♪breathe♪

♪dreams♪

marley rose skipped down the hall, linking arms with a brunette that she rarely talks to outside of glee, "didn't i hear through the grapevine that you wrote the original songs you performed at nationals one year?"

cass choked on her laughter looking down at their linked arms remembering the first time mercedes did the same, "yes you did, why do you ask?"

"because i've wrote a few myself and i was hoping you'd read them for me," marley sang sweetly, praying that she'd grace her with some feedback.

cass smiled at the sophomore, remembering how excited she was when she'd wrote the melody of "loser like me", "of course."

marley stopped her from walking further down the hall, "and maybe convince schue to perform them?"

"we'll see."

cass watched the new directions loiter into the choir room from mr. schue's office, sitting on his desk as he scrolled through his phone, "you realize the kids are going insane? sam thinks he has an australian twin evan, tina is going back to crazy goth tina, unique is taking birth control, i have no clue what's going on."

"i'm sure it's nothing," will mindlessly responded getting up from his desk.

cass sighs, following him into the choir room, "whatever you say."

"big news, guys. i just got a direct tweet from the greater midwest regional high school show choir board of directors. the theme for this year's regionals is..."

as will started to write the word on the board, britt guessed, "sweaters."

"dreams," will corrected. "as you know, some of the past judges we've had haven't been that bright, or that sober, so our best bet is to take the dream theme literally. we'll start out with "dream weaver" and then we'll segue into "sweet dreams" and we'll bring it home with "you make my dreams come true". "

cass, not having had any say in the setlist, looked at him with a masked confusion, noticing that she wasn't the only one, "okay. marley, you're frowning."

"no. i just don't know any of those songs."

will smiled at the 16 year old, "well, you'll know them soon enough because we're learning them today."

marley shared a look with cass, taking her shot on the original songs idea, "maybe could we try some original songs, like you did two years ago?"

"yeah, my twin brother sam told me you guys totally crushed regionals two years ago with those sweet tunes," sam as evan agreed.

"well, s um, evan, that was a different time and a different team."

marley continued to press, "mr. schue, could we at least talk about the set list? i mean, when finn was here, we got to help."

will cut her offer, growing angry at the mention of finn, "do i have to remind you guys how lucky we are to even be at regionals? we're there on a technicality, which means there's absolutely no room for even the smallest of mistakes. trust me. anybody else have something they want to say? great. brad, warm 'em up."

blaine pulled cass to the side, sensing the psychotic break approaching, "can you please talk to him?"

"already ahead of you babe," she winked at him, quickly following her father into his office. "you hear from finn?"

"no have you?"

cass chuckled, nodding, "yeah, he's a hot shot now. can you please go talk to him? like it or not, they did better with finn around, he connected with them in a way neither one of us can understand."