Arranging themselves on the risers the visiting students quietly filed into the choir room, facing the already assembled New Directions. Members of both groups briefly exchanged looks of mutual curiosity, while Mr Schue and Haverbrook's teacher began a loud conversation over by the piano. As the teachers conversation carried on some of the Haverbrook students turned to each other exchanging hand signals. This was met with varying responses from the New Directions members. Kurt rolled his eyes when he heard Finn whisper to Mike that maybe it was some kind of secret code. He also heard Britt' say it looked like magic and that she thought maybe they had come from Hogwarts. This confusion was to be expected from Britt, and Finn certainly had his moments, so it wasn't entirely unexpected. The others responses were varied however, from outright curiosity from Mercedes, to suspicion from Rachael, and indifference from Puck and Santana.
Continuing to watch everyone with interest, Kurt now and again darted his eyes over various members of the other school group. He was impressed with their formal uniform, observing details in the tailoring and cut of the garments. But it didn't take long for his interest to also be drawn by the motions of the student's hands and faces as they communicated. A couple of times he would catch someone's eye, smiling shyly as he tried to keep his observations as polite as possible. Although he fought it, his curiosity kept getting the better of him.
Trying to distract himself from his observations Kurt turned and whispered to Mercedes. "What song do you think they will choose?" Mercedes met Kurt's eye, giving a non-committal answer. Their combined efforts to distract one another was failing completely, as the distracted pair fidgeted in their seats. Playing with their phones in further efforts to rein in their out of control curiosity didn't appear to help much either, as soon enough they were both back to stealing fascinated glances across the room.
When the two teachers seemed to have concluded their confusing conversation the Haverbrook teacher took his seat at the piano and waved his hand and stomped his foot a couple of times to get their attention. The hearing impaired students took notice quickly and returned to their places in the formation, ready to begin the performance. Mr Schue then stepped forward and made his formal introduction of the Haverbrook choir and ended his welcome with a nod to the teacher at the piano.
The teacher began playing and immediately there was a murmur and nods of approval from some of New Directions who recognized the famous John Lennon tune "Imagine". As it came to the vocals one of the male students began to speak-sing the lyrics to the song in time with his class mates' signs. The boy's voice was somewhat flat sounding and was a bit broken in places, but at the same time Mercedes felt that this added to the power of the lyrics, bringing out the poetry in the words.
Meeting the boy's eyes she felt a pull on her heart, and before she knew what she was doing she began to sing. Her powerful and rich voice instantly caught the attention of her classmates, it wasn't often they heard her voice unaccompanied. Her classmates, except for Kurt, looked on as Mercedes stood from her chair and took a spot beside the boy. Her voice rose and blended with his words adding to the powerful performance, smoothing the sound. She again looked to the boy beside her, receiving a warm smile. She then looked to his hands and began trying to copy the fluid movements and shapes they made.
Gradually the New Directions members rose from their seats, in ones and twos, dispersing amongst the Haverbrook students and adding their voices to the existing melody. They were all trying with varying levels of success to copy the hand movements of the deaf students. In a moment of rare unity and perfect timing the New Directions spontaneously joined their voices to create a seamless harmony for the song. Each of the teens who were so frequently at odds had at least temporarily found a collective peace.
Before they knew it the song had come to an end and everyone was applauding in one way or another. Mr Schuester looked on proudly as his class moved amongst the other group shaking hands and some still trying to get the movements right with corrections from the Haverbrook students. It seemed like at least this performance had been a success, possibly in more ways than one.
Gradually most of the New Directions drifted out of the class after the bell rang. But as he looked around Mr Schuester noticed that Tina, Mike, Kurt and Mercedes were still hanging around and were engaged in various conversations with the other schools students. Smiling he turned back to Mr Rumba, Haverbrook's choir teacher to finish trying to clear up their earlier misunderstanding.
Tina waved goodbye to the two students she had stood between during the performance and went to join Mike at the back of the room, where he was moving about with a couple of the deaf students exchanging dance steps. Crossing the room she looked around to see that some of the students had taken a seat on the risers and looked to be in animated conversations, judging by their bright smiles and enthusiastic hand movements. Mercedes seemed to have found a seat with the boy she had approached during the song and was looking content. While Kurt stood at the other end of the room with several other Haverbrook students clustered around a notebook, absorbed in writing or drawing something. It seemed like she wasn't the only one who had enjoyed this experience and was taking the opportunity to socialize. Even if there were some challenges, it looked like everyone was managing in their own way.