Hi, guys! Here's another chapter - slightly longer again :)
Chapter 6: Auditions
Rachel's POV
Some time after Rachel had said goodbyes to Jesse and made sure everything was prepared as planned, she finally managed to sit down for a minute in one of the seats in the audience and gather her thoughts. She was stunned at the amount of effort and word that these auditions required from them. If she thought about it, in rule this day was supposed to consist of Vocal Adrenaline sitting in the audience and listening to people who wanted to join the team – nothing special: making notes and sharing some remarks on particular people.
In reality, she felt like they were facing Presidential elections, at least. Every single bit had to be planned and prepared for in advance; Shelby hated surprises and unexpected actions. When working, she required order, obedience and hard-work that were later visible in their performance. People thought that Vocal Adrenaline was great because they accepted only the best singers and dancers but Rachel had learned a long time ago that it was only partially true. In fact, she now could see that the team itself was as good as its leader.
For one, Mr. Schue was a great teacher but he believed in spontaneous bursts of energy and feelings that were supposed to rule people's lives. Rachel thought that it was the essence of the New Directions: their ever-changing weekly assignments, all the personal drama that undermined the very existence of the club were what defined the essence of the McKinley glee club. Even their Sectionals show from last year was a total last-minute event. Mr Schue was friendly, emphatic and full of good spirits – but he was devoid of the same level of competitive instinct as Shelby. His goal was to help the New Directions win, of course, but he was even more concerned with showing them the joy of performing itself.
Such things could never happen in Carmel. What Shelby valued most in her life, was what she wanted them to present on stage and through their work. Every rehearsal was about making the number perfect, finding possible weaknesses and eliminating them. Potential members of the team were supposed to experience it from the very beginning, as early as during auditions: if someone was not ready to give more than a hundred percent of their devotion to the team, he could forget about Vocal Adrenaline at all.
"Hey, Berry, we're all set," Justin called to her from the stage.
Blinking, Rachel woke up from her daydreaming. Nodding at her lead, she jumped to her feet, grabbed her notepad and followed the boy outside the auditorium. She put on her royal blue VA jacket while rushing after Justin who stopped only to tell Briana and Paula to get ready and follow them as well. Seconds later, Rachel was standing in a wide corridor that was leading to the wings. With a brave smile and Jesse's encouraging voice in her head, she faced a group of forty or so people who were ready to amaze them with their skills.
When they entered, the attention of the candidates focused solely on her. Looking around, Rachel spotted a number of familiar faces: her colleagues from some classes, biology partner and even the girl who complimented her necklace on the first day of school. Keeping her face straight, she quickly sought a particularly familiar boy but she couldn't spot Mike Chang in the crowd.
Exchanging quick comments with Justin, Rachel stepped forward and opened her mouth, ready to explain the rules. The door beside her opened and a tall figure of her former teammate appeared.
"Sorry," Mike Chang murmured apologetically. "Traffic."
Justin patted her arm in a silent 'well done.' Rachel smiled and finally addressed the crowd:
"May I have your attention, please?" she called. "In case you somehow don't know it, my name is Rachel Berry and I am the lead vocalist of Vocal Adrenaline. You," she scrutinized the expressions of the people in front of her. "Are here to fight for the chance to make me look amazing on stage." She had to suppress a grin that almost appeared on her face at the memory of the last time she had heard similar words.
She sobered and measured the small crowd with her eyes.
"I advise you to give us all you've got on that stage. There are forty-one of you, out of whom we need only eight people. Three girls and five boys, no more, no less."
Observing a whole range of different emotions and reactions appearing on the candidates' faces, Rachel turned to look at Justin and nodded at him to take over.
"We start off with dancing. You will be divided into four groups," he announced loud enough for everyone to hear him. "Paula and Briana here," he gestured to two grimly-looking girls next to him. "will read out the names just before you enter the auditorium so I would discourage you from wandering off. Those groups will consist of equal number of girls and boys in case we feel like checking if you can coordinate with a partner – each one of you had been previously paired up with someone else by us."
"Should you survive the first part," Briana spoke up, replacing Justin. "You go on with the singing. Those of you that came in here as dancers only, check with me right after leaving the auditorium, you will show us your original routines at the end."
"Good luck," Paula finished with a mocking smile.
Rachel looked at Mike Chang for the last time. He was stretching in the corner, throwing careful glances around him; Rachel suspected that he was looking for some familiar faces who could rat him out to the New Directions. Keeping that in mind, Rachel marched out of the corridor and back into the auditorium.
From her place in the audience, Rachel watched the first group take their places on the stage. Shelby was sitting alone behind her table in the middle of the auditorium, silently observing how the members of Vocal Adrenaline coordinated the auditions. Rachel was sitting below her, with three other girls beside her. On her left, Justin was texting someone and not caring about his surroundings until Rachel nudged his arm rather forcefully. Only then did he rise his head and apologised:
"I'm leaving the dancers to Shelby and Meg," he explained with a shrug. "They are the experts."
Rachel looked down at the stage where her teammates, Meg and Patrick were whispering between them and smiling.
Meg was a pretty senior whose relationship with Rachel was limited to everyday's rehearsals and occasional night-outs with the team. Over the summer, Jesse tried to explain her that getting to know every other member of VA very well was nearly impossible, so she shouldn't even try wasting her time on that when she voiced her plans in that direction. She eventually decided that becoming everyone's friend was indeed impossible even in a considerably smaller group of people, so trying to doing it in Vocal Adrenaline was totally pointless. They worked together, they occasionally spent time together, and they respected each other enough for the team to be successful but they couldn't be everyone's best friend at the same time.
Meg was the type of girl that was always happy and nice to everyone. She had a circle of close friends in the team, one of them being Paula, whom Rachel knew a bit better. If there was one thing Meg was a master of – it was dancing. That's why Rachel understood Justin's decision to give his vote to her in this department.
The system in Vocal Adrenaline was simple: the lead – or leads – were the only ones that had a voting privilege aside from Shelby. The three of them could ask others about their opinions but the decision was in their hands only. Glancing down on her own evaluation sheet prepared for the audition, Rachel was sure that she was not going to give away her power in favour of anyone.
Meg jumped on the stage and stopped in front of the waiting candidates. She told them silently to "copy her moves". Rachel smiled a bit at that part – it was crucial that they did not change the routine or try to add anything new. Vocal Adrenaline was about unity and perfect imitation. Shelby expected them to be such on stage. People compared their performances to the movement of machines: Rachel liked to call it ideal synchronisation.
People on stage nodded their heads; some looked nervous, some seemed to be totally confident in their abilities. Meg looked up at Shelby and nodded her head. Rachel's mother grabbed the remote and pushed a single button. Simultaneously, Meg started with the routine. Blinded by the unexpectedly bright light, the first group lost two or three first seconds of her presentation.
Rachel couldn't resist a smile – she remembered being blinded by the same spotlight for the first time, years before, when she decided to sing before Vocal Adrenaline this one time. Seeing how the smallest sense of panic was entering some of the faces on the stage, and feeling a bit sorry for the teenagers, Rachel thank every deity that she didn't have to go through a formal auditions herself.
The presentation was over; the routine wasn't difficult in itself but it contained a mass of different elements which required a tone of focus and attention to memorise after the first time. On the right from the stage, Patrick, the second dancing instructor for the day, turned on the music. Meg was walking around the space on the stage, giving out corrections or remarks. Whenever, she noticed someone better, she let him go by pointing at him or her. Rachel made a quick work of marking those people's numbers on the list.
"Hey, do you have some plans with Jesse tonight?"
Rachel's head snapped up. She turned to Justin who finally put his phone down but was now looking at her with interest. Surprised by his unexpected question, she frowned, while trying to fill in the tables on her file.
"Yes. Why are you asking?"
"I wanted to know if he would be staying at your place or at mine again."
This time, Rachel stopped writing altogether. Seeing her open mouth, Justin's eyes widened in panic.
"Dammit, you didn't know?"
"He was sleeping at your place?" Rachel repeated disbelievingly but not without a tinge of irritation. "If he couldn't stay at home, he could've stayed with me. If was a kind of emergency, after all."
And we could've had spent more quality time together, Rachel huffed with annoying feeling in her head. She sort of hated Jesse for turning her into this needy creature.
Justin made a sorry face.
"Hey," Rachel suddenly remembered Jesse's happy demeanour this morning. She threw Justin a suspicious look. "Did you two discuss something last night? Like, I don't know, whatever has been bothering Jesse lately?"
This time Justin literally froze. Rachel turned her head to glare at her co-lead and folded her arms when he still refused to talk. To hell with Jesse's improvised guy evening: somehow Justin managed to improve her boyfriend's foul mood, which was something she was unable to do for a week.
"I promised to keep by mouth shut," Justin pleaded her. He knew her well enough to know that when she wanted something, she could get it. "Please, don't give Jesse a reason to kick my ass."
Rachel narrowed her eyes.
"I already know everything about Rebecca's engagement and the... issues connected with that," Rachel hissed impatiently. "I need you to tell me what exactly you told him that had made him so unbothered by this anymore."
Justin opened his mouth when she started talking but with her every word, his expression turned more and more confused, to finally be an illustration of shock.
"Becks got engaged?" he repeated ignoring her question. "Why the hell we are hearing about this just now?"
Rachel rolled her eyes; it seemed that Jesse's sister was rather popular among Jesse's teammates as their faithful drinking buddy whenever she was in town. The younger guy's attention seemed to boost Becks' ego more than girl nights, it would seem.
However, realising that she has just accidentally revealed to Justin something that Jesse had obviously kept to himself the previous night, she was now the one to turn pale. Justin noticed that reaction and it was his turn to smirk at her.
"We're even," he murmured, reaching out his hand. "I haven't heard about Becks and you do not ask me about the other thing."
"What other thing?!" Rachel hissed. "Justin, I swear..."
"Rachel! Justin! Stop talking already!"
The two of them literally jumped in their seats when Shelby's angry order reached their ears. They both stiffened when their coach smashed her hand against the desk.
"Whatever you two have to discuss, you can do it after we're done here. Is that understood?"
They nodded and grabbed their respective tables to start the assessment of the second group of dancers. They didn't dare to move a bit until Shelby gestured at Briana to fetch the second group into the auditorium.
"Rachel, in fact you can go help Patrick with this one," Shelby threw once more through the microphone.
Knowing that protests would be hopeless, Rachel marched down the aisle. In meantime, the second group was on the stage now and Meg was reading out their names and the names of their partners. Patrick smiled at her when she climbed up the stage and threw Shelby an uncertain glance before rolling his eyes. Rachel replied with a smile.
"Can you do last year's Nationals routine?" Patrick asked her quietly. Rachel nodded when she understood that Patrick was going to help her not to humiliate herself in front of everyone. She was a great dancer, sure – but working out a partnered number in the act was a bit more difficult.
"Of course. You want the one with Justin or Jesse?" she asked. During the March of the Black Queen she had danced the general routine with Justin and a tango with Jesse.
"Justin," Patrick nodded his head. "We'll cut the second lift-throw sequence, though."
He looked up at Meg to confirm that they were up and ready and addressed the rest:
"Watch. Remember. We'll do it twice for you," he told them, adding with a smirk: "We've won last year's Nationals with this. If you can do this in one go," he moved over their faces. "I'll give you my spot in the team this minute."
Rachel took a deep breath, throwing Shelby a murderous glare that the woman answered with a raised eyebrows. On her way to take her position few meters from Patrick, Rachel realised that it was Mike Chang's group. Her former teammate was paired up with a petite redhead who looked like she was about to fall apart, especially hearing Patrick's last comment. In reaction to the same words, Rachel's former colleague raised an eyebrow at her. That was an interesting twist for both of them.
The music started. Rachel skilfully re-enacted her first victorious choreography, thanking Jesse for being an ass and not giving up on her until he declared that she was ready to repeat every little step in her sleep. The whole thing lasted for two, maybe three minutes, tops. The music stopped and along with it Rachel and Patrick. Rachel suppressed the grin that tried to force its way on her face in response to ten shocked expressions. Letting out a short breath, she evaluated her audience; some of them looked green, moving slightly as if trying to imitate certain gestures, some still kept up their smug smiles. She and Patrick repeated the routine without hesitation and when they were done, they bowed jokingly and took their places at the ends of the stage, ready to observe and give pointers.
Rachel crossed her arms and took her time. She remembered long hours spent on this exact stage, rehearsing the same number without rest. Now, seeing how five couples tried to repeat it after seeing it twice only, she struggled to keep up a neutral expression. With a dose of pleasure but not surprise, she noticed that Mike Chang was one of the two boys to keep up and do the least number of errors. His partner was doing her best but it was obvious that Mike was the one to keep their performance up.
Routine-wisely, this group is doomed, Rachel thought without pity, looking at the rest.
She made her way towards the centre of the stage and pointed to Mike. He noticed her immediately and stopped. His partner looked like she could kiss him when she realised that, thanks to him, Rachel was sending them aside to rest. Patrick saw what she did and nodded his head in approval. In meantime, Rachel felt Mike's eyes on her face. She called to a little blonde girl to speed up on her jumps before coming closer to the him.
"You've made it. I almost thought that...," she started but stopped talking to yell at the same blonde to stop dancing altogether. It came out rather harsh and not for the first time, Rachel thought that some of Shelby must've rubbed off on her during the last few months. She smiled apologetically to Mike and picked up where she's left off: "That you wouldn't come."
"I won't stay, Rachel," Mike voiced what she'd known since she saw him earlier. "You know that."
"Are you sure?" she asked looking up. "We could get you into the best dancing schools."
He chuckled. His dance partner was still standing next to them and her eyes almost popped out of her head when she heard the exchange. Rachel understood her astonishment very well. She was doing her best to make it into the team while the guy was bluntly telling the lead 'no' despite the direct invitation.
"My parents want me to become a doctor, not a dancer, Rachel," Mike reminded her with truthfulness that surprised her slightly. Rachel knew that his parents were opposed to the idea of art school but she's learned it from the file she'd received – now Mike was telling her this in person. It was probably the greatest amount of words they have exchanged right after their secret meeting's conversation.
She shrugged. In meantime, Patrick released another two couples; there was just one couple standing on the stage, wearing grim expressions when they realised that they were the last ones. She thought that Patrick would just send them away but he just turned the music on again and told them to dance again. He seemed to enjoy their little misery.
"How's the New Directions, anyway?" Rachel asked. With Kurt, her source of information (indirectly from Finn since he would tell Kurt about school and then Kurt would pass the news over to her) about her old club was gone as well.
"We're trying to get someone new but you can imagine how well that goes," Mike Chang threw her a humourless smile. "We're not even sure we can get people to compete in Sectionals."
"Mr Schue will think of something for sure," Rachel assured him without thinking. "Or I can send some of our today's leftovers off to Lima. If they can survive Santana's bitchy remarks and Finn's inability to take two steps without falling on his back, they would do well with VA rehearsal's instant hell. Avoiding slushies improves reflexes, too."
The redhead girl next to Mike gasped at Rachel's words until she realised that Rachel was joking. Partially, at least but that she girl didn't need to know. But Mike remained silent; he didn't think it was funny, apparently but decided not to comment on it. Rachel closed her mouth and looked up at Shelby who was trying to look focused on the stage next to them but couldn't resist glancing once or twice at the two talking teenagers. She wanted Mike in Vocal Adrenaline.
Patrick finally had mercy on the last dancers, sending everybody away. Mike Chang left the auditorium along with the rest of his group. Rachel turned to walk away as well; she moved in the directions of the small stairs, ready to return to her seat. She had people to watch – discussing the New Directions was pointless.
A movement over their heads caught Rachel's attention. She froze at the sight of familiar highlights waving in the semi-darkness while the person entered the balcony over the auditorium seats. Acting on instinct, Rachel quickly changed the direction, following the leaving group and ignoring Patrick's questioning expression. She called to Shelby to hold on a minute. She found Briana immediately.
"Rachel? What is it?" she asked.
"Michael Chang won't be coming out for the second part," she said loud enough for the boy to hear. He turned, ready to protest when Rachel silence him with another sentence. "He isn't considering the team seriously anyway."
She turned her back without another word. On her way out of the corridor, she heard Briana tell Mike to pack his things, ignoring his angry indistinct murmurs.
"Rachel is the boss here," Briana cut him off. "You're out of the circuit. Okay, group three: Richards, Cain, Webb, Cransen, Ramirez..."
Rachel didn't listen to the list of names anymore. She hurried towards the stairs and up them to finally reach the door and open them. The two girls on the balcony jumped in their seats when she cleared her throat pointedly.
"Tina, Quinn, nice to see you," she greeted her former teammates icily. "Now will you leave on your own or should I call Mr Schue and inform him that you are spying?"
Surprisingly, Tina was the first one to pull herself together. She folded her arms on her chest and glared back at Rachel. Quinn was just looking from one angry face to another.
"How about I tell Mr Schue about you trying to poach my boyfriend to your team?"
That took Rachel off the beat – Tina and Mike Chang were dating? When the hell did that happen? Shaking her head, she ignored the idea, focusing on the important issue.
"I have no idea what you are talking about," she played dumb – Mike Chang was off the stage by the time she noticed Tina in the door of the balcony so there was no way they had seen him. "Although, that's one of the most original excuses for spying, if I'm to be honest."
Rachel hoped that it would do the trick – she noticed a piece of Mike Chang's file in Tina's bag and almost rolled her eyes in annoyance. Why couldn't anyone just hide that thing well if they cared so much about keeping the audition a secret? The last thing she needed was a war with McKinley about something that was doomed from the beginnings.
"I've seen his car in the parking lot," Tina insisted. "Where's Mike?"
"It's not my problem that you can't find your boyfriend," Rachel hissed, losing her patience.
The third group was on the stage by then, ready to start. Quinn noticed the ten teenagers and her eyebrows went up immediately. Rachel grimaced, she moved passed the blonde and leaned over the railings to look downwards at her team.
"Shelby, we have company!" she called, interrupting the auditions for the second time this morning. And not the last one, as it turned out later.
They dealt with Tina and Quinn quickly and without unnecessary hustle. Shelby skilfully threatened the two girls with some more or less specified consequences and refused to give away the presence or absence of Mike, who (as Rachel learned from a short message few hours later), has disappeared as soon as he realised that Tina was in Akron. Curiously enough, in his second message he asked if she could send him a video of their Nationals performance because he wanted to pick up the choreography for the future.
Justin was the only one not to react with anger to the "spying" incident. All he did was taunting Rachel about her "innate ability to attract drama." He had no idea. Jesse texted her few times, asking a series of odd questions about the colour of her clothes for the evening, the last musical they watched together, and even about her opinion about paper napkins. She had no idea what he was planning for the evening, but started to get nervous.
And that brought back her questions about "the other thing" that Justin mentioned earlier. Knowing that trying to get it out of him would probably end in another scolding from Shelby, Rachel limited herself to huffing with obvious annoyance whenever her co-lead was looking at her.
"Hi' my name is Harmony Reigns and I'll be singing "Gimmie Gimmie" from the musical Thoroughly Modern Millie," a very pretty girl, with a very wide smile which showed off a row of ideally white teeth, announced confidently.
Rachel reached out her hand to place it bluntly over Justin's mouth to stop his ever-flowing string of words. He looked at her with half-amusement and half-consternation, while Shelby went over a standard list of questions. She was one of the names from Shelby's list: fifteen, a current member of Unitards from Defiance, and she looked like Rachel.
And she sounded like Rachel. Rachel pulled off her best show case while listening to the perfect rendition of the song with a dry throat. She swallowed when the girl belted out the last note – a very long note without even a glimpse of weakness – and grinned at them. Rachel's teammates gave a short round of applause, which in itself was telling.
In silence, Rachel picked up her file and briskly crossed Harmony's name off the list. Over her dead body – there was no place for two Broadway divas in Vocal Adrenaline. Daring to throw a sideways glance at Justin's file, Rachel saw him cross the girl's name out with a playful smirk and a shrug of his arms.
All his sins were currently forgiven, Rachel decided.
Shelby's POV
Shelby watched how another person was entering their stage.
"Hi, my name is Brad Ladecky and I'll be singing Pharrell William's Happy".
It was the third hour of the auditions. The dancing part flew quickly after the little hell that Rachel has provided the candidates with. Shelby took a mental note to congratulate her daughter on that as soon as they finish: she didn't expect Patrick to pick up the Nationals number for her to present there. She was a bit rusty, if Shelby were to be honest, but luckily, she made it out with grace.
After the small commotion with the two girls from McKinley (Shelby sent the two of them off with a warning, not willing to pick up a fight with Will Schuester at the moment), Rachel has returned to her seat with a determination all over her face.
Brad Ladecky was the tenth person they saw that day. Out of the nine that had sung for them, Shelby decided that two were more that decent and only one worth taking into consideration; the Gimmie Gimmie girl. She had an amazing voice and Shelby remembered her from the dancing rehearsals where she was the only girl that managed to repeat Rachel's routine with the least number of mistakes. She would find herself in Vocal Adrenaline just perfectly, Shelby decided. However, judging from Rachel's almost-terrified expression, followed by Justin's playful shrug, Shelby realised that she was shamelessly outvoted
She looked over Brad's file and nodded her head, leaning forward and taking down the title of the chosen audition song. Not her first choice but let's see what the kid could do.
Not much, apparently, Shelby decided after first couple of verses. Wrong song, wrong voice. Terrible choreography. She sincerely hoped for Brad Ladecky to be the shameful exception otherwise she would need to have a serious discussion with her two leads. Glancing down at the two teens in question, she saw that Rachel was looking straight at Shelby with her finger pointed at Justin, who just shrugged and crossed his arms.
"Stop. Leave. Please, never come back," Shelby threw curtly into the microphone.
The kid looked as if she hit him with a hammer. Rachel and Justin made a show of crossing his name from the list so that he had no doubts about their decision. Seeing that, Brad literally ran out of the stage, making the few people surrounding Rachel chuckle.
The next couple of people, fortunately, were good. Shelby listened to them with care, taking down notes on everything, from their voices, through choreography, ending with their overall stage presence. She noticed that Rachel was doing the same, from time to time exchanging opinions with Justin.
Shelby was observing the two of them from the beginnings of the school year. Justin has quickly accommodated himself in his new position, just like Rachel. They both had strong and sometimes difficult, and, at the same time, very different personalities. For some time, Shelby has been worried that there might be some problems.
However, while watching them work together on the files their first week, she realised that her fears were groundless. As soon as Rachel made sure that Justin wasn't after her leading position, she opened herself to this cooperation. They managed to sort through the stacks of papers in one afternoon. Justin made a great job convincing Rachel to rush after her former teammate and that Anderson kid, despite her personal dislike towards it. Seeing them work closely on their own re-audition, and the fact that they decided to sing together, gave Shelby even more evidence that her choice of male lead for Rachel was correct.
"Hello, my name is Casey Cransen. I'll be singing whatever you tell me to sing. Against her."
The auditorium fell silent. Shelby straightened in her seat to look in shock at the young girl standing in the middle of the stage, looking straight at Rachel. When Rachel realised that the girl was referring to her, she looked around before shaking her head.
"Excuse me?" she sounded more surprised as the rest of the team looked.
"I want to sing the song against the lead."
"No, you don't," Rachel replied automatically, keeping her tone slightly condescending, clearly not taking the suggestion seriously. "For your own good."
People started murmuring between each other, waiting for any reaction and commenting the suicidal tendencies of the girl. Shelby wasn't able to tell if the girl was overconfident or really that good.
Casey Cransen raised her eyebrow.
"Scarred of little competition?"
Rachel opened her mouth when she heard that.
"Oh my God, you are serious," she spoke up, her voice full of astonishment. Just as Shelby guessed, Rachel thought it was a joke. She shrugged and stood up from her seat.
Justin started telling Rachel something in a hushed tone. From her spot above them, Shelby saw that he has opened his copy of Casey's files and pointed quickly to something. Rachel shook her head and picked up the file, responding equally silently. Then she looked straight at Casey, while walking down the aisle towards the stage.
"Since it says here," Rachel glanced down at the document. "That you favour show tunes, I'll stick to that... There's no point in making it more difficult for you than it already is."
Several people cleared their throats, trying to hide chuckles. Shelby wasn't one of them but she still frowned; despite her previous distress about Harmony, Rachel bravely marched towards the stage to face another girl. She was either pretending, or saw something in the new girl that gave her the courage to even make it easier to her. Casey's face didn't change at that comment or the reaction it caused among Rachel's teammates.
"And," she added climbing up the small stairs for the second time this day. "I can think of a very suitable song for this audition, then."
Rachel passed the girl a music sheet asking whether she was familiar with the number. Satisfied with the answer, Rachel passed the music sheet over to the pianist in the corner. As soon as the man touched the keys, she started singing, not giving Casey any time to prepare herself.
Jesse's POV
When he was entering the Carmel High's auditorium, the last thing that Jesse expected to see was Rachel standing on the stage, singing "Let Me Dance for You" from A Chorus Line. He stopped for a short moment, before resuming his walk towards his former director.
"Shelby? What is going on here?" Jesse asked quietly, putting down a cup of hot coffee in front of the woman. "Why is Rach singing?"
Rach finished singing first few verses and looked expectantly at a girl to her left who quickly stepped in and took over.
"She was challenged," Shelby replied absent-mindedly, making notes while the candidate was singing. "Jesse, you're still not staying over tonight," she added as an afterthought, pointing to the cup that he'd put down a moment earlier.
"I know," Jesse murmured smiling at Rachel who noticed him in the audience and grinned. "That's me asking you to let Rach sleep over at my place."
"Why?" Shelby questioned, looking up on the stage. "She's having issues with breathing and articulation. A chorus she'd do, but it's not a solo material."
"She's not bad," Jesse shrugged, not even sparing the girl a look. "My mom's having a dinner party and told me to bring Rachel. I wanted to spend some time with her alone, too, so a curfew would be highly inconvenient."
He smiled when she nodded her head in agreement, continuing to scribble down notes and marking some areas of improvement for the unknown girl. Jesse noticed that she took down also two or three points under Rachel's name. Perfectionist to a fault, Shelby was.
Jesse focused on Rachel again; she was giving her best, obviously showing the overly-confident girl next to her a lesson not to challenge Rachel Berry to a sing-off ever again. And she was doing an excellent job, Jesse noticed, judging from the girl's half-angry, half-regretful expression. Jesse used to have been challenged in the past as well; he was always the one winning the small competition, obviously. Whenever someone has done that, their candidature was almost automatically doomed – Shelby didn't like petty fights in her team (especially as early as in the auditions) so she always voted against them. Jesse cast a negative vote on principle for even trying to undermine his leadership. Rachel and Shelby alone were enough to outnumber Justin – in case he lost his mind.
Speak of the devil, Jesse thought looking around.
Few rows below Shelby, Justin was lounging lazily in his seat, watching the small spectacle with a bored expression. Jesse moved towards him and was just sitting down when Rachel belted out the last note of the song. Vocal Adrenaline cheered her on when she murmured something to the girl beside her and bowed jokingly. Jesse clapped his hands as well but he froze when he saw Justin pass a twenty dollar bill over to Paula.
"You bet against Rachel?" Jesse asked disbelievingly.
Justin shrugged, rolling his eyes.
"The other looked fierce," he explained nonchalantly, marking her name with a big black plus – he was voting to keep her in, after all. "It was worth a shot."
Rachel was already next to Jesse. She didn't let him give her a kiss or embrace, though; instead, she grabbed her notepad and a pen. She made a quick work of marking her vote next to "Casey Cransen" in the table and Jesse lifted the corner of his mouth while looking over her shoulder.
"She was good," he noticed truthfully. "Are you sure?"
Rachel finally pecked his lips and smiled up to him.
"Yes, she was good, but worse than me."
Jesse decided to stay until the end of the auditions with Rachel, obediently keeping his remarks or purely sarcastic comments to himself. Fortunately, Casey was the first and the last person to step forward so bluntly. By the end of the singing auditions, Rachel was barely keeping her eyes open, so Shelby had called for half an hour a break just before the first dancer was about to present them their original choreography.
Jesse took Rachel outside to get some fresh air, asking about her first impression and her honest opinions about the candidates. Jesse knew his girlfriend: even though she had certain judgments, her months at McKinley have taught her to keep them to herself in front of other people, but not Jesse. He burst into laughter when she told him – with a dose of embarrassment nonetheless – about throwing some potential solo competition out of the play without no other reason but that. In reality, he had stopped counting the times he had done the same thing to maintain his leadership.
"They are not that bad," she finally stated. Jesse was leaning against the hood of his car while Rachel was sitting on top of it, observing her nails with sudden devotion. "Not everyone, I mean. There was still the Pharrell Williams disaster. But I somehow imagined all of them to be so great and amazing and you know, talented."
Jesse chuckled at the way she almost whispered the last part, as if it was unholy to say the word in the context other than her and Jesse. He saw how ridiculously nervous she was in the morning even though she had no grounds to be. Jesse's done this auditions thing four times and what he's learned during those four times was one thing: the files he got to read through (those that frightened Rachel so much) were all smoke and mirrors. He and Rachel were unique – true talents among a see of more or less convincing usurpers. Coming across another one in Ohio was highly improbable but Rach needed to learn it on her own to truly believe that. Sure, she behaved and talked as if she knew that but Jesse believed it was only an act on her side. However, this day could've been an eye opener for her.
"I told you, you had nothing to worry about," he smiled simply. There was no point in going into detail.
"I know, but it is Vocal Adrenaline, the four-time National Champions, not some McKinley glee auditions. I was sure the level will be really high."
Jesse moved; he was now standing in front of Rachel, between her legs. She automatically threw her arms around his neck and he embraced her waist. It was their thing: a constant physical contact. Even if it was just holding hands, leaning against each other's shoulders or a quick brush of a finger across the other's skin – they seemed to feel the same need to touch each other all the time they've been together.
"So, I've seen a cup of hot beverage on Shelby's table earlier, followed by a very promising nod of agreement," Rachel grinned, changing the topic. "Fancy telling me what was that about?"
"Of course. That was about you not going back home tonight and instead spending the night with a handsome mysterious stranger in his scary haunted house."
Rachel's eyes widened with excitement. Jesse was adamant not to give up his plans for the rest of the day but he was positive she would love it.
"You better tell me what we are doing tonight," she smiled as if reading his mind. "I can't wait until the end of the auditions so that I can finally spend some time with you without twenty or so people around."
"Rachel Berry, are you suggesting that we should just skip the dinner and lock ourselves up in my room? Because if yes, next time you'd better give me a fair warning, I wouldn't go through all the trouble preparing the surprises."
They were interrupted by a sound of someone approaching them. Jesse looked over Rachel's shoulder and saw Casey Cransen who was marching towards them confidently. She was talking over the phone with someone. She slowed down when she saw Jesse and Rachel's intertwined hands but resumed her hasty pace when she hurried next to them and towards her car which was parked few meters away. Looking in the direction of her back, Jesse frowned.
She looked oddly familiar.
"We are not going to be best friends," Rachel murmured looking at the girl discretely.
"No one is telling you to be," Jesse replied, focusing back on his girlfriend. "You have enough friends in the team already, right? And outside it," he added thinking about Jackie and even Kurt. Jesse was really glad that she wasn't completely alone again since he's moved to another city.
His phone rang twice. Jesse pulled it out and looked at the screen; it was Nathaniel, his mentor; he was absent for almost two weeks and was probably calling him to meet up and talk. He was taking this mentorship really seriously.
He answered and asked Nat to wait for a minute. Before he even opened his mouth to explain, Rachel nodded her head and jumped off the hood of his car without a word. She pressed a kiss to his cheek and let Jesse walk away. He smiled in response to her silent understanding.
Rachel's POV
"Shouldn't you go back inside?" Rachel called out to Casey, who was just closing up her car. The girl's head snapped in their direction and Rachel explained: "We have only three people left."
"Like there's a point in me waiting for the results," Casey barked with poorly hidden sarcasm. "You're afraid of any kind of competition, Berry. I knew, from the moment I heard you in the morning, that you will try to kill in the bud any sign of threat to your precious leading spot."
Which wasn't completely false, Rachel thought nervously. But Casey was completely different matter.
"And you still decided to throw me a challenge?" she was genuinely surprised. "Knowing that I will vote against you just because of that?"
The girl raised her eyebrow.
"I'm not afraid of a fight if I want something, unlike you."
Rachel didn't answer. Casey shook her head dismissively.
She moved next to Rachel who let her pass her without a word, throwing a strand of her long dyed dark hair over her shoulder. Rachel took a quick glance at her skinny jeans and in-fashion crop top which showed off her abs. It was the middle of September and she still decided it was wise to wear clothes that barely covered her torso.
"Yeah, I remember – red panties to an equally brick-red face," Rachel called after her, finally making Casey stop in mid-step.
In the years of her childhood, Rachel has done many things, which she wished she just could forget. Once she paid some boy to take care of her puppy because she was bored to death after a week of having him. Saying that her dads were disappointed would be a serious understatement. On other occasion, she decided that drinking a glass of wine at the age of eleven just before going to her aunt's birthday party was an excellent idea, not knowing back then that she had the lightest head in Ohio – that memory was why she refused to touch alcohol until Jesse simply bribed her.
But one of the most regrettable and unnerving incidents caused by Rachel occurred just about when Jesse was still oblivious to her hidden crush on him, while trying his best with poor little Casey Cransen, his neighbour. She was few months older than Rachel and had been determined to have Jesse before she had been forced to move to her father's house in Florida after her parent's divorce.
So Rachel did everything she could to prevent that.
"You should've just stuck to your own business, you little brat," Casey hissed at her, looking around to make sure they were still alone; Jesse disappeared inside to building to take his phone call.
It was enough to say that Casey was lucky to disappear on the other end of the country merely two days after the unfortunate afternoon of Jesse's birthday party. And Rachel was fair to assume that the girls will never be friends.
"I didn't like to share," Rachel shrugged. "I still don't, so you better stay away from my boyfriend."
Casey smirked and folded her arms.
"So you finally landed St. James?" she asked with a snort. "Good for you. Enjoy your leftovers from every girl in Carmel."
Rolling her eyes, Rachel turned to leave. It was almost time she was back to finish off the auditions and share some concluding remarks with Justin and Shelby before they pick up the happy eight. Besides, she has heard this argument from so many people for the last couple of months that she's become simply immune to it. No Casey Cransen was not going to disturb her little bubble of happiness.
"So what now?" she asked simply, not without a trace of irony. "You're going to incorporate some evil revenge plan?"
Casey snorted.
"Oh, it's going to be fun this year, Berry."
Rachel hesitated before turning around on her heel to face the girl one more time. She opened her mouth to say something back, laugh or maybe even try to reason with the girl. But instead, she just smiled her sweetest smile and sweetly congratulated Casey on making it into the team.
Keep your friends close, but enemies closer.
Summing up, the day wasn't the worst in Rachel's life, she thought while standing on the stage with Justin, Shelby and the rest of their team. There were several interesting turns of events: she was sure to hear from someone in the New Directions about Mike and the small incident, and an old 'acquaintance' was hell bound on making her life a living hell (again). But all that faded in the face of the peacefulness of the forthcoming afternoon.
The lucky eight was chosen, waiting to be revealed to the group of teenagers who started to fill out the stage. Shelby was standing with a list of names, ready to call them out to take an envelope with their rehearsal schedule, sheet music to the Invitationals show and a DVD with a recording of their routine for the newest members to memorise and practise before the first rehearsal on Monday afternoon.
Casey was honestly surprised when Shelby called out her name, even despite Rachel's announcement earlier. Justin was holding the envelope with her name on it so he was the one to do the honours. Shelby was opposed to taking the troublemaker in but Rachel assured her that having a "Giselle factor" in Vocal Adrenaline was a perfect way of motivating Rachel to work even harder. No one believed her, obviously, but Shelby just went with Rachel's and Justin's previous positive votes.
Next were two twin brothers, Alec and Joel Daniels, who auditioned separately but took Rachel and Shelby aback with their strong voices and bold choreography. Rachel noticed that this particular choice was met with a certain dose of enthusiasm from the female part of the team. The three other boys, Hunter, Oliver and Rob were called out thanks to their physical abilities, as well: with the loss of Dave, Chris and Jesse, the team needed strong guys to do the heavy lifting, so to speak.
Rachel observed how with every name, the people had almost tears in their eyes when accepting the white envelope as if it was a million dollar check. Even those who entered the auditorium as if they owned it started crumbling under pressure. Rachel wondered if she would look the same if she didn't get into the team in her unique way.
The one but last name was called out and Rachel moved to her right to pass the file to the red-head who was Mike Chang's dance partner in their number: Miley. She totally rocked Florence and the Machine's number and Rachel knew that even though she was a better singer than dancer, a skilful partner was enough for her to keep up.
Harmony Reigns bravely kept up her wide smile while clearly waiting for her name to be the last one. Rachel, who was holding the last envelope, threw her a quick glance before turning her head to avoid seeing the possible expression of confusion, anger or depression forming on her face when Shelby announced Olivia Cain to step out.
I must admit that I totally enjoy imagining and creating ideas about how a powerhouse such as Vocal Adrenaline works 'behind the scenes'. Placing Rachel in the team opened a door I've always wanted to explore.
As always, just leave a word or two behind, pretty please? ^^
-s.