(Still four years earlier)

Blaine was thrilled at the reaction from the venue owner. He couldn’t believe his luck…

The reboot of the Warblers had actually been David’s idea. Blaine had run into him at a Duane Reade near the NYU campus, where David was studying political science and sociology, and then David texted Wes, who was attending Columbia. They started to go out for coffee about once a week, and it was during one of these get-togethers when Blaine started to reminisce about the Warblers while complaining about his vocal coach at NYADA.

“Don’t get me wrong, he has a vast knowledge of the Sondheim catalog, but does he have to be so exacting as to how the songs are performed?” Blaine lamented. “I gotta tell you guys, sometimes I really miss the world of acapella. You could just get so creative with the arrangements and actually be praised for it.”

“Yeah, how many people came up to us at Sectionals and told us that our rendition of ‘Hey Soul Sister’ was even better than Train’s?” Wes said. “Or that Maroon 5 had nothing on our cover of ‘Misery’?”

David nodded. “You know, nothing’s stopping us from singing together again.”

“Uh, class schedules, study halls, labs, rehearsals for some of us?” Wes argued, motioning to Blaine.

“Well, what about now?” David said. 

Blaine caught on to what David was suggesting. “Wes, David has a point. I mean, how long have we been here just chatting and drinking coffee? We could have been doing arrangements and practicing this whole time.”

Wes pondered, “It would be good to do something not related to pre-med. And I do miss performing with you guys. But I also enjoy just shooting the breeze over coffee. I like these hangs, I don’t want to turn this into some sort of obligation.”

“It doesn’t have to be, Wes. Come on…” David was teasing now. “I know you have that gavel hidden away somewhere. Aren’t you itching to bring it out?”

“I think we can do this without the gavel, David. That’s one thing I think we can leave behind at Dalton,” Blaine said. “So, are we really doing this?”

“Wait!” Wes stopped. “We used to have a wall of Warblers to vocalize with. Can we do this with just three guys?”

“You always liked a challenge,” David argued. 

Blaine put his hand out. “ Oh yeah on three?”

Wes and David added their hands in the center of the cafe table. At the count of three, in perfect harmony they trilled the opening words from “Misery”: “Oh yeah!”

Two months later, here they were, booking their first gig. While David and Wes were congratulating each other and slapping Blaine on the back, his eyes followed the owner to where he was talking to a tall man with upswept chestnut hair and icy blue eyes. He recognized him as Kurt Hummel, Rachel Berry’s roommate and a fellow student at NYADA. He remembered him from a few auditions, a couple of shared lectures, and also recalled he had his own band. Maybe he was auditioning too?

He kept looking as the owner walked away shaking his head. Oh well, he guessed not. And now those blue eyes were trained on him. Blaine imagined in another life, he could drown in those eyes. But right now? Kurt Hummel’s eyes were shooting daggers.