Summer Menagé IV
AnniKay
Sam/Mercedes/Puck
Disclaimer: I own Nothing…Murphy, Falchuk, and Brennen along with Fox and others own this fandom and all the characters there in…Anything you recognize obviously belongs to them.
HAPPY HALLOWEEN!
THANKS to everyone who has taken the time to review any or, in some cases, all of the stories in this series. Your encouragement helps more than you know. Take a moment and let me know what you enjoyed most about the update.
Thanks to DaughterofDarkness87 for her awesome beta-skills.
AN: This is the next story in the French Lessons Universe. It will be from many different perspectives, and will take care of the summer between Commune's collegiate sophomore and junior years. Again, it is planned as a series of connected one shots. I hope that you will read, enjoy and review.
Chapter 13
Sweet Baby (Macy Gray)
Santana PoV
I had my shit together and I knew it. I was pretty damn proud of myself the summer after my sophomore year of college. My relationship was going strong. My family life was fucking boss. We had dinner at least once a month with one part of my fam or the other. We saw my Abuelo, Tito, every week. Primarily because if I wanted to see my favorite aunt and uncle, I had to see the old man. Not that it was a hardship, my Abuelo was pretty much exactly like me. He'd been far more understanding of my sexuality than my father's mom had. It'd taken her a minute to come around. But the again Tito was pretty chill and damn near a sex addict, himself. Abuelita was very, very religious. She attended mass every single morning and says her rosary, like, three times a day. Besides, once Artie entered the picture and her hope for great-grandchildren was revived…she stopped giving me the speeches and depressing sighs. Not that she and Artie got along…nope…not even a little bit. The fact that she'd tried to sell me when I was little, and the fact that she called me Garbage Face for five years…those were not things Artie was willing to forgive. They were also the reasons that Tito couldn't stand her either. And they weren't things that she ever saw a problem with having done.
My school shit was going every bit as strong as my family and relationship. I wasn't taking the ridiculous course load that Trouty, Wheezy and Puck had…so, I was handling my course load well pretty easily. If I kept my shit together, I'd graduate with both my major and minor right on time and ready to take the world by storm. And I was going to take the world by storm, too. In all the after parties and award shows, the team at Warner and all three members of KAMA had made sure that I made all the right connections. I'd met the heads of a boat load of the labels that were all under the umbrella of the Warner Music Group. I'd been introduced to touring musicians who would be nearing the end of their current contracts around the time I graduated from NYU. I'd been introduced to another image consultant, but that broad hadn't been able to dress herself, so what on earth could she have been able to tell me. But I hadn't said that to her face. I was even invited to the MTV Video Music Awards as myself with two additional tickets for my man and our woman. I'd started agonizing over what to wear immediately, but Ruth reminded me that I had access to an award-winning stylist so I shouldn't worry. When she was right, she was right I'd given her my idea for a thruple 'theme' and allowed her to do what she did best. When I thought about it all, I was proud of how seriously I was taking the build up to my career.
I was pretty proud of most of the things in my life. I had my boos. I had my future career well on track. Like, ridiculously, well on track. Mike Caren of Elektra said that he and Lyor had discussed which of the many sub-labels of Warner would be the best fit for me and Elektra Records was waiting on me whenever I was ready to get my shit started. I already had my whole management structure in place…because I was using Gala-Nipple, Trouty and Zilla's Team. Hey, they were damn good at what they did and they said I didn't have a choice but to use them. Which would usually annoy me and make me determined to use anyone but them, but I was stubborn, not stupid. Brittany and I had talked and once I was ready to get my career started, she would work with Commune and make sure that they had someone in her place and she was going to leave them to dance with and for me. Rainbow was trying to make sure that by the time that time came, Britts would be an accredited choreographer as well. For the first year, while we got things all stabilized and running smoothly, Artie was going to head my band in the same way Dave headed KAMA's. I didn't trust that I'd be as lucky as Commune had been in finding the right people from the word jump. My hubby would watch out for the band dynamics…make sure that there was a solid unit in place. Once we had everybody in place like they needed to be, then he was going to direct my videos and KAMAs when they wanted him to do it too. We had it all planned out. The music videos were going to be Artie's spring board for getting into television and-slash-or movies. As me and Artie were getting ready to start our junior year of college, we were focusing on our major classes and making sure that we had the cred to start our careers after graduation.
Outside of that, Artie, Britt-Brat and I owned our own home. Yup, we'd done it with a lot of help from our parents…not monetarily, we had that handled. In fact, by the time the construction mortgage had been converted over to a regular mortgage, we'd already cut it down by more than half. When we saw that our monthly mortgage payments were under eight hundred bucks, we decided to each pay eight hundred bucks meaning that we were paying twenty-four hundred dollars towards our mortgage every month, and we gave them the bulk of our bonuses after the Valentine show…which was almost a hundred grand. At the same time, we made sure to sock away the funds for Mami would need to get the house furnished and decorated. I didn't believe for a moment that she wouldn't put in on it if there was something she wanted us to have that was outside our current budget, but we were trying to make everything happen by ourselves. We needed to start adulting. Damn it…Darcy was infecting my vocabulary.
Britts and Artie were more than happy with our progress on the payments. Partially because with some of the extra in the escrow account, George had gone ahead and installed an inground, six-person hot tub that was fenced in and accessible only from our master bedroom. It also meant that the next summer or maybe the one after next, we'd be able to start installing our pool. The maybe was because I was advocating for an indoor heated pool and we'd need longer to save for that but the way I saw it, we had nothing but time on our sides. We all knew that Baby Boy Puckerman wasn't yet to the place where he would be able to do our pool design and part of us wanted to wait until we could give him the work. I knew that was what Commune was waiting on before they added a pool to their ridiculously large mansion in Lima. And it also made sense to wait until we'd be able to spend more time at the house. But then again, technically, we'd started making plans to install a pool before we ever even saw the blueprints. And everyone who'd ever even met me knew I was not a patient person.
In fact, I was pretty sure that we'd done a lot of stuff 'wrong' in the whole home building process. We hadn't even seen the final floor plans until Gwen had approved them. Then Mami made like she was the long-lost Property Sister. Whenever there was a design choice to be made, or at least the ones she wanted us to have to make, we got exactly three options. The one she wanted us to use, one that she was willing to allow us to use and one so god-awful ugly she'd have disowned all three of us if we tried to pick it. She and Melanie and Roger made the bulk of them in accordance with Gwen and Sander's rules for Artie compliance in all rooms. Like how all the floors throughout the split-ranch style house were Brazilian Walnut. With its super high Janka hardness rating, it would stand up to Artie's chair the best. But we were allowed to choose the width of the plank we liked best and we got to decide between the lighter sapwood and darker heartwood. Mami was even magnanimous enough to let us pick the natural stone tiles and the metal type we wanted for the fixtures in the bathrooms. But that was about as far as that went.
I did have to admit that the parents made sure to educate us on the whys and hows of the floor plans and the fixtures and everything that was chosen. It wasn't exactly news to us. Artie had lived a decade in a chair and I'd done a metric shit ton of reading when we were getting ready to move to New York. And in the years since, I'd found this great blog called the 'Mad Spaz Club' for people with spinal cord injuries or who were in wheelchairs for other reasons. I'd hipped Mami to it too…and hoped and prayed that she took the hint. Ultimately, it took the Superior Step-Dad, George Altman, just under nine months, start to finish to build our 'Love Shack'. Not that it was a shack. That bad boy was a four bed-three and half bath suburban delight of a house, with a study that Papi reminded me would make a great nursery one day and three car garage with enough undedicated tool and storage space that Mami enclosed a sixty-four-square foot room that could be enclosed storage or it could and probably would be an editing bay. God knew she and George's electrician dude guy had put in enough outlets and shit.
We didn't know how things turned out until we got to Ohio for the two tour stops we had in our home state. We knew that we'd have three guest rooms and a pull-out couch in the study though. With those and the fact that Pippy-no-Stockings, Teen Jesus, Boy and Girl Asian, Lil Bird's Daddy, and Closet-Case all had their parents' homes to stay at, and Sugar's house was big enough to have its own zip code, and Puck, Aretha and Trouty's big ass house had more rooms than a little bit, we told Huds to cancel the hotel rooms and everyone could rest their weary heads in the comforts of actual homes. It all worked out easily. Teen Jesus took Brunette Beethoven home with him. Mikey-Boy took the Limey into the Chang family guest room. Sugar opened her home to Naw'Oleans and Bow-Tie's cousin. We took JaJa and Bae-Be, Dave, Erika, Cassidy and Xena. Mami had one of the guestrooms done up as a music room with a pulldown murphy bed. As soon as she heard that we had one, Xena claimed the Murphy bed…she thought it was the coolest thing ever. Dave took the pull-out in the study and the four girls doubled up in the queen beds in the other two guestrooms. Everything worked out perfectly, but it only worked because chicks could sleep together without anyone getting all bemused.
That left Commune with just Rainbow, Simeon, Jackson, Arjun, Adam and his chick, and Damien…and Hudson, of course. It worked out perfectly. They had enough rooms that none of their assigned family rooms had to be taken up and yet, no one had to double up except Adam and that Kelli chick. Now she was a freaky-deaky little thing. I kind of liked that about her. A couple of the Rangeman guys camped out in their basement, but that was more for security than anything else. Their boss was in town, so he put most of the security team up in the same hotel they were staying in down in Cincinnati so that they could do some debriefing. The promoters still had to pay for rooms for the touring crew, but even that worked out because it allowed the roadies and Lamar to stay in Cleveland and Columbus…close to the venues.
The second I walked in the front door, I knew I fucking loved our house. For serious, damn it…that damn Cassidy had infected my lexicon…anyway, the hardwood floors were gorgeous. They went throughout the entire house, except for the bathrooms and utility room. Those were a white stone with grey veining called Cappadocia sand home…it gave even the small, half bath a sense of brightness and airiness. The walls of the main living areas were all painted a slightly rosy, creamy, taupey beige with deep gray, steel blue, true taupe and true beige accents. It looked amazing with the floors. The ceilings weren't white, which was awesome, instead they were the lightest shade of pale, slightly rosy, beige. The whole house was big and open. The doorways were more than wide enough for Artie…even for the smallest rooms and nooks. The hallways were all six feet wide. It was just perfect. Then when we saw the master suite…I fell even deeper in love with our new home. The room had vaulted ceilings that were painted to look like a gorgeous twilight sky. The walls were painted a smoky grayish blue that made me think of storm clouds and long Saturdays spend cuddling in bed. Speaking of, the bed was big and broad, high enough for comfort, but low enough for Artie's needs. It had a dark blue duvet cover and pale gold sheets with a rainbow of pillows…masculine enough for Artie with pops of gold and red to make me happy and a rainbow of other colors and shapes to please Brittany. Mami definitely got an A-plus on the bed and the matching rosewood nightstands, entertainment center and vanity. I was very happy to see that there was a built-in wheelchair hoist that could totally double as a sex swing. It had been discussed on the MSC blog as a way for handicapable men…and women too…to be able to use different positions during sex. Mami had taken my hint, I could only hope that Artie would be into trying the new things too.
I continued into the master bathroom and couldn't hold back a smile. The rosewood of the bedroom furniture was carried into the bathroom in the room's cabinetry. There was a three-sink, completely custom vanity, with white marble countertop that was similarly veined to match the flooring. The entire twelve-foot countertop looked like stair steps since each of the sinks were actually at different heights. Each countertop area was a nice, generous, forty-eight inches wide…gave us each plenty of counter space. Artie's countertop level was thirty-two inches and only had a thin drawer under the sink, to give him the ability to roll into place and reach the faucets and everything. My level of the countertop was four inches higher at the standard thirty-six inches height. My cabinetry was more woman friendly…meaning I had storage that Artie didn't need or want anyway. The rosewood under my section of the countertop held one full width, but half depth, four-inch tall drawer on top, then three thin, six-inch tall drawers that were all half the depth of the thirty-inch-deep countertop. The bottom was a double door floating cabinet that was only gave me two additional feet of storage that went all the way back to the wall unlike the drawers above it. Britts' section was similar to mine, but her extra four inches of height to her countertop lent her an extra four-inch height drawer. All the oil rubbed bronze fixtures and drawer pulls were mirrored in the metal encasing the glass doors of the massive roll in shower and the fixtures of the deep, soaking tub next to it. The rods that would allow Artie to pull himself from his chair to the bench in the shower, or onto the toilet or even, if he was feeling like it, into the soaker tub, were all the same dark metal.
"The bathroom and bedroom floors in the master suite are heated, but we didn't bother for the guest rooms." Mami explained a she walked us through the house in the early morning of that Friday of the Columbus concert. "I figured since we had to drop one counter top level for Artie, we could go ahead and make sure poor Brittany didn't have to break her back every morning to get dressed either."
Artie loved it. "I just like how it makes having the lower counter seem more normal somehow." He confessed to my mother, earning himself a hug.
Mami did like Artie…maybe more than Brittany…she had a thing for nerdy guys. As was evidenced by her choice of my father. "You are perfectly normal, mi niño travieso. If anyone says otherwise, you send them to me and me…I'll sent them straight to el infierno."
"Mami, how come Artie is just naughty and I'm a devil?" I asked while giving her a total screw face.
She gave me one right back. "Because mi pequeña diablita, Arthur thinks bad things…but you…you say and do them."
Brittany giggled. "Mami, you're right. Artie thinks mean and evil thoughts, but Tana almost never stops at the thinking."
"Come Angelita, let me show you where your towels and sheets and such live." Mami chuckled. While they left the large master bath, I headed into our huge walk-in closet. Inside there were two large rosewood chifforobes with matching lingerie chests and a long horizontal dresser with like twenty drawers. There was ton of storage for shoes and yet even with all the wooden furniture there were still five sections of hanging racks. Several sections were tall enough for even full-length gowns for Britts but there were also plenty of lower racks that Artie could hang his shirts and pants on. It was a perfectly designed closet for our needs. I noticed that Mami hadn't been able to resist doing some shopping. She probably decided to help us define our sections. There were a few sundresses and nice soft skirts and blouses to show Brittany's part of the closet. My own section had a few pairs of slim cut slacks and pencil skirts and a few body con dresses. Artie's section had slacks and dress shirts that had long sleeves…because Mami refused to buy the ones he preferred. There was lingerie in one of the chests that would look good on me and in the other a smaller selection of things that would complement Brittany's slimmer body, fairer complexion and hair. In the long dresser, I found silk boxers for Artie as well as a few tee-shirts I was pretty sure were Papi's handy work, not Mami's.
I caught up with them as they were looking through the study. Rather than desks or whatever, it was a room designed for reading and relaxing though there was also a TV and video game system in the room for entertainment purposes. In fact, the room was less of a study and more of a den. It was cozy and all dark wood and microfiber furniture, including a full couch with a pullout bed. Hell, it even smelled comforting and shit. There was a half bath in the hall going back towards the entryway. The great room had a fireplace and a corner that would be pretty perfect for a Christmas tree. It was pretty open with clear sight lines into the kitchen, front entry and the dining room. A hallway led to a huge ass pantry and a smaller one that it seemed was destined just to be a place for wine to live. The little corner pantry was lined in cedar and had smaller version of the glass entrance door and everything. Then Mami showed us the utility room. The washer and dryer lived there…I rolled my eyes and was happy to note that the table top for folding clothes and all the storage shelving was the perfect height for Artie to manage everything in the room. Which was great, because I did not do laundry…or bathrooms. I could clean the hell out of a kitchen though.
The kitchen, now that was hot as hell. Modern, dark zebrawood cabinetry, stainless steel appliances and brushed nickel hardware all gleamed. It wasn't a huge kitchen, but it was fully functional. There was a center island with an inset, polished, ebony butcherblock countertop taking up most of the surface area. The upper cabinets were every bit as gorgeous as their lower counterparts but I knew that other than the open shelves on the bottom of them would get used. The only one who could reach more than the bottom most shelves was Brittany. Unless, I looked under the counter section that was lowered and cabinet-less to give Artie some prep space also. I also realized that was why Mami had gone with the French Door refrigerator. It put the freezer section at his fingertips. Over all, I loved it. It would work if Artie wanted to cook, or if Brittany wanted to try her hand at baking again…or for me to just make sandwiches or reheat pasta.
"Now, the guest rooms are all ready for your friends." Mami told us as she led us through the small hall off the kitchen. We went into the center room first. "I told you that I was setting one as your music room, but I put in a murphy bed that acts as a built-in desk when it's not need as a bed." She showed us the music room which currently just held a music player, a small keyboard and a stand for Artie's guitar. "The linens are color coordinated. This room is the peach room." I noticed that the walls were painted a lovely shade of pale peach. "So, the bedding, linens and everything are either peach or ivory." It shared a bathroom with another guest room. The simple three piece bathroom had the same floor tiles and counter tops, but it mirrored very modern zebrawood cabinetry from the kitchen rather than having the rosewood from our master. "Now, this room, is the cherry room." Mami explained. It was easy to tell that the room had cherry furniture and the linens were in shades of red, pink and chocolate…without being dark or overly bright. It was a good balance. "Finally, we have the grape guest room." She introduced us to the final bedroom which actually had its own bathroom. The solo bathroom was a smaller version of the other one on that side of the house. The bedroom had light colored maple furniture, and the bedding, curtains and everything soft was done in shades of purple and green. All three of the rooms were pretty lovely.
Thankfully, Mami and Papi had made arrangements for everyone to have a nice breakfast, nothing major, cereal and milk, bagels and cream cheese, bacon, toast and jams…that kind of thing. They'd made sure to have all of our personal favorites. Strawberry cream cheese for Brittany, honey and pecan cream cheese for me and Artie, Orange juice for me and Britts, apple for our hubby; every type of Smuckers on the market, because Brittany was always changing her mind on what her favorite preserve actually was. And of course, there was coffee. Mami had placed a Keurig in the kitchen for us, but that morning they'd brought in a big ass box of coffee from the Lima Bean. Papi had made sure there was enough sugar available to choke a bear and a wide selection of creamers. Thankfully, someone had also gotten a whole bunch of herbal teas, because BaeBe wasn't much of a coffee drinker. Hell, my parents were so awesome, they even had honey for her.
Once we'd all eaten, Mami and Papi left us to our own devices and headed home. We'd see them later as they were coming to the concert. The nine of us took showers and slept until we had to get up and dressed to meet the buses for the drive down to Columbus for sound check. Our bedding was perfection. The mattress was one of the best I'd ever felt and I resolved to find out what kind it was. The sheets and blankets were all really soft and smelled great. We just slept that morning, but it was some damn good sleep. None of us had taken the time to explore much before we went to sleep, but I sure as hell checked out our bathroom. So, when we got up, the three of us brushed our teeth with the three Phillips Sonicare Diamond Clean toothbrushes that I found under my cabinet with a 'Welcome to your new home' card from the Doctors Jones. We got dressed in some clothes we didn't mind practicing in and headed out. Even with nine of us and three showers, we were all clean and refreshed in plenty of time to get over to Commune's house where the buses were waiting on us.
It was a comparatively short ride to the Nationwide Arena in Columbus. The tour crew had gotten booked into their rooms at the Red Roof Inn Plus, less than half a mile from the Arena then promptly gotten to work. By the time we all got there, things we set. We ran our usual sound checks, KAMA then Cassidy and then Alessia took over the stage while we KAMA folks headed to the Activity Center and ran through our practice. We sure did enough practices considering that we were doing shows pretty much every night, but I knew that it was that dedication that made our shows run so smoothly. And that night was no different, though the show lineup was changed a bit to give all of us who had parents and family members there that night a chance to shine. I sure as hell took that chance to show the world exactly how good I really was. We had some really serious good moments on that stage that night, and I knew that I personally was riding a high as we met with the families and Ms. Pillsbury. I was damn near giddy with it. Columbus was the state capital so, of course, there was an after party that we had to attend, but Commune was pretty cool in that they allowed any of us who wanted to ride back to Lima with our families to do so. Of course, Pippy, Teen Jesus and their muscle man all had their own vehicle so they just headed out when they were ready. For a change, the three of us decided not to go to the party. As much as we wanted to go and get our dance on, we really wanted to go and try out the hoist. I slipped Xena my copy of our house key and gave Dave the code for the security system then Artie, Britts and I headed home with our parents.
Now, Artie had plenty of practice with hoists. There was a dressing hoist in our bedroom in Harlem and another one of the same type in his bathroom at his parent's house. But for the most part he didn't actually like to use the damn things. He found them to be overly cumbersome and had taught himself to get in and out of his chair using his upper body strength and well positioned hand holds. The built-in hoist next to the bed in our new bedroom was a fast fit. It was easily fitted with the sex swing, I'd found in one of the drawers of the rosewood vanity. Once that was all setup we were able to play to our hearts content. We managed to work through Artie figuring out how to use the hoist to give Britts some ridiculously hot looking missionary loving. Then Artie took my ass from behind a full four and a half feet in the air. The orgasm was real as fuck. Seriously, I damn near blacked out. It was so fucking awesome, we made the decision to build one of those in all of our future houses.
There was a delightful shower and then we slept and crashed hard as hell. But we did make it up in time get our happy asses dressed and drive down to Cincinnati. Mami rented us a Denali, so we had enough room for Artie's chair, and Cassidy's wedding reception kit. We followed Cedes, Sam and Puck in Puckerman's Charger and Mami and Papi were behind us in Papi's Macan with the Altmans, Jones and Evans in the Jones' Enclave. The Redheaded stepchild, Teen Jesus and Unique were babysitting all the kiddles while the adults went to the wedding and reception. I looked fly, if I did say so myself. I'd found a great baby blue, lace, mini cocktail dress and some ivory FMPs on sale at Neiman Marcus. Britts had gone cute-sexy in a multi-printed, orange, ivory and black, midi dress with ruffled hem and some seriously hot as all fuck ruffled, suede, lace up sandals. Artie had worn a traditional navy slacks and blazer with a super light orange shirt and a tie that had his navy, my baby blue and Brittany's ivory in some geometric pattern that looked way too mature for my handsome hubby. But he looked good as hell.
The wedding itself was really nice. It was elegant and classy. Emma was looking great. The dress wasn't super expensive, but even I probably wouldn't have known that if I hadn't spent the last couple of years around gowns that cost upwards of ten grand. But given that she was working with a public school salary, it was probably near the higher end of her budget. Her ivory gown was floor length with a small train. It didn't fit the princess dresses she usually dressed in. She was dressed like a grown up. It was a good look on her. I'd have thought that a redhead would have avoided the pink, but it did look good on her bridesmaids. Bieste looked decent. I mean, she was one of the best teachers at McKinley and a truly good soul…which reminded me…I needed to get with Puck so we can figure out how to blackball Cooter and make sure that asshole couldn't even get a job cleaning jockstraps anywhere in the continental United States, except maybe Mississippi or Fort Worth. Anyway, Bieste looked nice. She might not be the most beautifullest girl in the world, but she managed at least pretty that day, and to be honest, some of that was the beauty of her soul shining through in pure joy for the happiness of her friend. It was cool to see how many of the teachers from were there. It wasn't all of them by any means, but there were at least several people from each department that I recognized.
The reception was nice. The venue was ten minutes away, but rather than making people drive around an unfamiliar city, there were shiny black party-bus type buses to convey us back and forth. The dinner was great. The music was on point. Over the course of the evening and into the night, one thought kept going through my mind. Ms. Pillsbury looked happier than I could ever remember seeing her. Which made a lot of sense…at least to me. Hal Gruber was even hotter than Dr. Carl. He was sure as hell smarter than Coach Tanaka and he had a lot more sense, backbone and honor than Will Schuester had ever had even on his best day. And that was how I felt after I'd reached the point where I no longer wanted to set Schue on fire on a bi-weekly basis. I was happy for her. I really hoped that she liked our gift. We had decided that a Bissell home floor steam cleaner would be practical and something Pillsbury would appreciate. Plus, it was on her registry and it didn't break the bank. The open bar was pretty awesome…couldn't get too happy with it though, we had to drive back to Lima at the end of the night. When we left, we were giddy, but not tipsy or drunk. We did have to stay a bit longer than I'd have preferred, but that was just because we were Cassidy's ride. She had done her thing and I know that I saw both Hal and Ranger slip her envelopes of cash for her tip. We swung her through the Chase in Dayton on the way home so she could deposit the two grand the envelopes contained. She was happy and hell, I was happy for her.
Not a happy as I was when we got home and found that Erika and Elena had made paella for dinner and saved the four of us some. It was so good, even if I'd still been full, I'd have eaten the whole thing and worked it off the next day or something. Not that there was time the next day. Since I was home, and apparently Tito had been gloating to Abuelita that I saw him so often, my grandmother made Mami and Papi bring her over after Mass. As soon as we found that out, we invited Roger, Gwen, Chris and Melanie over to join us for dinner. No way could we have my parents over and not theirs. Abuelita coming over was definitely a good news-bad news situation. Abuelita brought groceries with her and made us all a Puerto Rican Sunday dinner that was quite frankly without equal. She even made Pastelon…my favorite. But she also brought a couple of my cousins with her. Now, I was cool as hell with Diego and Angel…hell, I still owed Diego a grip for the whole Prison Bitch Tinsley shit, but the third of my cousins she brought with her, Alejandro, was irritating as all fuck. Like those people who thought Artie was a nerd…they should have been forced to meet Alejandro. He thought that he was the smartest person in the room. He'd quit school at thirteen claiming that he was bored and gotten an online diploma within a year after that. He had started a whole bunch of degrees online, but couldn't be bothered to finish one before getting bored and moving on to the next thing. I could understand most of that, I got bored easily myself. My problem with Alejandro was that his ass was a less intelligent, less driven Percy Weasley and it pissed me off that I even knew enough about those books to make that comparison.
I greeted him like I always did. "So Alex," he hated nicknames and abbreviations of his full name. "You actually finished a major yet? Or are you still settling for being an Assistant manager at the Quick Stop, Dante?" In my defense, he really was too damn smart to be working at a gas station for the rest of his life.
"No, Santana, I'm working on my BS in applied mathematics. And I quit the QT," he stressed the name of the gas station like it mattered. "I work for the post office now."
"Oh my god…you're a mail man. You swear that you have an IQ of a gazillion, and you're a freaking mail man." I crowed in laughter.
Alejandro gave me a dark look. "It's an honorable profession." He was getting angry. Good, I liked him better when he was angry. He was the only person I knew who was less of a dick when he was mad.
"Well, of course it is. I love getting my Cosmo delivered monthly. But I'm pretty sure that I saw an episode of SVU where a post man with too high an IQ became a serial killer out of sheer boredom. Are you gonna break Abuelita's heart by becoming the first Latino serial killer." I shot back.
"A la mierda, pequeña prima." He snarled.
I just smirked. "You wish…I don't do incest. But, ya know what? I like you like this…hot under the collar… not all supercilious and unctuous. Taking that stick out your ass looks good on you Primo." Leaving him speechless, I sauntered off leaving him looking stupid as I went to see what horrible story Abuelita was telling the others about me. My feisty grandmother had pressed Artie and Elena into service. They translated for her to Brittany, Dave and Xena as they all marched to the beat of Abuelita's drum. My grandmother could speak English as well as any other American…she just preferred not to unless she had no other choice. I wondered where Erika had gotten to only to realize that she'd probably headed over to Gala's house…where Damien was staying. Those two were still scratching each other's itches in a strictly no strings kind of way. I had a bet on it being Eureka to catch feelings first…but not for Dame, nope I was pretty sure that she was secretly in love with Cassidy. Yup…Artie had his money on Damien falling for Erika and her leading him on a merry chase…until he learned Spanish just to understand that she'd been in love with him for a while and only telling him in her mother tongue. Brittany wouldn't take a bet either way, which probably meant we were both wrong and they were really going to successfully manage the whole friends with benefits minefield.
It didn't take Abuelita near as long as it would have without all the help and almost before I knew it we were chowing down on asopao with shrimp and vegetables, ramp escabeche, arroz con gandules, my delicious pastelón, that I graciously shared with my family and friends, and finally she finished it off with coquito cupcakes. I swear, Elena was ready to beg to be adopted and she wasn't the only one. Dave totally wanted my Abuelita to feed him on an almost constant basis. I didn't blame him, when I got real loot, I was building a big ass house in Cali with a separate place for Abuelita to live on the same property, so she could come over and cook our meals, but then go back to her own house. I'd even hire her a driver to take her to Mass every day. I was a good granddaughter. It was one of my favorite family dinners ever. Diego and Roger bonded over our hardwood floors. Angel and Mami had fun teasing Melanie and Chris. And Gwen, she had the most fun of all. She quickly figured out that Alejandro was an intelligence snob. So, over the course of dinner, she threw out my husband's awesome A plus GPA, but she managed to make my GPA a topic of conversation. "You know Santana's got an overall three point seven-five GPA at NYU…and my little Artie told me that she finished this last semester with a three point eight two five. You must be so very proud."
Alejandro pasted a fake smile on his face. "That's great, Satan. You must be working very, very hard to get those type of grades."
I would have squashed him verbally for that meirda, but Gwen spoke up before I could. "Oh, I'm sure she does work hard, but remember, she isn't just a full time student, she's also got a full time job with amazing benefits." Gwen said proudly. "Plus, according to Haja, she's got quite a few industry reps quietly courting her." She really enjoyed rubbing his nose in my success.
After we finished dinner, Abuelita asked for a tour of the house. Our guests asked if she could give them a few minutes to straighten up their temporary homes. Thankfully, Brittany had convinced me to help her make our bed when we got up. Of course, when we showed her the study and she noticed its proximity to the master suite Abuelita looked at me, "this room will be un vivero perfecto for las criaturas. I will wait until you finish that hoity-toity college of yours, then I want bisnietos."
"L'Anciana, you know that I plan on having a career after college. It's gonna be at least a half dozen years before I can even think about taking time off to have a kid." I sighed exasperatedly.
Abuelita gave Brittany a long look. "Her, your Rubia, she can have me bisnietos with your genius Judio husband, while you have your big career." Of Course, my grandmother only saw those two as mine. Mami was still not her daughter in law. She was Papi's wife. By the same term, her kids and grandkids were only every referred to as belonging to her.
Brittany looked so happy I was almost ready to knock her up myself. "I love babies. Santana, Artie…can I have a baby once you two finish college? Abuelita said I could."
I gave my grandmother a complete screw face. "Do you see what you've done?" I turned to the only woman I loved more than myself. "Brittany, please, give us until after my first international tour?" I negotiated. And what followed was definitely a fucking negotiation. It took us hours, literally two and a half hours, to get Brittany to agree that she could wait until I'd gotten at least a gold album and Artie had won an MTV Video Music award for Best Direction to go off her birth control and we'd start trying for a kid. It took us another half hour after that to get Abuelita to shut up about how she might be dead by then. By the time we got all that settled, I was freaking exhausted.
I was so tired, I said good night to everybody and went and took the longest shower I'd ever been blessed to take…then I crashed. Monday was a show day, so Trouty had us up at the ass crack of dawn to go for a run. At least he managed to get Adams, Closet-Case, Poufy-Nipples, El Gigante, and Clone Boy…hell all of the locals and more than a few of the younger New Directions and a few young Titans joined us. I was a little surprised that Unique even came out…she was doing more of a power walk than a jog or a run, but she kept up with all of us, not the Rangemen at the front, but most of us could barely keep up with them, so it wasn't that big a deal. She and Pippy made good time and they never did fall all that far behind Tina and Cassidy. The rest of the morning was spent getting the house back together. We cleaned it from top to bottom, with some help from our bandmates. We even did laundry and remade the beds and everything. It wasn't easy, but we managed to get it all done and stocked the leftovers that we didn't manage to eat in the freezer. Art-man, Britts and I agreed that we would be back as soon as we could to at least spend a weekend recharging after the tour.
When we left that morning, we locked the house down and set the alarm. The tour moved immediately from Cleveland to Pittsburgh after the concert and after party. Then it was on to the next stop, and the next and the next after that. We did everything we could to keep things from feeling monotonous. And I had to give Commune credit, they gave one hell of a show every single night. They took care of their crew for the whole summer…if only we'd realized that even though there were no snakes in the bush, there was certainly a pawn on the board.
Welcome To The Future (Brad Paisley)
Artie PoV
I knew that it probably wasn't cool to say, but I, freaking, loved touring. The repetition was kind of a bitch, but it was still a hell of a lot better than going to an office every day and all that shit. All the same, I was grateful that we had a game system on the bus. By halfway through August we were all a little tired and ready to go home, but the two weeks after we left Ohio were pretty awesome. Our caravan was joined by a total DRV…Dad Recreational Vehicle…which contained the Doctors Jones, and Bubbie Ruth and all the kids in Commune's big ass family, oh and Az's Little Bird. It was supposed to have been all the parents, and all the kids and then Ruth would fly out to take over when the adultiest of the adults had to get back to Lima. Unfortunately, things didn't work out that way, though it was for the best of all reasons. Sander's team at his job got a new project that needed all hands on deck and even he would be getting what was basically overtime for the rest of the summer. Then on top of that, WH Taft had lost the head of their social studies department at the beginning of the summer. With Mama Evan's dual masters in history and politics, the principal had pushed her through to head the school wide social sciences department. It was great news and even came with a raise…but it also came with responsibilities that made it an impossibility for her to go a vacation that close to the start of school. Poor George was the last adult to have to back out. The grown folk's property venture had run into what Dad called a hiccup, but it was something that George had to stick around town and handle. Rebekah had known that she wouldn't be able to ride with them the whole two weeks, so she stayed to enjoy some peace and quiet alone with her husband before she started med school the third full week of the month. So, in the end, there were three actual adults, one man-child on the brink of man status, one bossy as hell teenager, two rather mature tweens, two little girls, and four toddlers all in a DRV, undertaking a family road trip.
It was pretty cool timing too. The Teen Choice Awards halfway through the two weeks they were with us. Since it was the Teen Choice Awards, Commune glammed up their teenaged siblings and the three of them were the bosses' dates for the event. Since it wasn't a performance show, the timing of the tour made that impossible, just the six of them, Hudson, Binkie and Junior flew out of Grand Rapids as soon as humanly possible after the show that Saturday night. Lester and Darcy had met them out there to provide extra security, Lester, and to do the whole Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, SnapChat, hype shit, Darcy. The rest of us drove on to Milwaukee and watched the Blue Carpet and the awards show from the comforts of the Mitchell Meeting Room at the Hilton Milwaukee City Center. Huds had even arranged for us to be able to partake in a variety of snacks and everything. It was pretty much awesome. There was popcorn, pop, tons of candy and snacks…both Red Vines and Twizzlers…so it was a pretty good haul.
KAMA had been elevated from the early arrivals to nearer the end of the middle set of arrivals…one could even make a case that they were just near the front of the 'Oh Hell Yeah, they're here now so the show can begin' people. The first of our trio of nominees to do the walk was Sam and Tessa. Sam looked way more casual than he usually did for an award show in a pair of dark wash jeans and a 'faded' pumpkin orange Henley with the sleeves pushed up. It was easy to tell that what he was wearing cost more than the average outfit, but it was something that Darcy would have no problem telling people how to recreate. It was also something that let Tessa shine, in what she told the world was a Marchesa Notte, embroidered tulle, high-low gown and Schutz Cristen Crystal-Embellished Leather Sandals. The pale blue dress with the pink, ivory and green floral embroidery was pretty on her. The top of it kind of reminded me of the Madonna 'Like A Virgin' nineteen-eighty-four MTV performance dress, but it wasn't over the top or risqué. Her hair was stick straight in comparison with the poofy, flowy dress. She looked lovely. Of course, Sam spent like a half a minute on the tour and the other minute and a half of the clip they showed bragging on Tessa's coming attendance at the University of Iowa.
Cedes and Sarah were the next ones up the carpet. I was actually more than a little surprised that Puck had let Sarah out of his sight at a Hollyweird event. He was sure that half the producers and power people in that town were pedophiles and the rest were just plain, old fashion rapists. But then I noticed that both Binkie and Junior were shadowing two of the girls that meant the most in the world to Noah Puckerman and realized why he was so cool with it. Of course, there was the obligatory, who is this with you and what are you wearing questions. Cedes was in a cute red, Zuhair Murad, lace and chiffon, fit and flare mini-dress which she, Kurt and Ruth had paired with a pair of black, Sophia Webster royalty velvet crown embellished sandals…that gave her a heck of a lot of extra height. She'd decided not to have weave put in for one night or take one of her wigs with her. Instead, her hair had been straightened at the roots, and pulled back into a jeweled band and then left to afro puff out from there and that was not a small puff either…it was a halo of hair for real. Next to her, Sarah looked a lot more hot than I was comfortable thinking about. Though everything she was wearing was really age appropriate.
Mercedes let her speak for herself to address the question of who she was wearing. "My dress is Carolina Herrera…it was a gift from Sam, Cede and No-Puck," she caught herself. Sarah's dress was demure, starting at her the bottom of her neck in four, alternating, wide bands of pink and black. The pink parts were embellished with small little shiny bits of something. Her hair was loosely curled and caught in a half updo that looked intricate, but innocent. "My shoes are Louboutins…they were a gift from Moms D. Cede's Mom." She clarified. The shoes in question weren't as high as I usually thought of when Louboutins, but the black lace over pale pink peep toe heels did have the distinctive red bottoms. They were cute and looked good on her. She'd gotten a simple American manicure and pedicure since they'd left us, but that was to be expected. It was a red-carpet event.
"Wow, Louboutins for a fourteen-year-old." Someone tried muttering under their breath. But the whole world heard it. Especially Sarah.
"I will have you know that I earned these shoes. Moms D said that I had to stay on the A honor roll all through middle school and I did. Okay, maybe earn is the wrong word since doing well in school will benefit me in the long run, but still." Sarah argued.
Mercedes smiled a chilling smile and we all knew that meant the Diva was unhappy with the asshat camera guy. "All As and a 'graduating' A-plus average and that was with advanced math and English classes. She worked very hard for those shoes. Harder than I was willing to work at her age. My parents have always given great incentives for good grades. Momma just knew that the way to Sarah's heart was through her shoes." She teased Sarah all while giving that guy a look that should have had him pissing himself. "Her accomplishment should be lauded. But by the same turn, even if she'd done nothing to earn her treats, she is walking the red, well, blue carpet. Why on earth should she not be able to look like many of the other guests out here tonight?"
The interviewer made a sound of agreement, when Lester popped into the frame looking almost more like a secret service agent than just regular security. "Is there a problem, Ms. Jones?" the look he shot the camera guy was pretty damn hostile too.
"No, Mr. Diaz." She said sweetly. The Rangemen all had code names for Commune to in public if they didn't go by a nickname. Most people looked at Lester and assumed since he was Hispanic, Diaz was probably his real name. And it might have been if his father had been the parent of Cuban descent, but his dad was Puerto Rican, hence the name Santos. Still, it was a damn good feint and would fool a lot of people. "We were just getting ready to move along. Nice to speak with you Darla." She looked at the camera man and moved on without saying anything else to him.
Somehow, Puck must have heard or learned what happened because we saw him, but we had to change to a different site to see his interview. He and Jake were dressed similarly, distressed jeans that cost way more than anyone would ever let good old Sammy-Boy know they did, white tee shirts that showed their muscular-ness and blazers, black for Puck and navy for Jake. They were both even wearing same lace up leather boots. Two different colors though Jake's were a dark brown rather than navy. They looked good and damn near identical. The blonde chick from Entertainment Tonight…or maybe she was the one from the Insider, anyway…she told them that and they just laughed. they'd totally done it on purpose.
Other than Jamal Lyon, who walked the carpet by himself, right after Puck and Jake, I zoned out over the next round of teen beloved celebrities. It was cool to see Wiz Kalifa there with his little boy. Hakeem Lyon was there with Tiana…like that shit was for real. I'd dated Brittany, before she and Santana were comfortable being out. Well, before Santana was anyway. I could spot a beard easily. But I figured maybe they had an arrangement. It was none of my business either way. The awards show finally started. I loved music. I loved movies. I loved good, quality television. I wasn't a big fan of entertainment journalism. I did pay attention to the actual show. I loved Jamal and Hakeem's performance. I thought that Tiana was overrated and just trying to get by with pushing her sexuality to the hilt. She could sing, so she wasn't totally manufactured, but she wasn't as good as people made her out to be, but she was a good performer. The televised show didn't let us see both the categories KAMA or KAMA members were nominated in, but we did get to see them take the Surfboard for Choice Song: Group…which they won for 'Rescue Me'. When Ludacris read off the list of those who'd won awards that weren't being shown, he'd straight up laughed when he read out, "Sam and Puck of KAMA have dethroned One Direction, for the Choice Male Hotties of the year."
It was pretty awesome to see from the family road trip outside looking in. And to be honest, it ended up being more than a blessing that they were touring the Midwest and mountains with us, sorta, they didn't stick with us all the time, they did stuff and then met back up with us when they were ready to. Like when they stayed in the Twin Cities to try and find Prince in his natural habitat. They met up with us again in Des Moines. Thankfully, they were with us in Wichita when Damien got food poisoning…it may have been because we dared him to try the shrimp in a sketchy diner where we went for lunch. But Adam, Arjun and I were admitting nothing. Anyway, Jake was easily able to rock his gear and provide the necessary background vocals. Because he'd been a New Direction and was family, he could follow Cedes crazy runs better than anyone on that stage other than my Devil Doll and my ex-girlfriend. But he also had a weird kind of synergy with Arjun. That guy was even better after Jake finished educating him on judging Mercedes' moods to figure out which songs she was going to all out on. It was interesting to hear laid out like that. We'd grown up with her and figured that shit out in an intuitive kind of way…so none of us had realized that that was what we were doing. It helped…Arjun moved from a good temporary backup singer, to a borderline great one with the potential to be a permanent one if the need ever arose.
It was hard to say good bye to them in Phoenix, but they were just five days from the first day of school for all the Lima kids. Nikki wouldn't start her fifth grade year until the day after the MTV Movie awards. I had to admit, Nikki was my favorite little kid out of the whole Commune crew. The math she and I could play around with was seriously epic. And watching her playing with math with Brittany sincerely wrecked my confidence. They got into mathematics at a level that kind of scared me. Me, Puck and Ruth had to bow out after a while. It shouldn't have surprised me, but Ruth was the one who stuck in the longest with those two. I kind of wished that Lauren had been there too. That would have been awesome. Zizes' GPA was less than a hundredth of a percentage point below my own…but she was way deeper into higher levels maths than I was. Me, a lot like Puck, I preferred my big ass numbers to have dollar signs in front of them. I was pretty sure that I was well on my way to earning those kinds of checks myself. My documentary had been a large part of my high end of the semester GPA. I was really proud of it. My professor had even entered it in the fall student film festival. Some big names came to that. I could only hope and pray that someone major saw something in my film to make them want to talk with me further. That would be so boss.
Somehow, I had become the OND's, Original New Directions, GPA tracker. Like seriously the second that they got their grades, they all emailed me with them. Like I had a dedicated spread sheet or something. Okay, so maybe I did have a spreadsheet dedicated to tracking all our grades, but I created it because they sent me their grades every semester. I may have been tracking Rachel's grades before she got beat down, too. Hey, inquiring minds wanted to know. Her grades were the worst of the entire OND. Even Finn had better grades than Rachel, and not to be funny but that shit made me laugh every time I thought about it. She had some serious grade issues. Even her performance based classes weren't all that great. That must have crushed her heart. I'd have felt bad, except for her getting those rugby jocks to dump me down those stairs. Hell, I had laughed my ass off when that jack ass had been taken out of class in cuffs for questioning in the Ratchet beat down case. A few people in that class who'd had classes with Santana before they knew me…they came up to me after that class just to say that they finally got how me and Tana were together. That happened a lot when people finally got to know me.
After we left Arizona, we hit Vegas. That was a pretty damn cool crowd. I mean they didn't just know the words, they knew every one of our names. By then we were rolling with Todrick Hall, and I popped up on his set for a while to help him out and people were shouting my name like I was somebody. That was real as hell. After Vegas, we headed to LA. Xena rented a car and rolled out to Goldfield to check the progress on her side hustle and but she made it to LA the very next day. She was happy as hell with the progress that was being made though so that was cool. Lauren and I with some assistance from one of Darcy's old MIT buddies had written some serious firewalls and programs that would allow the people who utilized their services to be assured an almost unparalled level of security that their names and information would remain hidden. It was hard, but I got to have a serious blast writing code to allow for their customer service reps, at least that was how I thought of them, to do web shows and interviews with prospective clients. Lauren had me beat though. The code she wrote was going to be utilized to secure the streams bringing the strip club to all those who wanted to purchase a membership to look at the dancers. She would call me cackling to have me look over portions and help her extrapolate the needed bandwidth. She was having just that much fun with her part as I was having with mine. Lauren was also the one working to make the site visually both subtly sexy and user friendly. We'd both agreed to charge Xena and her peeps next to nothing instead, we were planning on using the publicity from making their site secure to ride a tech wave into a side hustle. Me and Lauren were both entrepreneurs at heart.
I wasn't sure what changed in South Carolina, but about a month after Xena stayed behind in Charleston with Team Money, aka Ethan Harris and Saul Mayzer, Lauren and I started seeing deposits from SBX incorporated that basically amounted to like real programmer money. I wasn't sure what to make of it. To be honest, I didn't feel like it was something she needed to do. Yeah, it took up a serious portion of our down time…but we were enjoying what we were doing. So, I took time to ask Xee about it. "What's up with the extra money Xee? It's like real money. I thought we had an agreement."
She gave me a smile that always made me uncomfortable…like we were in the Walking Dead and my adopted big sister had started to turn and I had the biggest brains she had access to. "Artie, the deal was in place when we were strapped for cash and every dollar was going into the brick and mortar setup. It adapted because I came into some money and I would have felt skeevy as hell if I hadn't cut you guys a better arrangement."
"So? You could have done something for us once you got your shit up and running. You told me that you're fucking addicted to the Property Brothers show…you know how delays and problems happen in just remodeling, what if you guys need that money to cover your asses?" I shot back.
She ruffled my hair. I snatched my head back. I hated when she did that. She didn't even care. Why did I always catch the most feelings, even completely platonic ones, for women who never had any fucks to give? "Artie, if I swear that the first thing I did was refill and double the contingency account for each of the builds, will you take the money and stop bitching at me for trying to do the right thing?"
I thought about it for a second. "I just don't want to stand in y'all's way. Being able to go legit is important for your family. Plus too, I've seen your plans for getting people out of bad sitchiasions…it's important too. I don't want to fuck your shit up before it can even get started." I said honestly.
"I love that you get it…why we're working so hard to do this. And I appreciate that you care...but Dude it's a little insulting that you don't think I'm intelligent enough to have my shit straight." She shook her head sadly…it took a few minutes for her ponytail to stop moving…she had a lot of hair.
"How is it that I come in here trying to be magnanimous and return your money, and I'm gonna roll outta here feeling like the worst person ever?" I grumbled. "You and I both know you ain't nowhere close to stupid. Stupid people can't commit emotional blackmail. Fine, I'll take the money and put it all on my mortgage. Will that make you happy?"
"Ridiculously happy." Xena answered. Then she dropped a kiss to the top of my head. Her old tall ass…even if I wasn't in a chair she'd have towered over me. "Now, what's this Tana told me about turning a wheelchair hoist into a sex swing and do you think we need to make some of the rooms accessible?"
That lead to us getting into how that would work and how they'd already had it in their plans to make all the bathrooms wheelchair user friendly. From there, we went to talking about how to say that on the site without offending anyone or whatever. That evening reminded us both of a simple truth. Family, blood or choice, family tried to do right by family in all things. So, by the end of our talk, our shit was golden all over again. Which was good, because we'd killed all the time I had before my date with Tana and Brittany that night.
LA was a good city for my low level chronic, back ache, but overall it was less accessible than New York. Still, whenever we were in the area, Tana wanted to go to Rodeo…thankfully she'd squeaked out some time and taken Brittany with her that time. But she also loved to eat at fancy restaurants where she could star watch. I'd gotten us reservations at Craig's, which was haute cuisine, even if the name of the place always made me want to watch Friday. John Legend and Chrissy Teigen were there that night, so were Rosie Huntington Whiteley, and Cindy Crawford, but we actually sort of knew and had spoken with Chrissy and John before. We said hello as we went by their table but definitely played it cool. But before they left Chrissy sent John Legend to our table to tell us to let KAMA know that they would be at the concert the next night and couldn't wait to see them again. But the most boss thing of all was that when we called for our bill, they'd handled it for us. So, I left the wait staff a big ass tip and we headed back to our deluxe room in the Luxe City Center Hotel near the Staples Center. And made love until sleep overtook us. then it was up and on a show day schedule the next day.
From the second we knew that our Staples Center show was happening on the anniversary of the birth of the King of Pop, there had been no way that the show wasn't going to be dedicated to his memory. The show that night had to have been one of my top five favorite shows of the entire tour. Of course we had to make the show special; so, Cede, Sam and Puck had decided that all the non-KAMA songs would be Michael Jackson songs. There were usually a total of five covers, including the Dylan cover. We were doing one extra that night because a…we could and b…because that was as narrowed down as we could get ourselves when it came to favorite Michael Jackson songs. To be honest, if Cass hadn't created a whole set of her favorite Jackson songs, we'd have still been arguing on which ones to do for the five covers we could reasonably fit into the set list. The first cover of the night was up to Puck to decide upon. He'd won the right of first choice by winning a game among the three of them that Sam called the 'who can last the longest under the onslaught of pleasure of a doubly focused oral extravaganza'. We probably shared way too much sexual information amongst ourselves. But anyway…Puck's pick was 'Man in the Mirror'. The vocals were Him, Arjun and the Dam Bros…but the dancing…that was all Elena and Jax. They did a mix of modern and contemporary that was beautiful and visually wrenching. That performance broke the internet. For a full hour.
Then the video of the second MJ Tribute cover was posted. Sam's selection, well, he gave his pick away. Santana and I got to sing our asses off on 'Scream' while Britts and Mike recreated the iconic brother-sister dances from the nineteen-ninety-five video. It was fucking incredible. The internet fans loved it and were all clamoring for my Devil Doll to step out of the background and put out an album of her own. The third Michael cover was voted upon by all the OND's, those on the tour and those back in Lima and NYC. Actually, we ended up in a tie between Puck and Cedes singing 'Dirty Diana' and him and Sam doing 'Smooth Criminal'…so we did all agreed that after the state finals junior year, we couldn't resist doing 'Thriller'…though it was a very close runner up. Cede's choice was placed during the encore, blasphemous though the thought may have been, 'Human Nature' had never sounded so good. She and Sam made magic with that duet. Rainbow had choreographed an amazing dance sequence to go along with it. Sam and Cede parked and sang while the dancers all moved around them in shades of red. It was gorgeous and loving and sexy as hell. It was the perfect end to the night.
The internet fucking exploded with how much people were talking about it on social media and just everywhere. Darcy, who was there along with almost all of Team KAMA for that special show and for the MTV Video Music Awards the next night, had recorded all the covers and put them up on the site. The fans had their choice of one free download for their merch purchases over a hundred bucks. If they bought over five hundred dollars in merch, they got all five videos. By the time we made it back on the road after the award show, there had already been over a hundred thousand people who'd been able to download all five videos.
With KAMA nominated in more than one category and 'The Ballad of Tamir Rice' video debuting during the show, even though we weren't performing, our whole camp had tickets to go to the event. In addition to Commune themselves, the VMA's planning board had sent invitations to three individuals within their Crew. Rainbow was a VMA award winning choreographer, she got to walk that red carpet all the time. Dave had been in a VMA nominated band before and was in one for a second time. He wasn't invited every year, but he was invited often enough that he didn't find it strange that he'd gotten invited again. Cassidy was going as his plus one. It would get her out in front of more people. She was as good as Daft Punk or Avicii or any of the other major DJs that had deals of their own. The third invitation among KAMA's crew had gone to none other than mi Hermosa Diabla, Santana Lopez. We were doing the VMA's red carpet as a thruple. I was pretty sure that was because Lyor and his people weren't stupid. They thought that if they got Tana hooked on the high life, she would quit school to pursue the dream. It was something both Brittany and I agreed we wanted to avoid, but by the same turn, if Santana really wanted to do so, we'd support her. My plan was to enjoy the perks and try to stretch out their wooing until she graduated as planned.
See we had plans for our future that include us all getting our paper first and foremost. Because when we understood the moves our people were making on our behalf…when we could double check behind our money folks…when we could read and understand the contracts people wanted us to sign…then we knew, we'd be fucking unstoppable. Besides, Santana was in love with the thought of shoving her degree down Berry's throat whenever she got the chance. I kind of loved that idea myself. But still, we were going to enjoy Elektra's attempts to convince us to make moves early all the same. The future was a stunning prospect filled with trepidations and worries…but it was also filled with possibilities that would still be there when we graduated. If they weren't, we'd just have to make our own opportunities. I was confident that no matter what the future brought to us, between the three of us, our families and the friends we'd made…there was nothing we couldn't face, fight and overcome.
God bless those lost in Vegas. God bless those lost in NYC.
Terrorism is terrorism no matter the color or religion of the terrorist.
God bless Robert Mueller & his entire staff.
God bless the Vegas & NYC first responders.
Leave me a review and let me know how you feel about the chapter.
TTFN,
Anni