PLEASE NO, YOU'LL KILL US AND RECIPES ARE CONFUSING!

IT WAS HARD FOR A LOT OF THE GLEE CLUB TO STAY CONCENTRATED WHEN THEY KNEW MR SCHUE'S SECTIONALS PLANS DIDN'T INVOLVE THEM. When Mr Schue announced that he was planning on having one of them sing 'Defying Gravity' both Rachel and Kurt had perked up in the hopes of having the solo for themselves.

Glancing up from where she was half asleep against Artie's shoulder, Penelope couldn't help but smile at the beam that had come to Kurt's face and she was hoping that Mr Schue wouldn't choose his usual favourite and let him sing the song instead. Unfortunately, he walked straight past Kurt and offered it up to Rachel, "you think you can handle is Rachel?"

Sitting up straight in her seat, a victorious grin came to Rachel's lips as she nodded in response, "its my go-to shower song, it's also my ringtone."

Rolling her eyes, Mercedes was more fed up than anyone that her talent was being pushed aside for Rachel, "why do we have to go all vanilla on this song? See, what we need is my chocolate thunder."

Shaking his head, Mr Schue was quick to put her idea down, "we haven't got time to rearrange the song for you Mercedes, Rachel is singing it. But don't worry, we'll find something for you to dip in chocolate."

Furrowing her eyebrows deeply, Penny exchanged a glance with Artie as if they were both considering if they'd heard him correctly. Moving on to her next concern, Penny whispered, "I swear we don't have any other songs, surely we could've found time for Mercedes to sing the song."

As Artie nodded in agreement, Mr Schue had swiftly moved on to his next topic of discussion, "onto item two: The school won't pay for the special bus we need to take Artie and his wheelchair with us to Sectionals, so we're gonna have to raise some money to pay for it ourselves." Mr Schue explained as all the group nodded along in full agreement, "see when I was in glee club and we needed new silk cummerbunds for Regionals, we held a bake sale."

The previous enthusiasm to helping to raise money for Artie's bus flew away surprisingly quickly, "wait youre joking right?" Santana scoffed over the comments that filled the room, "bake sales are kinda bougie."

"So hip people stopped eating delicious sugary treats?" Mr Schue asked them, furrowing his eyebrows for a moment to try and keep the smile plastered on his face.

"It's not that." Brittany piped up quickly, with an innocent shake of her head, "it's that most of us don't know how to bake. I find recipes confusing."

Throwing her hand up, Rachel felt the need to insert herself into this discussion as well, "my family is committed to takeout."

Nodding along in agreement Finn gave Mr Schue a sympathetic smile that practically spoke fit itself, "yeah Mr Schue, kids are busier than when you went here. We've got homework and football and teen pregnancy and lunch."

Out of the corner of her eye, Penny saw Artie's face dropping out of disappointment the more the glee club implied that his bus would be a burden. Furrowing her eyebrows Penny caught Mr Schue's eye and held her hand up in the air lightly for attention, "screw homework! I'll definitely make us some cupcakes to sell. Surely we all want Artie with us... right?"

"Please no, you'll kill us." Artie whispered immediately, eyes widened and struck with fear as Penelope held her hand over her heart in mock offense and laughed alongside him, "I'll at least try not too."

Once the light laughter had died down, Mercedes moved the group back to the conversation in hand with a shrug of her shoulders, "can't Artie's dad just take him?"

Putting his hands on his hips, Mr Schue furrowed his eyebrows as he took a minute with a deep sigh to consider the offer before sticking to his beliefs, "I'm sure Penelope won't kill us. And I'm sure she'll still have time to do her homework as well so that's a win win situation." He said sending a grateful smile her way, which she didn't reciprocate at the thought of still having the time to do her homework, before moving to the rest of the group, "besides, I'm sure all of you can pitch in to help. I can't believe how insensitive you're all being. You guys are a team, aren't you?"

"Of course." Quinn replied immediately, turning to face Artie with a smile, "but Artie doesn't mind, do you Artie?"

With all eyes on him, Artie wasn't sure what else he could say, "of course. It's cool. Anything that takes away our time rehearsing doesn't serve as a team."

When the bell rang and everyone else jumped up from their seats to hurry off to their next classes, Penelope frowned deeply and tapped Artie on the shoulder before he could begin to roll away from his place besides her. Noticing his smile was still forced onto his lips, her expression softened for a moment, "why didn't you stand up for yourself dude? I'm sorry that everyone else are being assholes."

Shrugging his shoulders, Penny could see that despite the fact that he was slightly hurt, she could tell there was more to it than that, "it's okay. I'm used to it by now, they just don't get it."

"As your team mates and most importantly your friends, it should be our jobs to make sure this is something you shouldn't have to be used to." Penny told him, shaking her head, "I'll come with you and your dad in his car. Or you can come in mine with my mom, her boyfriend and my sisters if it's easier. Although one of them might fall in love with you. Gracie's only met Finn once and she's practically planned their wedding bless her."

Chuckling with both amusement and pure joy that Penny had thought about his feelings and was now rambling nervously about her sisters, Artie managed to stop her by placing a hand on top of hers, "either would be great, thank you Penny."

"You don't need to thank me." She tutted, a mischievous grin coming to her lips, "just buy one of my cupcakes to try and pay for your bus."

"And risk my life? Girl you've gotta be kidding me." Artie teased her playfully, causing Penny give the back of his wheelchair a shove and rolling her eyes in an equally playful manner.

♪ ♪ ♪

AFTER LISTENING IN ON PENNY AND ARTIE'S CONVERSATION, MR SCHUE DECIDED THE BAKE SALE WAS GOING AHEAD AND EVERYONE WAS IN WHEELCHAIRS. Taking Quinn's word that she's left leftover ingredients in the home economics classroom for her to make cupcakes with, Penelope had stuck to her promise and was in the kitchen with a rather old piece of paper with her mom's old recipe scribbled on the back of it. Squinting, Penny read the words over to the best of her ability slowly wheeling around to collect each ingredient ready to weigh out.

Leaving an extra Cheerios practice, Brittany had hopped back into her wheelchair and was wandering the halls, a grin immediately beginning to come to her lips as she recognised Penny's loud swearing as she dropped a bag of flour across the table. Carefully turning the corner with a lot more grace and ease than Penny had had, Brittany was now facing a flour-covered Penelope Crawford who had slowly turned a deep shade of red as they made eye contact.

"I dropped the flour." Penny explained, pointing to the mess in front of her with a nervous chuckle.

"I guessed." Brittany beamed back, completely unfazed by what was in front of her, just wheeling over to join the girl herself, "other than painting the room white, what are you doing here on your own?"

Admittedly pleased for her company, Penny was dusting the flour off of her face as she answered casually, "I wanna bake something for the bake sale so Artie can come on the bus with us. Thought I'd try my hand at making some cupcakes."

Humming along, Brittany had quickly got distracted with a bit of missed flour on Penny's cheek, leaning forward and gently wiping it off before mumbling, "you had flour on your cheek."

Subconsciously touching the area where Brittany's hand had been, Penny felt her ears heat up slightly managing with difficulty to suppress her frown when she felt a small tug at her stomach. Shaking any thoughts away, she scratched the back of her neck, "oh, thanks."

Shrugging with a smile, it didn't seem to be that deep for Brittany, "you're welcome. So cupcakes... can I help? You could teach me how to use recipes! I find them confusing."

"I'd love you to help." Penelope grinned, genuinely, "my mom's always said that it's more fun baking with a friend anyway."

"That's what Lord Tubbington says." Brittany nodded along in agreement, "although, his friends are all a little sketchy so I don't think they'd like baking very much."

"Oh, right." Penny chuckled, reaching over and grabbing a bowl with a few ingredients inside it, "here, you can make the icing if you want. Just mix it all together I think."

Nodding in reply, Brittany took on the task easily, chatting away to Penny as the two of them laughed together and finished up with managing to put the cupcakes into the oven to bake. Setting a time on the timer, Brittany hopped out of her wheelchair and up to sit on top of the counter, watching and listening with a smile on her face as Penny cupped her eyes and stared into the oven, "do you think that'll make them cook quicker?" She asked.

Shrugging her shoulders, Penny twisted round for a moment to reply, "I'm not sure. If it did it would be freaking wonderful."

Hopping back down from the counter, Brittany crouched down besides her, giving her a gentle nudge to the side so they could huddle up together and stare into the oven, "surely if we both stare into it the cupcakes will cook twice as fast."

"I'm not sure if that's how it works but I'll happily give it a try." Penny laughed softly, following Brittany's lead as she turned to stare at the cakes as they slowly rose in the oven.

About ten minutes later, the timer had gone off, making Penny jump. Clapping her hands excitedly, Brittany took a small bounce backwards to watch as Penny nervously pulled the oven gloves onto her hands and opened the oven door revealing their cupcakes. Placing them on the counter, the pair gazed at them with wonder in their eyes, secretly proud of themselves for managing to follow the recipe so carefully.

After cooling them down slightly, they believed that they had plenty of cupcakes to try one each for themselves, feeling as though they'd earned it for their hard work on them in the first place. First to go in, Brittany eagerly ripped the cupcake case off and took a large bite. The grin that was plastered on her face had quickly morphed into a grimace as she began to chew though, "Penny are you sure you made these right?"

Curiously taking a bite for herself, Penny had a similar reaction, "i was sure I'd followed the recipe perfectly." She frowned, confused, "these are meant to be amazing."

Shaking her head at the cupcakes, Brittany looked up once more to lock eyes with Penny, "I told you, it's the recipes... they're just so confusing."

"Guess you're right."

Noticing the fault in Penelope's smile, Brittany immediately wrapped her arms around her and gave her a squeeze, "it's okay though. We still had fun doing it, right?"

"Right." Penny smiled back genuinely. It was true, she'd loved every second of making the cupcakes with Brittany and was unable to get rid of the smile on her face as she thought about it.

　　　　　　    ♪  ♪  ♪     

THE BAKE SALE WAS IN FULL SWING, HOWEVER NOT VERY SUCCESSFULLY. Penny had found herself on bake sale duty alongside Finn, Quinn, Puck and Santana and had parked her wheelchair in between Finn and Quinn, Finn using her as a human barrier every time he wanted to sneak one of the cupcakes under the table without Quinn's knowledge.

Bored with no one even looking their way and considering buying a cupcake, Finn began to spark up conversation, "weren't you gonna make some cupcakes last night?" He asked her with slightly furrowed eyebrows.

"Brittany and I tried." Penny laughed in reply at the memory, "they were absolutely awful, Artie was right I could've killed us with my cupcakes."

Whilst the others let out a laugh, Santana's eyes narrowed and her lips pursed as she sat back in the seat of her wheelchair, crossing her arms, "you and Brittany make cupcakes together last night?" She questioned, as casually as she could. Nodding awkwardly in reply, Penny tried to hide her fear as Santana's glare intensified, "she was at Cheerios practice last night."

"I was in school too. She came along after practice finished." Penny said awkwardly, her cheeks heating up, unsure how else to reply.

"Why does it matter?" Quinn challenged Santana, raising an eyebrow at her to which she just shrugged. Turning to Penny, Quinn gave her knee a light squeeze, and threw a reassuring smile her way, assuring her not to worry.

"Cupcakes suck." Puck piped up loudly, throwing a cupcake down in front of him with a pout, diverting everyone's attention away from their previous conversation and onto him, "actually screw that. We suck. We're losers in glee club and wheelchairs, nobody wants to buy from us. Six months ago I could've sold fifty of these on fear alone."

Moving the conversation on once again as deflated pouts came to each of their faces, Quinn had spotted Brittany in the crowd with a friend, "oh my god. What's she doing?"

"I think they're actually kinda friends." Finn thought aloud, knitting his eyebrows together.

"Brittany's always cheating off her test papers in math class." Puck added on with raised eyebrows, leaning in towards the group to contribute to their gossip.

Eyes lighting up as they arrived at the stall, Brittany pointed to the cupcakes in front of her, "look how pretty they are Becky! And Penny didn't make any of them so they'll taste nice don't worry."

As Becky nodded with an excited smile, Santana raised an eyebrow, "Brittany youre supposed to be in your wheelchair."

"I lost it." She replied with an innocent smile no one could be mad with.

After a moment, Becky had been admiring the red and white Cheerios uniform that Santana wore with pride, "are you a cheerleader?" She asked, getting a nod from her in response, "thats so cool."

"So's buying a cupcake, that's really cool." Brittany smiled to her sweetly.

"But I don't have any money." Becky replied sadly, looking at the cupcakes longingly.

Shrugging this off, Brittany immediately dug into her own bag to pull out her wallet, "that's okay, I have some." Passing Becky the dollar with a huge smile, Brittany watched with a fond look upon her face as Penny took the dollar in exchange for a cupcake smiling brightly at both girls stood in front of her. Thanking them all, Becky left happily with her cupcake leaving Brittany with the others, "so, how much do we have now?"

"Well with this one dollar we have... one dollar." Finn told her with a disappointed sigh.

Frowning, Penny was desperate to think of another way to help sell some cupcakes, "I could buy some for my mom, Steve and my sisters, then we'd have six dollars."

"That's still only six dollars Penny." Puck sighed desperately.

"It's still what... five dollars more?" Finn immediately took her side, looking to Quinn for approval on the maths front before turning back to the cupcakes and examining them carefully, "maybe if we put a jellybean on top we'd sell more."

Angered, Quinn was quick to shoot this suggestion down with a harsh glare, "are you an idiot?" She hissed, "how am I supposed to trust you to take care of our baby when you can't even work out how to sell a damn cupcake?"

Also fed up, Finn had decided to stand up for himself and fight back over the top of Penny's head, the pair of them clearly tired and frustrated, "stop attacking me, I'm sick of it!"

"Get a job!" Quinn fought back.

"I'm trying!" Finn yelled, jumping out of his wheelchair and kicking it harshly to release the frustration he was feeling before storming out of the canteen.

                         ♪  ♪  ♪   

FINN HUDSON AND NOAH PUCKERMAN HAD FOUND THEMSELVES IN A FIGHT OVER QUINN. Wheeling herself down the hall, Penny wasn't sure if she was surprised or not to see a crowd surrounding a fight but it came when she saw who was in the fight.

Finding a place besides Mike, the two gave each other a look with raised eyebrows as they watched Puck and Finn roll out of their wheelchairs and crash to the floor with a few punches, "well I wasn't expecting this to happen today." Mike pointed out quietly, holding out a dollar to show her, "I just wanted to buy a cupcake."

"Yes! Seven dollars!" Penny cried out excitedly, counting up how much money they would've made in her head and feeling as though they'd moved on up in the world.

Sharing her enthusiasm, Mike held out a hand for a high five, "seven dollars!" He cheered, the two of them forgetting for a moment that there was a fight going on in front of them until Mr Schue came crashing through besides Penelope and pulled Finn and Puck apart, beginning to give them a pep talk.

"I'm just so stressed about the bake sale." Puck quickly came up with an excuse, causing Mr Schue to scrunch up his face in confusion, "I really like Artie okay?" He reasoned before storming down the hall, making sure to push JBI aside as he went leading the crowd to begin to