A/N: So, this is my try on the Beth story. I want to focus on a little more than just the usual finding the biological parents storyline, Beth´s relationship with her adoptive mother and background is as important to me. Also, there will be plenty of "old" characters returning ...
I´ve done a couple chapters so far, if you like it, leave motivating reviews or constructive criticism - Anyway, thanks for reading!
Summary: Beth Corcoran is a promising talent of the popular high school glee club Vocal Adrenaline. Her life is centered around performances, and she is happy with that. But when her adoptive mom Shelby decides to move to Lima, Ohio, her life takes an interesting spin. Not only does she have do adapt to a totally different lifestyle – she also notices some locals behave rather strangely around her. And it has something to do with her adoption for sure ...
Disclamer: I don´t own any characters and settings of "Glee". But I would like to.
„One, two – step! One, two – step! Aaand spin around! Boys, pick the girls up. You can do better than that, higher!"
The man's voice sounded loud and clearly to the lit up stage, where about twenty boys and girls in skilfully frayed dresses and spotted jumpsuits in various shades of grey tried to nail the choreography to the 00´s classic "Disturbia" by Rihanna.
Slightly irritated by their director's input, the background singing faded away and the good-looking lead shot a deadly look at his team mates.
"Stop it right now!", they were interrupted, the command being yelled in the most annoyed tone possible.
Beth sighed quietly, making sure Mr. St. James - Stames, as they called him - didn't notice, and looked up to the clock.
A quarter to seven. Only fifteen freaking minutes of torture left.
It was the last week before their performance at Sectionals, and even though their other number would already be enough to let the other groups to mass shave their heads, wanted them to be as intimidating as possible.
She really hoped their future competition would check their performance out and get the message, otherwise this never-ending practicing really wouldn't have a point.
"From the top!"
They all took their positions, a perfectly organized mob in the middle of the stage, with Aaron standing in front, ready to start singing. Beth and her friend Jackie came right behind him, each holding on to one of his shoulders, about to take over the parts of the song that were too feminine to him.
Bum bum be-dum bum bum be-dum bum…
All arms went synchronous up and down in sharp, robotic moves.
What's wrong with me?
Why do I feel like this?
It was only those two lines that Beth had a solo on for most of the song, but they had done it so many times that everything about them went down without her even trying – the voice, the expressions, the slight movement of her hips.
I'm going crazy now
As Jackie belted out her line as perfectly as ever, they started to thin out the bunch, marching in arcs to various corners of the stage, the angle between shin and thigh always a wonderful 90° when lifted.
No more gas in the rig
Can't even get it started
Nothing heard, nothing said
Can't even speak about it
Reaching her spot she joined Drew, her assigned dance partner for the number, even though she couldn't stand him. But he was just a head taller than her and of the same dance talent, so they had to do it together.
She knew all the steps in her sleep by now, even though they were quite complicated. As she mechanically spun around Drew, her mind wandered off the stage.
Sometimes she wondered why she had joined Vocal Adrenaline in the first place. Her mom had directed it once, sure, and she also enjoyed singing and dancing a lot, having grown up with music. However, Carmel high's glee club was almost more cruel than it had been in the past.
They literally practiced every day, including weekends and holidays, when they got weeks close to a performance.
Usually, they didn't get out before their bodies and throats were sore, and still they were expected to show up at full health the other day again.
Today wasn't even that bad though, Beth still had some energy left and they would be done anytime. Even Mr. St. James must've realized that there wasn't a lot left to improve.
Your mind is in disturbia
It's like the darkness is the light
Disturbia
That was her signal. The only part of the choreography that made her a little shaky before.
She breathed in heavily before she took a run-up right into a triple flip in the middle of the stage, flying closely past Fraser who came from the other direction.
Still a little dizzy from the rotation, she turned around and ran back, jumping simultaneously in the air with Fraser as they met, so it almost looked like they crashed into each other for the audience. Beth pulled her head and arms back violently for the effect.
Blending into the group again, she was a little breathless.
But the also felt the rush of her small solo performance which remembered her finally about the reasons, why she was here exactly – because she loved to be great.
Bum bum be-dum bum bum be-dum bum
Bum bum be-dum bum bum be-dum bum
They slowly walked mid-stage again, moving their limbs to the beat of the music. After they'd sung the last note, they let their heads fall down to their chests, their hands pressed at both temples, legs spread.
It took about twenty seconds until St. James finally called: "OK, guys. We're done for today."
Flexing and stretching, they started to wander off, as he added: "But we're not there yet. Abby, your dancing is even worse than the last time – how did you manage that? Aaron, I want you to stay up this night and rehearse this song until it turns into tinnitus, am I clear?"
Jackie frowned at Beth as she made her way towards her, while Abby stood still, her face red-hot from embarrassment.
"And Beth …" Her head went straight up to the teacher´s desk as she heard her name softly spoken.
"Just because your mother used to sit here doesn´t mean you get any special treatment. Don´t even think you can pull the privileged one."
She bit her tongue to not give an answer to that, as it would definitely end up getting her expelled.
"Just shut up, Jesse", she whispered to herself instead. Not only had her mom once coached Vocal Adrenaline, Jesse St. James had been their lead singer at that point. He still came over for coffee sometimes.
The times her teacher showed up at her house, he always came across all smooth and nice and polite, but as soon as they got back to school, he definitely had it in for her.
Maybe he was just trying to not treat her better because of their out-of-school-history and let others feel disadvantaged. Or maybe he was just a giant douchebag.
However it might be, she didn´t like him.
"He´s a meanie", Jackie muttered under her breath as they went to the dressing rooms. She was a nice girl once you got to know her better, a slim brunette with eyelashes to die for and a personality like a shark – once she smelled blood, she would be there to get her share.
To other people outside of glee club, she would appear quite snobby, but she was fun to hang around and so she and Beth were friends, as simple as that.
"I wish he would have at least tried to coach at another school than his own", Abby joined in as they walked into the dressing room.
"I seriously don´t see his problem." That was Abby – she never saw the problem. At least, when the problem had something to do with her.
"Yeah", Beth agreed half-hearted, while she peeled herself out of her dress and changed into a pair of sweatpants and a tank top.
As she checked her blonde hair in the mirror, Nora, a pretty half-corean girl walked in, instantly grinning as she saw Beth.
"You were great today, girl! I mean, you own the stage when you dance …", she chatted exitedly, not bothering about the annoyed expressions on the other girl´s faces.
Those three were the ones Beth hung out with the most. Jackie, Abby and Nora. They didn´t always have identical views, they definitely had their flaws and sometimes Beth got pretty weary of them, but they were the closest thing to friends she would have anytime soon.
Vocal Adrenaline made it kind of impossible to be friends with people not in Vocal Adrenaline.
She put her green head band on, which made her look a little bit like a hippie, before she made her way towards the door.
"See you tomorrow!", she waved goodbye, not waiting for the replies.
For a few moments in the empty hallway, she could catch her breath.
It was only Tuesday, so there were three more days of rehearsal until eight, one twelve-hour day and one I´m-so-nice-and-let-you-only-come-in-for-the-night day.
So no big parties tonight. She would probably watch a movie or something. Maybe taking a bath.
"Hey Beth!", she suddenly heard her name called out, right before she reached the exit doors.
"Yeah?" She turned around rather confused, to see Drew racing toward her.
"You got any plans for tonight?", he asked even before he was in her range.
Then he did this extremely stupid thing when he flipped his hair with a shake of his head and grinned like a mad man afterwards.
She didn´t even try to sound polite. Too many times that Drew had tried that on her.
"Back off, bumpkin", she snapped back and rolled her eyes.
"My mom invited Aaron over for dinner tonight." That wasn´t true, but the lie slipped off her tongue easily.
She wasn´t too eager to encourage Drew any more. The one time she´d made the mistake of not having any plans in front of him, he had teased her about the apparent crisis she had with Aaron and pretty much everyone else in her life.
He didn´t even seem to like her. Probably he was just going for her so he could brag about it and make her feel miserable. He had successfully done that with other girls before, though luckily only one of them had been in VA – otherwise, the team´s atmosphere would have gone down the drain for sure.
"C´mon, he can make his own food." Nope, he didn´t give up.
"Shut up, will you?", Beth replied angrily and turned around.
Not able and willing to put up with him anymore she paced forward and shoved the door right in his face as he tried to follow her.
Aaron already waited in the parking lot for her. She just smiled at him tiredly and he nodded towards his car, returning the smile.
They were together long enough to be past that stage where you were glued to each others face all the time and practically jumped the other person whenever you saw them alone.
Beth liked the way of their relationship, how it was just so natural. Like they had grown up dating.
It was tradition that he drove her home after practice. At the same time, they could spend the entire drive in silence without feeling uncomfortable or the need to break it.
Both of them were able to take a break when they needed it.
The first year they´d been dating was also her first year in Vocal Adrenaline, something that made her realize: VA + honeymoon stage with boyfriend = not a good mixture.
Rehearsing that much for the first time in her life and trying to see Aaron as much as possible at the same time had caused her grades to drop drastically, while she walked around with dark circles like tires under her eyes.
Thank god that time was over. And she still had her boyfriend, who just happened to be the most talented singer of the most famous glee club around.
"Tired?" he asked, grinning.
Beth glared at him. "We are going to compete against that football school that has never even participated in a choir competition before, a bunch of nerd kids who can´t possibly do more than robot moves and ICQ jingles, and that school from last year with the girl that breaks out in tears whenever the misses a note. Which was, by the way, quite a lot."
She sighed, as Aaron waited patiently for her speech to be over.
"And yet we´re there, late in the auditorium, every single night, as if we would compete with the best teams of the entire universe! As if Marsians would care!"
Aaron tilted his head slightly as he pulled out of the parking lot.
"Well, we have some tough competition coming up for Regionals, though. I´m sure Stames tries to get us ready for them already", he explained thoughtfully.
"Wait, what do you mean "tough competition"?" she asked confused. "Those Warblers, from three years ago? I´ve seen them. They were decent, but nothing we couldn´t handle."
In her mind she tried replaying all the various show choir competitions she had been to in her live. There were plenty. Different Sectionals and Regionals throughout Ohio, quite a few national championships, invitationals, performances in other states … her mom couldn´t stay away from show choir, and she dragged her daughter along every single time.
"No, not the Warblers", Aaron got her back from her thoughts, "They´re in another section this year. I was talking about New Directions."
Beth winced. New Directions were a sensitive topic. VA had beaten them at Regionals with her mom, right in the year of her birth.
But that had been the last year of them competing in the same Regionals, and the beginning of an never-ending fight for the national championship. Sadly, there were only three out of seventeen years when Vocal Adrenaline had placed better than New Directions.
And now they would compete against them before Nationals?
"No way!", she gasped. "Are you sure?"
Her boyfriend shrugged. "Not entirely. But it sounds possible to me."
"Wow." She leaned back, processing the information.
For some strange reason, she had never seen New Directions. The last year she had been sick during nationals, and the year before she was pretty sure they had performed at the same time as them in another theatre.
And all those times she had come along with her mother … no New Directions. Maybe they were so good that it was hard to get to watch their shows. She had only heard people talk about them.
Whatever the reason was, she felt strange about it.
As familiar as she was with the show choir scene, they were nothing but a name to her. She couldn´t tell what made them so good, she couldn´t put a finger on their secret of success, she could only guess.
When Aaron dropped her of, she was deeply buried in her thoughts again.
