♪breathe♪

♪wake me up♪

mr. schue let rachel lead the new directions in their new dance routine as he went to retrieve his fax regarding who the new directions would be competing against in sectionals, "great news, guys. just got the competition bracket for sectionals, and we are in really good shape. there's only two other teams. we beat them, we make it to regionals."

"uh, who are the other teams?" rachel asked impatiently.

mr. schue points at finn, sitting behind the drum kit, "drumroll please, finn."

finn plays a drumroll, as mr. schue creates tension until announcing their two opponents, "school for the deaf in dayton, and someplace called jane addams academy."

mercedes scoffs, "jane addams? that's a halfway house for girls just getting out of juvie."

"i went there," blake sat bluntly, shocking everyone including her brother causing a silence to blanket the room until she starts laughing. "i'm just messing with you. didn't think you'd actually buy it."

tina started uncomfortably laughing, feeling guilty that she bought into blake's joke, "th-th-this is great!"

"people who can't hear what they're singing and criminals who don't care. it's gonna be a cakewalk. high fi..." artie says, turning to offer brittany and high five but she instead high fives santana. logan laughed, shaking his head, giving artie the high five instead of leaving him hanging.

later in the week, the glee club members slowly became lazy and inattentive. will directs some of his students in the choreography but was quickly getting frustrated by the lack of motivation, "come on, guys, you're sleepwalking on me here. give me some energy. we've got sectionals in two-"

mercedes interrupts her teacher, "please, sectionals is going to be a breeze."

"but if we coast through sectionals, we're gonna get killed at regionals. we have got to be on our game," mr. schue pushes, hoping to inspire some life back into his kids only to be met with kurt's interrupting laugh.

kurt looks up to see mr. schuester's disapproving look, "sorry. funny youtube. it's the grape stomping one."

the following day, mr. schuester comes into glee club somewhat inspired pinning up pictures on the white board, "competition. every one of these people or elements was a champion in their own right. but they used competing with each other to make themselves even better."

"i don't understand how lightning is in competition with an above-ground swimming pool," kurt asks confused because the first two pairing made sense.

blake laughs, "lightning strikes and both water and metal are conductors. so lightning goes zap and the water says you're now fried chicken."

mr. schuester stares the the girl, chuckling at her explanations odd yet perfect analogy, "exactly, thanks bill nye."

"science rules," she snickers, giving her teacher the hand sign for mahalo.

"you guys have become complacent. you were great at the invitational, but you got to up your game if you want to get through sectionals. okay, split up. guys on the left side, girls on the right side. let's go, come on. all right. here's the deal. two teams. boys versus girls. one week from today, you will each perform a mash-up of your choice."

"what's a mash-up?" logan asked, raising his hand next to puck who was about to ask the same question.

"a mash-up is when you take two songs and mash them together to make an even richer explosion of musical expression. boys will perform on Tuesday, girls the next day. i want you guys to go all out, okay. costumes, choreography. whoever wins the competition gets to choose the number that we do for sectionals," mr. schue announces, getting the kids excited for the competition.