The New Directions

Chapter Two

Kelly was sat facing the circular mirror brushing her black, silky shoulder-length hair. She stared at her pale round face, blinking her honey-coloured eyes every few seconds. She caught a whiff of burnt toast. She put her fringe up in a quiff and legged it downstairs.
Nathan, an average sized man with dark black wavy hair and dark brown eyes, was waving his hand trying to get rid of the smoke. Then they both started coughing. Soon, Kelly had dealt with the burnt toast and was making herself coffee.
Her first day of school wasn't as bad as she had anticipated. Yes, Kurt and Finn kind of ditched her five minutes after they arrived, but in her first Spanish class at McKinley, she made her first friend, an Asian girl called Tina. She was rather quiet most of the time, but she was friendly. She had most classes with her, as they were both juniors. At lunch she sat with her and that was when she made her second friend. Another girl, called Mercedes. She was a lovely person with lots of sass though. She soon found out that both, Mercedes and Tina were apart of McKinley's glee club, The New Directions. The night before the last, when the Hummels were over, Kurt had mentioned something about the glee club, that he and Finn were a part of it. So surely Kurt and Finn knew Tina and Mercedes.
Nathan came walking into the living room where Kelly was sat cross-legged drinking her mug of coffee whilst revising the Spanish they took yesterday. Spanish was never a subject she was very good at. In fact, she was rubbish at it. However she wanted to make a good impression on her teachers.
"You better get going or you'll be late."
Kelly put her mug down and turned around to face her father who was stood behind her collecting papers.
"Actually, Kurt said he would give me a lift every day."
"That's great, I'm glad you've made a friend!"
He said joyfully smiling, revealing his pearly white teeth. Truth was, Kelly was still mad at him after everything that had happened back in New York. However, she wasn't going to bring that up, she was trying as hard as she could to avoid it.
Just as she was about to continue revising Spanish, she noticed Kurt stood by his car talking to Finn. Automatically, she gathered all her things and shoved them into her bag untidily.
"Gotta go."
She simply said to her father and walked out the door.
"Hey!"
Kelly greeted Kurt with a smile.
"Hello!"
He smiled back. Today he was dressed as though he were off to fight a war, with boots and a hat of some sort. He had strange fashion taste, but he undoubtedly had a sense of fashion.
He opened the front passenger car door.
"I'll sit at the back."
"Finn left early today."
"Oh ok then."
She thanked him for holding the door open for her and in minutes they were off. They were zooming past the park and the shops.
"So…"
He said awkwardly.
"So…"
She repeated, faking a laugh.
"So, have you thought about joining the New Directions?"
This question came as a surprise to Kelly. If she was honest, she hadn't at all thought about joining any clubs, at least, not yet.
"Uh… I-um…"
She was stuck for excuses, so she went for the truth.
"I haven't really thought about it."
"You should."
He said, focusing on the road.
"I should?"
She questioned him, slightly befuddled.
"You have a great voice; we could do with another voice."
She looked out of the window. She didn't know what to say to that.
"You'll like it. We're like a family."
He continued.
She played around with words in her head until she figured out what she wanted to say,
"Kurt, I really would love to join the glee club, but I just want to focus on my studies right now. Maybe, I'll join next term?"
Kurt wasn't taking no for an answer.
"Stay, for our glee club meeting today after school. Just come and see what it's like, then make your decision."
Kelly knew she couldn't refuse to do that. It seemed reasonable.
"Alright, fine. I will come to today's glee club meeting."
He didn't say anything after that because they were pulling up.

Bang! Kelly slammed her locker shut. Slowly, she started to walk towards the choir room which wasn't too far away. Nervous, she started to fiddle with her hair, forming loops. Soon she was stood in the doorway of the choir room.
She counted fifteen students. Seven of them were girls and the other eight were boys. She recognized Finn, Kurt, Tina, Blaine, Mercedes and one other familiar face - Cigarette guy. As soon she entered he looked up and gave a surprised look.
"You again!"
She walked away and sat next to Kurt as he was the one who invited her, and ignored the cigarette guy. Soon enough, the cigarette guy ignored her and engaged in a conversation with an Asian boy with spiked up hair. Kurt was sat next to the girl that Finn took off with the day before. Rachel Berry. She was a dwarf-ish girl with strange fashion taste. One thing she noticed most about her was she liked to talk. The minute Kelly sat next to Kurt, she started talking and hadn't stopped since she had, and she was ignoring Kelly completely as if she were just a ghost. Kelly felt out of place, like she didn't belong here. She sat silently, unsure of what else to do.
Moments after, the Spanish teacher, Mr Schuester, a man with curled brown hair, strode in.
"All right guys, we've got a huge week ahead of us-"
He hadn't noticed Kelly at all. So Kurt politely raised his hand.
"Mr Schue?"
Everyone called him Mr Schue for short.
"Uh-yes, Kurt?"
"This is Kelly. Would you mind if she attended our glee club meeting."
Before Mr Schue could reply, the cigarette guy replied to Kurt.
"No! I don't trust her, I think she's some kind of spy from another glee club."
"Puck!"
Mr Schue exclaimed at him. Puck. That must be his name. Kelly was glad she finally knew his name. Kelly didn't have anything to say to Puck's accusation.
"Puck, she's not a spy."
Kurt defended Kelly.
"Mr Schue, if I may,"
Rachel said in a sweet voice. Mr Schue didn't say anything.
"I agree with Puck. If she's not a member of the glee club then she shouldn't be allowed to attend our glee club meetings. It's a risk I don't think any of us are willing to take."
Mr Schue finally started to answer Kurt's question.
"Yes, Kurt, she may attend this glee club meeting, that's fine."
"Mr Schue!"
Rachel cried and Puck cried.
"That's enough guys."
Finn now entered the discussion.
"She's cool. She's not a spy, Puck."
Tina, Mercedes and Blaine agreed with Finn.
"Then that's settled."
He turned around grabbed a black whiteboard marker and wrote the name of a well-known artist.
"This week's assignment: Taylor Swift."
An uproar of excitement travelled through the girls, whereas the boys weren't too happy.
"This is perfect, Mr Schue. This is an excellent opportunity for me to express my more emotional side. It'll definitely help me with my NYADA application."
Rachel blurted excitedly. One girl, called Santana Lopez, wasn't too pleased either with the assignment.
"Oh please, Rachel Berry shove a sock in it. I think just about everyone including the mysterious new girl, have had enough of your unnecessary cocky comments."
If there was one thing Kelly needed to know about Santana, was to not irritate her as she didn't fear being honest.
Rachel replied, infuriated.
"You just don't like the fact that this week's assignment doesn't play to your strengths and that's ok, many members of our glee club have shown that they have weaknesses. Yours happens to be that you lack emotion."
Santana was clearly insulted by this comment.
"You think I lack emotion? Just let me go all Lima Heights on you and I'll show you just how much emotion I've got."
Rachel decided to ignore her as she knew that Santana wasn't lying when she said she would go all Lima Heights on her. Lima Heights was the part of town were the tough hard-core people lived, and you definitely don't want to annoy them.
"That's enough, everyone." Mr Schue shouted trying to keep everything under control. "This week, I want you to find the perfect Taylor Swift song that expresses you most. This will be a competition and the student who does the best song will be rewarded by getting a solo for sectionals. Ms Pilsbury will help me to decide the winner."
When everyone heard that reward was a solo for sectionals, everyone immediately began to think of all the Taylor Swift songs they knew and what one they related to most.
"I used to think that Taylor Swift was an orphan because all her songs are depressing."
Brittany said honestly. Everyone looked her with looks of confusion.
They spent the rest of the meeting talking about Taylor Swift songs. Moments before everyone left, Kurt turned to Kelly and asked her whether she was going to join the New Directions. She told him she'd think about it. When Blaine heard Kurt was trying to convince her to join, he joined in as well.
By the end of the meeting she had made even more friends. Although, she still didn't like Puck and she found Rachel Berry very annoying. She didn't mind Santana, as long as she stayed out of her way. Santana, who had black shiny hair and was co-captain of the cheerios, and Brittany, a blonde cheerio who was rather dumb, were the only cheerleaders in the New Directions. There were a few football players in the New Directions as well.
As everyone left the choir room to head home, Kurt asked Kelly if she wanted to hang out with him, Mercedes, Tina and Blaine. Kelly agreed, she thought the better she got to know people, the better. So they headed to the park, the same park where Kelly first met Puck. They sat on the grass, eating chips. They first started talking about the assignment they were set. Kelly felt slightly left out as she wasn't officially a part of the New Directions so she couldn't do the assignment. Then they decided to change the topic and started telling Kelly reasons why she should join the New Directions, and how they were like a family.
"You'll always feel like you're a part of something special, you'll never be alone."
Mercedes told Kelly, with a smile on her face, her dark hair blowing slightly in the breezy wind.
Then Blaine cut in and explained to Kelly how he had transferred from an all boys school and glee club.
"They were so welcoming and they accepted me for who I am."
She listened only, she didn't comment on anything. However she was slightly distracted by how shiny his hair was, he had so much hair-gel on.
Tina was next to submit something to the list that they had made for Kelly.
"Before I joined the New Directions, I faked a stutter because I was so shy. I hated talking to large groups of people, but then I joined and I haven't faked a stutter since then."
Tina was proud of her achievement. She was glad to be a part of the New Directions and it made Kelly wonder whether she should join.
Last but not least, Kurt added another reason to the list. His statement was the most emotional and touching. Kelly liked Kurt because he was an understanding person.
"The New Directions taught me to be strong and love who I am. It helped me cope with things, I never thought I would have to face. I now celebrate who I am rather than hate myself every single day."
Kelly knew he was talking about the fact of being gay. Kelly didn't judge him for that, she wasn't the kind of person who had a problem with people who were gay, after all she saw them the same way she saw anyone else.
"So?"
Mercedes gave her a soft friendly push. Kelly giggled, as well as everyone else did, and that was when she realised no-one had made her giggle like that for a while. In fact Kelly hadn't been the same since the tragic death of her mother. No-one here in Ohio knew the reasons to Kelly's misery. Her father didn't understand it either as her parents were divorced at the time of her death. Hearing all the things she heard about the New Directions made Kelly consider joining the New Directions.
Maybe I should try it out, maybe I should figure out which Taylor Swift song expresses who I am most. Maybe this could be a new start for me. Maybe this could give me a new direction, a direction to happiness.