Started my daily ficlets to make the hiatus pass, then decided to keep going with a 2nd cycle, and then a 3rd, 4th, etc through 39th cycle. Now cycle 40!
INTRODUCING "CHEAT SHEET" - If you want to know ahead of time when a certain series will be updated next, just reassemble the link below and check out the list, save it, print it, bookmark it, whatever you need!
Go to: gleekathon [dot] tumblr [dot] com [slash] cheatsheet
** UPDATED WITH CYCLE 40 CHEAT SHEET ** Check it out to find out about shift days, starting in cycle 40!
This is a shift day [see above]. There will be another upload this afternoon: The Ties That Bind, chapter 1.
"Showcased"
(Rachel/Puck) The "Rent" company
[POV Swap on "Audience Testing" - leftover from the 'favorites' of cycle 35 (715-735)]
1. Those Who Stay
They had never thought not to go. They were part of it, and that was for the long haul, nothing to shake them free while they still had a shot. The day before, they had been there, waiting to rehearse with everyone else… only it hadn't been everyone else. There had been seven of them missing and it had killed the rehearsals for that day. Those from Glee Club were out of there before long, but for the other five it was different. They'd stood there kind of confused until Santana had told them to go home.
The next day, the five of them weren't sure what would happen. They walked down the halls, searching for some kind of clue from the others in their group that would tell them whether or not they were going to meet that afternoon or not. But before long, through word of mouth, they'd learned that Rachel and Puck were no shows. After that, it didn't take great leaps to guess they wouldn't be rehearsing that day. So they'd go on with their day just… wondering what would come of their musical.
They hadn't expected the phone tree. Sometime before lunch it began, taking most of the day to work its way down. It hadn't taken long for them to figure out the whole thing was alphabetical, from Abrams down to Wyatt. By that logic the first of those five to get the text would be Craig Holmes.
He'd been hiding out from a particularly 'chipper' Azimio when he felt his phone vibrate and startled. He was hoping he hadn't heard, on the other side of the bathroom stall's door. After scrambling to muffle whatever sound the phone might make, he'd taken a breath or two and read the text's heading. It was from Ben, and for a moment it was like he'd forgotten about the musical. But then Ben was the one he'd get "phone treed" by – he was to send this message on to Finn to confirm he'd received and accepted. He wasn't sure what it was, but in that moment he felt something re-emerge in him like hope, snuffing out his Azimio concerns.
If it had reached him, then by the list… Beckett, Beckett… Frey and Gibson, yes… Four of them had already said yes, the ones who hadn't shown up on the previous day's rehearsals… If that was the case, then that was just three more of those to convince.
It was a no brainer for him, really… At first it had seemed impossible, associating with them, considering… Puck… It had been insanity, but he'd gone with it anyway, and he never regretted it. He had a lot of fun, and beyond all hopes had made friends beyond Gus.
He'd always kind of liked to sing, he did, even if it was never anything serious. For one brief moment a while back he had thought of joining Glee Club, but when Puck had joined it, that idea had been buried. Since they'd started working on the musical, and he'd spent time with the guy, he had done some… re-evaluating.
He sent the message on to Finn, then he listened carefully. Holding on to the stall wall he cautiously raised himself to see… Azimio wasn't there… He could be outside… He'd risk it; there were places to be.
Sometime later, Santana would receive and pass on the message to Ellie Michaelson. She didn't usually go by Ellie, but her family would call her that sometimes. Really she went by Elizabeth, like Lizzie Wyatt, but she knew, like Lizzie, that it would get confusing, especially with them being friends, so Ellie it was.
She was in class when she got the message. Her eyes darted up to the teacher, who was blissfully absorbed in drawing something on the board… was that a donkey, or… No, didn't matter. She looked though, her hand reaching in her pencil case for her phone and looking at the screen. She saw the name and… squeaked. The class turned, her hand shot away, barely getting into 'nothing to see here' mode before the teacher turned. She hadn't been caught. Still when the teacher got back to his artistic endeavors, she could see Lizzie looking at her from two rows over. Ellie mimed a phone and – somehow – a tree, and Lizzie's face lit up before she signalled back: answer. She did, sending the message to Brittany, as was their order.
The two of them had been friends since they were in the fourth grade, when Lizzie and her family had moved to Lima. They'd been inseparable from the start. They were freshmen this year, and that year had brought them into a world where Glee Club was already not the most… socially helpful place to be. So they'd passed on it, not putting too much thought into it.
All this had changed when they'd been recruited into the musical. They didn't understand why people were so harsh on them. They were with them on this project, and that wasn't about to change. If the message had made it to her, then the worst had to be over. Most of those left had to be those who'd shown up, except maybe… Greg… They'd know soon enough.
Greg would send the message, to Elliott Thorne. Of all people, it would be him who'd hold out the longest in this run of the phone tree. It wasn't for lack of wanting, but he'd spent enough time on his own to know there was value in thinking things through.
He was as quiet a guy as they came, most times. He'd get lost in his own world, but just because he was silent didn't mean his world was… He loved music, any kind so long as it touched him. He knew his feet would betray him, tapping along. That was how Rachel Berry had caught sight of him and suggested he audition with them. He wasn't sure, but at the same time he had something to prove, to himself and others, that he could do more, open up… so he did.
But now with Schuester finding out, the showcase… He'd kept going, because he didn't want to lose his progress, his new friends, but… when he got the message he got scared, maybe… He knew that after him it was just Gus and Lizzie, that they'd say yes, but… when he held his phone, coming out of last period, he couldn't make his fingers go.
What if it all went to hell? They could all get in trouble, and that was a factor, but… all he really wanted was to minimize the hurt. Quit while you're ahead. If they let it die now, it couldn't get better only to get so much worse… But then they'd know the line had blocked on him, he'd be to blame… It stayed with him all the way home until finally he'd decided it was worth it to go on. He liked who he'd become with them, hated to think what he'd be without them. So the message went to Gus.
August Wiley, Gus to all, had always gone well with this nickname. It was small, and so was he. He wouldn't have imagined he'd be good for anything except really compact dumpster fodder. But then he'd joined the musical – because his best friend Craig had said yes – and there he'd met her…
Elizabeth Wyatt, Lizzie to many, prided herself on being a positive person. This wasn't without fail of course, as she and Ellie had gone and ignored the possibility of joining Glee Club when they'd wanted them for her musical though… It was something she couldn't pass up. Thinking that if she'd said no she wouldn't have met Gus…
He was sweet, funny… a little awkward and jumpy, especially around Puck, but she actually liked that about him. They usually would have been close in classes, alphabetically and all, but then he was a year ahead of her. In the musical though, in the phone tree, it was Wiley, then Wyatt… The day she'd given him her number, his hands had trembled, she'd laughed, and that was all it took… He'd felt bold one day, asked her out with zero percent on expectation but a hundred on result: she'd said yes.
Now there they were, sitting in her room, homework forgotten for the other's lips. Gus had received the message twenty minutes before he saw it. He looked to her and she held her phone as though to say 'tradition.' So even with her within talking distance he'd texted her. She'd looked 'shocked,' then completed the phone tree by sending it to Puck before tugging at Gus' collar and pulling him back to her lips. The work was done… everyone was on board to meet, the next morning, out on the football field.
TO BE CONTINUED (NEXT THURSDAY)