A/N: Hi guys, it's my first Fanfiction, so be nice! I'm actually doing this on a request. And I'm on break from school so I'm bored. The terms were that it needed to contain at least one cliché and one twist. Or a clichéd twist or twisted cliché. You guys can decide what it turned into.

Anyways, it's a genderswap fic, since that's what my friend suggested. It'll probably turn into Faberry later on, or something else if anyone's got any suggestions. Probably an OC or two down the line. Starts at 1x13 Sectionals, most of the previous events happened, and will likely be alluded to in later chapters. Suggestions and critiques are welcome, just try not to flame too much. Also, no beta, so beware of typos.

Disclaimer: If you recognize anything here, I don't own it.


Ryan Berry breathed deeply as he stood behind the curtains, waiting for his music to start. He was ready for this, he'd been singing this song since he was four and he had first seen it in on TV. But he hadn't been prepared to sing it tonight. He hadn't even been ready to solo tonight, fully expecting to harmonize in the background. He took one more breath and put on his show face. Every eye would be on him. The future of the New Directions depended on this performance. He needed every bit of confidence he could muster. Then he heard his opening note. He pulled the curtain open, and he started to sing.

48 Hours Earlier

"Did everyone know about this but me?" Ryan asked Kurt on the way back to the choir room. The group had just decided on their set list: They would be singing Don't Stop Believing, Proud Mary in wheelchairs, and Mercedes would sing And I'm Telling You as a solo. Of the three, Ryan only truly approved of the first one, even if Finn would be singing lead. Although he admitted that if rehearsal was anything to go by, Mercedes would kill the solo at sectionals. Singing a song in wheelchairs was just a logistical pain, no offense meant to Artie. Ryan was confident that they'd be able to win though, after all, the Haverbrook and Jane Addams glee clubs weren't as good as the New Directions were.

"Yes," he replied. "It's because you're a blabbermouth," he added, before Ryan could open his mouth.

Ryan rolled his eyes. "I wouldn't have told anyone that Puck and not Finn was the father of Quinn's baby! It would ruin the dynamic of our team, and then we'd never win Sectionals, and then we'd lose the glee club, and I need the glee club!" Plus Quinn would be really mad at me.

"Of course you'd make this about yourself," Kurt deadpanned.

"Ok, so maybe that was insensitive," Ryan admitted. "But it's true!" They walked along the hall for another minute before he added, "I knew Finn was dumb, but I didn't think even he was stupid enough to believe he could get someone pregnant by hot tub. I can't believe you used to like him."

Kurt was saved from having to answer by the sight of Finn sitting on top of Puck in the choir room, whaling on his face repeatedly with the rest of the New Directions watching in fascinated horror. Mr. Schuester rushed in a few seconds later with Miss Pillsbury, quickly pulling Finn off of Puck. "That's enough! What happened here?"

Finn was fighting against Mike Chang and Matt Rutherford, who were trying to hold him back from Puck.

"Finn just walked up here and sucker-punched me!" Puck yelled.

"Don't play dumb, you're too freaking dumb to play dumb!" roared Finn.

"Who told you, Finn?" Quinn asked tearfully.

"I'd say Ryan, but he's been with me since he found out, which was like 15 minutes ago," Kurt said. Ryan glared at him.

"I heard Mercedes on the phone," Finn said, breathing deeply.

Mr. Schue stepped in, "Finn, just calm down – "

"No, they're both lying to me! I want to hear it from both of you. Is it true?" Finn demanded. "Just tell me, is it true?"

Ryan did feel sorry for Finn, but he supposed he understood why she did it. After all, Puck did have that whole bad boy rep, and he had gotten Quinn drunk, which was why they were in the whole mess in the first place. Of course, he might just be biased. He'd had a crush on the head cheerleader for a while now, but he knew perfectly well that she'd never look at a loser like him. Also, he didn't particularly like Finn. While he'd never slushied any of them, he never did anything to stop the other players. Ryan knew for a fact that Finn had sometimes watched the other football players throw Kurt, and sometimes Ryan himself, into the dumpsters before school some days.

Quinn stepped forward. "Yes," she cried. "Puck is the father."

"So…so all that stuff about the hot tub… you were just lying to me?"

"You were the one stupid enough to buy it!" Puck snarled, making Finn lunge at him only to be stopped by Mr. Schue.

"I am so sorry!" Quinn cried.

"Screw this. I'm done with you!" he yelled at Quinn. "I'm done with all of you!" He left the room, kicking over a chair as he went. Quinn soon followed.

The remaining glee members looked at each other. This left them with 11 glee club members, one short of the 12 members needed to compete at Sectionals. Deep down, Ryan was selfishly happy at this turn of events, since it meant that he would be getting Finn's solo in Don't Stop Believing. He wasn't stupid enough to show his pleasure to the other members though. Instead, he pointed out that they needed a replacement member, if only just to sway in the back. Then he exited the choir room and went after Quinn.

"Are you ok?" Ryan asked when he found the former cheerleader sitting on a bench in the wall opposite the trophy case. Quinn simply looked at him. "Right. Stupid question."

He started to leave when her voice stopped him. "I have hurt so many people. I don't even know how to fix this."

Ryan looked at her. "If you ever need to talk, no strings attached, you can talk to me," he said seriously.

"Why would you do that?" Quinn asked quietly. "I was horrible to you."

Yes you were. He'd never say that out loud though. "I just thought you might need a friend."

"Thank you," she replied sincerely. "Can you go now? I just really want to be alone."

Ryan nodded and left.

Sectionals Day

"Ok, smooth sailing so far. We're all signed in, and according to the program you have drawn performance slot number 3," Miss Pillsbury told them as they sat in the lobby of the auditorium.

"W-we-we're going l-last?!" Tina stuttured. "Isn't that bad?"

Ryan stood. "Not necessarily. From my extensive auditioning for community theatre, we want to be either first or last. If we're first then everyone has to measure up to us, and if we're last, we're freshest in the judges' minds."

"And did you get any of those parts?" Kurt asked sardonically. Ryan glared at him.

"I'm with Ryan on this. The glass is definitely half full with some very good things right now," Ms. Pillsbury tried to reassure the students.

Mercedes spoke up. "Miss Pillsbury's right, guys. I mean we're here now, no reason not to go in with some positive mojo."

About half an hour later they found that Mercedes had apparently spoken too soon. They all stared in disbelief as the Jane Addams Academy show choir sang a mediocre rendition of And I'm Telling You.

"It's a really popular song," Ryan said in a falsely hopeful voice, trying to console his teammates, who just shook their heads. But when the Jane Addams girls began Proud Mary in wheelchairs, they knew someone (probably Sue) had leaked their set list. They weren't even surprised anymore when the Haverbrook glee club broke out into a highly off-key version of Don't Stop Believing.

"Meeting in the green room in five minutes!" Ryan barked as he stood up and stormed out of the auditorium.


Shelby Corcoran, coach of Vocal Adrenaline, sighed as she waited in line at the concessionaire stand, wondering who had scheduled this event so close to lunchtime. Her team wasn't performing, their Sectionals were next week, but she'd come to here today meet to scout out Vocal Adrenaline's potential competition for regionals. She knew her kids would win next week. So far she was unimpressed with today's talent. The Jane Addams Reform School had performed a lacklustre rendition of And I'm Telling You, which ended with the last note accompanied by all the girls shaking their behinds at the audience. This was followed by a performance of Proud Mary done in wheelchairs from some bizarre reason. Shelby had noted that the vocals were mediocre, and she knew that if this advanced to regionals, her kids would have no problem beating them. And the next team was from Haverbrook School for the Deaf. Needless to say she didn't see much competition there. The only one who could possibly pose a threat was McKinley High's New Directions. They were new though, and probably wouldn't make it far. Still, it never hurt to know the competition.

She watched idly as a man and a woman a few positions ahead of her took two large pretzels. "Nope, you're money's no good here, I'm buying," the man said gregariously. "Celebratory giant pretzels." Shelby suddenly recognized him as the director for Haverbrook's glee club, while the woman was the director of Jane Addams'. She also had a sneaking thought that what she was doing was eavesdropping. She dismissed this however, since she was hardly about to step out of the line, and she couldn't really help overhearing. They were pretty loud.

The Jane Addams director replied, "I don't feel much like celebrating."

"Why not, one of us is gonna take this thing," The man said conspiratorially.

Shelby couldn't keep herself from snorting. Luckily nobody noticed. Then the pair were approached by a small redhead with large brown eyes. "Hi," she said sweetly. "Nice set list. Of course I haven't heard your deaf kids perform yet, but I hear they're doing Don't Stop Believing?" Shelby listened closer, still unnoticed by the choir directors.

"Uh, who are you?" inquired the Jane Addams director.

"Oh, I'm sorry, let me introduce myself. I'm Emma Pillsbury, I'm the faculty advisor for the McKinley High School glee club." Ah, so that's why Shelby didn't recognize her. Although she had heard that the McKinley glee director was a guy named Schuester.

"What happened to the white guy with the geri curl?"

The redhead shook her head. "You should be ashamed. Aren't you ashamed? You're educators, actually, you know what, you're more than that. You take care of disadvantaged kids, and you're teaching them that the only way they can compete in this world is by cheating. I'm sorry, but what kind of message is that?"

They had cheated? Shelby felt what respect she had for the two directors slip. Lord knew she liked winning as much as anyone, but what was the point in winning if you were going to cheat?

"I don't know what you're talking about," the Haverbrook director denied. "Don't Stop Believing is the most downloaded song in the history of iTunes. I only have one good ear and even I know that. Scarlet fever."

"Right, and Proud Mary?" returned the redhead. "In wheelchairs?"

"Excuse me?" A voice called. Shelby looked around at the person behind her in the line. "It's your turn."

"Right, thanks," she replied calmly. After ordering her drink, she looked around but the three glee club directors were gone. She returned to auditorium, where the Haverbrook glee club was filing out onto the stage.

Half an hour later, Shelby was ready walk out on the Haverbrook kids' cringe-inducing off-key version of Don't Stop Believing. She was seriously considering leaving, one of the McKinley kids already had, informing his teammates that they would be a meeting in the green room. Still, she was already there, might as well stay and see what they did. The McKinley glee club probably wouldn't pose much competition with their set list, but she was curious as to whether they'd stick to their poached set list or if they'd come up with something new. Although anything they came up with would be rough at best.

After another intermission, the lights dimmed, and the announcer walked out on stage. "And now our final team – McKinley High's New Directions!"

There wasn't anyone on stage as the music started playing. Shelby recognized the introduction as Something's Coming from West Side Story. While she approved the choice of the Broadway classic, she knew that it was a moderately difficult song, requiring a lot of quick breathing and staccato lines. There was still no one on stage though.

Could be, who knows…

The voice came from the back of the auditorium. The spotlight flashed over to illuminate a young man with dark hair, walking down the aisle into the audience. It was a good decision, one that commanded the attention of everyone in the audience. The boy walked down the aisle as he sang, flirting with the audience as he went. He was good, Shelby thought. Both vocally and theatricality were present in the performance. The song suited his voice perfectly, he wasn't straining with any of the notes, making it sound completely effortless.

Then Shelby got a good look at his face, and she froze. It couldn't be. She dug her program out of her purse, where she'd relegated it after flipping through it before the show. She flipped hurriedly through the pages to the listing for the New Directions. There, second on the list, just after Arthur Abrams.

Ryan Berry.

The boy belting it out onstage was her son.

She could just stare in wonder at the performer standing up on the stage, singing the song, displaying all the hope and impatience and anticipation associated with the classic. And he wasn't just singing the song, he was living it, displaying his yearning for the song's unknown 'something'. It was a performance at its finest, the kind that Shelby continually tried without success to evoke from her own students. The song was alive for Ryan, and he was projecting it to everyone, making them believe that there was something truly amazing on its way.

It's only just out of reach

Down the block, on a beach

Maybe tonight…

Maybe tonight…

Maybe tonight!

He belted out the last note perfectly, hand outstretched, reaching for the elusive something. The audience rose in a standing ovation, cheering wildly. "Ladies and gentlemen, New Directions!" Shelby hadn't even noticed that the rest of his team had joined him onstage, she was so focused on Ryan himself.

The performance continued with You Can't Always Get What You Want, led by Ryan and a very tall boy, and concluded with Somebody to Love, led by the tall boy and an African-American girl. In the back of her mind Shelby noted that the girl's admittedly impressive voice needed some refining, while the other male lead seemed strained with the high notes. She wondered why her son hadn't sung lead in the last song. She couldn't focus on her critique, however, since all her attention was on one Ryan Berry.

I have to meet him.


A/N: Again, reviews are welcome :D