A/N - Soooo... Part 3 of chapter 26 makes me cry. But for you, my readers, I reread it so that I could write this chapter accurately. Take that as an 'I LOVE YOU GUYS', okay? The reaction I described at the end of this is my real reaction to 26.3

Also making an appearance in this chapter are some non-Daltonite friends of mine (and someone who doesn't exist - that's Elise's girlfriend. she's not real)!

Our Mental Preparation Day & Reading 26.3

In the morning, Mama CP told us that she was postponing the final part for a day so that she could put some finishing touches on it. The few of us who were actually awake responded to this announcement with disappointment.

"Take the time to mentally prepare yourselves," she suggested. "You're going to need it – part 3 is intense."

"Okay, Mama CP," we said sleepily.

I kicked Gracey, who was still asleep. "Gracey, wake up," I ordered.

"What?" she replied. I could tell that she wasn't fully awake – or really anywhere near that.

"Mama CP says there's going to be an extra day before the next part of the chapter. She told us to mentally prepare ourselves," I said. "…that worries me. Why don't we wake up some of the others and go somewhere today?"

"In an hour," said Gracey. She rolled over and was clearly planning to go back to sleep.

I kicked her again. "No," I replied. "I can't go back to sleep now! You can have the ten minutes that it'll take me to find and wake up the others." I stood up and walked to where I'd seen Danny and Darcy sitting the night before. They were both still asleep. I dropped Jerry on Darcy's head and kicked Danny. "Wake up!"

Danny groaned and rolled over. Darcy pushed the teddy bear off of her face. I sat down on the floor between them and poked both of them. "Come on, guys, wake up!" I repeated. "We have an extra day before part three and I want to go out somewhere. And you're coming, too."

"Fine," Danny said.

Darcy sat up and handed me Jerry. "We'll be ready to go in half an hour, Finn."

I jumped up as Darcy started trying to convince Danny to get ready to leave. Then I went to find Cassidy, Katherine and Grace.

Once I'd woken them up and told them our plan, I walked back to where Gracey was sitting and talking to Molly and Syaz. "Guys, get up and all that jazz! The others are going to meet us by the main doors in like twenty minutes."

The three of them stood up, grabbing whatever stuffed animal they'd brought downstairs to sleep with. Gracey and I walked to our room and found Dalton-ey things to wear. I placed Jerry the bear on my bed carefully after straightening his Warblers t-shirt. Then I put on my Ravenclaw headband and Gracey and I ran to the main entrance.

We walked to everyone's favourite coffee shop – the Lima Bean, what else? – and ordered. I didn't actually get coffee; I got hot chocolate and a giant triple chocolate brownie. We sat down at a big table in the middle of the room. I was only half engaged in the conversation, because I was listening to Starkid songs on my phone.

Then Cassidy told us that last night after Story Time she was listening to some song and wrote new lyrics about Rane being canon for it. Immediately after this declaration, she started singing.

Don't call me a dork!
Imma Rane fan!
Happy now, that they're together, finally now we're pleased.
Spanning all around the world, with a nice fan base.
Full of Klutz's and Dancers!
Yup that's Rane.

R.A.N.E IS. . I'ts about time.

R.A.N.E IS CANON
R.A.N.E IS CANON
R.A.N.E IS CANON
R.A.N.E IS CANON YEAH!
R.A.N.E IS CANON
R.A.N.E IS CANON

Rane is canon.
Thank You, Mama CP
It's my favorite pairing ever, for Glee

Past was Klaine
Jogan's next
Do you think it's not real?
Dalton, it's the future Fools!

Reading fiction all day.
Write it, all night.
They finally kissed right, before our eyes.

Update Your fan-page! shout it all around ya!
and Write it on the cap, of your snapple

R.A.N.E IS CANON
R.A.N.E IS CANON
R.A.N.E IS CANON
R.A.N.E IS CANON
R.A.N.E IS CANON
R.A.N.E IS CANON
R.A.N.E IS CANON
R.A.N.E IS CANON!

As she finished singing, I realized that sitting in the coffee shop near us were several friends of mine who weren't members of the Coult. When I realized who one of them was, I determinedly looked in the opposite direction and saw my friend Elise and her girlfriend, Rosalinda, walking over to us.

"Hi Finnie! Hi Gracey!" Elise said.

Gracey started having a conversation with Elise. I just waved vaguely and stared into space. I think that Gracey introduced Elise to everyone, but like I said, I was a little spacey.

Not long after that, Elise and Rosalinda walked away. My other non-Daltonite friends stood up to leave the coffee shop. As they passed us, they noticed Gracey and I.

"Gracey, Finley, hi!" said one, a pretty girl with short dark hair and dark brown eyes.

"Hi Bridget!" replied Gracey. I paused the song I was listening to and waved.

The other girl, Megan, said,"Do I not get a greeting?"

"Hi Megan!" I said.

"Who are all of these people?" asked Bridget.

"Cassidy, Danny, Darcy, Katherine, Grace, Molly and Syaz," Gracey answered, pointing to each person as she said their name. "They live with us in Warblerland. You know, that enormous mansion a few blocks away?"

Megan replied, "Yeah, I know what you're talking about. I didn't know you two live there."

I smiled. "Well we do. It's really nice, but we're spending today away from Warblerland. Mommy CP told us we should mentally prepare for tomorrow."

"Tomorrow?" repeated Bridget.

"She, uh, promised to tell us a really scary story tomorrow night," I explained.

"Um, who is she?" asked Megan.

All of us looked at each other. How do you explain Mama CP to people who aren't familiar with Dalton?

Katherine was the one who finally found something to say. "She's a writer. She's writing this amazing story called Dalton. But Dalton is more than just a story. The boys are real, they live in Warblerland with us. Unfortunately, though, what happens next within the story is intense and emotional and no matter how much time Mama CP gives us to prepare ourselves, it'll probably still be too much for most of us."

"Oh," Megan and Bridget said.

"Adam terrifies me," I said quietly to Molly.

"We should get going," Megan said to Bridget.

"It was nice seeing you guys," Bridget told me and Gracey.

"'Bye, Bridget! 'Bye, Megan!" Gracey replied.

I waved and said, "Toodles!"

I smiled as Bridget and Megan walked away. Gracey and the others returned to their conversation from before and I pressed play on my phone.

"Finnie, you look like Julian did the other day after singing with Logan," Syaz told me.

I blushed and said, "I don't know what you're talking about."

We wandered around town that day. The others bothered me about Bridget a bit (led by Gracey), but I did my very best to ignore it.

That night everyone slept in their own rooms and slept in the next morning (at least, I slept in the next morning – I was pretty sure I wouldn't sleep well after Story Time).

The next day was a blur, and before I knew it, Gracey and I were claiming squishy purple sleeping bags in the middle of the great hall. We were surrounded by the people we'd spent the last two days with, as well as two other girls named Sydney and Danni.

Before starting the chapter, Mama CP said, "I have to warn you guys, there are some pretty intense scenes in here, including some violence." Then she launched into part 3.

The description of Han's parents made everyone laugh. Shane acting all jealous got a laugh as well.

When Blaine, Shane and their parents (and Kurt and Mr. Hummel) were talking, the entire hall was silent, as if we were all holding our breath.

Dwight's "distraction" got cheers (well, more like screams) from a whole lot of people. Sydney was flailing throughout the whole thing and pretty much died at the end.

When Reed was attacked by Adam, the entire hall gasped.

Adam's room was greeted by shock and disgust and yet more fear – Have I mentioned before how much Adam scares me?

Dwight falling out the window was what started the tears. I started crying the moment I saw him fall. But Danni's response was a little more extreme – she screamed and buried her face in her pillow.

The twins' performance did not help me to stop crying, although at that point the tears were mostly a reaction to the sweetness and cuteness of their "singing" to their Audrey.

Then Adam caught Kurt, which was frightening. The whole scene was really scary… Adam is really scary.

Logan's demand for a "sleepy time song" made me laugh, but Julian's singing (and the fact that he used it as his good-bye) made me cry even more.

AND THEN ADAM SHOWED UP. HAVE I MENTIONED RECENTLY HOW TERRIFIED I AM OF ADAM?

Logan finally coming to his senses just a few minutes too late… frankly it reminded me of how in Romeo and Juliet, Juliet woke up just moments too late to stop Romeo from killing himself.

Danny Abbot's injury got a scream from Danni, among others.

Fire scares me enough in real life, but in Dalton when it's paired up with Adam as a threat to the lives of characters who are important to me… Let's just say that if Jerry was a real person, he would've suffocated.

Julian's confession got varied responses – screams, sobs, shouts – but everyone reacted.

And the final explosion… well, I screamed.

Mama CP declared that everyone deserved an extra cookie tonight, before starting to walk around the room to talk to everyone.

When she reached us, my cookies sat untouched on a napkin (guarded by Jerry) and I was hugging my knees and crying quietly. Gracey had buried her face in Blaine the dolphin PillowPet. Katherine was staring into space numbly. Danny and Darcy were hugging and crying.

Mama CP gave each of us a hug.

That night, as I predicted, no one slept well.

A/N - THE BOYS ARE BACK IN THE NEXT CHAPTER! (Yeah, I'm going to keep writing! I might've finished with us reading chapter 26, but has Mommy CP finished Dalton? NO! Until chapter 27 is published, I'll write a few chapters of day-to-day life in Warblerland.

Credit for the fantastically amusing replacement lyrics to a song that I canNOT remember the name of for the life of me go to the real life Cassidy. =)

So I close with the same message as always, if you want to be in the story, tell me! I'll happily write you into this wonderful world!