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 74th cycle. Now cycle 75!

A/N: Alas! Technical shenanigans again! Better late than never I guess...

"One Foot in Front of the Other"
In Gen1!World: G1!Rachel/Santana, G2!Jesse, Quinn, Kurt, Mike, G1!New Directions
Berry-St series
(all series now listed under the communities tab in my profile)

Rachel had known they were in trouble from the first time they had all been put through their first rehearsal. She didn't know that the majority of the others would have noticed at first, but it was only a matter of time before they stopped and saw them, and then they would see just how badly they were getting along. Even Santana was giving her looks, trying to point out that this was not going to work.

It wasn't that they were completely without merit, the four of them. One way or the other, they had once been interested enough, skilled to some point, so that they had joined the New Directions and been good enough to carry their weight. But they had been practicing, getting better, to the point where they could win competitions.

The four they had standing in their places now were a whole other story. As far as Jesse was concerned, the problem was not so much skill as it was attitude. Whatever world he had emerged from, he thought himself to be far above the rest of them, and as far as cooperation went, they had a long way to go. Then as to Quinn, and Kurt, and Mike, putting aside a squandered career as a Cheerio, a string of basement videos and nothing more, and a love for dance being sidetracked by an amputation, they had zero experience when it came to Glee Club, and it showed. Rachel could see them standing there awkwardly. They would look at the others, and they could see that it was fun, and they might want to join in, but if it was possible at all they looked intimidated.

"I think I saw Schue give them a sidelong look," Santana pulled Rachel aside as they left the choir room.

"I saw it, too," Rachel nodded.

"What happens if they talk? How bad can it get?"

"It depends, I mean it's Schuester. If he believes them at all, it depends. He might decide to help, which could either help us or ruin us. If he doesn't believe them, then he'll either let it go, or he'll talk to someone. Before we know it, it'll be out of control."

"You want to talk out of control, I'm this close to giving that Jesse my foot up his a…"

"Yeah, he's our biggest problem right now," Rachel agreed. "We need to put some fear in that guy."

"That can be arranged," Santana tapped the air with her finger. Rachel gave her a look. "I know a guy," she shrugged.

"What do you mean you 'know a guy,' we're not trying to hurt him," Rachel lowered her voice.

"We're not?" Santana sounded almost disappointed.

"Again, we don't need more people getting involved, unless it's absolutely necessary."

"You heard him today, when Schue tried to put him as background vocals."

"I did," Rachel's voice sounded of exasperation. She'd been 'this close,' too, and there was a time where she might have gone ahead and done it, but that was then, and now she was doing her best to help her friends get back home. I owe them.

"So what do you propose instead?" Santana asked.

"I'll take care of it, just for now we need to think about the others. Jesse's attitude change is raising some flags, too, I know, but at least he's able to get through practice and do what he needs to do… most of the time. Our bigger problems are Quinn, Kurt, and Mike."

"I don't need to worry about you and your other girlfriend, do I?" Santana gave her a look, and Rachel smirked at the fact that she had indirectly called herself her girlfriend. The fact that this Quinn, in her world, had been with her version of Rachel did make for some unpleasant friction, but so far they had handled it all well enough.

"You don't need to worry about a single thing. I mean she's hot, sure, but so are a lot of people, it doesn't make them as hot as you and it doesn't make me want to…" she leaned in to her ear and whispered, and Santana's face relaxed into a smile halfway been touched and aroused.

"Alright, point taken. As for… that… well, my place is free this afternoon," she tilted her head, and Rachel smirked. "So what's the plan for those guys, are you going to talk to them?"

"We both are, together," Rachel nodded. "And talk isn't going to do it anymore, we need to get them into a room somewhere and wake them up a bit, show choir crash course, you know?"

"Right, that could work. What are the odds of getting Jesse in there? He knows what he's doing. If he can just get his head in the right place, he might actually be able to help. There'll be three of us on one end, three on the other, we can pair up, you know… one on one."

"You're starting to sound like a teacher," Rachel teased, and at the glare she got in response, she laughed. "What, I like it. What's the lesson today, Miss Lopez?" she put on a curious high pitched tone, and it broke the scowl into a smile. "Please, Miss, I don't think I understood the lesson today, I think I need some help, maybe I could drop by your office, then you could tell me all about it," she went on, grasping on to her girlfriend's arm. Now Santana was barely keeping herself from laughing.

"Rachel," she warned, and the other girl let go, still smiling.

"I'll talk to Jesse, alright? I'll get him in that crash course or my name's not Rachel Berry. How about you, can you get those other guys together, say Friday afternoon, at my house?"

"Consider it done," Santana nodded. They left the school together, considerably less frustrated over Glee Club than they'd been a few minutes earlier. There was only so much they could do on their end of things, but they would do it.

THE END

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!