Prologue
McKinley Radio
(Conner)
Yankees hat backwards. Check. Doctor Who hoodie. Check. Freshman year, and unlike my brother, I had no clue what I wanted to do. Check. Then I spotted it. The old radio section, in which looked abandoned. Me, being my curious self, just had to find a way in, as I found the door was unlocked, I slipped in, tested out the switches, and surprisingly enough they worked. Next I tried out the headphones. Everything was a go.
"Welcome to McKinley High for those of you, being freshman, as I am. Welcome back to those who aren't," I added, as I smile to myself, guessing that this was something I wasn't supposed to be doing.
"What on this Holy Earth do you think you're doing?" thundered a woman's voice.
"Uhhh...using this old radio equipment," I tell the freaky red track suit lady.
"You're not any longer. We had this shut down once, and it was because of those disgusting glee kids were using it all the time," she warns me, or so it seemed.
"Really? You shut it down for that? I would have thought that it would have been for the summer vacation instead," I sarcastically tell her.
"Nope"
"Well then, it looks like I'll be bringing it back," I tell her, leaving my stuff in the radio studio, and head for class, slipping my iPod on, and turning it to my Summer Vacation is Over play list.
As I head for my first class, I notice various students reading the announcements, and signing up. I squeeze my way in, and see that no one had signed up for a hidden flier for New Directions. The glee club. I remembered my brother had helped them win National's last year before he got admitted into Emerson College. Then an idea had popped in my head. I was going to sign up for New Directions, as my brother had.
. .GLEE
(Violet)
Wait. When did they bring back the McKinley Radio, as far as I knew, they had shut that down two years ago during my sophomore year. I dial my locker combination, and tape the picture of my girlfriend Sarah, and I during out trip to the Santa Cruz Boardwalk, to my locker when she walks up.
"It's so great to have someone bring back the old radio," she tells me, and then gives me a kiss.
"I know," I agree with her, and then shut my locker. "And Blaine being accepted into NYADA, I'm now the leader of the LGBT meetings," I tell her, as I give her a kiss.
Then the bell rings.
"Well off to another year of being bitched at, and hating Ryder Lynn, but on the plus side, he's graduating this year," I add, as we hold hands, and head towards French class.
"I'll see you at lunch time," I tell her before I step inside the classroom, and head towards the back seat beside my best friend, and Ryder Lynn's step-brother, Corey McGuire.
"You planning on joining us again this year?" asks Corey. When I looked, I noticed instead of his brown eyes, he had green contacts in, but still had his usual pink spiked hair, though, it was rather maroonish colored.
"We've been through this, and the answer remains the same. No," I tell him, knowing that he would want me to change my mind.
"Besides Dinger, they have you, and Hero still. The group will do fine," I assure him.
"Not without you. The New Directions won't have the Tron Trio or the Breakfast Club. We don't even have Mr. Shuester this year, since him and Mrs. Pillsbury-Shuester moved," he tells me.
"I know but," I began, and then I noticed my twin brother, Tayson and another new student walk in together. The girl had curly auburn hair that measured about two inches below her shoulder. I also noticed her fair skin and freckles, as well as her green eyes.
"Look who be pimpin on the first day back," mocked Corey, as my brother sat down in the empty seats behind us.
"Shut up McGuire. Anyhow this is Ruby Maxwell," he announces happily.
"So someone is in love already, and it's only the first day," I tease my brother.
"I'm still single," he announces as his defense. Then the teacher Mrs. Fransworth enters.
"Alright everyone. First and foremost, where you are sitting, happens to be your assigned seats for the semester. Second, we will be reading The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins," she announces as though this was a big surprise. I wondered if she had realized that everyone had already read the book.
"Well looks we're reading overrated teenage angst books," I tell Corey as he hands me my book.
"Yep, and I think I may like it," he tells me.
Glee.
(Brad Weston)
"Webster" I hear Violet Grohl snap, as she gets closer to my locker.
"It's Weston," I sarcastically correct her, even though she didn't seem offended by it, and shrugged it off.
"Whatever"
"What do you want? I know it's not just to discover what my iPhone is," I tell her, as I dial the lock on my locker, then Jordan Quincy comes over in jersey, and a football tucked underneath his arm.
"Don't forget about the game tonight," he tells me, as though he was in a hurry to get to class or something.
"Quarterback again this year Deep Space Nine?" Violet asks, as there eyes meet quickly.
"Yeah, I am," he tells her.
"The lesbian and the straight boy flirting," I sarcastically tell her, as I shut my locker, and get ready to head to my second class, in which, if I made it all the way through it would be a new record.
"Shut it Webster," she instructs. I hated it when she called me Webster, but sadly, I was used it so I knew it wouldn't do any good to correct her. It never did. Honestly though, if she weren't lesbian, I would totally try to get in her pants. The five foot nine, dark brown -eyed, dyed purple hair girl was totally my type. It just sucked I didn't stand a chance with her. Unless she was bi. Then maybe.
"When you going to get it West? She doesn't play for the boys team?" I hear the voice of my former girlfriend Gwen Fox come from behind me. I turn around, and as usual, she's all decked out in her Cheerio's uniform, ready for tonight's game.
"Cheering Captain again?" I ask, as an excuse, well come back rather.
"No, Sue gave that to Fabray wannabe, Kitty Wilde," she tells me, even though she seemed rather happy about it.
"Typical," I tell her, as we walk towards the literature wing.
RIIIIIIIIIINNNNNNNNNG the bell goes off announcing that we had better be in class.
"Well see you around," she tells me, and walks off to her next class. I step inside, and see the blond haired Andy Williams, sitting in class, already reading something. I assumed it was our book we would be reading. Brianiac. Soccer Captain.
"What'cha reading?" I ask, basically to find out if this was the class worth trying to break my record at.
"Les Miserables," he tells me, revealing the book cover.
"Interesting. I guess," I tell him.
"It's good, but depressing. Don't worry. We're not reading it for class," he tells me, as Ms. Cantery walks in, and makes sure that everyone is in their seats, as we should be, and begins class.
"Mr. Weston, I'm surprised you showed up," he tells the class, as she spots me.
"I was debating it," I tell her.
"Keep up the sarcasm, and you'll end up in the principals office," she warns, knowing that it wouldn't do any good.
"Don't worry Ms. C, I'll be there by the end of the day," I let her know where I stand.
"So if I don't see a certain team member tonight at the game, I'll know why," she throws her answer at me. Then she writes on the whiteboard what we'll be reading. Frankenstein. Shit. I guess I should have gotten myself kicked out when I had the chance. Oh well Biology was next.
Glee.
(Nathan)
I saw the fliers for the LGBT meetings. I knew instantly that I would attend. I wanted to help those who weren't sure about themselves.
"Thinking of going?" I hear a boy about my age ask. I turned and saw that he was at least six feet even, and had brown hair and brown eyes.
"Yeah," I tell him honestly. "I'm Nathaniel, but mostly go by Nathan," I tell him, as I introduce myself.
"I'm Tayson Grohl, no relation to Dave Grohl. My sister Violet, is the leader of the group. I'm straight, and she's lesbian," he tells me with a smile, that showed dimples.
"So what class are you headed?" I ask to change the subject, and then a couple of the football players passed. One of them looked rather attractive. His sandy blond hair, and his brown eyes. His athletic build.
"Who was the tall blond boy?" I ask, totally forgetting that I had already asked Tayson a question.
"That's Ryder Lynn. He's my sisters best friend, Corey's step-brother, and trust me, Ryder is totally the school douche bag," Tayson tells me. Ok. Violet and him don't get a long. Got it. I tell myself.
"Douche bag. Got it," I tell him. Too bad, I already had a crush on Ryder, but I wasn't about to reveal that to this boy I had just met.
"I'm headed to photography," I tell him, as I slide my schoolbag up my shoulder.
"Got a camera?" he asks.
"No"
"Mr. Rockwell will lend you one, you'll just have to sign a paper, and all that. Trust me, you'll have fun in that class," he tells me, and then the bell rings announces another beginning of class, and that we have six minutes to get to class.
"Thanks," I tell him, and head towards the photography room.
"Welcome to photography. You must be a newbie," I hear a girl greet, as she comes over and welcomes me.
"Thanks, and yeah, I am. Do you get very many newbies?" I answer sounding confused by this.
"Not usually. We had a couple last year, but they went on to other things, so we just started calling this the photography club. I'm Ruby Maxwell," she finally reveals her name.
"Nathan Fabray," I tell her. "If you don't mind me asking, why is more of a club, then a class?" I ask more confused, than interested.
"Because of the old school film techniques," she tells me with a smile.
"Sorry I tend to lack in that department," I tell her. Then her green eyes meet my brown eyes.
"I'm sure I can help with that," she offers with a cute smile.
"Would I be able to photograph the LGBT?" I ask hoping I didn't give too much away just in case. Around here teenagers as myself get bullied about that all the time.
"I'm sure Violet wouldn't have a problem with that," she tells me, and then a couple more students walked in, as they seemed surprised that someone new had signed up for the film photography group/class intead. They worked together in the developing room until the bell wrung announcing lunch time. The first half of the morning had gone by fast. While walking to my locker, I had witnessed a fight between two boys. It seemed to be going on strong, whereas, one of the boys had already received a bloody lip from it. I didn't know what it was about, but I didn't care to know. Then all I had caught was the name Bradley in the distance.
Locker 352. Combination 34-34-21. I tried it over a dozen times, but nothing. Nada. Then another student came by.
"Need help?" she asked. Way to go on that part. "Don't my first time using a combination, it took me forever to figure it out. What's your combination?" she asks. Officially she wasn't going to take no for an answer.
"34-34-21," I tell her, as I place my backpack down. "I'm Nathan Fabray," I tell the girl finally as I decide to introduce myself.
"I'm Hero Smith," she tells me with a smile, and then plays with one of her fake curls.
Then the radio had started up again.
"Tonight is McKinley's football game against the Findlay Ravens," the person on the radio reminds us, and then he continues to make a few more announcements.
Glee.
Kaylie
"Welcome back," I hear my bestie Maia Simmons shriek with excitement, as I enter the girls locker room, to change for gym class.
"Alaska was cold, but different. I loved it, remind me to show you the pictures I took later," I tell her, as I change into my Adidas gym shorts. Then we head towards the gymnasium, to find out what we're going to be doing in gym class.
Then Natalie Cunningham, one of the amputee students, came around the bend.
"Sorry, I didn't mean to. I was headed to the library for the theater department-" she began to explain.
"That's alright," I tell her kindly, and then I head into the gym. Since the locker rooms were across the gym, I simply understood, why she could have appeared out of nowhere.
"C'mon we're going to be late," Maia complained, and then we entered the gym.
As soon as we got in view of everyone, she instantly blushed.
"Uh-oh, I know that blush," I whisper to her, and she looked at me showing her gold brown pupils were almost as big as though she had been stoned.
"Now that we have everyone here, today, we're going to play co-ed baseball," explained our gym class teacher Mr. Ruce. I could tell that Maia was excited, because she could now find out who her mystery boy was. Then Mr. Ruce did the one-two picking routine. I ended up on a team with mostly boys. Maia on the other hand, ended up on the team that had her crush.
When the game was done, and Maia's team had won, she came rushing over to me again.
"His name is Conner. He's the one that is behind the radio thingee, and he's also signed up for glee club. He also has a brother who has graduated, and is a freshman at Emerson College in Boston," she tells me, almost instantly as we entered the locker room.
"So let me guess, we'll be attending glee auditions tomorrow," I guessed.
"You bet your buttons we will be," she tells me, as she still blushes.
"Well this is going to be an exciting year," I sarcastically tell her, as we excit the locker room, and head to our lockers, and our next class.
Glee.
Football Game. McKinley vs. Ravens.
Alexa
"C'mon fellow Cheerio's, lets show these Ravens what we've got," I instruct. I knew Kitty wouldn't mind, being as we all knew she was making out with Ryder Lynn, which, was the only reason she was on the team again this year.
"If you want to be head Cheerio next year, you have to do better than that," I hear Kitty announce as she enters the locker room. "If you want to be me, at least try to cut a few people off," she adds.
"You mean like this?" I ask, knowing what I was doing in the first place.
"Puckerman, shed a few pounds, you look like your gaining weight, besides, your boyfriend is totally into me," I bully the younger Puckerman. "What no Puck to come to your rescue? It must suck having someone who slept with Kitty be your brother," I added for everyone to hear.
"Shut it Alexa!" she snaps. Why Sylvester ever let her back on the team was beyond me.
"The truth is a bitch isn't it?" I ask knowing that she would remain silent. "Ok ladies, show time," I tell the girls, and then we head out showing the football team what we had.
Glee.
Conner (in the stands)
Ok so I admit it. First I was there for the team. Well mainly for the McKinley radio, so I could give updates. I was giving off updates, mainly to say that we were losing. We were already down ten points, as the Ravens, were taking us like we were on their turf instead. Then out of the blue, I forgot that I was reporting, and began to sing Sweet Caroline by Neil Diamond over the headphones.
Where it began, I can't begin to knowing
But then I know it's growing strong
Was in the spring
Then spring became the summer
Who'd have believed you'd come along
Hands, touching hands
Reaching out, touching me, touching you
Sweet Caroline
Then out of nowhere, I heard the crowd (mostly on our side I think) take the song as though it were normal, and the dum dum dum
Good times never seemed so good
I'd be inclined
To believe they never would
Oh no, no
I knew now that I would have to finish the song, even if I was taking a chance of being the schools idiot by the end of it. I, as well as everyone else, saw that the song was helping them score at least a couple points. Then I noticed that crowd was still singing with me.
Look at the night and it don't seem so lonely
We filled it up with only two
And when I hurt
Hurting runs off my shoulder
How can I hurt when I'm holding you
One, touching one
Reaching out, touching me, touching you
I think I was officially on the cheer leading hit list, because of the Sweet Caroline song, but oh well. I regretted nothing.
Sweet Caroline (dum dum dum)
Good times never seemed so good
I'd be inclined
To believe they never would
Oh no, no
Another touch down. "Ladies and Gentlemen, not only have we had Neil Diamond sung, but McKinley High has just beat the Ravens," I announce happily into my headphones, as we win the game 45-34. I didn't have a clue, as to how that happened, but it happened somehow. Tomorrow, if they find out it was me, I was totally dead.
I believe I only missed a couple of students, if so, I deeply apologize, and will have them in the auditions, which will be more than likely after I introduce Candy Hearts in the next chapter. I know this is sort of a short chapter, but I'll be busy tomorrow with my cousin. If anyone reading this story, and sees that I changed the Fridlay team, it was for fictional purposes. I promise.
Homework assignment (don't ask) : I'm not sure as to what I want to do for the play because I already had a play in mind, but the one that submitted Maia, wanted Chicago, so I will place it in vote. The play choices are: Peter Pan or Chicago. Please either send vote in review or PM, and I will tally them. Please only vote once. Those I placed in Candy Hearts, should also vote, because they will also be in the play.