Author's Note: I pretty much had an idea on what to do about this chapter moments after I published this (which was the time I went to bed, actually). I'm glad I was able to get it together to present to all of you.

So in this chapter, we're going to introduce Joe Hart, who happens to be another neglected character on Glee. This is kind of like the first scene with him in the "Heart" episode, but a bit different. Valentine's Day wouldn't be here yet since the fan fiction is taking place in November right now; but you'll see what I have in its place.

Okay then. Feel free to grab some pillows and popcorn before you read, because you might not be able to leave your computer (no, I kid). I hope you guys enjoy.

Featured Pairings: Samcedes (Sam/Mercedes), unrequited!Quoe (Quinn/Joe), Klaine (Kurt/Blaine), Hummelberry (Kurt/Rachel), minor!Finchel (Finn/Rachel), minor!Brittana (Brittany/Santana)

Disclaimer: I don't own anything related to Glee. All of the rights to the show go to Ryan Murphy and Co., and Twentieth Century Fox.


Many Colors
Chapter Four


A brown gavel was pounded to begin the meeting. Other members of the God Squad – there were really only two people in there so far – were attentive towards their God Squad leader, Mercedes Jones. "I call the first meeting of the God Squad to order."

The former Troubletones member and the God Squad captain had reached down to her backpack and grabbed a folder with a few papers on the inside. As she was passing a paper to each member in the room – Quinn Fabray and what seemed to be a new student with dreadlocks – Sam busted the door open, nearly falling as he entered. The new student nearly jumped out of his skin, and Quinn couldn't help but giggle.

"I'm sorry I'm late," the blonde Titans football player huffed as he gathered himself from off the floor, and walking towards a chair beside Quinn.

Mercedes deadpanned at him as he took his seat, handing Quinn a paper to pass over to him. "You said that at the last meeting, and the couple of glee club meetings you were late to," she recalled. Quinn seemed to have a good memory of it, while the new teen just sat there, confused.

"Artie, Puck, and I had to run an errand for the last God Squad meeting," Sam explained in his defense, which Mercedes didn't seem to believe at all.

"I saw the arcade receipts fall from your locker, Sam." At that, Mercedes held up a few sheets of small, thin paper that she found in the hallway next to Sam's locker, which made the boy grit his teeth. "You can't play games with me. And you promised you'd commit to the God Squad after you told me about your so-called rough past."

"My dad got a job as a salesman, by the way," Sam added, taking off his heavy backpack and throwing it onto the floor.

"That wasn't what I was talking about." There was a pause in the conversation, and Mercedes' eyebrow inched up at him. Sam looked from his left to his right, feeling awkward and embarrassed. He did remember telling Mercedes that he had his stripper job to raise money, and he had sex with a couple of the women there. That happened about a month or so before Finn and Rachel had come to bring him back to New Directions, yet his parents still don't know about it.

After the awkward silence, Mercedes grabbed an agenda that she had passed out to Quinn, Sam, and the new kid, and started looking over it before addressing the rest of the group.

"Okay, guys. This is our second God Squad meeting," Mercedes began, "and we have a new member with us." She gestured to her left towards the boy with the dreadlocks. "Guys, I would like to welcome Joseph Hart into the God Squad. He is a sophomore here at McKinley."

Sam and Quinn turned into the direction of the brunette male across from them. He took a head bow towards his fellow God Squad members, carefully holding onto the guitar that had been sitting on his lap. "You guys can call me Joe, too, if that's okay."

Quinn smiled at him, folding her hands together in front of her. Sam gave him a critical nod. "So then, Tarantula Head, wanna recite the first five books of the Old Testament for me?"

"Sam!" He heard Mercedes call to him towards his right. Quinn just sat there, rolling her eyes playfully.

"What? He knows that I know his name."

"Then use it properly."

Joe looked back and forth at the two and bit his lip, trying to hold back a laugh he had been keeping in since Sam walked in the room. He looked straight ahead towards Quinn, who just shrugged at him and gave him a smile, trying not to laugh at what's going on as well.

Once they were done, Mercedes folded her hands in front of her, and Sam went back to interrogating the dreadlocked boy. "So…Joe. Know any quotes off the top of your head to recite for us?"

Joe smirked as he gave Sam a nod. "We live by faith, not by sight. Second Corinthians: chapter five, verse seven."

Sam almost bugged his eyes out at the realization of Joe's knowledge on the Bible. Had he written this stuff on his hands or something? Was he waiting for me to question him about Bible quotes, or…what? Sam observed his arms and hands. He didn't look down or anything, so that couldn't have been it.

"Name the first five books of the Old Testament." Sam spoke up after the moment of silence.

Joe nearly laughed at Sam's statement. "I've known those ones since I was four," he explained with a bashful shrug. Quinn and Mercedes gave each other impressed looks, and then turned back to Joe.

Sam, however, almost didn't believe it. "Fine then. How about the first five of the New Testament then?"

"Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, and Acts," Joe replied with yet another little smirk on his face, which had Sam almost narrowing his eyes.

Quinn shook her head at Joe, just as shocked at his knowledge as Sam was. "You've got to be kidding me," she replied slowly.

"Seriously," Sam agreed to Quinn's statement. "Like, where have you gone to school before you came to McKinley?"

"I didn't go to public school, actually." Joe sounded a bit down since he felt a little disappointed that he didn't meet these people earlier. "I was homeschooled basically all my life. The only best friend I had at the time was my own mom. So I decided to get out and experience the world."

Sam, Quinn, and Mercedes all nodded in his direction. They were never homeschooled before, but they knew how hard it was for someone to experience a new atmosphere. Many people in the glee club have done it, so they pretty much have the idea.

Joe had been looking down for the past few seconds, and then remembered something. "Oh, do you guys mind if I take off my shoes?" he asked, a bit sheepishly. "I'm sort of used to walking around barefoot." He slipped out of his brown sandals that he had worn to school today, and the other three members of the group observed his feet from where they sat.

"Wow," Quinn spoke up with interest. "It's like he's a teen Jesus." Joe grinned delightfully at her response.

Sam's eyebrow inched on his forehead. "Well then, welcome to the God Squad, Teen Jesus," he told the dreadlocked teen across from him.

Joe nodded in everyone's direction, and held onto his guitar for the others to see. "I brought my guitar as well," he explained, looking down at the neatly polished instrument. "Unfortunately, though, I only know Christian stuff. My dad only listens to talk radio, and we don't have a television in our home."

Sam was deep in thought after hearing a little more on Joe's family and his home life. Dude, we have to be limited for money purposes, but damn, Sam thought in the back of his mind.

"Not a thing to worry about, Joe," Mercedes spoke up, getting out of her seat and walking over to the white board with her sheet of paper. "If there's anything you would like to know or you have trouble with, the three of us are there when you're ready." Joe nodded to her, even though she didn't see.

She started writing the words community service and real life topic of the week on the board, and she faced everyone else when she was done. "Okay, so now that we've gotten to know our new member a little more, let's turn to the schedule I just passed out." Everyone else grabbed the papers in front of them and saw the sections Mercedes wrote out on the board. "Since Thanksgiving is coming up soon, I've decided this would be a perfect opportunity for our community service. Does anyone have any ideas for what we should do?"

Immediately, Quinn thought of a suggestion. "There's a homeless shelter three blocks away from my church," she explained. "Maybe we can feed the homeless, and give them a Thanksgiving performance."

"Praise!" Mercedes exclaimed, clapping her hands together.

"W-wait," Joe spoke up to Quinn. "What's the name of your church?"

"S.T. Erwin Church of God."

Joe's jaw dropped in excitement. "No way," he responded, just as shocked as Quinn and Sam were earlier, maybe even more. "I go to that church, too. My house is a block away from there."

"Really? That's awesome," Quinn replied, sharing a smile with Joe.

"Maybe I can even play my guitar there, too," Joe added, gripping onto the instrument in his hands. "I think I know a couple of songs at the top of my head right now."

Sam nodded in agreement, though he wasn't facing Joe or Quinn. That's not the only thing that's on top of your head, Sam wanted to say, but he knew he couldn't since Mercedes would consider that to be rude to their fellow God Squad member.

"That's an awesome way to start, you guys," Mercedes encouraged with a positive tone. "We can help feed the homeless and do our own performance as well. I can even gather up a few church choir members to help sing back-up for us."

Mercedes started writing down a couple of notes down on a white sheet of paper she had beside the rest of her belongings, and Joe twisted a couple of his dreadlocks a bit while glancing at Quinn every once in a while. He hadn't noticed it before, but he felt as if he was actually having a crush on Quinn, even though they just met. After all, she was very pretty, and she seemed like a really generous person.

Sam didn't focus on the sudden chemistry between Joe and Quinn; he stared at the guitar that had been sitting in his lap for the past few minutes. It was mentioned earlier that Joe knew how to play guitar, but only knew Christian songs. The real question was, what did his voice sound like?

"Joe, I gotta ask you something." Sam spoke up suddenly. The sophomore turned towards Sam and nodded. "Do you really know how to sing?"

The dreadlocked teen gripped onto his guitar. "Well, my mom has heard me sing in church, and I sometimes have a few tunes on my mind when I'm leisurely playing my guitar at home."

"Can we perhaps hear a bit of what you got?" Quinn asked, broadening her shoulders and folding her arms in front of her again.

With a nod of his head, Joe replied, "It would be an honor." He took the strap on the guitar, and placed it over his shoulder. He looked down at the wooden instrument and took a moment to think about the lyrics to a song he had in mind. Once he had his thoughts together, he started playing a tune for his fellow God Squad members.

Joe
All of who You are reaches the darkest parts
Lifting the weight and erasing the scars that had a hold of me
Here I am bearing all, tearing down every wall
So amazed by Your grace and the way You're still holding me
Whoa whoa, whoa whoa

As Joe continued playing his song and singing the lyrics to the Jeremy Camp number, his fellow God Squad members were amazed at Joe's voice and talent. Quinn had been smiling the whole time, Mercedes felt teary-eyed, and Sam had his eyes bugged out of his head for the past few seconds.

Joe
My God, You are the unchanging love
My God, Your heart sends hope from above
The great Creator, beautiful Savior
I've been redeemed
There is life now from Your victory
You are my God
You are my God
You are my God
You are my God

By the time Joe had finished singing, he received appreciative claps from Quinn and Mercedes, along with bright smiles filled with teeth. Sam, who was still stunned by Joe, had his jaw dropped, showing off his overly-full lips.

"Joe, that was amazing!" Mercedes exclaimed, still clapping. "When did you know that you could sing so well?"

Joe smirked bashfully. "When I was about ten years old, I started singing along with the choir at my church. Before then, I didn't think I would be good."

"Well, I think you're very talented and exceptional." That coming from Quinn's mouth made Joe feel proud, more than he had ever been. He never really got much compliments from people outside of his family since he had been homeschooled his whole life and didn't meet many people his age. To know that Quinn felt that was about him made him feel overwhelmed.

Noticing that Sam hadn't said anything, Mercedes turned her head towards him, her eyebrow inching up. "Sam? Thoughts?" Quinn and Joe turned their heads towards the blonde boy.

It took Sam about a few seconds, but he finally spoke. "Lemme ask you something, are you a pirate?" Once that was said, Joe furrowed his eyebrows together in utter confusion. "You've seemed to hide that talent for a long time, I'm sure." Joe suddenly understood him, and hid his face, covering the growing smile on it. Mercedes rolled her eyes playfully at that comment.

"Joe, do you know about our school's glee club?" Quinn suddenly spoke up, scratching her chin with the index finger on her left hand.

"Nope. Just the God Squad," Joe responded. He took a pause to scratch his neck and think. "I do notice a lot of girls with red outfits on. The skirts are sinfully revealing, though." Quinn's lips pressed together, remembering the last time she wore a Cheerios uniform. She was to perform at a cheerleading competition, but bailed out since she wanted to help New Directions win a football game.

Mercedes clapped her hands once with a sigh, and turned her body towards Joe. "Well, basically, the glee club is a singing group –"

"Full of the biggest losers in the whole school," Sam added, looking up at the ceiling carelessly, causing Quinn to nudge him in the arm for his ignorance.

"We perform a lot of numbers by a lot of famous people," Mercedes continued, "and we compete with other glee clubs in others schools in the nation. And if we win first place, we move up from Sectionals to Regionals, and then Nationals, where, if we win –"

"When we win," Quinn added with a nod. Mercedes nodded in agreement.

"We will receive a Nationals trophy, and receive the title of the Best Show Choir in the Nation." Mercedes finished her explanation off, which had Joe nodding, impressed. He never knew about a glee club before, but he was interested in the thought of it. "So, what do you say? Would you like to join?"

Joe turned his head from Mercedes to Quinn, who gave him an encouraging smile, and then to Sam, who gave him a skeptical brow inch. His smile became even more prominent. "I would love to."


Kurt Hummel had almost fallen asleep at his locker, attempting to finish a project that's supposed to be finished by the next day. He had stayed up so late last night, assisting Rachel with mock auditions for NYADA. He loved the girl, but Kurt thought he had been yawning for at least five hours.

"Top of the afternoon, Officer Krupke." Kurt's eyes lazily drew up to his boyfriend, who had greeted him with a big, cheesy smile and the brightest eyes Kurt had ever seen. Only bringing up one of the characters of the classic musical, West Side Story, had Kurt feeling down about the fact that he actually lost the role to the former Dalton student.

"You fail to enthrall me with your cultural references today," Kurt replied, almost sarcastically and sleepily. "I, for one, am shocked."

As Kurt turned away from the gelled teenager to gaze at the packet in his lap, Blaine chuckled, bending down to his knees and grabbing Kurt's porcelain hand. "What's going on, Kurt? You're not yourself today. Has your dad been keeping you up?"

Kurt took a moment to sigh and shrug his shoulders, uncertain if he should further explain. "It's…more complex than that."

Blaine furrowed his eyebrows, concerned. "Oh…then what is it?"

"It's Rachel that has been keeping me up."

Kurt looked his boyfriend in the eye with those puppy eyeballs, and Blaine chuckled once again, slapping the top of Kurt's hand. "I see," he responded, still laughing.

"Hey!" Kurt exclaimed, removing Blaine's hand from his, and rubbing it softly. "Do you know what it took to manicure this?" The out-and-proud gay male rubbed his hands some more before accepting the help from Blaine to get up off the floor.

"What have you and Rachel been up to?" the masculine male asked his senior boyfriend as they gathered his stuff and strolled down the hallway.

"Ugh, mock NYADA auditions," Kurt explained, placing his papers in his bag, arms linked with Blaine. "I think we've been practicing for about four or five straight hours. Previously, I had taken a nap on my dad's comforter, and I swear to God, I didn't want to get off. It's like you're on a cotton candy cloud from Katy Perry's music video."

Blaine bit his lip and nodded. He must've watched the video for California Gurls multiple times, as he is one of her biggest fans. In fact, one of her most iconic songs, Teenage Dream, had Kurt literally falling in love with him ever since they met on the Dalton Academy campus. Blaine remembered thanking her by doing his own rendition of her song, Thinking Of You, and published it to his MySpace account.

"Well, I'm pretty confident in you acing your NYADA audition," Blaine responded, playing with his fingers as he and Kurt continued walking. "I, for one, have been watching you work your poor, tired ass off, which often is sad to see –"

"Trust me, you wouldn't know if you were trying to get accepted in one of the most prestigious schools in the state of New York."

"If I can transfer from Dalton to McKinley, and get accepted into New Directions, then I'm sure I could get into NYADA, if they would let me," Blaine replied. Kurt just rolled his eyes and kept his eyes on the floor, for they were getting droopy again from staying up all night. "Just trust me, Kurt. You were one of the Warblers' hard-working and stellar members, and you do obviously well here in McKinley. So what could go wrong?"

Immediately, they both took a halt as Kurt's eyes were suddenly alert at the sound of some far-away footsteps. Blaine, startled a bit, shook Kurt's shoulder. "Kurt, did something happen? Do you need a DayQuill, or a Xanax?"

"No. It's her." Kurt explained, his eyes still bugged out of his head. The footsteps got closer, and Kurt held tighter to Blaine's arm. "Warning for run-on sentences, loss of energy, and reluctance and fear of controllists."

"It's controlling, Kurt," the boys heard Rachel Berry's voice from behind them. "Controllist isn't a word. Have you been paying attention to some Finn Hudson advice lately?"

Rachel stood between Kurt and Blaine and unlinked their arms, walking arm-in-arm with the gay couple and leading them towards the choir room. Kurt faked a smile on his face at the short brunette. "Rachel, of course not," Kurt replied to her last statement, earning a nod from the New York-bound diva. Above her head, Kurt mouthed, "Yes, I have" to his boyfriend on the other side of her, which made Blaine silently giggle.

"Kurt, make sure that we have to stay in the choir room to work on runs and F-sharps," Rachel reminded him. Kurt nearly craned his head back in reluctance, which made Blaine stick out his lip at him.

"Haven't we been doing F-sharps last night?" Kurt moaned. "I swear, I forget whether I'm hearing high or low notes ringing through my ears."

"No, those were the power-hour warm-ups," Rachel replied. "The F-sharps come later." She could easily hear Kurt moan loudly, his eyes closing shut and him wishing that they never opened up again. At that action, Rachel tugged at the gay male's arm in encouragement. "Come on now, Kurt. You did an awesome job last night; I know you can do it again."

Not unless I fall back on my ass, and inflate it like a damn soufflé, Kurt thought in the back of his mind.

Kurt, Blaine, and Rachel had finally made their way into the choir room. Once they did, they got a good eye view of some of the glee club members already in the room. However, not all of them showed up. Tina and Sam had been conversing off the side somewhere, starting off a discussion about the upcoming Titans football game before the season takes its break. Quinn and Mercedes had been standing beside the black piano, explaining to Joe every instrument and every activity that the glee club has, which had him more intrigued.

"I assume that we have a guest?" Rachel spoke up, making her way to the center of the choir room and getting everyone's attention. The short girl turned towards Joe, who smiled at her and gave her a nod, and placed her hands on her hips and gave him one of her polite, respectful smiles. "I'm sorry, mister, but this is a closed section of the premises, for we have rehearsals here now. You're welcome to look around another time." Joe looked a bit down after Rachel told him that.

Quinn stood up after leaning against the black piano. "Actually, he's not a guest," she told Rachel, taking a few steps towards the dreadlocked teen and placing a hand on his shoulder. "He's our newest member of the glee club."

Joe went from giving Quinn an admiring glance to giving Rachel a respectful grin, taking a bow before her. "It's nice to meet you," he spoke. "I'm Joe Hart, and I thought I could join New Directions."

There was a sudden pause in the conversation. Rachel had to literally blink her eyes a few times to get a clear understanding on what was going on, and Kurt and Blaine just gave Joe skeptical looks. Mercedes had a concerned look on her face, hoping Joe won't get as much criticism, and Sam and Tina observed the scene from the other side of the room.

"W-w-wait – when did this happen?" Rachel asked, all of a sudden, turning towards Quinn and Mercedes with a confused facial expression. "Was there a meet and greet that I wasn't aware of?" Joe stepped back a bit, nervous at Rachel's sudden change in behavior.

"Calm down, Berry," Mercedes spoke up, nearly rolling her eyes. "He told us that he could sing through the God Squad, and – lemme just say – he has a killer voice." Joe blushed a bit at Mercedes' comment.

Rachel's lips pressed together at the thought of how all of this came to be. She was just so confused; she didn't really know what was going on. "Okay then…" she finally spoke up to Quinn and Mercedes. "Fair enough, I suppose." Rachel took a pause to inhale a bit. "Mercedes, Quinn, may I have a word with you two for a moment? Joseph, feel free to commute while us ladies have a talk."

The girls took a few steps towards the band members' instruments, and Joe took his guitar over towards the right side of the piano where Kurt and Blaine had been standing. Kurt, suddenly feeling a bit uncomfortable, darted from where he stood to where Rachel and Quinn were. He almost got away with it before Rachel directed him to the audience seats. Disappointed, Kurt sat down and watched the girls in front of him, and Blaine willingly joined him, leaving Joe to stand in the middle by himself.

"How are we gonna go through with this?" Rachel whispered to the girls, nearly gritting her teeth at them. "He is an inexperienced singer and performer, let alone an inexperienced student. Regionals is coming up, and we need to be the best."

"But Joe could be one of the best ones we have," Mercedes explained. "Hell, he could give some of the others a run for their money."

"He's been singing since he was ten," Quinn explained. "If that's not experience, then I don't know what is."

"New Directions could have been at a loss at Sectionals this year," Rachel explained to them. "With us running out of members – you and me included, Mercedes –" The God Squad's leader shrugged in response. " – and only barely beating the other teams by an inch –"

"Unfortunately." Mercedes moaned, remembering the Troubletones' loss.

"He is definitely not ready," Rachel continued, "and he won't be until he's gotten at least two years of mentoring on his vocal range and choreography. Until then, this isn't going to work out."

Even if he was about ten steps away from the girls, and wasn't supposed to overhear everything they're saying, Joe felt a bit upset on the inside. He didn't get much criticism growing up as a child. No one told him that the real world would be competitive as how people like Mercedes and Rachel described it. Judging from the three-way huddle conversation, it looked as if Rachel didn't want him to be there, either, which made him feel a bit ashamed.

Tina and Sam had observed everything from the other entrance into the choir room, and felt a bit disappointed for Joe to be in this situation. He was only a newbie in McKinley High School, and he wanted to fit in with everyone else. Was that too much to ask, especially in Rachel's case?

Feeling especially bad about the issue, understanding how cruel Rachel can be half of the time, Tina made her way from Sam all the way to the other side of the piano where Joe had been standing.

"Don't worry about her much, Joe," Tina spoke to him. Sam made his way over as well, leaning against the big, shiny, black instrument. "She doesn't know what she's talking about. Besides, I think you'll be a great addition into the glee club." Tina and Joe gave each other a smile as Tina rubbed the boy's back, her fingers able to get the texture of his long, flowing dreadlocks.

More footsteps were being heard as Tina and Joe were getting into their conversation. Brittany and Santana had come in, with Brittany's arm around Santana and her hand on her hip, followed by Sugar, who entered the choir room with a valiant stride. Artie and Rory also entered through the door, both trying to beat each other to a seat in the audience chairs beside Sugar. Finn and Puck made it into the room, with Finn giving Rachel a kiss on the cheek that had Mercedes rolling her eyes in disgust. Mike walked in and noticed Tina talking with the new kid, giving her a shameful look before taking his seat.

Once everyone was in the room, Mr. Schue had entered through his office. "Alright everyone, take a seat."

Quinn, Mercedes, Rachel, Finn, Sam, and Tina had walked away from their conversations to find a seat. Before Joe could go anywhere, Mr. Schue had stopped him and asked him to stand before the rest of the group. "Guys, we have a new student here at McKinley who wants to join New Directions with us. So let's give a big, warm welcome to Joe Hart."

Everyone grinned at him and started to applaud, making Joe blush a bit more. "Righteous," he replied before the glee club, making a few people like Brittany and Sugar giggle.

Tina took a look to her right, and noticed the look on Rachel's face. She didn't seem as amused with glee's new member. Well, someone's not the most welcoming person in the world, Tina thought, turning away from her and watching Joe take a seat between Sam and Quinn.

Over in the third row beside her girlfriend, Santana had her arms folded in front of her chest, watching Joe in somewhat disgust. From the looks of it, she didn't like glee's new member, either.


Author's Note: So, what did you all think? I hope you liked it. Did that Santana part in the end sound random to any of you guys? Well, yeah, I kinda was. I plan on having a "Pot o' Gold" and "Mash Off" 2.0 in terms of what Santana does when a newbie enters New Directions and stuff. Only difference: Brittany, or any crushes on Brittany, aren't included.

Alrighty then! The next chapter will come soon, and I'm really proud of where this story is going. Can't wait for the next update. See you, guys!


Featured Songs:
"My God" by Jeremy Camp. Sung by Joe Hart