ONE

❥

BEING IN THE GLEE CLUB MEANT YOU HAD A DEATH WISH—Because, God forbid you do anything to express yourself. If you wanted to survive McKinley High, you either had to be a cheerio, or a jock, and Faye was neither of those things. She was a singer. She had an incredible voice, and she'd be damned if she wasted that talent on nothing.

As a freshman, (and being homeschooled her whole life) Faye didn't know anybody—except for Finn. Finn Hudson was an old friend, they grew up together, took bubble baths, thought each other how to ride a bike, you name it. You wouldn't see one without the other. That all changed when High school came around, and Faye didn't like change very much. Finn became a whole new person. Without Faye there to knock some sense into him, he stooped to Noah Puckermans level, and he hated who he became. Now, with Faye back in his every day life, Finn was going to go back to the Finn he used to be, the Finn she used to know.

Standing in front of the bulletin board, Faye looked at all the possible clubs she could join—cheerleading, synchronised swimming, debate, jazz—there were a lot of options. One club in particular stood out, the Glee Club. She wasn't so sure about it at first, but after Mr Ryerson got fired and Mr Schuester took over, she knew this was an opportunity she should take advantage of.

"You're not seriously thinking about joining, are you?" Faye turned around, and there was Finn Hudson looming over her, as if he was trying to intimidate her with his height.

"Why not?" She shrugged. "It could be fun."

"Look, I know—more than anyone, how talented you are." He placed his hands on her shoulders, and forced her to look up at him. "But this will just make you a social reject. Do you really want that?"

He was right, it would put her at the bottom of the social hierarchy. However, she enjoyed singing. She didn't enjoy dancing that much, considering she couldn't dance, even if her life depended on it.

"Finn, i'm not you. I don't care what everyone thinks about me. I don't have a reputation to uphold. I'm doing this."

"You spend one summer in Kentucky and you come back all Kentucky—fried." He seethed, crossing his arms.

Faye cocked her head to the side, trying to hold back a laugh. "Uhm..you mean—you mean Kentucky-fied?" She wondered.

"Whats the difference?" The older boy questioned, looking at her with genuine confusion.

"Kentucky fried chicken. Kentucky fied, like, an intensified version of myself...but Kentucky fied..." She bit her lip, also starting to feel slightly confused with her explanation.

Coming up behind her, Dylan Cooper wrapped an arm around her. Dylan was one of the very few friends that she made in her first few weeks, and in all honesty, their friendship made Finn jealous.

"What are we doing?" Dylan wondered.

"Well, i'm signing up for glee club, Finn is giving me a lecture on why I shouldn't, and I have no idea what you're doing." Faye picked up the pen that was attached to a string on the sign up sheet and neatly wrote her name under Rachel Berry. Dylan sent Finn an amused grin, taking the pen from Faye and scribbling his name down messily.

"I'm sorry, Finn, but you don't have to map out my life." Faye grabbed the crook of Dylan's arm with the intent of walking to the auditorium, but was stopped by Finn grabbing her free hand. "I'm just trying to protect you, Faye."

"I don't need you to protect me. I'm completely capable of handling myself." She assured. Finn sighed, shaking his head in defeat. Without saying anything else, he walked away looking for his cheerio girlfriend.

In the auditorium, Faye was whirling with anxiety. She was an incredible singer—and she knew that—but going up after Rachel Berry made her extremely nervous. As the devil herself waltzed off the stage, she flicked her hair in Fayes face, trying to establish who the leader was.

Dylan gave her a hard pat on the back, and an encouraging, yet gentle, shake. "You got this."

Nervously, Faye made her way to the centre of the stage.  "My names Faye Falcone, i'll be singing, The Only Exception, by Paramore."

"Whenever you're ready, Faye." Mr Schuester patiently spoke. Faye took a deep breath, and began fidgeting with her ring. Finally, after getting a thumbs up from Dylan, she showed off her incredible voice. Now Mr Schuester had his stars, and he was going to do everything in his power to get them to Nationals.

The first New Directions practice couldn't of went worse. None of them could keep up with Mr Schues terrible choreography, Rachel was fighting for the spotlight, Dylan tripped over his own feet and fell face first, and Tina wheeled Artie into the wall—accidentally of course.

Dropping her hands to her side, Rachel decided to speak up. "We suck." Faye nodded her head in agreement, scratching her eyebrow. "Mr Schue, is this really the best song for us?" She wondered.

"Uh, it—it'll get there. We just need to keep rehearsing." He tried to reassure, but none of them were convinced. But if they wanted to beat vocal adrenaline, then they had to do whatever it took.

❥

Mr Schuester was willing to do whatever it took to make the glee club a success. If that meant framing a sixteen year old boy for harbouring drugs, then that was exactly what he was going to do. Finn Hudson had no choice but to join loser town, and unlucky for him, he scored his first duet with Rachel. The New Directions have never sounded better than they did in this moment, they weren't brilliant, but they were good.

Rachel was ecstatic to have the quarterback at their rehearsal. During their performance, she pushed her way over to him while caressing Tinas torso, wheeling Artie out of the way, shoving Dylan backwards and twirling Fayes hair in her fingers. It was a weird practice to say the least. Faye was completely content with singing in the background for this one song, but if this was how Rachel would behave every time, Faye thought she deserved the solo more. Or literally anyone else.

Mercedes seemed to have the same idea and surged forward between the two singers. "Oh, hell to the nah. I ain't down with all this background singing. I'm Beyoncé, I ain't no Kelly Rowland." She sassed. Faye sighed in relief, thankful that someone was speaking out on how unfair it was.

Dylan threw his arm around Faye and smiled widely. "Faye and I could write a better song. Just give us a chance to perform." It was true. The pair had gotten together quite a bit since they met, sharing their messy notes, writing songs the other gave up on a long time ago.

"Guys, it's just one song." Mr Schuester smiled softly. "You'll all get your chance, I promise."

"And it's the first time we've sounded pretty good." Kurt admitted, earning a glare from Mercedes and Dylan.

"Alright," Mercedes began. "You're good white boy, i'll give you that. But you better bring it." Dylan yelled an encouraging 'yeah', getting a nasty look from Rachel. They decided to go over the song again, and this time Rachel behaved herself—as best she could...

❥

The New Directions were at Carmel High, impatiently waiting to watch Vocal Adrenaline—their competition. Faye had no desire to listen to Rachel shamelessly flirt with Finn. But what choice did she have, she was stood behind the pair with Dylan chatting away in her ear. He was talking about Star Wars, and she had zero interest.

As the line started to move up, Faye couldn't be more thankful. After getting something to eat, she made her way over to Tina and Artie, Dylan slowly trailing behind her. "Hey, guys, mind if we join you?" Faye asked politely. Dylan, on the other hand, didn't wait for an answer before throwing himself down beside Tina.

"Yeah, sure." Artie smiled at them. Faye took a seat beside him, offering him a sour patch kid.

"So..what were you guys talking about?" She wondered.

"How we want to shove a sock in Rachel's mouth." Artie simply stated, causing the group to burst into a fit of giggles.

"Can I do it?" Dylan asked, a face full of gummy worms. As the group got to know each other better, Fayes attention was elsewhere. Her eyes were locked on Finn scooting away from Rachel while she moved closer to him on the couch. It was pretty funny.

Breaking her out of her stalking, Artie tapped her leg. "Do you..like Finn?" He asked her with a cocked eyebrow. "Because you've been staring at him for the last five minutes."

"No. No, no, no. It's just really funny watching Rachel embarrass herself." She snorted.

As if being able to feel her intense stare, both Finn and Rachel snapped their heads in their direction. Faye whipped her head around to face Artie, feeling slightly embarrassed.

Laughing at her red cheeks, Dylan began throwing gummy worms at her—and why? she doesn't know.

❥

Mr Schuester had put in his resignation, and Finn Hudson quit the glee club. Rachel decided she was best equipped to take over, despite the many, many objections from her fellow glee clubbers. To say it was a bad week would be an understatement.

Groaning at the terrible dancers that stood before her, Rachel decided to call them out. "Look, you guys, these steps are not hard. I've been doing them since preschool."

"I'm sorry, did I miss the election for queen? 'Cause I didn't vote for you." Kurt stated.

"I know what i'm talking about, I won my first dance competition when I was three months old." She bragged.

"Well, some of us don't have any sense of direction." Faye shrieked, covering her mouth immediately. She definitely didn't mean for it to come out that high pitched.

"And some of us just have no interest in listening to whatever you have to say." Dylan added.

"Look." Finn interjected, wheeling Artie closer to the rest of the group. "We're all here for the same reason—cause we want to be good at something. We need to work together, not against each other."

He turned his attention to Artie, a small smile creeping its way onto his face as he came up with a plan. "Artie, you play guitar, right?" He nodded. "Think you could recruit the jazz band?"

He smiled, happy to be included in Finns devious plan. "I do have pull there."

"Alright. Mercedes, we need new costumes, and they have got to be cool. Can you do that?" Finn wondered.

Scoffing, she motioned to her current outfit, a small laugh slipping out from her mouth. "Damn, don't you see what I got on?"

"Rachel, you can do choreography." He instructed. "Tina, what are you good at?"

Not giving her a chance to get a full sentence out—or a full word for that matter, Finn turned to look at Faye and Dylan. "And, uh, you two...just show up."

"And what are you bringing to the table, Justin Timberlake?" Mercedes questioned, looking him up and down.

"Uh, my names actually Finn. But, I got the music."