NOTE: There are a lot of surprises in store in this chapter and I hope you enjoy it! As I also said on Twitter, this is the longest chapter so far- but I'll have to say that the ending to this chapter is quite open-ended, because I want to leave a little something for your imaginations to explore. Don't worry, I think Chapter 9 will address the questions left unanswered in this chapter (and I can't say anything more because I'll already be spoiling you!).

I think you just better read and discover for yourself. Also, thank you for the wonderful reviews, Wemmites! If I don't reply to your reviews or tweets soon enough, please don't think I'm ignoring you. I'm just busy.

Lastly, I hope that after you read this chapter, it will make you want to watch The Sound of Music again (or if you have never watched it, I hope you do give it a try).

Chapter 8

Alive With the Sound of Music (Part 2)*

January 13, 2014 / Monday/ 3:33 p.m.

Students and teachers passed Will in the hallway while he stood by Emma's locker, feeling like an idiot. It's been three minutes since the final bell rang, and even as much as Will hated to admit it to himself, he eagerly left his American History class as soon as the wall clock chimed 3:30—only to find himself alone by Emma's locker at the time they were supposed to meet. He knew Emma wouldn't have left him there alone on purpose because he felt that she was sincerely trying to help him, but Will desperately wished she'd arrive soon because the longer he waited the more passersby actually noticed him and the whispers began again; the gossiping had stopped for a while—well to be exact, three weeks, since he moved to Lima— and as soon as he learned that if he just blended in with the crowd and avoided eye contact and potential conversations with anybody, people managed to forget he, the "new kid" or "Dr. Schuester's other son", was among them. But right now the longer he stood there, the more passing students ogled at him, probably wondering why he had been standing there for the past five minutes and not doing anything. They came and went, until barely any students were left in the hallway. What happened to Emma?

Two minutes later, a bunch of chattering students came down from the staircase to his right, with Emma right behind them. She craned her neck to see past the group of girls in front of her and saw Will leaning against her locker, looking right back with his arms crossed and squinting his eyes to see if it really was her. Swerving the group of girls, who were her classmates in Spanish class, she ran towards Will, biting her lips anxiously.

"What took you so long?" Will asked, finally relieved.

"Mr. Martinez ignored the bell and kept going on with his lecture. I'm sorry," Emma mumbled apologetically, after she arrived. She gently pushed Will aside so she could open her locker. Taking out a red and white folder with the letters WMHS marked at the front, Emma looked up at Will and smiled. "Now I'm all set. Are you ready?"

"Just tell me what you're planning to do," Will replied hoarsely, eyeing the folder with contempt. Something didn't feel right, but he didn't know for sure what it was yet. "What's the folder for?"

"Follow me." Emma went straight ahead, the tapping of her flat shoes echoing in the empty hallway. She peeked at an empty classroom, and after making sure no one else was around the area, went inside immediately. Will however, began to doubt Emma's so-called "plans", what with the way she was sneaking around school as though afraid she'd get caught in trouble; but he followed her anyway, choosing to sit on the teacher's table while Emma set her bag onto one of the chairs.

"So, what now?" Will asked, crossing his arms again.

"Just wait a second," Emma answered, hurrying to lock the door in case someone barged in on them; she'd be tangled in such a big mess if she got caught, and dragging Will with her definitely won't help either of them.

"Whoa, what the hell—why did you have to lock the door?" Will retorted, his face a combined expression of both genuine shock and nervous confusion. "I don't have a good feeling about this. Are you carrying drugs with you? Or booze?" He wanted to sound taunting and sarcastic, but he couldn't. Will really was confused with the way Emma was behaving.

"No, Will, please calm down…." Emma took a deep breath, and forced herself to smile, forced herself to believe that her first major plan to help Will would be a success. "I… I r-really don't know how to begin this," she chuckled nervously.

Will only nodded at her to continue, his face serious.

"Well you know, in science experiments, where you find a way to solve a given problem, right? You go through different steps, like gathering data and formulating a hypothesis, a-and—oh gosh, Will—promise you won't get mad at me!"

"I don't even understand what's going on." He shrugged. "Is there something I should be mad about? Because I seriously don't get where this is going." Will raised an eyebrow inquiringly.

"Um, okay, so… think about it this way. I want to help you adjust living here in Lima, Ohio. I know it's been three months—it's an intervention that's been long overdue, actually, but it's not yet too late. I could sense that you aren't feeling like yourself while you're here, and I was hoping I could change that." Emma brushed a strand of hair away from her eyes.

Will chuckled darkly. "That's true. I hate this place."

"See, you don't have to. As of now, your home is here in Lima, and—"

"Emma, I hate to interrupt you but I was born and raised in Akron, Ohio. That will always be my home. "

"I know that," Emma sighed and held up her hands in surrender. "But just hear me out—allow me to rephrase myself. Even though Akron will always be your home—don't get me wrong, I h-have nothing against that— I still want you to feel comfortable… to feel like Lima can also be a place for you to…" Emma breathed deeply and lowered her hands slowly, her palms sweating. "…be yourself." She nibbled her lower lip as she gauged Will's reaction. "The Will I'm seeing and talking to right now isn't who you really are—I mean, only just partly you, I guess."

Will stared blankly at Emma, thoughts and questions busily running through his mind. Unbelievable—she was unbelievably accurate, Will thought. Each day he spent in Lima he didn't feel right, and it was because he wasn't himself. Well, who was he supposed to be after his mother's passing? For seventeen years he's been Cynthia Madison's son, but since his sudden move to Lima he's been pushed into roles and generalizations that were far from who he thought he really was: now he's being tagged as a renowned surgeon's son, or the new kid in school in school who had no friends, and many other labels—none of which he could say he could truly identify with. Were all those things who he really was now? What happened to the boy who had grown up in Akron? Could he still be that boy again?

"Say something." Emma urged him.

"How do you suppose I can 'be myself', then?" He asked, curious as to what Emma's ideas were.

Emma smiled approvingly, glad that Will was not yet contradicting her. She carefully opened the WMHS folder, making sure none of its contents were exposed to Will's prying eyes, and took a piece of paper—a list—and handed it to him.

Will took the paper and scanned it: McKinley High School Sports Teams, Clubs, and Other Organizations was neatly written in red ink at the topmost portion of the list, and below were bulleted enumerations of all the current teams and clubs that the school had; all of it, Will presumed, was done in Emma's curly but legible handwriting. He noticed, however, how some of the sports teams he once was a part of in Akron was emphasized by a neon orange highlighter; for instance, the basketball team and the soccer team.

He clenched his jaw as he went over the list over and over, mulling over those that Emma had highlighted. "You want me to join a club?" He said, disheartened; joining a club meant he had to start interacting with the other kids in school, and he knew he wasn't ready for that.

"If you want to start getting comfortable here, you have to know the people in this town—in this school, to begin with. And getting involved in clubs is a great way to find friends! You bring people with common interests together and bonds form—friendships form." Emma grinned at the idea, but Will noticed how her eyes carefully flitted between the folder and him, as though she didn't want him to touch or even look at it. What was in it that Emma was too anxious to hide from him?

"Why'd you have to highlight some of them though? Like the McKinley Titans Football Team?" He pointed at the name with his finger. "And this one too—New Directions—?" Will had stopped mid-sentence and began to laugh.

"Wh-what's so funny?" Emma tilted her head to the side, wondering what he was laughing about. Oh god, did Will have a strangely enticing laugh, thought Emma, feeling even more drawn to him than she already was. But it seems like she must have missed the joke, whatever it was.

Will dangled his legs at the edge of the teacher's desk, his laughter beginning to die down. "It just—" he paused to stifle a bout of laughter that was coming again. "—it's the weirdest-sounding name of a club I've ever heard. Don't you think so?" He shook his head and laughed softly again. "I mean what kind of club names themselves New Directions—it sounds like Nude Erections to me! Geez, did you highlight these clubs because their names sound terrible? McKinley Titans isn't that bad, you know."

Emma's face turned into a look of horror, her eyes widening, jaw dropping, and her mouth hanging open to form an O as a gasp of surprise escaped her lips. "No—I highlighted them because they are clubs I suggest you could join! A-and you don't—you avoid pronouncing it as dee-rections! It's die-rections—New Die-rections. Sounds better… that way." She seemed quite scandalized that such an innocent name managed to be a sexual innuendo.

Will bit his lip to stop himself from laughing again. "Okay, okay!" He said. "Why'd you suggest I join this New 'Die-rections'? What's this club anyway?"

"It's McKinley High's Glee Club."

"Oh." Will suddenly felt no need to laugh. He rubbed the back of his neck, as memories of the glee club he left in Akron came back to him; most of his friends were from the glee club, and it was an understatement to say that they were a great team—they were phenomenal. In the two years he's been part of the Akron High's Vocal Symphony, they managed to make the glee club the most sought after and popular club in the entire school. When Will was a freshman, Vocal Symphony placed 2nd at Nationals, only one step behind another well-renowned glee club (also from Akron, Ohio)—Vocal Adrenaline, from Carmel High School. They switched places when Will became a sophomore—this time Vocal Symphony had bagged 1st place at Nationals (while Vocal Adrenaline placed 2nd), and he remembered how it had been him, being the male lead to perform a solo, who had led his team towards that win; if there was one thing he would be most proud of, it would be that achievement.

But he didn't have Vocal Symphony anymore—no group performances to prepare for, no friends to have an impromptu jamming session with, no spotlight ready to shine down on him as he prepared to sing a solo in front of an audience. Will had left his team when he had to leave for Lima; it was a few weeks before Sectionals, and his team was devastated by his leaving as much as they also grieved for his mother's loss. Not only did Will miss having his mother around, but he missed just as terribly the people in that glee club whom he considered his brothers and sisters. The last he's heard from them was during Christmas, when he visited Akron; he was happy to hear that they made it through Sectionals and were already pumping up their game for Regionals, but when they asked him if he had joined the glee club at McKinley High, he had promptly said no.

Why? They had asked him.

And he simply said he didn't know how to sing anymore. No soul left for him to express. Nothing.

He had not sung since his mother's death, up until now when he still felt like he couldn't do it any longer. He's wasted months he could have used to practice, and in those months he's lost his motivation to let out his grief through song too.

"Why are you doing this?" Will handed the list back to Emma. "I don't even sing."

"You don't, but you used to." Emma pushed the paper back in Will's hands and sat on one of the chairs. "You were from Akron High School, weren't you? They have a glee club: Vocal Symphony. And they won Nationals last year because of the male lead they fondly called The Golden Boy. It was you—"

"Wait, how do you even know these things?" Will jumped down from his comfortable position on the teacher's desk. Emma leaned back in surprise, her hands instinctively covering the folder she had retrieved from her locker. Will squinted his eyes at her and back at the folder, making a connection between the two. "What's in that folder, hmmm?"

Emma was instantly red. "N-nothing. Point is, I did my research about you so I'd know how to help. How I did it is none of your business—"

"You took a little field trip to Akron High, didn't you?"

"No, I didn't."

"Then how do you know these things about me?" Will rubbed his temple exasperatedly. "If you're not telling me, I might as well get out of here."

"I can't tell you because it will get me into trouble, okay?"

"You don't trust me, do you?"

Emma was breathing rapidly, clasping and unclasping her fingers repeatedly. "I do, Will! Of course I do—"

"Then tell me."

"I'm from the U.S.A.," she muttered, letting her head fall onto her hands, defeated.

"So am I—" Will replied sarcastically, but Emma ignored him.

"It stands for the Union of Student Assistants. We're a group of students who do volunteer work around school every day. There are five different areas where we're assigned to work—at the school library, the cafeteria, the nurse's office, the faculty lounge, and the guidance counselor's office—which also means there's only supposed to be five members in the Union, so we could all have an equal chance to experience some sort of on-the-job training while we're in a particular area. For example, one area would be the nurse's office—"

"That's where we first met," he interrupted.

Emma nodded, the details of their first meeting still vivid in her mind. "I know. That's how I found your bloodied towel under the pillow where you slept, you still remember? I was about to change the sheets that day; the nurse told me no one else but you slept in that bed, which is why I was sure it was yours. I didn't tell her what I found; I brought it home, washed it, and waited for the right time to return it to you."

It finally made sense to Will. He had used to think Emma inappropriately followed him around, even to the point of creeping up on him the school clinic the day he had arrived; but it just turned out to be her job as one of the student assistants.

"Well, anyway," Emma breathed deeply, her hands grasping the folder protectively, "Being a student assistant means that the faculty and staff give you access to their offices sometimes, if they want you to do something for them. As of now, I'm tasked to work at the guidance office, and Ms. Gershwood left me her spare keys, because she wanted me to stack a bunch of used papers and bring them to the shredder…." Will could tell that Emma had begun to feel uncomfortable, and was beginning to understand how she might have gotten information about him without taking a field trip to Akron High School.

"You didn't just stack the papers and shredded them, did you?" He crossed his arms and leaned forward, staring intently into Emma's eyes. If she really did what he thinks she did, then there was nothing left to hide; Will was exposed, and vulnerable, to Emma.

Emma shook her head guiltily, like a child admitting to committing a petty prank and was now regretting it. "I used that opportunity, W-Will. I had the keys to all the drawers, and I thought I barely know anything about you, but I needed to so I could help you, which is why I—I took a look into your individual student file—" Her voice was becoming shaky and her speech a little too fast. She has had Will's personal school files since this morning, and her conscience has been eating her up since then. Emma had not broken any school rules before, not until now, when she decided to use her privilege as a student assistant to look into something she was not supposed to. "—I didn't do it for anything else other than t-to help you, okay? But nevertheless, I'm sorry… I'm sorry."

So she did do it; Will was right. And from feeling elated, excited and hopeful that he had found someone like Emma to trust again, he now felt as though he had been stripped naked, exposed to a stranger he barely knew anything about.

"Those files are confidential." Will's voice was suddenly rough, unfeeling. He now knew why Emma kept the WMHS folder within her reach.

"I'm sorry," Emma gripped the folder tightly in her sweating hands. "I really just—I wanted to know what you've been up to in your previous school, and g-get you involved again now that you're in McKinley—"

"Yeah? Well, why don't you sign me up on that U.S.A. thing, eh? Maybe if I get the spare keys to the kitchen in the cafeteria I'd be able to hoard some free food for myself. That's what you would do, right?" He muttered, his voice low and menacing.

Emma bit her lip, feeling even worse about what she had done. "I-I can't. There's already five of us in the union. And I would never abuse my power to—!"

"You just did, Emma." His eyes fell on the folder in Emma's hands. "I better go. I still have home work to do." Will grabbed his backpack and slung it behind his shoulder. "Thanks for the offer, but I'd rather not get involved with whatever you're up to." He handed the list of clubs back to Emma, frowning; she had disappointed him, and as much as he hated to acknowledge it, it was exactly how he felt about her at the moment. "And do me a favor, return those confidential files today and forget everything you've ever read about me." Will avoided looking into Emma's eyes after he had seen her wiping a tear from her cheeks.

"Will, please," Emma had stood up. She was trying to stop her fingers from shaking uncontrollably, just as how she was trying to fix the mess she had made out of a supposedly helpful situation for Will. "Please at l-least join one club?" She sniffed, holding herself back from sobbing as well. "I-I've heard the football team is extending th-their tryouts, or m-maybe—" Emma stopped mid-sentence, unable to continue hold it in any longer; large drops of tears began to roll down her reddened cheeks. "I'm r-really, really s-sorry, Will…." She turned her back on him, covering her face with her hands and trying to keep from sobbing too loudly.

"Okay, you know what? Fine, I'll join one," Will said, taking a step towards Emma. He pulled at his hair with both hands, hating himself for having made Emma cry, although it was technically all her fault. This was a defining moment—when Will first realized he would be ready to do anything for Emma, to stop her from crying, to keep her from feeling hurt and lonely the way he was. "This Nude Erections group," Will closed his eyes in surrender. "When… when do they hold auditions?"

Emma turned to face Will again, giggling softly even as her face was wet with tears. "New Die-rections," she playfully corrected him. "Auditions are at the choir room every Friday at 3. Y-you just need to sign up at the bulletin board n-near the principal's office."

"I'm auditioning under one condition, though," Will warned her.

Emma sniffed and nodded eagerly, as she wiped her face with a handkerchief. "Anything to make it up to you, Will."

"I'd like you to audition with me—"

"Wh-what? No! Wh—no," Emma's eyes shone with tears, as she shook her head, gasping. "I-I don't even sing, I—"

"I don't think I can do this alone," Will admitted. Not having sung anything for months shook his confidence that he would still be able to sing again. "I lead Vocal Symphony to Nationals last year, now I don't even remember how I did it," he shrugged. "So much has happened after that, my life had changed so quickly in a blink of an eye, and I…." Verbalizing his pain not only resurfaced the stabbing grief and emptiness in his heart, but Will felt like he was slowly beginning to unload the burden he had kept to himself for months. "I've stopped singing, Emma. I don't know if I still can, so much more I don't know if I could still stand in front of people and let them hear me sing. It's all I'm asking from you… sing with me."

Emma had read in Will's individual file that his mother had died recently due to cancer which is why he had moved to Lima to live with his father. She knew something as devastating as losing one's mother was enough to make him lose hope in himself, and Emma's heart went out to him completely. Having lived with anxiety and panic attacks for the past sixteen years, she knew she'll probably end up screwing up this audition with Will, but she had to try; she was willing to risk shaming herself in front of show choir performers only because she wanted Will to realize that it wasn't too late for him to get back to singing, to get back to being himself. "What song?"

"Excuse me?"

"Wh-what song are we going to sing together?"

Will set his backpack down again, a smile beginning to form on his face. "I've got an idea."

January 17, 2014/ Friday/ 2:58 p.m.

The choir room was buzzing with busy chatters as the members of New Directions filed into their respective seats, anticipating two hopefuls who would be auditioning for the club that afternoon. Needless to say, New Directions was desperate to have new members; they were now down to eleven after Matt Rutherford, an African-American who was in his third year at McKinley High, suddenly transferred to another district after his father's job promotion. It had all went downhill for the glee club after Matt left, as he had left New Directions a week before Sectionals and the group had trouble finding anyone to fill in for his place, even if it was just to sway in the background. It was crucial because a show choir group with less than twelve members would not be allowed to join any competitions; but just in time, a stout albeit pompous sophomore named Jacob Ben Israel agreed to fill in, although the group reminded him never to sing during the performance and was only instructed to sway along with the rest of them. New Directions, fortunately, made it through Sectionals—but Regionals was fast-approaching and they had to change their game plan. Jacob was still in the club so they were still viable for competition, but they needed somebody who could really sing and not just lip-sync the words to a song.

It was why they were awaiting this day, in the hopes that they might finally find Jacob Ben Israel's replacement, someone who was much more deserving to be part of New Directions.

"Guys, settle down!" Finn Hudson, co-captain of the Glee Club, yelled as he called his fellow club mates into order. "Hey—c'mon, are we going to be serious or not? Stop mocking me, Puck—" he retorted upon seeing his best friend Noah Puckerman making faces at him.

"Fellow glee clubbers!" Rachel Berry, Finn's co-captain and girlfriend, stood and went into the middle of the room, standing akimbo in front of them all. "As you all know we're gathered here today to hold auditions for two people who have signed up on the bulletin board last Monday, and you should know that today marks our mandatory, also weekly, glee club meeting—one of our agendas would obviously be having to deliberate on whether we should accept these two new hopefuls into our band of singing and dancing—"

"—losers," chimed Brittany Pierce, a seemingly absent-minded blonde sophomore who usually sat at the back of the room.

Rachel looked horrified, but she puffed out her chest and spoke in a more matter-of-factly tone. "We are not losers, Brittany, please shut up—"

"No midget, how about you shut up?" Santana Lopez, Brittany's girlfriend, raised her voice at the female co-captain. "Enough yapping! I can't wait to judge the crap out of those two kids—"

"Damn straight," agreed Artie Abrams, a boy with thick brown hair who wore eyeglasses and sat on a wheelchair. "I still have an AV Club meeting, Berry. We better make this quick."

"I'm getting bored," Kurt Hummel droned, crossing his legs as he leaned back in his chair, raising a judgmental eyebrow at Rachel.

The room had never had a silent moment because co-captains Finn and Rachel failed to keep their group mates tamed. Everyone was talking, or some arguing, with each other, with no faculty adviser to keep them all disciplined. Outside the choir room, Will and Emma were just waiting to be called, both their hands frozen cold yet sweating. The noises from inside were loud enough for them to hear, but they were too nervous to even care why the New Directions was being so rowdy.

"Are you ready?" Emma mumbled.

"I'd like to believe that I am. Are you?" Will replied.

"You've d-done really well during our practices Will," she said. "I think that already proves you can sing again. M-maybe I don't have to sing with—"

"You want me to sing a duet alone? Emma, don't back out on me," Will sighed. He faced her and leaned his forehead against hers. "Remember how we internalized the song and took it to heart? It made us less nervous, remember? I want you tell me again what we've been saying to each other these past few days to make the nerves go away. Go on…."

"Will—"

"Please just say it."

Emma closed her eyes and balled her fists, resting her forehead against Will's. "I… I am Liesl. And you are R-Rolf."

"I'm your Rolf, and you're my Liesl." Will whispered calmly. "Say it again, and open your eyes."

Slowly, Emma blinked her eyes open and nodded. "I'm your Liesl. You're my Rolf."

"Good," replied Will. "I want you to remember that when we sing later, we won't sing as Will and Emma, okay? We're Liesl and Rolf, and we're alone with each other. No one's watching us, okay?"

The door swung open and Finn peeked out, motioning for them to come in. "Are you auditioning together?" He asked, upon noticing that Will had subtly placed his arm around Emma's shoulder.

"Yes," Will answered, before Finn ushered them in.

"All right, welcome, welcome, to our cozy little choir room," said Rachel in her usually loud voice, as the two entered and stood at the center of the room. Will recognized her from his Spanish class; she was a junior too, but they had never talked before. "I now introduce you, Will Schuester—" she tapped him on the shoulder, "—and Emma Pillsbury—" she said, tapping Emma's arm. "—to my fellow glee clubbers." Rachel beamed, gesturing to the rest of the students seated in chairs in front of them. "We are the New Directions." She had pronounced it the same way Emma did, which was good because Will would have snickered yet again if he heard Nude Erections. "I am Rachel Berry and that over there is Finn Hudson…."

Rachel was about to introduce each and every member of the glee club to them before Santana interrupted her long speeches again. "Time's ticking, Berry! Britts and I still have a date." She glared at both Will and Emma, saying, "So, New Kid and Ginger-I've-Never-Seen-Around-School-Before, what cheesy love song are you gon' try to sell us?"

Will straightened up and cleared his throat. "We are singing something from the classic film The Sound of Music. It's Sixteen Going On Seventeen, which, if you think about it, makes sense because I'm seventeen, and Emma's, well, sixteen."

"Oh, that's cute," commented Tina Cohen-Chang, a sophomore student from Emma's algebra class. "I love that movie."

"Well, whenever you're ready," Finn said. Rachel had stopped smiling and looked seriously focused; she had taken out her notebook and was ready to write notes regarding the performance. Everyone was now watching them, waiting.

Will set his iPod on top of the piano behind them and was ready to play the instrumental version of the song, when Emma urgently squeezed his arm.

"I think I'm g-going to forget the lyrics—I think I'll forget how t-to breathe!" She whimpered as quietly as possible.

"You'll be fine," Will rubbed her back soothingly. "This is your favorite movie, Emma. You'll remember everything." He smiled encouragingly at her and pressed the play button; within seconds the opening notes of the song began to reverberate in the choir room until it was Will's cue to sing:

You wait, little girl, on an empty stage

for fate to turn the light on;

your life, little girl, is an empty page

that men will want to write on…

Will glanced over at Emma and winked at her as a signal that the she was going to sing a line after him:

To write on…

You sound great, Will wanted to tell Emma—but their song hadn't ended yet, and it was now his turn to sing the next verse:

You are sixteen going on seventeen,

baby, it's time to think;

better beware, be canny and careful,

Baby, you're on the brink—

In that moment the entire room had witnessed how Will had seemingly diverted back to something he naturally did; as he sang, it looked to everyone as though he had never quit singing in the first place. He glowed with an innate charm which had always allured people to watch him and listen to him. Emma, in spite of her uneasiness, couldn't help but smile by merely watching Will effortlessly claiming the New Directions as his audience. His voice was smooth and relaxing to the ears, while his physical appearance and stance were easy on the eyes.

You need someone older and wiser

telling you what to do;

I am seventeen going on eighteen—

Just like in the film, Will had decided to behave like Rolf when he sang to Liesl, choosing to circle around Emma, acting all giddy, and pointing to himself when he sang the last line of his verse: I'll take care of you. In the audience, Will heard thrilled cheers, mostly from the girls and surprisingly, even from Santana who had yelled, "Britts and I will take care of you!"

He winked at them and bowed slowly before gesturing for Emma to sing her share of verses. Now it was Emma's turn, but she couldn't get herself to sing and dance around like Will. She had begun breathing rapidly, frozen on the spot, intimidated by Rachel who was furiously scribbling down in her notebook, while the others stared at her, confused that she wasn't opening her mouth to sing. The song pushed on; Emma had missed the first two verses and she was panicking, tears filling up her eyes.

Will rushed to her aid and placed his arms around her, swaying her around as he subtly whispered in her ear. "You have two verses left, you can still have a shot at it."

And without even thinking, as soon as the cue for the next verse came on, Emma gripped Will's arms to keep him in place around her, took a deep breath, and sang:

Totally unprepared am I

to face a world of men;

timid and shy and scared am I

of things beyond my kin—

Spinning Emma around so that she faced him instead of the audience, Will nodded encouragingly at her and mouthed: "Perfect," before spinning her around again so she could sing her final verse facing the crowd.

I need someone older and wiser

telling me what to do;

You are seventeen going on eighteen,

I'll depend on you.

The song had finally ended and the glee club broke into a scattered applause. Emma fell back against Will, breathing heavily, her face flushed, her body shivering from all the pent up tension; Will kissed Emma's head lightly before he proceeded to hug her tightly.

"Thank you for doing this with me," he whispered in her ear.

"Y-yeah, no problem," she replied breathlessly.

"Well!" Rachel jumped up and skipped excitedly towards the pair who had just finished performing. "That was, to be honest, a better performance than I had expected! What do you guys think?" She turned to her fellow glee clubbers, grinning widely again.

"I think this is the first time you've ever asked us what our opinion was, Rachel," Mercedes Jones replied. Emma recognized her too; she sat beside Tina in the same algebra class. "But you're right, it wasn't so bad. Much better than Jacob, right?" Murmurs of agreement echoed in the choir room.

"True! But—Will and Emma—we'll still have to deliberate carefully, consider the tiny aspects and overall impact of your audition piece," said Rachel, slamming her notebook shut. "Give us this weekend to think things through. We'll have the results posted on that same bulletin board by Monday."

"Sure," Will shrugged.

Finn ushered the two of them out the door, as Rachel began to recite her bulleted list of comments regarding Will and Emma's performance.

"Thanks guys," Finn said. "Don't forget—results on Monday." And he went back into the choir room as the mandatory Glee meeting pushed through.

NOTE: How was it, Wemmites? How did you find Will and Emma's first performance together? I hope you loved it as much as I loved writing it. Just a quick story: originally, I didn't intend to include the New Directions in the story, but then I was having a hard time creating more original characters so I used them instead. Oh and in this universe, Finn doesn't die. I'd like to keep him alive, even if it's only in a fanmade story like this.

Also I'd like to specifically mention one reviewer who goes by the name Diane (I could not reply to you because you had no account). She kept mentioning in her reviews that it was hard for her to read about Will not being a Golden Boy/ not being a part of Glee in this fic, but as much as I wanted to say "He is, he is! Please just wait for the future chapters!" -Of course I couldn't say it because I didn't want to spoil all of you. But now you all know, and so I feel hugely relieved.

And for those who might be thinking that Will and Emma might not have a happy ending like Liesl and Rolf in The Sound of Music... well, who knows? They might have a happily ever after. Or not. You'll have to read on to find out!

Oh, oh oh! And have you noticed the part where Will mouths "Perfect!" to Emma? And you do remember how Emma's always aimed to be perfect, right? (see chapter 6) Well if that's not enough proof that they're a really compatible match, I don't know what is. Hahaha.

Again, thank you for continuing to read and review this fic! Your support and wonderful comments are the things that keep me writing.

P.S: Akron High School and Vocal Symphony are names I just made up; forgive me if it's not too original.

*This chapter is directly connected to chapter 7, and both are inspired by my personal favorite film, The Sound of Music.