The New Star

The Moment of Our Lives

After another intermission, the lights dimmed, and the announcer walked out on stage. "And now our final team – McKinley High's New Directions!"

There wasn't anyone on stage as the music started playing. Shelby recognized the introduction as Something's Coming from West Side Story. While she approved the choice of the Broadway classic, she knew that it was a moderately difficult song, requiring a lot of quick breathing and staccato lines. There was still no one on stage though.

Could be, who knows…

The voice came from the back of the auditorium. The spotlight flashed over to illuminate a young man with dark hair, walking down the aisle into the audience. It was a good decision, one that commanded the attention of everyone in the audience. The boy walked down the aisle as he sang, flirting with the audience as he went. He was good, Shelby thought. Both vocally and theatricality were present in the performance. The song suited his voice perfectly, he wasn't straining with any of the notes, making it sound completely effortless.

Then Shelby got a good look at his face, and she froze. It couldn't be. She dug her program out of her purse, where she'd relegated it after flipping through it before the show. She flipped hurriedly through the pages to the listing for the New Directions. There, second on the list, just after Arthur Abrams.

Ryan Berry.

The boy belting it out onstage was her son.

She could just stare in wonder at the performer standing up on the stage, singing the song, displaying all the hope and impatience and anticipation associated with the classic. And he wasn't just singing the song, he was living it, displaying his yearning for the song's unknown 'something'. It was a performance at its finest, the kind that Shelby continually tried without success to evoke from her own students. The song was alive for Ryan, and he was projecting it to everyone, making them believe that there was something truly amazing on its way.

It's only just out of reach

Down the block, on a beach

Maybe tonight…

Maybe tonight…

Maybe tonight!

He belted out the last note perfectly, hand outstretched, reaching for the elusive something. The audience rose in a standing ovation, cheering wildly. "Ladies and gentlemen, New Directions!" Shelby hadn't even noticed that the rest of his team had joined him onstage, she was so focused on Ryan himself.

The performance continued with You Can't Always Get What You Want, led by Ryan and a very tall boy, and concluded with Somebody to Love, led by the tall boy and an African-American girl. In the back of her mind Shelby noted that the girl's admittedly impressive voice needed some refining, while the other male lead seemed strained with the high notes. She wondered why her son hadn't sung lead in the last song. She couldn't focus on her critique, however, since all her attention was on one Ryan Berry.

I have to meet him.