Chapter Text
It had taken a week, but Beth finally felt like she was starting to find her place in the school. Sure, she hadn't made it into Vocal Adrenaline, but The Reprisals was a perfect opportunity for her to flex her skills - and at least now she didn't have to worry about being upstaged by senior classmen. Rachel was...still here, but over the weekend she had focused on getting things prepared at the community centre, which meant Beth finally had some time to herself. Now obviously Rachel was going to hear her sing in the club, but Beth preferred training herself away from her sister - something about the woman's presence made Beth self-conscious and threw her off her game. So while Rachel was over at the community centre, Beth stood in her room and figured out what she'd be singing for the next Club meeting.
She hadn't had much contact with them over the past few days, focusing on herself instead, but she did manage to keep up with texting Tony over the weekend and when Monday rolled back around she quickly found him so she could walk with him before class.
"So, I've narrowed my first official Glee solo down to five songs."
"Wait, five? Wait, solo?" Tony grimaced. "Sorry, were we supposed to prepare something? If there was homework, nobody told me."
Beth grinned. "No, there's no homework. Not yet at least? I guess you're kind of out of the loop when it comes to glee stuff."
Tony nodded. "Yeah, tell me about it. I know we sing, and that there's some kind of competition? But I haven't picked up on anything in my year here with Vocal Adrenaline going on in the background."
"Huh. Okay, well, there are a bunch of competitive show choirs across the country. The competition itself is divided into sectionals, regionals, and nationals at the end, and the winners of each round get trophies and a small cash prize for their school - or I guess community centre in this case? I'm not sure how that would work. Anyway, even though each choir needs to develop it's own setlist and musical numbers for competitions, an important part of the trade is members practising and showcasing a variety of numbers in order to build on their musical skills." She turned to him. "So basically, if you feel like you have a cool idea for a song you wanna sing or a duet you wanna do, glee club is the place to do it!"
He nodded again. "Right. Okay, I...think that makes sense. I still don't have any of those. Musical ideas, I mean."
"That's fine!" Beth replied eagerly. "You're still getting used to this. I'm just glad that you're able to sing. And that means that if I ever need backup for a number I can always call on you."
"Oh. Thanks!"
"Mmm, don't get your hopes up honey." Julian's voice floated over to the duo shortly before he appeared between them. "You're lovely, but I need somebody strong enough to help me keep Aaliyah on the ropes." He turned to Beth. "She has her sidekick, and I need one of my own." He looked Beth up and down. "Style might take some work, but your pipes are strong enough to supplement mine."
Beth scoffed. "Excuse me? If anyone is supplementing anyone it's you to me!"
"That was weird phrasing," Tony tried to say, but Julian and Beth didn't hear him.
"Oh please, you should know by now that I am the most powerful vocalist on the team. Or at least you would if you bothered to actually attend auditions."
"I auditioned on my own time," Beth snapped back, which was technically true - Rachel had heard her sing and Beth was sure that was the reason she'd been inspired to start The Reprisals. "Rachel thought I was great and invited me to join on the spot."
"Funny, she did the same with me."
"Well she's clearly just looking for seat filler."
"I was just thinking the same thing."
"Are you two about to fight? Or...or dance fight? I don't understand what the hell is going on here."
Julian whipped around to look at Tony. "Listen, you're at least familiar with the culture surrounding Vocal Adrenaline, right?" Tony nodded. "Good. Then you know this isn't a hunky-dory Disney sing-a-long club. This is serious business and sooner or later you're going to have to pick a horse to back. Make sure it's the right one."
Tony and Beth watched Julian storm away, the latter fuming. "Can you believe the nerve of him? Acting like I'm not as good a performer as he is."
"I mean y'all kind of said the same things to each other."
"That doesn't matter! If he knew that this glee club belonged to me, he would not be acting like that."
Tony gave Beth a concerned look. "Hold up. Your glee club?"
"Uh, yeah? Rachel made it for me, so obviously I should get the lead by default."
"That doesn't sound right at all..."
Beth huffed. "Sorry, we'll have to talk about this later Tony. I've gotta get to class." Beth ran off, and Tony was left alone in the hall.
"But...I...also have to get to class." As he jogged towards room, he grimaced internally. What had he gotten himself into?
In their office, the Vocal Adrenaline Student Council re-watched a projection of The Reprisals first performance video for the tenth time that week.
"They're good," Patrick said.
"They're not that good," Ivy replied.
"Better than we expected them to be."
"They're fine. Which is nowhere near good, and especially not good enough to be a threat to us." She turned to Charles. "Please tell Patrick that they aren't a problem."
Charles reclined in his seat, tapping a pen against the desk in thought. "They're not a threat." Ivy was about to thank him when he continued. "Yet. They're a horrible mishmash of unfocused abilities in that video, but that doesn't mean they couldn't hone their skills. Not to mention Rachel Berry is coaching them."
"So what?" Ivy spat. "We kicked her out of here last week because we didn't want her."
"That was obviously because we didn't want to cede power to her," Patrick stated.
"Obviously," Charles agreed. "But, Berry knows how to rally misfits and if there's one thing I can't stand it's misfits getting rallied. You do that and you end up with a bunch of nobodies who think the world owes them everything because they believe in themselves. As my dad always said, you either know your place in the world or get broken trying to fit somewhere else." He stood up and walked over to the projection. "These children will break easily, but I would quite enjoy it if it were us who were doing the breaking." He reached up and tapped the image of Beth being projected onto their screen. "That girl auditioned with her best friend, who just so happens to be one of our best new recruits. Imagine how bad she would feel if that friendship went up in flames."
Ivy paused, then spread her lips in a devilish smirk. "Oh, I love the sound of that."