Chapter 8:
Previously on The New New Directions: Aisha's parents found out she's gay and kicked her out so she moved in with Beth and Shelby, Kurt had a talk with Aria about loving the family she has while remembering who she's lost, and Danny reminisced about how he met his friends, and how much they mean to him.
1 month later
Beth pulled up outside her niece's house and honked on her horn, unwilling to get out of the car in this weather. A minute or so later the door opened. Aria was wearing a black coat with a faux fur hood pulled around her head plus knee-length boots with her outfit but Rachel wound a red scarf around her daughter's neck anyway. She shouted out to Beth that her, Sam and the kids would meet them in an hour and the blonde girl nodded. Aria dashed towards the car, leaving footprints which would soon be covered up by the constant snowfall. Beth shivered as she opened the door and chill came through. Once they'd pulled away from the house and were driving back to the Corcoran's, Beth noticed that Aria didn't unwind the scarf, which is what she would have done usually. Smirking, Beth turned up the Christmas music, although her favourite holiday had just past.
When they arrived at Beth's house there was already a couple of cars outside. Every year, Shelby and Beth went all out for Christmas. They had lights around the house and on the hedges around it. There was a family of lit up snowmen above the door and a big flashing 'Santa please stop here' sign pushed into the ground. There were lights winding around the big tree next to her house and a lit up gingerbread house at the bottom of it. She and Aria headed inside where lights wound up the staircase and the light from the Christmas tree in the room next door shone brightly through the doorway. A buffet was being set up along the table they'd folded out which was now going almost along the whole side of the dining room. Quinn, Puck and Shelby were bringing out the food while Aisha picked the playlist for this rocking New Year's Eve. They had a party like this for friends and family every year since Shelby's house was the biggest, and it was always a tonne of fun. Beth was sure this was going to be the same, despite the sad events that had happened this year, a lot of good stuff had happened too. Aisha and Beth had gotten together, Glee Club had restarted and won Sectionals, Quinn had become pregnant (she was now three months pregnant and had recently found out she was having twins, which explained why the bump had been growing so fast!)
After the girls had taken off their coats and scarves and hats and gloves, they went through to see Aisha. The brunette was still looking at music, and seemed thrilled the girls were there. "I need your help!" Aisha said desperately. "Why did your mom put me in charge of something so important?" Aria and Beth both laughed and the blonde kissed Aisha on the cheek.
"It's okay babe," She comforted her girlfriend and added new and old songs to the playlist, complimenting Aisha on her selections too.
The Schuesters were the next to arrive, Emma had probably been worried they'd be late, Lucas and Dylan with their families, the Biestes, followed ten minutes later by Aria's family, then Natalia and Liam with their parents, Marley and her family, the Hudson-Hummels (including Kurt, Blaine, Phoebe and Charlie- who were in town for the holidays), Milo and his dad, Shelby's friends, and eventually, fashionably late, the Lopez-Pierces.
The adults were all next door eating and drinking and chatting when Beth announced they were going to draw names and songs out of a hat for karaoke. This led to funny pairings like Milo and Aria's little sister, who sang an old One Direction song. Aria put her head on Danny's shoulder laughing as Kaelynn watched, feeling bad for him. Danny clearly liked Aria but was too shy to say anything, and poor Aria couldn't tell. Kaelynn thanked God she didn't have any relationship drama. At that thought she glanced around, but nope, no suitors staring at her longingly. In a way it was disappointing, but she loved being single. Milo picked up Bailey at the end of the song, making the blonde little girl giggle before running over to her big sister and jumping onto Aria's lap before the brunette could stop her. Travis ran over and sat on Danny as well, Kaelynn watched as the best friends smiled. Next up was her brother and Maeve singing A Whole New World from Aladdin. Kaelynn smirked as she tossed her dark locks back, Asher didn't even roll his eyes. His blue eyes were looking forward, he didn't look too thrilled about having Maeve as a partner at first.
Asher: I can show you the world
Shining, shimmering, splendid
Tell me princess, now when did you
Last let your heart decide
Starving, Kaelynn headed next door and grabbed some food. The room was filled with the adults, laughing and reminiscing. When she came back the song was nearing an end and her brother and his duet partner were facing each other, dangerously close, staring into each other's' eyes.
Maeve: A whole new world
Asher: (Don't you dare close your eyes)
Maeve: A hundred thousand things to see
Asher: (Hold your breath, it gets better)
Jax and Dane rushed over to their big sister, tugging on her arm "Are they gonna kiss?" Asked her eight year old brother, pulling a face.
"EW!" Jax declared in response. Kaelynn had to agree- she was not into PDA. Maeve and Asher didn't kiss, luckily. They just kind of stared at each other and then turned away awkwardly and handed Beth their microphones (which Rachel had brought over from her house), bumping into each other in the process and blushing.
Kaelynn rolled her eyes, "¡Ay ay ay!" She saw her mamá and mom watching with barely contained laughter and stuck her tongue out at them. Brittany and Santana just laughed and turned back to talking with Quinn, their high school best friend. Kaelynn brushed a few strands of her black-brown hair behind her ear, leaving her hand resting there for a minute. She kind of wished she had a specific best friend- that was supposed to be one of the best parts of high school, right? In LA she'd had one, Kali. The two girls had originally bonded over their names both starting with K's back when they were in kindergarten. They'd stayed best friends for ten years, until this year. Kaelynn had started dating one of the hottest boys in school, Zac, after he asked her out. She'd texted Kali immediately of course, totally excited, practically jumping up and down. Her best friend hadn't been so thrilled though. In fact Kali hadn't texted back at all. The brunette had done a double taken and then checked and triple checked if the message had sent, they always replied to each other immediately and this was HUGE! Kali didn't meet her for lunch either and Kaelynn frowned, what was going on? She ate by herself all lunch, sat alone at the edge of the gamers' table, the only available one. She and Kali normally ate on the bleachers, laughing at the peppy cheerleaders and gawking over the cute boys. Kaelynn headed to her next lesson, reasoning that Kali must have gone home horribly sick and been unable to text and let her know. She had convinced herself of this so much that by the time she reached English (pretty early- she'd been bored) she was feeling terrible for Kali. That was until she got inside the door and saw the two people in the otherwise empty classroom. Kali was on the edge of the teacher's desk and Zac was stood in front of her. Kaelynn shot out of the room at lightning speed, her heart racing as she peered into the classroom. They looked like they'd just been talking, but suddenly Kali stood up, grabbed Zac's arm effectively pulling him closer and looped her arms around the back of his neck, smashing their lips together. Kaelynn had made an audible squeak before she could stop herself. Her heart was speeding and felt like it had just been ripped out of her chest. She was about to run to the restroom, feeling the tears already streaking down her cheeks, when Kali looked straight into her eyes and smirked maliciously.
Kaelynn felt tears running down her face again she relived the memory, and the aftermath. Their relationship had never recovered. She'd confronted Kali and discovered the other girl had been in love with Zac, but how the hell had Kaelynn been supposed to know that? Kali stole Zac, who awkwardly revoked the date with her, and as if that wasn't enough she started to spread lies about Kaelynn; that she'd been the one who started the rumour that Phoebe Richards, a cheerleader, had head lice, that Nathan Hastings, a gamer, was a male prostitute, that Gianna Woodworth, a prep, had herpes, and that Carter Masons, a jock, had been sent to rehab when he came back a week late after Christmas break. And that was just a few of the rumours. She managed to have every clique at the school mad at Kaelynn. As if that wasn't enough she then said that Kaelynn had tried but failed to lure Zac away from Kali, and would do the same with everyone else's boyfriends.
It had honestly been a huge relief when her moms had announced they were moving to Lima, she just couldn't deal with the hatred anymore. Kaelynn felt a hand on her back, pulling her back to the present. She turned around and saw that it was Beth, looking concerned. "Is everything okay?"
Wiping away the tears she'd cried at finally letting herself think about the events of the past six months or so, Kaelynn nodded. "You know what, I think it will be." It was a new year, a new start. Kali was thousands of miles away. The blonde older girl pulled her in for a hug, and Kaelynn gave a small smile. She liked Lima a lot more than LA.
Living at the Corcoran's had been therapeutic for Aisha. Although thinking about her parents still felt like a stab in the heart sometimes, it was a lot less painful, and happened less often. She'd been pretty busy. While they'd been at school she'd been busy with revision, as well as cheer practise and Glee practise, and then there'd been all the decorating to do around the house for Christmas- the Corcorans really went all out! The three of them had gone to a Christmas tree farm together, wrapped in scarfs and coats, and picked out a perfect tree, then decorated it together. After that they'd gone Christmas shopping, for food and presents, and the two teens had tried on all the silly holiday themed makeup, laughing at themselves. Christmas had been exciting, albeit a little daunting. They'd stayed at Shelby's house as it was the biggest by far, and organised things the night before in a state of excitement. On Christmas morning they'd opened one present each and then started to prepare lunch, listening to Christmas music and harmonising the whole day of course! At about ten the Anderson-Hummel and Hummel-Hudson family arrived, followed by Quinn and Puck, and their families, the Evans' and Rachel and Sam's families! The amount of people (and hugs!) was pretty overwhelming for Aisha who had always celebrated Christmas modestly in a family of three, but she found that she enjoyed this as much, if not more. It was hilarious to watch Bailey, Travis, Phoebe and Charlie fidgeting with anticipation to open the family presents (they'd already opened the ones from Santa), the food was delicious, the presents were great and so were people's reactions! After present opening they'd lounged around in front of the TV, some people on sofas, some in chairs, others in bean bags or on the floor. Aria, Beth, Maeve and Aisha were sat together, lying down after a huge lunch (and lots of cake!) when Aisha voiced her concerns about intruding on their family traditions. Maeve had just laughed, saying there was always room for more in their giant family, Jake, Marley and their family weren't even here that Christmas as they were on vacation!
Now it was New Years, they'd made their resolutions that they'd break soon enough, and were partying. This was sillier than the sit-down meal at Christmas. Family and friends had eaten at the buffet, sung karaoke, taken silly selfies and reminisced on the past year.
In the background she heard some of the first Glee generation (Rachel, Sam, Quinn, Puck, Blaine, Kurt, Santanta and Brittany) singing together.
Rachel: Long live the walls we crashed through
I had the time of my life, (with the girls) with you
All: Long, long live the walls we crashed through
How the kingdom lights shined just for me and you
And I was screaming long live all the magic we made
And bring on all the pretenders
I'm not afraid
Singing, long live all the mountains we moved
I had the time of my life fighting dragons with you
And long, long live the look on your face
And bring on all the pretenders
One day, (Rachel only) we will be remembered
As she sat with Maeve, Beth, Lucas, Dylan, Asher and Kaelynn playing truth or dare close to Midnight, Aisha remembered all the good things that had happened this year; Glee, being true to herself, finally revealing her feelings to Beth, and getting an amazing response from almost everyone. At 11:56 Beth stood up from her chair, announcing they should all go outside for the fireworks. Her blonde girlfriend grinned infectiously at Aisha, pulling her outside into the already illuminated backyard, filled with Christmas decorations speaking of happiness and fun. "I've had an amazing year with you," The brunette girl told her girlfriend.
Beth smiled, even more- if that was even possible!- then raised her glass of lemonade, "here's to another year together." Aisha laughed, clinking their cups together and then they both sipped. As the live podcast from New York announced they were about to countdown, Beth pulled Aisha over, wrapping one arm around her back so they stood facing the soon to be illuminated night sky together.
"Ten, nine, eight, seven, six" The younger kids were jumping up and down with excitement as the others laughed, smiling.
"Five, four, three, two" Everyone was counting down together, full of joy and hope for the future. Her new family. Aisha beamed.
"ONE!"
Seeing his parents 'covertly' watching him, Danny shoved the first piece of food he saw into his mouth, and then noticed what it was as he chewed. Chicken wrapped in bacon. He felt nausea rising but swallowed it down, immediately taking something that looked like thick pizza to get rid of the taste. Predictably, there was chicken in that too. Danny grabbed a brownie after that, there was no way chicken could be in a brownie right? There wasn't, although it was a pretty big brownie and he felt so full he thought he would throw up anyway. Sinking into a chair beside Liam and Natalia the three of them watched Milo and Aria flirting and Danny sighed.
"I'm going to the bathroom," He told his friends, who nodded and said they'd be waiting here when he got back. As soon as Danny reached the bathroom he locked the door and bent down at the toilet, feeling lightheaded and sick. Nothing came up. Grabbing his phone, he looked up what he wanted to do and worriedly put two fingers in his mouth. It didn't feel good as he was doing it but afterwards when he looked in the mirror on the wall he felt like he had a sense of control over something. And he could eat like his parents wanted him to and still try and get muscles like all the cool guys at school. Danny went back out, grabbing a drink of water before heading back over to his friends. Aria was back by then. She smiled when she saw Danny and gestured for him to sit down next to her.
"We were just talking about that winter dance thing the school's doing next semester. Do you guys wanna go as a group?" Natalia asked.
Danny shrugged. "I'm not sure if I'm going."
Aria put her hand on his comfortingly. "I know we don't usually do these type of things but it could be fun."
Liam noticed Danny's eyes trained on the floor and changed the subject. "Have you tried the cheesecake?"
Aria and Natalia lunged for it, laughing. When the girls looked at him, Danny gritted his teeth. "I've eaten loads. I'm not hungry." He felt bad getting angry at his friends, he knew they were trying their best, but he didn't want to eat anything else. His councillor had set up a diet plan for him. He had to eat a certain amount of calories every day even when he really didn't want to, most every day. His mom normally packed him a lunch- varied but the same calories every day, counted carefully. He wasn't putting on weight even so and they were going to increase the amount of calories soon. He was glad he'd found a way of dealing with it- he didn't suddenly want to get fat, people still mocked him enough for other things.
"Okay everyone!" Beth shouted and the house went quiet. "It's 11.56, let's head outside to watch the fireworks!"
Everyone followed her out the room. It was dark outside but many houses were still lit up with Christmas lights, the Corcoran house was totally covered in them. Suddenly Milo The Guy appeared beside Aria. "Hey," He said.
"Hi," She replied, smiling at him. Natalia and Liam laughed. The adults drunk champagne, laughing about New Year's resolutions they'd fail to keep. The teenage couples giggled and talked about what a great year this would be. Danny stood alone in the centre of it all until his two friends came over to ask if everything was okay. "Yeah," He shrugged. "Let's watch the fireworks."
Aria had a great time at Shelby and Beth's New Years party. She and all her friends played Twister, leading to hilarity. Then they'd eaten lots of great food. She'd kept an eye on Danny, worried about him, but tried not to frustrate him too much, she knew if she were in his situation she wouldn't want her friends to treat her like a patient or a child, she'd want to be treated like a friend. So she joked around and asked her friends what she thought of her new black hair, she was fifteen now so Rachel had let her dye it. When she was out of high school and its' rules she was going to dye her hair crazy colours like blue and green but for now the school only allowed natural colours, and bright red. They sung some karaoke as well and Aria couldn't help but giggle at Milo singing One Direction with Bailey. After that the blonde girl ran over and jumped onto her lap before Aria could stop her. She rolled her eyes but let her stay, as Travis got onto Danny's lap. They watched Maeve and Asher singing together. The two of them would make a pretty cute couples, she thought, as they sang Disney, looking like the beginning of a fairy-tale romance.
New Years was always a fun time of year, reflecting on the past, looking towards the future. Aria shut her eyes as she thought about what she wanted from the coming year. Well, she wanted Glee Club to win Nationals to prove to Robin Sylvester and everyone else that they were wrong. She wanted to maintain her friendship with her best friends, and improve her relationships with her family- they were her family, Sam, Bailey and Travis, and that didn't mean that her father was any less her father, or that she was disrespecting his memory by caring about her stepfather and her half-siblings. It was the first time really that she'd admitted that they were her family, and she suddenly didn't know why it had been such a big deal to her before. She shifted Bailey on her lap, hugging her, for probably the first time. The blonde girl turned around shocked. "Are you hugging me?"
"Duh," Aria poked her, laughing. Travis turned his blonde head as well and tried to climb up. They all laughed, Danny giving him a lift up and the siblings hugged. As the moment ended she saw Milo talking to Lucas and Dylan, they were in Glee Club too. He smirked at her and she blushed a little, feeling stupid, why was she blushing just because he'd looked at her. Carefully, she removed Bailey and Travis- they ran over to play a game with Phoebe and Charles Anderson-Hummel, and Marley and Jake's twins Jessie and Matt- and walked over to Milo, not before Liam and Nat had winked at her, she rolled her eyes at that.
Lucas and Dylan went over to the buffet area and Milo smiled. "Hey."
"Hi." She said back. There was silence for a few seconds and she mentally reprimanded herself. Hi? That wasn't very interesting conversation. She fiddled with her hair, nervous for some reason. She'd never felt like this with Milo before, she'd never felt like this with anyone before. "I-um."
"-I uh," He sounded as nervous as her, weirdly, he was normally smooth and funny with his Italian accent and raven hair. "Enjoying the party?"
"Very much." Aria replied. She glanced around, thinking about something to say to fill the awkward silence. Eventually he started to say something and at the same time, she did too, they both laughed.
She turned. "Well I'd better go back to my friends," She managed to get out. "They'll…uh… be wondering where I went." He nodded curtly, wandering over to Kieran, who was sitting alone.
Liam and Nat both wanted to know how it had gone, Nat more than Liam, but Aria changed the subject and they talked for a while until Danny returned from the bathroom. After that they talked and ate some more, before Beth announced it was four minutes to midnight so they had to go outside for the fireworks. They were standing in the garden when Milo caught Aria by the arm, they "Hey"d and "Hi"d, then he asked if he could talk to her. She nodded and they moved away a little to a slightly more private area.
"I was a little tongue-tied earlier, you look really pretty." Milo declared. Over his shoulder Aria saw her mom mouthing 'he's hot!' She rolled her eyes and turned back to the Italian boy.
"Thanks, you look pre- I mean handsome- too." She laughed nervously and thankfully he did too.
"I didn't say what I wanted to say earlier, so I was wondering if you would give me another chance." She nodded of course. "I think you're amazing; vocally talented, pretty, funny, violent (she laughed at that, remembering all their self-defence lessons). Do you want to go out with me?"
Although she'd thought to herself just months ago that dating when you were young was stupid, she found a smile lighting up her face as she vaguely heard people counting down to midnight in the background and nodded. "Yes!" At the same time they both stepped forward and she leant up to reach him, their lips colliding. Time seemed to slow down. She could smell Milo's cologne this close, she could feel his lips moving against hers, she could taste sweetness. She'd long told herself that she wanted her first kiss to be someone she really cared about, the same thing with her first boyfriend, and that was Milo. Suddenly there was a loud BOOM! And everyone in the garden cheered. The two of them pulled apart abruptly, only to see some people kissing (Sam and Rachel, Quinn and Puck, and Beth and Aisha among them) while others toasted, laughed and watched the fireworks. Bright colours exploded in the sky as the younger ones messed around with sparklers. "Happy new year!" Aria said, turning to look at Milo.
He grinned. "Happy new year!"
Songs featured: A Whole New World- Aladdin cast(Asher&Maeve)
Long Live- Taylor Swift (Rachel, Sam, Kurt, Blaine, Santana, Brittany, Quinn&Puck)
