"GLEE IS A GIANT BALL OF SUCK."
Will Schuester read aloud to the glee club, his eyes scanning over Jacob Ben-Israel's latest blog.
"Thanks for the reminder, Mr. Schue." Aria rolled her eyes.
"Okay, everyone still hates us. So what?" Kurt Hummel spoke from beside Aria, "So we're plankton on the high school food chain? Only difference now is that none of us really care."
The New Directions had lost Regionals the previous year, and Mr. Schuester wasn't letting any of his students forget it.
"Kurt's right. We're a family. They can bring it all they want. None of it is going to break us." Aria's attention was turned to Mercedes Jones as she talked.
"Okay, I'm really happy you guys have all bonded. The problem is that all of this negative stuff is keeping other students from auditioning." Mr. Schuester explained to the teens.
"Good. Why do we need new members?" Tina Cohen-Chang questioned.
"Well, since Matt transferred, we only have eleven members. And 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."
"Yeah, Mr. Schuester's right, you guys. You didn't see Vocal Adrenaline at Regionals. They were epic. We're going to need more voices in order to beat them." Rachel Berry stood up from her seat and walked to the front, beside Will.
Finn Hudson followed, throwing an arm around Rachel's waist, "Yeah, I'm with Rachel in this one."
Staring at the couple being all couple-y, Aria tried her hardest not to gag, which should've been surprisingly easy considering the amount of different pairings that go in and out of the glee club. The others took it jokingly, thinking she was exaggerating her disgust like Brittany Pierce had done a second ago, but her disinterest in the couple was genuine.
She didn't have anything against Finn and Rachel. In fact, she had been secretly rooting for the couple ever since Finn and Quinn Fabray has broken up a year prior. Aria was simply annoyed by all the PDA couples kept on flaunting.
But if Aria were being honest, she wasn't annoyed. She was jealous. She was jealous of the love the couple shared. She wanted that.
Aria was currently dating Noah Puckerman, but even though they were public, and the whole school practically knew about them, he always seemed ashamed of their relationship. As if he didn't want the world to know that he was Aria's boyfriend. And of course, that lead to them only being able to be a couple when there was no one around, in private places. Aria could only wish for a normal relationship.
•••
ARIA STEPPED OUT OF THE GIRL'S RESTROOM, she had changed into the 'New York' shirt that Rachel had given her a while ago. She had just put on her sunglasses when she accidentally bumped into someone.
"Oh, my, God, I am so sorry." Aria apologised, bending down to help pick up the books that had been dropped.
"No, no, it's okay." the person replied.
Aria stood back up and saw a very attractive blond in front of her. She handed him her books before apologising once more, "Here. I'm really sorry."
"And it's really okay." the blond responded before looking down at Aria's outfit, "Are you, like, a New York enthusiast or something?"
"Actually, this is for glee club. Nationals are in New York this year and we're trying to recruit new members for the new year by performing about New York." she said, "I guess people just get excited about New York."
"You said the word 'new' about four times in a sentence." the blond pointed out, the smallest grin on his face.
"Oh, well, that's quite some news." Aria smiled, "I should be going now. See you around."
Before the boy could reply, she had already walked away, on her way to the courtyard for the New Directions' performance.
•••
"WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN? We've been waiting for you so we could start." Puck told Aria as she finally arrived at the courtyard.
"Sorry. There was an interruption when I left the bathroom. I—"
"Aria! There you are!" Rachel pulled her away from Puck, "We were about to begin without you. You should go to your place now, the music should start playing soon."
Rachel immediately walked away, leaving Aria to walk to her place alone. She heard the music start, and waited for her cue to start moving.
"Yeah, I'm out that 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." Artie Abrams rapped as Kurt pushed him through the crowd.
"I used to cop in Harlem, all of my Dominicano's, right there up on Broadway, pull me back to that McDonald's." Finn continued, "Took it to my stash box, five sixty State Street. Catch me in the kitchen like a Simmons with them pastries."
"Eight million stories, out there in it naked. City is a pity, half of y'all won't make it. Me, I got a plug, Special Ed "I Got It Made". If Jesus payin' Lebron, I'm payin' Dwyane Wade. Three dice Cee-lo, three card molly, Labor Day Parade, rest in peace, Bob Marley." Puck and Mercedes walked down the caged stairs, side by side, as Puck rapped his lines, "Jigga, I be Spike'd out, I could trip a referee. Tell by my attitude that I'm most definitely from,"
"New York." Aria sang along with Quinn Fabray, Santana Lopez, and Brittany Pierce as the four ran down the concrete steps, "Concrete jungle where dreams are made of. There's nothin' you can't do. Now, you're in New York."
The girls sang in unison, "These streets will make you feel brand new. Big lights will inspire you. Let's hear it for New York, New York, New York."
"One hand in the air for the big city. Streetlights, big dreams, all lookin' pretty. No place in the world that could compare. Put your lighters in the air." Mercedes sang, "Everybody say,"
"Yeah, Yeah, Yeah, Yeah." The New Directions sang all together, "New York. Concrete jungle where dreams are made of. There's nothin' you can't do. Now, you're in New York. These streets will make you feel brand new. Big lights will inspire you. Let's hear it for New York, New York, New York."
The music ended and the glee club struck a pose, all their eyes wandering, looking for someone to acknowledge their performance.
Aria turned her head and noticed the blond from earlier looking at her. She flashed him a smile, and he smiled back, waving the tiniest wave at her.
•••
AFTER THEIR FAILED PERFORMANCE, Aria, Kurt, and Mercedes changed out of their 'New York' shirts and entered the choir room.
Kurt and Mercedes were playing around with the piano while Aria sat and listened when she heard Mercedes struck up a conversation.
"Is that a men's sweater?"
"Fashion has no gender." Kurt stated, causing Aria to smile.
Suddenly, the door was opened and Rachel aggressively walked towards the three, "Ladies, we have a problem. 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."
"Okay, so I'm gonna go now." Mercedes said, feeling very uncomfortable.
"Wait! And she has a remarkable voice." Rachel sighed, "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. 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."
And when she got no response, she continued talking, "Okay, so this is the part where you're supposed to be hugging me and thanking me."
"That's awful." Mercedes said.
"You're awful." Aria frowned.
"But solos! I mean—!"
"Look, Rachel, Mercedes and I are about as self-involved as they come. Aria, not as much, 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 told the girl.
"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." Rachel said all of a sudden and walked out.
Aria furrowed her brows, "That was weird. She never changes her mind that quickly."
"Well, it's Rachel. She's unpredictable."
"Sure," she replied, still unsure whether Rachel was up to something or not.
•••
THE ENTIRE GLEE CLUB HAD BEEN WAITING IN THE CHOIR ROOM FOR THEIR NEWEST RECRUITS. They had been staring at the clock for what seemed like forever. Until Rachel decided to speak up.
"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."
Finn and Rachel had managed to convince two new students, Sam Evans and Sunshine Corazon to join glee club, but it didn't look like either of them would be showing up.
"We said 3:00 to 5:00. It's only 4:58." Mr. Schuester told the group of teens, in hopes of persuading them to stay, but majority of the club had already stood up, ready to leave.
Aria, as well, stood up and grabbed her bag, "We appreciate the optimism, Mr. Schue, but we just have to admit that people are still grossed out by glee and have no interest in joining the lamest club in school."
"Just wait. My buddy, Sam's gonna try out. He totally idolizes me." Finn said. He had just been kicked off the football team for trying to get Artie, a disabled student, onto the team. Aria would never tell him, but she thought he was still trying to convince himself he was cool, even without the football cred.
"Aria's right, 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." Kurt said to Finn.
"What about that Sunshine girl? I thought you said she could sing." Mercedes asked Rachel.
"I guess she didn't want to hang out with us losers." Rachel replied in a tone that made Aria even more suspicious.
•••
"SO WHAT REALLY HAPPENED TO SUNSHINE?"
Aria had cornered Rachel at her locker, ready to confront her. Something was up and Aria was ready to find out what it was.
"I'm sorry, what are you talking about?" Rachel furrowed her brows.
"You know, for someone who brags a lot about their acting skills, you're really bad at lying."
"Excuse me?" Rachel's confused expression quickly turned into an offended one.
"I know for a fact that Sunshine would've shown up to that audition. But she didn't. So what happened?" Aria questioned.
"And why do you think that I may have something to do with this?" Rachel asked this time.
"Please," Aria scoffed, "I've known Rachel Berry for over a year, and there's no way she would've allowed Sunshine, someone she felt very intimidated by, to join the glee club, especially, just after she created this evil scheme to scare her away."
"Alright, fine. You caught me. I sent her to a crackhouse."
"You what?!"
"Shh!" Rachel grabbed her arm and pulled her to an empty hallway, "Yes, you heard correctly. I sent Sunshine Corazon to a crackhouse."
"Rachel, are you insane? That's crazy dangerous." Aria scolded.
"I only did it for you guys!"
"That's a crappy excuse, Rachel, and you know it." Aria shook her head, "You've got to tell Mr. Schue."
"I can't! He could kick me off the team!"
"He could kick you off the team if he found out from Sunshine or anyone else."
Rachel didn't reply, scaring Aria as she had never seen Rachel so quiet.
"Alright."
"What?"
"I said alright. I'll tell Mr. Schuester." Rachel said in a strained voice before walking away.
Aria let out a breathy laugh, "I can't believe I convinced Rachel Berry to do something good."
•••
RACHEL HAD CALLED THE GLEE CLUB TO THE AUDITORIUM. She had given Sunshine Corazon, the student that she sent to a crackhouse, a chance to actually audition, and just as Rachel had said, her voice was amazing. It was weird how such a strong voice could fit in such a small body.
Will welcomed her to the club, only to find out that Vocal Adrenaline had stolen her away from the New Directions.
Aria stood at her locker at the end of the day. Everyone had gone home, except her and a few other people. She turned and noticed the blond from the other day walking towards her.
"Hey. Aria, right?" she nodded.
"I already talked to Finn about this, but I just wanted to apologise for totally ditching the audition. I guess Finn getting kicked of the team scared me." the blond shrugged.
It took Aria a moment to realise what he was talking about, and when she did, she nodded, "Oh, so you're the Sam Evans that Finn kept talking about."
Sam nodded awkwardly.
"I accept your apology." Aria smiled at him, "And I hope you join glee club soon. Like, really soon. But good luck at McKinley until then."
And then, she walked away.