skivvydancer

“Hello, you’ve reached the voicemail of Wes Montgomery.  I’m sorry I’m not able to return your call right now, but if you’ll leave your name, number, and a message, I’ll be sure to get back to you as soon as possible.  Thank you.”

“Um, hey Wes… it’s David.  Listen, when you get a chance, give me a call… I think we messed up.  Bad.”

~*~

Wes pinched the bridge of his nose and let out a sigh.  David sounded more than just a little nervous in the voicemail, like a kid confessing to his father that he had done something heinous, which really was ridiculous because while Wes was a year older and a year wiser (though some would contest that) David was still one of his best friends and even if he had messed things up somehow to a terrible degree he certainly wasn’t going to judge him for it.

Wes punched number three on his speed-dial and waited for David to pick up.  It only took a ring and a half.  “Wes!  Hey!”

He still sounded nervous.  Wes decided now was not the time to beat around the bush.  “Hey David.  I got your voicemail.  What’s going on?”

“I, uh… I think we screwed up.”

Wes furrowed his brow.  “Who’s ‘we’?”

“The Warblers.”

If David didn’t have Wes’s full attention before, he sure as hell did now.  Leaving the Warblers behind was the suckiest part about graduating, but he had felt good leaving it in David and Thad’s capable hands.  “What do you mean?  What happened?”

David sighed loudly into the phone, and Wes could tell he was settling himself down to tell a long story.  “Okay so, by any chance, do you remember a freshman from two years ago, named Sebastian Smythe?”

Wes suppressed the urge to groan.  Of course he remembered the royal pain in the ass known as Sebastian Smythe.  The arrogant little snob had waltzed into the Warblers, his first day of school, and had announced to everyone that their star had arrived.  The council had not been impressed, but had let him audition anyway, much to Wes’s chagrin.  He had no words to express how grateful he was when the council had turned him down, and he had been even more ecstatic when he found out that Sebastian would be spending his sophomore year in Paris – meaning he wouldn’t have to deal with him at all.

But now Sebastian had returned, and from the tone in David’s voice, things were not looking good.  No, not at all.

“Sebastian kinda took your place as the third member of the council.”

Wes choked on his own breath.  “What?”

“And when I say ‘kinda took you place,’ I actually mean ‘kinda took over the Warblers completely.’”

At this revelation, Wes was inhaling deeply and trying to remember what number came after three.  “Okay,” he began slowly, drawing out every syllable, “mind enlightening me as to how this happened?”

“Well,” David began, his voice appropriately sheepish, “he signed up for auditions and showed up and just… blew us away.  He changed—or, at least we thought he had.  His voice had improved a lot, and he wasn’t as haughty – we thought he was actually a team player.  And with Blaine transferring… it just seemed like the smart thing to do.”

“But?” Wes prompted, knowing there was more to the story.

“But… the short story of it all is that it was an act.  After he joined the Warblers, he coerced some of the other guys into voting him third chair in the council, and once he got that position, he just… took over.”

“How, though?” Wes sighed, thoroughly confused and angry.  “That’s why we have a council, so it stays a democracy and not some musical dictatorship.”

“Sebastian plays dirty,” David continued, and oh, there was the malice Wes has been waiting for.  “He undermines the council.  He’ll have an idea, and before bringing it to everyone during a meeting, he’ll seek out individual members and talk to them in private.  He’s especially good at manipulating the underclassmen, which makes up almost half of the group.  Then whenever we meet and decide to vote on said issue, half of the group is already decided, and no one really gets a chance to object.”

“Oh, that is sly,” Wes mumbled.

“And it’s not like Thad and I can just overrule him,” David pressed on.  “If we tell Sebastian that something is a bad idea, or try to stop it, then half of the Warblers are personally offended and feel like their votes and opinions are being overlooked as well.  Sebastian gets exactly what he wants while making us look like the bad guys.”

Wes sighed, exhaling forcefully through tight lips.  “So it sounds like you guys are pretty much screwed.”

“That’s not even the worst part,” David muttered.

“How can it get any worse?”

David paused, silence reigning as he tried to figure out what to say.  “I think we might have damaged our relationship with Kurt and Blaine permanently.”

“David,” Wes started, low and dangerous.  “What have you guys done?”

“We had a sing-off in a parking garage a few nights ago.”  David sounded so sad and disappointed in himself that Wes almost felt sorry for him and almost forgot his ire.  “It was to see who had the right to do Michael Jackson at Regionals, since we both had the idea.  At the end of it… Sebastian pulled out a slushie with the intention of hitting Kurt, but Blaine stepped in front of him at the last minute.”

Wes was stunned.  This was not the group of close-knit brothers he left when he graduated months ago.  This sounded like a completely foreign group who valued competition over morality, egoism over brotherhood, and had most definitely lost sight of what was important.

“What’s worse is that we know Sebastian did something to it before he threw it,” said David when Wes didn’t reply.  “Blaine was screaming out in pain when we left him, and there’s rumors going around that he might be blind in one eye.” A beat of silence passed.  “I’ve never felt worse, Wes.  Like I’m actually ashamed to call myself a Warbler right now.”

“Well after the everything that went down, I should think that yes, you should feel pretty ashamed of yourself,” Wes stated before he could think about his biting words.  “Thad too.”

“I know,” David replied, obviously frustrated.  “I know we messed this one up—”

“No shit, David!” Wes nearly yelled, forgetting the “Gentlemen never swear” rule that Dalton has instilled in him for four years.  “Did it completely slip your mind that just because Blaine’s switched schools, it doesn’t make him any less of a friend?  Do you remember what he was like when he came to Dalton? We were his best friends!  And Kurt—have you completely forgotten what drove him to Dalton last year?!  Did you even—”

“I get it, Wes!”  David yelled.  “I know! We did a horrible thing—I got that!  I didn’t call you so you would make me feel worse!  I called you because I don’t know how to fix it!!”

Wes stopped his berating and simply breathed as he rubbed his eyes until he saw stars.  He was so furious about the whole situation, so disappointed in his friends, but he knew that yelling at David wasn’t going to make him feel any better, and it certainly wasn’t going to fix anything. 

“I’m sorry,” Wes replied quietly.  “I didn’t mean to blow at you like that.  I mean, I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t disappointed in you guys, but I know it’s not completely your fault, or Thad’s.  Hell, if I were in your situation, I may not fair much better.”

Wes heard David chuckle just a bit.  “Wes, if you were here, none of this would have gone down.”

Wes smiled.  “I appreciate the sentiment, and take this as evidence that me and my gavel are missed.”

“Yeah, you better, because there’s no way in hell I’m admitting that in so many words.”  The two friends laughed for a moment before silence reigned again, heavy and loaded with tension.  “So… what do we do?”

Wes tapped his fingers against his thigh in thought.  “If it were me,” he began with a sigh, “I’d play by Sebastian’s rules.  If he likes to undermine the council by going to members before meetings, then I say you have the same right.  Try to talk to some of the other guys before the next meeting.”

“That’s not a bad idea,” muttered David.  “I know some of the guys are already starting to question Sebastian’s tactics and ideas.”

“Talk to them,” Wes encouraged.  “If there’s a group of you to stand up to Sebastian in meetings, maybe you can shift the pull of power back to the council, instead of one person.”

“Yeah.  Yeah, I will.”

“And David?”

“Hmm?”

“… You have to make this right with Kurt and Blaine.  Those guys are our brothers too – once a Warbler, always a Warbler, right?”

“… Yeah.”

“You can do this, David.  You and Thad together.”  Wes smiled again.  “It’s why I felt okay leaving the Warblers, because I knew you two could handle it.”

David didn’t respond for a full minute, and Wes had to check and make sure the call hadn’t been dropped.  “I feel like I let you down,” he confessed.

Wes shrugged even though David couldn’t see him.  “We’re human; we all make mistakes. But what separates the men from the boys is seeing who has the balls to make it right.  What’s done is done.  The only thing you can do now is fix what’s wrong.”

~*~

David noticed Thad wring his hands nervously.  “So who all did you talk to again?”

“I got to Nick and Jeff.  You talked to John and Trent, yeah?”

“Yes.  Do you think they’ll listen to us?”

David shrugged.  “We can only hope.  But I think they will… they were all a part of the Warblers last year.  They all know Blaine personally.  I think if we’re going to change things, these are the guys who will stand beside us.”

Thad let out a huff and straightened his tie.  David suppressed a chuckle at his friend’s severity over the situation.  Yes, things were bad, but leave it to Thad to nearly have a panic attack over a meeting with guys who were supposed to be their friends.

Supposed to be.

David wondered when he started questioning who his friends really were.  He supposed it must have started when Sebastian had taken over.  Strange how one guy could change everything he thought about the people around him, the young men he considered his brothers.

Because what if it hadn’t been Blaine who’d transferred?  What if it had been him - for whatever reason - who found himself going against these guys, who were supposed to be his friends.  Would they have done the same thing to him?

With a sickly feeling he realized that yes, he probably would have gotten the same treatment.  There certainly wasn’t any evidence to prove him otherwise.

David swallowed thickly.  Maybe Thad had a good reason to be so nervous.

“Come on,” he said, shaking his nerves and placing a comforting hand on Thad’s shoulder.  “Let’s do this.  These guys are our friends.  I have a feeling we’ll all be in agreement about this.”

“And if we’re not?”

David shrugged as he studied Thad’s worried gaze.  “We’ll cross that bridge when we get there.”

Thad nodded, and David tried to offer a comforting smile.  And with nothing more to say, they both opened the doors and entered the lounge used for the Warbler meetings.

The four guys they had talked to - Nick, Jeff, Trent, and John - were already waiting in the room, ever the punctual gentlemen that Dalton had trained them to be.  The four of them had been discussing in hushed voices before David and Thad had entered, but upon seeing them they quickly grew silent.  John leaned back into the leather sofa and crossed his arms, apparently waiting for David and Thad to speak before saying anything whatsoever.  Nick and Jeff settled nervously on the couch, elbows rested on their knees, while Trent crossed his legs in the leather armchair next to them, folding his hands in his lap.

David remembered the days when calling a meeting like this was met with smiles, with good natured jibes at striving for perfection and poking fun at Wes for his supposed love affair with his gavel.  Now they were all walking on eggshells, wondering who could trust who.

Something had to give.  And it had to give now.

“Hey guys,” Thad began, taking a seat on the sofa opposite John, Nick and Jeff.  The four boys offered murmured salutations in return.  “So... you’re probably all wondering why David and I asked you here during your lunch hour...”

Tense silence reigned in the room.  It seemed like everyone was waiting for someone else to take the floor.

David decided it must be his turn.  He leaned against the desk at the head of the room and announced, “We wanted to talk to you guys… about Sebastian.”

Eyes shifted nervously in the room.  “What about him?” John asked, his face impassive.

“We don’t think he’s good for the team,” Thad added.

“Good,” Jeff began while folding his arms.  “Seems like we’re on the same page, because I hate that guy.”

David suppressed and snort and Thad smirked.  At least they had one Warbler on their side.  “That’s not really a nice thing to say, Jeff,” Nick scolded.

“Well, sorry I’m not sorry, but if you can’t be honest with your friends, then who can you be honest with?” Jeff replied, throwing his hands up in exasperation.  “Screw gentlemanly duties – I can’t stand him!”

“Calm down, Jeff,” David started, not wanting Jeff to get too riled up before they had a chance to talk with everyone else.  “The whole reason we called you guys here is to try to get on the same page, and see if there’s anything we can do to put an end to this – not just to talk bad about him behind his back.”

“Although if that does happen, you certainly won’t hear me complaining,” Thad added.  David shot a disapproving stare his way.  “What?” he defended, “I was just taking Jeff’s advice, being honest and all.”

David rolled his eyes.  “Since when do you take advice from Jeff?”

“Hey!”

“Sorry,” David apologized immediately.  “That was uncalled for.”

“Although they do have a point,” said Nick as he turned to Jeff.  “You do tend to act and speak before you think.”

“Okay, I thought we were here to talk about Sebastian, not my propensity toward screwing up.”  Jeff folded his arms defensively against his chest.

Nick smiled fondly and placed a comforting hand on his friend’s shoulder.  “You’re not a screw up.  You’re just passionate.”

“And it’s one of the reasons I’m really glad you’re in agreement with us,” David added, seeing a glimmer of a smile cross Jeff’s features.  “We need every bit of righteous anger and thirst for justice we can get.”

“Well, I’ve got plenty of that.”  Jeff visibly relaxed.

“What about the rest of you?” Thad segued.  “Are we all seeing eye to eye on this, or are we just missing something here?”

John shrugged and leaned back into the sofa, letting out a sigh.  “I mean, I was cool with him until the other day.  I thought the sing-off was a great idea – a little friendly competition outside of actual competition is always a good thing, you know?  Keeps you on your toes, and lets you get a feel for your competitors – which, let’s face it, with Blaine in New Directions now, we need every little bit of help we can get.  I thought Sebastian was just being a good leader, taking a more aggressive approach… And he promised that the slushie idea was just a funny joke.”  He shook his head after a moment of contemplation.  “Looking back now… he took things way too far.”

“Honestly, I thought the slushie was a bad idea from the start,” Nick put in.  “I will never forget the expression on Kurt’s face that one time last year when we all came back from the 7-11 down the street with slushies.  He looked like he was going to vomit.”  Nick shrugged his shoulders, seemingly already defeated.  “I tried to tell Sebastian, that if it was a joke no one would be laughing by the end of it… he just ignored me.”

David nodded, his mind processing everything at ninety miles a minute.  Had they really all felt the same way this whole time?  Why hadn’t anyone said anything?  Why hadn’t they done this a long time ago, instead of waiting for things to get this bad?  He felt his stomach roll nauseatingly at the thought that all of this could have been avoided.

Thad’s voice brought David out of his reverie.  “Trent?  You’re awfully quiet over there.  What’s going through your mind?”

Trent, who had been sitting quietly off to the side, head in hand, arm resting on his knee, furrowed his brow and looked at his shoes.  “I think Sebastian is using us, and he doesn’t give a damn about any of us, or the welfare of the Warblers.”

David’s eyes widened considerably.  It wasn’t like Trent to simply say whatever came to mind.  He had always been careful with his words – careful not to offend, careful not to jump to conclusions, always seemed to know exactly what he wanted to say, when he wanted to say it.

So for Trent – of all people – to say something this harsh? Something had to be up.

“Those are some pretty rough accusations,” Thad supplied thoughtfully.  “Why do you say that?”

Trent exhaled loudly and straightened in his seat, looking up at the other five boys in the room.  “I’ve known something about Sebastian for a while now that I haven’t told anyone, honestly because it wasn’t my business and I probably shouldn’t have even heard it in the first place.  And normally, I still wouldn’t divulge another man’s affairs, but because I’ve stayed silent, someone else has gotten hurt.”  He looked down at his lap.  “Someone that I care about.”

Nick cast a sympathetic look in Trent’s direction.  David cocked his head to the side.  “What do you know, Trent?”

Trent took a deep breath before explaining.  “Sebastian has had a thing for Blaine since the moment he met him.  And while he doesn’t exactly advertise it to everyone else, he hasn’t exactly kept it a secret from Blaine either.” He shrugged.  “I heard him tell Blaine he was ‘sex on a stick’ barely five minutes after meeting him, and I’ve also overheard a few of his conversations with the other, more impressionable underclassmen.” A slight flush tinged his cheeks.  “The things he said were… less than flattering to repeat, even among friends.”

“But Blaine is with Kurt,” Nick pointed out.  “Surely he knows that.”

“Of course he does,” Trent continued, as if it were obvious.  “But he doesn’t care.  He doesn’t have any respect for Kurt, let alone their relationship. He’s just trying to – and I quote – ‘tap that sweet ass.’”

Jeff was on his feet in an instant.  “Who the hell does he think he is?!” he said, voice rising with each word.  “Kurt and Blaine, they were like, made for each other!  He can’t just waltz in and think he can have whatever he wants.”

“But that’s just it – he does,” Trent supplied, his tone turning grave.  “And because Blaine keeps spurning him, and because Kurt is in his way, he’s willing to do whatever it takes.”  He turned to Nick.  “Remember what happened yesterday?”

Nick furrowed his brow in thought for a moment before realization dawned on him.  “Oh.  Well that certainly puts things into perspective.”

“What puts what into perspective?” Thad asked, mirroring the confusion that David felt.

“Yesterday, Sebastian called for an extra rehearsal session with the tenor section,” Nick began, his tone weary.  “When the rehearsal ended, the Latina girl from New Directions showed up asking Sebastian if he had tampered with the slushie.”

“She was pretty convinced he had,” Trent added on, before throwing his hands up in defeat.  “She was right.  He put rock salt in that slushie meant for Kurt.”

Nick shook his head.  “It all makes sense.  This was about Sebastian getting back at Kurt for getting in between him and Blaine, but Blaine got caught in the crossfire.”  He rubbed his hands over his face.  “He really has been using us for his own twisted way of revenge.”

Thad took a steadying breath, clearly agitated.  Jeff started pacing almost frantically, Nick sat in disbelief, and John ran his hands over his face.  David shook his head.  “How did we let it come to this?” he asked under his breath.

Jeff plopped down on the couch next to Nick, eyes not meeting anyone else in the room.  “I’ve been wanting to say something for a while now,” he confessed, “but I didn’t know if anyone else felt the same way.  I was afraid that I’d either be written off as being too wrapped up in it all, or be kicked out by everyone else who’s following Sebastian.”

“Me too,” Nick put in.  “I’ve been feeling increasingly more uncomfortable with this whole situation, but not knowing if anyone else had my back… I’ve kept quiet.”

And wow, if David didn’t feel like a failure before, he sure as hell did now.  He shared a meaningful glance with Thad, who nodded, before speaking.  “Guys… I can’t help but feel like this is our fault.  We should have been better leaders.  We should have had this conversation a long time ago.  But we screwed up.”

“You guys shouldn’t blame yourself for all this,” Nick admonished.

“Yeah, we’re a team,” added John as he shared a significant look with David and Thad.  “We all had a hand in this.  We all should have said something before now.”  He turned to Trent, who at some point had practically shrunk back into his chair.  “And don’t you dare go thinking that more responsibility falls on you, because you happened to know more.  I know how you think, dude.  Don’t even go there.”

Trent nodded, his cheeks flushing again.  “I know.  I just… feel really bad that Blaine got hurt.”

Thad took a deep breath and straightened his shoulders.  “We all do.  But we’re not gonna let it happen again.”

“That’s right,” David said, standing up and straightening his tie.  “We’re gonna make this right, no matter what.”

“You’re gonna make what right?”

Everyone froze as the subject of their conversation sauntered into the room, hands in his pockets and a smirk on his features.  “What were you guys talking about just now?” Sebastian asked, his voice just a little too sweet to be truly kind. 

“Uh, the Michael Jackson number!” Thad exclaimed, and David made a mental note to thank him later for his quick thinking.  “John was having a little trouble with the beat boxing in the bridge, and I’m having some trouble with the baritenor part, so we’re all helping each other out.”

“Yeah,” John played along, “we gotta be on the top of our game for Regionals.”

Sebastian narrowed his eyes imperceptibly and stared down at them.  “Oh.  Well then, carry on.”  He laughed.  “For a second there, I thought you might have been talking behind my back.”

Nick laughed, trying to ease some of the tension in the air.  “What would give you that idea?” he said with a genuine smile.  “Sounds to me like you’re a bit paranoid?”

Sebastian laughed lightly, and a few of the other guys followed his lead.  “Maybe a bit,” he joked.  “Well I’m glad you’re all here, I was actually looking for you.  I wanted to let you know that for practice today, we’ll be visiting the New Directions at McKinley High.”

David struggled to contain his surprise and anxiety.  “Oh really?” he asked, his voice pitched a little too high for comfort.  “What for, if I can ask?”

Sebastian smirked smugly, and David found himself suppressing the urge to slap it right off his face.  “Not sure.  They invited us over.  I’m sure they’re finally willing to concede and let us do Michael at Regionals.”  He rolled his right shoulder.  “If not, I guess we’re just gonna have to take things a step further.”

David felt his stomach drop.  “Oh, I’m sure it’ll be fine.  We’re car pooling, right?”

“Yeah, so you guys can all go together, if you want.  We just have to be there by four.  We’re meeting on the front steps after seventh period.  See you guys there?”  Everyone responded in the affirmative (Jeff a little too enthusiastic to be believable, and David just hoped that Sebastian wasn’t getting suspicious).

“All right,” Sebastian said as he headed for the door, “see you guys around 3:15!”  He was just about out the door and David thought they were home free, when he turned around and added snidely, “Jeff, Trent – you guys might wanna work on your footwork.  You both missed a few steps the other day, and we can’t have anything less than perfection at Regionals.”  He smirked condescendingly.  “You don’t wanna make a fool of yourself on stage now, do you?”

And with that passive aggressive comment hanging in the air, Sebastian turned on his heel and left.

A tense moment passed once Sebastian left before Jeff pounded his fist on the coffee table.  “He is such an ass!”

“I agree,” Trent said through tight lips.  “Let’s nail that bastard to the wall.”

David smiled as his friends - his friends - started babbling on how to bring Sebastian down.  Jeff certainly had some favorable (if violent) ideas (that Nick was sure to reign in just a bit).  Trent was nodding along silently, eyes sparkling and smirk growing as John goaded Jeff along, all the while Thad tried to calm them all and talk about feasible ways they could retaliate against Sebastian.

A relieved sigh passed through David’s lips.

They could do this.

It was going to be okay.

Wes would have been proud.

Part 2 is here.