𝐬𝐨𝐧𝐠𝐛𝐢𝐫𝐝, chapter sixty one
— lead auditions
elle looked at the lead vocalist audition sheet with an unsettling pit forming in her stomach.
"are you thinking about audtioning?" jesse asked, leaning against the board and looking at those who had already signed up.
"yes?" elle replied uncertainly, quite frankly not enjoying being in jesse's company.
he sucked in a sharp breath. "even with these four also auditioning?" he chuckled when elle nodded. "i'll give it to you eleanor, you've got guts."
elle narrowed her eyes. "what's that supposed to mean?"
jesse sighed. "it means that santana, kurt, mercedes and rachel are all vocal powerhouses." he explained. "and when it comes down to it, you're just forgettable."
elle couldn't put off the hurt expression she wore as jesse's words hit her.
"that's not true," she replied quietly, remembering the feeling she had during her performance at the benefit. "i'm just as good of a singer as any of them."
jesse quirked a brow. "and who told you that, mr schue?" he asked, having to bite back a pitiful laugh at eleanor's expression. "i'm just trying to save you the embarrassment." he told her before walking away.
elle watched him walk down the hall until he was out of sight and then turned her attention back to the sign up sheet.
before she could convince herself otherwise, she picked up the pen and neatly wrote her name down underneath rachel's, and then walked briskly away from the sheet to stop herself from second-guessing and scribbling it out.
thanks to her hesitance, elle was the last to audition which subsequently gave her the most time to freak out.
"relax, elle." jeremiah urged as he and sam walked with elle to the auditorium. "you're gonna be great!"
"but what if what jesse said was right?" she wondered. "maybe i shouldn't do this." she panicked, trying to turn and walk away from sam and jeremiah.
"woah," sam sighed, effortlessly catching her by the shoulders and stopping her. "where do you think you're going?"
elle huffed defeatedly.
"look ellie, you're extremely talented, we all know that." sam told her, still gripping her by the shoulders. "you know it too, so just think about jesse st james' stupid face when you go in there and bring the house down."
elle smiled weakly. "it would be pretty funny." she mumbled.
"so go in there and make it happen." sam urged before hugging her tightly.
"go get 'em," jeremiah smiled before also hugging his sister.
elle walked onto the stage after rachel's performance, and nervously took her place behind the microphone. "i'm eleanor madigan and i'll be singing the fugees' 'killing me softly'."
once she started singing, elle's nerves immediately melted away, allowing herself to actually perform the song and effortlessly hitting each note and every riff.
as she reached the first chorus, her eyes flickered to movement in the back of the room where sam, and jeremiah had snuck into the room with kurt, mercedes, rachel and santana, the six of them all grooving and grinning as elle continued.
once she was done, sam was quick to applaud his friend, forgetting that he and jeremiah weren't supposed to be there.
elle smiled at his gesture before her expression stiffened and she looked pointedly at jesse st james. "so?" she asked, quirking a brow.
"i have to say; i'm impressed," jesse began with a smug grin. "that you actually showed up."
"what?"
"i mean, come on, eleanor!" jesse continued. "did you really think you could deliver something better than what rachel just did?"
"this is rigged!" santana fumed, fed up of the bereavement everyone, aside from rachel, had to endure.
"hold on santana, like i said before, i make the final call here." mr schue interrupted, making elle roll her eyes.
"well then, make it." elle spat as mr schue stood up.
"out of respect to you all, i'm gonna take a couple of days to come up with the results." he explained, making the five teenagers who auditioned roll their eyes. "i will let you all know by friday."
"great job, everyone."
elle shook her head and marched off of the stage, quickly meeting up with her friends who were just as agitated as she was.
"i hate him." elle seethed, resisting the urge to pull her hair. "i hate him, i hate him, i hate him!"
the next few days of waiting for mr schue's decision were agonising.
"i don't know why we're even waiting," elle huffed, as she santana, mercedes, kurt and sam walked toward the bulletin board. "we all know jesse's gonna force mr schue's hand into picking rachel."
santana, kurt and mercedes all grunted in frustrated agreement while sam encouragingly squeezed elle's shoulders. "there it is."
"this doesn't make any sense," santana whined.
"guys it was a tough decision, but it was for the best for the club." jesse smirked as he and rachel approached them.
"although this is deeply personal, try not to take it personally." rachel quipped, earning an unimpressed look from kurt.
"you guys might wanna read what the list says," elle told them, her tone flat.
"what why?"
rachel then turned to the board and read the paper; urgent meeting today. choir room 3:30.
elle checked the time on her phone. "it's three fifteen." she noted before everyone standing around the bored bolted for the choir room.
once they had arrived and sat in painful anticipation for fifteen minutes, mr schue arrived earning a thankful sigh from santana. "mr schue, thank god!" she smiled. "just put these four out of their misery and announce my win, so i can get on with teasing the losers."
"i heard your performance, santana." kurt quipped, unfazed. "this is mine and you know it."
"you see jesse, this is the kind of fighting and 'me first' attitudes that i wanted to avoid." mr schue sighed.
"what you call fighting, i call motivation." jesse argued. "and this is just the beginning; once we get to nationals, i'll have them killing for that solo."
"no!" schue interrupted. "i've changed my mind. we're going back to what got us here; original songs, sung by the entire club."
despite the nice sentiment, elle couldn't fight off a disappointed look.
"we're a team, and we're best when we work as one." schue finished.
"you're going to lose." jesse told him matter of factly.
"whatever we do," schue smiled at the team. "we're going to do it together."
after a moment of silence, kurt spoke up. "actually santana, you sounded pretty good." he admitted.
"thanks," she replied. "you guys were all pretty dope too, even rachel."
rachel gushed. "i wish i could sound like you do, santana. how do you get that raspiness?" she asked.
"sometimes, i smoke cigars." santana nodded, making elle grin and lean against her friend affectionately.
"alright, guys! time to get to work, now i want to hit songs by the time the wheels touch down at jfk!" mr schue encouraged. "come on!"