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 77th cycle. Now cycle 78!

"Presenting New Directions"
In Gen2!world: G1!Quinn, Jesse, Mike, Kurt, G2!Puck, Brittany, Mercedes
Berry-St series
(all series now listed under the communities tab in my profile)

Quinn had realized they might run into some problems as soon as word began to spread of their club's upcoming performance. There were still so few of them, and Glee Club was not something the rest of the school was very familiar with, at least not in this version of reality. She knew what it had been like for her world's club in the beginning, and having been on the outside at the time, not yet one of them, she knew what the mood had been like. If it went this way in this world, too, then their fragile little group would fall apart before it really had a chance to stand on its own.

That feeling seemed to spread among the others, too. In the last couple of days before it was time for them to go on, she started to feel them pulling away. They didn't want to be humiliated, and she got that. She wished they could see how it would become, after this part, after they had gotten past the awkwardness, and they'd really gelled as a group, to the point where it didn't bother them as much and, even if it did, they kept on going. The best she could do was to tell them, and to get the others who had also seen a world where the Glee Club thrived to tell them, too, and hope that it would be enough. This was not the same world, she knew, and she understood that those differences could potentially make these versions of her friends that much harder to rally together in spite of the way they might get treated after this performance.

Finally, the day came, and Quinn got to school that day, wondering when she had become… well, Rachel. And here she had to specify this was not just any Rachel, but the one from that other world, the one who'd gotten to go home, the one who'd been at McKinley all along, not the one who'd transferred from Carmel, and certain not the one in this world where Quinn was now. That other Rachel, regardless of how she could be at times, believed enough in what she did in such a way that Quinn thought maybe some of the others followed by example, without even realizing it. She had believed when everyone else doubted. That was what Quinn had been forced to become here, for this group who had never been united. They didn't even have all of them yet, but they had to, if they ever expected to go home again.

She didn't know how it happened, but she didn't see any of the others for the better part of the day. She knew it didn't necessarily mean anything, but seeing as her and Jesse and Mike and Kurt's going back to their own world hinged on their being able to get this club back together, she was finding it harder not to give in to panic.

The only one she had seen was Jesse, and he must have sensed her concerns, because the first thing he'd told her, without even giving her the chance to say hello, was 'It'll go fine.'

"You don't know that, I… don't know that. What if they don't show up, what if no one shows up?"

"They will, stop freaking out," he smiled, but she wasn't feeling at all cheerful.

"Why? Why should I? I don't want us to stay here, I want to go home." She was losing it, and he could see it. He got hold of her face, making it that she had to stare back at him.

"They'll be there."

"How do you know?"

"Because if they're not, then I'll drag them down to the gym myself," he vowed, and that made her smile.

"Sounds like a plan."

The day went on, and finally it was time for all of them to head to the gym for assembly. Quinn had gone into the choir room to change, and there she found Mike and Kurt waiting, already dressed.

"You haven't seen the others, have you?" Mike asked, and Quinn felt her throat go dry.

"No, I…"

"Hey." She turned, and there was Puck. "Do I really need to dress up for this?" he asked.

"I… Yes," she stopped herself from compromising. It had to work, like this or not at all. Puck muttered something under his breath, but he went to change.

This had reassured Quinn some, but it was still not a full set. But then Sam came, and then Brittany, and finally Mercedes. They got dressed, and before they knew it, they were standing behind the curtain, waiting for Principal Figgins to introduce them.

As firsts went, it wasn't bad, but Quinn couldn't say how good it was. It might have been absolutely dreadful. From what she saw of the audience, it didn't get them to respond all that much, and when it did, it was with general disinterest.

When it was over, the others had not stuck around very long, but Quinn was relieved to see they didn't look ready to abandon just yet. They might have the start of something after all.

"How did we do? Be honest?" Quinn asked Jesse once she got to him. She'd spotted him at the other end of the gym, next to the bleachers, so she knew he'd seen it all, from the other side. He could tell her the truth of it.

"You were amazing," he smiled.

"We were?" she managed to smile back.

"Oh, I meant you, but I guess the others were good, too," he nodded, and she chuckled. "You still have a lot of work to do, with most of those guys."

"Yeah, I figured that," Quinn sighed.

"But we're on our way," he jumped back in, and she nodded in agreement.

"I just hope it was enough. Did you keep an eye on the others like I asked?" 'The others,' in this case, were those five they still needed to rein in, namely Rachel, Santana, Tina, Artie, and Finn. That they were seven already was something, but it wouldn't mean a thing if they didn't have their regulation twelve.

"I tried. I couldn't see all of them. You might have gotten Tina out of this, Artie, too."

"And the rest?"

"If we don't have them yet, we'll keep trying until we do." She sighed, then nodded. They had to get their victories where they could. For now, they were moving onward. The New Directions were coming.

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!