Hello there. Most of you reading this were those who contributed to the cast list. Not all of you will appear in this chapter, but I'll try and get as many in as I can. There were too many for it to be a natural 'they all came to the auditions' sort of encounter. I promise to do my best not to play favorites with the characters. Reviews are welcome!
Elise fidgeted with the hem of her shorts nervously, picking at a loose thread just below Willian McKinley Titan's logo on her right thigh. She couldn't see past the blaring stage lights in front above her, but she was sure that Mr. Schuester was scrawling something down about her attire. The rules of show choir were somewhat unfamiliar to her.
"Go ahead, Elise," he called out from somewhere farther back in the audience. Elise struggled at first to get it out of the stand. It was heavier than she had expected, and the feeling of the slick metal beneath her sweaty palms was unfamiliar.
"My name is Elise Bluestone, and I'll be singing Katy Perry, The One That Got Away."
Weeks of preparation had led her to this point. She hadn't been the first to sign the audition sheet, so she hoped that the auditions were just a formality. She was used to exceling in everything that she did. Not making it into a Glee club seemed ridiculous to her. It would mar her nearly perfect record.
Sufficed to say gawking at Brad's beautiful introduction was not the way she thought a good audition ought to begin, but she couldn't help it. The first few notes floated across the stage from the farthest flung unlit corner of the stage, and she was mystified. Then the music stalled. The notes lingered. And she realized she was late.
By the time she'd finished she'd managed to find her groove and stay there. She finished perfectly on time with the music and she was pleased to say that she had remained on pitch—a facet of her performance that had been somewhat on and off for as long as she could remember.
"Thank you, Elise," Mr. Schuester said. There was a pause. A horribly elongated pause that Elise wasn't accustomed to hearing. She went back to pulling on the loose thread. It came off immediately, so her hands floated nervously up to her hair. It was Tawney, pin straight, and pulled into a hasty post-school/pre-practice ponytail. "What were you thinking about when you were singing?"
"Staying on key. Not forgetting the lyrics. The—"
"What about the song?"
"Huh?" came Elise's eloquent response, and she could have beaten herself over it.
"Those are all good things to think about, but that's more for rehearsal. When you're performing it should be just you and the song. I want to believe you."
"Got it," she gave him a thumbs-up.
"That being said, your voice is beautiful, and the feeling is something I think we can work on. Welcome to New Directions," his voice was a fair bit friendlier as he spoke, so she could tell he must have been smiling. She beamed back through the lights.
"I…have to go to soccer practice. But thank you!"
"Rehearsal is tomorrow!"
"Got it! I'll be there!" Elise flashed him another smile and picked up her soccer bag from the wings, dashing off through the halls towards the soccer field. Her sister wasn't there of course. She looked over to Alexis's usual smoking spot beneath the bleachers. She counted three of the Skanks there, but Alexis was nowhere to be found.
Their left forward Briana was staring with her hands on her hips, one eyebrow arched. "Where's the co-captain?"
"Not here, obviously. Go get warmed up," Elise didn't bother to curb the clipped tone, and Briana caught on. With an eye roll and a flip of her pony tail she flounced off to join the rest of the team in warming up. Elise followed close behind after one last glance over her shoulder.
Alexis marveled at the polished surface of the stage, aged with scratches from moved scenery, shoes scuffing, and who knows what else. There was a microphone in the center, and it would be in her way so she went about moving it before coming to stand front and center to introduce herself. Mr. Schuester cut across her before she could speak.
"Um. Elise? You don't have to audition twice you know. You made it the first time."
"I'm not Elise," Alexis said, projecting a little to make sure she was heard.
"Oh. Your sister?"
"My name is Alexis Bluestone. Elise is my twin."
"Oh! I'm so sorry. By all means."
"My name is Alexis Bluestone and I'll be dancing to Lykke Li's song Get Some."
"Dancing?"
"I'm a dancer. I don't sing."
"That's great. Pardon the interruption. Go ahead and show us what you've got."
Alexis crossed to stage right and struck her pose. As soon as the music started she was off, leaping, twirling, and generally just moving. That's all it was. The only words to describe it. She was floating across the stage with the music, as though they were one in the same. From his seat in the audience, Will Schuester made the decision less than a minute into the performance that yes, he did have to have her in the group.
"I don't want to be too frank here but…welcome to the club. That was incredible!"
"Can you tell me whether or not my sister made it?" Alexis asked immediately, without pausing to smile politely or thank him. Mr. Schuester caught on then. The spunky attitude. The hand on the hip. The dark tights and the band T-shirt. It was such a stark contrast that he wondered why he hadn't sensed the air of competition before.
"Yes, she did," he told her with a nod, although she couldn't see. Regardless she was staring right at the crowd with some confidence that he couldn't help but admire. She was five rows to low and far right, but he had to commend her nerve.
"Thanks." She thought about quitting right then and there but something stopped her. Maybe it was the thrill of knowing that she would finally be able to excel at something and show off in front of her.
"My name is Sophia Carter and I'll be singing Momma Who Bore Me by Spring Awakening."
Her voice was sweet at first, almost too soft for Will's liking, but extremely touching. A few minutes in, however, she began raising the stakes—belting out some of the lingering notes for effect. Her voice wavered but didn't fall. When she finished she was out of breath, but beaming proudly. From his seat in the audience, Will gave her a thumbs-up that she couldn't see.
"Welcome to Glee."
The doors at the back of the theatre opened and a familiar head of orange hair came bobbing down the steps towards the row Will was sitting. He smiled warmly at Emma as she sat down beside him, pecking him on the cheek lightly for a greeting.
"How's it going?"
"You know, we're going to have such a mix of talent this year, it's really going to be incredible, I think," Will replied. "Another fantastic year."
"Mind if I watch?"
"Of course," Will answered with a laugh, looking down at the audition sheet. "Katy Aldridge and Cal Robbins signed the same line. I'm not…quite sure if that means they're auditioning together or…"
Sure enough, moments later the aforementioned duo peeked out from the wings of the stage and made their way cautiously to the center of the stage.
"Katy Aldridge and Cal Robbins?" Will asked, and they nodded.
"We wanted to audition with a duet?" Katy asked.
"Uh. Sure. I don't see why not."
"We're going to be singing Brad Paisley and Carrie Underwood's duet Remind Me," Cal Robbins said, peering out at the audience.
"We only have one mic," Will told them, intrigued as to how they would deal with this slight hurdle. He didn't dare to make assumptions as to their relation. Years of experience had taught him that teenagers could and would change boyfriends and girlfriends, dump each other, switch teams, and be best friends one moment, bitter enemies the next. He had long since given up trying to keep track of and predict what they were going to do. Cal picked up the guitar, muttered something to his partner that made her giggle, and started strumming out a few twangy, country-sounding chords.
Will was pleasantly surprised at the deep, bellowing tone of his voice. When Katy came in with the first "Remind me", the tone was equally country and just as pleasant. The song escalated from throaty, almost plain lyrics to much more emotional high notes and more complicated guitar riffs. They stood facing each other, the mic between them, eyes locked in an electrifying mirror image of chemistry. When they finished, Emma didn't hesitate to jump to her feet, clapping. It made Katy blush and smile, tucking a lock of hair behind her ear. Cal even appeared to be blushing, though it was hard to tell beneath the glare of the stage lights.
"Thanks so much for that," Katy smiled gratefully at Cal from the other side of the little compact car.
"No problem. Glee isn't really my thing but…"
"But you're too good to let your talents go to waste like that," Katy reminded him, just the same way as she had so many times before. Over and over. It had taken weeks of consistent praise and persuasion to get him onto that stage.
"We nailed it," he was still grinning.
"Besties for life," Katy offered him a knuckle over the roof of the car. He just gave her a fake sneer.
"Besties?" There was serious disdain in his tone.
"Don't love it?" She cocked her head to the side, feigning offense.
"Not my thing, no. BFFs?" Cal gave her a sarcastic smile and she giggled.
"I hate when you mock me like that," she glared at him for a moment before pulling a face and laughing. "What are you going to get up to later?"
"Zane has his audition. After that I'm tutoring him and…homework."
"Riveting."
He shrugged. "You?"
"Homework."
"Aw, no hot dates?" He teased, and she rolled her eyes.
"None more than usual," she countered, pulling a face.
"Get on it. And tell your dad I said hi," he gave her a parting wave and made his way to the F250 a few spaces down. She waved back and slid into the driver's side of her little Mazda.
All was not well in the Bluestone household, however. Elise had returned home to find Alexis lounging on the couch with a sheen of sweat in shorts and a tanktop.
"Excuse you?" Elise demanded sharply. "So you can go work out but you can't be bothered to make it to soccer practice?"
"I had an audition. I didn't want to go if I was going to be late," Alexis said, rolling her eyes at her sister and pushing herself warily to her feet so that she could fetch her glass of water from the dining room table. Elise tailed her, yelling furiously at a volume ensuring that none of their neighbors would be kept out of the stood at opposite ends of the dinner table, each poised as though ready to spring across the table at the other if need be. Elise was doing most of the yelling, as usual, while Alexis stood there and patiently waited for her opportunity to jump in and cut her sister down.
"Glee was supposed to be my thing!"
"I thought soccer was 'your thing'? Or do you just mean to dominate all the extra curricular activities you think daddy wants you in."
"Do you know how jealous you sound right now?"
"Because you couldn't let me have one thing that was my own!"
"Glee isn't about you, Alex. It's about everyone. The whole club. If you weren't looking out for yourself all the time maybe you'd get it but you don't. At least I'm used to being a team player."
"It's easy to be a team player when everyone wants you to be on their team," Alexis snapped. There was a moment of silence wherein Elise contemplated the far-reaching meaning behind those words and Alexis took her opportunity to storm off dramatically. Elise stood quite alone in the dining room with a head full of mixed emotions. She wasn't entirely convinced that her sister was wrong. It was no secret that she was their father's favorite. That she felt an overwhelming pressure to excel. And also that she had a compulsive need to compete with and triumph over her sister in the name of finding her own identity. But she just couldn't see what was wrong with that.
"Nothing," she answered to herself, staring into the mirror on the opposite wall. Tan skin, muscles (though not as toned as her sister), and a pretty face. That was all she saw. It could have been her, or it almost could have been her sister. And that bothered her more than anything.
The rest of the auditions will be in the next chapter, promise. This was a lot of introduction, and I'm sorry for that. It's going to be slow at first probably.