Taking Back Queen, a glee fanfic

I hate disclaimers, but I own absolutely nothing. Except for the nine, count 'em, nine pairs of shoes I bought in the past two weeks. I do not own anything by glee or queen or the Beatles (damn it) or anyone else mentioned in this fic.

Taking back Queen

Sam sat in the back of Glee club while they discussed song selection for Regionals.

"I'd really like to do Let It Be," Artie said. "I love the Beatles." There was general positive reaction to that.

"How about something a bit more modern?" Santana said. "There's a really cool Katy Perry song that just came out."

"I love her," Mike burst out unexpectedly. After a brief pause to glance at Mike questioningly, there was more acceptance of this comment.

"What about we play our strengths, guys?" Mr. Schuester offered. "Classic Rock suggestions?"

"Aerosmith? Jaynie's got a gun maybe?" Finn asked. Brittany ducked. "I love that song. We could totally do that thing where all our voices do that stuff."

"Acapella," Rachel said with a smile.

"Yeah, I'm a sick beat boxer," Puck commented.

"I think we're all forgetting our other strength," Rachel said. "Me, of course. I'd like to offer my services to sing Memory from the classic Broadway musical Cats."

"Or we could stop talking about this Vanilla music and think about something a bit more black? Alicia Keys is my girl," Mercedes said.

"I have an idea," Sam said nervously, putting up his hand. "I mean, our whole thing has always been the adorable-bunch-of-misfits-coming-together-to-triumph-over-adversity gig. Why don't we do something about... you know... friendship."

Puck scoffed.

"No that's a good idea," Quinn said, glowing with pride in him, before returning her gaze to the group. "How about the song from Toy Story? Or the theme from Friends?"

"I was thinking more along the lines of 'You're My Best Friend," Sam said.

If he was expecting the same positive reaction that every other song suggestion (even Rachel's) had been greeted with, he was sorely disappointed. At once, everyone in the room, including Mr. Schuester and Quinn, recoiled back into their seats.

"I'm not sure that's quite the right fit for us," Mr. Schuester said. "We're more Journey than Queen."

"Seriously? I love that song," Lauren said from the back.

"Yeah, me too. I mean, what's wrong with Queen? We're strong enough as a group. You sang Queen before."

"That was different," Finn said. "We had April for Somebody to Love."

"Not at the Invitational," Lauren said.

"And not at sectionals, either," said Tina.

"Yeah but we rehearsed it with her," Artie said.

"And it was... you know... before," Rachel said.

"Before what?" he asked. When Quinn made that face, it meant 'before I gave birth'. As far as he knew, Rachel had not conceived any illegitimate children, so he did not fear to ask beyond the nervous look in her eyes.

"Before Vocal Adrenaline."

Sam paused. "I don't understand."

Rachel took a deep breath. "They... they're a showstopper group. They kicked our butts at Regionals. I'm actually the only one in the room who actually saw Bohemian Rhapsody, but it was jaw-dropping. They were absolutely precise. And their Another One Bites the Dust was..."

"Terrifying," Artie said. "I didn't sleep soundly for weeks, despite our subsequent showing up with a totally ace Funk number." Puck high-fived him.

"Let me get this straight," Sam said. "You don't want to sing the perfect New Directions song because... the team we're singing against sang a couple of songs by the band who wrote it?"

When he put it like that, their silliness seemed to come to light.

"It's not... I mean you make it sound so..." Finn muttered.

"It's maybe just not our thing..." Mr. Schuester said.

"We don't have a 'thing'," Sam insisted. "We go from Joan Osborn to Rocky Horror to Cee Lo Green. We do mashups of Umbrella and Singing in the Rain. We don't have a thing."

And he was beating down all of their logic.

"I really like that song," Brittany said quietly. "I think it could be fun."

"We could definitely work out some pretty awesome choreography for it..." Mike said, with a look back at the ditsy blonde, who nodded.

One by one they fell on the band wagon.

"It'll be like taking back Queen," Puck said. "We did it first, anyway." Finn high-fived him.

And soon they were excitedly discussing choreography and the key of the song.

Two weeks later, they held a scrimmage. The point was to not use their Regionals songs, so they went with something they'd whipped up over the past couple of weeks. They went first.

Vocal Adrenaline, the Dalton Academy Warblers and the team from the East named Jive Junctures sat in the auditorium New Directions prepared to take their turn.

They stood with their backs to the audience in darkness.

Stomp-stomp-clap

A spotlight hit Puck in ripped clothing. The body percussion continued.

"Buddy you're a boy, make a big noise, playing in the street, gonna be a big man someday!"

Puck spun around and his spotlight dropped. As quickly as it was over, Artie had spun in his wheelchair to take his place as soloist.

"You've got mud on your face. You big disgrace, kicking your can all over the place, singing."

Spotlights came up on every member of New Directions. They spun, continuing their body percussion, forming a triangle as they sang.

"We will, we will rock you. Rock you. We will, we will rock you." And at once they had their backs to them in the darkness, all except Sam.

"Buddy you're a young man, hard man, shouting in the street, gonna take on the world some day."

And then it was Finn's turn. "You got blood on your face, you big disgrace. Waving your banner all over the place."

"Singing we will, we will rock you. We will, we will rock you."

Santana took her solo at this point. "Buddy you're an old man, poor man, pleading with your eyes, gonna make you some peace some day."

And Mercedes. "You got mud on yo' face, you big disgrace, somebody better put you back into yo' place!"

"We will, we will rock you. We will, we will rock you."