He glanced around the room, a room that suddenly felt all too small, claustrophobic. He felt sometimes, like now, that he was on the outside, looking in. A part of them, but apart from them.
Rachel was doing some strange breathing thing. But it looked soothing at least. More soothing than the volcano of nerves inside his stomach.
Mercedes was singing some scales.
Quinn and Sam were practicing their duet.
Some people were doing some super strange enunciation drills.
Even his girlfriend was warming up her voice.
He wasn't. He wouldn't waste the time.
He leaned against the wall, again feeling out of place.
He'd originally joined the Glee club, along with other football players, to help Coach Sylvester. They were supposed to destroy the Glee club from the inside, along with the cheerleaders. He and Kevin and Puck. Everyone had been sure that he would be the way to do it, to run the Glee club into the ground. It was true after all that he couldn't sing.
That was how it started. He was Other Asian. And he was on a mission. Mission bring down the team of misfits. He'd never really understood why, but he did understand the threat. The one that said that if he was unsuccessful, he might not have a spot on the team. He was counting on that spot on the team, for scholarships, for college, for a future. So he had gone to the first meeting.
But he had been surprised by how, even in one rehearsal, he was almost inspired by them. Sure, he didn't say any of this to any of the guys, or the coach. He wasn't dumb. He knew what the reactions would be. They would call him soft, weak. He might not be first string, he might not play in the next game. He might be an untrustworthy saboteur. But he had been, inspired, that is, by their spirit. Against all odds, they persevered, they wanted to win, they sang, they trained, they did the best they could. And so he hadn't sung. But he had danced.
Somewhere along the way, it's not that any of them forgot what they were to do, but they had enjoyed Glee club too much to end it. All of them. Not a one amongst them wanted to see something they had become such a part of fall apart. And then he had fallen in love, with Tina, or Asian, as Coach Sylvester had always referred to her. She had almost become that in his head, like he had almost become Other Asian. But there was more to both of them than their ethnicity.
And so here they were at sectionals. He had no voice to warm up because he couldn't sing. But he still had a home here, with these people, in this club.