Author's note: So sometimes I get a little obsessed with accuracy. So not only do I now have a helpful calendar that alerts me to such important things as 'B fights with K' etcetc and planned class schedules for both boys for the entire year, I have recently put my rudimentary paint skills to use creating a map of Dalton. Also I now know more about Westerville, Ohio than any non-Westervillian should. For example, did you know it's 93% white, the median income is over $70,000, it has 4 bus lines and 16 elementary school, and has been nicknamed 'the dry capital of the world'? Now you do. You are welcome.
Blaine was carefully hanging up his blazers when his phone chimed, alerting him to a new text message.
From: Sebastian Smythe
Did I just hallucinate you dragging a suitcase across the quad?
You can just tell me you miss me. :-P He winced, wondering what it was about Sebastian that inspired him to turn into a 12 year old girl and use emoticons. I neither have a suitcase in my hands, nor am I standing in Dalton's quad. I can only assume it was a hallucination.
From: Sebastian Smythe
If we expand 'just' to include anytime within the past 3 hours? I was on a run.
From: Sebastian Smyth
Before you say anything, I was properly hydrated and nourished.
It is very hot out… Blaine hedged.
From: Sebastian Smyth
That must be it.
From: Sebastian Smyth
We have a new student named Blaine. He lives on the 3rd floor of Connors. Rumor has it he's a senior. I should go introduce myself.
Maybe give him time to settle in? Then I'm sure he'd just love to meet you. Was he actually inviting Sebastian to his room? It certainly sounded like he was which was equally interesting and somehow unsurprising.
A loud knock of the door caused him to drop his phone in surprise. After the silences of home the boyish outbursts of the dorms always had startled him for the first couple days. It was the best kind of change and not for the first time he wondered how he had just left it all behind last year.
"-of course I don't know who it is. But his name is Blaine, which means he is obligated to be our best friend," a voice he giddily recognized as Trent's said. Either they hadn't been back on campus long enough to hear the same rumors as Sebastian (even if it had been a coincidence, a senior named Blaine moving into the Warbler dorm was too suspicious to escape notice) or Sebastian's rumor mill was actually Doris.
"I feel awful for anyone who you call a best friend," Blaine said wryly, swinging the door open and trying to keep the emerging grin from entirely taking over his face. It would have been a lot easier to do if it weren't for the identically looks of flabbergasted shock that the five boys gathered outside his room were now wearing. "Come in, you idiots. If you can all fit. Kurt's closet is bigger than this." He stepped back and hastily kicked some stray boxes under the bed.
"Bastard," Trent finally cried, charging into the room and throwing his arms around Blaine. "How the fuck did you keep this from us. Does David know? He has to, he was with you yesterday. I'll kill him." He was pried away and Blaine suddenly found himself squished between Nick and Jeff. Ben was frantically texting; probably telling the rest of the Warblers, and Ethan, who had only met Blaine a couple of times was awkwardly standing in the doorway but smiling just as widely as the rest.
"We're the only ones here so far," Jeff said once the initial rush of euphoria died down. "Ethan is on the tennis team with Ben, so they've been here for a while. I just wanted out of my house. And these guys," he jerked his head in the direction of Trent and Nick, "have important Warbler council things to do."
"You already selected the council?" He asked in confusion. Although everyone basically knew who was going to be on council, it was never officially voted on until the first meeting, so that they new members had a say too. It was always good to create the illusion of a happy democracy before the captain abruptly turned it into a ruthless dictatorship, Wes had told him a little too gleefully. It fostered a good sense of unity, apparently.
Trent nodded, suddenly becoming very interested in Blaine's DVD collection.
"There's nothing about it in the codex. And after… certain circumstances, shall we say, that arose last year we thought it would be best to start the year off with positions already established to avoid further mishap," Nick said carefully. He was the only one even looking in Blaine's direction anymore and even he was studiously avoiding eye contact.
"Right," he said shortly, understanding that the 'circumstances' were the guy they had all hoped would be their captain had transferred schools without a backwards glance and the person they'd picked as his replacement turned out to be a borderline psychopath. "Well, Trent is captain, obviously. Nick is Senior Chair. Which poor bastard got stuck with secretary?"
"That would be me," Ben smiled easily. "Gotta start somewhere."
"So how hard will you guys be on me during auditions? Should I be going for the Queen of the Night Aria? Or is Katy Perry still okay?"
"Don't be ridiculous. You're a returning member," Ben snorted.
Trent Pretended to tear up. "Our little lost lamb, finally come home. Also you'd terrify all the freshman. Most are too frightened to sing in front of the mirror. We couldn't possibly ask them to follow you." His phone beeped in his pocket. "That means its time to go. Have to finish planning for tonight. 7 in the practice room. Don't be late."
"I'll stick around here. Help the little lamb unpack." Jeff sat on the edge of Blaine's desk. "Dom's going to text me when he gets here, we'll go help him with the heavy lifting." They all laughed because if there was one person who didn't need help with heavy lifting it was Dom.
"You promised you'd help Tris too. He should be here in about an hour," reminded Ben. "And he actually needs help with the heavy lifting."
Jeff removed his phone from his pocket and played around with it for a minute. "Volume's all the way up and set with the most obnoxious ring tones. Anybody comes and we'll hear it. You staying, Ethan?" He asked, turning his attention to the sophomore who was still lurking in the doorway.
"Nah. Some of the guys from the team are getting lunch in town. Might meet up with ya'll later, if that's okay. Assuming I can still move. We're going to Cluckers." Blaine's stomach turned in sympathy. You weren't a Dalton boy if you hadn't stuffed yourself on Cluckers wings.
"Your sheets are glowing," Jeff casually pointed out a few minutes later. He had decided his job would be 'overseeing the operation' which currently meant sitting around and unnecessarily rearranging books.
Stooping down, Blaine fished his phone out from where he had dropped it earlier and thumbed open the new message.
From: Sebastian Smythe
Walked by the new kids room. Seems he's already managed to make some friends.
"Anyone exciting?"
"Nah. Just Santana," Blaine quickly lied. He hesitated before typing out I'm sure he wouldn't mind another one. (?) He wasn't at all surprised when Sebastian never replied.
He didn't spend the rest of the day dwelling on it. He didn't have time for that. They'd barely finished organizing his room before Tristan arrived and they rushed off to help him. Halfway through lugging his indecently heavy trunk up the three flights of stairs to his room Dominic messaged Jeff, letting him know that he'd just pulled up. Blaine had never been happier to see anyone in his life because that trunk was about as long as he was tall and probably weighed more than he did. The 3 pizzas and 6 pack they now owed him was, in his opinion, poor negotiating skills on Dom's part.
Once everyone's rooms were semi-set up (Tristan had pretty much literally just thrown things at various surfaces and grunted 'good enough' when they landed in the general vicinity of their intended destination.) Blaine was dragged around the dorms. Every other room, it seemed, had someone who was thrilled to see him back.
They still had two floors left when Tristan informed them that it was now 6.57 and helpfully suggested that they should probably get their butts over to Wexner ASAP. So no, he hadn't spent all day dwelling over his earlier conversation with Sebastian but it floated across his mind enough for him to be a little anxious at the prospect of being in the same room with him.
The room was already packed when they got there. Boys were sprawled across every available surface and awkwardly standing in all the corners. Eleven were already Warblers and policy mandated they kept their places in the group. The other (Blaine did a quick count) 35 were looking to fill the holes left by departing seniors.
Looking around he only recognized a handful of the potentials. Most of them looked like they were freshman or sophomores. Although there was no rule saying an upperclassman couldn't audition, it was uncommon. People tended to become discouraged after their second or third rejections. The trio clustered by the window looked like they were probably juniors- too old to be underclassmen, but too unsure of themselves to be seniors and, he squinted, the boy in the wingback chair had been in Algebra with him.
The heavy wooden doors opened and two more boys walked in, freshman by the looks of them. 37 hopefuls. He sighed; tomorrow was going to be a long day. Next to him, Jeff shuddered in commiseration.
The banging of the gavel was nearly swallowed by the chatter, but one by one the groups fell silent until it echoed through the room.
"Hello, everybody. My name is Trent Donahue. I'm a senior and captain of the Warblers. This is my second year serving on the council and my fourth year in the group. On my left," he gestured down the table, "are my fellow council members. Nick Beatty and Benjamin McCoy. A bit about yourselves, gentlemen?"
Nick stood up and waved jovially. "I'm Nicolas, or Nick." Blaine snorted, the only person whom he had ever heard call Nick Nicolas was the headmaster. "This is my first year on council and my fourth year as a Warbler. I'm the Senior Chair. I'll also be in charge of the arranging, so any song suggestions should be sent my way. It's great to be here and I look forward to getting to know you. Ben?" He sat down as Ben stood up.
"Hey, everyone. I'm Ben. Um, I'm a junior, joined the Warblers as a freshman. This is also my first year on council. I'm the secretary so I'll mostly be doing to grunt work," he shrugged. "I also on the tennis team, so if you can't find me here I'm probably on the courts." He smiled brightly.
"Excellent. Now, I know there is a lot of us, but we're going to quickly," Trent emphasized the word, "go around and introduce ourselves. Current Warblers first, and if you can add how long you've been with us?"
Somebody near the window groaned aloud. Blaine couldn't help but agree with the sentiment. Nevertheless, when it came his turn he stepped forward, grinning brightly and saying "Blaine Anderson. I'm a senior and this will be my third year as a Warbler." The two people he hadn't already seen babbled in excitement which sparked a rather embarrassing round of applause. Sebastian looked politely disinterested as he whispered to the boy next to him.
They finished the introductions on a freshman named Frey and Trent stood back up.
"Again, welcome to you all. The pizza should be here in half an hour," a couple of the boys huzzahed, "and until then I thought we could do a bit of an introduction. As some of you may be aware, the Dalton Academy Warblers were founded…"
Blaine tuned him out. Having heard this spiel several (hundred) times already, he could probably recite it. "I call winner," he whispered to Jeff, who was thumb wrestling with Dominic. There wasn't a winner, ultimately, because a particularly vehement twist on Jeff's part nearly knocked over a lamp and Nick was glaring at them.
"But enough about our history," Trent was saying, realizing that he was rapidly losing his audience. "Let us now look to our future and your role in it. This year we only need three new members. This means, unfortunately, that many of you will not be joining us. The next couple days we're going to be looking for those of you who fit with us best.
"Auditions are all day tomorrow, between 9 and 4. I know some teams have mandatory practices, so I ask that those of you doing sports please sign up first. Any commuters, we ask you to sign up next. You will sign up for a 5 minute time slot during which you will sing one song. Anyone who was planning on Call Me, Maybe or anything by LMFAO, I strongly suggest you rethink your choices." Both Nick and Trent had preteen sisters and Blaine strongly suspected that had been their summer soundtrack, poor bastards.
"At 7 tomorrow evening we will post a listing of those of you who made the final cut. In Warbler tradition, we invite those 10 to join us for game night, which will give us an opportunity to get to know you better and see how you fit in with the group. Monday morning we will have a second audition round. As you know we are an a capella group, which means we rely solely on our voices. We ask that you reflect this philosophy during this stage of the audition process. Our final decisions will be posted following Convocation on Monday afternoon."
Nick rose, taking over for Trent. "The Warblers are not only about talent, we are also about respect and cohesion. You will need all three to be considered a solid candidate for this group. We already have two competition leads," he indicated Sebastian and Blaine. "This does not mean we wouldn't consider a new one, but it is unlikely. One can dance, one can rap, they're both extraordinary singers, and they look the part. For anyone whom this a problem, we understand and we will not begrudge you if you decided not to audition."
"So we're just trying out to be backup singers?" a disgruntled voice asked.
"Yes and no. Both boys are graduating in June, meaning lead will need to be filled next year. And they are only our competition leads. We can have up to three competitions a year; sectionals, regionals, and nationals. Two years ago, at Blaine's insistence we began performing in other venues." The guys who had been around for that all stifled giggles as Blaine blushed hotly. "Last year, under Sebastian's initiative, we continued with this. We already have several benefits and concerts lined up for the year, both inside and outside of Dalton. We will hold open auditions for leads for these events."
"Does anyone else have any questions?" Ben asked the room at large.
A skinny boy with curly blond hair raised his hand. Waiting for Trent to nod in acknowledgement before asking, "I was wondering about the time commitment? I play basketball during the winter and just wanted to know how that would work out." He flushed the entire time he spoke, clearly embarrassed to be the center of so much attention, but quietly determined anyway.
"Great question. Being a Warbler is a big time commitment. We have practice after school four days a week, typically in the evenings. As Nick mentioned, we also have several competitions which are held on the weekends as well as our other performances," Ben explained.
Looking thoughtful, Nick interrupted him, "Actually, Sebastian might be the best person to answer this. He's pretty much the busiest person you'll ever meet," he added to the rest of the group.
Sebastian rolled his eyes but stood up anyways. "I'm Sebastian," he introduced himself again, plastering an alarming professional smile on his face. He looked more like he was addressing a boardroom than a group of his teenaged peers. "I run indoor track during the winter and this year I'm captain of the cross country and lacrosse teams. I also play lacrosse for the Westerville Thunder all year. I do volunteer work on Sundays and I'm a co-founder of the Smythe Foundation, which is an international non-profit organization. I have a 3.9 grade point average, was captain of the Warbler's last year, and I manage to lead a very fulfilling social life." Even if Blaine had never met him before, his smirk made it abundantly clear exactly what kind of social life he was leading.
"I don't expect any of you to be as crazy as me; in fact I encourage you not to. But it is very much possible to be a Warbler and have an extracurricular or two. If anyone finds themselves struggling to balance their schedules, I'd be more than happy to help with that. Time management is something of a hobby." He flashed another smile and sat back down.
"Although our practice time is mostly fixed, we do go month by month to make any necessary adjustments. Sebastian is in charge of scheduling. We give him our weekly schedules at the first practice and he figures out when we can all meet. At the end of every month we let him know about any upcoming conflicts we might have. Sporting events, other concerts, or whatever, and he figures out how to make that work," Ben said. "We understand having to miss the occasional rehearsal, but we don't want to see you make it a habit."
"I'm afraid any other questions you have will need to be addressed to individual members. And if you all could begin to form an orderly line, food will be here momentarily," Trent declared.
Against his will, Blaine was jostled into a place in the line. After getting his pizza, he decided, he would casually approach Sebastian, maybe under the pretext of introducing himself to the kid Sebastian had spent the entire meeting whispering to. He'd be being a good Warbler and, if he was lucky, he could try and clear the air between them before getting on with this evening and relishing in being back. It was a brilliant plan.
The only flaw was, at some point in the five minutes between Trent's announcement and when he took his first delicious bite of Hawaiian pizza, Sebastian had gone.
Yay yay yay. Boys are back at Dalton and silly. They should just fall in love already.
Thank you to everyone who has stayed with the story, especially after last chapter. 3 all of you and your wonderful reviews. (I try and reply to all of them but my inbox is so disorganized. Please don't be offended if I don't reply, or if it takes a while. I swear I still love you. :-P)
Next two chapters are going to be the audition process and general Warbler boy shenanigans.
Also Cluckers is a real restaurant in the Westerville/Columbus area. According to the reviews on Urbanspoon it's really good, but I've never been to Ohio, so I wouldn't know.
