Started my daily ficlets to make the hiatus pass, then decided to keep going with a 2nd cycle, and then a 3rd, 4th, etc through 42nd cycle. Now cycle 43!

INTRODUCING "CHEAT SHEET" - If you want to know ahead of time when a certain series will be updated next, just reassemble the link below and check out the list, save it, print it, bookmark it, whatever you need!
Go to: gleekathon [dot] tumblr [dot] com [slash] cheatsheet

** UPDATED WITH CYCLE 43 CHEAT SHEET ** Check it out to find out about shift days!

This is a shift day [see above]. There will be another upload this afternoon: The Cautionary Tale of Lucy Collins, chapter 7.

"Come To The Dark Side"
Santana, Brittany, Mercedes, Sugar
+ LC, Mags, Tish (OC)

There were three of them now, no… four… There was Sugar Motta along with the three of them, but they didn't know the girl yet. Still they had to involve her. Right now the task at hand was simple: they needed more members.

For now they weren't looking for that many more girls, but they did agree that having a few more dancers would boost their stage power. After deciding that Sugar could hold her own there, they had decided for now that three would be a good number. Now the question became 'who.'

Mercedes and Sugar had snuck into Santana and Brittany's Cheerio practice one day, sitting in the stands and observing. At least, Mercedes was observing. Sugar was absently attempting to mimic the girls' moves. If she ever got too 'big,' Mercedes would be right there to rein her back in.

After a while though, the answer became clear: They needed dancers, and there was a whole bunch of them right there in the red, white and black of the squad. The way Mercedes saw it, all they had to do was pick a few and then ask them.

"Like they'll want to join Glee Club," Sugar had snorted, then stopped and looked back to Mercedes, sheepish. "Sorry..."

Mercedes would have been more upset if she hadn't been right on some level. A lot of them would probably hear that they wanted them to join a Glee Club and they'd immediately be shut down before they had a chance to place word one. That they'd gotten Santana and Brittany and Quinn in the first place had hardly been more than luck. But then, where their Troubletones were concerned, they did have Santana and Brittany, so if anyone could pick the right people and convince them, it was going to be those two. They called them up into the stands when they had the chance. Coach Sylvester had gone off yelling at some guy, which left the cheerleaders just hanging about.

"How about some of them for the Troubletones?" Mercedes had asked, keeping her voice low. The pair had considered this, then looked back to the pack, screening for potential. Every so often they'd get the other's attention and point out someone, to which they'd get a 'maybe' shrug or various levels of 'no' head shakes. Then there started to be some pauses, like they were thinking about the proposed candidate and it actually made sense. "Well?" Mercedes asked, when her patience threatened to run out.

"Think we've got three," Brittany revealed.

"Okay, good. Maybe we should approach them in turn," Mercedes suggested, and Santana just chuckled before turning back toward the cluster.

"LC, Mags, Tish, get over here!" she hollered and the girls each looked up when their name was called. "Here means now," she gestured when they weren't moving. "Come on, before Sylvester finishes chewing that guy's head off," she went on as the girls finally moved up toward the stands and the four Troubletones came down halfway to meet them.

"Whatever it is, we didn't do it," LC held her hands in the air.

"It's nothing like that," Santana assured her, then, after looking back to the others sitting with her, "We have a proposition to make. Britt, Mercedes, Sugar and myself now make up a new Glee Club at McKinley."

"What happened to the old one?" Tish asked.

"It's still there, we're just not in it," Santana replied. "We have our own club now."

"My father made it happen," Sugar piped in with a grin, which she quickly dialled back at the look she got from Santana.

"So why are you telling us this?" Mags asked, then paused. "Hold on," she had caught on.

"Hey, you know, if the Coach's routines are enough for you and you like getting bullhorned and tossed around, good for you," Santana shrugged and held up her hands. "Or… you could double up and join my girls and me and become part of McKinley's Troubletones."

"Glee Club," Tish summarized, and the three girls' faces flowed with uncertainty, but they weren't walking away just yet. Santana had chosen them not just for their skill but also for knowing that they would at least hear her out.

"I don't blame you for needing to think about it, really I don't," Santana told them.

"Give me one reason why I should do this," Mags extended the challenge, and Santana was about to fill it when Brittany got in ahead of her.

"When we win you'll get to rub it in Puck's face." And in a split second…

"I'm in," Mags bowed her head. Mercedes and Sugar had no idea what that was about, and they didn't ask. Santana looked to Brittany as though to say 'well played' and the blonde smirked.

"Now that leaves you two," Santana turned back to LC and Tish. LC looked to her side, finding Mags staring at her – she wasn't going in this without her.

"Fine, okay, okay," the blonde gave in, chuckling, and Mags nodded with a satisfied grin. With this though, it left six pairs of eyes turning to the last of them.

"What's it going to take?" Santana asked Tish.

"We're not going to get Slushied for this, are we? Because if I do…"

"Please, it's us," Santana defended.

"Yeah, like you haven't got one in the face once or twice," she pointed out.

"And thank you so much for passing those pictures on, by the way," Santana frowned.

"Like you wouldn't have done the same," Tish went on, and she had her there. "I mean, sure, I'm all up for the dance part, but… it's Glee Club."

"So?" Mercedes spoke up.

"We're in it," Brittany defended.

"You know the saying 'you won't know until you try'? I guarantee you it applies here," Santana told the girl. "You come to one practice, and if it doesn't get under your skin and refuse to let go, then I'll owe you one. I pay my debts."

"One practice, fine, fine," Tish finally agreed.

"Welcome to the Troubletones!" Sugar declared to their three new members, overjoyed. Soon the five Cheerios would have to return to the squad as their Coach came back, annoyance in her stride and bullhorn in hand. It was going to be a long practice. Mercedes and Sugar were left to observe, now keeping an eye on the three new girls, left to wonder. Would they be okay with them? What should they do for their first number? What had Puck done to piss off Mags? They continued discussing this and that until the practice was done and the tired Cheerios filed out. Maybe that day wasn't the best for their first club rehearsal, but it wouldn't be long now.

THE END

PLEASE READ: This summer, July 17th will be Day 1000 of Gleekathon!
As such, of course, I'll want to do something special for it.
If you have ideas or suggestions or anything, with regards to that,
please send them my way, preferably in a private message,
but if not then whatever way is convenient for you.
I'd really appreciate it, you know I like to involve you guys :D

A/N: This is a one-shot ficlet, which means that signing up for story alert will not bring you any alerts.
In the event of a sequel, the story will be separate from this one. And as chapter stories go, they are
always clearly indicated as such [ex: "Days 204-210" in the summary] Thank you!