February 12th 2014: Testimony of Sam Evans Part One

It was only the second day of the trial proper, and yet everything now seemed so routine. There were differences - Rory and a seriously hungover Trent were on their way back to Washington DC, and there was of course now one less person in the witness room,. Numbers in the public gallery had been left unchanged - Nick had to go into work that day, despite the fact that he also had a serious headache, but Carole, Wes and Brittany had been joined that day by Mercedes and Artie - the former finished in the recording studio, the latter with no classes to attend. They had both felt a powerful need to be there that day to support the next witness - someone that both of them were very close to.

"Calling Sam Evans." Sam took a deep breath and stood up. He was more than ready for this. He could finally take the fight to Hunter. All the anger and bitterness that had accumulated since the day of the arraignment could be unleashed in his evidence. As he made his way to the door, Cooper stopped him and said "Keep calm in there, Sammy. Don't let them stir you up, rile you and get you into trouble. Just tell them what they need to know to nail him." Then Sam was out of the door, following the guard along a corridor that would finally end in the courtroom. He could feel his blood getting colder as it drew nearer. For all of his bravado, Sam was scared. Scared that he would mess it all up, and allow Hunter to evade justice.

"Mr Evans, you were a Senior year student at McKinley High School in the 2012/13 term?"

"Yes."

"And along with Blaine Anderson, you were a member of the school's glee club, the New Directions?"

"Yes; it was our second year in the club together - my third in total."

"I'd like to take you back to the days around Thanksgiving in 2012. You were performing at the Sectionals stage of that years show choir competition, and one of your competitors that night was the Dalton Academy Warblers."

"Yes, they were - but at the time, I felt that their performance was all wrong."

"In what way wrong, Mr Evans?"

"I had competed against the Warblers in both 2010 and 2011. Their singing was always pretty flawless, but their choreography was always a little lacking in style and substance - they were just very buttoned up. In 2012, however, there performance was completely out there - leaping, diving, acrobatics - way beyond what I would have expected."

"And that made you suspicious?"

"Definitely. Afterwards, I approached Blaine with my initial doubts - he didn't believe me at first, but then, thanks to another two members of the club, Artie Abrams and Joe Hart being in the right place at the right time, there was a video…"

"I had been feeling quite disconsolate since our loss at Sectionals, and the subsequent official disbanding of the New Directions. The loss of the club had hit us all hard; we all found something else to do, but it just wasn't the same. Marley Rose, the girl whose collapse had cost us our place at Sectionals, was blaming herself for everything, although we had all reassured her that it wasn't her fault. Finn Hudson, who was in charge of us whilst Will Schuester was in Washington fighting for Arts Funding in Schools, felt guilty too. But I was also being troubled by something else. The Warblers. They had gotten very athletic all of a sudden. The guys that I knew in the group - Sebastian, Nick, Jeff - had never been slouches, but now it seemed as if their inner Olympians had suddenly emerged. What was really weird was the fact that prior to their performance, when Blaine and I went over to wish them luck, they ignored us. At the time, we felt it was a backlash from the whole trophy debacle. It explained the latter, but not the sudden energetic dance moves."

"Then one morning, not long after the video had been taken by Artie, I was at home, about to set out for school, when a ping from my computer revealed that someone had sent me an E-Mail. A message from someone called Therobin, with an attachment. I knew all about the rules about E-Mails with attachments, but I opened it anyway. The message read, simply and cryptically, 'No. 17 might answer what you suspect. Yours, Therobin.' I opened the attachment and it was Artie's film from the Lima Bean. For those of you that haven't seen it, the scene that unfolds is one in which Hunter Clarington, the leader of the Warblers, basically trashes the Lima Bean because the barista had put Splenda in his coffee. Amusing though it was to watch again, I failed to see how it could give me an answer. Then, I saw it - 113 Comments. I scrolled down to the seventeenth - and a light went on in my head. It explained exactly what had been so off - and now I needed to tell the others, starting with Blaine."

"So, let me get this right, Sam. Based on a video that Artie posted on Youtube, sent to you by 'Therobin', about whose identity you incidentally have no idea, and a random comment that they have made…"

"Blaine, think about it. You know those guys. Did you ever suspect that they could perform in such a spectacular fashion as they did that night? I was watching you, and your jaw dropped further and further as you watched. It all makes sense - his comment backs up the photographic evidence of their headshots - Hunter is showing all the classic signs of Roid Rage."

"Ok, I will admit that that is true, and I can see Sebastian doing them…but Nick and Jeff? Never. Not in a million years. And as for…." Suddenly, Blaine stopped. In a quiet, halting voice he continued. "He wasn't there. He loved the Warblers - he'd never quit unless… But why would the others…? Darn it Sam, if you and Therobin are right… Oh, Lord! It's not Therobin, it's The Robin! Wes decided for some reason, in his last year at Dalton, to give us all bird names as some kind of secret code. Trent wasn't there. His bird name was Robin. He is letting us know that something is very wrong at Dalton - and he is too scared to come straight to me and admit it."

In the public gallery, Wes couldn't help but smile. They had all thought that he had finally lost it when he was handing out those names - Blaine (aka Nightingale) in particular had thought that he was stupid; the fact that he had even given one to Kurt (aka Wren) by then an ex-Warbler… It had paid off though. It had given Trent an alias under which he could communicate with Sam, in his one man battle against Hunter. As he pondered on his genius, the door to the gallery opened and he was joined by Flint and Beats (aka Meadowlark and Woodpecker respectively). They both looked rough from their activities the night before, but had still managed to get up in time to go to Penn station to see Trent off prior to coming to court. Wes quickly caught them up on the proceedings so far. How his bird code had been particularly useful in allowing Robin, via Sam, to contact Nightingale. Both of his friends realised at that point that Wes (aka Blackbird) would be insufferably smug about this fact for some time.

Sam's testimony continued. "After his realisation, Blaine sent Trent a text, inviting him to meet him for coffee and a chat at the Lima Bean. After a lot of toing and froing, a date was finally settled on - the exact same one as McKinley's Sadie Hawkins dance. Trent had arrived looking cautiously around him, as if he was scared that he was being followed. We confronted him with it all straight away. When he spoke it was so quietly, and his face made me feel so bad. What he said was enough to set my best friend crying, Trent sobbing too as the truth came out. We had to more or less kidnap him at that point and take him with us to McKinley. I drove Blaine's car to school, he drove Trent's. I ended up sitting with Trent for a long time in the locker room as Blaine kept up appearances on the dance floor. Trent was scared to stand up and be the one that drew the world's attention to Hunter's reign of terror. He was afraid of the consequences for himself and worse, what he would do to his friends. Looking back now, he was right to be afraid. At the time, all I selfishly wanted was justice for the New Directions. If help could also be given to the poor guys at Dalton, then that was a bonus."

"I managed in the end to extract a promise from Trent that he would stay in the locker room whilst I went to get Blaine - and he brought Finn with him. With Trent staying hidden in the shadows, I told Finn of my suspicions, with a little help from Blaine. Finn's reaction to my case was as I expected - without hard evidence we were helpless; no-one would listen to hearsay and rumour - just assume that it was sour grapes. What exactly it was that convinced Trent to step out of the shadows at that point and say that he was prepared to stand up I will never know. Maybe it was the remembrance of what he had heard as he had left Dalton that night. I never got the chance to ask him, as seconds after he stated he would do it, everything suddenly exploded. Trent was called by Sebastian. Everything that happened from then on is etched in my memory. I heard things and saw things that time will never erase. I saw people broken by suffering, and friends united by pain and grief. But that was the end of the reign of Hunter Clarington - and the return of the New Directions."