Chapter Text
“As I’m sure you are aware,” began Principal Figgins addressing Will and Sue, “McKinley’s Arts and Music budget is being reduced again. As of today, your clubs will have a 10 percent reduction compared to last school year. The fact that your clubs failed to win is partly responsible.”
“You can’t do that!” Will and Sue both shout at the same time. Will looks at Sue, non-verbally asking for a chance to go first, she grants it, with a wave of her hand.
“Figgins look, the New Directions made it to Regionals, that was your deal. If the glee club made it to Regionals we would be taken seriously and get more money. Slashing our already minuscule budget by 10 percent is insane. Take money out of the Cheerios or the football team or—”
“Okay buddy boy,” Sue interrupts Will, “I’m gonna stop you right there. The fact is your little glee club hasn’t been relevant since 1993, my Cheerios meanwhile have won Nationals six years in a row. Hell, we were robbed at Nationals this year because of Marley’s, ahem, little problem but we will be back,” Sue stands and leans over toward Figgins’ desk, “Figgins, if you take a dime out of the Cheerios budget I’ll make sure you take the bus every day,” Sue straightens up and crosses her arms, “Are we clear?”
Figgins nods slightly and clears his throat, “All right Sue, you can keep your budget, I’ll take money out of the Crafts Club, a lot of good making papier-mâché cranes did us at Homecoming last year.”
Will looks incensed as Sue heads for the door and turns to Figgins, “You can’t be serious? What does she have on you, Figgins?!”
As Sue leaves, Figgins clears his throat again, “Will, my hands are tied.”
“Unbelievable,” Will laments as he heads for 1st period Spanish.
———
Quinn walked with purpose through the halls of McKinley, she had spent the last 30 minutes cleaning up in the bathroom thanks to a red slushy being thrown in her face. Apparently this was their initiation ritual. Quinn sighed at least it was just slushies and not like the other far worse types of abuse she received at her old school. In fact, apart from her slushy attack, everything at McKinley was great. Hell, a couple of kids even helped her clean up afterwards.
Everyone at her old school hated her, and why? Because she was pretty and popular and just so happened to be the head cheerleader. Unfortunately, that didn’t mean squat since she was verbally abused by both students and teachers. She wondered why those teachers never got fired, but then she realised it was Florida and anything goes in Florida. Maybe her dad moving to Ohio was a good thing even if she didn’t know anyone.
As she passed another slushy victim as he was wiping his face with a towel she caught his eye and smiled, but she couldn’t stop to help him, she had a mission. To be Head Cheerio. She picked McKinley over other schools because of their cheer program. That was the deal she made with her parents: if she could pick her own school she’d move to Ohio otherwise she’d move in with Granny Fabray in Boca and go to school there. Sure, she wouldn’t know anyone in Boca either, but at least her friends—the few she had—would only be a drive away instead of a plane ride away.
As Quinn stands before Coach Sylvester and a girl she assumed was the captain in the school gym, she sized up her competition. The girl was pretty enough, but Quinn knew she was prettier. She looked athletic-looking enough, but Quinn didn’t spend hours in ballet and gymnastics as a kid for nothing. Quinn wondered what her personality was like though, was she a mean girl or was she the rah-rah peppy preppy type or something else?
“Well, you look interesting,” Sue said, breaking Quinn from her thoughts. “What’s your name?”
“I’m Quinn Fabray.”
“All right why are you here, I’ve never seen you before.”
“I’m here to audition for the Cheerios, and more specifically, Head Cheerio. And I’m a recent transfer.”
Sue smiles, “Ah, that explains your red chest stains. I like your attitude but I already have a head cheerleader. This is Marley,” Sue gestures toward Marley. “And I hate to make you lose your pep but I decide who’s captain.”
Quinn smiles, “That’s fine, just please don't write me off before you’ve seen me perform.”
“I like you. Go on show me your stuff.”
Quinn beams and glances toward Marley who is frowning slightly.
After a five-minute routine where Quinn danced, somersaulted, and backflipped. Sue thanked her but gave no indication, either way, just a simple, “Thank you, I’ll let you know.”
Quinn wasn’t discouraged though since Marley’s expression said otherwise. Quinn thanked her for the opportunity and left the gym.
———
Nick was pissed, why did his dad have to move to Ohio? He had to leave all his friends and move halfway across the country, and he had just won the football CIF D-II State championship too, no freshman quarterback had done that in California in 23 years. Why did he have to leave? Why did his dad have to accept a job in Ohio? McKinley was awful, they won one game last year, but at least they had a new coach this year. A woman surprisingly. She had won the Missouri state championship the last year so, regardless of gender she got results. And ultimately, that’s all Nick cared about. Nick was heading to the locker room for football tryouts when he got a slushy in the face for no damn reason. Did the faculty actually condone this behaviour?
He was wiping the blue slushy with a towel from his gym bag when a pretty blonde walked by and smiled at him. He saw the tale-tell sign of a slushy on the front of her shirt, apparently, the girl got the same treatment. But the way she smiled at him made him feel better. Maybe McKinley and Ohio wouldn’t be too bad, if he could find the girl again.
Nick headed to the locker room, quickly showered, changed and headed out to the field.
“All right, listen up, I don’t care if you were on the team last year because you won one measly game last year. As of right now, you’re all cut. Those who want to try out form two groups. I want my offense on the left and my defense on the right! Come on, move it!” Coach Beiste shouted.
Nick joined the offense. Sure he played safety too, last year, but he was more of a quarterback.
“All right first up, the offense. Running backs head to the track, Coach Benson will test your speed, before we test your on-field agility. Quarterbacks and receivers with me!”
The running backs left with Coach Benson.
“Okay, receivers to my left and quarterbacks to my right.”
Nick joined the quarterback line and he looked at his competition. He wasn’t worried about most of them except two guys who looked to be friends or something like that since they were talking quite animatedly amongst themselves. The tall one had what he could only describe as a flat Brillo pad for hair and uneven teeth. The other one was blond and had large thin lips that reminded him of an anime character.
“All right first up, the long ball. Listen up, receivers you will start by running 30-yard fly routes, and increase that distance by 10 yards for every successful catch up to 50 yards. If your quarterback under or overthrows you, you will get a second chance. But if you drop it, you are welcome to join the defense. Quarterbacks, if you under or overthrow your receiver, stop. That’s it for you. All right, as I call your number head to the goal line and wait for the whistle. On my whistle run your first route.”
Nick looked at the receivers. He hoped whoever he got had good hands.
“5, 17, you’re up.”
Brillo and his receiver took their places. This was gonna be good, Brillo didn’t look like he had an arm so Nick was confident. And he was right, after making the 30 he missed the 40 by five yards.
“Next up, 6 and 81.”
Blondie stepped up this time. He made the 30 and 40 but missed the 50 by five yards too. Nick was even more confident now.
“Next, 10 and 11 on the mark.”
Nick was confident, his receiver looked like the best one so far, he just hoped his hands were too. Nick easily made all three throws and thankfully his receiver made all three catches.
Next up were post and curl routes. Nick aced those as well but this time Brillo beat Blondie. Well, at least they didn’t beat him. By the end of practice, Coach Beiste said she would post the depth chart tomorrow.
Nick headed to the locker room happy for the first time since seeing the blonde who smiled at him. As he was walking toward the locker room, Brillo and Blondie were singing as they walked ahead of him. He wondered if McKinley was more of an arts school? It would make sense if it was, since he heard several others sing continually throughout the day, both individually and in groups and McKinley’s auditorium was pretty modern compared to some others, even in California.
———
“Bad news guys,” Will said to the New Directions minus Finn, Sam, and Mike who were at football tryouts, “Principal Figgins slashed our budget this year by 10 percent.”
“What?! Are you kidding me?” Said Mercedes disbelieving and rolling her eyes.
“We were going to use that money for new microphones,” said Rachel calmly although the slight bite in her tone suggested she was anything but.
“I know and I’m sorry but you should all be proud, we placed 3rd at Regionals last year the best result in school history in 17 years,” Will said trying his best to be positive.
“We still didn’t win, and it was a double whammy for me and Brittany since Marley screwed up at Nationals. No me gusta,” said Santana.
“Mr. Schue’s right, we may have lost the battle but the war’s not over. We can come back stronger,” Artie said with a smile creeping on his face as he signals to the band to play Kanye West’s “Stronger”.
The rest of the kids eventually join in and they laugh out their frustrations.
“That’s a great attitude Artie, but with two people graduating last year we need at least one more preferably two more members to overcome Regionals, the more voices the better.”
“Okay, let’s get recruiting!” Tina said excitedly.
“I’ll get the poster paper,” quipped Brittany.
The kids perform the Beatles’ “With a Little Help from My Friends” while making sign-up posters.
———
Later that night in bed, Will was recounting his day to Emma who was looking a bit nervous, well, more so.
“Emma, what’s wrong?”
“I took a test today and I passed,” Emma mumbled, biting her lip.
“Oh come on Emma, you can’t keep taking kids’ tests for them!”
“I didn’t, I wasn’t. It was…a pregnancy test.”
“A-a pregnancy test? And you passed?” Will double-checked. Emma nodded. A large grin replaced his momentary look of shock, he and Emma had tried for months and now they finally got the result they wanted.
“Why don’t you look happy? Do you not want it?” Will questioned his normally peppy wife’s Debby Downer attitude.
“What if they’re not ginger?!” Emma shouted after several moments.
“So?”
“My parents will hate them! You remember the first time they met you?”
Will’s face softened as he gathered Emma in his arms as she began to sob, “Oh sweetheart, no grandparent can hate their own grandchild. Don’t you worry your pretty little head about that. You know what, my day started out with some bad news, but it ended with the best possible. I love you, Em,” as he kissed the top of her head. “And I love you too, baby,” as he stroked his wife’s stomach, causing her to laugh in between tears.
———
As the glee club assembled after school, this time with Finn, Sam, and Mike; Rachel ran in excitedly.
“You guys, I just heard the most beautiful voice, it was like a choir angel,” Rachel said with a dreamy sigh.
“Uh, Rachel, you okay,” asked Mercedes, “Because usually, you don’t heap this kind of praise on anyone but yourself.”
The rest of the kids nod in agreement. In the year or so that they’ve been doing this, they’ve come to expect Rachel’s diva-like tendencies.
Rachel stuck her tongue out at Mercedes but there was no malice in it. “I know everyone thinks I’m a diva, but this voice was special. And Mr. Schue was saying we need more voices and my classically trained ear knows we need another tenor and this was it.”
“Wait, a tenor? So another guy?” Blaine asked, “Where did you hear this voice exactly?”
“By the locker rooms. Obviously, I couldn’t go in but the acoustics was just fine for me to judge.”
At the mention of the locker room, Finn turned to Sam whispering, “Oh man, she probably heard Nick. Crap, I’m already third on the depth chart but if she gets Nick to join the glee club there goes my girlfriend too.”
“Dude relax, that dude is all about football he doesn’t care about glee club,” Sam tried to comfort Finn. In the back of his mind, Sam felt bad for first taking the starting job from him last year and now beating him out for the backup spot to Nick. “He’ll never join glee club.”
“God, I hope not.”
———
Marley and Quinn were sitting in Coach Sylvester’s office both in their Cheerio uniforms, the former upset and the latter smug.
“Coach, you can’t do this! I worked my butt off to be Head Cheerio and now you’re just gonna give it to some random newbie?!”
Quinn turned to face Marley, frowning, “Random newbie? Excuse you! I was head cheerleader at St. Mary's as a freshman while you were ‘working your butt’.”
“Ladies,” Sue interrupted although she didn’t want to, “My decision is final, and Marley just so you know, I can do this. And just for talking back, I’m demoting you to the bottom of the pyramid. Quinn is our new captain,” Sue turned to Quinn, “Don’t make me regret this.”
“I won’t,” Quinn beamed.
“All right, we’re done here. Cheer practice starts tomorrow.”
As the two girls leave in opposite directions, Sue smiles behind her latte. It is good to have competition, without it you become complacent. She knows Marley will come back stronger after this.
———
While the glee club practice, Finn takes Rachel aside into the hallway, “Hey, I don’t think it’s a good idea for you to be bringing in another guy.”
“Why not, we don’t discriminate in glee club.”
“Yeah but,” Finn couldn’t believe he was saying this, “What if you like him more than me? He’s already the starting quarterback, if he joins and sounds better than me there goes my girlfriend too.”
Rachel’s expression softens, “Wait, you know him? You have to introduce me! Please?”
That was not the reaction Finn expected, “Rachel did you not hear a word I said?”
“I heard you but we need more voices—guys or girls—heck just more members period. And look, Finn, you don’t have to worry about me falling for another guy because to be perfectly honest, I’m quite happy with my third-string quarterback. This way I don’t have to worry about you getting hurt.” She leaned up and gave him a peck on the lips, which he deepened.
“Ugh, get a room,” quipped Santana as she and Brittany walked by on the way to cheer practice.
Finn and Rachel pull apart, “So will you introduce me?” Rachel asked again.
Finn groaned as he hugged Rachel tighter.
———
“Ladies, I have a special mission for you,” Sue addressed Santana and Brittany, “Your mission if you choose to accept it—if you don’t you’ll be demoted—is to befriend the new girl, also known as our new cheer captain,” Sue pointed to Quinn who was doing some stretches.
“So you finally got rid of Marley?” Asked Santana, she secretly hated the girl for usurping her as cheer captain then falling during Nationals.
“No, Marley’s still here just at the bottom of the pyramid for back talking.”
“Okay, we accept. What is she like?” Brittany deadpanned.
“Full of confidence but other than that, I have no clue. That’s your job.”
Brittany and Santana smile at each other, if they work their magic right the Dynamic Duo could be a threesome.
After practice, Santana and Brittany catch up to Quinn.
“You were awesome out there,” quipped Brittany.
“Thanks,” Quinn replied, “It felt good to be out there on top again, the move has been rough on me. Cheerleading is the only thing that’s been a constant.”
“So what do you make of the Cheerios?”
“I like you guys, although Marley’s been giving me the stink-eye ever since Coach Sylvester named me captain.”
“Mar-queen thinks she’s all that, but just between us she’s lucky Sylvester didn’t can her after Nationals,” Santana interjected.
Quinn was curious about what happened, “Yeah, I heard about that, what happened anyway?”
“She fell off the pyramid after she belched, it was pretty funny,” Brittany took over.
Quinn laughed. “But why did she belch?”
“I slipped her a Gas X tablet during lunch,” Santana said wickedly.
This made Quinn double over, and she walked right into Nick and stumbled but he caught her.
“S-sorry,” Quinn apologised while tucking a non-existent hair back.
Brittany and Santana smirked, apparently the new cheer captain likes the new quarterback.
“No, it was my fault. I’m Nick,” he offered her his hand.
“Quinn,” and she took it.
“That’s a pretty name. Hey listen, if you’re not doing anything Friday night, do you wanna go get some coffee? I mean you’ll be here for the game and so will I but, you know after.”
Quinn smiled, “I’d love to.”
Nick smiled back, “Great, so I’ll see you after the game?”
“Yeah.”
“See you then, Quinn,” Nick lifted her hand still in his grasp to his lips, kissing the back of it and left.
After Nick left, Santana and Brittany stood on either side of a blushing Quinn, “Boy, you work fast,” Santana remarked with a wicked smile.
Still blushing, “I don’t normally.”
“Coulda fooled me, Quinnie,” remarked Santana, “But you know how to pick ‘em, that boy is fine.”
Quinn turned to Santana, “Please don’t go after him, I really like him.”
“Sister please, I have no interest in your man.”
Quinn sighed in relief.
“Although you’re nothing like Sylvester said you were, she said you were brimming with confidence but you’re over here asking me to lay off your man, who isn’t even your man…yet.”
Quinn’s blush returned, “Oh, um, that’s because, oh gosh, this is so humiliating,” Quinn cleared her throat, “I’ve never dated before.”
That brought Santana and Brittany up short, “Never?!” They harsh whispered getting up in her face.
“Nope.”
“But you’re a cheerleader, how can you not date?” Brittany asked perplexed.
“Oh I’ve been out with friends and whatnot but never on a one-on-one date, because you see my dad is a Protestant minister and well, until we moved to Ohio, I was pretty much celibate.”
“What?” Santana’s jaw dropped.
“I went to an all-girls school, so no boys,” Quinn said quietly.
Santana smirked, “Ohh, baby girl do we have a lot to teach you. Come on, you’re coming with us to Breadstix,” as she draped an arm over Quinn’s shoulder.
———
“More bad news, guys—“
“Mr. Schue, how come every time you announce something it's bad news? Seriously, you’re starting to sound like The Professor on Futurama,” interrupted Mercedes.
“Yeah,” the rest of the glee club agreed.
“Well I’m sorry Mercedes but our big recruitment concert was denied.”
“What, why?” Kurt asked, he had spent the last two days on the t-shirts.
“Jacob’s blog preemptive review. I quote, ‘The New Direction’s recruitment concert is a must miss for students of good music. I would go if you like music from an era of big hair and ballads galore, aka the 80s but that is so 2002.’ As a result, Figgins won’t budge for the auditorium’s use.”
“We can overcome that if you would let us do some new material,” Blaine remarked bitingly.
“Yeah,” the glee club agreed again.
“Come on guys, Journey’s library is a classic,” Will defended.
“Exactly, classic. We are modern,” Blaine shot back.
“Hey, I know! Kurt, you still got the t-shirts?” Rachel asked. Kurt nodded. “Okay, how about an all-or-nothing performance Friday at lunch? We can wheel out the speakers and just go for it.”
The glee club agreed.
“But—” Will began but angry glares from Santana, Rachel, Mercedes, and Blaine made him think otherwise. “All right,” he relented.
———
Friday came, and Nick was anxious. The first game of the season and a date with Quinn to follow. He just hoped he wouldn’t get distracted by her in her uniform because she looked damn fine in it. His first week wasn’t all that bad actually, apart from the first day and that slushie. He also reminded himself to thank Finn aka “Brillo” for his help with Quinn the day she bumped into him. Apparently, the two girls on either side of Quinn were good friends of his, he should have known a football player would know the cheerleaders, hell, he’s probably dating one of them. Nick just hoped Finn doesn’t have his eyes out for Quinn.
So as anxious as he was, he was still pretty happy, Ohio’s not that bad and neither was McKinley, but the constant singing was a bit much if he was honest. Still, a good lunch and two more classes then, he could forget about everything else while on the field. Nick sat down at one of the stair tables in the main quad only to see Finn, Sam and Mike wheel out portable speakers. Then out of nowhere, Finn, Sam and Mike and a bunch of other kids started singing “Empire State of Mind” and Nick was slightly embarrassed to admit they sounded really good and that he started to sing along.
After their performance, the tiny girl who started the harmonies announced that they would be holding auditions next week and all were welcome. Nick dismissed that notion. He needed to concentrate. He had a game to win and a girl to sweep off her feet after.
———
Damn, they had 90 seconds to go 70 yards with one time out and down by three. Nick was just thankful he hadn’t thrown an interception. But the four sacks he suffered tonight courtesy of his right guard didn’t help.
“All right boys, we got 90 seconds and 70 yards standing between us and victory. Here’s what we’re gonna do: no-huddle, four-set, single back. All the way. But one change, Karofsky you’re now at left guard. Higgins, you’re in at right. If I see them show blitz, I’ll audible to max protect, otherwise let’s go win this! X option, Y fly, Z dagger on one, all right?”
Over on the bench Sam and Finn were talking, “You think we can win this?”
“I don’t see why not, Nick’s played a hell of a game, in hindsight I’m glad Beiste made him the starter,” Finn replied.
“Yeah, me too. Those four sacks were rough,” Sam agreed. “Wait, did Beiste move Higgins?”
“No, I don’t think so,” Finn looked up to see that indeed Karofsky and Higgins had switched. “You think Nick made that call?”
“I would.”
The first snap was a one-on-one jump ball to Taylor at the 50 and both Finn and Sam had to admit Nick knew coverage to exploit it. Taylor made the catch but couldn’t get out of bounds.
“At least we’re in Wilson territory,” Finn remarked.
Back in the game, Nick called a Z ace, 34 flow. That was a man coverage bomb to the sidelines or a pitch to Anthony if it turned out to be zone. The Wilson defense opted for zone, so Nick pitched it. Anthony got some space and ran 11 yards for a first down and out of bounds.
“Watch the Mike! S drop single!” Nick called. Nick saw the Mike creep back, “H trot! Hut, hut!” He connected on a quick slant to the tight end for 8 yards and called time out.
“Okay, guys great drive so far. So should we end it now or toy with them at least a little?”
“End this!” Rutherford said.
Nick smirked. “All right guys, let’s get our first W, J post all! Who wants it?”
The receivers looked around confused. “Come on, somebody’s gotta catch this,” Nick said, “No volunteers? Okay, yo Finn come here!” he waved Finn over.
Finn was confused and looked at Sam for advice, but Sam gave none so he ran over. “Whatcha need?”
“You ever run a J post, before?”
Finn shook his head. “It’s a deep post to the middle of the end zone, it’s something that won me State last year. It’s a six wide-set and everyone will run deep posts, with plenty of time on the clock they won’t be expecting us to throw it deep, which is why Karofsky, Higgins, let them through, I’ll need time to get the receivers in place so I’m gonna be scrambling a little. The first receiver past the five will be the one I’m throwing to, Finn you think you can run that fast?”
Finn chuckled, “Of course.”
“Well let’s see, on one.”
The play was drawn up to perfection, Nick scrambled and launched a post bomb toward Finn who made the catch with only six seconds remaining. When he looked over toward the bleachers Nick caught Quinn’s eye and winked. She blushed and smiled into her pom-pom.
“Nick Tran with a beautiful on-the-run spiral to Finn Hudson with a fantastic catch for the lead!” The PA screeched.
McKinley won 27-23.
———
The date after was the best of Quinn’s life, it was also her first but semantics aside, it was great. Nick was funny, sweet and had really nice eyes. Quinn knew the guys at the all-boys school across from St. Mary’s had ogled her and several had attempted to ask her out but she wasn’t interested, because she knew what they wanted from her and frankly she wasn’t ready for that. But Nick seemed to want to really know her, he asked her about her interests, likes and dislikes but he was really sweet about it. They went to the Lima Bean after the game, and ordered coffee and then talked for nearly three hours. They bonded immediately after they lamented leaving the places they grew up for Ohio but after that he made her feel, well, like a giddy schoolgirl after he asked her out again. And the night ended with the sweetest goodnight kiss to her cheek. She wondered if she would ever stop blushing.
Even hours after her cheek still tingled from his kiss. She couldn’t wait for their next date, but she was hesitant to confirm or deny going to the glee club audition on Monday when he asked. Quinn enjoyed their performance at lunch, and while singing was a hobby of sorts of hers she wasn’t sure she was good enough, plus she had promised Coach Sylvester she wouldn’t regret making her Head Cheerio. Another club might be too much for her to take on. School, potentially taking on another club, and a potential boyfriend.
All of that danced in Quinn’s head as she finally succumbed to sleep.