Chapter 7: Hell-O

So here's what you missed on Glee, just in case you have amnesia or got hit by a bus or decided to start reading this story in the middle of it for whatever reason.

Melissa Widman is a transfer student at McKinley High from Fresno, California and she's really struggling to fit in, even in the glee club. She sang a duet with Artie and really started crushing on him, but figured he'd never love her since he didn't seem to be over Tina, who he kind of dated for a little bit. I mean, we went on a date.

Jacob Ben Israel posted a video online of Melissa confessing her feelings for Artie. I said, I'm in love with Artie! Okay? Also there was another embarrassing video her from the only performance she did with her glee club in California. It went viral and she left the glee club, and Finn ended up leaving too. And without her and Finn, there's only eleven of us. Which meant that the New Directions basically didn't have a chance at winning sectionals.

But then Melissa and Finn both had a change of heart and decided to show up at the competition after all. Cool if we take our spots back? Quite. I was just here because I was hoping to get into Rachel's pants. Artie helped Melissa get over her stage fright and it turns out that he's really into her too, and then they kissed, plus the glee club ended up winning at sectionals. It seems like things are finally starting to look up after all. I have to say that this could be the start of a beautiful relationship.

And that's what you missed on Glee!

The next few weeks were a bit of a whirlwind.

After sectionals, I had come home smiling a mile a minute. I had texted my parents WE WON! with about a million exclamation points immediately after we got on the bus, so it may have been easy enough to say that my happiness was from that. But my dad knew better. No sooner had my parents finished congratulating me with the cliché we are so proud of you speech, my dad asked me, "So, I take it you worked things out with Artie?"

School let out for winter break around mid December. Artie and I were inseparable the entire time. We even spent Christmas at my house together, with his parents coming along as well. It felt a little strange to be meeting our parents so soon, but I realized quickly that I didn't need to worry. It was quite clear from the get go that his parents loved me, and mine loved him.

My parents had been more than a little surprised when they found out Artie was in a wheelchair, but it turned out that they loved him just as much as his parents did me. My dad in particular came up with every excuse under the sun for why I should invite him to have dinner with us or come hang out for a few hours. I knew that my parents were just relieved that I was back to my regular old self.

When we went back to school, though, I was surprised to find that it was like things hadn't changed. Sure, we ate lunch together and sat next to each other at glee club meetings, but from the outside looking in, our relationship was strictly platonic. I was more than a little confused, and very upset by this.

It was at a glee club meeting when it happened. I sat with Artie on one side of me, Mercedes on the other, with Kurt directly behind her. Mr. Schue had been reinstated as director and he was busy at the board coming up with our new lesson plan. He drew a stick figure with a speech bubble reading, "HELLO". He pointed at it, read the word aloud, then turned to us. We stared back at him blankly. "Hello?" Mr. Schue repeated.

"Hello," we mumbled back, Rachel far too enthusiastic, Artie and Mercedes waving.

Mr. Schue walked towards us and asked, "What do you guys say when you answer the phone?"

"What up?" Mercedes said.

"Who dis be?" Artie said.

"No, she's dead, this is her son," Kurt said.

I turned to look at him inquisitively as Mr. Schue said, "Oh…kay. Alexander Graham Bell, inventor of the telephone, liked to say 'ahoy, ahoy' when he answered the phone. It was Edison who decided that 'hello' was a more appropriate greeting." We all continued to stare at him blankly. "Look. I am really proud of what you guys did at sectionals. But, as most of you have realized by now, it hasn't made a bit of difference in your day-to-day here at school."

"I have a slushie stained training bra to prove it," Rachel said.

Mr. Schue nodded and pointed his finger in understanding. "Fact is, we're gonna have to be better, even more spectacular at regionals." He walked even closer to us, trying to command our full attention. "It's time for some reinvention. Some new New Directions. We need a new"—he turned around, pointing the marker he still held in his hand at the board—"hello. Here's your assignment for the week: come up with a fresh number, but it has to have 'hello' in the song title. Alright?"

I tried to wrack my brain for a punk rock song that had the word "hello" in the title. I knew for a fact that Avril didn't have anything.

We were dismissed shortly thereafter. As I got my stuff together, Artie turned to me and said, "Hey, we still on for tonight? You, me, Breadstix, six PM?"

I smiled at him. "Wouldn't miss it for the world."

He smiled at me too before he headed from the room. As the rest of the students filed out, Kurt grabbed me by the arm. I was so grateful to have him as my friend again, though I admittedly wasn't a huge fan of him grabbing onto me every time he wanted to talk to me. He pulled me off to the side as we exited the room, where Mercedes was already waiting for us.

"Okay, what's going on?" Kurt asked.

"What are you talking about?" I asked.

"Oh, please. You and Artie? You've been blowing off me and Mercedes every day to have lunch with him. You two certainly seemed pretty chummy in glee club. Don't forget that we're neighbors. I've seen him coming over to your house nearly every day for the past few weeks."

"So, we just want to know, are you guys together, or…?" Mercedes asked.

That was a great question. We had kissed after sectionals (twice), and both of us had admitted our true feelings for each other. Kurt was right; we were spending a lot of time together. But besides that, we hadn't really defined our relationship. We hadn't done so much as kiss or hold hands since the day of the competition. I didn't want to say that he was stringing me along, but I definitely was confused as to what we were.

"I don't know," I said truthfully. "I know I like spending time with him. I like the way he makes me feel."

"But he's not your boyfriend?" Kurt asked.

"It's…complicated."

"So what are you waiting for? You need to grab him by the suspenders and set things straight."

"Look, no offense or anything, but why do you guys care so much?"

"You're the only one of the three of us who might actually have a boyfriend," Kurt said, as though it were the most obvious thing in the world. "This may never happen for us for a long time."

I smirked, then nodded. "You know what…you're right. It sucks not knowing where I stand with him. I'll tell you what. My dad is taking us to Breadstix tonight so I'll just ask him what we are there."

"And be sure to tell us as soon as you find out," Kurt said, and Mercedes grinned.

Breadstix was a local restaurant that all of the McKinley kids seemed to love to congregate at. Why, I had no idea, since the food was far from excellent. But I found quickly that if you wanted to grab a bite to eat, there were really only three places in Lima: coffee at the Lima Bean, ice cream at Inside Skoop, and dinner at Breadstix.

Artie and I had made a couple of soirees there in the past few weeks. Some of the waitresses were starting to recognize us, and I'm sure that they thought we were a couple. They had given us a few odd looks the first time we arrived, and I can't say I blamed them. On the surface level, Artie and I were polar opposites. Kurt was right in that Artie often wore suspenders and belts at the same time, plus he sort of had the tendency to dress like my grandfather. Meanwhile, I was sure that based on appearances, I was the last sort of person any mother wanted their son to bring home. But as I had told Kurt, I liked spending time with him, and what was more, he seemed to like spending time with me, too.

That night at Breadstix, Artie told me all about the latest video game he had been playing. In the past when this conversation had come up, I had listened patiently, even though I knew next to nothing about video games at all. I had made a note to myself on more than one occasion to look up whatever game he was talking about so that I'd have something to contribute, only to forget and be stuck in the same situation the next time we talked. But that day, it was hard for me to focus on the amount of zombies he had vaporized on his speed run that day after glee club had been let out. All I could think about was the conversation I had had with Kurt and Mercedes that day—that, and wondering what a speed run was.

"You okay?" he asked me eventually.

"Yeah, I'm fine," I said.

"Really? Because you've hardly said a word since we got here."

"It's just…" Mercedes' question ("Are you guys together?") was still ringing in my head. I folded my arms on the table and leaned forward on them to get closer to him, lowering my voice slightly. "Can we talk about this? About us?"

"What about us?"

"I'm just confused. I mean, you kissed me after sectionals and we've been spending all this time together…"

Artie's smiled wavered slightly. "Do you not like spending time with me?"

"No, I do, but…what are we? Are we together?"

Artie looked as confused as I had been feeling. "You know I like you."

"Of course, and I like you, too. A lot. But don't you think it's about time we just made it official already? Like if I was at school, would I be able to point at you and say 'that's my boyfriend'?"

A look of pleasant surprise crossed his face. "You want to be able to call me your boyfriend?"

"I mean, duh. I thought I had made that pretty clear already."

He smiled at me. God, his perfect smile made me feel weak in the knees every single time he flashed it at me. When he spoke, there was a small lilt to his voice like a hint or a ghost of a laugh. "To be fair, I never actually asked to be your boyfriend. I just figured that you'd be pretty embarrassed to be seen with me after everything that happened to you last semester."

"If I was really embarrassed to be seen with you, I wouldn't have gone to sectionals."

"Touché." He reached across the table and took my hand in his. "Then it's settled. We can tell everyone in the choir room that you and me are officially an item." It practically felt like fireworks were going off in my belly from excitement, but he continued talking, quickly replacing those fireworks with lead. "And we're going to do that in song."

The smile that had crossed my face quickly disappeared. "W-what?"

"With a 'hello' number. It's, like, one of the top words in love songs."

I shook my head. "Artie, I…I can't. You know I have stage fright."

"Yes, and I also know that someone absolutely killed it at sectionals despite that stage fright. I heard you during You Can't Always Get What You Want. You have a beautiful voice. Come on. Our voices are great together."

I bit the inside of my lip as I mulled it over. I didn't really have a great argument against anything that he had said. I truthfully had enjoyed performing at the competition, more than I thought I would considering how last minute our performance had been put together. Besides, as I had already discovered, there was something about being with Artie that made me a little bit more secure in myself.

Finally, I asked, "So, do you guys just, like, sing everything you have to say?"

He laughed, giving my hand a small squeeze when he did. "Don't forget: you're one of us now."

And for one of the first times since I had arrived in Ohio, I truly felt like I was.

Artie and I spent the next few days putting together our song for the assignment. Truthfully, when I got to school the day we were set to perform it, I found that I was still nervous, though that had little to do with singing in front of the glee club. Instead, it had everything to do with the way that Tina was staring at me whenever we ran into each other. In my excitement about finally being officially dating Artie, I had forgotten about her history with him and failed to realize that she may be less than thrilled with the notion of us dating. He had told me time and again that they hadn't really dated, but I knew better than to believe that meant there was going to be no bad blood.

Kurt and Mercedes had been pestering me all week about what had happened at Breadstix with Artie, but I was determined not to let anything slip until we got to glee club. Even in Spanish class, Artie and I hardly said a word to each other, but we definitely shared a knowing smile whenever he came in the room.

Still, even though I had mostly gotten over my stage fright, Finn's introductory number was a tough act to follow. Rachel definitely had not been kidding when she announced afterwards, "And that, fellow glee clubbers, is how we say 'hello'." Artie and I were far from the most popular members of the group; how would people respond to our performance? Would they be as positive as they were for Finn, or would we bore everyone to tears? Would I be heckled?

Finally, the day came that Artie and I felt confident enough to show our number to the club. I went into glee club rehearsal with Kurt, who still was begging to know what happened—and who had seemed rather inspired by Finn's performance. Artie had been watching the door and gave me a small smile and a wave when I walked in. I grinned back, but tried to be nonchalant. Not long after, we were joined by our teacher, who walked in the room quickly. "Alright, guys," Mr. Schue said, crossing to the piano, "we gotta get moving on those 'hello' numbers. Who has got something to show us? Any volunteers?"

Artie turned to look at me, but before I could react, Rachel raised her hand. "Mr. Schuester, I think I've found a song that sums up my feelings perfectly," she said. Even though I was not thrilled about performing, I couldn't help but roll my eyes at the fact that Rachel was the first person to volunteer. Because of course she was.

Rachel was up and storming to the front of the choir room before Mr. Schue could say a word. "Fantastic, Rachel," he cut in. "Show us what you got."

Rachel turned to face us with her hands on her hips defiantly. I could practically feel the attitude radiating off of her, though for once, it was not diva esque. She seemed downright pissed off at something, though what it was, I wasn't sure.

I wake up every evening
With a big smile on my face
And it never feels out of place

I straightened up slightly at her song choice. Rachel and I had never once seen eye to eye, including when it came to our musical preferences, but there was one thing I couldn't deny: this was something I could get into.

When you see my face
Hope it gives you hell
Hope it gives you hell

At first, the rest of the room seemed annoyed or even bored with yet another performance from Rachel. But eventually, the glee club started clapping along and chanting the lyrics as well. Several people even stood up and started to move around the room, dancing or marching along to the lyrics. Artie and I joined in as well, and despite my general annoyance with Rachel, a smile spread across my face. For one thing, this song made a regular rotation on my own personal playlist. For another, this moment reminded me of simpler times from just a few weeks prior. During the break, Artie and I had spent quite a bit of time in my bedroom or his singing together. Despite the noise in the room, I was able to focus just on him, as though it was just a regular day. There was notably one person in the club who remained seated (besides Artie, obviously): Finn.

Rachel sang lead over the rest of us and stood on a chair. We all were a mix of clapping and chanting or singing and dancing along, for once just a group of teenagers singing together and having fun. Artie gave me a high five as we sang along. The two of us smiled huge smiles at each other like idiots and laughed a bit as we continued to sing. Mike Chang even joined in with a dance solo.

When you hear this song
I hope that it will treat you well
You can sing along
I hope that it puts you through hell

Rachel sat down in her chair again, singing the last word by herself.

"Guys," Mr. Schue said over the noise. "Guys, guys! I don't want to be a buzzkill but the assignment was 'hello'."

"I'm sorry, I was just focusing on the first syllable," Rachel said, casting a scathing look over her shoulder.

"You know what? I don't think you guys understand the seriousness of what we're up against. While we were busy winning our sectional, Vocal Adrenaline was busy winning theirs. They're last year's national champions. They haven't lost a competition in three years. This is the big leagues, guys." He scoffed. "If we don't place at regionals, glee club is over." A very poignant silence fell over the room. "Now you might have had some fun with that little song and dance number you just did, but I don't want to see another performance unless it's a 'hello' number."

"Actually, Mr. Schue," Artie said, cutting through the mounting tension in the room, "Melissa and I have something we prepared for your original assignment."

I tried to put my thoughts into his head: Artie, not now. After Rachel's performance plus the speech that Mr. Schue had just given us, I doubted that the rest of the club was going to respond warmly to what we had planned.

"Wonderful, Artie," Mr. Schue said, though I could hear just how unamused he was with the club at large. "You two come on up."

Artie and I went to the front of the rule, me asking, "Stool?" as I did. Mr. Schue handed me a stool and I placed it next to Artie, climbing on top. I crossed my legs as I sat, putting my hands over my knee as though to protect myself. Admittedly, my stage fright was slightly better after sectionals, but I still was not used to singing for an audience, especially not in this kind of setting. At sectionals, I had been able to blend in with the rest of the crowd; here, all attention would be on me. I suddenly regretted my decision to wear layers that day; was I just imagining it, or was I breaking into a nervous sweat?

The music started and Artie began to sing.

At the mirror you fix your hair and put your makeup on
You're insecure about what clothes to wear
I can't see nothing wrong

To me you look so beautiful when you can't make up your mind
It's half past eight, it's getting late
It's okay, take your time

He turned to look at me as I took over singing. At first, my voice trembled, but as the song went on, I got more comfortable with what I was singing and could almost forget about everyone watching me.

Standing here, hands in my pockets
Like I have a thousand times
Thinking back it took one breath
One word to change my life

He joined me again at the chorus.

The first time I saw you it felt like coming home
If I never told you I just want you to know
You had me from hello

Artie sang again by himself.

When we walk into a crowded room it's like we're all alone
Everybody tries to kidnap your attention
You just smile and steal the show

Then it was my turn to sing by myself again.

You come to me and take my hand
We start dancing slow
You put your lips up to my ear and whisper way down low

And once again, we joined in together for the end of the song.

The first time I saw you it felt like coming home
If I never told you I just want you to know
You had me from hello
From hello
From hello

The rest of the people in the room gave a polite (but quiet) round of applause. I finally felt brave enough to actively take in my surroundings as the song ended. Mercedes and Kurt were sitting close together, knowing smiles on their faces. Mr. Schue looked relieved that we had actually chosen a song with both syllables of his original assignment in mind. Rachel and Brittany both looked deep in thought, though Rachel seemed like she was thinking about something completely unrelated while Brittany looked just confused.

There was, however, one person who looked displeased: Tina.

I couldn't ruminate on it too long, because Santana piped up. "Can I ask what the point of that extremely boring song was?" she asked. "Seriously, I stopped paying attention after, like, ten seconds."

"Well, we thought we would kill two birds with one stone," Artie said.

"I've totally done that," Brittany said quietly.

Ignoring her, Artie grabbed my hand, threading his fingers through mine. "We wanted to complete Mr. Schue's assignment, plus address the recent rumors and confirm that Melissa and I are officially an item."

"I'll pretend to be shocked," Santana said.

Mr. Schue got up, crossed the room to us, and said, "Okay, that's enough, Santana. Fantastic job, guys. Congrats. And hey, Melissa, who knew that you could sing?" He smirked at me. "If no one else has anything to show us, then I suppose I will see you all tomorrow for more 'hello' numbers—again, that's hello."

I got up off my stool and went to grab my belongings as the rest of the club got up to exit. Tina rushed out the door as soon as we were dismissed. I had watched her go, but Kurt's voice at my side drew me out of my thoughts.

"It's about time," he said.

The next day as I put things into my locker, I was cornered by Kurt. "We have a problem," he said.

I looked up at him, more than a little confused. "About?"

"We need to have a dating intervention."

"I thought we already moved past my situation with Artie."

"It's not you," he said. "It's Rachel."

I stared at him in shock, and not just the fact that someone could put up with Rachel's crazy personality. Wasn't she dating Finn? He wasn't about to tell me that there was more baby drama, was he?

"Come on," he said. "I've already got Artie, Mercedes, and Tina in the choir room."

I followed him down the hall at a brisk pace. Something really had to be going on for the four of them to care so much about Rachel's love life. Indeed, when we arrived at our usual haunt, the other three were already waiting for us. Instinctively, I went and stood next to Artie, trying to ignore the scathing looks on Mercedes and Tina's faces (though I doubted they were angry for the same reason).

"So, does someone want to tell me what's going on with Rachel?" I asked, assuming that I was once again the last to know the latest gossip.

"She's dating Jesse St. James," Kurt said. "Star of Vocal Adrenaline."

Artie, Tina, and I were shocked, though it seemed Mercedes already knew. Vocal Adrenaline was our fiercest competition for regionals. There were many wild and crazy stories about them, such as that they used their dancers as little more than human props and that they were purposefully failed so that they could stay in the group past their anticipated graduation. One thing I knew for sure, though: they were going to be a tough act to beat. The fact that their male lead and our female lead were dating smelled like trouble.

"You can't be serious," Artie said.

"It's true. I heard it from Finn."

"What's the motive?" Tina asked.

"What do you think? They're obviously trying to sabotage our chances at regionals."

"But why?" I asked.

"No one expected us to actually be good at sectionals," Mercedes said. "Now they're realizing that we're just as good of performers as they are. And let's be honest, they don't seem like the type to fight clean. They might do something worse than just leak our setlist."

"So we have to do something about Jesse and Rachel," Kurt said. Artie, Tina, and I nodded in agreement. "I say that if she doesn't end things with him, either she's out of glee club or we are."

To my surprise, the other three seemed to be in agreement, even Artie. "Hold on," I said. "Doesn't that seem a little extreme? I mean, I…I kind of like being in glee club."

"You get stage fright every single time you perform," Tina said hotly.

I pointedly avoided eye contact with her when I responded, doing little to hide the annoyance in my voice. "Be that as it may, being in glee club is sort of like having friends. Besides, if we kick her out or disband the club, Vocal Adrenaline automatically wins."

"We're not actually splitting up the club," Kurt said. "We just let Rachel think we are. Without her backup singers, she'll have no choice but to call things off with Jesse." All four of them were staring at me. I knew arguing was useless. I was outnumbered. "Someone tell Rachel to come to the choir room," Kurt said after I failed to respond.

Mercedes volunteered and texted her to meet us. Almost instantly came the reply that she was on her way. I had to admit I felt a little bit guilty about what we were doing, but I couldn't deny that something fishy seemed to be up with Rachel and Jesse.

We were all staring at Rachel when she walked into the room, the same normal and chipper smile on her face. She was completely oblivious to what we were about to hit her with. "Hey, guys!" she said sweetly as she walked in, as though we were all buddies.

"Cut the butter, Benedict Arnold," Kurt said. "We heard about your new boyfriend."

Rachel's face fell as Mercedes continued talking, "Look, Rachel, we're all happy that you're happy"—for some reason, I doubted this—"but we've worked too hard in glee club to let you throw it all away on a relationship that might not even be real."

Rachel rolled her eyes and shook her head in disbelief. "Why, 'cause he's in Vocal Adrenaline?" she asked.

"Their motto," Kurt said, standing up, "is aut neca aut necatus eris, which loosely translates to 'murder or be murdered'."

Tina piped in with, "They give their dancers human growth hormone."

"Look, we're not saying the dude is playing you," Mercedes said.

Kurt cut in flatly with, "He's playing you."

Rachel scoffed and crossed her arms over her chest as Mercedes finished, "We just think that until regionals are over, we can't risk the possibility that he is."

"None of us want to go through what happened at sectionals again," Tina added.

"Okay, look," Rachel said, and for a moment I thought that she might actually agree to break things off with him. Instead, she tried to reason with us with, "Jesse and I might not be true love, but what if we are?" I tried to avoid the way that she looked directly at me and Artie as she said this, as well as the very first thought that popped into my head: didn't she think her and Finn were true love just a week before? "I know who I am," she said. "And how many chances at this am I going to get?"

Kurt and Mercedes shared a look. It was time for our ultimatum. "If you don't break up with him, you're out," he said.

"You can't kick me out!" Rachel snapped.

"But we can all quit if Mr. Schue doesn't," Artie said.

Rachel glared daggers at him, then turned to me with an all too obviously fake aura of saccharine sweetness. "Melissa," she said with a completely phony smile. "You wouldn't really leave the glee club, would you? I mean, without us, you'll just go back to being the laughingstock of the school."

Was this supposed to convince me to stay in the club? Without even looking at the others, I knew they were waiting for me to respond to her and were hoping I wouldn't give up the charade. Finally, I said, "I'm with them. It's for the good of the team. We can't handle any distractions right now."

"Well…" She searched for something to say. I don't think she had expected me to quit the club, seeing as her efforts to keep me from joining in the first place had been fruitless. Finally, she said, "Good luck winning without me."

"Everyone is replaceable," Kurt said. "Even you."

"How could you do this to me?" Rachel said.

"How could you do this to us?" Mercedes asked, stepping forward. "We're a team, and all you've ever wanted was for us to be great, and be a part of something special. Now is that still true or not?"

Rachel didn't say a word, casting one last look at us. I knew if I were in her shoes, I would be terrified to say no to Mercedes, especially with their tense rivalry. But then, this was Rachel we were talking about. Sometimes I wondered whether she felt any sort of human emotion besides annoyance or anger when things didn't go her way. She nodded and left the room without saying a word. It seemed that we had won—for now.

We were definitely hesitant to accept this as a victory, though we didn't yet have reason to suspect the alternative. We all agreed that we had to keep an eye on Rachel to make sure that there was no funny business before we started to go our separate ways. Just as we were leaving, though, Tina stopped me: "Hey, Melissa, can I talk to you?"

Artie, Kurt, and Mercedes looked at me funny before they left the two of us alone. They shut the door on their way out. Tina waited until we heard them retreat down the hallway before she started to talk.

"I know that we're not really that close, but I'm a little worried about you," she said.

"Worried about what?"

"I know that you're a little sensitive, and that you had a really hard time last semester with the whole video thing. I just don't want to see you get hurt."

I shook my head. "I'm not following."

"Ever since what happened with Finn and Quinn, relationships have sort of been a sensitive subject. And maybe the problem isn't that we're dating the wrong people, but that we're even bothering with romance right now. I mean, it's like you said, we can't have any distractions before regionals."

What was she talking about? It wasn't making any sense—unless…

"Wait, are you telling me to break up with Artie?" I asked.

"It's for the good of the team," she said to my surprise. "And what if things don't work out with you guys? I don't know if you'd be able to handle that after everything you've gone through already."

"Tina, Artie loves me."

"For now. But he's not exactly great at commitment. And if he breaks your heart, I'm sure you wouldn't hesitate to leave. You already did it once, and that can't happen again. You're one of our better dancers. Just…think about it, okay?"

Tina didn't wait for a response before she left the room, leaving me by myself to think. I looked up at the door as she left. Had she just threatened me to break up with Artie? I had had suspicions about her true feelings about me as it was, but I suddenly wasn't able to ignore the giant red flags that she was waving. It became very clear to me that she was not as over Artie as she might want me to believe.

And if that was true, I had a very bad feeling about the relationship between the three of us.

AN: Hi all, sorry I disappeared again. I've been going through a really tough time lately and needed some time to myself. This chapter isn't quite everything I wanted it to be, but I didn't want it to be too much longer than it was already getting, especially after the hefty last chapter. A quick announcement: I've updated the playlist on my profile to include the song that was in this chapter, but I also now have an account on TrendMe where I have been posting flat lays of Melissa's outfits for this chapter. I also plan to keep doing this for the coming chapters. Plus, I have an account on if you want to ask me anything. Anyway, thanks for reading! Don't forget to favorite, follow, and review!