I do not own Glee or any of the songs mentioned.

They were half way through practicing their number for sectionals. Santana just twirled into Finn's arms only he was suddenly so distracted he didn't catch her and she almost ended up falling over his feet. He was staring at the person marching through the door.

"Will, I need a word." said Sue Sylvester as she barged into the choir room, "I can see you're not busy."

"We're actually in the middle of rehearsals at the moment Sue!"

She carried on as if he hadn't said anything.

"It's my sister's birthday next Saturday. Circ de Soliel are not answering my calls but then I had a thought, your lot of freaks would make an excellent alternative."

"Sue, we are performing in Sectionals in little over a month!"

"I think, Will, all your perming products have finally rotted your last working brain cell or you would remember you owe me! It can just as easily all disappear again"

Mr Shue didn't respond to this.

"Excellent! Glad you see sense. Be at St. Catherine's Nursing Home for two o'clock. She likes cheerleading, circuses and Billy Joel. So get to it!"

She then turned to the Glee club wearing one of her scary, pleasant smiles.

"I look forward to seeing you all there."

As soon as she left the Glee club was in uproar.

"Saturday, she can't be serious!" demanded Puck.

"Sectionals is only weeks away how can we possibly do this?" asked Rachel.

"No way am I doing anything for Sylvester." snapped Mercedes.

"She's insane." agreed Tina

Mr Shue silenced them all with a hand.

"She's right, we do owe her."

"How?" asked Rachel.

"She's the one who got Figgins to give us another year." he explained.

This was news to Santana,

"Why would she do that?"

"Well," said Mr Shue, "She said it was so she could continue to ridicule my hair. But I think she did it for you guys."

Now Santana did know that deep, deep, deep, deep down Miss Sylvester did have a softer side but it emerged so rarely it was probably more accurate to call it a psychotic break.

"You're not seriously suggesting we actually do this are you." asked Rachel unbelieving.

"I don't think we have a choice." He paused for a moment and then Santana saw the light bulb go off in his brain; he'd just had an idea. "You know if we do this right, she will owe us!"

Santana had to agree Coach Sylvester owing the Glee club a favour did seem like a good idea. It might even get the tracksuit-wearing-tyrant to let up on her and Brittney during Cheerios practice.

"I think the only way we can do three numbers by next Saturday is to break them up." said Mr Shue giving them all a lopsided smile. "Girls if you could take the cheerleading number. Finn if you and the boys work on a Billy Joel routine. And Brad and I will try and hammer something out for the circus part. I guess we have our assignment for the week. You never know we may even find a new number for sectional in all this."

Brittany caught up with Santana after practice. The Latino linked their pinkie together.

"I was worried there for a bit." admitted Brittany.

"Why were you worried?" Santana asked.

"I didn't like it when everyone was arguing."

When Santana looked closer at her friend she noticed she did actually look quite upset. She pulled Brittany into a hug.

"Well, it's all over now." she said rubbing her friends back.

"I know…" said Brittany sniffing back a sob, "I was just really worried we wouldn't get to go to the birthday party."

Santana stopped and stifled a laugh. She pulled away from Brittany, and crossed her arms,

"You really are a dope, you know!"

"I know." said Brittany.

Sighing, Santana pulled her friend back into an affectionate hug.

Santana and Brittany entered the rehearsal room side by side to find Rachel already there; a folder clutched to her chest.

"At last." she said excitedly. "Now we are all here I can take you through my proposals for the Cheerleading routine."

Resigned Santana led Brittany to a seat and let Rachel continue.

"I thought we could do "Hey Mickey." It is a song famous for having the world's first pop video; which I think you may know featured cheerleaders! I also took the liberty to storyboard a routine…"

Mercedes interrupted at this point.

"I like the song, but you don't think we would be better off leaving the choreography to the experts. I mean, with the exception of Tina, we all have more cheerleading experience than you do!"

Rachel looked downhearted for a moment, but then quickly pulled herself together,

"You're probably right."

That was when Santana noticed suddenly everyone was looking at her.

Santana insisted everyone warmed up properly before they started on the number. It was decided that Rachel would sing the lead and Santana had adapted an existing Cheerios routine which they could all perform around her.

"I do not miss this." Mercedes gasped as she worked through the stretches.

"I'd forgotten how much hard work this was." admitted Quinn.

When the warm ups were finished Santana began to talk them through the moves. Thanks to Coach Sylvester's rigorous training, Quinn and Mercedes were quickly getting back into the swing of things but Tina and Rachel were having trouble. Santana could not seem to get them to understand how the moves were meant to snap, in quick, short, bold moves. She found herself getting more and more frustrated with them; forever adjusting one of Rachel's arms or straightening Tina's back. She didn't realise how much she was channelling Sue Sylvester until she caught herself saying,

"You think this is hard, you should try doing as double back-flip after parachuting out of an airplane. That's hard!"

At that point she got everyone to take a break and took herself off on a little walk to calm down. When she got back Brittany was there taking Tina and Rachel through the moves and Santana had to admit they were beginning to get the hang of it. By the second day they were looking quite good. Now it was up to her and Brittany to make sure they looked amazing.

Saturday came and when they arrived at the nursing home they were shown to a garden around the back. There was a small marquee erected for a changing room and benches had been put out in a semi-circle by a clear patch of grass which was to be their stage. Miss Sylvester was there and creepily seemed genuinely pleased to see them. When she introduced her sister, Santana and Brittany were the only ones not surprised by her Down's syndrome. For Santana's part, Coach Sylvester often brought up her differently able sister during their meetings in her office. She was beginning to get a disturbing feeling that the coach was attempting to bond with her over her friendship with Brittany. In Brittany's case she probably hadn't even noticed.

The girls went on first. They were all dressed in cheerio uniforms, Mercedes and Quinn still had theirs and Santana and Brittany each lent a spare uniform to Tina and Rachel. They all walked out and struck a pose. The Coach's sister had been joined by other residents of the home and some of the nurses and they were greeted with a loud applause. They all began to sing the introduction to "Hey Mickey" still frozen in their pose until Rachel jumped up and began to sing the verse. While the other girls worked through the simple series of steps, moves and poses, Santana and Brittany worked hard in the background with kicks, cartwheels and jumps before joining the others in the synchronised routine at the chorus. It was hard work and the number finished with Rachel standing, arms stretched, balanced in Santana and Brittany's knees. The song got a standing ovation and after a few bows, exhausted, the girls retired to the marquee.

"I can't believe you do all that and Glee everyday!" gasped Rachel," Where do you get the energy?"

"Sue's master-cleanse." revealed Santana, "Followed by a huge pasta dinner!"

The boys were up next. Dressed in mechanics overalls they sang "Uptown Girl". Finn and Puck shared the lead. Puck was hamming it up terribly, gamely flirting with Miss Sylvester's delighted sister, as well as some of the nurses. One of the other female patients was so excited she joined them onto the stage, but Kurt managed to dance her back to one of the care home staff. When they were finished there were more applause and cheers.

Mr Shue then got up on the stage to explain that there would be a short interval while they got ready for the final number. There was a lot of excitement back stage, this was the most fun they had had with costumes since the Lady Gaga assignment.

Mercedes came on dressed the Ring Master and began to sing,

"Oh, oh, oh, it's magic …"

Matt went on next in his magician's outfit and pulled a bunch of flowers out of thin air and presented them to Coach Sylvester's sister. Then Brittany appeared, somersaulting onto the stage in a sequined silver cat suit. Slowly, one by one, the glee club emerged, Mike performed his robotic dance moves dressed as a mime. Rachel pirouetted onto stage dress as a ballerina. Puck flexed his muscles dressed as a strong man, complete with leopard skin and drawn on curly moustache. Tina and Artie pulled faces at each other dressed as clowns. Quinn, dressed in a sparkling evening gown, acted as Matt's magician's assistant as he pulled a long string of multicoloured scarves from his top hat. Finn dressed in a multi-coloured shirt with very ruffled sleeves juggled his three bean bags. Kurt was dressed in a turquoise leotard and for reasons only known to him was simply throwing handfuls of glitter in the air.

Santana had a perfect view of it all. She was four foot over everyone else's head balanced on a pair of stilts. Stilt waking, like gymnastics, double-dutch skipping and skydiving, being one of the many skills she acquired as a Cheerio. Looking out over the audience, Santana had never seen so many delighted faces in her life. When the song was over, it took a long time for the applause to die down.

Sue Sylvester didn't exactly say thank you, but she did let them all stay and have birthday cake. Santana also noticed that for almost a month afterwards, Coach Sylvester didn't yell at her or Brittany during Cheerios practice, so that was something.