Tuesday 30th November 2010
"Mr. Schuester, I know our rehearsal got a bit waylaid yesterday, but I have selected the perfect ballad for Finn and I to sing to launch our performance at sectionals." Rachel said as soon as Mr. Schue entered the choir room on Tuesday morning.
She sounded way too chipper for the early hour.
Erin was still half asleep, annoyed that she had to wake up so early that morning so that they could have rehearsals before school as well as after. If they'd started preparing for sectionals earlier they wouldn't have had to have before school rehearsals all week and Erin could have slept longer. She had to remember not to stay up late on Tumblr like she had done the night before, aimlessly scrolling, or maybe she should just start drinking coffee.
Everyone rolled their eyes at Rachel and Erin was about to remind her about her sectionals solo ban when Mr. Schue, for once, spoke up.
"Me first. Two things. First, our competition at sectionals are your classic stool choirs. Great voices but they don't move."
"Actually, Mr. Schue." Kurt said, raising a hand, "The Warblers do have choreography, granted, it's not very dynamic but they do move."
"Thank you, Kurt. But what I was thinking was that if we're going to beat them we need to Dance. We need to use the stage to our advantage. Which is why I have decided to feature Brittany and Mike Chang's sweet moves at sectionals."
"So they're going to dance in front of me while I sing my solo?" Rachel asked over the excited mutterings of the group.
"We've already said you're not getting a solo at sectionals this year, Rachel!" Mercedes reminded her, "Remember? You sent that tiny chick to a crack house?"
Rachel pouted and Mercedes turned to Mr. Schue.
"So what song am I going to sing?" She asked.
"Well, in conjunction to Kurt's solo that we talked about yesterday," Mr. Schue reminded the warring divas, nodding over to Kurt. "I was thinking that the winners of the duets competition would take the lead on a song."
Erin felt her jaw drop and she looked up at where Sam was sitting with Puck and Quinn, also looking shocked, and then back to Mr. Schue. Suddenly she was wide awake.
"But I'm only a Freshman," She blurted.
"Freshman or not," Mr. Schue said, "You and Sam won that competition fair and square, and I think this is a great way to reward that."
"But we got free food." Sam said, "We don't… are you sure?"
Rachel was looking actually murderous, but mainly she looked angry at herself. Erin had realised at the time that Rachel and Finn had been the deciding votes, what with everyone else voting for themselves and the weird way the two had acted that week, so Rachel was probably kicking herself for throwing the competition.
Rachel looked like she wanted to say something, anything, but with the reminder that she wasn't going to have a solo anyway in this competition she had nothing she could say that would make her the star of the performance.
"I'm sure," Mr. Schue said, and then looked around the group. "I have talked the talk about everyone in here feeling special for over a year now, but frankly I haven't walked the walk. We have a lot of talent in this group and I plan on highlighting that. We have some amazing dancers, and some amazing singers, and I want to highlight them at this competition. With Kurt singing 'Blackbird', I thought we could make our setlist an ode to The Beatles, I know it's nothing current but their songs are all timeless. I was thinking our duet winners could sing 'I Will' after Kurt's solo and because those songs are both so short we'll even have time for another song and I was thinking either 'Ob-la-di Ob-la-da' or 'Get Back' as group numbers with Puck and Santana on leads."
Erin got excited at the ideas, her dad loved The Beatles. Their songs had been a constant in her childhood along with various musical soundtracks. She wasn't sure which song I Will was, but Puck and Santana would sound awesome on Ob-la-di Ob-la-da or Get Back.
She was also insanely nervous, she hadn't performed in front of an actual audience, on an actual stage, for almost a year. And on top of that they had less than a week to rehearse.
"Santana?" Rachel asked, incredulous, "I'm not getting a solo but Santana is?"
"You know what, Hobbit?" Santana snarked, "It's probably because I'm better than you and Mr. Schue's using your ban as an excuse to make me the lead soloist."
"Ever since the wedding you've been up my butt, and I'm sick of it!" Rachel shouted at Santana getting to her feet.
"Come on Rachel, she's not worth it." Finn said, trying to calm his girlfriend down.
"Oh, really?" Santana said with a smirk from behind him, leaning forward, "Cause that's not what you thought last year in that motel room." Finn clammed up and Rachel looked confused.
"That's right, Yentl." Santana smirked, "Your sweetheart? He's been lying to you. Cause he and I totally got it on last year."
Rachel looked ready to fly at Santana with rage.
"Okay enough already!" Mr. Schue finally said, putting an end to the argument. Everyone in the Glee Club looked entertained by the drama unfolding and Erin leaned over to Kurt.
"Does Rachel not know they slept together?" She asked him in a whisper and Kurt shook his head. He'd told her only days after she'd joined the New Directions during a gossip deep dive one morning where he warned her about all the insane love triangles and drama that seemed to surround the Glee Club, though Erin still had no idea what exactly went down with Quinn, only that she'd cheated on Finn with Puck, and had had to leave the Cheerios for some reason.
"Apparently he lied to her and said he didn't go through with it because she said she couldn't go through with it with Jesse." Kurt whispered back.
"No more conversations about this!" Mr. Schue continued, "Or anything! This is our plan for sectionals, and that is that! Mike, Brittany, come on up, let's start choreographing… I was thinking for the group number we could have you two do a Jive..."
As Mr. Schue conversed with Mike and Brittany Rachel re-took her seat next to Finn but sat on the edge of it, putting as much distance between her and Finn as she could.
*omnd*
Despite the Glee Club being on high alert for Karofsky - walking the halls in groups where possible and being extra vigilant - the rest of Tuesday passed surprisingly quietly. They garnered surprisingly few sightings of the bully between them. Mike had seen him in Bio and Calc. The rest of the jocks had seen him in the locker rooms after lunch. Mercedes and Tina had seen him in the halls. But he hadn't sought anyone out, sticking to the edges of the halls and ignoring them all. Erin had even seen him spot her and turn in the opposite direction.
He was acting like she'd already blackmailed him, when she hadn't had the chance to tell him about the recordings at all.
Erin wouldn't put it past Coach Sylverster to have threatened him in some way to leave them alone. And she'd certainly noted the extra sets of eyes in the halls between lessons. Mr. Schue, Miss Pillsbury, and Coach Beiste had all seemed to have joined Coach Sylvester in becoming human security cameras and Erin had already seen Coach Beiste chastising a guy who was roughhousing too violently with a friend.
*omnd*
They did a quick run through of all the songs during after school rehearsal, trying to get a cohesive setlist finalised before they choreographed everything. In the end they decided to go with Kurt opening the performance with Blackbird, followed by Erin and Sam dueting with I Will, and finishing with an upbeat group performance of Ob-la-di Ob-la-da with Santana and Puck on leads.
"And they're all songs off of The White Album!" Mr. Schue enthused as he wrote the setlist on the board.
Wednesday 1st December 2010
Wednesday morning rehearsal saw the Glee Club in high spirits, not only was Karofsky less of a problem than people feared but they finally had a set list, and a good one at that. Now all that was left was to get the arrangements down and choreography choreographed, but that was easier said than done.
"You're singing it all wrong!" Rachel said in the middle of a run through of Ob-la-di Ob-la-da.
"Well you come down and sing it!" Santana snapped with a smirk, "Oh wait, you can't because it's my solo."
"That's it, I am sick of you lourding this over my head, Santana!" Rachel shouted, "You're not even that good, you're pitchy and off-beat. My talents are wasted in this club, my star shines too bright and I think you're all threatened by it!"
"That's enough!" Mr. Schue shouted, sounding genuinely angry, as he stalked towards Rachel, "I'm tired of this, Rachel. You have a terrible attitude, you're a lousy sport, and it is not okay anymore!"
"Well I'm upset!" Rachel shouted back, getting to her feet and leaning forward so, as she was stood on the risers, her face was right in Mr. Schue's. The Glee Club seemed to hold a collective breath as they watched. "I'm furious about this!" She looked over at Finn.
"About a couple of things, actually." She spat in his direction.
"I'm sorry you're disappointed," Mr. Schue said, "but you know, you could also make the choice to be happy that we're a Glee Club bursting at the seams with talent! And if you can't make that choice, you're free to leave, we'll have enough members without you." He turned and walked back to the front of the choir room as Rachel stared at him open-mouthed, "Now, let's continue - Santana, ignore Rachel, you were doing it perfectly. Puck, you're half a beat too slow."
*omnd*
"I still can't believe Karofsky hasn't shoved me into a locker once this week." Kurt said at lunch as he stared over at the table full of Jocks.
"I suspect Coach Sylvester threatened him, or maybe Coach Beiste." Erin replied.
"Coach Beiste." Sam agreed, his mouth full of peanut butter and jelly sandwich. He swallowed before continuing, ignoring Kurt's unimpressed look. "I saw her talking to him on Tuesday, she was probably telling him he'd be kicked off the team if he didn't stop harassing you guys. I mean, he looked shocked and scared enough for it to be that."
"Either way I'm happy." Kurt said, "No Karofsky, we have a good setlist, and I have an actual competition solo, this week is going much better than I previously assumed it would."
"You deserve that solo, Kurt." Mercedes said, "Though I still wish I'd been given one, but there's always Regionals, because we are going to win this thing!"
Saturday 4th December 2010
A tension seemed to follow the Glee Club through Thursday and Friday rehearsals, Tina was both avoiding Mike and trying to get his attention whenever they weren't running through the performances, all while sending glares towards Brittany, and Brittany was avoiding Arite even when he tried to talk to her. Tina had the crazy idea that Mike was cheating on her with Brittany, apparently. Meanwhile Finn and Rachel were barely talking, and Santana kept smirking in Rachel's direction and making suggestive faces in Finn's.
Despite all of that, however, the New Directions set list came together almost seamlessly. The choreography by Mike and Brittany worked perfectly with the songs, the harmonies in every song were spot on, and the costumes Kurt and Mercedes had found for a bargain were perfect.
As they boarded the bus on Saturday morning the group, while tense, were in high spirits, just waiting to get their hands on that trophy.
Everything, however, came to a head in the greenroom, the tensions finally reaching a breaking point.
The Hipsters had been better than any of them could have imagined as they played up their age as if to score sympathy votes, while also having fantastic vocals. The Warblers had been just as good as Kurt had warned them, Blaine was annoyingly charming as he led them in Hey Soul Sister by Train and a guy with platinum blonde hair led them in a fun arrangement of Fireflies by Owl City.
As they waited in the green room for their turn to perform the Glee Club were in various stages of panic.
"You okay?" Sam asked Quinn, as Erin stood trying to run through the choreo and lyrics for I Will one more time.
"Last time we performed in front of an audience I went into labor." Quinn responded with bite from where she was folded in two, her head between her knees and Puck rubbing her back and shushing her. Obviously his attempt at comforting her was far from working. "I think I'm having a panic attack."
Brittany and Artie were arguing in another corner, and as Artie angrily wheeled away Tina rolled her eyes in disdain at Mike.
Erin's nerve and adrenaline filled brain finally comprehended the words Quinn had just thrown at Sam and she paused in her choreo and turned to look incredulously at Kurt.
"You decided to tell me all that stuff about Finn sleeping with Santana but you didn't think to fill me in on the fact that Quinn was pregnant last year?" Erin asked him, and Rachel had apparently overheard, rounding on Finn.
"You told Kurt!?" She blurted out.
"I don't remember. Maybe?" Finn replied, looking up at her with fear in his eyes.
"About Finn and Santana?" Mercedes asked, from where she was calmly reading the Show Choir programme, unfazed by the drama unfolding around her. "No. I think I told him."
"Who told you?" Rachel asked.
"Me," Quinn said as she sat upright again, her breathing more regular. "I think Brittany told me… or maybe it was Puck?"
"Yeah, it was me." Puck confirmed, nodding, as Finn lowered his face to his hand, rubbing at his temples.
"Everybody knew about this but me?" Rachel asked rhetorically, "Even Erin."
"Kurt told me too," Sam piped up, before snapping his mouth shut at Rachel's glare.
"Nobody tells you anything because A: You're a blabbermouth, and B: we all just pretend to like you." Santana snarked.
"I kind of like her." Puck answered, before being silenced by a glare from Quinn.
Finn, finally getting fed up, got to his feet and turned to Rachel.
"Look, Rachel, when this all happened, you were dating another guy, so you don't really have a right to be pissed at me about it, okay?"
While the drama unfolded around her Erin's nerves seemed to evaporate. Instead she was completely focused on the show in front of her.
"And, fine, I shouldn't have lied about it," Finn continued, "But to be honest, that isn't what you care about. You care about the Santana of it all."
"Who are you right now!?" Rachel shouted back, "You know what," She began, turning to the group as a whole, "You guys are going to have to find somebody else to mindlessly harmonize in the background, because I'm not going on stage with him!"
She pointed dramatically at Finn.
"Make that two subs, I'm not going out there with Brittany." Artie said, arms crossed petulant across his chest as he glared towards his girlfriend and Mike.
"Me either!" Tina added.
"Enough!" Mr. Schue said as he entered the greenroom, "Listen to yourselves! I am ashamed of you. Think back to where you were this time last year. In this room, no setlist, no choreography, no chance in hell of winning, but you did win, because you did it together. Look, I don't care if you guys hate each other. All I want is for you guys to go out there and sing together. Get up there and remind yourselves for nine minutes that you're not alone."
Dramatically, just as Mr. Schue said that, the lights began flickering and a bell rang signifying that it was the end of intermission. It was time for them to take the stage and perform.
"All right, showtime!"
*omnd*
"Has anyone ever literally died on stage?" Kurt asked in the wings of the stage as they waited for the audience to retake their seats.
Erin kept her mouth shut as a list of names flashed into her head. Great, now her own nerves were on high alert.
"You'll be fine, Kurt." She said instead, bottling them, "You know this song inside and out and you were born to be on stage, this is the first time of many."
Kurt shot her a grateful smile.
"How are you not nervous?" He asked and she barked out a laugh.
"I'm terrified." She told him, "I'm just that good at pretending otherwise, I guess."
Kurt took a calming breath and closed his eyes to centre himself.
"Hey, Kurt!" A voice shouted and Erin turned to see Blaine in all his Warbler glory smiling at him.
"Blaine, hi," Kurt said, his eyes snapping open and a hint of red gracing his cheeks. "Your setlist was really good."
"Thank you," Blaine responded, sounding genuinely touched and even a bit embarrassed at the praise, ducking his head as if to hide a blush before shooting Kurt a charming smile. "I just wanted to say break a leg."
"Thanks," Kurt replied with a smile, and the two stood kind of awkwardly just staring at each other before Blaine gave an awkward half-laugh, nodded his goodbye, and walked away.
"He's cute." Sam said as he joined Erin and Kurt. Kurt jumped as if startled and cut his eyes away from Blaine's retreating figure.
"He's the competition." Kurt said, turning to Sam. "After the St. Berry debacle of last year I think it would be best not to fraternize with the enemy."
"Well, regardless of how we do today he'll no longer be the competition." Sam pointed out with a semi-suggestive grin and highly suggestive eyebrow wiggle. Kurt sighed and rolled his eyes. But he had a small, amused smile on his face as he walked away from them, getting into his starting position at the front of the stage.
Sam turned his grin at Erin as her heart shot into her throat. Probably pre-performance nerves, she thought to herself as she took a deep steadying breath, closing her eyes to centre herself.
"Nervous?" Sam asked, and she opened her eyes to see him looking down at her with concern.
"I haven't sung in front of an actual audience since my dad's funeral." Erin confessed, swallowing against the lump in her throat, "Not as traumatic as going into labour but…"
Sam gave her an encouraging smile and she couldn't help but smile back.
"You've got this," He told her, "We've got this," He amended, "We rock this song."
"We do kind of kick this song's ass." Erin said and Sam's lips quirked in a half-laugh at her assumed american accent on the word ass.
"I'll let you finish warming up." He said, clapping her once on the shoulder before walking across the stage to where the boys were lined up waiting for their cue. Her shoulder felt warm where he'd touched her.
The lights began to fade and the rest of the New Directions fluttered into their places as the curtain rose.