Courage

Chapter 7: The Winners

(Kurt POV)

I swung my locker open and put my books inside, I had just finished history class, and next was Glee Club.

"We need to talk!" Rachel's loud voice rang in my ears.

"What do you want, Rachel?" I rolled my eyes

"I saw you yesterday at breadstix!"

"So?"

"You were with that Warbler and almost kissed!"

"Key word almost," I mumbled under my breath.

"Even though I said he was clearly using you! Yet there you were, inches from smacking each other's lips!"

"Okay, Rachel, I say this with total respect, but you need to hear it...you're being super creepy. You've reached the maximum level of creepy, stop!"

"I'm just looking out for you, Kurt."

"Stop kidding yourself, Rachel. If Blaine wasn't a part of The Warblers, would we be having this conversation right now?"

"If he weren't a Warbler, no, we wouldn't be talking about this, but he is. Kurt, you heard what Mr. Shue said. The Warblers are dangerous."

"I think you're wrong..." I slung my messenger bag over my shoulder and walked to the choir room.

"Alright, guys, we had quite a few weeks with some amazing solos and duets! But now it's time for our judges to announce the winners of our Sectionals competition!"

The room echoed with ecstatic claps and whoops as Finn and Rachel moved to the center of the room.

"Alright, so, first, we just want to say that this was probably one of the hardest choices we had to make. You all killed it out there! But I think Rachel and I are, are pretty confident with our choice-"

"Just say the winner!" Puck called, his fingers intertwined with Quinn's

"Okay..." Finn had an envelope in his hand, and he handed one to Rachel.

"So as the best soloist in the club...I got to choose the soloist, and as much as I don't want to give up my position-"

"Rachel!" Finn gently nudged her; she cleared her throat.

"Drumroll," the drummer proceeded to drum loudly.

"Our soloist for sectionals is...Kurt Hummel"

"Yes!" Mercedes cheered

I was stunned, Rachel and I have always been rivals when it came to solos, so I didn't expect her to hand me one.

"Congratulations, Kurt" Mr. Shue smiled

"Th-thank you!"

"Alright, Finn, your turn."

"Alright, we saw four duets...only one can win. Give me a drumroll!"

"The duet winner is....Santana Lopez and Brittany S. Pierce!"

"That's us, Tana!" Brittany excitedly wrapped her arms around Santana, who was also completely speechless

"Whoa, what..."

"Your duet made everyone in this room cry...even Puck."

"Did not!" Puck scoffed in an 'as if' tone.

"Dude, I saw you wipe a tear off your face...it's okay."

"Okay, guys! Sectionals are coming up fast, so we need to get started on some song ideas for our soloist and our duet, and I thought we could close with a group number, so everyone still gets a chance to perform, so we need ideas for that too."

"Mr. Shue, do the soloist and duets get to choose the songs they perform themselves?" I asked

"I agree with Lady Hummel. It is our solo or, in mine and Brittany's case, duet."

"I think that's fair..." Mr. Shue nodded

"Then we get to choose the group song as well!" Rachel piped in

"I never thought I'd say this, but I agree with Rachel," Quinn said

"Well, I'll leave you guys to it then," Mr. Shue shrugged.

I was putting the finishing touches on my new locker decor, I went through some old magazines and cut some letters out to spell 'COURAGE.' It perfectly accompanied my framed picture of Blaine.

"Perfect," I smiled.

Slam! I fell to the ground; Karofsky looked at me with pure hatred as he walked away from me.

I forced myself off of the ground, picking all my books up off the floor. Every time Karofsky looked at me, I had this horrible feeling in my gut that I couldn't shake.