This is a shift day. There are two updates today.
"Rock the Night Away"
21. The Song That Never Ends
Their first day back in the choir room after the concert, they were still talking about it, from what she saw. Will had left Lima again, but he had tasked Emma with going to Finn and explaining about the 'deal' he'd made with Marley and Jake after he'd picked them up. She found the choir room abuzz with talk of what had happened on Friday night. She had not known about the rest of the kids having been there, though there was plenty to hear about it now.
She had known that Ryder had been along with Marley and Jake even if he hadn't been caught, but it had never come up for him to be included into the punishment. But then Emma had discovered Kitty had been there as well – she shouldn't have been surprised – and that she had actually stayed there to enjoy one of those seats. She'd had no choice but to include her into the punishment along with the other two, which had led the blonde to point out Ryder's part in the whole mess, and she'd had no choice but to include him as well.
Only once the guidance counselor had left did Sugar and Artie finally treat them with the tale of their adventure backstage. They had only been there a few minutes until another one of the security people refused to accept that they'd been allowed through and they'd ended up having to get back out again, but those minutes they did have had been more than enough. They had been closer to the action than any of the others, and those bragging rights were good and plenty for them.
In the end it was not so much the concert itself they had stories about. It was the people they saw, the people they talked to and the things they said, more than the actual music. They could have been right there in the front row, with the band so close they could see the sweat on their brows, and it would not have made much of a difference. Even those who had not officially been of their group, their graduates from this side and that side, if they were in the choir room with them in that moment, would have probably said the same.
For some of them it had been about new beginnings, about finding someone where they never would have expected to find anyone. For others there were missed opportunities, taken opportunities, surprises and regrets. So many of them were caught in the aftermath of a break up, where seeing the one who used to be able to make them smile the best could be as painful as the fact that the smiles had gone away. And then there were those who still yearned to take that chance, to open their hearts and hope more than anything not to have them end up broken into pieces.
They had no regrets about being there though. It was one of those turns of pure luck that they had all ended up there at the same time, and maybe there was a reason. Their lives had been woven together so tight, maybe it was an inevitability of nature that they should be connected, even after life had pulled them apart. For some of them it was a needed twinge of hope, like maybe their stories were not over, and this pain they were feeling was only temporary, until the lines of their lives were twisted together all over again, bound tighter than ever. These moments would be the ones that made them stronger.
THE END