First day back. Junior year. I had a smile on my face, a brand new camaro, new clothes and a new year to sing in glee.

"These are comments from Jacob Ben Israel's most recent glee club blog." Will Schuster said. "Glee is a giant ball of suck."

"We get it, Mr. Shoe." Noah "Puck" Puckeman said. "Everyone still hates us. So what? We're plankton on the high school food chain. Only difference now is that none of us care."

"Kurt's right." Artie Abrams said.

"We're a family." Rachel Berry said.

"They can bring it on all they want." Quinn Fabre said.

"Nobody is gonna break us." Finn Hudson said.

"I'm happy that you guys have bonded." Will said. "The problem is that all this negative stuff is keeping other students from auditioning."

"Good. Why do we need new members?" Kurt Hummel asked.

"Well, since Matt transferred, we only have eleven members. If we want to go to Nationals—if we want to beat Vocal Adrenaline— we have to go from a small rebel force to a giant wall of sound."

"Yeah, Mr. Schuster's right, you guys." Tine Cohen said. "You didn't see Vocal Adrenaline at Regionals. They were epic. We're gonna need more voices if we want to beat them."

"Yeah, I'm with Tina on this one." Mercedes Jones said.

"Gross." I heard Mike Chang mutter behind me.

"You're gonna have to trust me on this, guys." Will said. "Now, here's the plan. Nationals are in New York this year. And we are going!" Everybody whooped in excitement. "Now let's go out there and show the school how cool it's gonna be. How cool we can be. It's they're not gonna come to us, let's go to them. They say we only sing show tones and '80s pop. Let's show them how down we are. Let's give them the song of the year, New Direction style." Santana Lopez and Brittany Pierce both whooped.

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We all took our places, wearing our New York shirts and black shades as Finn set a stereo on a lunch table outside and pushed play. I sat next to Rachel and Quinn on the table and vocalized as Puck began to sing.

"Yeah, Yeah, I'm out that Brooklyn. Now I'm down in Tribeca. Right next to De Niro but I'll be hood forever. I'm the new Sinatra and since I made it here. I can make it anywhere yeah they love me everywhere." Puck sang.

"I used to cop in Harlem all of my dominicanos. Right there up on Broadway pull me back to that McDonald;s. Took it to my stash box 560 street. Catch me in the kitchen like Simmons whipping pastries." Artie belted out.

"Eight million stories out there and they're naked. City is a pity half of y'all won't make it. Me I gotta plug special ed I got it made. If jesus payin LeBron I'm payin Dwyane Wade." Finn caroled. I stood on the table, heart and soul full of confidence and began bobbing my hips back in fourth, still vocalizing. " Three dice Cee Lo three card Molly. Labor Day Parade rest in peace Bob Marley. Jigga I be spiked out I could trip a referee. Tell by my attitude that I'm most definitely from."

"In New York." We all chanted.

"Hey," Rachel chirped.

"Concrete jungle where dreams are made of. There's nothing you can't do. Now you're in New York."

"You're in New York." Quinn choired.

"Welcome to the bright lights, baby." Kurt crooned. We all gathered up on the landing on the concrete steps and danced in synchronize.

"These streets will make you feel brand new big lights will inspire you. Let's hear it for New York." We descanted. "New York, New York."

"Yeah." Tina harmonized. The boys sat down on the steps and bobbed their heads while us girls stood and sway to the beat.

"One hand in the air for the big city. Streetlights big dreams all lookin pretty. No place in the world that could compare Put your lighters in the air." Mercedes hummed.

"Everybody say yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah." We hymned. The boys stood up and joined us, sliding our feet across the ground, stomping the ground, kicking the air, bobbing our heads and waving our hands. "Concrete jungles where dreams are made of. There's nothing you can't do. Now you're in New York."

"New York." Santana trilled.

"New York, New York. These streets will make you feel brand new. Big lights will inspire you. Let's hear it for New York. New York, New York. New." We dropped down to the ground and let the song go by vocalizing quietly. We crossed our arms across our chests and waited for applause but it didn't come. No one paid any attention to us. Of course, should have known.

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"So is that a men's sweater?" Mercedes asked Kurt when he was done playing a song on the piano.

"Fashion has no gender." Kurt said. Rachel came storming into the room and slammed the lid down over the keys, almost crushing my fingers.

"Ladies, we have a problem." She said. "There's a new student at this school named Sunshine who is a Filipino and is shorter than me. Which I didn't think was possible and is very unnerving."

"Ok," Gary Greyson, Kurt's boyfriend, said.

"I'm gonna go now." I said.

"Wait!" Rachel said. "And she has a remarkable voice." Rachel sighed. "I'm just—I'm very worried. You know, not for myself, but for my lesser Glee clubbers who don't get as many solos." Gary, Mercedes, Kurt and I all exchanged looks. "So, I paid a hundred dollars to Azimio and Karofsky to brutally slushee us in front of Sunshine's locker terrifying her and ensuring she doesn't sign up." We all looked at her with disbelief on our faces. "Uh, ok, this is the part where you're supposed to be hugging me and thanking me."

"That's awful." Mercedes said. "You're awful."

"But solos, I mean—"

"Look, Rachel," Gary said. "We're about as self involved as they come. But more than anything we want to beat Vocal Adrenaline. And if there's someone at the school that can help us do that, they're in."

"You know what? You're right. It's just so like me to just be totally blinded by my concern for the four of you. Well, I'll—I'll go talk to Sunshine now and just let her know how truly welcome she really is." Rachel left the room.

"One day, me and Santana are going to go all Lima Heights on her ass." I said.

"We'll be there to see it." Kurt vowed.

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"I can't believe Rachel cost us Sunshine." I told Kurt and Gary as we made our way to the buses. "We could have used her to beat Vocal Adrenaline. She could have been our secret weapon."

"Can't go too hard on her." Gary said.

"Can't go too hard on her? Gary, all she cares about is herself. I promise you, Kurt, I'm about to go all Lima Heights on her ass."

"And like I said, Abigail, I'll be there to watch." Kurt smiled at me.