The Wildebrams Saga 3: New New Directions
Chapter 2: New Year, New Directions
By Wilde Abrams
== WMHS Hallway, September 2014 - The First Day of School
Liesel Ben Israel walked down the hall, camera operator behind her and microphone in hand, in search of a story. Liesel had been able to make significant improvements to her blog with the ad revenue that her coverage of the loser drama club the previous year and had brought in. She'd bought new cameras and microphones, improved her web hosting account bandwidth, and redesigned her website.
Unlike her brother who viewed this mostly as a hobby and something to put on his journalism school resume, Liesel wanted to grow this into a media empire similar to her idols Geraldo Rivera and Jerry Springer. But in order to do that she needed to dig up the dirt and get the affected parties to appear on her show on the LBI YouTube Channel.
Liesel approached Marley and Ryder, who were walking down the hall, hand in hand with smiles on their faces, obviously very much in love.
"'A student' Marley Rose, how does it feel to be dating a dyslexic?" Liesel asked, pressing her mic in the tall girl's face. "Don't you think it would be better to date someone on your own intelligence level?"
"What are you talking about?" Marley asked
"She didn't know?" Liesel asked Ryder. "Scandal already in such a new relationship?"
"Of course I know he's dyslexic," Marley responded. "He has a learning disorder. That's nothing to do with his intelligence!"
"How did you even find out about that," Ryder demanded. "Student records are supposed to be confidential."
"He's a 'C student'," Liesel told Marley, ignoring Ryder's question. "You're an 'A student'. Better be careful not to spend too much time studying together. You don't want to catch dumb."
"What…?" Marley was completely exasperated.
"How did you find out about it?" Ryder asked again.
"You know that I can't betray the confidence of my source. I just wanted to give you the chance to respond to it before it appears on the front page of my blog."
"It's not even a new relationship," Marly shouted as the annoying girl continued down the hall. "We've been together for months!"
Liesel ignored her and continued walking down the hall and approached twin cheerleaders Mason and Madison McCarthy, who are standing by their locker.
"Madison McCarthy," Liesel said, shoving the microphone between the two of them. "What do you have to say to to reporters in my blog, that you're a little 'too close' to your brother?"
"What do you mean?" Madison asked.
"My sources toll me that the two of you do 'everything' together," Liesel told her.
"Of course we do," Madison responded, clearly not understanding what the other girl was insinuating. "We're twins…. We're extremely close!"
"You heard it here first, everybody," Liesel said to her camera. "The 'Incest Twins' rumors are confirmed!"
"Hey, wait!" Mason chimed in. "That's not what she meant."
But Liesel was already moving on to her next prey, Bree Campbell and Jake Puckerman who were once again making out in front of her locker.
"Bree Campbell," Liesel asked, shoving her microphone in their feces. "What do you say to the students in the forums on my blog who say that the Cheerios best days are behind them, after their stunning failure to even qualify for Nationals last year?"
"That's ridiculous," Bree responded, "our dismal performance last year was the result of the incompetence of our coach! Now that Coach Sylvester is back running the program, we are not only going to qualify for Nationals this year, we're going to win!"
To Jake, who was wearing a male cheerleader uniform, having joined the squad the previous year, Liesel asked, "What do you say to reports that since joining a girls sport, you've lost your juice, and that your girlfriend is clearly wearing the pants in the relationship now?"
"That's ridiculous,"Jake responded, "plenty of men have been cheerleaders. I'm just as masculine as I always have been!" To demonstrate, Jake pulled Bree into his arms and the two of them began making out again.
But once again, Liesel was off down the hall ignoring their PDA.
Kitty and Unique were talking to each other when Bree approached. Kitty rolled her eyes when she saw the irritating Sophomore girl stop in front of them.
"Kitty Wilde," Liesel addressed her, "Word in the halls is that Mr. Schuster got permission to restart the defunct New Directions, and that you're going to be team captain this year!"
"Yeah," Kitty responded, irritated at being interrupted, "What of it Troll?"
"How do you expect to balance both Glee Club and Cheerleading?" Liesel wanted to know.
"I know you weren't here back then," Kitty respond, rolling her eyes, "but I did it just fine Sophomore Year."
"That's not what I heard! I did some digging," Liesel responded, "You were Captain of the Cheerios until you joined Glee Club, but you couldn't handle the divided loyalties, so Coach Sylvester demoted you at her first opportunity-"
"-That's not what happened," Kitty responded
"- What makes you think that Mr. Schuster won't do the same thing?" Liesel continued her questioning. "And while we're at it, how do you expect to even compete with only five members? The Show Choir Rule Book says you need at least 12!"
"First of all," Kitty responded in full bitch mode, "You don't know what you're talking about. That year Coach Sylvester changed Cheerios Captains as often as she changed the color of her track suits. I was one of several, and that had nothing to do with me being in Glee Club. Second, Mr. Schue would never act that way. Third, we still have half of the Glee Club that came in second in the whole freaking nation. We'll havre auditions the end do of the week, and with my sheer awesomeness as Captain, it won't be a problem to bring the new newbies up to speed."
"You tell her girl!" Unique chimed in, waving her hand in a sassy manner.
And with that the two girls turned around and marched down the hall, leaving Liesel and her camera crew behind.
== WMHS Principal's Office, Monday Morning
Will Schuester walked into the outer office on his way to see Principal Figgins, who had texted him and asked him to meet him in his office, when he saw coach Sue Sylvester already sitting there waiting.
"What are you doing here, Sue?" He asked.
"Well, William," Sue answered sarcastically, "our former school janitor texted me and asked me to join him here. No doubt he wants to rub it in my face that he undid all of the improvements that I made to this school last year, starting with this office. I don't understand why he would want the windowed wall between the outer office and the inner one back. Now you can't tell your assistant to tell people that you're not in because they can clearly see that you're there!"
Sue and Will glanced toward the office and saw that Figgins was indeed inside the office, along with two other people faced away from them so that they were unrecognizable.
As if on cue, a buzzer buzzed and Donna, Figgins secretary glanced up from her computer and said, "Principal Figgins will see you now." There was a decidedly joyous way the woman emphasizes Figgins name and title, clearly relishing the fact that she was back in her old position now that Figgins was back in charge and Sue was demoted back to cheerleading coach.
Will stepped towards the office door, but was quickly brushed aside by Sue, who wanted to be the first one through the door. Will inwardly rolled his eyes, but decided to otherwise ignore it. Figgins rose to his feet and the other two turned to face the two teachers. Will smiled when he recognized who they were.
"Carole," he said, shaking the woman's hand. "Congratulations on the election! I'm sure you'll do a great job."
"Thank you, Will," she told him, "that means a lot."
"Superintendent," Will said, shaking the other man's hand. "It's a pleasure as always."
Sue gave the superintendent the evil eye, and turned her attention to Carole.
"Who's this?" She asked.
"Sue," Figgins said, "You remember Superintendent Harris and -"
"Who's this?" Sue asked again, condescendingly, gesturing towards Carole, completely ignoring the man responsible for her demotion out of the cushy principal job.
"Sue, you remember Finn's mom Carole Hudson-Hummel," Will interjected. "She joined the school board last year, and was just elected School Board President in their meeting last month."
"No," Sue said, condescendingly. "Can't say that I do."
"My son was in Glee Club for three years," Carole reminded him.
"No," Sue said again.
"My stepson Kurt was as well."
"No…I don't think so..."
"He was also on your cheerios briefly!"
"No…I think I'd remember a male Cheerio, we have them so infrequently."
"My husband Burt beat you out for election to the Western Ohio Senate seat, a couple years ago?"
"Porcelain's dad?" Sue finally recognized. "Porcelain's real name was Kurt? Who knew?" She mumbled under her breath, before adding, "How is old baboon heart doing anyway?"
"Quite well, actually," Carole told him.
"You two can catch up later," Superintendent Bob Harris interrupted. "If everyone could please sit down, as we were just telling Principal Figgins, the reason that we called you all here to discuss something very important."
Figgins returned to his seat and Will, Sue, and Carole each took seats in the chairs as the superintendent leaned against the the bookshelves and addressed the group.
"Council President Hudson-Hummel and I have been going over some things since her election as School Board President," Harris began. "While we were very pleased to have those misunderstandings from last year resolved," referring to the things found in Figgins desk resulting in his demotion, "and returned Principal Figgins here to his old job, we would be lying if we said that we had full confidence in his ability to lead the school."
"The board has some specific concerns," Carole added.
"What kind of concerns?" Figgins wanted to know, surprised.
"What does this have to do with any of us?" Sue asked, impatiently. "I have a squad or Cheerios to whip into shape."
"Precisely," Harris said. "For the first time in many years, the Cheerios didn't even qualify for Nationals last year. That's one of our concerns."
"That was the direct result of the incompetent ministrations of Coach Roz Washington," Sue reminded them. "If it were up to me, she would have been fired completely instead of just sent back to the pool. My top priority this year is to bring the Cheerios back to their former glory."
"That's the problem," Carole told her. "The Cheerios have an astronomical budget, a significant portion of which is usually paid for by Nationals award money, which we didn't get this year. Bringing the program back to what it was could be quite expensive."
"What does this have to do with Principal Figgins?" Will asked. "Or me for that matter?"
"Put simply," Harris answered, "We don't have confidence in his ability to balance the various resources, financial and other, and priorities of the school to fulfill the mandate we gave him to improve the grades at this school."
"The Cheerios budget is being cut by 30%," Carole told them, "On top of the lost award money."
"This is outrageous!" Sue protested, "You can't cut my budget without the prior written consent of the President of the Federal Reserve!"
"Not true," Harris informed her. "I have a copy of your contact right here."
"The Cheerios budget is completely out of control," Carole informed them, "and we simply can't afford it this year.
"Meanwhile, other programs like Glee Club, Jazz Band, and Drama are terribly underfunded. So we have eliminated the funds we usually get from Nationals, and spread the other excess around to the other clubs."
Harris handed each of them a paper outlining the school budget for the year, compared to the previous year.
"Really," Will said, "That's great! We can really use it."
But Sue was steaming as she read the paper.
"That's not all," Carole told them.
"We've decided that Figgins could use some help making sure that school resources were utilized fairly," Harris told them. "So effective immediately, we are promoting the two of you to co Vice Principals. Sue, you will be in charge or the athletic department, and Will, you will oversee the arts programs. Any hiring and termination decisions will have to be made by the three of you. So, no you can't fire Coach Washington, Sue. The two of you will work together with Figgins to deal with disciplinary and resource issues, and we expect all three of you to work with the teachers and improve academic performance school wide. Failure to do so could result in your respective programs having further budget cuts or bring completely eliminated."
"In other words," Carole said. "Will, you know that I'm rooting for Glee Club, but as you've already been informed, it must at least place at regionals this year if it's going to be retained. And Sue, if you don't at least qualify for Nationals and bring in some award money and outside funding, the program could be cut back further, or be completely scrapped. Sue, you had 80% of the budget for extracurricular last year!"
"This is outrageous," Sue exclaimed. "I will not let this stand!"
"You're free to bring your concerns to the board," Carole told her. "But these aren't Bob's and my choices. We are implementing the decisions of the board."
Bob handed each of them a memo outlining what had just been explained to them and a copy of the school board minutes when theses decisions had been made.
Sue glanced at the minutes and then eyed Will, Bob, and Carole each in turn. When she got to Carol she said, "You'll pay for this!"
And with that, she stormed out of the office, knocking over some office furniture as she left, and stormed down the hall towards the physical education wing.
Harris and Carole stared in shock.
"Does she do that a lot?" Carole asked.
"All the time," Will and Figgins mumbled.
After a few more awkward moments, Carole turned to Will who was still perusing the papers in his hand, smiling.
"The specific allocation of budget numbers in the arts department is flexible. We just divided them up how it seemed fair. You're also encouraged to do fundraising and seek outside sources of income. Why don't you and I go down to your office and talk about it while Bob and Figgins talk?"
"And I'll go talk to Sue once she's had the chance to calm down," Harris added.
"Thank you Superintendent," Will said, shaking his hand before leading Carole out of the office and down the hall..
== WMHS Choir Room, later that morning
Kitty, Marley, Ryder, Unique, and Jake sat quietly in the choir room as Will rushed out of his office and shouted, "GLEE!"
Marley and Ryder cheered along with him, but the others are decidedly more subdued.
"What's the matter guys?" Will asked. "We finally got Glee Club back! I thought that you'd be more excited than that."
"We have five members," Kitty pointed out. "We need at least 12 to complete, and if we don't compete and at least place at Regionals, the club will be over again."
Kitty had been as excited as the others that morning, but as hard as it was for her to admit it, that little troll had really started to get to her.
"True," Will conceded. "But almost exactly five years ago the New Directions started with five members as well."
He walked over to the wall and took down a picture to show them. The picture featured Rachel, Mercedes, Kurt, Artie, and Tina during a dress rehearsal practice for 'Sit Down You're Rockin The Boat'.
"That group had the same requirement, but it grew in time, and so will this one. As you can see some key members were still missing at that point.
"It's only the first day of school, and we haven't even put up the signup sheet yet. Invitationals aren't for a month and a half, and Sectionals aren't until Thanksgiving week again this year. We have time, and the group will grow. The signup sheet goes up tomorrow morning and auditions will be Friday after school. I already know at least one person who is planning to audition, and I'm sure there will be more!"
"Ugh," Kitty scoffed, "I hope you're not talking about that irritating niece or yours!"
"Actually," Will responded, "Betty is exactly who I was thinking of."
"She's an even bigger bitch than Kitty and Bree combined," Jake chimed in. "No offense," he said to Kitty.
"None taken," Kitty said proudly.
"You're one to talk," Marley said to Jake. "You're dating her."
"Yeah," Jake said, "but Bree isn't auditioning for Glee Club."
"Look guys," Will told them, "you don't have to like someone to be on the same team as them. I told Betty that she has to audition and be voted on like everyone else, but she more than adequately demonstrated her vocal ability last year during the spring musical. I would be very disappointed if you didn't vote her in based solely on a personality conflict, especially you Kitty, as team Captain."
Kitty sighed. Mr. Schue was right. Tina hadn't wanted Kitty to join glee either, and if Finn and the others hadn't taken a chance on her, the last two years she would have had a lot less joy in her life.
"Agreed," Kitty admitted and the others nodded their agreement.
"Now," Will said, "what I need from all of you is to be on the lookout for potential members, and start brainstorming a list of song and lesson ideas."
== WMHS Gymnasium, after school
The Cheerios were assembled in formation with a smiling Team Captain Bree Campbell out front proudly. All of the team members from the previous years squad who had not graduated stood behind her at attention, including Missy Gunderson, Jordan Stern, Celeste Green, Suzanne Martin, Kitty Wilde, Betty Pilsbury, the insufferable 'incest twins' Mason & Madison McCarthy, and Jake Puckerman, Bree's boyfriend who had gone from guest choreographer to a full fledged membership of the team the previous fall.
Bree was very proud of her team, and glad to hear that Coach Washington had been ousted, and that former Principal Sylvester had taken her rightful place back as coach of the Cheerios. Bree had never really liked Washington and blamed her for not qualifying for Nationals the previous year. She had also never completely forgiven her for ratting her out for Carrieing the Glee Club loser at Prom, Sophomore Year. Coach Sylvester had been a cheerleading coaching legend. Previously the Cheerios had held a record 5 National Championships. If anyone could get the squad back to its formerly high standards, it was her.
The gym doors burst open loudly and Coach Sylvester rapidly approached the group, bullhorn in hand, shouting out insults. She abruptly stopped in front of one of the seniors and addressed her.
"You," she shouted, "what's your name?"
"Tamara Watson, Coach Sylvester," the girl responded, proudly.
"Tamara," the coach said, condescendingly. "Do you think it's acceptable to show up here with a loose high pony, and anything but a perfectly dry cleaned uniform? Don't you believe in snowing any pride in your appearance?!"
The girls uniform was technically clean, but the white in her top wasn't the same bleached bright shade as the rest of the squad.
"I...uh…"
"Answer me!" Sylvester demanded.
"This is just a practice," Tamara answered. "I didn't think-"
"That's right," Coach Sylvester interrupted, "you didn't think! How do you expect to become a National Champion, if you don't take pride in your appearance? Get out! You're off the squad!"
"But I've been on the Cheerios for THREE years!" She pleaded.
"I don't care!" Sylvester yelled. "If you think that anything but an impeccable appearance and performance are acceptable, you have no place here."
The girl just stood there stunned.
"Go! Now!" Sylvester barked through her bullhorn.
Tamara burst into tears and ran from the gym.
"I expect that your uniforms will be properly dry cleaned and returned by the end of the day tomorrow," she shouted at the fleeing, crying girl.
Bree was stunned. She'd heard that Coach Sylvester had a temper and could be unpredictable, but never experienced her to be so ruthless. She must have betrayed some of her alarm with her facial expression or body language because before she knew it, Coach Sylvester was standing in front of her.
"Is there a problem, team Captain Bree Campbell?" Sylvester asked her.
"No Coach Sylvester," Bree answered, "of course not…"
"Yes there is," Sylvester told her. "My Cheerios didn't even qualify for Nationals last year! Do you know how embarrassing that is for a Nationally ranked cheerleading coach like me?"
"That was the fault of that incompetent Coach Washington, that she were saddled with-" Bree tried to explain before she was interrupted by her new coach rising her hand to silence her.
"Only on part," Sylvester told her. "You were the team captain. Ultimately you bare some responsibility too. I took a gamble on you and you let me down…
I'm very disappointed."
Bree just stood there, terrified that she was going to face the same fate as poor Tamara.
"Kitty," Sylvester barked, "get up here."
Both girls swallowed deeply and Kitty quickly joined Bree at the front of the formation. "Yes, Coach Sylvester," Kitty asked as a she stood at attention.
"You used to be Cheerios Captain, didn't you!"
"Yes, Coach Sylvester," she answered immediately, her eyes shining brightly in anticipation. Was Coach Sylvester really going to have her replace Bree as Captain? Beside her, Bree swallowed deeply again. Clearly Bree thought so.
Sylvester eyed both of them for a moment.
"The two of you don't like each other very much, do you?" She asked.
"No, Coach Sylvester," they both answered in unison.
"Good," she responded with a smile. "You're going to have to get past that and work as a team in order to get my Cheerios to a Nationals victory now that you're co team captains."
The entire squad stood there stunned as Coach Sylvester pivoted in one place and marched out of the gym.
The two team captains glared at each other with contempt for several moments until they heard Sylvester bark, "hit the showers!" Through her bullhorn.
# # # # #
Author's Endnote: So what do you think? Should this storyline continue? Let me know in your review of this chapter!