NEW CLUBS AND NEW FRIENDS!

WALKING THROUGH MCKINLEY HIGH SCHOOL, THERE WERE ONLY THREE PEOPLE WHO CAUGHT PENELOPE CRAWFORD'S EYE. Three Cheerios, in the year above. Everyone wanted to be them, or be near them and anyone who didn't, obviously hadn't seen them.

Quinn Fabray — captain of the Cheerios with the gorgeous blonde hair and green eyes thar everyone wanted. She was the image of perfection, with her Cheerios uniform hugging her body just perfectly and a look on her eye that said that she was on top and she knew it.

Santana Lopez — everyone knew Santana as the real bitch of the three, she was in charge, even if it looked to outsiders that it was Quinn. She was stunning, with every feature being just how anyone would want it. Her sly smirk and quick comebacks hid the truth that she was a hardcore friend, someone you'd always want on your side because she'd stick with you until the end.

And then there was Brittany S. Pierce — Penny couldn't help but smile whenever she walked by. Her innocence and love for life was infectious, she made people around her want to smile. She seemed to always be overlooked and cast aside because she wasn't typically smart, but she was. She just worked differently. She was beautiful too, her blonde hair fashioned up in her high pony, with bangs that curled gracefully across her forehead.

After a moment of just watching them waltz past and realising that they wouldn't even give her a smile in return, Penelope turned back to what she was doing, just as Brittany turned her head, in an attempt to catch the girl's eye.

Chewing on the end of her pen, lightly, Penelope took a final second of thought before signing her name up for the new and improved glee club. She knew it was lame. But she loved to sing, even if she couldn't dance, and maybe it would give her a chance to make some real friends at Mckinley.

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PENELOPE DIDN'T THINK SHE OUGHT TO BE AS NERVOUS AS SHE WAS AS SHE STOOD IN THE WINGS READY TO AUDITION. Initially, she wasn't. But as she watched the five auditions before hers, she'd began to worry that maybe she wouldn't be good enough and Mr Schue wouldn't let her in.

Making her way onto the stage, she immediately wondered how the others could cope with the blaring spotlight coming from above. Shielding her eyes slightly, she stood centre stage and looked up to where Mr Schue was sitting.

"Penelope Crawford?" He checked, quickly, despite knowing the answer. Penny gave him a small smile in return. Mr Schue was her Spanish teacher and granted, he wasn't great, but he seemed to have a passion for music, "Take it away, Penelope!"

"Uh, hi. I'm Penelope Crawford and I'll be singing 'Don't Look Back In Anger' by Oasis." She told him, beginning to question her song choice as he sat in silence for a short while. When a smile broke out across his face, Penny felt a weight being lifted off her chest — all she had to do now was sing, "whenever you're ready, Penelope." She heard Mr Schue say, softly.

Stepping forward slightly, she licked her lips and closed her eyes, composing herself for a brief moment before the band started up. She didn't feel bad for turning around and giving them a bright smile of appreciation before she began to sing, frankly, she thought they deserved it.

Despite knowing that it was pretty lame, Penelope really wanted to be in glee club, so she'd prepared as much as she could for this audition. That included the thought that they might need to see her dance — something she knew she was horrific at. As the singing came naturally to her, she concentrated on her very simple side-stepped choreography, finding herself smiling as she managed to get through the whole routine without tripping over her feet.

Penny's smile got even bigger as Mr Schue began to clap for her, feeling a wave of relief to know that she'd managed to audition without messing up, "thanks Penelope, that was really great. Some...interesting choreography."

Standing static on the stage, she nodded slowly, blinking as he didn't say anymore, "um — should I go now?" She questioned, unsurely glancing around the stage.

Nodding back at her, Mr Schue gave her yet another smile, "yeah." He said as she began to walk off stage, calling after her, "I'll let you know about the auditions!"

Without replying, Penelope kept walking off stage, wondering to herself whether all auditions were this blunt. Shaking away her thoughts, she pulled her binder close to her chest, with the hope of getting into glee club fresh in her mind.

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PENELOPE HAD MANAGED TO GET INTO GLEE CLUB ALONGSIDE THE FIVE OTHERS WHO HAD AUDITIONED. It was the first time she'd been in the choir room, since starting school that year and to kick things off, they were doing a version of 'Sit Down You're Rocking The Boat.'

For six talented people, they really weren't very good and the cringe on Mr Schue's face showed it as he attempted to be supportive. Penelope was already being scowled at by most of the group for tripping over each one of them, including Artie's wheelchair as she frowned intensely, trying to follow the choreography.

Throwing her arms down from the excessive jazz hands in the routine, Rachel was first to say what they were all feeling, "we suck."

"It'll get better." Mr Schue assured them, "we just need to keep rehearsing."

"Mr Schuester, do you have any idea how ridiculous it is to give the lead solo in 'Sit Down You're Rocking The Boat' to a boy in a wheelchair." Rachel complained, very loudly.

Frowning, Penelope put her hand up and shot Artie a thumbs up, "I thought Artie was great." She said, quietly, before immediately backing down with an awkward blush as Rachel glared daggers at her.

"Yeah, I think Mr Schue was using irony to enhance the performance." Artie added on, adjusting his glasses.

"There's nothing ironic about show choir!" Rachel shrieked, filled with annoyance, ripping off her gloves and storming out the choir room without looking back.

Pinching the bridge of his nose, Mr Schue knew there was no hope with continuing rehearsal and swiftly waving them out of the choir room, with a smile of congratulations for their hard work.

Tagging along next to Artie and Tina, Penelope slung her bag over her shoulder as they left the room together, "irony totally enhanced the performance, dude." She smiled at the boy, appreciatively, "Rachel's clearly a little insane, but I'm sure we'll get used to her."

"And her very regular storm outs." Kurt finished, as he and Mercedes came up behind them, smiling at his new friends as they laughed alongside him, feeling a rush of happiness that he finally was starting to make some real friends.

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THE QUARTERBACK HAD JOINED THE GLEE CLUB. If she was honest with herself, Penelope thought him joining was all a massive joke and the football players would once again throw rainbow coloured paint balloons at her, or hide her stuff somewhere where she couldn't reach or try and give her cat a horrific haircut but despite his slight reluctance, he seemed nice.

Their first rehearsal with Finn Hudson had relaxed her a little bit, he had an amazing voice, even if Penelope thought Artie was doing a perfect job as leading male in the first place. He also seemed quite nervous, which was understandable. Penelope knew she would be nervous too if Rachel Berry was singing 'You're The One That I Want' with her like she was completely and utterly in love.

Mr Schue had seen it a good idea to take the glee club on a field trip to see their some of their competitors, specifically the glee club from Carmel High and he seemed very excited about it, apart from the fact he was purely focused on enjoying a conversation with Miss Pillsbury, the guidance counsellor.

Waiting to go into the auditorium, Penelope sat herself down away from the crowd of people, minding her own business, guiltily helping herself to a packet of candy. Seeing her sat on her own, Finn wandered over and sat down next to her.

Eyes widening in fear at the idea that the Quarterback had chosen to sit next to her, Penelope's mind was racing as she desperately tried to come up with a way to start a conversation with him without seeming any weirder than she was certain he already thought she was. Before she could think it over any longer though, her nerves had turned her round and outstretched a box of nerds in his direction, "nerd?" She shouted out, much louder and more awkward than she'd hoped.

"S-sorry?" Finn stammered, in an equally awkward tone, blinking a few times as the pair's eyes met.

Sighing slightly and releasing a bit of the tension in her shoulders, Penny tried again, "you want some nerds?" She breathed out, going red out of embarrassment.

After a short moment, a large smile appeared on Finn's lips as he nodded and held his hand out, "I'd love some. Thanks. I'm uh- Finn by the way."

"I'm Penelope, uh Penny."

Nodding in reply, they were left in a comfortable silence for a bit as they both dug around in their bags of candy until Finn spoke up again, "so you're uh- a lesbian."

Penny immediately felt her heart sink. She'd always believed Finn was the best out of all of them, if anyone of the footballers was to accept her for who she was, she thought it would be Finn. Clearing her throat, she found herself tensing up as she got a bit defensive, "yeah, I am. Is that a problem?"

"No! I didn't mean it like that." Finn apologised immediately, eyes widening in panic as he twiddled his fingers, "you know, it's just something we have in common: we both like girls."

Embarrassed, Penelope let out a sigh of relief as she muttered her apologies back, and began to smile back at him as they made eye contact once again, "yeah, we do."

"You maybe wanna sit with me today?" He asked, nudging her in the side slightly, "I don't really know anyone else here except Rachel and she seems kinda crazy."

"I'll protect you from Rachel, dude." Penelope joked, standing up as they noticed Mr Schue calling them over to go in and beckoning for Finn to follow.

Rushing to catch up, Finn turned on his heels so he was walking backwards in front of her, "great." He beamed, "I'm getting popcorn, you wanna share?"

"Totally." Penelope grinned in reply, laughing for a moment, blissfully unaware as to how good Vocal Adrenaline could possibly be.

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VOCAL ADRENALINE WERE UNBELIEVABLY GOOD. Even after initially being terrified to even think about going up against them, the New Directions hadn't lost hope in their group that even in the short time of being together, they really loved and nobody had quit.

Nobody except their teacher, Mr Schue. And with Mr Schue gone, Finn had dismissed himself too. Penelope couldn't deny she was a bit upset when he didn't turn up for rehearsal, she'd actually enjoyed Finn's company. He seemed cool to her in a way that was more than just popular cool.

Of course, due to Mr Schue's absence, Rachel had decided to take over as director and was loudly bossing around the group and shouting at Penelope for not managing steps she thought were simple as a toddler. At the beginning of the rehearsal, Penelope was trying, but just not doing it right but by the end, she'd simply given up. No one else would ever join if they knew that Rachel Berry was this insane.

Sneaking over to where Tina was stood, Penelope furrowed her eyebrows, worriedly, "do you know where Artie is? He should be here."

"No i-idea." Tina replied, shrugging her shoulders and looking around the stage one more time in the hopes that her best friend would come out.

Looking over his shoulder, Kurt immediately crossed his arms over his chest and scowled, "this is a closed rehearsal."

Seeing Finn dripping with sweat come through the wings, pushing along Artie, everyone was in mixed feelings. Glad to see Artie, Penelope and Tina immediately welcomed him into the group, "Artie! Where've you been, man?"

"It's a long story, but Finn helped me out." Artie smiled over at Finn, who was stood apologetically before the group of people he once thought were losers that he'd never have anything to do with.

"Look, I owe you guys an apology. I never should've quit. I don't wanna be the guy that drives round throwing eggs at people." He told them, hoping for their forgiveness.

"That was you?" Rachel immediately replied.

"You and your friends threw pee balloons at me." Kurt said in a monotone, not quite ready to just let Finn back in without knowing how he'd treated them in the past, "you nailed all my lawn furniture to my roof."

"I wasn't actually there for that, but I'm really sorry." Finn said, quickly, scratching the top of his head as he realised that it wouldn't be as easy as he expected to earn their trust once again, "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, we wanna be good at something. Artie, you play guitar, right? You think you could recruit the jazz band?"

"I do have pull there." Artie nodded.

"Mercedes, Kurt, we need new costumes, and they have to be cool, you think you could do that?"

"Don't you see what I have on?" Mercedes chuckled, pointing to her own outfit.

"Rachel, you can do choreography." Finn gave her a soft smile, turning next to Tina, "Tina, what are you good at?"

A moment of silence came as Tina tried to figure something out, but Finn quickly reassured her with a smile, "we'll figure something out for you. Penny, you know the AV club right? Maybe you could get us some cool lighting and stuff."

"I'm on it." Penelope grinned back at him.

"And what are you bringing to the table, Justin Timberlake?" Mercedes questioned him with a teasing smile.

Finn just grinned at them in return, "I've got the music."