Always and Forever - Book 2

Audition

A/N: Hello everyone! Welcome to the second book in the Always and Forever series!

***

Hunter sighed deeply as he spotted Jacob Israel making his way down the corridor, microphone in hand, heading straight for where he stood with Quinn, Santana, and Brittany.

"Oh, kill me," Hunter muttered under his breath, rolling his eyes as he opened his locker, even though he didn't really need anything from it. It was just a convenient excuse to avoid looking at Jacob.

"Quinn Fabray," Jacob announced as he reached them, shoving the microphone towards her. "How has life changed since the birth of your bastard child?"

Quinn turned to face him, her expression tightening for a moment before she responded, "Well, I'm happy to be back, and I'm ready to start fresh. And... I'm a lot less hormonal, so..." Her voice trailed off as the camera shifted away from her, zooming in on Santana, who was casually filing her nails, clearly uninterested in the interview. Quinn frowned, annoyed, and forcefully turned the camera back towards her. "So there's not really any crying," she added with a strained smile.

Jacob barely acknowledged her response before turning to Santana. "How was your summer?" he asked, ignoring Quinn's obvious displeasure.

Santana, noticing how the camera was focused a little too low, glared at Jacob. "My eyes are up here, JewFro," she snapped, pointing at her face. "And it was uneventful."

Before Jacob could react, Brittany chimed in, her usual non-sequitur style shining through. "People thought I went on vacation, but actually, I spent the summer lost in the sewers."

Quinn, Santana, and Hunter all turned to Brittany with bewildered expressions, momentarily thrown off by her unexpected statement.

Jacob, unfazed, quickly shifted his attention to Hunter, shoving the microphone in his face. "Is it true that you spent your whole summer being a man slut and getting girls pregnant?"

Hunter narrowed his eyes at Jacob, trying to keep his irritation in check. "No, of course not, pea for brains," he shot back, pulling his History textbook out of his locker.

Despite his outward dismissal, Hunter couldn't deny the whirlwind that had been his summer. Ever since an old friend had reappeared in his life, he had spiraled into some reckless behavior, much like during the school year. He tried to convince himself that he was back to his old self now, but there was a nagging uncertainty. Deep down, he knew that seeing Sam again would be the true test of whether he had really changed or if he was still struggling to find his footing.

***

"These are comments from Jacob Ben-Israel's most recent Glee Club blog," Mr. Schue announced as he entered the choir room for their first Glee meeting of the year. Holding a sheet of paper, he began reading off some of the harsh comments. "Glee is a giant ball of suck."

"We get it, Mr. Schue. Everyone still hates us. So what?" Kurt interrupted, his tone weary and dismissive. "So we're plankton on the high school food chain? Only difference now is that none of us really care."

"Kurt's right," Mercedes chimed in, her voice full of confidence. "We're a family. They can bring it all they want. None of it is going to break us."

"Okay, I'm really happy that you guys have all bonded," Mr. Schue said, a bit more serious now. "The problem is that all of this negative stuff is keeping other students from auditioning."

"Good. Why do we need new members?" Tina asked, crossing her arms.

"Well, since Matt transferred, we don't have the numbers for competition. And if we want to go to Nationals, if we want to beat Vocal Adrenaline, we have to go from a small rebel force to a giant wall of sound."