"Hey, guys," Burt said, with a wave, as he and Carole stepped into the choir room.
It was down to the Monday before Nationals in L.A., the plane tickets were booked, but before they could finally get started on making their final song selections (at the very last minute, as had just become a way of life, for this club), Will found out that Burt and Carole had asked if they could make a visit, to encourage to the team one more time, on Finn's behalf.
After the four senior members had exchanged hugs with the pair, they said, with some difficulty, what they'd come to say.
"Finn really cared about you guys," Burt began. "More than you know."
"Finn always said that winning nationals was the greatest accomplishment of his life," added Carole, who appeared to struggle to speak about her son in front of the group but managed all the same. "But I honestly think that coaching you guys to winning would've meant even more to him."
"Now, we're not saying go out there and win it for Finn," Burt went on. "That wasn't his style. Uh, what Finn would've said was this is the time of your lives right now. You're never gonna forget it. And, in a moment, it's all gonna be over."
Kitty locked eyes with Artie just then, and he gave her a sad smile before looking away. She felt her eyes welling up with tears again, for so many different reasons at once.
"So, no sad faces," Carole concluded, making eye contact with Kitty now. "No regrets. Just go out there and have a blast. And, you know, it'd be okay if you won the damn thing."
As they all laughed, Mr. Schuester had one more announcement. Burt and Carole were coming along as chaperones for the trip. They waved and promised to see the kids, bright and early at the airport on Friday morning.
When they'd left, Mr. Schue turned and addressed the group. "I asked Kurt to do me a small favor last week, after the funeral," he said, with a deep sigh. "I, uh, asked him if he could send me a list of all the songs on Finn's iTunes collection. I was hoping we could all rifle through them together and pick three..."
The team got to work, led by the four seniors, and it didn't take too long to narrow down the songs that were the most reminiscent of Finn. More Than a Feeling. Sam remembered listening to this in the weight room with Finn on many occasions. America. Artie remembered jamming out to this with Finn after turning him on to the movie, The Jazz Singer.
"Kurt says his all time favorite is I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For," Blaine concluded, as they all sat, huddled around the list. "I say we end it all with that one."
"And there it is," Sam said, staring straight ahead with a look of realization. There were tears in his eyes, of course, because Sam never held back. "The last song I'll ever sing with you guys in glee club."
Artie swallowed hard. "Well, uh, Sam," he began, looking at Blaine and Tina. "I think we owe you an apology. You're a senior, too, so this is your last chance. We can't put on a show without featuring the smooth vocal stylings of Sam Evans."
Sam approached him, leaning over to pat his back in a grateful hug. "Thanks, man," he said. "I appreciate it."
Three days wasn't a lot of time, so they put in extra time practicing both before and after school. It wasn't too difficult, now that all of the big tests were behind the seniors, leaving just this one test, their last chance at Nationals.
Because she was dating Artie, Kitty found herself lumped in with the seniors rather than the other underclassmen in the club. But she'd have plenty of time to be with Marley, Jake, Ryder, and Unique. Artie, she sadly would not always have, and each passing day reminded her that they were getting closer and closer to his departure. Especially on that last school day before competition...
"Check it out," said Artie, rolling down the hall on Thursday with his graduation gown folded in his lap, wearing his silly cap with the tassel. He grinned as he stopped in front of her. "I'm going to have to put this on later and practice," he said. "I've never tried to wheel around in a dress before."
"That's a relief," Kitty quipped, earning a laugh out of him. Then she sighed. "Artie, I don't like this. You're making me think about you leaving again."
She fell into step alongside him, as they headed to their final rehearsal in the auditorium before they all met up at the airport on Friday. Sue Sylvester, ever the sadist, was marking them all absent for the school day and tarnishing the perfect attendance records that Artie and Tina had worked hard to maintain throughout high school.
"You know, I've been giving that some thought," he said, shrugging his shoulders. "Maybe I don't have to."
"Artie, we've been over this," Kitty said, rolling her eyes. "Your mother will be fine. She wants you to go, and I promise I will visit her. I mean, I have to, she wants me to help her redecorate your old room."
"Haha, very funny," he replied, with a laugh. "No, but seriously. It's not because of Mom. What I'm saying is... I've been thinking that maybe I'm making the wrong choice."
"Uh, what?"
Kitty couldn't believe that she was hearing this from the guy who had apparently had this one singular dream, according to his mother, ever since he started making movies as a kid stuck in a hospital bed with a brand-new camcorder. Artie's first project had been a documentary about hospital food that he'd used to entertain the nurses, and after that, he never stopped documenting everything he found amusing or sad or interesting.
Did you know that, by having a disability, I get free tuition and room and board to any in-state university?" Artie was saying. "I'd be saving a lot of money, if I took advantage of that..."
"Is this about saving money?" Kitty asked. "Or is it about me?" He stopped and so did she. Artie held her gaze for a few moments.
"Would it be bad if I said both?" he asked, looking apprehensively at her. He took a deep breath and reached for both of her hands. "I started thinking about this after... after Finn died. Kitty, he put Rachel on a train to follow her dreams, and then that was the end for them. She didn't get to come back from New York and find him here waiting for her. I don't want that to happen to us."
"Artie..." Kitty said, sadly. "We're not Rachel and Finn."
Artie dropped her hands and rolled a pace back. "No..." he said. "No, I guess we're not."
An uncomfortable moment passed between the two as Artie just shrugged and turned to continue wheeling towards the auditorium, dropping the whole thing mid-conversation, as if he'd never said anything.
Kitty followed along, feeling a bit uncomfortable. She couldn't get Tina's lecture out of her head now: It's convenient for you, too, because soon he'll be graduating and you can just make it look like he dumped you to meet new people at film school, earning you even more sympathy than you had when he was here!
They got to the auditorium at the same time as Sam, who was also sporting his graduation cap and carrying his acoustic guitar case, slung across his back. He held the door open for them both. Artie pointed out something on Sam's finger.
"Nice band-aid," he said.
"Yeah, she was all out of everything except My Little Pony," Sam said, as they followed him out onto the stage. "I got a paper cut when I was ripping open the packaging for my graduation gown earlier."
Artie arched an eyebrow. "Dude," he said. "You mean, you intentionally gave yourself a papercut just to go see Nurse Penny? Where'd you get that idea, Twilight?"
"It was an actual accident, I swear," Sam said, blowing the hat's tassel out of his face as they crossed the stage. "But it did give me the chance to see her one last time before L.A. Guys, I really like her. I was thinking of dedicating a song to her after graduation, when it'll be perfectly legal for us to date. Since we're the first ones here, would you mind giving it a listen for me?"
"Sure," said Artie, parking his chair as Kitty took a seat by his feet. Sam got the guitar out and began strumming a tune that was completely unfamiliar to them both.
'Cause Penny and me like to roll the windows down/ Turn the radio up, push the pedal to the ground/ And Penny and me like to gaze at starry skies/ Close our eyes, pretend to fly/ It's always Penny and me tonight.
"That was sweet," Kitty commented, when he'd stopped after the chorus. "Where's it from?"
"I don't know all of it yet," Sam said. "I just got on Google to see if there were any songs about girls named Penny. I found this one. It's by Hanson. So, they're like the original Jonas brothers, and Penny likes the Jonas Brothers. Not only that, but I'm blonde and I've got a ponytail, so it works."
"First Bieber, now Hanson," Artie teased, shaking his head. "That's cool that the song has her name, though, I bet she'll love it. So, after graduation, this is the plan to impress her?"
"This is the plan," Sam confirmed.
"But aren't you going to New York to pursue modeling?" Kitty blurted out. Blushing slightly, she could feel Artie's eyes on the back of her head, but she pressed on anyway. "I mean, how's that gonna work, if she's still here?"
"Well, I'm sure I'll spend one last summer with my friends here in Ohio," Sam said, shrugging. "So, I've got a few months before I really have to think about it, right?"
"But after that, would you actually attempt a long-distance relationship?" Artie blurted out, quickly. "I mean, given the fact that's she's beautiful and almost certain to be the object of some other guy's affection while you're away?"
"I—" Sam didn't get a chance to say anything, because Kitty was already turning around to stare Artie down.
"Or would you tie yourself down to a relationship with some girl from your hometown only for said relationship to just fizzle out, gradually, over time, and then suddenly stop contacting her, like she never even existed?"
"Uh, guys?" Sam interrupted, coming between them and waving his hands to get their attention. "I'm not even dating the girl yet, okay? So, I don't even know what you're talking about. But you're scaring me."
Sam looked relieved when the others started trickling in to the auditorium just then, to get to work on fine-tuning the choreography for their three songs.
It was obvious to Kitty that she'd gotten Artie pretty flustered. Even though he easily had the most complicated choreography of anyone on stage, given that he was either doing his own thing or a modified version of what everyone else did, he rarely messed up, once they were in full-on performance mode. Not today. Artie kept getting thrown off. Once, he ran straight into Marley, nearly knocking her over.
"Sorry, my nerves are all over the place," Artie apologized. "I hope I didn't hurt you, Marley."
"I'm good," said Marley, giving him a small smile. "It's okay, Artie, I think we're all just getting tired."
After the two-hour practice, Artie was the one taking Kitty home that evening. Artie's dad would be then coming by her house, bright and early the next morning, to pick Kitty up and drive them both to the airport.
As Artie started the car in the empty school parking lot, she noticed he was being weirdly quiet. And she was fairly sure she knew what his issues during practice were really about.
"Artie, did I break your concentration today?" she finally asked, after they'd gone a couple of blocks. "You almost never mess up. We need to talk about this, so it's not an issue for you on Saturday." She paused, realizing what that sounded like. "Not... not just because of Saturday though. We just need to talk."
"We should," he said, glancing her way. "Look, there are many reasons I'm considering a change of plans and something closer to home. Amy goes to Ohio State. For now, anyway, since she graduates soon. She likes it there."
"But Artie, your dream—"
"— is to make movies, yeah," he supplied. "But I don't think I have to have the Brooklyn Film School to do that."
"Just as long as you don't do this for me," Kitty said, nervously playing with the bottom of her Cheerios skirt. "I mean, Ohio State's still over an hour away. And sure, I mean, I could stay with my brothers when I visit, but there's still gonna be distance between us..."
Artie shook his head. "Why are we talking about this, the night before we leave for Nationals?"
"I don't know," Kitty replied. "You started it."
Artie fell silent for a few minutes. He turned into her neighborhood and weaved down the streets until they'd arrived at her house. As she unbuckled her seatbelt, he stopped her before she could get out.
"Maybe Sam's right," he said. "We have awhile before this even matters. We have all summer..." he searched her eyes. "Right?"
Kitty nodded, then brushed her hand against his cheek before leaning in for a kiss. Drawing back, she smiled, as she felt some of that tension subside. "See you tomorrow," she said.