New Directions

The McKinley High gym has been nicely decorated for the evening, the Valentine's Day committee having spent the intervening hours between school and the start of the dance wielding streamers and balloons and setting up tables. The very center of the gym has been cleared out for the dance floor, and circular tables surround that for people to sit at, eat and talk between dances. A long table at the back of the gym has been set up for the DJ, and one other table to the side is for the basketball team's fund raising table, selling roses and other Valentine's Day goodies. The usual gym concession stand is now stocked with punch and snacks.

The teachers who have been enlisted to serve as chaperons are keeping a watchful eye on the activities on the dance floor...though they're not really keeping a close eye on the doors leading into the rest of the school. They might want to keep an eye on that.

There is a red carpet leading from the outside into the dance...let's get this party started!

The holidays were finally over, Artie told himself. There was no longer any excuse to put this off any longer.

Besides, it wasn't like he and Tina had come to any official understanding, right? They just knew that they liked each other - and that wasn't going to change, at least not on Artie's end. It's just that it really wasn't fair to Tina. He was doing this for her.

On a night that he knew Tina was online, he called her on Skype. (Part of him thought that a "Dear Tina" email or text message would do, but that was totally low. Girls like Tina deserved better, and since he had to be at school, Skype was the closest he could come to face-to-face.)

"Hey, Tina," he said when her face came on his screen.

The day of Sectionals had finally come. Three show choirs from mid-state Ohio were gathered to compete for the honor to compete some more! Regionals loomed in their futures, and after that, Nationals. In New York. It was a very big deal, and anyone who doubted that fact had never competed for anything in their lives.

"Great to have you back, Puck," Chris said as the members of Psychic Cousin hung out backstage at Murphy's, waiting to go on.

"Yeah, it's a pain in the ass auditioning replacements," Sam added. He smirked. "Thanks for saving us the trouble."

Puck smirked back. "Glad to be of service."

More than that, he was glad to be back in the band (but he wasn't going to say so out loud). Playing guitar and performing was one thing that he really loved to do, and while he was in juvie, he had been worried about losing his place. Good thing he had kept the guys posted on what was going on, and they had believed him when he said he was getting out. Now, he was back and ready to kick ass.

Just then, one of the managers at Murphy's approached. "Psychic Cousin?" she asked. "You're on next. You can set up after John's done with his set."

Eric gave the girl a charming grin. "Thanks for letting us know."

On an average day, Sam was bouncing around happily. On his birthday, the day of his party and after a day of catching up with closest friends, he was almost literally bouncing off the walls.

He was also responsible for the whole house looking like a giant balloon (or the house from Up at least), the garden was filled with lights and more decorations and, after Lillian's party, Sam had insisted on a karaoke machine. The tables set up were packed with food and drink and the huge 'Happy Birthday' banner would have been more impressive, and more meaningful, if Sam hadn't made it himself at 2 o'clock that morning.

Sam was in his full pirate outfit and had been for most of the day. His friends from home (Lee, Andy, Ben, Rebecca and Lisa) were in the garden with him, or rather a cowboy and Han Solo were sneakily smoking his brother's cigarettes and making Sam feel like part of the Villlage People, Princess Fiona and John Lennon were surreptitiously attacking the chip bowl and Alice was not so much in wonderland as she was in the bathroom.

Sam himself was letting his mother kiss him goodbye and nodding that of course he'd behave as he waited for his guests. He was also wondering where Blake had wandered off it, wondering if he'd gone to retrieve the rum.

Lillian has been planning this for months and the night is finally here!

All of the neighbors have been warned. All the music has been planned. There is a tent over the patio, and the elephant is just outside of the tent, along with a facade of the windmill, and there are lights strung up everywhere.

Lillian has the karaoke machine set up over in a corner of the porch, and at the moment, there is old French music being played over the sound system. They'll kick it up a notch when people want to dance or sing or...well, just about any reason, really.

The guest of honor herself has worked very hard on her outfit for tonight...and, as it turns out, red is really her color.

She's terribly, terribly excited but she's trying very hard not to bounce...

Three day weekends were the best, and definitely cause for celebration. It could have been any holiday, no matter how insignificant, but if it called for a Monday off school that meant there should be a gathering and fun times. At least that's what Blake believed. That's why he'd arranged for this cookout. Everyone had made it through the first week of school with little to no casualties, and that was great. Definitely a reason to have hot dogs and bratwurst and hamburgers and especially smores.

He'd gotten the fire pit going early, just to have it there. As he'd said before, he was content just to have a fire pit and then sit around it playing his guitar if no one came. But he hoped people would show up. There was a lot of food and he didn't want to have to eat it all himself later. Of course they hadn't cooked any of the dinnery type foods yet, that would have been silly as it wasn't dinnertime. But there were snacks and drinks for anyone who arrived earlier than dinner.

There were balloons on the mailbox so people could find the house, and a sign out front to point people to the backyard. So he just sat on the edge of the back patio, absently playing his guitar as he waited for anyone who was going to come.

"Oooh, Artie's girlfriend is coming over!" Lizzie Eliza teased shrilly, looking like an evil spirit in a froofy pink ballet costume.

"Stop teasing him, Lizzie," her mother said. "Your brother's nervous enough as it is."

"We're not going to do anything questionable, Mom," Artie said, becoming defensive at the faint teasing note he heard in his mother's voice. "I'm just going to hang out and spend time with my best friend. Last time I checked, that wasn't a crime."

"It still isn't," Mr. Abrams broke in, giving his wife a chiding look. "We should get going or Lizzie's going to be late for her class and we'll be late for our meeting." He grinned at Artie and ruffled his hair. "Have a good time, sport."

"Thanks, Dad."

Artie waved goodbye to his family as they left through the front door, then went to the den to check on it for the dozenth time. To keep the house from seeming too empty, he decided to busy himself with practicing the guitar.

I look at you all see the love there that's sleeping
While my guitar gently weeps
I look at the floor and I see it need sweeping
Still my guitar gently weeps...*

*from "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" by the Beatles; written by George Harrison

Kurt had gotten Tanner out of the house for his birthday and then Quinn and her family had gotten to work arranging the birthday party. The backyard had been strung up with party lights (yellow and blue, natch) and they'd gotten everything X-Men themed, as Tanner had told Quinn he'd never had a fun kid-party.

In Mrs. Fabray's opinion, it was never too late to be a child, so they'd bought plates, cups, and napkins, all x-men themed and there was even a pinata. "We have to hang it higher than that," Quinn said, holding baby Sarah (dressed like Storm, because Storm was cool). Kurt's Dad was also there to help out, and he was on the ladder. Mr. Fabray was out getting ice cream at the last minute, and picking up the cake.

Quinn herself was making sure everyone was doing something and waiting for Kurt's call, letting her know they were on their way.

She wanted this to be his best party ever.

Summer was barely halfway through, but college seemed really near for Artie. As was her custom, his mom was getting an early start on back-to-school shopping, with an emphasis on things that he would need for his dorm room. Having to think about all of that - about preparing to live away from home for the first time in his life - was both exciting and scary. He was still coming home on weekends, but the fact remained that he was leaving. He was going to spend the majority of his time in a completely different world, and sometimes he wondered whether he was going to be able to cope.

The awareness that he was leaving soon made him especially conscious of the town he was soon going to leave behind. This summer, Artie was going around trying to remember every detail about the place he considered home.

That was the reason why, instead of just tagging along patiently after his mom and Lizzie that day, he broke away from them to wander around the mall. There wasn't much to it, but it was one more place that he felt he had to remember when he was away at school.

Artie couldn't really help much with the decorating, being too short to reach high places (but only literally), but thanks to his family, the deck and the den were festively decorated with streamers, graduation cutouts and even a drawing of the Glee Club courtesy of one Lizzie Betsy Abrams.

Artie's parents had set out a buffet table on the deck with chips, the infamous bean dip and other nibbles, to keep everyone busy while the pizza was ordered later. Of course, the music was well taken care of, with Artie's iPod playing his specially selected playlist outside, and guitars indoors in case anyone wanted to give a performance.

Like her big brother, Lizzie Betsy was excited about the idea of the guests coming. "When are they gonna get here, Artie?" she asked.

"I told them 5 PM," Artie answered, "so they'll get here a little later than that."

"I hope they come soon!"

"Me, too."

Even though they hadn't placed at Regionals, Glee still got one more year... and they were doing RENT... and Artie wanted to sort of say goodbye to his friends. Surely those were enough reasons for guests to actually show up?

There they were, parked in an orderly row: twenty-six Range Rovers, practically fresh off the dealer's lot.

Honestly, it wasn't a surprise that all of Vocal Adrenaline was still at school at this late hour. It seemed that all they ever did was practice, especially now that Regionals was coming. Didn't they even eat or go to the bathroom? Too bad they couldn't hear anything from outside - it would have been nice to do some spying, too, but he seemed to remember that Rachel had that covered.

Puck crouched in the shadow of a Dumpster with the rest of the guys who had agreed to join the mission. In order to keep themselves from being recognized if anyone saw them, they had painted their faces. Puck had even donned a wig to hide his trademark Mohawk. (Yes, a hat would have been easier but it didn't go with the makeup.)

"You guys ready?" he asked in the low whisper of someone with vast experience in sneaking around.

High school was essentially over for the seniors. There was still some stuff to finish up, but they were mostly done with school and just going through the motions now.

That day, the school had organized a trip for the seniors to watch a minor-league baseball game, but Artie had elected not to join them. Not only was he not very interested in baseball, but Regionals was coming up and he thought his time would be better spent in preparing for that.

They didn't have a definite setlist yet, and Artie had a couple of ideas that he wanted to run by the group during rehearsals that afternoon. For instance, while Beatles songs were fairly popular for most show choirs, the same ones tended to be chosen over and over. That was a shame considering the wealth of material in the Beatles' catalog.

Once there was a way
To get back homeward
Once there was a way
To get back home
Sleep, pretty darling, do not cry
And I will sing a lullaby...

Brad was seated at his piano, the jazz band was to the side, and Will was seated in the audience, ready to hear everyone's "Legacy" songs.

"Okay! Who's going first?"

Mr. Schuester was busily organizing music. Tina's group performing '21 Guns' was amazing and he thought he should expand it for the entire group. So now he was placing copies of music on everyone's chair.

And he thought that he was getting a little soft with these kids.

They needed a new assignment.

Usually, he had one picked out far before the actual rehearsal...but today, he wasn't quite sure what he'd do.

Well, life was uncertain...

And you never could predict, sometimes, what the best course of action would be.

He'd have to let it come to him.

A long red carpet leads from the parking lot to the lobby of the school gym, decorated for pictures of the happy couples and groups. From there, the carpet leads to the gym, which is decked out in red and black balloons and silver stars.

There's an actual DJ this time near the “bar” where drinks are being served...well, sodas and water. It's high school, what do you want? There's tables scattered about the edges of the dance floor, with red tablecloths and movie-themed centerpieces.

Have fun, kids. Try not to get into too much trouble.

Will had to admit, he was feeling pretty down. He was getting divorced, he'd betrayed Emma by kissing the coach for Vocal Adrenaline, and now he and Emma were...well, not together.

And he was alone, for the first time since he was fifteen. He wasn't at all sure how to deal with it. The apartment was so quiet.

But right now, he had to concentrate on getting his Glee club in a good place for Regionals. The kids were working hard but there were a lot of distractions. Quinn was getting huge, the RENT production, and of course, various personal problems with the kids. Being a teenager, after all, was difficult, and there were still slushie facials to contend with...

Suffice it to say, Will was worried about the Glee club's chances. But he'd try his hardest...and the kids were working hard.

He clapped his hands to bring the kids to attention. "Okay! So, it's the last call for practice solos, duets, any sort of talent you want to show us...after today, we'll be working flat out on the pieces for Regionals and polished performances. So...let's have fun before we get to work. Show me what you've got!"

[ooc: I'll be in and out all day, just start posting away and I'll answer any tags to Will later! Have fun with this!]

Somehow, they'd found out that the kids were having a RENT rehearsal today. And so, they came out en masse, with signs in hand, and a rather poorly-thought up chant that fell apart every so often.

A group of about 20 protesters with signs are picketing the Gentlemen's Club, mostly women and men but some teens, as well. Most notably, the teens from the Chastity Club are there, yelling with as much venom as they could muster.

Which, for supposedly devoted Christians, is quite a bit.

The kids wanted to garner attention...they've got it.


[ooc: Feel free to use the gleeklub account to interact with the protesters. NO VIOLENT CONFRONTATIONS! period, end of sentence. The protesters know the law. And no one wants to be arrested.]

To: cheery_oh
From: haver_brooke
Subject: Free Pedicure

Hi,

My sister's best friend works at a nail salon that offers free pedicures to women in their last trimester of pregnancy. Would you wanna get a free pedicure? I remember you saying how your feet are hurting and your ankles are swelling. Maybe this would help. Plus, you can get your feet looking pretty before you're in the delivery room. ;-) What do you think? I could use a nice polish for sandal weather myself.

- Brooke

To: high_roller
From: haver_brooke
Subject: Paralympics

Did you catch any of the paralympics on TV today? I saw some of it by a lucky accident. I watched blind and partially sighted skiiers... very cool. Then I saw sled hockey. OMG, Artie, if you can, one day you need to try sled hockey. I dunno how you feel about sports, but it looked so incredibly fun!

- B

To: mr_cellophane
From: haver_brooke
Subject: Apology #2

I'm sorry you're an ass about how I acted today.

- Brooke

Melissa looked up from her Friday night Economics term paper (also known as "the death of Melissa") to notice something interesting. Having interpreted for Brooke all day at school, she knew her little sister had worn a sloppy t-shirt, jeans, and sneakers, topped off with a messy ponytail.

And now it appeared that Brooke had showered, fixed her hair, and was wearing the cute new top she'd just bought at Kohl's, nicer jeans, and sandals.

<< Going out? >> she inquired.

Brooke shrugged, settling down on the couch. << No, Artie's coming here. He's going to help me with something for glee club. And then... just hang out, I guess. >>

<< Nice outfit. >> Melissa smirked at her sister before returning her eyes to the laptop screen. She continued to smile, however, as though she knew something Brooke didn't.