Chapter 1
Finn stared blankly down at Mr. Schuester's desk. His eyes briefly scanned over various ungraded papers, pens and an eclectic collection of cds. It seemed like just yesterday when he would be staring at this desk when Mr. Schuester would give him a lecture about how he should be a role model by at least trying to learn Spanish or the basic choreography. Finn briefly wished he could go back to that time or at least that things could stay the same. "Finn, are you okay?" Mr. Schue asked as he stared across the desk at Finn with a concerned look in his eye.
Finn blinked his eyes and snapped out of his daze. "This can't be happening Mr. Schue. This has got to be a mistake".
Mr. Schue sighed and rubbed his temples. "I'm afraid not, Finn. Principal Sylvester finally managed to convince the school board that performing arts were a waste of time and resources. So they decided that starting next year the Glee club will lose all of its funding."
"Well, what does that mean exactly?" Finn asked "I mean this can't be the end of Glee club."
"I'm afraid it might be" Mr. Schue said "Without funding we can't compete because we can't afford the transportation to competitions, we can't afford costumes or any set designs. We might not even be able meet and sing songs to each other because we have to pay the piano guy, instrument maintenance and for microphone rentals. I mean that's at least $3,500 a year.
"But this is insane! they can't do that. Not after all the trophies and titles we won." Finn's voice began to shake with anger and rise to an uncomfortably loud volume.
"Look Finn" Mr. Schue sighed "I don't like it any more than you do but I'm not sure if we have any more options left, it's too much money for us to raise with a benefit."
Finn's anger slowly shifted from Sue and the school board to Mr. Schue who looked as if he was exhausted and on the verge of giving up. He spoke slowly trying to be diplomatic and hide his annoyance with his former teacher "Mr. Schue, I don't want to be rude but shouldn't you be giving me some inspiring speech on how to get through this instead of just sulking and giving up…"
Mr. Schue opened his mouth "Look Finn…You are absolutely right. I should be doing something. It's just I have been putting out these fires for four years now and I just don't know what I can do. I have my job, Emma, glee's end of the year performance and now this. It's all too much…I just want to focus on making the end of the year as best as I can for all of the members because that's the only thing we can do."
Finn stared blankly at Mr. Schue. He had never seen him like this before, so tired and defeated. After years of him mentoring Finn, Finn couldn't bear to see him so defeated. "Mr. Schue" Finn said as he rose out of his chair "I don't know how but I'm going to find a way to fix this and don't even bothering telling me no because I can do this." Finn quickly hustled his way out of the class room partly so that Mr. Schue couldn't tell him to not try and partly so Mr. Schue couldn't see that Finn was tearing up.
It was just a few minutes before midnight, and Finn, Puck and Mike were all silently sitting on the bleachers overlooking their old football field. With the summer almost here, Mike and Puck had headed back home to see Sam, Tina and Blaine before they graduated. It was supposed to be a time of celebration before a great summer but once Finn had told them the depressing news the mood took a somber turn. Somehow this seemed like the only appropriate place to go. Originally, they had just wanted to come here to reminisce about their high school "glory days" and recount stories about how they met and the trophies they won but eventually they ran out of stories and now were just sitting there drinking Bud Lights. It was the end of an era, not just for them but for everyone, and there was nothing left to say.
Puck tilted back his head and finished the last sip of his bottle before tossing it aside. "This is bullshit!" Puck exclaimed breaking the silence. Mike sleepily nodded and swayed slightly. He had only been drunk once or twice before in his life, but at a moment like this he needed to take the tension away.
Finn raised his hand and gently patted Puck on the back. "I know, bud. It really sucks"
"Sue is pure evil" Mike chimed in, his face scrunched up with contempt for the principal.
"Easy tiger" Puck said letting out a slight laugh. He took a brief breath before continuing "Well, I suppose we had a good run. I mean we won nationals, had some kickass performances and we all will still be…"
"A family" Finn finished with a sad little nod. Mike too began to nod at that remark. All three of them fell into silence once again. Finn's anger and determination had slowly ebbed away and had begun to be replaced by sadness, he was beginning to see why Mr. Schue had looked so depressed and helpless. A few minutes later, the sound of feet clamoring up the bleachers broke the silence and snapped the three guys out of their mental daze. Finn made a half-hearted effort to hide their beer bottles in case whoever coming up the stairs was a policeman or a security guard before seeing a head of flowing blonde hair on top of a muscled body. Sam stepped forward of the darkness, waved, gasped "Hello" and began to inhale loudly. It looked like he had been running all over town looking for them.
"Hey" Mike and Puck said, although they looked too depressed to muster up any real excitement for Sam.
"It's good to see you" Finn nodded at him, although he too was unable to conjure up a sincere smile. "Not that I'm sad to see you, but what are you doing here so late?"
Sam took a final loud breath before saying "Well Mr. Schuester told all of us the bad news and I had to find you guys and Burt told me you were probably here and I've been running all around the school trying to find you guys."
"Well congrats you found us" Puck said in a bitter sarcastic tone. Sam looked at him confusedly.
"Come on guys, you have to let me in on the plan" Sam blurted out.
"What?" Mike asked, who looked as if he only had a loose grasp on what was going on around you.
" You know" Sam continued with a little more pizazz in his voice as he caught his breath "The plan, Whatever scheme you guys have to save glee."
Mike and Puck hung their heads down low, leaving Finn to answer. "There is no plan" Finn said in a quiet tone barely above a whisper.
Sam looked as if this words had genuinely hurt him. "So you are just going to give up?" He angrily asked.
Puck began to sit up, angry at being accused of being a flake. "Well there isn't exactly a lot we can do. Sue isn't going to change her mind and the glee club has never been able to raise that kind of dough before" he shot back.
"You guys are supposed to be role models" Sam said, letting his big mouth run "and you guys are just quitting when we need you the most. What kind of a legacy is that?"
"Look, if we had an option we would do that" Finn said trying to keep the two muscled up guys calm.
"Yeah, I don't see you coming up with any ideas" Puck muttered, still hotheadedly.
"Actually I do have an idea on how to raise the money" Sam tentatively paused "but it can only work if you all agree to it"
Mike immediately perked up, "Go on shoot" he said looking excited and hopeful for the first time all night.
"Good!" Sam said before taking a deep breath, more out nerves than genuine exhaustion "Because it's called the full monty."