This is an AU fic, meaning that Artie's not in a wheel chair and Glee club didn't exist. Some of them went to different schools. Mkay? Mkay.
I don't own Glee or any of the songs I'm going to use in the fic. Enjoy!
"She lives clear across town, give her a minute, she'll be here." Artie promised, idly picking at his bass's strings as he lounged on the beat up tan couch Puck had hauled in from some street corner last summer. His floppy brown hair would occasionally fall into his eyes, prompting him to just flip it casually out of the way and resume fiddling with his precious instrument. He was completely ignoring his remaining band mates, who were standing anxiously in the driveway and scanning the Ohio suburban horizon for any sign of the new black Toyota Artie had promised would be in Finn's driveway fifteen minutes ago. Well, they were more concerned with its driver than the car itself. "…It won't make her drive faster to pace around like that, you know." He called out to them, shaking his head at the angry grumblings he knew Puck was shooting his way for that one.
To say that Finn and Puck were skeptical about Artie's pick for their new lead guitarist was an understatement. Not that they didn't trust his instincts, because they'd come to realize in their ten months of playing with him that if any of them had an ear for talent, it was him. They just found it hard to believe that the person Artie had described had the chops to keep up with their music. The stuff they played was loud and fast and generally had some serious anger driving it…and Artie thought that his best friend, a former private school princess, could handle it? Yeah, princess, as in the female gender.
When Artie had first suggested her, Finn and Puck had outright laughed at the idea ("Dude, chicks are sexed up groupies, not rock gods" Puck had told him). But when four months went by of endless auditions with hacks who didn't fit the bill, they'd conceded. The girl could have one audition – just one. And if she blew it, that was it. So that's how they'd ended up here, waiting in the driveway of Finn's house on a lazy June morning for what the two boys assumed would be the worst audition yet.
"Seriously, fuck this shit." Puck swore, turning on his heel and heading back into the garage towards the fridge they kept their drinks in. "Artie, I'm serious, I'll give the little cupcake five more minutes, and then I'm-"
"She's here." Artie smiled, hopping off the couch (after gently laying his bass down) and nodding in the direction of the entrance to Finn's cul-de-sac. Sure enough, the Toyota was pulling up to the curb outside their place, a driver with wavy brown hair and those preppy bug-eyed sunglasses shielding her eyes at the wheel. Finn stayed rooted to the spot, his arms awkwardly folding across his chest as he heard the girl kill the motor. Puck slowly stepped out of the garage, clutching a root beer, to stand next to his longtime friend as they watched the car door swing open. "Rachel!" Artie called, pushing past Finn and Puck to make his way towards the car.
"Dude," Puck groaned "…she's-"
"Tiny." Finn finished, his eyes all but bugging out of his head as the girl (whose name they could now assume was Rachel) stepped out of the car. And she really was; Artie was at least a head shorter than Finn, and even he had to lean over to give Rachel a hug. It didn't help her credibility any that she was wearing a lightweight sky blue cardigan halfway buttoned up over a white shirt and a black skirt, and had what they were pretty sure was an expensive purse slung over one shoulder. The silver chandelier earrings in her ears sparkled in the early afternoon light, and her blue flats freaking matched her sweater. Translation? Everything but lead guitar material.
"We're so fucked." Puck muttered, shaking his head and turning around to head back into the garage. "I'm going to kill Artie…waste of my time."
Finn, having a little more tact than his friend, took an awkward step forward as Artie began to lead the girl towards the garage, her guitar case in his hand. "Rachel, this is our drummer, Finn Hudson." Artie introduced, just as she was peeling those ridiculous shades off her face. She tucked them carefully away in her purse before smiling up at him, taking his hand in a firm hand shake. Twin pools of rich, dark chocolate sparkled back at him as the whitest smile he'd ever seen threatened to blind him. Oh balls. Why, for the love of god, did she have to be hot? It would have been easier to shoot down Artie's friend if she was Swamp Thing's identical twin sister… but now he was going to be bias. Awesome.
"It's so nice to meet you. Artie's told me all about you... I've even heard one of your demos, you're very talented." She told him, adjusting her purse strap slightly. But Finn almost didn't hear her, lost somewhere in an internal monologue he was having about how damn shiny her hair was.
"Uhh…hi." He stuttered. Crap. Nice one, he mentally chastised himself. She totally thinks you're hot shit now. But Rachel just laughed, nodding a little bit, before moving past him into the garage where a surly Puck was perched on the couch. Man, was this a girl on a mission or what? Since when could someone that little move that fast? He and Artie simply followed behind her, and Finn tried to ignore the raised eyebrows Artie was giving him at his epic fail of an introduction. "Dude, seriously?" was all he could get out, watching in amazement as Rachel went right up to Puck and introduced herself, not at all deterred by the cold exterior he'd put up against her. He could only catch snippets of their conversation, but from what he could hear, Rachel was complimenting Puck on his skills as their lead singer.
"Just wait." Artie promised, a somewhat evil glint in his eye as he set down Rachel's guitar case and unlatched the clasps, pulling out a cherry red electric Fender guitar. Finn whistled his approval at the choice, but couldn't help but wonder if the miniature girl now chatting up Puck could even handle an instrument that nice. Hell, the thing would probably knock her over with its weight alone, let alone when she tried to play anything on it.
Artie nudged Finn out of the way, plugging her guitar into the speakers as strumming it once to make sure it was working properly. That seemed to get Rachel's attention, and she dropped her purse on the couch next to Puck as she headed to Artie's side. She immediately began tying up her hair into a loose ponytail at the nape of her neck, her hair spilling over onto her right shoulder as Artie went back to the couch to pick up his bass. "Right, I'm not here to waste your time. "
"Wanna bet, Barbie?" Puck whispered under his breath, and Finn had to hold back a laugh at the dirty look he got from Rachel in response.
"Cliffs of Dover by Eric Johnson. Do you know it?" she asked Finn, her eyes never leaving Puck's face. There was a minute of silence as all three boys just stared at her; Puck and Finn out of astonishment and Artie out of pride. Was she seriously going to attempt that monster? Legitimately, it was a straight 4 minute guitar solo. And this solo was no joke. Only the gifted could play it, and even then it took a master to play it well. Their last guitarist, Matt, had attempted it once on guitar hero (on medium, mind you) and given up within the first thirty seconds. "…Do you, or don't you?" Rachel asked again, this time turning to look at Finn.
The fire in her eyes, not going to lie, scared the crap out of him. So it was all he could do to mumble out "…Yeah…yeah, sure," as he scrambled to get back to his drum set. He had only known her for a few minutes, but he could tell already that incurring the wrath of Rachel was NOT something you wanted to do. That seemed to be the smart move, because the anger melted away somewhat to a smile. And she only waited until Finn was seated before she tore into the song.
And we mean tore. Finn almost forgot to start playing along, he was so mesmerized by her performance. Was she for real? Where does a girl like Rachel even learn to play like that? It wasn't just that she was playing the chords correctly, it sounded like she was actually playing with soul and passion – a talent that had eluded Matt all six months they'd played together. It was all effortless for her, the guitar becoming an extension of her body instead of the bulky instrument it was. She was even able to throw some dance moves in there, jumping around in a circle as she played and slightly shaking her hips from side to side. (She was definitely going to have to stop doing that if they took her, Finn was distracted enough by her playing, and she didn't need to make it worse by teasing him with the hem of that dangerously short skirt).
"So… waste of your time?" she asked when she was finished, a small bead of sweat glistening near the crown of her head and her breathing somewhat labored.
Finn glanced between Artie and Puck, and was met with twin expressions of awe. None of them had ever played with someone that good. Ever. And here she was, all that talent bundled up into a tiny little rich girl. Correction, a smoking hot little rich girl. Who was offering to be a part of their dinky little garage band. Artie immediately dropped to his knees and bowed down to Rachel like she was some religious idol, repeating over and over "We are not worthy, we lowly mortals are not worthy!"
"Where the fuck did you learn to play like that?" Puck questioned, getting up off the couch. Finn figured he was talking just to keep his jaw from hanging open…Speaking of which, he immediately closed his own and tried to act cool. Tried being the operative word here, he was failing pretty spectacularly. Sure, Finn had been cool during his high school career, but mostly because he was tall, the quarterback on the football team, and the basketball captain. He wasn't particularly standoffish or suave like you'd expect. Not like Puck, who had intimidated his way to the top of the social ladder, expertly chasing every cheerleader's skirt along the way. Nah, he was just your average guy who happened to be good at sports. Or as good as anyone got at McKinley, their teams were awful.
"I have two gay dads, who from birth said I could pursue any art form I wanted, and they'd make sure I had the best coaching possible…and while they would have loved for me to have chosen painting or singing or acting or something, when I was eight I chose the guitar. I've played ever since." Rachel explained, shrugging a little as she unplugged her guitar and began putting it back in the case. "So…am I in?" she asked, turning to face them all with a knowing smile. Man was she cocky…But damn could she play. Finn exchanged a glance with Puck, who then shared one with Artie, and shook his head slowly once as he let out a small laugh.
"I can't believe I'm saying this…but Barbie, welcome to the band."