Monday morning dawned with cloudy weather outside, but bright optimism for the McKinley High glee club. Holding their end of the bargain that the kids made with Emma and Will, they all went down to the lobby to start rehearsing for the final competition on Thursday. The concierge had agreed to let them use the space, and it would also give the kids a chance to entertain the guests who came and went.

Of course, they kept a close eye on the preliminary news – especially news about the groups they shared the hotel with. The team from Maine had made it to the finals by a close margin in the second preliminary competition advancing with a group from Utah, and the groups from Texas and California were competing that very day. Once all the kids had assembled, Emma and Will were the last to arrive. Emma had brought a small portable boom box with a CD of the instrumental tracks for four of their songs, and Will brought his guitar in its hard black case.

"Good morning, guys," Will said, smiling. "I'm glad to see you kept your promise and are here to start rehearsing for the finals. First I want to run through the guys' and the girls' group numbers before we work on the solos. Guys, front and center." The guys came forward as the girls sat behind them, they had chosen to reprise their mash-up of Bon Jovi's "It's My Life" and Usher's "Confessions Part 2" for their group number. Emma pressed a button on the boom box and found the right track. The music began and Finn took them through the first part of the song. Though they had decided to reprise the mash-up, Mike and Matt added some new tweaks to the choreography and it looked and sounded good. A small crowd of guests had started to form a semi-circle around the group, and when the guys finished they got a huge ovation.

The guys stepped back, and the girls took over to rehearse their group number. They had chosen "Man, I Feel Like A Woman" by Shania Twain with Santana and Brittany handling the dance steps. The number was flirty and energetic, and the crowd watching them really got into it. The girls got the same loud applause from the crowd that the guys received when the number concluded.


"Those numbers were amazing," Emma said to the kids, "I think you're really going to wow the judges with them. I know you wowed me."

"Thanks, Miss Pillsbury," said Rachel, "we worked so hard on them. When Mr. Schu assigned us this task, it wasn't too hard to come up with some good songs to try."

"Let's work on the solos now," said Will as he slipped the strap of his guitar over his shoulder and played a few chords to warm up. He called Mercedes up front to do her solo, which would be performed second in their six-song set.

"Ready when you are, Mr. Schu," Mercedes said, and Will started playing. He had chosen the Melissa Etheridge song "I'm The Only One" for her because it had some big power notes that he knew Mercedes could handle without any trouble. She worked it big time, infusing her chocolate thunder into the song and blowing the crowd's minds with her powerful voice. The crowd was whistling and hollering when she was done, the rest of the kids left awestruck by the performance.

"Quinn, are you ready?" Will asked. She nodded, and walked to the front of the group. "The Climb" was chosen for her solo, but it wasn't chosen by Will – it was chosen by the other glee kids. They wanted Quinn to know that she wasn't alone, that ever since her world unraveled a year prior, the others would continue to make the journey with her. In other words, they felt it was the perfect song for her…and they were right. Quinn's voice was strong and full of emotion as she sang the solo while the other kids swayed in the back doing the chorus part. There wasn't a dry eye left in the lobby when the song ended.

"That was gorgeous," Rachel said to Quinn just after the crowd surrounding them dispersed. "We all knew that was the perfect song for you."

"You guys really didn't have to do this for me, honest," Quinn replied.

"But we wanted to," said Finn. "We knew you had been through a real tough time in your life, and we wanted to show you that you're not alone. You have us, as well as Mr. Schu and Miss Pillsbury, to catch you if you fall."

"Preach!" exclaimed Artie.

"You said it, Finn," added Kurt.

"Right on," chimed in Mercedes.

"You better believe it," said Will, and he came forward to give Quinn a warm hug.


Tuesday saw the group practice their big opening and closing numbers. Both Texas and California were eliminated during Monday's preliminary competition (California was edged out by a group from Vermont by a fraction of a percent finishing in third place), and South Carolina was competing this day. As well, the families of the glee kids along with Will's parents and Principal Figgins were flying down together from Dayton on the same plane. Emma's family would be flying down from Richmond, and other family and friends of the couple living across the country were all flying into Orlando within the next couple of days – Will had found out the news of the flight from Dayton after receiving a call from his mom.

After practice, Rachel and Finn shooed Will and Emma away so they could meet with the other glee kids for a secret pow-wow. So the two adults decided to go swimming together at the pool in their section of the hotel.

"You look cute in that swimsuit, Em," Will said as he took in Emma's turquoise one-piece suit. She was sitting on the edge of the pool, her feet dangling in the water, watching as Will took a flying leap off the diving board and splashed into the water, his head popping up above the surface.

"Come on in Emma, the water's great!" he called.

"Okay Will, if you insist," she replied as she slowly sunk into the pool and swam to where Will was treading in one spot. She sneaked up behind him…and dunked his head underwater with a laugh!

"Why you sneaky little thing," Will said as he resurfaced, and repaid Emma's surprise by dunking her head underwater. She resurfaced, laughing happily.

"Bet you can't catch me," she called over her shoulder, and swam off.

"Bet you I can," he called back, and he chased after her.


After drying off and changing into fresh clothes, the couple returned inside the hotel where a message was waiting at the concierge's desk to go to Artie and Matt's room immediately. When they returned to their floor, Emma knocked on the door of room 205.

"Mr. Schu, Miss P, is that you guys?" called Artie's voice from inside.

"It's us," Will replied. They heard footsteps as someone went to open the door. When it did open, they saw all the glee kids together and the room decorated for a party.

"SURPRISE!" they shouted as Emma and Will entered the room.

"My goodness," said Emma in shock, "what is all this?"

"We decided to throw you guys a wedding shower before all the excitement of Thursday and the weekend kick in," explained Rachel. "That's why we shooed you two away after practice."

"And on Sunday while you guys were at Disney World, we went to a nearby mall and got each of you a wedding gift – we all chipped in to buy them," added Finn. Tina and Mike presented each of them with a present wrapped in white paper and tied with a silver bow. Both carefully unwrapped their presents. Their eyes grew wide at what the kids had selected for them.

"Oh," said Emma breathlessly. She was holding a music box in her hands with a porcelain figure of Tinkerbell on a sparkly green base. When she wound it up, it played "When You Wish Upon a Star". She wiped a tear away as the music box continued to play.

"Wow," commented Will at his gift. They had chosen for him a huge music book filled with contemporary pop songs, as well as three notebooks with blank music staff lines.

"So you can write more songs," said Artie. "And the music book is for just in case you get any more ideas for songs you want to try on us."

"Thank you so much, you don't know how much we appreciate everything you've done," said Emma.

"You're welcome," said Quinn with a smile. "Now let's party!"


Finally it was Wednesday, the day before the finals. The preliminary competitions had wrapped up earlier in the day, and out of fifty only ten remained. Liz Cranston ran into Will and Finn in the lobby after they finished having a snack in the restaurant and told them the local CBS affiliate would be doing a story about the competition on their evening newscast, so she asked them to tell the rest of their group.

That evening, the entire glee club along with Will and Emma had converged in Artie and Matt's room once more to watch the news and the story about the competition. Brittany and Mercedes had brought snacks and drinks they had purchased in the lobby shop. Matt picked up the remote control and flipped it to channel 6 just as the news was starting.

"For the past week, Orlando has been playing host to some of the best high school show choirs in the country as part of the national show choir championships," said anchor Jacqueline London. "One of our reporters, Chris Trenkmann, has been following the competition closely over the past five days, with the final set for tomorrow evening at the Magic Kingdom in Walt Disney World. Chris, if you please."

"Thank you Jacqueline," said Chris as video footage from the five preliminary competitions rolled behind him. "From fifty, down to ten, the best high school glee clubs in the United States have been competing in preliminary contests over the last five days with the top two groups from each day's contest moving on to tomorrow's finals. I must say that the ten who have made it are truly the best of the best, it's going to be hard for the judges to pick a winner."

"So there were some really great groups," said Jacqueline. "Who would you say would be one of the teams to watch out for in the finals tomorrow night?"

"Definitely the team from Ohio," Chris replied. "They're one of the smallest teams in the field, but they've got amazing energy and incredible talent. I must say that their set in the preliminaries blew me away – an original song to lead off followed by a fantastic take on two classic rock songs. The vocals were incredible and the choreography was great too. I would definitely say that they are one of the favorites to win the whole thing tomorrow night."