Miss Holliday Goes To Dalton
And...deep breaths. Last disclaimer: I do not own Glee. There will be an author's note on my Tumblr (glass-parade dot tumblr dot com). Okay, here we go.
Chapter Twenty – There's A Last Time For Everything
"Hey. No costume for finals?"
Holly glanced over at her classroom doorway, taking in a sight that had become familiar over the last six weeks. "Hey, kid. Nah, I was gonna come as Christopher Columbus, but you have no idea how hard it is to drive a Civic in 15th century Spanish pantaloons. Come on in."
Blaine ambled into the classroom, digging something out of his satchel as he did so. "Brought you a mango. To replace the one I stole." With a grin, he lobbed the fruit to her in a lazy underhanded throw. She grinned back and caught it easily, placing it gently on her desk.
"Thank you, kind sir." Holly angled her head in a friendly nod. "So, to what do I owe the pleasure? Are you here to escort me to the last Warblers meeting?"
"Mm. In a manner of speaking." He leaned on one of the desks, dumping his bag to the floor. "Question for you first."
She blinked. "Sure. Shoot."
"There's really nothing that can induce you to stay on here at Dalton. You're sure?" He looked so hopeful that it pained Holly to have to answer negatively.
"I'm sorry, Blaine." She spread her hands out in an apologetic shrug. "I am at the top of the subbing list from here on out – despite my insanity, Michaelson apparently likes that my methods get good results – but no. I'm not going to take that permanent position." She was slightly regretful, but resolute. She would not risk inflicting permanent damage on this school and it's students. Not at Dalton. If she liked a place well enough to almost want to stay there, she wasn't going to chance burning her bridges with it.
Blaine sighed and smiled sadly at her. "Well, we knew that was probably going to be your answer."
"We?" Holly tilted her head, confused. Blaine just continued to smile as he walked back over to the classroom door and leaned outside, his hand gripping the doorjamb as he called out down the hall.
"Come on, guys! It's time!"
Her consternation grew. "Time for what?"
He pulled himself back in and spun to face her, still smiling. "You'll see. Take a seat."
"Okay..." She wandered back to her desk, dropping down into the chair and crossing her legs. "Whenever you're ready – hey, what's this?"
The Warblers were making their way into her classroom, arranging themselves behind Blaine in their performance stance – hands clasped before them, smiles on their faces. Only not show smiles, no, these were wistful, sad smiles that matched their lead singer's.
"It's only been six weeks," Blaine began, "and we didn't want an Advisor. We resented the faculty's assumption that we needed one." He glanced down at his feet and took a deep breath. "But in that very short time, you've really grown on us, Miss Holliday. We wouldn't mind having to have an Advisor next year if it were you."
She was touched. "Oh, guys, I'm sor - "
"No, really, it's okay." Blaine held up his hand, cutting her off with another smile. "We understand. We do. And hopefully the ones of us not graduating, we'll still get to see you next year on subbing assignments. But since this is your last day as our Advisor, we wanted to see you off in the way that we do best." He turned back to the other Warblers. "Okay, guys. Let's do this."
Holly did not cry. She was not going to cry now. She would, however, acknowledge the presence of a suspicious moisture prickling behind her eyelids as the boys began a familiar intro, half of them humming sweetly, the other half wordlessly crooning a melody reminiscent of plucking guitar strings. When Blaine began spinning out the first lines of one of her favorite songs in a low, melancholy tenor, she had to reach for a tissue to take care of whatever it was she'd gotten stuck in her eye.
Suzanne takes you down to her place near the river
You can hear the boats go by
You can spend the night beside her
And you know that she's half crazy
But that's why you want to be there...
They'd had to be working on this for ages. Leonard Cohen sang in a lower register than Blaine, which meant they'd had to transpose it and arrange it for a cappella at the same time, this song that was older than any of them that maybe most of them had never even heard of. And they did it for her. Wow, the dust levels in this room were really high, did the cleaning staff never dust in here? Something was causing her to sniffle.
And she feeds you tea and oranges
That come all the way from China
And just when you mean to tell her
That you have no love to give her
Then she gets you on her wavelength
And she lets the river answer...
It went on in a beautiful, melodic, perfect wave of music, washing its affection over her like a warm bath. Holly sat clutching her tissue and occasionally dabbing at her eyes – man, seasonal allergies were a real bitch, right? - a smile of wonder and joy on her face. Dude, she got her own Warblers concert with a personally arranged and beautifully performed cover of 'Suzanne,' she was pretty sure she had to be the luckiest substitute alive.
It was the perfect farewell.
"...and you know that you can trust her, for she's touched your perfect body with her mind..." The boys all trailed off together, the last notes of the song hanging in the air for a moment before everything went silent. They looked anxiously at each other and at Holly, who couldn't believe how high the pollen count had to be today, like, seriously, she was on her second tissue. Blaine shrugged at his friends and stepped over to the teacher, placing a worried hand on her shoulder. "Miss Holliday? Are you okay? Was it all right?"
"You guys..." Holly's voice caught in her throat as she looked up at Blaine, and she had to swallow to clear it before she could go on. "That was amazing. How did you even know?"
"You mentioned it that day we all thought you were going to kill me," Jeff replied cheerfully. "You said you liked Leonard Cohen."
"Exactly," Blaine agreed, nodding. "So I got the idea then, and we went looking for songs. This one made us think of you. I mean, I know it's not the most appropriate song to sing to a teacher, but we looked at the others and...well. We liked this one. Was it okay?"
"Amazing," Holly repeated. "Oh, jeez, come here. I want to hug all of you." She got to her feet, flapping her hands in a beckoning gesture and found herself quickly swamped by affectionate Warblers. "I swear, this has been the best assignment. You are all so awesome, seriously. Just promise me one thing for next year." She glanced around at all of them, one arm slung around Blaine and the other around Nick.
"Anything – er, within reason," Blaine answered, nodding and hugging her.
"Raise hell. Do it in the most inobtrusive, Dalton boy way that you can manage, but do it. Keep loosening this place up. Remember that you can get away with a lot under the umbrella excuse of, 'we were just practicing our art form.'" She beamed at the group as they erupted in cheers and laughter. "You're rock stars. You know it. Never forget it." Abruptly, she paused. "Ahem. Whoever's got their hand on my rear, I don't want to know who it is. Just remove it now before you pull back a stump."
Jeff backed away from the group, a slightly guilty look on his face before Flint reached over and nailed him with his trusty knucklepunch. It made the sophomore's eyes water as he fought not to yelp in agony. Nick shot him an incredulous look, mouthing, you earned that, bro.
Wes pushed over to give Holly a hug. "You're the best, Miss Holliday. It's genuinely been a privilege. May I ask you to preside over our final meeting and Council election – and is it okay if we take over your classroom to do it?"
Holly stepped back and waved a hand around the room. "Be my guest. You can borrow my desk. Oh, one condition, though." She picked up the fruit bowl, still alarmingly full, and handed it to Jeff to pass around the room. "Everyone has to take at least one apple with them. Dalton boys have officially exceeded my capacity for the number of apples I can face. Blaine, take two."
"What? Why do I have to take two?"
She picked up the mango and waved it at him. "I appreciate this, but it's an extra piece of fruit that you brought into my classroom."
"I can take it back." He leaned over to reach for it and grinned as she snatched it back out of his reach.
"Absolutely not. Mine. Mine, mine, mine. It's not an apple so I'm keeping it. Apples for you, take two." Holly cradled the mango protectively to her chest and glared at Blaine until he laughed and stopped teasing.
"If you two are done flirting?" Wes raised an eyebrow at the two of them, who shot him a noisy raspberry (Holly) and a stellar eyeroll (Blaine) in return. "Excellent." He pulled his gavel out of his pocket and rapped on the desktop. "I hereby call the year's final meeting of the Dalton Academy Warblers to order." The rest of the boys scrambled to take seats in the desks around the classroom, David and Thad assuming places standing next to Wes behind the teacher's desk.
"Our first and really only order of business today is the election of next year's Council," David announced, looking around the room. "Remember that these are the guys you're putting in charge of your performance agendas, choreography, and soloist selection. They're the ones who will get you to Sectionals and Regionals and, hopefully, Nationals."
"So choose wisely," Thad added, pulling out a ballot box and a stack of index cards. "I'll pass these cards around – hope you all brought pens, because I didn't - "
"I have some, sheesh." Holly handed a box of pens over to Thad, who smiled in gratitude and began handing the writing utensils and ballots around the room.
"When you've made your choices – three names only, please, and only those who will be seniors – come put your ballot into the box. One ballot per Warbler." Thad finished off his instructions and distribution, and plopped down into a desk with the ballot box to wait.
He didn't have to wait long. Within five minutes the box was full and the Warblers were all back in their seats, looking expectantly at their stunned Council. "Well," Wes stammered, trying to regain equilibrium. "How very...efficient...of you all..."
"Get to counting, Fletcher," shouted Flint from his perch in the back of the classroom, sprawled out across two desks and munching on a handful of grapes like an idle young lord. Blaine reached over and swatted at the back of his head, earning a hurled grape to the temple in return, which set off a noisy scuffle between the two as Blaine tried to give his compatriot a serious noogie.
"Behave like civilized humans and not apes, you two." Thad snapped as he dumped the ballots onto Holly's desk. "And get your feet off the furniture, Wilson." He ignored Flint's answering middle finger in favor of neatly tallying votes on a spare index card.
It only took slightly longer than the voting – the tallying was abandoned when it became clear that the votes on the fourteen cards were identical. "Well, you've made our job remarkably easy," David observed, tossing the last card back down on the desk.
Wes got to his feet. "Then without further ado...you know that you guys select the Council, and the retiring Council selects the succeeding Chairman. Our choice is as unanimous as yours. Your 2011-2012 Warblers Council will be Flint Wilson, Trent Davies, and Chairman Blaine Anderson. God help you all." His broad grin made sure the boys all knew he was joking. The room exploded in cheers and backslapping for a bemused, but happy Blaine. Wes shoved into the crowd and pulled the new Chairman out, slapping the gavel into his hand. "All right, go on up there and get to leading, Chairman."
"Wow. Um...okay then." Blaine made his way up to the desk, pausing to squeeze Holly's hand and exchange a quick grin. He tentatively rapped the gavel down on the desktop. "I uh..."
"Speak up! And wield that gavel with purpose, Anderson!" Wes hollered from the middle of the room, hands in blazer pockets and a completely idiotic grin of satisfaction on his face.
"Yeah, all right." Blaine laughed and smacked the gavel down harder. "Order, order!"
The room quieted down, everyone beaming up at their new leader with affectionate pride. Flint and Trent joined Blaine at the desk, both of them displaying delight and uncertainty in equal measure. Holly couldn't wipe the grin off her face. She thought it was a perfect choice for next year's Council, and she briefly wished again that she felt comfortable taking the permanent job. Watching those three leading the Warblers' charge – Flint's laid-back attitude and Trent's pomposity perfectly balanced by Blaine's exuberant good nature and need to tear down walls – would have been as good as any epic movie.
Blaine cleared his throat. "So my first order of business is to banish the single soloist rule. I think we've all shown that we're capable of leading the Warblers to greatness. We were all at the alumni fundraiser and we all know that we knocked it out of the park." He paused while grumbles and surprise circulated the room, waving them back down into silence when it went on a little too long. "We'll choose songs we want to do and find a soloist to fit them, rather than limiting ourselves to whatever the soloist of the year can do. I think we'll have more flexibility that way, and we can open up our repertoire."
Trent nodded. "I completely agree. We'll need to meet with Headmaster Michaelson, of course, but I'm sure that won't be a problem. He thinks Blaine hung the moon." Playfully, he jabbed the arm of the new Chairman, who was blushing furiously and shaking his head.
"Well, we want to meet with him anyway. Since Regionals is part of what landed us an Advisor, and we don't want a new one – I personally wouldn't accept anyone but Miss Holliday, and I'm sure I speak for the group as a whole when I say that." Cheers of agreement ringed the room and made Holly duck her head and grin. "That means going to the Headmaster and explaining to him why we've chosen the songs that we have for competition. We might have to compromise a little, but I bet just the gesture of communicating with him will count for a lot." He grinned. "Remember, he didn't like 'Raise Your Glass,' but there is no denying that we brought the house down with that, right?"
Louder cheers, including one from Holly. At the looks of incredulity she got from the boys, she shrugged. "Well, you did. I bookmarked it on YouTube. Shut up."
"Ahem. If we could get back to the meeting?" Trent cast an imperious gaze around the room, ignoring the eye rolls this got.
"My second order of business," Blaine mumbled, suddenly bashful as he looked at his friends and hunted for words, "Is to thank you all. Thank you all for standing by me when I didn't know what I was going to do. Thank you for not abandoning me when I got huffy and snappy and shouted at you. Thank you for trusting me enough to be your leader as we make another stab towards Nationals – and I'd just like to say that I fully expect us to steamroller McKinley High School next year, got it?" Everyone shouted with laughter, whoops and happy hollers from every corner. "I'd also like to thank David, Nick, and Jeff for locking me in a closet with Miss Holliday and forcing us to resolve a silly argument – though do not even think I've forgotten that I still owe you revenge for that."
"Hey, but it all worked out for you in the end," David protested, dismayed. Blaine's revenge pranks had a habit of being brilliant and psychologically problematic. Thad still shuddered when he walked past Jell-O displays at the grocery store. "Come on, Anderson, no hard feelings, yeah?"
Blaine raised an eyebrow. "You tied me to a desk. In a closet. And I know where you live. Literally." His smile managed to be a perfect mingling of innocence and evil. "You really should have thought of that."
The conspirators all looked distinctly uncomfortable. Holly had to look away from the room in order to hide her smirk. She was with Blaine on this one, even if, as a teacher, she couldn't take part or condone it. Looking back up, she winked, and he winked back. That seemed to remind him of something. He took another breath and smiled at her.
"I'd also like to thank Miss Holliday on a personal level." His face turned red again, tips of his ears stained a more delicate pink. "She pushed and meddled and...listened. When things were getting really confusing, she was there. I know you think of yourself as tough and selfish and crazy, and, yeah. Maybe you are all of these things. But you're also daring and fantastic and way too smart for your own good, and...you're awesome. You're just completely awesome, Miss Holliday. Thank you for being there for us. For me." Before Holly could react, Blaine's arms were wrapped around her in a fierce hug, and she'd gotten something in her eye again, damn it.
"You're awesome," she breathed, smiling delightedly and hugging him back. "You guys are everything I love about teaching. You're insane, you're brilliant, you're focused – you're all going to take over the world. And you taught me that private schools, while still deeply in need of being shaken up, are not the horribly stifling institutions of no-fun that I'd previously thought. I have a lot of thanks for you guys as well."
She pulled back from the embrace and ruffled Blaine's hair, ignoring his squawk of protest at the disarrangement of his tidy locks. "All righty then. That's a lot of business for your first meeting, kid. Tell me you don't have anything else."
"Actually, I do. Just one more thing." Blaine took a deep breath and grinned broadly around the room, obviously planning something big. "Just one last thing that I think is super important that we do. For getting through this year, for going further than we ever have in competition, for vowing to shake up how things are done here..."
"God, spit it out, Anderson." David snatched one of Flint's grapes and hurled it at Blaine, who caught it and threw it right back. With a huge grin spreading uncontrollably across his face, Blaine leaned over on his palms, clearly pleased with himself, and issued the last order of business for the meeting.
"Gentlemen, I propose that we throw one hell of a party."