Featured songs:
"Empire State of Mind" by Jay-Z ft. Alicia Keys
"Telephone" by Lady Gaga ft. Beyonce

On Wednesday afternoon, Marissa gathers all sixteen members of the International Club to eat lunch in the outdoor commons. The sun shines in a recently cleared blue sky and beams heat into all those who dressed warm for the previously cloudy morning. Damian pushes up the sleeves of his light zip-up hoodie and looks around uncertainly; all around him, people remain in tight-knit cliques, never breaking their boundaries. A stoned-looking guy in dreadlocks mopes with rebel friends in a dark corner. Football players with their letterman jackets laugh and throw spitballs at a study group two tables over.

And the table he's currently sitting at: environmentally aware, nature-friendly individuals who approach all of life's problems from the far left side. Marissa also happens to be the president of the Environmental Club and has mashed both groups together for the time being.

Across from him sits a small Asian girl with a beret perched atop her round face. She extends her hand in greeting. "Hello, my name is Sunshine."

Damian completes the other half of the handshake. "Damian."

"Haha, I like your accent," Sunshine grins. "Um, let me guess… Scottish?"

"Eh, close. Irish. You're Filipino?"

Sunshine appears pleasantly surprised. "How did you guess?"

Damian takes on a wistful expression. "One of my friends back home was Vietnamese. He didn't like people calling him Filipino just because his skin was darker."

Sunshine picks up on his hinted nostalgia. "Will you not be able to see him again?"

Damian frowns. "Probably not. My mom finally found a job here."

"Well, that's good that she has a reliable income," Sunshine encourages. "My dad couldn't find work in America, so he's still back in the Philippines. It's just me and my mom and my sister here, and my mom works as a nanny for some rich couple who are always on business trips."

Damian and Sunshine continue to converse, exchanging backgrounds and family histories and cultural differences. Right when Sunshine's in the middle of narrating an unfortunate miscommunication between her mother and the grocer, however, a sudden cacophony of voices interrupts her.

Damian glances around the outdoor commons: the stone stairs, the tables scattered around, the caged stairwell leading towards the school—there's a brunette standing on top of a table three tables over, clearly enunciating the baaa-bap-bap-baaa-baaa-bum-bum-bum beat echoing around the concrete commons from speakers. Another guy begins dancing between the tables, and suddenly at least six people in black attire are in motion, all singing the same song. There's someone in a wheelchair rapping, swinging his hands in gangster motions; then two more people come down the caged stairwell from the school, singing in harmony.

In New York, concrete jungle where dreams are made,
Oh, there's nothing you can't do, now you're in New York
These streets will make you feel brand new, big lights will inspire you,
Let's hear it for New York, New York, New York…

At one point, the brunette standing on top of the table glances over at Damian, and he immediately averts his eyes. No, he wasn't staring at her thighs exposed by her short black skirt. He then notices that Sunshine is singing along with the song, bobbing her head to the constant beat while silently mouthing the words.

Damian leans back to get Marissa's attention. "Who are they?" he shouts over the music.

Marissa swallows her mouthful of Pop-tart. "Them? Social suicide. Just ignore them."

A larger girl with a head of flaming orange hair leans over from the table next to them. "They're a show choir group called the Glee club. They've been putting posters around the school about their Nationals competition being in New York, hence the song." She wipes her hand on her jeans, then holds it out to him. "Hey, I'm Hannah. Are you new around here?"

"Damian. I just transferred from Ireland."

"Whoa! I love your accent! Say more words! Ahem… would you like some biscuits with your tea, sir?" Hannah drawls in an overworked English accent. Reverting back to her American accent again, she continues, "Anyways, the audition doesn't count. You do one, but it's just to evaluate you. I was thinking about signing up, but I want somebody to go with me."

Damian hesitates. I just met you. "Um…"

Sunshine waves from behind him. "Hi, I'm Sunshine! I'd love to audition with you two."

"Awesome!" Hannah squeals. "I'll go sign us up next time I walk past the poster board. Sunshine and Damian, right?"

"Wait…" Damian tries to speak, but Sunshine runs him over.

"That's us!" she chirps while pulling out her cell phone. "What's your number?"

Damian pulls out his phone, unsure of what just transpired.

These streets will make you feel brand new, big lights will inspire you,
Let's hear it for New York, New York, New York…

For about two seconds, Hannah feels slightly guilty for dragging her two new friends into joining Glee with her. They've only been at McKinley High for three days and definitely wouldn't know about the firmly established social hierarchy that would harass them for just being in a singing club. Marissa's right; Glee club is social suicide. Marissa has a sweet R&B voice, one that she uses often in the less ostentatious, more invisible theater club; but if she joined Glee, even her amnesty pin wouldn't spare her from slushie attacks.

Damn amnesty pins. Marissa also acted as the student body's silvertongue (official title: public relations). The jocks respected her because she had several footholds in positions of power; she didn't actually sit in them, but she could pull the strings hard enough to heap coals on offenders' heads. So her protection extended to all international students, which is partially why the International Club was so large.

Anyways, Hannah consoles herself with the fact that, thanks to those amnesty pins, it was likely that the number of slushies headed Damian and Sunshine's way would be kept to a minimum; they could audition without fear of attack.

She's sitting in the bathroom during sixth period when an impromptu song duel goes down. It starts off like so:

"Oh, hello there!" Hannah could recognize Rachel's bright, sophisticated inflection anywhere. "I couldn't help but notice you admiring me during lunch in the courtyard."

"Uh… what?" That's Sunshine's hesitant, barely accented voice.

"Whoops, you don't speak English? Okay, You Like Me Sing. You Like Me Sing Very Much."

"Um, I can totally speak English—"

"I even did a little research on you during fifth period: you're a foreign exchange student named Sunshine Corazon because you're from the Philippines where it's always sunny!"

"…except for the monsoons—"

Hannah almost chuckles, but she bites back the noise.

"Listen, Sunshine," Rachel continues in her oblivious rant, "Our Glee club is in desperate need of chorus singers, people who will stand in the background and stare at me with moved, teary eyes as I shine brilliantly on center stage and showcase my amazing talent during solos! So I highly encourage you to audition for Glee club. Singing Harmony Is Very Fun! Swaying In Background Can Be Rewarding!"

"Thank you," Sunshine says tersely.

"Okay." A sheaf of papers drops to the floor and scatters, and Rachel stoops over to pick them up. At that point, a song buzzes on tinny speakers—probably Sunshine blasting music too loud on her iPod. After the first couple of words or so, Sunshine begins to sing the words aloud:

Hello, hello, baby you called? I can't hear a thing,
Cuz I have got no service in the club, you see, see.
What-what-what did you say? Are you breaking up on me?
Sorry I cannot hear you; I'm kinda busy.

Rachel's voice echoes Sunshine's line, and the duel is on. Hannah hears the competitive streak in Rachel break out as Sunshine belts each line back happily; both have incredibly powerful voices that echo around the bathroom tiles, and Hannah is awed at the power that such a small person can produce—

"SHUDDAP!"

Aaaand that would be Sue Sylvester crashing the party. Really, Hannah was just getting to enjoy the show from her private seat. Eh, no matter; but she's really going to have to pester Sunshine into dishing out more of that chest voice. Wow.

"Um," Sunshine says cheerfully, "That was pretty fun. I'd love to join your club! Where are auditions?"

Rachel seems to be at a loss for words. "Um… I don't have the address on me, so let me get back to you on that. …Don't tell anybody about this."

Hannah cleans up and exits her stall after Rachel leaves. Sunshine shoots Hannah a confused What are you doing here? look. "That was amazing, Sunshine!" Hannah congratulates while washing her hands. "Where'd you pull that voice from? So huge for such a little person!"

Sunshine gives a timid grin. "I used to sing in the Philippines a lot. To raise money for my family."

"Well your momma taught you well," Hannah states. "You are going to kill at New York!"

"You did this to me! You told Coach Sylvester about my summer surgery!"

"You get a surgery when you get your appendix removed. You got a boob job."

"Yep, sure did." Santana promptly slaps Quinn across the face. The sound of manicured hand meeting perfect face echoes down the crowded hall, drawing students like moths to a flame. Matheus and Sam are pushed by the current to the front lines.

Quinn's face burns in shock and anger. "You can't hit me!"

"Sure I can," the Latina sneers, getting in the blonde's face. "Unless you got yourself knocked up again, slut."

Quinn's pretty face erupts into a snarl as she shoves Santana roughly against the lockers. A collective gasp spills from the crowd as the two cheerleaders grapple around for a second; then Santana gets the upper hand, using Quinn's momentum to reverse their positions. Pushed roughly against the clanging metal surface, Quinn tries to get a handhold on Santana's clothing for leverage; but said boob job has stretched Santana's uniform to its limit and there are no loose folds of clothing for Quinn to grab onto. Quinn screams in frustration as she paws and scratches Santana's torso and Santana growls menacingly in return.

Sam's eyes are as wide as dinner plates. A blush creeps up his neck slowly when Santana digs her rounded fingernails into Quinn's soft shoulders and pitches her to the ground. He stops breathing completely as blonde tresses spill around Quinn's face, two feet away from Sam's feet. Matheus notices Sam's temporary paralysis and nudges his friend. Sam jerks back to reality and glances at Matheus sheepishly.

"Hey hey hey, what is this supposed to be?" the Spanish teacher, Mr. Schuester, yells. "We're a family!"

Santana fights against Mr. Schuester's restraining arm, her black ponytail bobbing around furiously. "She's already got a family, she's a moooother," she drawls before stalking off.

Quinn collapses against Mr. Schuester's other arm, screaming hoarse words that dissolve into broken emotion. Matheus pulls Sam away quickly while snapping a finger in front of his face. After a while, Sam responds.

"Dude, what's up with you?" Matheus hisses. "Keep a lid on it at least, everybody could see you—" Sam's not paying attention again; he's still looking over his shoulder at Quinn.

Matheus steps lightly around Sam's body so that he can wave a hand in Sam's face. "That's Quinn Fabray," he informs. "Ex-head cheerleader, though the rumor mill says that she recently got reappointed after ratting Santana out on her enhancements. So basically, that's the most popular girl in the school that you're crushing on."

Sam's eyes snap back down to Matheus with an indignant expression scrawled across his face. "What are you talking about?" he laughs agitatedly. "I'm not—" At Matheus' incredulous grin, though, his face wilts slightly. "What makes you think…"

Matheus pats him on the small of his back. "Whatever, man. Just make sure you're in a position of power if you don't want to be shot down." He tugs on Sam's letterman jacket, emblazoned with the colors of his old school. "Football is probably the best way to go. Rumor mill also says Finn Hudson, the late quarterback, just got kicked off the team."

Sam's expression turns thoughtful.

Author's Rant

Pairings-wise, it seems like all the reviews have come to a general consensus. I also planning on mixing the Glee Project kids with the Glee characters - just a teensy little bit. I've already got a tangled relationships-web sketched up... muahahaha! EpicMarySue tossed in a couple wrenches into my tangled relationships-web... but one of them filled in a plot hole I didn't know I had, so thanks!

Also, in the story description, when I said "hot mess of Glee continuity," I hope you caught the sarcasm.