It all happened so fast.
Roxanne Torres doesn't know where it had all started. Whether it would be the summer before the upcoming school year or that previous school year.
But alas, she couldn't, hell she refuses, to dwell on the past.
It is time for a new slate for the Torres women: Roxanne finally escaped the hellscape that is Vocal Adrenaline and her mom, Carmen, is able to put her teaching degree to good use.
"Remember, sweet girl, don't let those negative thoughts control you." Carmen advises her, lightly tapping her on the nose. "Have a good first day."
Roxanne looks over at her mom and lightly smiles. "You as well, mom."
Traversing her way through William McKinley High School feels like a culture shock to Roxanne.
When she was at Carmel High School, Vocal Adrenaline were viewed as gods. They were feared. Unstoppable. Untouchable.
The opposite could be said about the competition. When it comes to the New Directions, it is viewed as if they were ostracized by everyone. From the jocks that have thrown slushies in their faces to the nerdy guy who was chasing them around with a microphone, profusely asking them questions, while the camera guy follows like an obedient puppy.
"Hey, excuse me. Do you know where…" someone was about to ask her and she turned around to see two guys, who Roxanne assumed are brothers, approaching her. The taller guy, who has a muscular build with his hair slicked back, was stammering over his words while his brother, who was leaner and had a Justin Bieber-style hairstyle, swiftly intercepted.
"Do you know where Mr. Sinacori's classroom is?" he asks.
All Roxanne could do is shrug. "I'm afraid I'm not gonna be that much help. I'm new as well." she tells them. "But hey, at least we will get lost together."
That managed to get a chuckle out of the taller brother, with the other looking at him suspiciously.
"Well, I'm Sam. That's Johnny." The brother with the Bieber cut, Sam, introduces themselves.
"Roxanne." The blue haired girl introduces herself. "Come on, let's get lost together."
As for her day, it was going by swiftly. In Roxanne's mind, as long as she doesn't get herself involved in shit she can't get herself out of, then she would consider the day to be going fine.
At lunch, she was sitting at one of the tables in the outside courtyard. She takes a bite out of a red apple while reading War & Peace for her English reading assignment.
(SONG: Empire State of Mind by Jay-Z feat. Alicia Keys
COVER BY: New Directions [Artie, Finn, Puck, Mercedes])
Did she distinctly hear the New Directions performing Empire State of Mind? Yes. However, the only reason why she didn't react is because she is trying to enjoy her lunch in peace.
In the same sense though, she will admit that the three girls on the stairs definitely caught her attention. She quickly diverted her attention back to her book, so nobody noticed that.
From that, she can tell the distinct difference between whether Vocal Adrenaline performs and when the New Directions perform.
With Vocal Adrenaline, it's all about perfection. It doesn't matter how many times the number would be performed, if there is one imperfection, then there would be hell raised. It doesn't matter if health, physical or mental, would be at risk, all that matters is making sure that everything is perfect.
With New Directions, on the other hand, they perform with their heart. She might not know the people in the New Directions (other than Rachel Berry being the topic of contention, as well as Finn Hudson and Noah Puckerman also slashing the tires of the Range Rovers), but she knows of them and can tell that none of them really care about what people thought of them.
The following day, Roxanne walks down the hall, Running Up That Hill being played on her phone. However, what she didn't know is that she caught the attention of the three girls that were on the stairs when performing Empire State of Mind.
The one thing that ran through the minds of Quinn Fabray and Santana Lopez is how Brittany wasn't lying about how Roxanne almost resembles a blueberry with the blue locks.
There was only one thing that they could do: approach her before Rachel Berry could even think about approaching her.
"Hey." The soft voice of Quinn greets Roxanne, who in turn, greets her with a small smile. "Hi."
To Roxanne, they might not know of her, but she knows of them, especially Quinn Fabray, who was the pregnant teen mom whose baby was adopted by Roxanne's former coach, Ms. Corcoran.
"I'm Quinn, this is Santana and Brittany…" Quinn was about to introduce herself to Roxanne before getting cut off by Santana.
"Look, I'm gonna cut to the chase, Blueberry Pie. We know that you were looking over at us." the Latina next to her intercepts.
Roxanne internally winces. She was hoping that she would go undetected because the three of them, as well as the girl who was singing Alicia Keys' part, caught her attention.
"I-I didn't mean to make you uncomfortable…" Roxanne stutters out, but Quinn quiets her down.
"Hey, it's okay. We have a proposition to give you." Quinn tells her as they surround her as they walk down the hall.
"Tana, she really does smell like blueberries." the other blonde, Brittany, says out loud.
"If you were to join the New Directions, we would be an unstoppable force." Quinn tries to persuade Roxanne.
"I'll think about it." Roxanne tells them. "I do have to be at work later on today."
Santana then furrows her eyebrows. "Have I seen you before?" she asks Roxanne, who just shrugs. "I don't know. Why would you ask that?" Roxanne counters before heading off to her English class.
After school, what Roxanne had said wasn't a lie. Recently, she has gotten a job at The Lima Bean. There is still some stuff that she is trying to get a hold of, but what do you expect? She's recently new.
"Americano for Blaine!" she announces as a boy with black hair that is gelled back and wearing a school uniform.
While taking someone else's order, she notices that the new foreign exchange student, Sunshine Corazon, is rushing in. She asks for her co-worker, Alex, to take over for her as she tends to Sunshine.
"Hey, are you alright?" Roxanne asks, checking up on Sunshine.
"Yeah. I'm fine." Sunshine breathes out.
"Here, have a seat. I'll get you some water." Roxanne advises her.
After Roxanne did just that, she had gotten the full story from Sunshine: she wanted to try out for the New Directions, but Rachel Berry gave her an address to a crack house.
Days have passed, with Roxanne adjusting to her life in the new school. Santana Lopez, still feeling enraged that Quinn replaced her on the Cheerios, has Roxanne in her crosshairs.
"Oh, hey there, Blueberry. Couldn't help but notice that you bailed. The hell was that about?" Santana asks.
"Okay, first of all, I told you that I had work. And second, why should I trust anyone in the New Directions after someone who is innocent could've gotten killed." Roxanne snapped back at her.
Santana got confused. "What are you talking about?"
"I'm talking about how Rachel Berry sent the foreign exchange student from the Philippines to a fucking crack house." Roxanne elaborates. "Seriously, I thought I'd seen it all last year, but this was a whole new low."
Santana went over to Kurt and Mercedes. "Hey, have you seen Berry? I need to wring her neck out." she asks them, but Mercedes puts out a hand as a means to stop her.
"She is with Finn. Why?" Kurt became curious.
"Quinn, Britt, and I noticed the new girl paying close attention to us." Santana began to explain, but Kurt looked up, a suspicious look in his eye.
"New girl?" Kurt asks.
"Oh, yeah. Isn't she the new art teacher's daughter?" Mercedes asks, vaguely remembering the new teacher, who might as well bear a resemblance to Morticia Addams.
"I don't know. All I got is…" Santana was about to say but Kurt cut her off.
"Roxanne." Kurt simply says, gaining the attention of both Mercedes and Santana. "Does she have blue hair? Have a wardrobe that mainly consists of black? Always emotionless all the time?" he continues to ask.
"How do you know all of that?" Santana asks, a little freaked out that Kurt already has a lot of intel on the blue-haired girl.
Kurt then gathers everyone (excluding Rachel, Finn, and Mr. Schue) in the choir room. He pulls out his laptop and turns it to everyone once he gets the search results that he got.
"This is Roxanne Torres, the new girl that Santana was talking about." Kurt tells them.
It took a while for Quinn, Santana, and Brittany to recognize her, considering that the picture being shown was before Roxanne dyed her hair.
"This doesn't answer my question. How do you know so much about her?" Santana reiterates.
"Roxanne used to be the female lead in Vocal Adrenaline." Kurt confesses as he clicks on a playlist of Vocal Adrenaline's performances at the previous Regionals and Nationals.
It all makes sense to Santana now: why Roxanne looked so familiar. She was there that day when Vocal Adrenaline infiltrated their auditorium last year, performing Another One Bites the Dust.
Kurt, Mercedes, and Tina noticed how she was avoiding the longing stares of Jesse during that performance and during the New Directions' performance of Give Up The Funk.
"It was her and Jesse that led Vocal Adrenaline to win at Nationals." Kurt further explains after showing the videos that thoroughly displays Roxanne's talent, with some of those performances including Roxanne perform Dance The Night by Dua Lipa with the girls of Vocal Adrenaline over at Regionals, as well as Jesse and Roxanne singing The River from Daisy Jones and the Six.
"How do we know that she's not a spy?" Tina asks, feeling a little wary of the last time they trusted someone from Carmel High.
"Wait a minute, you said Torres, right? Isn't her dad insanely rich?" Mike asks, sitting right next to his girlfriend.
"Diego Torres, and yes. However, he got arrested. Her grandpa works with my dad, and he told us that she and her mom have moved in with him." Kurt tells him.
"So, if we manage to snatch this chick up, we would be unstoppable." Puck summarizes.
"Exactly. Now with Sunshine joining Vocal Adrenaline, the last thing we need is Rachel scaring her off." Kurt tells them.
Roxanne was over at her locker when Johnny came up to her. "Hey, there, stranger." Johnny greets her with a smile.
"Hi there." Roxanne greets with a smile of her own.
"So, I got some good news. I made the football team. Linebacker." Johnny tells her with a smile.
"Johnny, that's amazing." Roxanne tells him.
"I was about to join that Glee club with Sam, but after hearing some of the horror stories, I'm not sure anymore." Johnny tells her, with Roxanne nodding as if she understands.
"Hey, there Roxanne. I was just looking for you." Santana comes up to the two, looping her arm with hers and dragging her away from Johnny.
"Look, cut the shit. I know you used to be in Vocal Adrenaline. In fact, we all know." Santana tells her.
Roxanne sighs. Guess the cat is out of the bag.
"Look, I completely understand if you don't trust me…" Roxanne was about to explain, but Santana cut her off.
"Let me finish, Smurfette. If you're worried about that Hobbit, Berry, don't worry. A good chunk of us don't necessarily like her. And she definitely got chewed out after that crack house incident." Santana reassures her.
Roxanne decides to trust Santana at her word. Sure, she may seem very bitchy, but at least she's honest about it.
Santana leads Roxanne to the choir room, and Roxanne sees the faces of the rest of the New Directions.
"It's my blueberry." Brittany whispers to Quinn, smiling.
"Oh, goodie, everyone is here. Schuester, Hobbit, Jolly Green Giant, meet our nuclear weapon for taking out Vocal Adrenaline." Santana introduces Roxanne.
"Look, I'm just gonna get everything out of the way." Roxanne begins as Santana takes a seat next to Brittany. "I know you all know."
Finn Hudson has confusion etched onto his face. "Know what?"
"That I used to go to Carmel High and was a part of Vocal Adrenaline." Roxanne says out loud.
Rachel stands up to say something, but Roxanne walks up to her.
"I'd sit the fuck down, if I were you." the blue-haired girl admits. The short brunette is afraid to admit that Roxanne intimidates the living daylights out of her. Finn puts his arms out, as a means to separate the two girls.
"And I also know that assumption that would be made would set a very ugly precedent: that I'm like Jesse St. Jackass." Roxanne claims.
"Thank you for setting the record straight, Roxanne. Are you planning to audition?" Mr. Schuester asks.
Roxanne shrugs. "Depends. Am I also getting sent to a crack house?" she ironically asks.
"Listen, I am very grateful for what you did that day, but I assure you that Glee club is a safe space." Mr. Schuester tries to reassure her. All Roxanne could do is look at him warily.
Yeah, at this point, the only people she is trusting at the moment are the three cheerleaders.
Everyone relocates to the auditorium, with Roxanne being on stage.
"Well, the name is Roxanne Torres, and I will be singing Still Alive by Demi Lovato." Roxanne formally introduces herself
(SONG: Still Alive by Demi Lovato
COVER BY: Roxanne Torres)
Roxanne was out of breath after her performance. She got an uproar of applause. The only exception was Rachel, but hey, Roxanne doesn't give two shits about what she thinks.
It was clearly obvious that the brunette was jealous of her.
All Finn could do is smile: he will go on record about how Roxanne is talented, but he is scared to face the wrath of his girlfriend.
"Wow, uh…" Will Schuester stammers, turning back to the rest of the Glee club who are eager to welcome Roxanne with open arms. "W-Welcome to Glee Club!"