The dark-haired boy looks down at the wrinkled sheet of paper held in his hands. Sounds of talking Americans with their sloppy accents leak through the glass door separating the office from the hallway. The secretary sitting at the desk busily types away, the clicking of her keys filling the entire room. She ignores him for at least a full minute before suddenly spotting him out of the corner of her eye.

"Oh! And who might you be?"

"Um… Damian, ma'am."

"Damian… I don't recognize a Damian…"

"I'm, uh, the transfer student," he offers, and his obvious Irish accent reminded the secretary of his identity.

"Oh yes! Just moved here, right? How are you liking America?" The secretary enunciates all her words clearly and slowly, as if speaking to a foreigner. Well, a non-English speaking foreigner. Like from Mexico or Japan.

"Ohio is… flat, ma'am."

The rotund woman taps the nameplate in front of her desk. "You can just call me Donna."

"Yes ma'am."

Donna picks up her phone and dials. A couple words are exchanged, whereupon she puts the phone down and smiles brightly at Damian. "I've sent for another student to come pick you up and show around the school," she says. "She's the public relations officer of the International Club, and I'm sure you'll find her very nice."

Damian nods and spends the next couple minutes in awkward silence. His homeroom class reads Rm 156- English, Elliott Engerson. He scoffs to himself; Americans teaching English. Again, Damian wishes he could have gone to boarding school in England. He'd be able to see Troy and Ashley on weekends, and his father would be two hours away. Instead, his mother won custody of him and dragged him to America for a "new start."

Bells that hang on the glass door chime as a girl enters the office. Her clothes are bright and tight with an ethnic flair; her hair is carefully modeled into loose waves, and she smiles cheerfully at him. "Hello, my name's Marissa!"

Damian's eyes snap up from her clothing to her face. "I'm Damian."

Marissa hands him a small manila folder full of papers and a round green pin. "Put that on," she orders, indicating a similar pin on her shirt. "As an international student, this grants you immunity; but only as long as you have it on."

"Immunity? Immunity to what?"

Without replying, Marissa opens the door to the hallway and admits an onslaught of American-accented conversation to wash over him. "Welcome to McKinley High School!"

"You sure you ain't from another world, short stuff?" the burly jock standing in his way sneers.

Matheus tries to step around the obstacle, but more hockey players step in his way. At 4'9", attempting to pass the linemen opposing him seems impossible, but Matheus really doesn't want to get three-way-slushied by people towering a foot above him. "I'm from Brazil," he offers weakly. He'd moved here almost five years ago to see a doctor in Columbus, Ohio—a doctor who specialized in child growth. The prognosis? Matheus was genetically short. No strange, debilitating disease. Nothing in the water or the diet he maintained. The one and only reason he was short was just because he was.

The main hockey player in front smirks. "You don't have no international pin," he guffaws. "I think you're fair game." And with that, he drenches the short freshman with his cherry slushie. His friends laughs but thankfully don't join; they probably want to save their icy drinks for another new freshman. Wiping his glasses free of red icy crystals, Matheus stumbles for the nearest bathroom. Some people gasp and pity the sight of him, but hardly anybody steps in to help with directions.

"You okay, kid?" a voice questions in concern.

Matheus peers through the cherry syrup covering his glasses at the teenager standing in front of him: bleached blonde hair, a green polo shirt, and jeans. That's all he can make out. "Not really," Matheus laughs humorlessly. "Do you know where the bathroom is?"

"You're a freshman too?" the blonde guy asks. "I'm Sam… and I'm just as lost as you are."

"Matheus. I'd shake your hand, but…"

"Yeah, I get it. Here, I think that's a bathroom over there…" Sam takes off, Matheus following blindly. They pass Marissa and Damian on the way; Damian casts a shocked glance over the shorter boy before turning to Marissa. "What… happened with that guy?"

Marissa tugs her green pin twice. "That's what this is for!" she beams. "It wouldn't any good for international relations if all the students they sent over here were slushied and otherwise discouraged from ever showing their faces in America ever again, so the International Club lobbied for amnesty pins. As long as you keep that on for your first two months here, you can call detention on anybody who spills even a drop of Slushie on you. After that, though, you're on your own."

Damian pulls at his shirt collar nervously. "Slushied? That's common practice here?"

Marissa shoots a warning glare at a pack of oncoming cheerleaders, each sipping delicately from a large cup of summer drink. The alpha female eyes Marissa's and Damian's pins, then slides off to the side; the entire pack follows, and the two students avoid catastrophe. "See?" Marissa grins again. "Now, which classroom is your homeroom?"

"This year's National Competition will be held in… New York!"

The entire choir room goes absolutely wild. Kurt's so shocked that his mouth could catch flies, while Rachel squees so loudly that soon only dogs will be able to hear her. As is, Finn winces next to her, especially when she turns to him and begins to babble aimlessly. Mercedes grasps Kurt's unresponsive hand; Santana and Quinn immediately begin scheming plans, and even Brittany seems to know what's going on and has a happy face to match.

Mr. Schuester claps to get everybody's attention. "Alright, alright, guys. But seriously, this time we need to hit the competition hard. We've got the strength, the voices, the talent. We've got everything behind us already. The only thing we're lacking right now is power. We need to transition from the small rebel force we were last year to a giant wall of sound. We've got to go big on recruiting now. I need all of you to go into the school and search out those people with big voices amd natural talent. Plus, I talked to Figgins; we're going to do a number during lunch in two days: Empire State of Mind, by Jay-Z and Alicia Keys!"

Santana and Brittany give cheers of support; Puck grins and high-fives Mike.

Rachel takes the reins at this point, sliding smoothly to the front of the room and standing directly in front of Mr. Schuester. "Okay everybody!"

Everybody groans inwardly, but they look to her for general direction.

"Brittany and Mike: you guys get the choreography outline in 45 minutes! We need to get this down by the end of our time today so we have all of tomorrow to perfect the show. Kurt and Mercedes, I need you two on outfit coordination; something matching the hip hop style exhibited by the popular American culture. And of course, Finn and I will lead—"

"Aww, hell to the naw," Mercedes barks. "I'm sorry, Rachel, but I am Alicia Keys. There is no way you're going to take on her style with that voice."

Rachel looks moderately miffed, but she acquiesces. "Then I will trust your better judgment, Mercedes."

Puck interrupts, "Me and my man Artie are in too. We got the flow."

William Schuester smiles as his Glee kids launch into the never-ending battle of musical arrangement and coordination. They all show so much potential, and he's sure that they'll succeed. They can definitely make it to New York.

More people backing them up won't hurt, though.

Cue Glee Project cast entrance! Well, at least, some of them...

This is a re-interpretation of the second season of Glee, only with all the Glee Project participants thrown in! However, not everybody will appear in McKinley High School; I mean, it'd be strange if twelve musically-talented people suddenly popped into existence as freshmen or transfer students. So I plan to have five people at McKinley High (we already have Marissa, Damian, and Matheus), two guys as part of the Dalton Academy Warblers, two girls at Dalton's sister school, and three people in Vocal Adrenaline. (Truthfully, half the reason I've divvied up the characters is because it's hard to write for several people at once and get a continuous storyline.)

Let me just say that I just really wanted to get this idea down on paper before I lost it, but the only thing I know is that this is going to follow the (extremely disconnected) plot of the second season roughly, with all the nuts and bolts and wrenches of twelve extra characters and two other competitive show choirs tossed into the hot mess of Glee continuity! Other than that, I have no concrete plans for the direction of this story, so give me suggestions.

Also, I plan on keeping most of the characters in line with their actual personalities as portrayed by the reality show The Glee Project. Not the character they want to portray themselves as (Most Likely to _) because that's what got Ellis eliminated: she was a sarcastic, mature individual in a young-looking body, yet, because everybody commented on her childlike looks, she portrayed herself as a kid BUT she actually was pretty mature. Meh, my opinion. But I'm going to try to draw along the lines of what the actual person through the lenses of my own interpretation (because that's what writers do, no?)

Tell me what you think! Who should be where? Any pairings particularly wanted?