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 66th cycle. Now cycle 67!

"Without a Tune & Out of Tune"
Gen2!world New Directions
Berry-St series
(all series now listed under the communities tab in my profile)

In the fall of 2009, something had been on the brink of happening at McKinley High, something that would have meant life changing experiences, in a room with a piano, three rows of chairs, a dozen kids and a Spanish teacher. There was only one problem, and her name was Sue Sylvester.

The Glee Club had not been very big in the beginning, just five of them in that room, and the discord was already threatening to stop them from getting off the ground before Coach Sylvester had gotten her claws in and brought their flight back down to earth, grounding it permanently. She had gotten her way. The barely born New Directions were done for, before they'd been able to really see if they could become something, all of them together.

The notice had been there on the wall next to the locked choir room door: Glee Club was cancelled indefinitely.

People had fought against the decision, which was to say Rachel Berry had fought against it. Principal Figgins had nearly given in, just so she would leave him alone. Finally he'd had to resort to something just shy of a threat, telling her if she didn't cease and desist, there would be a note in her file, and she would be in detention until graduation, which would also go in her file. She had retracted at that, though she wasn't yet willing to give up.

But as time went on, it was becoming more and more obvious that they just had no hope. They weren't going to overturn their decision, not for five kids, especially when only one really seemed willing to fight for it. As much as she didn't want to, she had to put her own efforts aside. There were other ways for someone of her talent to get noticed. She would find a way somehow.

Will Schuester had really believed this was going to be the thing that turned his life around, the thing that made his job worth keeping. He had wanted to be a teacher, to help kids. But standing in that room teaching a language he wasn't exactly fluent in himself, all he saw was a bunch of bored kids who didn't care what was happening before them. He'd try so hard to make it work, but it didn't. Between that and his marriage, he was heading on a tailspin, he needed a change. He thought so much of this Glee Club opportunity, thought it would be the exception to the rule, the thing he could look at and say 'yes, I'm making a difference.' He wished he could stick it to Sue Sylvester. This was all her fault.

He had fought for it, too, he'd tried. But trying to talk to Figgins was like trying to convince a wall to sprout flowers. In the months that followed, his world would go from bad to worse. His marriage would fall apart, and he would lose his Spanish post to sling lunch on to trays. He didn't know this yet. Maybe if he did he would have tried harder. He should have tried harder. He would tell himself this much, too.

Artie and Tina, Kurt and Mercedes, they had taken all of one or two steps in this world of New Directions, and as of yet had not seen what it could give them. So when it was taken away, they had nothing to hold on to. It wasn't without some rewards. Artie and Tina would be drawn together, as would Kurt and Mercedes, although for different reasons.

But then there were the others, seven of them who had never gotten to find their way into that choir room. Finn Hudson had been close. Will had been in the process of acquiring him, doing something out of desperation. Only then Sue Sylvester had happened, and before he could play his hand, the small quantity of drugs found in his locker had sent him not the choir room but into a suspension. On his return, he just wasn't the same. He'd managed to keep the truth of his suspension private, but either way, no one looked at him the same, and he had started turning into the guy he would pretend to be, with his friends, the kind of guy who would shove kids into lockers, into dumpsters…

The three Cheerios would not consider themselves having lost much if anything at all. The way they saw it, their lives were perfectly fine. It was a lie they were skilled at telling themselves, but in the end, it would get harder for them to hold it up. It would reach its most difficult for Quinn Fabray, when she would discover her one night stand with Noah Puckerman had produced a child. If there was one salvation to this ordeal, it would be the way in which this had brought her closer to Rachel Berry.

After she would be ousted from the Cheerios, Quinn's post would be taken over by Santana and Brittany, in what was nothing short of a reign of terror. It would take events, not yet past, for them to get some perspective. For Santana's part, she would continue to quietly pine after the tall blonde, not really knowing how to express what it was that she was feeling. And so long as she didn't know how to speak up, what hope did she have of the two of them being… whatever it was they could be.

Then there were the last three boys, the ones who would have helped make the New Directions' required number of twelve. Puckerman, Chang, and Rutherford might have benefited the most from not losing the New Directions. They didn't know this, none of them did. But they would find out, one night in October…

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!