Summary: Hello! This is my sequel to my fanfiction from last year, "Fifteen More Minutes." Every episode I will write in a variety of extra plots and maybe even some songs depending on how I think the episode could have been maximized. In this chapter, we see how Santana lands her job at the Spotlight Diner. Tina speaks her mind about her life as high school rapidly draws to a close. Sue has already told Will and Roz about her extra-curricular expectations, but she has to get Beiste in on it as well. Roz installs a new secret weapon to her elite Cheerios. I'm also including Finn in this chapter, because the character hasn't passed yet in Glee world.
It was the Monday after Regionals. Finn had finally aced his first bout of exams at the University of Lima. All the studying caused him to miss the infamous McKinley power outage, Stevie Wonder tribute week, Regionals, and Will and Emma's wedding; but now that midterms were over, Finn was ready to commit himself fully to the New Directions.
First order of business was re-recruiting Ryder. Finn heard from Mike that Ryder had been catfished by Unique and had vowed to leave Glee Club officially. Finn could definitely relate. It felt like yesterday that Finn "quit" Glee Club because of Quinn and Puck's affair; however, coming back to Glee Club was the best decision Finn had made. It wasn't long before Finn sneaked up on Ryder at his locker.
"Woah, dude, what are you doing here?" a startled Ryder asked.
"I need you to rejoin Glee Club," Finn answered.
Ryder rolled his eyes and walked down the hall. "Look, Finn, I appreciate how you got me into Grease and Glee Club in the first place, but how can I go back there and commit myself to a team when I feel like whatever romance I pursue is going to end in disaster?"
"Because Glee isn't about romance," Finn urged.
"Coming from you?" Ryder laughed. "Mr. Legendary Male Lead Counterpart and Significant Other to Star Rachel Berry? Hard to believe."
"Look," Finn said, pausing Ryder in his path. "I know how hard it's going to be to go back. When I found out about Puck and Quinn in my sophomore year, I was about to quit Glee Club too and let the rest of them duke it out at Sectionals with a perverted student journalist as a substitute swaying in the background. But, Mr. Schue found me, and convinced me to be the better man, and we won. That might have been good enough for Sectionals, but the club needs you at Nationals. We're already down Brittany, our most valuable dancer besides Jake. And now I hear that Sugar and Joe might be calling it quits too. Going back was one of the best decisions I've ever made in my life, and I know how much those kids have benefited you, Ryder, whether you see it or not... Just think about it."
Ryder watched as Finn walked back down the hall. Ryder looked down the hall and saw Tina, Blaine and Sam having a good laugh. That's exactly why he loved the Glee Club. He looked down the other end of the hall and saw Unique, Marley, and Jake. Ugh, just one mishap, just one wrongdoing. Maybe it would be worth it to go back after all.
Santana sat on the grungy old bus as it drove through the streets of New York City. She had just returned from Lima after going to watch New Directions perform at Regionals. Mike had already returned to Chicago, but Mercedes was staying in town for a little while more to make as much profit as she could off her self-sold album. Brittany, on the other hand, had to get straight to MIT. She wouldn't be starting classes until the summer term, but the mathematics department needed her for research. She and Brittany had taken the train into Albany together, but had to part ways as Brittany headed off to Boston and Santana headed down to Manhattan. Rachel was a little flustered, and the two girls were having an argument over the phone.
"You come home to New York and you don't even check in to say 'hi' or anything!" Rachel complained.
"Sorry, but I have this really big job interview to get to!" Santana exclaimed. "And listen, girl, I think it's high time you considered a job too, you can't—"
"Yes, I know, I can't have my dads paying for my tuition, my rent, my food, or my clothes anymore, I get it, but how do I know if I even have the time? The producers just called me an hour ago and said that I have to go to yet another callback to do a chemistry reading audition with the guy who was cast for Nick Arnstein. His name is Paolo, he played Lancelot in the revival of Camelot, he's a Tony winner, he's got to be about thirty or forty years old, they're obviously going to choose Sutton Foster over me because they're in the perfect age and talent range."
"Rachel, chill, you are going to do fine in that audition; just channel your inner Streisand, and hey, if what you told me about that twenty-eight-second one-breath note was true, things will go fine," Santana insisted. "And you know what? I'm going to put in a little word for you with the manager to see if you can score a job, because one way or another, Berry, you are going to be singing and dancing to make a living from now on."
"But you don't even have a resume of mine," Rachel brought up.
"Oh, that's not true," Santana replied, looking at neat printed copies of hers and Rachel's and Kurt's resumes filed neatly into a folder. "The password to your laptop wasn't quite too hard to figure out. I got one of Porcelain's too."
Rachel was about to fume before Santana hung up the phone and hopped off the bus, entering the Spotlight Diner and going up to the front desk, where a grumpy old man was helping at the front desk.
"Excuse me, can you tell me where I can find the manager, Gunther?" Santana asked politely.
"'Tis I," Gunther said in his heavy German accent. "You must be Santana? Ah, yes, right on time for your job interview; follow me!" Gunther exclaimed, escorting Santana into the kitchen area and into a small storage area on the side, where two chairs sat in the room. "Resume, please?"
Santana slipped forward her file.
"Ingenious," Gunther muttered. "Your pedigree as a nationally-ranked cheerleader and show choir performer speaks words! It's just the skills you need to work in this diner, and ah! You are fluent in Spanish as well? You know, we get a lot of foreigners in this diner and I'm the only one who speaks German. You, Ms. Lopez, are the full package!"
"Great to hear it," Santana said smugly. "Hey, you think I could get a job for my friend here, too? Here's her file."
Gunther read over Rachel's papers. "Hm... I daresay she would be a good fit as a singing waitress, but... Rachel... Sounds like a Jewish name, no?"
Santana was expecting this. "Oh, no, not at all, Rachel Berry is pure-blood English."
Gunther sighed. "I'm still not convinced."
"I have connections to Vogue-dot-com where I can model those hot waitress dresses and thus rake in many more customers to this shaggy diner and increasing profits for your own good, Gunther," Santana said. "I daresay that if my best friend isn't offered this job, you might lose a piece of prime advertising."
Tina sulked as she walked into school on Monday. She walked into the classroom where the Too Young to be Bitter club met, and to her expectations, she was the only one there.
"This meeting is now called to order," she said, tapping the gavel for her nonexistent club. "I'd like to begin this meeting with a rant. Let's be real. Graduation is just over a month away, and what do I have to show for myself? Absolutely nothing. Oh, sure, I was the featured soloist at Sectionals... on a song that I had to learn phonetically in Korean, which because of Marley and Kitty, we lost. Rachel had four solos among three years, for goodness's sake, not counting her duets, so where's my spotlight? Yes, I won Diva week. Is that really a prize? Can I show off a trophy of that and show it to college admissions boards? No. Even Santana and Mercedes got to shine in three competitions in their senior year; why not me? Instead I'm pushed to a group number at Regionals, and no doubt Marley and Unique will upstage me yet again at Nationals. I just feel like my life is a failure. I spent four years in this Glee Club, patiently waiting to get my shot. Should I have just been like Rachel and shoved people out of the spotlight to get what I want? Should I have just started my own group like Mercedes and Santana to make my neglect public? Let it be known, McKinley High, Tina Cohen-Chang isn't taking 'no' for an answer no more! Tina will have the perfect last month of her senior year, and it starts now."
"You called me in here, Principal Sue?" Shannon asked as she sat before Sue in her new office.
"I already gave the lecture to Schuester and Washington, and I trust you might have heard about it," Sue said.
"Yes, I indeed heard about the expectation that the Cheerios and the New Directions win Nationals," Shannon said. "But what's it got to do with me?"
"Shannon Beiste, you are the coach of the varsity boys' volleyball team, who for the first time in eight years have advanced to the state level. If this school has any chance of additional funding, your boys are going to have to win at States this year, Beiste," Sue explained.
"Sue, that's asking a lot, of all of us," Shannon said. "I mean, most should be proud if they place in the top half just in county divisions. The volleyball boys are against some of the best in the state. Those Westerville boys in particular are a tough notch to beat."
"You win States, or the volleyball team is cut," Sue said. "I would fire you, but then that would mean our football team would be even more pitiful than they already are, and we just can't let that happen. I do hope that your volleyball boys have their secret weapon."
"Well, I do have that junior, Joseph Hart. I just feel bad that his being on the volleyball team for the first time is really interfering with his attendance in Glee rehearsals, but he is one of our best weapons."
"Then get right on it, Beiste," Sue commanded. Shannon stood up and walked out of the office, before Sue added, "Oh, and Teen Jesus's dreadlocks have got to go. Boy can't jump for those kills if those medusa whips keep getting in the way."
Roz paced back and forth in her office before coming face-to-face with the girl sitting nervously in the chair in front of Roz's desk.
"Coach Roz, what exactly am I doing here?" Bree asked.
"Little Miss Bree, you have really proven yourself useful in these past couple of weeks as captain of the JV Cheerios," Roz said. "Your potential speaks for itself. If I am to impress Sue Sylvester and keep my job, the Varsity Cheerios are going to have to win Nationals, and with Sue Sylvester's fully grown adult baby Robin suspended, an amateur gay male cheerleader as captain, and love-distracted Wilde Kitty at the top of the pyramid, it just won't do. You, Bree, have a lot to offer, and if I can install you as the captain of the Cheerios for the next school year alongside of Kitty Wilde, we'd be invincible. Sue Sylvester will have no choice but to keep me at this school!"
Bree grinned. "So I'd get to go to Nationals with the Cheerios?"
"Precisely," Roz said. "Do you think you're up for the job?"
Bree smiled deviously. "I'm in; but, I want to be top of that pyramid."
"Then you're going to have to take that Kitty Cat down herself," Roz said. "The girl's got talent, but goodness knows your leadership of the JV squad has done some good for those girls."
Bree smiled deviously. Kitty had to be knocked off her high horse, and there were two ways to do it: one publicize her relationship with the gimp; and two: humiliate her or one of those closest to her at the upcoming prom.
After Blaine and Sam sang "Help" in Glee Club, Blaine insisted that it was time to set out on their recruiting trip to give Kurt the proposal of his life. Blaine explained the whole grand scheme of things as the nine of them piled into his, Finn's, and Tina's cars.
"We'll set up base at Dalton. When Kurt arrives, the Warblers will serenade him into the entrance hall, where Finn, Rachel, Santana, and Mercedes will greet him. They'll lead him into the next corridor where all of you will line up to give him hugs. Then he'll be led into the next room where Vocal Adrenaline will be putting on a beautiful dancing show, and then down the spiral staircase where the Haverbrook kids will be signing 'All You Need is Love.' You all will take the shortcut downstairs and that's where the proposal will take place," Blaine explained.
"And just how are we going to get those three schools involved?" Jake asked doubtfully.
Blaine paused. "That's a good question. Unique, you know Vocal Adrenaline best. How are we getting there?"
Unique, who was just squeezing herself into Tina's back seat, grinned. "Well, we're going to have to drive to Toledo and take the train to Alliance. It's about thirty miles away from Carmel High."
"And then what?" Ryder asked.
"From Alliance we'll travel southwest to Cincinnati, which is the closest we can get train-wise to Dayton," Artie explained.
"And then we'll hop on a bus to Dayton, recruit the Haverbrook students, take the bus on to Westerville, which will take about two hours," Blaine concluded.
"Well, this is going to be quite a weekend," Kitty sighed, rolling her eyes.
"Well, hey, all this traveling is just going to make us this much closer for Nationals!" Marley exclaimed excitedly.
And off they went! Tina, Sam, and Blaine drove everyone off to the Toledo train station, where they were quickly on a midnight train to Alliance.
"Remind us again why we did this?" Kitty whined as the kids hobbled off the train at 3:00 a.m.
"Okay, guys, we'll rest here for a while and take a morning bus into Akron," Finn instructed, watching as everyone claimed benches, chairs, and even the cold dirty concrete walkway to sleep.
Blaine, however, was not tired at all. This was just the beginning of the whole phase, and by the time the sun came up, the New Directions excitedly climbed onto the bus and drove to Carmel High, where they sneaked into Vocal Adrenaline's rehearsal. The New Directions performed their rendition of "Help," and Vocal Adrenaline was on board instantly, probably due to the fact that their own secret weapon, Unique, was among them.
As soon as Vocal Adrenaline's rehearsal was over, they all hurried on over to the Akron Transit Center and boarded their own bus for a four hour drive into Dayton, where they dashed into a rehearsal for Haverbrook School for the Deaf. By then it was 6:00 p.m. on Saturday evening. The three choirs enjoyed the camaraderie of singing "Help" with the Haverbrook kids, even learning it in sign language.
Finally, they jam packed the bus full and headed off to Westerville via a 1.5-hour route. They got to Dalton just in time to do a little four-choir rehearsal with the Warblers, who then invited everyone to their dormitory dining hall, even offering their choir lounge for lodging for the night.
Finn looked out the window and watched as Mercedes's familiar car rolled in, carrying Rachel and Santana in the back seat. Finn grinned awkwardly. He and Rachel had been in this situation just a year previously. Theirs didn't work out. Would Kurt and Blaine's?
"Well, this is going to be an interesting sleepover," Sebastian sighed as he tried his best to knock out the noise of everyone jabbering away in the Warblers' lounge.
"But you have to admit, this is top-notch camaraderie," Will said with a smile, grinning at everyone around him bonding through music. This was exactly the stuff he preached for in Washington D.C. earlier in the year, and now it was coming true, the power of the arts.