"wait, who are you again?" dylan arched her eyebrow as she stood near her locker, adjusting her loose ponytail using the mirror in her locker.
the girl beside her huffed, crossing her arms, "rachel," the brunette spoke, and seeing dylan's still confused expression, "rachel berry. we've been in the same class since middle school."
"uh, sorry," dylan shrugged, closing her locker and leaning against it as she shifted her gaze fully at rachel.
"we're in the same ballet class." rachel added after, and dylan's mouth opened into a small "oh" shape.
"look rachel," dylan sighed, "i'm not interested in joining glee club. i'm busy enough as it is with keeping up my soccer scholarship, that along with ballet after school, and i have gymnastics competitions every weekend."
"i know that you might be worried about it ruining your reputation—" dylan cut rachel off with a narrow of her eyes, and crossing her arms.
"i don't give a shit about my reputation, berry," dylan rolled her eyes. that was an accusation that always got to her, she managed to keep a clean reputation for her past two years of high school, even without the popularity from being a cheerio.
she thought about joining sue sylvester's squad, knowing she would most likely make varsity with her dance and gymnastics experience, but dylan couldn't fit the full time duty of being a cheerleader along with keeping up her soccer practicing.
"—and i'd think about it if wasn't so busy." dylan tried to let rachel down nicely, but she was getting a bit annoyed by her persistence. "i can't even sing, so there's no win for either of us if i decide to join." she shrugged. moving her body so she was standing fully up without the support of the lockers behind her.
"but you can dance," rachel urged, "we don't need any more singers, i'm obviously the most talented and you'd only be let down by not getting as many solo's as me. but dancers, we could always use more." dylan rolled her eyes at rachel's narcissism, a bit put off by it.
"now i remember why i've ignored you these past years," dylan mumbled, not really caring if rachel heard her or not, "find someone else, rachel, i have to introduce a new student." dylan sighed, pushing past her and heading towards the office.
sunshine corazon, dylan's cousin who recently moved to lima. dylan's father was sunshine's mothers half-brother. dylan walked through the halls, and found sunshine standing there with earbuds in, glancing around and her face lit up at she saw dylan walking over to her.
"dyl!" sunshine grinned, taking out her earbuds, "i just got my schedule, show me around?"
around lunchtime, dylan was sitting in the courtyard with a few of her soccer friends. sunshine decided to have lunch in the library, reassuring dylan that it was because she wanted to read up on some summer reading and wanted to refresh her mind.
dylan knew sunshine wasn't exactly an introvert, so trusted her cousin to go out and make friends when she wanted to.
"can you believe that those glee kids are putting up sign up sheets all over our locker rooms?" olivia chang asked, smirking as she tossed a crumpled up sheet onto the lunch table. olivia was mike chang's younger sister, and her and dylan had grown closer since soccer tryouts a few weeks before the school year started. they didn't talk much outside of soccer, but now that school was starting up, who knows what would happen with their friendship.
"isn't your brother in the glee club?" dylan asked, placing a strawberry in her mouth as she looked questioningly towards olivia who rolled her eyes.
"i have no clue why he is," olivia said defensively as she crossed her arms, "but yeah."
music started playing around them, and dylan furrowed her brows as she looked around and saw the glee kids running around the outdoor cafeteria, "which one is he again?" madison hossler asked from next to her, another girl on the varsity team.
olivia looked around, and then pointed to one of the male dancers. no, the only good male dancer. "oh, he's kinda cute." dylan hummed, smirking teasingly towards olivia who scowled.
"you can't even see his face." she pointed out, trying to deter the conversation away from the other girls finding mike attractive.
"i've seen him without the glasses, you know," dylan rolled her eyes, before eating another strawberry, "he's in my grade, remember." she grinned, before looking back over and noticing that he was walking over with rachel as she was singing. mike began teasing his sister by dancing in front of her whilst rachel stood on her table and continued singing.
dylan couldn't deny it, the club was good. regardless of their low reputation, she smiled a bit and tapped her foot along with the beat. the ghost of a smile was on her face, and mike seemed to notice as he offered his hand out to her. she laughed and accepted it, not caring whoever was judging her, and she danced along to the music with him.
olivia glared daggers at mike, and dylan knew it was just because she was embarrassed by him. dylan didn't understand why she was, but olivia chang was more concerned with how others viewed her than a need to just have fun.
mike sent her a grin, jokingly bowing in front of her as if thanking her for the dance before he ran along with the others to the middle of the court yard.
"i'm so sorry." olivia mumbled to her after she sat down, and dylan rolled her eyes.
"sorry for what? it was fun." dylan asked her, trying to convince her by having a brother in the glee club wasn't something she needed to be ashamed of.
olivia cowered down a bit, and dylan felt bad if it seemed like she snapped. olivia was a year younger than she was, so dylan sympathized on how she was just trying to make a place for herself in the school, but she couldn't bring herself to understands why reputations mattered so much.
the song finished, and dylan frowned seeing as nobody seemed to care or appreciate the number they just did. ignoring the awestruck eyes from the soccer table, dylan stood up and clapped, sending them all a smile before she glanced down towards olivia.
olivia sighed, before shaking her head and standing up, following dylan along in clapping for her brother.
everyone knew dylan foyes was very persuasive when she wanted to be, and that was one of the reasons she was respected amongst mckinley high students. the half-filipino never seemed to care about what others thought of her, and it was motivating to see her doing things on just instinct
"how has class been?" dylan asked her cousin, applying chapstick in the girl's bathroom mirror before glancing over to sunshine who was adjusting her earbuds.
"everyone's really welcoming so far, i think i'll like it here." sunshine sent her a reassuring nod, before placing the earbud back in. dylan smiled and nodded, going back to her reflection before putting the chapstick back in a pocket of her backpack.
when she turned away, she heard the door open and close and saw rachel had come into the bathroom with a handful of sign up sheets.
rachel noticed them too, but her eyes zero'ed in on sunshine as she went closer to her. dylan knew rachel would probably attempt to convince sunshine to join glee club next, and hopefully she would agree.
dylan knew sunshine had a large singing passion, and knew the club was generally nice and she'd feel welcome there.
"oh, hello," rachel walked over to the other filipino, "i couldn't help but notice you admiring me in the courtyard—"
"—um what?" sunshine asked after removing her earbud.
"oh, you don't speak english. you like me sing. you like me sing very much." dylan narrowed her eyes at rachel's belittling statement, crossing her arms in annoyance.
"um, i totally speak english," sunshine confirmed.
"i even did a little research on you after dylan told me you were transferring," rachel ignored what sunshine had said, and dylan looked at rachel curiously because she didn't remember mentioning that sunshine was transferring, "you're an exchange student named sunshine corazon, because you're from the philippines, where it's sunny every day."
"except for the monsoons." sunshine pointed out, but rachel also ignored that.
"listen, sunshine, we need chorus members. people to stand behind me and stare at me with wet, moved eyes while i sing solos." rachel urged, "so i encourage you to audition for glee club. glee club is fun, swaying in background can be fun."
dylan rolled her eyes and stood up next to her cousin, "rachel, she's not dumb—" dylan was cut off by sunshine waving a hand towards her.
"thank you," sunshine smirked as rachel went to walk on the other side of the bathroom.
dylan nudged her cousin and nodded, and sunshine grinned before beginning to sing telephone. sunshine could be a bit shy when it came to singing, but once she started dylan sent her a proud grin before leaving the two of them to sing-off in the bathroom.
"they did what to you?" dylan's voice was raised, full of anger after opening her phone to a streamload of texts from her cousin. she immediately called, not caring that she was still leaving her soccer practice and there were prying ears with her heightened voice.
"i don't care if it's an inactive crack house, sunshine!" dylan rolled her eyes, though it wasn't like her cousin could actually see, "no. i'll be down to pick you up soon, i'm leaving now." dylan grumbled, not mad that she had to go out of her way to pick up sunshine, but mad that rachel's selfishness could've killed her cousin.
"what's wrong?" olivia asked from next to, jogging next to dylan as they walked to the student parking lot together.
"you know rachel berry?" dylan asked, a glare set on her face as olivia nodded.
"she sent my cousin to a crack house." dylan rolled her eyes, crossing her arms as she walked.
"damn, really?" olivia gasped, stopping her steps at a black car as she walked over to the passengers side.
"i have to pick her up, but i hope rachel knows that she has something coming to her later." dylan sighed, before waving a goodbye to olivia as she got in the passengers seat of her brother's car. what dylan didn't know, though, was that olivia was going to reveal what dylan just told her to her brother.