Chapter 43: Don't You (Forget About Me)

SEBASTIAN

Sebastian and Artie waited by the school's back entrance- over by the teacher's lounge- at the top of the ramp for someone to come and unlock the door. Sebastian crossed his arms over his chest and leaned against the school's brick siding, tapping his foot impatiently as Artie glanced around anxiously next to him.

"You don't think that they forgot we're out here, do you?" Artie asked, eliciting an eye roll from Sebastian. "Because what if they did? And they're running around inside without us while we're left out, in the dark, over by the dumpsters?"

Artie's chronic ability to overthink any given situation, coupled with his irrational fear about being left out was kind of sad most of the time, but now he was just overreacting.

"Nobody forgot about us," Sebastian assured him. "I texted them five minutes ago that we're over here. It's probably just taking those four idiots a while to climb through that tiny window. Sam probably got stuck."

Artie let out a small laugh in amusement as Sebastian smirked at his own mental image he'd created.

"And you're sure the parents aren't going to question where we are?" Artie asked. As if it wasn't already painfully obvious, this was his first time sneaking out at night. Sebastian couldn't help but wonder how it would be, come next year when Artie was on his own in California and didn't have to ask his mother for permission to do what he wanted to.

"Yes, I'm sure," Sebastian rolled his eyes again. "Plus, I paid Miss Ella twenty bucks to come up with something to tell them if they get suspicious." Sebastian began to get impatient just then too. "Where the heck are those fools?"

They didn't have to wait much longer, because soon enough, Blaine- dressed in a superhero costume- appeared at the door and unlocked it from the inside.

"What the hell are you wearing, Anderson?" Sebastian asked, taking the door from him and holding it open so that Artie could roll inside first.

"I wanted to wear my Nightbird costume one last time!" Blaine defended himself.

Nightbird was Blaine's Nocturnal Avenger alter-ego, stemming from the Secret Society of Superheroes Club that he'd founded earlier in the year. Sebastian found the club to be completely odd, and it was times like these when he couldn't believe that he'd once had such a debilitating crush on this guy. He was a bigger nerd than Artie, Seb could see that clearly now. Blaine was all Kurt's, as far as Sebastian cared. He was beginning to think he'd dodged a bullet there.

"Any excuse to put on that costume," Artie shook his head.

"Well, it's the last chance I get to wear it. Unless I'm in some kind of creepy fetish club," Blaine said.

"Yeah, which New York is probably crawling with…" Tina said as she, Brittany, and Sam met the other three in the school's main hallway. "I'm sure you'll have no problem finding some superhero fanatics to hang out with while you're at NYADA."

"Listen, are you sure we won't get in trouble for this?" Artie asked in his typical nervous, teacher's pet sort of way. "Doesn't the school have cameras? Or motion sensors that alert the police of trespassers? Because that's what we're doing right now. Trespassing."

"Chill out, will you?" Sam told him, which earned a laugh from Sebastian.

"Have you met him?" Sebastian snorted. "He's never 'chilled out' a day in his life."

"Truth," Artie acknowledged with a wave of his hand.

"I've always wanted to just roam the school after hours when no one's here," Tina clapped excitedly. "It's like that Junie B. Jones book we read as kids. You know, the one where she misses the bus on the way home from her first day of kindergarten and spends the night alone at the school!"

"That sounds… terrifying," Artie concluded as the boys nodded in agreement.

"I missed the bus once," Brittany shared. "Lord Tubbington got caught up in another one of his Ponzi schemes and the police showed up at my house and put my dad in handcuffs. They didn't believe me when I told them that it was my cat that they needed to arrest."

The others exchanged confused glances. Bless her heart. The girl had never been the brightest. More like the poster child for the phrase "the lights are on, but no one's home".

"Well, what do we do first?" Blaine was the one to break the silence to ask the group. They'd made it into the building, but what next? The six friends stared at one another, not exactly sure where to begin.

It only took a second for Sebastian to think of something. If this were a cartoon, Sebastian would have had a lightbulb appear above his head, blinking wildly.

"I have an idea…" Sebastian announced with a devious smirk on his face. He waved for the others to follow behind him as he ran down the hallway towards the choir room.

"What are we doing here?" Blaine asked as he and the others looked around at the all-too-familiar choir room. There was nothing that seemed out of the ordinary.

Sebastian grabbed a rolling office chair from the corner of the room before running next door to Mr. Schue's office to grab the other one from behind his desk. Then, he reached for the fire extinguishers hanging on the wall, presenting his findings to the others.

"I don't understand," Blaine shook his head.

"I do!" Sam exclaimed. "A fire extinguisher race down the hallway!"

Leave it to Sam to always think abstractly.

"Isn't that kind of, I don't know, inappropriate?" Artie asked. "To waste those fire extinguishers and make a huge mess, for what? Fifteen seconds of fun?"

"Artie, if you're going to be a downer, you can go home," Sebastian told him, unafraid to be blunt and put his step-brother in his place. "Don't you want to let loose and have a little bit of fun before we leave this place?"

"I mean, it would be redemption for that time we tried to give ourselves bad reputations freshman year and sang MC Hammer songs very loudly in the library…" Tina said, grinning at Artie, who ducked his head in embarrassment at the memory they shared.

"And, dude, look! You're already on wheels, so if you can find another fire extinguisher, you can have in on the race, too!" Sam pointed out. Sebastian appreciated his excitement.

"Fine, fine, I'll do it," Artie laughed before disappearing to go track down another extinguisher.

Several office chair-versus-wheelchair races down the hallway later, Artie was all smiles and had broken out of his goody-two-shoes shell, finally ready to have some serious fun, which Sebastian was most grateful for.

Their next stop was Ms. Pillsbury's office. Sebastian felt a little bit bad about snooping in the poor guidance counselor's personal business since she'd always been one of the nicest adults he knew (he often considered her to be the only educator at this school with any common sense), but the quirkiness of her belongings was just too entertaining to pass up on.

"This is where I came when the school found out I was keeping that bird in my locker," Brittany shared.

"I've always loved these things," Blaine said, pointing to Ms. Pillsbury's display of her various, oddly specific (but occasionally helpful) pamphlets. He picked up one that said I Am Too Depressed To Even Open This Pamphlet on it in big blue letters and shook his head before setting it back down.

"What about this one?" Tina doubled over with laughter. "Is That My Period? Or Have I Been Shot?"

"Ha! I could have used this a few years ago," Artie said in his usual self-deprecating way, holding up the one that read: Divorce- Why Your Parents Stopped Loving You.

"Here you go, Art," Sebastian joked. "Got something you want to tell me?"

He passed the pamphlet he was holding to Artie, who silently read it before shaking his head and shoving it back into Seb's chest. "Not in a million years."

Sebastian wore a smug look on his face before setting the Help! I'm In Love With My Step-Dad! pamphlet back with the others.

"Everyone take one for the road," Sam called, holding up a clear jar cleverly marked Bee Safe- Use a Condom! with a cute bee on the label. He tossed each of the boys a wrapped contraceptive. "You have to use one every time! There will be no chlamydia outbreaks after graduation! Or surprise pregnancies!"

Making their way down the hallway, the next stop on their journey was the principal's office.

"Sue's definitely got the place booby trapped!" Artie said nervously as he cautiously glanced around at his surroundings.

"Boobies should never be trapped," Brittany said passionately, a statement the others chose to ignore.

"There's got to be something blackmailable in here," Sebastian said as he rifled through the drawers of her desk. "Like her cover of Penthouse or foot fetish magazines or proof of a gambling problem…"

But to his great disappointment, he found nothing. Seriously, nothing. She had emptied out all of her drawers prior to leaving for the night, though even she couldn't have predicted the kind of security breach that her office was currently under. Sue was smarter than he had expected.

All the way in the back of the bottom drawer, though, Sebastian did find something.

"Bingo!" He called, holding up his findings to his friends.

"A key?" Tina asked, evidently not impressed by his discovery. "What's it for?"

"Don't know," Sebastian answered, turning the silver key over in his palm. "But we've got all night to try every lock in this building to figure it out."

"But what if it's not to anything in this school," Artie argued, always ready to play the devil's advocate. "I mean, think about it. Would you be dumb enough to leave the key to something in the school unsupervised?"

"My bet is that she's got some sort of creepy storage unit," Blaine chimed in, his imagination running rampant again. "Filled with voodoo dolls of all of us Glee kids. And a giant chalkboard where she plans out how she'll ruin our lives next."

"That key's not to a storage unit, Blaine Warbler," Brittany spoke up just then, looking up from where she was playing with a crocheted doll that she found on Sue's desk.

"How do you know?"

"Because. That key's to the closet where all of the Cheerios uniforms are stored," she answered simply.

All it took was a promise to get her a McFlurry from McDonald's on their way home for Brittany to offer to show the others to the closet by the gymnasium, and soon, they were all living out their Cheerios dreams.

"I want the skirt! Pleeeease can I wear the skirt?" Sam begged as he yanked a girl's uniform off of its hanger.

Tina and Brittany matched him, also donning the shells and skirts, while Blaine and Sebastian quickly changed into the male version, complete with a short-sleeved top and long red pants. The only one who even gave a second thought to the idea of changing in front of his friends was Artie.

"Need help?" Sebastian asked when he saw Artie just staring down at the uniform that somebody had thrown into his lap. Artie shook his head and pulled his t-shirt over his head and put on the male Cheerios top that matched the one Sebastian was currently wearing.

"Do I have to wear the pants too?"

"You don't have to do anything you don't want to do," Sebastian assured him.

Artie had changed into some loose-fitting joggers before they'd left home. He'd given the explanation that he was trying to adequately cover up his injured knee, but Sebastian knew better. Seb wished he'd stop hiding his body behind the baggy or out-of-style clothes he wore every day because he didn't have a reason to. Sometimes he just wanted to grab Artie by the shoulders and shake some sense into him, saying: "It's okay! Everybody's bodies are different! Your body is awesome!". Because it was the truth. Artie had nothing to be ashamed of. It just made Sebastian sad that he thought he did.

"Hey, what about this?" Sebastian said, holding up the skirt of one of the girl's uniforms. Artie stared blankly back up at him. Sebastian knelt in front of Artie's chair and, reaching for one ankle at a time, he guided Artie's feet through the opening of the skirt. Artie, realizing what he was doing, laughed as he used his hands to push up on the armrests of his chair, lifting his hips off of the seat so that Sebastian could guide the skirt under him. "Ta-da! The skirt over the joggers is actually kind of a good look on you."

"If Sue saw me in one of these, she'd probably die on the spot." Artie shook his head, spinning around so that his friends could take a look at his new outfit before concluding: "We all look ridiculous."

Sam knew that Coach Beiste kept the closet where all of the sports equipment was stored unlocked, so the six Cheerios uniform-wearing friends raided it and all selected either a skateboard, scooter, or pair of rollerblades (naturally, since Artie was already on wheels, he didn't need to choose anything). The friends skated, scootered, and wheeled down the empty hallways, their infectious giggles echoing through the corridors.

Ridiculous-looking or not, it was fun to play dress up and act like silly kids together. Sebastian didn't know how many more times he would get to make memories like this with this group.

"Busted!"

The comment caught Sebastian by so much surprise that he almost fell off of the skateboard he was riding. Spinning around, he was met with the tiny-but-mighty Becky Jackson shining a flashlight in his eyes. She had a duffel bag slung over one shoulder with the box of a Twister game under her other arm. It looked like she planned on staying the night.

"Your fat asses are mine," she said, glaring at each of them. Sebastian swallowed nervously. What if she reported them to Principal Sylvester and they weren't allowed to graduate?! "Go change into your real clothes and meet me in the auditorium."

The others exchanged a look before doing as they were told. Nobody wanted to cross Becky. Honestly, she could be scarier than Sue a lot of the time.

"Party's over," Sam said under his breath as they retreated back to the Cheerios closet. "It was fun while it lasted."

"Hey, the night doesn't have to be over," Artie reminded them with a shrug. "This could still be fun! Becky's nice. I went to Breadstix with her that time last year, remember? She's not so bad once you get to know her. She's funny, fun to be around, and she's even sort of cool. Let's not call it quits yet. Please? Let's give her a chance."

Out of the six of them, Sebastian would not have placed his money on Artie being the one pleading the others not to cut out early. But, he had to admit, it was a refreshing turn of events.

"I mean, she is a senior," Sebastian added, causing him to receive a grateful smile from Artie. "She deserves to be included in our lock-in, too."

"Fine," Tina replied. "But if this goes sour and we get in trouble, I'm coming after you both."

After changing into the clothes they had been wearing when they arrived, they locked the closet back up and put away the athletic equipment they'd been playing with before heading towards the auditorium just as Becky had directed them to do.

When they arrived, she had already set up her Twister mat and was laying on her side seductively.

"Let's get this party started! 11-Hour Energies for everybody!" She cheered, tossing a handful of the small bottles of energy shots in their direction. Brittany was the only one who uncapped hers and started to drink it.

"Uh, we don't want to be rude, but…" Tina began to say before Becky cut her off.

"I can't hear you, Cohen-Chang! I'm too busy drinkin' my 11-Hour Energies!" Becky called. "Oh yeah, baby!"

"Don't you think you need to slow down there on the energy drinks there, Becky?" Sam asked. "By the way, how did you even get in here?"

"I climbed through the window, fool!" Becky informed him. Blaine and Sam cast a glare in Tina's direction, causing Sebastian to assume that she was the last one inside and forgot to close the window.

"It's time for Twister!" Becky clapped happily. "Every time you fall down, you drink one of these." She unzipped her duffel bag, revealing what looked like fifty more bottles of 11-Hour Energy.

"Becky, we'll die!" Sam exclaimed.

"Woo! Party in the U.S.A!"

"Alright, that-that sounds really fun, um but we were just thinking that we would just continue to do what we were doing, and you could join us!" Blaine offered.

"Think again, Gay Blaine!" Becky crossed her arms over her chest. "If you don't play Twister with me, I'm calling the cops! Oh snap!"

It was then that Artie, ever the peacekeeper, wheeled forward and took over the conversation.

"Becky, that sounds great. I'll play Twister with you, and I know that Sebastian and Britt will, too," he told her, causing a heartwarming grin to spread across her face. "Blaine, Sam, Tina? Are you in for a couple of rounds?"

Artie had put them in a position where if they said "no", they'd look like horrible people (which they would be). Becky just wanted to have fun with some of her friends before graduation just like the rest of them. It would serve them well to remember that.

"Yeah, I guess so," Sam shrugged, walking towards where Becky had set up her game. Since Sam had agreed, Blaine and Tina followed his actions, and soon, the six of them were invading each other's personal space on the Twister mat while Artie manned the spinner from his chair.

Sebastian was one awkward position away from losing his balance, and he envied the way that Artie was exempt from physically participating.

"Artie are you sure you don't want to switch jobs?" Sebastian asked. "I'm sure you've got some leftover flexibility from your days as a gymnast."

Artie stuck out his tongue in Sebastian's direction as the other boy snickered.

"A gymnast, really?" Sam raised his eyebrows in disbelief and peered at Artie through the hole created between his legs. This was apparently the first the blonde boy was hearing of this, and Sebastian smiled smugly at Artie as he narrowed his eyes at him in return. He was never going to let Artie live that down.

"Left hand on red!" Artie called after spinning the arrow, swiftly changing the subject and appearing to be thoroughly enjoying his view from the sidelines.

Sure enough, Sebastian's six-foot-tall frame was not meant for being stuck in these compromising positions and he fell back onto his butt.

They played several more rounds, just because it seemed to make Becky so happy. She won each time, and the others weren't even letting her win. The girl just had unbeatable flexibility, balance, and determination.

"Ha ha, you lose again!" Becky cheered after Blaine was the last to fall over.

"Time out," Blaine called as he stood back up. "I'm getting a cramp in my leg." He glanced around him before raising his voice in alarm. "How long have Sam and Tina been gone?!"

Seb and Artie looked at one another and shrugged. Brittany was on her third or fourth bottle of 11-Hour Energy and it appeared to be having the opposite effect on her- she looked like she was about to fall asleep.

"Oh, who cares?" Becky asked, rolling her eyes. "Tina is boring, and I hate Sam's haircut. It makes his forehead look too big."

"You know what? I'm gonna walk this cramp off and see if I can find them," Blaine said. "Anybody want to come with?"

"We'll come," Artie said, speaking up for both himself and Sebastian. He set the spinner down on the stage and unlocked his brakes to follow Blaine. Sebastian tapped Brittany on the shoulder and waved for her to follow along.

"Okay, when you come back, I'll be here," Becky said in a flirty tone, once again laying on her side with her head propped up on her hand. "I can have some more energy drinks."

"Sam! Tina!" Blaine called as he walked down the hallway, Seb, Artie, and Brittany trailing behind. "I mean they couldn't have gone too fa-" He'd started to say as he entered the astronomy classroom before something startling caught his eye. "Ah! What the hell are you doing?!"

"Nothing!" Those two said in unison as they broke apart from where they were sitting together on one of the tables and had been sucking face just a few seconds earlier. Unfortunately, they were too late- their friends had already witnessed their makeout session.

"Ugh, my eyes!" Sebastian recoiled in horror.

"You just can't unsee something like that," Artie shook his head, disappointed. "Although, to be fair, I'm surprised it hadn't happened already."

"I can't believe you guys made out without me!" Brittany crossed her arms over her chest. "Not fair. I would've joined in on the fun."

"What is wrong with you two?!" Blaine exclaimed, evidently taking this sight harder than any of the others. "What about Watson, Tina? Did you just forget about him?!"

"No! Watson and I are on our pre-break!"

"Pre-break?!"
"Yeah! It's where we're still together, but… not exclusive," Tina said, looking a little guilty.

"And Sam! I can't! You're just… ugh!" Blaine closed his eyes and rubbed his temples.

"I'm sorry! It was the 11-Hour Energies! And cheap, sordid nostalgia," Sam said, tightening up his ponytail nervously.

"This was supposed to be our night," Blaine said. "Just our friendly little family. It was our last chance to hang out together, and you ruined it!"

"Actually, that was Becky with her Twister!" Sam shot back.

"Hey, hey, stop," Sebastian said, holding up his hands to signal for both parties to settle down. "The night isn't over. It's only, like, eleven-thirty! We still have time to-"

"I can't even look at either of you!" Blaine cried, cutting Sebastian off. "The whole point of this lock-in was for us to all have fun together, and you two run off and turn our fun night full of shenanigans and mischief into some kind of creepy face-sucking slurp-a-thon which I still can't get out of my head!"

"Blaine, Sam and I just needed to get it out of our systems," Tina said.

"Yeah, we tried making out and it was hot and everything, but we don't want to be a couple," Sam added. "We just needed to explore the possibility, and now it's over."

"It was just a silly senior fling," Tina jumped in.

"Exactly, and now I'm back to finding Tina not attractive again, okay?" Sam said, causing Tina to raise an eyebrow at him. "We're sorry. We didn't mean to ruin tonight."

"You didn't ruin tonight," Artie assured him. Everyone knew that Blaine was just being dramatic. "I kind of think that tonight was… perfect." He shrugged when everyone's skeptical eyes landed on him. "I mean, yes, I was a ball of anxiety all night long. But if I'm being honest, I've never had this much fun while being so far outside my comfort zone before. So… thanks. For inviting me to come. Because these are the stories I'm going to be telling my kids someday. Not about the nights I stayed up studying until my eyes were bloodshot, or about the slushie facials."

"So, what you're saying is that tonight made up for us being left off of the glist freshman year?" Tina asked, sharing a smirk with her best friend.

"Most definitely."

"I agree with Artie," Sebastian said. "Tonight was fun, and it wouldn't have been a true New Directions event without some drama." The other seniors nodded knowingly.

"I'm glad we did this," Sam said, throwing one arm around Tina and one around Blaine, who was beginning to appear less mad by the second.

"I am too," Tina agreed.

"I'm Brittany," Brittany said blankly when everyone's eyes were on her, causing the six friends to erupt into a fit of giggles.

"So what do you say? Should we hug it out then go invite Becky to come with us to go get McFlurries before we head home?" Sebastian asked the group, receiving unanimous cheers of approval.