His Alice, Her Sebastian

Into Decisions

"Warblers! Warblers!" Sebastian shouted over the loud noise that was the Dalton Academy Glee Club, and their one Warbler-of-Honor. Alice was sitting on the arm of one of the sofas in the Warbler Common Room, one leg folded under her and her hands casually resting in her lap.  "Guys! And lady," He added with a teasing smirk at the Warbler Queen, who fondly rolled her eyes. "We need to decide on a set for Nationals, who's getting what solos and dance routines. It's obvious that our biggest competitors are the New Directions, somehow their 'wing it and loose' strategy got them to Nationals and unless we get it together it'll win them our trophy." Sebastian grimly announced. "Does anyone have any ideas?"

"It's too bad we had to leak 'Live While We're Young' to Vocal Adrenaline." Nick said sourly.

"You know we couldn't risk the New Directions getting ahold of that number, Nick." Trent called out. Nick sighed in defeat, but nodded in agreement.

"What about Whistle?" David suggested. Sebastian made a face. "Oh, right. Explicit numbers are no-no numbers. Sorry."

"It's not just that." Sebastian sighed. "Well, a lot of it's that, but the Warblers have become this flash mob of a group. Fast-paced and action-y numbers are becoming our calling card. Look at Regionals and Sectionals." He pointed out.

"But those numbers are exciting." Jeff protested.

"Somewhat." Sebastian agreed. "But we're becoming predictable. Tradition is not our issue. Predictability is. If every judge thought that the Warblers are nothing but flashy and high energy, then that's what we showed them, high energy and flashy, they're gonna think that we can't do much else. Yes, they'll think we're good, but they won't think we're good enough to be called the best show choir in the country."

"I can see your point." Wes sighed.

"So what do we do?" Blaine asked.

"We show them the soul of the Warblers." Sebastian declared, beginning to pace. "We do one huge number with a big dance routine and all the flashiness we can pack into it without being blinding. That will be our first number of our set. And it will incorporate all of us. Blaine has an awesome tenor voice that will rock people in thier seats. Jeff has an impressive gravel tone that will have all the ladies screaming and all the men yelling. All of the Warblers good qualities in voices will be shoved into this number."

"And then?" Jeff demanded, getting excited.

"Then we completely strip it back." Sebastian grinned widely. "An entire solo with only the necessary voices. Just our soloist and the music. No dancing, no flashing lights, just the voices and the music."

"I vote with that idea, but on one hitch." Trent said. They all looked at him expectantly. "We do it in that order we'll burn out the crowd in a flash. They'll be falling asleep by the time we slow it down. That's not what we want."

"Your hitch?" Sebastian prompted.

"We do it in reverse." Trent replied. "Bear out our souls and belt them out before we blow the roof off the place. Make them spill tears-in a good way-before we make them scream for the Warblers."

"All in favor?" Wes called.

"AYE!" They all screamed, raising their hands and appearing to look like they were trying to touch the ceiling while remaining seated.

"Part 1 down." Sebastian smiled. "Songs?"

"A Billy Joel medley?" A junior Warbler called out hopefully.

"No!" All the seniors cried, shocking Alice.

"Sorry Derrick, but Billy Joel is a New Directions favorite along with Journey." Sebastian shook his head.  "As genius as the man was, doing anything related to Billy Joel or Journey will be committing show choir suicide. Maybe when you're a senior." The one called Derrick slumped slightly in disappointment. "Beatles are out too, we need something that will set us apart from everyone else and keep us in the judges heads. And we lost our right to Michael thanks to me." Sebastian added, somewhat sadly. Alice smiled reassuringly.