Wow 23 reviews on one chapter! That's more than I've ever gotten on any of my stories for one chapter, especially the first! I'll have to write Mongron more often haha. Thanks so much and here's chapter two of A Gleeful Reality! Hope it goes as well as the first.

Sorry for typos and what not. It's late.

A Gleeful Reality

"That's quite the greeting guys. Not exactly the welcome back I expected but it's nice to see everyone again." Dianna spoke, trying to get anyone to just say something and stop staring, and maybe even breathe.

After a few split seconds of taking her last gawking stares, Lea stepped out of the crowd of cast and towards Dianna.

"Hey girl!" Lea greeted as she gave Dianna a big hug. "We didn't mean to act weird we just didn't know there would be someone else coming along with you."

A few more people walked up to give her hugs before she said, "Yeah, it was kind of a spur of the moment thing." Dianna paused to look adoringly at Alex and he returned with a sweet smile. It made Cory feel sick to his stomach. "This is Alex everyone." she told them as she presented him to the group.

"Alex Pettyfer." he introduced himself as he shook hands.

'Yes, I'm Alex Pettyfer. It is just so lovely to meet you all because I'm just so bloody awesome! ' Cory mocked sarcastically in his head in his best British accent, which wasn't that good if he was being honest with himself.

The group talked for a few more minutes, going through the introductions of everyone while Cory just stayed in the back.

"So where is Zach? I would have thought he'd be here by now if he wanted to run some stuff by us." Dianna asked the group.

No one had even begun to open their mouths before Zach's voice rang through the room.

"Yeah, where is Zach? That guy's always late." Zach joked as he pushed open the dance studio doors.

"Zach!" Dianna squealed as she ran up to hug him.

He brought her into a big, open armed hug and laughed at her enthusiastic greeting. Zach Woodlee was such a great guy and loved by everyone on the cast and crew. This type of greeting was no surprise to the Glee kids.

"You're back Miss Di!" Zach said, stating the obvious.

"That I am." Dianna answered, pulling herself back out of the hug.

"And you are?" Zach wondered, looking to Alex as he took notice of the rugged blonde standing to the side of Dianna.

"Alex Pettyfer." he repeated, for what it seemed to Cory to be the millionth time today.

'I wish people would stop asking who he is so he doesn't have to say his stupid name in his lame obnoxious accent.' Cory complained to himself, using the best vocabulary he could at the time. Yes, stupid, lame and obnoxious were as good as it got right then.

"Great to meet you Alex." Zach told him as Alex smiled and nodded his head.

"So anyway," Cory threw himself into the conversation. "It's awesome that everyone knows the new guy now but shouldn't we be getting to work soon? I'm pretty sure Ryan would be pissed if we started running behind schedule for the start of the new season." he finished, trying to end the awkward greetings and get the attention off the Tool.

"You are absolutely right Cory." Zach agreed as he started to make his way to the middle of the room.

"Right, that he is." Alex echoed. "I can see you guys are ready for your… rehearsals or whatever you call them, so I'm going to get out of your way."

Dianna looked to Alex in a questioning manner to which he immediately picked up on.

"Sorry love but I have to go into L.A. to meet with my agent. I believe she wants to talk about some last minute things for the movie."

"Oh, you can't stay for a little longer?" she asked, gripping onto his hand.

"I don't think that's possible. I'm pretty sure she wants me there-" Alex began before he was interrupted by the beeping of his phone, signifying a text. He pulled his phone off his belt loop, to which Cory had a small laugh on how douche-y that was, and looked at the screen.

"Where are you Alex? Be at my office downtown stat." he read off the screen out loud.

"See what I'm talking about?" Alex asked Dianna, trying to make her understand that he had to leave now.

"Aw okay." Dianna sighed in defeat, upset that her boyfriend had to leave so soon.

Cory, on the other hand, was ecstatic.

"It was wonderful meeting you all even if I didn't get to talk with everyone." Alex announced to the room. "Oh and, thanks for picking us up Cory. You're a good man." he finished, pointing to Cory smiling.

"Yeah, hey, my pleasure." Cory called back with a wave of his hand, even though it was a huge lie.

Everyone gave a quick wave as Dianna led Alex out of the room into the hallway.

Cory had to look away when he saw Alex pull Dianna into a passionate kiss in the hall through one of the small windows in the room that showed the inside entrance hall. It made his heart ache.

Lea noticed Cory staring at the window and then look in the opposite direction. She walked over to him and gently placed a hand on his shoulder and lightly rubbed it, trying to console him.

He looked to her small figure beside him and gave her an appreciative smile. "Thanks Lea." he whispered and she softly smiled in return.

Shortly after, Dianna re-entered the room and said, "Alright, let's do this thing!"

~An hour into the rehearsal~

"Okay, step left, then right, then bring your left arm across your body and pull it back like you're starting a lawn mower okay guys?" Zach instructed with a laugh as he performed the dance steps.

"Alright, on three. One, two, three, and go!" he announced, signaling the dance to begin.

'Why did she have to come back with that guy? Why does she even like him? Because of that accent or is it because he's foreign? I'm foreign! I'm from Canada for god's sake! It's not Europe or anything but hey, it's not the U.S. either. What does he have that I don't? ' Cory rambled. He had a whole conversation with himself going on in his head.

"Cory!" Zach shouted.

"Huh? Wh-what?" Cory mumbled, getting back into reality.

"You just missed that whole part." Zach informed him, slightly annoyed as everyone else looked to him.

"Right, sorry." Is all Cory could say back. He just wasn't focused on these dance steps. He was more focused on Dianna and some guy who wasn't even there. He quickly looked in Dianna's direction to see her staring at him in confusion. Upon seeing this, he immediately shot his eyes to another part of the room before looking back at Zach. He felt like a complete idiot.

"Okay, let's try again." Zach ordered the room.

This time, he clicked on the music to see if that would give them a little extra oomph on the performance.

Cory tried his best to keep on beat with the music and everyone else but he just couldn't. He found himself taking a step right when they were supposed to go left, then a step left instead of right, and was a beat behind the others on the weird lawn mower thing.

'Maybe I should've been listening more when he explained to us.' Cory figured.

Normally, it took a little longer for Cory to get down the steps to a dance than everyone else because everyone knew Cory was the guy with two left feet on the show, but this time it was taking him even longer than usual. This didn't go unnoticed by Zach.

"Cory are you okay?" Zach questioned him, curious as to why Cory hadn't gotten this stuff down yet.

"Yeah, never better!" Cory fibbed with as much enthusiasm as possible.

"Yeah, I have a hard time believing that." Zach told him. "I mean Cory, we all know you aren't that great of dancer…"

Cory nodded his head along. He wasn't going to deny his terrible dancing ability.

"…but this is taking a lot longer than usual. These aren't hard steps and it's already been a little over an hour now trying to get them down. We're using up too much time on this part and we have to get it done." Zach stressed, rubbing his forehead, clearly annoyed.

"I know and I'm really sorry Zach. I guess I'm just not super focused right now." Cory admitted, rubbing the back of his neck.

"How about we take a fifteen minute break. I'm being generous here guys." he told them, pointing to the group. "I need some time to make this Cory proof." he finished, joking, at the same time being quite serious.

They all laughed as they filed out the door and out towards the lot where all their trailers were.

Cory shuffled out of the room with the others and made his way to his trailer. Once inside, he put on the radio and lay down on the couch since this was how he liked to relax. To get himself comfortable, he propped his right leg up on the end of the couch where it met the seat to the table and slung his left leg off the side of the small couch since he was too tall to fit fully on it.

He closed his eyes and listened to the radio for a few short minutes by himself before he heard a knock on his trailer door.

"Yeah?" Cory shouted, in response to the knock.

"It's Mark and Chris!" he heard Mark yell back.

"What's up?" Cory shouted in return.

"Can we come in dude?" Mark asked.

"Uh, yeah I guess." he told them as he got up from the couch and opened the door.

"Thanks man." Mark said, patting Cory on the back as he squeezed passed him and into the trailer followed by Chris.

"Could your music be any louder Cory?" Chris asked playfully annoyed, while he gently placed his hands over his ears. "I have sensitive ears you know." he joked.

Cory laughed a real laugh for the first time since he found out about Alex. "Sorry Chris, let me get that for you."

He walked over to the radio and turned the dial down a few notches as the music grew quieter, then joined his friends on the couch area.

"So let's just cut to the chase." Chris started. "What was up with you in there? We know that you aren't a good dancer but we've seen you do much better."

"Yeah I know. It's just-" Cory stopped himself mid sentence upon hearing what had come on the radio. He listened attentively to the song.

Would you look at her
She looks at me
She's got me thinking about her constantly
But she don't know how I feel
And as she carries on without a doubt
I wonder if she's figured out
That I'm crazy for this girl
Yeah I'm crazy for this girl

Cory quickly jumped up from the chair he was sitting in, rushed over to the radio and slammed down the off button in frustration, then returned to his chair.

Both Mark and Chris blinked a little, surprised at how fast Cory shot out of the chair and to the radio across the trailer.

"It's just that exactly, isn't it?" Chris questioned, even though he already knew the answer. Come on, who didn't?

"That's a harsh song to come on right about now." Mark commented.

"Yeah it's… whatever I guess." Cory sighed.

"It's not whatever Cory!" Chris spat.

"Yeah dude. That was rough, and we get it. No one knew she was coming back with that guy. She didn't tell anyone." Mark added.

"I know right?" Cory agreed. "I mean, I talked to her a few times on the phone when she was in Philly and she never mentioned being close with that Alex guy, or at least nothing to suggest she ever had feelings for him."

"Hey, like I said bro, it's a rough deal." Mark repeated himself. "Especially since you were about to tell her how you felt, or soon you were at least, and now that just blew-"

Cory's smile that was on his face from his friends trying to cheer him up faltered then fell completely off his face.

"Mark!" Chris cut him off to make him stop talking. "What he's trying to say is, it's a terrible circumstance and it's unfortunate that it's like this at the moment but we, and I'll speak for the rest of the cast too, think you can change this."

Cory furrowed his eyebrows in confusion before asking, "What do you mean?"

Chris rolled his eyes and put a smile on his face. "I mean, fight for her! Take her from Alex! Win her back… even though you never actually had her but… well you know what I mean!" he ordered, extremely excited for this plan.

Cory's smile was back on his face for Chris's pep talk but it slowly disappeared again.

"I can't do that." Cory told them, his voice just above a whisper.

"And why the hell not?" Mark asked, his voice much higher.

"She just seems so happy now and that's all I really want for her." Cory paused before saying, "If she's happy, I'm happy, or at least I'll pretend to be."

"What! No!" Mark shouted and Chris groaned.

Cory was immediately taken back by his friend's outburst.

"I'm going to have to agree with Mark here Cor." Chris said as he looked down to his watch. "Okay, I have approximately 8 minutes to get this through your head."

"So listen up!" Mark interjected.

At this, Cory had to suppress a small laugh.

"Enough with the, 'if she's happy I'm happy' crap. We know it isn't true, you know it isn't true, I mean, you just admitted it. Stop being so… so chivalrous! Just because you play nice guy Finn doesn't mean you have to be him off the show too." Chris threw down hard and meant what he said. He paused for Cory to say something but he just kept listening without a word so Mark began to talk.

"You've liked her since the first day you met her. I mean, come on! You wouldn't stop talking about the first time you saw her for like, the first entire week of shooting! You know, the running in slow motion thing? You're into her, you do something about it!"

Cory took a deep breathe then sighed. "I know what you guys are saying and I get it but it just doesn't seem fair to Alex if I-"

"No, just stop right there!" Mark demanded. "If it isn't fair to someone, it's not fair to you. I know it seems cheesy but no one looks at Di like you do. You look at her with so much love and...and..." Mark struggled to find another good word to go along in his rant.

"Affection." Chris chimed in.

"Yeah, affection and you care about her a lot. More than that D-Bag Alex ever will I think." Mark finished.

"The thing you do need to embrace of Finn is never giving up and going after what you want and we'll all support you, you know that." Chris told him with complete sincerity.

There was a short silence between the three of them before Harry popped his head into the trailer.

"3 minutes guys until rehearsals."

"Yeah, we'll be there." Mark said back to Harry before he shut the door again.

"You know what!" Cory began with a new found confidence in the situation. "You guys are totally right!"

"Of course we are." Mark cockily agreed.

"So does that mean you'll do it?" Chris asked, happy that Cory was finally getting it.

"Yeah, yeah I will. I'm gonna fight for her." Cory said, coolly, not being able to help the growing smile on his face.

"Nice dude!" Mark congratulated, pulling Cory into a bro hug. "Just remember to do it subtly. You don't want too many problems with Alex or to get Dianna mad at you or freak her out or something like that."

Cory nodded his head after listening to Mark then faced Chris who was just about to high-five him when Cory decided to just pull him into a bro hug as well. It was unexpected by Chris but he immediately fell into it anyway.

"Thanks guys for you know, everything." Cory said with a grateful smile.

"Anytime." Chris responded with an equally happy grin.

"Alright, let's get back to rehearsals. We have a show to prepare for!" Mark reminded them and with that, the three stepped out of the trailer and made their way back to the studio.

Yeah, like always, leave your opinions in the reviews please and tell me if you like where it's going or give me some ideas to make it better! It means a lot :)

Song excerpt from Crazy for This Girl by Evan and Jaron