Crawford Country Day School, also known as the sister school to Dalton Academy, stood as a daunting building surrounded by a thick forest. Year in and year out, privileged girls from privileged families joined the school, learning the arts and sciences (as only a private school can offer), along with home economics and musical theory.
Naturally, a Glee Club had been started six years ago, as an attempt of rebellion against musical theory and not the practice, but it had soon became wonderfully popular and became a tradition. To follow the ways originally set by Dalton, the girls affectionately called themselves the "Cardinals", but no official names had ever been given.
They did not compete; frankly, they were good enough in the girls' opinion, and no one truly desired to become competitive because, naturally, women were too refined for competition.
This year (but one did not truly know yet), the Cardinals would become something they had never been before, led by someone who truly did not know what she was doing, if she was doing anything at all.
Straightening the last pleat of her plaid skirt, Jane Duval walked out of her mother's wonderfully cool car and into the sweltering sun. The campus of Crawford Country Day School stood in front of her, intimidating the blonde girl; she took a deep gulp and gave an unsteady wave to her mother, who waved back and drove away. Now, Jane was alone.
She supposed that she could be thankful that she was a Duval. Her family did, after all, have a wonderful name, and thanks to her brother, girls would be begging to be her friend.
Because there was the infamous list of "Dalton's Most Desirable", an annual poll depicting the cutest (and hottest), boys at Dalton Academy was ready to be updated, and Nick was in the top five. Jane was certain that she had never used her brother to her own personal gain, but this would probably be the perfect moment. Suppose she could convince her brother to maybeplayfully flirt with a few girls . . .
Some (Jerry), called her desperate. And she probably was; her family name was intimidating, and no parent wanted their child to befriend a Duval, because her father knew everything about anyone. Nick had never seemed too concerned, but Jane was a naturally social person; unfortunately, she had no one to socialize with.
Luckily, she was now in high school. Her father had long decided that she and Nick would be attending Crawford Country and Dalton, respectively, but they had to spend elementary school and junior high in a normal public school, just to see how it was so that they were not shut off from the world.
"Good morning!" a small girl with curly pigtails greeted, catching Jane by surprise. Jane had never considered herself tall, but this girl was so petite it was adorable; she was full-figured, but not overly so. Her brown hair hung in perfect curls, and she unintentionally batted her long eyelashes in some sort of endearing way. "Please tell me that you're a freshman!" she pleaded, and Jane could only nod in response. "Perfect! I'm Bridgette, by the way."
Bridgette was such a wonderful name, and Jane could only wonder why her parents had not named her something creative. Honestly, Jane was a boring name, much like her brother had been given a dull name. They were bland names for bland people (Nick was bland, anyway).
"I'm Jane," the blonde answered, eyebrow raising. Perhaps making friends wasn't as difficult as she had originally thought. "Um, do you know anything about Dalton?"
"Yeah! I'm excited to finally get to vote on the cutest one! I'm not for sure; I mean, Blaine Anderson's really cute, but that Jeff's not too bad-looking, either! Or, what about Nick?" the girl began excitedly rambling about how much she enjoyed each and every Warbler's appearance and the way they seemed to be so perfect when they sang. "What do you think?"
Jane did have to admit that Blaine was pretty attractive, and she was jealous of her brother for dating Jeff (he still didn't think that she knew about the two), but Nick? He wasn't cute, not in the least bit; his hair stuck up in odd places, and his smile was weird. Not to mention that he was short but not in the sweet way that Blaine was. But if it made her popular . . .
"I know the Warblers," Jane said quickly, perhaps too quickly. "They come over to my house all the time." It was true - when her father wasn't around, the Duval home was the perfect place for acoustics. The boys came there whenever the school was closed or they were on break; she supposed that she was like the Warblers' mascot, in some ways. They all knew her and seemed to like her.
Bridgette stopped to stare in disbelief. "Did you just say that you know Blaine Anderson?" she squeaked, beginning to jump up and down in excitement. "Could you introduce me, please? Oh, please!" The brunette's hair was bouncing in different ways, her pretty face becoming more and more distorted with giggles.
"Yeah, I could ask my brother, if you want," the other offered, trying to be as nonchalant as she could about having a brother in the prestigious Warblers. But Jane couldn't help but break out into a grin once Bridgette nearly broke her ankle landing from one of her jumps. "Nick."
The girl wasn't moving now, and Jane was quite certain that she had said something horribly wrong. She knew her brother wasn't hot, but maybe he wasn't even cute. Maybe Bridgette only added him into her squealing because she pitied him and his horrible looks; everyone knew that Jeff was the hotter of the two, anyway, Jane reasoned (she'd have to remind herself to kill Nick and his terrible countenance later).
"Your brother is Nick?" The last word was emphasized in a sort of wonderful delusion. "Could you introduce me? He's only, like, the second cutest, next to Blaine!"
So, Nick wasn't that bad looking, after all.
Jane nodded numbly, becoming only more excited that she had made her first real friend, save for Jerry, who was still in public school. The blonde absentmindedly began to toy with her hair, not wanting to look too thankful for having a new friend.
"That sounds good. Yeah, sure." Jane supposed that she should stop babbling at that moment.
Bridgette smiled widely. "By the way, are you going to be joining the Cardinals? I really want to, but I'm not sure if I'm a good enough singer. I have, like, the highest voice in the world!" She pulled her hair back in a nervous sort of way, much like Jane did.
"I really want to; singing kinda runs in the family."
Jane began to think of her mother, the lovely Natalie Duval with the softest voice and loveliest dark hair that fell simply around her shoulders; her father, who had a strong bass voice, always seemed to be on a perfect pitch.
The two girls found a bench to sit on, each babbling incessantly about the thing that they were most excited for, concerning school. Bridgette was dreading gym class, as she wasn't the thinnest girl (Jane hadn't noticed because Bridgette's face was so sweet and pretty). Jane herself was terrified of math because she, unlike her brother, wasn't quite a natural mathematician. She did suppose, however, that she might be able to convince Blaine to tutor her into becoming a genius.
The bell, a large brass bell that chimed eight times, called school into order, and the two girls began to follow the large crowd of young women filing into the building.
And, as nervous as she was, Jane couldn't help but feel strangely at calm here, just like her brother and his friends felt safe at Dalton. She wanted to sing with her forgettable alto voice and perhaps be noticed for once.
AN: Hey guys! So, yes, I have adopted this story from theAkuRokuFaNaTiC. I will be uploading the chapters they have written, then I'll begin on writing some of my own! :) I hope to get this story more popular and actually go somewhere with it. I do have one question, though: What would you like to see happen in the future? I already have some ideas, but I'd love to hear from you guys.
As always, I don't own anything GLEE, and please read and review! :)
