Chapter 9:

Previously on The New New Directions: The Glee family (old and new) had a New Years party, Asher had a moment with Maeve, Danny developped bulimia, Kaelynn remembered her old best friend and decided to move on, Aria realised how much her family does mean to her, and kissed Milo at midnight.

Winter break was sadly over, everyone was back at school. The first Glee Club meeting of the New Year involved Marley congratulating them all on their work so far, and saying there were even greater things in the future. Aria found herself grinning ear to ear as she sat among her friends, her new BOYFRIEND (eek) beside her. For the first time in a long time, it didn't feel like she was competing against everyone, she felt like she was part of a team. Over the winter break she'd bonded with her family, and had asked her mom and Sam to show her old Glee Club videos- which they'd all watched together. They seemed to have so much love for each other, and she felt like their generation of the Glee Club had that too, although Danny seemed to have some sort of problem with Milo. She decided to talk to him after Glee Club that day, they'd stopped self-defence classes now so the four friends were walking to a café together. Natalia and Liam were walking ahead, laughing. Aria turned to Danny, asking him if he had a problem with Milo. Her best friend shrugged, folding his arms like he always did when he was uncomfortable. "He makes the Glee Club numbers uneven."

Aria laughed. "Is that it?"

Danny mumbled, "I don't think he is the right guy for you." Her face fell. "I mean- you've changed since he came into the picture."

"Change isn't always a bad thing," She replied. "And there's been loads of reasons why I've changed; I've realised Sam and the Brats-I mean Bailey and Travis- are my family, I've felt like my friendships were improving, I've been actually slightly enjoying school." He didn't say anything. "Look, you and Nat and Liam are some of the most important people in my life, but I think Milo could be pretty important too if I give him a chance." She sighed, rubbing a hand comfortably on his bare arm, but he jerked away a little. They were at the café now. "I'm gonna go order, can you and Liam get us a table?" Danny nodded. "The usual?" Another nod. Okay then…

The next evening was the winter dance for the freshmen. Aria had only been to one school dance before- Natalia had dragged her along and she had not enjoyed it. This time though she was feeling a lot better about herself and her life, and a night with her friends sounded fun. Sadly Milo couldn't come since this was a dance for freshmen and he was in the year above. She went over to Nat's house to get ready and they decided to meet the boys there. The group had all bought their outfits together on a trip to the mall, Nat's idea- Aria would have preferred to just buy the dresses online- and gosh had it been tiring. She was wearing a two strap short light blue dress and flats, while Nat wore a tighter orange dress that looked good with her skin tone, and short silver heels. "You look beautiful!" Her friend declared in excitement when she was dressed. Aria laughed, returning the compliment. Then Nat insisted on doing her hair, and Aria's, in curls- which had taken a while. By the time they got into her friend's dad's car Aria was already exhausted! The gym was decorated with streamers in a canopy, with a DJ booth at the front and tables scattered around. It didn't look perfect, but it looked like a high school dance- the girls grinned at each other and started dancing like no-one was watching.

After Glee Club the four friends walked to their favourite café. Suddenly, Aria asked why Danny didn't like Milo. He tried to stop his eyes from widening in horror and crossed his arms looking at the floor and mumbling something about him joining meaning that there was an extra boy so he wouldn't have a dance partner. Eventually he said he thought Milo was wrong for his friend, and that she'd changed, which clearly she didn't like. He did think those things, but of course the main problem was his feelings for her. Once they reached the café the girls went to order while him and Liam grabbed a table. Danny slumped down into the couch with his friend, pulling the snack out of his bag he had to have every day according to his therapist's food plan. Once the girls were standing in the queue, Liam whispered, "Dude, you have to tell her."

"Tell her what?" Danny felt himself becoming alert, unable to stop himself from jumping.

Liam raised an eyebrow. "You know what I mean. You need to tell Aria you like her before it's too late."

He was ready to deny it until he turned red, but suddenly Danny didn't have the energy too. He sighed. "How long have you known?"

"Not long," His friend replied. "You know I suck at this stuff, Nat pointed it out to me when I was being completely clueless." Before he could ask his next question, Liam added, "I don't think Ar knows, Nat says it's harder to see these types of things when you're the one being majorly crushed on."

Danny pulled a face. "I want to tell her- kind of." He lowered his voice even more. "But what if she doesn't feel the same way? What if it ruins our friendship?"

Liam gave him a comforting smile. "If she likes you back, great. If she doesn't like you back, that's just how it goes, but she'll be missing out." He winked. "Seriously though, we have such a strong friendship, she's not gonna turn on you because of something like this." As Danny took in his words, the girls came back with the coffees and hot chocolates.

Natalia sat down on a pouffe, taking a bite of brownie and then a sip of hot chocolate. "What were you guys talking about?"

Smiling against his cup of coffee, Liam said "Guy stuff." The girls exchanged a glance and burst out laughing.

The next day the boys got ready for the school dance at Liam's house, originally Danny hadn't wanted to go, but he'd agreed eventually. He looked at his suited up reflection in the mirror, mentally groaning at how scrawny and pathetic he looked. "Danny?"

"Huh?" He asked, turning at his name. Liam wasn't annoyed at all though, he just asked if Danny was going to tell Aria about his feelings today. "At the dance?" Liam nodded. "I'm not ready yet."

His friend sighed. "You'll probably never be ready, at some point you're just going to have to jump out of the airplane and pull the parachute." Danny laughed genuinely- for the first time in a little while, at his first friend's terrible metaphor- and agreed to think about it.

The two boys were dropped off by Liam's parents and made their way into the school gym. It was crowded and Danny crossed his arms, looking away from people as he followed Liam. They found the girls, dancing the robot and the nay-nay, laughing as a song boomed over the loudspeakers.

I hear your heart beat to the beat of the drums
Oh, what a shame that you came here with someone
So while you're here in my arms
Let's make the most of the night like we're gonna die young

He remembered Liam's words: "You need to tell Aria before it's too late", "she's not gonna turn on you because of something like this", "jump out of the airplane".

"Aria I need to talk to you!" He blurted out, unknowingly interrupting their conversation about Regionals. Aria turned from her other friends, nodding, and followed Danny out into the hall. For a good half a minute, he stood still, plucking up the courage to do this.

Young hearts, out our minds

Running till we out our minds

Wild child's looking good

Living hard just like we should

His friend glanced at him worriedly. "You look a little pale. It is pretty crowded in there, do you want a drink or something?"

"I think I'm gonna faint."

Aria rushed forward but Danny put a hand out, "don't worry, I've eaten enough, it's not that."

Young hunks, taking shots
Stripping down to dirty socks
Music up, gettin' hot
Kiss me, give me all you've got
It's pretty obvious that you've got a crush

"I've-been-having-all-these-feelings-for-you-and-I-thought-they-might-go-away-but-they're-not-and-I-just-had-to-tell-you." He said in one long breath, staring at a spot on the wall behind Aria instead of into her eyes. There was a long silence and eventually Danny mumbled, "Sorry, I shouldn't have…", fading off as he started to walk away. Aria seemed to unfreeze, grabbing his hand before he could get away.

"Thanks for telling me," She said. "I'm sorry, I love you-"

"But not in that way?" She nodded sadly, letting him go. Danny crossed the hall into the boys bathroom as she slumped against the wall.

Asher and Maeve had both volunteered to perform at the freshman school dance- Marley thought it would be good for the Glee Club- after all, music was needed at dances and "surely people will appreciate us after this". A few others had volunteered but at the moment they were just playing an old song over the speakers.

Looking for some trouble tonight

Take my hand, I'll show you the wild side

Like it's the last night of our lives

We'll keep dancing till we die

"Wanna dance?" Asher asked the brunette before he could stop himself. She glanced at him.

"With all the fourteen and fifteen year olds?" She laughed, stopping when their eyes met as the words rang out.

Let's make the most of the night like we're gonna die young

Kurt's sister grabbed his arm- him letting out a tiny squeal in surprise, which she seemed to find hilarious- and they started bopping up and down like the young teens. "So what do you do when you're not performing at freshman dances?"

Asher shrugged. "Perform at sophomore dances." She giggled. "No, I like art class, so I've been doing some painting recently."

She nodded. "Oh cool. I like fashion design." He remembered the pieces of paper that had fallen out of her bag in Glee Club the other day which he'd helped her pick up- both of them banging heads in the process. So that's what that had been. He was about to ask some more questions about it when Lucas pushed them forwards.

"C'mon guys, the song's about to end, everything's ready." The two of them hurried onto the stage, Maeve straightening out the blue dress she'd worn to Homecoming. Two microphone stands were at the front of the stage and the DJ- aka their middle aged math teacher- gave them two thumbs up. With that he grabbed the microphone and sang into it, one spotlight on him, growing to include Maeve.

Asher: "Oh don't you dare look back.
Just keep your eyes on me."
I said, "You're holding back, "
She said, (Maeve: "Shut up and dance with me!")
This woman is my destiny
She said, (with Maeve:)"Ooh-ooh-hoo,
Shut up and dance with me."

Lights flashed in bright colours as they went into the first verse, lighting up the dancefloor as the younger kids cheered and laughed- pulling partners or friends into the middle of the gym as the two 'Gleeks' sung the crowd pleaser. They exchanged a glance- no-one seemed to care about hating the Glee Club when they were providing the soundtrack to their high school memories.

Asher (Maeve): Deep in her eyes, (hey!)
I think I see the future.
I realize (hey) this is my last chance.

Maeve: He took my arm,
I don't know how it happened.
Asher and Maeve: We took the floor and she/he said,

Again, they looked at each other as their voices harmonised perfectly together creating a beautiful crescendo. They finished the song, Asher in a weird trance-type state where he could only hear their voices and could only see Maeve. He felt like they were the only two people in the world as he looked at her from her flowing chestnut hair to the grin on her face as she sung, her green eyes glittering with amusement.

Shut up and dance with me!

Maya Bieste glared at her brother from across the hall at the freshman dance. Kieran's black hair kept flipping awkwardly over his face as he talked to those Gleeks. She couldn't believe he'd actually joined that club- it was social suicide, and it wasn't like they needed to add more fuel to flame the fire- people already taunted and jeered at them enough. Yeah, she thought, taking another swig of her punch, it was better to have no friends than Glee friends…still…

Eurgh, she hadn't even wanted to come to this thing anyway, she'd known it would be lame when she found out the Glee Club were performing, but her dad had said she had to go, to talk to her friends and have fun like a normal high schooler- he had no idea. Kindergarten had been fine, so had elementary, it had started in middle school, the whispers, the laughter. Some people were perfectly accepting, but in a small town in Lima, there was still transphobia. The first time Maya experienced it, she and Kieran were waiting to be picked up in the schoolyard when one of the moms pulled her kid away, he'd been talking to them, a look of horror on her face. She had turned to a confused friend's whispering something along the lines of "…adopted…of Coach Bieste…used to teach my brother…disgusting".

Slowly, Maya turned her head back to her adopted brother. Kieran was laughing with the other Glee boys, and the older Glee members had come over to talk as well, clapping each other on the back for their good singing as the choir teacher beamed ear to ear and they all laughed happily. Deep down, she wanted that. She wanted friends who cared about her for who she was. She wanted a common goal to achieve together. Before her mind could process what she was doing, the way she normally worked, her body had taken control and yanked her up, making her walk towards them. The Glee Club members went silent when they saw her, likely thinking she was going to brandish a slushie and throw it in their faces or something ridiculous like that. "Iwanttojoingleeclub!" She murmured before she could stop herself. A couple of them looked between each other, confused, but Kieran broke into a wide smile.

"Are you serious?" He asked and she nodded uncertainly, at which point her brother wrapped her in a tight hug, his glasses banging against her head pretty weakly.

She hung her arms at his side weakly, unsure what to do with them, but found herself smiling softly as he let go and Marley asked her to audition on Monday afternoon.

Everyone, minus Danny, was sat in the choir room for Maya's audition. She looked uncomfortable for a moment before launching into a performance of Titanium. Beth had been nervous about admitting someone who'd been openly against the Glee Club from the getgo, but it turned out Maya had a beautiful voice, and she sung each word like it meant something huge to her, accompanied only by the piano.

Maya: I'm bulletproof, nothing to lose

Fire away, fire away

Ricochet, you take your aim

Fire away, fire away

You shoot me down but I won't fall

I am titanium

By the end of her performance, Beth was wiping tears away from her eyes when she felt Aisha pull her hand out of hers and smile, starting to clap. The others joined and then Aisha added "thank you Maya, that was beautiful, and helpful for me, and I'm sure everyone else too." The others nodded and Marley did too, wiping away a stray tear.

"I agree wholeheartedly. Welcome to the New Directions, Maya." The raven-haired girl grinned and took a seat beside her brother. "While choreography and being in tune are both obviously important things, when it comes down to it, Glee is about the emotion; passion, joy, sadness, anger, fear. That's why this week I'm challenging you to sing whatever you're feeling." Marley took a pen from beside the whiteboard and wrote 'Emotion' on it as the clock turned half three. "Okay then, we can leave early today then, unless anyone has anything already prepared that would fit?" She glanced at them. Aria raised her hand and Marley nodded for her to go ahead.

The brunette passed the piano player her music before sitting down on the stool Maya had just been sitting on and saying in a clearly upset voice, "My mom wrote this song and performed it at regionals when she was in New Directions".

Aria: What have I done?

I wish I could run,

Away from this ship going under

Just trying to help

Hurt everyone else

Now I feel the weight of the world is on my shoulders

Beth put a hand to her mouth in shock. She'd not seen Aria for a few days but the last time she'd seen her she'd been happily laughing and joking with her and Aisha in the car. What could have possibly happened in a few days? She turned to Aria's boyfriend, but Milo just shrugged sadly before turning back to Aria, looking worried. Then she looked at Natalia and Liam, they looked upset too. Danny wasn't here, maybe it had something to do with him? Did she feel somehow partially responsible for his eating disorder? Was she just worried about him? The blonde felt awful looking at the pain on her friend and niece's face.

Aria: What can you do when your good isn't good enough

And all that you touch tumbles down?

Cause my best intentions

Keep making a mess of things,

I just wanna fix it somehow

But how many times will it take?

To get it right, to get it right…

Aria looked at them for a moment after she finished, her eyes seeming to rest on Milo before she burst out crying and left the room. Immediately Liam, Natalia and Milo all sprung to their feet but Beth held a hand out. "I'll go check on her." They nodded.

Beth raced down the halls until she heard the faint sound of crying coming from the boys locker room. The boys locker room? "Aria?" Beth called, covering her nose at the smell. The brunette girl was leaning against the wall, shaking with tears. "What are you doing in here?"

"I thought you wouldn't come in," She whispered in a weak voice. Gently, Beth pulled her up by the arm.

"Come on," She said, "Let's find a bathroom so we can get you some tissue." Once they'd made it to the nearest girl's bathroom, which took a while, Aria leant back again, sliding down the wall. After pulling out some tissue and handing it to her niece, Beth joined her on the floor, just letting her rest her head on her shoulder until she wanted to talk.

"God, I feel so stupid." Aria suddenly declared out of nowhere, her voice hoarse from all the crying. "How could I not have known? And now I've only made things worse. He's one of the most important people in my life. I'd never want to hurt him."

Beth passed her some more tissue. "Slow down, sweetie, what happened?" Taking a deep breath, Aria croakily recounted how Danny had told her he had romantic feelings for her and she'd not said anything, resulting in him leaving and added that he hadn't talked to her at all over the weekend. "Oh, Ar," The blonde pushed some of her friend's hair behind her ear. "I know it hurts that you've upset your best friend but it's not your fault that you don't reciprocate his feelings."

Aria pulled her knees up and leaned her head on them. "I wish I did. It would have been so much easier. I could have told him I loved him to, he would have smiled and hugged me. I would have helped him through his eating disorder, he'd get better. We'd get into the same college, graduate, move in together, get married, have kids." She let out a long strangled sigh and pushed her hair back. "Now I've only upset him, and he might get worse, and I won't be able to help or ever see him again because every time he sees me he'll be reminded of how I rejected his feelings." Beth leant over and enveloped Aria in a hug, as the door to the bathroom opened and her other two best friends came in, looks of concern covering their faces.

Songs featured: Die Young- Ke$ha (speakers)

Shut Up and Dance with Me- Walk the Moon (Maeve&Asher)

Get it Right- Glee Cast (Aria)