Part 3 is finished! Enjoy!


*~*~*GLEE*~*~*

"So Nick's apparently been trolling some show choir forums online, and Tina's been listening out for any competition gossip, and we have it on good authority that Vocal Adrenaline is singing "Surfin' USA" by the Beach Boys." Finn's announcement was met with lots of groans and eye-rolling.

"That's because Vocal Adrenaline is a bunch of talentless hacks," snorted Tucker in disgust. "It's so obvious!"

"If they picked the obvious choice, then what are we going to sing?" Ryder asked.

"Just the opposite," said Finn with conviction. "We have to pick something surprising, something different, that shows how good we are and that we've actually thought this through."

"Well we'd better pick something fast, because Jeff says we only have four chances to rehearse with you guys, including today, before the competition next week," Nick said with a small frown.

Artie waved a hand dismissively in Nick's direction. "No worries. Our first year at Sectionals, Finn helped us redo our set list twenty minutes before we went onstage."

Finn smiled and bumped Artie's proffered fist, then turned to the perplexed-looking group and said, "Artie's right, guys. We've been through worse and we've pulled shows off with a lot less to go on. Pass around this list of beachy '60s songs and let me know which ones stand out. Maybe we can even mash one up with something new."

He handed out a few copies of the list before holding one up for Brittany, Sam, and Joe to see as the Warblers exchanged dubious looks.

Jeff and Nick turned to Blaine in confusion. "Are they serious?" Jeff asked quietly, tilting his head in Finn's direction.

Blaine shrugged. "I've heard all sorts of crazy stories about the Glee Club's past performances. Kurt said they spent the day before their first Nationals performance in their hotel rooms trying to write original songs to sing."

At the mention of Nationals, Tina grinned and chimed in, "Our songs rocked. We didn't win that year, but it wasn't our choice of songs that was the 'kiss of death', now was it?" From behind her, Artie snorted. When Finn looked over to see what was going on, they both doubled over laughing, hiding their faces behind some of the song sheets.

Jeff and Nick didn't look reassured. Blaine sighed; he'd tell them that story later.

"C'mon guys, have a little faith. Let me tell you about all of the times we actually won…"


By the end of the day, they had drawn up a decent mash-up of the Beach Boys' "Do You Wanna Dance?" and Lady Gaga's "Dance in the Dark", and everyone had gone their separate ways to go over their parts at home. It took some finagling, but Nick and Finn had even figured out a way for Trent to beat box in the background, after a tense discussion on the merits of oohing and ahhing versus the Warblers' trademark style of percussion.

Monday afternoon found them all back in the Doherty Room running through their parts. At around five-thirty, Tucker vanished momentarily and re-appeared pushing a cart laden with food from the Dalton kitchens. The New Directions gratefully fixed their plates as the Warblers set up extra chairs, discussing the merits of their songs and wondering how the other competitors would perform. As Bryan began circling the room with a pitcher of water, Finn frowned, turning toward the closed door.

"Did you guys hear that?"

Tucker strode over to the door, threw it open, and called out, "Move it! We've got dibs!" Closing the door again, he smiled at the group and held up another tray of food.

"Nothing to worry about, folks, everything's under control. Crab cake?"

Bryan shook his head as the others looked around in confusion. "I'm surprised it took them this long to find us." When the group turned his way, he rushed off to refill his pitcher, blushing.

A muffled voice from the other side of the door called out, "We know you've got girls in there, Tuck! Quit holding out on us!"

Tucker scowled and shouted at the door, "This is official Warbler business! Shove off!" They heard footsteps moving away, and a muffled, "Warblers have all the luck."

Kitty and Sugar grinned at each other. "We're being stalked by a bunch of cute prep-school boys," Sugar sighed. "This is the best day ever."

Jeff set his plate down and waved for everyone's attention. "It's about to get a whole lot better, because it's time to figure out our choreography! I don't really have a lot of experience setting up the group formations, just some of my own stunts, but Blaine tells me he and, who was it, Brittany?" She stood up and waved. "-would take on laying out our dance moves. Tucker's probably the best dancer out of the six of us. I'm okay, I guess, and Mace and I can do some cool stunts. So yeah, see if you can figure something out and start moving us around, me and the guys are ready to break it down," he said, and the other Warblers cheered.

Nick sidled up to Blaine and Brittany, who was drawing out some performance diagrams. He nudged Blaine and said softly, "Jeff's way better at dancing than he gives himself credit for. Any way you can get him out front?"

Blaine nodded thoughtfully. "Brittany's the best dancer we have." He turned to her as she looked up from her drawing. "What do you say? Could you and Jeff take the lead?"

She smiled and nodded. "I'll figure out something awesome, like me and Mike would have done. The problem is what to do with everyone else, because we can't pair off 'boy, girl, boy, girl' with all of your Warbler brothers dancing with us." She shrugged. "We might have to put the extra boys in the back."

Nick glanced over at her diagram. "You're right, your club is actually perfectly divided for dancing. That's…bizarrely coincidental."

Brittany shrugged and held up her diagram. "Let's try getting everyone to stand like this and see how it goes."


"But why can't we dance with the girls?"

Blaine fought the urge to yell and stomp his feet. Being back at Dalton did that to him, made him mind his manners. He was determined to get through this process with dignity and grace, even if he really, really felt like strangling Mace.

Mace was currently pointing an accusatory finger at his temporary Warbler-In-Chief. "You told us that if we teamed up with McKinley we'd get to dance with hot girls, Jeff! Why do I have to stand off to the side?"

Nick was trying hard to both salvage the situation and hold back his laughter. "Well, technically, we're going to be onstage, with the girls, all dancing at the same time, so it pretty much counts."

Blaine cut in before Mace could come up with a sharp retort. "Guys, we're still working out the kinks, but for now let's work on how the key dancers will weave in and out of the group." He turned to Brittany, who was laying out their routine for Jeff. "Do you think we could make it so that people pair off, then move back to their positions, to mix things up?"

She nodded, ushering Jeff to the front of the group. "Oh yeah, definitely. Now, if you could stand here, Warbler One, then we can have Warblers Two and Five over there by Sam."

Tucker threw up his hands. "So the one time we get to perform with actual girls, Jeff's up front with a cheerleader? That's just peachy. And since when are we numbered?"

Nick grinned at Jeff as Bryan and Trent consulted Brittany's chart to figure out which of them was Warbler Five. "Looks like Warbler Jeff is trying to keep all of the hot girls to himself."

Jeff blushed. "If you can't take this seriously, Warbler Nick, I will be forced to punch you in the face."


After several more complaints, threats, and promising to let Mace do a spin kick during the transition between formations Three and Four, everyone was more or less in position and Blaine and Britney got to work planning out the dance number.

Trent turned to Artie and Tina as they awaited further instruction, looking ecstatic. "This is so exciting! I'm all for precision, but it's so nice to throw all of Hunter's military training out the window for once. We can do anything, anything we can think of! Ballroom, hip hop, or, or a conga line! That would be awesome. We did one at my cousin's wedding; it was great. Do you think we could work that into the finale?"

Artie and Tina exchanged glances, then turned at the sound of laughter behind them. Tucker and Joe were stretching on the next row up.

"You've been in the Warblers too long, buddy. Give a guy an ounce of creative freedom and he goes bananas." He grinned across the aisle at Nick and Ryder, who were learning some '60s dance moves from Brittany. "I can't wait to see the competition footage. If the flu doesn't do him in, Hunter's gonna have a heart attack when he sees us perform."

Trent attempted to mimic the tricky spin Brittany was showing Jeff. "Things have gone well so far. I think we can pull this off. It's not we're incapable of rational thought without Hunter or Sebastian to guide us."

Tucker grinned wickedly. "That's not how they tell it. Mr. and Mr. Know-It-All. You know, this whole 'Swine Flu' thing might be a front, to give them some alone time."

Trent choked, Nick snorted, and Blaine turned to their section, raising an eyebrow at Artie and Tina's sudden fits of coughing.

"Looks like things haven't changed much since I was here. You guys still gossip like sixth grade girls." Fighting back a smile of his own, he turned to the group and said, "Okay, guys, let's see if we can get this first formation to work."

As they all moved into position, Artie was sure he heard Nick mutter, "That is way too much smug for one relationship."


Backstage with mere minutes before their performance, the Dalton McKinley Connection stood gathered around Finn and Jeff, who were dishing out last minute tips before the group went onstage. The DMC were set to perform last, and when Jeff and Finn ran out of steam, the singers huddled together, discussing the other performances.

"Vocal Adrenaline is so predictable," Tina whispered. "Hula skirts and leis? Really?"

Marley laughed quietly. "You don't know how close Finn was to putting us all in Hawaiian shirts." She smoothed down her skirt and nervously straightened her blazer. Her mother had come through in spades, sewing fitted blazers for the girls to wear over their shimmering navy dresses. Dalton had provided uniforms for the boys: the two extra letters were the only differences between their costumes and the real deal.

Bryan helped Sam and Jake straighten their ties, shaking his head in wonder. "I still can't believe that the Our Lady of Perpetual Suffering choir figured out how to turn "Fun, Fun, Fun" into antiphonal polyphony."

Sam shrugged. "I didn't even know they had beaches during the Renaissance."

As the house lights dimmed, Jeff turned to the others one last time before the curtain rose. He looked both proud and terrified.

"Guys," he said, trying to catch everyone's eye, "and girls," he amended. "It's been awesome working with you this week, and whatever happens, just go out there knowing that we made a bad situation into something totally epic. Now let's kill this thing."

He turned to face forward just as an amplified voice rang through the auditorium.

"Ladies and Gentlemen, now onstage, from Lima and Westerville, Ohio, the Dalton McKinley Connection!"


"And that's how the Warblers and the New Directions both won at Regionals."

Kurt snorted. "You have got to be kidding me."

Blaine clutched his coffee mug and pretended to look wounded. "I would never kid about Regionals, Kurt."

They were Skyping the day after the competition, a rainy Sunday afternoon that found Blaine camped out on his living room sofa rereading Order of the Phoenix (his favorite of the series). Blaine had happily set aside Harry's adventures at the Ministry of Magic to regale Kurt with tales of the previous day's adventures.

Blaine paused, gazing intently at Kurt's image on his computer screen. "It's just…we pulled it off. We saved the Warblers from disqualification and redeemed ourselves, all in one fell swoop. Coach Sue has been cleared out of the choir room, so we have a real place to rehearse again. The other Warblers are on the mend, so they'll be bringing their 'A' game to Nationals. And Wade and Marley have stopped sighing dramatically every time Finn comes in the room with a new goofy suggestion."

Kurt smiled. "I'm sure they're still sighing on the inside."

Blaine grinned, then bit his lip. "With everything that happened, it makes me feel like anything is possible. And with all that said…" He squared his shoulders and took a shaky breath. "Would you do me the honor of going to the Senior Prom with me?"

Kurt propped his chin on his fist and stared silently at his screen for a moment, while Blaine struggled not to fidget. Finally, Kurt leaned back and sighed. "As long as I get to pick out our suits."

Blaine beamed at the sight of Kurt's small smile. "It's going to be awesome, Kurt. Everyone will want to tell you about the performance, and the theme will be Miami Nights, and it's sure to be a blast, especially if…especially if you're there." He backtracked quickly. "And Jeff and the other five guys who sang with us might even come by to do a group number or two, for old times' sake, if Hunter Clarington ever lets them out of his sight again. I mean, anything's possible, right?"

Kurt gave Blaine a small smile. "You're right, Blaine. Anything's possible." He shook his head and laughed. "It's just too bad about the costumes. It's not fair that those poor McKinley kids got stuck wearing blazers."

Now it was Blaine's turn to laugh. "Come on, Kurt. You know everyone loves the blazer."


The End!

That was so much fun to write; I just hope some of my crazy ended up making sense. Many thanks to the creators of Glee, for being awesome, and making an awesome show for me to write about. Here's to a spectacular end to Season 4! Happy reading, everyone, and happy Glee watching!

MA