Disclaimer: Glee belongs to Ryan Murphy and Fox, not me.
Rachel sat up straight in her seat in the outdoor amphitheatre, her heart racing. This is it, she thought. My first audition for the summer.
She scanned the campers in the seats around her, checking out her competition. The other girls were all bright-eyed and waiting patiently too, all silent as they watched the counselors chat conspiratorially and anticipated the announcement of the scenes.
"All right, you guys, I know you're excited," Holly said. Rachel scooted to the edge of the seat, hands knotted together. Kurt perked up beside her, his eyes bright. "We're going to go ahead and announce the scene selections we've chosen. Now, remember, you're going to sign up for the parts you want to audition for and you'll get your sixteen-bar cuts to rehearse. Auditions will be after lunch." She nudged the counselor next to her. "All right, lay it on them."
The counselor picked up a sheet of paper. "'There's No Business Like Show Business' from Annie Get Your Gun'," she read. "'If I Loved You' from Carousel. 'Waitin' For Me Dearie' from Brigadoon. 'Sit Down, You're Rockin' the Boat' from Guys and Dolls. 'People Will Say We're In Love' from Oklahoma. 'Get Me To the Church On Time'…"
A thrill ran up Rachel's spine. They chose a scene from Oklahoma. One of Laurey's scenes. I was born to play Laurey, she thought. That's been one of my dream roles since I was two.
She leaned over to Kurt. "I'm going to audition for the Oklahoma scene," she whispered.
"Sh!" he said, waving his hand at her, eyes focused on the counselors.
Rachel sat back in her seat, smiling widely as she drummed her fingers on the armrests of her seat. I'm going to get that part, she said. It's practically mine already.
The chirpy little dance counselor clapped her hands. "All right, boys and girls," Lesley singsong to the campers scattered over the grass. "We're going to play a fun little game that'll help you all act more like a team! Isn't that nice?"
Santana leaned over to Brittany. "I'm going to stuff her scrunchie down her throat if she keeps this up," she whispered. Brittany giggled behind her hand.
Lesley glared. "No one talks while I talk!" she said. Brittany silenced mid-giggle. Lesley smiled. "Now, boys and girls, I want all of you to stand up and get into three groups of ten.
Santana grabbed Brittany by the arm and dragged her over to Mike. "Hey, what's up, Asian?" she said.
Mike frowned. "Aren't we supposed to be with people we don't know all that well?" he said. "Isn't that the whole point?"
"Nope," David said. "Not if they're doing the exercise I think we're doing."
Nick paled. "Oh god, not the amoeba!" he said.
"Oh yeah, the amoeba," David said.
"Isn't that where Nemo the fish lives?" Brittany offered.
"Anemone, Britty," Santana corrected. "So what are you guys freaking out about?"
Nick pointed to the first group. They stood together in a tight cluster, and Lesley was tying a thick rope around them. "We have to walk up the hill like that," he said darkly.
"That's insane," Santana said. "I'm not doing this."
Brittany straightened her ponytail. "It looks like fun," she shrugged.
"See, the whole point of this is to get us moving as one group," David said. "And usually people freak out. The people in the middle get trampled, and the people on the outside have the rope digging into them."
Mike brightened. "Well, then why don't we count off our steps?" he said. "If we all move at the same time, it should be fine!"
"Easier said than done," Nick said.
"I'll count it off," Mike said. He raised up on his toes. "Trying to teach New Directions to dance is kind of like getting an amoeba to walk. It shouldn't be that hard."
David clapped him on the back. "Then get to the front and take the lead," he said.
"Be brave," Nick said solemnly.
Lesley waltzed over to them with a rope in hand. "Ready?" she said.
Santana glanced over at the first group waddling up the hill, lumbering sideways. Nick swallowed hard. "We're ready," Mike said.
"If anyone steps on me, they'll be breathing out of their ears," Santana threatened.
"What's wrong with the dancers?" Mercedes snickered.
Wes grinned as he watched the bedraggled campers in their bright green shirts drag themselves across the cafeteria and plunk down at their table. "Ah, team building exercises," he said.
Mercedes tilted her head. "They do it in the first week of camp," Jo explained, adjusting the headband in her blond bobbed hair. "They take each cabin out one at a time to do team building stuff. So we can work together and all that jazz."
"We'll be up there at some point this week," Wes said. He poked Blaine in the ribs. "Anderson. The line moved. Stop looking for Kurt and keep moving."
Blaine blinked. "Huh?"
Jo rolled her eyes and propelled him forward. "Keep going, babe," she said.
Blaine looked over his shoulder. "Have we seen anybody in purple?" he asked.
"You know how seriously the musical theater kids take their auditions," Wes said. "They'll probably be practicing in the studio all through lunch."
Blaine sighed. "I haven't seen Kurt since breakfast," he said. "I don't even know what part he's auditioning for."
"He'll be fine," Mercedes reassured him. "Kurt can do an audition in his sleep."
"I know," Blaine said.
Jo picked up her tray. "So what piece are you auditioning to sing, Mercedes?" she asked.
Mercedes shrugged. "Probably all of them," she said. "Might as well."
"I bet Blaine's working on the Frank Sinatra one," Wes said.
"I'm what?" Blaine said absently.
"God, Blaine, you saw him this morning," Jo said, rolling her eyes. "Separation anxiety much?"
"It's a good thing he got to come with you to camp, or we'd have to deal with this all summer," Wes teased.
"We've only been dating for a few months, we're still in the honeymoon stage," Blaine defended.
Mercedes laughed and reached for a set of silverware; another hand got there first. "Oh, sorry, go ahead."
"Thanks, I-" She paused. "Hi, Dave."
Blaine's back stiffened. Karofsky shifted his weight awkwardly. "Hey," he mumbled.
Mercedes turned her back to him, grabbed her utensils, and pushed forward. "Hey, Dave, I'm Jo," Jo said pleasantly. She handed him a set of silverware.
"Thanks," he said to his shoes.
Mercedes sidled up to Blaine. "Does she not know?" she whispered. Blaine shook his head, his lips set in a firm line.
"Oh, god, I hate auditions," Lucy mumbled, picking idly at her fingernails. "They make me so nervous."
"Oh, I know, me too," Trent sighed.
Dylan leaned back and grinned, propping his feet up on the seat in front of him. "They're not that bad," he said. "Could be worse."
"I love auditioning," Kurt said. He leaned towards Rachel. "What about you?"
"Hm?" she said, glancing up from her sheet music. "Sorry, I'm just focused. Please don't interrupt my preparation process."
"My preparation process mostly consists of panicking," Lucy moaned, sliding down in her seat and pulling her long red ponytail over her face. "Oh, why do I this to myself every time?"
"I don't know, but stop it, you're making me more nervous," Trent said.
Holly slid off the edge of the stage. "All right, kids, we're going to start the audition process," she said. "When we call your name, come up to the stage and get going. Jesse, start us off."
Jesse picked up a stack of papers. "We're going to start with the Oklahoma scene," he said. "Can I have…Michael McCall and Rachel Berry, please."
Rachel stood up from her seat, show smile already in place. "Break a leg," Kurt whispered. She strolled to the stage, excited butterflies bubbling in her stomach. The counselors looked up at her from their seats in the front row, expressions blank as they balance notebooks on their knees. She nodded to the piano without glancing at her scene partner and began to sing.
"I can't believe you guys played Frisbee without me," Finn complained.
"Dude, we totally could have used you on our team, but you vanished," Sam said.
Finn frowned. "This camp kind of sucks so far," he mumbled under his breath.
"What?"
"Nothing."
"Look, you guys go find those Gargler dudes, I'll get a Frisbee," Puck offered. "We've still got like an hour left till dinner, we could get a pretty good game in."
Finn pushed himself off the ground and brushed grass off his shorts. "Awesome," he said. "I think I saw some of them down by the snack shop."
Puck got up and headed towards the sports shed, stretching his arms above his head lazily. The summer sun was unusually hot for June, but he didn't care. It meant he could take of his shirt and watch the girls from the vocal performance cabin gape at him as he walked by. He grinned, then stopped dead in his tracks.
One of the counselors was with the girls, a tall woman with strong, pretty features and dark hair. He froze. "Ms. Corcoran?" he choked.
She turned around. "Oh," she said. She stared at him for a second, then cleared her throat and turned to her campers. "Go on, girls, I'll meet you in a minute."
Puck caught up to her. "I didn't know you worked here," he said.
"Retirement from coaching Vocal Adrenaline wasn't all it was cracked up to be," she said, folding her arms.
He shifted his weight, his heart thumping against his ribcage. "How's…how is she?" he whispered.
Shelby smiled at him. "Beth is wonderful," she said. "She's staying with my parents in town."
"Is…is she talking?" Puck asked. "Can she walk yet?"
"She's hitting all her milestones right on target," Shelby said. "Healthy as can be." She patted him on the arm. "It's good to see you, Noah. I hope you're doing well."
She continued down the path. Puck watched her walk away, his stomach twisting up in the awful knots that he hadn't felt since the day he said goodbye to his little pink bundle through the nursery window.
"This is it," Wes said. "Cast lists will be up any minute now."
They gathered outside the dining hall with the rest of the camp, all of them waiting impatiently outside the six rectangles of colored construction paper covering the results of the day's auditions. Blaine squeezed Kurt's hand. "I hope I get the Frank Sinatra solo," he said.
"Oh, now you care about auditions," Jo teased.
Rachel clasped her hands together, staring at the purple paper like she could move it with her mind if she only tried hard enough. "I cannot wait," she said. "I hope they make her costume like the one in the movie. The lavender gingham is so sweet."
"Ooh, here comes Evangeline," David said. The camp director walked out of the cafeteria doors and headed for the lists. "Here we go."
"I can't look," Lucy moaned, hiding her face in David's shoulder. "Someone hold me."
The entire camp fell silent as Evangeline took the cover sheets off one by one. "Go on, take a look," she said, offering a smile and a wave before hopping out of the way of the crowd.
Blaine let out a victorious whoop. "Frank Sinatra!" he cheered. "I got it!"
"David, David, look for me," Lucy said, covering her eyes.
"You got the Bonnie Jean part in Brigadoon," David reported.
Lucy peeked through her fingers. "Are you serious?" she said. She wilted, exhaling deeply. "Oh, thank God."
"Kurt, what did you get?" Wes asked.
Kurt wrinkled his nose. "One of the gangsters in Guys and Dolls," he said. "At least I get a solo bit in that one." He turned to Rachel. "So, Rachel, did you…Rachel?"
She stood in front of the cast list, still frozen in place, eyes wide. "I didn't get the part," she said numbly. "I didn't get Laurey."
Author's Notes:
RACHEL DIDN'T GET A LEAD? WHAT IS THIS MADNESS? HAS THE APOCALYPSE ARRIVED?
Just kidding.
But anyways, here's a nice short chapter. I promise not every chapter will be these itty bitty vignettes; it just sort of worked out that way for this one.
But yeah. Writing this story is using my five years of summer camp counseling experience and twenty years of theater experience, so this is sort of fun!
SO WHAT'S GOING TO HAPPEN NEXT? WILL RACHEL DIE OF SHAME OR THROW A FIT? WILL BLAINE SURVIVE TEAM BUILDING EXERCISES WITH KAROFSKY? WILL PUCK GET TO SEE HIS BABY? WILL FRANCEY FALL IN LOVE?
Stay tuned!