was a Freshman at McKinley high, though being offered to go to some prestigious all-girls private boarding school wasn't on her list. Joining the swim team was the easiest, not many people found swimming in McKinley's pool that appealing, but at least it was fun. She joined as many clubs as her schedule would let her, but, overworking herself most likely couldn't end that badly.

As a sign on the board caught her attention, she couldn't help but look away— New Directions. She was sure it was the Glee club since that other one had gotten fired. There were 5 names on the board already, though that didn't particularly matter to her, as long as she could put it on her CV when applying for college she was fine.

Going down past Artie Abrams, someone named Tina C — she was in her English literature class. She could have another activity & possibly have a friend. Mercedes Jones, Kurt Hummel, Rachel Berry with some star beside her name, which honestly, she admired the confidence to do that but was there really a need? She lifted a dark blue pen from her bag and signed her name.

Auditions at 3:45 in the auditorium, Wednesday. Held by Mr Schuester.

**

She trained herself in singing whilst taking piano lessons & dance lessons whenever she could whenever she lived in France with her family before the divorce.

Finding a song she could confidently do in front of some middle-aged Spanish teacher — who she doubted could speak a word of Spanish, she strode to the auditorium at 3:40 passing by the list. Their six names stayed the same, with a faint scribble of some names supposed to be insulting on the bottom.

As she was watching in the wings of the auditorium as a boy in a wheelchair performed Pony and she had to admit, he was good. The boy finished his performance, wheeling towards a girl dressed in stereotypical goth clothes.

Dorothea Smythe.

Mr Schuester called out as she smiled at the goth and the boy in the wheelchair as she walked out onto the stage. Flicking her shoulder-length hair from her shoulder, she whispered her song to Brad the Piano man setting the sheet music onto the lid of the piano.

"My name is Dorothea Smythe and I'll be singing Fearless by Taylor Swift."

"Alright, Dorothea, give it your best!" He overly enthusiastically said, scribbling something down on a notepad.

As the music started she took a deep breath in; she could do this.

***

As she finished the audition and left stage left, a girl strutted up to her, a sheet music book clutched in her hands.

Removing one hand she held it out to the brunette, "Rachel Berry." The obnoxious star-sticker girl, "I can tell by the vocal arrangements you have been practising your obviously underused for a plethora of years. Though you can't compare to me, having someone to sing with me who can keep up in the slightest is very important. You may have to practice your songs more but you could be valuable."

"...Thank you, Berry." Dorothea raised her eyebrows as she shook the other girl's hand.

"You're welcome."

"Obviously, we had both gotten into the New Directions and I must ask will you sit next to me? I could tell the jealousy already imploding from my superior audition & I don't want the others to get upset when I am inevitably chosen for a solo."

"I mean, sure? Whatever. I don't mind, Rachel."

"So it's settled."

The obnoxious brunette wanted away, chin held up as she walked away from the confused green-eyed girl.

Dorothea could manage. She walked in the opposite direction from Rachel, passing down endless identical slushee-stained corridors, as she faintly heard the chattering of girls from around the corner entering the girls' locker room. Switching to walk on the other side, as the last girl entered glancing at her back, the blonde girl — the head cheerleader by that — glanced back and gave a faint smile as she went in.

***

The glee club wasn't the worst thing she's done but surely it was pathetic.

"We suck." Rachel said, breaking the obvious applause of only Schuester.

"It'll get there... we just need to keep rehearsing." Schuester replied, stuttering halfway through his sentence, trying to sound as enthusiastic as possible.

"Mr Schuester, do you know how ridiculous it is to give the solo in sit down you're rocking the boat to a boy in a wheelchair?" Rachel rolled her eyes, sighing as if she received the worst news in human history.

Dorothea glared over at the diva, "Maybe he's using irony to enhance the performance?" She said as Rachel let out a groan that sounded like the devil was coming up from the underworld.

"There is nothing ironic about show choir!" Rachel yelled, snapping her gloves off before storming through the door, hair swooning behind her in a cinematic-like manner.

Maybe it wasn't the exact best idea to become friends with Rachel Berry.

Schuester let out a heavy sigh, as he left soon after the diva.

Dorothea watched as the goth girl made her way over to sit on one of the chairs. Tina was her name, Dorothea thought as she made her way over to sit beside her. "I think your voice was good." She said to her, crossing her legs one over the other.

"Y-you could barely hear me."

"I feel as if I could. You seem nice, Tina, even if this is the first time we've properly spoken."

Without saying much more, Dorothea left the choir room, giving the other members a glance as the door shut with a soft bang.

***

On Thursday, Dorothea still walked with her guard up, half looking down at her phone as she replied to her brother's spam texts but watching out for any potential slushies.

They were all told to meet in the auditorium, which wasn't obstructed by alcoholics' anonymous meetings.

Standing there, there was Finn Hudson.

The quarterback. The boyfriend of the girl that was always smiling at her — well hopefully her. Dorothea was certain it was her, and she was usually not wrong.

Pushing aside anything else, she took a spot in between Tina & Kurt after collecting patchy, freshly printed song lyrics.

You're the one that I want.

She knew that Schuester probably decided to get Rachel & Finn to duet this & correct she indeed was.

As Finn sang in an unsure voice, Dorothea read over the script quickly in her head before having to join in with the same consistent "Do-do-do's". Rolling her eyes, Rachel directed her hearing abilities back to her.

Rachel made her way behind Kurt, running her hands through his hair before making her way over to Dorothea, before swishing her hair into her face and shimmying her shoulders obnoxiously soon making Tina, Artie and Mercedes her next impromptu choreography victims.

"Oh hell to the no!" Mercedes exclaimed, breaking a terrified Finn from Rachels's goblin esc grasp. "I'm not down with this background singing nonsense. I'm Beyonce! I ain't no Kelly Rowland."

Dorothea raised her eyebrows a that, smirking ever so slightly. Someone surely had to say it eventually.

"Okay, look, Mercedes. It's just one song," Schuester said as if it was meant to somehow magically fix all of Mercedes's problems with the situation.

"Eh. It's the first time we've shown some form of good in here." Dorothea shrugged her shoulders.

"Has a point," Kurt looked over at the brunette, before holding a hand out for a high-five. Seemed out of what she'd expected him to do, but Dorothea didn't leave him hanging on.

"Okay," Mercedes said, turning towards Finn, "you're good, white boy, ill give you that. But you better bring it. Let's run it again," finishing off her sentence in a sing-song voice.

"All right," Schuester laughed slightly, "let's do it from the top!"

***

After You're the one that I want Schuester handed out permission slips for going to see Vocal Adrenaline perform.

Forging her dad's signature was easy enough. He was usually busy being a state lawyer & everything else instead of spending time with his daughter. Though, it felt empty sometimes, alone in a gigantic house where every footstep she made she could hear repeated. She needed more friends.

Dorothea handed the permission slip to Schue before she headed off to swim practice. A day before was a bit soon to need to be signed for, but whatever.

As she went down the deserted hallways, feeling like she was part of a cycle, breathing deeply into herself as she felt something cold all over her face, practically seep into her pores.

"Welcome into geek world, bitch!" Some plump obnoxious hockey player jeered, high-fiving some ginger dickhead before the two cackled and walked away.

Feeling her eyes burn almost, a hand on her shoulder took her attention in the slightest from the stinging mess she was.

"Let me help you," A girl with a deep yet silky smooth voice said, a soft hand moving from her shoulder to her hand to drag her along to the nearest bathroom.

She could hear the door creaking open and then bang shut, "sit," the girl directed as Dorothea did as she said and sat carefully on the cracked countertop.

Taking Dorothea's swim towel, the girl ran some of it underwater and dabbed it onto her eyes. "It might sing, I'll be gentle."

Dorothea carefully blinked open, to see Quinn Fabray in front of her. Pristine in her cheerios uniform as always.

"You're pretty." Quinn smiled as she usually did when she saw her in the hallway. She is the one Quinn was smiling at.

Quinn shoved the towel back into Dorothea's hands, leaving her to clean the rest of her face herself as another bell rang.

What the fuck was this burning feeling inside of her? She was sure whatever toxic substance they put into those slushies couldn't get internal.

She sat stunned for a while before forcefully having to clean off the rest of her face herself.

***

Dorothea never usually spoke to footballers, but for some odd reason, she stood talking to Finn Hudson in line. She felt Rachel's glare from where she stood beside Kurt and Mercedes, ultimately, she could ignore her.

"To be honest, Finn, I think Rachel thinks you two will become some sort of item," Dorothea said, having to look up at Finn.

"I— uhm... Well, I have a girlfriend... so.."

"Quinn Fabray. Rachel ignores that. She ignores too much stuff, I can tell already. She's quite persistent."

"Mhm. Almost four months now, she's cool. Mmm... I wonder if they have sour patch kids." Finn replied to her as they both moved up in the line.

After Finn bought his sour patch kids, the two walked back over to the only free spaces between Tina and Artie.

"Yall, I watched some of their performances on youtube, they are good," Artie said looking down at his watch.

"Li-like how good?"

"Like if the football team's expectations were a show choir or just good?" Dorothea asked as Artie raised an eyebrow.

"The football team could never in their wildest dreams be that good, girl."

Dorothea nodded silently, as a strange amount of people entered just to see a high school show choir performance. Odd people. She was one of those people — what has she become already?

She knew Artie and Tina were talking in the background as she robotically almost tapped her foot in rhythm thinking of all the competition they could have.

Her head was spinning in incoherent thoughts till she felt a tap not inconsistent with her foot on her shoulder. "Time to go," Artie said to her once she came back down to earth.

"Of course. Lead the way!" She replied, trying to pretend as if she was zoned out for the last couple of minutes as she watched as people migrated up the steps. She stuck next to Tina like a plaster behind Schuester and the doe-eyed guidance counsellor.

The New Directions sat beside each other in a row. Rachel now stuck to Finn more than she had been to Tina. Unfortunately, Schue is stuck between Finn and himself she'd have to most likely listen to Rachel fan girl to an incredibly oblivious Finn.

Schue leaned over and got the group's attention "hey, guys, so this is supposed to be our "competition" but uh, I don't think that they've got the talent that we've got. But, let's be a good audience, all right? Give 'em some of that ol' McKinley high respect."

"Our respect is throwing slushies as confetti." She mumbled, catching the attention of only Finn.

"Good one."

The high-quality speakers broke the crowd's light chattering, "please give a warm Buckeye State welcome to last year's regional champions, Vocal Adrenaline!"

Incredible was an understatement.

They were in sync, voices in harmony and you could barely hear their steps on the stage despite the velocity of the people there. They were all wearing high-quality esc costumes and never missed a beat as they performed Rehab by Amy Winehouse.

"We're d-d-doomed," Tina said amongst the clapping as the New Directions sat staring ahead.

***

Rachel had become incredibly overbearing after Schuester told them he had given in his notice to leave. Finn left alongside Schuester, and Rachel was determined to not let him leave from her claws.

She was told to tag along by Rachel, "it's just like what you're gonna do in the club, sway behind me as I sing. Except, I'm speaking."

"I didn't see you at Glee club today, Finn," Rachel spoke, straightening her posture.

"..is that still happening?" Finn questioned, obviously spooked by the girl.

"I've taken over. I'm interim director, but I expect the position will become permanent."

Finn didn't speak anymore as Quinn and her minion, Santana, entered.

"Hi, Finn. RuPaul. You." Quinn said, greeting Finn in a friendly manner before she turned to Rachel & Dorothea.

"Hey," Finn replied, fiddling with the strap on his school bag.

"What are you doing talking to them," Quinn said with venom overtaking every word, though only saying it directed to Rachel. Dorothea saw Santana raise an eyebrow at that.

"Science project—we're partners."

"Poor Finn. Don't infect him, Berry." Santana smiled, not trying to hide the fakeness beneath.

"Christ Crusaders tonight at 5, my house," Quinn said after Santana and Finn shuffled on his feet.

"Sounds great."

Rachel, looked at Finn as Santana smirked at them. Quinn smiled genuinely at Dorothea as they walked back in the direction they came from.

Dorothea left in the opposite direction from Quinn, keeping her head down. What was happening to her?

Rachel told the remaining New Directions to go to the auditorium. Dorothea soon met Tina, Mercedes & Kurt.

"I swear, Rachel's gonna make this the Rachel Berry Show." Kurt rolled his eyes, sitting on the stage, in some circle attempt form with the other girls.

Sitting beside him, Dorothea looked over. "When doesn't she already?"

Tina snickered at that. "Wh-wheres wheels?" She soon questioned.

"Girl, he's usually with you?" Mercedes replied.

"I'm sure he's coming... he wouldn't quit, he seemed to like it." Dorothea shrugged, putting her bag beside her.

The four talked surprisingly quietly which seemed like forever before Rachel barged in. "I told you all to rehearse your steps! They're not that hard, I've been doing them since preschool."

"Shiver me timbers," Dorothea whispered to Kurt as the four stood up to at least pretend to do their steps.

Kurt scoffed. "I'm sorry, did I miss the election for the Queen? Because I didn't vote for you."

"...You don't vote for being Queen, Kurt." The brunette whispered to the boy beside her.

"I know what I'm talking about. I won my first dance competition when I was three months old!"

Before Tina said something, the door opened and in walked Finn wheeling Artie.

"This is a closed rehearsal." Kurt scoffed at Finn.

"Look, I owe you guys an apology. I never should have quit. I don't want to be that guy that just drives around throwing eggs at people." Finn sighed, apology seeming rehearsed but not over the top.

"That was you?"

"You and your friends threw pee balloons at me."

"I know..." Finn bit his lip, shamefully looking down.

"You nailed all my lawn furniture to my roof."

"I wasn't there for that, but I'm sorry. Look, that isn't who I am, and I'm tired of it. This is what I want to be doing, with you guys. I used to think that this was like, the lamest thing on Earth, and maybe it is, but... we're all here for the same reason– cause we want to be good at something. Artie, you play the guitar, right? Think you could recruit the jazz band?"

"I do have a pull there." Artie shrugged, from where he had wheeled away from Finn.

"All right. Mercedes, we need new costumes, and they have to be cool. Can you do that?"

"Damn, don't you see what I got on?"

"Dorothea, you can dance, right? You can do choreography."

"Of course, Finn."

"Rachel, come with me to get the music paper things? I don't know what to do." Finn half smiled at her.

"The sheet music, Finn, sheet music. Of course, I'll go with you."

"Tina, what are you good at?"

"I-i..."

"We can figure something out for you, T." Dorothea smiled at her, putting a hand on the goth's shoulder.

"And what are you bringing to the table, Justin Timberlake?" Mercedes questioned, crossing her arms.

"I've got the music."

The New Directions rehearsed until they couldn't be at the school for any longer accessing the sheet music from using the cheerios printer.

The next day, Finn surprisingly helped them practice during lunch.

Finally. They started their performance of Don't Stop Believing.

They were good. Everything came together & everyone's efforts were put to good use.

Clapping broke the silence as the music ended.

"Good, guys. It's a nine. We need a ten. Rachel, you need to hit the notes and the fives. Finn, I think if we worked on it, you could hit a high B."

"So, Mr Schue, does this mean you're staying?" Dorothea asked him as he looked over at them all.

"It would kill me to see you win Nationals without me. From the top!" Schue enthusiastically said.

Before she went back into the first position, Dorothea looked up at the balconies. Sue Sylvester, Santana Lopez and Quinn Fabray stood watching.

Quinn is on top like always.

## Hi!!! First chapter stuff yay!!! You didn't really see much of 'Thea here but I swear you'll love her!!!!

2988 words.