Glee: To the Next Level (the second book in the Glee series)

Chapter 46: Sorting Hat

"Okay!" Will began. "Jake and Ryder, as promised, you two will get to choose the spring musical since you won the duet assignment in January."

"Great," said Jake. "We chose... No musical."

"What?" exclaimed Marley while Sugar cried, "Are you kidding me!"

"Sorry," Ryder explained. "But tomorrow will be the first week of March. We have next week and then the week after that will be our spring break."

"That seems awfully early," said Will, pulling out a calendar on his phone.

"And after spring break, we have one week and then the week after that is Regionals," Jake continued. "And after that it's April, which is always a busy month, and that just seems like pushing too close to Nationals, assuming we win Regionals. It's just unrealistic to put so much work and energy into cramming an entire musical into our schedules when we'll have so much going on."

"Then we can just..." Will said, looking at all the disappointed faces.

"We have an idea," Ryder said. "We talked about it and decided that just because we don't have time to do an entire musical, doesn't mean we can't have a Spring show at all."

"What do you mean?" Unique asked, intrigued.

"Well," Jake explained. "We can have a show the Friday before we leave on break."

"That's in one week," Bree pointed out. "There's no way we can--"

"If it's not a musical," Ryder interrupted her, "then it won't take up as much time. We can do a showcase instead."

"Hmm..." said Will, contemplating on the idea.

"We can have ten different numbers or something like that," said Jake, "like what we'd have in a musical, except it's just the songs so it'll save a lot of time. And we'll work on our own numbers individually and be ready by then."

"That's a fantastic idea!" Will exclaimed, proud of the guys but embarrassed that he couldn't come up with that himself.

"Wait, hold the phone," said Unique. "And how would we go about choosing who gets to do what number? 'Cause Unique knows there's some crazy divas in this room and if there's only ten spots--"

"We'll decide," said Ryder. "We understand that not everyone will have a chance for a solo, but everyone will get a significant role in this. That's the beauty of it."

"Why do you get to choose?" asked Kitty.

"We won the duet assignment," Jake responded smugly. "And we already have a pretty good idea of what we want to see on the show."

"What is that?" asked Will. The boys stood and headed for the white board, turning it around to reveal writing. The board was separated into four sections: SOLOS, DUETS, GROUP NUMBERS, and EVERYONE. 

Ryder pointed at the solos. "Based on every number ever done by anyone in this room," he said. "Ever... We have decided that these standouts should have a solo spot reserved all for themselves."

"Harmony, Julie, and Marley?" asked Unique. "I understand thirty-three percent of the choices..."

Kitty rolled her eyes as Jake pointed to the duets. "For duets," he said, "we thought immediately of Bree and Amity and also of John and Marley."

Bree high-fived Amity while Marley shot an awkward glance at John. "And for the groups," said Ryder. "The rest of us can do a group number."

"And then all of us get together for a final number together," Jake finished.