Glee: Back to the Top (the third book in the Glee series)

Chapter 23: The Dance-Off

Marley leaned into Julie and said, "We need to get her to sing to him a bit more than to just sing."

Julie nodded, not taking her eyes off of Dan, whose acting was more and more impressive. He really seemed like a depressed teenager, but how could he play the part so well? He was such a happy guy.

"Actually, I'd better go," Dan said when the music was lowered. Amity turned to him.

"Square off your body toward the audience!" Sue called out.

Amity followed directions, glanced down at her script and said, "Walk as far as my house with me."

"I wish I could," Dan responded, rubbing his hair nervously and looking around. Beiste shook her head with amazement.

Amity reached out and put a hand on his shoulder, saying, "Then why don't you?"

Dan shrugged, taking a few steps towards the audience and replying, "Eighty lines of Virgil, sixteen equations, a paper on the Habsburgs."

The music began again and that sad look appeared on his face again, the look that troubled Julie as she jotted down nothing but great notes about him.

Dan: So maybe I should be some kind of laundry line. Hang their things on me and I will swing 'em dry. You just wave in the sun through the afternoon and then see. They come to set you free. Beneath the rising moon. 'Cause you know...

Amity stepped forward too, reaching for his arm as she sang. The two sang together, though they sang different lyrics, and while Beiste thought it sounded perfect, Sue thought it was messy. She made this opinion known as soon as the song ended.

"What do you mean 'messy'?" Julie, who was in charge of the musical arrangements, asked. "It sounded perfect to me."

"That's exactly what I was thinking," Beiste said, turning her body towards Sue as she waited for an explanation.

"Well, the little Christian one," Sue began, "is being overpowered by the scrawny one's stage presence."

Dan and Amity looked at each other as Marley said, "I have to agree. I actually wrote down... Amity, you need to be just a little tougher. Dan, you're doing an amazing job. Amity, just work off of his energy so that you don't fall into the shadows up there."

Amity nodded, pulling a pen out of her bun and writing this on the margin of her script. Meanwhile, Dan was surprised to be the one upstaging others for once. He was so used to being unnoticed that now it was strange to be 'the star.' He still hadn't decided whether the added pressure of that outweighed the pros or not.

"Ok, once we wrap up that scene, we said we'd work on 'Mama Who Bore Me,'" Julie began.

"I did fine," Bree told her a bit defensively.

"Sorry, I meant the reprise," Julie clarified. "When all the girls join you, that needs to be a bit tighter as far as uping the energy without compromising the harmonies. So let's do that."

Marley nodded as Amity left the stage but Dan said, "Umm, Kitty isn't here. She's at a doctor's appointment."

"Oh, that's right," Sue said, suddenly remembering this key piece of information. "I forgot. She's excused."

"Another appointment?" Bree said, rolling her eyes. "What, is she dying or something? That's the third one this month!"

"Ok, in this case we should do a bit of acting exercises," Marley said. "Mr. Schue wanted—"

"—to introduce you all to your new acting coach," said Will as he walked in with a grin and a very handome guy behind him.

Shana gasped. "You're that guy from the Free Credit Rating Today commercials!" she exclaimed with excitement.