A/N: I am super flattered by everyone's reviews and favorites. Thanks so much! As always, reviews are love!
Songs Without Words
Rachel hurried to the choir room after school. She wanted to be the first one there, to have it out with Mr. Schuester, to find out exactly what sort of a game he was playing. And, well, to prove that she was Glee Club's shining star, and there was no way in hell he was going to replace her.
Mr. Schuester sat in a chair on the stage, facing the door. He was nodding and smiling; Rachel wondered if he had truly gone crazy or if he was wearing one of those new-fangled Blue-Tooth earpieces.
She stopped abruptly, skidding into the room, when she realized that neither of those thoughts was the truth.
For there, in front of Mr. Schuester, sat the most beautiful girl Rachel had ever seen.
It didn't matter that she was propped up in a wheelchair, bigger than Artie's and looking a hundred times more complex – this girl was gorgeous.
"Hi, Rachel," Mr. Schuester said, getting up from his seat. "Come in."
"Uh, hi," Rachel managed to say.
She still didn't understand exactly what was going on. The girl in the chair was tiny, blond, elfin, with a long braid lying neatly over her right shoulder. A metal stand held up a computer screen in front of her. Tubes ran from an opening in her throat around to the back of the chair.
The girl turned her chair somehow – Rachel couldn't tell how – and her eyes lit up at the sight of the dark-haired newcomer.
"This is Skyler," Mr. Schuester said, filling in the awkward hole in the conversation. "She's our newest member. Skyler, this is Rachel."
There was another pause, during which the girl in the chair turned her head away from Rachel.
Rachel was immediately offended. "Mr. Schuester," she said in a low voice, "I really don't think…"
A computerized female voice interrupted her. "Hello Rachel! I am so pleased to meet you. I am sorry I can't look at you and talk at the same time, but my speech device requires that I look at it. My name is Skyler and I am new at William McKinley High School. My father and Mr. Schuester are friends."
"Oh," Rachel said. "I didn't…"
"My father teaches music at Grove University," Skyler went on, blinking and moving her eyes in a sync'ed motion to control her computer screen. "He helped me arrange the song without words for Mr. Schuester."
Rachel took a step towards the new girl, until she could see the computer screen. It was filled with an alphabetical set of letters, and a small box at the top. As Skyler moved her eyes, the box at the top held her words. When she had finished a statement, she selected a box marked "Talk" and the words were spoken aloud.
"Mr. Schuester told me quite a bit about your glee club," Skyler said. "He said you are his star."
Rachel momentarily softened. "He did?"
"He did," Skyler confirmed. "He said that you would be my knight in shining armor, to borrow a turn of phrase. I know I'm not much to look at…"
"Oh, no," Rachel interrupted. "You're… you're very pretty."
"… but I have a passion for music that I wanted to share with Mr. Schuester. I was hoping you would be my first glee club friend."
Rachel pulled a chair up in front of Skyler's wheelchair. "Oh. Oh, of course."
Little by little the glee club filtered in. Each member cast their own looks at Skyler, and at Rachel, who sat steadfastly by her new friend's side. At last the bell rang and Mr. Schuester stood up.
"Good afternoon, everybody," he said. "I would like to…"
Brittany's hand went up in the back row.
"Yes, Brittany?"
"Is that a doll?"
"Is what a doll?"
"That girl."
"Oh," Mr. Schuester said, embarrassed. "No, it's…"
"This is Skyler Howard," Rachel said, leaping from her seat. She smoothed her skirt awkwardly. "And she's our newest glee club member."
"You have got to be kidding me," Santana said.
"So she's not a doll?" Brittany asked.
"Not a doll," Mr. Schuester confirmed.
"And anybody who has a problem with her can take it up with me," Rachel said firmly.
Artie rolled forward and gently touched Skyler's hand. "I'm glad you're here," he said. "I'm Artie."
The rest of the group introduced themselves, some more grudgingly than others. Brittany stared the longest before coming forward, and then she bent, leaning forward to look Skyler in the eyes. Skyler quickly moved her eyes away to her computer screen and typed, "Boo!"
Brittany squealed and jumped away.
Skyler laughed.
"All right, guys, let's start with the tonal song," Mr. Schuester said. "Skyler, take a listen. This is our first run-through."
Skyler moved her head a fraction of an inch, which could have been a nod.
Mr. Schuester stepped off the risers and turned to Brad, who sat at the piano. "Our four pitches, if you please, maestro."
Brad obligingly played four notes with big spaces in between, giving the entire group their points to aim for. When he had finished, the room still seemed to resonate even as silence fell.
Mr. Schuester stepped in front of the group and raised his hands, and without being asked, the New Directions were on their feet – well, except for Artie and Skyler – and their mouths were open, big, long, fat, ringing tones resonating around the room.
Mr. Schuester conducted the first few measures but it soon became apparent that his direction was unnecessary. The song without words had a momentum of its own, like sledding down a hill, and it was quickly unstoppable.
The New Directions members turned to look at each other even as these fat rich tones were coming out of their mouths. They'd never heard anything quite like it – the beauty, the interlocking harmonies. There was definitely a message there, something sad and crazy and wild.
How could it be that they were managing to say so much without saying a single word? Rachel wondered. She'd always thought it was the lyrics that gave her favorite divas power. But here she was, unable to say a word about girl power or star power or heartbreak, and somehow she was managing to express it all.
Skyler's eyes were bright as she tracked across the singers' faces. She scanned almost excitedly from Brittany to Mike to Kurt, down to Santana and Quinn and Artie, back up to Sam and Finn and Puck and Lauren, over to Mercedes and Tina, and then coming, finally, to rest on Rachel.
When the song was over Mr. Schuester clapped enthusiastically. "All right, guys! That was… that was something!"
"I don't get it," Finn said.
"What don't you get?" Mr. Schuester asked.
"How are we supposed to sing a song that doesn't have any words? Isn't that the whole point of singing? The words?"
"I felt like I was saying 'yum yum yum,'" Brittany said. "And now I want a Power Bar. And maybe some Reese's Pieces."
"Couldn't you feel it?" Rachel asked, tucking her hair behind her ears as she turned to face Finn. "All the… the power and beauty."
"I just felt lost," Finn admitted.
"Well, let's turn it over to our composer," Mr. Schuester suggested. "Skyler, what did you think?"
Skyler flicked her eyes over to her computer screen and eye-typed for a moment. "You've got the basic idea," her computer spoke at last, "but you've all got a long way to go."
"I still say this is stupid," Santana said, folding her arms.
Skyler met the girl's gaze and typed, "When you watch a movie, ever notice how sometimes the hottest, most intimate scenes are the ones where nobody says anything?"
Her question hung in the air for a few moments, as everyone thought of various movie scenes. At last Santana said, "So, what, we're supposed to seduce somebody with this song?"
"I don't know if I'd call it seduction," Skyler said, "but think of how much power you gain when you can affect someone's emotions without saying a single word."
"It's like theatricality," Tina spoke up.
"Perfect example," Mr. Schuester said. "It's all about projecting a subliminal message."
The bell rang before he could say anything else, and the New Directions members hurried out. When the crowd had cleared, Rachel and Mr. Schuester were the only ones standing before Skyler.
"I just wanted to tell you I think this is brilliant," Rachel said to Skyler, leaning forward to rest her hands gently on Skyler's wheelchair tray.
She looked at the tiny girl contorted into her wheelchair, everything motionless except for Skyler's bright eyes and the mechanical chuff-whuff of air being puffed through tubes into Skyler's tracheotomy tube. "And I just wanted to tell you that even Christopher Reeve was on Sesame Street after his accident. So if he can do it, you can certainly be in show business."
"I don't want to be in show business," Skyler typed with a small smile. "That's like the last thing I'd want. And remind me to tell you some time about how I feel about Christopher Reeve."
Rachel was clearly taken aback. Usually people were grateful for her advice or emotional support. "Um, well, I guess I'll see you tomorrow then."
"I'll be here," Skyler typed. "And thank you for your kind introductions, Rachel, it really does mean a lot to me."
When Rachel had gone Skyler turned her chair to look up at Mr. Schuester. "She's something else, huh?" the teacher said.
Skyler gave him a bigger version of the smile she'd given Rachel. "Everybody's somebody, Mr. Schuester," she typed. "It's all about what they do with it."
With her right thumb she activated the switch that drove her chair, and without another typed word, she scooted out of the choir room, leaving Mr. Schuester with the open, ringing tones of the song without words still pulsing through his head.