Blaine suddenly became aware of Wes and David talking to Thad. He remembered hearing them knock on the door but not much more than that. Blaine stretched his arms and legs, groaning as his body woke up. There was a knock on the door.

“Hey man. Come on in.” From what Blaine could tell, two people, one of them being Thad, made their way back from the door.

“Trent.” Wes said.

“Hi Trent.” Blaine could practically see David’s diplomatic wave even though they were good friends. Someone sat down on the edge of Blaine’s bed.

“Good Morning!” Trent said, throwing a pillow at Blaine. Blaine rolled over onto his back stretching his arms above his head. He pulled the pillow out from under him and threw it back at Trent. He glanced at the clock and saw that it was nearly five. They needed to meet Mr. Phillips down stairs in 3 minutes.

“Why didn’t you guys wake me up?” Blaine practically flew off of his bed. 

“Relax,” Wes said, “Mr. Phillips always tells us to be somewhere a good 5 minutes before we actually need to be there.”

Blaine got up and went into the bathroom. He looked himself over in the mirror. It was a good thing his nap was only 10 minutes long and that he didn’t move much in his sleep. He rubbed his fingers under his eyes. His polo was a little wrinkled at the collar but he was just going to put his hoodie back on anyway. Blaine walked back into the room. Thad tossed his hoodie at him and he slid it over his head.

“I’m going to go make sure that everybody else is awake and going downstairs.” Wes said standing up and walking to the door. David followed him.

“Ahhh, the pains of being a leader.” Thad slapped a hand down on Wes’s shoulder. 

“Hey, do you want to be the one that knocks on Nick and Jeff’s door?” Wes sounded slightly worried. The rest of the boys stopped laughing. Blaine and Trent glanced at each other. Neither of them wanted to be in that position. 

“Right, well, we’ll see you downstairs,” Blaine said leading Thad and Trent out of the room and into the hallway. Wes was already at work knocking on doors. Blaine could hear to people singing in the room across from him. Someone else in the room was yelling at them to stop. He hoped that they were more functional for their performance. 

The activity in the lobby had died down a little in the last 20 minutes. Mr. Phillips was standing next to a large sign that read

Dinner  - Show Choirs

5pm - 7:30pm

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“Head on in boys and get started.” Mr. Phillips motioned them through a set of double doors. THe room was set up with a buffet. The options varied drastically from heavy and hardy to celery sticks and crackers. Blaine, Trent, and Thad walked past a group sitting in complete silence. The group was well known through out the show choir world. Blaine got hungry just looking at the lack of food on their plates. There was one girl eating only bread and celery. The boys were eating only a couple hundred calories more than the girls. The silence around them was sickening.

Thad lead the way to the buffet line, fully realizing how hungry he was. There were four other groups at various tables. Trent grabbed a plate for himself and Blaine. The line started with the real food and worked it’s way down to the low calorie stuff. Blaine piled meatloaf, mashed potatoes, and steamed vegetables on his plate. By the time he got to the cold dishes he was balancing bread on the mountain that had become his plate. He walked carefully over to the table that Thad was sitting at, already stuffing his face. The rest of the Warblers had wandered in while he was getting his food. Blaine sat down just as Nick and Jeff walked in. They both looked cranky and really annoyed that they had to stop whatever it was that they had been doing. All of the Warblers had a pretty good idea of what it was. There had been talking when Blaine had arrived but the room seemed to come to life with the Warblers. Blaine had never really noticed how obnoxious they were with each other. Wes and David were last to come into the banquet room. Wes took his gavel out of his pocket when he sat down, keeping in right next to his glass of water. He dropped his head into his hands rubbing at his temples.

“How did those two end up rooming together?” Wes sighed into his hands. His shoulders lowered, releasing some of the tension in his neck. Nick and Jeff sat down across from each other; Jeff sat next to Blaine. Nick, determined to show just how ticked off he was, attempted to reach across David and steal Wes’s gavel. Wes snatched it up quickly and stood at the same time.

“It is not my fault that you two couldn’t keep your hands off of each other for 20 minutes.” Wes walked to the buffet to get food. Mr. Phillips walked up behind Jeff, not missing the dirty look that Nick gave Wes as he sauntered away.

Mr. Shue knocked on the door to room 208. Kurt had to push his way to the door. Rachel and Santana were going at it again. Who was he kidding? They never stopped, not since the moment the met. Kurt opened the door and the world came back to him. He glimpsed two Warblers straggling down the hall behind Mr. Shue. The tall blond looked disheveled. The shorter brunette look seriously ticked off.

“Hey Mr. Shue!” Tina cam bouncing up behind Kurt.

“You need to head down to dinner. I’m on my way to get the rest of the boys so you might want to hurry up.” Mr. Shue turned out of the doorway. The arguing had more or less come to a stalemate. Kurt had barely taken a breath when Mercedes cut him off.

“Don’t worry Boy! We heard the word ‘food’ and agreed to put our differences aside.” She threw a look at Rachel and Santana that said ‘one word out of either of you and you can sit up here and starve.’ Quinn went back into room 206 to grab their room key. Kurt checked his hair briefly before they headed out into the hallway wand gown to dinner. 

Kurt quickly realized that Mr. Shue hadn’t been kidding when he said to hurry up. The banquet room was pretty much full. The girls dropped their bags at the table where Finn and Puck were already eating. Boys! Kurt thought. The majority of the groups were talking among themselves. They passed by Vocal Adrenaline who was eating, if that’s what you want to call it, in complete silence. The Warblers were being rowdy but not annoying. The New Directions were sitting at the same table as the Warblers.

“Isn’t that a coincidence. We are eating at the same table.” Mercedes leaned over to tease Kurt as they got their food.

“If I find out that you put Sam up to this I will not be doing your hair tonight.” Mercedes gave him a look of pure shock and then puppy eyes. By the time all of New Directions had gotten their food Vocal Adrenaline had left. Kurt was thankful that there hadn’t been some kind of explosion. 

Mr. Shue had spent the last 15 minutes while they ate telling them stories about his Nationals competitions. Frankly, Kurt just wanted to go back  to his room. At least there Santana could tease him without the subject being able to hear it. It was going on six o’clock. Some of the groups that had been there when they arrived had left only to be replaced by new groups. 

“Mr. Shue, how many groups are staying here?” Sam’s question was out of nowhere but everyone was silently thankful for it.

“At least 20, I’d say.” Mr. Shue looked a little off guard but jumped at the opportunity to give one of his lessons. “You guys should try to make friends while your here. You know, I have a couple of friends that I met at my Nationals competitions that-”

“We know.” chorused a groan from New Directions. Santana was already at the other end of the table talking up the Warblers. The next thing Kurt knew two of the Warblers had stood up and were harmonizing with each other.

Jeremiah was a bull frog
Was a good friend of mine
I never understood a single word he said
But I helped him a-drink his wine
Yes he always had some mighty fine wine

The boys with the extremely gelled hair was singing lead. They were an a cappella group. If someone were to ask him right then about getting with one of the Warblers, Kurt’s answer would have been “heck yes!”

Joy to the world
All the boys and girls, now
Joy to the fishes in the deep blue sea
Joy to you and me

Santana came back to their end of the table and pulled Brittany and Quinn out of their seats. She gave a death stare to the rest of them and they got the hint. The New Directions began to harmonize with the Warblers. The lead singer was now standing on his chair, his balance impeccable, while the rest of the Warblers danced and sang around the room. 

If I were the King of the world
Tell you what I'd do
I'd throw away the cars and the bars and the wars
And make sweet love to you
And make sweet love to you

Joy to the world
All the boys and girls, now
Joy to the fishes in the deep blue sea
Joy to you and me

You know I love the ladies
Love to have my fun
I'm a high night flier yes I’m a rider
And a straight-shooting son of a gun
I said a straight shooting son of a gun

Joy to the world
All the boys and girls, now
Joy to the fishes in the deep blue sea
Joy to you and me

Some of the other groups joined in dancing. Kurt was thankful that it wasn’t just the two of them. The song ended and everyone clapped. The Warblers and New Directions sat down together. Kurt sat there, not sure what to do. Everyone else was already talking and he always felt weird jumping into a conversation. There was a movement to his right and the boy with the gelled hair sat down across from him.

“Hi, I’m Blaine.” Kurt had never seen such beautiful eyes in his life, or a more hypnotizing smile.

“Hi, I’m Kurt.” He reached out and shook Blaine’s hand.