when her high school career starts at william mckinley high school, eleanor madigan has no idea just how much her life is about to change over the next few years, for better and for worse. all she really knows is that getting slushied does not sound...
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"mr schue?" elle questioned, taking a seat next to him at the final writing session where the new directions were supposed to show mr schue what they'd been working on. "could you take a listen to this?"
mr schue barely looked up from the paper he was reading, which elle could already tell was finn's song. "what was that?" he asked, finally lowering it and looking at eleanor.
"i have a song," she explained, holding up her ipod. "i wrote and produced it last night."
mr schue chuckled, impressed. "wow," he said simply. "that's really impressive eleanor, but i think i've made up my mind." he stood up and addressed the group. "we're using finn's song!"
as the rest of the new directions clapped politely for finn, elle grabbed mr schue's arm. "but you didn't even listen to it.." she spoke desperately.
"eleanor, i need you to be a team player right now." he told her, pushing her hand that held the ipod down and taking her by the shoulders.
elle's expression soured and she shrugged mr schue's hands off her. "doesn't really feel like i'm in a team anyways." she huffed before taking a seat beside her brother who shot her a sympathetic look.
the rest of the night was spent learning the lyrics to finn's song, as well as their choreography, so naturally, they were up late.
the following morning, the morning of the competition, eleanor woke up in a foul mood and refused to speak to anybody while they were getting ready, or while they were on the bus heading to the concert hall.
jeremiah nudged his sister once they'd arrived. "come on grumpy guts." he teased as they'd arrived. "don't let what schuester said get you down." he continued, throwing his arm around his sister once they were outside.
"you still wanna win this right?" jeremiah asked her, prompting elle to nod. "right, then act like it."
elle nodded again. "okay, fine." she finally smiled as the two of them followed their teammates inside.
while the new directions watched the other schools perform, it was hard not to feel intimidated and like they were pretty unprepared.
while the new directions were back stage, waiting to go on, mike approached elle and mercedes, giving the older girl a look to suggest that he wanted to talk with elle alone.
"you okay?" he asked, putting his hand on elle's shoulder. "you seem pretty down."
"i'm fine," she assured him with a confident nod.
"you can talk to me, ellie." mike told her reassuringly, his tone gentle. "what's up?"
elle huffed. "i wrote this song, and when i gave it to mr schue, he just brushed me off," she explained. "told me to be a team player."
