CHAPTER 1
News for Glee Club
It was early on a Monday morning in February and McKinley High School was empty and quiet. Kurt and his friend Mercedes arrived in Kurt's car. Kurt felt the cold wind through his thin, fashionable coat. He loved stylish clothes but they weren't always right for the weather.
‘A special Glee Club meeting before school, ’said Mercedes as they walked to the school door. ’Why does Mr Schu want to see us early? We’ve got Glee Club practice later on.’ But Kurt wasn’t listening. He was watching their friend Finn, the tall, good-looking football player who was getting out of his car. Finn wasn’t the cleverest boy in the school but he look great and he has a brilliant voice. Kurt smiled dreamily.
Finn walked over to them. ‘Hi guys,’ he said. He looked worried. ‘Perhaps Mr Schu is going to leave,’ he thought. The other football players thought Glee Club was for losers but Finn was different. He loved Glee Club and he didn’t want it to close.
In the school corridor they met their friends Artie and Tina. Tina was pushing Artie towards the music room in his wheelchair. Artie looked clever in his thick, black glasses – and he was! But he wasn’t very confident and he worried about a lot of things.
‘Where’s Rachel?’ asked Finn. Rachel was the best singer in Glee Club. She wasn’t very popular but she didn’t care. She only cared about singing. She was very talented – and she knew it! When Finn stopped going out with his last girlfriend, Quinn Fabray, he and Rachel went out together a few times. They weren’t together anymore but he still had special feelings for her.
In the music room, Rachel closed her eyes and sang. She always arrived half an hour early to practice singing, and she didn’t hear the other come in. She finished her song and opened her eyes. ‘What are you all doing here?’ she asked angrily. She liked practice alone.
‘Didn’t you get Mr Schu’s text message?’ asked Mercedes.
‘No. Because I turn my phone off at night to rest my voice,’ said Rachel. ‘It’s very important for someone with my brilliant talent.’
Mercedes stepped forward. ‘We’ve heard enough about your brilliant talent! Why don’t you…’ but then Mr Schuester arrived. He was carrying a pink cake box.
‘OK guys,’ he said. He looked round the room. The girls from the Cheerios, the school cheerleading group, weren’t there. Puck, the other footballer in Glee Club wasn’t there either. ‘I’ve got some news but a few students aren’t here,’ he said.
‘That’s OK – we can tell them later. What’s the news Mr schu?’ asked Rachel.
‘No, Rachel. I want to tell you all together. So let’s meet again after lunch and I’ll tell you then. And enjoy these.’ Mr Schuester opened the box. It was full of lovely hot croissants*.
……..
All morning the students tried to guess the news.
‘I know,’ smiled Rachel happily. ‘Mr Schu is finally going to ask me to sing all my favourite songs from Les Miserables.
‘Maybe we have to sell some cakes again,’ said Tina, ’so we can make more money for Glee Club.’
Then Rachel saw Quinn Fabray and her Cheerio friends in the corridor. She walked over to them.
'I need to buy some clothes for the Cheerio-Basketball party,' Quinn said to her friends. She was pretty, blonde and very popular. 'Let's go shopping now.'
Rachel hated Quinn. She was pregnant but she still looked good. She was Finn's ex-girlfriend too. It wasn't fair! 'You can't go shopping,'said Rachel angrily. 'You'll miss the Glee Club meeting. Mr Schu's got some important news!'
Quinn's eyes looked mean. 'You can't stop us.'
Quinn hated Rachel too. Rachel was a loser, no one liked her. It was Rachel's fault that she and Finn weren't together. For a long time Finn thought he was the father of Quinn's baby but then Rachel told him the truth. The baby was Puck's. And now Quinn had no boyfriend.
'I can,' Rachel said confidently. 'I can tell Principal Figgins that you miss lessons all the time and go shopping!.
Then Quinn had an idea. She smiled unkindly. 'OK. We'll come to the meeting but you have to do something too. You can't take to Finn for two weeks. OK?.
'I can't do that,'thought Rachel. But Glee Club was important. They needed the right number of people for their performances. They needed Quinn and her friends. 'OK,' she said. 'I agree.'
After lunch, all the students came to the meeting, even the Cheerios and Puck. Rachel was dreaming about a big stage. She was in the middle of it, singing a wonderful song from Les Miserables. Everyone was shouting,'Rachel!' What a moment!.
Then she saw Finn. Rachel really wanted to talk to talk to him, but then she looked at Quinn. She was smiling at Rachel. Her eyes said,' I'm watching you!. Rachel sat down again. 'This is going to be heard!'she thought!.
At last Mr Schueaty comes into the music room. He looked around at all the Glee Club students.
'OK. You're all here so I can tell you the news. It's about our performance for Multicultural Week.'
Every year the school had a Multicultural Week wh