Disclaimer: I own nothing of Glee. This is only for the enjoyment of myself and fellow fans. No money is being made from this.
Author's Note: I had an idea and while we will get to Canon charactes soon enough, I wanted to create a little character that was somewhat different from what we are being given on the show... and I intend to use her to be a voice of music that is darker and different from what the show gives us... though I will of course stick to more traditional musical stylings for any actual competitions they do. However, I feel the weekly assignments leave room for her to select things from what she loves and to open their eyes to a whole new world of music.
I hope you enjoy this. Please feel free to PM me with questions and comments. Any music I use, I will link you to at the bottom of the chapters so you can access them for yourself. Please review, they feed my muse's hungry, hungry soul. LOL
She sat beside her mother in the car… looking out the window at their old house and felt a million different feelings rush through her blood. She hated this. She hated that they had to leave everything that had been familiar - comfortable. Okay well maybe it hadn't been quite comfortable for a long time but at least it had been familiar. She hated that she had to leave her friends. She didn't have many of them but what few she had were precious to her… and now the closest she'd get is a voice on the line and words on a computer screen - maybe skypeing. Because they weren't just moving across the town - oh no…. they were moving to another state entirely.
Selwyn was going from living life in suburban New York to living life in some hole in the wall little town called Lima, Ohio. She was going to Mckinley high school and she wasn't happy about it. She sat there, her arms folded across her chest, a pissed look on her face, wishing this was some kind of god awful nightmare. She knew it wasn't though… and her mother was returning them to her childhood home. Her mother had grown up in Lima but had ended up going to NYADA and had been a dance teacher in New York. That was how she'd met Eagan Iestin.
Eagan had been a passionate performer but he was also a shrewd businessman. He wasn't mean or anything he just had a set way of doing things. Eagan was a quintessential alpha male and he wanted things to be a certain way and if they weren't then he wasn't entirely happy. What no one had known was that he'd been having an affair for almost as long as he'd been married to Belladonna Maglione. However, Sel's mother had to have known something was up because for as long as she'd been with Eagan, she had always had an account that was just her own… and she put money in it every week. She wasn't rich but she'd amassed quite a great deal of money. Money enough to put up as some form of equity to open a small dance studio in her hometown of Lima. It was a small storefront, but that didn't matter.
Things were finalized, the remodeling was done and now, Bella and Selwyn were making the last part of their journey to a new life. Sel still had the trust fund that her father had set up for her - despite how rebellious Selwyn had been her father still loved her and perhaps he felt it was his penance for destroying the young woman's world. Who could say? At this point, Selwyn didn't care. Her mother had custody of her and she was having to leave New York behind and she was less than happy about it. She missed the performing arts high school she'd attended already.
She was a writer and an actress, but she'd taken dance classes and voice lessons since she was small. She had a fairly impressive body of work behind her already - despite the fact that she was only 17 years old. She was an odd duck - always had been, but her mother had always supported her… Sel's auburn hair was streaked with black, her body pierced and tattooed but her mother never loved her any less. She just figured that it was one more way for her daughter to express herself and she'd never stopped the girl. She might have occasionally questioned it - but only to make certain that it was what Selwyn truly wanted.
So, Selwyn had five piercing in each ear, one in her lip, one in her tongue and three more hidden beneath the fitted t-shirt she was wearing. She had a band of fire - that was fairly lifelike looking tattooed around each upper arm and then on her back were a pair of exquisite wings of fire. She'd found a phenomenal tattoo artist whose work was always so lifelike that it looked like it lived and breathed on its own and he'd taken a great deal of time to do each of the tattoos that Selwyn bore. She certainly cut a very unique picture compared to those who lived life in this small Ohio town. She hadn't in New York though… She'd stood out a little but she'd blended in almost as much. So this was all going to take quite a bit of adjusting.
"I still don't understand why I couldn't have stayed in New York." Selwyn muttered. "Especially since Lima doesn't have a performing arts high school. There's like nothing here."
"Selwyn, we have been over this, dear one… I have divorced your father and I was awarded custody of you. I am trying to start over and I am trying to bring more arts back to the town I grew up in. I know it is going to be an adjustment, but please try. If you are still unhappy I will speak with your father and we will see if some compromise can be made - alright?" Belladonna offered.
Selwyn sighed. "Yeah sure… whatever. I still can't believe you came from this place… It's like the complete opposite of your personality Mom."
Bella chuckled. "I know… but I was in glee club and I went to college in New York. The place does not always make the person, Selwyn but they do help shape us - just as the people in our lives do. I did community theater and your grandmother made sure I got to take dance classes, even though we had to drive for almost two hours every Saturday to get me to them."
"I'll give it a try mom but we're hardly even here yet and I miss New York… this… this is like culture shock mom. And look around - all these people are pretty plain. I'm going to stand out like a sore thumb." Selwyn said softly, her voice a little self conscious.
"Where is my confident daughter? You have never questioned your appearance before… Why are you starting now?"
"Because in New York, I fit in… I mean sure my tattoos are kind of unique but I'm hardly the only kid from the New York High School of performing arts with dyed hair, piercing and tattoos… Do these kids here even know what tattoos are?" Selwyn asks with a scoff.
"You'd be surprised, Selwyn dear. I know it doesn't seem like it right now… but I grew up here and these people are far more complex than they outwardly appear - they always have been. Just because they are more subtle about it doesn't mean they aren't just as unique inside." Belladonna reassures her daughter.
"So when does the glee club meet and what will I have to do to join it?" Sel asks.
"Well I'm not sure if it has changed or not, but they usually meet the final free period of the day. And you'll have to audition but since you went to New York High School of the Performing Arts I doubt you'll have any trouble with that. Though if you plan to do anything outside of the Broadway Standards, it might be smart to bring sheet music with you." Belladonna says simply.
"Right then. I can do that. I'll just print out some copies... Hmm I could also take my Menace... if you let me..." Sel says with a sly smile.
"Why don't you leave your guitar at home for your first day, Selwyn dear. They'll probably have guitars there and you wouldn't want to intimidate people too much your first day there - would you?" Belladonna inquires, teasing her daughter.
"Why the hell not? If I do that then at least I'll get my way from the start - right?" Sel challenges.
"Culture Shock can go both ways, Sel dear. Take it at least a little easy your first day - please?"
"Fine mom." Sel says, sulking more.
"Do you have a song in mind?" Belladonna inquires.
"Yeah I was thinking about something from Lacuna Coil. Not sure which song yet though... I'll leave off the ones that are in Italian for now... and I'll have to nix anything that has male vocals too... but that still leaves a lot to chose from." Sel muses
"You do seem to love that band. What is it in particular that draws you so much?"
"Well first off, Cristina Scabbia is a vocal goddess... and second the blend of hard music and soft lyrics just appeals." Sel says with a shrug. "Hmm though the guy sings most of Trip the Darkness, I could maybe do that one. They also covered Enjoy the Silence and I like their version much better than the original... Heaven's a Lie is good too. There's a lot of them that I like... I could probably do any of them really - so long as I don't have to do the growly guy part..."
Belladonna chuckled, unable to help herself. "I am sure that whatever you finally decide on will be beautiful. Though aren't there other bands that you like?"
"Well yeah but most of them have male leads... I mean I could probably draw something from the Cruxshadows repertoire... Most of the J-rock I like isn't in English so that nixes that... I like some normal stuff too... but I'm not sure vocally I'm suited to most of it. I know for a fact I can rock some Coil. I guess it's my comfort zone. I know I'm going to have to probably do a lot of top forty or Broadway stuff in the club - most are like that - right? So I figure why not give them a taste of something unexpected right off the bat... Maybe it could open their eyes or something." Selwyn explains.
"Well once you get settled in and get unpacked perhaps you should go through some of your music and see what speaks to you the most. I know that always helped me when I had to choose music for something." Belladonna explains.
"That will work. I'll set up my laptop and go through my music while I unpack my stuff. You said they delivered everything and put it in the rooms we specified already - right?" Sel asks.
"Yes. It is a good thing we came out here last weekend and designated the rooms already. That was very helpful for the movers. I know this is going to be a hard change for you Selwyn dear but you don't hate me for this do you?" Belladonna inquires, she was quite worried about this in all actuality.
"No mom, I don't hate you. I understand - really... I'm not over the moon for having to move before my senior year but I know things between you and dad were... well... shitty for lack of a better term. I just wish there'd been some way for you and dad to separate and me to be able to finish out at the school I've been going to like my whole life. It's a lot of change mom... and I'm gonna be honest - I'm kind of scared. I've never been to a normal school before... and I know that people out here in a small town are probably going to be bothered by how I dress and how I talk... I'm not really looking forward to that. Plus, even though I didn't have a ton of friends, I'm going to miss my crew. Julian, Damien, Lyssa and Reina are going to call when they can and we'll talk over Skype and stuff but it's not the same. I'm not across the city, I'm part way across the country... and I'm going to be in a new city at a new school and pretty much by myself... and from where I'm sitting it has all the potential in the world to suck." Sel says with a sigh.
Belladonna gave a good deal of thought to her daughter's words. Unfortunately, Selwyn made a very valid argument. She had no doubt that it was something scary for Sel. It was a complete and total change from everything her daughter was used to. She had normal classes at her old high school but it was far from a normal public school. It was focused on the arts and all of the kids there had been as passionate about the arts as Selwyn... "Well just be true to yourself, Selwyn - that's the most important thing I can tell you. As long as you don't compromise yourself to please others, no matter how much this might suck, you will get through it and you will come out stronger. But I think you'll be surprised by how many friends you make." Belladonna answers with a quiet smile.
They finally got to their new house. It was smaller than they'd been used to... and it was certainly in a far less populated area but the quiet was oddly nice... They took their suitcases in the house and Sel immediately went inside and up to her designated room and got out her laptop getting everything set up and music started to pour out of the speakers she'd attached to it... Hard Rock, Heavy Metal, Pop, J-Rock, Industrial, Electronica and a little bit of everything in between. Sel closed her eyes, took a deep breath and released it slowly then opened her eyes and set herself to getting her bedroom set up the way that she wanted it and to get all of her things put away. She had the weekend. Come Monday, it was time to start school at William McKinley...