Sadie can't help but feel that the way Mr. Shuester has them standing up in front of the choir room is a bit reminiscent of standing in front of a firing squad. A quick glance at the faces of the original glee clubbers has her thinking that maybe this isn't such a dramatic comparison. There isn't a friendly face among the group and the putout glares they're all wearing manage to make even her feel uncomfortable.
Sadie glances at the boy to her left and feels sorry for him. If she's feeling the tiniest bit insecure then she suspects that he's about to vomit all over the floor (and hopefully not on her shoes). He'd been a wreck just forty minutes earlier, when it was just the two of them and Mr. Shuester going over a few scales and snippets of songs to get warmed up and comfortable.
His name's Jamie Benson and that's really all she knows of him, asides that he's a freshman like her and has a good voice underneath all the shyness—it's nothing spectacular, but there is potential for greatness in it somewhere. Her first impression of him is that he's sweet, like the tiny, trembling puppy with the too big eyes in the pet store.
She laces her fingers through his and gives a reassuring squeeze. He is remarkably pale, not the natural pale like her own skin but a sickly pale that, once more, has her worrying for her boots.
"—it'll be a little harder choreographing routines around odd numbers but it's not impossible," Mr. Shuester claps his hands together and slides over to Jamie with a proud smile on his face. His eyes are shining he looks like he may burst with excitement. "Now, I'd like to introduce you to the two new additions to New Directions!"
There's a unified groan from everyone in the room and Sadie isn't entirely sure if it's over Mr. Shuester's pun or not.
"Mr. Shuester!"
Sadie's eyes fall onto a girl that could only be Rachel Berry. Sadie's heard plenty about Rachel, knows more about her than she cares to admit considering before this point she'd never been in the same room as the girl. Rachel is everything she was said to be, from the knee socks to the patterned sweaters—right down to that obvious something special that maybe isn't so obvious to the people in this club.
Sadie wonders briefly if Rachel already knows and if that's why she and the rest of the club look so hostile. In any case, if they didn't already know they would soon enough. She couldn't go all year hiding her last name from them (the name 'Sadie' just didn't have the same ring to it as 'Madonna' or 'Cher').
"I think I speak for all of my fellow glee clubbers when I say that we do not appreciate you holding auditions without us. What if their voices don't fit with the sound we've developed over the last year?" Rachel said quickly, standing from her seat. "I already pull more than my own weight here. If I had been present during auditions than I could have helped select suitable members—members that make up for the current shortcomings of the group."
All glares were now pointed at Rachel. Sadie looks at Jamie, who looks as though he were determinedly trying to disappear into thin air, and squeezes his hand again.
"I understand your concerns, Rachel, but you all need to realize that this club is going to grow—think of it as…our glee family growing," Mr. Shuester reasons. Rachel frowns and falls back into her seat next to an exceptionally tall boy. Finn, Sadie guesses. Mr. Shuester claps his hand onto Jamie's shoulder and sighs. "Now, as I was saying, I'd like to introduce you all to our two new members: Jamie Benson and—"
He pauses and throws Sadie a wary glance that clearly says brace yourself. Sadie nods and steals her shoulders.
"—Sadie St. James."
Cue pandemonium.
A/N: I started this long before season two aired and wasn't planning on ever publishing it, but honestly I've found season two to be disappointing for the most part (though there have been several gem moments) so I decided to start this up again and publish it. Reviews are appreciated.