Glee: The Beginning (3 page)

‘A Cheerio ’s duties are never done,’ Quinn quoted Coach Sylveste r. She glanced over Finn’s shoulde r, and her gaze landed on Puck Puckerman, Finn’s teammate and one of his best friends. Puck was always doing something he shouldn ’t
20

434T_tx.indd 20

06/07/2010 08:35

do, and now he’d fashioned a slingshot out of two pencils and a rubber band and was trying to aim a grape at someone at the other end of his table. He looked stupid with his silly Mohawk carved into what would have been beautiful, glossy black hair. But, still, there was something about him. Sex appeal, her mother might have called it if she were talking abou t a movi e star. Puck exude d it. Somethin g raw and dangerous that made Quinn shiver whenever she thought about being alone with him.

‘What are you doing after school?’ she heard Finn ask, and she dragged her eyes from Puck before Finn finished his sentence and his big puppy-dog eyes met hers.

‘Practice, as usual.’ Somehow Quinn ’s eyes were magnetic-ally drawn back to Puck. This time, howeve r, he seemed to sense it, and a cocky half grin came across his face before Quinn could look away. Great. He was definitely going to tease her about that later, and she would have to pretend he’d imagined it all. Quinn felt her face flush, but she re-covered quickl y. She turne d to Finn and put her han d on his bare arm.

‘Wha t are you doin g tomorrow ? Will you come to Celibacy Club with me after Cheerio s practice ? Maybe we could go out for froze n yogur t afte rward. ’ Quin n was tired of waitin g for Finn to make a move , so she’d decide d to just ask him out herself. Thoug h they’ d been friend s for the past year, Quinn and Finn weren ’t a couple , and Quin n was ready to lose her single statu s for a while . After all, a quee n need s her king.
21

434T_tx.indd 21

06/07/2010 08:35

‘Yeah, I’d like that.’ Finn couldn ’t get over the feel of Quinn ’s warm palm on his arm. It was worth putting up with Celibacy Club, Quinn ’s second-favorite after-school activit y. Going to a Celibacy Club meeting didn ’t sound fun at all, but it was a small price to pay to get to spend some time with Quinn. She was the hottest girl in school, even if she could be a little harsh sometimes. But the competitive edge she got from all that time spent with the Cheerios had prob-ably made her so driven. And her lips – they were heartshaped and looked like the softest lips Finn had ever seen. He’d be crazy not to be into her, and Finn Hudson was a lot of things,

but crazy wasn ’t one of them.

22

434T_tx.indd 22

06/07/2010 08:35

three

Choir room, Monday after school

After school on Monday, the hallways of McKinley High emptied out as students scuttled off to extra-curricular activities, sports practices, or, in the case of McKinley’s many underachievers,

detention. The choir

room, across the hallway from the auditorium, was empty except for the remaining members of the Glee Club: Mercedes, Tina, Kurt, and Artie Abrams , one of the few McKinley students in a wheelchai r. The large room, lined with thick soundproofing materials, had tiered platforms designed for optimal acoustic qualit y. During the day, the choir room was inhabited by the band geeks, who were, for some unknown reason, seen as higher on the social totem pole than the Glee

kids. Lining the walls were lockers in which students could
23

434T_tx.indd 23

06/07/2010 08:35

store their musical instruments,

and the shelves were filled

with sheet music. A blackboard on the front wall listed the ma rching band ’s set list for the upcoming football game – ‘We Will Rock You’, ‘Another One Bites the Dust’, and the main theme from
Star Wars
–as well as the jazz band ’s practice schedule: THIS WEEK: MONDAY THRU FRIDAY, 6:30 AM. And at the very top of the board, in big letters, it read: FALL IN LOVE WITH

MUSIC RECITAL: THIS FRIDAY. A shiny black grand piano sat on the floor next to a full drum set, the drumsticks sitting on the round black stool, waiting to be used.

The evidence of the thriving band program seemed only to highlight the paltriness of the Glee program, which had devolved over the years from a group of several dozen kids to the four students in the room. Since its glory days in the 1990s, when McKinley High had been a regular threat at

regionals and sectionals, Glee Club had fallen on hard times. With budget cuts and little student interest, the role of staff supe rvisor for Glee had become something

of a joke. It had

been handed off from teacher to uninterested teache r, and under creepy Sandy Ryerson ’s mostly apathetic guidance, the club had virtually disappeared.

That is, except for the handful of students who were still willing to spen d time after school , risking furthe r social censure, just to sing.

Unfortunatel y, the group of four wasn ’t exactly meshing.

As Mercedes, the most accomplished singer, belted out the lyrics to
West Side Story
’s ‘Tonight’, the others hummed and

24

434T_tx.indd 24

06/07/2010 08:35

sang backup vocals, but something was missing. It wasn ’t that they were
bad
. They weren ’t. Tina had a lovely alto, even if she lacked confidence. Amazingl y, Kurt could hit a high F. And Artie’s voice was deep and rich. They just weren ’t
enough
.

‘We sound like a bunch of amateurs,’ Kurt announced after Mercedes ’s voice trailed off, vocalizing what eve ryone was thinking. He stuck his hands into the back pockets of his gray skinny jeans. ‘No offense, Mercedes,’ he quickly added, seeing her face cloud over. ‘It’s not you. You’re awesome.’

‘I know.’ Mercedes cleared her throat and stared out the window at a group of boys in soccer shorts tossing a Frisbee.

‘We’re

just . . . not

clicking.’

‘We’re running out of time,’ Tina reminded the group, although no one had forgotten. They all could see the huge letters looming at the top of the blackboard. ‘The show is on Frida y.’

‘We’re going to be humiliated. Furthe r.’ Artie rolled his wheelchair around in a giant circle. The collar of his white button-down shirt was stained blue. ‘I got slushied twice this morning.’

‘That’s just wrong.’ Kurt shook his head knowingl y. The jocks in this school were animals. Strong, sinew y, sweaty animals.

‘We just need to get it togethe r,’ Mercedes announced, clapping her hands. She’d been singing in her chu rch’s choir since she was eight, and she could bring tears to the eyes of the crankiest old lady with her rendition of ‘Amazing Grace’.
25

434T_tx.indd 25

06/07/2010 08:35

She was the shining star of the Glee Club, and she’d be damned if she was going to be humiliated in front of her peers. The other kids in Glee were great, too – at least, indi-viduall y. They just needed a little extra something to tie it all togethe r. They would just have to keep singing until their tongues fell off. ‘Take it from the top. Again.’

‘Again?’ Tina moaned, sinking down into a chai r. She loved singing, but she wasn ’t sure about doing it in front of the entire school. She’d agreed to do the show only because eve ryone else wanted to do it, but now she was having second thoughts. ‘We need more than practice.’

‘Yeah, we need to stop whining and just get it right. I’m definitel y not going to make a fool of myself onstage.’

Me rcedes shot a piercing glare at each one of them. ‘Are you with me?’

They started again. Halfway through the song, which had improved slightly with this round, the door to the choir room flew open, clanking loudly against a rack of music stands. In the doo rway stood Rachel Berry, looking like she’d stepped out of an episode of
The Brady Bunch
in her corduroy skirt, collegiat e sweate r, and kneesocks . The grin on her face stretched from ear to ear. The sight was so unexpected – for eve ryone except Kurt – that all the Glee members stopped singing,

their voices trailing off into

silence.

Not for long . ‘That was a fairly reprehensibl e rendition of a Broadwa y classic. Artie, you were flat; Kurt, you were sharp . And girl whos e nam e I don ’t know yet’ – she pointed
26

434T_tx.indd 26

06/07/2010 08:35

at Tina – ‘you need to actually open your mouth when you sing. And Mercedes . . .’ She trailed off when she saw the look on Mercedes ’s face.

‘Oh no, you don ’t,’ Me rcedes replied, hand on her hip. She took a step forward, as if she were about to tackle Rachel.

‘Who died and made you Simon Cowell?’

‘Are those sequins on her kneesocks?’ Tina whispered to Artie, eyeing Rachel’s white kneesocks. They were, indeed, trimmed with gold sequins. ‘And she’s giving
us
advice?’ Still, Tina made sure she opened her mouth when she said it. She knew she had a problem with enunciation.

Rachel remained unflustered. She plastered a bright yet determined smile on her face and stepped into the room, her ballet flats smacking gently against the linoleum floor. ‘After much consideration, I’ve decided to join you in Glee Club, even though I’ve had professional vocal training practically since birth and am overqualified for anything this school can offer.’ She paused while the room remained silent. ‘And after hearing that travesty you call a performance, I’m confi dent that I’m exactly what you need to take you to the top.’

Tina and Artie glanced at each other in confusion, and Kurt nervously ran his hand through his hair, ruining the carefully sculpted look he’d spent twenty minutes perfecting in front of the bathroom mirro r, one spray of Frédéric Fekkai aerosol hair spray at a time. Had he been so blinded by her talent that he’d forgotten completely that Rachel Berry was an irritating, brown-nosing know-it-all who had an almost
27

434T_tx.indd 27

06/07/2010 08:35

intuitive way of alienating every person in the room? Had he made a huge mistake by inviting her to the rehearsal?

He glanced at Me rcedes, who was looking Rachel up and down with an unamused look. In fact, she looked positively pissed. ‘I don ’t know who you think you are, Little Miss Pink Heart-Shaped Barrettes, but you’re not our coach, and no one invited you here, so maybe you should just shut your mouth and stroll back to your Disney movie.’

‘Actually . . .’ Kurt took a deep breath and faced the group.

‘I invited her.’

Mercedes blinked. ‘
What?
’ She stared at him as if he’d just told her he’d killed her pupp y.

‘Look, we’ve got to face it. We suck. Glee is pretty much dead, anywa y, unless we do something to save it.’ He fingered the gold watch he’d inherited from his maternal grandfathe r.

‘We heard Rachel sing this morning on the PA, and while I’m sure we’d all admit that her self-promotion was startlingly transparent, she
was
incredible.’

‘Thank you,’ Rachel replied priml y. She had learned by now to ignore the backhanded parts

of compliments and

focus only on the positive. With a career in show business in front of her, that was the only way to do it. Kurt nodde d briefly towar d her. He foun d it slightly shocking that someone so interested in the performing arts could have such terrible style. The kneesocks were atrocious.

‘Although she may not be what we’re used to, I think Rachel is the obvious solution to our problem.’

28

434T_tx.indd 28

06/07/2010 08:35

‘I can ’t believe this,’ Mercede s cried out, rubbin g her temples. She stared at Kurt. Suddenl y, in his cha rcoal-gray cashmere turtleneck and slim-fitting gray pants, he looked like a stranger to her. Kurt thought she wasn ’t good enough?

He was supposed to be her friend. She felt as if he’d slushied her pride.

‘Mercedes, you’re awesome, d-d-don ’t get us wrong.’ Tina was surprised to find herself speaking up. She thought Rachel had sounded really good that morning, too. Way better than Mrs Applethorpe ’s monotonous drone. Tina realized that it might be good for her to be around someone who was so bold and confident. Maybe it would help her ove rcome some of her shyness. ‘But we need more than one really strong singer. We need someone who can make all of us bette r.’

Mercedes narrowed her eyes. That morning in homeroom, whe n she hear d Rachel sing over the loudspeake r, she’d thought,
Damn, that white girl can sing
. Mercedes tried to picture the four of them, with no Rachel, performing on the stage in front of the entire school at the Fall in Love with Music recital. Short of some miracle, it was going to be a total disaste r. Maybe, just maybe, the solution was standing in front of them in an annoyingly short skirt and sparkly socks. She took a deep breath. ‘Okay. She can stay.’

Rachel nodded. She wanted to remind Me rcedes that she didn ’t exactly
need
her permission, but for once she held herself back.

Mercedes glared at her. ‘For now.’

29

434T_tx.indd 29

06/07/2010 08:35

‘You won ’t be sorry.’ Rachel sat down on the piano bench and ran her fingers along the keys. ‘From what I’ve heard, we need to get serious. Enough baby steps. It’s not going to be all easy, and it’s not going to be all fun. But if you really want to improve, you need to follow my lead. And we’re going to need to practice here every day after school, until the sho w.’

Mercedes raised an eyebro w. This was going to be an adventure.
30

434T_tx.indd 30

06/07/2010 08:35

four

Mr Schue ster ’s Spanish II clas s, Tuesday mo rning
T
ina turned around in her seat. ‘All I could think about last night was how much better we sounded when she sang with us,’ she admitted to Artie before the start of Mr Schuester ’s Spanish II class on Tuesday morning. It was the first period of the day, and one of Tina’s favorites. Talking to Artie first thing in her morning made it easier to get through a whole day of teasing. Artie was sweet. And she liked looking at the giant poster that hung on the wall next to her desk: the Picasso ink drawing of Don Quixote on his skinny horse.