A/N So I have created a couple of new characters in this that we are going to see more of in the next chapter. I try to keep with only characters from the show if possible but with all the Warblers that are going to join I felt we had a serious lack of girl power, hence the two new characters. :) I hope you will grow to like them. They are only mentioned in this chapter, but they will appear in the next.
Thank you for the reviews, follows and favourites. They are all very welcome.
I don't own Glee, the characters or the songs.
Chapter Four
Richard James had never wished to be a leader of the Warblers at all. He had other commitments that he was part of, which included being captain of the track team and part of the swimming team. He would have been considered a jock had he come from any other school than Dalton. Thankfully he had extremely wealthy parents who resided in Columbus and wanted him to attend the institute of Dalton Academy. Many of the boys that attended Dalton came from wealthy backgrounds and were pushed by their parents to be the best that they could. Richard had loved to beat box before he came to Dalton and so decided to become a member of the Warblers in his freshman year, as they were considered one of the most prestigious teams on campus. Richard wanted his parents to be proud of him and so he had auditioned for this club and had gotten in because of his talents. With three older brothers all grown up and in very high flying jobs, Richard did not want to disappoint his parents by being less than outstanding. When the Warblers had been disbanded due to disqualification his parents had been very upset with him and had told him to 'buck up his ideas'. So he had poured himself into his sports and academic studies in an attempt to get them back on side. However, with the arrival of New Directions, the national champions no less, Richard had decided that his love of music could be rekindled by joining the team, and, at the same time, his parents respect.
This was how, the day after Trent's audition Richard came to be standing in the old Warbler rehearsal room ready to audition for this new glee club. He saw a gaggle of very different people in this group and he hoped that this would mean that he would be able to fit in easily when and if he was accepted into the group. Richard didn't generally choose to sing very often, but for the purposes of this audition for this group he felt that it was needed. He had hoped that Blaine would be there for his support in entering the group as he was, although he did not looking particularly on top form. Whatever had happened to him had seriously taken it out of him. Blaine did however give him a tired looking thumbs up as he finished the rap song he had chosen to perform. Choosing 'My Name Is...' by Slim Shady had given him the chance to not only sing but to also place some of his signature beat boxing within it as well. The two directors were deep in conversation with each other about whether to accept Richard and he felt a bit awkward standing in front of everyone whilst they made their minds up. Trent gave him a sympathetic look as well with Richard shrugging his shoulders, pretending to be nonchalant about the whole thing.
Mr Shue turned around and spoke after his deliberation with Finn.
"Richard, we just want to know one thing before we go on, you won't ever try anything like the Warblers did this year at sectionals again, will you?"
"No sir. I learnt my lesson in that respect. I never want to be that reckless and stupid again."
Mr Shue nodded his head. He had never had a boy with his particular talents join the group before and both he and Finn thought it could bring a whole new dimension to the team.
"Well then, Richard. Welcome to New Directions." Richard smiled broadly and went to high five Blaine and the blonde haired boy next to him who had raised his hand for one as well. He was now part of a different elite glee group. He hoped his parents would be proud of him being a member of this national championship group. He only had a few months left of high school and he wanted it to count.
Sam looked over at Blaine after that Richard guy had joined the group. He looked very tired. The dark circles around his eyes had started to give him a grey tint to his pallid skin. He was pushing himself too far. Mr Shue had given him orders to rest but he was stubbornly refusing them. Sam was starting to get really, really worried about him and hoped he would get some rest after this rehearsal.
"Blaine, you need to go get some sleep after this. You look beat." Sam whispered into the dark haired boys ear. Blaine just nodded, too tired to complain or object. He should have taken Mr Shue's advise and stayed in bed for a few days. He was exhausted and his cough was coming back with a vengeance. He needed to stop pushing himself before he caused himself to get even sicker. The rest of the meeting went by in a haze for Blaine who was finding it increasingly more difficult to keep his eyes open, and, when he felt Sam's strong arm wrap itself around his waist and pull him up to his feet to take them both to their dorm room, he felt he could not resist in the slightest.
"Dude, you need to catch some serious Z's. You're practically dead on your feet and not in a good way." Sam told him firmly. Blaine was not in the position to object. He felt like he could sleep for a hundred years at this rate. Sam somehow got them both to their dorm room and opened the door, shoved Blaine through and plonked him down onto his bed, where Blaine just curled up and promptly started to fall asleep shivering as he was prone to do these days.
Sam, getting increasingly more worried about his best friend and room mate, tugged the boys shoes off and pulled on a pair of his own warm sports socks onto his friend, grabbed the blankets and tucked them around Blaine tightly and then got the quilt his grandmother had made him that was at the end of his bed and threw that over the boy as well. Blaine looked so small and frail lying on the bed sound asleep. He had large black bags under his eyes and he had lost weight since the tornado. Sam sat on the edge of Blaine's bed tucking in the quilt around him. Blaine had even stopped using much gel on his hair which showed that he must be pretty unwell. Sam brushed back a curl that had fallen into Blaine's eyes. His eyes started to water at the sight of his friend getting sicker before his very eyes. He didn't have that many friends and Blaine was his closest friend out of all of them. He understood who and what Sam was and accepted him with no grumbles. Sam knew he was far from perfect but Blaine did not seem to care. Since Sam's family was quite far away his world seemed even smaller to him, making Blaine one of the central characters in it. After what had happened in the drainage hole during and after the tornado, it had made Sam realise just what type of person Blaine was. He was brave and courageous. Kind and caring. Willing to risk his own life for that of someone he cared for. To Sam they were very important qualities that he searched for in people when it came to loving them. Sam was unsure exactly what his feelings had become for his friend since those days under the ground but they were definitely different from before they spent that time together. Sam had thought he was going to die. That Blaine was going to be the last person he would ever see, but Blaine had fought for them both. He had so much strength in that small body of his and now Sam was going to be the strong one for them both for the time being. Blaine needed to lean on someone. He needed to be taken care of and Sam was going to be the man to do it. He looked down at his sleeping friend. Has he really always had such long eyelashes? Sam blushed at that thought which had come out of nowhere and got up to leave his friend in peace for a while. He took his backpack with all his homework in it and went down the stairs to the ground floor and to Artie's room. Artie wouldn't mind Sam doing his homework in his room.
Thad Harwood came from a long line of Dalton boys in his family and even when his parents moved to Chicago they still shipped him off to Dalton when the time came for him to attend this prestigious school. His parents had pushed him to achieve everything he could and more, making him join countless groups he was not interested in joining. He had managed to whittle the list down somewhat now that he was a senior and had been there for four years. He was now only the editor of the school newspaper, the captain of the tennis team, debate captain and senior vice president. It had taken that long for him to complete his task of only being in the clubs he wanted however. They had been so proud of him when he became a council member of the Warblers in his sophomore year and a leader of the group. However the councils role had greatly diminished over the years and since Wesley Montgomery's departure, everything had gone downhill. Thad, David and Nick, who had taken over Wes' role, had become glorified secretaries for the captain of the group, being firstly Sebastian, who, despite his misgivings had at least acknowledged their presence and taken their advice once in a while, and then Hunter Clarington. Thad had always disliked Hunter, but he wanted to stay part of the Warblers so badly and was so invested in the team, that he was willing to cheat to stay. After sectionals he had realised how wrong it had been to cheat the way they had but he was not at the stage of regretting his actions. He justified it as working to be part of the team. The team that was led by Hunter. The fact that if Thad and David had decided to take Nick's warning to heart this could well have been avoided by chucking Hunter out of the group. Hindsight, it seemed, was great but did not help the Warblers or Thad at all. Thad had never told his parents and had managed to have his younger sister intercept the letter telling them of the disbanding of the team due to disqualification. The last thing he needed was his parents to find out he had been taking performance enhancing drugs. She had only been willing to help for a fee of course. It had been worth it however. His parents were still in complete ignorance of the Warblers status.
David Thompson, on the other hand, had outright told his parents straight after the competition about what he had done. He was consumed with guilt and had never blamed Trent for doing what he did. In fact, he was one of the only boys who still acknowledged Trent's existence within the school. Unfortunately, no one likes a snitch. Even the teachers had cooled towards the once friendly, happy boy. David felt guilty about everything that had happened. He could have prevented it all but he had let Hunter walk all over them. David had never seen himself as a leader, but Wes had persuaded him to join the council and as they were close friends at the time he had gladly accepted the role of secretary to the Warblers. Ironically he had become just that to the captains after Wes' and Blaine's departure. Fetching coffees was not what David had signed up for really, but he loved being part of the elite group. Being an only child of one of the only wealthy black families in New Lexington, Ohio, he had not had many friends in his junior high and had not even had siblings to bond with at home. Thus his family had chosen for him to attend Dalton Academy and within the Warblers he had felt a place that was a little like home, it was where he belonged. They were all his brothers. He never wanted to give that up which was why he had not refused when Hunter had them all take performance enhancing drugs. David now deeply regretted that decision. He just hoped that the director of New Directions would give him another chance.
Thad had discussed with David the potential merits to joining New Directions as part of their team. They could be part of a national championship team if they joined. However would their roles within the team be diminished somewhat? He didn't think that their was a council on the team from what Kurt said all those years ago now. He and David had decided that they would talk to the directors of the club first to see what they could possibly do about having extra responsibilities other than performing. Thad had heard through the grapevine that Blaine was the captain of the team with what appeared to be both a tall, blonde guy and an Asian girl as his wingmen. Thad and David had not given up the prospect of being given extra work though and they made their way towards this Mr Shuester's new office.
Knocking on his office door, Mr Shue looked up to see two more Dalton students hovering outside it. He had to give it to the Dalton students. They really cared about their education. He had never had this many students come to talk with him about their academic work, but since he had to take Dalton students on since moving here, he found himself being a much more academic advisor than when he was at McKinley.
"Can I help you two?" Mr Shue gestured to the seats opposite his desk in his new office, which the two boys promptly came and sat in.
"Hello Mr Shuester, this is Thad Harwood and I'm David Thompson. We would like to talk with you about the possibility of joining the glee club that you direct. The thing is, and we are more than willing to audition, we used to be part of the council within the Warblers. Basically what we are asking is if we might be able to claim any extra responsibilities if we do get through the auditions?" David had tried to succinctly ask this teacher, who looked pretty shrewd and yet had a friendly demeanour.
"Well, we could do with a new choreography coach if either of you are any good at dancing. Our resident dancer of the group has just gone off to MIT so we desperately need someone to help with that. Also, I could use someone to help with the vocal side of things. Some of my kids can get a bit lax in that area of rehearsal and they do need to be kept in line a little bit with their regular exercises. Blaine is great as captain, but I think he might need some extra help for a while, and if we get more people in some might slip through his gap if you understand my meaning. The only thing I will stipulate is that I do not condone cheating of any kind." Mr Shue was surprised by these boys eagerness for responsibilities, usually he needed to push and pull the New Directions into helping out in that way. These two boys could be real lifesavers.
"We understand about the cheating sir. We will never do that again, we have learnt our lesson." David looked guilty enough that Mr Shue believed him. The other looked mildly abashed and Mr Shue decided to give him the benefit of the doubt although he would definitely keep an eye on him.
"If you would like I could do the vocal coaching and David could do the dancing." Thad replied eagerly. That had been easier than expected, they were thinking they would have a battle on their hands trying to convince him to take them on.
"Well boys, I tell you what. If you audition for me and I like you then we can put you into the team straight away if you would like? Do you have anything for me now or do you need time to prepare?"
The two boys grinned at each other. "We have something we could sing. Do you mind us doing it as a duet?"
"No, not at all." Mr Shue took them out to the rehearsal room for them to audition. He had a feeling they would be the next members of the New Direction team.
The girls loved the fact that the Warblers seemed to be enthusiastic in joining their group, but there was now a severe lack of girls in the group compared to the boys. Marley and Kitty had both quietly gone up to Tina in regards to this, three and a half girls was not enough. Tina had agreed with them and so they had decided to set up a separate meeting just for the girls after glee club had finished to see what they could do about getting girls to join the group. The problem was that Crawford had their own glee club and so all the girls that wanted to join glee already belonged to the club.
Finding a quiet study room at Dalton that was empty, the girls and Unique (being a more than honorary girl) sat down to plan strategies. They had decided to really plug their group whilst at Crawford, singing impromptu performances and placing posters of the open auditions into the club all over the school. They hoped that this would encourage at least a couple of girls to join. As they were discussing in full detail their strategy, two Dalton boys entered the room. Tina recognised them as former Warblers and wondered if maybe they would be able to help in any way. The two boys were settling in to do what looked like homework when Tina approached them to ask them if they knew of any Crawford girls who would be interested in joining.
The blonde haired boy looked at the smaller dark haired boy and shrugged at Tina's question.
"I'll help you if you tell us where Blaine might be. We've been trying to get a hold of him and we don't know his new room number to knock on his door." The blonde guy replied.
"Blaine's had a couple of days off to try and get over his pneumonia a little. He got really wiped out trying to do too much and he's slept about two days solid as far as I know. I was going to go see him after this meeting if you want to come with me?" Tina suggested. She thought if she got them on side they would be more willing to help.
"Oh my God. He's alright though, right? Just a little tired?" The dark haired boy questioned her, a horrified expression on his face.
"As far as I know yes. That's why I was going to see him, to make sure. I've only got this from Sam, and he's lovely and all, but no nurse maid." The two guys seemed to relax greatly after hearing that piece of news.
"Well, my sister and her friend seemed curious when you sang at the assembly last week. Crawford doesn't allow freshmen to join the glee club there and they didn't know if it was the same for New Directions, which is why they didn't come to audition yet. I think they've been a little scared to ask." the blonde boy told Tina, shrugging his shoulders at his sisters reluctance to ask. He had told her to go for it if she and her friend really wanted to join.
"That's great. We will take any year for our club. Why don't you tell your sister and her friend to come find me at Crawford tomorrow and we can drive them over here if they want to audition." Tina enthusiastically responded. "I'll just go tell the girls and then we can go see Blaine if you'd like?"
"Great. We'll pack our things and wait for you to finish then." The dark haired boy smiled warmly at Tina. Tina blushed a little. Gosh, some of these Dalton boys are really cute. Maybe I should ask Blaine about which ones are possible boyfriend material. Tina mused whilst she explained to the girls about the two Crawford freshmen that might want to join. She hoped that they still wanted to, that would almost double their numbers in the girl department. They agreed that they would still do all the rest of the things they had planned however to try and bring the numbers up. With that, Marley and Kitty went off back to Crawford in Kitty's car as Tina had used her own knowing she would be visiting Blaine after the meeting. She had not seen him much lately and she missed her best bud. Blaine was such a sweetheart to her and was very understanding about the crush she had developed on him previously. They had become very close this last year and she didn't want them to drift apart now that they were forced to be in two separate schools.
"You ready?" she asked the boys who nodded and they followed her towards Blaine and Sam's shared room.
Tina knocked loudly on their room door in case Sam wasn't in and Blaine was still napping. Blaine however opened the door quite quickly.
"Sam, seriously, please can you start remembering... Oh Tina! Hey sweetie, how are you?" Blaine enveloped her in a hug. He had a quilt wrapped around himself as he was still a little cold, but he felt a lot better after having two days off to rest and recuperate. The cough that he had tried to shake for over two weeks had finally gone and he felt a lot more energetic. He was definitely getting better. He was still a little tired and had decided to take tomorrow off as well, but he thought after that he might be able to get back to school work and get back to being himself again. He hated being ill and usually didn't take time of unless he was very poorly, however this illness had almost wiped him out so he wasn't going to take too many chances and go back before he felt ready.
"I'm great Blainey days. How are you? You look a lot better." She looped her arm through his as she spoke and started to lead him into his room, when he noticed the two Warblers hovering behind her.
"Hey Nick, Jeff come in. I feel a lot better thanks Tey. So what's been going on while I've been in the land of slumber? I think I may have asked Sam, but I can't remember what his reply was so I must have been out of it."
"Well two more ex-Warblers have joined. David and... Thad. Yes Thad, that was it. David is going to help with the dancing and Thad with the vocal exercises." Tina made a face at the thought of vocal exercises. Blaine agreed. He didn't need to do the exercises ad nauseum, but he did because he was the captain. That's what the captain did. He knew Thad would come down on anyone not pulling their weight though so it was probably a good position for him to have.
"That's great. They are both really nice guys. So anyone else joined?" He looked pointedly at both Jeff and Nick. They were the two that Blaine really wanted to join. They had been his closest friends at Dalton apart from Wes.
"Not yet, but we have some prospective new girls from Crawford." Tina looked happy at that possibility. Mr Shue had placed Tina in charge of the girls part of the team since they were at a different school for the majority of the time and Tina was loving her newly found responsibility. She wasn't quite captain as Blaine was, but she was definitely at the same rank as Sam now. A trusted lieutenant. That's how she saw herself and it felt great.
"That's great Tina, we could really use some more girls on the team."
"Um, sorry to butt in Blaine, but Jeff and I were wondering if we could have a word with you?" Nick asked his old friend.
"Sure. Is this a private chat or can Tina stay?"
"Nah, it's cool. Tina's seems cool." Jeff countered with a wink to Tina before Nick could say anything to the contrary. Jeff was a lot more relaxed around girls than Nick was as he had his younger sister. Nick only had a much younger brother and had never been in a coed environment before. Not that Nick minded that. He preferred boys in every single way. In fact, he preferred Jeff above all others and he didn't think that was going to change any time soon.
"Great, so what is it?" Blaine asked curiously.
"We want to join New Directions but we wanted to get your opinion on the best way to get accepted. The four places you needed have all been filled already but we really want to get on the team and we thought with you being captain and all you may have some sway in who gets on the team." Nick explained why they were there. He knew Blaine would help as much as he could. That was the type of person he was. Kind, thoughtful and loyal to all his friends.
"Well I can have a talk with Mr Shue but he'll probably want you to audition. Let's see, show off your best dance moves Jeff, that will guarantee you a place, we are thin on really good dancers at the moment. Umm, Nick, if you use your vocal range well I'm certain you will get in too. I'll really plug you guys to Mr Shue and Finn as well, I'm sure that'll help. I wouldn't worry too much, Mr Shue hates turning anyone away, even if he has got the numbers up."
"Cool, thanks Blaine. I think we should go choose our audition pieces then. I guess we'll see you tomorrow for our auditions." Nick stood up to leave Blaine in peace. He was still trying to get better after all and it looked like he really wanted some alone time with his newly acquired hag. Nick was amused at seeing that development as Blaine had never been the type of gay to go out in search of girl friends and yet they all seemed to flock to him. This latest one just proved it. The only difference being that Blaine reciprocated the affection for Tina.
He and Jeff closed the door quietly behind them as they sauntered back towards their own rooms.
"Awww, they're really cute aren't they?" Jeff asked his special guy.
"I hate to admit it but yes, they really are."
"Do you think she would be my hag too?" Jeff asked, his puppy dog eyes fluttering his golden eyelashes at Nick, who just laughed.
"Maybe you should ask her?" he told Jeff as he pushed his face away playfully to get him to stop with the exaggerated puppy dog eye routine.
"Well one thing I need to do is phone my sister."
"Better get to it then." Nick commanded with a wink to show he wasn't too serious.
"Yeah, yeah." Jeff got his phone out anyway to speed dial his sister and tell her that she should find Tina tomorrow at school to talk about auditioning. He would love to have his sister on the same team as him. They got along fabulously and he was very protective of her. The phone rang a few times before she picked up.
"Hey Gracie. If Jeffy kins here. I have some great news for you and Becky."
Sebastian Smythe hovered at the door of the New Directions meeting. He had been seriously thinking about joining. What the hey, he didn't have anything to lose right? However, he was not this teams favourite person and there was one in particular that he would need to get on board before he auditioned for the team. That was their captain. He had not been their for the last couple of days but he could see him in the corner today flanked by that Asian girl and the blonde replica of Mick Jagger. Either that or he was half fish. He could see that Jeff and Nick had decided to join for auditions along with two girls from Crawford that the two boys seemed familiar with. Well maybe I'll see how this turns out before starting my strategy to get Blaine on side. He smirked to himself as he waited for the auditions to start.