A New Direction - SYOC CLOSED

by safeDbeginswiths

A second gen syoc! Please read details inside :)

7. Teamwork Makes a Dreamwork

A/N:

Surprise bitch, I bet you thought you'd seen the last of me. Lol, seriously though where the hell have I been?! In all honesty, I never had intentions of leaving the fic for as long as I had, and I know it's been almost two full months since I updated, but to update you all everything is fine! I think I just needed a breather as I was beginning to feel burnt out from writing and trying to keep up with everything. However, I'm still actively working away on this little fic! I have the next two chapters basically completely mapped out and just have to write them, so we're not going anywhere!

That said, this chapter is a little all over the place as I had to re get used to writing all your lovely OCs and so the first 75% of this chapter is really just me doing that lol. But now that I'm back into the groove of things I will hopefully get back to the quality chapters you're used to lol. While I won't be on strict of a schedule as I'd previously put myself on, I am still going to try to update every second or third Monday depending on what else I've got going on!

As a sort of final note, I know I always ask this but please let me know if you're still reading this fic! I know many of you have reached out to me within the few months I've been away and I appreciate you all checking in on me, and I promise I will get back to you eventually lol! But now more than ever because it's been such a break between chapters it's important that if you're still reading you drop me a PM or leave a review just so I can plan for future chapters based around the kind of plots and characters you guys want to see! All that said, thank you all so much for your patience and enjoy the chapter! :)

TUESDAY MORNING

"Alright, now let's see your show face," Kitty stood with her hand on her hips looking at Tommy who stood before her, mimicking her stance, the brightest smile that he could muster plastered on his lips.

"Okay, now Dana?" Kitty turned, raising her eyebrows to face her middle child who mimicked Tommy, before uttering, "We'll work on it. Rey?"

Rey was distracted looking at a butterfly through the window, only coming out of her daze when Kitty clapped loudly, calling out her name once more, "Rey!" Shaking her head, Rey looked to her mother, before doing her best 'show face', though it was, admittedly, the worst of the three kids.

"We'll have to work on yours, too," Kitty raised her eyebrows, but smiled.

"What are we working on?" Artie smiled as he came into the kitchen.

"The sectionals list came out last week, and since none of us are competing against each other…" Rey started the sentence.

"We really have to make sure we win at our individual sectionals," Tommy nodded, earning him a thumbs up from his mother.

"I always thought the best part of glee was preparing for the competitions," Artie shrugged.

"I always thought the best part of glee was winning," Kitty smirked, leaning down to give Artie a side hug.

"I just like to dance," Dana flailed their arms around sporadically.

"We know, Dana," Kitty spoke, her tone dry but she gave her child a friendly smile anyways, "Now come here, give your mama a hug before you go off to school to kick ass."

"Can we not say the word ass in front of our kids?" Artie shook his head but laughed.

"Dad, you just said ass," Tommy pointed out.

"Tommy, stop saying ass!" Rey whined.

"Ass! ASS!" Dana chanted.

"See what you've started?" Kitty raised her eyebrows, looking at her husband as they both laughed.

Laughing along with her, Artie shook his head once more turning to his kids, "Alright, hurry up and get outta here," he waved his hand, "it's your turn for the carpool. Tell the Changs we say hi, yeah?"

"We always do, Dad," Rey laughed leaning in to give her father a hug as Tommy received a kiss on the cheek from his mother, and Dana spun their way to the door.

Meanwhile over at the Karofsky's, Kate was telling her father, Dave the themes for sectionals.

"So there's 80s, duets and musical theater, which is fine, but I don't exactly know how easy it's going to be coming up with songs that everybody is okay with," She did her best to explain.

"Well you're a group of smart kids," Dave shrugged, handing Kate her lunch for the day, "I'm sure you guys will come up with great song selections."

"I hope not too good," Eric laughed, entering the kitchen, taking the lunch Dave had picked up and handed to him shortly after giving Kate hers, "We may not be competing yet, but I uh, don't have high hopes that we'll make it to regionals."

"Why not?" Dave questioned, generally shocked to hear Eric saying that.

"I dunno," Eric shrugged, "Like, we're getting there? But it's just like a zoo in there some days. So much chaos,"

"Hey now, chaos builds character," Dave chuckled to himself.

"I'm sure you'll all be fine," Kate assured her brother, "Besides if you don't, you've always got next year."

"That's actually," Eric paused to think, "A pretty good point. Guess you need the luck more than I do," He chuckled.

"Alright, you two," Dave laughed along with them, "C'mon, we don't want you to be late! The Karofsky express is taking off!" he called out, grabbing his keys.

"Why is he like this?" Eric shook his head, met only with a look of uncertainty from Kate.

NEW DIRECTIONS

"Alright!" Mr. Schuester announced as he walked into the class. Late last week he held an 'emergency' glee meeting when he got the sectionals information. While a lot of the kids were annoyed or frustrated that they weren't competing against one of the other three major glee clubs they knew, a lot of them were also relieved. They knew they weren't anywhere near ready to perform, let alone win. "So since we now know what we're up against at sectionals, I think it's time we do a little prepping – for real. Now, you are all so incredibly talented but, without calling any of you out, we could use a little extra…dance prep. So, I came up with a song for us to try and perfect. It's a fun dance number and fits the 80s theme. Actually, a lot of your parents did a routine to it when they were in glee," Will paused to hand out sheet music to the kids.

"We aren't the same people as our parents," Delia spoke out, crossing her arms over her chest. Mr. Schue was relieved Emma had been able to talk her down from the week previous but was frustrated that they still weren't seeing eye to eye.

"My dad also was not in glee club. We didn't even live in Lima until like, four years ago." Kyla shook her head.

"No, I know," Mr. Schue put his hands up, "All I meant was, the kids who I remember doing this song last had some of the finest leg and feet work I'd ever seen."

"Mr. Schue," Rey took her turn to speak up, "Respectfully, my dad is in a wheelchair."

"I just mean they all knew how to move," Mr. Schue breathed out heavily, looking at the group of kids in front of him, "Not saying that you all don't know how to move…just that, you know, we could use a little practice."

"So what?" Felix furrowed his eyebrows, "We just knock this song out of the park and use it for sectionals?"

"Funny you should mention that," Mr. Schue looked at them with an excited smile but was only met with eye rolls and annoyed murmurs. Ignoring their clear disappointment, he continued on, "Because we're not competing against the Troubletones, the Warblers OR Vocal Adrenaline, we thought it might be fun to do a little scrimmage. We each pick an 80s song, and we'll perform them on Friday,"

"So we're not using this song for sectionals?" Simon questioned, confused.

"Yeah, if we're not using it, shouldn't we spend this time preparing for sectionals and the songs we'll actually use?" Savannah raised her eyebrows as she spoke.

"Now, I never said we're not doing it," Will pointed out, "rather that we'll try this out and see if it's right for us. And like I mentioned, it's a great chance to try and practice our dancing."

"Okay, so why is there only three people with standout solo moments?" Naomi questioned as she looked at the sheet music.

"Because this song is less about the singing and more about the-" Mr. Schue tried but was immediately cut off.

"Dancing?" Oscar raised his eyebrows as he crossed his arms over his chest.

"Exactly," Will smiled, not realizing that Oscar was just as cynical as everyone else in the room, "And you'll all have a standout dance moment. With a partner, but I promise you'll all have your spotlight moment."

"Can I call dibs on Naomi?" Simon half joked, knowing that Naomi could dance well and he, to put it lightly, couldn't.

"If we're calling dibs, I get Sophie," Rey spoke out for the same reason Simon did.

"Dibs on Savannah!" Lex called out knowing that he could dance pretty well, and Savannah could dance really well.

"No dibs, guys! Come on!" Mr. Schue shook his head, "Instead I've divided you into two groups. One half of you will come pull a name from a hat, the other half of your names are in the hat. You'll take turns pulling to see who your partner is."

"The way the groups are divided…doesn't have anything to do with our dance ability, does it?" Rowan questioned nervously.

"No, of course not," Will lied to their faces. He felt a little bad about it, but the kids who were more rhythmically challenged would definitely need someone to lead them, "Now alright, Delia would you like to do us the honor and come pick someone first?" He desperately tried to pander to his daughter.

Though she didn't respond directly, she did get up and pull a name from the bowl, calling out "Simon?"

Simon responded with a kind smile, but was nervous. Firstly because he knew Delia and Naomi did not get along. Secondly because Delia was, admittedly, a bit intimidating. But he decided he would roll with the punches, and she was a good dancer, so hopefully he could learn from her.

"Flora!" Mr. Schue called out, "Would you like to come choose your dance partner next?"

"Isn't this like, napoleonism?" Lex whispered to Savannah.

"Nepotism," She shook her head in response.

"Hazel," Flora spoke up meekly, looking at the girl as she spoke. Flora took this as an opportunity to smile kindly towards the other girl – they did not know each other well, and the events last week made Flora a little nervous, but she figured it would be best to put her best foot forward.

"Alright, Kyla," Will gestured towards her, "Your turn to come up and pick a name."

While Kyla was pretty indifferent to this whole idea, especially since she could dance, but didn't like to flaunt it, she wasn't expecting much out of this assignment. However, even she couldn't deny the small smile on her face as she read out, "Oscar,"

Of course, Oscar also couldn't hide the wide smile that crept onto his lips at this new progression as Naomi was called up next to pick her partner, "Rowan," smiling, relieved since she, obviously, knew how to work with them.

"Nice!" Rowan called out, glad they wouldn't have to venture too far outside of the people they already knew.

"Alright Lex, you're up!" Mr. Schue called out, as Lex obliged.

"Alright, let's see," He hummed to himself as he pulled out a name, "Felix!"

While neither male knew each other super well they both looked at each other, giving a small sup nod, as Sophie was called to choose next. Looking at the remaining three people, she knew one of them would also need to come up to choose their partner next. She saw Savannah, Finley, and Rey and was hoping for the latter as she pulled the name, her eyes growing wide with excitement, "Rey!" She smiled happily.

"Alright! So that leaves Savannah and Finley!" Mr. Schue smiled, just as the bell rang, "Alright, come back this afternoon and we'll start on choreography this afternoon.

THE TROUBLETONES

As the girls all sat together, Marley had similar reservations as Will. She knew all of her girls were very talented and since Tia, Mia and Cay were all on the cheerios she knew they could dance, and so could Audrey since she was on the dance team. Trina could usually keep up with no effort, and Leah could keep up with a decent amount of effort. However, Nikki simply did not apply herself and nobody knew what Heather could do, but after last week they knew she couldn't sing. Of course, Marley didn't mind that some girls had different strengths and weaknesses – however, it was hard to picture them as a team when they all had vastly different strengths and weaknesses and were always trying to show their strengths off. But they all had to at least look like they were at a similar level for it to work.

"Alright!" Marley smiled, "So, since we heard about the themes for sectionals…and since we won't be competing against the groups we thought we might be, some of the coaches thought it could be fun for us to have another sort of scrimmage."

"What?" Cay furrowed her eyebrows, "Doesn't that seem sort of counterproductive?"

"Let her finish," Leah tried to support her mom.

"So," Marley smiled as a thank you to her eldest daughter as she continued on, "We'll each be performing a song from the 80s – since it's one of the sectionals themes – as a way to get us all prepared for it!"

"So what? They can steal our song?" Tia questioned defensively.

"Well, since we're not performing against each other, it doesn't matter if they do." Marley tried.

"I just think it's…. bold to perform a song for them that we're also going to perform at sectionals," Mia spoke as politely as she could.

"Well it's not like they're going to do better than us," Heather shrugged, "Besides, wasn't it one of you weirdos who said the Warblers were our biggest competition? I don't think we have much to be worried about."

"It was me who said that," Marley spoke, almost shyly, "but that's beside the point! I think we need to take this week as an opportunity to really get down choreography, and how we look as a team."

"Are you saying we don't look like a team now?" Trina questioned, not offended, but confused.

"I thought our Wildest Dreams performance was pretty good," Audrey spoke up.

"It was! Don't get me wrong, that was amazing. But we need to work on…movement. And making it look easy when it's not…necessarily easy." Marley tried her best to explain.

"Speak for yourself, I'm a great dancer," Tia couldn't help but roll her eyes.

"I'm not saying none of you are good dancers! Just some are better than others and if we want to make this work we all have to be on the same page," Marley sighed out.

"She's talking about you," Heather nodded to Nikki who only met her with a confused expression.

"I'm not talking about anyone in particular!" Marley raised her hands up in defense.

"Sounds kinda fake," Cay raised her eyebrows.

"Wait, I'm confused," Trina, who was still mentally processing all of it, shook her head, "So you want those of us who can dance to dumb it down for those who can't?"

"Yeah that seems kind of… unfair," Audrey shook her head, "No offense, Heather."

"What?! I can dance!" Heather spoke defensively.

"Heather, you dance as well as you sing," Tia snickered.

"Exactly!" Heather raised her hands looking around with wide eyes, "Why is that so hard for everyone to wrap their head around?"

"Alright, alright, that's enough," Marley fought to get control of the room again, "All I mean is we need a little give and take. I need the…less confident dancers to really put in the effort, and I need the more confident dancers to help them. There's also one more thing I feel the need to mention…"

"Is it that we're still four girls short for competing for sectionals?" Cay questioned.

"Yes, actually," Marley laughed nervously, "Now look, I know that recruiting isn't always easy, but think about any girls you know who can sing or dance – especially dance. I know we can pull it off, but we need more power." She concluded just as the bell rang. "Alright! Please think about what I said and come back to me this afternoon with some song suggestions!"

Tia and Mia exchanged a knowing glance as they walked out together, seeing just the person they were looking for.

"Zoey!" Tia called out, forcing a sweet tone in her voice, "Do you remember that favor you owe us?"

THE WARBLERS

"Alright, enough!" Trent called out. The Warblers were restless this morning as they learned about the scrimmage. There were, of course, mixed emotions, and many of the same concerns as both the Troubletones and New Directions had, all crying out over each other, blatantly ignoring Trent.

"SHUT UP!" Tommy called out from the council's table, using his old trick to get their attention, and although Trent preferred 'be quiet' over 'shut up' at this rate, he took what he could get.

"Alright – I know we all have some concerns," Teddy tried to speak up, but, per usual, was interrupted.

"Yeah, like, why are we wasting our time on these other schools?" Oliver rolled his eyes, more annoyed with the fact that he had to be there at all, and now was going to have to continue mingling with his siblings outside of his house.

"Vocal Adrenaline's gonna be there right?" Frank asked hopefully.

"Yeah, I agree with Frank," Zach nodded.

"Yes, Vocal Adrenaline will be there, and so will the Troubletones and New Directions." Teddy did his best to explain, despite Trent already having explained the same thing just minutes ago.

"Man, screw the Troubletones! Am I right!?" Sutton looked around and was met with only looks of confusion and pity.

"My sister is in the Troubletones," Teddy responded dryly.

"Exactly!" Sutton sighed out dramatically, as though he'd made a good point.

"So, what's the point of the scrimmage? Is there like… going to be a winner?" Addison asked, confused.

"No, it's more of a… practice for sectionals." Trent sort of swayed back and forth as he tried to find the right words to say.

"You should have led with that!" Mack half laughed, "That sounds fun!"

"Mack, you knew about it." Teddy let out a deep, deep sigh.

"Oh right," Mack shrugged happily in response.

"So," Bob started, "Just to clarify….we're going to do our 80s song for sectionals as a practice?"

"No," Trent spoke bluntly before shaking his head, "Let me explain, we're going to be doing an 80s song. Not the one we'll be doing for sectionals."

"Doesn't that…defeat the purpose?" Michael questioned, visibly confused.

"No, it's a way to psych out the competition," Ambrose explained with a slight wave of his hand, "See, they will likely perform the songs that they'll be performing at sectionals. If we don't, and they only find out at the end of their performances, it will make them overthink everything."

"But are they really our competition if we're not…you know…. competing against them?" Eric questioned with a slight tilt of his head.

"They're not our sectionals competition, no," Mack shook his head.

"But when regionals come around… they could be," Tommy took over, "And since my incredibly talented siblings are in two of the other groups, we know they're good,"

"And the sooner we can take them out the better!" Sutton raised his fist, "Huzzah!"

"We just… need a little edge on the competition," Trent tried to explain.

"Are you saying we're not good?" Eric spoke up, his eyes wide and sad.

"No! No! Not at all! We just need a little… oomph." Trent nodded, not wanting to upset any of the kids.

"I think that starts with a good song!" Tommy spoke up, "May I suggest 'Come on Eileen'?"

"You want me to do what on Eileen?" Sutton, who had been dazed out since his 'huzzah' zoned back in, only hearing the last part of Tommy's sentence.

"What about an Elton song?" Mack tried to suggest.

"That's what we are doing for sectionals," Teddy responded, glad that there was finally a moment where Mack couldn't suggest Owl City, "So to do another for the scrimmage seems…redundant."

"Whatever we do has to be fun, but not overly so, something that shows off our talent and the dancing we have which," Ambrose paused before turning to the council, "and stop me if I'm overstepping, is something we need to work on. Badly."

"I agree," Trent spoke, "Movement is not our…strongest suit. But since we're an acapella group, I also think it could, obviously, sort of benefit is to do a song that lends itself to acapella well, but hasn't been done to death."

"I think," Addison spoke up shyly, "I might have a song?"

"Go on," Tommy nodded encouragingly.

Addison smiled before asking, "Have you guys ever seen Back to the Future?"

VOCAL ADRENALINE

Things were going about as well as they normally did over at Carmel High. While they were still missing their thirteenth member since Jude was still out, that seemed to be the least of their problems as there was a bit of an uproar about the scrimmage, and not just within the students.

"What the hell, Unique?!" Harmony spat out her words, "Where was I when you came to this decision?"

"Great question, Harmony," Unique narrowed her eyes, her tone dangerously cool, "Because all five of the directors had decided on the time that we would have a meeting, and you were not there."

"But a scrimmage?" Harmony narrowed her eyes back at Unique, "With schools we're not even competing against? This close to sectionals?!"

"I have to agree with Mrs. Pearce," Anthony spoke up, "That's child's play, we're better than that."

"I think it's a good chance to practice, though. What if we go up against them at regionals or something?" Isaac shrugged.

"Then we'll cross that bridge when we get to it!" Sydney hissed back, "We can't give away all our secrets on a non judged event before sectionals."

"In fairness, we won't be performing our song for sectionals. We'll do some small practice piece to make sure that we can even work together as a group," Unique did her best to explain.

"That's fair, I think, since, you know, most of us haven't been in a group…at all. A lot of us are new," Sawyer agreed with Unique.

"Yeah, but it just seems like a lot of work," Chloe shrugged.

"Respectfully, Chloe, you seem to say that about pretty much everything," Emery spoke, barely caring about whether they did the scrimmage or not.

"Hey! Be nice to her! She has a point, too," Xavier, of course, came to his sister's defense, "I, of course, would love to see my sweet Trina, but it does seem like a lot of extra work."

"But, in fairness, we do need the practice," Kate tried, "We haven't done a single practice or performance as a group yet this year. Normally by this point we've at least developed a few numbers or held an invitational. So logistically, this makes sense."

"But again, a lot of us wouldn't even know that, because over half of us are new this year," Kendall took her turn to speak, "Not that you're wrong, but obviously things are different this year."

"I just want to get through sectionals in one piece," Leslie breathed out, shaking her head.

"And I think practicing could help with that," Steven piped up, not allowing himself to think about the fact that he and Sydney had different points of view on the subject.

"Well, while all of your opinions are valid," Unique began slowly, "We're doing the scrimmage. It's already set. So while we also work on our sectionals setlist, we can throw something together for the scrimmage as well. We are capable of doing both."

"Speak for yourself, half of these losers can't pay attention long enough to even know what sectionals is," Harmony rolled her eyes before glancing at Dana who sat in the corner, their hands on their cheeks, moving them around in circles.

"What did we say about calling them losers? That is literally bullying," Unique rolled her eyes in turn.

"And bullying builds character," Harmony spoke through gritted teeth, "And also creates a strong work ethic. When you desperately try to please someone who will never be pleased, it only makes you want to work harder."

"It's true!" Xavier nodded in defense of his mother, only earning him a small pity pat on the back from Emery.

"Enough," Unique spoke to both Harmony and the kids. "We need to work as a team, and that is never going to happen if we can't agree on anything. We're doing the scrimmage and we will work together on it. That is both a threat and a promise."

TUESDAY AFTERNOON, NEW DIRECTIONS

As the kids filed into the choir room, Will was pleasantly surprised to see that they were sitting with their previously assigned partners. Whether it was on purpose or not, he was, of course, going to hope and assume it was, since it was rare that they did anything for his benefit.

"Alright! So, as promised earlier, we're going to try to learn the dance, or at least get started on it. That said," he paused for dramatic effect, "I'd like to work with everyone who has a standout part. So, Finley, Rey, and Sophie? Could you all come over here? Savannah too, since you're dancing with Finley."

Obliging, the four teenagers stood up – while Finley and Rey were visibly nervous about having a standout moment in a dance number, the confidence of Sophie and Savannah somewhat balanced it.

"Of course she gets to have a standout moment," Naomi looked over to Savannah before rolling her eyes, her voice quiet.

"While normally I would disagree with you on…most things," Delia, who'd been sitting in front of her, matched Naomi's hushed tone before continuing, "You kind of have a point about this. I feel like Savannah has done…a lot."

"I mean, she's new though, right? Plus I got to do a couple songs already too," Simon, who'd been sitting next to his partner, Delia, spoke up, not so much in Savannah's defense, but more feeling weird about talking about someone who was just a few feet away from them.

"Yeah, and we haven't even got to sectionals yet. Maybe Mr. Schue just wants to see if any of them are ready for a Sectionals stand out or something," Rowan, Naomi's partner, spoke up.

"I mean, I guess," Naomi rolled her eyes and huffed out in defeat.

Meanwhile, Mr. Schue had just finished trying to show the very basics of the choreography to the four students standing in front of him. While Savannah and Sophie picked up on it like it was nothing, Rey and Finley were very evidently falling behind.

"It's alright," Mr. Schue shook his head, internally questioning his decision to give Rey and Finley standout parts in the song. "We'll just have to make sure we get lots of practice in."

Defeated, Rey simply nodded, beginning to walk away before she felt Sophie grabbing her wrist, "Hey," Sophie spoke quietly but firmly, "you know, if you need the extra help, I'd be more than willing to lend a hand. Or a foot. Whatever you need, really."

"Really?" Rey smiled, her eyes widening, somewhat surprised that Sophie was so willing and ready to help her.

"Of course! That's what friends are for, right?" Sophie shrugged, "Besides, God says love thy neighbor. Which is basically the same thing as helping one of your besties learn to dance."

"Fair enough," Rey giggled, nodding her head.

"I don't see why we need to suffer because only half the group can dance," Savannah rolled her eyes before turning to Finley, "No offense,"

"None…. taken?" He spoke, his eyebrows furrowed.

"Because, Savannah," Mr. Schue spoke, his voice low, "We are only as strong as our weakest members. Come on, it's like team bonding!"

"If it's team bonding," Kyla, who'd been eavesdropping, called out, "Why are none of us learning any of the choreography right now?"

"Yeah, I mean, I get they have their standout moments," Oscar meekly came to Kyla's defense, "But we should probably learn the dance before we, you know, practice and make it look okay."

"I have to agree," Hazel shook her head, "I mean, no offense or anything, Mr. Schue but, if the whole point is to dance with our partner, we kind of need to know what we're doing."

"You're right," Mr. Schue breathed out, "Hazel do you and Flora want to come up here and start learning your parts?"

"Sure thing, Dad," Flora smiled kindly.

"Oscar and Kyla, you come up too." Will instructed.

"What about the rest of us?" Delia rolled her eyes.

"Yeah, Mr. Schue, what are we meant to do?" Naomi spoke up, surprising mostly everyone as she supported Delia.

"It's easier if I take my time and teach you guys individually, pair by pair so I can see what your strengths and weaknesses are – especially since you won't all be following the exact same choreography." Mr. Schue did his best to explain.

"Do you think we could, I dunno, try to come up with something on our own while we wait?" Lex tried to come up with a solution, earning him an enthusiastic nod from his partner, Felix.

"That's a great idea, Lex. Everyone, get with your partner and see if you can come up with something!" The glee coach instructed before turning back his attention to teaching the next group of kids how to dance.

THE TROUBLETONES

"Zoey?!" Heather's nose sneered up, confused and frustrated as to why the young woman was here.

"Heather," Zoey sneered her nose right back, mimicking Heather's voice.

"What the hell are you doing here?" Heather practically whined.

"Zoey is joining the group," Mia, who grabbed Heather's hand both to calm her down, and to restrain her, spoke up.

"I can speak for myself, Mia," Zoey rolled her eyes.

"Who the hell are you?" Nikki questioned as she and Cay entered the room.

"That's Zoey," Tia rolled her eyes, barely paying attention.

"Are you two ever going to stop speaking on my behalf?" Zoey was growing visibly more annoyed as the conversation went on.

"Are you ever going to stop being a pain in my ass?" Heather rolled her eyes. She and Zoey had grown up together, but that didn't mean Heather had to like her.

"Heather, glee hasn't even started yet, why are you already trying to beef with someone?" Audrey whined as she walked in, Trina close behind her.

"And respectfully, who are you exactly starting beef with?" Trina raised her eyebrows, looking over to Zoey who she recognized from going to the same school, but nothing past that.

"Are you joining?!" Marley gasped, almost too excitedly as she and Leah entered the room last.

"I mean, I guess!" Zoey called out exasperated, "And before anyone else asks, my name is Zoey McCarthy. Yes, Tia and Mia are my cousins. No, I will not discuss it further. Yes, I can sing and I can dance even better. Which I can only assume is the reason the twinnies over here recruited me because, looking at you, none of you exactly seem…the dancing type."

"That's a little….harsh," Leah tucked a stray piece of hair behind her ear.

"Truth hurts," Zoey shrugged.

"Zoey!" Marley clapped her hands, smiling, glad there was a new member, but wondering if it was worth having such a strong personality among a group of already very strong personalities, "Why don't you take a seat, and we'll get started?"

Reluctantly obliging, Zoey took the first available seat, refusing to make eye contact with anyone else in the group.

"So, have we got a song yet, Marley?" Cay spoke up, her arms crossed tightly over her chest.

"We do!" Marley breathed out happily, relieved that things seemed to be moving along smoothly. "Here," she began handing the sheet music out.

"Isn't this song kind of…old school?" Nikki rolled her eyes.

"The theme is the 80s…" Trina spoke quietly, as to not cause too much upset.

"She was just asking a question," Leah surprised her mother and everyone else in the room by sticking up for Nikki.

"I didn't mean it in a bad way? I was just trying to explain," Trina got defensive, having a slight idea of why Leah was misdirecting her anger at her. "It's no biggie."

"You just didn't need to say anything, that's all," Leah sighed out, "But yeah, sure, whatever. No biggie."

"Look who's starting beef now," Heather smirked, looking over to Audrey who gave her a 'knock it off' look in response.

"There's no beef!" Leah huffed out again.

"That sounds like something someone who has beef would say," Tia, who, once again was barely paying attention, snickered.

"Yeah, what gives?" Zoey smirked, already wanting to egg on all of her new teammates.

"Nothing. There's nothing," Trina spoke, not wanting to get into everything in front of her teammates and in front of God.

"Can we just learn the stupid song?" Cay rolled her eyes, just wanting to get a move on.

"I agree!" Audrey piped up, wanting to avoid whatever it was that just happened.

"Alright, so uh," Marley stammered, "Tia you're starting the song, do you want to come over here and learn your lyrics? Everyone else, get familiar with the song! Once we've got the lyrics done, we can move onto the actual…choreography."

While there were, of course, mutters and side glances throughout the group, they all decided to let bygones be bygones, and, for once, followed Marley's instructions.

THE WARBLERS

"Well, well, well," Sutton stood, his arms crossed over his chest as he looked at his older brother, purposely blocking his way from entering the Warblers meeting, "If it isn't Mr. Puckerman."

Letting out a deep, deep sigh, Oliver couldn't even begin to imagine what this was about, "You know you're also Mr. Puckerman, yeah?"

"Not the point!" Sutton stuck a finger dramatically in the air before he began pacing back and forth in front of the door, "You know, when you joined the Warblers a few weeks back, I was flabbergasted. Mind boggled. Shocked and dare I say, surprised."

"Yeah," Oliver shrugged, "Look whatever weird thing you're doing, can it wait? We're both going to be late."

"Then I got to thinking," Sutton continued, now pensively scratching his chin as he continued to ignore what his brother was saying, "Dalton Academy has a sort of loophole for getting in trouble. If you can help someone else out in some way…poof. There goes the bad thing. Are you familiar with this rule, Oliver?"

Swallowing hard, Oliver knew he was about to be called out. He didn't want Sutton to know about the real reason he was here because he knew he'd tell the other Warblers, whose trust he'd just gained. He also couldn't have him telling their family – not when he was doing this to try to be a better influence on Nikki. "I have no idea what you're talking about," Oliver finally spoke, making direct eye contact with his brother, wondering how the hell he found out.

"I'm sure that's also what you said when Mr. Sterling caught you vaping in the bathroom," Sutton smirked. He knew something was up, so took it upon himself to eavesdrop on Trent at every moment of every day. It was just minutes ago that he had heard him talking to Jeff about how things were going with Oliver, and he had inadvertently found out everything he needed to know.

"How the hell did you find out?" Oliver spoke through gritted teeth.

"I have my ways," Sutton smirked, arms crossed over his chest.

"So what, then? You're gonna run and tell mom? Tell the other Warblers? Use this to blackmail me somehow?" Oliver sighed out, defeated.

"I uh," Sutton suddenly paused, "I actually don't know. I wasn't expecting to get this far,"

"You've got to be kidding me," Oliver moved to push his brother out of the way before pausing to ask, "You haven't uh, told anyone else, have you?"

"Not yet," Sutton shrugged.

"I know you found all this out because…I don't know, like the rest of the family you have some vendetta against me. But I'd appreciate it if you kept this…just between us." Oliver shook his head.

While normally Sutton would ask what was in it for him, he could tell this was something that was really important to Oliver. Secretly, Sutton always wished he could be closer with him, and while this was maybe not exactly the greatest place to start, it was, at the very least, a starting point.

"Sure," Sutton nodded in response, surprising his brother with his sudden demeanor change, "Now come on loser, we're going to be late."

As they walked in, the Warblers meeting had already begun, but stopped when the two brothers walked in together.

"We thought you were no shows!" Mack's voice was loud, but happy to see the two boys come in.

"C'mon Macky, have I ever missed a glee meeting?" Sutton gave a cheesy smile.

"Yes. Several, actually," Teddy spoke up, "Now gentlemen, we were just rehearsing our song for the scrimmage this week. If you boys are ready to join us?"

"As ready as I'll ever be," Oliver shrugged, trying to continue to play it cool for appearance's sake.

"Alright then, besties! From the top!" Tommy called out, as they got back into their starting position, Sutton and Oliver sharing a quick, small, knowing glance before they continued on.

VOCAL ADRENALINE

"This is impossible," Sydney groaned looking at her teammates, "You're all horrible."

"Sydney! You can't talk to your teammates that way," Unique sighed out, shaking her head.

"She might not be able to, but I can," Harmony stepped forward, "This is impossible! You're all horrible!"

"Even me?" Xavier's eyes went wide.

"No, not you. You're perfect and beautiful and amazing don't change a thing. But the rest of you," Harmony continued on, "suck!"

They'd been trying to learn a somewhat complex dance routine for the better part of an hour. The issue was, the group was very mixed among those who could dance, those who couldn't dance, and those who weren't even trying.

"Maybe we wouldn't suck if the dance wasn't impossible," Emery, who was a part of the last group, spoke up.

"Maybe the dance wouldn't be impossible, if you actually tried." Anthony rolled his eyes, "I, for one, have no trouble with this choreography."

"I thought," Leslie spoke up, doing her best to keep the peace, "This group number was to see how we all sort of…look as a team?"

"But we can't see that unless you losers actually dance!" Harmony called out, exasperated.

"I don't think calling us losers is helping," Isaac shook his head.

"It's called tough love!" Harmony snapped back.

"You get used to it," Chloe shrugged nonchalantly, barely paying attention.

"Maybe we should start with the hardest part? So the rest of it seems easy in comparison?" Kate tried, visibly exhausted from the constant shenanigans of this glee club.

"That wasn't the hardest part?" Sawyer asked nervously.

"I think we should just keep practicing," Steven started slowly, "Practice makes perfect, right?"

"Yeah! And it's fun! Whee!" Dana swayed to the music playing in their head.

"I don't think all the practice in the world could help some of you," Kendall snickered.

"Well not with that attitude!" Xavier stood tall, hands on his hips.

"I think we just need to accept the fact that some of us," Anthony spoke, immediately glaring at Chloe, Emery and Isaac, "Aren't even trying."

"Hey, don't be mean," Emery rolled their eyes, "Isaac is trying,"

"So why aren't you?" Sydney, spoke up, visibly irritated.

"Because there's no point. You all know I can't dance, we all are learning that Chloe isn't even going to try, Dana's going to do whatever the hell Dana wants, and Sydney, you're going to stick to trying to boss the rest of us around. That's how it always goes," Emery finished with a deep exhale, noting this was the most they'd talked in front of their glee club, other than to Xavier.

"Emery, I've had it up to here," Harmony reached up her hand, "With you and your awful attitude."

"Emery has a point though," Isaac shrugged, "I haven't even been here that long and I can see that they're right."

"I think we should just get back to rehearsal! While everyone's input is valuable, I really think it would benefit us the most to try to carry on." Kate spoke up, knowing how quickly things could and would spiral out of control.

"Literally nobody asked you, Kate," Sydney rolled her eyes.

"Okay, that was rude," Kendall rolled her arms over her chest, suddenly coming to Kate's defense, "She was just trying to help."

"Help us what? Be a nice big happy family?" Anthony rolled his eyes, "Hard pass."

"We…are though. Right?" Dana's eyes suddenly grew wide.

"Look," Unique spoke loudly, desperately trying to gain control over the room again. "We don't have to be a family. We don't even have to get along. Lord knows how many glee clubs don't. But we need to respect each other. And we need to be able to work together to pull this off."

"I'm not apologizing, if that's what you're asking," Sydney glared at the coach.

"No. What I'm asking for is for you to all get over yourselves and your egos and do the damn number," Unique spoke firmly, turning to Harmony who gave her a nod of approval. "Now from the top."

THURSDAY MORNING
NEW DIRECTIONS

"Alright!" Mr. Schue clapped loudly as he entered the room, cautiously optimistic about what would be in store for them all today. While he managed to teach all of the pairs their specific choreography, he was more nervous about the execution of it all. "I know we don't have a lot of time, but I really think it would be beneficial to just sort of run through the number if we can."

The group of teens all looked at each other, before Rey spoke up, "While…singing too?"

"Ideally, yes," Will laughed slightly, though he saw the nerves clear as day on Rey's face. "C'mon guys, it'll be great, let's get excited!"

"It's hard to be excited when your partner has two left feet," Delia sighed out dramatically, "No offense, Simon."

"That's why this is good! It's a chance for us all to learn!" Mr. Schue spoke with feigned enthusiasm.

"And that's all well and good, but I still don't understand why three people get standout singing moments, and the same three people plus another person get standout dance moments and the rest of us are here twiddling our thumbs," Naomi's arms were crossed over her chest as she waited patiently for her glee coach to respond.

"Well, I thought it would be good to let some of the new students have a chance to shine, and to see what it will be like performing at competitions. I mean, Naomi, you and Delia have been in this glee club longer than anybody else. You understand that every performance has standout moments and different people taking the lead," Will more or less brushed her off, simply wanting to move on.

"Okay," Naomi spoke up again, not backing down, "So where's Kyla's solo then? What about Oscar? Delia only got two solos last year and I only got one."

"I don't understand the point you're trying to make, Naomi," That was sort of a lie. Will was well aware that Naomi was upset about not getting a standout moment, though he wasn't sure what bringing all of the other returning members into it was for.

"Since we got all these new kids, you forgot about the rest of us," Naomi spoke up once more.

"I didn't forget about you guys-" Mr. Schue started but was quickly cut off.

"No offense but…it does kind of feel that way," Kyla shrugged, "I mean we got you that nationals win and now it's like you forgot that."

"I don't appreciate you guys gaining up on me and the new students like this," Mr. Schue spoke, his voice firm, "Now, I understand you all want your standout moments, but how do you think this makes the new people here feel?"

"I mean, I don't mind?" Rey shyly spoke up, "I'm only a freshman, I've got lots of time."

"Yeah, I'm kind of just chilling," Felix shrugged.

"Speak for yourselves, I'm talented and I deserve the parts I'm given." Savannah sneered.

"Respectfully, you've only been given one part," Delia pointed out, earning a snicker from Naomi.

"I mean, it's not like we're not going to have lots of opportunities to perform?" Lex tried.

"If we can't get our shit together, we won't," Oscar mused.

"All I'm saying is I know when my talents aren't being appreciated." Naomi concluded, ignoring Oscar.

"Amen," Delia agreed.

"Stop it! Both of you!" Mr. Schue looked between Delia and Naomi. "Both of your talents are beyond appreciated here."

"No they aren't," the two girls surprised each other by not just saying the same thing but also speaking in the same tone.

"I say we just carry on with whatever we're doing," Hazel tried, earning a glare from Naomi, "I mean, like Lex said, there will be other opportunities, for all of us, in the future."

"Yeah, opportunities for us to sway in the back," Kyla muttered.

Just as Mr. Schue opened his mouth to speak, the bell rang. "I'm very disappointed in you guys," He shook his head, "Not only is this attitude unacceptable but now we've wasted a morning meeting when we could have tried to run through the song. I hope when you come back this afternoon you've taken some time to think about how you've set us back."

THE TROUBLETONES

Tensions were still high from the meeting on Tuesday, as displayed by the actual silence in the room as Marley walked in.

"Are you guys…okay?" She questioned, looking around at the girls before her, all of them sat with their arms crossed over their chests, barely looking at each other.

"Yeah," Audrey shrugged, "Why wouldn't we be?"

"Listen, I know things have been…tense," Marley breathed out, feeling somewhat defeated, "But seriously girls, come on. The song is good and so is our arrangement! We just need to put a little bit of practice in it to show those other glee clubs not to underestimate us."

"They're going to underestimate us though," Tia spoke up, "We've got nine girls. We're still three girls short from even being able to compete at sectionals, which, in case anyone forgot, is three weeks away."

"We're all aware of the situation we're in," Cay couldn't help but roll her eyes.

"At least we were able to get someone to join," Mia spoke in defense of her sister.

"Demons don't count," Heather sneered in reference to Zoey.

"Oh, but the purple people eater counts?" Zoey snapped back, nodding towards Heather's messy purple bun.

"Alright girls, that's enough," Marley tried to jump in, but was ignored.

"Can we all please just try to work together on this?" Trina practically begged.

"Are you trying to imply that we weren't working together before?" Leah raised her eyebrows.

"I don't know about you, but this bickering doesn't really scream teamwork to me," Cay rolled her eyes.

"I don't care about teamwork and I sure as hell don't care about most of you," Nikki started, "But we've got to come together to beat the Warblers,"

"God, what is it with you and them?!" Audrey breathed out frustrated.

"Seriously girls, can we please just-" Marley tried but was once again cut off.

"We all want to win, Audrey. Nikki's just…got her focus on one group specifically," Trina tried to calm things down.

"God, she doesn't need you trying to stand up for her!" Leah called out, clearly growing frustrated.

"I can speak for myself, Leah," Nikki raised her eyebrows, not surprised but annoyed with Leah's outburst.

"What is your problem with me?" Trina narrowed her eyes, "I can't say a single thing without you jumping down my throat."

"I'm not jumping down your throat," Leah's tone was dangerously cool, contrary to her face which was quickly growing hot.

While the other girls were unaware of what to do, they sort of all dropped their own beef with each other to see what would happen next, as Marley stood mouth agape, unsure of how to handle the situation.

"Something tells me her problem isn't with you," Zoey snickered as she earned looks from the other girls as she'd only been in the group for two days, "What? I know things."

"You don't know anything!" Leah cried out, shocking the room with her volume, "Forget this, I'm out of here," She grumbled, practically stomping away, resisting the urge to knock a chair over on the way out.

"Leah!" Marley tried to call out but was interrupted by the bell ringing.

"That was... something," Nikki looked to her mother, who only met her with a concerned and confused look.

"So uh, see you later, Marley?" Audrey spoke trying to move things along though she practically cringed as she spoke, the other girls awkwardly making their way out to leave.

"Yeah, girls," Marley responded without thinking, trying to regain any sort of control, "I'll see you later,"

THE WARBLERS

"Alright, so we have this morning and this afternoon," Teddy began slowly, looking down at his clipboard as he, Trent, Tommy and Mack all waited for the other Warblers to arrive, "to practice our song. And while it's good that we have that time, I think we've got it fairly down pat and it may benefit us to also start coming up with and rehearsing songs for sectionals."

"I couldn't agree more, Teddy," Trent smiled, nodding, "Maybe we rehearse this morning, see where the afternoon takes us, then dive into some theater songs? Since, you know, that's one of the other themes."

"Okie dokie!" Mack responded cheerfully, truly not thinking anything of it.

"You two… don't have anything to add?" Trent tried to push, knowing the responsibilities almost always fell on Teddy.

"Nah, we're just chilling," Tommy shrugged as he noticed the other Warblers begin to come in, "Welcome, friends!" He called out happily.

"Hi Tommy!" Eric responded happily, he and Michael walking into the room together.

"Everyone's so chipper this morning!" Frank noted, just as happily as his teammates, as he and Bob walked in step.

"I barely know what that means," Sutton admitted, though his demeanor matched everyone else's.

"That fails to surprise me," Ambrose spoke dryly as he walked in time with Sutton.

"There's that dry, awful personality we've all come to tolerate," Sutton teased him, giving him a small nudge, which Ambrose immediately brushed off.

"Who's awful?" Addison questioned curiously.

"All of us, probably," Oliver shrugged.

"Hey, speak for yourself! I think I'm pretty alright," Zach spoke as he followed the other two boys into the room.

"Regardless of all that," Teddy spoke as he finished his head count, "We've decided to take this morning practice to really nail down our performance for tomorrow's scrimmage. Are there any objections?"

"I still just don't see why we're even doing the scrimmage," Oliver shrugged.

"To practice," Trent tried to explain, "We, as the twelve of us that stand here now, have never performed in front of an audience together. And we can't go into sectionals without that experience."

"Why don't we just perform for Dalton?" Michael tried – while he was not opposed to the idea of the scrimmage, he could see both sides of the argument.

"If I may," Ambrose stood up looking at the council, waiting on Teddy's nod before he continued on, "We always do well when we perform for our peers. They know what to expect from us and we know what to expect from them. It's safe because they will always enjoy our performance."

"Right, we need to gauge how others will react," Teddy added onto his point.

"But…most of us have family, or friends or some other type of relations with people at other schools and in other glee clubs?" Eric spoke up meekly, "Not that that's a bad thing! But would that not also be some sort of bias?"

While he did make a good point, Trent paused for a moment before speaking up, "Yes, that is true. But at least that way we, in a sense, get both sides of biases. We get the good but may also get the bad. And we need to be prepared for both."

"Preach," Sutton nodded.

"So unless there are any more concerns, can we continue on?" Teddy tried desperately to make sure they had time to get through one run through of the song before they'd have to head off to class.

"I don't believe there is! Let's hit it besties!" Tommy called out as he and the other young men all got in position.

VOCAL ADRENALINE

"Where the hell is everyone?!" Harmony screamed out looking at the few - all equally as confused - faces sitting in the auditorium.

Although Unique was going to correct her co-director on her language, she stopped when she saw the majority of the group missing. "Huh?" Was all she could think of to say.

"I'm just as confused as you are!" Xavier looked around, wide eyed.

"Guess they all decided to quit," Chloe gave a small shrug looking between herself, Xavier and the other four kids in the auditorium.

"I think," Kate spoke up meekly, "Maybe it has something to do with Tuesday's rehearsal?" She concluded, earning her a far too enthusiastic nod in agreement from her friend Dana.

"But…why?" They were the only two words Sawyer could manage to get out, trying to figure out why everyone disappeared.

"It's clearly a divide," Leslie shook her head. "Emery and Isaac don't want to do the dancing and, well, if I had to guess, Sydney, Anthony and Kendall think they're not being listened to. Sydney probably threatened Steven to not come either. All six of them are trying to commit…an act of defiance or something?" Leslie concluded. This was not a guess – she knew this to be true, as Kendall told her. But she figured it would be best to keep that under wraps for now.

"But if they're all doing it as an act of defiance…nobody wins," Kate shook her head, "We're at a standstill."

"Maybe they're just all running late!" Xavier tried, "Let's not jump to conclusions."

"It's not jumping if it turns out to be true," Unique shook her head before turning to Harmony, "Any ideas?"

"Well, normally," Harmony began slowly, "I'd say they're all cut until they get their shit together,"

"Language," Unique rolled her eyes before Harmony continued on.

"However, we can't risk that. We're too close to sectionals and even closer to that stupid little scrimmage. I guess we wait until this afternoon to see what happens." She shook her head, defeated.

"You really think we can just wait this out?" Sawyer questioned hopefully.

"I don't think we really have another choice," Leslie sighed out deeply.

"Alright, well," Unique started, "If you see your teammates who aren't here right now…please try and get them to come this afternoon."

"What if they don't want to come?" Kate spoke, afraid of the answer.

"We can't force anyone," Unique began before being cut off.

"I beg to differ," Harmony scowled.

"Enough," Unique put her hands up in defeat, "Please do your best to get them to come. If they do, they do, if they don't, then they don't. There simply is nothing more that we can do about that. We'll see you all this afternoon," She finished solemnly as she and everyone else in the room hoped and prayed that those who didn't show up would get over their egos and just do the number.

THURSDAY AFTERNOON
NEW DIRECTIONS

Despite the high tensions that morning, the group went into glee and directly into rehearsal. After what felt like absolute ages of going over the number, the group seemingly had gotten it down. Rey and Sophie high-fived at the completion as Naomi gave Rowan a celebratory pat on the back.

"Well done, everyone!" Mr. Schue called out, impressed that they were able to get through it and that it turned out well. "I'd like to congratulate you all on stepping up and getting it done! Those other groups aren't going to know what hit them!"

"So…are we done?" Oscar asked, eyebrows raised – he didn't mind the practicing, and of course didn't mind getting to spend all this time with Kyla as his partner, however, he was never the most graceful and wanted the dancing to be over as soon as possible.

"I'd like to run through it just once or twice more," Will began which, as expected, earned him a few moans and groans from the students, "But feel free to take a well deserved break, guys! You earned it."

"Nice try," Kyla nudged her friend, "But your dancing has improved. Cut yourself some slack," She smirked.

"I'll cut myself some slack once I stop looking like a baby giraffe taking its first steps," Oscar shook his head but smiled, nonetheless as the two took a seat next to Lex and Felix.

"Good job guys!" Lex smiled to the three other members next to him, "I don't mean to brag, but I think we absolutely crushed it."

"As long as we can crush it again tomorrow," Felix smiled, "I can be happy with the work we've done here today."

"That's the spirit!" Sophie called out happily as she and Rey pulled up a couple of chairs next to them.

"You guys aren't…. nervous at all?" Rey raised her eyebrows, looking at her teammates.

"Nah," Lex shook his head, "But then again, we don't have standout parts, like you do baby Abrams," He smirked playfully.

"And thank god for that," Oscar laughed, shaking his head, motioning to himself.

"Hey," Felix suddenly spoke up suddenly, motioning his head over to Flora and Hazel, "What do you think they're talking about?"

"Hell if I know," Sophie shrugged as Rey shot her a confused look, "What? I'm allowed to say hell since I will not be going there."

What the two girls were talking about, however, was not something they would have suspected.

"It's been great working with you this week," Flora nodded, smiling, "I feel like… it's nice to have a friend in this group. Not that anybody else isn't my friend, but, you know, my two closest are Sophie and Rey and they sort of… have each other, you know?" She spoke, unaware of her own rambling.

"No, believe me, I get it," Hazel laughed quietly, running an awkward hand through her hair. "I mean, you uh, you were here last week."

"Yeah…" Flora trailed off, shaking her head. It was strange because she, of anyone in glee, was likely the most unbiased in terms of the Jones' drama. Of course, she was there for the infamous family portrait performance. But she also worked with Rowan during the group week and heard their side of the story and was working with Hazel now.

"I'm… sorry about… all of that," Hazel spoke sheepishly.

"You've got nothing to apologize for," Flora reassured her newfound friend, "But… and I know you probably know this… family is the most important thing, you know? And from what I can tell yours really cares about you."

"Yeah, I know," Hazel nodded, smiling.

"Alright, everyone! Two minutes!" Mr. Schue called out, "Naomi, Delia, could you come over here for a second?"

The two girls exchanged a glance before leaving behind their partners to go see their teacher.

"What's up?" Naomi asked curiously but cautiously.

"I just… wanted to make sure you two were okay. Since, you know," Mr. Schue moved his hands around hoping he could get his point across, "Things got a little bit tense earlier."

"We're fine," Delia responded, her tone short and uninterested.

"Are you sure? Because we can't have something like that happening again," Mr. Schue's voice was calm as he didn't want to cause a scene or upset his pupils.

"If that's what this is about, why is Kyla not also here?" Delia questioned, a hand on her hip and her eyebrow quirked up.

"I'm…sorry?" Her father was confused by her statement.

"I think the point Delia is trying to get at," Naomi spoke slowly, "Is that Kyla was also there when we were having the discussion earlier."

"Respectfully, Naomi," Mr. Schue raised his eyebrows, "It was less of a discussion and more of an argument. I understand that you-"

"No, you don't understand," Naomi cut him off, "Delia and I have done our time. It's unfair that we've been swaying in the back like props."

"It's one song, Naomi," Mr. Schue shook his head.

"For now," Delia sneered, "We only want what's coming to us. We only want our fair share."

"Look girls, I get it," Mr. Schue breathed out heavily, "I promise there will be more opportunities for you to shine. In the future,"

"Well there better be," Naomi raised her eyebrows, "Because I know the Troubletones would welcome a talented performer with open arms right now." She began to walk away.

"Your two minutes are up," Delia reminded her father as she made way to follow Naomi, "Time to rehearse the song again,"

Despite not being able to hear the conversation that was just had, most of the kids, rightfully figured, that it did not end well. Pushing that aside, they managed to get through the song a few more times, all happy with the outcome even though they could, once again feel the tension that was Naomi and Delia versus Mr. Schue. With things wrapping up, everyone slowly but surely began making their way out.

"Hey," Finley called out to his partner, "Wait up!"

"What's up?" Savannah crossed her arms over her chest, though she did smile.

"I uh," Finley mumbled, moving his hands around awkwardly as he tried to think of exactly what to say, "I just wanted to let you know that I…. I had a really good time working with you this week. I'm excited to perform with you tomorrow."

"You're sweet," Savannah smiled. She would be lying if she didn't find his sort of southern charm, well, charming. Which was odd since, like all of them, he was from Ohio. Not thinking too hard about it, she shrugged. They definitely had chemistry, but Savannah was uncertain if it was too soon to see what it was all about. "I enjoyed working with you too."

"R-really?" Finley couldn't deny the way his face lit up, somehow unexpecting that Savannah was as happy about their partnership as he was.

"Yeah," She smirked, "Maybe one of these days we could talk about it a little more. Over Breadstix?" She couldn't help the small giggle that followed.

"That uh," Finely grinned wider than he knew was possible, "That sounds really nice."

THE TROUBLETONES

Much like the New Directions, things were still incredibly tense between the Troubletones. All of the girls were there, save for two – Leah and Trina. While Heather was taking bets on who killed who, the rest of the group was electing to ignore it. What they didn't know, however, was that the other two girls were having a conversation just a few feet away, out in the hallway.

"I, um," Leah began awkwardly, "I owe you an apology, Trina. A big one."

"Yeah," Trina nodded, her eyebrows raised, "You kind of do."

"It was a lot of misplaced anger – I'm sure you know why and I just…" Leah sighed out deeply, scratching the back of her neck, "I was wrong to get angry at you for the problems I have with your brother. It was unfair to you and it was unfair to the rest of the girls."

"I forgive you," Trina smiled politely, "But that doesn't mean I'm okay with it."

"I'm… sorry?" Leah tilted her head to the side, not entirely certain what Trina was getting at.

"You don't know me. At all," Trina half laughed, shaking her head. "You dated Jude for six months. And you didn't bother trying to get to know me or Sophie at all. And from what I can tell you barely know your own siblings."

"Now wait a minute," Leah put her hand up in defense, but was cut off by Trina.

"No, you wait a minute," Trina shook her head, "You have no idea what my family has been through. What we're currently going through. Jude's… not well. But you haven't been bothered to ask. Or care. I get that you guys are broken up. But my family loved you. We cared for you. And we were there for you when your family wasn't. But you just… have all this… I don't know, anger? Inside you. And everything is the world's fault. And I think we both know the breakup wasn't just Jude's issues. You've got some shit to work through and that's not on me." She finished with a huff, surprising herself with how she went off at Leah.

"Trina, I…I…" Leah stammered but just couldn't find the words to find, "I'm so sorry. I didn't…I didn't know and I… um… I'm just really sorry you feel that way."

"That's your problem, Leah," Trina shook her head, "You're not apologizing for what you did. You're apologizing for how I feel. You need to start taking accountability for your own actions."

"You're right," Leah nodded. She knew Trina was right but at this particular moment in time was willing to say anything to end the conversation at hand.

"I'm going into glee," Trina announced, "Whether you're coming in or not is your choice. But please don't sit next to me,"

Leah waited a few long moments in the hallway before slowly but surely following Trina into the room.

"Oh, hi, sweetie!" Marley called out to her daughter, "We weren't sure if you were going to make it or not."

"Well," Leah breathed out, shrugging, "I'm here."

"Yes!" Marley clapped, "And that's great! Because I'd like to do a run through of the song."

"The song we've barely practiced?" Zoey scoffed, looking at her nails as she barely paid attention.

"I think that's the reason we need to run through it," Cay spoke dryly.

"That's… the spirit," Marley tried.

"Come on guys, let's just do the song," Audrey tried, wanting this to go over as smoothly and be over as quickly as everyone else in the room.

"Why should we?" Heather stuck her nose in the air, being difficult just for the fun of it.

"Because we want to beat the other teams?" Tia tried, rolling her eyes.

"Because we want to beat Felix?" Mia raised her eyebrows, knowing this would sell her girlfriend on practicing.

"Alright, fine, you got me there," Heather breathed out.

As the girls were fumbling about, all trying to remember their starting positions for the song, Leah was taken aback when her sister pulled her aside.

"You all good, dude?" Nikki questioned skeptically.

"Yeah," Leah blatantly lied, "Why wouldn't I be?"

"Because you look like a god damn mess," Nikki laughed out loud. "Seriously, what's up?"

"Don't worry about it, Nikki," Leah shook her head, electing to ignore the part about being a mess.

"Whatever you say," Nikki shrugged, "But don't let it affect you, okay? We gotta beat those loser Puckerman's over in the Warblers," She snickered, moving to find where she was meant to be standing.

"You got it," Leah nodded, catching her breath before joining the other girls in practicing their number.

THE WARBLERS

Other than the council and Ambrose, Sutton and Oliver were the first to enter the last Warblers meeting before the scrimmage.

"Hey bestie," Sutton smiled, patting Ambrose's head before addressing the council and Trent, "Good afternoon, gents."

"You guys are here early," Tommy noted.

"Yeah! Crazy since old Oli here barely wants to be here," Sutton chuckled.

"Sutton," Oliver spoke, his voice suddenly growing low and vaguely threatening.

"What?" Sutton responded, visibly confused as the other men in the room exchanged looks.

"You said we'd keep that between us," Oliver spoke through gritted teeth, voice still low.

"Keep… what between you?" Teddy's eyes grew wide, suddenly concerned for the group.

"I uh," Trent spoke up, beginning to realize what was happening, "I don't think it's too important."

"I do," Teddy spoke up once more, surprised at Trent's willingness to brush whatever this was under the rug.

"It's nothing! I don't even know what he's talking about!" Sutton tried to back up, knowing that what he said was not in direct reference to what he found out about Oliver earlier that week, but instead was just him trying to be funny.

"You rarely know what anyone is talking about," Ambrose rolled his eyes, "So that is not surprising."

"Forget it," Oliver rolled his eyes.

"They were…" Trent spoke up, "They were going to find out eventually, you know."

"Find what out?" Mack spoke up, paying attention for the first time since the conversation had started.

"Do you want to tell them?" Trent asked Oliver, "Or should I?"

"Or should I?" Sutton smirked, remembering that he was also in on the secret.

"Ugh," Oliver groaned out before looking at the council directly, "Look, I didn't want to join this… boyband, or whatever this is."

"You really see us as a boyband?!" Tommy questioned ecstatically with wide eyes.

"So why did you join?" Teddy questioned skeptically, per usual, ignoring his fellow councilman.

"I uh, I got into some trouble earlier this year. And-" Oliver began to explain but was cut off by the council.

"But the rule about helping someone else out – you helped the Warblers out by being our twelfth member." Teddy thought out loud as he put the pieces together before looking at Trent, "You knew about this?"

"Vaguely," Trent lied, knowing that he didn't want to step on any toes, especially since, thus far, they'd had a pretty successful week.

"Vaguely?" Oliver sneered, "You practically begged me to join."

"Is… is that true?" Mack questioned. He knew him for many years since Trent and his parents were always very close. But something about this felt icky to him.

"Yes," Trent sighed out after a few long moments, "But we needed a twelfth member and we've done really incredible work since he's joined!"

"And I uh," Oliver gave an awkward cough before continuing, "If it helps, I do um, actually want to be here. Blackmail or no blackmail."

"Technically there was never any blackmail," Trent reminded him.

"We'll talk more about this later," Teddy spoke decisively as he noticed the other Warblers beginning to enter the room, "But I'm disappointed that this is how we found out, Trent. You should have told us."

"I know," Trent nodded, "But… if I may, I think it's best that we keep this between the people who were here during this conversation. At least for now."

"Agreed," Teddy nodded in turn, while the other two members of the council were already distracted by saying hello to literally everyone who entered the room.

"What'd we miss, fellas?" Addison questioned as he looked at the seven men who were already standing in the room.

"Just confidential council stuff, you wouldn't understand," Tommy gave a slight wave of his hand.

"So why's Sutton here?" Zach couldn't help but make a pass at the younger student.

"Hey!" Sutton pouted, "One of these days I'll be sitting right up there on that council."

"I highly doubt that," Ambrose smirked.

"Look at that," Sutton reached out to pinch Ambrose's cheek but immediately pulled away when he saw the look on the other male's face, "I didn't know you could smile."

"Get a room," Addison snickered.

"Aren't we… in a room?" Eric questioned, tilting his head.

"That's… not what he meant," Michael shook his head.

"Not what who meant?" Frank questioned curiously as he entered.

"Yeah, who?" Bob repeated, following closely behind his older brother.

"Don't worry about it," Teddy shook his head, "Let's get down to business, shall we?"

"Yes!" Mack agreed, having his daily moment of remembering he was, for all intents and purposes, head of the council, "Let's do the song!"

"And then!" Tommy's face lit up, also suddenly remembering that he had a bit of authority, "We'll talk about songs from musical theater! For sectionals!"

"If we're all ready," Trent smiled, "Let's take it from the top!"

VOCAL ADRENALINE

It was to everyone's great surprise when the whole team showed up for the afternoon rehearsal. Of course, most of who was there for the morning meeting took their coaches advice and convinced all those who were absent to show up for the afternoon, but there was something comforting in knowing they were all there. That comfort, however, faded quickly.

"So, who wants to explain what happened this morning?" Harmony questioned, hands firmly on her hips.

"From my understanding, you already know," Kendall snickered.

"What does that mean?" Unique's interest was piqued as to where this was going.

"Well, Leslie knew. I figured she'd just tell you all," Kendall shrugged, looking at Leslie who looked at her back with a shocked expression.

"You knew?" Kate questioned, surprised, and, admittedly, somewhat disappointed.

"Kind of?" Leslie spoke, cringing at herself as she knew she should have said something earlier.

"How do you kind of know something?" Sawyer asked, though his voice was not rude or harsh, but more so confused.

"That doesn't matter now," Unique shook her head, knowing if this went on any longer, Leslie would be facing the wrath of every member of this team. "What matters is that we're all here and can practice the song."

"Right, so let's get to it," Harmony nodded knowing it would be better to just go along with her co-director than to try to punish the kids.

As they all made their way to the stage, Xavier couldn't help but pull Emery to the side. "What the hell was that about?" He asked them, his voice hushed but desperate.

"What was what about?" Emery responded, clearly not in the mood for the conversation.

"Missing this morning's meeting?!" Xavier continued speaking in hushed but exaggerated tones.

"Look," Emery took a deep breath before continuing, "Sydney and Anthony said they were boycotting glee because of the 'negative energy'. And Kendall and Steven were right behind them. In fairness, I think Steven was threatened, but that's not the point," She shook her head, "Regardless, I got Isaac to boycott with me. It's not fair that only the talented kids get to boycott. I tried to get Chloe involved too since she didn't seem completely sold on the dancing."

"That is… a lot to unpack, bestie," Xavier shook his head, disappointed and confused. "First of all you are talented. You're one of our strongest singers, your voice is unique and that's huge. Secondly, why the hell did you think it would be okay to get Chloe involved?"

"First of all," Emery somewhat mimicked his voice, "That's not true. I'm an okay singer. And I can't dance. At best I'm a body to sway in the background since, you know, now that Jude's gone… we've really only got the twelve of us. Secondly, I don't know? In case you didn't notice, I have no clue what I'm doing. I'm literally just trying to get by."

"Emery," Xavier tried to be empathetic but ended up just sighing out and shaking his head, "I love you. You are my closest person here. Maybe even more so than Chloe or my mom. But we are all trying to get by. And we need you here to win. I'm asking you, as your best friend, please just push all of that aside and help us get through this number."

"Okay," Emery swallowed hard, knowing it made more sense to just go along with whatever Xavier said then to think too hard about anything else, "I'm here. We'll do this and we'll do it well."

Just a few feet away from them, Kate was gently tapping Leslie's shoulder. "I'm sorry," Kate shook her head as Leslie turned around to look at her, "Do you have a second?"

"Uh," Leslie looked around at everyone else warming up, "Sure," She smiled before nodding decisively.

"I'm just," Kate paused for a long moment, trying to decide the best way to go about this conversation, "I'm wondering why you didn't say you knew why everyone was missing. Why you spared us the details."

"I didn't want to cause a scene," Leslie shook her head, "I just… my mom's been through a lot and is still struggling to have any control over this group. I just didn't want to make things worse."

"I completely get that," Kate nodded, "But you still should have been honest and told us."

"I know," Leslie nodded, "I also… know why you're so concerned about it."

"How do you mean?" Kate questioned, genuinely surprised.

"I mean it's no secret," Leslie let out a sort of half laugh, "You're the backbone of this group. I don't know how many other people see it, but I do. These people are your family. You put them above everything – including yourself. It's very admirable. But you're not responsible and shouldn't have to be accountable for their actions. The only person you need to be accountable for is Kate." Leslie offered a small but genuine smile.

"Thank you. For saying that," Kate offered a genuine smile of her own, somewhat taken aback by the words. Between Leslie saying that and Zach (who she'd been heavily talking to the last few weeks) saying more or less the same thing, Kate was starting to realize that maybe it was time to prioritize herself. "I just… like you said, these people are my family in a way, you know? I want us to succeed. All of us. All thirteen of us I care so much, maybe too much, about."

"And that is absolutely incredible," Leslie nodded not wanting Kate to feel as though she was invalidating her, "But you do need to take care of you,"

"You're right," Kate offered a small smile, "And thank you for hearing me out,"

"Of course," Leslie smiled, "What are friends for?"

A much less friendly conversation was happening next to them though, as Steven sighed out heavily before talking to Sydney, "I just…um, I don't know. I know it was one meeting but… I'm not happy that I missed it," He tried his best to explain.

"That's not my problem," Sydney hissed, "You're lucky I haven't completely cut you off since your little performance last week."

"Sydney, please," Steven pleaded, "Why can't we just enjoy glee?"

"I do enjoy glee. Your choices are this," she paused for dramatic effect, "You can either follow my lead and make sure we get this god-awful group of people in tip top shape for sectionals, or you can get the hell out of my life. Dealer's choice."

"But Syd-" Steven tried to bargain but was cut off.

"There's no buts, kiddo. And your wishy-washy attitude isn't giving me the energy of someone who will do whatever it takes to win. I think you need to start thinking about whether you're willing to put in the work." They sneered.

"I…" Steven sighed out, "I am. Willing to put in the work, I mean."

"Good. Then actually follow my lead and stop questioning me." Sydney spoke, her tone sharp.

"Alright everyone," Harmony practically groaned, "Stop the small talk. Time to practice."

FRIDAY AFTERNOON
MCKINLEY HIGH

As per the last scrimmage, the New Directions were the first group in their auditorium. They paced back and forth for a few long moments waiting for everyone else to show up.

"What if they're all… better than us?" Hazel bit her lip nervously.

"Fat chance," Felix laughed, "We're obviously the best."

"What makes you so sure?" Savannah raised her eyebrows.

"We got here first. And that makes us the best." Felix explained as though it was obvious.

"I thought it was first is the worst, second is the best?" Rey furrowed her eyebrows.

"It's also… our auditorium. The only other group that maybe could have got here before us is the Troubletones," Naomi pointed out.

"Regardless, I think our performance is strong enough that we'll be able to at least impress our competition." Delia spoke diplomatically though she didn't entirely believe her words, nor did she care.

"Let's hope so," Rowan took a deep breath out, shaking their head as they noticed the Troubletones begin to file in.

"What's up, loser?" Heather barely looked at her brother Felix, but paused to fist bump him, Tia and Mia close behind.

"Hey bestie," Cay smirked as she came up beside Rey, "You're not gonna believe the week I had," She shook her head.

"Oh? What happened?" Rey's eyes widened, suddenly curious, "Are you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine," Cay shook her head, "Just stupid girl drama. Sometimes I wish I joined you instead. I miss seeing you all the time," She teased her friend, nudging her slightly.

"Really?" Rey asked, face suddenly turning pink, as she fuddled with her glasses.

Cay did not have a chance to respond though, as everyone's attention was once again diverted to the entrance of the auditorium.

"Oh no," Oscar groaned at the sight of his older brother, Zach running directly towards him, the rest of the Warblers not too far behind him.

"What's up, squirt?!" Zach called out loudly.

"I wish you'd stop calling me that," Oscar rolled his eyes.

However the attention was not on them very long, as Addison could be heard yelling "What the hell?!" as he walked onto the stage.

"And here I was thinking you wouldn't even notice me," Zoey rolled her eyes.

"You two... know each other?" Mack questioned, tilting his head to the side, completely oblivious to the fact that they were very obviously twins.

"Unfortunately," Zoey let out a small, sarcastic laugh.

"Why are you here?!" Addison cried out dramatically.

"Obviously she's in glee," Tia crossed her arms over her chest, coming to Zoey's defense.

"But… why?" Addison spoke, still clearly very confused.

"None of your business," Zoey snapped back, "All you need to know is we're going to kick your ass."

While the drama of Addison and Zoey reuniting was pulling most everyone's attention, Sutton took this opportunity to come up directly behind his sister.

"Hey," He spoke, a sly smile on his face.

"Ew," Nikki narrowed her eyes, "What the hell do you want?"

"I've just got some top secret insider information," Sutton raised his eyebrows, "Thought you might be interested."

"Information on what?" Nikki questioned skeptically.

"On who. Not what," Sutton snickered, "Have you heard why Oliver joined the Warblers?"

As Sutton began explaining the whole situation to Nikki, the last group began filing into the room, Xavier, of course, running to embrace Trina as though he had not seen her in many, many years. Everyone else watched on, following him onto the stage. Kendall hadn't thought much of it, initially making her way over to the Jones' as she was still staying with them. She, however, found herself freezing in place as she looked over making direct eye contact with Ambrose for a few long moments.

"Hey, you okay?" Simon asked, pulling her out of her trance.

"Hm?" Kendall looked over to Simon, "Oh, uh, yeah. I'm totally cool." She nodded.

"Are… you sure?" He didn't want to press too much, but Naomi did not spare a single detail recounting a few weeks back when she and Kendall had worked together with Ambrose. And now that Kendall was living with them, he really just wanted to make sure she was alright.

"I promise, Simon," She smiled, "All good. Really."

Meanwhile, Kyla was a bit taken aback as she felt a presence behind her.

"Kyla," Anthony spoke, his voice somewhat monotone.

"Anthony," Kyla responded, mimicking his tone.

"I just wanted to say, despite our previous short lived romance, I wish you well and I apologize for any pain seeing me might cause you," He spoke, thinking he was really doing something there.

"Anthony, I broke up with you. No pain. I'm good," Kyla couldn't help but scoff.

"Sure, sure," He waved her off, "I just wanted to wish you luck on your performance today. From my understanding, you're going to need it."

"Big words for someone with that kid on your team," Kyla laughed, nodding her head over to Dana who appeared to be limboing without a limbo bar.

"Fair enough," Anthony cleared his throat before walking away without saying goodbye.

Although most of the group would have been more than content to continue with mingling, Mr. Schue finally clapped his hands together trying to get their attention and miraculously did so without having to yell at them to shut up.

"Alright! If we're all ready to go, I'll ask the other teams to sit and watch politely as each group performs," He explained.

"First off will be…" Trent trailed off, referring to his clipboard. "New Directions! Who will be followed by The Troubletones, The Warblers, and finally Vocal Adrenaline!"

Hearing the order, all groups but New Directions made their way off the stage.

"Let's do this!" Lex called out excitedly as they all got into position, looking up into the audience just long enough to see Audrey giving him a small wave, all thoughts on the performance suddenly leaving his head.

"Dude," Felix hit him lightly trying to get his attention back, "C'mon,"

And just like that, the music started, all of the kids getting into their positions, moving around, admittedly a bit awkwardly. Rey and Sophie stood on one side of the stage while Finley and Savannah stood on the other side, both duos with the more complex choreography as Finley began to sing.

"I've been working so hard, I'm punching my card," He sang out, his voice was stronger than it was the last time he sung, though a lot of that seemed to be through confidence he gained, "Eight hours for what? Oh, tell me what I got," his voice was in a higher range than he was necessarily used to, but nobody could deny how great he sounded.

As Rey and Sophie joined the rest of the group behind them, Savannah and Finley took front and center stage. It was obvious that Savannah was the more skilled dancer, but Finley was trying and by no means looked bad. While the audience was moderately impressed with the fancy footwork, nobody was more impressed than Savannah with Finley's progress.

"I've got this feeling
That time's just holding me down
I'll hit the ceiling or else
I'll tear up this town, and,"

"Now I gotta cut loose," Finley continued to sing out, Savannah now harmonizing as well as Kyla and Oscar harmonizing behind them, Savannah and Kyla's powerful voices working beautifully against Finley's low voice and Oscar's soft tones, "Footloose, kick off your Sunday shoes,"

Smiling at her partner, Kyla nodded, acknowledging that by some sort of miracle, Oscar was actually following the steps and following them well.

"Hell yeah!" Zach called out in support of his brother, "You better get it, kiddo!"

"Zach, please," Teddy spoke, per usual, disappointed.

"Please, Louise, pull me off of my knees
Jack, get back, come on before we crack
Lose, your blues, everybody cut footloose,"

They finished up the chorus, Finley and Savannah taking a step back as the group continued their best to dance in sync, Naomi smiling as Rowan stepped in time, proud of her sibling. Sophie and Rey took their turn to step up to the front, and despite the butterflies in Rey's stomach she managed to sing out, admittedly not as powerful as she'd hoped for, but carried on anyway.

"You're playing so cool," She sang out, as Flora and Hazel stepped up, also dancing in sync with them, harmonizing in the back, the duo clearly having a fun time on stage.

"Obeying every rule
Dig a way down in your heart
You're burning yearning for some
Somebody to tell you
That life ain't passing you by"

Rey looked to Sophie, suddenly feeling nervous as she made her way to a part of the song, she knew she could easily mess up. Sophie, though, simply gave her an encouraging look, as if to tell her friend she was proud of her for even getting this far. As Rey continued to sing she not only surprised herself but most everyone around her as a soulful tone she didn't even know she had in her voice came out suddenly.

"I'm trying to tell you
It will if you don't even try
You'll get by if you'd only
Cut loose,"

"Yeah, Rey!" Tommy called out ecstatically as Dana and Cay matched his energy in cheering for her, Teddy cheering at what he would call a polite level.

"Go Soph!" Trina called out, clapping loudly, almost as if to outdo the other cheers, of course, in a God honoring way.

Moving forward on the stage next to Rey who was still singing, and Sophie who jumped in for the chorus, Simon and Delia came up, now the both of them harmonizing and dancing in sync with the other two. Simon smiled proudly as he managed to follow the steps while Delia simply tried to keep her show face on.

Tommy and Mack surprised each other as they both cheered before Mack explained that he knew Delia from the group week earlier on and Tommy explained he was trying to get in good with Naomi's family.

"Footloose, kick off your Sunday shoes
Ooh-wee Marie shake it, shake it for me
Woah, Milo come on, come on let's go
Lose, your blues, everybody cut footloose,"

The four sang out sounding generally phenomenal which half of the audience was impressed by and the other half was intimidated by. All of the pairs now making their way to the front, to show off the choreography they'd worked so hard on the last few days. While it was obvious Felix, Oscar and Rowan were slightly struggling, their partners Lex, Kyla and Naomi all did their best to hide it.

While Kyla, Delia, Naomi, Sophie, Savannah, Lex and Hazel sang out repeating "Oh's", Oscar, Simon, Rowan, Finley, Felix, Flora and Rey leading all repeated "Cut footloose,"

Once again taking full lead, Rey began singing once more, manifesting all the power, volume, control, and the same soulful tone she had just discovered as she continued on singing, with Felix and Lex backing her up.

"We got to turn it around
And put your feet on the ground
Now take the hold of your soul,"

It was clear she was trying and despite the nerves her voice did shine through. Rey closed her eyes for a few moments as everyone behind her sang in preparation for the line she was most nervous about.

"Ah, ah, ah, ah, ah," They all sang out, impressing the audience with the ability for all of the kids to harmonize so well together.

Suddenly, Rey sang out, the power she had manifested coming through completely, once again shocking everyone around her as she called out "I'm turning you loose!"

Sophie's face absolutely lit up, completely proud of her friend, as she took her turn singing the chorus, the rest of the group now backing her up as Rey, in her same tone and power called out a few "Woah-oh's"

"Footloose
Kick off your Sunday shoes
Please, Louise, pull me off of my knees
Jack, get back, come on before we crack,"

Sophie sang out, once again earning her a loud cheer from Trina as well as her more newfound friend, Nikki, who surprised most of her group by her support for Sophie.

Finley and Savannah once again making their way to the front, they took lead with Rey and Sophie, all four singing in harmony while the rest of the group continued to back them up.

"Lose your blues
Everybody cut footloose!
Footloose Kick off your Sunday shoes
Please, Louise, pull me off of my knees
Jack, get back, come on before we crack
Lose your blues,"

The group continued to dance, making some of the other groups a bit nervous as most of their choreography wasn't quite as intricate.

Calling out, Finley, much like Rey, surprised the people around him with the sudden absolute power in his voice.

"Everybody cut, everybody cut,
Everybody cut, everybody cut,"

He sang out, Savannah joining him on the second line, as Sophie jumped in for one last, "Everybody cut, everybody cut,"

Rey now also joined in, as did the rest of the group in singing out, "Everybody cut footloose!"

"Yeah!" Rey sang out on her own.

"Footloose!" The fellow leads as well as the rest of the New Directions wrapped up their song.

"Wow!" Marley applauded loudly, "That was incredibly impressive."

"I'm so proud of you all!" Mr. Schue congratulated his glee club as they celebrated a great performance, slowly but surely making their way off the stage.

"Alright, Troubletones, you're up next!" Trent announced happily.

The girls all quickly made their way onto the stage, watching as the New Directions got settled into the audience. It was now Audrey's turn to look at Lex, almost sadly, for a long moment before she heard a voice behind her, "Hey dummy," Heather mused, "Get your head out of your ass, it's not a hat. We've got a show to do."

Although Audrey rolled her eyes, she knew Heather was right as the girls got into position for their song. A loud, upbeat song began behind them, as Tia marched to center stage, clearly one of the better dancers out of the girls.

"I feel the night explode
When we're together
Emotion overload
In the heat of pleasure,"

Her voice was strong and powerful, as she and the other girls moved in sync, earning a loud, long cheer from her long-time friend, Felix. Coming up behind her was Leah, who took the next part.

"Take me I'm yours, into your arms," Leah sang out, spinning to meet Tia, "Never let me go,"

Suddenly the two pulling each other into a tango, the rest of the girls followed suit with their partners, as Leah and Tia sang out in perfect harmony, "Tonight I really need to know,"

Zoey, who ended up dancing with a cheerio that Mia had managed to convince to show up just for this performance, took the chorus. Despite her being the newest member of glee, there was no denying the pure talent she held.

"Tell it to my heart, tell me I'm the only one," She sang out proudly. Her vocals were impressive, loud, and clear, reminiscent of her mother, Madison, "Is this really love or just a game?"

"Shit," Sydney grumbled, not only intimidated, but actually impressed with the choreography they'd managed to pull off, on top of how good the vocals all sounded.

"Tell it to my heart
I can feel my body rock
Every time you call my name,"

Zoey sang out, now moving to the back with her partner, though continuing to step in time with everyone else, as Nikki and Cay who were paired off together came to the front, still in perfect step with each other. Cay was somewhat nervous about her part, but pulled herself together, singing out loud and concise, as she also found herself leading Nikki.

"The passion's so complete
It's never ending
As long as I receive
This message you're sending,"

Her voice surprised the audience, but she was proud of herself as she managed to pull through it.

"Go Cay!" Rey cheered loudly and excitedly, Teddy on the other side of the auditorium matching the enthusiasm for his sister.

"Body to body, soul to soul," Nikki sang out, though her dancing was not quite on par with Cay's, her vocals were brilliant with the song, "Always feel you near,"

Coming chest to chest with each other, the two sang out in harmony as Leah and Tia did previously, "So say the words I long to hear,"

Heather and Mia now finding their way to the front, Mia found herself singing loud and clear while also desperately trying to lead her partner.

"Tell it to my heart
Tell me I'm the only one
Is this really love or just a game?"

Mia had one of the more unique voices of the Troubletones but it sounded fantastic, and she was impressed as Heather actually let her lead, once again earning an overly enthusiastic cheer from Felix.

"Tell it to my heart
I can feel my body rock
Every time you call my name,"

Mia finished out strongly as the two, still in position, tangoed their way to the side, letting Trina and Audrey come into the middle and lead what was arguably the most complicated choreography they had in this performance during the instrumental break. Though they were front and center, the rest of the Troubletones were entirely in sync, impressing everyone in the audience as every quick step, dip and spin was completely in sync.

"Uh oh," Sutton thought aloud. "I uh, didn't know they were this good."

"We're screwed," Ambrose shook his head, though he agreed with Sutton. The Warblers had choreography, sure. But nothing like that. And as all the show choir blogs were constantly reminding them, The Troubletones would, undoubtedly, be their biggest competition.

"Love, love on the run, breaking us down, though we keep holding on," Audrey sang out clearly, her normally gentle voice coming through with a sort of unexpected volume as Trina sang with her, harmonizing the last part of the bridge. "I don't want to lose, no I can't let you go,"

Holding the last note, most jaws in the audience were dropped. Though they were somewhat of an unexpected duo, their voices complimented each other perfectly as they spun, all 5 pairs now in a row at the front of the stage, Trina taking the final chorus.

"Tell it to my heart
Tell me I'm the only one
Is this really love or just a game,"

"Yes Trina! That's my girlfriend!" Xavier called out overly enthusiastically with what could only be described as heart eyes.

"That's my sister!" Sophie called out, cheering out even louder, "Go sister bestie!"

Trying not to be distracted by her evident fan club, Trina reminded everyone in the room of the true talent she possessed as she continued singing out strong.

"Tell it to my heart
I can feel my body rock
Every time you call my name"

All singing together now, the Troubletones wrapped up the song, now repeating the complex routine they'd already performed in the instrumental break.

"Tell it to my heart
Tell me I'm the only one
Is this really love or just a game
Tell it to my heart
I can feel my body rock
Every time you call my name,"

Ending side by side, the girls all took a quick bow, as scattered applause came from all around the auditorium.

"Wow, that was…amazing," Unique's eyes widened, greatly impressed before turning to Marley. "Did you choreograph that?"

"We sort of… all did," Marley explained with a smile and a small shrug.

"Well done, ladies!" Mr. Schue called out. "Next, we've got the Warblers!"

"I don't know how the hell we're meant to follow that," Oliver spoke, already somewhat defeated.

"Look we may not have the moves," Eric sighed out, "But we've got the spirit?" He tried.

"We've got something alright," Ambrose muttered.

"Listen, besties," Tommy spoke up, "We've got a great song. And charisma! If there's one thing the Warblers are good at, it's selling a song!"

"He's… actually right," Teddy was in disbelief that Tommy had made a good point but agreed with him nonetheless.

"Alright! So let's go and give them a good show then, fellas!" Addison cried out, partially because he needed to prove he was just as good as Zoey, partially because he knew he was the one who chose the song.

Walking onto the stage, most of the boys began making various background noises, all moving somewhat in sync as Michael started the song out.

"The power of love is a curious thing," He sang out, his lower range meshing perfectly with the song, as he stood in front of his fellow Warblers who were still moving in sync, "Make a one man weep, make another man sing,"

"Get 'em Mikey!" Lex called out, clapping loudly in support for his brother.

"Change a hawk to a little white dove
More than a feeling that's the power of love,"

Switching spots with Michael, Ambrose stepped up to take his part. As always, his voice was cool, controlled, and smooth. He made sure to make direct eye contact with the audience to demand their attention without them even really knowing it.

"Tougher than diamonds, rich like cream
Stronger and harder than a bad girl's dream
Make a bad one good make a wrong one right
Power of love that keeps you home at night,"

Though Kendall for a moment considered clapping in support for him, she decided it would be better to lay low and just enjoy the performance.

"You don't need money, don't take fame," Bob surprised the audience by taking the chorus, but earned a small cheer from both Emery and Lex who remembered how well he did when they all worked together a couple of weeks back, "Don't need no credit card to ride this train,"

Though he had a decent amount of stage presence it was the enthusiasm of the other Warblers behind him mixed with his pure vocal talent that sold the song for the audience.

"It's strong and it's sudden and it's cruel sometimes
But it might just save your life
That's the power of love
That's the power of love"

Finishing up his part, Bob less than gracefully made his way back to stand with his group, though most didn't notice as Zach stepped out dramatically, practically running across the stage, earning a laugh from Kate as Sydney gave her a side eye.

"First time you feel it, it might make you sad
Next time you feel it, it might make you mad
But you'll be glad baby when you've found
That's the power makes the world go 'round,"

He had gotten slightly better than he was the last time he performed but certainly was still not… great. But his energy was infectious.

"Strange they'd let him solo," Naomi mumbled thinking.

"How so?" Delia questioned.

"Why give one of your weaker links a solo verse for a competition?" Naomi thought out loud.

"Because they're not doing this for sectionals," Delia spoke as soon as she figured it out.

"And it don't take money," Eric now took over where Zach had previously been standing, smiling as Kate cheered loudly for him, his voice not quite as powerful as some of the other Warblers but pretty enough that nobody seemed to mind, "don't take fame,"

Moving back to stand directly in front of the Warblers they all completely, what some would argue was basic choreography, in complete sync as Eric continued singing.

"Don't need no credit card to ride this train
It's strong and it's sudden it can be cruel sometimes
But it might just save your life,"

Jumping in front of the group together, Tommy now sang out loud and proud as Mack harmonized.

"They say that all in love is fair
Yeah, but you don't care
But you know what to do
When it gets hold of you,"

While they both had great stage presence, the part that really sold it was their chemistry and of course how good they sounded together since they'd been paired off together basically since they started in the Warblers.

"And with a little help from above," Tommy suddenly moved to make direct eye contact with Naomi, leaving Mack to do his best on his own.

"You feel the power of love
You feel the power of love
Can you feel it?
Hmmm"

Despite Tommy's stray from the choreography, the boys still managed to make it work, Sutton quite literally jumping into place as he started the last part of the song.

"It don't take money and it don't take fame
Don't need no credit card to ride this train,"

He practically marched around the stage, singing as dramatically and passionately as he could.

"Tougher than diamonds and stronger than steel
You won't feel nothin' till you feel,"

Suddenly motioning back to the rest of the Warblers, Sutton smiled as Addison came out, switching spots with him as he wrapped up the song, Sutton quietly harmonizing behind him.

"You feel the power, just feel the power of love
That's the power, that's the power of love
You feel the power of love
You feel the power of love
Feel the power of love,"

His voice was strong, and pleasant to listen to as he called out the last few notes, trying to match Sutton's passion, earning them a small round of applause. While the choreography was not nearly as impressive as the group before them, they certainly did have great energy.

"Well done, boys! I'm very proud of you!" Trent smiled, he knew this wasn't their best performance ever, but he also knew it didn't have to be and he was glad that they were able to get a performance like this done so they could focus in on their strengths for sectionals.

"Alright, so that leaves Vocal Adrenaline!" Marley called out, as the twelve students made their way towards the stage.

"So I know this isn't exactly what we had planned," Kate started but was interrupted.

"Yeah, because some people," Anthony paused to glare at Emery, Chloe and Isaac, "Didn't want to try."

"It's actually because," Leslie spoke up, "We all let our ego get in the way this week,"

"Regardless," Kate spoke up once more, "We won't all get our chance to shine, but Sydney and Anthony can carry us and we should be alright."

"Let's just get on with it, shall we?" Kendall tried, knowing everyone was waiting for them to start.

A familiar beat started behind them as the group somehow managed to pull themselves together, just as Sydney took center stage and began singing.

"Sometimes I feel I've got to
Run away I've got to
Get away
From the pain you drive into the heart of me,"

Sydney sang out confidently, as usual impressing everyone in the audience with what could only be described as pure, incredible talent. The rest of the group behind her piped in with various "oh's" in harmony as the song continued.

"The love we share
Seems to go nowhere
And I've lost my light
For I toss and turn I can't sleep at night,"

Coming up behind her, Anthony held onto Sydney's hips, before spinning her into an almost waltzing position, the two suddenly jumping into intricate choreography as the group behind them followed with what was far less intricate, but decently impressive choreography given the week they had. Avoiding the thought of that, Anthony took the chorus.

"Once I ran to you
Now, I'll run from you
This tainted love you've given
I give you all a boy could give you
Take my tears and that's not nearly all
Oh, tainted love
Tainted love,"

Every note was perfectly in key and every step was excellently executed, though, of course, nobody expected anything less from the child of Lima's two biggest success stories. The rest of the group continued with their choreography which Harmony had informed them "looked complicated, but wasn't," as Sydney jumped into singing the second verse with ease and perfection just as she had the previous verse.

"Now, I know I've got to
Run away, I've got to
Get away
You don't really want any more from me
To make things right
You need someone to hold you tight
And you think love is to pray
But I'm sorry, I don't pray that way"

"Yes! Go Sydney!" Frank called out excitedly, earning him a look of pity from Teddy, and a small clap followed by Bob who was simply copying his brother.

Anthony smirked as the call out, as he and Sydney continued their detailed choreography, demanding as much attention from the audience as they could get, to try to distract them from the rest of their club behind them.

"Once I ran to you
Now, I'll run from you
This tainted love you've given
I give you all a boy could give you
Take my tears and that's not nearly all
Oh, tainted love
Tainted love,"

Once again, Anthony blew the audience away, and while Lex wanted to politely clap for his childhood friend, he decided against it as he had forgotten just how good he really was and, admittedly, was nervous for his glee club.

"Don't touch me please
I cannot stand the way you tease
I love you, though you hurt me so
Now, I'm gonna pack my things and go,"

As Sydney finished the bridge and looked onto the audience, a what could only be described as sinister grin crept onto her face. As she had hoped, all eyes were on her and Anthony. She took a quick glance at the group behind and while she was glad that they were at the very least trying, she was relieved nobody was truly watching them.

"Tainted love, tainted love," Sydney and Anthony sang together now. If their talent was not evident on it's on, it was certainly evident as the harmonized, still moving in perfect sync, "Tainted love, tainted love,"

They continued to sing as half of the ten teens still backing them up harmonized, while the other half continued on their sporadic "Oh"s

"Touch me, baby, tainted love
Touch me, baby, tainted love
Tainted love, oh
Tainted love, oh
Tainted love,"

The group finished up, earning a moderate amount of applause from the other kids, as did the group before them.

"Wow, well done, guys!" Mr. Schue applauded diplomatically, suddenly feeling somewhat threatened by the talent of the two leads.

As Vocal Adrenaline took their seats, the teachers all made their way to the front of the auditorium again, looking at each other trying to decide who would speak to the group first. While nobody made the move to, Trent finally took a step forward.

"You all did so well!" He grinned excitedly, "And I think I speak for each and every one of us when I say we are so proud of you! All of you! And while we will not be competing against you at sectionals, you have proven to us and everyone else in the room, that each team is a force to be reckoned with!"

"I couldn't agree more!" Marley nodded happily, "Thank you all for participating! And good luck at sectionals!"

"So… that's it?" Simon questioned, "We can go home?"

"Yep! We'll see you all next week!" Unique responded, wanting to go home as badly as the kids.

"What? So there's no winner?" Nikki scrunched her nose up.

"No, as I mentioned in glee," Marley breathed out but tried to keep her happy, calm composure, "This was just a practice for sectionals!"

"This whomps," Michael muttered, earning a groan from Ambrose who knew he learned the phrase from Sutton.

"See you all later!" Mr. Schue called out.

"Hey Audrey!" Lex called, "Wait up!"

"Oh, hey," Audrey turned around, fiddling with the zipper on her jacket, "What's up?"

"I uh, just wanted to say, uh," He stuttered through his words, knowing the two hadn't really talked since the week previous, "You did great today!"

"Oh, um, thanks," Audrey nodded politely, but was, at the moment, unsure where she stood with him.

"I also wanted to… apologize," He admitted sheepishly, running a hand through his hair, "About last week? With Savannah? I guess I just didn't want to get caught in the middle, and I just saw Savannah more because of glee, but I wasn't taking sides," Lex spoke with a sudden haste, but was interrupted by his long-time friend.

"Lex," Audrey couldn't help but giggle, "It's okay! Really. And thank you for apologizing. I wouldn't want you to get caught in the middle of it, either."

"So… we're okay?" Lex asked, genuinely nervous.

"Of course we are, you goof," Audrey laughed, "And we gotta hang out soon!"

"Yes! I mean I can hang out whenever," Lex started, not realizing how desperate he sounded just before he was interrupted again.

"Hey, Aud," Heather called from the top of the stairs, "Are you coming?"

"Looks like you're being beckoned," Lex smiled through the pain of still thinking that Audrey and Heather were together.

"Yeah, I uh, I should get going," Audrey nodded, "But seriously, thank you," She reached out giving his hand a small squeeze before running to catch up with her friend.

Disappointed, Lex breathed out heavily, getting ready to leave. On his way out he saw Emery, who he'd worked with during the group week, and made a point to stop and say a quick hello before heading out of the auditorium. While Emery was surprised that he'd bother to stop, it was not an unwelcome surprise, unlike the tap on her shoulder.

"Hi, I'm sorry," Leah spoke, visibly nervous, "You're…Emery right?"

"…yes?" They finally responded after a few long moments of debating whether or not to tell Leah their real name.

"I, um, I'm Leah? Puckerman?" She was unsure why she was introducing herself by her full name, and even more unsure that she should have even been doing this.

"Yeah," Emery nodded, "Can I, um, help you? With something?" She spoke cautiously, still confused as to why she sought her out.

"I just uh," Leah fiddled with her bag for a moment, "I kind of had a falling out with Trina, and so I don't feel comfortable going to Sophie, or especially Xavier about this, but do you, um, know what's going on with Jude?" She questioned.

"Excuse me?" Emery's eyebrows immediately went up.

"I know he's not well, and I noticed he's not here and I uh, I know he always spoke very fondly of an Emery, so I just thought, maybe, you'd know what's going on with him? If he's okay?"

"I, um," Emery fumbled over their words as this was a lot to take in, "I have no idea. I only know as much as you do. It also feels… kind of inappropriate for you to come ask me that."

"Inappropriate how?" Leah got defensive, though, in a way, she knew Emery was right.

"I know you guys used to date and so I'm sure you still care about him but… I don't know you. And you don't know me," Emery shook her head before slinging her bag over her shoulder, "I get you don't want to talk to his family but it doesn't feel great that you didn't care to know who I was until you needed information." She finished up, not giving Leah a chance to respond before meeting up with Xavier at the entrance.

"What was that about?" Xavier questioned nosily.

"Don't worry about it," Emery sighed out before seeing something that would certainly turn the conversation around. "Don't think Sydney'll be too happy about that," She nodded to a few feet away where Zach and Kate were standing talking.

"No seriously," Zach flashed a cheesy smile, "When can I see you? You know, outside of glee?"

"It's…more complicated than that," Kate offered a smile of her own, though hers was much more coy.

"Complicated, how?" Zach raised his eyebrows, humoring her.

"You know me, I just," Kate sighed out, "I need to make sure my group is taken care of. We all had a really rough week. Who knows what will happen next week?"

"I do," Zach smiled smugly, "We're going on a date,"

"Zach," Kate laughed, shaking her head.

"No protesting!" Zach laughed right back, leaving as Oscar beckoned him, not giving Kate a chance to call it off, "I'll text you the deets!"

While Kate shook her head, she couldn't deny the wide smile on her face. She did work very hard for her group, and Zach was a breath of fresh air and just the break from everything that she needed.

"Who's got you smiling like that?" Sydney came up to Kate, arms crossed over her chest, just as Emery had predicted, not very happy.

"Am I not allowed to smile?" Kate raised her eyebrows.

"Not if I don't know why," Sydney raised her eyebrows back, tightening her crossed arms.

"Sydney, I respect you loads, but there are some things I need for myself," Kate admitted with a small shrug.

"Kate, you're like my second-hand woman. I need you out here fighting the good fight with me. I can't have you distracted by some boy," Sydney huffed out, visibly disappointed.

"Since when?" Kate shook her head in disbelief. "But it's fine, Sydney. Really. I'm not distracted. I'm here and I'm focused and I'm ready to take sectionals with you and the rest of Vocal Adrenaline."

"You better be," Sydney sneered as she walked away, and, accidentally, walked right by all of the Warblers, "What are you looking at?" She rolled her eyes at Frank who, admittedly, had been staring, before she continued on.

"Yeah, loverboy, what're you staring at?" Addison teased Frank.

Rolling his eyes to leave his group, Oliver began walking but was immediately stopped.

"May I have a word?" Nikki questioned, her tone surprisingly professional.

"Uh, sure?" Oliver couldn't help but laugh, scruffing her hair a bit, "What's up kiddo?"

"Sutton blabbed," Nikki raised her eyebrows.

"Shit," Oliver whispered, pulling Nikki to the side as he didn't want the Warblers, or anyone else to know the real reason he was in the Warblers. "I knew he couldn't keep his mouth shut. Look, Nik, it's not as bad as it seems-"

"Why'd you do it?" Nikki questioned, her tone still eerily serious.

"Vaping? I don't know, I just always do it, I know the bathroom was maybe not the best place for it-" Oliver tried to explain but was once again cut off by his sister.

"No, I mean why'd you get caught?" She smirked, "Or why didn't you tell me? I could have got in trouble too and then we'd both have badass reasons for being in glee."

"Nikki, don't say badass," Oliver tried to scold her but ended up laughing, "And look, you shouldn't copy me. Especially with the shit I get in trouble for."

"So I can't say ass but you can say shit? Kinda fucked up dude," Nikki shook her head.

"Nikki," Oliver raised his eyebrows, trying not to laugh at all the curse words Nikki just let slip, "Seriously. And between us I kinda, I don't know, like glee now. So don't do something stupid just because I did."

"Alright, alright," Nikki finally gave in, "Fine. Just because, you know, between you and me… I kinda like glee too."

"It's so nice to see them getting along," Marley nodded to her two children as she spoke to the other four glee coaches, who were making sure all the kids made their way out before they did.

"Do they not normally?" Mr. Schue questioned curiously, thinking about his own daughters.

"Depends on the day," Marley laughed nervously as she watched the last of the few kids make their way out, the coaches now slowly following behind.

"Well, congrats to all of you on a successful week and successful scrimmage," Trent smiled kindly, "I'm sure you'll all kill with those songs at sectionals."

"Thank you, Trent, that's very kind of you," Will nodded, a friendly smile of his own appearing, "And same to you! Those performances are sure to kill at sectionals."

"Oh, we're not doing that song," Trent shook his head.

"I'm… sorry?" Marley's eyebrows furrowed, confused.

"Us either," Harmony shrugged, "You really think we'd show you all of what we're made of at a silly little scrimmage?"

"So… what song are you doing?" Will spoke, hushed tone, his words specifically directed to Trent.

"Sorry, Will, that's confidential. I haven't even told Oscar, just because he's in your glee club," Trent snickered.

"Damn, that kind of sucks for you guys, huh?" Harmony laughed, making her way out of the auditorium, both herself and Trent surprised but impressed that the other had the same idea as they did.

"Unique?" Marley questioned, her voice also lowered, as Will slowly followed the other glee clubs out, "Can you at least tell me what you're doing? Come on, we're friends! And I'm...totally caught off guard by all this."

"I'm sorry," Unique shook her head, "You know I can't do that! I will tell you though," she paused dramatically, lowering her voice to match Marley's volume, "I think it may be a song you McKinley folk are familiar with. Vocal Adrenaline will just be performing it the right way," she smirked, walking off, leaving Marley to wonder what the hell that meant.

FRIDAY EVENING

"How was the scrimmage?" Artie asked his kids as they came running into the house after glee.

"It was great!" Tommy gassed himself up, "Mack and I, of course, crushed it."

"I would expect nothing less," Artie gave them a knowing look, but laughed as he fuddled with his glasses. "How about you, Rey? Dana? Did you, as your brother so eloquently put it, crush it?"

"Yee yee!" Dana called out, continuing their limbo from earlier on.

"It was alright," Rey nodded, smiling.

"Alright?! Rey, you were a beast!" Tommy called out dramatically, "You shoulda seen her, dad! She pulled out this crazy ass soul voice that I didn't know she even had!"

"Rey? That's amazing!" He congratulated his daughter as she looked down shyly, "And as a father it is incredibly rewarding to hear that someone got my crazy ass soul voice gene," He half joked.

"I thought we weren't saying ass?" Kitty raised her eyebrows as she entered the room.

"I thought this was a special occasion," Artie smiled, "Rey apparently did very well during the scrimmage today."

"And Tommy?" Kitty put her hands on her hips, turning to her eldest, "How did you do?"

"Amazing! Not that you would expect anything less," Tommy grinned proudly.

"That's my boy," Kitty smiled, leaning over to give his cheek a small pinch.

"Dana also did great!" Dana called out, shimmying as they continued to limbo.

"And we are so very proud of all of you," Kitty grinned, pulling her family into a group hug, "Now come on! This calls for a celebration!"

"Pizza?" Dana questioned hopefully.

"Not Hawaiian," Kitty and Tommy spoke in sync, causing all five members of the family to laugh.

Things back over at the Karofksy household were going slightly less well.

"Zach?!" Eric's eyes widened. "Like tells everyone he can rap every five minutes Zach?!"

"That would be the one," Kate laughed despite already regretting telling her brother about the date, "And can you please keep your voice down?"

"But…Zach?!" Eric continued to be in absolute disbelief.

"Who the hell is Zach?" Dave questioned, overhearing the tail end of their conversation.

"He's in my glee club, Kate's got a date with him," Eric explained.

"Eric!" Kate gasped.

"Zach? Nixon?" Dave couldn't help but laugh, "Didn't he move to Dalton to stay out of trouble? I didn't think bad boys were your type," He couldn't pass up the opportunity to tease his daughter.

"Oh my god," Kate shook her head, "This isn't happening. I'm going to go to my room and take a nap and when I wake up this conversation will have never happened."

"Come on, Kate, it's fine. As long as he doesn't, you know," Dave paused, looking at her, his tone serious for a moment, "Try anything,"

"Oh my god," Kate repeated, "Goodnight!" Before grabbing her things, rushing to her room to hide her quickly reddening face.

"That… could have gone worse," Eric laughed.

"It's uh, good to see her putting herself out there, huh?" Dave noted, nodding.

"Yeah. Weird choice in guys, but at least she has kind of found someone?" Eric added on.

"Who knew all it took was your relationship falling apart for a boy to finally ask Kate on a date, huh?" Dave laughed.

"Dad!" Eric's eyes widened and his jaw dropped.

"What?" Dave suddenly became aware of his mistake, "Too soon?"

A/N: Thank you all so much if you made it here lol! As always I've provided a (very small list lol) of the songs used in this chapter! And like I mentioned earlier I would super appreciate it if you just drop me a line to let me know you're reading! Hope you all have a great few weeks and I'll see you soon with the next chapter! :)

Footloose - Kenny Loggins (but heavily inspired by Glee Cast lmao)
Tell It To My Heart - Taylor Dayne
The Power Of Love - Hewey Lewis & The News
Tainted Love - Soft Cell