Something - Quinn Fabray

Chapter 47

Monday

"Mr. Schuester, I have an announcement," Ryan said, standing up and walking confidently over to the teacher. "I've selected the perfect moving ballad for our opening at Sectionals."

"Me first," Mr. Schuester replied, motioning at him to sit back down. "Two things. First, our competition at Sectionals are your classic stool choirs - great voices but they don't move. Now if we're going to beat them we need to do what they can't: dance. Which is why I've decided to feature Brittany and Mike Chang's sweet moves in our performance." Everyone in the room clapped, excited grins breaking out on Mike's and Brittany's faces.

"Wait, they're going to dance in front of me while I sing my solo?" Ryan asked, confused.

"You're not getting a solo for this competition."

"Cool. So I'm leading?" Finn asked brightly.

"I was thinking that the winners of our duets competition would take the leads," Mr. Schue said. Quinn's eyebrows went up at the statement, before she glanced over at Ryan, whose mouth was open.

"Wait, what?" he said incredulously, once he was able to get his voice into gear.

"Okay, listen," the teacher said placatingly. "I have talked the talk about everyone in here feeling special for over a year now. But frankly, I haven't walked the walk. We have got a lot of talent here, and I'm going to highlight it."

"But Mr. Schue," Finn jumped in. "That's fine making everyone feel special, for pumping up the team, but that's for practice. You don't take the star quarterback out before the big game."

"Easy to say when you're the star quarterback," Tina said, almost snidely.

"This isn't just about me, this is about the team."

Ryan rolled his eyes. Finn wasn't the star quarterback of this team, no matter what anyone thought. He raised his hand. "Mr. Schue, with all respect, I don't think you've really thought this through. Now, I have the utmost respect for Sam's vocal abilities, but don't you think that perhaps we should feature a more seasoned member of the New Directions? It's only his first year here, he's only been here for a couple of months."

"Well, all of you were newcomers here last year, and you still got solos, right? I think Sam will be a wonderful choice for the solo."

"But don't you think you're not giving everyone a fair chance here?" Ryan tried again. "Last year you had Kurt and I do that diva off."

"We don't really have time for that anymore, Ryan, the competition is this week. Sam and Quinn will be doing the ballad, end of discussion," Mr. Schue said in a final tone.

Ryan grit his teeth. If he'd actually gotten them to start preparing earlier like he'd been nagging at them to do, they would have had time. He considered if this would be a good time for a storm out. He sat back, deciding against it. He'd been working hard to rein in his ego this year, and he'd noticed some of the glee kids didn't seem quite as annoyed by him lately. He didn't want to ruin that. "Now," the teacher continued. "We'll be opening with Sam and Quinn singing Time of My Life. Then our second song is going to be Valerie, by Amy Winehouse." The selections were met with enthusiasm, especially the second song. "Santana, I thought that your voice would be most suited for Valerie."

"Oh, don't worry," Santana said confidently. "Imma kill it."

"Great." Mr. Schue started handing out sheet music. "Let's get to work. Brittany, Mike, let's start choreographing."

..

An hour later, Mike and Brittany had managed to hammer out a basic group routine and had gotten halfway through teaching it to everybody else. "Okay, guys, that's it for the day," Mr. Schue called out. "Make sure you practice at home."