Chapter 5 – Regionals
As the early morning sun peeped in through a crack in the Anderson's living room curtains two figures began to stir. The night before, after returning from the movie theatre, Blaine and Sebastian had taken to watching a Top Gear marathon of all the challenges in the living room. Not that Blaine usually watched Top Gear but Sebastian found his dads collection and insisted that they watch them. The two boys fell asleep on the couch half way through the fourth disc. As the sun hit Sebastian's face he began to slowly peel back his eyelids and open his eyes. Sebastian gave a huge yawn, stretched his long limbs and made to wake Blaine up. It took him several shakes of Blaine's shoulder to get the other boy to even stir, that boy could sleep through just about anything. After attempting to wake Blaine, Sebastian made his way into the kitchen to make them both a cup of coffee. He was just adding the milk when Blaine finally moved into a sitting position with his eyes still firmly shut.
"You're going to have to open those eyes of yours if you want this lovely cup of coffee I've made for you."
"What time is it?" Blaine asked Sebastian as he rubbed the sleep from his eyes.
Sebastian put the cups down on the coffee table and went back to check the kitchen clock. "About 9:30am," he said as he walked back into the room and sat down next to Blaine with a plonk.
"I haven't slept in this late since… I can't even remember when but it was at Dalton. Usually Kurt is texting me every two seconds about this that and the other. Starting at 5am with a cleansing ritual that lasts about an hour, he Skype's me while he does it and tries to get me to do it as well."
"That sounds really… Well that just sounds really dull. Whatever happened to the Blaine who didn't get up until 10am on weekends or at the earliest 9am, and the Blaine with the bouncy trapped curls? While we're at it, whatever happened to the Blaine who didn't let others dictate his life and the one who busted into song and dance in the middle of a Gap store singing 'When I Get You Alone'?"
"Well… Wait a minute, who told you about that? Was it Jeff? It was Jeff wasn't it."
"Actually it wasn't Jeff. It was David, Nick, Trent, Thad, John… In fact it was all the guys but Jeff. Is it true that you ended up getting the guy fired?"
"I can't believe they told you about that, and yes he did get fired."
"I so would have loved to have seen all that, 'Blaine Anderson and The Warblers take over Gap Store', that would have been so awesome."
"Can we just change the subject please?"
"But you didn't answer any of my questions."
"I may tell you when I figure them out myself."
"That's all I ask." Sebastian mocked him as he drained his coffee in one gulp.
"You're meant to sip that, not down it all in one."
"That's what the next cup is for." With that he got up and made himself another cup of coffee.
In the time it took Sebastian to make his second cup of coffee, Blaine had gone to the bathroom, gotten dressed and looked somewhat more presentable, but not by much. He had just sat down when Sebastian came back in.
"How about we discuss some songs for regionals?" Sebastian asked as he once again sat down next to Blaine with a plonk.
"Not that they would use the songs I would suggest, but sure why not it beats actually doing anything else."
"Blaine Anderson a lazy bones, who would have thought."
"Guilty."
"Just to remind you The Warblers are up first and we're planning on doing Michael Jackson songs."
Blaine only rolled his eyes at Sebastian's statement. He was well aware of what Sebastian had said; he'd been trying to forget that particular week for a while now. Luckily for Sebastian Blaine had already forgiven him.
"I probably shouldn't be telling you but since it's very unlikely they'd ever leave this room, I suppose it won't hurt." Sebastian claimed with a smirk. "We're thinking about doing Beat It, Billy Jean, They Don't Really Care About Us, Smooth Criminal and The Way You Make Me Feel all as a mash up."
"Let me guess, Beat It and They Don't Really Care About Us will be group songs. Billy Jean would no doubt show case Jeff and Smooth Criminal will undoubtedly show case yourself."
"You know us far too well. Bet you couldn't guess how we plan to do The Way You Make Me Feel?"
"That one has me stumped. Although you could always dress one of the guys in a dress and heels, not that that would be very acapella like."
"Now that would be funny, are you volunteering?"
"Funny, that's very funny. Are those the songs you're actually doing or the ones you just want to do?"
"Well, they're the ones I suggested. Nothing's been set in stone yet. What about you guys?"
"We haven't even started yet. Tina, Mike and Artie have mentioned a few songs that we should do but knowing Rachel we won't do any of them. Mike suggested we do this song called Young Blood by The Naked And Famous, their some New Zealand band he found on YouTube. Tina suggested we do It's Alright, It's Ok by Ashley Tisdale and Artie thinks we should do 'Til The World Ends with Brittany as lead."
"I've never heard of Young Blood but the others are quite good song, but you're right I don't see her highness and co wanting to do them."
"I've already written up the reasons for why we should do them but I added the song Alive by Celine Dion for Rachel, and plan to show it to Mr Schue tomorrow."
"You're a good person Blaine; don't let anyone tell you different."
Blaine was really starting to feel like a fish out of water around Sebastian. For all of his rude comments and antics, Sebastian seemed to always have a positive outlook on things.
The two boys spent the rest of the day making lists of other possible songs each group could do with Sebastian picking songs for New Directions and Blaine with The Warblers. They had pizza for lunch and watched the remainder of Top Gear before Sebastian claimed it was getting late and he had to get back to Dalton before curfew.
On his way back to Dalton Sebastian couldn't help but think about what the guys had told him about Blaine. People say it takes another's story to change or turn one's life around, and for him it was hearing Blaine's story that made him see the light, as cheesy as that was it was true. At first he thought Blaine was just another pretty prep boy who seemed to have it all, but he'd come to learn that what he had was due to The Warblers, which had also included his life. Sebastian had come to see The Warblers for who they really were and due to his friendship with Blaine they may yet still be some hope left in the world after all. It was with those thoughts that Sebastian drifted off into a peaceful sleep.
Monday morning came far too soon for Blaine, he would rather have rolled over and gone back to sleep but instead he got up and took a shower. Once he was dressed Blaine saw that he had a missed call from his brother saying that his parents wouldn't be home next week in time for Regionals but instead he was going to go in their place. It was hard being the son of a businessman who was never home; he just hoped that they would at least be able to make it to Nationals if New Directions makes it through.
Monday morning went by as usual for Blaine, he attended his classes, had a practice maths test and before he knew it he was out in the courtyard eating lunch. He was joined by Artie, Tina, Mike, Sam, Quinn and Puck. It wasn't unusual for Artie, Tina, Mike and Sam to be eating lunch with him but Quinn and Puck that only happened when the whole club was sitting together or if they were up to something. As it turned out they had come over to discuss songs for regionals since no one else wanted to listen to their ideas, mainly Rachel.
"… So I was thinking we could do When Your Gone by Avril Lavigne, it's such a beautiful and powerful song that we can all sing as a group. What do you think?"
"That's a great idea Quinn. I myself thought we could do It's Alright, It's Ok by Ashley Tisdale."
"I actually spent a couple of hours on Saturday thinking about a song list that we could take to Mr Schue. I thought about what you guys had suggested." Blaine indicated Artie, Mike and Tina before continuing. "They are only suggestions but I thought we could do Mike's suggestion of performing Young Blood as a group, the girls could do It's Alright, It's Ok and we could do Artie's suggestion of doing 'Til The World End's and have Brittany leading us. I had thought of getting Rachel to perform Alive by Celine Dion as the first song since she would put up a fuss about getting a solo. I know we normally only get to perform 2-3 songs but we could do some as a mash-up. I had written up reasons for why we should do them and was planning to show him during next practice, I thought it was better to get our ideas in first before Rachel and co take over before we even get a say."
"You know what's funny?"
"I didn't know there was anything particularly funny going on." Quinn looked at Puck puzzled.
"Well not haha funny but funny as in Santana and Finn, even though Finn tends to go back and forth from right and wrong, they think Blaine transferred to take over or at least take us out from within. I mean they say you want to take over kind of like how Rachel does yet none of the songs were your ideas, and something tells me that the people who you think should sing them are those who don't get appreciated much."
"Wow, Puck that was deep man, well deep for you."
"Hey, don't knock it until you've tried it Evans."
They all burst into laughter at that. It was nice to know that he had made a few friends out of New Directions, though he never thought that Quinn and Puck would be two of them.
They heard the lunch bell ring indicating the end of lunch and the start of glee club, the group of friends all rose from their seats and headed to the choir room together. Half of the New Directions still weren't speaking to each other since they took sides, not that it bothered those who sat next to Blaine. When they reached their desired room it was made very clear by the look Rachel shot them that ND would remain divided for a bit longer. Blaine also noticed that Sugar was sitting on the opposite side of the room waving at them to come join her, how could they refuse.
As soon as they had all sat down Mr Schuester walked into the room. "Regionals are coming up in the next few weeks and we need song ideas." He said as he walked into the room and wrote Regionals in big black letters on the white board.
Immediately Rachel shot her hand into the air and before Mr Shu or anyone else could say anything she shouted "Finn and I should do a duet, preferably 'I'm Your Angel' by R. Kelly and Celine Dion."
Before Mr Schue could ever respond, for the first time ever Tina loudly retorted "Why should you always be the one to sing a duet, especially during a competition. There are 14 other people in this club, not just you and Finn. Why not let someone else have a chance at either a duet or solo, without you going into a huff because they got it and not you. For 3 years now we've had to be backup singers for you, we're a part of this group too you know. The world doesn't revolve around you so why should we, we're the New Directions not Rachel and company."
That shut Rachel up and majority of the glee members burst out cheering and clapping. Once they settled down Mr Schuester carried on "We'll add I'm Your Angel to the board for now." He turned and wrote it on the board "Any other ideas, Blaine?"
Blaine put his hand down and spoke up "We had just been discussing song ideas at lunch actually and we've come up with a few, and if it's alright, who should sing them." Mr Schue gave him an approving nod to continue "Well Mike had suggested we do Young Blood by The Naked and Famous as a group, we thought the girls could do It's Alright, It's Ok by Ashley Tisdale. Artie suggested we do 'Til The World End's by Britney Spears and have Brittany leading us, we had also thought about performing I'm Alive by Celine Dion as the first song. Quinn had also suggested When You're Gone by Avril Lavigne."
Without a word Mr Schue wrote all the suggested songs on the board and wrote several members names under each one before turning back to the group in front of him. "Alright are there any more song suggestions?" Mr Schue took their silence as a no "ok then, I'm going to spend majority of the lesson listing who performs which songs. In the meantime I want you all to come up with some costume ideas and I'm putting Mike in charge of dance moves. Once the songs are chosen there will be no arguments and choices are final. Now let's get to work, work individually or in groups."
They spent the next 45 minutes discussing what they should wear and after a few arguments, mainly between Rachel and Tina, they finally settled on their costumes for Regionals. Mike had drawn up several dance routines, mainly where to put people, and Mr Schue had settled on their set list.
"All right times up, once I read this list there is no changing it and performers are final." He was looking at Rachel in particular "All right, our first song will be I'm Alive performed by Rachel with the girls backing, our second song will be 'Til the World Ends with Brittany leading and everyone else backing her, and our final song will be Young Blood sung by everyone. Win or lose, Tina and the girls will perform It's Alright, It's Ok as our after competition song."
With their set list and costumes sorted Mike was given the night to arrange their performance ready for their next lesson. Mr Schue suggested that each member familiarise themselves with all songs and be ready to start rehearsals the next day. Once the bell rang indicating the end of the school day Blaine bid farewell to Quinn and Puck, as he along with Tina, Mike and Artie headed towards Mike's car. He was going to spend the afternoon at Artie's house with Tina and Mike going over dance moves when he saw a familiar silver Mazda Atenza sitting just outside the school. Next to the silver Mazda stood Sebastian dressed in dark blue jeans, a grey t-shirt and a navy checked shirt with the buttons left undone revealing his toned chest through the shirts fabric. Sebastian had been leaning against the side of his car but once he saw Blaine he got off and waved him over.
"Hi, what are you doing here?"
"Well since I had dropped you off this morning I thought you may need a ride home."
"I think you may be having a senior moment seeing that I drove myself here today." He stated has he turned around to point towards his car only to realise that it wasn't where he had parked it that morning.
However before he could say anything Sebastian had started talking again. "You mean a blue Ford Focus, I saw a couple of guys in navy uniforms drive away in one about 10 minutes ago." Sebastian told him while trying not to laugh.
"Let me guess, you had Nick and Jeff take my car back to Dalton. Sorry to disappoint you but we were going to go back to Artie's house and start rehearsing for regionals".
"Way to be a buzz kill, the guys were looking forward to seeing you. I'll tell you, go hang with your friends and text me when you're finished and I'll come pick you up. We can still hang out with the guys, just a bit later than planned. I can hang around Lima for a few hours or so but I can't guarantee that your car will still be in one piece when I tell them we'll be a little late."
They said their goodbyes, Sebastian going to find something to do while Blaine got into the back seat of Mike's car next to Artie. It only took 15 minutes to get to Artie's house, which was a nice white bricked house with a wooden ramp out front made especially for Artie. Both of Artie's parents were still at work so it was just the four of them for the next couple of hours.
It had taken them the better part of three hours but the 4 friends had figured out several routines they could do for their song set and were quite proud of themselves. Once they had finished Blaine sent a quick text to Sebastian before joining his friends on the couch. 20 minutes later there was a knock at the door which Artie's mum Nancy answered.
"Hi, my name is Sebastian. Is Blaine here?" he asked hoping he had the right house.
"Blaine your ride is here."
Blaine gathered up his belongings, said goodbye to Mike and Tina and then thanked Artie for inviting him over. He said thank you again to Artie's mother who was standing holding the door open for him, and as they made their way to Sebastian's car she called out to them telling them to drive safely and have a good night before closing the door.
Neither Sebastian nor Blaine uttered a word until they were on the road that led them out of Lima heading towards Westerville. "So how was your 'rehearsal", Sebastian asked while attempting to do quotation fingers at rehearsal.
"Rehearsal..." Blaine said while mimicking Sebastian's quotation fingers "… Went pretty good. We've come up with several dance routines for all our songs, just hoping everyone can do them, mainly Finn."
Sebastian burst out laughing at that, Blaine had told him quite a bit about Finn's dancing that and he's seen first-hand when he watched them at sectionals.
"So what did you end up spending your afternoon doing?" Blaine asked the other boy once Sebastian's laughter had died down.
"I wasted half an hour just driving around Lima aimlessly before finding myself at the mall. I spent the next two and a half hours just wondering around the mall until you texted me."
"See anything exciting while wondering around?"
"Not really, not outside or in the mall. I was half tempted to stop by the tattoo parlour and get a tattoo but thought against it. I've come to the conclusion that Lima is a very boring place to be in, at least when one is hanging out by themselves."
Blaine just quietly chuckled at that and the two fell into a comfortable silence as Sebastian turned the radio on. They spent the remainder of their drive quietly singing along to some of the songs being played and enjoying each other's company. It was close to 7 o'clock by the time Sebastian pulled into Dalton's student parking lot, right beside where Nick and Jeff had parked Blaine's car.
As soon as they had entered Trent's dorm room they were greeted by seven boys coming up and all trying to hug Blaine at the same time. Once he was able to get himself free the group of friends had settled themselves on Trent and Thad's beds to catch up on the latest news of each other's lives before settling down with some pizza for their dinner and various snacks as they got into a Harry Potter marathon.
As Blaine began to fall asleep that night squished between Sebastian and Trent he truly couldn't believe what great friends he had and how much he missed hanging out with them, they were defiantly one of a kind and he was extremely blessed to have them in his life. Tonight had defiantly been one of the best nights he's had in a very long time, with those thoughts in mind he fell into a peaceful sleep of bliss.
The next week at a half went by in a blur of school, home, some homework, and rehearsals for Regionals. Somehow they had managed to come together as a group and so far they were doing pretty well. Even Finn had improved somewhat, not by much but it was a start. They only had three days left to practice before Regionals and during that time they were unknowingly visited by four boys currently out of school uniform.
Sebastian hadn't heard much from Blaine since Trent's sleepover except from the odd couple of texts every now and then. For some unknown reason the guys thought that they should attempt to spy out their competition. So there he was along with Trent, Nick and Jeff, by the help of one Sue Sylvester for to them unknown reasons they found themselves sneaking into McKinley High's auditorium.
From what they saw New Directions were very good and have upped their game. "We shouldn't be here, this isn't right." Trent kept saying while Nick kept trying to shush him. "I swear someone keeps looking in our direction. If we get caught we could get disqualified."
"Just relax would you, it's just Blaine."
"What!" Trent, Jeff and Nick said in unison.
"I don't think anyone else has noticed but about 5 minutes after we snuck in every now and then Blaine has been looking this way."
"This is wrong, let's just go before someone else notices us." Trent tried again.
"You guys really aren't good at this are you?"
"You mean spying on our friend and rival competition. No were not, we try not to make it a habit of ours. Besides this was all your idea, not sure why you dragged us into this." Nick replied.
"Hey, they've spied on us before I was merely returning the favour. Besides you didn't see them at Sectionals."
"Since when is cheating ever a good idea."
"Nick your starting to sound like Trent."
"With good reason..." Jeff shushed him before he could finish his sentence as the music had stopped playing.
Mr Schue had dismissed the New Directions and they could now hear footsteps coming their ways. "Not that we don't mind the visit but is there a reason for why you guys are spying on us?" Blaine startled them while trying not to laugh. "It's ok, it's just me all on my lonesome."
"Jesus Blaine, you almost gave us a heart attack." Nick said while clutching his chest.
"I told you this was a bad idea." Trent told Sebastian as he stood up. "This was all Sebastian's idea, he just dragged us along. He threatened to blackmail us if we didn't accompany him."
"I did no such thing." Sebastian defended himself while not quite meeting Blaine's eyes.
"Well now you know our set list, it's only fair if you tell me yours."
"Billy Jean, Beat It and They Don't Really Care About Us. Sebastian's choices curtesy of Jeff." Trent told him without missing a beat. "What?"
"Thanks Trent but you didn't actually have to tell me, I was only teasing. However speaking of set lists, Sebastian you remember David Karofsky?"
"Yeah, why?"
"Well…" he whispered into each of their ears.
"What!" All four Dalton boys said at once.
"Yeah he transferred schools at the start of the year and he has been having a hard time at his new school. We've actually decided to change our set list and dedicate our performance to him and were wondering, well I was, if the Warblers would like to us well."
"We'd be honoured." Jeff said before the others could say anything. "You guys were great by the way." Jeff told him as he shuffled the other three out of the building.
Friday came much sooner than Mr Schue and the members of New Directions would have liked and before they knew it they were on the bus heading to Regionals. This year's Regionals was being held in the auditorium of Dalton Academy and the New Directions were given one of the common rooms close to the auditorium to get ready in. Like Sebastian had previously said the Warblers were up first, instead of performing the Michael Jackson songs that Trent had told him about earlier in the week they were performing three new ones.
The Warblers began their performance with The Wanted's 'Glad You Came', Sebastian then had proceeded to reminded the audience about making donations to be given to Lady Gaga's Born This Way Foundation and that baskets were located all around them. They then performed Michael Jackson's 'You're Not Alone' which followed by 'Like A Rose' by A1. During 'You're Not Alone' and 'Like A Rose' Sebastian and a few other Warblers were looking directly at Blaine and during their last number Blaine found himself singing along.
The next group up was the Golden Goblets from the school Our Lady of Perpetual Sorrow, they did a lovely performance of 'She Walks In Beauty' by Eric Barnum. Their last two numbers were muffled as the New Directions got ready for their turn. The girls were wearing lovely light blue dresses with an open back, hair curled and in low ponytails, and pale blue heeled sandal style shoes. The boys were wearing black pants, short sleeved shirts with matching black waistcoats and dress shoes. They also wore light blue ties that matched the girl's dresses.
Once the Golden Goblets took their final bow the announcer introduced the New Directions. The girls went up first and did a wonderful performance of Kelly Clarkson's 'What Makes You Stronger', the boys soon joined them on stage with the boys singing Christina Aguilera's 'Fighter' with the girls joining in on the chorus and dancing. They completed their performance with a mash up of 'Fly/I Believe I Can Fly'.
After their performance the New Directions left the stage to wait in the wings while the judges made their votes. About 10 minutes later all three groups were invited back up on stage. Since the Golden Goblets came in third it was down to The Warblers and the New Directions. After what felt like hours but in truth was only seconds the New Directions were announced as the 2012 Regional Champions.
As they were making their way off stage Sebastian walked up to them. "Congratulations, you guys were awesome out there, and I seriously mean that. I also wanted to apologise for the things I have said and done to any of you this year. Not sure if I'd ever get the chance again so I'm telling you now, and due to some people and other things that have been constantly shinning a light in my eye I've finally come to realise that my actions have consequences and I have a lot to make up for. So again I'm sorry for my actions towards all of you these past few months." With that said Sebastian gave them all a small bow of his head and an extra bow to Blaine before following the rest of The Warblers back to their common room.
On the ride back to McKinley all they could talk about was what Sebastian had said along with all the performances and before they knew it they were back in their own auditorium. As promised Tina got to sing Ashley Tisdale's 'It's Alright, It's Ok' as their after competition song and due to the events of the past week Quinn got to do the lead for 'When You're Gone' by Avril Lavigne. Unknown to them Sue Sylvester had sent Becky Jackson to film both of their performances and along with her hidden videos of both The Warblers and New Directions regional performances, she had put them altogether on a dvd and sent them to David Karofsky with a little message from herself. However said one Susan Sylvester didn't have a heart clearly didn't know her very well and nor will they ever get to know, for deep down she knew William Schuester had both started and created something special.
Yes finally finished, about damn time. I apologise for the rushed ending, I didn't want to split the chapter like I did with chapter 3 and with the way I was going this chapter would have been over 5000 words, that's 2 chapters. I had the venue changed to Dalton because for some reason just about every Sectional/Regional performances are held at McKinley.
For the boys costumes there the same as their season 3 national outfits (S03E21) but with light blue ties instead of red. I had trouble trying to describe the girl's dresses, but you can see it on my tumblr page cjmusicfanfiction. tumblr. Com, along with Sebastian's and Blaine's cars. Please don't forget to feed the muse by reviewing.