. She didn’t know who the fuck this guy was, but suddenly she was thinking of a hundred ways to end this meathead's life. She could kill him with knives, with guns, her hands… she would fucking talk him into suicide. It was only another gentle reminder from Hunter that reminded her that they would come out of this winning; she just had to trust them.
Sebastian had worked with kids on the stand many times before, having always managed to build up a casual rapport with the younger witness. “Thanks for being here Austin.” He said casually, hand in pocket as he motioned for him to take an empty seat. “We just have a couple questions to ask you. It shouldn’t be a big deal, just answer honestly.” He had been briefed on the situation, the kid seemed like a little bit of a dickwad, not too much unlike himself in high school. For that he had to give him a little respect for his creativity, still if he didn’t have bigger fish to fry at that moment, he would have Austin’s head over a mantle. “Can you point to us the person who instructed you to go through with this attack?” he started, waiting for him to do so before asking his next question. “Can you just explain to us exactly what happened and what made you go through with this?”
AUSTIN: Austin Nelson wasn't a snitch. Except for the one time he was. He didn't give a fuck about this stupid show choir drama. It was just as irrelevant to him as his third period Algebra II Class. But fifty bucks was fifty bucks and he'd somehow found himself roped into Brock Remington's office earlier that week to talk about the whole incident. He'd relied on prosthetics and having virtually no connection to the blonde to get him out of this without a scratch. But over the weeks with a combined effort between staff and students, someone had put the pieces together that Austin and his buddies had left working the haunted hayride about thirty minutes before the incident had occurred. Rarely did Austin get called into Brock Remington's office, and when he did, it was mostly out of formality considering Rocky was one of Austin's best friends. But this time good ol' Brock seemed nervous about consequences and proper courses of action and such. Which really, he should've functioned that way from the get-go, but Austin didn't mind walking away from a fight or two or a crass language citation with no more than a finger wag. Earlier in the week, he had been prepared to keep his lips zipped. Joey had paid him to do his job and keep quiet, so he would. Until Brock dropped the bomb that if he fessed up to who put him up to things, he'd earn himself immediate immunity from consequence. How could he deny that?
It was taking that deal that wound him up in the fever dream that felt like 'The Trial of Joey Hummel-Anderson.'. Who were all these dudes? Was that the girl he slushied? Why did shit feel so tense? Austin tried not to dwell on his abundance of questions for too long. It seemed best to just answer and get the fuck out of there ASAP. At the prompt to point at who put him up to it, Austin complied and pointed to Joey. Then the next question came, and he shrugged. The leather of his letterman jacket crinkled far too loudly then he would've like, "Um, Joey texted me saying he'd pay me fifty bucks to slushie..." a pause as he looked to the blonde. Her terrifying stare was enough to make him feel cold all over and avert his gaze immediately. "Her." Austin paused again, getting the sense his answer wasn't satisfactory, "So, on the night of the carnival or whatever, that's what I did." The room was way too tense for his liking, so he jumped the gun and asked, "I already told Mr.Remington this, Can I just go now?"(edited)
JOEY: It seemed like time was just moving forward at a speed that Joey really couldn’t understand, because the next thing he knew, Austin Nelson was walking inside of the office and taking a seat in one of the chairs. Joey’s first thought was to stand up from that chair and try to hit him as hard as he could, even if he had to deal with the consequences. As he looked over at Darcy, it felt like she wanted to do the same thing, so at least there was something that the two of them could agree. But Joey couldn’t really be mad at Austin for what he had done – this was all Joey’s fault and as much as he didn’t like what was about to happen, he had to deal with the consequences of whatever his punishment was going to be. As he heard Austin talk about their plan, Joey could feel everyone’s eyes on him again once Austin pointed at him and he caught a quick glance of his dads’ faces as they shook their heads at the news they were receiving. Joey really felt horrible and he couldn’t even imagine what it would be like once they got home – and he really didn’t know what all of his friends’ reactions would be like, especially since this investigation seemed to had taken to a level that Joey really didn’t expect.
“You can go, Mr. Nel- “ The principal said, but before he could finish his sentence, Austin had bolted out of the office. Joey noticed Kurt taking a step forward to talk again before anyone had the chance to. “Okay, what if Joey did that? It wasn’t right, but he doesn’t deserve to be expelled. No one has been expelled for slushing anyone and a lot of worse things have happened before around here. I’m sure Darcy isn’t the first person to be slushied in front of everyone like that.” Kurt said and Brock sighed, almost as he wanted all of that to be over – you can see it in his face that he really didn’t have the patience to deal with the show choir drama and glee club rivalry. “What about suspension? He’ll be suspended for two weeks and he’ll be banned from performing at that competition that’s coming up… What is, regionals? Sectionals? I really don’t know, there’s more important things than glee club.” Brock said, and once he was done talking, Joey still felt like he was going to throw up at anytime soon – he had been quiet this entire time, but he finally spoke. “What? I can’t perform at Sectionals? That’s unfair!”
DARCY: Darcy knew that a plan like this was way too big for one person to execute. The only thing keeping her from clawing the rat’s eyes out was the other witnesses in the room. As Austin finished his testimony and booked it out of the office, Darcy decided she’d get her revenge on him eventually. For now, Joey’s head was on the chopping block. As much as Sebastian wanted to let twinkle toes know that no one slushied the Clarington-Smythe’s and got away with it, he bit his tongue and focused his effort on the principal who truly held the power in the room. All the attention fixed on Mr. Remington as they awaited his judgment on the matter. Seeing how nonchalant he was being about the whole situation, Sebastian considered filling a class action lawsuit against the school. However to Darcy, the suggestion of Joey not being able to perform with the New Directions felt like the answer she was waiting for. The idea of Joey not performing at Sectionals was too good to pass up.
“We’ll take it!” She quickly said, looking to her parents to back her up. The two fathers glanced at each other nodding. They knew how much this competition meant to their daughter, much more than ruining the potential future of the kid who humiliated her. She wanted to win. It almost warmed their heart to see their daughter so passionate about destroying the New Directions as much as they had so many years ago. Sebastian decided to continue taking the reigns, while not speaking directly to Joey, he addressed the principal on the matter. “I think a two weeks suspension from school and extracurricular activities including performing at Sectionals is more than a fair deal.” Sebastian acknowledged before turning to the Hummel-Anderson couple, “Our child was traumatized. Unless you want us to serve you for the emotional distress your son caused to a poor defenseless teenage girl, then I suggest you take the deal.” Darcy let out a fake sob into her hands, while her father offered her his pocket square as she dabbed away the non-existent tears, a smirk hiding behind the designer handkerchief as she awaited their surrender.
JOEY: Joey wasn’t surprised to see Darcy’s reaction when principal Remington suggested that he was suspended – it was just another chance for her and the Canaries to win at Sectionals, especially if New Directions lost a member. Joey looked over at his dads for a while as he saw them ponder about what to do in that situation, but he sort of knew what was going to be their decision, even if they didn’t say anything to Joey – and that’s when Joey realized what was actually going to happen. He was about to be suspended and he felt terrible about it, truly awful – there was no way this was happening, maybe Joey would eventually wake up from what seemed to be a nightmare, but that’s when his dad decided to finally talk. “We’ll take it.” Kurt said, almost in a tone of defeat. “And we’re sorry for Joseph’s behavior, what he did wasn’t okay and he will talk to him about his punishment once we get home.” Kurt finished, before he looked at Sebastian and Hunter for a while, before turning his eyes to Joey, who quickly looked away. “Great! Joseph, you’re suspended for two weeks and banned from performing at Sectionals. I’ll see you in two weeks.” Principal Remington told Joey, before nodding his head slowly. It didn’t take long until everyone was leaving the office and Joey was making his way towards to his dads’ car. There wasn’t much talking on the way home, but Joey knew that he was in trouble and there was no way he was escaping this – for a while, Joey had thought he had actually won over Darcy, but it seemed like she found a way to get always win instead.
Arthur strolled up to the woman on the border of his land. "Hello there," he offered, giving a small smile. "Welcome to Camelot." He glanced behind him, and dipped his head sheepishly. "I am sorry it is not as...glamorous as it was painted to be. We're in the state of reconstruction," he explained. He took a moment, appraising her. "Er, forgive me, but..What on earth are you wearing?" Arthur furrowed his brow.
