For the Birds
pt. 2
The Warblers were already mid-rehearsal when Kurt slipped silently into their choir room. Daniel had one hand lifted: "Free..." he sang, and, at a gesture from him, six other members of the group echoed him a beat into the word:
*Free...*
A moment later, as the first seven choir members' voiced blended into a single yearning note, Blaine stepped forward with another five at his back, chiming in with a tripping, flitting:
*Blackbird singing in the dead of night...*
To patter soothingly beneath the soaring:
*... as a bird...*
from the first group.
The arrangement was enough to make Kurt stop in his tracks by the door, heart in his throat. Beatles mash-up. Oh my god.
And then, as soon as it began, it was over, and Kyle was pushing away from the desk at the fore of the practice space, "No. No, guys, stop," he nearly snapped, taking up the rubber-tipped pointer and walking around to the whiteboard. "NOT 'Free,' two, three, four, THEN the blackbird. Blackbird on /three./ On /three/," he stressed, "Or else it'll muddle up the primary arrangement and we'll turn the whole thing into a fiasco. If we're going to go with this 'mash-up' trend-" and his voice couldn't have sounded more disdainful there if it tried, "We're at least going to do it -right.- Over, again," he began, then, spokking Kurt. "Kurt. Nice of you to join us," he nearly sneered, then tipped his chin up, gesturing brusquely toward Blaine, "You're in Blaine's group. Blaine, I'll give you five minutes to catch him up on the arrangement. The -correct- arrangement," he specified. "I know it's easier to wait for a vocal cue, but nothing good ever came easy, did it?" he asked, rhetorically. "Daniel," he turned to the other group, "I need you to tighten up your group's harmony. It needs to be one note from the time they join you. You can't be wavering all over the place for a beat trying to find one another. Get it /right/."
Kurt, his mouth open just a little bit, looked across the room to Blaine as he made his way dimly in that direction. Was he the only one on whom the irony was not lost of behaving in such a dictatorial fashion over a production of the Beatles' Free as a Bird? Blaine's face, however, was all business, and he made a gesture that Kurt should hurry up. Kurt hurried.
"Everything okay with Mademoiselle Tervens?" he did, however, take the time to ask, even as he was laying out the modified sheet music.
Kurt looked from Blaine to a couple of the other boys huddled around. "... Yeah. Fine," he lied, underneath a pallid mask of frost chill.
"Lucky," Wes murmurred across the piano. "Cicero's kicking my ass this semester. I'm going to have to do an extra credit assignment over Christmas holiday to kick my grade up to an A when I get back."
A few expressions of sympathy were forthcoming, but Kurt couldn't keep quiet after that. "An extra credit assignment to put your grade up over a B? You're a litttle bit of a workaholic, aren't you, Wes?" he tried to joke. Instead of the laughs he expected, however, Kurt was rewarded by a set of rather blank stares.
"... Nnno," Wes started up again. "But when we get back from break we're going to have our academic elegibility forms go out," he explained, infuriatingly slowly, as if he suddenly wasn't sure that Kurt spoke English.
"Academic elegibility?" Kurt wondered, looking around the circle of eyes. Nobody said anything for a long moment, before Blaine took up the burden of the conversation.
"Dalton Academy's primary goal is academic excellence for its students. And so it only lets those students who are already excelling academically participate in extracurriculars."
"So... what, keep a B average?" Kurt asked, hesitantly.
"... A. An A average," Blaine answered him.
"... Oh."
What else was there to say? Even if Kurt were getting A marks in all his other classes (which he wasn't, by the by; A level work at McKinley was barely B/C cusp level work here at Dalton), it would scarcely balance out his failing grades in French.
"Oh." He said, again.
And they got back to their arrangement.
There were the Warblers, like geese in proper formation, on the Dalton auditorium stage, singing to an empty audience. Pristine in their show apparel - matching suits with narrow ties evocative of the period, hands kept neatly at their sides as their voices swelled to fill the empty air. Eyes bright, eyes ahead, except for one set of eyes that couldn't help but stray to his section leader. Home. Home and dry. Fly away, Blackbird. Blackbird... fly.
Free (Blackbird, singing in the dead of night,)
As a bird (Take these broken wings, and learn to fly,)
It's the next best thing (all)
to (your)
be (life)
Free as a bird (Free as a bird)
Home (Blackbird, singing in the dead of night,)
Home and dry (Take these broken wings, and learn to fly,)
Like a homing bird (all)
I (your)
fly. (life.)
Like a bird, on wings. (like a bird, on wings)
Whatever happened to (You were only waiting)
The life that we once knew? (for this moment to arise)
Can we really live (you were only waiting)
without each other? (for this moment to arise)
Where did we lose the touch (You were only waiting)
That seemed to mean so much? (for this moment to be free)
It always made me feel... (You were only waiting)
so... (For this moment to be)
Free (Free)
As a bird (As a bird.)
It's the next best thing (It's the next best thing)
to (to)
be (be)
Free as a bird (Free as a bird)
Home (Blackbird, singing in the dead of night)
Home and dry (Take these sunken eyes, and learn to see)
Like a homing bird (all)
I (your)
fly. (life.)
Like a bird, on wings. (Like a bird, on - Blackbird, fly.)
Whatever happened to (Blackbird, fly.)
the life that we once knew? (Blackbird, fly.)
It always made me feel (You were only waiting)
so (For this moment to be)
free (free)
Free (Blackbird, singing in the dead of night)
as a bird. (Take these broken wings, and learn to fly.)
It's the next best thing, to be (it's the next best thing to be)
Free as a bird. (Free as a a- Blackbird, fly.)
Free as a bird. (Blackbird, fly.)
Free as a bird. (Blackbird, fly.)
Into the light (Into the light)
Of a dark black night. (Of a dark black night.)
And in unison, the entire crew bent double in the trademark Beatles bow. And... lights.