A/N: Okaaay, this AU came out of nowhere. The next chapter will get darker.

Will Schuester came into the green room and held his hand up for silence. "Guys?" He didn't like this one bit. Either way, his kids would lose something. "Guys, Dalton has just said that they want to play Trophy rules with us."

The New Directions singers all looked at him in shock.

"Dalton wants to go Trophy?" Puck looked stunned. "But they've got to know they aren't as good as us. Those practice videos on YouTube suck." They'd planned to send Kurt to spy on the Dalton team but before he could do that, an account called ExWarbler had posted some really bad practice videos to YouTube.

Rachel, predictably, was the next to speak. "Really, while I deplore the Trophy rules, this could be to our advantage. When we win-"

"Shut up, Berry, if you can, for once." Santana looked nervously at Brittany.

"I didn't say that we would do what-"

Will had to head this off. "Guys, we've got the option to forfeit."

"No way! We can't forfeit to a bunch of prep school losers!" Finn leaned forward.

"Mr. Schue, didn't Principal Figgins say that if we lost another competition, he'd pull our authorization, that we already bring down the school's reputation for competitiveness?"

"Well, yes, he did, but if we explain, I'm sure that he'd understand." Like hell he would. Will could hear the principal's voice in his mind. William, we cannot afford to lose another competition in anything. If we do, we lose another eighteen thousand dollars in state and federal funding to the for-profit school system. If you lose this one, I will have no choice but to terminate the club.

"Hellooo! As a black woman, I have to say-"

"We can take them with one hand tied behind our backs-"

"I don't like it, Mr. Schue-"

Will shouted through the overlapping voices. "We don't have long to decide." He knew that he should be the one to decide—he was the adult here—but the idea of either losing the club or losing one of its members as Trophy was impossible to decide. Shouldn't he also be encouraging the kids to make adult decisions? That way, he could say that he was just pushing them to mature. Besides, he'd seen the YouTube videos himself. And he certainly wouldn't let the club members follow the usual Trophy rules. "We're going, no, you're going to have to vote on this."

"As Team Captain, I-"

"No, Rachel, everybody votes on this." Rachel looked a bit relieved, even while she was pouting. Will reminded himself that while she still craved control and admiration, she was learning that they were poor substitutes for genuine friendship and camaraderie. If she were the one to decide, she'd lose.

"Raise your hand if you want us to play Trophy rules." Finn, Puck, Sam, Santana, Kurt, Tina, and Brittany.

"Raise your hand if you want us to forfeit." Artie, Mike, Quinn, and Mercedes. Rachel was staring at the ground and then slowly raised her hand.

"Seven to five. We'll compete, then." Will tried to make himself sound confident.

In the Warblers green room, Blaine knew what the team was going to say, but he still enjoyed the confirmation of all of his planning. "Guys, I really appreciate this." It was just fine to let the grin cross his face now. He'd known exactly what he wanted and it was remarkably easy to get it.

"As the soloist, you're at the most risk, anyway, so it's only fair."

"And you've had to miss out on the benefits of the last few times."

"Well, okay, then, if you're sure." Blaine drank again from his water bottle. Things were going perfectly.

Finn might be clueless about most things, but not about music. New Directions was performing well, but it wasn't any better than that. Quinn and Sam hadn't really met one another's eyes during their duet and he even suspected that it was because of the different votes over Trophy rules. He checked out the audience. They were looking pleased but not intent. Nobody was leaning forward, nobody was mouthing the words or grinning across their entire faces.

Mr. Shue had told them the trick of finding somebody in the back row and singing right to them, as though the performance were only for that one single person. It gives the performance an intensity and chemistry that the entire audience will pick up on. He scanned the back row again to pick somebody out.

Oh, my God. Karofsky was sitting there in the back, without any of his jock buddies with him. And he was staring right at Kurt. Oh, my God. Karofsky's lips were parted and his eyes were hooded. He was staring at Kurt and looking like he was in a strip club.

Finn entirely missed the next dance movement. Tina couldn't help but stumble into him. Sam managed to push them both into the approximate right positions, but everybody's concentration was gone. At the end, the audience clapped politely and Finn could feel the rest of his team keeping from looking at him. Unless the Warblers really screwed up, he'd lost the competition for New Directions. And Trophy rules applied.