“Hey new kid,” a tall blonde called Blaine. Blaine refused to accepted any new kid names so he kept walking. The blond caught up and tapped his shoulder. “Hey, I’m Sam Evans, welcome to PAPA.”
“Thanks, I’m Blaine Anderson, yes related to Cooper Anderson, he’s my older brother.” Blaine said. He went threw three classes of 'hey new kid!', 'And Anderson, like Cooper Anderson?'. Blaine didn’t realize how irritating it was.
“Oh that’s cool. Well do you want to eat with me and my friends today?” Sam asked. “Unless you already have friends then that’s cool.”
“No, I don't know anyone here. I was going to eat with my brother but lunch is an hour long so I can visit him after I eat.” Blaine said with a fare smile. Sam grinned and lead Blaine to the cafeteria.
As they walked into the cafeteria Blaine was looking around, “I still really don’t know what’s going on with this school. Why do they have cheerleaders, and who do they cheer for?”
“Oh they don’t. Every few years we have enough men interested in football but the team is never that great. The cheerleaders are national champions and its a big deal.” Sam said. “Here I will give you the run down on the student population.”
He slowed down and began to explain their classmates. “We have the one and only Cheerios, part feminist, part activists, cross one cross them all. With in the cheerleaders there is the unholy Trinity, Santana, Quinn and Brittany.” The trio were sitting on the table gossiping and drinking Smoothies. “They are apart of the 6% of this school that can do it all.”
“Then there are the thespians, of all the groups they almost never intermingle. Dance team best guy there is Mike Chang. Anyway, dance is actually double but they are split down the middle by the Cheerios. Split the club up again, the theater and jazz dancers and the ballet and ball room kids. AVI and tech are the kids who really run the school, Artie Abrams runs the club really, he is student director for the play, and he has had several shorts on PBS and does all the commercial work for the school. Then his polar opposite, Jacob Ben Israel, he is like the Perez Hilton of this school. He’s got a blog and a video camera, the administration has had to tell him to removed postings.” Sam was explaining everything so quickly Blaine was growing overwhelmed.
“As we get to the front there are the football musicians, Finn Hudson and Noah Puckerman run that area, but mostly the band and football players sit there. the diva’s are a special breed of sass wrapped in class. Mercedes Jones, Kurt Hummel, and Rachel Berry are among the best singers in the school.” Sam said walking though the cafeteria. “Lastly my table, the average kids basically if we were to go to public school we would be the best performers, but here at papa we are backup to the best of the best… this is Tina.”
“Hi, I'm Blaine.” He said sitting next to her. Sam sat beside Blaine.
“So what did you rank?” Tina asked. Blaine gave her a strange look so Sam explained.
“When you performed to get accepted into the school, the administration ranks you on a scale 1-10. There are only 3 tens in the school and like 10 nines.” Sam said, “Tina and I are both fives.”
“Oh, I don’t know, here its in my bag.” Blaine pulled the document out of his bag and passed it to Sam.
“Holy shit!” He hissed, “Blaine you got a nine!”
Blaine went to reply but a guitar started playing which gained everyone’s attention.
” The King is dead but the Queen is alive,
Off with his head I am done with his lies,
A fair win I have fought for my life,
A clean slate after all this time,” Kurt Hummel sung from the table at the very front of the cafeteria.
“A revolution and now I am in charge,
My evolution is to shoot for the stars,
His first mistake: he underestimates,
He didn’t bother to appreciate.” He was singing to a gentleman in a blazer who looked very uncomfortable.
“So, rah rah rah!
Sis boom fuckin’ bah!
There’s a party in your honor,
But you won’t be there whatever, so,
Three cheers for the one that got away!” The cafeteria came a live dancing and cheering to Kurt’s banishment upon the guy.
“You were just blah blah blah,
I was oh my god,
And unlike your anatomy,
I’m glad I had it in me,
Now The King,
The King, the King,
The King is dead!
But The Queen is alive”
“I guess the village didn’t raise you right,
Don’t think nobody’s gonna mourn you tonight,
No more licks to wet your appetite,
You make me sick, I didn’t wanna fight
I thought we ruled the heavens and the earth,
I really thought I was the only one,
Your secrets have all been revealed to me,
You’ve been dethroned there goes your legacy!” Blaine found himself mesmerized as Kurt was jumping table to table.
“There are consequences in this life,
A punishment that fit the crime,
Your last words, I heard I’m sorry,
Now look at me in all my glory!
The King is dead but the Queen is alive,
I wear your crown and I look quite nice,
I almost let you get the best of me
But no one’s ever gonna get the Queen!” Kurt waved the poor bastard away as several people danced on tables and the whole cafeteria sung.
“So, rah rah rah!
Sis boom fuckin’ bah!
There’s a party in your honor,
But you won’t be there whatever, so,
Three cheers for the one that got away!
You were just blah blah blah,
I was oh my god,
And unlike your anatomy,
I’m glad I had it in me,
Now The King,
The King, the King,
The King is dead!
But The Queen is alive!” Kurt fell back as the crowd caught him and returned him back to his feet.
“What the hell was that?” Blaine said as the cafeteria calmed down.
“That was Kurt Hummel, one of three ten’s, his boyfriend goes to Dalton, according to Jacob’s blog, he cheated on Kurt like a million times so Kurt had to let him know who’s boss. Things like that happen all the time from the top ranks…” Sam said. “And you’re a nine.”
“I just love to dance, and act. And I’ve got a decent voice.” Blaine shrugged it off. He looked around for the Dalton guy to see if he knew him but the poor jerk was long gone.
“No Blaine, you got threes across the board, no wonder you’re in two singing classes, if they perfect your voice you can be a ten before you graduate which means you’ll get in to any performing arts college you want.” Sam said.
“Thanks I guess. I’m only here because Cooper is.” Blaine said, “who are the other tens? And two nines?”
“Rachel Berry, sexy Burnette next to T-Rex and Kurt at the front. Then Santana is the other ten. Quinn and Brittany are the nines. Most eights are theater majors, but Mike chang and most the dancers are sevens. The rest of us are pretty low.” Sam answered. “I mean top 12% of a school that only has 190 kids is like 25 kids then anyone 9or 10 is the 2%. The rest of us just take the classes and watch the stars shine.”
“It wasn’t always like this Sam. My freshman and sophomore years were fun group oriented, but things were still new and Rachel wasn’t confident, Kurt was just another gay kid, and Santana hated everyone too much to grow.” Tina said “I wonder if you’ll perform Friday.”
“At the fall assembly? They told me to prepared but it was undecided if I would or wouldn’t.” Blaine said blushing slightly.
“Wow, the only other person to ever start at a 9 is Rachel. Her freshman year she is still record holder to receive a 4 on her first vocal audition. Two in acting then three in dance. They said she was an over actor and fall performance of her junior year she finally got the 10.” Tina explained.
“I’m really confused.” Blaine said. “So you’re saying, upon arrival in the three part audition we do here we are ranked accordingly?” The two nodded their heads and Blaine continued, “then after being ranked, what happens?”
“They make you the best you can be. Two singing courses then advanced dance and theater, unless you’re taking the television route then you’d be with mr Anderson…” Tina said.
“But once you’re a 10 you perform all across Ohio representing papa, we’ve got show choir led by Rachel and her on again off again boyfriend Finn who scored a 4 in vocal and a 2 in acting, he can’t dance but boy does he try.” Sam laughed.
“Well basically the highest ranked people do all the performing. Like Mercedes Jones, when its time to be strong beautiful and soulful. she was an idiot junior year dropped out of the play that she needed to get her at least a 2 rank, the administration didn’t like that so they blacklisted her, she has a zero which makes her a 6.” Tina said looking at the diva table.
“Then the freshman Marley rose she is on a scholarship and is just braking out her shell. Kurt started with a score like hers. They have so much hope for her.” Sam informed Blaine.
“How do you two know all this?” Blaine asked.
“I’m the Dean of performances student aid and he decide to reorganize the files from highest score to each genre highest rankings. It made it easier to find who he wanted and what he needed.” Tina said. “And we love gossip I get Jacob’s blog post sent straight to my phone.”
“Oh….” Blaine said. He looked back up to the front ‘diva’ table and saw Rachel smile at him, he smiled back.
“That was a lot to absorb in one day,” Sam commented.
“Its fine, thanks for letting me sit with you guys at lunch but I promised Cooper I’d stop by for lunch. But I will see you both tomorrow or maybe in another class.” Blaine said standing up.
“Sounds good, see ya then. Blaine.” Sam said. Tina simply waved and turned to her phone for more gossip.
As Blaine was walking out Rachel stopped him, “you’re Blaine Anderson right,” she questioned.
“In the flesh, you’re the beautiful miss Berry I take it.” Blaine continued.
“That’s me, I just wanted to congratulate you on your score and if you perform I’ll be right after you.” She smiled. “Are you scared?”
“No not really. I don’t know what to sing.” Blaine said.
“Well, here’s a secret, the DOP loved queen, and Freddy mercury, major points if you’re also a great Singer.” She said, “break a leg new kid.”
Blaine thanked her and started walking down the hall. He walked into his brothers classroom knocking lightly on the door, “so can I call you coop outside of class or stick with Mr. A…”
“Hey squirt, I honestly don’t care. I have my advanced class call me Cooper, but most the time we just stay in character.” Cooper said.
Blaine didn’t ask what that character was, he was too concerned with the schools ranking system to care, “so I’m a 9 do you know what this means?”
“That you’re in the top 2% of performers at this school and you make me very proud even if you’re not in my TV acting class.”
“They want me to perform tomorrow. I’m nervous seeing that I have no idea what I’m doing here. You know my math class was 30 minutes but advanced dance: partnering 101 was an hour and a half.” Blaine complained.
“Well, every student takes different classes, the AVI kids have hour and a half math classes.” Cooper said walking over to Blaine. “This isn’t the run of the mill school you were expecting. Here things are fun, exciting and the higher ranked you are the more popular you are. I asked mom to move you here so you can make friends and not let your talent waste away.”
“I feel bad though, I just walked in and I’m already ranked higher then someone who started here. I mean, Rachel Berry talked and told me what to sing to impress the Dean of performance.” Blaine said.
“That’s great, I personal like her, she is taking my advanced class as an elective so when she is on a season break off Broadway she can join some TV cast for a change of pace,” Cooper said completely off the wall to Blaine’s concerns.
“I also just saw one of the most attractive guys in this school publicly break up with his boyfriend singing a pink song.” Blaine said.
“Nice! You know I honestly would have though you did it if I heard it from another student.” Cooper said as the bell rang, “I think you will do just fine here.”
“Thanks, I’ll see you after school.” Blaine grabbed his bag and left. While walking out he bumped into Kurt.
“Excuse me.” Kurt muttered.
“My apologies his royal Highness.” Blaine said with a soft smile walking the opposite way.