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 61st cycle. Now cycle 62!

TOP 15 COUNTDOWN - Something I do once in a while, if you will recall, where I take my favorite characters, ships, friendships, series (from my daily stories) and put them in order, the number 1 of which gets a seven-chapter story in the end :)
Coming in at number 15: The Newbies (Marley, Kitty, Unique, Jake, Ryder)

"Newer Directions"
Marley, Kitty, Unique, Jake, Ryder

When the school year had started, none of them knew each other all that well. Some were complete strangers, coming from different schools and different worlds, but even then there was nothing that would suggest they could end up where they were now, looking around their circle and accepting that these were their friends. They were not just any friends, either.

It wasn't simply that they didn't know each other. Nothing indicated to them that they could ever find a way to fit in together, not completely. Yes, a couple of them were jocks, and one was a cheerleader, but even that didn't come off as a guarantee. It had taken months, and several hours spent in a choir room together, but they had come to see they shared a lot more than they believed. They weren't perfect still. There would be some rough edges that still required some softening, but they were taking steps in the right direction, so maybe they had better take advantage of it.

That had been the reasoning, at heart, when Marley had suggested they could do a number, the five of them, for Glee Club.

"I wouldn't say no to that," Unique was the first to throw in support, with a smile toward her friend. "No point in being fabulous if no one can see it."

"Yeah, why not?" Jake agreed, side to side with Marley. "What do you think?" he turned the question on to Ryder. Things had been a bit shaky between them for a while, but they were getting better now, and that was what he really wanted; he hoped Ryder did as well.

"Count me in," he replied confidently, and with four of them having already answered, all eyes were turning toward the one who had joined them last. Kitty had turned away, and for a moment they thought she would leave, but instead she had shut the door, returning to them with a frown.

"What? I just told you I was with you guys, what else will it take for you to believe me?"

"I believe you," Unique told her, and the small smile this got out of Kitty was every bit worth seeing.

"Right, then let's talk songs. I don't have all day, you know?" the blonde looked from one face to the next. They would sit there for a time, quietly rolling through their heads, trying to find one song that could work for the five of them.

"Maybe we should do a mash-up?" Marley advanced the idea nervously. "I mean we're sort of that, aren't we? Different things, put together?"

"That's not bad," Ryder approved.

"So what if we're different?" Kitty wasn't as happy with the suggestion. "I thought this was just about us doing something together, doesn't it kind of speak for itself that we are who we are without us having to hammer it in to their heads?"

"That was almost a compliment," Unique blinked. "But maybe she does have a point."

"No, you're right," Marley agreed. "So it's back to the drawing board then."

"It doesn't have to say anything, does it?" Jake spoke up. "We can just do a song we all like."

"Fine by me," Kitty was the first to reply, followed by the others.

Very soon they would have their song selected, which left them with the task of figuring out who would sing which part. It could have quickly degenerated into them all attempting to lock down a solo, but then they had stopped, starting over and slowly building the song up with each of them. They were all well aware of what this song was meant to represent for them, and even if their collective friendship was still a work in progress, as far as this song went, they were all on the same page.

"She's an odd one that girl," Unique would come up by Marley's side after a while, as the two of them watched Kitty standing on the other side of the room, laughing as she watched Ryder and Jake mock-planning choreography to go along with their number. "Ninety percent of the time she's Kitty the Hellcat and I want to scratch her out, but then all of a sudden she's as soft as one of those toilet paper commercial kittens." Marley smirked at this.

"It's not so bad," she insisted.

"I wish I could see the world the way you do sometimes," Unique told her. "Mind you, after today, I'd be willing to raise her to an 85/15 split."

"80/20?" Marley asked.

"I'll try," Unique breathed.

Jake and Ryder both knew they would need time to get past this rift that had grown between them. They were doing better today than they'd been in the last couple of weeks, but just because they had started moving ahead did not mean the past magically erased itself. There would always be this lingering thought, wondering if what had happened would happen again. It made them more guarded, and while that could be a good thing, it would also mean some things could never be the way they used to be.

"No, no, wait, try it like this," Ryder would tap Jake's shoulder before demonstrating a new 'dance move.'

"What do you call that one?" Jake asked as Ryder popped back on to his feet.

"The Dizzy Giraffe," he declared, like he was daring him not to laugh.

"Looked more like an octopus to me," Jake deflected, and Ryder had to concur.

Part of Kitty felt like she shouldn't have found it so funny, but she knew there was little to no chance that it wouldn't make her laugh. Bad dancing, especially on purpose, was a proper weakness for her, and at that moment the boys were displaying exactly that.

Sometimes she wished they knew how much it meant for her to be there with them, to call them friends and have them look at her in the same way. She knew she hadn't exactly given them much reason to trust her, but she wanted to try and work on that, she really did. Today had been the biggest step she'd taken.

"Alright, let's try this again. For real this time," she called out, and the rest of them came to join her.

THE END

A/N: This is a one-shot ficlet, which means that signing up for story alert will not bring you any alerts.
In the event of a sequel, the story will be separate from this one. And as chapter stories go, they are
always clearly indicated as such [ex: "Days 204-210" in the summary] Thank you!