Picture perfect - Book 1 - Q.F.

Bad Reputation

The week had started off weird. Not only had Kurt somehow managed to get a video of coach Sylvester dancing to Olivia Newton-John's Physical that Finn had decided to post in the internet, but also, now, they had this thing called a Glist that had some of the glee kids' names in it in order of promiscuity, apparently. And, for whatever reason, Piper didn't even make it in.

"Who did it?" Mr. Schue demanded, as he stood in front of the kids holding the glist in his hands. When no one said anything, the teacher sighed. "This is serious. Principal Figgins is threatening to disband the club."

"Why are we playing this game?" Santana scoffed. "We all know it was Puck."

"Back off." Puck defended himself quickly. "I didn't do squat."

"Then why is your girlfriend first on the Glist?"

"And why am I last?" Rachel demanded, as Piper squinted her eyes a bit to catch a glimpse of the glist in Mr. Schue's hand only to see that Rachel was not only in last, but also with a -5 score. "Aside from the fact that I refused to put out for you."

"Okay, enough! No one is accusing anyone of anything." Mr. Schue said, before sighing as he turned to look at Puck. "Puck, seriously, did you do it?"

"I said no." Puck insisted, and, for whatever reason, Piper believed him "I'm a delinquent, sure. I like setting stuff on fire and beating up people I don't know. I own that. But I'm not a liar."

"All right, here's the important point." Mr. Schue relented. "Between this and posting Coach Sylvester's personal video on YouTube you guys are getting a pretty bad reputation."

"Why is that a bad thing?" Artie asked quietly as everyone turned to look at him, surprised. "Maybe if we seem more dangerous, people would stop flushing my glasses down the toilet."

"Look, things are hard right now. I get it." Mr. Schue said, as he put the glist down and started to hand out some music sheets to the kids instead. "You're under a lot of pressure with Regionals coming up. I know that winning Sectionals hasn't had the positive effect on your popularity that a lot of you thought it would. But becoming what you despise is not the answer."

Piper frowned when she saw the title of the song in her hands scrunching up her nose a bit as the mere thought of even performing this in the first place. Ice Ice Baby? Was this for real?

"Man, this song is wack." Finn said, as Mr. Schue shook his head.

"No, it's not." Mr. Schue argued as Piper raised an eyebrow. Yes, it was. "It's a terrific song on a long list of top hits that, because of time or some bad press, has become a joke. And like you guys, it's time to start rehabilitating its bad reputation. The assignment for the week is for all of you to find songs like this mine them for what works and make them great again and then, hopefully, you can apply this musical lesson to your own lives."

To be quite fair, no one was really pleased with the assignment apparently, but, obviously, the one who decided to speak up, was Jesse.

"This song should be arrested for the crime of sucking." He said, as everyone laughed and hummed in agreement.

At that, Mr. Schue smirked.

"You wanna bet?" He asked, and as some of the kids laughed, Piper sighed.

"Please, don't rap." She mumbled, causing Mercedes to burst out laughing beside her.

Clearly, the teacher didn't hear her, though, as he turned to the band with a smile.

"Hit it!"

***

As soon as Piper walked inside the choir room after receiving Kurt's text, she frowned upon noticing, not only him, but also Tina, Artie and Mercedes reunited by the piano. Looking over at her best friend, she frowned when Mercedes shrugged letting her know she also didn't know what this was about. So, with a sigh, Piper walked over to her and leaned against her as she leaned against the piano so she could hear what Kurt had to say as he too leaned over, close to his friends in what seemed to be a rather secret meeting.