Not much to say here, other than Mariah's audition song is How Do I Live by LeAnn Rimes.
Chapter 14: Dakota Stanley
That Afternoon
The day had gone much better than yesterday. Scott and Quinn had met up with Rachel, Santana and Mariah before school and everyone explained their own story about what was going on. Rachel had supplied a few painkillers to help the headache that had begun to reform during the drive to Rachel's house, and Quinn was now feeling much better. Santana had agreed to not mention anything about Rachel and Quinn's friendship to Sue, and she had said she'd attempt to convince their coach that she may have been wrong to begin with. Rachel had taken the news in stride, and agreed to keep their friendship private until everything blew over. Scott had taken on the duty of getting Jacob Ben Israel off of their backs, and so far no one had seen hide or hair of the gossip all day despite him having been in all of his classes. Mariah mentioned that one of her friends was a computer whiz, and that she could pull a few strings to make sure nothing got out over the internet that someone might take the wrong way. In retrospect, everything had been fairly normal, although Scott and Mariah both seemed quieter at lunch than usual, and Santana and Rachel had begun to build their own tentative private friendship. Everyone was now ending the day off with their favorite period: Glee club.
Everyone was seated on the raised stairs, waiting for Mr. Schue to arrive. At exactly 3:15 Mr. Schue entered the choir room followed closely by a familiar face.
"Hey everyone. Sorry I'm late." Mr. Schue said.
"What's she doing here?" Kurt asked.
"She wants to audition for Glee club, so I want all of you to give her your attention. Mariah, are you ready to go?" Mariah nodded wordlessly and handed a copy of the music to Brad. She stood in the center of the room and began to sing as the piano accompaniment started.
(A/N: In classic Glee fashion, this song is going to be shortened to remove the unnecessary length of the document from my hard drive. After the chorus it picks up at the bridge.)
How do I…
Get through one night without you?
If I had to live without you,
What kind of life would that be?
Oh, I…
Need you in my arms need you to hold,
You're my world, my heart, my soul,
If you ever leave…
Baby, you would take away everything,
Good in my life.
And tell me now,
How do I live without you?
I want to know.
How do I breathe without you,
If you ever go?
How do I ever,
Ever survive?
How do I,
How do I,
Oh how do I live?
How do I go on,
If you ever leave?
Baby you would take away everything,
Need you with me.
Baby don't you know
You're everything
Good in my life…
And tell me now,
How do I live without you?
I want to know,
How do I breathe without you,
If you ever go?
How do I ever,
Ever survive?
How do I,
How do I,
Oh, how do I live?
How do I live without you?
How do I live without you, baby?
How do I live?
The music tapered off as the song came to a close, and Mariah looked hopefully at Mr. Schue. Everyone waited for his judgment, but it never came.
"Alright, I think now will be a great time for a little team building." Mr. Schue said. "I'm going to pick three of you and let you each decide whether or not Mariah should join New Directions. Two out of three makes the decision. Let's start with…Quinn."
"Absolutely." Quinn said almost immediately. "That was beautiful. Everything Scott said it was and more." Both Mariah and Scott blushed and made a point of looking everywhere but at each other.
"Okay, that's a yes. Next…Kurt."
"No way." The boy said. "We already have enough chicks in here, and it's already difficult enough to get a solo with Berry around." Rachel pouted at this comment and Quinn wanted to smack the boy upside his head. Everyone else rolled their eyes at his immaturity.
"And a no. Okay, Mercedes. You're the deciding vote. Yes or no?" Everybody looked expectantly at Mercedes, who couldn't help but squirm a bit in her chair with all the sudden attention.
"I'd have to say…" Mercedes started, looking Mariah up and down several times. "I agree with Quinn. You got a hot voice for a white girl. Welcome to New Directions." Mariah smiled brightly.
"And the decision has been made. As Mercedes said, welcome to New Directions, Mariah. Go ahead and take a seat." Mariah did as she was told, taking a seat in front of Scott. "Alright, now we have a lot to cover today, so let's get started."
Twenty Minutes Later
"5…6...7…8…and step! And step one, step, and step one…" Mr. Schue called as he attempted to demonstrate a new idea he had come up with for choreography for Sectionals. Although everyone was trying to follow along, all of them were stepping at the wrong time and nearly falling over their own feet. Finn was so focused on trying to not trip over himself that he wasn't even paying attention to Mr. Schue's demonstration anymore. Rachel was getting frustrated, because hell, she had to admit that even she couldn't follow along to this. When they were doing a 360 Artie accidentally ran his wheelchair into a chair, and Tina nearly fell when she tripped over a stray wire from the stereos. Quinn had completely stopped trying several minutes ago and was just standing off to the side watching Scott and Mercedes screw up the timing for the clap.
"Um, could-could we stop…please?" Rachel finally called over the piano accompaniment. Mr. Schue turned to look at the diva.
"You don't have to ask me permission to go to the bathroom every time, Rachel. You can just go." Mr. Schue pointed to the door. As he was about to start dancing again, Rachel interrupted.
"It's not my bladder. It's the choreography."
"Okay, what's wrong with the choreography?"
"It sucks." Quinn said simply.
"It's completely unoriginal." Santana said at the same time.
"What? No it's not." Mr. Schue said. "This is 100 percent original content."
"Actually, they're right, Mr. S." Scott said. "We used a lot of this same stuff at Sectionals last year. Although at the moment how everyone managed to understand it, let alone memorize it, is beyond my comprehension." Mr. Schue looked over at Scott with a surprised expression.
"We can't compete with Vocal Adrenaline with these steps." Rachel said. "You're a great vocal coach Mr. Schue, don't get me wrong, but…you aren't a trained choreographer. That's what we need to be the best."
"Did you have someone in mind?" Rachel nodded.
"We need Dakota Stanley."
"I've heard about him." Quinn said. "He's the best show choir choreographer in the Midwest. He works with Vocal Adrenaline."
"We can't take Regionals without him." Santana agreed. "He was the understudy to the candelabra in Beauty and the Beast." Everyone stared at the Latina like she'd grown a second head. "What? I had to do a research paper on former Broadway performers in Ohio for a drama class last year."
"Guys, just because he understudied doesn't mean he ever performed." Mr. Schue said.
"Do you ever perform, Mr. Schuester?" Quinn asked. Mr. Schue was about to reply, but Quinn interrupted his response. "After high school, I mean." Mr. Schue remained silent, so Quinn continued. "Exactly. Just because he never performed doesn't mean he isn't any good. Vocal Adrenaline has taken three National championships in the same number of years with Stanley as their choreographer. That's proof enough that he knows what he's doing."
"Quinn, lay off, would you?" Scott interrupted. "While I agree that Mr. Schue's choreography isn't exactly dazzling, I don't think we need to go to those kinds of extremes. You don't know what that guy does to make Vocal Adrenaline as good as they are. That's hardcore stuff. I'm sure with a little teamwork and practice we can get some pretty good moves going in here. We just need to integrate some of our own dancing prowess, sorry Finn, that's going to have to exclude you…" Everyone laughed, even Finn. "…with Mr. Schue's choreography and we can turn this into something to work with."
"It's fine, Scott. Don't worry about it. How about we just end off a little early today, and we'll start working on it Friday? I have somewhere I need to be, anyway." Mr. Schue grabbed his bag and left, leaving everyone in an awkward silence.
"That…did not go as well as it did in my head." Rachel admitted.
Two Weeks Later
Rachel walked into the choir room carrying a plate of I'm Sorry Cookies during lunch on Friday to find everyone else already present in the room. The Glee club had agreed to meet there to find out the results of Rachel's plan to get Mr. Schue back. He'd missed several practices over the past two weeks, leaving Scott and Rachel to coach the less experienced singers, and Quinn, Santana, and Brittany to begin work on their own ideas for choreography. Finn was playing some song on the piano, Kurt, Mercedes, Tina, and Artie were gossiping, Mariah was reading a book, and Quinn, Santana, Brittany, and Scott were talking about some random topic that had become prevalent since the morning, while Scott and Mariah were glancing up at each other every once in a while, quickly looking back to their respective distractions with a blush whenever they happened to glance up at the same time. Everyone looked up when the door closed behind Rachel.
"He's not coming." Rachel said.
"What happened?" Finn asked.
"I tried to give him a plate of cookies to say I'm sorry, but he basically said he was just going to help us sing and that we should hire Dakota Stanley." Scott slapped his hand against his forehead.
"I had a feeling this was going to happen." He said. "We should've just brought up the possibility of working on the choreography together rather than throwing salt in an open wound." He looked pointedly at Quinn.
"Sorry." She muttered. Rachel placed the cookies on the piano and Finn stood up angrily.
"Of course he doesn't want anything to do with us after you four kicked him in the nads!" He shouted.
"Finn, honey, you need to calm down." Quinn said. "Your anger is flaring up again." Finn nodded and took a few deep breaths.
"The goal is to win!" Santana said excitedly. "And now that Mr. Schuester has agreed to let us hire Dakota Stanley, we can."
"You guys are oblivious." Scott said. "He doesn't want us to hire Dakota. He just doesn't have the confidence to coach us anymore." Everyone was silent for a few seconds.
"Guys are real sensitive when it comes to this kind of stuff." Finn explained. "You need to bring it up subtly, not shove it down his throat like that." He shot a pointed glance at Rachel.
"And you think that's my fault?" She asked.
"You're the one that brought it up. And I don't see anyone else in here with a plate of I'm sorry cookies."
"We're not throwing blame at anyone." Scott said. "We just need to figure out what we're going to do about this."
"All those in favor of hiring Dakota Stanley?" Quinn asked. Scott nearly face palmed again.
"Not what I meant." He muttered. Kurt, Tina, Mercedes, Santana, Brittany, and Quinn raised their hands, with Rachel only seconds behind. Finn glared at her.
"Then we have our point of action." Quinn walked out of the room, smiling at Rachel on the way out. Rachel smiled back, but it never reached her eyes.
"I don't like this." Mariah said. "I agree with Scott. We've got no idea how he works, or what he'll put us through if we hire him. We need to do more research."
"Like we have time?" Santana asked. "Sectionals are in December, which means we have two months. We don't have time to do research. We need to start putting together our performance. And if Mr. Schue isn't going to help, we're going to need to find someone who will." On her way out the door to go to her next class, Finn caught up with Rachel.
"Hey, wait up." He said. "You can't just do this to Mr. Schuester."
"What, make him a hero? Once we hire Dakota and win Nationals, he'll thank me for it. You heard Santana, it's all about winning."
"Since when?" Mariah asked, walking up on Rachel's other side.
"Look, Finn, you have your…popular clique and your football cliché with dating a cheerleader, and Mariah, you have your JROTC friends and about a dozen guys fighting for your attention, but Glee is my one shot. If this doesn't work out, then my whole life will be nothing but an embarrassment."
"Wait, is this one of those chick things where you're pissed about one thing, but you're pretending like you're pissed about something else?" Finn asked, standing in front of Rachel to stop her from walking.
"I don't know what you're talking about."
"Well, for a while there you were kind of all over me, and now you just sort of yell at me all the time. It makes me think that you're still upset about what happened in the auditorium."
"What happened in the auditorium?" Mariah asked.
"Nothing." Finn and Rachel said at the same time.
"I'm not mad about anything." Rachel continued. "I've moved on and I'm focusing on my career now. I'm also respecting your relationship with Quinn." Rachel walked around Finn and kept walking down the hallway towards her locker.
"Do you want to talk about it?" Finn called after her." At this point Mariah had completely lost track of the conversation.
"No! And neither do you." She turned back around to stare at Finn. "You're in a relationship with Quinn, Finn. What happened between us in the auditorium should not have happened, and I suggest we avoid bringing it up again. You're Mr. Popular, and I'm just a nobody that everybody makes fun of. Being seen with me would just ruin your reputation and cause a gap in yours and Quinn's relationship, and I don't want that." Mariah finally picked up on what was going on, and easily connected the dots. Wow, was Finn more right than he thought. "We're hiring Dakota Stanley." Rachel turned around and walked away, stopping only when Finn spoke again.
"Even if it means me quitting?" She hesitated for a moment before responding.
"Yes." She walked away, leaving Finn and Mariah in the dust. Mariah recovered quickly and ran after her. She spoke up once she was at Rachel's side again.
"Finn's right, you know." She said.
"About what?" Rachel kept looking straight ahead.
"'One of those chick things where you're pissed about one thing and pretending to be pissed about something else.'" Mariah quoted Finn's earlier statement.
"I have no idea what you're talking about."
"Don't play dumb with me, Rachel. You know exactly what I mean. That entire speech back there about whatever happened between you and Finn, I'm not going to dig into it right now, was actually more about you and Quinn. You're angrier than you let on about having to keep your friendship private."
"Okay, so maybe I am. Why does it matter?"
"Why are you so angry about it?"
"I thought Quinn had changed. She'd been acting so differently those past few days, and now it's like she doesn't even realize I exist. That smile in the choir room was the only thing I've gotten from her in over two weeks. I just wish she wasn't so obsessed with her popularity."
"She isn't obsessed with popularity. At least not anymore. They told us what was going on, remember? If Quinn's parents find out about her friendship with you, her entire life could be ruined. She could get kicked out of her home. And who knows what her father might do to you if he finds out. Quinn is trying to protect both you and her." Rachel sighed and nodded.
"I know. It's just, I miss her, you know? I miss being able to talk to her and sit with her at lunch and hang out with her after school. I only had it for a few days, but it's like not having her around has left a hole in my life. She never answers my morning calls, she doesn't acknowledge me in the hallway…it hurts, whether she's doing it for a reason or not."
"I know. And I promise, we're going to do everything we can to make things better."
"No!" the sudden shout startled the girls out of their conversation. They saw Scott walking quickly down the hallway with a distressed looking Quinn jogging behind him.
"Scott, come on!" Quinn said. "This could be our chance. If we don't place in Regionals, Glee gets cut, and you and I both know that neither of us wants to see that. Without Mr. Schue we'll need all the help we can get. We need Dakota!"
"Quinn, no matter how many ways you try to reason with me, my answer is not going to change." Scott spat angrily. He turned to glare angrily at Quinn, causing her to flinch slightly. When her brother got angry he could scare just about anyone. "Quinn, you don't have any idea what that lunatic does to people who hire him. I will not, no matter what the circumstances, ever agree to hiring Dakota Stanley as our choreographer. If I see that man in our choir room, I'm gone. No questions asked. I don't want him within 100 feet of New Directions." Scott turned and marched down the hallway, leaving Quinn close to tears behind him.
"I don't think I've ever seen Scott that angry since I met him." Rachel muttered only loud enough for Mariah to hear.
"Neither have I." Mariah agreed. "He gets angry a lot, especially when Tyler provokes him, but never that angry. This Dakota guy must really be bad if he's that dead-set against it."
"We need him, though. Mr. Schue's not going to help us."
"I know. I just think we need to do some research before we jump into any decisions like this. Especially with the way Scott's acting about it all. I really think we should make sure we know what we're getting ourselves into."
"Normally I'd agree. I am a very organized and research-oriented person after all, but Santana made a very valid point in the choir room. We need to start getting our performance together now if we want to get through Sectionals with anything better than third place." Rachel walked away when the warning bell rang, heading towards her next class.
"I guess." Mariah's voice was still laced with reluctance.
Still don't have much to say, other than review! I like reading words in my e-mail box that are not just automated messages from FF about favorites and alerts. While I do like those, I also like to know what people really like and/or dislike about what I'm doing. Suggestions are always welcome, and anything can change if I get a good idea from a reader!