What Was Missed
By: Agent-Ayu
Chapter 1
Summary: AU. Before New Directions there was the first McKinley High Glee Club, made up of twelve high school outcasts and their director Lillian Adler. Shelby Corcoran, a young Broadway bound diva, moves to Lima with her father and starts the first Glee Club.
Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters, except all the characters that were not in the series and this story.
She looked up at the school with enthusiasm as if she was standing in Time Square again. "New town, new school, new classmates, new clubs. Shelby Corcoran, you can do this. One day you will be in New York on a real Broadway stage. Just need to survive four years here and then it's off to Tisch at NYU! Alright, let's do this!"
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High school. The best or worst four years of someone's life besides middle school. High school is supposed to be when someone starts to figure out what they want to do with their life, and then there are the students who already have an idea what they want to do and will stop at nothing to reach that goal. Whether they succeed or not depends how they take their experience and use them.
"Get out of my way, fag!" Russell Fabray shoved his teammate against one of the lockers.
"I'm not gay, Fabray!" The kicker shouted back at his quarterback. He rubbed his shoulder as someone came up behind him.
"Hiram, are you alright?"
Hiram shrugged the other person off. "Don't touch me. And my name is Axel! You know my whole team thinks I'm gay because I'm actually nice to you. It's your fault."
The kicker stormed off just as the head cheerleader turned the corner to see him leave. "Hey, Axel."
"Whatever."
"Well… okay then." She kept on walking until she saw her friend banging his head against one of the lockers. "Leroy? Hey, what happened?"
Leroy pulled the cheerleader into an empty classroom. "He hates me. You and I both know he's gay, but he won't admit. Judy, what am I going to do?" He started pacing back and forth. "What am I going to do when my boyfriend won't even be friendly to me in public as classmates? I'm fine with keeping us a secret, but I want to be respected by him at least when we're in public."
"In my honest opinion, leave him be." Judy Ross sat on one of the tabletops. "Look at you, you were terrified during freshmen and sophomore year. Even though I knew you were gay, I didn't pressure you into coming out. You came out on your own and…"
"You're quietly supporting me because of your father."
Judy slowly nodded. "Leroy…"
"I know. I was terrified my family would disown me too. But the fact my parents accept me, fully support me, and while I do wish my best friend could openly support me too… I don't want you to lose your family over me." Leroy pulled Judy into a hug. "Besides, why do you have to date Russell Fabray? The guy is a jerk to everyone who isn't white, straight, and Christian."
"Again my dad. I don't want to date him. My own dad and his buddy-buddy friendship with Russell's parents forced me into that relationship. You remember when we secretly saw Karate Kid last summer and the whole thing with Ali and Johnny? Well, I'm Ali and Russell is Johnny."
Leroy just stared at Judy. "You're a dork."
"Yes, I am. Now come on we've got the first day of Senior Year and sign up for clubs that have limited spacing!"
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"Let's see… Oh! Fashion Club! Signing up for that. Quilting Club. Definitely!" Elizabeth Holt stepped back and tapped her pen to her chin as she viewed all the other sign up sheets. Out of the corner of her eye she saw a girl walk up to the bulletin board looking at everything quickly and not sparing a second glance.
"What? No, Glee Club? No, Musicals?"
Elizabeth smiled as she realized this girl next to her wasn't from Lima. "Honey, McKinley High School never had a Glee Club and only musicals you'll get here that aren't in Columbus, Cincinnati, Toledo, Dayton, or Cleveland is at the community theater. Even they don't give those musicals justice."
The girl looked over at her in shock. "You really know your Broadway tour locations."
"And you're obviously not from around here. Lima is a small enough that even if you don't know everyone by name, you at least know what everyone looks like. I haven't seen you before or your outfit for that matter." Elizabeth looked the girl over with her outfit.
"Do you have a problem with argyle?"
"No, I think you look amazing in it. Also very nice color choice, blue suits you. I think red would look just as fabulous though. I'm Elizabeth Holt. It's Elizabeth or Liz. Not Beth, not Lizzie, or any other disturbing 'cutesy' nicknames." Elizabeth held out her hand.
The other girl smiled widely before shaking Elizabeth's hand. "Shelby Corcoran, future Broadway Star, the next Barbra Streisand, and EGOT winner."
Elizabeth raised her eyebrow, highly impressed. "You set you goals really high. I'm starting to like you more and more, Shelby. I'm going to be the next best fashion designer this world has seen. Most people say you have to be in France or Italy to be a world-class fashion designer, but I'll prove them wrong. I will get the respect of the fashion industry from New York."
"Liz, this looks like the beginning of a very beautiful friendship!" Shelby looped her arm around Elizabeth's as they began walking down the hall.
"So, Shelby. Where are you from and what year are you in?"
"I'm from Akron and I'm a freshwoman."
"Oh, you did not just do that!" Elizabeth teased. "I'm a freshman too. Give me your schedule, I want to see what classes with have together."
Shelby immediately handed her schedule to Elizabeth. "You're outfit looks amazing too, by the way. Who's the designer?"
Elizabeth marked off classes the two of them shared together. "It's part of the Starting Point series of the Holt Collection. Meaning I'm the designer. This is one of the few outfits I wanted to wear so much that I sewed it together." She handed Shelby back her schedule "Will you be willing to be part of a new series? You can model the clothes for me, and it'll be inspired around you. It'll be the Corcoran series of the Holt Collection."
The dark brunette nodded. "I will be honored."
The light brunette threw her arm around Shelby's shoulders. "Shelby, you're now my new best friend. Let's see if we can come up with an idea to get that Glee Club and musical started."
Shelby looked down at her marked schedule. "We have all the core classes together along with Choir. You're definitely my new best friend too."
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Judy looked at the club bulletin board and let out a frustrated sigh. "They still hadn't found a replacement for Mr. Kim. This sucks! None of the other teachers can teach dance and Coach Richter is swamped with coming up with new routines for the cheer squad that she can't be the advisor or teacher for dance club."
"Don't you get enough dancing in with cheerleading?" A very tall football player asked as he wrote his name down for the Team Sports Club.
"Chris, if you listened to me at all during the past three years, you would know that cheerleading isn't the same as actual dancing. Did you manage to make first string Varsity this year?"
"Nope. Your boyfriend is still the starting Quarterback."
"Argh. Please do not address him as 'my boyfriend'. Russell Fabray is an egotistical, selfish, controlling, and white supremacies asshole. He's no better than my dad. And I'm stuck playing pretend at home. Only reason my dad hasn't heard about how I'm nothing like he thinks I am is because my parents don't care about my school life as long as I'm the head cheerleader, honor roll student, president of the celibacy club, and become valedictorian when I graduate."
"Okay… thanks for all the insight. Don't tell Fabray, right?"
Judy nodded.
"Lips are sealed. Hey, Burt! Think fast!" Chris tossed the football down the hall before walking away from Judy and the bulletin board.
"This year is already sucking, Judy." Leroy complained as he walked up to her. "Hiram already snagged another girl into his charms just so he can try to further prove he's not gay. He can sleep around with as many girls and people will still know he's gay."
"I don't understand how you can handle that."
"I love him, and he's scared. As long as he doesn't get STDs, I'll be fine. I know he doesn't look at girls like you look a boys."
Judy raised her eyebrow at Leroy. Leroy tried not to smile until he started chuckling. "Judy, I've seen you look at boys and girls, and you look at girls the way I look at boys. You're secret is safe with me, dear."
The cheerleader rolled her eyes before giving Leroy a half hug. "They're hot, but none of them are someone I'm willing to try to come out of the closet."
"You are so a baby gay."
"Okay, okay! Enough please!" Judy lightly elbowed Leroy in the ribs. "I like girls."
"Thank you! Now I can make more private gay jokes about you and around you."
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Elizabeth stabbed her fork into her salad. "Why don't you ask Mrs. Adler? She seemed like she wants the Choir class to have more spirit. She practically wanted us to start dancing even though we can't if we're going to be part of choir competitions. She's like the perfect candidate for being the advisor of Glee Club."
They were in the farthest corner of the cafeteria where they were least likely to be disturbed. The two girls managed to get a list of all the teachers and who were the advisors of the different clubs.
"Shelby, if you get her to be the faculty advisor, you can be the President and I'll be Vice President. That'll look great on our college applications."
"Why wouldn't you want to try and be President?" Shelby asked as she took a bit of her sandwich.
"Because you need it more than me. You're going to be on Broadway. I'm going to be a Fashion Designer. What kind of Broadway star would you be, if you weren't the President of the Glee Club you started?"
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"Mrs. Adler?"
Lillian Adler looked up from her paper work. "Uh… I'm sorry, dear. I don't remember your name. However, I do recognize you from my Choir I class."
"Yes." Shelby walked into Lillian's office. "I'm Shelby Corcoran, future Broadway Star, the next Barbra Streisand, and EGOT winner."
The teacher laughed in excitement. "Wow, you're the first student I've ever had that made a claim like that. Good, good. We need more students like you. Now I know I won't forget your name. Shelby Corcoran. Shelby, what can I do for you? Please sit."
Shelby excitedly took a seat. "My friend Elizabeth and I couldn't help, but notice how hard you tried to get the rest of the Choir class motivated today. How you practically wanted us to start dancing. I'm from Akron and before my dad and I moved here, I was originally going to attend Carmel High School. Carmel has a Glee Club, a show choir. I was wondering if you could be the advisor of the McKinley High Glee Club? It's still choir, only we can dance while singing."
The older woman sighed and leaned back in her seat. "I love the idea, Shelby, however, I can't do much with only two students interested."
"How many students do we need to start a club?"
"At least four. You get two more students who will sign up with you and Elizabeth, then I'll sign off as being the faculty advisor." Shelby jumped out of her seat and started heading out of the door, but was stopped by Lillian calling for her again. "One more thing, even with four members we won't be able to compete in any competitions. We need at least twelve members in order to compete."
"Don't worry Mrs. Adler, I'll get us two more members to start the club and then we'll get the other eight members." With that Shelby left the Choir teacher's office quickly to go tell Elizabeth the great news.
Lillian chuckled as she looked at her paper work again. She grabbed her Choir I class roaster and looked at the little information they give about the students. "Shelby Corcoran, 9th grade. Look out McKinley. She's going to change these hallways for the next four years. Shelby Corcoran, future Broadway Star, the next Barbra Streisand, and EGOT winner."