"You're back! And oh, Andy! You're okay! Oh, thank goodness!" Emma was on the porch in an instant when she saw all the teens come trudging onto the lot.
Andy refused eye contact with anyone and shivered.
"Was he on the island, then?" Will asked Finn.
"Yes" Finn replied. "Meredith swam out there."
"Woah, she swam?" Will gasped. "That's so dangerous."
"We told her. But she didn't listen" Kurt said quietly. "Who could blame her?"
"Well, where's the boat?" Will asked.
Finn and Kurt looked at each other. They didn't know the answer of this.
"I...I don't know" Kurt said. "Hey, Meredith, where's your boat?"
Meredith turn to him. "It's still on Elk Island."
"Why?"
"Yesterday when we filled it with gas, I didn't close the tank thing properly so it's empty now. When the water calm down, we'll have to take another tank over to the boat and drive it back to the pier" Meredith sighed, obviously upset about her mistake.
"Come inside everyone, you're all soaked again" Emma said.
"If it's okay, I think Andy and I will just go home" Meredith said.
"Of course" Will said. "I'm sure your Mom will be glad to have you both back."
Meredith nodded. "But seriously guys, thank you so much for your help. Thank you all."
"Of course" Quinn said. "We'd do it again in a heartbeat."
Meredith gave them watery smiles and put her arm around Andy.
"Maybe we'll see you guys later today" she said as she and Andy turned to leave.
"Sure. It's not like we'll be going anywhere in this lovely weather" Mercedes laughed.
Meredith and Andy took a few steps then Andy stopped, turned around and looked at them all.
"Thanks" he said quietly. It was barely audible over the rain and wind, but they all knew what he said.
"Everyone dry?" Will asked the teens. Once again, they were huddling around the fire and under blankets in an attempt to stay warm and dry. They had all changed out of their sopping clothes and Emma hung them up, just like the day before.
"Almost" Quinn shivered.
"My hair is still damp" Santana said, running her hand through her silky hair.
"Can I braid it?" Brittany asked her.
"Sure, okay" Santana smiled and sat in Brittany's lap, so she could braid her hair.
Will sat down on a nearby stool. "You know, I just wanted to say how proud I am that you guys went to all the trouble to help find Andy. The weather is hideous and it was so early in the morning, but you guys went, no questions asked. You guys worked logically and together and that's what makes you guys a great team. I'm proud."
"Ew, are you gonna start crying? Because seeing a grown man cry is just plain creepy" Santana scoffed at him.
"Very true, Santana" Sue said, strolling purposely into the room.
Will just rolled his eyes. "Sue, these kids did something amazing today."
"Yeah, yeah, okay" Sue said, but smiled at them.
"And it's not even lunch!" Kurt piped up.
"Speaking of which, I am starving! We barely had breakfast" Finn said.
"True. How about Ms. Pillsbury and I make you guys some lunch. Any requests?" Will asked.
"I could really go for something with peanut butter" Rory grinned. "It's my new obsession."
"A little late to the party, bro" Sam said.
"Yeah, now the fan fave is Nutella" Mercedes said.
"Well, I don't think we have any of that. But how about we make some celery and peanut butter and some cans of soup?" Will offered.
"Deal!" Puck nodded.
"Great" Will stood up. "Coming right up!" He went into the kitchen, humming something happily.
"Let's play a game" Rachel said. "It'll be fun."
"What game?"
"Spoons" Rachel replied. "It's a card game. It's really fun."
"Yes!" Kurt grinned. "It's awesome!"
Mercedes and Blaine nodded.
"We've played it before too" Mercedes said. "It's fun."
"How do you play?" Sam asked. "Does it involve thinking? Because I'm tired."
"No, no thinking. Just fast hands" Blaine said.
"Okay then" Tina said. "Let's play."
"We can't all play though" Mercedes frowned. "Each player need four cards to start and there are sixteen of us. There's not enough cards in the deck."
"I don't think Puck wants to play" Tina said, looking at Puck, who was fast asleep.
"And Brittany and I will just watch" Santana said.
"I'm not really good at cards" Rory said. "When I was eight, my cousin and I played for keeps and I lost my whole bunch of Pokémon cards."
"My brother collects those!" Sam smiled at him.
"Tina, Mike, are you guys gonna play?" Rachel asked.
"I will" Tina said.
"Nah" Mike shook his head. "I'm tired too."
"Joe and I wanna play" Quinn said.
"I'll play if I can have all diamonds" Sugar said. "When we played cards the other day, I got three hearts, a club and a spade. I mean, what is a spade?"
"If you don't shut your dumb mouth, I'll hit you with one" Santana smirked. "Like honestly..."
"Finn, are you going to play?" Rachel asked.
"Huh?" Finn asked, looking over. He and Artie were reading the comics in the local paper.
"I said, are you going to play?" Rachel repeated.
"Oh, uh, not now" Finn said and he and Artie turned back to the comics with giggles.
"So it's Rachel, Kurt, Blaine, Joe, Quinn, Tina, Sam and myself" Mercedes counted.
"Blaine, go get the spoons" Kurt said.
Blaine stood up. "Let's see, there's eight of us so we'll need seven spoons." He ran to the kitchen and came back with seven silver spoons in his hands.
Will came out right after him with a frown. "Blaine, we'll need those!"
"So do we" Blaine said. "We're playing a game."
"I'm making soup!" Will said. "So unless you'd prefer to eat it with a fork-"
"I did that once!" Brittany smiled as she tied an elastic in Santana's hair, ending the long and elegant braid.
"Sorry, Mr. Schuester" Blaine said. "We need these. But we'll wash them before we lunch. We swear."
Will shrugged. "Alrighty then."
"So how do we play?" Joe asked.
"First, let's spread out in a circle" Rachel instructed. They all shuffled around and Blaine put the spoon in the middle. "Okay so the point of the game is to get cards in all the suits. So a seven, for example, in clubs, hearts, spades and diamonds. The catch is you only can be holding four cards at a time. So we all get four cards and the first person looks through the leftover one at a time. If they want to card, they take it and put one down. They pass their reject card to the next person, who does the same. So basically these cards keep getting passed around until someone has all four. When someone gets a set, they take a spoon. The trick is to do it discreetly. When you notice a spoon had been taken, it's a mad rush to grab one. Notice there's not enough spoons for everyone, so who ever is last to claim a spoon loses."
"Sounds easy enough" Quinn nodded.
Kurt shuffled the cards with ease and dealt them. The stack was pretty small when they all had their starting cards.
"Okay I'll start" Kurt said. They took a moment to organize their hand before Kurt picked a card up from the stack. He glanced at it for a moment before slapping it face down to his right, where Mercedes promptly picked it up. She glanced at it and slapped it down to her right for Quinn and reached back to grab the next card Kurt had left for her. The game moved fast and soon Kurt had a small pile of cards waiting for Mercedes, who frantically picked through them.
"Too fast!" Mercedes said as she slapped down another card. "Kurt, slow down."
"Nope!" Kurt laughed and switched a card in his hand for a new card.
The sound of cards slapping down on the ground was very rhythmic. Slap, slap, slap, slap...
"Oh, darn! I need that two back!" Quinn made a face as she watched the card she needed be passed from Joe to Sam.
"No going back!" Rachel cackled, slapping down a card.
"Oh, now the king I need shows up. Jeeze, could it not have come like two minutes ago?" Blaine grumbled to himself.
By now, the leftover cards Kurt had started with were gone so Kurt used the ones that had made it back over to him. The circle never ended.
"Oh!" Rachel gasped at her hand and grabbed a spoon.
As soon as she did, everyone else stopped their card slapping and tried to grab a remaining spoon. Blaine, Kurt, Mercedes, Joe, Sam and Quinn managed to successfully get one.
"Shoot" Tina said sadly.
"Rachel, you totally gave it away with that little 'oh!'" Mercedes said.
"Yeah! 'Oh, goody, I did it!'" Sam used a high pitched voice to impersonate her.
Rachel rolled her eyes and put her spoon back in the middle.
"I was so close" Kurt sighed, showing his hand, which consisted of three sixes and a nine.
"Let's play again" Quinn said, throwing her hand and spoon down. "That's fun."
"Very suspenseful" Sam said. "I kept looking at the spoons to make sure none were missing!"
Kurt nodded and collected everyone's cards. "The hypnotic beat doesn't help at all. It's like a loud heartbeat, which is ironic because my heart is pounding through the whole game." He shuffled the cards.
"You're not starting" Mercedes grabbed the deck from his hand. "You're way too fast for me."
Kurt laughed.
Mercedes started the game again. Once again, the slap, slap, slap rhythm started up and the group focused on their cards. In fact, they were so focused that they didn't see Joe quietly reach out and grab a spoon and set it right by his foot. He sat quietly, smirking to himself as everyone continued slapping and switching cards in a mesmerizing pattern. It was a full minute before Blaine looked up and noticed that one spoon was missing. He slowly grabbed a spoon, but that was noticed by Kurt and Mercedes, who both madly grabbed one too. They other all reached for one too, but it was Rachel who ended up empty handed.
"Wait, who took a spoon first?" Tina asked, still confused as to why they were holding spoons.
Blaine shrugged.
"It was me" Joe said, holding up his own spoon.
"I didn't see you take it" Quinn said.
Joe smirked. "Yeah, that's because I had it for a whole minute before you guys noticed."
"Really? Stealthy!" Sam highfived him.
They played several more rounds after that. Joe won the majority of them.
"How are you so good at getting that spoon?" Rachel asked, frustrated because she lost another one.
"I'm used to no one noticing me" Joe said.
As they started up their ninth round, Will poked his head in the room.
"Lunch time!" he said. "And don't forget to wash the spoons."
So they all stood up and marched to the kitchen. The Spoons players quickly rinsed their spoons and hurried to grab a bowl.
"What was that thing you guys were doing with that infernal sound?" Puck asked. He had awoken when they all had gotten up for food.
"Spoons" Kurt answered simply. "Why?"
"It shook the floor and I was trying to sleep" he replied.
"Sorry we're not sorry" Kurt smirked.
"Well, it's almost one thirty. What shall we do for the rest of the day?" Mike asked.
"It's still raining" Quinn observed.
Will smiled at them. "I don't know about today, but I have an idea of what we should to tomorrow."
"What? What?" they all asked, seeing the impish smile he had and knew it must be fun.
"I was thinking we head on up to Winnipeg for a full day of shopping and touring" Will said with an arm wave for emphasis.
"Yes!" most of the girls and Kurt cheered.
"Shopping?" Puck asked in disbelief. "For a full day? You're kidding, right?"
"Don't worry" Will told him and the guys. "It'll be fun."
A/N
Hola Amigos!
Sorry it's been two weeks but when I'm not trolling twitter (follow me AVeryMagicGleek) I've been using my free time by finishing up my other ongoing fanfiction. But I'll try to get the next chapter up next week. :)
If you've never played spoons, I highly recommend you play because it's super fun!
That's about all I have to say now. So TTYL
