There was a time when Christmas was Will Schuester's favorite time of year. Then the divorce happened and all the songs about Christmas Joy and the 'hap-happiest season,' complete with sarcastic air-quotation marks just…made him want to find the nearest bridge and jump off it.
So he got a new favorite time of the year: the first day of school.
True, it would be mostly a day of repeating the syllabus that he knew by heart five times and signing forms and trying to learn the new faces and trying to keep the older kids in line, but in the afternoon, he'd have the first Glee Club meeting.
They were finally going take Nationals this year. He could feel it in his bones.
Most of all, though, he couldn't wait to see Emma, so when he saw her in a break-room eating her usual crust-less sandwich, he decided to grab his lunch from his desk and sit down.
"Will, hey!" she greeted as soon as she saw him, shooting up out of her seat to give him a warm hug. Then she stepped back. "Fancy seeing you here! I mean, not really since we both…work here…but…wow, it's been a really long time." The awkward pause that followed was worse than when Sandy Ryerson walked into the breakroom after Chris Hansen caught him on To Catch a Predator.
"So how was your summer?" Will asked as they sat down.
"Oh, Will it was amazing! So you know those terrible tornadoes they had in the South this summer?"
Will nodded.
"Well, my church group sent a bunch of us to help with the clean-up!"
"That had to have been really rewarding helping out all those people."
"That and oh my GOD, will, the cleaning-products! Trucks filled with anti-septic, streak-free glass cleaner and enough bleach to…I'm getting dizzy just thinking about it. So," she sat back down. "Enough about me. What about you? How was your summer?"
"Well, I decided to take some time for me and work on myself. I changed all my Journey eight-track tapes to regular tapes."
"You do realize that most people use mp3s now, right? And that Rachel has banned any further use of Journey songs this year? Plus, you pretty much ran through their entire Greatest Hits album."
Will nodded. "Yeah, but she's graduating after this year, so I figure, who knows how much longer my eight-track player will last, so I figured better safe than sorry, right?"
"Anything else?"
"I know that dancing hasn't always been my strong-suit and Mike was working at Asian Camp again, so I wound up brushing up on my dance moves by watching old classic videos of Marky Mark and the Funky Bunch, MC Hammer, and Vanilla Ice."
"Well, good for you. Dancing's great exercise."
Will smiled as Emma picked a grape from out of her lunch container and popped it in her mouth without a second thought. She had made so much progress since she and Carl split up and he was so proud of her.
"So, any ideas for New Directions this year?" Emma chirped cheerfully.
"Last year we put together some great numbers and we made it all the way to Nationals on original songs, but you know, from great strife comes great songs, and I just feel like this year, with Sue on our side and Kurt back with us, and since I gave Finn a copy of 'Where Did I Come From?' complete with illustrations for Christmas last year, hopefully that will take care of any pregnancy drama getting in our way, I have a pretty good feeling about high this year. We've found our voice. Now, we just need to find the perfect songs to showcase it."
"So did you hear about the new home-ec teacher?"
"New home-ec teacher?" Will echoed. "What happened to Ms. Hagbert?"
"She was fine one day, the next, she's on life-support in ICU. They think it was salmonella poisoning, but…" she shrugged. "They're really not sure."
"That's awful! We should send her a card."
"Ok, but you're licking the envelope. I've made progress, Will, but who knows where those cards have been. I've got to go, " she said, gathering her trash and wiping off the table. "But I'll see you around. Have a good first day!"
Will sighed, but wasn't alone for more than a few minutes before Coach Beiste's voice boomed across the breakroom. "Will! Howdy! Stranger!"
"Hey Shannon! Good summer?"
"Oh, you know, same old, same old. Have you got a minute? I need to talk to you about something."
Will nodded and offered her a seat.
"It's already started, Will. I can't have a team that doesn't trust each other. Hudson, Puckerman, Chang, all those guys are good players but Hudson's still Quarterback and he's earned the position, but now, I'm not so sure. All your Glee kids will listen to him, but if Karofsky and his cronies have their way, they'd let Hudson get sacked every play, and I don't know about you, but I am NOT about to let drama stop my team this year."
"What's already started?"
"You remember the shit with your Glee boys and my jocks last year?"
Will nodded. How could he forget? It was the first time he'd ever had to try to break up an actual fight in the choir room.
"What do you have in mind, Shannon?"
"First day of school and not a slushie in sight," Tina said as she walked to homeroom with Mercedes. "Did they actually get rid of that slushy machine?"
"I don't know, but I've got a few extra outfits in my bag just in case," Kurt said. "Granted, the bullying was better at the end of last year after Karofsky saw the light, but I expect that particular change of heart to last about as long as a Hollywood marriage."
Then, as if on cue, a cherry-flavored iceberg hit his face and ran down his neck.
"Old habits die hard, Homo," Azimio said, high-fiving Karofsky, who wasn't really laughing, but wasn't exactly apologizing either.
"Nothing personal," Karofsky murmured as he walked away.
Kurt was fuming. It was supposed to be better this year.
His step-brother was the head quarterback and he was head-over-heels in love. With a guy. Who actually loved him back.
And now that Schue finally got the memo that Rachel and Finn weren't the only ones with talent, he might actually get a shot at a solo or two when it counted.
But regardless of how much better some areas in his life had gotten, some things, he realized as he wiped Red Dye Number 40 off his face in the bathroom, would never change.