Blake stands at her locker quickly brushing her hand through her hair, wanting to untangle it while she can. She leans forward slightly and smiles into her small locker mirror to make sure she doesn't have anything in her teeth. Her first day of junior year has to be perfect.
"Blake! Blake! Jacob Ben Israel here."
The girl internally groans and slams her locker door shut, "What do you want cremé puff?" She rolls her eyes.
"How do you address the rumors that your supposed lover Jesse St. James left you over the summer because of a newfound interest in California." The boy asks excitedly, putting the microphone in her face.
Blake shrugs, "Yeah. He's going to UCLA, so we thought it would be best if we separated for now. He's a freshman in college and I'm a junior in high school. Problems were going to arise at some point." She says, nonchalantly.
Blake begins to walk away, but the red headed boy just won't give it a rest. He chases after her, the cameraman following suit. "And how do you feel knowing that Finn Hudson chose Rachel Berry to be his one and only instead of you?"
"I'm happy for them." Blake says, uninterested. "Love is love and I'm glad they found it."
"I have four sources confirming you've had three mental breakdowns over the summer because of it." Jacob continues.
"Then maybe you should find some new sources." She looks at him irritated. "No more questions." She commands and aggressively pushes the camera away from her face.
"Did you get that?" Jacob smiles, "Well you heard it here first people. Blake Henley is jealous."
Blake makes her way over to the choir room and smiles at the sight of Mercedes and Tina. She squeals as she runs over to the two girls, both of them enveloping her in a hug.
"Girl, where have you been?" Mercedes laughs, "I've been trying to reach you all summer."
Blake laughs, "My dad took us to Italy for the summer."
"What?!" Both girls exclaim.
Blake nods, "Yeah. He wanted to make up for never being home most of the time. So, Italy was his apology present."
"How was the food?" Tina smiles.
"It was so good." Blake reminisces, "Seriously, Breadstix is trash compared to the food I had there."
"I bet." Mercedes nods, "It's Italy. It would be kinda disappointing if the food was bad."
Blake laughs and takes a seat next to the two girls, continuing to talk about her trip. She notices Finn and Rachel walk into the room hand in hand, and completely averts her eyes. She hasn't talked to Finn since the school year ended. She wanted to reach out to him over the summer, but figured it would be best to keep some distance between them since he's dating Rachel. Believe it or not the only people she really talked to over break were Ace, Quinn, and Kurt. She tried to reach out to Puck, but he seemed to fall off the face of the earth.
Mr. Schuester comes into the classroom and stands in front of the piano. "These are comments from Jacob Ben-Israel's most recent Glee Club blog. 'Glee is a giant ball of suck.'" He points out.
"We get it, Mr. Shue. Everyone still hates us. So what?" Kurt shrugs, "So we're plankton on the high school food chain? Only difference now is that none of us really care." He shakes his head.
"Kurt's right. We're a family. They can bring it all they want. None of it is going to break us." Mercedes adds.
Blake nods her head, "And last time I checked Jacob Ben Israel's blog isn't exactly the best place to get accurate information."
Mr. Schue looks at them with complete seriousness, "Okay, I'm really happy that you guys have all bonded. The problem is that all of this negative stuff is keeping other students from auditioning."
Tina shrugs, "Good. Why do we need new members?"
"Well, since Matt transferred, we only have thirteen members, and while that is enough to compete, if we want to go to Nationals, if we want to beat Vocal Adrenaline, we have to go from a small rebel force to a giant wall of sound." The teacher explains, much more passionate about winning than he was last year.
"Yeah, Mr. Schuester's right, you guys." Rachel jumps in, "You didn't see Vocal Adrenaline at Regionals. They were epic. We're going to need more voices in order to beat them."
"Actually, I was in Vocal Adrenaline." Blake raises her hand, "I think I'd know more than anyone." She says with a bit of cockiness in her voice. "I'm gonna be real, Vocal Adrenaline is good, but they're not as good without a star singer. They don't have Jesse anymore so they'll be lacking in that area." She counters.
"I don't know." Finn smiles at his girlfriend, "I'm with Rachel on this one."
Blake rolls her eyes at the couple. Brittany grimaces and vocalizes Blake's thoughts, "Gross."
"You're going to have to trust me on this, guys." Mr. Schue pleads, "Now, here's the plan. Nationals are in New York this year, and we are going." He laughs slightly, "Now let's go out there and show the school how cool it's going to be, how cool we can be. If they're not going to come to us, let's go to them. They say we only sing show tunes and '80s pop. Let's show them how down we are. Let's give them the song of the year, New Directions style!" He crosses his arms over his chest, making Blake cringe.
The group dresses up in matching shirts that say "New York" in big bold lettering. Blake grabs a black hat as her accessory and puts it on backwards. She checks herself out in the mirror making sure everything looks good, and she heads out to the quad with the others.
When she goes outside she can't help but laugh at the appearance of her classmates. She has no idea what made Mr. Schuester think this was a good idea. One of two things are going to happen: 1. They get booed and people start throwing their food, or 2. They get no reaction at all.
The music to "Empire State of Mind" starts to play, and Blake takes a seat next to Kurt on one of the blue tables scattered around the pavement.
[Artie]
Yeah
Yeah, I'm up at Brooklyn
Now I'm down in Tribeca
Right next to DeNiro
But I'll be hood forever
I'm the new Sinatra
And since I made it here
I can make it anywhere
Yeah, they love me everywhere
Blake gets up and runs around the quad with the rest of the group, smiling as Artie raps the beginning verses to the song. While she doesn't believe this will attract any new members, at least it's fun.
[Finn]
I used to cop in Harlem
All of my Dominicanos
Right there up on Broadway
Brought me back to that McDonald's
Took it to my stash box
Five-Sixty state-street
Catch me in the kitchen
Like a Simmons with them pastries
Blake looks up to her left and sees Mercedes and Puck running down the stairs. She smiles at how ridiculous Puck looks in his hat, and shakes her head at how cool he's trying to act.
Puck (Mercedes):
Eight million stories out there in it naked (Oh-wooh, woah)
The city is a pity, half o' y'all won't make it
Me, I got a plug Special Ed, "I Got It Made" (Woah-ooh-ooh)
If Jesus payin' LeBron I'm payin' Dwayne Wade
Three-dice Cee-Lo (Whoa, ooh-ooh)
Three-card Marley
Labor Day Parade
Rest in peace, Bob Marley
Puck makes his way down the stairs and grabs Blake's hand, dragging her along with him and Mercedes.
Jigga, I be spiked out (New Directions Girls: Come on)
I can trip a referee (New Directions Girls: Come on)
Tell by my attitude (New Directions Girls: Come on)
That I most definitely from
[Blake with New Directions]
New York (Rachel: New york)
Concrete jungle where dreams are made of
There's nothing you can't do (That won't do) (Mercedes: You can't do, oh)
Now you're in New York (Rachel: You're in New York) (Welcome to the bright lights, baby)
These streets will make (with Rachel: you feel brand new) (Mercedes: You feel brand new)
Big lights will (with Rachel: inspire you)
Let's hear it for New York (Mercedes: Oh)
New York
New York (Rachel: Yeah, hey)
Blake goes with the rest of the girls on top of the concrete steps, waving her arm in the air with the rest of the girls. She smiles over at Santana, happy to be dancing next to the girl. If Blake's honest her and Brittany are her favorite dance partners.
[Mercedes and Santana with New Directions Girls]
One hand in the air for the big city
Street lights, big dreams all looking pretty
No place in the world that could compare
Put your lighters in the air
Blake takes a step forward and begins to belt the next part of the song. She stays on the top step as the boys dance a couple steps below her. Once she finishes everyone makes their way up to the big step that the girls were on.
[Finn and Blake with New Directions]
Everybody say yeah, yeah (New Directions Girls: Come on, come on)
Yeah, yeah (New Directions Girls: Come on)
[Santana with New Directions (New Directions)]
In (Mercedes: New York) (New York)
Concrete jungle where dreams are made of (Mercedes: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah)
There's nothing you can't do (You can't do)
As Blake dances next to all of her friends, she looks out into the crowd of students. Most of them are unimpressed and uninterested. Some eating lunch, others doing homework, but as she continues to scan the mob of teens she notices a cute blonde boy tapping his foot to the music.
The boy notices her staring and he smiles at her, sending her a small wave. Blake, feeling herself, sends the boy a wink back, causing him to blush at the girl's forwardness.
Now you're in New York (Mercedes: New York, New York) (New York)
These streets will make you feel brand new (Blake: Brand new) (Brand new)
Big lights will (with Mercedes: inspire you) (Inspire you)
Let's hear it for New York (Mercedes: New York)
New York (Blake: New York)
New York (Mercedes: New York)
The New Directions sit down on the steps, finishing the song out. They bob their heads to the music and as it finishes the reaction was exactly what Blake expected. Absolutely nothing.
╔═══*.·:·.☽✧ ✦ ✧☾.·:·.*═══╗
Blake walks down the hallway, happy that it's finally her free period. While she did spend most of the summer in Italy, she managed to get some of her credits out of the way before school started.
She sits down in the empty hallway and brings out her songbook. She's been working on it a lot more since last year ended. Before she was distracted with boys, but this year she's determined to finish at least five songs by the end of the year.
The previous song she was working on she decided to title "Eyes Wide Open." That was the first thing she began to work on when she got home from the last day of school. She has two songs currently that she's working on. One of them being from the beginning of last year when she first met Finn. The other being one she recently started.
As she continues to scribble lyrics in her book, the sound of footsteps echos through the hallway. She quickly lifts her head up and sees the blonde boy from the courtyard.
"Hey." She smiles kindly.
The boy stops in his tracks and looks over at the brunette, "Hey." He says. He squints his eyes slightly until a bell rings in his head, "You're the girl from the song earlier!" He points out.
Blake chuckles, hanging her head down a bit. "Yeah, that's me."
"You guys did really good." He nods, "I actually just got singing for the guys you performed with." He says, putting his hands in his pockets. "They were kinda weird."
Blake smiles at the socially awkward boy, "They're trying to recruit you already?"
"Yeah, I guess." He shrugs shyly.
"Do you want to join?" She asks with genuine curiosity.
Sam's eyes go wide, "Yeah. Yeah. Um, I don't know. It seems cool." He admits, "But I've got football ya know?"
"I get it." Blake nods. "But hey if you decide you want to join, just know you have a friend in there besides the boys." She smiles, standing up. "I'm Blake Henley." She puts her hand out.
Sam gives the girl a half smile and nods, "Sam Evans." He says, shaking her hand.
"Well Sam, it was nice meeting you." She says, gathering her stuff. "I'll see you around, yeah?"
"Yeah." Sam nods, seemingly in a daze from meeting the girl from earlier that he couldn't stop thinking about.
╔═══*.·:·.☽✧ ✦ ✧☾.·:·.*═══╗
Mercedes, Blake and Kurt all sit in the choir room, Blake showing them some chord progression ideas she has for her songs. They all sit and laugh as they converse with each other.
Mercedes glances over at Kurt and raises an eyebrow, "So, is that a men's sweater?"
Kurt deflects the question with the best response possible, "Fashion has no gender."
Blake laughs, "Amen."
Suddenly the group is interrupted by a worked up Rachel Berry, "Ladies, we have a problem." She says seriously. "There's a new student at this school named Sunshine who is a Filipino and is shorter than me. Which I didn't think was possible and is very unnerving." Rachel rants, looking very frazzled about meeting a short person.
"And I'm done." Blake says, getting up to leave.
"Wait!" Rachel exclaims, grabbing Blake's arm.
Blake glances down at the girls hand and gives her a threatening look, "If you want to keep that hand, I suggest you remove it."
Rachel looks at the girl fearfully and takes her hand off of Blake. She glances at the three teens and resumes voicing her concerns. "And...she has a remarkable voice." Rachel sighs, "I'm just...I'm very worried. You know, not-not for myself, but for my lesser Glee Clubbers who don't get as many solos." Blake scoffs at the girl's ego and rolls her eyes, "So I've paid a hundred dollars to Azimio and Karofsky to brutally slushie us in front of Sunshine's locker, terrifying her and ensuring she doesn't sign up." The trio looks at Rachel like she's absolutely insane, "Okay, so this is the part where you're supposed to be hugging me and thanking me."
"What is wrong with you?" Blake looks at the girl with disgust.
Mercedes shakes her head, "That's awful. You're awful."
Rachel opens her mouth in shock, not expecting this reaction. "But solos! I mean-" She tries to defend herself.
"Look, Rachel, Mercedes, Blake and I are about as self-involved as they come," The two girls nod in agreement, "but more than anything, we want to beat Vocal Adrenaline. And if there's someone at the school that can help us do that, they're in." Kurt states, leaving no room for an argument.
Rachel looks at the three with a fake look of acceptance on her face, "You know what? You're right. It's just...so like me to just be totally blinded by my concern for the three of you. I'll-I'll-I'll go talk to Sunshine now and just let her know how truly welcome she really is." She smiles, leaving the classroom.
"She's a terrible liar." Blake comments.
"Absolutely." Mercedes adds.
Kurt nods, "Mhm."
╔═══*.·:·.☽✧ ✦ ✧☾.·:·.*═══╗
Blake makes her say outside the school, walking over to the track that surrounds the football field. Over the summer she realized that she has a lot of pent up anger and frustrations. While writing songs helped her with that, she discovered that running seems to have a better effect, and it keeps her active.
She pulls her hair up into a ponytail, and starts running around the track. At first she starts off with a light jog, but slowly over time it progresses into a full on sprint. She thinks about how angry she was at Jesse for dumping her out of the blue when he moved to California without telling her. She thinks about how mad she is that Mr. Schuester still seems to be favoring Rachel. She remembers how Puck completely ignored her over the summer, leaving her without her best friend. She thinks about how Finn chose Rachel over her after everything they've been through. All those things make the girl run.
She feels the light breeze hitting her face, only making her want to run faster. Before she can even register what's happening she accidentally crashes into someone, making them both topple over.
"Oh my gosh! I'm so sorry. I wasn't looking where I was going." She rambles.
"Blake?" Finn groans, "What are you doing out here?" He asks, with the girl still on top of him.
"Finn." Blake says, a blush creeping onto her cheeks. The girl quickly stands up and dusts herself off. "I was running." She says, still slightly out of breath.
"Why?" He sits up, rubbing the back of his head.
She clears her throat,"Helps me clear my mind."
The girl puts her hand out, helping the boy into his feet. "I barely even recognized you." He admits, "You're really fast."
"Thank you. I think." She smiles unsurely.
"Yeah. It's a good thing." He smiles, "Most guys in the football team can't even run that fast." He chuckles.
"That's not surprising." She jokes. As Blake glances at the boy she notes that the happy look on his face faded when he mentioned football. She softly puts a hand on his shoulder, "Hey, you okay?"
He sighs and shakes his head, "The new coach kicked me off the team."
"What?" Blake looks at him confused, "Why?"
"I tried to get Artie a spot on the team, and she thought I was messing with her. So she kicked me off." He says, sadly.
"Why would Artie want to be on the football team?" Blake thinks out loud.
Finn shrugs, "I guess Tina broke up with him, and he wanted to try and win her back."
"Oh." Blake nods, "Yeah, Tina told me about her and Mike." She sighs, "Man, that sucks. I can't believe she kicked you off for trying to help someone."
"Yeah." Finn says, disappointedly. "There's nothing I can do about it now."
Blake looks over the boy, "This is really getting you down isn't it?"
Finn simply just nods, not having the energy to speak up. Blake looks at him determined, "Come on."
She begins to walk towards the school. Finn stares at her, not fully comprehending what's happening, but soon follows after her. "Where are we going?"
"To talk to your coach." Blake states.
"No." Finn shakes his head rapidly. "Blake, she'll eat you alive."
"Let her." Blake shrugs, "I told you last year I would do anything I could to make it up to you for me leaving." She reminds him. "Think of this as me starting to fulfill that."
Finn looks at the girl, his heart skipping a beat. Woah, that hasn't happened in awhile. "Okay." He smiles.
Blake makes her way into the boys locker room, knowing she's not supposed to be in there, but doesn't care anyway. She walks past some of the football players. A few catcalling her or trying to cover up, she pays them no attention as she marches her way to the Coach's office.
Once she reaches it, she notes the plaque outside the door says 'Coach Bieste.' Blake assumes that's the name of the new coach, and she knocks on the woman's door.
The older woman opens the door and looks at the shorter brunette in front of her, "Can I help you?"
Blake nods and gives the woman a small smile, "Hi, Coach Bieste? I'm Blake." She says, sticking her hand out for the woman to shake.
Coach Bieste looks over the girl skeptically, but still shakes her hand, "What can I do for you Blake?"
"My friend Finn Hudson," Blake points back to the boy who seems to be hiding in the back, "Was the quarterback of the football team last year. I heard you kicked him off because he was trying to get our friend who's in a wheelchair a spot on the team."
Coach Bieste nods, "What's it to you little missy?"
"I was just wondering if you would be willing to reconsider your decision?" Blake asks, "Finn is a good guy and I assure you didn't mean anything ill by suggesting Artie to have a spot on the team."
"Look, the panther appreciates a person who's willing to stand up for her friends." She nods, "But she doesn't appreciate being messed with. So I'll tell you what. I'll think about it. But I won't promise anything."
"That's all I ask." Blake nods. "Thank you Coach." She smiles.
Coach Bieste simply nods at the girl, and Blake makes her way back over to Finn. "She said she'd think about it."
"Really?" Finn looks at her surprised.
"Yeah." Blake nods, "I think she just needs time to cool down."
"Thank you, Blake." Finn smiles, "You're the best."
"I know." She winks.
╔═══*.·:·.☽✧ ✦ ✧☾.·:·.*═══╗
Blake sits next to Quinn in the choir room, handing her a pain killer to stop the headache she got from getting into a fight with Santana. Blake had tried to talk to both girls about it, but both of them brushed it off.
The glee club states intently at the clock, waiting for students to come in and audition. Rachel sighs, "Well, hate to break it to you, but it doesn't look like anyone's gonna be joining us, so I think we should just call it a day." She says, looking quite happy with the fact no one showed up.
"We said three to five. It's only four fifty eight." Mr. Schue says, still holding on to hope.
Blake rolls her eyes, and begins packing up her stuff. Most of the club following her lead and doing the same. The rest of the club goes to head out the door but Finn stops them, "Just wait. My buddy Sam's gonna try out. He totally idolizes me."
Kurt looks at the brunette boy, annoyed. "Oh, face it, Finn. You're no longer the quarterback. You're not the Pied Piper anymore. No one's gonna follow you around thinking everything you do is cool." He shakes his head.
"What about that Sunshine girl?" Mercedes asks Rachel, "I thought you said she could sing."
"I guess she didn't want to hang out with us losers." Rachel shrugs, trying to make the other girl look like a villain.
"Yeah." Blake nods skeptically, "I'm sure that's it."
╔═══*.·:·.☽✧ ✦ ✧☾.·:·.*═══╗
Somehow Rachel managed to make it up to that Sunshine girl. As Blake looks at the short raven haired girl, she can't help but feel sorry for her. Blake glares over at Rachel, extremely angry at the fact she tried to send the poor girl to a crack house. What kind of person does that?
The entire glee club stands in the auditorium, excited to hear Sunshine audition. The girl smiles out to the audience, "Hi, I'm Sunshine Corazon, and I'll be singing 'Listen' from the movie Dreamgirls."
"Broadway show first." Rachel comments.
"Shut up." Blake says, along with the entire club. Apparently all of them are feeling the same way towards Rachel at the moment.
Sunshine begins to sing the song and holy cow is that girl talented. Blake might be upset at the fact she's going to have an even lesser chance at getting a solo, but with this girl on the team, Vocal Adrenaline won't stand a chance. The short girl belts her heart out, and Blake bounces along to the music, excited that they've discovered such an amazing talent. The club whoops and hollers as the girl sings. And once she finishes the cheering is even louder.
Mr. Schue laughs and smiles at the girl on stage, "Wow. Um, Welcome to the Glee Club." He claps.
╔═══*.·:·.☽✧ ✦ ✧☾.·:·.*═══╗
"So, how'd your first day of junior year go?" Derek asks, flopping onto his sister's bean bag chair.
"It was eventful." Blake laughs slightly, "How was your first day?"
"Boring." He puts simply, "I have tryouts to be captain for the soccer team tomorrow." He adds.
"You're actually gonna do it?" Blake looks at him smiling.
"Yeah." He nods, "I was the best one there so," He shrugs, "might as well.
"That's awesome Der! I'm proud of you." She says, punching his arm.
"Yeah." He smirks. "So, are you actually gonna fight for a lead in glee this year?" He mocks.
"I'll try." Blake sighs, "Hopefully Mr. Schue is more open this year to letting other people sing this year." She rolls her eyes.
"I'm sure after you jumped ship to Vocal Adrenaline he knows that you mean business." Derek nods.
"Yeah." Blake chuckles, "Hopefully he got the hint."
Derek opens his mouth to respond, but is suddenly cut off by the doorbell ringing. Blake furrows her brows and looks towards her brother, "Did dad forget his key?"
"I don't think so." Derek shakes his head.
Blake stands up, slightly paranoid of who would be at their house. She knows it's none of her friends because they would've let her know before they showed up. "I'll go check." She says.
"Let me come with you." Derek stands up, following after his sister.
"I can protect myself Der." Blake half smiles.
"I know." He says with a shiver, "I've been on the wrong end of knocking on your door in the middle of the night."
"At least now you know to wear a protective cup before waking me up." She teases.
The two siblings make their way to the door. Blake places her hand on the baseball bat next to the door, getting ready to use it in the worst case scenario. She puts her hand on the door knob, turning it slowly. The door creaks, making her and her brother flinch. She opens the door and her jaw immediately hits the floor.
"Mom?!"