So. I wrote All or Nothing a while back and I decided to continue. You can't do this one without All or Nothing. All or Nothing is basically the prologue. Funny, because I actually don't like Marley. Maybe, after this, I will. Just want you to know that this story is completely new with new characters. Sure, old ones will pop by too (especially Santana, that's why she is listed as character), but this isn't about them. Anyway, I am new to FF so please, bear with me. Also, English isn't my first language.
Well... just enjoy (:
Marley gained a lot of respect for Mr. Schue this morning. When she finally convinced Mrs. Riley, she was so happy she totally forgot about the difficulties.
This morning, she hung up flyers for A New Direction everywhere. Three hours later, they were gone or signed with "LOSER CLUB," "PENIS" and so on.
She put it on the digital board to avoid that.
When she joined the New Directions all these years ago, it was easy. They just won Nationals. Everyone in the country knew them.
Now, she is back at the start. Tina told her fifteen years ago how it all started. She told Marley how they were slushied on daily basis, that the football players bullied them, the horrible performances in the gym and courtyard, the names people gave them… Marley never really believed her, but now she does.
A full week has passed and nothing happened.
"Please, give me one more week, Mrs. Riley," Marley begs one morning, "I have so much hope. I know, it can happen." "One more week, Mrs. Rose," Mr. Riley sighs, "One more. If there's no progress after that I'll cut the funding."
"Thank you, ma'am," she says and makes her way out of her office.
Two more days pass and Marley starts losing hope. She's sitting in the empty choir room during lunch break and she starts plotting again. How to get members?
She looks over to the two portraits on the wall, back to the places they where used to be.
"The show must go… all over the place… or something."
"By its very definition, glee is about opening yourself up to joy."
She can't, she can't, give up right now. She needs to have members, but only a miracle can help her now. Even the smallest miracle can save her now.
"Mrs. Rose?"
She looks up. Kate is standing in the doorway. "Hi, Kate, she smiles widely. "Good afternoon. Sorry, again, but I don't understand this paragraph." Marley's smile falls, but instantly comes back. She has to hide her disappointment. "Let me see," she says.
She once again explains and when Kate's on her way to the door, she stops. "Mrs. Rose?" she asks. "Hm?" "Why are you sitting here all alone?"
Before Marley has time to answer, Kate turns back to her and says: "You are the leader of the glee club now, right?"
"Yes, yes I am. Why?"
"Just checking."
Oh.
"Oh." Again, she tries to hide her disappointment. What would Mr. Schue do now?
"Kate?" she calls Kate back before she can stop herself. Kate stops in the middle of the hallway. "Yes, Mrs. Rose?" Kate asks. Can she do this? "I heard you singing once in the hallway, you sounded really good."
"Well, thank you, Mrs. Rose." "Have you ever consider joining glee club?" Too direct, Marley, too direct!
But to Marley's surprise, Kate smiles. "Actually…" Kate starts, "I have, but I.. I don't know, Mrs. Rose. I don't want to be alone and right now, it doesn't look like anyone else's about to join."
"Maybe when you join, others will see how great it can be and they will join too," Marley suggests, "We can make it happen."
Kate bites her lip. She looks around the hallway before entering the choir room again.
"Mrs. Rose, may I ask? Why do you want this so badly?"
"I want what?"
"This!' Kate gestures to the choir room, "The glee club. It has been dead for years and everyone sort of gave up on it. It used to be legendary. Have you ever seen the performance of We Are The Champions by the old glee club, the New Directions?"
Yes, Sugar showed me.
"I… wait a second," Marley widens her eyes, "Have you seen it?" Kate looks down to her feet. "I wasn't lying when I said I was interested in glee club, "she confesses, "I've been following show choir blogs for ages-" Marley smiles when she hears Blaine's voice in her head and Kitty smacking it down. "-checked it out when I heard there was going to be another glee club at McKinley. Apparently they lost Nationals a year after that and the current principal disbanded it."
Marley still remembers the last day.
It was horrible.
"But, Mrs. Rose, you still haven't answered my question," Kate points out, "Why did you take over the glee club." Marley smiled softly. "You follow show choir blogs, right?" she asks and Kate nods, "What do those show choir blogs say about the New Directions?"
"Oh, so much, Mrs. Rose. Ever heard of the 'kiss that missed'? It has been two decades, well almost two, and people are still talking about that one. Or when the famous Kurt Hummel joined a rival group, fell in love and transferred back after they lost. Or all the shipping drama, ma'am, the shipping drama. Or Finn Hudson's death-" Ouch. Marley eyes his portrait. "-much, Mrs. Rose, so much. And of course about their successes after graduation."
"Also… members?"
"Well, yeah, but frankly, most people who still blog about the New Directions only blog about the first three years." Ah.
Marley nods slowly.
"Can I ask you something?" "Of course, Mrs. Rose," Kate answers. "Check the members list again, but now for the fourth year and come back tomorrow."
"… Okay," Kate sounds suspicious, "I.. eh, will." She turns around. "Well, see you tomorrow then, Mrs. Rose."
Kate returns next day, same time, same place.
"Good afternoon, Mrs. Rose," she says. Marley likes it when she calls her 'Mrs. Rose.' Now she knows how Mr. Schue felt. "Good afternoon, Kate," Marley gestures her to sit down. Seeing someone else sitting in the choir room gives her hope.
Then, she hears footsteps. Someone is running in the hallway.
"Kate, Kate, I'm here!" they hear. A young man, long and blond enters the choir room. He is holding a tablet and wears a lot of blue. Marley doesn't recognize him. "Mrs. Rose, Tyler. Tyler, Mrs. Rose," Kate introduces him. "Yeah, uh, hi," Tyler says out of breath.
"Tyler also check show choir blogs," Kate explains, "So I told him about yesterday and we checked the New Direction's members lists again and we saw something-" "Interesting," Tyler finishes. He opens his tablet. "Here," he points to something on the list, "Marley Rose was one of the first new members."
Marley smiles widely.
"Mrs. Rose, on my digital timetable, you're listed as 'Mrs. M. Rose'," Kate says, "M. Rose. Does the M stand for Marley?"
Marley smiles even wider.
"I take that as a yes?" Kate asks and Marley nods. "Then I understand," Kate gets up and clears her throat, "Mrs. Marley Rose, hereby I ask for permission to join the glee club." "I ask too!" Tyler peeps from the background, he still has trouble breathing. Apparently he isn't a fan of sports.
"Permission granted," Marley says happily, "Although Tyler still has to audition."
"Really girl?" Unique asks on the other side of the Face Time line, "Your first two members? I'm proud of you!" "I am so happy, Unique," Marley says, "This can really happen. I told Blaine and guess what? He says that it's already online!" "Blaine and his show choir blogs," Unique laughs.
"Oh, this is big news!" Marley cheers, "The glee club is back and this time we're going to stay. Sue Sylvester is gone so no one is threating us this time! We should tell the others. Blaine, Sugar, Artie and Sam already know. And if they know, Kurt, that Irish kid I never really met, Kitty and Mercedes know too."
"This is gonna be big, girl," Unique says, "You're gonna rule this. Unique knows that for sure."
Six people.
Six people are in the glee club now.
Four new names on the list today. She has no idea how it happened, but she is grateful for the miracle that entered the choir room two days ago.
Kate Lambert, Tyler Holiday, Damian Howell, Jace von Maes, Carla Leenders (Marley wonders if that's Mrs. Leenders' daughter) and Lulu Chang.
She still can't believe it when the six of them enter the choir room.
Damian is short, blond and has big bright eyes. "Hi, Mrs. Rose!" he greets her happily when he enters the room.
Jace is pale and has red/brown hair. He is extremely tall. He looks bored, so Marley wonders why he came here in the first place.
Carla looks like Mrs. Leenders. She has the same long black locks, round face and is also short. She is Mrs. Leenders daughter.
Lulu Chang isn't like Tina or Mike. She is still Asian, but so different. She is long and has short black hair. Marley has seen her in hallways before. She wears a lot of designer clothes.
"Good afternoon, everyone!" Marley says excited, "If you don't know who I am, I am Marley Rose. I teach English and also took over glee club. I used to be in glee club back in high school. Now, before we start auditions-" Carla gulps "- I ask you to introduce yourself and tell us all why you wanted to join glee club."
"Oh, I go first!" Jace says.
Marley didn't expect that.
"Well, the floor is yours."
Jace nods and gets up. "I am Jace. I joined this club because I have nothing else to do and well, I guess I'm good at singing, so I thought 'why not?' and here I am." "And what song are you going to sing now?"
Jace opened his mouth and Marley's jaw dropped. She honestly doesn't recognize the song, but he is good.
Carla is next. Then Damian. They both have the same reason. They love singing. Carla's singing voice is high, but Damian's low. Really, really low.
Lulu Chang isn't Mike and Tina's daughter, Marley knew that. They live in Chicago now. But she didn't know that Lulu is Mike and Tina's niece. Sadly, she isn't as good as dancing as Mike, but she can be a diva like Tina, Marley sees that.
Marley didn't even know Mike has a brother or sister, but well… Marley didn't know that much about the infamous 'seniors.'
Apparently, Lulu told her aunt and uncle about A New Direction and they encouraged her to join. They spent hours talking about their 'super awesome glee club experience.'
"Mrs. Rose?"
Marley smiles when she hears Kate's voice the next day. She is pinning some very important pictures up to the digital wall in the choir room.
"Yes, Kate?"
"Out of curiosity, what are you doing?"
Marley looks over to Kate. "Come here," she says and Kate does.
"Are those…" "Photos, yes," Marley answers, "Of course, years later, someone scanned them in. I mean, photos aren't used that much anymore. Friends all over the world sent them to me to pin it here." "Last time I saw a real photo, I was a little girl," Kate says softly, "Never understood why everyone stopped using them." Marley hums in agreement.
"Hang on," Kate eyes widens when she studies the faces on the photos, "I've seen these faces before."
"You probably have," Marley chuckles, "I never understood how people on the internet got hold of personal pictures. You should've seen Kitty Wilde's face when she found out one of her selfies ended up on show choir blogs."
"This one is years old," Marley points to one in the left corner of the wall, "It was the first trophy. They just won their first Sectionals. And here-" She goes to the next one. "And here, they are in New York. They lost the competition, though." Then she points to one in the right corner. "After the first graduation, Rachel Berry went to New York. They all said their goodbyes before she stepped in the train, but before she did that, they asked someone to snap a photo."
And there are more, so much more.
Pictures of Tina, Blaine and Sam.
Selfies in the choir room with Brittany, Tina, Sam and Artie.
Marley's glee club at the carnival.
And so on.
"The New Directions," Kate realizes, "Our legacy."
Marley smiles softly. They indeed are A New Direction's legacy.
TBC
Hey, I just want to tell you one thing. The characters here aren't based on the "real" characters. I'll try to make them different, not like glee did to the newbies. Yes, I used the names Damian, Lambert, Howell and Holiday, I know. The only one who's related to the characters is Lulu (MIKE DOESN'T HAVE A SIBLING I KNOW) and she is named after my sister. This won't be a long fanfic, so don't expect 30+ chapters. Right now, I'm thinking about 5.
But yeah, we'll see.
One last thing: the photos on the digital wall (we're 15 years later hey hey hey) are mostly glee cast bts photos. For example the selfie in the choir room is a selfie posted on Instagram by Chord when they were shooting "100."