Damaged Goods

Chapter 16

"What's the lesson for today, Mr. Schue?" Rachel asked eagerly, as Mr. Schue approached the whiteboard. Mr. Schue smiled widely at the group and shook his head.

"Not a lesson, Rachel. A competition! I know how much you guys love competing against each other, and I know that we have some new members to the club, so I figured what better way to help them truly settle into the New Directions environment than throw them head first into our annual mashups competition!"

In an instant, the temperature of the room changed. It got a few degrees hotter as everybody shifted around in their seats, eager to get going. Well, except Marcus, who remained confused.

"I'm sorry... mashup competition?" He asked. Mr. Schue nodded.

"A mashup is when you take two completely random songs and mash them together into one." Mr. Schue explained. Marcus nodded.

"Yeah, yeah. I know that." He responded. "But how is that a competition? Do we each make one and then you decide on the best one?"

"Better. It's boys vs. girls." Sam told him. "Each group writes one, and then we perform and then Mr. Schue and Ms. Pillsbury vote on a winner."

"The boys won both sophomore and junior year, so we need to make a really good one so it becomes three in a row." Finn added. Rachel's head whipped around to face her boyfriend, an indignant look on her face.

"What are you talking about?! Sophomore year we both got disqualified, and then last year, we won!"

"Um... Rach, you might want to check your memory, because I seem to remember last year, we were miles better than you guys." Finn commented.

"Hold on, hold on. How'd you guys BOTH get disqualified in sophomore year?" Marcus asked. "Just so I know what I should avoid doing."

"I don't think you have anything to worry about avoiding. They all got high as fuck on meth right before they performed." Sam, who was sitting next to Marcus, told him. Marcus nearly choked on the sip of water he had just drank.

"I'm sorry... what?!" Marcus exclaimed. "Is that legal?!"

"Not at all. Hence the double disqualification." Mr. Schue responded. "So how about this? You guys can't decide who won in sophomore and junior year? Fine. Make this year a winner-takes-all. You both start at 0-0, and whoever wins this year's mashup competition gets all the bragging rights."

Once again, the atmosphere in the room amped up even further, as all 14 of them were chomping at the bit.

"Is there a theme for this year?" Mercedes asked. "And follow up question... can that theme be 'Rachel Berry and Finn Hudson can't solo'?"

Mr. Schue shook his head.

"Who solos is, as always, totally up to you guys." He told them. "But there is a theme though. And the theme is Love and Hate. Pretty simple: one of the songs in your mashup has to be about love and joy, and the other one about hate and anger. As Sam mentioned, Ms. Pillsbury was our guest judge in previous years and she has graciously agreed again to be our guest judge this year. Anyone have any questions?"

Nobody responded and Mr. Schuester smiled widely, clapping his hands together.

"Great! Let's get started!"

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"Alright guys... ideas time. Has anyone got any?" Finn asked. The boys sat in an empty classroom, sitting around a whiteboard that Blaine had just written "Mashup ideas" on and circled it. The girls had claimed the choir room, so the boys were forced to resort to the neighbouring classroom. Marcus was honestly shocked at how engaged the other guys suddenly were, as 90% of Glee club seemed to be Rachel talking and everyone else humouring her. Within minutes, they had song ideas of all genres - rock and roll, pop, rap, RnB, country, even some broadway ideas from Kurt - written on the board, split into two halves: love and hate. They were very confident to say the least. In previous years, the girls' vocals were a lot better than theirs and they had to rely on charisma, choreography and extra effects to gain an edge. But this year, with both Blaine and Marcus joining them as new recruits, the vocal playing field had definitely been levelled, and with the others also there, if anything the boys were the stronger team and were the favourites.