A New Direction - SYOC CLOSED

by safeDbeginswiths

A second gen syoc! Please read details inside :)

14. It's My Party

A/N: Hello everybody! Here is the long awaited party chapter lol! As always I've got a few things to go through, maybe a few more than usual so please read through as I wouldn't want you missing out on anything!

Firstly, this chapter is a little nuts and all over the place lol. It was initially going to be a lot longer but I've decided to break it into two parts because there's a lot to cover and I really wanted to try to write the next chapter in a sort of format I haven't tried yet and really challenge myself as a writer (which will make more sense once it gets posted lmao) so if it seems like things are left sort of open-ended and all over the place, that is exactly what I wanted lmao, but the second half will be coming VERY soon! However, because of this, if you're one of the people talking to me in PMs about plots or new characters and don't see them in this chapter I promise they're coming! It will just be in the second half.

On the topic of new characters, most are introduced in this one! Thank you to everyone who submitted them as I thought the party would be a very fun way to sort of introduce them and sort of re-introduce the characters we already know through the new ones eyes! Because of this there are also a few instances of your characters maybe seeing somewhat out of character for lack of better term as this is I think the most I've strayed from the source material (your apps lol) whether that be in interactions, dialogue or karaoke song choices (because of course they're doing karaoke lmao) I promise it's all for the bit lmao but of course, you're always welcome to come to me with comments or concerns! (And most things that seem out of character or weird for your OCs will be addressed in the second part!)

I'd also like to note that of course, because this is a party, there is descriptions of underaged dinking, which, if this is something you're uncomfortable with please let me know and I can catch you up to speed without you actually having to read through the chapter. That said there are a few characters I have explicitly written as drinking (as well as a few who are smoking) and a few I have explicitly written as completely sober. Everyone else is up to your interpretation.

And finally, I'd just like to say a big thank you to everyone who's reached out the last few weeks! As I'm sure most of you know by now my favorite part of writing this fic is plotting and scheming things with you guys so please keep any and all ideas you have coming, I absolutely love hearing from you! I also have an announcement in my second author's note, so please check that out as well! Thanks for all your continued support, and enjoy!

Loud music could be heard coming from the Jones' house, also known among the kids in the neighborhood as the biggest house in Lima. While Sam and Mercedes were away for the weekend, they trusted the kids and even knew that they were having a party, which is why they specifically told them that they were only allowed to invite the kids they knew from glee. However their children did not realize that only meant the McKinley kids, now leaving them with 50 teenagers running around. On top of that, Rowan forgot to inform their guests that they weren't to invite anyone else they knew. This is how Grey Dubois ended up in a house bigger than he'd ever seen, only really knowing the Porters, neither of which were anywhere to be found.

Grey was just around average height for a boy his age, a sophomore. He was thin and lanky, with curly, black, unruly hair framing his pale skin and hazel eyes. The way he dressed and even stood made all who crossed his path realize that he was the dictionary definition of 'alt boy'. This was made very evident as Grey stood by himself, a small frame moving towards him.

"Hey, I'm Rowan," They smiled, "The host of this party. I didn't realize people were dressing up,"

"I'm, um," Grey paused trying to digest all of this, "I'm not?"

"Oh, so that's just how you are?" Rowan questioned, looking him over, "Cool. Well, I have never seen you before in my life. Are you new to glee?"

"I'm not… in glee. Is this a glee thing?" Grey was confused, as Felix was who invited him on a whim, not giving any details other than the date, time and place.

"It is," Rowan paused, thinking it over, "Oh! You must be Felix's friend, right?"

"Yeah," Grey nodded, smiling, glad they were finally figuring out exactly what was going on, "I am,"

"Well, I have no clue where the hell he went, but come on, I'll introduce you to the gang," Rowan smiled, being as hospitable as possible.

"The… gang," Grey nodded, processing these words.

"Alrighty!" Rowan grinned, "So, we're all sober, by the way. We're just hanging out and playing go fish. But everybody, this is…um, I didn't actually catch your name?"

"Oh, uh, Grey," he nodded.

"Like the color!" Sawyer realized, smiling.

"That's Sawyer," Rowan nodded smiling, "Big golden retriever energy,"

"Nice to meet you, Grey!" Sawyer continued to grin widely.

"Next to Sawyer," Rowan moved down the line, "Is Leslie,"

"Hi, Grey," Leslie smiled, "I'm not sure if Rowan mentioned, but this is like a whole glee thing. Sawyer and I are in Vocal Adrenaline, over at Carmel high?"

"Where her mom is her coach, if you can believe that," Grey heard a female voice from the opposite end of the table snicker.

"Nikki," Rowan laughed, "Your mom is also your coach,"

"Whatever," Nikki waved them off.

"That's Nikki," Rowan nodded, "She's in the Troubletones. You go to McKinley, right?"

"I do," Grey nodded slowly, knowing he would never remember any of these names.

"Cool, so if you wanna join glee, and no pressure," Rowan smiled, "You'll be in New Directions with me. Troubletones is the other glee club, but it's all girls."

"And non-binary people," Cay spoke up, not bothering to make contact with anyone else until it was necessarily. "We're just all girls now. I think? But you could always jump ship if you wanted to, Rowan," Cay smirked, shuffling the cards in her hands.

"Funny," Rowan laughed, "In fairness, we have girls and non-binary people in New Directions too. We just also have men,"

"Interesting," Grey nodded, trying to be polite.

"There is an all-boys group though. At Dalton Academy? They're called the Warblers," Rowan explained, moving to the next person at the table. "That's the group this guy is in,"

"Yeah, Warblers!" Bob smiled, as Rowan nudged him.

"And I think that's everyone at this table," Rowan nodded decisively, "Hold on a minute, who are you?" They suddenly questioned someone sitting next to Bob.

"Ash? Patterson?" They laughed but were confused. Ash was medium height and build, with medium brown skin, short black hair, and big dark eyes. "We met literally moments before we met this other kid,"

"His name is Grey!" Sawyer called out, "Like the color!"

"Who do you know here?" Rowan was very confused.

"Me!" Eric joined his friends at the table, sitting in one of the only vacant seats where his jacket was hanging from, "Ash just moved to Lima, a few houses down from me and Kate. Oh, I'm Eric by the way," he introduced himself to Grey

"Got it," Grey nodded before turning to Ash, "So you… also don't know anyone here?" Grey let out a half laugh.

"Correct," Ash smirked, "But I'm slowly but surely getting to know them,"

"Lucky for both of you," Leslie chuckled, "Between the handful of us at this table, we're more than happy to help you all figure out who everyone is."

"So… who's that then?" Ash nodded towards two girls who seemed to be in a heated discussion about something.

"I'll take this one," Nikki laughed, "On the left is Zoey McCarthy. She's kind of mean but like in a fun sexy way?"

"Sexy way?" Cay raised her eyebrows.

"Shush, I'm explaining," Nikki grabbed her girlfriend's hand before continuing, "The girl she's fighting with is Tia McCarthy. They're cousins and are a part of this other like little clique within the Troubletones,"

"So they're the mean girls?" Grey verified.

"Not really," Cay sighed out, "I mean, like Nikki so eloquently put they both can be mean but I don't think either of them like, inherently is,"

"And the other girls in the clique?" Ash questioned curiously.

"There they are," Nikki laughed pointing to two girls almost violently making out in a corner, "Purple hair is Heather Porter. A real weirdo, but a fun time. The girl she seems to be trying to top is Mia McCarthy, her longtime girlfriend and Tia's twin,"

"Wow, there's a lot of deep connections, huh?" Grey was almost overwhelmed by everything as he asked, though he did at least recognize Heather.

"You have no idea," Cay shook her head.

"So do… Zoey and Tia fight like that a lot?" Ash questioned, directing the attention back to the two of them.

"They disagree, but I don't know that I've ever seen them… truly argue?" Cay thought out loud.

"What do you think they're arguing about?" Sawyer whispered to Leslie who only met them with a shrug.

However, from across the room, they, along with everyone else in close vicinity could hear Tia yell, "I just wanna fight someone!"

"But why?" Zoey groaned.

"Because I want to feel something," Tia's eyes lit up.

"That's disgusting," Zoey sneered.

"You want to talk about disgusting?" Tia rolled her eyes, "I'm staring right at Mia making out with Heather. That's like watching myself make out with her. Ew, now I've really grossed myself out."

"I can hear you, you know," Heather spoke, finally pulling away from Mia, though kept her arm wrapped around her.

"Well, stop," Tia sneered.

"Stop hearing?" Mia couldn't help but giggle.

"Yes," Zoey rolled her eyes.

"Hard pass," Heather snickered, "What are you two weirdos up to, anyways?"

"Tia's trying to fight someone," Zoey shrugged.

"Who?" Mia questioned, "Because I think that's a great idea,"

"I agree," Heather shared a knowing smile with Mia, both silently agreeing to instigate the hell out of Tia, "Zoey, you and Addison have beef, right? Why not fight him?"

"I mean, that could be funny," Zoey snickered.

"Who's Addison?" Ash whispered, as everyone at the go fish table had been eavesdropping on the girls.

"That would be Zoey's twin brother," Eric began to explain with a small shrug, "He's in the Warblers with me. He's also my boyfriend."

"They are a very good couple," Bob nodded, smiling.

"Aw, thanks, Bob," Eric grinned.

"So where is he now?" Grey questioned.

"I… actually don't know," Eric laughed, "Last I saw he was with…um… Chloe? I think her name is?"

"Uh oh," Leslie laughed, before turning to Grey and Ash, "Chloe sort of just, well, she smokes. A lot,"

This was, of course, true. Somewhere upstairs, Chloe and Addison were simply laying on the ground after, well, smoking.

"You ever just…. Think about life?" Addison sighed out dreamily.

"This is your first time, huh?" Chloe smirked.

"I personally believe life is what you make of it, right? There is so much out there that we don't know about, so many unanswered questions. But in a lot of ways, that's the beauty of life," Dana, who'd also been smoking with them spoke, answering Addison's question, surprisingly profoundly.

"So true, Dana," Chloe nodded, "I also didn't know you knew that many words,"

"I know many words, I just don't always say them, there's no use talking unless you truly have something meaningful to say," Dana shrugged, completely faded and fully talking out of their ass.

"Dana, that was like… crazy, dude. You're so wise," Addison shook his head.

"No they're not," Chloe giggled, now almost excessively, "They're just high,"

"I can be both. Ignorant of you to put me in a box," Dana nodded.

Back downstairs, Grey and Ash were trying to paint a mental picture of these people, but figured it would be better to focus on the things happening in front of them.

"Alright, so what's his deal?" Ash nodded towards a boy running around trying to make sure everyone was good.

"That," Rowan laughed, "Would be my brother, Simon. We've uh, never really had a party before this? So, Simon's doing his best to be a good host,"

"And who's the kid sitting in the corner, that he keeps checking on?" Grey raised his eyebrows.

"That," Eric chuckled, "Would be Mack. He's the head of the Warblers council,"

"He and Simon are in this like weird thing," Rowan tried to explain.

"Weird thing?" Grey laughed at the way it was described.

"Yeah, so basically, from my understanding," Rowan started slowly, "They both want each other. Badly. But neither wants to say anything. So they're stuck in this weird limbo,"

"Huh," Leslie, who barely knew anything about anyone outside of Vocal Adrenaline, thought out loud, looking on to see Simon now taking a seat next to Mack.

"Are you okay?" Simon questioned. He sat close to Mack, but not too close.

"Yeah I just um," Mack, who very clearly was not sober, spoke, "Parties make me nervous. So do you,"

"I see you've had a bit of liquid honesty," Simon laughed, handing the bowl of chips in his hands over to Mack, "Here, have some snacks. You'll feel better,"

"You're so good to me," Mack smiled, mouth full of chips, crumbs falling out.

"You deserve it," Simon laughed, watching Mack and finding it endearing, "Seriously, take it easy though, alright?"

"Will you…" Mack started, his words slurred, almost afraid to ask the question that without thought slipped out, "Will you stay with me for a little while?"

"I'll stay with you as long as you need," Simon smiled, a smile which made Mack feel like he could melt on the spot.

"Do you mean it?" Mack questioned, eyes wide, heart thumping.

"Of course, I do," Simon smiled, gently placing a hand over Mack's.

"Thank you," Mack smiled, leaning into Simon, laying his head gently on his shoulder.

"Aw, they're cute," Sawyer cooed, watching all of this unfold.

"I think they'd be cuter if they'd both just accept their crush on each other," Rowan rolled their eyes.

"I guess there's probably like… a lot of inner glee club mingling, huh?" Grey thought out loud.

"You have no idea," Cay snickered, giving Nikki's hand a squeeze.

"Like okay," Rowan spoke up, nodding to a group of four not too far off, "Three of them are in New Directions, and the other one is in Troubletones. All McKinley kids. The two who appear to be… less than sober are Lex Anderson-Hummel and the girl is Savannah Lopez-Pierce,"

"So, who are the other two?" Ash quirked an eyebrow.

"The girl is Audrey Fabray," Nikki began to explain, "She's dating Lex. The guy is Finley Jones who's dating Savannah,"

"And if you couldn't guess by the last name," Rowan chuckled lightly, "My other brother,"

As the group looked on, they noticed Lex and Savannah dancing completely off beat to both the music and each other.

"I can't believe there is a party happening in my house," Finley began slowly, "And I'm spending the whole time babysitting my girlfriend,"

"I don't know how we didn't see this coming," Audrey raised her eyebrows, shaking her head.

"You guys are like," Lex turned to face them, his words beyond slurred, "Just sooooo boring,"

"We are not," Audrey raised her eyebrows, "Someone's gotta keep you out of trouble,"

"Blah, blah, blah," Savannah barely got the words out between giggles, "Sooooo boring,"

"I think," Finley spoke up, "You two need some water. I'll go grab you some,"

"Sure, grandpa, you do that," Lex continued dancing in a way that could only be described as sporadic.

"Please don't leave me alone with them," Audrey pleaded.

"I'll be right back," Finley nodded, "You'll be fine,"

And with that Finley kept his eyes on Lex, Audrey, and mostly Savannah, but couldn't help but notice the group at the table people watching, "Hey peanut gallery," He snickered as he walked by.

"Hi Finley," Rowan spoke back blandly.

"Are you guys close?" Leslie questioned, suddenly realizing she didn't really know.

"We're closer now than we used to be," Rowan explained with a shrug, "Siblings are weird,"

"I'm kinda jealous, I've always wanted siblings," Sawyer sighed out.

"I'm an only child too," Ash piped up, "So I get that."

"Consider yourself lucky," Nikki rolled her eyes, watching who was next to come in through the door.

"I thought you and your brothers were getting along better?" Cay spoke, confused.

"We are. Leah, on the other hand," Nikki nodded towards her sister who looked like she was trying to avoid being seen, "I could do without. I would rather do without, actually."

"Yikes," Grey shook his head, "What did she do to make you have such a strong opinion like that?"

"We have a lot to get you caught up on," Eric laughed.

Noticing her sister sitting at a table with several other people, including ones she didn't know, Leah sighed out, looking for anyone who might speak to her, knowing most people wouldn't. She went back on forth on whether she should have even came to the party, knowing she had a lot of apologizing to do, but also figured that at least if anyone here was mad at her, which she was sure they would be, they would more or less be preoccupied with other things. During her tiptoeing around, she hadn't even noticed she'd walked directly into someone.

"Oh, shit, I'm um," Leah shook her head, "I'm really sorry,"

"No, no it's my fault," Tommy waved her off before realizing who it was, "Hold on. What are you doing here?"

"I uh," Leah sighed out, knowing to expect this but wishing she'd gone unseen a little longer, "I just thought it was better than hiding out forever,"

"You're brave for that," Tommy laughed, Leah noticing how he swayed in a way that a sober person probably wouldn't, "Mad respect,"

"I'm surprised you're not asking me to leave," Leah laughed nervously, "I think anyone else would have by now,"

"Yeah, well, we're all just having fun tonight, you know?" Tommy grinned, giving her a small nudge, "So fuck the haters! Speaking of," he began, his voice growing lower and more slurred, "I got rejected by Naomi. Can you believe that? Her brother said not to go through with it but I did and now my heart is broken,"

"Wow," Leah spoke, genuinely surprised that Tommy was so openly telling her about his problems after she had just put everyone else's on blast, "No, I um, I can't believe that actually,"

"See! You're not so bad, even if that's what everyone thinks," Tommy shrugged not realizing that was not the right thing to say, "Come on, let's find you a drink, huh?"

"What do they talk about?" Eric spoke, looking at Tommy and Leah, interrupting the table's recap of everything that happened with the gossip blog.

"Who is she talking to?" Grey was genuinely confused and very much shocked at what he was finding out about Leah and everything he managed to miss by mere days.

"Tommy! He's on the Warblers council," Bob explained.

"With your brother's not man, right?" Ash verified, looking to Rowan before nodding towards Mack and Simon.

"Yeah, you got it, Ash," Rowan smiled.

"There are… so many siblings," Grey was still processing everything.

"If you think that's bad," Nikki spoke up once more, "You know how earlier we were talking about glee coach parents and all that?"

"Yes…" Grey responded tentatively.

"See those two sisters? They were both in New Directions with their dad, but the older one had enough of his weird ass so hopped over to the Troubletones," Nikki laughed.

"I don't know that it happened exactly like that," Rowan raised their eyebrows.

"It's close enough," Cay snickered. "Delia's the older one, her sister is Flora. They're… an interesting combination,"

"Are you done? I want to go home," Delia rolled her eyes.

"We just got here, Deels," Flora laughed, "Come on, it could be fun!"

"There is so much to discuss with you right now. First of all, do not call me 'Deels'," Delia raised her eyebrows, crossing her arms over her chest, "Secondly, we've been here for nearly an hour. Thirdly and most importantly, I don't even want to be here. I am literally only here because Mom thinks you need a chaperone,"

"Which I don't, by the way," Flora raised her eyebrows right back, "So you can go and talk with someone else. You don't have to hang around me,"

"And who would I talk to?" Delia groaned.

"Anyone! It's a party, Delia," Flora laughed, "Go mingle!"

"I can't help but feel as though you're only trying to get rid of me so that you can go and 'mingle' with a certain St. James," Delia spoke knowingly.

"So what? You're going to tell on me?" Flora tested her sister.

"No, seeing as how… Father doesn't even know we're here, that seems like a bad idea. The last thing I need is to get in trouble for going to a party that, and I can not stress this enough, I don't want to be at," Delia noted.

"Alright, I'm going because you're bumming me out. I'll come find you in an hour, okay?" Flora laughed, shaking her head, waving in the general direction of the go fish table as she passed.

"She seems nice," Grey noted.

"Are they the only other kids with their parents as their glee coach?" Ash questioned curiously.

"There's a few," Leslie laughed.

"Why the laughing?" Grey asked, not to be rude, but because he truly didn't understand.

"Vocal Adrenaline is the only group with two coaches," Sawyer began to speak slowly, "While Leslie's mom is one, Chloe, if you can remember from earlier who smokes a lot? Her mom is the other one,"

"So just Chloe then?" Grey repeated, trying to remember all of these names.

"No," Leslie laughed, "She's got a brother who is… well, Xavier's something,"

"He is also currently fighting with his girlfriend," Nikki noted, laughing. "That's Trina Hart, who he's arguing with, by the way. The shorter one is her sister, Sophie,"

"I don't want to see you!" Trina called out dramatically, turning away from Xavier, but not truly going anywhere.

"Like… right now? Or in general?" Xavier, per usual, trying to understand what was happening.

"I don't know!" Trina called out exasperated.

"This doesn't look too good for you, buddy," Sophie smirked.

"Can you please stay out of this, Sophie?" Trina and Xavier shared a glance, surprised as they spoke in sync.

"Fine but only for you," Sophie pointed to Trina, "Not for you," she pointed to Xavier.

"Thank you," Trina sighed out.

"I'm going to start telling people I'm a child of divorce because of this though," Sophie warned her sister and Xavier. Before either of them had a chance to react though, she'd already walked away.

"Divorce?" Xavier's eyes went wide and sad. "Is that what you want?"

"I don't know what I want!" Trina sighed out, "All I know is I asked you for space and you haven't given it to me,"

"I absolutely have!" Xavier gasped, "It's been over a week since I sent you an 8 Ball request!"

"I don't want to have this conversation right now!" Trina groaned, finally walking away from him.

"Well what conversation do you want to have?!" Xavier called out, trying his best to follow her at a respectful distance.

"Yikes," Sawyer shook their head, "You hate to see it,"

"Of all the little glee relationships," Ash began slowly, "How many are like that?"

"Depends on the day," Nikki laughed, earning a knock-it-off nudge from Cay.

"That… sounds awful," Grey let a small, dry chuckle escape him.

"It's kind of fun to watch," Cay shrugged, "Especially when I'm not involved,"

"It's worse when you do get involved," Bob nodded knowingly, "My brother, Frank has a bit of a um… complicated situation right now,"

"I think that's putting it lightly," Leslie laughed, before pointing to where Frank was standing with someone else, "That's Sydney Smythe. They're sort of the… queen bee type. In Vocal Adrenaline and in her every day life. Great if she's on your side… less great if she's not,"

"And what side is your brother on?" Ash turned to face Bob.

"Depends on the day," Nikki repeated herself, smirking.

"Franklin," Sydney spoke, their tone sharp.

"Oh, hey Sydney," Frank grinned nervously. Sydney had texted them about needing to talk at the party, and Frank had a pretty good idea of what that meant, "I didn't see you there,"

"Don't lie to me, I see right through you," Sydney rolled their eyes, "Did you get my text?"

"No," Frank lied, "I uh, I don't have a phone."

"Really?" Sydney raised her eyebrows, "That's what you're going with?"

"Yes?" Frank tried.

"What's going on with you? Actually, you know what, it can wait," Sydney huffed out, "I need to talk to you,"

"And I would love to do that," Frank nodded, "But you know, I don't have a phone so I have to go buy one,"

"What?" Sydney sneered, as Frank turned, speed walking out of the situation, "Get back here!" She called after him, but to no avail as he slipped out of sight.

"They're…" Eric paused, trying to think of the right thing to say, "An interesting couple,"

"I really like them both," Bob nodded in agreement.

"You two seem close," Ash nodded, "Is it a Warbler thing, or?"

"I guess it is," Eric laughed, "I mean, I never really noticed it, but it makes sense,"

"You guys just all get along?" Cay raised her eyebrows in disbelief.

"Sure, I mean, like," Eric looked around the room for an example, "Do you really think those two would be friends if not for the Warblers?" He nodded to two boys standing and talking together.

"I can assure you they wouldn't be," Nikki laughed, "I was Oliver's only friend for most of his life. He's the one on the right and my oldest brother," she explained to the newbies.

"And on the left?" Ash questioned.

"That's Ambrose. He used to be way too by the book, or at least that's what I understand," Eric began explaining, "But he seems pretty alright now,"

"He's also obsessed with my other brother, and the feeling is mutual," Nikki laughed, "If I had to guess I'd say that's what they're talking about now,"

Unsurprisingly, Nikki was right. What was surprising, however, was that Ambrose found himself asking Oliver for advice on what to do about Sutton.

"I seriously don't know why you're coming to me," Oliver laughed, "I'm not exactly an expert in this area,"

"Yeah, but you know Sutton pretty well, right?" Ambrose tried.

"I mean, kind of? Sometimes? Look man," Oliver sighed out, "I think you just have to talk about your feelings or whatever lame crap you guys do. Have you seriously not talked about it?"

"Not really," Ambrose shook his head, "I mean, kind of, but it's like nothing changed? But it feels like something changed and we need to talk about that. But, as I'm sure by now you're fully aware, I have a difficult time… talking about these things,"

"I'm going to give you two pieces of advice," Oliver smirked.

"And what would those be?" Ambrose narrowed his eyes, only somewhat skeptical, which was big for him.

"First is take that pole out of your ass," Oliver nudged Ambrose, "Second, and I promise this is not peer pressure but, I've, you know, found a little liquid courage never hurts," he finished, turning to pour Ambrose a drink.

"Interesting," Cay watched over her shoulder before turning back to the table.

"And who's… the girl over there who has the exact same face as him?" Grey questioned.

"That," Leslie laughed, "Would be Kendall Holliday. They like… had this whole thing where they discovered they were twins, I guess?"

"And you remember that whole gossip blog thing we mentioned earlier?" Eric piped up meekly, "She was kind of behind it,"

"I thought Leah was behind it," Grey spoke, confused.

"It was a team effort thing," Nikki shrugged.

"So, who's that boy she's talking to then?" Ash questioned.

"That," Nikki spoke once more, sighing out very deeply, "Would be my other brother. The one who's obsessed with Ambrose and vice versa,"

"Wow," Grey shook his head, trying to take it all in.

"I don't think you understand that I do not know how to do that," Sutton shook his head.

"What do you mean? I saw you do it at the dedication performances," Kendall rolled her eyes.

"Yeah, but that was, I dunno, different?" Sutton sighed out, "Talking about feelings is just weird, you know?"

"Sure, but you're going to have to do it at some point," Kendall pointed out.

"I guess," Sutton shook his head once more, "Thanks for helping by the way, I know it's for Ambrose's sake but… still. I really appreciate it,"

"Of course," Kendall nodded, "But one more thing. Make sure you're… fully sober when you talk to him. You want to make sure you both understand what each other are saying,"

"Yeah," Sutton nodded, "That's a good plan. I guess being sensible runs in the family, huh?" he chuckled.

"Shut up and go get your man," Kendall rolled her eyes, but smirked.

"This is gonna be hilarious," Nikki noted.

"You're not… concerned to how that's going to unfold?" Leslie raised her eyebrows.

"Nah, I think it's gonna be funny," Nikki laughed.

"I didn't know Steven and Isaac were friends," Sawyer suddenly thought out loud.

"Who?" Grey asked curiously.

"You see those two kids over there?" Sawyer pointed to the two boys, "They're in my glee club,"

"If you remember Mack from earlier," Eric piped up, "Isaac his is little brother,"

"And Steven is Sydney's," Leslie did her best to explain.

"Sure," Ash spoke nonchalantly, despite really still not knowing who these people were.

"What's up buddy?" Steven walked over to Isaac.

"Watching Mack make a fool of himself, nothing unusual," Isaac snickered, "How about you?"

"Kind of the same," Steven laughed, nodding towards Sydney, "Not Mack, of course but uh, watching Sydney chase Frank around is pretty funny. Don't um, don't tell her I said that,"

"Your secret's safe with me," Isaac laughed, "Oh, hey, Michael," He turned to face the boy walking by them.

"Oh, hey guys," Michael nodded, knowing both of them from their parents being Warblers, "What are you up to?"

"Watching our goofy older siblings," Isaac smirked.

"Oh, I am all too familiar with that," Michael laughed, "Lex is great but he's… a lot,"

"Sydney is also a lot. I hear you," Steven laughed in turn.

"Who do you think is going to make the biggest fool of themselves tonight?" Isaac questioned, suddenly, not expecting all three of them to say their respective older siblings.

"I don't think it'll be anything too bad," Steven clarified, "But I've… never seen Sydney like this. Chasing someone down like that? I just think they'll be embarrassed in hindsight,"

"No way," Michael shook his head, "Look at Lex right now. He's dancing and we're between songs. He's a mess. A fun mess! But it'll definitely be him,"

"That's child's play," Isaac laughed, "Mack makes a fool of himself every day. Respectfully, of course. Him being less than sober in front of his crush will be no exception,"

"I guess there's one way to find out," Steven laughed.

"Going back to weird friendship combinations," Leslie laughed turning her head, unable to not look at two people from her very own glee club having a discussion by the drinks table, "I didn't know they got along,"

"I don't think they ever… not got along," Sawyer shrugged, "I just think they both have better friends than each other,"

"Well, Kate, who is my sister," Eric began, laughing, before turning to Ash and Grey as he explained, "Is basically friends with everyone in her glee club. The person with her is Emery. My boyfriend and Emery are friends, they go way back. It is… kind of a weird combo when I think of it, though,"

"Why?" Ash questioned curiously.

"Well, Kate very much is the glue that holds Vocal Adrenaline together. She's very kind and puts everyone else first," Leslie began trying to phrase her next train of thought delicately, "And Emery is sort of… more of a wildcard. A nice enough person but sort of sticks to the people they know,"

"No one said you were boring, Kate," Emery smirked, fully instigating Kate, "Just that, you know, you gotta live a little."

"I appreciate your concern, Emery," Kate sighed out, realizing it was possible that Emery was not entirely sober, "But I'm fine. Really,"

"Jeez, maybe you are boring," Emery laughed, "Sorry I didn't mean that,"

"Fine. Just to prove to you that I'm not boring, I'll…," Kate paused trying to think of what to suggest she do.

"Here, kiddo, take a shot with me," Emery laughed, pouring them each one, "If you want. Or we could do something else,"

But Emery did not get to finish their thought as Kate immediately threw a shot back.

"See? Not boring," Kate nodded decisively, "Here, let's do another one,"

"I didn't even take my first one," Emery laughed, "You're all good, you don't have to prove yourself,"

"I'm not proving anything! I'm fun!" Kate spoke, her smile just a little too wide.

"I have never seen you so… unhinged," Emery shook her head, "This is going to be fun, I think."

"She's not usually like that," Eric assured the people at his table, surprised to see Kate acting this way.

"In the few instances I've met her," Ash started slowly, "Even I can agree with that,"

"I think its going to be fun to watch the more stuck-up kids get into some trouble tonight," Nikki snickered, an almost evil smile coming across her lips, "Like look at four eyes over there,"

"Be nice," Cay warned.

"Why?" Nikki raised her eyebrows, "I thought you weren't friends anymore?"

"That doesn't mean being mean about her is warranted," Cay sighed out.

"I am so confused," Grey looked around the room, eyebrows furrowed.

"Rey Abrams," Rowan spoke up, nodding to the small, mousy girl on the far side of the room, "She uh, has had a weird few weeks. Came out as gay, got crazy support from us, of course, but then got rejected by her best friend,"

"Yeah, this best friend," Nikki nudged Cay.

"Okay, that's enough," Cay suddenly seemed upset, "Please drop it,"

"Who's that with her?" Ash questioned, trying to move the conversation along, though they were curious as to more details about the whole Cay and Rey situation.

"That's my sister, Hazel. She's been through a lot but she's pretty chill," Rowan explained, "Her and Rey have gotten pretty close lately, actually," they finished with a smirk.

"Cool," Cay nodded, "I'm gonna go get a breath of fresh air," She suddenly stood up, walking away from the table. As she did, she happened to pass by Rey who she made uncomfortable eye contact with, before passing Hazel who she did not make eye contact with at all.

"Is she okay?" Hazel asked Rey, of course, referring to Cay.

"I uh," Rey let out a small, nervous laugh, "I actually don't know. Things have been… you know, kind of weird between us lately,"

"Yeah, I do know," Hazel laughed, "But hey, it's a party, you should be having fun!"

"Speaking of," Rey raised her eyebrows, "Isn't this… your house? Shouldn't you be hosting? Or something?"

"I mean, in all honesty, I'd rather be here with you," Hazel found herself surprised to admit, "To make sure that you're, you know, okay, of course,"

"Oh, sure," Rey nodded, a small blush creeping on her cheeks. Within the last week she and Hazel had been spending a lot of time together – in school and outside of it – and Rey was grateful to have her around.

"And to be entirely honest," Hazel began slowly, "Parties aren't always… my thing? Rowan wanted to throw one and of course Naomi and Finley were on board, and I kind of think Simon enjoys playing host so, you know… who was I to say no?"

"You're a good sibling for that," Rey nodded smiling.

"Thanks, Rey," Hazel smiled, knowing Rey also dealt with having a few siblings, "That means a lot to me,"

"They're kind of cute together," Bob noted happily, of course, recognizing them both from glee but really only recognizing Rey as Tommy's sister.

"I agree," Nikki nodded decisively.

"Are there many more people in glee?" Ash suddenly asked, "Don't get me wrong, it's great getting to know them form a distance, but it's hard keeping up with them all,"

"There's a handful left," Leslie nodded.

"Like who?" Grey questioned, still feeling fairly overwhelmed with everything.

"Like them," Rowan nodded towards two boys heavy in conversation, both looking fully invested in what the other was saying, "The short little guy is Oscar Nixon, he recently was outed as trans, but seems to be handling it well. The much less scrawny guy towering over him is his buddy Bryce Zises. Bryce joined glee because I was sick for sectionals and someone needed to step in." They finished with a shrug as all heads at the table turned to look at them.

"You gotta take it slow, dude," Bryce laughed, looking at his very not sober and much smaller companion, "Weren't you gonna try to find Kyla and like… talk to her about things?"

"Yeah, but that can wait," Oscar practically bounced as he spoke, "I wanna do something else right now, instead,"

"What do you wanna do, buddy?" Bryce questioned, surprised to find he was on the nervous side of this conversation, though he'd had a couple of drinks too, so was still less on edge than Oscar normally was.

"I think I want to… cause problems on purpose?" Oscar gasped, covered his mouth out of pure shock as the words fell from his lips.

"Do you…" Bryce also gasped, just as shocked as Oscar at what he said, "Do you know how long I've waited to hear you say that?"

"It can't be more than a few months," Oscar noted, almost profoundly, "You were always Zach's friend first,"

"I still did always want you to let loose though," Bryce pointed out, "Just because I was his friend first didn't mean I didn't care about you back then,"

"That was… weirdly nice," Oscar raised his eyebrows, "Knock it off. Tonight I want to let loose!"

"Whatever you say, little guy," Bryce laughed, patting Oscar's head literal seconds before Oscar swatted his hand away.

"He seems… interesting," Grey noted.

"Which one?" Rowan laughed, "In fairness, they both are,"

"And, of course, Oscar is Zach's brother. And Bryce is Zach's best friend. Because I'm sure you guys haven't heard enough about all the connections here," Eric laughed.

"Literally everyone has a connection to someone, huh?" Ash couldn't help but laugh along.

"True," Eric nodded, before noticing another two boys standing together, "But I didn't realize the two of them talked that much,"

"And… who are they?" Ash questioned.

"The one on the left is the aforementioned Zach," Eric chuckled.

"The other one is Felix. If you remember the girl with purple hair making out with her girlfriend, Felix is her brother," Nikki pointed out.

"What's up man?" Felix came up to Zach, realizing he looked like he was freaking out.

"I have no clue where Oscar went," Zach looked around the room frantically, "Like I know it's not my place to look after him but I'm still… nervous something bad will happen,"

"I'm sure he'll be fine," Felix waved him off, "Oscar's a good kid. My sister, however, I'm very nervous about. She, well, she's not immune to lighting a car on fire or something. Or worse. I want to make sure she's staying out of trouble,"

"Yeah, that sounds pretty bad," Zach nodded, "And that's coming from someone with priors."

"Me too, buddy," Felix laughed, "But I get it. I don't want to get in her way but… I'm nervous for her,"

"Yes, exactly!" Zach threw his arms in the air, "I kind of feel that way about my girlfriend, too. I haven't seen her all night, and I just hope she's okay,"

"Why wouldn't she be?" Felix questioned, not rudely, but simply confused.

"I guess there's no real reason," Zach stated after thinking about it for a moment, "I just worry about her, you know?"

"Yeah, I totally get that! I worry about my girl, too," Felix nodded enthusiastically.

"You… have a girl?" Zach laughed, feeling confused.

"Um, no?" Was Felix's only reaction.

"Alright, who's left on the list?" Ash laughed, as they tore their attention away from the two boys, "There can't be that many more people to see,"

"You're right. There's still enough, though," Leslie smirked.

"So, who's next?" Grey asked, still desperately trying to keep up.

"I guess we could go with my last sibling to introduce," Rowan laughed, "That's Naomi, over there. She's Simon's twin and sort of acts the oldest of all of us, despite them, you know, being the same age,"

"And the girl she's talking to is some girl named Juliet," Nikki pointed out, "She literally just showed up one day and we sort of all just let her,"

"Hello," Juliet spoke kindly, surprising Naomi by simply showing up.

"Jesus," Naomi muttered, "Can I… help you?"

"Well, I understand that you're in the Troubletones with me and that this is your party. I thought I should say hello," Juliet concluded with a nod.

"Why do you talk like that?" Naomi laughed, her words just vaguely slurred.

"Like… what?" Juliet was almost afraid to know the answer.

"Like a weird robot," Naomi snickered, "Seriously, loosen up,"

"Respectfully," Juliet took a deep breath in, "I don't mean to. I am just trying… to form some sort of connection,"

"Have you really not tried connecting with any of the other Troubletones?" Naomi raised her eyebrows, moving to lean on the wall, "You seem just Delia's speed,"

"Ugh," Juliet couldn't help the reaction that escaped her at that name, "Delia was one of the only Troubletones I've tried to speak to and she is… well she's certainly not for me. She seems… somewhat off,"

"Now hold on," Naomi spoke suddenly seeming somewhat defensive, "Delia's a pain in the ass, but she's talented as hell. I know you're new and don't know many of them yet, but, respectfully," she mocked Juliet's voice before continuing, "watch how you talk about my girls,"

"I didn't realize they were your girls," Juliet rolled her eyes, "But I can see you and I.. likely won't be getting along either," she noted, looking Naomi up and down before turning on her heels and walking away.

"Not with that attitude, we won't!" Naomi called out after her.

"Yikes," Grey raised his eyebrows, shaking his head.

"I promise New Directions isn't that harsh when it comes to new people," Rowan laughed.

"Not you recruiting at your own party," Nikki laughed.

"Someone has to," Rowan shrugged in response, "Alright, you guys ready to meet yet another pair?"

"Why not?" Ash laughed.

"So that over there," Saywer began, "Is Anthony St. James. He's… very talented," Sawyer decided on, trying to be as polite as possible.

"Woah, Anthony St. James? As in Rachel and Jesse St. James?" Ash's eyes went wide, "I read an article about how they moved back to Ohio so Rachel could write a memoir or something? And that they put their kid in glee to follow in Jesse's footsteps?"

"All of that is… eerily correct," Leslie laughed, "Just don't tell Anthony you know all that. He doesn't need any more of his ego being inflated,"

"So, who's the girl standing next to him?" Grey asked, the name St. James meaning virtually nothing to him.

"That," Sawyer began, "Is Ingrid. She's newish. She seems nice enough?"

"Especially if you're in a relationship with someone else," Leslie raised her eyebrows, looking around as she earned a few odd looks, "What? I notice things,"

"Hey, Anthony," Ingrid smiled flirtatiously.

"Hello… you," Anthony grinned, still not bothered to learn her name.

"Hm," Ingrid picked up on this, "Are you having a good time?"

"Of course I am," Anthony blatantly lied, "A cool guy like me? I love parties,"

"Sure," Ingrid nodded, "I mean, a single guy like you must love flirting with people at these things, right?"

"Oh, uh, yes?" Anthony spoke, unsure of how entirely to respond, feeling as though this was a test of some kind.

"You're not convincing me," Ingrid offered a small, knowing smile, "Let me guess; looking for Flora?"

"How'd you know?" Anthony questioned, for the first time since he could remember feeling a sort of sense of embarrassment.

"It's pretty obvious," Ingrid laughed, playing with her hair slightly, "But I think it's cute,"

"Yes, well," Anthony shrugged, "What can I say? I am pretty adorable,"

"You won't hear an argument from me," Ingrid giggled, "Here, let me help you find her."

"You'd do that for me?" Anthony was shocked at anyone in his glee club trying to be of any help.

"Of course," Ingrid smiled almost sinisterly, "What are friends for?"

"I can't wait to see how that pans out," Rowan laughed.

"I don't even know who any of these people are and I'm invested," Ash laughed before looking around the room, "Okay, so who's that?" They pointed to a girl looking somewhat out of place in the corner.

"I… actually don't know?" Rowan was confused looking at her.

"I don't know either," Nikki shook her head, "Warblers?"

"Nope," Eric answered after thinking for a long moment.

"Nope!" Bob repeated.

"I've never seen her either," Leslie noted.

"Maybe she's a newbie?" Sawyer tried.

She was, in fact, a new face. Isa Go was just below average height with a toned body, long, straight black hair, with equally straight bangs cut across her forehead. Her skin was relatively pale and she had almond shaped dark brown eyes. She was surprised to see someone else making eye contact with her, sitting at a table not too far away. He had a welcoming face, and he invited her over to meet the three other people he sat with.

"You're… new to this group of people, aren't you?" Teddy smiled kindly at her.

"I am, yeah," Isa nodded, a smile forming on her lips as well, "I'm actually an exchange student? I came here with Audrey? Fabray? I'm staying with her while I'm here,"

"Oh, we know Audrey," Delia raised her eyebrows, barely bothering to make eye contact with the girl in front of her.

"Ignore her," Kyla spoke up next, referring to Delia, "Well, it's no good being alone at a party. None of us are drinking, so you're welcome to come sit with us if you want,"

"Woah, hold on. Have you never heard of stranger danger?" Jude looked Isa up and down skeptically. "What's your deal?"

"I…well," Isa laughed, surprised at the reaction, "Like I said, just came here. From Korea, which I don't think I mentioned? Literally just a few days ago, but Audrey thought it would be good for me to come with her to meet some people,"

"Have you met anyone else yet?" Teddy questioned.

"Just Lex and Savannah? Vaguely," Isa explained with a small shrug.

"Well, in that case," Jude shifted, sitting more up right, barely having ever interacted with any of the people mentioned beforehand, "You're welcome to sit and judge people with us. We can start with them,"

"Jude," Kyla raised her eyebrows, "Enough,"

"I'm kidding. Mostly," He shrugged, as Isa took a seat at the far end of the table.

In Jude's defense, they did all almost immediately turn their heads to look at the three aforementioned students.

"No, no, no," Savannah suddenly stood up, her words somehow even more slurred than they were before, "How did you let this happen?"

"Let what happen?" Audrey groaned, pulling away from Lex who she'd just been heavily making out with.

"Let me be the third wheel!" Savannah spoke, voice cracking.

"Are you… are you going to cry?" Lex's eyes went wide, his words somehow even more slurred than Savannah's.

"No," Savannah swallowed hard, lying right to her friends' faces, "Has anyone seen Finley? Where did he go?"

"I dunno," Lex shrugged, barely remembering what they were talking about, "Should we look for him?"

"He'll find his way home," Audrey waved the question off trying to get back to kissing her boyfriend.

"God, stop sucking his soul out!" Savannah cried out dramatically, "He needs that!"

"Lots of people don't have souls," Lex spoke almost matter-of-factly though his words were barely coherent.

"Ugh, you two are the worst," Savannah decided, turning to look for her boyfriend as the couple next to her resumed their heavy make out session.

"It makes you sick, doesn't it?" Delia groaned.

"I think… I actually agree with you," Teddy scrunched his nose up at the sight.

"You guys are just bitter 'cause you don't have anyone," Kyla snickered.

"Last I checked everyone at this table was single," Delia pointed out.

"How could you possibly know that?" Jude tested her.

"I know things," Delia spoke like it was the most obvious thing in the world.

"Are there… a lot of couples within the glee circles?" Isa questioned curiously, "I have to assume there would be,"

"Yes," Teddy nodded reluctantly, "What's more is all of the sort of weird in between couples,"

"How do you mean?" Isa tilted her head to the side.

"Like… not dating each other, but not dating anyone else either. Pre-cuffed, if you will," Kyla explained with a slight wave of her hand.

"You're an expert in that department, huh?" Delia smirked.

"At least none of our siblings are pre-cuffed to Anthony," Jude pointed out.

All five students directed their attention to Anthony who had finally made his way to Flora, after leaving Ingrid in the dust somewhere.

"Hey," He grinned, leaning against the wall to appear cool, "I was looking for you,"

"I was hoping you would be," Flora found herself surprised to admit, "Are you having a good time?"

"I'm having a better time now that you're here," Anthony grinned cheekily.

"You, Mr. St. James," Flora giggled, leaning in to take his hand, "Are quite the sweet talker. You know that, right?"

"I do know that," Anthony smirked, "I have very many talents, as I'm sure you're aware. Though, of course, there is one talent of mine I haven't been able to show off to you, yet,"

"And what might that be?" Flora raised her eyebrows, though she of course was hoping this was going where she wanted it to.

And just like that without any hesitation or warning, Anthony placed a gentle hand on Flora's cheek, pulling her in for a deep kiss, Flora obviously reciprocating, as she wrapped her arms around his neck, both pulling away for only a second, dopey smiles on both of their faces.

"Ewwww," Delia and Kyla groaned in sync.

"It's weird seeing your sister kiss someone," Delia scrunched her nose up, after the table looked at her and Kyla after their reaction.

"Do… any of you have siblings too?" Isa questioned.

"No, but Anthony is kind of like a brother to me? So, hence, my ew," Kyla explained.

"How about you two?" Isa looked to Jude and Teddy.

"No," Jude blatantly lied.

"Well I do," Teddy explained, ignoring Jude's lie, "She's just over there, her name's Cay. She's just talking to Rey, our families are very close,"

"Um… hi," Rey spoke meekly as Cay approached her.

"Hi," Cay spoke back, unsure why she even bothered coming over to talk to Rey, but knew she had to, "How are… how are things?"

"Fine?" Rey responded, vaguely confused as she also was unsure why Cay was speaking to her as they truly hadn't spoke since they fought, "How um, how are you?"

"Um, I'm okay," Cay nodded, "You and Hazel seem to be… close,"

"Is that… what this is about?" Rey questioned, suddenly very confused.

"I mean… kind of?" Cay found herself surprised to admit, "I mean, it just strikes me as weird that one minute you're telling me you have feelings for me and have had feelings for me and then next you're making googly eyes at Hazel,"

"It's…. it's not your place to say that," Rey, for maybe the first time in her life, stood up for herself, "You're dating Nikki and I had to move on. I accepted that. And I don't, like, love that our first conversation since us fighting is you being nosy about this,"

"Am I not allowed to know what's going on?" Cay suddenly felt herself getting defensive.

"Like I said, it's…it's not your place, Cay," Rey shook her head, "I don't see why you suddenly care so much,"

"I don't," Cay practically spat out, turning on her heels, walking away before Rey even had a chance to respond.

"That was hilarious," Delia noted.

Just as Jude was about to agree, he was distracted by someone calling his name, waving him down.

"Who's that?" Isa questioned, albeit, somewhat nosily.

"That's his sister, Sophie," Kyla explained.

"I thought you said you didn't have any siblings?" Isa spoke, now very confused.

"Sometimes it's fun to pretend I don't," Jude sighed out, defeated, "What do you want, Soph?"

"To say hi!" Sophie spoke like it was the most obvious thing in the world, as she made her way to the table, though she was not alone.

"Who's your friend?" Teddy questioned cautiously.

"This is Pilar," Sophie grinned, "She goes to church with me and Jude and the rest of our family!"

"Why make it sound like I go to church?" Jude raised his eyebrows.

"Uh, hi everybody," Pilar smiled, offering a small wave, ignoring what Jude had said. She seemed somewhat shy, and was made evident by the way her already petite stature seemed to sink on itself when all eyes were on her. She had toffee toned skin, black and almost wild curls, and big hazel eyes, that only widened as she looked around the room.

"Hi Pilar," Jude, Delia, Kyla and Teddy all spoke in the same monotoned way, while Isa also said it, but far more kindly.

"Hi… everyone," Pilar spoke meekly, though a kind smile stayed plastered on her face.

"You guys don't mind if she stays here with you for a bit, right?" Sophie questioned.

"I don't mind at all!" Isa smiled, secretly glad to have someone else who didn't know many other people.

"That's completely fine," Teddy smiled diplomatically.

"Where the hell are you going?" Jude asked his sister skeptically.

"I've got important things to do," Sophie shrugged it off like it was nothing, "I thought you did too, actually. Weren't you going to talk to Emery about your feeeeelings?" She dragged the last word out, teasing him.

"Alright that's enough, see you later, Sophie!" Jude practically pushed her away.

"And that's why I'm glad I don't have siblings," Kyla laughed.

"I can tease you about Oscar if you want," Delia snickered.

"Shut up," Kyla whined.

"At least you only have the one sibling, right?" Isa tried to make the situation better, directing her attention back to Jude.

"God, I wish I only had Sophie," Jude shook his head.

"He's also got Trina," Delia explained, looking around the room to point her out, "She's over there talking to… oh, I'd call them weirdo one and weirdo two but it's more like weirdo one and absolute fucking lunatic,"

"Also known as Mia and Heather," Kyla explained with a nod.

"Stop your crying," Heather spoke to Trina almost threateningly.

"I'm… not crying?" Trina tried her best to explain, "I can be upset without crying!"

"Well, why are you upset?" Mia tried.

"I think… Xavier and I are… over," Trina deep sighed out, shaking her head.

"Just because it's over doesn't mean it's really over," Heather tried.

"That was so profound," Mia cooed.

"I just…. I don't know what I want!" Trina whined, ignoring Heather verbatim quoting Katy Perry lyrics.

"I think what you want is to kick his ass," Heather decided for her.

"True, you're a bad bitch! Show no mercy!" Mia grinned, fist pumping as she and Heather shared a look of knowing they were about to instigate the hell out of her.

"But I… I've never been in a fight! Especially with Xavier!" Trina gasped at the very thought.

"Well," Mia thought, "Heather's been in lots of fights with lots of people! She could always back you up!"

"It would be an honor and a privilege," Heather nodded, a feigned sympathetic smile on her lips.

"You… you really mean it?" Trina's eyes went wide, a smile slowly but surely finding its way to her face.

"Of course!" Mia nodded.

"Would we ever steer you wrong?" Heather grinned menacingly, wrapping one arm around Mia and the other around Trina.

"I think they would steer her wrong," Delia noted from afar.

"Yeah, you got it, Delia," Kyla let out a small, dry laugh.

"There's… a lot of drama here, huh?" Pilar questioned almost nervously.

"You have no idea," Jude rolled his eyes.

"What are they talking about?" Teddy suddenly looked curiously.

"Who?" Delia's interested was piqued.

"Leslie and Nikki? Weird," Teddy shook his head.

"Who?" Isa repeated, still not knowing who these people were.

"Leslie's in Vocal Adrenaline," Jude began to explain, "Usually on the quieter side, but she's a good kid. Her mom is one of our coaches,"

"Nikki is in the Troubletones with me," Delia suddenly spoke up, "Her mom is… also our glee coach,"

"Interesting," Pilar nodded.

"Are you… okay?" Leslie finally caught up to Nikki who'd been wandering, seemingly aimlessly since the go fish table disbanded.

"I'm fine," Nikki sighed out, "Why? And why do you care?"

"I saw how your girlfriend sort of… left in a tizzy. I wanted to make sure you're good," Leslie responded honestly.

"I just… don't know what that was all about," Nikki shrugged, "Like, honestly, I know things have been rough with Cay and Rey lately but that was… weird,"

"I thought it was. I hope they're both okay," Leslie nodded, "I'm also surprised you're admitting all of that to me,"

"I have no reason not to," Nikki sighed out, "Honestly, I like Cay a lot and I know she's just trying to make things right with her best friend but it's a lot for me, especially when she doesn't tell me what's going on,"

"I think that's entirely valid," Leslie nodded, "But I think you need to tell her how you feel,"

"Maybe," Nikki shrugged, already sick of talking about her feelings, "But that can wait,"

"I can't help but feeling like I shouldn't have heard all that," Teddy cringed at the thought.

"I think it's kind of funny," Jude snickered.

"I hadn't realized you were so… interested in other people's business," Delia noted.

"I hadn't realized you were so annoying," Jude shot back, rolling his eyes.

"Oh stop it, both of you," Kyla shook her head, "But… I do have to agree with Jude. It's kind of fun to see what everyone's got going on when they think nobody's paying attention,"

"I don't know… I feel weird. Since I don't even really know them?" Pilar sort of half laughed.

"What better way to get to know them, right?" Isa tried.

"That's the spirit!" Kyla grinned, "Like over there. That's Felix and Zoey. They've had this whole sort of like… weird unspoken thing for the last week or so? It's fascinating,"

"I'll give you that, actually," Delia laughed, "Zoey is usually so… rude. It's fun seeing her squirm at the hands of such a weird man,"

"I might be nosy," Jude spoke, surprised at Delia's sudden statement, "But you're evil,"

"Shut up, I'm trying to listen," Kyla groaned.

"Hey Zoey!" Felix grinned, "I've um, been looking for you,"

"Why?" Zoey responded, questioning, her tone almost harsh.

"I just, uh wanted to see if you're having a good time?" Felix spoke sheepishly.

"I mean," Zoey sighed out, "I've been stuck watching Mia and your sister suck face for most of the night. And now Tia is God knows where trying to fight someone,"

"You…" Felix paused, choosing his next words carefully, "You realize you don't have to take care of everyone, right?"

"Of course I realize that," Zoey responded, gasping at the accusation, "I don't care enough about these people to babysit,"

"I think you do though," Felix shrugged, "Maybe not everyone but…Tia and Mia at least. I see how much you care about them, 'cause I care about Heather the same way. You don't even have to say anything, and you can protest all you want, but I see it and I get it," Felix concluded with a laugh.

"Who knew you had any sort of thought process in that big old adorable head of yours?" Zoey was surprised to find herself laugh.

"You think my head is adorable?" Felix grinned; his face just vaguely blushing.

"Um," Zoey felt the shade on her cheeks soon matching Felix's, "No." She decided on before turning and walking away.

"Weird," Delia noted.

"Are they… one of the weird in between couples you were talking about earlier?" Isa thought out loud.

"Kind of? I don't know if they're fully there yet," Kyla tried.

"Is there… a better example of what you're talking about?" Pilar tried, having missed that part of the conversation.

After looking around the room for a long moment, Teddy let out a deep, deep sigh, reluctantly speaking up, "Yeah, there is,"

"Well, where are they?" Delia pushed him further, despite knowing exactly who he was referring to.

"Over there," Teddy nodded towards two boys sitting alone together, "Mack, the paler one, he's somehow the head of the Warblers council. The other boy is Simon Jones. This is his house and they both have very loud, very annoying crushes on the other but both also have convinced themselves that the other does not feel the same way,"

"So, this should be good," Kyla snickered, knowing everything Teddy said to be true as they all directed their attention to them.

"You're just like…. the best ever," Mack's words were still lsightly slurred though they were at least audible as he had started to sober up a bit.

"Thanks, Mack," Simon cooed. While he'd been back and forth between checking on Mack, all of the guests, and making sure everyone had snacks, he finally took a seat next to Mack and stayed there, even having a few drinks. "I think you're pretty great too,"

"Can I…" the volume in Mack's voice suddenly lowered, "Can I tell you a secret?"

"You can tell me anything, Mack," Simon nodded, a smile on his face as he gently placed his hand over the other boy's.

"I like you," Mack nodded decisively, "A lot. Like sooooo much. Like so, so much," he concluded, moving to snuggle fully into Simon.

"I um," Simon's face turned slightly red at the contact, "I really like you too, Mack. Like, genuinely, so much,"

"Really?" Mack's eyes went wide, his face now also flushing bright red.

"Of course," Simon laughed, remembering a similar conversation they'd had previously, "I just um, yeah. Being around you makes me happy,"

"You make me very happy," Mack grinned, surprised he was even admitting it, suddenly sitting back up again, looking directly at Simon, finally mustering up the question he wanted to ask him all night, "Is it… is it okay if I kiss you?"

"That, um," Simon's face somehow got even hotter, a shy but wide smile on his lips, "That is absolutely okay?"

"Okay," Mack laughed nervously, though both boys found themselves leaning in, Mack placing his hand gently on Simon's cheek as Simon did the same to Mack, soon sharing a very soft, caring and admittedly long kiss, both boys embarrassed to admit that it was their first, and even more embarrassed to admit that it was worth the wait.

"That was…" Simon laughed after finally pulling away, "Wow,"

"I…" Mack laughed, but moved to snuggle into Simon as he was previously, "I very much agree,"

"I once again feel like I wasn't meant to see that," Teddy scrunched his nose, "But uh, good for him,"

"See?" Jude laughed, "Being in other people's business from afar can be fun,"

"Especially when it's someone in your glee club," Kyla laughed.

"Speaking of," Isa spoke up, "You said Warblers, right? I think the Warblers are all really cool from what I've heard about them,"

"That's because you don't know them like I do," Teddy groaned.

"Come on, there's gotta be some Warblers you can point out to her," Delia smirked.

"Well," Teddy sighed out, "The one Warbler I usually trust the most seems to be… somewhat uninhibited at the hand of what I can only assume is some sort of alcohol, and dealing with who is one of our most unhinged Warblers on a good day," he nodded towards Sutton and Ambrose.

"I've been looking for you everywhere!" Sutton sighed out, grabbing a hold of Ambrose's hand to prevent him from wandering off, "Are you okay?"

"I am absolutely fine, Sutton," Ambrose grinned but swayed, Sutton reaching to place both hands on Ambrose's shoulder's desperate to keep him upright, "Your hands are so strong," Ambrose noted.

"True," Sutton nodded, "But you've um… you've been drinking huh?"

"Just a little bit," Ambrose smirked, trying his best to appear sober and failing miserably, "Why?"

"Because I care about you and want to make sure you're okay?" Sutton laughed, noting that even at his least caring, Ambrose was still the most beautiful person he'd ever seen, "Come on, let's go sit down,"

"But I don't want to sit, Sutton," Ambrose practically whined.

"Well," Sutton started slowly, surprised at Ambrose's tone, "What do you want to do?"

"This," Ambrose grinned cheekily, suddenly pulling Sutton in by his waist, planting a short, but deep kiss on his lips.

"Wow," Sutton laughed at the sudden passion but sighed out, and gently pushed Ambrose off him as he realized the situation, "Look, I think maybe you should… sober up a little bit?"

"Why? Did you… not want me to kiss you?" Ambrose's tone was surprised and even a little hurt.

"Of course I do! I always want you to kiss me," Sutton admitted shyly, "But… it's not right when you're… like this? I like you because you're so… smart, and well spoken and I don't know, I like you like this too! But I just, um… wanted to talk to you a little more seriously,"

"I can talk," Ambrose spoke, though his words were slurred and he reached for the wall to help hold him up.

"No, it's um, it's okay," Sutton smiled sadly, "It can wait,"

"Sutton," Ambrose called out after him, but was too late as Sutton had already started walking away.

"That… didn't go the way I was expecting," Teddy admitted, shocked to see it all unfold.

"You think that's bad?" Jude laughed, "Look who's talking over there,"

"Who?" The rest of the table spoke in sync, surprising each other.

"Kendall and Oliver," Teddy noted, turning to their two new friends, "Kendall is Ambrose's…. estranged twin? And Oliver is Sutton's older brother. Oliver and Sutton are both in the Warblers,"

"Kendall's in Vocal Adrenaline with me," Jude explained.

"What do they talk about?" Delia questioned curiously.

What they were talking about, however, was the same thing the six of them had just witnessed.

"I thought we agreed to try to help them get together?" Kendall whined, "Clearly this isn't going as planned."

"How was I supposed to know that Sutton actually cared about anything? I think he and my mom would be the only people in my family who do," Oliver rolled his eyes.

"Weird of you to trauma dump to me about your family," Kendall noted.

"I'm not trauma dumping I just…" Oliver sighed out, "I didn't know it would go this way?"

"Why did you tell Ambrose to drink, then?" Kendall looked at him, now placing her hand on her hip.

"Because have you met the guy? He needs a little loosening up," Oliver spoke like it was the most obvious thing in the world.

"They need to talk about what's going on between them," Kendall raised her eyebrows.

"I think," Oliver sighed out, "We need to let them sort this out on their own. They're both annoying, but they can navigate their own feelings,"

"I think you're overestimating them," Kendall rolled her eyes, "But fine. Let's see what happens if we just let them deal with this on their own and see where that goes,"

"This whole situation… seems like a lot," Isa noted, looking towards the two talking.

"At least you don't go to school with 75% of the people involved," Teddy groaned, shaking his head.

"Are the rest of you that close with the rest of your glee club?" Pilar questioned curiously.

"No," Kyla, Delia and Jude all responded in perfect sync.

"I don't… have anything against them," Kyla tried to defend her point, "We just don't all… vibe,"

"Yeah, Vocal Adrenaline is exclusively weirdos, I think," Jude nodded.

"I would argue the same point about The Troubletones," Delia shook her head.

"Respectfully," Jude spoke up, "The Troubletones don't have the weirdo to rule all weridos,"

"And who would that be?" Pilar asked, almost afraid to know the answer.

"Dana Abrams," Jude responded, surprised to see that Teddy also answered the question.

"Who's Dana?" Isa asked.

"That little gremlin over there," Jude nodded towards where Dana and Chloe were standing, "They're there with Chloe, who's one of the kids of our other coach,"

And there Chloe and Dana stood, swaying so slowly it was hard to tell that they even were. It wasn't until moments later when Eric had appeared in front of them speaking, that either acknowledged where they were.

"Huh?" Chloe shook her head, "I'm gonna need you to slow down for a second there, bud. I have no idea what you're saying,"

"I'm looking for Addison," Eric sighed out, defeated, "Have you seen him anywhere?"

"Oh, yes," Dana nodded thoughtfully, "Addison was, in fact, with us earlier. Great guy, great sense of humor and also remarkable sense of self. He scurried off for a second but that does feel like… many seconds ago now, doesn't it, Chloe?"

"So true, bestie," Chloe nodded lazily.

"Woah…. Dana. That was incredible," Eric giggled.

"Thank you very much, my dear chum," Dana nodded, "And while I understand you are trying to find your beloved have you ever considered…. Finding yourself?"

"I… I hadn't considered that," Eric gasped, thinking out loud, "But I don't even know where to start!"

"Only you can decide that," Dana spoke knowingly, "But I have all the faith in the world in you and this journey you're about to take. You've got this, Eric,"

"Yeah… yeah I do got it! Thanks Dana!" Eric grinned, running off.

"Do you even know what you're saying?" Chloe laughed at her friend.

"Whee!" Was Dana's only response.

"What the hell was that?" Jude laughed.

"Just when I thought this party couldn't get any weirder," Teddy shook his head.

"Oh, I guarantee it can," Delia snickered looking across the room.

"No fucking way," Kyla laughed, seeing the scene before her.

"What the fuck?" Jude's eyes went wide, truly not believing what he was seeing.

"What… am I looking at?" Isa was looking at the same scene as everyone else, but of course, didn't know who either person was.

"That would be," Teddy sighed out, clearly defeated, "The third Warblers councilman making out with, well, Jude's ex girlfriend, Leah,"

"Who we all hate, by the way," Kyla pointed out, "She spread a bunch of people's secrets out, even including outing someone,"

"Oh… wow," were the only words Pilar could think to say.

"What the fuck?" Jude repeated, rubbing his eyes a few times, truly trying to process all of this, "What is she even doing here?"

"Sucking face with Tommy, it would appear," Delia laughed.

Just as she had said that, the two pulled away, both smiling.

"That was…. unexpected," Tommy laughed, "Welcomed, but unexpected,"

"I'm surprised you're not ashamed," Leah sighed out, "You know, since I'm public enemy number one,"

"First of all," Tommy put a finger up, "I think you're just misunderstood! I could fix you,"

"You could… what?" Leah laughed.

"Shh, I'm not done," He shushed her, "Secondly, you're bumming me out with all this talk about being a bad person,"

"Well," Leah started slowly, "You're bumming me out with all the Naomi talk,"

"I'm hurt!" Tommy cried out, "She didn't want me! I'm still dealing with that!"

"Oh, so now I'm a rebound," Leah raised her eyebrows.

"No baby, I didn't say that! It's not what I meant!" Tommy gasped.

"It's fine… I get it," Leah sighed out dramatically.

"Do you… do you want to just get back to making out?" Tommy questioned hopefully.

"Uh," Leah paused for a moment to think, "Yeah," she decided before leaning back into him.

"That certainly was not on my Jones' party bingo card," Delia snickered, "Yikes,"

"I am so fucking confused," Jude spoke, finally pulling his gaze away from Leah and Tommy, "How did that… even happen?"

"I'm sorry, that must be hard for you," Isa spoke, not understanding the situation at all.

"Oh, no, I've already moved the hell on. It's hilarious," Jude shook his head, "And I'll give it to her, she's brave for showing up here,"

"Speaking of people being brave for showing up," Kyla noted, "Has anyone ever seen that kid hanging around Rowan?"

"Not even once," Teddy observed.

"I haven't seen anyone here," Isa laughed, as they all turned to see the two students sitting alone at a table.

"I get that everyone wanted to go talk to their other friends," Rowan spoke slowly, "But it would have been nice to finish the game of go fish, first,"

"People get pretty distracted around here, huh?" Grey questioned.

"You've got no idea," Rowan laughed, "But hey, it is what it is. There's a lot of great people in glee, you know, if you wanted to join,"

"I don't think glee is exactly my thing," Grey raised his eyebrows, "I'm not about all the happy time singing and everything,"

"I guessed that," Rowan chuckled once more, "But you don't have to sing happy songs. Most people just dramatically sing about their problems,"

"That's almost worse," Grey mumbled.

"Oh, come on," Rowan nudged him, "Think of it as a favor to me for being such a good host,"

"There's like a million people here," Grey looked around the room skeptically, "What difference does one more person make?"

"I mean sure, there's a lot. But that's divided between four different groups. Besides," Rowan sighed out, "I got super sick at our last competition, and we had to pull Bryce in last minute to even be able to compete so… the more people we have the better,"

"Fine," Grey finally conceded, "I'll think about it,"

"It's… kind of nice to see all these other new faces," Pilar admitted, the group breaking their gaze from Rowan and Grey.

"Well good news, then," Kyla raised her eyebrows, "Cause there's someone else I have literally never seen in my life,"

"And why are they talking to Addison?" Teddy raised his eyebrows curiously.

"Why do we care?" Delia spoke, "No disrespect, but why does it matter?"

"Because being nosy is fun," Jude laughed, "I thought we'd established that,"

As they all grumbled in agreeance, they turned to look at Addison standing next to the unfamiliar figure.

"Huh?" Addison rubbed his eyes, "Could you repeat that?"

"Wow, your eyes are really red," Ash laughed, raising their eyebrows.

"Yeah, um… allergies?" Addison lied but was so faded that he couldn't tell that Ash wasn't buying it.

"Sure," Ash shook their head, "Anyways, I was telling you that I go to Dalton, too,"

"Woah, you go to Dalton?! I go to Dalton!" Addison's eyes went wide as he forgot that he'd already told them that.

"Yes," Ash repeated, really only talking to Addison because they were looking for Eric, "I got that,"

"You should totally join the Warblers," Addison nodded, not even noticing the slight snark in Ash's tone.

"The Warblers wouldn't take me," Ash pointed out, "I'm not a boy. Not a girl either, but not a boy,"

"Oh, we take people of all kinds! Long as you're not a girl, I think? Which is actually kind of misogynistic," He thought out loud.

"You'd… take me?" Ash paused to think, "Interesting,"

"Looks like you've got yet another person to look after," Kyla laughed in Teddy's direction.

"Well, at least we'll have an extra person, should they decide to join," Teddy nodded decisively.

"Yeah, baker's dozen and all that," Jude smirked.

"I suppose the Warbler's are the group with the least amount of people, aren't they?" Delia noted.

"Congrats, Delia," Kyla smiled, nudging her, "You know how to count,"

"It's easy when you only have four people in your glee club," Jude laughed.

"The Troubletones," Teddy began speaking slowly to Pilar and Isa, "Are sort of known for being a few girls short, usually,"

"Well, at least it keeps us out of trouble," Delia sneered.

"Is that why Naomi and Tia are scheming over there?" Kyla laughed, nodding towards the two girls.

"Tia?" Naomi laughed, "Are you good?"

"No!" Tia called out dramatically, "Nobody will fight me!"

"Have you tried Heather? She's usually down for a fight," Naomi suggested.

"Gross!" Tia shivered at the thought, "Heather has cooties, it's a no go,"

"Cooties… from your sister?" Naomi couldn't help but ask.

"Hey! Not funny!" Tia pouted.

"Okay, well how about Zoey? She'd fight you, I'm sure," Naomi offered.

"No! She has Felix brain rot!" Tia cried out, "She's done for!"

"I'm sorry, she has what?" Naomi's eyes suddenly went wide.

"Felix brain rot! It's not rocket science! Ugh, she's gonna ditch me for him and I'm going to be left all alone. Other than Mia and Heather but they don't count," Tia spoke decisively.

"That's… wow," Naomi paused thinking for a moment, "Hold that thought,"

"Now, why is she coming over here?" Teddy questioned skeptically watching Naomi make her way to the table.

"Delia! Did you know about Felix and Zoey?" Naomi spoke, maybe just a little too loudly.

"Yes," Delia spoke blandly, "Did you not?"

"Clearly I didn't!" Naomi gasped, "Ugh, you're no help, I'm gonna go find someone else to tell,"

"She seems…" Isa started, but her voice trailed off.

"Intense?" Kyla and Delia spoke in sync.

"She's a good person," Teddy spoke up, "But especially with the whole… party happening? She's a little wound up I think,"

"And if I had to guess," Jude sighed out, "She's running off to tell her siblings about her latest discovery,"

Jude was, of course, right, as the group looked to see Naomi trying to tell Finley and Hazel what she'd just heard, being waved off by both of them, only resulting in her running to try to find where Tia had went to, realizing she'd left her to fend for herself.

"Well," Finley laughed, "At least she's having fun,"

"Are you?" Hazel questioned, raising her eyebrows, "Having fun, I mean."

"I mean, sure," Finley shrugged, "I also should… definitely try to find Savannah soon," he laughed.

"Yeah, I'm sure she's looking for you," Hazel nodded.

"I know…" Finley sighed out, "I know you think I'm sort of all about Savannah and nothing else these days, but… I do care about you, you know. I wanted to talk to you and see how you're doing. That's why I'm over here,"

"I know," Hazel nodded, "And… thank you. It just… takes some adjusting, you know?"

"Sure, all things do," Finley nodded, "But please try to have a good time tonight, okay?"

"Okay," Hazel nodded.

"Do you promise?" Finley raised his eyebrows.

"Yes, I promise," Hazel laughed, "Now go get back to your girlfriend,"

"I'll see you later, okay?" Finley called out, running to find Savannah.

"Wow he is… down bad. That's what you guys say right?" Isa laughed.

"Could never be me," Delia and Teddy exchanged a look as they spoke at the same time.

"That was creepy as hell," Jude noted.

"That is what we say, by the way," Kyla answered Isa's question.

"You also haven't seen… 'down bad', yet," Teddy shook his head letting out a deep, deep sigh.

"Oh?" Pilar's eyes widened, before being directed to look where everybody else had turned their head.

"Stop hiding from me!" Sydney practically growled.

"I'm not hiding!" Frank called out from behind a couch, not realizing he'd given himself away.

"If you are you're not very good at it," Sydney rolled her eyes, "Can you stop? What the hell is wrong with you?"

"I think it goes back to my childhood because I didn't know who my real dad was and-" Frank began before, unsurprisingly, getting interrupted by Sydney.

"Oh my god! That's not what I meant!" Sydney groaned.

"Well, what did you mean then?" Frank tried, momentarily forgetting that they were hiding from being broken up with.

"I mean ever since we got to this party you've been weird as hell! You won't even look me in the eyes!" Sydney called out, making somewhat of a small scene.

"I just… don't know that I want to hear what you're going to tell me," Frank admitted, tilting their head down.

"Oh, you don't want to hear it?" Sydney placed a hand on her hip, "Fine then! You never will!"

"Yes!" Frank fist pumped, "Wait, where are you going?" He furrowed his eyebrows, unsure of how it ended up that he was now the one chasing Sydney.

"Wow that's… a lot," Pilar laughed nervously.

"It's messy," Teddy sighed out.

"It's hilarious," Jude raised his eyebrows.

"Looks like they think so too," Delia peeked over to where a few young men were all standing together.

"I mean, Steven and Bob are both there, they have to be talking about Sydney and Frank, right?" Kyla tried.

"Steven over there is Sydney's brother, and Bob is Frank's," Delia explained, "If you remember Lex from earlier, Michael, one of the other boys there is his brother. And then the last boy is Isaac, Mack's brother,"

"So many brothers," Isa laughed.

"That was… a lot to see," Bob laughed as he had just joined the boys in essentially betting on who would be the most embarrassing older sibling.

"I think Mack could do worse," Isaac noted, "I've still got a horse in this race,"

"I think we all do," Michael laughed, looking around the room.

"I mean… Bob and I might be in the lead, though. Like, you guys saw that, right?" Steven laughed, "They're playing cat and mouse,"

"Bob and you?" Isaac raised his eyebrows, "Are you teaming up?"

"I mean, our siblings are kind of in the same situation," Steven noted.

"Okay fine, so Isaac and I are teaming up too," Michael decided.

"But your brothers are in completely different situations," Steven pointed out.

"Okay so if one of them is the most embarrassing then we win. If it's the Frank/Sydney situation, then you guys win," Isaac decided on.

"What do we win, by the way? Did we ever figure that out?" Michael questioned.

"Is there like a points system?" Bob tried.

"What's the criteria?" Steven piped up.

"I feel like… we'll just know, you know?" Isaac shrugged, as the other three boys agreed.

"Could you imagine one of your siblings doing that to you?" Teddy shook his head, "That's brutal,"

"I couldn't imagine it," Kyla spoke dryly, "Because, you know, no siblings,"

"Flora has ruined most of my young life, but she'd never do something like that," Delia sighed out.

"This does seem like something Sophie would do, if I'm being honest," Jude thought about it, "I'm surprised Chloe didn't partake. She'd clearly win,"

"What makes you say that?" Pilar asked curiously, unsure of who Chloe was.

"Well, Xavier is Chloe's brother and he's just… a lot," Delia sighed out, "If you remember Trina from earlier, the one Heather and Mia were gassing up to kick her boyfriend's ass… well, Xavier would be the boyfriend," she nodded to where Xavier was standing with Sawyer.

"I just need to make things right!" Xavier practically sobbed out.

"There, there," Sawyer patted Xavier's back, "It'll be okay, Xavier,"

"It won't be! I don't know what to do!" Xavier whined.

"Well, did Trina say what she wanted you to do?" Sawyer tried.

"She said she wanted… space? And then that she didn't know what she wanted!" Xavier sighed out heavily.

"Well, maybe you should try to give her some space?" Sawyer suggested.

"Hm… maybe. But maybe not, I think I need a second opinion," Xavier thought out loud.

"I'd be more than happy to help," Ingrid seemingly appeared from nowhere, "What's going on?"

"Trina doesn't want me!" Xavier called out a little too dramatically.

"Well, she clearly doesn't know what she's missing," Ingrid smiled flirtatiously.

"Yeah!" Sawyer agreed, not understanding what was happening, "You're great!"

"You could do so much better than Trina," Ingrid nodded.

"I think I need a third opinion," Xavier finally spoke after a long silence, suddenly getting what, to him, felt like a great idea, "Jude!"

"Oh no," Jude groaned, though it was too late as Xavier was hightailing his way over to the table.

"Jude! I need you!" Xavier sighed out before noticing everyone else at the table, "Oh hi, Teddy, Delia, Kyla and other people I don't know,"

"What do you want, Xavier?" Jude spoke, though he truly did not care to know the answer.

"Help with Trina!" Xavier spoke, "She doesn't want me anymore! Should I give her space?"

"Yes. I think you should give me space, too," Jude raised his eyebrows.

"I think he's right," Ingrid batted her eyelashes at Xavier.

"Also Ingrid is clearly just trying to get between you and Trina, so, do with that what you will, I guess," Jude spoke, before turning his head to avoid being a part of this conversation.

"You don't know that!" Ingrid hissed back.

"Hm," Xavier thought, "Much to think about," he nodded before turning, walking away in such a way that nobody really knew why or where he was going.

"He's… interesting," Pilar laughed.

"He's something alright," Delia noted, raising her eyebrows.

"It's nice that he values your opinion so highly, Jude," Teddy smirked.

"Shut up," Jude rolled his eyes, "I'd be happy if nobody else tried to talk to me the rest of the night. I can't deal with that right now,"

"Well, good news," Kyla snickered, "'Cause someone else seems to be making their way over now,"

"Jude!" Emery called out, out of breath as they ran over to where he was sitting, "You gotta help me, man! I can't believe I did it but I did and now she's gone and I'm freaking out!"

"Em, calm down," Jude sort of half laughed, reaching to grab her hands, trying to calm her down and keep her in place, "Who's gone? What happened?"

"Kate! I lost her!" Emery breathed out, shaking their head, "I dunno what to do!"

"You lost Kate?" Delia verified raising her eyebrows.

"How do you lose a whole person?" Kyla repressed a laugh at the situation.

"You forget to cherish them," Teddy nodded.

Ignoring the peanut gallery Jude shook his head before looking back to Emery, "Hey, look at me, it's going to be okay," his voice was surprising soft, "Where was the last place you saw her?"

"Well, we were taking shots… she took a lot. I mean I did too, but um, oh! Then she saw Zach? I think?" Emery spoke, finally relaxing slightly.

"Teddy!" Zach suddenly called from a few feet away, "I didn't know you were here! Now it's a real party!"

"Zach!" Emery called out.

"Emery?" Kate, who showed up behind Zach, spoke with slurred words.

"Kate!" Jude called out, happy the situation seemed to sort itself out.

"Great, now we know we all have names," Kyla remarked, earning a small snicker from Delia.

"Where'd you go?" Emery turned to face Zach and Kate, finally escaping Jude's grasp.

"To see Zach! Obviously," Kate giggled, wrapping an arm around her boyfriend.

"And she saw me! We're having a great time!" Zach grinned, appearing slightly more sober than Emery, and far more sober than Kate as he held her close.

"Do you know how worried I was?!" Emery placed their hands on their hips, "You scared me!"

"God, live a little," Kate mimicked what Emery said to her earlier, "Come onnnn, we're gonna have more drinks, you wanna come?"

"I don't know if that's a good idea Kate," Jude tried to interject.

"Shhh," Emery hushed him, "Yeah, yeah, I'm coming,"

"Be safe!" Kyla called out.

"Zach, please be safe," Teddy practically begged.

"Yeah, yeah, grandpa! I got it!" Zach called out.

"Seriously," Jude lowered his voice reaching out to grab on to one of Emery's hands once more, "Please be careful, okay?"

"I appreciate your worry but I'm fine," Emery spoke, their words mildly slurred disproving their point, "I'll see you later, okay?" They turned to talk away, but paused to turn and place a small, and very awkward kiss on Jude's forehead.

"That was hilarious," Delia noted.

"Is that being down bad?" Isa turned to point out Jude's red face.

"No," Jude shook his head, "I don't want to hear it,"

"Is she wrong?" Teddy couldn't help but get in on the teasing.

"Even if that wasn't 'down bad'," Delia put the words in air quotes, "We're about to see it. Here comes your man, Kyla,"

"Huh?" Kyla barely had time to get the words out before she saw Oscar come running over.

"You gotta help me!" He called out.

"Does everyone here need help?" Pilar questioned cautiously.

"You get used to it," Teddy shrugged.

"What's going on?" Kyla raised her eyebrows.

"Bryce! And Juliet!" Oscar spoke between heavy breaths.

"Who?" Jude, Teddy, Pilar and Isa all questioned at once.

"Juliet! My friend! The new girl!" Oscar paused, "Other than… you two?" He tilted his head to the side, clearly still as un sober as he was earlier.

"What about them?" Delia quirked an eyebrow.

However, she did not need to wait long for the answer as Juliet soon came up behind Oscar.

"Can you please stop leaving me alone with your friend?" She sighed out.

"Can you make a friend outside of me?" Oscar questioned.

"Oof," Jude laughed.

"Are you guys talking about me?" Bryce laughed, joining the group, "Good things I hope," He winked at Juliet.

"Oh my God," Delia laughed, realizing the whole situation.

"Ugh, disgusting," Juliet sneered.

"I can't keep third wheeling," Oscar groaned, despite now standing behind Kyla, leaning to wrap both his arms around her.

"I'm literally right here," Kyla laughed, placing one of her hand gently over Oscar's arm.

"Down bad," Teddy, Delia, Jude, Isa and Pilar all spoke in sync.

"So true, besties," Bryce nodded.

"Yeah, but we're not daaaaating," Oscar whined, ignoring Bryce and the rest of the color commentators, "Haha, unless?"

"I don't think now is the time to have that conversation, Oscar," Kyla sighed out, suddenly letting go of his arm.

"That could be us, but you're playing," Bryce laughed to Juliet.

"Excuse me?" Juliet clutched her invisible pearls.

"I'm kidding!" Bryce laughed, "I just, uh, think you're real pretty and… interesting,"

"I feel like we shouldn't be seeing this," Teddy announced.

"Why won't you talk to me about it?" Oscar now took his turn letting go of Kyla, surprised to hear her say what she said in the tone that she did.

"Because you're drunk!" Kyla's tone was harsh but hushed, "You should know how I feel about that,"

"I'm just… gonna go," Bryce announced, backing away slowly.

"Me too," Juliet nodded before turning to Bryce, "Don't follow me,"

"Kyla…" Oscar sighed out.

"Forget it," Kyla got up to walk away, leaving her seat empty at the table as Oscar looked at everyone sitting there, before running after her.

"Actually maybe I'm gonna… make sure the little guy's okay," Bryce announced once more, following Oscar.

"Yes, Jude," Delia finally spoke up after a long silence, "Listening to other people's business is so much fun,"

"Oscar!" Bryce called out, chasing after his friend, finally reaching him, "Wait up,"

"I really fucked this up, Bryce," Oscar sighed out, shaking his head, looking up only once he saw Kyla, "Look, I'll be right back, okay?"

"Be careful, dude!" Bryce called out, wondering if maybe he should have tried harder to stop him.

"Kyla!" Oscar called out finally catching up to her.

"I don't want to talk to you right now, Oscar," Kyla shook her head.

"I know I just… I'm sorry," Oscar breathed out heavily, "I don't know what I'm doing and-"

"Yeah," Kyla raised her eyebrows, "I got that,"

"I just… am really sorry. If I made you uncomfortable and for anything else," Oscar put his head down, "I just… do really like you and don't know how to say it when I don't feel so… brave,"

"Oscar," Kyla shook her head, "I know you like me and you know I like you too. But this isn't 'brave'. This is ridiculous. I just think we need to wait to have… that conversation,"

"I can do that," Oscar nodded slowly, not realizing he was swaying, "Hey, where's that music coming from?"

"Karaoke!" Naomi called, speed walking by them, "Come on!"

Shrugging, the two walked to the main area of the house, where, as Naomi had just told them, Karaoke appeared to be happening. Looking to the stage, Savannah and Lex stood, dancing sporadically along to the song playing.

"If you see a faded sign at the side of the road that says 15 miles to the," Lex called out to the audience.

"Love shack!" Savannah practically screamed into her mic. "Love shack, yeah, yeah,"

"Woo!" Audrey called out to her friends, her and Finley both dancing and swaying in support of them, "Oh, there you are, Isa,"

"Karaoke?" Isa asked, laughing.

"Yeah!" Audrey grinned, "Come dance with us!"

It did not take Isa much convincing as the group of three continued moving and even singing along, Savannah not noticing as she was giving the performance of her life.

"I'm headin' down the Atlanta highway
Lookin' for the love getaway
Headed for the love getaway,"

"Come on, see!" Rowan grinned, "Glee can be fun!"

"You consider Love Shack to be fun?" Grey noted, "Interesting,"

"Please just try to have fun!" Rowan rolled their eyes, "Look! Everyone else is having fun!"

As they looked around the room they did happen to see many of the people in the audience, cheering and dancing along to the music just as Lex, leaned forward into his mic, much like his companion, giving the performance of his life.

"I got me a car, it's as big as a whale
And we're headin' on down to the love shack
I got me a Chrysler, it seats about 20
So hurry up and bring your jukebox money,"

Hip bumping her friend, Savannah once again took over, pointing to Finley as she sang, a wide smile on her lips.

"The love shack is a little old place
Where we can get together
Love shack, baby,"

"A love shack, baby!" Lex called out dramatically, dancing out of sync to the music but having a great time, as he looked out into the audience, glad to see so many of his friends enjoying the performance.

"Love shack, baby, love shack
Love shack, baby, love shack
Love shack, baby, love shack
Love shack, baby, love shack,"

The two friends sang together, getting ready to wrap their song up, standing back-to-back shimmying.

"Yeah!" Audrey called out, "That's my boyfriend and my best friend!"

"Girl, we know," Naomi snickered, walking by, making sure all of her guests were having a good time, before trying to scout out who would perform next.

"Sing along!" Lex demanded the audience as they went into the last chorus, and to his surprise, most people did.

"Love shack, baby, love shack
Love shack, baby, love shack
Love shack, baby, love shack
Love shack, baby, love shack
Huggin' and a-kissin'
Dancin' and a-lovin'
At the love shack,"

"Yes! Naomi called out, "Let's hear it for Lex and Savannah!"

Naomi was surprised to she that she was met with loud claps and various whooping and hollering, laughing as Lex and Savannah took dramatic bows.

"Thank you, thank you," Lex called out, bowing so far down he almost fell over.

"Alright, that's enough of you," Naomi shooed them out of the karaoke set up, which, admittedly, she wasn't sure they were even supposed to be using as it was one of her mother's many rehearsal spaces around the house. "Who's next?"

"Us!" Sutton and Felix called out in unison.

"I didn't even know they knew each other," Heather spoke to Nikki, both surprised to see their brothers deciding to sing together.

"This is going to be good," Nikki nodded decisively.

"Alright boys, the floor is yours," Naomi smiled, moving out of the way.

"So we uh, sort of decided to sing this song 30 seconds ago, and it's gonna fucking slap," Felix shrugged.

"This one's for you, Addison!" Sutton pointed to his friend. "You too, Zoey!"

"Huh?" Addison was met with confusion before hearing a familiar tune starting, "Oh my God,"

"Addison!" Eric called out, walking over to where Addison and Ash stood, "I've been looking for you,"

"Eric, I'm not gonna lie to you," Addison spoke, his words slow, still trying to process the song, "I have no idea what the hell is going on,"

"Stacy's mom has got it goin' on," The two boys started singing, their voices at first low.

"Stacy's mom has got it goin' on
Stacy's mom has got it goin' on
Stacy's mom has got it goin' on"

"Holy shit," Heather laughed, making her way over to Mia, Tia and Zoey, "Did you know about this?" She asked Zoey.

"Do you think if I did, I wouldn't have tried to put a stop to it?" Zoey sneered.

"How's it feel to have your pre-cuff singing about your mom?" Tia raised her eyebrows.

"I don't have a pre-cuff," Zoey rolled her eyes, trying to walk away, but being held back by basically all three other girls.

"Stacy, can I come over after school?" Sutton sang out dramatically.

"After school," Felix repeated, just as dramatically.

"We can hang around by the pool," Sutton sang once more.

"Hang by the pool," Felix swayed slightly as he once again repeated Sutton's words and tone.

This call and repeat continued for most of the song, both boys giving it their all as they sang out.

"Did your mom get back from her business trip?"

"Business trip,"

"Is she there, or is she trying to give me the slip?"

"Give me the slip,"

"Respectfully," Teddy started slowly, "What the hell is this?"

"How should I know?" Ambrose groaned, his words slurred.

"Woah, you okay there, Ambrose?" Teddy raised his eyebrows, "Why don't you come take a seat here?"

"I'm fine," Ambrose sighed out, "Well, I'm not fine, but I don't want to talk about it,"

"I won't pry but… um, let me know if you do?" Teddy raised his eyebrows, assuming whatever was going on had to do with Ambrose drinking and Sutton now singing about someone else's mom. Teddy was of course, right, but he pretended to not put the pieces together for Ambrose's sake.

"You know, I'm not the little boy
That I used to be
I'm all grown up now
Baby, can't you see?"

Felix took his turn singing out on his own, a weird power and control behind his words.

"In their defence," Heather noted, "Your mom is a milf,"

"Ewww, that's my aunt," Mia scrunched her nose up.

"It took you this long to realize that?" Tia raised her eyebrows.

"It's my mom. Did we somehow forget that?" Zoey shook her head in disbelief.

The two boys performing now turning to look at each other, they sang out the chorus with the most passion they could cumulatively muster, which happened to be a lot.

"Stacy's mom has got it goin' on
She's all I want
And I've waited for so long
Stacy, can't you see?
You're just not the girl for me
I know it might be wrong but
I'm in love with Stacy's mom,"

While most people actually really enjoyed the performance, Eric, Addison and Ash were all completely bewildered.

"What just happened?" Ash questioned, laughing.

"I'm still working on figuring out where I am," Addison admitted.

"Maybe we should leave," Eric spoke softly, not enjoying seeing Addison like this, and also truly just trying to process that whole performance.

"Noooo, I'm fine," Addison assured his boyfriend, turning to hold his hands.

Before Eric even had a chance to respond he noticed two more students making their way to perform.

"Hello fellow thespians, besties and everything in between," A voice called from the performance area.

"Oh hell yes," Emery snickered.

"Hmm?" Kate questioned beside Emery, barely knowing what was going on, but grinning when she saw who was getting ready to perform, "Aww! Siblings!"

"My name is Xavier Pearce," he announced from behind a microphone, "And this is my sister Chloe. We're going to sing a song that I would like to dedicate to Trina Hart…. Trina if you're out there… I miss you…"

"Oh, this is about to be hilarious," Jude laughed, coming up behind Trina, who was unsure of how to react.

"Easy for you to say! He's not up there dedicating a song to you!" Trina moaned.

"That's exactly why it's hilarious," Jude laughed, noticing someone coming behind him, "Hey, Sophie,"

"Hello siblings," Sophie grinned, "Are we excited for the performance?"

"I'm terrified," Trina sighed out.

"Aw, that's okay! God is bigger than the boogieman, Trina. Even if the boogie man is that weirdo," Sophie nodded just as the music began to play.

"You're giving me a million reasons to let you go
You're giving me a million reasons to quit the show,"

Xavier sang out dramatically keeping his eyes closed as he truly tried to feel the music and the words.

"You're givin' me a million reasons
Give me a million reasons
Givin' me a million reasons
About a million reasons,"

Chloe sang with Xavier, both sounding surprisingly good given that it was karaoke at a high school party, as Trina looked on, truly feeling torn. Teddy was so distracted by this that he hadn't noticed Ambrose beginning to walk away from him.

"Where are you going?" Teddy asked, despite being pretty sure he already knew the answer.

"I need to find Sutton," Ambrose decided suddenly, practically running off before Teddy even had the chance to process it.

"If I had a highway, I would run for the hills
If you could find a dry way, I'd forever be still,"

Xavier sang on his own once more, opening his eyes and trying to make eye contact with Trina but being distracted by Emery and Kate inappropriately hollering out in support, and surprised to see Dana join them in flailing around calling out, "Great job, Xavier! Show 'em how it's done!"

"But you're giving me a million reasons
Give me a million reasons
Givin' me a million reasons
About a million reasons,"

The two siblings sang together once more, Xavier finally able to catch Trina's eye, who, in fairness, was looking at him like he was the whole world.

"Well," Sophie sighed out, "It was fun while it lasted,"

"Don't worry, it won't last," Jude smirked.

"What won't? Them fighting or them getting back together?" Sophie quirked an eyebrow.

After a short moment of thinking, Jude simply shrugged, "Dealer's choice,"

"I can hear you, you know," Trina sighed out, though didn't break eye contact with Xavier.

Xavier, of course, took this moment to fall on his knees, singing out as passionately and dramatically as he could, Chloe still simply swaying and vaguely harmonizing next to him.

"When I bow down to pray
I try to make the worst seem better
Lord, show me the way
To cut through all his worn out leather
I've got a hundred million reasons to walk away
But baby, I just need one good one, good one
Tell me that you'll be the good one, good one
Baby, I just need one good one to stay,"

Bowing down as he finished, Xavier sighed out heavily, suddenly almost afraid to look at Trina. It wasn't long until Naomi had shooed them off the stage though, as she had the other singers previously. While all of this was happening, Ambrose had finally managed to catch up to Sutton.

"Hey," He sighed out.

"Hey," Sutton couldn't help but smile, "I was hoping you'd uh, show up again,"

"So… you're not mad at me?" Ambrose tried to clarify, his mind still completely muddled and his feet slightly unsteady.

"I don't think I could ever be mad at you," Sutton laughed, "And as much as I'd love to continue this conversation – and I would – I kind of want to see where this goes," he nodded to where Naomi was calling for karaoke volunteers and was surprised that nobody immediately jumped up.

"Seriously?" Naomi raised her eyebrows, "You're all in show choir! You're all always arguing for solos!"

"We need time to pick our songs," Sophie called out in response.

"Fine, I'll pick then," Naomi decided, "Simon and Mack,"

"Huh?" Both boys shyly looked at each other.

"Come on, we don't have all day," Naomi ushered them into the area.

"We don't… have a song," Simon vaguely protested.

"I've got one for you, don't worry," Naomi smirked, having kept an eye on Simon all night, "Maybe one day you'll thank me for this. Or not," she shrugged, handing them each their mics.

Both recognizing the song once it started, they blushed profusely. While the audience looked on with wide eyes, Simon decided to take the plunge, looking at anywhere that wasn't at Mack as he sang, relating a little too closely to the words.

"I gotta say something I've been thinking about
I can't wait to lay around with you
And tell you all the secrets I've been keeping to myself,"

Smiling Naomi and Isaac high-fived, as this had been part of a plan they were secretly working on together.

"We did good, kid," Naomi nodded, smirking.

"Well, so far. There's still time for it to go wrong," Isaac smirked, "But I don't think it will,"

"I don't think so either," Naomi agreed, both looking up to see Mack take his part.

"It's been awhile since I've felt butterflies
Do you feel the same way too?
If every single second could last that much longer
Would you hold me?"

While Mack was at first just as nervous as Simon if not more so, he sang his part out to the best of his abilities, he soon was distracted by the sight of Tommy and Leah, shaking his head at the sight of it.

"Aw, this song reminds me of us," Tommy, who had done basically nothing other than drink more and continue to make out on and off with Leah, cooed, hugging her from behind.

"Oh, stop," Leah blushed, swaying in his arms, looking around and smiling that people clearly saw them together, but paid her no mind.

Simon quickly noticed Mack noticing Tommy and Leah, and finally found the bare minimum amount of courage it took to turn and face him, Mack following suit, smiling as he met Simon's eyes, the two singing together.

"And kiss me again underneath the moonlight
You're more than a friend, oh
I knew it from the first sight, yeah
Hold me, feel my heart beat,"

"They're… actually a good match," Rowan laughed.

"I'm just glad Simon's found someone, you know?" Finely sighed happily, "It's really nice to see,"

"There definitely is something so…. wholesome about it," Hazel laughed, agreeing with her siblings as they continued to watch on, seeing the boys finish out the song together.

"Put your arms around me
Hold me, feel my heart beat
And put your arms around me
And kiss me again, and again, and again
Oh, kiss me again,"

Still shyly smiling at each other at the end of the song, the boys were surprised by the amount of applause they got, Naomi coming to usher them out of the way, but not before congratulating them on a job well done.

"That was absolutely adorable, you two," She cooed, reaching up to pinch one of Simon's cheeks, as he tried to swat her hand away.

"Thanks, Naomi," Mack blushed, though he was still confused about the Leah and Tommy situation. He didn't have much time to think about it as his brother had come up beside him.

"That was… strangely adorable and not embarrassing at all," Isaac noted.

"Thank… you?" Mack laughed, "So when are you going up?"

"Right now!" Steven grinned, grabbing Isaac while Bob and Michael followed close behind.

"Alrighty!" Naomi clasped her hands together, "Let's see what you've got, boys,"

As a surprising song started playing, the room was divided between laughter and applause just as Bob began singing the first part of the verse.

"I see you looking at me
Like I got something that's for you
And the way that you stare
Don't you dare
'Cause I'm not about to,"

Bob was, of course, performing for his life, as was Steven who came up behind him, getting ready to take his part.

"Aw, look at our brothers," Frank grinned, nervously moving to stand beside Sydney.

"I'm not speaking to you," Sydney reminded him, "Especially not right now when Steven's about to sing,"

"Just give it all up to you
'Cause there are some things I won't do
And I'm not afraid to tell you
I don't ever want to leave you confused,"

As Steven also sang out for his life, Lex surprised Mack by coming up to him, "Look at 'em go," Lex laughed, pointing to Isaac and Michael.

"This was not the song I was expecting," Mack laughed, "But they seem to be having fun,"

"Looks like they're about to crush it," Lex noted, raising the drink in his hand and hollering out in support just as Isaac and Michael made way to sing together, neither taking the song overly seriously, but enjoying it anyways.

"The more you try
The less I buy it
And I don't have to think it through
You know if I'm into you,"

"At least they're entertaining," Cay snickered, walking up to stand beside her brother.

"It's… something alright," Teddy laughed, "How are you doing? Are you having a good time so far?"

"It's uh…" Cay thought for a moment, "It's been... interesting. How about you?"

"Exactly the same," Teddy laughed, "But as long as you're safe,"

"I'm always safe," Cay waved him off, "Now watch two of your Warblers singing for their lives," she concluded with a small laugh.

In fairness, she was right, as all four boys on stage truly were giving a passionate, but light hearted and fun performance, all singing together was they wrapped up.

"I don't need a man to make it happen
I get off being free
I don't need a man to make me feel good
I get off doing my thing
I don't need a ring around my finger
To make me feel complete
So let me break it down
I can get off when you ain't around
Oh!"

All four boys striking various poses, they bowed, their peers applauding happily for them. Before anyone had even gotten a chance to further react or say anything, Sophie had managed to shoo three of the boys out of the way, only one remaining.

"What are you doing?" Naomi questioned, though she was curious to see what Sophie would come up with.

"I'm getting ready for Steven and I to sing our song," Sophie responded as though it was the most obvious thing in the world.

"Steven? You're good with this?" Naomi verified.

"Yep!" Steven smiled widely, his demeanor saying it all.

"Alrighty then," Naomi laughed, "Whenever you're ready, I guess!"

Sophie moving to grab a mic, an upbeat song started, many of their peers being familiar with the song, some confused or concerned by the choice, though the majority of people seemed to already be having a good time with it.

"I'm too cool for my dress
These shades don't leave my head
Everything you say is so irrelevant,"

Sophie took the first part, acting out the words dramatically, posing at various moments, but clearly enjoying herself.

"Yes Sophie!" Rey called out from the audience.

"She's really good!" Flora nodded along to the music, smiling.

"You follow and I lead
You want to be like me
But your just a wannabe
Love it or hate it,"

Steven, of course, took the next verse, singing out confidently, also putting on a show. While he didn't necessarily relate to the words, he figured he was nothing if not an actor.

"Go Steven!" Sawyer called out happily.

"Yeeeeeaaahhh!" Kate called out beside them, waving her hand in the air off beat to the song.

"Kate?" Sawyer giggled, "Are you okay?"

"Never better!" Kate grinned, still swaying.

"I can't help the way I am
Hope you don't misunderstand,"

The two students sang out together, sounding impressive for karaoke.

"I didn't even know they knew each other," Jude muttered to himself, surprised when he noticed a figure come up beside him.

"Neither did I," Sydney stated simply, "I don't even know who that girl is? So you can imagine my surprise,"

"Sydney that's," Jude paused, deciding it wasn't wroth it, "Never mind,"

"'Cause I'm too cool
Yeah I'm too cool
To know you
Don't take it personal
Don't get emotional,"

As Sophie and Steven looked at each other, they came up with what was very clearly on the spot choreographed movements.

"Seems like she's having fun," Pilar noticed, smiling.

"She always has fun," Trina smiled, after cheering for her sister, "It's fun to watch though,"

"Her energy is so contagious," Pilar laughed.

"She's a good kid," Trina nodded decisively, despite only being a year older than her sister.

"You know it's the truth
I'm too cool for you
You think your hot but I'm sorry, you're not
Exactly who you think you are
Can't tell you what you haven't got
When we walk into the room
I'm too cool for you,"

Ending back to back, the two laughed, high-fiving, as their friends and families applauded, Sydney, surprisingly being the loudest.

"Ooh, can I go next?" A loud yet soft voice called from the sea of show choir kids.

"Flora?" Naomi laughed, "Sure, the floor is yours,"

"Anthony?" Flora called out, "Are you ready?"

"I'm always ready for a performance," Anthony grinned proudly, meeting Flora at the front of the room.

"Oh, this is gonna be good," Naomi snickered as they got ready to start the song.

"Life is a mystery
Everyone must stand alone
I hear you call my name
And it feels like home,"

Anthony sang out, surprising the group not just because of the song but also how openly lovingly he looked at Flora.

"What the hell is this?" Sydney furrowed their eyebrows together.

"The song?" Kyla laughed, overhearing Sydney's critique, "It's certainly... a choice,"

"But… why together?" Sydney thought out loud.

"They're like… a whole thing," Kyla spoke, now confused, "Did you not know that?"

"I thought it was all for show," Sydney admitted, already internally planning to bother Anthony about this later.

"When you call my name
It's like a little prayer
I'm down on my knees, I wanna take you there
In the midnight hour
I can feel your power
Just like a prayer
You know I'll take you there,"

The two sang together, and while they, of course, sounded great, it was painstakingly obvious that they had no idea what the song was about.

"I don't see how you two could be enjoying this," Delia sneered at the couple before her, holding each other and singing along, some would argue, obnoxiously.

"Oh, come on," Heather laughed, "It's hilarious!"

"That's because it's not your sibling," Delia noted.

"Heather's brother did perform earlier though," Mia pointed out.

"And he was, respectfully, much better than this," Heather nodded.

"You two are no help at all," Delia rolled her eyes.

"Just fight them when this is done," Heather suggested.

"Tia would help you," Mia nodded excitedly.

"Goodbye," Delia barely muttered before moving on.

"I hear your voice,
It's like an angel sighing
I have no choice,
I hear your voice
Feels like flying,"

Flora sang out beautifully, never once taking her eyes off Anthony, especially as he took his next solo part next, looking just as deeply in her eyes.

"I close my eyes,
Oh, God, I think I'm falling
Out of the sky,
I close my eyes
Heaven help me,"

"I love this song!" Sophie called out dramatically as she danced , "Yes! Go Flora!"

"They sound great," Rey nodded, trying to keep up with Sophie's movements, but failing.

"I love praying!" Sophie continued to call out, seemingly not paying attention to Rey, "So true, besties!"

"When you call my name
It's like a little prayer
I'm down on my knees
I wanna take you there
In the midnight hour
I can feel your power
Just like a prayer
You know I'll take you there,"

They concluded their song just as dramatically as they'd stared it, both still looking into each other's eyes, their faces mere inches away.

"Um, okay!" Naomi spoke, trying to move things along, suddenly feeling very uncomfortable. "Does anyone want to take over?"

"We do!" Oscar called out suddenly, his words barely cohesive as he dragged Bryce with him towards the stage.

Without needing much more encouragement the two boys took their mics, Bryce looking directly to Juliet as he began singing.

"You were working as a waitress in a cocktail bar
When I met you
I picked you out, I shook you up
And turned you around
Turned you into someone new,"

While Bryce, admittedly, talk sang through most of his verse, Oscar took his lead, both in terms of talk singing and turning to directly look at Kyla.

"Now five years later on you've got the world at your feet
Success has been so easy for you
But don't forget it's me who put you where you are now
And I can put you back down too,"

"Aw, man," Lex sighed out heavily, finally recognizing what the boys were singing, "I love this song! This is my go-to karaoke party song!"

"You have a go-to karaoke party song?" Anthony surprised him by standing next to him.

"Yes," Lex nodded definitively "And this is it,"

"In all fairness," Anthony sighed out, "We would have been so good on this,"

"Don't. Don't you want me?
You know I can't believe it when I hear that you won't see me,"

Bryce sang out leaning into the mic, eyes closed as he truly tried to put his heart into the performance just as Oscar now sang, once again mimicking Bryce's movements and tone of voice as, in all fairness, he didn't really know the song.

"Don't. Don't you want me?
You know I don't believe you when you say that you don't need me,"

"This is mortifying," Juliet noted, turning to avoid any and all eye contact with Bryce.

"I think their hearts are in the right place?" Kyla tried, still unsure how to feel about the whole situation.

"Are you always so optimistic?" Juliet raised her eyebrows.

"I'm usually the opposite," Kyla shrugged, turning her attention back to the boys singing, holding back a laugh as Oscar desperately tried to keep up with Bryce.

"It's much too late to find
When you think you've changed your mind
You'd better change it back or we will both be sorry,"

Both boys suddenly felt themselves practically belting out, something neither of them could do and it showed, as they began practically bouncing up and down as they wrapped the song up.

"Don't you want me, baby?
Don't you want me? Oh!
Don't you want me, baby?
Don't you want me? Oh!"

They finished, both breathing out heavily, not realizing how much karaoke would take out of them. Despite their obvious exhaustion, they both smiled as they earned applause from virtually everyone in the room – some of whom, were of course giving pity applause, and Juliet who refused to acknowledge the performance.

"Alrighty," Naomi laughed, as the boys left the performance area. "Who wants to go ne-"

"We do!" Emery called out, interrupting Naomi, raising their own hand, along with Kate's, high up in the air.

"By all means," Naomi laughed, though watched them with a cautious eye.

"Hell yes!" Kate called out, as the song started, and she began signing, surprisingly moving very loosely.

"Just like the white-winged dove
Sings a song
Sounds like she's singin'"

Kate sang, both performers, singing together for a moment as they also both fought to stand up.

"Whoo, whoo, whoo,"

Emery now got ready to sing their part, also surprisingly moving very freely along to the music.

"Just like the white-winged dove
Sings a song
Sounds like she's singin'
Whoo, baby, whoo
Said, whoo,"

As they both sang together on the 'whoo's, Zach couldn't help but laugh, making Jude jump as he placed a heavy hand on his shoulder.

"Look at them go! Just warms your heart, doesn't it?" Zach smiled lovingly at Kate.

"It's… something, alright," Jude shook his head.

"Oh come on you must be proud of… them," Zach slurred, gesturing to Emery, "That's like… your person right?"

"Yeah," Jude nodded, surprised to find himself laughing along, "That's my person,"

"Well," Zach leaned slightly on Jude, almost acting like Jude was much shorter than him despite them being the same height, "Kate is my person. I think she's having a lot of fun and she deserves it because she is the best ever," Zach concluded with a smile, watching Kate begin to sing once more.

"And the days go by
Like a strand in the wind
In the web that is my own
I begin again
Said to my friend, baby
Nothin' else mattered,"

Kate sang out dramatically, leaving the singing area with Emery in tow, though both kept their mics as most of their Vocal Adrenaline peers surprised to see her act so unwound.

"I have… never seen her like this," Leslie laughed, "Either of them but Kate is… wow,"

"Where is she going?" Sawyer laughed, watching the two students moving away from where they were, but not going too far.

"I don't think either of them know," Leslie laughed, "It's fun to watch though,"

"He was no more
Than a baby then
Well, he seemed broken-hearted
Somethin' within him,"

Emery sang out, still following Kate's lead, momentarily distracted though, as Xavier called out loudly for her.

"Yes Emery! Go bestie!" He waved as though she wouldn't be able to see them.

"Seems like they're both having the time of their lives," Chloe smirked.

"Jolly good show!" Dana called out.

"Oh my God," Chloe suddenly laughed, noticing them both move to stand on a table as they continued to sing.

"But the moment
That I first laid
Eyes on him
All alone on the edge of seventeen,"

Kate and Emery sang together, backs against one another as they each fought for their balance, realizing maybe the table was not the best idea. Despite this, though, they did somehow sound really good together, which was, of course, noticed by their teammates.

"Did you know either of them could perform like that?" Anthony raised his eyebrows, turning to look at Sydney.

"No. I figured Kate had something in her, she's always been one of my favorites. Emery's a dark horse though," Sydney thought out loud, "I'm also furious with you,"

"Why?" Anthony furrowed his eyebrows.

"Like A Prayer? Really?" Sydney crossed their arms over their chest, not even once turning to look at Anthony.

"Would you look at the time!" Anthony suddenly turned, and while Sydney normally would have chased him down, she was too preoccupied at being confused by the performance happening.

As Emery and Kate began wrapping their song up still singing together, they turned to stand side by side, wrapping an arm around each other for balance.

"Just like the white-winged dove
Sings a song
Sounds like she's singin'
Whoo, baby, whoo
Said, whoo,"

While they did struggle to get down for a moment, they miraculously both did, Zach immediately running to tell Kate what a great job she did, very clearly cooing over her.

"A table?" Jude laughed, walking to meet Emery, "Really?"

"There were no higher platforms available," Emery smirked.

"I thought I asked you to be safe," Jude smirked right back, "Besides, that was easily one of the weirdest performances I've seen. And you know the weight that holds because we're in the same weird glee club,"

"I think," Emery stuck a finger in the air, words slurred and forgetting her initial thought as a couple made their way to the performance area to sing, "They're about to do me one better,"

"Oh, now what the fuck is this?" Jude's eyes widened as he watched Tommy and Leah holding hands getting ready to sing.

"They say we're young and we don't know
We won't find out until we're grown,"

Leah sang out, swaying to the music, met by looks of confusion and horror from her peers, as she and Tommy simply did not notice, Tommy taking his turn to sing.

"Well I don't know if all that's true
'Cause you got me, and baby I got you,"

"Wow," Was the only word Rey could think to form, genuinely somehow both surprised and unsurprised by Tommy managing to sing a love song with the enemy of virtually everyone at the party.

"I have to assume you didn't know about this?" Hazel laughed, raising her eyebrows.

"I had no idea," Rey shook her head, "and I mean if I did I don't think I would have been able to stop him,"

"I just don't understand how this…happened," Hazel gestured towards the two on stage.

"That makes two of us," Rey deep sighed out.

"Babe
I got you babe
I got you babe,"

The two continued to sing together making lovey eyes at each other so widely it almost looked forced.

"They say our love won't pay the rent
Before it's earned,
Our money's all been spent,"

Leah sang out once more, just looking into the audience for a split second, most of their jaws still dropped at the display before them.

"I guess that's so, we don't have a pot
But at least I'm sure
Of all the things we got,"

Tommy sang, still clearly very oblivious to the reaction of everyone else, and very into all of the eyes being on him.

"And he's on the council in your club?" Kendall raised her eyebrows, a smirk on her lips.

"Hey, I didn't elect him," Oliver rolled his eyes, "Besides at least I didn't start a whole gossip blog with her,"

"At least I'm not blood related to her," Kendall laughed, "You've gotta get better at this game, Puckerman,"

"Whatever," He rolled his eyes, but was at least glad to not have to be watching the whole performance alone.

"Babe
I got you babe
I got you babe,"

Tommy and Leah continued to sing together, and there was one other couple that, while they were still at least somewhat confused by what was happening, both were so wrapped up in slow dancing with the other they barely paid attention.

"This is the best," Lex murmured into Audrey's hair.

"You're the best," Audrey smiled.

"What an adorable couple," Ingrid smiled, coming up and surprising both of them, completely unprovoked.

"Um, thanks," Audrey mumbled, hoping she would go away. (She didn't.)

"You guys are seriously so cute," Ingrid continued to go on, "It would be a shame if something… happened,"

"It sure would," Lex responded with a quirked eyebrow, very much confused.

"Well," Ingrid smirked to herself menacingly, "See you both later,"

"Was that a threat?" Audrey turned to ask Lex after Ingrid had already walked away.

"I got flowers in the spring
I got you to wear my ring
And when I'm sad, you're a clown
And if I get scared, you're always around,"

Leah and Tommy now swayed together in sync, taking turns on their lines, Tommy smiling as he saw Naomi standing in the audience with a sour look on her face.

"You okay?" Simon came up to ask, Mack nervously joining them.

"This is weird as hell, right?" Naomi asked, "Like I'm not losing it, this is actually insane, right?"

"I mean…" Mack started slowly, "Tommy's done a lot of things I don't understand. But uh, this is definitely top three for sure,"

"What are the other two?" Simon asked curiously.

"It doesn't matter," Naomi rolled her eyes, "But this is… bad,"

"Don't let them say your hair's too long
'Cause I don't care,
With you I can't go wrong
Then put your little hand in mine
There ain't no hill or mountain
We can't climb,
Babe
I got you babe
I got you babe,"

As the two continued to sing happily together, people were starting to wonder if it was possible this was all for show. Zach and Emery, however, were not two of those people.

"I hope they make it official," Emery decided on.

"Me too," Zach nodded, "Tommy deserves love, you know?"

"I just think it would be funny," Emery shrugged, "Right, Kate?"

Suddenly both Zach and Emery looked around frantically.

"Where the hell did she go?" Emery gasped, "I can't do this again!"

"I'm freaking out, man," Zach, who was somehow more frantic than Emery, also gasped.

"How did you let this happen?!" Emery looked with wide eyes at Zach.

"I didn't!" Zach tried as the song continued.

"I got you to hold my hand
I got you to understand
I got you to walk with me
I got you to talk with me
I got you to kiss goodnight
I got you to hold me tight
I got you, I won't let go
I got you to love me so,"

"You're seeing this too, right?" Nikki walked up beside Jude, both completely shocked at what was happening. Whether it was for show or not it was incredibly surprising, especially for the both of them.

"I'm honestly still just trying to process it," Jude admitted, "Tonight has been weird as hell and this clearly is no exception,"

"At least you're not going to have to deal with her when this is all over," Nikki shook her head.

"I did my time," Jude scoffed, "It's about time someone else dealt with her,"

"I got you babe
I got you babe
I got you babe
I got you babe,"

As the song finished, Tommy and Leah ended their performance in a big hug, as virtually everyone either sat still or booed, save for Sawyer who applauded to be polite.

"What the fuck was that?" Naomi suddenly called out.

"Why?" Tommy smirked, "Are you jealous?"

"No!" Naomi hissed back, "I'm pissed that you just had the audacity to get up there and perform with someone who made all of our lives a living hell for the last month!"

"Look, I'm sorry-" Leah tried to start but was interrupted.

"Shut up, Leah!" Nikki surprised both Leah and Naomi by suddenly speaking up.

"Seriously Tommy," Naomi directed her attention back to him, "What the hell were you thinking? Leah? Who outed several of the people here, including my brother and in a way, your sister, who came out because she was afraid someone was going to do it for her?"

"Hey, keep Rey out of this," Simon tried, his voice low.

"Or what? She'll cry and confess her feelings to someone else's girlfriend again?" Nikki sneered.

"Too far," Cay spoke, clearly frustrated with Nikki.

"Seriously, that was really uncool, Nikki," Hazel nodded in agreement.

"I don't need your help," Cay rolled her eyes at Hazel.

"And I don't need yours!" Rey finally found herself able to speak up.

"I think that's enough!" Flora suddenly spoke up, trying to interject.

"I'm surprised you're able to speak since your head is so far up Anthony's ass," Sydney rolled their eyes.

"Sydney!" Anthony gasped.

"Don't worry, yours is just as far up hers," Sydney crossed her arms over her chest.

"You can't talk to me like that, and you definitely can't talk to her like that," Anthony spoke, suddenly defensive.

"Oh? You wanna do this? Right here?" Sydney laughed, pulling her earrings out and handing them to Frank, who stood terrified behind her, "Bring it on, St. James,"

Just as they were about to square up, a small silhouette walked between them, "No, people," Sophie shook her head, "Let's be smart and bring it off,"

"Oh, now the child of Jesus is gonna preach to us," Savannah rolled her eyes.

"It's the child of God, dumbass," Lex snickered, "Jesus is God's child,"

"I'm saying!" Sophie sighed out, exasperated.

"I know you did not just call me a dumbass," Savannah raised her eyebrows.

"Seriously not cool, dude," Finley suddenly walked over to Lex, eyeing him up.

"Stop the violence," Rowan spoke meekly from a few feet away.

"Come on, I didn't mean it," Lex shook his head.

"You still said it!" Finley raised his arms in the air.

"Come on guys," Audrey whined, "We're supposed to be a family!"

"Oh please, he has a family!" Savannah gestured to Lex, "He's a brother!"

"Obviously?" Michael spoke up for his brother.

"I think we all have a family," Chloe spoke, deciding to suddenly see what would happen if she tried to stir the pot.

"I don't," Zoey sneered.

"What the fuck?" Tia and Mia spoke in sync.

"Am I nothing to you?!" Addison called out dramatically and very, very slowly.

"Basically," Zoey rolled her eyes, ignoring the twins.

"You should really be nicer to them," Felix sighed out, "All three of them,"

"Yeah, what the hell, Zoey? Sometimes your mean thing is hot but there is such a thing as taking it too far," Heather jumped in, of course, taking any excuse to pick on Zoey.

"Why are you all suddenly ganging up on me?" Zoey whined.

"Do you deserve it?" Kendall couldn't help but ask.

"Not as much as you might, little miss gossip blog," Zoey sneered.

"Hey, leave her alone," Ambrose, still not sober, suddenly stepped in.

"Maybe you should leave it," Sutton tried to pull Ambrose back.

"Or what? You'll run off again?" Ambrose raised his eyebrows, regretting it immediately, "Shit, I'm sorry,"

"I was going to say I just didn't want you to get hurt," Sutton tried to explain.

"I don't think you should get involved," Oliver spoke to his brother, "And I think we all need to move on,"

"Those are big words from Mr. vaping in the bathroom, himself," Kendall smirked.

"I thought we'd moved past that?" Bob spoke up, genuinely concerned.

"The Warblers don't always… move on from things so easily," Mack shook his head.

"Maybe if we had someone who could actually lead, we would," Teddy spoke, deciding now would be a good time to comment.

"I thought we," Mack gestured between himself and Teddy, "Had moved past this,"

"I thought you would work harder on actually being responsible," Teddy sighed out.

"Hey, leave him alone," Isaac spoke up.

"Oh good, more siblings getting involved," Delia rolled her eyes.

"What's wrong with siblings getting involved?" Steven shook his head.

"It becomes... a whole thing," Delia furrowed her eyebrows, "Besides I didn't see you sticking up for your sibling,"

"Some of us… don't have siblings to stick up for," Leslie sighed out.

"Yeah, families are weird," Sawyer nodded.

"I feel like we have this conversation every time all of us are in a room together," Trina shook her head, "We all have weird families and I don't think there's any point in fighting,"

"You've literally been fighting with Xavier since I've joined glee. Maybe even before that," Juliet pointed out.

"A shame really," Ingrid nodded, though she smiled.

"But things are okay now!" Xavier grinned, trying to move things along.

"Yeah! So mind your business," Trina pointed at Juliet.

"Leave her alone!" Bryce called out dramatically.

"Oh my God, can you leave me alone?!" Juliet screamed up at Bryce, "I don't think you are attractive or interesting in any way and frankly want nothing to do with you,"

"Man, could this day get any worse? First I lost Oscar, and now this?" Bryce sighed out.

"Where the hell is Oscar?" Kyla looked around the room, truly just figuring that he was here somewhere.

"J'accuse!" Emery shouted, turning and pointing at Zach.

"I didn't lose my brother!" Zach shouted back, "And I didn't lose Kate, either!"

"You LOST Kate?!" Eric's eyes were filled with what could only be described as pure terror.

"Again?" Jude raised his eyebrows in disbelief.

"AGAIN?!" Eric repeated, not realizing it happened the first time.

"No! I just said I didn't!" Zach sighed out.

Suddenly the room was filled with loud voices calling over each other, everyone trying to get their piece in. On the far side of the room stood Pilar, Isa, Ash and Grey who were all somewhere between invested and absolutely terrified.

"Do they… do they always fight like this?" Ash questioned with wide eyes.

"There is no greatness," Dana began slowly, seemingly appearing out of nowhere "Where there is not simplicity, goodness, and truth,"

"Alright!" Naomi suddenly called out, "Party's over!"

A/N: Alrighty! As per the norm, thank you guys for reading and getting this far! The little announcement I have is that I've made a tumblr blog for this fic! It right now is sort of just an inspo/incorrect quote/musings blog for the fic, but if you'd like to see it let me know! I have tags for all of the characters and while it does have minor spoilers, I'd love to see your guys' thoughts on it before basically showing the url on the A/N of the next chapter to hear any sort of feedback! As always, I've listed the songs used below, thanks for reading everyone, I look forward to eharing you and will see you soon for part two!

Love Shack - The B-52s
Stacy's Mom - Fountains of Wayne
A Million Reasons - Lady Gaga
Kiss Me Again - We Are The In Crowd ft. Alex Gaskarth
I Don't Need a Man - The Pussycat Dolls
Too Cool - from Camp Rock
Like A Prayer - Madonna
Don't You Want Me - The Human League
Edge of Seventeen - Stevie Nicks
I Got You Babe - Sonny & Cher