Chapter 34 - Grudge

Nobody spoke when Xavier entered the choir room. Beforehand it had been a hive of chatter, everyone still excited from the House Cup finale – Wes of course talking about David and people congratulating Blaine, who was sitting slouched back in his chair with an arm draped round my shoulders and a relaxed grin on his face. (I was pretty sure he was probably hanging from the huge party that had gone on in Wordsworth that night, but didn't want to question when his fingers were stroking the material of my shirt in that way.) Now however, you could have heard a pin drop.

Xavier surveyed the group with eyes of steel. Losing obviously wasn't his thing – from what I'd heard he hadn't lost anything for at least three years. Stalking up to his position on the head table, which today seemed further away from each of the other three chairs, his footsteps echoed around the room and seemed to make the situation even more tense. He also seemed in less than good shape, but certainly not from partying.

"Right…" Wes began, his voice apprehensive (in fact, several of the Darwin boys had gasped when the silence had been broken, obviously fearing an outburst from their leader) "I guess we should continue with the meeting…" A couple of murmurs broke out and Blaine shuffled closer towards me, our sides pressing together so I smiled.

"With the subject of Regionals I suggest we schedule more rehearsals over the next couple of weeks, with further extra sessions for our two soloists Steven and Blaine." Glancing at my boyfriend again my smile widened further. A few weeks ago auditions had been held for the solo spots and as expected Steven and Blaine had won, singing 'With Or Without You' and 'Raise Your Glass' respectively.

"I have an objection." Suddenly Xavier spoke out and the whole group froze again. Looking at his face I noticed a faint covering of stubble on his chin and wondered if he had forgotten to shave.

"You have an objection? To the rehearsals?" Wes asked, slightly (and not unsurprisingly) confused.

"No, to the soloists. I do not want Blaine singing for Dalton."

Immediately cries rang out from the group.

"WHAT?" To my surprise Steven stood up, his whole face indignant and shocked. "Why on earth would you say that?"

"Blaine is simply not good enough. I will not have him ruin our chances of winning through his mediocrity." Oh HELL to the no. Rage whipping through me I went to stand up, to give Xavier a piece of my mind, but Blaine grabbed hold of my arm, shooting me a 'don't get involved look'.

"You can't stop him from competing just because Wordsworth won the house cup!" Another Warbler, this one from Dahl had stood up and at his words Xavier's expression ignited with rage.

"That has nothing to do with it. I know failures when I see them – Blaine is a failure."

"Well who should do the solo then?" Suddenly he calmed down, a smile spreading across his face.

"Me." I couldn't hold back any longer.

"NO FREAKIN WAY! You are selfish Xavier! You can't cope with the fact that your house lost and are using your humiliation to take it out on Blaine, who has done nothing but bring The Warblers success and bring us together! You are disgusting and I would rather DIE than see you up there performing that son-"

"-Oh shut up Kurt nobody wants to hear your pathetic whining about your boyfriend-"

"-YOU IMBECILE!" I leapt to my feet, Xavier doing the same, and for a split second I was coming up with fight strategies, perfectly ready for a physical battle with a guy twice my size. Thankfully though Blaine grabbed my hips to hold me back and Wes shouted out.

"XAVIER! KURT! STOP THIS NOW!"

Silence descended across the room. Both Xavier and I were fuming, steam practically rising from our ears, but slowly I sat down, instantly feeling Blaine beginning to comfort me, which I shrugged off. I couldn't believe he wasn't angry about this – Xavier was being ridiculous.

"Xavier, you didn't even audition for a Regional solo. You can't perform it." Wes had spoken again, now trying to resolve the situation more rationally. The Darwin Head Boy had also seemed to calm down slightly but still had a red tinge to his normally flawless features.

"That doesn't matter. You know what I can do."

"Of course we do. But that still doesn't mean it's in the rules."

"Are you saying you don't want my voice? The voice that won two consecutive National titles?" Instantly the anger rose inside me again. How was he getting away with this? Blaine's grip tightened on my arm and I glared at him.

"Of course not, but if you wanted a solo you should have auditioned. Blaine was voted in by the whole group."

"Who are obviously biased. I mean look, he clearly had his boyfriend influence the whole of Wilde and whoever else he is chummy with – who knows he probably had the house tournament fixed-"

"HOW DARE YOU!" I screamed out again, my voice becoming high pitched from the extreme rage streaming from my pores. Wes banged the hammer on the desk again to order silence.

"WARBLERS! This is unacceptable! Xavier you cannot go around making accusations like this, it is improper and deplorable."

"I am your leader! You all voted me in – I am leading!"

"No – we voted you in to lead a democracy, not dictate. We can just as easily vote you out." That shut him up. Xavier stared down Wes like an anaconda about to attack his prey – I felt for the Wordsworthian but he stood his ground.

"Warblers, obviously we wouldn't be a democracy if we didn't take into consideration every opinion, no matter how extreme, so I suggest a vote. All those in favour of Xavier replacing Blaine as soloist for Regionals please raise your hand."

Astonishingly, not one Warbler raised their hand. I had been expecting at least one scared Darwin to relent, to bow down under the pressure of their dictator. But every hand stayed down.

"All those in favour of Blaine staying as a soloist." All the Warblers raised their arms slowly in the air. I felt like cheering. Blaine finally let go of my arm, a small smile spreading across his face as he surveyed the scene, and relaxed. I looked back at Xavier and saw the exact opposite. Pure rage.

"CORRUPT! THIS WHOLE CLUB IS CORRUPT! I WILL NOT ASSOCIATE MYSELF WITH SUCH HYPOCRISY!" Practically stewing in his own words the Darwin Head Boy leapt to his feet, storming out of the room with such a noise it was like a five year old kicking off at a Wal-Mart. Slamming the door behind him we heard the sound of more chairs being thrown around outside, and then a brief silence descended across the room. A silence followed by a steady trickle of giggles, then full blown laughter.

"Hey, hey." Wes spoke out as the laughs begun to get louder, people beginning to talk and replay the scene that had just occurred to each other. "This is not a funny situation. Xavier is obviously very upset at the moment, but we really do need him on the team."

"Good riddance I say." I said loudly, not able to fully contain my sheer delight in seeing my nemesis completely shamed by his peers. Many voices around me agreed and Wes rolled his eyes, shooting me a look that said 'thanks a lot Kurt.'

"Sorry. But you can't deny what he said was insulting." Suddenly I looked towards Blaine and stopped. Throughout all this nobody had even thought to ask what he'd thought. I'd been so wrapped up in protecting him that I hadn't even considered what he might be thinking.

"Oh Gaga, I'm so sorry," I said hurriedly, taking his hand in mine, "are you ok?" My boyfriend smiled.

"I really thought you were going to hit him." He replied. I laughed.

"I was."

"He's like twice your size."

"I could have taken him. What he said was disgusting."

"His pride's been hurt. I know what it's like to lose the thing you care most about in the world." Running a finger along my collarbone so I inhaled loudly Blaine smiled, that soft serene smile that could take any situation, no matter how infuriating or intense, and make it ok.

"But you stood up for me. I appreciate that. I love you."

"I love you too." Wes attempted to organise the group again and I smiled, Xavier's tantrum far behind me.

"Emergency prank meeting is in session." Scott spoke solemnly, before taking a huge bite of his slice of pizza and ruining the image. All five of our bodies were crammed into Stefan and Artem's room, chosen because Scott apparently wanted a 'neutral setting' that wouldn't be able to be tracked or bugged by Damien. For this reason the two room occupants were present, as well as me and Scott, and also Gabriel, who had offered his services after hearing of the crisis we were facing.

"Hey, he's an extra pair of hands – you can't argue with that." I'd muttered under my breath as we'd both entered – Scott had seemed reticent at first but I'd given him a pointed look to remind him of our athletics meet conversation and eventually he'd relented, accepting the Wildeian into the group and practically making his day.

"Is this really necessary? Surely we don't need a full cloak and dagger operation – we just come up with the pranks and do them?" My question received a glare that I hadn't expected, something that had me wondering if I'd accidentally insulted the Buckeyes or something.

"Kurt. This is serious. I thought you would have realised this by now." Stifling a laugh I nodded, before taking a significantly smaller bite of my own pizza. Gabriel was nodding along with Scott like he was his new king and it was terribly amusing.

"So. Operation Athletics Screen was a partial success – I must remember next time to never trust tech guys. Damien obviously already has them under his thumb. Our next prank has to be soon and it has to be BIG. We need to strike hard to show we're still in the game. Any ideas?" Offering the question out to the rest of us Scott looked on expectantly, obviously expecting a plethora of amazing schemes to come his way. Artem instantly looked to me for help. Stefan just looked confused.

"Oh come on guys! You must have something!"

"We could attack Dahl itself – go for their home." Suddenly Gabriel spoke – he seemed serious and had seemingly been coming up with his idea for quite a while. Scott's eyebrows raised.

"Interesting. What do you suggest?"

"Um, we could deface the picture outside? That would cause a stir."

"And probably get us in trouble with Cox." My voice of reason was initially received with distain, before the logistics of it set in.

"Oh yeah, good point. Not a good option. But I like the idea of a Dahl attack. Maybe the toilets or something."

"Yeah! Flood them!"

"Eew. Gross." As a new partnership was formed between Scott and Gabriel I glanced around the room again, looking wistfully as the side that had once been mine, and was now covered with all of Stefan's things. I did miss having a roommate sometimes, although the privacy had helped a lot whenever Blaine had decided to pay me a visit. Stefan had really grown as a person and him and Artem were barely seen apart – he'd even managed to secure a date with one of Ashley's St Jades friends.

I was about to start up a conversation with them that didn't involve pranking when suddenly my phone buzzed angrily.

"Hi Blaine, what's up?" I answered happily, glad for the distraction.

"Kurt, where are you?" Instantly my stomach dropped.

"In Artem's room. What's wrong?"

"I'm just down the hall. One second." The line went dead and I brought my hand down nervously, worry ripping through me.

"Kurt?" Gabriel had stopped talking and was now looking at me, equally nervous. Before I had a chance to explain the door flew open and Blaine stood in front of us, his face a mixture of anger and shock.

"Dude! What happened?" Scott asked.

"My car. Somebody trashed my car."