Hi guys! The plans for this chapter changed slightly, but I am pretty happy with how it turned out. I'm sorry for you guys who were hoping to see other Gleeks in this chapter, but they'll be in the next one - when I post the next one, you'll see why I changed my mind :) Anyway, I hope you guys enjoy this chapter and review if you want me to keep writing!
Chapter 25: Five Hundred Signatures
"Are you sure this is a good idea?" Lindsay asked Allie as they stood at the door of the principal's office.
"At least if they know we care if we talk to the principal," Allie said. She'd recruited Lindsay and Jessica to talk to the principal about the orchestra. They'd talked to several of the other kids in the orchestra, as well as some third graders who were hoping to join, and everyone seemed to think it was unfair.
"Come in," the principal, Mrs. Cohen, called.
The three girls walked in. "How may I help you?" Mrs. Cohen asked.
"We'd like to talk about the orchestra," Jessica said.
"Oh, yes," Mrs. Cohen told the girls. "I know the three of you are in it, and I'm sure you're disappointed."
"Of course we are," Allie said. "Why did the school board cut the orchestra?"
"Girls, you're too young to understand what really goes on with the school board," Mrs. Cohen said. "The school levy didn't pass and we needed that money, so things needed to be cut."
"But my parents told me that kids who participate in the arts tend to do better in school," Jessica said.
"None of the choices the board made were easy," Mrs. Cohen said.
"Yeah, but those of us who are in the orchestra will have fallen behind next year in middle school," Lindsay protested. "The kids whose schools have orchestras will have an extra year under their belts."
"Yeah," Allie said. "Music helps us express ourselves."
"Girls, I'm sorry," the principal said. "There just isn't money in the budget for an orchestra and a choir at eight elementary schools."
"Why couldn't the uniforms go instead?" Allie asked.
"I know you girls don't like uniforms, but back when these schools just had a dress code, there were too many violations," the principal said.
The girls sat in the office for a few moments before they realized that this wasn't going anywhere. "Thanks for talking to us," Jessica said as the three of them left.
"Now what?" Lindsay asked as they left the office.
"We'll have to come up with something else," Allie said. But she wasn't sure what.
x
"So, did you talk to the principal?" Emma asked Allie at dinner.
"Yeah," Allie said. "But the stupid budget won't let us. There's not enough money for an orchestra at Cambridge."
"That's not fair!" Ryan said. "I wanted to play the drums like Daddy."
"Yeah, I thought it would be something fun for the three of us to do together," Allie said. Part of what she was looking forward to at school this year was being in the orchestra with her brother and sister. Ryan and Emma both wanted to be in the choir, too, but she did want something that the three of them could do together.
"I hope they don't cut the choir, too," Emma said.
"They did at some of the other schools," Allie said. "And next year there won't be a choir at Cambridge."
"That's mean!" Sarah said.
"It is," Allie agreed.
"Kids should do what they like," Sarah said.
Allie sighed and looked at her parents. "What should I do?"
"Maybe you guys could work out a deal with one of the elementary schools that has an orchestra instead of a choir this year," Finn suggested. "I mean, maybe you could take a bus there and practice with their orchestra, and their kids who wanted to do choir could take a bus to Cambridge to practice with the choir."
"Do you think they'd let us do that?" Allie asked.
"I don't see why they woudn't," Rachel said. "You guys could carpool there if the cost of taking the bust would cost too much."
"It's worth a try," Allie said.
"Allie, there is one more thing to consider," Rachel said. "We need to remember that there are eight schools in this district. Four have orchestras and four have choirs this year. It's pretty likely that people at other elementary schools would like to see a similar deal."
"I guess you're right," Allie sighed. This was going to be tough. Her parents had a good idea, but they also had a point. The kids at the other elementary schools wanted to enjoy their activity of preference just as much as the kids at Cambridge did. And it would be much harder to convince the school to let all the schools do this.
x
"So, we've looked over your family profile and you passed the home inspection test," the adoption agent said. "We also talked to your employers. However, we do need to talk to some sources, preferably some of your friends or some of your kids' friends' parents."
"Okay, we'll give you some names," Finn said into the phone. He looked over at Rachel, who was feeding Lea on the couch. Cory was upstairs sleeping at the time, and Sarah was in the living room with Rachel and Lea.
"Can you give them to us by tomorrow?" the agent asked.
"Yeah, I can," Finn said. He and Rachel would need to talk about who to ask. He hung up the phone and went to join his wife and daughters in the living room when he heard some cries on the baby monitor. "Sounds like someone's up."
"Can I come with you?" Sarah asked.
"Of course," Finn said. He led his daughter upstairs into Cory's room. "Hey," he said, picking up his son. He almost always came home on his lunch hour nowadays to be with Rachel, Sarah, Lea and Cory. "Hey Sarah, want to make Mommy laugh?" Finn said as they started going downstairs.
"Yeah!" Sarah said.
"When we get downstairs, if she's still feeding Lea, I want you to tell her that you're waiting your turn," Finn said. "And if she isn't, I'm going to have her feed Cory, and once Cory starts, I want you to tell her that you're waiting your turn."
Sarah gave him a confused look. "Okay, but why?"
Luckily, Sarah was too young to understand this. "Just for the heck of it." When Finn, Sarah and Cory got downstairs, Lea was in her carrier. Finn handed Cory to Rachel. "I think someone's hungry."
Sarah started giggling as Finn handed Cory to Rachel. As Cory began sucking, Sarah looked at Rachel. "Mommy, I'm waiting my turn."
Finn cracked up as Rachel gave him a look. "FINN! Did you tell her to say that?"
Finn gave Rachel one of his famous half smirks. "Maybe."
"Not maybe," Rachel said. "I know you did!"
"What's wrong with that?" Sarah asked.
"Your daddy was being very inappropriate!" Rachel said, giving Finn a playful slap. "So, Finn, what did the adoption agency say on the phone?"
"We need to have references," Finn said. "They want us to ask our friends or the kids' friends' parents to talk to them."
Rachel gave Finn a look. "That's easy enough. We could ask Nick's parents, and Ava's, and Lindsay's, and Jessica's. And we could ask some of our friends from Glee, like Puck and Quinn, and Santana and Brittany, and Sam and Mercedes, and Mike and Tina. They all have kids."
"Yeah, we could," Finn said. "I'd say Kurt and Blaine, but since they're family..."
"Yeah," Rachel said.
"I'll call them," Finn said. He sent some texts to their Glee friends, and within minutes he had gotten replies, saying that they'd do it. They were one step closer to Allie being a Hudson.
x
"You wanted to see us?" Allie asked as she, Lindsay and Jessica walked into Mrs. Cohen's office. Five adults she didn't recognize were there as well (well, she thought one of them was Ryan's friend Nick's dad, but she wasn't too sure). Allie had told Lindsay and Jessica about Finn and Rachel's suggestion, and they were planning to go to the principal's office after school, but they'd just been called down.
"Ladies, these are our school board members, Mr. Dougherty, Ms. Hannon, Mr. Cochran, Mr. Richmond and Mr. Zimmerman," Mrs. Cohen said. "Every month, the school board members visit each school, and they're visiting Cambridge today. I told them about what you girls said yesterday and they wanted to meet you girls." She turned to the school board members. "This is Jessica, and Lindsay, and Allie."
"Hi," Allie said nervously. Her parents had told her that the school board members were the most powerful people in the school district. They were the principals' bosses and they made all the important decisions. And of course, they were the people who'd decided on this new orchestra policy. So being around them made Allie a little nervous. She was planning to tell the principal about her parents' idea - but she didn't expect the school board members to be here.
"Hi girls," the only female school board member said. "We hope you understand that cutting the orchestra wasn't easy for us."
"We actually did have an idea," Lindsay said. Allie wasn't sure if she felt comfortable telling the most powerful people in the school system about her idea.
"Tell us about it," Nick's dad said. (Now she knew for sure it was Nick's dad.)
Both Allie's friends looked at her. "You should tell them," Jessica said. "It was your idea."
"Well, it was my parents' idea," Allie admitted. She looked at the ground. "We were thinking that maybe the kids who want to be in the choir or orchestra if their school doesn't offer it could maybe take a bus or carpool to one of the schools that has the activity they want to be in and practice with that school's orchestra or choir. That way you wouldn't have to hire additional teachers, and since the orchestra and choir only rehearse once a week at the elementary schools, it wouldn't be too much of an inconvenience."
"Orchestra was the best part of my week in third and fourth grade," Jessica said. "We talked to lots of other kids at Cambridge who are in the orchestra and they felt the same way."
"We talked to some third graders who wanted to be in the orchestra, and they're so disappointed," Lindsay added. "And I'm sure the kids at the schools without choirs feel the way we do."
The school board members exchanged looks. "Girls, it is nice to see people so young care so much about their extracurricular activity of choice," Nick's dad said. "We do have require petitions to start new initiatives before we implement them, and since this would impact lots of people, you guys would need a lot of signatures on a petition."
"How many, do you think?" Allie asked.
"From the number of people this would impact, we'd need five hundred signatures," another school board member said. "You guys can have your parents contact the other elementary schools' PTAs and see if any of them would sign it, and you can have your friends sign it. Then when you get five hundred, you can bring the petition to the school board meeting."
Five hundred signatures? Allie wasn't even sure if she knew that many people. "When's the next school board meeting?" she managed to ask.
"It's the 2nd of next month," another school board member said. "You can have anyone sign it, as long as they're somehow affiliated with the elementary schools."
"Okay," Jessica said, giving the school board members looks. "We'll see you guys on the second of next month, with our five hundred signatures."
Allie didn't know how her friend seemed so confident. "Five hundred signatures is a lot!" she told her friends as they left. "And how many adults would sign a petition for an elementary school orchestra?"
"You never know," Lindsay said. "We're going to get to be in the orchestra at one of the other schools." Allie hoped her friend was right, but she wasn't so sure.
Chapter 26 preview: Allie leads a group of students from Cambridge and other elementary schools in their district to get the signatures for the program coming back, and Finn and Rachel help out as well. Finn and Rachel also find out what their Glee friends said to the adoption agency.