After being introduced to the 'New' New Dirctions the eveing before, Sam Evans has his first class at McKinley the next day. He is both nervous and excited, and so are the students.

The new director

When he woke up in the morning, Sam Evans knew that he should have gone straight home from the airport yesterday. Insisting on meeting the Glee-club as soon as he arrived in Lima had been a wrong move. Going out for drinks after had been an even worse choice.

Will had been very humble when they talked on the phone earlier that week, so Sam had got the impression that what the man had managed to scrape together wasn't even close to what he was used to work with.

Sam got pleasantly surprised. Even if the new guys appeared a little nervous and intimidated, there were a few very strong voices in there. Except for Unique and Jane, nobody really stood out, but it would be a nice group to work with.

There hadn't been much time to get to know them all; most of them were new to Glee-club, but he was happy to see that a few had stayed on from last semester. He remembered the twins - Madison and Mason - so he had at least four familiar faces in there.

They had all introduced themselves after the little performance, but Sam couldn't for his life remember the names of the new guys. It was partially because he and Will had decided to go to a bar to talk about how to proceed.

Sam had been curious to learn a little bit about the group, but downing more than a few drinks in the process had not been particularly wise. Not only was he unable to remember much of Will's stories, Sam was thoroughly hung over as well.

It was still early, and he didn't have to be in until noon, so he was pretty sure he would be fine before that. A shower, a meal, and a few cups of coffee would probably cure him somewhat. His luggage was still at school, and he had to dig deep into his closet to find something to wear. Not that it mattered so much. He had an abundance of jeans, t-shirts and button-downs, so even if his favorite clothes were still in the suitcases, he made due.

-o-o-o-o-o-o-

Still a little under the weather, Sam greeted the students at the door as they shuffled into the choir room. They all seemed excited to come, and it pleased him more than he'd expected.

Helping Will out on a couple of occasions, hadn't quite prepared him for what to do next, so he decided to do some kind of roll-call.

Sam drew his breath before he lifted his head and smiled as he panned the group. He knew Jane and Unique from before and he also knew that the two of them would compete for a female lead. In Sam's head Jane had already won that competition because he knew she could go way higher than Wade.

"I'm sorry, but I don't remember any names yet, but I will do my best to learn them today. I hope you will forgive me if I screw up though." He tried to meet each and everyone's eyes as he spoke. "I would like for you all to present yourself however you want, and then sing a few lines from a song of your choice."

They didn't have all the time in the world right now; in a little more than an hour, most of them had other classes. "Unique, Jane, Madison, Mason," he nodded towards the four of them. "I've heard you before and I know what you can do." Then he picked up the list Will had given him, and went from the top. "Jim. You're first."

A somewhat pathetic looking guy stood up and was about to walk over, when Unique rolled her eyes and scoffed loudly. "Jim? Give me a break. Castiel. His name is Castiel." The guy froze up for a moment before he sighed. "Yeah, well. Yes. You can call me Cas. I mean… Jim is, uh, Cas is my middle name, and I kind of prefer that."

He walked to the front of the class and Sam could see that he was blushing. "Just sing. I think that was enough of an introduction." He stepped to the side and let Jim, Castiel, Cas, or whatever he wanted, take center stage. Cas nodded before he turned to Brad. "I will sing 'Angels' by Robbie Williams."

Brad didn't hesitate for a moment. He started with the intro to the song giving Cas only seconds to adjust.

"I sit and wait

Does an angel contemplate my fate

And do they know…."

Sam didn't know if he had time to hear the guy do the chorus, but he hoped so. Jim's voice was pure and it fit the song perfectly.

"...Thoughts running through my head

And I feel that love is dead

I'm loving angels instead."

The guy drew his breath.

"And through it all she offers me protection

A lot of love and affection

Whether I'm right or wrong

And down the waterfall…."

Sam lifted his hand. "That's enough. You're good. I'm sorry, but we don't have time for more."

Cas looked somewhat relieved as hurried to get back to his seat.

Sam didn't waste any time. "Next up is Garth." He looked up and met the eyes of another strange character. If he'd been out hunting he wouldn't have been surprised to meet this guy in the woods. At school, he looked somewhat misplaced.

If Cas had seemed a little intimidated when he came up, Garth was the epitome of confidence. If there were any doubts before, his song choice kind of gave it away. "Hi. I'm Garth. I'm a junior, and I wanted to sing 'Don't rain on my parade', but I was advised not to do it, so I'm doing 'You'll never walk alone' from 'Carousel'."

This was obviously the guy that had some kind of a crush on Rachel. Sam remembered tidbits of the conversation he had with Will last evening, and was pretty sure that Garth was the one Will had told him about.

Garth's voice cracked a little bit at the end of the chorus, but Sam didn't worry about that. The kids had had no time to warm up, and even if Brad transposed it to fit a male voice, it still went rather high.

Next up was Kevin. He didn't hide the fact that his mother had forced him to join because she wanted him to make friends. "I mean. I can sing, and I can read music, but I'm no lead-material." He looked down for a second. "I hope you'll keep me though. I really like it here."

He sang 'Two out of three ain't bad',' by 'Meatloaf', and it went very well. It wasn't a particularly challenging song, but he sang it with pathos. Sam hadn't expected much after the short speech Kevin gave, so he was pleasantly surprised.

It was going very well. Sam looked at the two last boys, and tried to remember their names. He'd seen them both at the school many times in the past, but they hadn't been in this room before. Unique helped him out. "John." She pointed to the guy that Sam secretly had called 'Napoleon', "And that's Ianto, he's British."

Sam looked at them both again. John, with the jacket that could look like something from 'Sgt. Pepper's lonely hearts club band', and Ianto, who dressed like a boyband member from the sixties, Sam almost expected them both to go for a Beatles song.

Ianto took a step forward. "I can go next if you want?" Sam nodded, and waited to hear a British pop-song from way back when.

British, yes, pop, no.

"I see a red door and I want it painted black

No colors anymore…"

The guy hadn't wasted any time on introductions, and he started singing without giving Brad a warning. It didn't take more than a few seconds for the band to catch on, but Sam was a little bit disappointed.

The song itself didn't really give away what the guy was capable of. It was boring and simple, but Sam decided to let it slide. He really liked the guy's voice, and made a note to challenge him at a later time.

He was about to call up the last boy - John - when he raised his hand. "Sorry. I really need to use the restroom. I'm so, so sorry."

Sam got a little surprised, but waved towards the door. "Hurry then. Go on."

John practically jumped out of his seat and went for the door. "Keep going, I'll be back in a flash." He made a mock salute before he vanished, and Sam saw that he winked at someone, but was unable to determine who it was.

There were no time to ponder. Sam looked at his list again. "Gwen? Are you ready?" A dark haired girl stood up. She was… something. He had to look away for a second, because he really liked what he saw. The perfect shaped body - that her clothes showed off so vividly - the big innocent looking eyes, and a shy smile that went straight to his heart, made Sam feel a little bit uncomfortable.

"I'm Gwen Cooper. I'm from Wales, and I'm an exchange student here at McKinley." She drew her breath. "My aunt and my uncle have lived here for many years, and that's my cousin Ianto." She pointed to the British guy. "I don't know how this will go, but I want to try to sing 'Mercy' by 'Duffy'."

Brad was about to hit the keys, but Gwen kept going. "She's a Welsh singer and her hometown is only a few hours from mine." She stopped and looked at Sam. "Was that enough… probably more than enough. Sorry."

The drummer started hitting the beat to the song, and Gwen had to just jump in. Unique stepped up and helped her with the 'yeah's' in the beginning of the song, but after that she was on her own.

It was good, but not much more than that. Sam decided that he would have to give this girl a challenge later as well. He really didn't want to dismiss her, and he hoped that she had a little bit more going for her.

"Jo, you're next." Sam had a hard time keeping his eyes away from Gwen's ass as she slowly walked back to her seat. "Sophomore, right?" The blonde nodded as she came forward. She was really cute also, but Sam didn't care much for her demeanor. It looked like she was bored out of her mind, as if she didn't want to be there.

"I'll…" She closed her eyes and drew her breath a couple of times. "I'm just a little nervous." Sam got surprised. The girl didn't look nervous at all. "'Can't fight this feeling,' by REO Speedwagon." She waved her hand towards Brad, and the guy hurried to start the intro.

"I can't fight this feeling any longer…."

The girl was probably never going to make it on Broadway, but the passion she put into it as she sang the song, got to Sam. This girl could possibly sing anything he threw at her. She would definitely get a solo at one point in time.

Jo was on her way to her seat, when John came back. "I'm ready. Is it my turn yet?" He came straight up to the piano, and took a bow. "John Hart. Senior. I wanted to join Glee-club earlier, but I thought it would cramp my style."

He cocked his head, and gave Sam an apologetic look. Sam wasn't sure, but it seemed a little fake. "I couldn't risk getting my clothes ruined by slushies." He took a couple of dance-steps before he twirled around. "I will be singing the blues." Brad looked up for a second before he nodded. "Oh, yeah. Singing the blues. Got it."

"Well I never felt more like singin' the blues

'Cause I never thought that I'd ever lose your love dear

Why'd you do me this way?"

The boy walked up to Jo as he sang, and went down on one knee right in front of her.

"Well I never felt more like cryin' all night

'Cause everything's wrong and nothin' ain't right, without you

You got me singin' the blues…"

He moved away from Jo, and squeezed between her and Ianto before he sat down next to Cas. He grabbed the boy's hand and stared into his eyes as he continued.

"The moon and stars no longer shine

The dream is gone I thought was mine

There's nothin' left for me to do but cry over you…"

Castiel got clearly embarrassed by it, but he didn't do anything to pull away. Anyway, it didn't take so long before John was on the move again.

"I never felt more like running away..."

His voice was really good, and there could actually be a leading man hiding behind the show he put on. Sam lifted his hand to stop the band. "That's fine, John. I heard enough."

-o-o-o-o-o-o-

Sam met up with the 'New' New Directions one more time that Friday. He'd pretty much made up his mind to keep them all. Even if some of them needed a little bit of work, he was confident that he could get them to up their game.

They were still one student short if they wanted to compete, but Sam had a plan to fix that. He wasn't even sure if this Glee-club would be good enough for competition, but he needed to set some goals, and he wanted them to have something to strive for.

He felt a little bad for giving them an assignment over the weekend, but they had to get started. Sam didn't know if the new guys knew each other well enough to work together in teams, but they would definitely have to try.

He'd told them to form duos or trios, and have a performance ready on Monday.

When he left the choir room in the afternoon, the eleven students were already trying find partners. He was surprised to see that most all of them wanted to team up with Castiel, although he didn't stand out as a star.

Thinking about it, Sam realized that they wanted Cas because they thought he wouldn't outshine them on stage. He was shy and withdrawn, and everybody probably believed that he'd be fine being in the background.

Sam would have to do something about that at a later time, but he didn't want to interfere with this assignment.

Songs in this chapter

Angels, performed by Robbie Wiliams. L/M: Ray Heffernan, Robbie Williams and Guy Chambers

You'll never walk alone from Carousel. Mentioned

Two out of three ain't bad, Meatloaf. Mentioned

Paint it Black. Rolling Stones. L/M: Jagger and Richards, a smidge

Mercy, Duffy. Mentioned

Can't fight this feeling. REO Speedwagon. Mentioned

Singing the blues. L/M: Melvin Endslay