Easier Said Than Done

I took a deep breath and swallowed the fear that was welling up in my throat. The lights onstage were incredibly bright, and I could feel their heat from backstage. My knees were shaking with both excitement and nervousness. No matter how much I tried to calm myself down, I was still filled with anxiety toward what was coming up.

“Hey,” Sam greeted from behind me, giving me a quick squeeze after draping his arm across my shoulders. “You ready?”

“Not in the slightest,” I laughed. Turning back toward the front, the curtain started to rise, and we were on.

Well, to be more specific, Mercedes was on. Finally, she had gotten to sing a ballad, though it took some compromising. Mr. Schue said that we could sing a current song, but it was only if he got to pick the ballad. We agreed, obviously, but with the condition that it wasn’t by Journey. Not that I have anything against Journey, but the New Directions have kind of sang the classic band into the ground.

The song that Mr. Schue picked was totally out of left field for Mercedes, but she took it and ran. As she belted out the chorus of All I Need by Jack Wagner, the rest of us got up on the bleachers.

My breath caught as I took in the amount of people that were all watching us. I could almost feel their smiling faces, just waiting for us to succeed. No matter how confident everyone else in the group was about this competition, I wasn’t so sure. The Warblers were incredibly good, according to Kurt, and I didn’t want to risk losing the top spot because we were too cocky.

Finally, Mercedes finished with a huge note, and the crowd burst into applause. After doing a quick curtsy, she ran up next to me, her teal dress flowing behind her.

Before the music for the next song started playing, I elbowed her in the side and gave her a very discreet thumbs-up. She grinned back at me quickly.

The opening notes started, and I knew that was my cue to make it toward the front.

Someone once told me that you have to choose
What you win or lose
You can’t have everything
Don’t you take chances
You might feel the pain
Don’t you love in vain
‘Cause love won’t set you free

I moved off to the side, letting Santana come up next to me. As she sang the next part of Happy by Leona Lewis, I remembered how I hated her. Well, how we hated each other. Her voice still made me want to kill someone, but in the month since I’d broken up with Puck, she was a lot nicer to me. Not that it wasn’t expected.

As the chorus came, the entire group came forward, getting in our positions to do the real choreography. My partner was Sam, which I was thankful for. Dancing with Puck…not such a good idea.

After the number finished, we bowed as the thundering applause filled the auditorium. Discreetly, I looked over at Puck, who was standing next to the new girl, Lauren Zizes.

It was mean, but I hated her. No, she didn’t really do anything to me yet, but she had an attitude and an ego. And there was just something else about her that made my blood boil.

We ran back into the green room, waiting for the judges to decide who they were going to crown the winners. Everyone was jumping up and down, hugging each other, high of the exhilaration of performing.

Grinning, I threw myself down on the couch next to Kurt, crossing my legs. Reapplying a layer of lip gloss, I scanned the room again. Well, I pretended to. I was just trying to be subtle about watching Puck chatting up Zizes on the other side of the room.

He looked so happy, beaming like there was no tomorrow. He was probably talking about Super Mario Bros. For some reason, he was under the impression that girls were attracted to that kind of thing. It only lasted a couple seconds before Zizes interrupted him, saying something that was probably rude from the look on her face, but he was still downright giddy.

“That’s it,” Kurt whispered to me, shooting looks between the two whores on the other side of the room and me, “you’re sleeping over my house tonight, and we’re totally having a chick-flick-a-thon.”

I sighed. “A chick-flick-a-thon?”

“Oh, yes. We need to get you over that brain-dead robot.”

“Didn’t you used to say that Puck and I were cute all the time?” My eyebrow rose with confusion, a smirk threatening the corners of my lips.

“Yeah, but that was before I found out that he cheated on you with Zizes.”

I shot to my feet, rage taking over every fiber of my being. “What?!?!”

“Kidding.” Kurt rolled his eyes. “This is what I mean. Come to my house, ,and we’ll get you over him. There are hundreds of other good-looking guys, ones that know more when they’re sleeping than Puck does when he’s awake.”

“Alright,” I finally agreed. It wasn’t like a good dose of Dirty Dancing and Pretty in Pink wouldn’t get me over my funk. Right?

Mr. Schue, looking excited as he rubbed his hands together, broke through everyone’s separate conversations. “Okay, guys! The judges finished deliberating. Everyone, on stage!”

Kurt grabbed my hand and squeezed. Clearly, both of us were just as nervous for the results. Sure, the New Directions had totally killed it, but the Warblers had been good, too. How could they lose with their main singer being Blaine? Not only was he incredibly cute (but gay, I know, I know), but his voice was out of this world. He could make the crappiest songs sound fantastic.

Once all three teams were onstage, a bored looking woman emerged with a microphone in one hand, an envelope in the other. She didn’t waste any time getting straight to the results. “First place goes to…well, this is quite the first.” It was supposed to be a ground-breaking kind of expression, but she didn’t change her flat tone of voice. “It’s a tie between the Warblers and the New Directions. Hooray.”

Kurt and I hugged before looking around the rest of the happy New Directions kids to wave to Blaine. He and Kurt hadn’t officially gotten together yet, but with how cute they were, I knew it was simply a matter of time.

We both turned back to our group, and I hugged Sam quickly to make sure that Quinn didn’t get all upset at me. I did not need a repeat of how mean she was to Rachel when she first started going after Finn. No, thank you.

Backstage, we freaked out a little more. My stomach panged when I remembered how, the last time we had performed in front of a group of people this big, Puck and I had been at the peak of our relationship. However, I didn’t let it show on my face, since I knew that Kurt would get all over my case.

Once everything died down, Kurt linked his arm through mine, and we started down the hallway. “We’ll stop at Aileen’s so you can get your stuff, and then it’s off to my place.”

“Sounds good,” I agreed, laughing. But part of that happiness might have been the fact that Zizes was walking about ten feet ahead of us, alone.

I was such an awful person.